Ch 5: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

Qin Yufei had actually been infected!

Song Rushuang’s eyes flew wide open. She no longer cared what would happen to Yu Cheng, who had just been locked onto by the zombie Qin Yufei. She leapt up and turned to run toward her two roommates.

“Run!”

Chaos had already erupted in the crowd. If you listened carefully, it was not just this one spot. There were several more cries of alarm throughout the cafeteria hall.

“Someone’s mutating!”

“Go! There’s a zombie mixed in here!”

The hall itself was not small, but with so many students packed inside and tables and chairs blocking the way, fleeing was extremely inconvenient.

Fortunately, the 1111 trio had been standing near the edge by the windows. To allow students to line up, a large open area without tables and chairs had been left there, giving them a clear path to slip away along the side.

While the cafeteria descended into total chaos, the trio had already reached the far end of the hall.

There was a staircase there leading to the second floor.

The cafeteria entrance had been blocked by students from the start. The second floor should not have any zombies.

Without hesitation, they took the stairs two at a time. Before they even steadied themselves, Song Rushuang’s sharp eyes had already scanned the area. “Over here!”

Passing rows of tables and chairs, she darted straight into a corridor. Sure enough, at the very end she saw a closed room labeled Storage Room. Her eyes lit up instantly, like she had glimpsed a ray of hope.

Even better, the door was slightly ajar. Once inside, they could lock it. If they were lucky, there might even be food and water stored inside. They could survive for quite a while, just like in the novels!

Song Rushuang’s brain had never spun this fast, not even during the college entrance exam. Her heart surged with wild joy—

And then her shoulder was slammed hard from the side.

It felt like being blindsided by a truck. She was thrown violently against the corridor wall.

A sharp pain shot through both shoulders as if they were about to come apart. She let out a muffled groan, tears springing reflexively to her eyes. Through blurred vision, she saw a sturdy figure rush past her, moving with surprising agility for his size, and reach the door first.

Clearly, she had not been the only one with that idea.

“What the hell, are you rushing to be reborn?!” Zhang Han shouted angrily as she helped Song Rushuang up.

The boy ignored her completely. He yanked the door open and stepped halfway inside before finally glancing back, a smug victor’s expression on his face.

In a flash of realization, Song Rushuang recognized him.

—Wasn’t this the very same “precious son” at the school gate whose underwear had to be taken home for his mother to wash?

Couldn’t carry water, couldn’t do laundry, but suddenly so nimble when it came to snatching a room?!

“Damn it!” Shen Qingqing suddenly sped up, even recklessly reaching out with her hand to block him, but she was a step too late.

Bang.

The door slammed shut, nearly catching her hand.

From the force of it, the boy clearly had not considered Shen Qingqing at all. It even felt like a warning.

If her hand had been caught solidly, her right hand might have fractured on the spot.

But Shen Qingqing had no time to dwell on that. She grabbed the doorknob and tried to turn it—only to hear a click from inside. It had been locked.

The three girls’ faces changed drastically.

From inside came the boy’s voice. “I got here first. Go find somewhere else.”

They were stunned.

“Are you insane? It’s such a big room. It’s not like only one person can hide in there.” Zhang Han stamped her foot in anger, lowering her voice despite her fury. “The zombies are coming. Let us in.”

“At worst, once the zombies leave, we’ll go. We won’t compete with you, okay?” Shen Qingqing said through clenched teeth.

This was the very last room in the corridor. If they turned back now to look for another room and ran straight into pursuing zombies, what then?

The risk was too high. Of course they refused to leave.

But no matter what the two of them said, the person inside did not respond. He had clearly made up his mind not to share.

Sounds of rummaging came from within. He was probably inventorying what should have been their safe room, gleefully scavenging supplies.

At that thought, a surge of anger rose in Song Rushuang’s chest.

But now was not the time to be angry.

She made a snap decision and said in a low voice, “Go. Find somewhere else to hide.”

That delay had already wasted too much time.

As they turned back down the corridor, Zhang Han was the first to freeze. A scream rose to her throat, only to be smothered by her own hand.

A zombie was staggering toward them from the corridor entrance.

Whether it had some kind of human radar or had simply caught the scent of prey, it turned its head—and met Zhang Han’s eyes.

A wound on its neck still oozed fresh blood, staining a large patch of its clothes red. Its skin still retained the color of the living.

This was not one of the original zombies.

This was their classmate.

Shen Qingqing stepped back, face pale. Zhang Han’s lashes were wet with tears, her body trembling violently with fear.

The narrow corridor had only one exit. The zombie advanced step by step. The three of them had nothing in their hands that could serve as a weapon. At this rate, they would soon end up just like the new “classmate” in front of them.

…Wait. Who said they had no weapon?

Song Rushuang’s gaze shifted to her right hand.

There was a bright red thermos kettle there.

The kettle was still empty, relatively light. She had used it earlier outside to block a zombie and found it somewhat useful. Besides, having empty hands made her feel unsafe, so she had kept holding it.

Could she use it again?

Song Rushuang took a deep breath. She felt as though the blood had drained from her limbs, her hands and feet going numb. She knew it was fear.

She was very familiar with this kind of fear.

She had never been the type of “big-hearted” child her teachers and parents described as unflappable.

Maybe it was because she knew how important things were. Or maybe she lacked the courage to bear the consequences of messing up. From elementary school performances and tutoring center entrance exams to life-defining high school and college entrance exams, every time she faced an important occasion, she felt a suffocating fear wrap around her whole body.

That fear had not lessened as she grew older. It had only intensified.

Because the occasions in life became more important, and a single failure carried ever greater consequences for her fate.

She had never managed to erase that fear, but over the long course of her life she had learned how to face it:

Take a deep breath—

Then do what needed to be done.

……

The hard plastic handle had unfinished burrs that stabbed into her palm. Under normal circumstances, Song Rushuang would have yelped and thrown it away at once, then complained a few more times about the shoddy workmanship. But right now, she clutched it like a final lifeline, forcing her stiff fingers to move as she gripped the thermos tightly.

The zombie kept closing in.

Three meters. Two meters. One meter.

That ruined body exhaled foul breath. No longer warmed by body heat, it brushed against Song Rushuang’s cheek like a light, cold sigh.

At that moment, she put every ounce of strength she had into hurling the thermos straight at the zombie’s head and face.

The zombie lurched sideways, stumbling into the wall. With a loud bang, the thermos split apart, fragments flying in all directions. Accelerated by the rebound force, they sliced across Song Rushuang’s skin.

She shuddered in pain, and the zombie had already regained its balance, mouth wide open as it lunged toward her.

Song Rushuang’s scalp went numb. For a split second, she forgot how to move.

Was she going to die here?

“Rushuang!”

Behind her, Shen Qingqing flung the sun-protective jacket Zhang Han had fumbled off over the zombie’s head.

Blinded, the zombie roared and shook its head violently. Song Rushuang snapped back to herself, bent down, grabbed the largest shard of the thermos casing, and drove the sharp end toward the zombie.

Her eyes were half shut as she stabbed wildly without any technique. At last, when the jacket slipped free, she felt the resistance of flesh being pierced.

The zombie’s body went limp and collapsed to the floor with a thud.

【You have successfully killed a basic zombie!】
【Points +1】
【Current points: 1 (Total points: 1)】

Between gasps that came heavier and heavier, Song Rushuang heard her own heartbeat clearly.

…She was still alive.

Her pupils widened slightly as she stared at the fallen zombie.

That triangular shard had pierced the eyeball and gone straight into the back of the head. That was the fatal wound.

She did it? She really did it!

She really killed a zombie!

After confirming it, Song Rushuang jumped up sharply, then froze.

Wait. Had she just heard some kind of sound by her ear?

*

Three minutes later, deep inside the women’s restroom on the second floor.

The trio locked the restroom door and dragged a mop over to brace it shut. Only then did they finally let out a breath.

Thinking back on what they had just gone through, their hearts were still pounding.

Before she had even fully caught her breath, Shen Qingqing asked, “Rushuang, you said just now that when you killed the zombie, you heard a kill notification by your ear. Was that real?”

“Yeah. It said I gained one point.” Song Rushuang had already connected it to the strange watch and the points displayed on it. She quickly opened the page, and sure enough, the 【Student Information】 section had updated.

Name: Song Rushuang
……
Current points: 1
Current school-wide ranking: n/a (will update after the first assessment)

Song Rushuang pressed her lips together. “Could this be the so-called first assessment…”

The screams outside were gradually fading. She guessed that her classmates had either already been attacked and died or turned into zombies, or, like them, had found somewhere to hide.

From the moment the zombie tide appeared until now, the three of them had been running for their lives almost nonstop, with no time to think calmly. Now that they were temporarily safe, the broadcast and that strange watch finally surfaced clearly in their minds again.

Shen Qingqing spoke first. “The broadcast said this was a simulation assessment used for class placement. It looks like the assessment score is determined by the number of zombies you kill. The more you kill, the better your final school ranking should be. I just don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

Song Rushuang thought it over. “The watch was given by the school during registration, and the broadcast used the campus speakers. This assessment must be something the school set up. But why?”

Her expression darkened as scenes from infinite-flow death game novels flashed through her mind.

Staging such a bloody, chaotic large-scale ‘assessment’ made the school look seriously unhinged. Who knew what even crazier things they might do next.

For some reason, Song Rushuang suddenly thought of that laid-back figure strolling through the zombie horde.

Maybe because the voice on the broadcast also carried a lazy tone, she subconsciously linked the two together.

Zhang Han was still shaken, damp tear tracks clinging to her cheeks. Watching the zombie lunge at Song Rushuang earlier had nearly scared her to death. She had been terrified something would happen to her roommate. Only after calming down with great effort did she now listen to the two of them analyzing the situation back and forth. She was utterly stunned.

“You two are incredible. Your brains can still work at a time like this? Shouldn’t we rest a bit? We might have to run again later…”

Song Rushuang shook her head. “Probably not.”

Shen Qingqing picked up the thought. “The person on the broadcast said the assessment duration is one hour. Something is definitely going to happen after the hour is up.”

She glanced at her watch. The countdown was still ticking away.

“Thirty minutes left. Let’s wait and see.”

Zhang Han, who did not have the watch and felt like she had missed out on a fortune: “……”

She lowered her head in despair, looking at her six-thousand-yuan latest-model high-end smartwatch. For the first time, she felt a bit of dislike for it.

*

When the countdown ended, the familiar hum of the campus broadcast finally sounded again under everyone’s watchful gaze.

People hiding in every corner of the campus stared up at the speakers overhead, half expectant, half fearful. Their mindset was completely different from an hour ago.

They hoped it would bring a turning point, yet feared sinking into deeper despair.

【Congratulations to the remaining 1347 students who survived to the end. You have withstood the first trial and will receive a reward of 5 points.】

The same female voice came through the broadcast. She even clapped twice.

The system did not dare say it, but although Fu Qing felt she was being kind, to the ears of those who did not know the truth, it probably sounded like pure mockery.

The principal, who had already drawn immense hatred without ever showing her face, continued:

【Next, all freshmen are to gather at the auditorium. The opening ceremony will begin in ten minutes sharp.】

【Please do not be late. Late students will be punished.】

₊˚.🎧📓✩