Ch 30: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

To rescue someone, the first step was communication.

But the boy’s condition made him almost impossible to communicate with. The only comforting thing was that after one test, the three of them discovered that because the boy was such an obvious target and his shouting was so attention grabbing, even if they spoke to him through a closed door, the zombies would not change targets and come clawing at their door.

Instead, they remained exceptionally unwavering, choosing to follow behind their “locomotive” without hesitation.

When the test ended, Su Huaijin finally began her first attempt at contact as the boy’s cries drew near again.

Only then did Su Huaijin realize that his shouting was not entirely useless. At least it let them predict where he was in the building.

When it felt like he was about to run past, Su Huaijin drew in a breath and shouted at the top of her lungs, “Hey!!”

After shouting, she cocked her ear and waited for a reply.

Outside, the “locomotive” classmate, already running on fumes and barely conscious, jolted upright at the sound and answered by reflex, “Second, my name isn’t ‘Hey.’ My name is Chu Yuxun!”

Wen Yu exploded. “This is not the time for your stupid meme, okay!!”

Outside, the boy sounded like he might cry from joy. “Holy crap, is there someone in that room?! I thought I was hallucinating!”

Su Huaijin felt something was off. The boy’s voice was getting smaller and smaller.

Qin Yufei listened for a moment. “He ran farther away.”

Su Huaijin and Wen Yu: “……”

A precious chance to communicate, and they had only managed to exchange one terrible meme.

Fortunately, now that the boy knew someone was inside, he quickly looped back again.

This time, Su Huaijin did not wait for him to speak. She rattled it off in one breath. “We’re going to rescue you. In a moment, run upstairs first and drag the zombies far away from the second floor. Wait at least thirty seconds before you turn back. Then sprint straight to the right side fire stairwell!”

The “locomotive” boy: “OK!!!”

This exchange went smoothly. Su Huaijin let out a breath of relief. When there was no more movement outside, the three quietly opened the door and slipped down the empty hallway to the staircase, then went up to the second floor.

Right after that, they split up. Wen Yu went to retrieve the safety harness, while Qin Yufei and Su Huaijin rushed for the fire stairwell on the right side of the second floor.

Classroom doors were ordinary wooden plank doors, and might not withstand a zombie impact. But the fire stairwell’s fire door was much sturdier. As long as it was shut tight, it could absolutely take the zombies’ pounding.

Just in case, Su Huaijin specifically arranged for strong Qin Yufei to be in her group to close the door. Of course, it was also because she trusted Wen Yu more and was wary that Qin Yufei might take the harness and leave.

She did not say that second reason out loud. And judging by Qin Yufei’s expression, he did not seem to have thought that far.

Or maybe he had, and simply did not care.

He agreed without hesitation.

Wen Yu, acting alone and carrying another critical task, could not help feeling tense. Before they separated, she squeezed Su Huaijin’s hand.

The two entered the fire stairwell at the end of the corridor, pushed open the self closing fire door, and slipped inside, leaving only a crack wide enough for one person to pass through. Then they began to wait in silence.

At the same time, Wen Yu slipped into the audio visual room. After closing the door, she saw a backpack placed on the lectern.

A blue mountain peak shaped virtual projection floated above it, casting a dim blue glow over the whole room.

Wen Yu opened the backpack and found two safety harnesses inside.

When she took them out, the blue projection automatically switched to red.

The first part of the mission was complete. She turned to look at the closed classroom door.

……

On the other side, Su Huaijin and Qin Yufei finally heard approaching footsteps.

It was as if they were seeing a little train thundering toward them. The boy at the front ran with a face flushed dark red, while behind him was an inexhaustible swarm of zombies.

When Su Huaijin and Qin Yufei saw that sea of zombies, they nearly slammed the door shut in panic.

How could there be so many? What kind of heaven chosen bait constitution was this?

The boy’s stamina was clearly at its absolute limit. The distance between him and the zombies kept shrinking until it was only an arm’s length, and then, right before he was touched, he would squeeze out one last breath and force himself to speed up again.

When he saw Su Huaijin’s head appear through the crack in the door, his eyes nearly filled with tears.

“Hurry… I can’t hold on anymore… I don’t even have the strength to go up the stairs…”

Su Huaijin calmly calculated the distance between the zombies and the boy. At this distance, there was definitely not enough room for him to slip into the fire door and then lock it down.

They needed at least three or four meters of buffer.

But asking someone already exhausted to accelerate again, and in the length of a single corridor widen the gap by that much, felt almost impossibly demanding.

Luckily, they had Wen Yu.

Su Huaijin’s gaze shifted to the audio visual room. That classroom and the fire door where they were hiding happened to be on opposite sides of the hallway, one on the left and one at the far right end. The audio visual room was completely quiet. Wen Yu made not a single sound, so the zombies trailing the boy passed it with almost no awareness.

Su Huaijin signaled the boy to stay quiet with her hands, and silently counted down.

Three, two, one…

The audio visual room door suddenly swung wide. The person hiding inside stuck her head out and shouted, and the moment the last zombies turned their heads, she slammed the door shut with a heavy bang.

With the boy no longer making noise, every zombie’s attention was grabbed for a brief moment, and they turned their heads.

But as far as they could see, there was not a single human figure.

A few zombies at the back of the line seemed uncertain. After a brief hesitation, they wobbled toward the audio visual room.

Inside, Wen Yu had already moved with the high speed drilled into her during PE escape training. She had put on the safety harness, opened a window, hooked an arm around the hanging safety line, and pulled quickly until the lock snapped into place. Then she jumped out the window.

Before leaving, she even remembered to shut the window behind her.

There was a narrow glass pane in the classroom door. Through it, one could see into the room.

One zombie finally stumbled up, unable to wait, and pressed its face to the glass.

But all it saw was an empty room and a curtain swaying faintly.

……

Wen Yu’s shout startled the “locomotive” student as well, but he did not dare turn around, because Su Huaijin’s expression in front of him looked terrifying.

“Don’t look back! Run!!”

If he slowed down, all three of them would have wasted their efforts.

Wen Yu’s action bought him two or three seconds of running time. Gritting his teeth, the boy forced himself to accelerate and finally squeezed through the door gap just before the zombies caught up.

Su Huaijin grabbed him immediately and pulled him away from the fire door so his clothes would not get caught.

Behind the door, Qin Yufei pushed with both arms at the same time. The heavy fire door slammed shut with a thunderous boom.

They heard zombies crashing into the door one after another, loud metallic bangs echoing through the thick metal panel. Translated on Hololo novels. Even through the heavy barrier, the sound felt like blows striking directly against their hearts, making them afraid to listen too closely, instinctively refusing to imagine what was happening outside.

The boy collapsed onto the floor, gasping for breath. “You guys are literally my lifesavers! My name’s Jia Ran. What about you?”

“Introductions later. First we go pick up my roommate,” Su Huaijin said, tugging his collar. He did not budge.

Looking more closely, Jia Ran was tall, with especially long legs and well defined muscles.

Qin Yufei let out a laugh. “Bro, long distance runner?”

Jia Ran nodded. “Yeah.”

Qin Yufei and Su Huaijin exchanged knowing looks.

No wonder he could run up and down the building for so long while even shouting rhythmically to himself.

Jia Ran also knew you should not stop immediately after intense exercise. He had just relaxed too suddenly. Brushing dust off his pants, he stood up.

“From now on, wherever you say go, I go. Absolute loyalty.” He patted his chest.

Su Huaijin nodded. They had agreed to regroup with Wen Yu on the rooftop.

Actually, they could have taken the fire stairs directly down to the first floor and left the building. But zombies might still be roaming outside, while the zombies in this building would likely remain concentrated on the second floor for a while. Under those circumstances, the rooftop was actually safer.

Once the rooftop door was closed, zombies would take a long time to find them as long as they stayed quiet.

Even if zombies did arrive, with safety harnesses they could leave at any moment, making it extremely safe.

Ever since Su Huaijin had calculated all this within such a short time and assigned everyone their roles, Qin Yufei had already decided to follow her wholeheartedly for the rest of the exam.

Now they had also gained Jia Ran as an additional follower.

Two tall athletic boys calling out “Sister Su” one after another while trailing behind the much smaller Su Huaijin, who was even two years younger than them, created a rather comical scene.

Just as Su Huaijin stepped forward to head upstairs, she suddenly paused.

“What’s wrong, Sister Su?” Jia Ran asked promptly.

“Nothing.” Su Huaijin turned back with a strange expression and glanced at the fire door.

Just now, her wristband had suddenly notified her that she had completed a kill. Score +1.

Could it be… a trampling accident happened outside the door, and one zombie had been crushed to death?

And since there was no clear killer, the point had randomly been assigned to her?

A point falling straight from the sky. She had not expected such an unexpected bonus and could not help laughing helplessly.

*

Inside the conference room, the teachers had not missed anything that happened in that teaching building.

Jia Ran had run wildly up and down the floors like a 3D version of Snake, gathering all the originally scattered red light points behind him into a long trailing line.

The commotion was impossible to ignore.

They watched, mouths twitching, as the long red chain slammed into the projected fire door and piled up into a mass. The smallest light points at the bottom were even squeezed apart, shattering and disappearing into the air.

Above one blue light point outside the door appeared a tiny “+1.”

Zhao Yunxiao: “…That counts??”

Bai Tang clicked her tongue. “I don’t know if those students knew each other before, but I thought the one kiting the zombies was done for. Didn’t expect him not only to survive but even kill one.”

Hao Zhenye rarely spoke up, but this time he expressed approval. “Coming up with a diversion tactic that quickly and applying it in real combat is impressive. One of them is very sharp minded, and their teamwork is excellent.”

The teachers took turns offering opinions, watching with full attention.

Only after the situation in that building settled did they shift their focus elsewhere.

Seeing no one speaking for the moment, Grandma Liu smiled and looked around. “If we teachers personally joined the exam, how many points do you think you’d get?”

“Of course, I don’t count,” she added.

When the zombie outbreak first began, Grandma Liu had been watering flowers in her yard when a zombie bit her from behind. She died without ever seeing a zombie face to face, let alone killing one.

Later, even after mentally preparing herself, she still clutched her chest in fright the first few times she encountered simulated zombies on campus.

Liu Yingchun had once joked with Fu Qing that if she were not already dead and her heart still beating, she might have had a heart attack from the scare.

Fu Qing lowered her head and continued making notes. Hao Zhenye was not interested in casual chatter, but Bai Tang and Zhao Yunxiao found the topic quite entertaining.

Unfortunately, both of them were combat weaklings and could only discuss hypotheticals.

Somehow, the topic shifted to “Who would score more points, the principal or Teacher Hao?”

Aside from one conversation during PE class, Fu Qing had never talked about her own level, so everyone could only guess based on daily observations.

Hao Zhenye, on the other hand, often demonstrated during combat class, and everyone had seen how effortlessly he handled zombies.

Zhao Yunxiao had observed several combat classes and firmly believed Hao Zhenye was stronger. “Not saying the principal isn’t amazing, but Teacher Hao’s skills are better than some elite soldiers I’ve seen. Against beginner zombies, it’d basically be a massacre.”

“Of course, those soldiers’ strengths are more in firearms operation and team coordination,” he added. “I’m just talking about close combat.”

Military experts often operated under command structures and coordination rather than constant frontline fighting. Translated on Hololo novels. Hao Zhenye, by contrast, had spent nearly every day in his previous life killing zombies.

When it came to pure anti zombie combat skill, it was hard to say who was truly stronger.

Zhao Yunxiao’s words made the other three teachers pause, realizing that in his previous life he had actually interacted with military personnel.

And judging from his tone, they had not been low level ones either.

After the zombie outbreak, the kind of person who could come into contact with the upper ranks inside the military was something everyone could only guess at in their own way.

But whatever his identity had been, that was all in a previous life. In this life, they were all just wandering souls trapped on a patch of land.

On equal footing, there was no barrier to chatting.

Bai Tang slapped the table and sprang to her feet. “I refuse to accept it. The principal is definitely stronger. No offense to Teacher Hao, okay. But the principal can climb. My old apartment was on such a high floor, and she could still go down like she was walking on flat ground while holding two handfuls of bean sprouts and scallions. Whoosh, whoosh, she was down!”

Can climb…

Fu Qing’s pen paused. “Are you praising me, or insulting me in a roundabout way?”

Bai Tang: “…I absolutely didn’t mean it that way.”

She straightened her back. “Since we’re comparing points, we have to consider the actual exam conditions. Don’t forget, once you die, your points get wiped. So of course the person with better survival ability wins.”

Liu Yingchun said, “Both arguments make sense. Teacher Hao and Principal, what do you think?”

For some reason she had turned into the referee.

Grandma Liu was unquestionably the eldest among them. No matter how taciturn Hao Zhenye was, he would not completely ignore her.

He was quiet for a moment, then said, “The principal is stronger. I can’t beat her.”

She had survived that much longer than him. He did not believe Fu Qing would actually lose to him if they fought.

Besides, she had to have more skills she had not shown yet.

Hearing Hao Zhenye concede so readily for once, the others widened their eyes, looking at him and then at Fu Qing, half wondering if they had misheard.

But then it slowly clicked. Something must have happened between them in private for Hao Zhenye to acknowledge Fu Qing’s strength.

Bai Tang: “Damn it, now I’m even more curious what happened.”

“If I ever got the chance, I’d really want to see the principal jump in personally,” Zhao Yunxiao said.

The two of them kept shooting subtle looks at Fu Qing, hinting like crazy.

Fu Qing did not bite at all. If she could avoid moving, she absolutely would. She lightly tossed out the words: “You two go in, then I’ll go in.”

Bai Tang: “……”

The shut in started playing dead.

Zhao Yunxiao swallowed dryly. “Then forget it. I’m already dead, and you still want me fighting zombies. That’s inhumane.”

And if he acted, wouldn’t he expose that he was only a theory god? He would be embarrassing the entire teachers’ group.

With one sentence, Fu Qing shut them both down. With the chattering gone, she could finally focus on her notes.

Bai Tang could not stay quiet for long. After a while, she sneaked another look at Fu Qing’s notebook and saw several names written down in brief.

They were the students who had performed especially brilliantly since the exam began.

Some stood out for raw combat strength, others for brains. Each person’s specialty was clearly marked.

The more Bai Tang looked, the more she felt Fu Qing was planning to build a versatile combat squad with complementary talents.

Among the teachers present, each had their own blind spots. Not a single one could truly train a team like that.

“Are you going to lead students personally?” Bai Tang asked.

Her eyes shifted. “Honestly, I’ve always felt that you not teaching classes is a complete waste of your talent.”

They were all busting their tails prepping lessons, teaching, grading. The principal could not just loaf around!

Fu Qing closed her notebook, turned her face, and suddenly smiled. “I don’t teach precisely so your talents won’t be wasted.”

Bai Tang: “……”

Somehow, from the principal’s gentle smile, she read an unspoken subtext: “Otherwise what do I need you for?”

Bai Tang broke out in goosebumps for no reason.

You do not bite the hand that feeds you. She remembered the galgame the principal had given her that she was still playing yesterday, and she caved instantly. “You’re absolutely right.”

Fu Qing really did have the idea of forming a special squad.

In the future, if something specific came up, she could not afford to have no one to use. Especially with the possibility that an extremist organization like the “zombie zealots” might be lurking behind the apocalypse, her strength alone would never be enough to contend with them.

She needed help, but the members of that squad had to be chosen with great care.

Every assessment at Fangzhou was helping her accumulate data.

Still, the idea was rough, and Fu Qing had not made a final decision. Letting students get involved would be the same as pulling them into a deeper, more dangerous whirlpool.

Luckily, this was only the first monthly exam. She still had plenty of time to consider and observe.

*

Su Huaijin and Wen Yu successfully regrouped. The four of them sat down on the rooftop and decided to rest for a while.

Only now did they have time to chat and to introduce themselves properly to Jia Ran.

“By the way, why were you alone? Didn’t you find a team?” Wen Yu asked.

Jia Ran scratched his cheek. “I got separated from my roommate.”

Then the questioning gaze fell on Qin Yufei.

At the mention of roommates, he looked a little uncomfortable. He pressed his lips into a line and said stiffly, “Our dorm didn’t team up. Everyone went their own way.”

Su Huaijin and Wen Yu did not understand. “Why?”

Jia Ran, after watching him for a moment, suddenly exclaimed, “I knew you looked familiar. You’re the one from the cafeteria mutation incident! I even got bitten by a classmate you infected!”

Mentioning that dark history made Qin Yufei’s already not very fair face turn even darker.

Jia Ran, clueless as ever, kept talking. “I remember you got infected trying to save your roommate, right? The guy who fought with you was from your dorm too, wasn’t he? How come I remember he didn’t get expelled later? Having someone who watched you die in your dorm, no wonder the dorm relationship is bad.”

“Shut up,” Su Huaijin said without hesitation, driving an elbow into him. Jia Ran clutched his stomach, cried out, and toppled over.

“Our relationship isn’t bad. We just didn’t team up,” Qin Yufei said.

Su Huaijin glanced at him, weighing what the two boys’ words implied.

In Qin Yufei’s dorm, there was someone who had stood by and done nothing during the opening simulation exam. He had not been expelled, probably because he had not actively harmed anyone and thus had not technically violated school rules. But after that, living together would definitely be awkward.

Qin Yufei said the dorm relationship was not bad. That likely meant he got along fine with everyone except that one roommate. Even so, during the exam they still did not team up. Could it be that they could not forgive that roommate, but also could not bring themselves to isolate him, so the entire dorm simply chose to act alone?

They were decent people.

After finishing that analysis, Su Huaijin’s instinctive wariness toward this unfamiliar boy finally began to fade.

She pulled the other safety harness out of Wen Yu’s bag and handed it to Qin Yufei. “Here. The extra one. Keep it with you two. If you get separated again later, you’ll still have one.”

With only a hundred harnesses total, to get one this easily was incredible. Qin Yufei felt both delighted and a bit embarrassed. “This… isn’t that not great? The whole plan was your idea…”

Before he could finish, Jia Ran lunged over in alarm. “Sister Su, what are you saying? Don’t abandon me. I can’t live without you!”

Qin Yufei: “……”

Su Huaijin: “……”

Wen Yu hooked an arm around their youngest and shoved the overly familiar “locomotive” away with force. “Back up, back up, back up. Stay away from my golden thigh…”

……

Elsewhere, the four girls from Dorm 1111 finally found a place where harnesses were stored.

But someone had gotten there before them.

With her crutch in hand, Song Rushuang and Shen Qingqing stood guard in front of Zhang Han and Sun Wei, visibly on edge.

Song Rushuang had recognized the thin, frail boy. He was Yu Cheng, a dormmate of Qin Yufei’s, someone she had seen once in the cafeteria.

Back then, the quarrel between him and Qin Yufei had quickly been posted on the forum. Neither of the two involved had spoken up, but the thread had been discussed for a long time.

Because Yu Cheng’s name was not on the expulsion list.

That sparked controversy. Some believed he should not remain at Fangzhou, because in future fights no one could trust their back to someone who had once watched a roommate die.

Others argued that facing zombies for the first time, losing reason from fear was normal. He had not actively harmed anyone, which meant his nature was not bad, and he deserved a chance to change.

Who could guarantee they would not become the next Yu Cheng in the same situation?

Maybe the reason they were not the ones being cursed out on the forum was simply that they had never stood where he stood.

But regardless of the forum’s reaction, Song Rushuang knew Yu Cheng’s dorm life could not have been easy.

The person he had abandoned was his roommate. Another roommate had been indirectly infected because of him, even becoming the trigger that caused the cafeteria to fall, leading to countless students who might have survived being infected instead.

For a long time, that would surely be Qin Yufei’s trauma and a crushing psychological burden.

Putting herself in his shoes, if Yu Cheng were her roommate, Song Rushuang doubted she could pretend nothing happened and keep getting along normally.

She did not know what kind of person Yu Cheng truly was, so she had to stay cautious.

And yet she could not help sighing inwardly.

Because Yu Cheng looked terrible.

Compared to how he had been in the cafeteria, he was even thinner. In a place where everyone was training hard, building muscle, and eating far more than before, it was almost unthinkable.

He also looked haggard. When he saw someone approach, the hand holding the backpack stiffened.

Then he actually tossed the backpack toward them.

Song Rushuang caught it and saw two safety harnesses inside. She froze.

What did that mean?

“You have more people. Take them,” Yu Cheng said, then turned as if to leave, not even daring to meet their eyes.

“Wait,” Song Rushuang called out. “You found them first. They should be yours. We don’t want them.”

“I don’t want them either!” Yu Cheng reacted sharply, then quickly softened his tone. “You even have someone injured.”

They stood off for a brief moment. Seeing that he would not yield, and afraid zombies might hear and come, Song Rushuang could only say, “Then one each.”

She forced one of the harnesses into his hands. Afraid he would keep insisting, she shot her roommates a look. “Let’s go.”

Before they left, the four of them paused and each said, “Thank you.”

Only after they had carefully slipped away did Yu Cheng remain standing there, staring blankly in the direction they had gone, as if he still had not recovered from hearing those four thank yous.

After a long moment, he lowered his eyes, blinked quickly once, and put the harness away.

₊˚.🎧📓✩