Ch 35: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

Forum Hot Discussion:

Title: [I really want to ask, who exactly is that “Anonymous Visitor” who’s been occupying first place in the overall rankings for an entire month?]

Original Post: [Yeah, the title’s a bit clickbait. Honestly, I think everyone probably already has a guess in their hearts… but I still can’t believe it. How can someone take first place in overall rating using only a beginner instance? How is that even possible?

I always thought beginner instances were just tutorials for newbies!! (losing my mind)]

……

Ever since the simulated combat pod went online and opened to all students, a full month had passed.

The students had always known their school possessed impressive technological capabilities, but no one expected that not long after the semester began, the principal would unveil something straight out of a novel, a piece of high tech identical to a holographic pod.

It could even switch between instances. How was this any different from a full holographic game?

It felt like futuristic fantasy from fiction had stepped directly into real life.

During the first week, everyone scrambled to secure early access slots. People even lined up at three in the morning, setting alarms just to wake up and fight.

Once they actually lay inside, excitement became impossible to contain.

Everything felt far too real. There was no sense at all that this was a system generated virtual world.

They touched everything, explored everywhere. Some people, taking advantage of their full hour of usage time, boldly selected a hell difficulty instance right away.

Then, before they even understood what was happening, they were slaughtered by zombies.

By the time they returned to the default interface, they still had no idea how they had died.

So they begrudgingly switched back to intermediate instances, only to experience another round of rapid annihilation.

In the end, they behaved themselves and chose beginner instances instead, which finally went somewhat better.

Even so, the first week’s clear rate was miserably low.

On average, it fell far below the system’s predicted completion rate.

Those who had secured early slots returned to their dorms too embarrassed to admit they had been killed over and over again. Instead, they silently resolved to train harder, at the very least mastering a single beginner instance first.

Thus, over the course of that month, the simulated combat pod became the hottest topic across Fangzhou campus.

Unlike other courses or campus facilities, however, the combat pod had one defining feature:

It had rankings.

The numbers refreshed in real time, publicly visible to everyone. Each instance had its own leaderboard, and the overall score had a unified ranking as well.

Because the overall score was influenced by many factors and measured a person’s total performance within an instance, different runs could be directly compared.

Someone on the forum once shared her experience. She had carefully avoided encounters with zombies and cleared a beginner instance quickly without taking damage. The points she received were nearly identical to another run where she killed two zombies but took longer and barely cleared an intermediate instance.

Her conclusion was that beginner instances were not incapable of producing high scores.

However, after a full month of experimentation, the forum still reached a general consensus: the higher the instance difficulty, the easier it was to obtain a high rating.

The reasoning was simple. Since ratings evaluated overall ability, intermediate instances, with more complex setups and hidden dangers, naturally showcased strength better than simple beginner ones.

That was what everyone firmly believed.

Until they noticed the existence of that “Anonymous Visitor.”

Students had actually noticed the account sitting at number one on the overall leaderboard during the first week.

But at the time, everyone was still adapting. Very few people could even clear beginner instances successfully. If someone managed to clear one with strong performance, ranking highly seemed normal.

So no one paid much attention.

Until one week passed. Then two.

Three weeks. One month…

Some students developed flawless speedrun methods for beginner instances. Some stumbled their way through intermediate ones. Translated on Hololo novels. Others survived over thirty minutes in advanced instances, even achieving a couple of kills. Yet Anonymous Visitor remained firmly seated at the top of the rankings.

Only then did everyone realize something was wrong.

When they opened the details and discovered that this overwhelming overall score had been achieved using nothing more than a single “beginner instance,” their mentality completely collapsed.

Fu Qing had casually tried it once and left behind an unreachable record.

It even became a psychological shadow for students obsessed with record chasing.

When they tried to imitate Anonymous Visitor by selecting an easy beginner instance, carefully hitting every scoring condition they could think of and believing their performance flawless, only to exit and discover they had not even brushed the edge of an SSS rating, their morale shattered even further.

In the end, they could only come to the forum to vent.

Because each student was limited to only one hour of combat pod usage per week, which was far from enough, Fu Qing allowed students to share their gains and lessons from instances on the forum during their off time.

They could even upload their clear recordings so everyone could discuss whether anything had been missed or where improvements could be made.

Of course, there were still restrictions.

After all, there were only so many instances. If everything were fully spoiled, Fu Qing would have to rack their brain to design new ones.

The rules were simple: all beginner instances could be openly discussed on the forum. Intermediate instances could only be discussed by students who had played them and reached over 30% exploration. Advanced and higher level instance details could only be discussed by students who had already cleared them.

Exploration rate was a built in value tracked by the combat pod, while forum viewing restrictions were enforced by the system.

At this moment, the post floating at the top of the homepage was not the first discussion about “Anonymous Visitor,” yet its popularity remained high.

[Passing by and suffering unprovoked humiliation. Forget newbie tutorials, some people can’t even clear the tutorial. (crying)]

[No matter who Anonymous Visitor is, if they’re so strong, why not try a hell instance? Bullying people in the newbie village doesn’t prove anything!]

[I reasonably suspect she didn’t even bother choosing. Instance No. 004 was probably random. If it were a hell instance, she might still get SSS, maybe even more easily.]

[The person above has spoken the truth…]

[No way??? SSS in a hell instance? Would that still be human???]

[Last week I bravely opened the Midnight Forest map in a hell instance. Three wild wolves suddenly appeared and scared me half to death. The leader felt two stories tall, its yellow eyes glowing in the dark like lightbulbs. That wasn’t a wolf, that was a dinosaur!

Anyway, it slapped me into meat paste with one hit. Now I’ve got psychological trauma whenever I see stray dogs on the street.

Seriously, who designed these instances? They’re completely insane. It feels like they were never meant to be cleared.]

……

To prevent privacy leaks and speculation about teachers’ personal information, Fu Qing never revealed the origins of the instances.

So the students treated them exactly like game dungeons and discussed them without restraint.

When referring to characters inside, they simply called them the protagonist or NPCs.

They could replay them endlessly, study strategies, and optimize clears. To them, it truly was no different from a game.

Except this was an unusually “real” game, and even out of simple moral consideration, they would never behave with the reckless abandon of players acting like the so called Fourth Calamity in ordinary games.

……

[I agree that hell difficulty instances are inhumane, but Beginner Instance No. 004 isn’t simple either. Has anyone who’s actually played it come discuss seriously?

Last week I spent my entire one hour on this instance. I realized that although the clear condition looks simple, just return home safely, if you dig deeper, it actually hides a lot of content. Once you step into the wrong trigger, the difficulty instantly skyrockets. It’s terrifying.]

[The person above! Finally someone understands me!! Actually, Anonymous Visitor getting a high score in this instance wasn’t a coincidence. In other beginner instances she might be able to get an S, but SSS? I don’t think that’s realistic.

To verify this theory, I spent a full three hours over the past three weeks running this instance. Now listen carefully to my analysis.]

[Sounds interesting. Pulling up a small stool and sitting down.]

[Following.]

The poster on this floor had a pink flower as their avatar. After a while, they replied again.

77L (Big Flower): [I’m back, I’m back. Changed my ID so everyone can follow the thread more easily. The person above was right. Other beginner instances might be tutorials, but No. 004 definitely isn’t, because it has several hidden traps (yes, the OP has already smashed their head into them repeatedly TAT).

The first trap comes from the environment itself. From the architectural style you can tell the setting is a very familiar old residential compound. Listening to the NPC conversations, it seems to be family housing for some institution, mostly occupied by retired employees, meaning the majority of residents are elderly. The protagonist and the upstairs and downstairs neighbors are basically all seniors too.

And when the event happens, it’s during after school and after work hours, so even if there are younger people, none of them are home yet.

So the first problem appears: these elderly people simply do not listen to persuasion!

On my first run I kindly explained for ages that zombies were coming, but nobody believed me. My blood pressure almost spiked.

Then suddenly a zombie appeared out of nowhere and chomped down on me. As I clutched my neck and collapsed, I was still hoping that seeing me die would make them realize the danger and finally run for their lives.

But! Not! A! Single! Person! Ran!

They surrounded me and the zombie in a circle, waving palm fans and pointing, saying things like, “Hey, why are you biting people? That’s so uncivilized,” and “Young man, don’t leave, let’s talk this through.”

Me: “……”

My vision went black. I could already see the total wipe ending.]

Big Flower spoke with deep emotion and indignation.

Unexpectedly, the replies below showed no sympathy at all. Instead, everyone burst out laughing.

[HAHAHAHA I can feel Big Flower’s resentment leaking through the screen.]

[The zombie’s first victim being the only person who knew zombies were coming, my condolences.]

[I was laughing but suddenly remembered trying to convince my grandparents to throw away spoiled leftovers in the fridge and they refused… If zombies really came, I might honestly fail to persuade them too.]

[…Suddenly not funny anymore.]

[AHHH my parents are exactly the type who’d say “What? Zombies outside? Let me go take a look.”]

[??? So when the principal said half the players died right at the start, this is how they died??]

[Played a dungeon and unexpectedly discovered its educational meaning… I used to think surviving zombies just meant preparing weapons, stockpiling supplies, and training physically. Never imagined the biggest obstacle would be convincing my stubborn parents (lying flat).]

[Maybe we should write a few fake articles about an X type virus outbreak in some city to set the mood? They might believe it more easily.]

[@CheeseIsPower, you’ve got work to do.]

Halfway through the discussion, they discovered another flaw in their apocalypse preparation plans and hurried to patch it up.

……

108L (Big Flower): [Continuing. Because the instance has a bonus condition to rescue civilians, most players try to persuade the group chatting downstairs to go back home.

But if you spend too much time here, rush hour begins, and a large wave of residents returning from work floods into the compound, mixed with many infected.

Once it hits rush hour, the rescue civilians bonus objective is basically impossible. Every time I reached that point, it ended in total annihilation.

Another important detail: a wandering grandpa zombie spawns randomly in the compound. He silently sneaks up behind the protagonist. I died to him several times.

If you fail to avoid him, or make too much noise killing him, the enthusiastic elderly residents may surround you again, triggering the earlier “Hey, why are you biting people? There’s a lunatic here, everyone come look!” phase, which also leads to a wipe ending (lights cigarette).]

[HAHAHAHAHAHA]

110L: [Got it, got it. So this instance can’t be dragged out. It has to be speedrun.]

[Easy to learn, impossible to execute.]

115L (Big Flower) replying to 110L: [Exactly. Just look at Anonymous Visitor’s clear record. She absolutely speedran it, cleared in five minutes!!

Honestly I’m really curious how she did it, because this instance has an absolutely ridiculous mechanic. I’ll explain it later.]

[? Looking forward to it.]

[Listening carefully.]

[I think I know what Big Flower is about to say. When I discovered it I literally howled at the sky. And there’s an even crazier mechanic afterward! I seriously don’t understand how a beginner instance can contain a guaranteed death scenario?? No, I’ll hold back, no spoilers.]

121L (Big Flower): [Anyway, if you kill the grandpa zombie, it definitely takes more than five minutes. I observed his patrol route and blocked his spawn on a restart, then used some alarmist persuasion techniques I learned from the publicity department to successfully trick several elderly residents into going upstairs.

Now pay attention, the main event is here.

Yes. If you’ve successfully passed everything above, then congratulations, the hardest part of this instance is about to begin (what?).

One of the most outrageous mechanics in this instance: the movement speed of elderly NPCs. Oh my god. It is unbearably slow!

When I saw one elderly lady reach the third floor landing, unfold a little portable stool she carried with her, sit down, and announce she needed to rest before continuing, my mentality completely shattered!

Even worse, the old man next to her calmly took a sip of tea from his thermos!

He even asked if I wanted some, saying it clears heat and reduces internal fire!!

Just climbing upstairs took at least two and a half minutes. It’s basically a forced cutscene. That’s why a five minute clear is unbelievable. Subtract this mandatory sequence and calculate how little time Anonymous Visitor actually spent persuading them, dealing with the grandpa zombie, and handling the even bigger crisis afterward!]

[Case closed. Big Flower came here to do stand up comedy.]

[Anonymous Visitor is insane… I’m even more certain about her identity now…]

[↑ Honestly, when everyone, including Big Flower, unconsciously started using “she” as the pronoun, you should’ve realized something…]

127L: [So far it still sounds manageable. The zombie can be blocked, the elderly can be persuaded with shock tactics. I haven’t played this instance yet, so where exactly is the real difficulty?]

129L replying to 127L:
[Did you overlook something…? The tricks Big Flower mentioned, like blocking the zombie spawn and other speedrun techniques, were conclusions drawn after repeatedly restarting the instance. But the play record shown on Anonymous Visitor’s account only has a single run.

If this were your first time entering the instance, could you quickly and clearly analyze the situation, silently avoid or deal with zombies, and at the same time earn the trust of the NPCs?

That requires not only absolute strength, but also experience, awareness, and sharp sensitivity to danger. None of those can be missing.]

---

133L (Big Flower):
[Thanks to 129L for helping explain. I accidentally wrote too much earlier, so I’ll finish quickly.

Everything before was just me complaining. The real difficulty of this instance comes later. At the start of the instance, when we stand at the spawn point (the stair landing between the third and fourth floors), we brush past a middle aged woman named “Xiaoyan” who has just returned home.

On a first encounter, she shows almost no abnormalities. At least, I didn’t notice anything wrong at all.

But in fact, she is already infected, and the source of infection is extremely rare, her pet cat.

This pet cat is absolutely terrifying. It retains a cat’s top predator instincts. The first time I saw it, it swiped off half the head of the NPC in front of me with a single claw. The muscle mass rippling across its back looked like it could punch two of me to death at once. In the narrow hallway, it was like a rampaging meat grinder.

Encountering it is a complete nightmare.

In short, the neighbor woman is attacked by the mutated cat about four minutes after she returns home. After that she opens her door and tries to flee, but by then it’s already too late.

So if we return to the hallway within five minutes, we can personally witness her being torn apart and become the mutated cat’s next target. But if we return after five minutes, we only see a corpse and an open door.

At that point, the mutated cat has already escaped and is roaming freely through the building hallways searching for prey. It moves incredibly fast and is extremely agile. There’s almost no chance of reaching home before it detects us.

Once you encounter it, the instance death rate instantly shoots up to 99%, and the bonus objective of rescuing NPCs is basically impossible.

Meeting that beast head on in the corridor is a nightmare slaughter.

So far, I’ve figured out several possible clear methods:

1. Kill the neighbor woman before she mutates during the first encounter, preventing her from returning home and triggering the event (but this seriously tests your psychological tolerance, it feels like committing murder). Then hide her body in your own apartment to avoid running into other neighbors and having to explain anything.
2. Hide in a lower floor neighbor’s home, then climb back upstairs later. However, the mutated cat remains active in the hallway and continues slaughtering residents, which heavily impacts your score.
3. Deal with the mutated cat (obviously)…

…]

---

The latter half of Big Flower’s post returned to serious strategy discussion for Instance No. 004, earning many expressions of gratitude.

Encouraged by this, others stepped forward to add more details.

---

140L:
[Thanks for the guide. I’ll add two points Big Flower didn’t mention.

First, the neighbor woman isn’t completely without abnormalities during the first encounter. On my fourth run I noticed a few drops of blood on her body. But since it’s evening and the hallway lighting is dim, it’s really hard to see.

In theory someone might smell blood, but the hallway is filled with cooking smells from multiple households making dinner. Anyone who could detect it should probably apply to be a police dog (.

Second, one of the neighbors carrying a baby actually has an already infected child. If you spend too long going upstairs, the baby zombie will bite an elderly NPC and cause another mutation. At that point you’ll be attacked from both sides by the mutated cat and regular zombies. Absolute nightmare fuel.

This is another time check point. You can’t move slowly, you must resolve things quickly.

And if you choose to kill the baby zombie, you’ll likely get beaten up by righteous neighbors. Don’t ask how I know…

All I can say is reality is far more complicated than we imagine. Without these instances, I wouldn’t have realized how many uncontrollable factors exist in real life. It’s easy to act based on assumptions.

But the truth is, sometimes you do the right thing and still fail to gain understanding.

It’s not enough for your actions to be correct. Your method must also be correct.]

---

149L (Big Flower) replying to 140L:
[Thanks for the additions! This instance really is packed with traps. I don’t know how it got categorized as beginner level. Though if you just choose to go upstairs and return home immediately at the start, it really is easy to clear, you just won’t get a high score.

Alright, that’s everything I’ve uncovered about this instance.

In the end, I just want to say: think carefully. Really think about how Anonymous Visitor cleared this on a first run in five minutes. I’ve wracked my brain and still can’t figure it out.

Like 129L said, according to the account record, she only played once. That means everything was accomplished purely through instinct and personal ability. If she had experience, like me, studying the forum and replaying multiple times before attempting it again, she’d probably set an even better record.

No, not probably. Definitely.

An SSS record may already be an unreachable height for us, but it’s far from her perfect performance.

Honestly, by now we all know who Anonymous Visitor is (if you still don’t, you might as well leave the thread), so I’ll just say it outright. These three weeks of repeated testing and analysis have completely convinced me, and made me realize that all the speculation we previously made about her strength was still too conservative.

It’s like watching speedrun videos online. The masters always look relaxed and effortless, making you feel like you could do it too.

But only after experiencing it yourself do you realize their ease comes from tens of thousands of attempts forming muscle memory, perfectly precise top tier execution, and rare natural talent.

Imitating that is easier said than done.

This instance is the same. A difference of just a few minutes may represent a massive gap in experience, intuition, and ability.

Over these three weeks, simply analyzing and imagining how she handled each crisis, how she saved time, avoided panic, and prevented herself from being trapped in unwinnable situations… has already made me feel clear improvement.

Thank you for setting the example. I’ll keep striving while watching your back from afar. bows]

……

Big Flower’s strategy post was sincere and thorough, and the final summary elevated the discussion, turning what began as a chaotic complaint thread into something far more meaningful.

[Shocked.]

[Without your analysis, I wouldn’t understand this instance at all.]

[+1. I’m speechless. I used to think clearing a beginner instance in five minutes wasn’t a big deal…]

[Now I suddenly want to see Anonymous Visitor challenge a hell instance. I wonder if she could clear it just as smoothly without taking damage?]

₊˚.🎧📓✩

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