Ch 37: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

The light shining in through the upper half of the tent’s open zipper was suddenly blocked by a dark silhouette.

Yu Cheng tensed instinctively, but Lu Yan quickly called out the newcomer’s name.

Fu Qing answered from outside the tent. Lowering her head and seeing the middle aged man’s corpse, her face remained unreadable in the backlight.

“Can you two still move?”

“…Yes,” Lu Yan inhaled softly. “What about the others?”

Yu Cheng said nothing. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself upright. Violent dizziness pounded through his skull like a hammer, cold sweat soaking his body, but he endured it without making a sound.

Fu Qing glanced at him.

“Don’t move yet.” Lu Yan grabbed Yu Cheng’s wrist, placing fingers on his pulse while turning his face to examine his pupils carefully. “Nothing serious, just temporary difficulty moving… Someone poisoned our food? How are you?”

The last question was directed at Fu Qing.

The cooking ingredients had been gathered outside by Fu Qing and others. Translated on Hololo novels. The middle aged man had been responsible for cooking. Logically, those two should have been the primary suspects.

But Lu Yan trusted Fu Qing completely, and the middle aged man had already been dead when he woke up…

So who poisoned them? The other teammates who helped prepare ingredients or stayed nearby while cooking?

Yu Cheng felt the gaze of those around him lose its warmth, turning sharp and evaluative. It made his skin crawl.

He suddenly realized he was the newest member of the team, with no established trust. Something like this happening right after his arrival naturally made him the most suspicious.

“I…” Yu Cheng opened his mouth to defend himself, but he had no idea what had actually happened.

“Not him. It was…” Fu Qing named someone, her tone cold. “I saw him get into their vehicle with my own eyes.”

The two guards had eaten the drugged food and lost all ability to resist long ago. Someone had knocked them unconscious, leaving them slumped against the wall.

The others in the camp were like Yu Cheng and the rest, some still unconscious, others awake but groaning in pain.

Fu Qing quickly explained the situation, then added, “Xiao Juan is in their vehicle.”

Lu Yan’s expression darkened.

Yu Cheng didn’t understand. He struggled to widen his blurry eyes, looking at Fu Qing, thinking he must have misheard.

“What?”

Fu Qing did not repeat herself. “They took Xiao Juan.”

She pointed at the tire tracks on the ground and toward the women’s tent, which stood farther inside the compound than the boys’ tent.

“Brother Liao always said most of the food should go to those responsible for hunting, so he ate less than everyone else. The poisoning affected him less, and he woke early.” She paused almost imperceptibly. “When he realized something was wrong, he happened to see them forcing Xiao Juan into the vehicle. He tried to stop them, which is why his throat was cut.”

She spoke as though she had witnessed the scene personally.

But from her movements and expression, Yu Cheng understood this was deduction, inferred from the tire tracks, tent placement, and the condition of Brother Liao’s body.

Incredibly precise deduction.

“I’m going to rescue her,” Fu Qing said.

“I’ll also—”

Yu Cheng suddenly jolted fully awake and blurted out before Lu Yan could finish, “I’ll go with you!”

He had already received the system notification.

【Prologue complete!】

【Current instance difficulty: Advanced (estimated clear rate <3%)】

【Clear condition: Rescue Xiao Juan (Incomplete)】

【Bonus conditions:

1. Recover stolen camp supplies;
2. Eliminate all members of the enemy camp and complete revenge】

Lu Yan stared at Yu Cheng in disbelief, clearly not expecting his line to be stolen like that.

But Yu Cheng was certain the principal’s unspoken intention was for him to team up with her.

After all, they had entered the instance as teammates from the start.

Ignoring Lu Yan’s scrutiny, he stubbornly looked at the principal.

Fu Qing studied Yu Cheng deeply.

That look was difficult to interpret, like the expression of someone who already knew the ending while looking back on the past.

She made her decision quickly. “Yu Cheng comes with me. Lu Yan, stay and take care of the injured. Xiao Juan isn’t the only one here who needs help.”

As teammates, mentioning Yu Cheng’s name inside the instance would not be censored.

Yu Cheng could clearly feel how trusted the principal was within this team. Though Lu Yan seemed to want to argue, he swallowed his words and instead turned to Yu Cheng with unusual seriousness.

“Don’t slow her down.”

Then, frowning, he dragged a large medical kit out from under his blanket.

Before Yu Cheng could respond, he stared wide eyed at the enormous kit.

He slept with that thing every night?

Inside were not only common medicines and bandages but also various brightly colored pills in transparent bottles whose purposes were unclear.

Lu Yan quickly found one unlabeled bottle, poured out two pills, and handed them over. “These will help.”

Noticing Yu Cheng staring at the bedding, Lu Yan snorted. “If I didn’t hide it in the blanket, it would’ve been stolen long ago. You think it’d still be here for you?”

Yu Cheng suddenly remembered the bonus condition: recover stolen supplies. He hurriedly peeked outside the tent.

Sure enough, the pile of supplies once stacked in the corner had completely vanished.

“You… you’re amazing,” he said sincerely as he pulled his head back inside.

Lu Yan replied seriously, “As long as I’m here, the medicine stays. That’s a medic’s resolve.”

There was an oddly powerful conviction in his tone.

After swallowing the pills, Yu Cheng shook out his arms and legs. Whether psychological or not, he genuinely felt a little better.

He crawled out of the tent and discovered one of the vehicles in the courtyard had also been taken. Only a single car remained.

Fu Qing crouched beside it, withdrawing her hand from the tire and brushing dust from her fingertips before standing. “Brother Liao’s sudden appearance probably forced them to retreat early. They didn’t have time to puncture the remaining tires before leaving.”

Although everyone had been drugged, poisoning levels varied. Someone might still have retained fighting ability.

This group had been extremely cautious, preferring smaller gains to ensuring a safe escape. Translated on Hololo novels. If they had been more ruthless, checking everyone carefully and finishing them off, Yu Cheng might already have been silenced while unconscious.

“We should hurry,” he said quickly.

Fu Qing glanced at him. “No fuel.”

Gasoline, such a critical resource, had been stolen first, long before Brother Liao woke up.

Yu Cheng froze. “Ah…”

At that moment, Lu Yan somehow produced a gasoline can from a patch of weeds in the corner of the yard, pulled out a funnel, and skillfully began refueling the car.

Yu Cheng: “……”

Doraemon?

How had such a large bright red fuel can mysteriously escaped the enemy’s search?

Fu Qing didn’t look surprised at all. Leaning against the car, she rubbed her temple and waited until Lu Yan finished before pushing herself upright and heading toward the driver’s door.

An invisible barrier seemed to exist between the two of them.

Yu Cheng was unmistakably the one left outside it.

Yu Cheng didn’t think much of it, only sighing inwardly at his own lack of experience. Medicine and fuel were the most important supplies, yet he hadn’t even considered such basic things.

Feeling ashamed, he followed behind the principal. Gradually, he noticed that although her walking posture looked no different from usual, her pace was clearly slower.

When she reached for the car door, her hand missed the handle the first time before gripping it on the second try.

Yet from beginning to end, she never frowned once. There was no sign at all that she was seriously poisoned.

Compared to Yu Cheng, who felt the world spinning with discomfort, she looked completely unaffected.

“….” Yu Cheng once again felt just how insignificant he was compared to the principal, and his sense of shame deepened.

He obediently took the passenger seat and closed the door, still thinking about it.

Since the combat pod system had declared everything earlier as prologue content, it meant that everything before awakening, including the poisoning, had been unavoidable, forced events.

But this was the principal’s memory. She already knew what would happen. A normal person, knowing the food was poisoned, would at least hesitate or show discomfort while eating. Yet during the meal, she had calmly swallowed the food Brother Liao handed her without changing expression, even making him visibly happy.

…Yu Cheng suddenly felt that the bitterness of Lu Yan’s medicine only now began to spread at the back of his tongue.

*

The drive to the enemy camp went smoothly. Yu Cheng knew it was smooth because of the person beside him.

To avoid alerting the enemy, she turned off the headlights halfway through. Even across uneven wilderness terrain, the vehicle moved steadily, as if the occasional moonlight breaking through the clouds was enough for her to judge every rise and dip beneath the wheels.

When distant flickering lights came into view, the car stopped behind a cluster of bushes with a soft creak.

“From now on, you’re in command,” Fu Qing said as she shut off the engine.

Yu Cheng nearly jumped. “Me?!”

He was supposed to command?

Command the principal?

The dizziness that had nearly faded suddenly intensified.

Fu Qing looked at his panicked expression. “Don’t you want to save her?”

Yu Cheng snapped back to himself and bit down hard. “…Okay.”

He forced himself to calm down. In his heart, he had already resolved that even if he had to sacrifice himself, he would save Xiao Juan.

If teammates died, would the remaining members still count as clearing the instance?

He wanted to prove to the principal that keeping him at the school had been the right decision. He now possessed the strength to save others, and when necessary… he would never run away again.

Drawing on everything he had learned, Yu Cheng carefully observed the enemy camp in the distance.

The place appeared to have once been a construction site. The raiders lived in temporary worker dormitories made of prefabricated metal panels, their white walls clearly visible even in the night.

The layout resembled their own warehouse camp, a brick wall enclosing a small courtyard. Inside were parked vehicles, a bonfire, and clotheslines hung with clothing and bedding.

The surrounding land had once been cleared flat, but over time thick weeds had grown back. In winter they had turned dry yellow brown, providing perfect cover for approaching unseen.

Looking at the vast patch of weeds, Yu Cheng formed a plan.

“We don’t know the internal layout of the dorms or how many people they have. Charging in blindly could alert them. Not only might we fail to rescue Xiao Juan, we could both get killed.”

As he explained, his trembling voice gradually steadied without him noticing.

“My idea is to start a fire. We siphon gasoline from the fuel tank to accelerate it. The flames should spread quickly through the dry grass, and once it grows large, it won’t be easy to extinguish.”

“Teacher Zhao said zombies in winter are drawn toward warmth and avoid the cold. A large fire will attract wandering zombies nearby. They’ll be forced to focus on putting out the fire, and we can use the chaos to sneak into the dorms and find Xiao Juan.”

“As for roles…” Yu Cheng forced himself to sound calm. “Principal, you start the fire. I… I’ll infiltrate.”

He deliberately assigned himself the more dangerous task.

Fu Qing listened quietly and simply nodded.

With the task entrusted to the principal, failure felt impossible. Yu Cheng immediately moved out, sneaking toward the dormitories and crouching beneath the wall.

Soon, a red glow appeared in the darkness, smoke rising into the air.

From inside the courtyard, he heard the guards talking:

“Something’s on fire over there?”

“Did sparks from the bonfire drift out again? I told you not to make it so big!”

“You two go check. I’ll stay.”

Two people left carrying equipment to put out the fire. The weather was dry, and fires had probably happened here before, so panic didn’t erupt immediately.

Worried the gasoline might not be enough and the experienced raiders would extinguish the fire quickly, Yu Cheng hesitated, then clenched his teeth and climbed over the wall early.

Even if the fire was put out fast, at least he would have infiltrated while the guards were distracted.

The guard at the entrance didn’t raise an alarm right away, focusing instead on the distant flames. Yu Cheng quietly climbed the stairs. A red banner reading “Safety First” hung along the second floor railing, conveniently hiding his movement.

He passed several rooms, quickly peeking through windows by firelight. Most were filled with supplies, with no signs of habitation.

Near the last room, he heard loud snoring inside. His heartbeat instantly accelerated.

Of course… heating was difficult in winter. They would naturally sleep together in one room to conserve warmth, save fuel, and guard against attacks.

Since Xiao Juan hadn’t been found in the earlier rooms, she was probably here.

Time had passed during the journey. It was now deep night. Thunderous snoring masked the faint sounds of Yu Cheng’s footsteps in the hallway.

He glanced downstairs again.

The fire was growing larger. Translated on Hololo novels. The guards would soon issue evacuation warnings. He needed to find an empty room to hide in first…

Just as he turned to leave, a soft knock sounded from the door in front of him.

A thin, hushed voice came from inside.

“xx-jie, is that you?”

It was Xiao Juan.

Her voice sounded weak, thick with nasal congestion.

Believing Fu Qing stood outside, like a child finally seeing a trusted adult arrive, Xiao Juan spoke urgently. “They… they killed Brother Liao. We have to avenge him.”

Yu Cheng paused before replying, “No. It’s Yu Cheng. The prin— Fu Qing is outside dealing with the others.”

There was a brief silence. She seemed to lean against the door, her voice lowered.

“I see.”

She sounded slightly disappointed, but quickly rallied. “From my angle I can see orange light through the window. Are you starting a fire? Will it reach here?”

Yu Cheng hesitated, then said, “Yes.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Then we can rescue you. Just wait a little longer.”

Xiao Juan laughed softly on the other side. “…Okay.”

The flames outside were growing stronger. Yu Cheng didn’t dare linger. “I’m going to find somewhere to hide first.”

She sounded distracted and didn’t respond for two seconds. Just as Yu Cheng prepared to leave, he heard the sound of metal chains dragging across the floor inside the room.

The clinking echoed clearly through the door.

A guard suddenly shouted that there was a fire. Yu Cheng’s body jolted. Fear surged through him, urging him to run immediately, but he clenched his teeth and forced himself to stay.

Listening for movement inside the room, Yu Cheng was suddenly struck by a bad feeling. “Xiao Juan, what are you doing?”

Xiao Juan didn’t answer. She said softly, “Help me apologize, okay? Tell her not to be sad. I just wanted to avenge Brother Liao.”

She paused, her voice catching with a hint of sobbing. “I saw it with my own eyes. Brother Liao was killed because he tried to save me. When he died, he was still reaching out, trying to stop them…”

By the end, hatred seeped into her voice.

Yu Cheng said urgently, “Don’t do something reckless!”

But it was too late. The guard shouted again, and a rustling broke out inside. The sleeping men woke up, saw the firelight outside the window, and instinctively surged toward the door.

Someone smashed the glass of the hallway side window with a bare fist. Iron bars were embedded in the window for security. Yu Cheng knew the window on the other side had the same design. The door in front of him was the only escape route for everyone inside.

His eyes went wide with fury. He had already guessed what Xiao Juan was trying to do.

A furious shout erupted from inside. “What are you doing!!”

A bloody, mangled hand struggled out through the broken window, grasping the iron bars. Yu Cheng saw a face smeared with blood.

That face, battered beyond the prettiness of their first meeting, held only resolve and unyielding hatred, like a scarlet flame of revenge meant to burn everyone behind her to ash.

Hands were yanking at her, grabbing her arm, her collar, her hair.

Countless hands reached for Xiao Juan, each trying to drag her back into hell.

With all her strength, she thrust something toward Yu Cheng. “Take it. Go, now.”

A small metal object clattered to the ground.

A key.

The key to the chain.

Through the window, in a hurried glance, Yu Cheng saw that the bedframe near the window really was bound with chain.

He could fully imagine how the other end was wrapped tightly around the doorknob.

Xiao Juan clung to the bars, her gaze yearning toward the blaze Fu Qing had lit.

The fire burned fiercely, as if it could melt all the snow within sight and drive away all darkness.

Only then did she look at Yu Cheng. “Let her live. Live well.”

“She’s so strong. She’ll definitely live longer than all of us…”

“Live until the zombies disappear from Blue Star, live until the wicked are punished, live until peace returns.”

Imagining that scene, Xiao Juan suddenly smiled.

“When the time comes, if you get the chance… bring a flower to my grave, and to Brother Liao’s too,” she said softly.

The flames spread even faster than expected. Fire licked at the far window frame. It was as if the people inside could hear death’s footsteps drawing near, and they grew even more frenzied.

Howls and curses rose and fell. The door shook with repeated heavy impacts.

Yu Cheng stood rigidly in place.

He listened to Xiao Juan’s last murmurs, watched her release her grip, then watched her swallowed up by the furious crowd.

He didn’t move. His legs felt filled with cement, rooted heavily to the ground. He didn’t even notice that the guards downstairs had already fallen silent.

Only after a long while did he wake as if from a dream. Holding the key Xiao Juan had given him, he walked downstairs step by step.

Fu Qing stood beside a vehicle. In the corner of the courtyard, three guard corpses lay sprawled there, killed in the same manner as Brother Liao.

When Yu Cheng saw her, tears poured down at once. “Principal, the mission failed. I couldn’t save her…”

“I’m sorry…”

He had promised himself he would bring Xiao Juan back no matter what, yet he still hadn’t been able to do it.

Regret flooded Yu Cheng’s chest, and he broke down sobbing in front of Fu Qing.

He almost forgot this was only an instance.

Through blurred, tear filled eyes, he felt the cold, hard metal in his hand and remembered Xiao Juan’s final words.

No. This wasn’t just an instance. For the principal, it was something that had truly happened.

Then… in reality, was Xiao Juan saved?

In reality, had the principal once felt this same despair?

Yu Cheng didn’t dare ask.

From the first moment he encountered the principal, watching her on the high stage, she had been synonymous with unreachable in his mind.

She received everyone’s admiration. She handled everything with ease. The zombies that terrified them were things she could casually leave behind.

But at this moment, Yu Cheng finally realized the principal had not always been like the person standing before him now. She must have had moments too, when she hated her own ordinariness, weakness, and helplessness.

He thought he understood what she had been trying to tell him.

“Hate that weak version of yourself? Then kill him.”

“Become stronger, until you can protect everyone you want to protect, until nothing important can ever be taken from you again.”

Yu Cheng nodded heavily.

He had already possessed the courage to end his own life. Surely, he thought, this couldn’t be harder than that.

*

After leaving the combat pod, it happened that three students finished at the same time. Seeing the principal climb out of the capsule pod beside them, they let out startled “uh” sounds.

Then they noticed Yu Cheng at her side, clearly a student, and their eyes widened even more.

Yu Cheng could practically hear their thoughts:

“Why is the principal running instances?”

“Who is that boy?”

“He queued team mode with the principal??”

He nearly vanished on the spot. Never had he so desperately wished his presence could be as invisible as before.

And in a small way, it also pulled him out of his gloom.

Fu Qing paid no attention to the stares around them. As she prepared to leave the classroom, she suddenly seemed to remember something and turned to Yu Cheng.

“Oh right, about your roommates.”

Yu Cheng was still somewhat unsettled, but immediately replied, “They’re all good people.”

It was him who wasn’t… otherwise the dorm atmosphere would surely be better.

Fu Qing glanced at him. Perhaps it was Yu Cheng’s imagination, but the corner of her lips lifted slightly in a faint smile. “You said before that they refused to forgive you. Who told you that?”

Yu Cheng paused. “…Right after the opening ceremony, I went to apologize to them, but they didn’t accept it at the time…”

He didn’t blame his roommates. After all, it had been his fault.

“Two months have passed. You might as well try again,” Fu Qing said. “Give them a chance. And give yourself one too.”

……

When Yu Cheng returned to the dormitory, Fu Qing’s final words still echoed in his mind.

Standing outside the door, hearing the lively noise inside, he stopped.

Whenever he wasn’t around, the dorm always sounded harmonious.

Many times before, he had stood just like this outside the door, listening to the sounds within, afraid to disturb them. Only after a conversation topic ended would he carefully enter, quietly returning to his seat without drawing attention.

This time, Yu Cheng didn’t wait.

He took a deep breath, gathered his courage, and pushed the door open.

The conversation inside stopped instantly. The three roommates looked toward the door in surprise.

Under their gaze, Yu Cheng’s body stiffened.

Looking toward his bed, he unexpectedly saw a box of fried rice noodles and a carton of milk on his desk.

Qin Yufei seemed to be nudged by a silent roommate beside him and let out a pained hiss before hurriedly saying, “We didn’t see you at the cafeteria earlier and thought you might not have eaten, so we brought this back for you… uh, we didn’t know what you liked, so we just bought something random. If you don’t want it, you can just leave it there.”

He added the last sentence awkwardly to ease the tension.

All three of them had noticed the changes in Yu Cheng’s physique.

After what happened today, Yu Cheng had run off before hearing any explanations. The three searched the cafeteria during dinner but couldn’t find him, so they finally packed a box of fried noodles to bring back.

Yu Cheng responded blankly, “Thank you…”

Silence returned to the dorm. The three boys felt uncomfortable with the atmosphere, sensing something off. Then Yu Cheng suddenly spoke.

“Um… Wang Huai, Qin Yufei, I want to apologize again. What happened on the day of the opening ceremony… I was wrong.”

“I was too scared back then. I couldn’t move at all. When I saw Qin Yufei run past me to save you, I really regretted it.” He bowed deeply, forcing himself to finish. “You don’t have to forgive me. I’ll train hard. If something like that happens again, I won’t be afraid anymore. I’ll save more people.”

After finishing, Yu Cheng still didn’t dare lift his head.

Silence spread until he heard a sigh.

Looking up, he saw Wang Huai scratching the back of his head. “Actually, you don’t need to apologize to me. I never thought it was your fault.”

Yu Cheng blinked in shock. “…What?”

Wang Huai said, “In that situation, asking the closest person for help was my survival instinct. Being too scared to reach out was yours. At first I did resent you a little, but I figured it out pretty quickly.”

“I just felt stupid… I could’ve run faster, but I kept looking back because I couldn’t believe the zombie outbreak was real. Then I tripped over someone’s dropped bag and fell. If I’d actually died, that wouldn’t have been your fault.” He tugged at his mouth in embarrassment. “But admitting that is kind of humiliating…”

“And me too,” Qin Yufei said, lowering his eyes. “I shouldn’t have yelled in the cafeteria. I was terrified, and I lost control, dumping all the blame onto you. Actually, when Wang Huai fell, I noticed immediately. I knew I had a chance to pull him up and keep running, but my mind went blank for two seconds before I moved. That’s why I missed the chance.”

“When I shouted at you, what I was really angry at was my own weakness. And even worse, the part of me that wanted to hide that weakness and pretend to be a perfect hero. I was just venting… and that was really awful.”

Everyone thought Yu Cheng had left him traumatized, but only Qin Yufei knew the real reason he couldn’t let go.

“And me,” the third roommate admitted, taking the opportunity. “I panicked completely. I didn’t even notice someone fell behind us, and I forgot about roommates I’d only known for half an hour. I just wanted to run faster and hide…”

“At least you looked back, Yu Cheng. That already makes you better than me.”

Yu Cheng stood frozen.

That day, he hadn’t been the only one who felt fear. He hadn’t been the only one who hated his own weakness. He hadn’t been the only one unable to speak the truth and choosing avoidance instead.

He didn’t have to carry all the blame alone.

At last, Yu Cheng understood what the principal meant by “give them a chance.”

Had she already sensed the truth his roommates were hiding?

At some point, his vision blurred again.

He wiped his eyes quickly and heard Qin Yufei say, “Next time, stop standing outside the door listening to us.”

They had known all along.

“Our dorm’s the last one down the hall. Nobody comes near except you. Your footsteps gave you away ages ago,” Wang Huai complained.

Countless times, they had hoped Yu Cheng would just walk in and join their conversations.

Each time, that hope failed. All they could do was fall silent, return to their seats, and listen to the door creak open as the person outside slipped in cautiously, too awkward to even say hello.

“I… I never knew,” Yu Cheng said dumbly.

“We know you didn’t,” Qin Yufei said with relief, punching his shoulder lightly. “Come eat dinner with us next time. Oh, and book the same combat pod time slot as us next week! We’ve been wanting to try a four person instance.”

“Same here! Four player teams are the most common. They say the four player instances are the most fun,” another roommate chimed in eagerly.

Yu Cheng hesitated, thinking about today’s experience and wondering whether he should tell them the truth about the combat pods.

At that moment, Wang Huai suddenly stared at his wristband and shouted, “Holy—!!!”

The other three jumped.

Yu Cheng turned and saw Wang Huai staring straight at him with a strange expression. “Yu Cheng…”

“The forum says someone ran a combat pod with the principal. Like, teamed up together. But the person in the sneaky photo they posted… why does he look exactly like you?”

Yu Cheng: “……”

He shrank back slightly as Wang Huai lunged forward and grabbed his shoulders.

“Fine if you won’t team with us, but you secretly teamed up with the principal behind our backs?!”

“Where’s your morality? Your bottom line? Aren’t you ashamed abandoning your roommates like this? And most importantly—why didn’t you bring me along?!”

He wailed in despair.

Yu Cheng: “……”

₊˚.🎧📓✩