Ch 41: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

Before coming here, the man in the black jacket had never taken a group of college students who posted silly videos online seriously. He never expected that his underestimation from the very beginning would place him at a disadvantage, trapping him in a series of carefully prepared setups and leaving him completely subdued without the ability to resist.

Even Yue Yuxuan and Zhuo Xiaoliang themselves had not expected things to go so smoothly.

Although they had trained for over two months, they had started from zero. Compared to a desperate criminal like the man in black, whose hands were stained with blood, there was still a considerable gap between them. Translated on Hololo novels. That was why they had not dared relax their vigilance from the start. Unexpectedly, that very caution became their advantage.

Additionally, their training inside the combat simulation chamber had greatly strengthened their mental resilience.

Only by remaining calm in danger could they perform steadily.

After tying the man in black securely and ensuring there was no chance of escape, the two exchanged a celebratory high-five.

“Yeah!”

The reason the man in black never received help from his teammates was that the baseball cap and Skull had been diverted from the very beginning and never entered the living room at all.

Rewind two minutes earlier.

Before the man in black entered the living room, Skull, walking at the rear, suddenly shifted expression and looked toward the staircase. His gaze sharpened instantly.

He had sensed Su Huaijin’s presence.

The man in black at the front signaled “act according to plan,” indicating all targets were in the living room. But Skull trusted his instincts completely.

There was definitely someone upstairs.

He tapped the baseball cap man’s shoulder, signaling him to go upstairs and check.

Skull was both the employer and the leader of the operation. The baseball cap man dared not disobey.

After glancing at the man in black’s back and assuming a group of college students posed no real threat, he decided one less person downstairs would not matter. He nodded and carefully ascended the stairs, minimizing his footsteps.

He gripped a steel pipe in his hand, a vicious grin spreading across his fleshy face as he imagined the college students trembling before him.

Skull’s intuition far exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Su Huaijin had never imagined she would be discovered so early. Her original plan had been to deliberately “expose” activity upstairs through the creaking of the old wooden floorboards, forcing the enemy to send someone up and thereby splitting their forces.

But before she even reached her intended position, barely having risen from her ambush near the staircase, the baseball cap man had already received Skull’s instruction and begun heading upstairs.

This completely disrupted Su Huaijin’s expectations.

How had he detected her? Pure instinct?

Was he even human?!

Abandoning any attempt to move quietly, she sprang up in one swift motion and ran toward where Freckles and Sun Wei were lying in wait.

“Now!! Hurry!!” she whispered urgently.

Behind her, the baseball cap man had already noticed her movement. Taking large strides up the stairs, he muttered, “You think you can run?”

“Why not come out obediently? You’ll suffer less that way…”

Su Huaijin ignored him entirely.

From the fear she saw on Sun Wei and Freckles’ faces ahead, she guessed the pursuer behind her probably did not look very “friendly.” To keep herself from panicking, she did not even dare look back.

Feigning panic, she darted left and right, even “accidentally” knocking over decorations in the hallway, further exciting the baseball cap man.

Knowing Skull controlled the building’s exits and believing the students could not escape anyway, he slowed down deliberately, following unhurriedly behind her, prolonging the cat-and-mouse game as much as possible.

The electricity had not returned, and the house remained pitch dark. Fortunately, the moon emerged again from behind the clouds, and after moving in darkness for so long, everyone’s eyes had adjusted.

At last, Su Huaijin reached an open doorway. Her figure flashed inside, and she threw herself onto the floor, grabbing a piece of fabric placed nearby and quickly pulling it over herself.

The voice she had been suppressing finally burst out:

“Now!!”

The sound of fabric rustling echoed through the darkness. The baseball cap man halted.

He had been immersed in the role of predator, savoring the girl’s apparent fear, but suddenly the roles seemed to reverse.

In the small female student’s low shout was calm certainty, the confidence of someone who had already won.

As if her panic all along had been an act.

Before he could react, a soft plastic click sounded ahead, like a cap being opened. A familiar smell drifted toward him.

Splash—

A thick, greasy liquid poured all over him, carrying an overwhelmingly pungent odor that nearly made him faint.

He finally realized what the smell was.

Gasoline.

They had doused him in gasoline.

A sudden brightness flared before his eyes. The beam of a flashlight shone directly onto the baseball cap man’s face, completely exposing the hunter, who should have remained hidden in the darkness, before his prey.

The baseball cap man felt overwhelming panic.

He struggled to open his eyes but could not clearly see the person holding the flashlight.

The girl’s originally small silhouette blurred in the light, somehow becoming frightening.

The student watch’s built-in flashlight had several brightness levels. In high-beam mode, the light was steady and intense, allowing Su Huaijin and the other two to clearly see the baseball cap man’s appearance.

Even with his cap and mask on, his squinting eyes squeezed by layers of fat, greasy bangs clumped across his forehead, and the poor skin condition that even the mask could not conceal were obvious at a glance.

Just over 1.7 meters tall, the sort of person who would be completely unremarkable walking down the street.

Only after gaining the upper hand and looking back at him did Su Huaijin realize that so-called desperados and crazed pursuers were nothing extraordinary after all.

Remove the masks, and everyone was just an ordinary person.

The tension of confronting criminals in real life for the first time strangely faded.

After using the flashlight to intimidate him, Su Huaijin switched it off and glanced toward the other two.

Because Sun Wei’s mobility was still not perfect, the task of splashing gasoline had been given to Freckles, while Sun Wei handled another critical role.

The gasoline had come from Fu Qing’s car trunk. Having lived through the apocalypse, she naturally kept essential supplies prepared. Translated on Hololo novels. The waterproof sheet Su Huaijin used to shield herself from splashes had originally been laid inside the tent as ground covering.

Both teams had fully utilized whatever resources were available and planned this operation carefully. So far, the results were excellent.

Receiving Su Huaijin’s signal, Sun Wei nodded and pulled another “camping tool” from her pocket, also taken from Fu Qing’s trunk.

She quietly stepped back half a pace.

“Damn it…”

The baseball cap man’s vision doubled. He wiped gasoline from his face with his sleeve, only to get some into his eyes, crying out in pain. Afraid to move recklessly yet terrified someone might approach, he wildly swung the steel pipe in his hand.

“Back off! Stay away! Come any closer and you’ll regret it!”

The pipe sliced through the air with force. The three nearby girls seemed to stop moving, and he relaxed slightly, blinking hard as tears formed, finally managing to open his eyes.

The blinding flashlight was gone.

In its place appeared a small flicker of orange light suddenly rising.

A light that made his heart race uncontrollably, nearly forcing a scream from his throat.

“Are you sure you still want to keep swinging that pipe?” Sun Wei said calmly. “We don’t really mind. But if you accidentally hit something and create a spark…”

Holding a lighter, she smiled at the trembling man and popped her lips softly.

“…then ‘boom.’ You’ll turn into a giant fireball.”

The baseball cap man nearly fainted on the spot.

His legs shook violently. Looking again, he confirmed they were only three ordinary female college students, judging by their voices and builds.

But how could the timid, easily bullied college girls he imagined come up with something this ruthless?

Dousing someone in gasoline could easily get someone killed if things went wrong!

Before this operation, they themselves had not planned to cause any deaths. They only intended to restrain the students and extract information. Yet their targets now seemed more like outlaws than they were.

He swallowed hard. Staring at the steady lighter in Sun Wei’s hand, he slowly lowered the steel pipe in resignation.

He dropped to one knee, assuming a posture of surrender.

Beneath her hood, Su Huaijin’s lips curled into a wide smile.

Freckles set down the half-empty fuel container and stepped forward with Su Huaijin. Together they forced the man’s hands behind his back and bound them tightly with coarse rope.

Then they herded him into an empty room without furniture, spread the waterproof sheet across the floor, and only then allowed the gasoline-soaked man to kneel on it.

Throughout the entire process, Sun Wei followed beside them holding the lighter, making him tremble uncontrollably. He barely cared about the rope binding his hands, wriggling only to move farther away from her.

From beginning to end, aside from a single small lighter, they had not even needed the wooden sticks prepared earlier. The opponent had been subdued with ease.

After leaving the room and closing the door, Sun Wei clicked her tongue. “This opponent was kind of weak.”

Or had they simply become stronger than they realized?

Su Huaijin was about to respond when she turned toward Sun Wei. Under the warm firelight reflecting off the green fish mask, she suddenly lost composure.

“You should really turn off that lighter. That green fish look is seriously sanity-draining…”

Freckles clutched her chest. “Just now, Weiwei totally had villain energy. It reminded me of the principal.”

Sun Wei: “?”

The green fish suddenly grew excited. “How did you know I was imitating the principal from that barbecue restaurant scene? Did I do it well? Was the presence convincing? Still daring to threaten us, huh? Who’s threatening who, huh? Pah!”

The other two: “…”

This was the Sun Wei they knew, a fiery little pepper who could debut as an idol with her looks yet somehow carried natural comedian energy.

After completing their task, the three cautiously stood guard by the door, preventing the baseball cap man from trying anything again.

Countless stories had taught them lessons, people who tied someone up carelessly and left them unattended, only for that person to break free and return at a critical moment to turn the tide. They refused to make that mistake.

“Otherwise all those tens of millions of words Teacher Bai made us read would’ve been for nothing!”

Those were written in blood, after all.

“I just wonder how Xiaoliang and Yuxuan are doing,” Freckles said worriedly. “That guy earlier could hear your footsteps. He almost ruined our plan. He didn’t feel like an ordinary person.”

Su Huaijin recalled the skull-masked man’s uncanny hearing and felt uneasy as well, but she said firmly, “Trust the principal.”

*

Skull felt that something was very wrong.

Not long after sending the baseball cap man upstairs, he heard his excited, heavy breathing.

He sounded like a hunter chasing prey, moving farther and farther away from the first floor.

Yet the prey’s footsteps, though accompanied by clattering noises that sounded panicked, landed solidly each time, rhythmic and purposeful, clearly heading toward a specific corner on the second floor.

Skull strongly suspected the baseball cap man was about to fall into a trap. But speaking now would alert those in the living room and ruin the black jacket man’s operation.

No… wait. If a trap had been set upstairs, would they really leave such a large vulnerability in the living room?

Skull turned his head quickly, his breathing quickening slightly. The man in black had already disappeared into the shadows of the living room.

The living room was spacious, and the tents were positioned away from the entrance. Skull stilled himself and listened carefully before finally deciding to assist the man in black first.

The second floor’s layout was more complicated. Unlike the open living room, it had not been fully shown in the video. Skull, unlike the other two, had not underestimated his targets. Before coming, he had studied the video carefully and gained a preliminary understanding of the layout.

Relying on that knowledge, he chose to head into the living room first. Translated on Hololo novels. After confirming everything was safe, he planned to rescue the baseball cap man together with the man in black.

Highly vigilant and considering every possibility, he finally stepped forward.

As he entered the living room, still observing the surroundings, he suddenly heard a muffled groan coming from one of the tents.

Narrowing his eyes, he saw in the darkness a figure kneeling beside the triangular tent peak, arms wrapped tightly around the man in black’s neck. The man in black thrashed desperately, but his legs were pinned down by a knee pressed firmly against them.

In such a short time, the knife-wielding man had already been nearly subdued.

Skull cursed under his breath and rushed forward to help, his previously cautious movements revealing a trace of urgency.

Just a trace.

A figure dropped from above at precisely that moment, striking toward Skull’s back like lightning.

The air seemed to freeze.

Feeling the sharp rush of wind behind him, electricity shot down Skull’s spine as he finally realized what he had overlooked.

In the corner of the living room stood an abandoned liquor cabinet. In the video, it had appeared empty. Its aged wood and hollow structure meant anyone hiding on top should have caused creaking sounds.

Yet from the moment they entered, that direction had remained completely silent, allowing the large cabinet, easily capable of supporting a person’s weight, to be entirely ignored.

For the first time, cracks appeared in Skull’s otherwise calm expression.

He could hear Su Huaijin’s subtle movements. He could even hear Freckles and Sun Wei’s suppressed footsteps through a floor and thick boards.

Yet he had completely failed to detect Fu Qing, who had been right beside him the entire time.

She had been hiding at the closest possible position.

Shock aside, Skull reacted quickly. Rolling on the spot, he narrowly avoided the strike aimed at the back of his head. As he tried to rise, the attacker was already upon him again.

She did not seem surprised that he had dodged. The missed strike flowed seamlessly into another attack, and in the next instant Skull found himself staring into a pair of cold, sharp eyes.

The face behind a gas mask overlapped perfectly with the first-person perspective from the video.

At that moment, Skull suddenly understood the zombie being strangled in that footage.

If zombies had hearts, they might have skipped a beat in such a situation.

Boom!

Skull was slammed to the ground by Fu Qing. The back of his head and his spine struck the floor heavily, bones thudding against wood as darkness flooded his vision for several seconds.

A voice sounded beside his ear like a ghostly whisper, breath brushing faintly past him, raising goosebumps along his skin.

“Found you,” Fu Qing said quietly.

₊˚.🎧📓✩

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