Ch 42: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

The impact of a full-grown adult leaping down from a height was not something to underestimate. Combined with Fu Qing’s precise technique, her attack came fast and ruthless, leaving Skull no way to absorb the force.

The collision hit hard. His mind blanked briefly, and when he heard Fu Qing’s voice, his whole body jolted.

“Found you…”

For no clear reason, he felt that the “you” she referred to had nothing to do with the black jacket or baseball cap, those outsiders. It meant him and the people behind him.

But the subject of that sentence had been completely reversed.

In Skull’s imagination, those words should have been spoken by him after subduing the group of students, a threat directed at them.

How had it become the masked woman, the students’ leader, saying it to him instead?

He could already smell the strong gasoline scent drifting down from upstairs. The baseball cap man did not carry gasoline, so the smell could only belong to Fu Qing and her companions.

Nearby, the man in black had stopped struggling, pinned down and tied by the two students wearing ridiculous masks.

At this moment, Skull stood alone and unsupported.

He finally understood.

Everything tonight had been a trap.

Fu Qing reached toward the bottom of his mask with one hand, about to pull it off. Realizing her intention, Skull instantly turned his palm into a blade and struck toward her eyes like lightning.

Fu Qing decisively withdrew her hand and tilted her head aside to evade. Skull seized the opportunity to break free and reset his stance.

All his frustration turned into fury. He stared at the culprit before him, vicious hostility erupting in his eyes.

His voice sounded as though scraped over gravel, hoarse and harsh. “Who exactly are you? And how much do you know?”

His gaze was sharp as a blade, as if trying to pierce through the mask and see her true face beneath it.

“You want to know?”

There was no smile in Fu Qing’s eyes. Beneath the mask, her lips curved slightly upward as she said softly, almost provocatively, “Then come.”

Before her words even finished, Skull pushed off the ground and lunged at her, his movements blurring into an afterimage in the darkness.

Fu Qing’s eyesight was slightly better than average, but still barely functional in the dark. She quickly realized that every one of Skull’s attacks was frighteningly precise. Like a phantom hidden within the night, darkness did not hinder him, it strengthened him. Combined with his powerful musculature and agile movements, he proved far more troublesome than expected, forcing Fu Qing to rely entirely on years of cultivated combat instinct just to hold her ground.

Another explosive strike came. She bent reflexively to dodge as the force of his punch sliced past her cheek. Her skin tightened with danger awareness, goosebumps rising as she narrowed her eyes.

Something was wrong.

The man moved again.

Fu Qing felt as if she could see a sandbag-sized fist roaring toward her temple.

In a split second, she changed tactics, raising her arm to block. The powerful blow numbed her forearm, but she used the momentum to retreat, turning and exiting the living room.

Skull assumed she could no longer withstand him and was attempting to flee. Without hesitation, he pursued.

Dodging and weaving, Fu Qing reached the hallway. Skull locked onto her back, a flash of cruelty crossing his eyes. The instant she paused to change direction, he threw another punch.

But instead of retreating, Fu Qing moved closer. The distance between them vanished instantly, her back nearly colliding with his chest. As if she had eyes behind her, she grabbed his extended arm, twisted sideways, and executed a clean shoulder throw, sending the man, nearly twice her weight, crashing forward.

Boom—

The aging staircase, long decayed, could not withstand the massive impact. The railing collapsed under Skull’s weight with a thunderous crash.

Wood splinters and dust burst into the air as the situation reversed in an instant.

…

Elsewhere, not long after tying up the man in black, Zhuo Xiaoliang and Yue Yuxuan noticed the disturbance and stared wide-eyed in that direction.

They could only roughly identify where the two fighters were. Unable to see the battle clearly, they held their breath anxiously, afraid of interfering with the principal.

Through his mask, Skull’s heavy breathing sounded repeatedly, while his opponent remained silent the entire time, creating the eerie illusion that only one person was fighting.

The two exchanged nervous glances, then looked at the bound man in black, unsure whether they should abandon him and go help the principal.

But they also suspected they would only get in the way.

After all, they could not even see where anyone was.

In the silence, they suddenly heard a lighter set of footsteps rushing toward the hallway.

“It’s the principal!” Zhuo Xiaoliang whispered urgently.

Yue Yuxuan tugged him sharply, reminding him the captive was still there. He immediately shut his mouth.

Fortunately, the man in black paid no attention to the word “principal.” His focus was entirely on the sounds of combat.

Though bound, his mouth was free. He sneered, “No matter who’s fighting him, there’s no way they’ll win.”

At that moment, he suddenly found Skull reassuring instead of irritating. That arrogant demeanor felt strangely dependable.

Sure enough, as Fu Qing’s footsteps retreated, heavier footsteps followed closely behind, as though one person was exhausting themselves trying to escape while the other quickly gave chase.

Yue Yuxuan and Zhuo Xiaoliang felt their hearts tighten, already debating whether to abandon their original plan.

The man in black grinned smugly. “Just wait. In a moment she’ll be kneeling and begging for mercy—”

Before he could finish, someone kicked him squarely in the face while he sat on the ground.

Caught off guard, he failed to close his mouth in time. Dirt and grime filled his mouth as pain exploded across his lips and nose under the pressure of a shoe sole, twisting his face grotesquely.

Yue Yuxuan snarled, “Shut up! Want me to gag you?”

Just as the man in black prepared to curse back, a loud crashing sound echoed from the hallway, followed by Skull’s low, pained grunt, clear and jarring in the darkness.

Yue Yuxuan and Zhuo Xiaoliang’s eyes lit up instantly.

The man in black’s expression darkened.

In disbelief, he struggled to look toward the deep shadow of the doorway.

…

Dust filled the air. Skull coughed twice. His back had slammed into a sharp protruding edge of the staircase, forcing a pained groan from his throat, yet his mind remained unusually clear. Using the momentum of the collapse, he rolled sideways along the ground, narrowly avoiding Fu Qing’s follow-up attack.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, he forced himself up, staggering slightly. Just as he lifted his head to face his opponent, a flutter of fabric flashed before his eyes—

Someone moved faster than he did.

Fu Qing sprang upward along the steps, wrapping her legs tightly around Skull’s neck. With a powerful twist, her waist drove her upper body into a spinning motion midair. Before Skull could react, his head was completely locked in place.

If he resisted head-on, his fragile cervical bones might snap instantly. Skull abandoned resistance without hesitation, turning in the same direction almost clumsily. The added weight on his shoulders threw off his balance, and the two crashed heavily to the ground together.

Fu Qing tightened her legs and reached down with one hand to the bottom of his mask. Her fingers hooked the edge and ripped it off decisively.

The face hidden beneath the mask was finally revealed, and the instant Fu Qing saw it, her mind exploded.

It was a fully zombified face.

Bluish-black skin, swollen veins bulging across the surface, cracked lips devoid of blood, yellowed, clouded sclera almost indistinguishable from a corpse. These features were far too familiar to her. If this were the apocalypse, Fu Qing would already have stabbed through his brain without hesitation.

Everything made sense.

No wonder he could see in the dark. No wonder his hearing and sense of smell were so sharp, detecting Su Huaijin upstairs immediately.

These were unmistakably zombie traits.

Fu Qing’s temples throbbed violently as her thoughts stalled for a moment.

Sensing her gaze, Skull suddenly grinned, revealing yellowed canine teeth. Saliva dripped from their tips. Fu Qing’s brow twitched, and instinctively she almost released him.

If he bit her, would she be infected?

She could not stop herself from thinking about it.

The person before her looked exactly like a zombie, yet he could speak and think like a human.

…So what was he?

A human who retained reason after infection, or an intelligent zombie?

What exactly was going on?

“Does… does it matter?”

As if sensing her thoughts, Skull suddenly spoke.

With his throat constricted and oxygen deprived, his voice came out broken and uneven, less human speech than the rough sounds of a beast newly learning to talk, accompanied by harsh breathing.

Yet he was smiling, grotesquely so.

“Human… or zombie… does it matter?”

A normal person held in such a chokehold would already have turned red or purple from lack of oxygen. Skull’s face remained the same deathly bluish hue.

A realization struck Fu Qing.

If zombification had altered his senses, perhaps it had also changed how his body functioned.

Zombies did not need to breathe.

Fu Qing struck downward almost simultaneously as she realized that Skull, who had been clawing at her arm, had quietly moved his right hand downward and drawn a dagger from his thigh.

Without lifting his head, he slashed upward purely on instinct.

Fu Qing immediately arched backward, narrowly avoiding the fatal strike.

Half a second later, her throat would have been cut open.

Supporting herself with one hand on the ground, her body traced an arc as she flipped backward, landing already reset into a fighting stance.

She moved like a nimble feline, muscles coiled with explosive power. If this were not a life-and-death struggle, her movements would have been almost beautiful to watch.

The muscles on Skull’s deathly face twitched uncontrollably, confirming to Fu Qing that the earlier strangulation had indeed affected him.

He had not fully become a zombie yet.

“There is a difference,” she said suddenly.

Skull stared at her viciously. The ringing in his ears from oxygen deprivation made her voice sound distant, like murmurs from a dream.

“I’ve killed far more zombies than humans.”

Ignoring the murderous intent surging from him, Fu Qing smiled faintly and added, “…Want to guess how many of your ‘kind’ I’ve killed? I think probably more than anyone else in this world.”

Repeated setbacks and her relentless provocation finally shattered Skull’s composure. Enraged, he lunged forward again.

Fu Qing retreated once more.

Here it came again.

Remembering how she had turned retreat into attack earlier, Skull stayed extremely cautious this time. Though appearing furious, his movements remained calculated. If she tried the same maneuver again, he would counter immediately.

But once again, Skull was disappointed.

This time, Fu Qing was genuinely retreating. Ironically, his own caution delayed him for a moment before he gave chase.

At the end of the hallway was another room. As Skull followed closely behind, he searched his memory for the floor plan he had reconstructed from the video.

Then realization struck.

The room at the end of the hallway had never appeared in the zombie chase footage.

They had deliberately avoided filming one room’s interior.

This was… her contingency plan?

Skull had not expected that Fu Qing had even anticipated he would analyze the video. His expression darkened. Watching her figure disappear into the room, he did not dare act carelessly and slowed his steps, following cautiously.

The interior of the room gradually came into view.

It was a kitchen.

Most items were coated in dust, spiderwebs clinging to the corners, yet surprisingly many pots and pans remained. Even bottles of seasoning, long past expiration, still sat on the counter. Skull’s heightened sense of smell made him frown instantly.

Fu Qing stood by the stove.

A thought flashed through Skull’s mind. He immediately assumed she had come to retrieve a knife, so he lowered his stance defensively, tightening his grip on the dagger and fixing his gaze on her arms.

She slowly turned around.

What appeared in Skull’s vision was not a kitchen knife.

It was… two stainless steel pots.

Skull: “?”

Was she planning to use them as shields against the dagger?

He froze for half a second.

Fu Qing had already raised her arms.

Holding the pots wide, she swung them in a full arc—

Suddenly Skull realized what she intended. His pupils shrank violently.

Clang!!!

The metallic crash was deafening.

Fu Qing did not hold back at all. The sturdy stainless steel warped under the force of her strike. She even stepped forward deliberately so the sound exploded almost directly against his eardrums.

Skull screamed in agony, clutching his ears and doubling over. His face twisted as the metallic ringing echoed endlessly inside his skull, threatening to pierce his eardrums and split his head apart.

Such an enormous sound erupting without warning beside anyone’s ear would stun a normal person for a second or two, let alone someone with hypersensitive hearing.

Prepared in advance, Fu Qing merely frowned slightly at the noise before quickly recovering. Seeing Skull curled in pain, she understood immediately.

The heightened senses he had “evolved” had become blades turned against himself.

She now knew how to deal with him.

Dropping the pots, which struck the ground with another brutal assault on his fragile hearing, Fu Qing seized the moment. Reaching behind her to the counter, she grabbed two bottles and stepped back.

Still dizzy, Skull suddenly felt gray and red powder rain down over his head.

Before he could hold his breath, he inhaled a large mouthful. His nasal passages and eyes burned as if drenched in acid, fiery pain spreading down his airway.

At the same time, unbearable itching triggered three explosive sneezes in succession, nearly knocking the dagger from his hand.

Zombies were dead things. They felt no pain and possessed no nerves. Pepper or chili powder would do nothing to them.

But for Skull, a human who had absorbed zombie advantages, it was a devastating weapon.

He had never imagined that those so-called advantages would become weaknesses before this opponent.

Pepper powder and chili powder filled the entire space. Skull refused to believe Fu Qing felt nothing.

At worst, this was mutual damage. Once he recovered, if they fought head-on, his enhanced night vision might still give him the advantage…

Struggling unwillingly, he finally forced his stinging eyes open a crack.

The moment he saw Fu Qing, darkness nearly swallowed him again.

He had forgotten.

She was wearing a gas mask.

What kind of opponent fought like this?

Fu Qing kicked the dagger from his hand, then calmly stepped back to avoid the drifting chili powder. She let out a soft laugh.

“At least do your background research before coming.”

“You thought my mask was just for decoration like yours?”

The faint laugh sounded unbearably mocking to Skull.

But he had already lost the ability to resist, sneezing uncontrollably, tears and mucus streaming down his face.

…

In the living room, Zhuo Xiaoliang and Yue Yuxuan exchanged bewildered looks. They could not understand how a serious fight had suddenly turned into the sound of pots clanging and someone sneezing repeatedly.

The atmosphere abruptly lost all seriousness.

Meanwhile, because Fu Qing had scattered the powder while Skull was bent over in pain, most of it settled low to the ground. She remained completely unaffected, looking down at the back of his head as he sneezed.

She was calculating.

The earlier leg choke had proven that despite his “zombification,” Skull still possessed human weaknesses. Prolonged strangulation caused oxygen deprivation, so theoretically, strikes to vulnerable areas should still render him unconscious.

She just did not know whether zombification had made his skull brittle like a zombie’s.

She still had questions for him and did not want to accidentally kill him.

So she controlled her strength carefully, striking three times before finally knocking him unconscious.

Upstairs, hearing the commotion subside, Su Huaijin and the others guessed the fight was over. They dragged the completely compliant baseball cap man downstairs.

The moment they stepped out, they saw Skull lying on the ground, face covered in tears and mucus, three swollen bumps already forming on his head.

Fu Qing stood nearby, frowning as she stuffed a rag salvaged from the sink into his mouth to prevent him from biting anyone when he woke.

Baseball cap man: “…”

He had thought he himself was miserable, but seeing Skull made him realize someone could have it far worse.

Su Huaijin: “…”

What exactly had happened?

The principal beat someone so badly they cried and ran a nose? What kind of martial art was that?

Since she had been exposed early, she had assumed the opponent downstairs was terrifying. Seeing this scene, she nearly slipped and tumbled headfirst down the stairs.

Everyone stared in stunned silence.

Then, snapping back to reality, all five of them stood at attention and burst into applause.

“…As expected of the principal!”

₊˚.🎧📓✩