Ch 53: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

Song Rushuang stared at the forum. When she reached the final sentence, her steps suddenly halted.

She stood at the dormitory entrance as people continuously passed by around her, yet everyone was staring at their wrist devices, too absorbed to even watch where they were going.

She had been following the thread closely, so she read the post almost the moment it was published.

Quite a few people nearby seemed to be reading at the same pace. When she stopped walking, several sharp intakes of breath sounded around her at the same time.

“…A parallel world?”

“Saving our world…”

“Humanity in that world has already gone extinct…”

Whispers spread, all carrying the same mixture of shock and heartache.

Song Rushuang suddenly recalled the principal’s words at the opening ceremony:

“2035 will become the final year in humanity’s long history.”

“But you have a chance to change all of this.”

—You.

She had once believed those words were simply meant to encourage students to work hard and change humanity’s fate through their own efforts.

But now she realized there had been another meaning.

To change the ending that belonged to “you.”

As for the principal’s own world, its ending had already fallen.

Human history had concluded in 2035. And according to the forum’s speculation, Teacher Lu arrived at Fangzhou only after his death, which meant the principal herself very likely…

Back at the start of the semester, they had once speculated about the principal’s motives.

Thinking of this, Song Rushuang felt her chest tighten all the way up to her throat. Midway toward the stairwell, she abruptly changed direction and headed back toward the dormitory exit.

Behind her, the elevator chimed open.

“Xiao Shuang!”

She turned. It was Sun Wei.

Standing beside her were Su Huaijin and freckled Tian Tian, one on each side. All three looked hurried, the latter two nearly supporting the mobility-impaired Sun Wei as they moved.

“Where are you going?” Sun Wei asked.

Song Rushuang froze.

Where…

Her instinct just now had been to head toward the administrative building, but being called out made her realize how impulsive she was acting.

Was she really going to find the principal and ask about all of this?

She was not even close to the principal. Wouldn’t that be far too abrupt?

While she hesitated, Sun Wei spoke first.

“We’re going to find the principal. Want to come with us?”

The three looked anxious, staring at her intently after asking, waiting for her answer. Song Rushuang blinked in surprise.

She pressed her lips together, then nodded firmly. “I’m going too.”

*

When Song Rushuang and the others knocked on the principal’s office door, Fu Qing was browsing the student forum.

From the day she drew Lu Yan from the recruitment card pool, she had already anticipated that the students would eventually discover the secret of “rebirth.”

In fact, the revelation had come later than she expected.

Midterms must have taken up too much of the students’ attention. It had taken nearly a full week after classes began for them to notice that Teacher Lu and the “Lu Yan” in the instances were the same person. Their observational skills were honestly worrying.

So when Song Rushuang and the others heard “Come in” and pushed open the door, they were greeted by the sight of the principal lounging casually with crossed legs, leisurely scrolling through the forum.

Song Rushuang’s hand paused on the doorknob.

Fu Qing looked up. “Is something wrong?”

Song Rushuang jerked as if burned and hurriedly released the handle. Before coming, her mind had felt like an overloaded CPU, filled with countless things she wanted to say and emotions she could not contain. Yet the moment their eyes met, none of the words would come out.

“Um…” she stammered.

Sun Wei could not stand her hesitation and leaned forward from behind. “Principal, is what they’re saying on the forum true?”

She faltered slightly. “You… you really came back from the apocalypse?” …

Fu Qing glanced at the breathless girls.

They must have run all the way here. Their breathing had not even settled, yet their eyes never left her, filled with helplessness and regret.

The freckled girl from the publicity team, Tian Tian, nervously looked her up and down, as though searching for signs of injury while simultaneously afraid to find any. She covered part of her face, peeking through her fingers, unable to hide her concern.

They wanted to ask how she had come to this world, whether she had been hurt, whether her wounds had healed, yet feared saying the wrong thing.

They wanted to promise they would work hard, yet felt such promises were too light.

So everything showed plainly on their faces.

All four stared at her expectantly.

Fu Qing was worst at handling looks like that. It made her feel like the head of some stray animal rescue organization. She waved a hand, gesturing for them to sit wherever they liked, and before they had even settled down, she said casually,

“It’s true.”

Su Huaijin stumbled mid-step toward the sofa. Sun Wei nearly fell flat onto the floor with a loud thump.

All four stared at her in stunned disbelief.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Fu Qing rested her elbow on the desk, propping her chin in her hand. “I thought the reasoning was pretty simple.”

“If it weren’t from personal experience, who could state such an exact timeline?”

Su Huaijin’s mind worked quickly, and she blurted out, “But you even know when the last human died. That’s impossible!”

Song Rushuang immediately realized this was indeed a paradox.

If the apocalypse had truly been experienced firsthand by the principal, then she should have had no way of knowing the exact moment humanity went extinct.

The earlier theory that the principal was a government agent, and that the apocalypse prediction was merely intelligence analysis, had gained support precisely because of this contradiction.

In the students’ understanding, when Fu Qing said “the last human died five years after the virus outbreak,” it was only a general statement, not literal proof that she had personally witnessed the final death.

But the certainty in the principal’s tone now left them confused.

After Su Huaijin spoke, Fuqing’s expression turned slightly strange.

A sudden, absurd thought rose in Su Huaijin’s mind. “You… don’t tell me… were you the last person alive?”

The other three felt as though lightning had struck them.

The freckled girl’s mouth fell open as she let out a weak, “Ah?”

Fu Qing’s expression looked very much like confirmation.

Su Huaijin stammered, “But that still doesn’t make sense… Even if you lived to the end, you wouldn’t know whether other humans were still alive somewhere else on Earth.”

Fu Qing tapped her cheek lightly with her index finger. “You could consider that… additional information that came with rebirth.”

Rebirth.

The word landed heavily, and the four girls’ moods instantly grew heavy.

On the way here, each of them had secretly hoped the principal would deny the forum’s speculation. They wanted her to say she had never actually experienced the apocalypse, that the “Lu Yan” in the simulation chamber was merely a virtual character modeled after a real person.

That as long as everyone worked together, they could change the predicted future and prevent all the imagined tragedies.

Not… this.

Not learning that the principal and teachers carried the weight of an already determined ending while helping them change their fate.

Even if they succeeded, the world the principal and teachers came from would never return to what it once was…

Bitterness welled up in Song Rushuang’s chest.

The air grew still. The four sat side by side on the sofa, hands unconsciously resting neatly on their knees, each expression more sorrowful than the last.

After a long silence, Fuqing spoke faintly, breaking it.

“With those expressions, you’re making me feel like I died again.”

The four: “……”

Fu Qing watched them for a moment, satisfied. “Not bad. I’ve never seen what people look like mourning me before.”

The four: “…………”

Forget the fact that no one could ever witness their own mourning scene. Even if that were possible, when the principal died, the only things left to mourn her would have been zombies!

They nearly blurted this out, hastily covering their mouths at the last second.

That was close.

The heavy atmosphere shattered into disarray. The girls exchanged glances, each seeing determination reflected in the others’ eyes.

They would not let this world be destroyed.

If they succeeded, then when everything ended, the principal and teachers could begin new lives in a new world.

The thought eased their hearts somewhat. Only then did Song Rushuang remember the detail she had temporarily overlooked.

—the principal had survived until the very end.

Human extinction was tragic, but… the principal was incredible.

Realizing that someone this formidable was personally teaching them made Song Rushuang want to jump in place and scream with excitement. But with the principal right in front of her, she could only clench her fist quietly, restraining herself with great effort.

Still shaken, Su Huaijin instinctively began analyzing again to calm herself.

“Wait. If the instances in the simulation combat chamber are all real events, or at least partially real, then it’s too coincidental that we would just happen to encounter teachers from our own school inside them. Unless the real instances weren’t randomly generated, but uploaded by someone.”

She muttered to herself as she reasoned.

“The Xiao Juan instance existed before Teacher Lu arrived at the school, which means it wasn’t uploaded by him personally, but by someone else at the school…”

Fu Qing sucked in a sharp breath and interrupted her before she could continue. “Hold on.”

This girl was far too smart. If she kept going, the entire truth would be uncovered.

Fu Qing strongly suspected that the forum account posting long analytical essays every time was actually Su Huaijin’s alternate account.

Su Huaijin looked at the principal innocently.

They held each other’s gaze for two seconds before Fu Qing’s eyes shifted toward one side of the desk.

Throughout the conversation, a system panel had been floating there, invisible to the students. The pale green student forum interface continued refreshing nonstop.

It was not only Su Huaijin sitting before her. Others on the forum had already guessed that the blurred-out protagonist in the Xiao Juan instance might actually be the principal herself.

The reasons were obvious: “young,” “reliable,” “acquainted with Lu Yan.” These descriptions made it difficult not to think of Fu Qing.

The simulation chamber instances they had treated as games were very likely real experiences lived by the principal and teachers.

And everything the principal had told them, from the opening ceremony until now, had been true.

She had never lied. There had never been any conspiracy. From beginning to end, she had been completely open with them. It was the students who had hesitated to fully trust her, repeatedly doubting her instead.

Their emotions surged violently.

Shock, guilt, sorrow…

All the feelings accumulated over time erupted at once, turning into deep self-reproach.

A notification popped up in the corner of the system panel:

[Student Favorability rapidly increasing detected!]

[Student Favorability has exceeded 40%]

[Reward obtained: 1000 Teaching Points]

[42%… 46%… 50%…]

Fu Qing’s favorability rating had been hovering around 39% recently. Today, it finally broke past that threshold.

What she had not expected was that even after passing 40% and receiving the reward, the number continued rising rapidly.

Only after surpassing 50% did the growth finally begin to slow.

Watching the digits still ticking upward past the decimal point, Fu Qing finally made a decision.

The students had just given her a thousand points. Perhaps she should give them something in return.

[Facility Upgrade]

[Add “Replay Function” to all Simulation Combat Chambers?]

[Cost: 200 Teaching Points]

Fu Qing moved her finger and pressed confirm.

Hadn’t the students been complaining that the instances were too difficult, that they didn’t know how to clear them?

Perfect timing.

Now that the secret of rebirth had been exposed and she had gained additional teaching points, she could take this opportunity to provide them with a model answer.

₊˚.🎧📓✩

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