Ch 57: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

Lu Dongyu had no time to think about why the principal, who before the apocalypse had been nothing more than an ordinary college student, was so skilled at fighting. Perhaps this was what people called natural talent.

She focused on the zombie assigned to her, spending some effort before finally killing it.

Lu Dongyu let out a heavy breath of relief. At least she had taken down one. She had not disgraced the school, at least.

“Prin—” she lifted her head excitedly.

Fu Qing turned just in time to see her new partner’s eager, praise-seeking expression, eyes bright with anticipation. For some reason, it reminded her of the big yellow dog that lingered downstairs by the dormitory.

It felt as though this suddenly appeared partner carried an inexplicable sense of dependence toward her.

In just one month of the apocalypse, Fu Qing had already witnessed enough of humanity’s complexity and ugliness to instinctively remain guarded around strangers. Yet for reasons she could not explain, she sensed no hostility at all from Lu Dongyu. Instead, she even felt a faint warmth.

The kind that made one want to pat her on the head.

Even though they had only just met.

Fu Qing felt slightly puzzled.

Lu Dongyu also realized her attempt to seek praise had been far too obvious. She gave an awkward, sheepish laugh and, trying to change the subject, looked down at the man beneath her.

The zombie she had killed was the one closest to the dead man. She now found herself crouched beside the corpse, and the moment she lowered her gaze, she saw several fresh, bloody holes across his body.

They were deep enough to expose bone, their edges marked by irregular bite patterns.

Marks left by being torn apart and devoured alive by “beasts.”

Lu Dongyu fell silent.

Judging by how quickly bodies decomposed in summer, the man had died less than twelve hours ago. Yet because the plastic wrap had protected vital areas like his neck, all his wounds were located in nonlethal places.

Those desperate attempts at self-protection had backfired instead, forcing him to endure a long, agonizing death.

An uncontrollable wave of sympathy rose in Lu Dongyu’s chest.

Anyone daring to come to the central hospital at a time like this, and even managing to bypass the countless zombies in the courtyard, must have possessed both courage and judgment. Aside from the zombie bite wounds, he bore no other injuries. Most likely, he had not risked coming here for himself.

Before setting out, had he imagined this journey would be one without return?

And the person he had risked his life to find medicine for, did they know the one they waited for would never come back?

The more Lu Dongyu thought about it, the heavier her heart became. Then another voice suddenly broke the silence.

“That person… shouldn’t be left like this.”

Before Lu Dongyu could react, she saw Fu Qing gesture toward the corpse on the ground and make a throat-cutting motion.

“But…” Still feeling sympathy, Lu Dongyu hesitated, unable to accept striking a corpse. “He’s already dead.”

As if understanding her thoughts, Fu Qing frowned and considered her words for two seconds, about to explain further when both of them heard an ominous sound beneath Lu Dongyu.

Sssrrrip—

The faint rustling of plastic wrap rubbing together.

Lu Dongyu: “??”

She sucked in a sharp breath.

“Move!”

At the same instant Fu Qing shouted, Lu Dongyu rolled away in a clumsy scramble. Out of the corner of her eye, the man, like an ancient mummy, tore through the plastic wrap with hoarse growls and clawed his way up from the ground.

The force of his movement snapped the tightly wound plastic apart almost instantly.

He had mutated… why now of all times?!

The karma arrived faster than punishment itself.

Lu Dongyu wished she could rewind three seconds and pry open her own skull to see what nonsense had been inside her head.

This zombie moved incredibly fast. She had not dodged in time. Just as she scrambled away on hands and feet, she felt a heavy weight clamp onto her right leg.

The zombie had grabbed her thigh.

Lu Dongyu could practically see the words game over appearing before her eyes.

She gritted her teeth and kicked backward several times but could not shake it loose. During the struggle, the pant leg tucked tightly into her boot slid upward, and she nearly felt the chill of air against her exposed skin.

She immediately stopped thrashing, twisting her body instead and stabbing downward with the fruit knife in her hand.

Perhaps because it had already been feeding alongside five other zombies, the virus concentration in this one seemed unusually high. It shook its head like a rabid dog, violently enough that a living person’s brain might have been shaken loose—

Finally, with a clang, the fruit knife jammed firmly into a gap between the zombie’s bones.

Lu Dongyu yanked hard, but it would not budge. Instead, the zombie’s thrashing tore the weapon from her grip.

Her weapon was gone. Cold dread flooded her chest.

“Principal, run! I’m sorry—!”

she cried miserably.

A sharp gust of wind suddenly sliced past her ear. A “long spear” whistled past her cheek and, with a loud metallic strike, plunged straight into the zombie’s soft eye socket.

The spearhead rang sharply. The tremendous force drove the zombie backward. As it died, its grip loosened, and the hands clutching Lu Dongyu went slack.

The weight on her leg vanished instantly.

Lu Dongyu nearly burst into tears from relief.

Fu Qing’s posture remained frozen in the moment after throwing the spear. Only when she noticed the zombie had died did she finally let out a breath of relief.

She was not yet completely confident in her strength or accuracy, but if she had not taken the risk just now, it would have been too late.

“Th-thank you.” Lu Dongyu wiped the cold sweat from her forehead. When she turned back for a closer look, she realized that what she had mistaken for a spear was actually a dismantled IV stand.

Its rounded tip had no sharp edge at all. Fu Qing had relied purely on brute force to drive it through the air and into the zombie’s eye socket.

Both the precision and the strength were astonishing.

Lu Dongyu collapsed weakly onto the ground, too shocked to close her mouth. After a long moment, she climbed to her feet, drenched in sweat. “I…”

The reversal had come too quickly. From her ears down to her neck, she flushed bright red, half from panic, half from embarrassment.

“After being attacked by zombies, he didn’t die immediately. Too much virus accumulated in his body. Before death, the virus had already begun altering him, but because of the incubation period, he neither died nor immediately turned into a zombie. He entered a state similar to suspended death.”

Ignoring her awkwardness, Fu Qing walked directly to the corpse, crouched down, and pulled the IV stand free as she explained, “He only lost breathing and body temperature, waiting for the incubation period to fully end before mutating.”

“You don’t need to blame yourself. I only suspected this because I happened to encounter a similar case once. I wasn’t certain either.”

Still half-crouched, Fu Qing lowered her gaze toward the dead man.

After the IV stand was removed, his face looked unbearably tragic. One eye had been completely destroyed, while the other remained wide open, filled with despair and unwillingness.

It was impossible to tell whether that gaze held fear of death or regret at failing to bring life-saving medicine back.

Fu Qing sighed softly and covered his intact eye with her palm. Once his eyes were closed, a faint trace of peace finally appeared on his face.

Lu Dongyu watched silently.

The sharp killing intent Fu Qing displayed toward zombies was real, and so was the solemn respect she showed toward the dead. The two existed together in a strange balance.

It seemed contradictory, yet perhaps this was the only way to survive in the apocalypse.

Lu Dongyu changed her earlier thoughts.

Someone who could kill zombies with such practiced ease and possessed such deep understanding of the virus must have long since grasped the reality of the apocalypse.

Every place Fu Qing had walked was littered with corpses. She knew that millions were dying every day. The kindness she had shown upon meeting Lu Dongyu was probably not born of hope, but simple happiness at encountering another living stranger in a ruined world.

…Silently, Lu Dongyu pulled her fruit knife free. As expected, the blade edge had curled and dulled.

Without a weapon, the rest of the journey would be difficult.

At that moment, Fu Qing turned her own fruit knife around and offered it to her, handle first. “Take it.”

Lu Dongyu hesitated. “Then what about you?”

“I can find another weapon.” Fu Qing paused, then added reassuringly, “As long as nothing happens to you, we’ll get out safely.”

Lu Dongyu: “……”

Sorry for being such dead weight.

Her heavy mood lightened slightly. She sighed and slowly followed behind the principal.

“Oh, right.”

After taking a few steps, Fu Qing turned back. “What did you call me just now?”

Lu Dongyu: “…!!”

*

Covered in sweat, Lu Dongyu somehow managed to brush off the accidental “principal” that had slipped out during the crisis.

Perhaps all her bad luck had already been spent earlier, because the rest of the journey went smoothly. They obtained the required medicine without much trouble.

Following the system’s checklist exactly, Lu Dongyu gathered every item needed, not one more or less, filling a backpack perfectly. She weighed it in her hands, confirmed it would not hinder movement, and turned to check on Fu Qing’s progress.

The moment she looked over, she saw the small principal dumping an entire shelf of antibiotics into a huge sack she had somehow found.

The little principal swept through supplies with overwhelming momentum, a bulging backpack already slung over her shoulders, looking less like someone scavenging during the apocalypse and more like someone confidently restocking at a wholesale store.

Lu Dongyu stared, dumbfounded.

Outside in the corridor, countless zombies still shuffled about. Could the principal really leave safely carrying this much medicine?

Reality proved, once again, that she had underestimated Fu Qing.

As they prepared to leave the pharmacy, Fu Qing suddenly asked, seemingly out of nowhere, “Do you trust me?”

Without hesitation, Lu Dongyu answered firmly, “Of course!”

Only afterward did she remember to ask, “What are you planning to do?”

Fu Qing looked at her without blinking, a faint smile appearing in her eyes.

She adjusted the weight of the sack on her shoulder. “We collected more medicine than planned. The original route won’t work. We’d get chased. I want to take another way.”

Lu Dongyu nodded rapidly like a pecking chicken. “Mm-hmm, no problem.”

Fifteen minutes later, the two of them were lying atop a ventilation duct on the ceiling of the underground parking garage.

They had descended through the fire escape into the garage, then climbed along the wall-mounted fire pipes up onto the ductwork. While climbing, Lu Dongyu barely understood what was happening. Fu Qing, burdened with bags and packs, had already stepped onto the bolts connecting the ducts and scrambled up in just a few movements, leaving Lu Dongyu struggling awkwardly behind, clinging to the nearly foothold-less pipe with her backside sticking out as she wriggled upward.

Lu Dongyu seriously suspected the principal had been a monkey in a previous life. Not just any monkey, but a monkey king, otherwise she could not possibly be this agile.

By the time she finally crawled onto the duct, panting heavily, Fu Qing had already been observing from above for quite a while. Once Lu Dongyu caught up, she pointed in a direction.

“Go there. We’ll find a car.”

“How do you know there’s a car there? We don’t even have keys—” Lu Dongyu’s words abruptly stopped.

Fu Qing opened her palm downward, fingers spread. A keyring hung from her hand, car keys and colorful plush charms dangling and swaying cheerfully.

Lu Dongyu: “Where did that come from?!”

“From the third zombie we killed. I thought it might be useful, so I kept it,” Fu Qing said casually. “She was wearing a white coat. A hospital doctor. Her car should be in the staff parking area.”

“And since the keychain is covered in merchandise from a certain Japanese anime, she probably liked that IP a lot. The interior decorations would likely match… so after looking around a bit, I found it.”

After finishing her deduction and locking onto the target, Fu Qing indicated the direction again. Lu Dongyu followed her gaze and instantly fell silent.

It was far more than matching interior decorations. At the end of her line of sight stood a car completely covered in Pikachu decals, a dazzling golden itasha.

Amid a parking lot dominated by black, white, and gray vehicles, it was impossibly conspicuous.

“…This luck is unreal.” Lu Dongyu felt defeated, once again realizing the difference between people.

The two climbed onto the roof of the decorated car. Making sure no zombies were nearby, Fu Qing secured a rope, and they slid down one after the other.

Carrying the huge sack on her back like a gift-bearing Santa Claus, Fu Qing’s movements remained astonishingly light. Her boots landed soundlessly on the car roof. She pressed the key fob.

The next second—

A deep, magnetic male voice echoed through the entire garage:

“Welcome back, baby~”

Fu Qing: “?”

Lu Dongyu: “???”

Every zombie in the garage turned toward the sound.

Lu Dongyu’s hair stood on end.

Driving an itasha to work was already bold enough, but what level of social fearlessness did someone need to change the unlock sound to something like this?!

Weren’t they afraid of rush hour crowds?!

Fortunately, zombies could not understand human language. Otherwise, the ones crawling awkwardly across the floor from sheer embarrassment would have been the two of them.

They dove into the car at unprecedented speed. Before Lu Dongyu could even fasten her seatbelt, Fu Qing slammed the accelerator, and the Pikachu-covered car shot out of its parking space.

Several staggering zombies ahead were sent flying without her even blinking.

After the outbreak, the garage had fallen into chaos. Near the exit, several cars had crashed into one another, forming a tangled blockade that left only a narrow passage.

Lu Dongyu estimated at a glance that there was absolutely not enough space for their car to pass.

Behind them surged a swarm of zombies. Ahead stood the stalled vehicles. Despair nearly swallowed her whole.

Beside her, Fu Qing gripped the steering wheel tightly and pressed down hard. The engine roared, the entire car trembling as speed climbed without restraint. Tires screeched as they slid sideways, and she forcibly rammed aside the rear end of a car blocking the passage!

—Bang!

At that moment, every zombie in the courtyard seemed to sense something, turning blankly toward the direction of the thunderous noise.

Something yellow burst outward, whipped its tail in a sharp turn, and vanished from their sight in an instant.

The zombies blinked slowly. Their dull minds failed to process what had happened before the target disappeared. After a moment of confusion, they simply turned their heads back again and resumed shuffling forward on instinct.

The glowing sunset poured through the windshield, illuminating Lu Dongyu’s numb expression.

【Detected departure from mission area.】

【Scanning…】

【“Instance 061” Cleared!】

【Clear Time: 27min08s】

【Overall Rating: S (Nearly perfect performance!)】

【Current Instance Rank: 1】

【Overall Rating Rank: 37】

Lu Dongyu: “……”

The instance that had blocked her countless times… cleared in a single attempt?

And the rating was… S?!

Instance ratings were calculated individually for each player. Even when completing a dungeon as a team, each person received a separate evaluation based on their performance. However, since ratings were also affected by mission completion and clear time, strong overall team performance could still grant high scores to individuals whose personal performance had not been especially outstanding.

Lu Dongyu asked herself honestly: throughout the entire instance, the only real contribution she had made was killing one of the five zombies in the storage room.

The rest of the time, she had merely been a well-behaved little accessory trailing behind a powerhouse.

With performance this poor, she had still received an S rating, broken the instance record, and even climbed to 37th place on the overall leaderboard among all players’ records.

So just how absurdly overpowered was the principal as a teammate?

This was not some “companion” feature at all. It was basically providing a walking, human-shaped cheat.

The brief glimpses of the principal’s strength she had seen before were nothing compared to accompanying her through the entire run and witnessing every action firsthand from a third-person perspective. To Lu Dongyu, it felt as though some of Fu Qing’s decisions were things she herself might have thought of, yet she could never execute them with such efficiency.

It was as if everything had already been calculated in advance inside her mind. Every avoidable risk had been eliminated beforehand, and then, relying on physical ability and reflexes, she swiftly resolved whatever remained. The result was an effortless crushing of a high-difficulty instance.

Back when no one could view the anonymous player’s clear recordings, the forums had gone wild imagining and simulating her methods.

Now, however, Lu Dongyu began to doubt.

Even if people learned the principal’s strategy, they still would not be able to replicate it, much less carry it out in reality.

The gap was despairing, yet undeniable.

The difference between them and the principal was simply that vast.

…

With the instance complete, Lu Dongyu could leave at any time.

But she found herself reluctant.

Including the time she had spent browsing records at the beginning, nearly an hour had passed. If she left now, the next time she would see the little principal would be a week later.

She hesitated and stalled while the car slowly pulled over at the roadside.

Looking outside, she realized Fu Qing had driven in a loop to shake off all pursuing zombies, then unexpectedly returned to the front entrance of the city center hospital and parked in an inconspicuous corner.

Confused, Lu Dongyu watched as Fu Qing stepped out carrying the bags.

She found a plastic bag, took out half of the medicine, placed it inside, and then openly hung it on the hospital’s iron fence.

Anyone arriving at the hospital entrance would notice the bag filled with medicine immediately.

In the apocalypse, that was more valuable than gold.

Startled, Lu Dongyu asked, “What are you doing?”

“That man only came to the hospital within the last couple of days. If he never went back and had companions, they’ll probably come looking for him. They might still be nearby,” Fu Qing said as she got back into the car.

Hopefully, they would see the medicine and take it.

Anyone willing to risk their life entering the hell-difficulty city center hospital for medicine must have been truly desperate.

She could not save him, but at least she could try to save the person he had wanted to save.

At last, Lu Dongyu understood why the principal had suddenly risked taking twice as much medicine and even changed their escape route.

The plastic bag hung high on the railing, rustling softly in the wind. After a moment of distraction, Lu Dongyu saw Fu Qing close her backpack again and carefully sling it over her shoulders.

“I have two friends who were injured. I was worrying about where to find medicine. If you hadn’t been here today, I probably would’ve tried sneaking into the hospital myself. I might’ve ended up just like him.”

Only then did Fu Qing’s tense posture finally relax. Her eyes curved as she smiled. “Thanks.”

The man who died in the hospital seemed, in some unseen way, to have shown her another possible outcome of this gamble.

Fu Qing felt genuine gratitude toward this suddenly appeared partner.

Lu Dongyu’s throat tightened. “You don’t need to thank me.”

Because in another possibility, you still would have done perfectly fine without me.

You would have entered the hospital alone and brought out all the medicine anyway.

Otherwise, this instance would never have existed.

Fu Qing did not understand her unspoken meaning. She looked down at her palm, where deep-blue streams of data flickered briefly and began to destabilize.

The 【Companion】 function was ending.

With the system present, Fu Qing made no comment about the strange experience. She simply patted Lu Dongyu on the shoulder. “Do your best to stay alive. Maybe we’ll meet again someday.”

With that, she slung her backpack over her shoulder and strode away.

Only after her figure disappeared around the street corner did Lu Dongyu turn to look at the Pikachu-covered car parked by the roadside.

The principal had left her this nearly full tank of fuel along with the keys.

Whether intentional or not, perhaps afraid Lu Dongyu would refuse if she noticed, Fu Qing had not even mentioned it before leaving, slipping away without a word.

Lu Dongyu let out a soft sigh, pressed the button to exit the instance, and murmured to herself,

“We will definitely meet again.”

Even if it would be far, far in the future.

₊˚.🎧📓✩

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