Ch 75: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

Dust exploded into the air as the collapsing walls buried the approaching zombies beneath rubble.

Stones of every size rained down like a storm. Even with the man shielding her, Fu Qing was still struck twice, her vision swimming with dizziness.

But the Zombie King’s condition could only be worse.

Its reaction to the earlier knee strike had already proven that it was unfamiliar with controlling a human body. The pain responses and physical reactions natural to humans were clearly foreign to it.

The violent blow to the back of its head left it reeling, its movements visibly slowing as its vision briefly failed. It could only rely on instinct to sense Fu Qing’s movements.

“Do you really think you can win?” it muttered.

“I don’t know,” Fu Qing replied coldly. “But I know you will die.”

It seemed to sigh. “This meeting was too short. Next time. Next time, alright? We must have a proper conversation…”

Fu Qing did not let it finish.

Crack!

Its cervical spine snapped. The man’s body lost all support, his head lolling weakly to one side, an almost helpless smile still lingering at the corner of his lips as it slumped against her shoulder. Translated on Hololo novels. Using the last of her strength, Fu Qing shoved it away in disgust.

Every breath tasted thick with blood. Just before slipping fully into unconsciousness, she heard voices in the distance.

“Principal!”

“…Over there!”

“We found her!”

Footsteps pounded closer.

“Someone help me support the principal! People on the southwest side, be careful. I heard a brute-type zombie roaring there earlier, the explosion didn’t kill it. Xue Ran, go assist Shen Qingqing—”

A calm voice issuing commands. Su Huaijin.

“The corridor at three o’clock hasn’t completely collapsed. A water pipe formed a triangular support space. There should still be two zombies inside. Be careful. How is the principal?”

Another voice providing information while trying to hide its trembling. Liang Yi.

Others said nothing at all, simply drawing their blades and cutting down the zombies closing in.

They lifted Fu Qing from the rubble. Translated on Hololo novels. One hand carefully brushed dust from her hair while another tore clothing into strips, quickly and efficiently bandaging her wound.

Without the principal standing behind them, without anyone left to catch them if they fell, the students were forced to grow. Now, instead, they struggled to become someone Fu Qing herself could rely on.

Whether she needed it or not, they wanted to help her.

Just as she had helped them.

“If you want to sleep, then sleep,” Song Rushuang said firmly. “We’ll get you out safely.”

For the first time in a long while, Fu Qing felt a strange sense of peace, as though the long road she had once walked alone now suddenly held companions beside her.

Exhaustion surged through her limbs. She stopped forcing herself to remain conscious and allowed the darkness to pull her under.

---

Fragments flashed rapidly before her eyes.

For a moment Fu Qing could not tell whether the simulation pod had advanced enough to create a dying person’s life-review within the dungeon, or whether the Zombie King had forcibly imported her memories from her previous life as well.

She saw memories she thought long forgotten.

Her brief university days, laughing and joking with roommates, walking to class together.
The chaos when the apocalypse first broke out, trapped in the dormitory encouraging neighboring students across balconies.
Kind strangers offering help in shelters.
The trusting gazes of teammates fighting beside her.
Late-night conversations around campfires, everyone dreaming of the day the apocalypse would end.

But more than anything, she saw death.

More vivid than memories of living together were the moments they died before her eyes. No matter how lively or beautiful they had once been, death had rendered most of them ugly in the end.

Scenes flickered like a long strip of film, composed of hundreds upon hundreds of deaths.

Smiling faces, gentle faces, fearless faces gradually faded, overwritten by blood and mortality.

Until the final scene.

She realized she was lying flat, vision dim from blood loss. Someone lifted her clothing; cold touched her abdomen. The sharp scent of alcohol filled the air.

Time passed. Sensation dulled. Someone beside her began working with steady focus.

Fu Qing opened her eyes and found herself in an unfamiliar, dust-covered room. Everything was coated in grime except the place beneath her body, which had been hastily cleaned.

Lu Yan sat beside her, head lowered, stitching her wound.

His needle moved quickly, as if racing against time, yet every motion was precise. Not a single tremor, not a moment of hesitation.

When he noticed she was awake, he reached over and covered her eyes with his warm palm.

“Don’t be afraid. It’ll be over soon,” he said softly.

Fu Qing noticed his pale face, the faint redness beneath his eyes, and his dry, cracked lips.

She opened her mouth to speak, but under the effects of anesthesia, consciousness slipped away again.

The scene shifted.

When the darkness finally lifted, Lu Yan was gone.

Someone else stood beside her, face unseen. From Fu Qing’s perspective she could only see their mouth moving, though no sound reached her ears.

Click.

In the silence came the unmistakable sound of a gun’s safety being released.

The person continued speaking. At the end, they raised the gun.

“…Goodbye,” the figure said softly, voice distorted beyond recognition.

Bang!

The gunshot tore through the air.

Fu Qing jolted awake.

When she sat up from the simulation pod and saw the bright, spotless classroom, Fu Qing felt momentarily disoriented.

Her mind was still filled with images of the apocalypse, collapsing buildings, blood covering the ground, and the black barrel of the gun that had appeared at the end.

…Were those truly her memories? Or had the malfunctioning simulation pod somehow grafted another scene onto her mind?

Otherwise, why did she have no recollection of it?

She was still dazed when several heads suddenly crowded into her field of vision, calling out “Principal, Principal” nonstop.

“Are you alright?”

“Thank goodness. Your simulation pod never opened, we thought something had happened…”

Song Rushuang and the others looked tense, visibly relaxing only after confirming she was unharmed. They began explaining all at once.

“Sorry, Principal. We had no idea what happened. All the zombies suddenly rushed toward your location at the same time. Even when we jumped right in front of them, we couldn’t stop them. It was like they’d collectively gone insane.”

“We didn’t have any other choice. Xiao Su suddenly suggested using the remaining explosives.”

“But we might’ve planted them too close… we didn’t expect the ceiling to collapse too.”

Liang Yi spoke with lingering fear.

Originally, they had only intended to collapse the outer corridor and walls to slow the zombies’ advance. Translated on Hololo novels. When a massive hole suddenly appeared in the ceiling and falling debris buried the entire room, Liang Yi had nearly lost his mind with panic.

What if the principal had still been alive and he had crushed her to death?

If anything had happened to her… he would have become Fangzhou’s eternal sinner.

If the others hadn’t restrained him after confirming she was safe, Liang Yi might have cried and tried to atone with his own life on the spot.

He still had not fully recovered, while the rest began arguing noisily among themselves.

“Whose terrible idea was it to bury all the remaining explosives? Even outdoors we didn’t use that much, and that was a sealed indoor space!”

“Hey, weren’t you the one who said it would be fine?!”

“I was panicking! Teacher Xu only taught us how to use black powder for traps, not demolition!”

“….”

Fu Qing felt a headache coming on from the noise.

After months together, these students had grown increasingly uninhibited around her, occasionally revealing their true personalities. Gone were the days when they barely dared to breathe in her presence.

She pressed her forehead and silently decided to have Xu Mingyue revise the training schedule later.

“This afternoon’s training is canceled. Go back and rest,” Fu Qing said.

The noisy crowd fell instantly silent.

Hearing the faint impatience in her tone oddly reassured them.

The accident had frightened them badly, but the principal seemed mostly unaffected, just as calm as usual.

Instead, after witnessing that memory, they found themselves feeling a quiet sadness on her behalf.

“Are you really okay?” Song Rushuang finally asked carefully after hesitating for a long time.

Fu Qing gave a brief “Mm.” Seeing she had no intention of elaborating, the students exchanged glances and obediently left the room.

Once the last student exited, Fu Qing flipped lightly out of the simulation pod, landing smoothly. She stretched her limbs, confirming that the injuries from the garbled dungeon had not carried over into reality.

Still, this incident had truly been dangerous.

From the moment she regained consciousness, the system in her mind had been frantically calling for its host. Only after Fu Qing impatiently told it to be quiet did it finally fall silent, though its quietness carried a pitiful air, like an abandoned stray dog.

After confirming her physical condition, she finally had the patience to deal with it.

Her mood was not good. Frowning, she asked, “What exactly just happened?”

The system sounded on the verge of tears.

【With the apocalypse approaching, I’ve been distracted monitoring the movements of the believers across the world. I was careless for a moment…】

Fu Qing finished the sentence for it. “Careless for a moment, and you almost let the enemy breach headquarters.”

【……】

It hesitated before admitting, 【I’m sorry, Host. My abilities haven’t fully recovered yet, so vulnerabilities remain. The Zombie King’s true body cannot enter the campus, but I didn’t expect it to exploit the simulation pod’s internal network and invade through consciousness.】

The explanation matched Fu Qing’s own deductions.

Because the elite class used the simulation pods so frequently, and to prevent other students from interrupting training, she had purchased several pods and placed them in a separate room, only opening access to the rest of the campus when the elite class was not using them.

Now that Song Rushuang and the others had left, the room was empty. Leaning against the outer shell of a pod, Fu Qing prepared to have a proper conversation with the system.

“Can you see what happened inside the dungeon now?”

Every completed dungeon in the simulation pod left a record, and since the pod itself was a system item, it could normally monitor everything that occurred within.

Although the Zombie King had severed the system’s connection during the intrusion, its consciousness had now withdrawn and the pod had returned to normal operation. The system should be able to review the logs again.

As for how the garbled dungeon had ultimately been cleared—

Ordinary dungeon objectives generally fell into three categories: rescue the target, defeat the boss, or escape a designated location.

Additional side objectives might appear along the way, but they rarely strayed beyond those three frameworks.

For example, escaping a location while eliminating zombies encountered along the route.

Or rescuing a target and then escorting them safely out.

For example, like in Xiao Juan’s dungeon, where the team had to recover the kidnapped target while also reclaiming the supplies taken along with her.

After analyzing the situation, Su Huaijin and the others unanimously concluded that the garbled dungeon’s objectives likely followed the same structure: rescue Fu Qing, eliminate the traitor, and escape the facility.

Events later proved that their experience-based judgment had been correct.

Once they escorted Fu Qing out of the factory grounds, the dungeon began to collapse automatically. Translated on Hololo novels. A completion notification soon appeared before their eyes, and everyone safely exited the simulation pods one after another.

Of course, the more crucial reason was that the Zombie King, the true instigator, was forced to withdraw its consciousness after its host body died. Only then did the garbled dungeon revert to the normal operational pattern of an ordinary instance.

The system had already reviewed Fu Qing’s footage inside the dungeon. Listening to her conversation with the Zombie King made cold sweat almost form.

When had the host figured out so much?

As a highly intelligent higher-dimensional construct, the system had always carried an unconscious arrogance toward the human it was bound to.

Much like how the Zombie King viewed humanity as expendable insects, though unlike it, the system stood on what it considered the side of justice.

Fu Qing was the first person who made it change that mindset.

It put away its condescension and began treating her cautiously, as one would an equal.

【I…】 the system hesitated, still searching for words.

“I’ve already guessed part of it, but I need confirmation from you. The next time we face the believers, I can’t let my students remain ignorant,” Fu Qing said. “Cooperation requires honesty. If you don’t explain things clearly, I can’t continue working with you.”

Fu Qing suspected that some rule or restriction prevented the system from proactively revealing information about the structure of the world.

That was why it occasionally offered hints or rewards when she discovered things on her own, yet most of the time responded with silence or minimal information when directly questioned.

A higher-dimensional constraint, perhaps something a small human dragged along by fate was never meant to know.

But she intended to know anyway.

Her final sentence made the system anxious, and it blurted instinctively:

【If you abandon the mission, you will automatically be sent back to the moment before your death—】

But words that once could threaten Fu Qing no longer worked.

After nearly a year together, she had realized the system’s urgency to correct the world’s ending was no less than humanity’s own desire to survive.

Because, as a system, that was the entirety of its purpose.

Its conflict with the Zombie King had already spanned two lifetimes. Translated on Hololo novels. Unless one side was completely destroyed and the world line fixed toward a definitive conclusion, the struggle would continue indefinitely.

Identify a weakness. Exploit the weakness. Threaten openly.

Fu Qing was extremely familiar with this process.

“The year’s almost up. The good days are ending,” she said lazily. “Instead of staying here to fight the Zombie King and its endless followers, it might be easier to go back and get bitten to death.”

She paused, then added quietly, “If I leave… finding someone more suitable than me probably won’t be easy, right?”

Her tone carried shameless confidence, almost roguish in its brazenness.

The system was stunned by its host’s audacious self-assurance.

After struggling internally for a long moment, it finally gave in with a defeated sigh.

【That’s correct. You can think of the Zombie King as an existence similar to me. We are higher-dimensional constructs created according to the needs of this world’s development.】

【For example, when life in a small world reaches its end, the world consciousness must find a reasonable method to bring it to a close. Don’t make that expression. The world consciousness is intangible. It has no emotions, no physical form, and cannot be opposed.】

【To it, an ending is also a rebirth. Only when what has decayed returns to dust can new life gain soil in which to grow. Countless small worlds cycle endlessly through death and renewal. This is simply how existence operates. There is neither right nor wrong.】

Whether it was right or wrong was for the lives deprived of a future to judge.

Fu Qing offered no comment. Her perspective and the system’s were fundamentally different.

【The “zombie virus” is the method created by the world consciousness to end this small world in a rational way,】 the system continued. 【That is why its appearance is fixed. It cannot be prevented or advanced. Neither I nor the Zombie King has the authority to alter it.】

【In other worlds, that method might be a meteor impact, melting glaciers releasing ancient pathogens, alien invasion, or a catastrophic flood. In fact, similar disasters have already occurred in your world’s past. Previous species perished so that humanity could arise. In a sense, you are also beneficiaries.】

The explanation did not make Fu Qing any more willing to accept death.

So she simply listened in silence.

【The Zombie King is the executor of this catastrophe. It supervises and facilitates the process.】 The system paused. 【As for me… I am its opposite.】

Fu Qing finally spoke. “You were created to oppose the world consciousness?”

She sounded doubtful. The system did not seem bold enough for such a role.

【No. I am also a creation of the world consciousness,】 the system replied. 【It is fair. It is willing to grant struggling life one chance to resist. That is why I exist.】

【When everything moves toward inevitable destruction, if someone still refuses to submit, refuses to accept death quietly, and continues searching for even the faintest possibility of resistance—】

【That is when I descend into the world.】

₊˚.🎧📓✩

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