Ch 116: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

On the third day of the apocalypse, Fangzhou.

Outside, water and electricity rationing had already begun, but those living on campus were not greatly affected.

The largest share of agricultural water relied mainly on the river bordering the plains, which eased a significant portion of the burden. Domestic water, meanwhile, depended primarily on the water treatment system Fu Qing had installed long ago.

The system’s water treatment facilities not only recycled wastewater but also included a rainwater collection and filtration system as supplementary supply.

Originally, as long as everyone conserved a little, this was already enough for the shelter’s residents. But now the outside world was nearly cut off from water entirely. With summer passing and winter only a few months away, rainfall would inevitably become even scarcer, while the shelter’s population would steadily increase. Fu Qing could not help but worry.

To prepare for trouble before it arrived, she wanted to drill another well.

Though she called it drilling a well, providing for the daily needs of several thousand people in the shelter would clearly require far more than a single well.

Fortunately, the system marketplace sold a complete groundwater extraction package that included the well itself, pumping equipment, and supporting facilities.

Since Fangzhou lay close to a river, its groundwater resources were abundant. Once the well was completed, water usage on campus would no longer be a concern.

Of course, such a convenient facility came with an equally impressive price.

【Groundwater Extraction System】500 Teaching Points

【Currently Held: 216 Teaching Points】

Fu Qing could only sigh as she looked at it.

Even worse, Zhao Yunxiao, who was in the capital, had 24 teaching points forcibly deducted every day.

The balance left in her account was not even enough for him to stay another week.

If this continued, then someday soon, while everyone in the capital laboratory was deep in heated discussion, someone sitting quietly to the side might suddenly vanish into thin air and refresh back onto campus…

That would surely frighten the elderly professors half to death.

Fu Qing wanted to send Zhao Yunxiao a message reminding him to be careful, but she truly did not know how to bring it up.

What was she supposed to say? That the family was so poor they could no longer afford to keep him working away from home?

Too embarrassing.

Teaching points earned no interest sitting in the account, while purchased items generated value immediately. So unless she was saving for particularly expensive equipment or facilities, Fu Qing almost always spent everything as soon as she obtained it.

She had once imagined that one day teaching points might run short, but she had never expected to become this strapped for resources.

Resting her chin in her hand, Fu Qing reviewed the main sources of teaching points outside of missions.

First was Favorability. Translated on Hololo novels. Over two days it had risen from 83% to 87%. Compared to its previous stagnation, this was practically a rocket-like leap.

Fu Qing guessed this might be related to the parents arriving at Fangzhou.

Having gained protection there and avoided the dangers of surviving outside was clearly a major factor influencing the students’ favorability after the apocalypse began.

Second was Influence. After revealing the truth to the major figures and gaining their trust, Fu Qing had received a one-time system reward.

The extra teaching points remaining after buying bracelets for the parents came from that reward.

But compared to upcoming expenses, it was merely a drop in the bucket.

Having just increased her influence, Fu Qing genuinely could not think of anywhere else to squeeze out additional rewards in the short term.

Third was Exploration Value, the reward granted by the system when she previously discovered the existence of the Devotees.

The truth of the world, including the existence of world consciousness, the opposing relationship between the Zombie King and the system, and these core secrets, were already known to Fu Qing. If everything were compared to a game, she suspected she had essentially cleared this storyline.

So where else could she obtain more teaching points?

Fu Qing sat in her office, lost in deep thought.

At the same time, the students were not idle either.

In the dormitory, Song Rushuang lifted her arm and sniffed herself to check whether she smelled.

Tracking down the hooded woman would take considerable time, and Xue Ran’s training also required effort. As a result, Fangzhou’s students found themselves unexpectedly free during this period.

Song Rushuang continued maintaining her daily exercise routine as usual.

Having just returned from morning training, she felt covered in sweat.

With Fangzhou under water restrictions, showers were allowed only once every two days, each limited to five minutes. But the weather was so hot that stepping outside meant immediately breaking into sweat. When she could not bathe, Song Rushuang could only wipe herself down with the wet wipes she had stockpiled.

Even so, she still felt sticky all over.

She could only comfort herself by thinking that this was already far better than life outside.

Over the past two days, she had also gone online, chatting with old classmates and friends through social media, roughly learning how harsh their lives had become.

Since yesterday, even chatting required timing it precisely within the brief half hour when the network was available. After only a few exchanged sentences, the connection would disappear again.

The content of the chats had also changed from the first day’s mutual comfort, fear, and complaints into only a few extremely brief exchanges.

Today, Song Rushuang even received a mass message from a middle school classmate. It was clearly a long block of text prepared in advance before network access returned. At the very beginning was a large line:

【Urgent plea for help from villagers of xx Village! 367 people trapped, mostly elderly, weak, sick, and disabled. Power and water cut off. Emergency phone lines constantly busy and unreachable. Food supplies critically low. We have no way out. Please help spread this message!!】

To make it more eye-catching, several red exclamation mark emojis followed in a row.

Song Rushuang carefully read the plea for help.

This classmate seemed to have returned to their hometown with their parents for summer vacation. They originally had train tickets to leave on the second day after the virus outbreak, but ended up trapped in that village instead.

It was hard to say whether that was fortunate or unfortunate. If they had left a day earlier, they might have been stranded on the returning train instead, which would have meant having absolutely no chance of escape.

But being trapped in the village was not much better. The village was not particularly remote geographically. Several roads connected it to neighboring villages, with frequent travel between them. That very night, several zombies had wandered into the village along the main road. After sensing human presence, they lingered and refused to leave.

Many of the villagers were elderly people left behind and children, completely incapable of resisting zombies. Some were bitten to death, and the survivors hid inside their homes, too afraid even to step outside.

They tried calling the police, but the lines were endlessly busy. Even when someone finally managed to get through once, they were only told to register their situation on a website and wait for rescue.

But with millions registering and rescue forces far from sufficient, they had waited two days and could no longer endure it.

This morning, Song Rushuang’s classmate, a university student, took action first. While no zombies were nearby, they called out through a window to neighbors across the way. Messages were passed from household to household, one after another, until they compiled statistics on how many people were still alive in the village and how many zombies remained.

Then they edited the message directly and, during the brief window of network access, mass-sent it to various group chats and social platforms, hoping a kindhearted person might see it and come help.

After finishing the message, Song Rushuang checked the village’s location and felt a pang of regret.

It was simply too far away. Even if she wanted to help, she could not possibly get there in time.

Helpless, she could only share it to other group chats and her Moments feed.

But just after posting, when she returned to the homepage, she saw a neat row of exclamation marks indicating the message had failed to send. She glanced at the upper right corner and, as expected, the network was gone again.

Remembering something, she switched back to Moments and confirmed that the post had not gone through either. Song Rushuang almost laughed from frustration.

She was angry at the unstable network and worried about that classmate at the same time.

Because this meant they might have to wait another twenty-four hours.

And across the entire country, how many villages like this existed? The xx Village plea had only been sent because Song Rushuang’s classmate, a university student home for summer vacation, knew how to use the internet. But many more elderly people and children living in villages did not know how to use smartphones at all. Translated on Hololo novels. They could only listen to the endless busy tone of emergency lines and wait for death in despair.

Not every village would encounter someone like Shen Qingqing. Most people had no ability to fight back against zombies at all.

Not to mention that even if someone managed to send out a message like this classmate did, rescue would most likely never arrive.

Civilian rescue teams might still handle floods, earthquakes, or typhoons, but zombies were completely beyond their professional scope.

Thinking this, Song Rushuang opened the student forum on her wristband.

The internet could not be used, but this piece of black-tech still operated normally. If she could not seek help through public group chats, asking fellow students should at least be possible.

Maybe some students who had not yet returned to campus were near xx Village.

According to the description in the plea, the village only had low-level zombies, about eleven or twelve in total, scattered throughout the area. Any Fangzhou student could handle them easily.

The forum page refreshed. The moment Song Rushuang saw the homepage, she froze.

【31 people trapped at Hongxin Hotpot Restaurant on Qing’an Road, City A, including staff and customers. Food sufficient, but one customer has heart disease and urgently needs medication】

【Over one hundred workers trapped at Huiguang Furniture Factory in the western suburbs of City O. No food or water for two days. Urgent!!】

【Forwarded from group chat: Landslide caused by heavy rain in Yong’an County, City C. Many injured require transport for medical treatment, and housing collapse has left people without shelter. Rescue personnel were said to be on the way but have not arrived after a full day. Suspected accident en route or possible latent infected individual in the vehicle… Anyone nearby able to check the situation?】

【Anyone in City F? Chun Garden Kindergarten on Heping Road…】

【I’m in City Z, returning in two days. Please compile all City Z requests and send them to me…】

【People in City F gather here! Planning to organize a temporary team】

The past two days had been too busy. Hosting Bai Xianglei’s group, running around with the principal, and settling and caring for her parents meant Song Rushuang had barely browsed the forum.

In just over a day, countless posts had appeared. As she scrolled downward, she noticed the surge in posts had begun around the time power restrictions started.

Clearly, many people shared the same idea she had. Since posts could not be forwarded through social apps, they came to the still-connected forum to seek help.

Just as Song Rushuang prepared to join the growing wave of requests, her finger moved and accidentally refreshed the forum, revealing a newly posted thread pinned at the very top.

Title: [Master Thread for Compiled Help Requests | Water Restrictions | Posting Format in Main Post]

Main post:

[There are too many related discussions on the forum. After a quick look, I noticed many duplicate posts, so I’m taking the liberty of creating a compilation thread to prevent repeated information and unrelated discussions from burying help requests. I will repost what I see. Before submitting new requests, please check whether it has already been posted. If not, please follow the format below. Thank you for your cooperation!

Location (Province/City/County)

Specific address and surrounding conditions (road access, etc.)

Type of assistance needed (zombie elimination / food or water shortage / medical shortage / situation confirmation…)

Risk assessment (number of zombies, strength level)

Have official authorities been contacted? Any response received?

Urgency level (how long they can hold out, to help prioritize assistance)

Requester name or online ID

Requester contact information

…

There may be oversights, please feel free to add suggestions! I’ve also opened another thread for students in different regions to form rescue teams. Those interested in participating, see here →【Click to jump to link】

Reminder: please verify authenticity when reposting requests. Prioritize requests where the requester can be contacted directly or quickly verified. Also, to avoid wasting precious rescue resources, for those who have already contacted authorities, please confirm their queue position on the official website.

If you wish to claim a rescue mission, private message me. I will confirm promptly and reply in the corresponding post so others can focus on different tasks.

Finally, everyone participating in rescue efforts must prioritize personal safety.]

Poster: CheeseIsPower

…

Seeing the poster’s name, Song Rushuang felt it was exactly as expected.

Little Su really was an action-taker. How did she always manage to move one step faster than everyone else?

There were still several days before the official believer-hunting mission began, and many online pleas for help had already been circulating for three days. These people urgently needed assistance now, and the optimal rescue window happened to fall within these remaining days.

The two goals did not conflict, and it prevented students from sitting idle at school.

With the outside world losing internet access and civilian rescue teams unable to deal with zombies, the Fangzhou forum was the most suitable place to post such requests and the most likely place for them to receive responses.

Not long after the thread was posted, it was highlighted and pinned, clearly because Su Huaijin had contacted the principal immediately after posting.

Within only a few minutes, more than a dozen help requests appeared in the thread, and that was while many others were still editing and verifying information.

Impressed by how effective the method was, Song Rushuang filled out her middle school classmate’s request according to the format and posted it as well.

She then jumped into another team-forming thread to see whether there were any local missions in City S.

But one look left her speechless.

It was not that there were no missions in City S, but they were impossible to claim.

Fangzhou itself was located in City S, so local students were naturally the most numerous. In the team-forming thread, more than a dozen teams formed in the blink of an eye, all already full.

Each team consisted of five people. Everyone knew the hunting mission would begin soon, and they were likely treating rescue operations as a warm-up.

Otherwise, given Fangzhou students’ strength, five people were unnecessary. Simpler missions could easily be completed in teams of two or three.

But if that were allowed, there would be even less chance of getting a slot.

Song Rushuang watched helplessly as new missions appeared in the compilation thread, only for corresponding claim posts to show up instantly in the team thread, faster than delivery riders snatching orders.

Song Rushuang: “……”

Unacceptable. Strongly unacceptable. Couldn’t they leave at least a little chance for someone with slower reflexes like her?!

₊˚.🎧📓✩