Ch 117: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

After camping on the forum for a full hour and refreshing countless times, Song Rushuang finally managed to “snag a job.”

When she claimed it, she had not even read the details. The moment the words “City S” flashed before her eyes, her hands moved faster than her brain. She immediately posted the prewritten team-formation reply in another thread. Only after confirming again and again that she was the first person to sign up did Song Rushuang quietly let out a sigh of relief and finally take the time to check the request itself.

According to the form, the help request had been posted in a local secondhand trading group. The poster’s ID was Yueyue, real name Shi Yue.

Song Rushuang privately messaged Su Huaijin to obtain the original post.

According to Shi Yue’s description, she was in her twenties and had come to City S from elsewhere for work, renting a bedroom in a residential complex called Qinghuanli. After the virus outbreak, she and her two roommates had stayed indoors the entire time. Since they usually avoided eating out or ordering delivery and cooked for themselves, they had stocked plenty of supplies and were managing fairly well.

However, during the daytime on the second day, they suddenly heard the sound of a little girl crying from downstairs.

At first, the three assumed it was a child from a quarantined household crying. But after thinking it over, they realized Qinghuanli mostly consisted of shared rentals occupied by migrant workers, and very few residents had children. Moreover, the direction of the sound felt wrong.

【It felt… like it was coming from underground.】Shi Yue wrote.

The child cried for two consecutive days. On the first morning, her voice was still loud. She cried twice before seemingly being comforted by an adult nearby.

But that same night, again at midnight, and once more the following day, the girl cried three more times. Each time her voice grew weaker and the crying lasted longer, as if the adult comforting her was becoming slower to respond.

Feeling that something was wrong, Shi Yue and her roommates took turns keeping watch. Whenever the child began crying, they pressed against the window and searched desperately in the direction of the sound. All they could see were four or five zombies gathered beside the flowerbeds near the neighboring building, but they never saw the girl herself.

【The building where the zombies gathered faces the street side of our complex. The entire first floor consists of rental storefronts, and the zombies are gathered on the inner side facing the residential area. That unit used to be a noodle shop, but it closed at the start of the month. A new owner had just taken over and was renovating. The weekend when the virus broke out was their scheduled day off, so there shouldn’t have been any workers inside. It should have been completely empty.】

As Shi Yue continued writing, even she seemed unsettled by it:

【So we truly have no idea where the little girl actually is.】

【As for the upper floors above the noodle shop, during one observation we saw figures moving behind the windows on the second and third floors. Judging by their silhouettes, they weren’t children, probably residents drawn out by the crying as well. We’re fairly certain the crying isn’t coming from above the third floor.】

【The child’s crying is getting weaker. She probably won’t last much longer. If there are any capable and kindhearted people nearby, could you please go check the situation? Our district will soon begin power rationing again. This message was written in advance. If a child’s life can be saved, it would at least count as doing some good.】

【Below are my contact details, specific address, and the infection situation I’ve observed…】

One Fangzhou student happened to be in that secondhand group as well. After scrolling through cached chat history, they discovered that Shi Yue had previously sold a yoga mat there, listing Qinghuanli as the pickup address, which largely confirmed the reliability of the information.

Power rationing had been implemented nationwide by region, and City S was no exception. Electricity to Qinghuanli’s district had already been cut off at ten in the morning. By the time Song Rushuang saw the message, it was already impossible to contact Shi Yue again that day.

But since another student had already verified the credibility of the information…

Song Rushuang considered it and decided it was still worth going to take a look.

Qinghuanli was a little over forty minutes’ drive from Fangzhou. Since Fangzhou itself was located in a relatively remote area, the distance was not far at all.

The route avoided the congested city center, making traffic unlikely. Even driving cautiously, a round trip would probably take only two hours.

But if the situation was real, she might be able to save the little girl’s life.

Having made up her mind, Song Rushuang explained the situation to her parents.

Over the past two days, she had already demonstrated her abilities through various sparring sessions against simulated zombies and had tactfully mentioned that she is a part of the elite team.

Surprisingly, upon learning she had been selected for the elite team, her parents showed not only worry but also a faint sense of pride.

“Really? You’re that amazing? But isn’t it a bit dangerous?” Xu Mingyu frowned, yet the corners of her mouth tried to lift while praising her, her expression awkwardly caught between concern and delight.

A perfect embodiment of mixed joy and worry.

Song Jianguo praised her as usual: “That’s my daughter! Out of more than two thousand students, only five were chosen. Incredible… But the zombies you fight probably aren’t ordinary ones, right? Is there anything we can help with?”

Song Rushuang: “……”

Should she respond to the praise first, or comfort their emotions first?

In any case, after two days of emotional back-and-forth, and after learning that their actions were usually carried out under the principal’s supervision, Xu Mingyu and Song Jianguo seemed somewhat reassured. Though still worried, they gradually accepted the situation and even trained more diligently every day.

This time, Song Rushuang simply showed them the help request post. “It’s not very dangerous. Just a few low-level zombies. Ordinary civilians just don’t know how to deal with them.”

“You say that like you’re not an ordinary civilian,” Xu Mingyu replied irritably. Still, after reading the request, her heart tightened at the thought of the little girl.

They did not stop her again, but Song Jianguo still asked uneasily, “You’re going alone?”

“No. I’ll find a few more people on the forum in a bit and we’ll go together…”

Song Rushuang was still soothing them when someone suddenly knocked on the dorm door.

When she opened it, Sun Wei and Zhang Han were standing outside.

After greeting Uncle and Auntie, Zhang Han blurted out impatiently, “Xiaoshuang, was that post yours?”

“Let’s go as a three-person team! We tried forever and couldn’t grab anything. Good thing Hanhan recognized your ID.” Sun Wei said.

The forum was anonymous, but you could use a fixed alias. The four roommates in the same dorm all basically knew each other’s regular handles.

Song Rushuang grinned. See? No need to recruit on the forum at all. The chosen teammates had delivered themselves to her doorstep.

A lot of the people forming teams already had fixed squads. They took missions to build coordination. But Song Rushuang did not really need that. The five-person elite team already had enough chemistry. Besides, Su Huaijin had the forum to manage, and Shen Qingqing was not around.

Of the remaining two, Zhang Han was a typical lifestyle-focused player who mostly stayed on campus and did not have a fixed team at all. Translated on Hololo novels. As for Sun Wei, after Song Rushuang and Shen Qingqing joined the elite class, she had gone to team up with a few girls from the neighboring dorm. They usually ran simulation pod dungeons together and such.

But two of those girls still had not returned, so Sun Wei came back to play with Zhang Han and Song Rushuang.

After a few days together, Xu Mingyu and Song Jianguo had grown quite fond of Zhang Han and Sun Wei too. Hearing that the three would act together eased much of their worry.

With the team set, Song Rushuang logged onto the forum and replied under her own post:

[Team is full, sorry!]

The disappointed applicants scattered at once, just like Song Rushuang had done over the past hour, and went off to look for new teams.

Everyone was grinding way too hard. Who knew how long they would have to keep refreshing before it was finally their turn.

*

The three submitted a leave-of-campus request to Fu Qing through their wristbands, listing their return time as the same day. Approval came within two minutes. They drove off in Song Rushuang’s car.

Neither Zhang Han nor Sun Wei had left the campus since the apocalypse began. In only a few short days, looking at the streets outside gave them a sense of having crossed into another lifetime.

Song Rushuang was better off. She had gone once to Tian Xuejun’s place, but that had still been only around Fangzhou. Once they drove beyond the school’s surrounding area and the scenery shifted from desolate to gradually more bustling, all three fell silent.

Zombies wandered everywhere, the blood on their clothes still fresh, enough to show how gruesome their deaths had been before mutation. Corpses lay strewn across the roads. Bloodstains were everywhere.

Shop windows along the route had been smashed; shelves inside were toppled and scattered in total chaos. Translated on Hololo novels. Hearing the car’s engine, zombies crawled out from all kinds of dark doorways and windows. Their pallid faces turned slowly like sunflowers tracking the car’s path, heads tilting back as they roared.

These zombies were like rats and cockroaches in the sewers. You never knew how many more of their kind were hiding in the dark.

Fortunately, Song Rushuang drove fast enough that before the zombies could fully react, the car was already through the areas where they were clustered.

They could feel it: behind every street-facing window, countless eyes were hiding, watching them alongside the zombies.

The survivors’ gazes were heavy and bleak. For an instant, the three even hated how sharp their senses were.

Because they could not save that many people, and knowing those people existed was painful enough.

Song Rushuang kept both hands on the wheel, slowed down, and carefully steered around the bodies in the road.

No one knew whether a corpse’s family or friends were still hiding nearby, watching their dearest person rot slowly under the sun.

“This morning I ran into that special-ops member with the surname Zhou downstairs at the dorms. She said the authorities have already organized crews to start collecting the bodies off the roads.” Sun Wei said softly. “They’ll bring them back to confirm identities, then cremate them together, and family can come claim them afterward.”

“But there are too many. The workload’s enormous. By now they’ve probably only cleared a small part of the city.”

Going out onto the streets to haul bodies was not something just anyone could do. The military had to be deployed for it too, because wherever the bodies were densest, the zombies were usually thick as well.

There were too many places that needed manpower. The three could easily imagine how stretched thin the top must be.

But…

Song Rushuang and Zhang Han glanced out the window. Flies were already swarming in dark clouds above many of the bodies, and the heads were not something you could bear to look at closely.

Zhang Han said quietly, unable to bear it, “This isn’t that far from Fangzhou. I’ll register it.”

Fangzhou had a dedicated “body recovery team.” With ample manpower, they had cleaned the areas around the school thoroughly. But they had not expected that only a few streets away, so many corpses had already piled up. If it continued like this, it would only take a few more days before residents along the street were affected.

Strictly speaking, they did not have the authority to handle bodies, but extraordinary times called for extraordinary measures. After hearing about it, Bai Xianglei and the others had expressed support.

Before cremating each body, Fu Qing would have students take photos for record and note the location where it was found, so relatives could later confirm identity. A portion of the ashes would also be collected into an urn and stored together with the photos and file. In the apocalypse, this was already remarkably humane.

As for what the remaining ashes were ultimately used for later on, Bai Xianglei and the others chose, selectively, to pretend they had not heard.

Once Zhang Han registered it through her wristband, the body recovery team would be able to take the bodies away the next time they passed through.

Song Rushuang’s wristband, meanwhile, was used for navigation.

Student wristbands could download maps, but obviously they could not show real-time traffic flow the way a certain map app could. That part required experience.

Every Fangzhou student had undergone relevant training and specialized memorization. They knew City S almost like the back of their hand. From inconspicuous alleyways to the locations of hospitals and police stations, and even the usual traffic on the main roads, they had it all in their heads. After getting their driver’s licenses, they would team up on weekends to go drive the roads for practice. Even out-of-town students like Zhang Han were more familiar with this city than many locals.

So before setting off, the three had already plotted a route: avoiding high-traffic roads prone to congestion and avoiding roads with key facilities like hospitals. The route they chose proved exactly as expected, with few cars and few pedestrians.

Along the way, they also ran into a patrol convoy. Both sides stopped. Several armed soldiers got out and knocked on their window, and seeing three young women inside, immediately asked whether they needed help.

But after hearing that they were Fangzhou students, the soldiers’ expressions shifted. They only said, “Be careful,” and waved them through, without even giving much of a lecture.

That surprised the three.

Fangzhou’s reputation seemed to have already spread among the troops…

It felt like having a special pass. And the feeling… was kind of nice.

After exactly forty minutes of driving, the entrance to Qinghuanli came into view. According to Shi Yue’s description, the barrier gate at the entrance had been smashed by zombies and was stuck raised. The inside of the complex was fairly spacious as well, so a car could drive straight in without fear of getting blocked and trapped.

When they arrived, it was exactly as described, and their goodwill toward the contributor shot up.

She was not asking for help for herself, but for a little girl she did not even know, and she had even spent precious internet time to do it. That alone was enough to earn respect.

Not to mention she had written everything in great detail, which not only spared a lot of trouble but also helped ensure the safety of whoever came to help.

Inside the complex was a circular flowerbed. The three found an empty space to park. Sitting in the car, they swept their gaze across the area, and sure enough, several zombies heard the movement and came shuffling over from the same direction.

Sun Wei had paid attention to the roadside signs before entering and pointed toward a building nearby. “I looked from outside just now. The storefront on the first floor of that building is under renovation. There’s no one inside. That should be it.”

The unit entrance stood open, giving a direct view of the elevator lobby. Though it was daytime, the interior looked dim and eerie, and they could not make out details.

The ground-floor storefronts here seemed completely separated from the residences on the second floor and above. A sign beside it read: Entrance for Floors 2–30 This Way. In other words, if you entered through that door, there was no “first floor” inside for residential access.

Song Rushuang thought for a moment, then suddenly hit the horn.

The parked car let out a sharp, jarring blast. The zombies, sluggish a moment ago, immediately became excited and surged toward the vehicle.

Zhang Han and Sun Wei both jumped, reflexively drawing a blade and hefting an axe. Before getting out, Sun Wei even slapped Song Rushuang’s arm, clutching her chest as she complained, “Next time you do something like that, can you at least warn us first!”

Zombies were one thing, but a sudden horn in this absolutely silent environment was terrifying.

Even so, the two hopped out before the zombies could surround the doors, each taking a direction and starting to clear them out.

A few clean swings later, several zombies dropped.

Shi Yue had not been wrong. These really were low-level zombies, and dealing with them was not difficult.

Only…

Song Rushuang frowned, looking at the residents who had been drawn by the noise, poking their heads out from second- and third-floor windows and even higher. Most looked like young adults. No parents’ generation, and no children either.

So where, exactly, was that little girl hiding?

₊˚.🎧📓✩