After hanging up the call with Mo Chen, Freckles immediately dialed the next number without pause.

Several attempts in a row failed to connect.

For a moment, she could not tell whether something had happened to the other party or whether the call simply could not go through.

Power rationing also affected communication networks. When base stations lost electricity, phone calls naturally failed as well. Because of this, the team held a long contact list arranged according to each region’s electricity schedule.

They could only place calls when the target area had power.

Even then, once electricity returned, countless people simultaneously rushed to make calls and access the internet, overwhelming signal channels. Often, after finally connecting, the call would drop after only a few sentences.

And this was under the condition that Fangzhou itself had twenty-four-hour external communication.

Freckles sighed quietly, imagining how difficult it must be for people trapped outside to contact family and friends.

It was hardly different from sending messages in bottles adrift at sea.

She forced herself not to dwell on it, marked the failed attempt, steadied her emotions, and continued dialing.

Around the conference room, many other students were doing exactly the same thing.

On the other end, after ending the call, Mo Chen immediately began drafting a volunteer recruitment message in her group chat.

…

That same morning, as electricity returned across several regions nationwide, countless people like Mo Chen flooded online the moment communication resumed, eager to check the latest updates.

And almost all of them noticed the same post.

【@FangzhouRescue V: The Fangzhou Volunteer Team is now accepting help requests from across the country! We will dispatch available local members to respond as quickly as possible.

Please complete the following form according to the required format and submit via private message to the following accounts: @SparkMutualAidDocument, @LighthouseRescue, @CityA_LocalRescue, @WenwenWantsToGrowStronger (24-hour reply service)… and other listed accounts.

All listed accounts accept submissions 24 hours a day. Once your request is registered, you will receive confirmation via private message. Please do not submit repeatedly to avoid wasting resources.

Manpower is limited. Thank you for your understanding. If your situation has been resolved, please notify the account you submitted to promptly.

This account will provide real-time updates on resolved cases and does not accept submissions directly.

Important: Please clearly state your available electricity hours for contact and any observable information about infected individuals. Concealing information grants volunteers the right to withdraw immediately and retain records for future accountability.

Detailed requirements and format are shown below…】

The @FangzhouRescue account tagged more than a dozen accounts in one post, and these were only the contacts successfully reached since the previous night.

Some, like Spark Mutual Aid Document, had been created after the apocalypse began. Others were long-standing civilian rescue organizations. Still others were major personal influencers who, after the outbreak, had redirected nearly all their time toward reposting help requests and amplifying the voices of those with nowhere else to turn.

Every account contacted agreed without hesitation to Fangzhou’s proposal.

They organized teams overnight, arranged duty schedules, and opened private message channels that very day.

At the same moment Fangzhou’s post went live, several of the nation’s largest platforms used algorithmic recommendation systems to push the @FangzhouRescue account to vast numbers of users.

Because the account was not officially governmental, it could not receive top-of-trending placement, but this was the strongest promotion the platforms could legally provide.

Within moments, @FangzhouRescue attracted tens of millions of views and attention.

And that was only the beginning.

The account quickly released several additional posts.

The first called for civilian volunteers to assist with verification missions. For cases where conditions could not be confirmed or requesters stopped responding, volunteers could use drones or vehicles to observe from a safe distance and confirm the situation.

Requirements included radio communication equipment, drones, protective gear, and preferably sturdy vehicles such as off-road cars.

Participants did not need to engage directly. Remaining inside vehicles eliminated most risk.

Although zombies now roamed the streets in large numbers, conditions had not yet reached the late-apocalypse stage where massive hordes blocked entire roads.

Moreover, Fu Qing had earlier warned the military that zombies tended to cluster. Whenever small gatherings began forming into proto-hordes, armed police or soldiers on patrol would disperse or eliminate them.

As long as one avoided large hordes, driving through the streets remained relatively safe.

This task was ideal for well-equipped civilian rescue teams that lacked combat experience.

The second post announced that Fangzhou would provide free remote guidance for civilian volunteers. Anyone in need could contact them through private messages.

At present, Fangzhou could only directly handle requests submitted through the standardized format.

Many others did not even know this help channel existed.

Across cities, numerous small civilian rescue groups possessed valuable local information. Yet many lacked training or confidence. Even when they knew people were trapped, they hesitated, unsure how to conduct rescues safely.

With Fangzhou offering remote guidance, those scattered efforts could finally be mobilized.

As long as evolved zombies were not encountered and proper precautions were taken, basic infected were not especially difficult to handle.

Every Fangzhou student was capable of serving as a remote instructor.

Requests for guidance were organized by publicity-team volunteers and uploaded to the wristband system, allowing available students to claim them freely.

Since it required no travel or team formation, students could simply sit anywhere on campus and assist during spare moments.

The third post was a warning.

【Reminder: Non-professional teams should NOT conduct rescue operations independently. Follow stay-at-home recommendations. Personal safety must remain the top priority!】

Although residents had been instructed to stay home since the first day of the outbreak, enforcement had never been absolute.

For one thing, the outbreak began on a weekend. Countless people had already been outside, and many remained stranded with unknown whereabouts.

Anyone trying to return home inevitably had to step onto the streets.

The authorities had no way to distinguish who had been outside from the beginning and who had run out later.

Second, many neighborhoods and residential compounds did not have enough manpower to enforce stay-at-home measures. More often, they were like the compound where Shi Guangyao lived: not only was the residents’ committee unmanned, even the security guards had fled.

With the main gate standing open and people coming and going freely, there were plenty of people like Jiājia’s parents who went out searching for family.

Zombies were terrifying, but compared with the risks they themselves faced, they feared even more for the lives of their loved ones.

So the stay-at-home directive remained only a “recommendation.”

No mandatory measures were implemented, and there were no punishments for going out.

Starting from the fourth post, the account began archiving the various help requests Fangzhou had resolved from yesterday through this morning.

Some students had taken photos for records before leaving and uploaded them with identifying details censored. Others wrote text summaries describing the situation and the number of people successfully rescued.

In the comments, many survivors and their relatives appeared, leaving messages of gratitude and reposting. This further boosted the account’s credibility.

Well-meaning users continued to repost and spread the word.

FangzhouRescue# climbed to the top of the trending list in under half an hour and held firmly onto the number-one spot.

No one knew how many trapped people saw a glimmer of hope there, read the submission requirements carefully, then, hands shaking, began filling out the form.

Submissions from every corner of the country poured like snowflakes into the backends of those dozen-plus accounts. Translated on Hololo novels. Volunteers who had received basic training rapidly categorized them by region, urgency, rescue difficulty, and number of trapped people, then forwarded them onward to Fangzhou’s inbox.

*

A village in Jianghe County.

A husband and wife clung tightly to each other, their terrified eyes fixed on the front door.

Bang.

The old wooden door shuddered violently again, the metal hinges creaking under the strain.

Outside, the zombie kept clawing at the door. The sharp scrape of nails against wood made the hairs on their arms stand up.

“Don’t cry, don’t cry,” the wife whispered.

She was holding a baby. Perhaps sensing the parents’ tension, the infant wailed nonstop, agitating the zombie outside into even greater frenzy.

The husband cursed, eyes bloodshot, and started to get off the bed, reaching for a knife.

“To hell with it. I’ll fight it!”

It was the fourth day they had been trapped. The household ran out of food two days ago, leaving only the baby’s formula, which neither of them dared touch.

If this continued, they would either be eaten by zombies or starve to death.

He instructed his wife, “I’ll lure it away and lock it somewhere. You take the chance to go next door and find food, grab as much as you can. Then come back, lock the door, and don’t open it no matter who knocks.”

The infected outside was their neighbor, an elderly man who lived alone and likely still had some stored food.

They had hidden inside and watched him get mauled by another infected, collapsing helplessly at their doorstep.

Now it was their turn.

Cradling the baby, the wife’s eyes brimmed with tears. She closed her eyes and nodded hard.

Don’t open the door for anyone.

She knew her husband had already accepted that he might not return.

“I’ll protect Xiaoman. Don’t worry,” she choked out.

He said nothing more. He kissed the baby’s forehead and gripped the knife, striding toward the door with grim resolve.

Just before he turned the lock, the sounds outside vanished without warning.

He froze, then moved to the window and peered through the glass toward the doorway.

A young woman was sheathing her blade, brushing dust from her hands as she said casually, “Just one zombie? This mission’s way too easy.”

Meeting the gaze of the people inside, she blinked, then bent down and dragged the corpse away from the doorway.

“Alright, you can come out now.”

“I’ve got other things to do, so I’m heading off.”

The infected that had trapped them for three full days had been dealt with, effortlessly.

So easily that it did not even have time to cry out before dying.

The young woman waved, jumped into a car parked by the roadside, and drove away.

The husband stared as the car disappeared into the distance. Translated on Hololo novels. The fierce expression that had formed when he resolved to die fighting drained from his face. The knife clattered to the floor as his hands went limp.

He dropped to his knees with a thud, and when his wife stumbled over, the two embraced and wept.

*

A supermarket in City S.

A group of people crouched behind shelving, watching zombies wander between the aisles, swallowing nervously.

They had all been trapped in the supermarket on the day the virus erupted.

Outside was too open, so they had hidden in a nearby staff break room and survived by luck.

But there was little to eat in the break room. After days of hunger, they finally could not endure it and ventured out to look for food.

They quickly discovered how foolish that decision was.

A rough estimate suggested at least dozens of zombies inside the supermarket.

And with the complex layout and shelves blocking sightlines, it was nearly impossible to retrieve food without attracting attention.

They had barely made it a few dozen meters from the break room when a cluster of zombies cut off their route, trapping them among the shelves.

As several zombies lurched closer, cold sweat poured down their backs.

A supermarket was not like home. They could not even find a decent tool to use as a weapon. Unarmed, if they met zombies head-on, they had no chance.

“If only we’d gone to the meat section first and grabbed a knife,” one person whispered miserably, voice trembling.

The others fell silent. …Right. Why hadn’t they thought of that?

After so many days without food, their minds had dulled.

A burly man beside them nearly exploded. “Damn it, if you thought of it, why didn’t you say so earlier!”

“I thought the food shelves were close, we could grab something and go,” the man muttered, clutching his head in despair. “If we go to the meat section, we’d have to detour…”

The zombies drew nearer. Their rasping breaths were practically in their ears.

Someone could not wait any longer. Turning back, he flashed the signal they had agreed on.

The others’ hearts leapt.

And then—

“RUN!!”

Someone shouted.

In an instant, everyone spun and sprinted. The entire supermarket erupted as zombies were alerted, roaring and surging in their direction.

In the chaos, someone knocked over a shelf and products scattered everywhere. Someone collided with either a teammate or a zombie and let out a howl, shoving them away before running on without looking back. Someone else ran the wrong direction entirely, not even toward the staff break room, only realizing they were lost after a long sprint, their heart turning cold.

The supermarket became complete pandemonium.

And then, from the entrance, more than a dozen people poured in, just in time to see the panicked survivors scattering, with zombies snapping and clawing behind them.

They rushed in to join the fight.

The situation flipped quickly from one-sided doom to one-sided advantage.

Yet perhaps the trapped people were too panicked, too immersed in flight, to notice what was happening around them. Some did not even realize the students had arrived.

They ran screaming, wailing, begging the heavens, and no matter how hard the students tried, they could not draw the zombies’ attention away.

The students: “……”

The lead student spotted a pyramid of stacked liquor bottles nearby. He shrugged off his backpack and swung it hard.

The bottle pyramid, taller than a person, crashed to the ground.

Liquor flooded across the floor, filling the air with sharp alcohol scent. The huge crash finally snapped everyone, including the zombies, back to awareness.

“If you don’t want to die, shut up!” he barked, pushed beyond patience. “The zombies can’t even scream as loud as you.”

The trapped civilians stared at the students who had appeared out of nowhere, as if divine reinforcements had fallen from the sky.

They… were going to live?

…

The same kinds of scenes unfolded in countless corners of Huaguo.

Students surged into streets and alleys, into high-rises, into dark basements, into crowded department stores and remote mountain outskirts, rescuing one trapped person after another.

Before death could claim them, someone reached them first.

Refusing all thanks, they handed survivors over to official personnel and turned to rush toward the next scene.

With nowhere else to pour out their gratitude, survivors went online as soon as they regained strength and left thankful replies.

This mysterious organization, appearing from nowhere, created what could only be called an unbelievable rescue record in a single day.

As time passed, the number of people rescued continued to climb.

That day, no one knew how many people etched the name Fangzhou into their hearts, remembered the student team, and remembered the miracle they created.

₊˚.🎧📓✩