Ch 126: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

While the students were busy saying their goodbyes to their families, the teachers were also strolling quietly across campus.

Not long before, Grandma Liu had approached Fu Qing, somewhat embarrassed, to ask whether she could use the teaching points she had saved to purchase a Full Simulation item.

“You mentioned before, the one used for exams. Three hours costs one hundred points, right? But I’ve only saved this much. I was wondering… could I buy just half an hour… no, even ten minutes?”

Awkwardly, Grandma Liu opened the interface on her wristband and showed Fu Qing her balance.

Her monthly salary of two teaching points had been entirely saved.

Only then did Fu Qing understand why Grandma Liu had asked about the price of Full Simulation during the first monthly exam. She must have already been planning to save up for it back then.

But after saving for an entire year, she had accumulated only twenty-four points, still far from the required hundred.

Fu Qing checked the shop interface. There was no ten-minute version. There was, however, a one-hour version like the entrance exam simulation. After the enrollment discount period ended, it cost fifty points.

Still not enough.

“That’s fine…”

Without changing expression, Fu Qing accepted Grandma Liu’s transferred points and was about to purchase the one-hour version.

Before she finished speaking, another voice cut in.

“If it’s not enough, I have some here.”

Bai Tang appeared out of nowhere. She first turned to Grandma Liu and explained, “I just left the dorm and saw you hurrying toward the administration building, so I followed to check what was going on.”

Then she looked at Fu Qing. “I still have nine points.”

Her monthly pay was even lower than Grandma Liu’s, and she had saved nearly all of it. The only points she had ever spent were a few used one weekend when she and Xu Mingyue went out for hot pot.

Behind Bai Tang stood Xu Mingyue, Lu Yan, and even Hao Zhenye. Apparently, after noticing Grandma Liu looked troubled, they had all followed out of concern.

Xu Mingyue checked her own account as well.

Her salary was the second highest among the teachers, but she rarely managed to save anything, always running around eating and exploring whenever she had free time. After checking, she looked embarrassed.

“…I only have the seven points from last month’s pay left.”

The three of them pooled their points together with great effort, managing only forty points, not even half of the required hundred. They stared at each other helplessly.

Fu Qing: “…”

Apparently no one had heard her say “that’s fine.”

In the end, Hao Zhenye, the wealthy one with a monthly salary of ten teaching points, stepped forward and generously transferred sixty points.

“That should be enough now, right?”

Fu Qing looked at the three transfer requests and couldn’t help laughing.

As for Lu Yan, he had always been unpaid labor. Like Zhao Yunxiao, when he applied, the system listed his expected salary as zero points, and Fu Qing had never bothered offering him pay. Now he could only stand nearby as moral support.

Still, he knew Fu Qing well and suspected everyone’s money had been gathered for nothing.

Sure enough, Fu Qing rejected the three transfers and accepted only the points Grandma Liu had originally sent.

“This is enough. It won’t cost that much.”

After purchasing the item, she asked gently, “What kind of scene would you like to simulate?”

Everyone turned toward Liu Yingchun.

Grandma Liu hesitated before asking carefully, “Anything is allowed? If… I wanted to simulate a memory?”

Just as expected.

Fu Qing sighed inwardly. “I’m sorry. Full Simulation is different from the simulation pods. It can only recreate environments. There may be NPCs, like zombies or passersby, but they follow fixed programs. There’s almost no interaction possible, and they can’t become the person from your memories.”

It was more like a “map” in a game, whereas the simulation pods were story-driven instances.

And the pods could only import memories from after the apocalypse began. Since Grandma Liu’s loved one had died at the very beginning, aside from that brief twilight memory in the residential district, no other memories could be recreated.

Fu Qing knew exactly whom she wanted to see, and also knew it was impossible.

Even she felt reluctant to shatter that final hope.

A faint shadow crossed Grandma Liu’s face, but she shook her head with a small, resigned smile.

“It’s alright. I prepared myself before coming.”

She had asked others about the item after hearing it was used in midterms and finals, so she already understood roughly how it worked and hadn’t dared ask too many questions.

She feared that if hope disappeared too soon, the days ahead would become unbearable.

Those days spent holding onto hope, believing they might meet again someday, had themselves been a kind of happiness.

“Since memories can’t be simulated,” she said softly, “then let’s simulate a place instead.”

She named a park.

“When my granddaughter was little, I used to take her there all the time.”

A trace of nostalgia welled up in her eyes.

Every tree and blade of grass in that park had witnessed her granddaughter growing up. Translated on Hololo novels. Seeing them again would, in a way, feel like meeting her granddaughter once more.

“And besides,” Grandma Liu said softly, “everyone has been staying on campus for so long. They probably want to see what the outside world looks like too. The scenes in the simulation pods are still different from what things were like before the apocalypse.”

Those only made people feel more despair the longer they looked.

Fu Qing nodded. “I understand.”

Half an hour later, when most people had finished lunch, the Full Simulation activated. Like a miraculous gift falling from the sky, the entire Fangzhou campus transformed into a lush green park.

In those brief ten minutes, they completed an escape.

They left behind the cruel apocalypse and briefly returned to peaceful ordinary life.

Ten minutes later, the simulation ended. The campus broadcast began playing the assembly notice, waking everyone from the lucid dream.

After the daze faded, what replaced it was a firmer resolve.

Students embraced their families, said their farewells, then shouldered backpacks filled with weapons and boarded the buses heading for assembly.

*

Time passed second by second.

As two-thirty approached, the outside world grew increasingly quiet.

Aside from the noises made by zombies and scattered fugitives with nowhere left to hide, all activity had ceased. Everyone focused, waiting for the same moment to arrive.

Inside a reinforced off-road vehicle, Fu Qing sat with members of the special operations team, all eyes fixed on the countdown.

Without realizing it, Zhou Lingxi whispered the numbers under her breath.

“60, 59, 58…”

The final minute.

Fu Qing sat by the window, gazing at the empty street when her eyes suddenly sharpened.

Bai Xianglei, seated beside her, followed her gaze. At a nearby street corner, a flicker of fabric seemed to vanish from sight.

Someone?

He frowned. Half a second later, Fu Qing had already pulled open the car door and jumped out.

“I’ll be right back,” she tossed over her shoulder.

There was no way they would let her act alone. Bai Xianglei signaled silently, and the others hurried after her.

Members of the special team in the other two vehicles began opening their doors but were stopped by Bai Xianglei’s hand signal.

Too many people would draw attention.

He, Zhou Lingxi, and Chu Hai followed quietly behind Fu Qing, the four of them moving almost without sound.

Fu Qing moved fastest. She had already realized what was happening before Bai Xianglei did. Rounding the corner swiftly, she found a dead-end alley, where two overlapping figures struggled on the ground.

A thin young man was pinned beneath a zombie. Translated on Hololo novels. Clutching a wooden stick he had picked up somewhere, he strained desperately to hold it against the creature’s neck. The zombie’s jaws hung wide open, saliva dripping onto his face.

Afraid of attracting more zombies, the young man dared not cry out. When he saw the four of them over the creature’s shoulder, he mouthed silently in despair:

“Help me…”

It was only a single zombie. No need to call for assistance.

Fu Qing stepped forward with her blade, unconcerned, when a familiar sound suddenly rose overhead.

Woooo—

She halted instinctively and looked up.

The air-raid siren began to swell, rising from a low hum into a piercing, resounding wail, like an invisible tide spreading outward across the entire city.

The zombie atop the young man lifted its head, distracted by the sound, letting out a low growl while searching aimlessly for the source.

The young man relaxed slightly, though he still couldn’t move. Fu Qing stepped forward again.

A soft gunshot sounded behind her.

A pistol fitted with a suppressor fired a precise shot. The faint noise was nearly swallowed by the siren.

The bullet pierced the back of the zombie’s head. A clean kill. A round hole appeared in its forehead as it collapsed instantly.

Fu Qing turned back.

Zhou Lingxi still held her firing stance and tilted her head slightly. “Sorry. Looks like we were faster this time.”

They exchanged a glance. Zhou Lingxi smiled faintly, holstered her weapon, then stood straight and lowered her head in silent mourning.

No other zombies had been drawn in for now. Bai Xianglei and Chu Hai, arriving moments later, halted sharply as well, their expressions turning solemn.

The surroundings were still dangerous. After ten seconds, Fu Qing moved first, striding toward the young man. She pushed the corpse aside and quickly examined him for injuries while Zhou Lingxi and the others drew their pistols again, guarding the perimeter.

Once Fu Qing confirmed he wasn’t wounded, she straightened.

“Do you know how to get to the assembly point?”

“Yes, yes,” the young man nodded frantically. “I heard the broadcast.”

Fu Qing pointed down the road. “Follow the main street. The military will be stationed along the way. You’re safe now.”

Such a simple sentence made tears instantly spill from his eyes.

“Thank you…” he said, forcing himself to stand before stumbling off in the direction she indicated, running through the wailing siren.

Fu Qing remained standing in the narrow alley, not leaving immediately.

The one minute of silence had passed. With the sirens now at maximum power, the sound vibrated through bone and organ alike.

Long, piercing, overwhelming.

Zombies across the city lifted their heads and began moving blindly toward the sound. People trapped indoors watched through windows and peepholes, sobbing uncontrollably.

Among those departing infected were their own loved ones.

Their bodies had died, summoned forward by the harsh mechanical cry, while their souls seemed to rise with the siren’s endless call.

Move forward. Do not look back.

The dead were gone. The living must continue on.

It was both a bell mourning the fallen and a horn calling the living onward.

The earth trembled beneath the synchronized footsteps of countless zombies moving through the city.

The previous ten seconds had been for those who died in this life.

Fu Qing closed her eyes again and bowed her head. Familiar faces surfaced in her mind one after another.

At that same moment, countless people opened their eyes and wiped away their tears.

Taking one last look at their homes, they lifted their bags and, gritting their teeth, stepped onto the road toward the shelters.

₊˚.🎧📓✩