“Inside! Talk!”
Boss Chen yanked the door open, and the wiry man darted in.
The old teaching building’s toilet looked run-down but was surprisingly spacious. Facing the entrance was a cement washbasin counter, with six squat stalls lining each side of the door—an area of a good fifty square meters.
But big as it was, it was still a toilet; the only usable space was the walkway. Apart from a few chairs, the room held nothing else.
The wiry man, apparently already familiar with the setup, didn’t look around. He plopped into a chair, wiped his sweat, and started talking like a bamboo tube pouring out its beans.
“We split into three teams like we agreed and went out to hunt wandering zombies and scout the surroundings. Little Li and I had just gotten onto the main road—we only glanced toward the school gate and saw corpses everywhere!”
The man caught his breath and continued. “Little Li and I worked up the nerve to go closer. All those zombies were dead, cores dug out, and there was a dead man in the Gatehouse!”
Boss Chen’s fat cheeks twitched. “You’re sure it was a person?”
“Positive! We went in and looked. The body was clean, not filthy like the zombies, no visible wounds either. If his eyeballs weren’t missing like the zombies outside, I’d have thought he was sleeping!”
The wiry man licked his lips. “Boss Chen, you’re incredible. This morning you said the zombie count was too low to be normal, that there had to be other Players who arrived first—and this afternoon we ran right into them! Who else but a Veteran Player could kill fifty-plus zombies in one go? We’ve only been here two days, and none of us has the guts to kill a person anyway!”
At that last sentence, Boss Chen shot the man a glance, lowered his head, and thought for a moment. “Fifty-some zombies. All dead?”
The man nodded hard. “All dead! Incredible, right? That’s five hundred, almost six hundred points in one haul—enough to buy a Space Bracelet.”
The wiry man’s eyes were full of envy, but Boss Chen’s brow only knitted tighter. “The zombies were all concentrated at the school gate? None elsewhere?”
The wiry man shook his head. “None.”
“…The main road you mentioned—it’s not the one next to our building, is it?”
“That’s the one!”
This time, Boss Chen was silent for quite a while before speaking. “What’s the situation outside?”
“Very safe. No wandering zombies—it looks like that elite Player wiped them all out. Little Li sent me back to fetch you. As agreed, three o’clock, gather at the building next door.”
After receiving the Daily Quest that morning, they had already discussed two things: how to distribute Zombie Cores, and how to maximize everyone’s skills.
Boss Chen’s skill had a short duration and was better suited to tight spaces, so everyone had unanimously agreed he should save his skill time for clearing indoor zombies.
After that they’d been busy digging cores from the zombies in the building, and once done, planned to head out hunting. With no phone signal, the group had worked out responses to every scenario in advance.
If wandering zombies were few and things were relatively safe, they’d gather at the appointed time and enter other teaching buildings to hunt.
Boss Chen raised his wrist, checked the time, and silently nodded.
At three o’clock, Boss Chen and the wiry man left the Grey-Brick Building and walked to another teaching building.
It wasn’t far—about fifty meters. The building’s outer walls were white, and three women and three men stood gathered at the main entrance, talking.
Seeing Boss Chen and the wiry man approach, the group crowded around. One of them, a powerfully built man, said gravely:
“Boss Chen, something’s off about this school.”
Boss Chen grunted. “Go on, Little Li.”
Little Li jerked his chin at the wiry man. “After Skinny Monkey came back, I went out the school gate to look. Around this school it’s nothing but construction sites and empty lots—barely any people. The only intact building is about a kilometer away.”
“With surroundings like that, the school should be crawling with zombies. But we did a full loop and didn’t see a single wandering one!”
The tallest of the three girls picked up the thread. “Besides the low zombie count, this place has barely been searched either. Xiaoxiao, Zihan, and I found a courier station full of unopened packages. We opened a few and found piles of clothes and food.”
“Really?!” Skinny Monkey got excited at once. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go haul stuff!”
Boss Chen glared at him. “What’s the rush? Have you finished collecting your cores? The goods aren’t going anywhere!”
Skinny Monkey shrank his neck and muttered, “I’ve had one steamed bun since yesterday. That’s not enough…”
Hearing this, Xiaoxiao hurriedly pulled a box of chocolates from her pocket. “We knew everyone was hungry, so we brought some food over.”
Zhang Luyao, the girl who’d spoken earlier, and the petite Lu Zihan also produced food from their pockets, and everyone crowded around.
“Thank you, thank you! Bless these beautiful, kind-hearted fairies!”
“Girls are just more thoughtful. I’m starving to death here.”
“Wonder what the Daily Quest supply reward is. Nutrient solution would be nice.”
“I want a meat sandwich… snail rice noodles…”
Once everyone had eaten, Boss Chen looked around at them, expression grave.
“This isn’t as simple as it seems. You all remember how strangely those zombies behaved yesterday? I suspect that Veteran Player was nearby. The Daily Quest turns zombies into a resource—the school has probably already been swept once. The supplies are still here because they don’t need them.”
“Right, with points, who worries about supplies? What can’t you buy in the System Shop? Maybe the shop gets upgraded in the late game too,” murmured the pale, frail man with glasses.
His ear and neck were crudely bandaged—he seemed to be injured. He wasn’t alone; all three girls and Little Li showed signs of bandaging too.
“That means sooner or later we’ll run into those people. Not good…” The sickly middle-aged man looked at Boss Chen. “Boss Chen, what do we do next?”
Boss Chen deliberated for a long time without speaking. Skinny Monkey looked left and right, saw everyone’s heavy faces, and said in a small voice, “It’s not that serious, right? Worst case, we just ask for the minimum guarantee. We’re all compatriots—surely that can be negotiated?”
Zhang Luyao rolled her eyes. “How do you know they’re compatriots? What, you think the Game only harvests Hua Country?”
Skinny Monkey’s neck retracted. “W-well, they’re all Earthlings at least! You’re the educated ones, you can definitely communicate!”
The middle-aged man sighed. “It’s not that simple. Without Boss Chen, we wouldn’t even be together as a group. And Zombie Cores mean points—who’s willing to just hand them to strangers?”
In the silence, Boss Chen finally spoke.
“No point overthinking it now. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Dozens of people got pulled here yesterday—we can’t be the only eight left. We hunt zombies, scavenge supplies, and look for people along the way. More people, more strength.”
He paused, then added, “Of course, be careful when making contact. Let’s go—time to earn today’s minimum.”
Everyone nodded in agreement and followed Boss Chen into the White Teaching Building.
After the eight of them entered, two men emerged from behind the building.
The shorter one said excitedly, “Brother Jin, while they’re gone, let’s hurry to the courier station!”
Brother Jin glared at him. “Go? Go and we’re at war with these people!”
“Then…”
“Didn’t they say more people means more strength? We infiltrate—and take them down one by one from the inside!”
Brother Jin’s lips curled, greed glinting in his eyes. “Once all the men are dead, the supplies, the cores, and the women will all be mine.”
While the Higher Vocational School seethed with undercurrents, things at the New Media Group went smoothly.
Ji Li and Gao Lan used the empty room next to the zombie-filled one, barricading the door with furniture while leaving gaps for the zombies to climb through. Then one made noise inside the room while the other opened the door to release zombies.
As the zombies climbed through the gaps, the person inside could attack with the golf club—kill one, drag it away, kill the next, swapping off when tired.
With sound methods and good coordination, the two cleared the entire second floor before dark, finding a pile of supplies and a full eighteen Zombie Cores.
After much back-and-forth, Ji Li ended up with six Zombie Cores in his palm, plus the new bottled water, instant coffee, and snacks in the room. He looked at Gao Lan thoughtfully.
“Sister Lan, don’t you think this Zombie Apocalypse is a bit strange?”
Gao Lan was in the middle of submitting Zombie Cores; her hands paused and she shot him a puzzled look.
“Think about it—just the two of us, with simple traps and cold weapons, can handle four zombies at a time. This world has computers, desktop robots—there’s no way it doesn’t have firearms. So why are there still so many zombies?”
Gao Lan frowned, her hands moving faster. When the quest completed, she took out her phone and typed.
[I wouldn’t say there are too many, though? The school had very few zombies. Even the ones chasing you—I lured them all to the school gate, yet the school only had a few dozen. Abnormally few.]
“That’s exactly what I find strange. There are clearly traces of survivors fleeing, but no signs of cleanup; the wandering zombies outside are pitifully few, yet the ones locked in rooms are surprisingly many… It’s just too weird.” Ji Li muttered, looking baffled.
Gao Lan thought for a moment, then typed: [It IS off. Once we finish clearing the zombies here, I’ll teach you to drive. The moment we find a map, we go see other places.]
Ji Li nodded his agreement, summoned the quest interface, and began submitting cores.
