Chapter 165: Zombie Siege Practice
The footsteps went from appearing to reaching the door in only a few seconds.
Everyone’s nerves tightened for an instant.
After all, anyone who had watched even a couple of zombie movies could guess from the name "Zombie Siege Practice" what characteristics the massive number of enemies in this dungeon would have.
Incubation period, outbreak, biting, infection, mutation…
These words that had already been worn out in films, once they truly fell upon you, became a kind of horror completely different from ghosts—no one wanted to receive this free mutation experience ticket.
Tang Xinjue closed her eyes, then opened them the next moment. “My mental power can’t be used anymore.”
She pulled out the toilet plunger. The skull pattern at the top of the handle had dimmed and faded as well, symbolizing that its special attribute had become invalid.
?!
The other three were startled and immediately checked their own abilities.
But before they could finish checking, the movement outside suddenly paused. The footsteps had clearly stopped at the door.
Yet the expected knock never came. Only a brief rustling friction flashed past through the door crack, followed by footsteps that vanished in an instant as the person outside hurried away.
Tang Xinjue walked to the door and gently placed her hand on the door panel. Although her mental ability had disappeared, the sharpness of her five senses had not weakened.
“There’s no one outside the door. There’s a piece of paper in the door crack.”
She glanced at it. “The door needs to be opened to take it.”
On the other side, Zheng Wanqing shook her head. The silver arm gleaming with metallic luster clenched and loosened. “My punch ability is gone too!”
Her right hand had returned to its most ordinary form, no different from a normal person’s when used.
Zhang You put down the storage bag. “All props with magic and all protective shields have become invalid.”
Among the four of them, only Guo Guo was slightly better off. Only her exorcism ability had been sealed. Her yin-yang eyes and pendant could still be used.
But in a zombie dungeon, whether you had yin-yang eyes or not seemed to make no difference at all.
“We didn’t estimate this situation in time.”
Zhang You sighed. “Our abilities can influence the dungeon, and the dungeon type will also restrict us in return.”
They should have sensed this already in the promotion exam dungeon.
Just Zheng Wanqing’s steel fist alone had already been bug-level when facing Hong, Lan, Lu, and Zi. Not to mention a zombie world without ghosts?
For balance, the game would inevitably restrict their corresponding abilities.
“So what do we do now?” Guo Guo tightly held her pendant, her pupils like a pair of nervous little grapes.
Two minutes later.
Each of the four people held a shovel or spade, surrounding the door from four directions.
The weapon rack that had just settled in now seemed to shine with holy light, making them wish they could travel back to the day before yesterday when they were “opening packages,” letting Zheng Wanqing open every blind box—preferably pulling out something like a nine-toothed rake.
Were they holding shovels right now? No. The most high-end weapon only needed the most ordinary style. These were clearly top-tier silver weapons that had grasped the true meaning of survival!
Zheng Wanqing crouched in front of the door with a solemn expression and extended two fingers forward in a gesture. “Twelve o’clock direction. Open the door.”
Tang Xinjue, holding the doorknob: “…Step back a little. In a moment the first thing it hits will be your head.”
She pressed the handle down. The dorm door that was usually tightly shut quietly opened in the dungeon, and a piece of paper fell from the crack.
The corridor was silent without a single sound. They quickly shut the door again. Picking up the paper, they saw only a few lines of messy handwriting:
[The most terrifying situation is about to appear. It’s already too late to leave.]
[Do not go out. Absolutely do not go out.]
[Do not believe anyone.]
[Stay alive.]
The handwriting became harder and harder to recognize toward the end. The final line looked like it had abruptly stopped in extreme panic. There was no signature on the paper. The person who threw it had already disappeared into the corridor, and their identity could not be confirmed.
Could it be that “class monitor”?
When a paper hint appeared, it usually meant the crisis had already arrived.
Opening the phone again, the group chat interface still had no reply. This time Tang Xinjue directly tapped the message “Where are you” and sent it to everyone in the contact list with one click.
Surely at least one of them would be online?
Next, she performed the same operation on Zhang You and the others’ phones. Unless the interface was frozen inside Ma Huateng and couldn’t get out, no information method of the 5G era could escape.
Zheng Wanqing was a little puzzled. “Can’t we just call them directly?”
“Messages are the quietest communication method.” Tang Xinjue said. “Some zombie settings make them sensitive to sound.”
If they called while the other person was hiding from zombies and hadn’t turned their phone to silent mode, they might send that NPC straight to death.
“What if no one replies?” Zhang You asked.
“Then it means the plot is progressing very quickly.” Tang Xinjue raised the paper filled with warning sentences. “It’s time for us to defend the tower.”
Just as the words fell into the air, Guo Guo’s phone suddenly buzzed twice. She quickly picked it up and showed everyone. “Someone replied to me!”
In Guo Guo’s contact list, a friend named “All Are My Husbands” sent a message:
[Wow, didn’t expect you could predict the future! I’ve already arrived at the gate of your school! Today I suddenly came to your school to find you. Surprised? Unexpected?]
Guo Guo: …Unexpected indeed. Whether it was surprise or fright was another matter.
The game was indeed as shameless as ever. If not for the mass message, she might never have known she even had such a “friend”—until the other party showed up.
Less than two seconds later, another message popped up:
[Your school is so quiet inside, and there are so few people. Way fewer than the last few times I came. Is there some event?]
Guo Guo subconsciously typed a few words, then suddenly reacted. “If I say there are zombies in the school and tell her to run, will she believe it?”
Tang Xinjue: “If you were an NPC, would you believe it?”
Guo Guo: …If someone had told her a week ago that she would soon enter a horror world called [Dormitory Survival Game], she would probably only reply, “So we don’t have to start school? Yay!”
Sure enough, after the words [There are zombies in the school] were sent, [All Are My Husbands] immediately replied:
[Then does that mean the school will have a holiday? Yay!]
“……”
Tang Xinjue’s fingertips quickly tapped the screen:
[Actually someone with a knife broke into the dormitory area today.]
[All Are My Husbands: ?????]
[All Are My Husbands: Holy shit is that real don’t lie to me why didn’t you say earlier what should I do I’m already standing in your dormitory area help me help me]
Tang Xinjue: [Turn back immediately or hide somewhere nearby. Don’t forget to find something for self-defense. We can’t go out.]
The other side was silent for a moment, then sent a photo. Inside was a row of surveillance screens and several desks and chairs.
[All Are My Husbands: I was too scared just now so I ran into the security room. Didn’t expect there to be no one inside. Now I’m even more scared. The monitors are ridiculously empty, you know?]
[All Are My Husbands: When the security guards come back I’ll ask them to escort me out of the school gate. Friend, if fate allows we’ll meet again.]
[All Are My Husbands: Not talking anymore. Seems like someone is coming…]
The message ended abruptly.
Guo Guo rubbed the tip of her nose. “Under normal circumstances, isn’t this a sign that someone’s about to receive a boxed lunch?”
*领盒饭; “receive a boxed lunch” is Chinese slang for a character dying. The term originated from the a Stephen Chow film, where a scene shows extras receive their lunchboxes after their scenes are over
Tang Xinjue opened another group chat. “Maybe not that one, but this one probably is.”
In the group called “1801 (Don’t Set Do Not Disturb),” the chat that had been silent since the class monitor announced the cancellation of the morning class suddenly contained a segment of chaotic text that made no sense.
Not only did the message look like random keyboard smashing, the sender had sent several messages in a row, then started a group call and closed it less than half a second later.
But what caught their attention even more was that the group remained completely silent. No one even sent a question mark. Those messages were like bubbles suddenly rising from calm water, only to sink back down again in an instant.
Nothing had actually appeared yet, but the oppressive feeling of an approaching storm crept into their hearts, becoming more suffocating as time passed.
Zheng Wanqing tapped the screen irritably, trying to enter the survival APP to check the exam details, but the phone was clearly completely frozen inside this chat software and could no longer provide additional information.
“The most troublesome thing now isn’t the possible danger, but the unknown.”
Zhang You’s brows were tightly furrowed. She emphasized, “We still know nothing about this dungeon.”
Guo Guo didn’t understand for a moment. “But didn’t the dungeon information already give us a lot?”
For example, the story background, the source of danger, the survival method…
Zhang You said briefly, “Then how do we clear it?”
Guo Guo sucked in a breath.
Right! The dungeon seemed to have given everything, but the most important and most basic thing hadn’t been said at all. They didn’t even know the clearance conditions.
If one of the conditions was that Guo Guo’s “friend” had to stay alive, then weren’t they practically finished already?
“Right now there’s only one method: wait for the plot to advance.”
Tang Xinjue came to a conclusion.
From the initial information that appeared in their minds to the later group chat messages, everything indicated the importance of the dungeon’s opening plot.
It was very likely that only when the plot progressed to a certain point would the exam prompt appear. And the time before it fully began was their adaptation and preparation period.
Once they sorted out their thoughts, the four immediately began acting.
Survival in a siege was essentially a tower defense battle, and the most important thing was naturally the “tower.” At the moment, it undoubtedly referred to Dorm 606 where the four of them were.
As long as they didn’t let zombies enter the dorm, theoretically they would never fall into danger—unless the building was blown away.
Zhang You emptied all the props from three large storage bags. From them she chose two iron chains as thick as wrists and used universal locks to seal the balcony window and the dorm door.
Outside the window was still a vast white fog, but there was no guarantee the plot wouldn’t load there later. The dorm door was even more important. This was thanks to Guo Guo’s premonition during the dorm renovation, when she had replaced it with an iron door in advance.
Otherwise, with the original small wooden door, whether it could hold out was still unknown.
The first step was dorm defense. The second step was supplies.
“Ah, luckily we replenished daily necessities and food over the weekend.”
Guo Guo said while feeling extremely fortunate. She lifted the food storage bag and poured it downward. Countless compressed biscuits, bread, beef jerky, rice cakes, noodle cakes… food poured out with a rustling sound, quickly piling into a small hill, yet the storage bag still wasn’t empty.
“……”
Guo Guo said solemnly, “Sister You, exactly how much food did you store?”
With so much stored grain, why had they previously been so frugal with food!
Zhang You pushed her glasses. “If we hadn’t been frugal before, would we have this much food now?”
Guo Guo: …So reasonable she couldn’t refute it.
When the preparation was almost finished, everyone’s equipment had been completely renewed.
Thick fabric wrapped them from head to toe. Areas that were easy to be attacked were padded with thick cushions. One to three sharp weapons hung at their waists, and protective goggles covered their faces.
Guo Guo stood in front of the mirror. “Do you think if zombies rush in and see us, they’ll think we’re aliens?”
Zheng Wanqing said mercilessly, “First of all, zombies won’t rush in.”
After her diligent research, the door had already been reinforced with at least three protective chains. If zombies wanted to rush in, they would have to smash the entire iron door in half!
The silver arm grabbed one chain and shook it to test it, producing a heavy metallic clash when it hit the iron door.
Tang Xinjue suddenly turned her head. “There’s someone outside the door.”
Listening carefully, within the metallic collision sound there seemed to be a familiar friction from the door crack—
The person who delivered the paper earlier had returned?
Guo Guo was the closest and crouched down. After silently counting to three and confirming the sound outside had disappeared, she quietly pulled the door open a crack.
Sure enough, another slip of paper had appeared on the ground.
Guo Guo immediately reached out to pick it up. Before she could see what was written on it, she suddenly felt a trace of chill coming from above her head.
Her gaze moved upward.
A blood-smeared face with bulging eyes was leaning over the crack of the door above her head, grinning and staring straight at her.
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