Chapter 169: Zombie Siege Practice
After Tang Xinjue's voice appeared, there was a moment of silence from the radio.
“Hello, this is a trapped student, calling the Student Union Radio.”
Tang Xinjue clearly repeated herself.
That sentence was immediately transmitted again through the radio. Judging from the sound quality, Fangfang's phone was quite good.
Only then did the Student Union's side seem to reconnect to the signal. Lili's tone could not hide her surprise:
“Tang... is that you?”
Tang Xinjue smiled. “It seems the Student Union's investigation into the list of trapped students on campus still isn't thorough enough, so we could only take the initiative to make contact. We also have your esteemed Student Union to thank for previously publicizing the radio station's contact number, and for keeping that number unchanged for ten years straight.”
Even though quite a long time had passed since the Four Seasons dungeon, she could still recite that string of numbers backwards.
Lili: “...What a coincidence.”
More than a coincidence. It was practically a coincidence's grandmother opening the door for coincidence—a coincidence all the way back to grandmother's house.
This time the Student Union had deliberately provided no clues whatsoever about how to contact the radio station, precisely because they did not want to give students any room for feedback. And to eliminate that remaining 0.01% chance of running into acquaintances, all candidates' phones had been locked.
Who could have known that after all their calculations, not only would they encounter an acquaintance, but one who had almost made it onto the Student Union's blacklist?
Tang Xinjue!
As if she had heard nothing of the hostility in the voice on the other end, Tang Xinjue continued gently:
“Since a student has called in, it shouldn't be difficult for the Student Union, which bears responsibility for helping classmates, to answer a few simple questions, right?”
Only after a long pause did Lili snort coldly.
“What do you want to know?”
“I want to know the infection and survival situation in Building 31. Preferably accurate down to the individual. If the Student Union's capabilities are limited, accuracy to the tens digit is acceptable too.”
Tang Xinjue immediately narrowed the scope to a specific dormitory building, leaving no room for vague answers.
"Oh, Building 31, huh? We'll have to take a good look at this—" Lily drawled, reluctantly beginning, "Building 31 has 12 fully infected individuals, the number of partially infected is unknown, and 21 healthy individuals."The three people listening nearby: ?
The other students listening to the broadcast at the same time: ???
So you can be this specific?!
Then what was all that rambling and beating around the bush earlier? Taking advantage of the fact that students couldn't crawl into the radio to question you, just deliberately messing with people?
The moment Lili finished speaking, Tang Xinjue followed up without missing a beat:
“What about Building 13? How many local infected and external infected are inside? How many local residents and transient residents?”
“H-how would I know! The Student Union isn't conducting a census!”
Hearing the irritable rejection over the phone, Tang Xinjue calmly said, “Don't be anxious. I'm just asking casually; answer according to your ability. Then what about Buildings 19 and 33...”
After answering several questions in a row, the Student Union gradually realized something was wrong:
If this continued, the population distribution of the entire dormitory district would be exposed in one sweep!
But Tang Xinjue's barrage of questions gave them no opportunity to find excuses to refuse or stall. Lili's voice became increasingly vague, and when Tang Xinjue asked about Building 10, it finally disappeared completely amid a burst of static.
The other end of the line fell silent for a long while, as if disconnected.
“What are they doing?” Zheng Wanqing looked confused. “If they don't want to answer, couldn't they just hang up?”
Their abilities were currently restricted anyway. They couldn't really follow the phone line over and beat people up.
Tang Xinjue remained as calm as ever.
“They can't hang up.”
Or rather, they couldn't voluntarily hang up within a certain period of time.
As early as the Four Seasons dungeon, they had deduced a rule from the Student Union's behavior: the Student Union could not actively refuse reasonable requests from students.
The Student Union could conceal information, exploit rules, dig traps and bury people... But as long as students asked questions directly, they had to answer.
Where there are rules, there are shackles.
Likewise, under the balancing rules, the students' authority could not expand without limits either: time was the second restriction placed upon students.
Zhang You immediately understood: “They can't hang up now, but they can stall. Once a certain point in time arrives, this rule's restraint on them will naturally disappear.”
At that point, even if questioned, they would have a whole pile of excuses such as “the signal was bad” or “I didn't hear clearly.” With even one-tenth of Tang Xinjue's ability to brush people off, it would be enough to leave no evidence behind.
The abacus was certainly being calculated loudly.
*meaning a clever plan, they're scheming a lot
Faced with their determination to play dead to the very end, Tang Xinjue remained unmoved. After a moment, she spoke as if nothing had happened:
“It seems the signal on my side isn't very good. Then I'll first publicly release the radio station's contact information, so that other students can seek help when needed...”
The radio suddenly crackled loudly, interrupting Tang Xinjue. After the static passed, Lili's pleasant voice sounded again:
“Alright, there was a small accident just now, but everything has been fully restored. Is there anything else you want to ask, Tang?"
Perhaps it was an illusion, but everyone felt that Lili's voice now carried a faint sense of exhaustion, like someone who had failed to get reassigned and had been forced back onto the job.
Tang Xinjue's attitude remained as gentle as ever.
“There are still many questions. Let's make good use of the time.”
...
By the time even Zhang You's real-time notes were nearly unable to keep up, the radio station finally let out a long sigh of relief and hurriedly cut off the questioning:
“The time limit for this broadcast has been reached! Thank you to this student for the wonderful call-in. Then we'll see everyone again in one hour!”
After saying that, without giving Tang Xinjue any chance to speak, both the call and the broadcast were cut off at lightning speed, disappearing completely.
“Another one who runs fast... Huh, why did I say 'another'?”
Guo Guo muttered a few words, then immediately pulled Zheng Wanqing over to Zhang You's side. The four of them held a recording of the phone call and a written transcript, indicating that this long-distance call within the campus had been quite fruitful.
“They gave information on a total of 13 dormitory buildings, 2 small supermarkets, and 3 entrances to the dormitory district.”
Zhang You methodically reviewed everything. She opened a four-person group chat on QQ and listed every piece of information one by one.
Among them, their dormitory building was Building 33, with Buildings 31 and 32 beside it. When asking questions, Tang Xinjue had intentionally mixed them together to avoid revealing their location to others.
“Our building contains 27 fully infected individuals, 16 uninfected people, and the rest are all in the intermediate stage, infected but not yet fully zombified. The exact number is unknown.”
Just from the numbers alone, it's clear that this building has significantly more zombies than other buildings—obviously a “special favor” given to the examinees by the dungeon.
“The nearby buildings also have quite a lot of zombies, but looking down from the balcony, you can barely see any trace of them...”
As she said this, Zhang You suddenly realized something was wrong.
“...The zombie numbers don't add up.”
Tang Xinjue nodded.
“That's right.”
“If all the infected people are inside the building, it shouldn't be this quiet.”
As everyone knows, dormitory buildings have such poor soundproofing that you can clearly hear someone upstairs moving a desk, or hear a classmate screaming at a cockroach ten rooms away across a corridor.
The entire sixth floor and the floors below were silent. Did zombies dislike climbing stairs?
Tang Xinjue said: “Conversely, if those people aren't inside the building, then the outside shouldn't be this empty either.”
An image immediately appeared in Guo Guo's mind: “Wait, don't tell me they're all on the first floor?”
She received the same answer from both Tang Xinjue and Zhang You:
“It's possible, and highly likely.”
Now it was even clearer why the NPCs had repeatedly warned them to “absolutely not go outside.”
If someone in the building were deceived by the peaceful scene outside the balcony and recklessly went down to the first floor, they would see the magnificent sight of all the zombies in the building crowded together in the lobby, and then become one of them.
“But we're not the only ones who know this now.”
Tang Xinjue had asked about 13 buildings. If the surviving students inside those buildings were listening to the radio, they would most likely be able to deduce the same thing.
“This is a zombie dungeon, but fundamentally it's also a human dungeon,” Tang Xinjue's tone was calm and certain. “With only our own thinking ability, it is impossible to simultaneously analyze the campus, the zombies, the survivors, and the Student Union within a limited amount of time, while also predicting dangers before they appear.”
This was not something four people could accomplish.
But what if it were forty people? Four hundred people?
“So what we truly need to do is get more people thinking. Let people return to rational human judgment in the face of complete information, instead of sinking into beast-like instincts in complete ignorance.”
After speaking, she opened the phone interface again and mass-sent another message:
[Forward this message. If you don't forward it, you're not an A University student. I also forwarded it from someone else. Below is the Student Union Radio contact number: 7543...]
Message sent successfully.
The group looked out the window.
The dormitory district, which had remained quiet until now, seemed at some point to have become covered by a faint veil of haze, drifting close to the ground. Things were still visible, but no longer as clearly as before.
Fog was forming.
Inside a supermarket, several collapsed shelves had fallen together, creating a tent-like triangular space. A girl was curled up inside, repeatedly confirming that no figures were moving outside before hugging her phone and typing with trembling hands:
[Sis, you'll never believe what I've seen and heard. Even though you're probably no longer among the living, I still want to record all of this...]
She hadn't held out much hope, but less than two seconds later, a new message popped up in the chat window:
[???]
Girl: !!!
She was overjoyed.
[Oh my god, you're still alive!]
Inside Dormitory 606, Guo Guo, who was making protective clothing, saw the new chat message. Her eyes widened so much they were nearly round circles, equally filled with disbelief:
[You're still alive??]
[All Are My Husbands: Yeah 15551, I didn't expect I'd actually make it out either. Luckily you warned me about the murderer, so I hid in the security room. Then suddenly something happened outside. I looked up and saw a person covered in blood!]
[All Are My Husbands: My god, can you imagine it? Good thing I had the presence of mind to shut the door. Then I saw several people running outside, with at least dozens of bloody people chasing them. They all ran into the dormitory district and happened to charge down the same route I had just taken!]
[All Are My Husbands: If I'd changed routes even five minutes later, I'd have been completely eaten by now!]
The other side sent a large number of exclamation marks to express her excitement. Guo Guo could practically imagine the screaming in her heart.
Only after a long while did the girl finally calm down.
[All Are My Husbands: Anyway, after half a day of thrilling escape, I've finally found a hiding place. I'm under the shelves in the FamilyMart supermarket right now. Where are you? If you're nearby, you can come here. This shelf is pretty big. Fitting two people won't be a problem.]
[All Are My Husbands: image.jpg]
After briefly discussing it with the other three, Guo Guo answered truthfully:
[I'm in the dormitory.]
[All Are My Husbands: !! Then make sure you lock the door tight and don't come out! I saw all those zombies rushing into the dormitory buildings. I don't know if it's because it's too sunny outside...]
[Anyway, buildings are especially dangerous right now. I only managed to find this looted supermarket with great difficulty. I probably can't stay here much longer either. Even the shared power banks have all been taken. I hate this!]
[My phone is almost out of battery, and I can't contact anyone off campus either. Sigh. Anyway, you absolutely have to stay alive. If I die, please help tell my family that my memorial photo must be one with beauty filters. During holidays, burn me a Switch and two sniper rifles. I'm going down there to fight zombies head-on...]
[Guo Guo: School Map.pdf]
The girl typed through tear-blurred eyes:
[I also want to... Huh? What's this?]
She blinked twice before she could react, when another message arrived from the other side.
Using Guo Guo's phone, Tang Xinjue sent over all the school terrain files they had obtained from the neighboring dormitory.
[Come.]
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