Chapter 180: Zombie Siege Practice
Hearing Tang Xinjue’s voice, the leader turned his head around again, only then noticing that there were not only two students who looked like zombies here, but also three clean and uninjured girls.
He tremblingly adjusted his thick-soled glasses: “Y-you’re really not infected?”
Sun Qian’s original fear had all turned into annoyance: “I just have a skin disease. Looking ugly doesn’t mean I’m a ghost, okay?”
The leader: “……”
Two minutes later, the shouts of “Run!” had turned into roars of “Don’t trample each other!” A group of students finally managed to calm down, cautiously walking into the supermarket while still maintaining a posture ready to sprint away at any moment.
The leader was a young man with a strong scholarly air. He nervously wiped his glasses and, after confirming that there were no zombies nearby, finally breathed a sigh of relief and asked the five of them: “Are you survivors from nearby?”
Tang Xinjue glanced backward, and Sun Qian understood immediately: “We escaped from another student stronghold!”
She pointed at the injuries on her body: “These were also caused by those two strongholds, and there’s also what happened to him…”
After hearing the girl’s account, the students of the third stronghold looked at one another, their faces full of disbelief.
“I heard the other strongholds were all very powerful, with food and safety. How could this happen??”
The leader was also dumbfounded: “T-to tell you the truth, we were actually planning to move our whole family over to seek refuge at a stronghold.”
Sun Qian: “…But aren’t you yourselves a stronghold?”
The leader grimaced: “But we don’t have any food!”
As Tang Xinjue had guessed, they were the students stationed at the student affairs center stronghold.
Just as they had initially analyzed, the student affairs center was small, with only one floor, and outside there were glass doors everywhere. It could be said to be easy to attack and difficult to defend. The students were living there in fear and anxiety as if each day lasted a year, never knowing when the zombies might break through.
But this still wasn’t the most difficult part. At the very beginning, only two students had established the stronghold. As more people gradually arrived, their meager food reserves were quickly depleted, and they could only come out to search for food. More often than not, they were chased around by zombies until they were rolling and scrambling, yet returned empty-handed.
As soon as he started pouring out his grievances about the stronghold, the leader was full of bitterness. He was one of the people who had established the stronghold back then, while another classmate had disappeared and remained of unknown life or death after fighting with zombies over a bag of expired popcorn.
Tang Xinjue nodded: “I see. So, are these the elite members of your stronghold?”
She looked at the dozen or so people behind him.
The leader: “Oh, no, they’re the entire membership of the stronghold.”
The entire stronghold, regardless of men or women, young or old, except for those who were genuinely too seriously ill or injured to walk, had all come out together to hunt for supplies. After all, rather than starving to death inside the stronghold, it was better to come out and fight the zombies to the death.
Fortunately, Heaven rewards the diligent. This morning, they had finally reached the back door of a supermarket warehouse. Inside were all foods that had only recently expired and had not yet been thrown away. It was almost enough food to feed them for several days!
At this point, the leader secretly glanced several times at the shovels in Tang Xinjue and the others’ hands, then sheepishly took a bag of whole-wheat bread out of his pocket, his heart aching as he said:
“Meeting each other means we’re fated, so take this. From now on, we’re friends, and we’ll look out for each other if anything happens, okay…”
606: ……
Did they look like the kind of robbers who would stop people on the road and extort them?
Tang Xinjue rejected the leader’s act of handing over “protection money” and instead introduced Sun Qian and Yang Hang to them.
The leader was somewhat flattered. Many students ran away as soon as they saw the conditions on their side; only acquaintances who trusted them or people too lazy to leave would stay behind.
This was the first time experienced classmates had actually taken the initiative to apply to join!
“Prepare yourselves. There may be a lot of people coming to seek refuge with you next.”
Tang Xinjue said.
Everyone’s first reaction was disbelief, but seeing the other party’s calm expression and tone, and combining it with the “secrets” of the other two major strongholds, they couldn’t help but waver.
Could it be that their little broken stronghold could actually hold on?
After finding Sun Qian and Yang Hang a place to go, Tang Xinjue and the other two had no intention of staying for long either. They exchanged contact information with the third stronghold and quickly left.
They had already obtained important information, and there was an even more urgent matter to deal with next.
“There are three student strongholds in total. One screens sacrifices and conducts a sacrificial ritual, one researches the virus and conducts experiments, and only one is truly providing students with a safe place of refuge… The safety of that place is still open to question.”
After summarizing the situation in the dormitory area, Zhang You’s brows knitted tightly: “It really fits the game’s usual style.”
Not only does it trick the examinees, the NPCs can’t escape either.
“Since the dungeon is forcibly making us come into contact with the strongholds, it means their subsequent actions will definitely have an impact on the dungeon’s ending.”
Tang Xinjue said.
She looked at the sky. The sunlight had already completely broken through the clouds, symbolizing that time was rapidly shifting from early morning toward noon.
The supply airdrop announced by the student union was about to arrive. At that time, the entire school might fall into unprecedented chaos.
And Guo Guo still had no news.
“If I were Guo Guo, if I couldn’t contact you, I would definitely return to the dormitory first.”
Zhang You inferred based on her understanding of Guo Guo.
They had already asked the students of the third stronghold to help spread the word and keep an eye out. The best method next was to return to the dormitory and search.
As they spoke, the outline of Dormitory Building 33 had already entered their field of vision.
Zheng Wanqing was the most anxious: “Should we go through the door or the balcony later?”
If Guo Guo had already returned to the dormitory, the three of them would of course have an easier time climbing up through the external balcony. But if Guo Guo hadn’t returned yet, and had happened to be trapped inside the dormitory building by the inhumane dungeon, what then?
Tang Xinjue suddenly stopped.
“You reminded me.”
She took out the old-fashioned phone that still had some battery left and dialed a number.
After the first phone call from the very beginning, Yu Wei, the only one left behind in the dormitory, had not sent any further news.
Given Yu Wei’s talkative personality, the fact that she had neither asked about their situation nor ever sent a text message to tell them whether there was any news about Guo Guo was itself strange.
From one perspective, it might mean there was no need to contact them… But if viewed from the completely opposite perspective, what if she was unable to contact them?
“Sorry, the number you have dialed is an empty number. Please try again later…”
In Dormitory 606.
Yu Wei tried different numbers again and again, a layer of sweat forming on her forehead from anxiety, yet she still couldn’t piece together the number she remembered.
Being able to receive Tang’s phone call had originally been a pleasant surprise, but she soon discovered that the phone that had been contacted had run out of battery.
And she hadn’t managed to memorize the number on Tang Xinjue’s side.
This meant that from now on, she could only wait for the other party to call again, while she herself had no way to contact them proactively!
Yu Wei carefully arranged the last few phones that still had power, then collapsed dejectedly into the chair, praying very insecurely that they would return soon.
Preferably immediately. Anyone would do…
Knock knock knock.
The sudden knocking almost scared Yu Wei off the chair. Had Tang come back so quickly?
She originally ran to the door and was about to ask, but then realized that besides the evenly paced knocking, the outside was quiet to an almost excessive degree.
Even if the four people from 606 hadn’t brought their keys, they would definitely make a sound to prove their identity when knocking, rather than remain completely silent.
Yu Wei swallowed, and finally said softly: “Who is it?”
There was a long silence outside the door. Then a hoarse voice answered her: “It’s me, the class monitor.”
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