At eight o’clock on Saturday, most college students did not have classes and were basically sleeping in at their dorms.
But on this seemingly peaceful day, things inside Dorm 806 were anything but peaceful.
Cheng Zhi suddenly jolted awake and sat upright, as if she had just had a nightmare, gasping for breath over and over.
Her entire body was covered in cold sweat, and Cheng Zhi no longer wanted to stay in bed. She flipped herself off the bed, only to discover that, for the first time ever, the other four girls in the dorm had all gotten up unusually early.
Cheng Zhi swept her gaze across them and immediately noticed that everyone’s complexion looked terrible.
“It’s Saturday. Why is everyone up so early?” Cheng Zhi asked while pouring herself some water.
Chen Siyu, who slept in the bed beside hers, looked a little pale. She gripped the hem of her nightgown tightly and let out two bitter laughs.
“I had a nightmare too. It’s weird. Normally I never remember my dreams, but that dream last night, I remembered every detail. It felt completely real.”
The moment she finished speaking, Xiao Feiran, who was on the opposite bed, sighed as well.
“I had nightmares all night too. It felt way too real…”
As she spoke, Xiao Feiran unconsciously reached up and rubbed her neck.
After hearing all this, Cheng Zhi looked at the date on her phone, October 10, 2023, then suddenly burst into laughter.
The other four roommates nearby were all stunned and simultaneously turned to stare at Cheng Zhi.
Cheng Zhi laughed so hard she could barely breathe. Finally, after calming herself down, she stood up and hugged each of her roommates one by one. Then, as though she were telling someone else’s story, she said something that sounded completely insane.
“My friends, this wasn’t a dream at all. The apocalypse… natural disasters. We ate through all the food we had left in the dorm, then went out to search for supplies. The first time we left the dorm, Huang Yiyi got swept away by the flood. Zheng Wan got injured too. We didn’t have medicine, and Wan died from illness. After that, evil people ran rampant everywhere, burning, killing, and looting. Siyu jumped off a building. Feiran got caught and had her throat slit. I got beaten to death too. We… all died…”
The entire Dorm 806 fell silent.
Everyone’s expression turned extremely grave.
After a long while, Huang Yiyi covered her eyes painfully and said through choked sobs, “So it was all real? If it wasn’t for saving me, Wanzi wouldn’t have gotten hurt, and she wouldn’t have died.”
Beside her, Zheng Wan walked over and wrapped her arms around Huang Yiyi, gently comforting her.
Xiao Feiran let out a long breath, pushed open the glass balcony door, and looked at the pleasant weather outside. A few energetic college students carrying textbooks walked by in the distance.
“I never thought I’d get to see scenery like this again.”
“So… we’ve been reborn?” Chen Siyu finally asked the soul searching question.
For a moment, none of the five girls knew what exactly was going on.
Cheng Zhi opened her phone and looked through messages and news articles. Then she forwarded an article titled “Super Typhoon ‘Ora’ May Make Landfall Along the Southeastern Coast on the 12th of This Month” into their dorm group chat.
As everyone stared at the news article, fear began to rise in their hearts.
It was this typhoon.
This was the beginning of the apocalypse.
The beginning of their nightmare.
After thinking for a moment, Cheng Zhi voiced her suggestion.
“Our homes are all really far away. It takes a whole day to get back. How about we stockpile some supplies first? In our last life, we didn’t survive long enough to wait for government rescue. If we can survive until then this time, maybe… maybe we can live.”
Her words made sense.
None of them were locals. By the time they got home, the apocalypse would most likely have already arrived. They simply would not have enough time to prepare.
Cheng Zhi glanced at her account balance.
Twenty five thousand yuan.
It should be enough to buy some food.
Everyone reported how much money they had left, and together they had around one hundred fifty thousand yuan.
Water, bread, canned food, vitamins, medicine.
After roughly going through a list, they split into small groups and headed out to buy supplies.
As Cheng Zhi and Xiao Feiran walked, they calculated expenses as they went, trying to make every last cent worth spending. While talking, they eventually reached the wholesale market. Cheng Zhi did not hesitate at all and grandly waved her hand, immediately ordering two hundred cases of bottled water and one hundred fifty cases of long shelf life bread.
Meanwhile, Xiao Feiran wandered around nearby. Suddenly, a knife shop caught her attention.
Bone cleavers, fruit knives…
All kinds of blades reflected cold light.
Xiao Feiran picked them up one by one to test them. In the end, she chose the five that felt best in her hands and paid for them. She also bought two whetstones and the sickle the owner had piled up in the corner.
By the time she returned to find Cheng Zhi, the bottled water and bread were already being loaded onto a truck.
Looking at the mountain of supplies, Xiao Feiran furrowed her brows and quietly asked, “By the way, where are we even going to put all this stuff? The dorm barely has any space.”
Cheng Zhi had already thought about that.
“I checked. Dorm 835 across the hall used to belong to some senior students, but they’ve already graduated. It’s empty now, so we can pile everything in there.”
There was so much stuff that just loading it took half the day.
In the end, Cheng Zhi and Xiao Feiran climbed onto the truck and headed back to school together.
Luckily, it was Saturday. Most students were either out having fun or staying inside their dorms. Box after box was carried upstairs, and only a few passersby gave them curious looks.
As the workers carried things, one of them laughed and asked, “Student, why’d you buy so much water?”
Cheng Zhi smiled and answered, “College student startup project. We’re opening an online water store.”
Before long, Dorm 835 was completely packed with water and bread.
Zheng Wan also returned carrying two huge boxes of medicine. Fever medicine, cold medicine, antibacterial supplies, disinfectants, injury treatments, sprain medicine, she had practically bought everything.
Chen Siyu and Huang Yiyi were the last to return to the dorm. They brought back several large boxes of sanitary pads, disposable underwear, tissues, and similar supplies.
After all, in their previous life, the typhoon had only raged for a few days before the electricity and water were cut off. They had not even been able to wash their faces.
Dorm 835 was almost completely stuffed, and even the hallway of 806 was packed full.
Cheng Zhi felt that leaving things outside was not a long term solution. They still needed to use their space more efficiently.
Their dorm had originally been built for six people, but because there were fewer students in their year, only five people lived there.
The extra bed had gradually turned into storage space for books, laundry detergent, and all sorts of miscellaneous things.
Cheng Zhi casually stuffed a few bites of food into her mouth. Once everyone had finally caught their breath, she suggested that they clean out the empty bed space together.
Especially the books in the cabinet. Clearing those out would free up a lot of room.
But then something bizarre happened.
Just as Cheng Zhi and the others placed their hands on the cabinet doors, loud banging suddenly erupted from inside.
Blue light flashed through the cracks over and over.
Cheng Zhi and the other four immediately backed away.
The sounds from inside the cabinet grew louder and louder until, with a bang, the cabinet doors suddenly flew open.
Staring at the scene before them, Cheng Zhi was dumbfounded.
Xiao Feiran’s eyes widened so much they nearly popped out. She slapped Chen Siyu’s face and asked, “Does that hurt? Can you feel it? What the hell is this?!”
Chen Siyu had not even reacted to being hit. She stared blankly at the thing in front of her, her hand trembling as she pointed.
“Cabi… cabinet… it mutated!”
The books and laundry detergent inside the cabinet had all vanished, including their giant flying chess mat that was over 1.8 meters long.
Instead, another dorm room had mysteriously appeared inside.
It was completely empty.
There was nothing inside.
Perhaps because the noise had been too loud, students from the neighboring dorm came over to see what was happening.
A short haired girl lightly knocked on the door and poked her head in.
“What are you guys doing in here? Did some prohibited appliance explode?”
When the five girls remained silent for a long time, the student could only leave while muttering to herself,
“These five are idiots or something. Why are they staring at a broken cabinet? Isn’t it just a few books…”
Woohoo, things had just gotten even more exciting.
Apparently, they were the only ones who could see the things inside the cabinet.