When Ning Yiwei left the infirmary, she felt she had truly seen it all.
She had thought grabbing hazmat suits was already crazy enough—until Xu Kewang, carrying a red-light physiotherapy lamp on her shoulder, said to her with a deadpan expression, "Let's go."
This world was on the verge of collapse.
Their current haul was far too conspicuous. They had no choice but to dodge and hide their way back to the dormitory building. Along the way, there were many more students rushing about—some carrying large bags and bundles, others empty-handed but with fierce looks on their faces.
"Ah, what are you doing!" A scream drew the attention of Xu Kewang and the others, who were hiding behind the holly bushes.
A girl carrying a plastic bag, her face flushed bright red, was struggling desperately against a man with a hostile expression. He looked to be at least over thirty—how could someone that age be in a university dormitory area?
Before Xu Kewang could figure out what was going on, the man had already snatched the bag and swaggered off, leaving the girl pushed to the ground, wailing loudly.
"Give it back, give it back, sob sob sob—that was the last of my food."
Ning Yiwei had always been the most compassionate, and seeing this scene, her eyes couldn't help but redden.
She had witnessed the situation at the convenience store earlier and knew how scarce that food was. If they couldn't grab anything today, they would likely go hungry in the days to come.
Unable to leave, and with nothing to eat—how could anyone survive? Or rather, how many days could they last?
Though Xu Kewang also felt a pang of sympathy, she noticed more and more passersby being drawn by the girl's crying—many of them older, like the man from before—so she didn't dare go out and play the good Samaritan.
At the same time, she pressed her hand down on Ning Yiwei.
"Don't worry, I won't be that impulsive," Ning Yiwei said, pressing her hand back, her cold palm gripping Xu Kewang's hand. "If you hadn't reminded us, we never would have gotten what we have now. This is the hope of the entire dorm. I won't drag you all down for the sake of my own sympathy."
Hearing this, Xu Kewang was taken aback for a moment, then pursed her lips and smiled.
The robbed girl cried for a long time. Probably out of energy, after venting her emotions, she wiped her face, stood up, and as if having made some kind of resolution, ran toward the supermarket once more.
Everyone—yes, everyone—could not possibly give up on living so easily at the very start of the game.
That was what Xu Kewang thought.
The two of them, sneaking about like thieves, finally made it back to the dormitory building with the physiotherapy lamp. Their location happened to be in the northeast corner of the entire dormitory complex, surrounded by several large trees, quieter than anywhere else.
"Holy crap, why didn't you just move the whole store over here," Xie Yue said, though she took the lamp from them without missing a beat. "Everyone's out grabbing stuff right now, so there aren't many people in the building. Hurry up and get inside."
The four of them finally had a chance to rest. After returning to the dorm, they practically collapsed onto their beds.
Xu Kewang surveyed the dorm. Though her body was utterly exhausted, her heart was unusually satisfied and at ease.
Their four-person dorm was over twenty square meters—not too small, not too big. At this moment, it was packed to the brim with the supplies they had scavenged, leaving almost no room to stand.
Of course, the biggest space-taker was the water—not only six packs of bottled water, but also a pack of cola and… a pack of beer?
"How did you even carry all this back?" Xu Kewang was almost impressed.
"Of course it's thanks to my innate godlike strength, hahahaha," Xie Yue raised her arm, revealing solid muscle. "When I went, I specifically looked for a few curtain pull cords and tied all these waters together, then half-dragged, half-carried them back. Just treated it as weighted training."
She patted her beloved beer with great satisfaction.
"Don't even mention it—sweating really makes your body feel much better."
Yet no sooner had she said that than she lay right back down on the bed like a board: "Never mind, I was bragging. Actually I'm about to die of exhaustion."
The others were all used to her being like this and exchanged smiles.
Xu Kewang didn't plan to rest. She pushed all the waters under everyone's desks, found a few old bedsheets and cut them open, then covered the waters with them. Then she laid the suitcases down flat and pushed them in front of the waters, blocking everything completely.
Afterward, she sorted the purchased food into four equal portions. Xie Yue had great strength and would be the dorm's main errand-runner in the future, so Xu Kewang set aside more of her own share of meat for her.
"I brought dried beef and cured meat from home," Wen Cai pulled out a black plastic bag. "These meats are all rubbed with salt on the outside, so they can keep for a long time."
Ning Yiwei then opened her cabinet and pulled out two cardboard boxes: "These are the little breads and biscuits I had left over."
Everyone looked and saw that inside were all sorts of fancy sweets collected from various brands and flavors.
"So that's what you were always crunching on behind the curtains in the middle of the night—I thought you were keeping a hamster," Xie Yue was stunned by the variety of little breads. "So you were eating these all along?"
Then she looked worriedly at Ning Yiwei's two stick-like legs: "Where does all the food you eat go?"
"Maybe… it turned into spring mud to protect the flowers," Ning Yiwei said shyly, then without further discussion grabbed handful after handful to distribute to everyone. "Whoever sees it gets a share."
Xie Yue refused to be outdone and contributed her protein powder: "Eat with me for three months, and I guarantee that when the four of us walk down the street, people will run at the sight of us and ghosts will worry at the sight of us."
Imagining four muscular strongwomen walking hand in hand down the street, Xu Kewang actually thought it sounded pretty good.
If the apocalypse from her dreams was truly going to come, then the pale, young, and thin look favored by mainstream aesthetics might go from an advantage to a disadvantage. Solid muscle was the real capital for survival.
Seeing that everyone had contributed something, Xu Kewang lowered her head: "Sorry, I don't have anything, so I'll take less of the supplies."
"Don't fuss over that," they all comforted her. "If not for your warning, how many days could our stuff have lasted? You're the one who saved us."
They continued sorting these supplies, organizing them and putting them back in their cabinets. Whatever couldn't fit was stuffed into Storage Chests and placed in the bathroom.
Although it sounded a bit disgusting, they couldn't let these precious supplies be visible in the open, lest people passing by see them when the door opened and closed and start coveting them.
Finally, Xu Kewang took out the last bag that hadn't been sorted.
"One lock per person. Lock all the cabinets and keep the keys on you," she distributed the iron locks she had snatched. "If someone comes in to rob our supplies, these locks can still buy us some time."
"Also, here are a few fruit knives. I couldn't find any better weapons, so let's make do with these for now."
When she spoke, her tone while handing out the knives was more casual than if she were handing out apples.
The other three exchanged uneasy glances before drawing their palm-length blades. Though the small knives posed little threat, they gleamed with layers of cold light.
They had to admit that everything was spiraling toward the worst possible outcome.