"Brother Li, would it be possible for me to take a shower tomorrow?"
In the hotel room, Mi Xiaoxiao rested against Li Yufeng’s chest, her voice soft and coaxing.
Li Yufeng replied, "Isn’t that just a matter of me saying the word?"
"Really?" Mi Xiaoxiao asked with a hint of excitement. In this apocalypse, simply finding food and water was a struggle. Taking a shower was naturally an unimaginable luxury.
"Of course. I want you to smell nice and fresh every day too!" Li Yufeng said, though he frowned slightly. Truth be told, the lovely girl currently nestled in his arms didn’t smell very pleasant, so he agreed to her request without a second thought.
After more than half a month of effort, they had completely cleared out all the zombies on the floor housing the hotel’s large private suites. This wasn’t a particularly difficult task for humans, whose intelligence was infinitely superior to that of the zombies, and they had managed to scavenge a decent amount of supplies.
Following a series of harrowing experiences, the female classmates had come to accept a harsh reality: if they wanted to eat their fill, they had to pay a price. A small minority of the girls had paid with their lives, while the majority chose to offer their bodies.
Those who paid with their lives found release, never having to suffer the pangs of hunger again. As for the girls who offered their bodies, they gradually came to understand that in the apocalypse, a woman had to attach herself to a man to survive. This post-apocalyptic world was simply too unforgiving toward women.
After clearing the entire floor, the few remaining boys each claimed a private room. Before the apocalypse, most of them had been sheltered students, completely oblivious to the outside world yet full of yearning for intimacy. They hadn’t dared to act on it back then, but now, free from societal constraints, they had tasted the forbidden fruit and become practically addicted. Aside from risking their lives against zombies outside, eating, and sleeping, they spent most of their free time fooling around with the girls.
Fortunately, while the boys inevitably suffered casualties during their dangerous scavenge runs, the girls mostly stayed alive. As a result, there was no situation where the boys ended up violently fighting each other over them.
After a session of passionate lovemaking, Li Yufeng lit a cigarette and asked, "Who’s better, me or Luffy?"
Still panting softly, Mi Xiaoxiao froze for a moment before scoffing. "Pfft, you’re better, of course. Luffy is small and pathetic—how could he possibly compare to you?"
In the darkness, Mi Xiaoxiao blinked, a single tear slipping from the corner of her eye. Never did she imagine a day would come when she had to flatter and cater to such a poor, average student, forcing herself to say things she didn’t mean, all just to get a full meal and a cold shower.
"Heh, let’s sleep!" Li Yufeng chuckled, soon drifting off to dreamland.
Mi Xiaoxiao tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. She didn’t know how much time had passed when she faintly heard a phone ringing. At first, she paid it no mind; it was probably just an alarm on a phone still in some zombie’s pocket. It rang for about three minutes before stopping, which only seemed to confirm her assumption.
But five minutes later, the alarm rang again, repeating the cycle.
Finally unable to ignore it, she nudged Li Yufeng beside her. Bleary-eyed, he snapped angrily, "Do you have a death wish? Go to sleep!"
"There’s something happening outside!"
Li Yufeng sat up as well, now faintly catching the sound of the ringtone.
"Fuck, which idiot is that? I told everyone to keep quiet!" Cursing, he hopped out of bed, threw on a few pieces of clothing, and opened the door.
"Ah!"
After a brief moment of shock, Li Yufeng swiftly slammed the door shut.
"How can this be? How is this possible?"
Immediately after, the frantic sound of BANG BANG BANG echoed against the door from the outside.
"What’s wrong?" Mi Xiaoxiao asked, a sense of foreboding rising in her chest.
Li Yufeng frantically scratched his head, his face pale with panic. "There are zombies outside! So many of them!"
Hearing the tremble in Li Yufeng’s voice, Mi Xiaoxiao was confused. "Then let’s just clear them out again! Just like before!"
"What do you know?" Li Yufeng said through gritted teeth. "There are ten times more zombies in the hallway than before! The entire floor is swarming with them! How are we supposed to clear that?"
"Then what do we do?" Mi Xiaoxiao asked, clutching his arm.
"Fuck off!" Li Yufeng violently shook off her hand. "How the hell should I know?"
He was deeply bewildered. By all logic, there were practically no free-roaming zombies left in the hotel, and he had personally locked the main entrance. So where did all these zombies come from? He simply couldn’t figure it out.
However, his confusion didn’t change the established fact: they were trapped inside the hotel’s private suites. With a countless horde of zombies on one side and a seventeen-story drop on the other, death was inevitable either way.
In the emergency stairwell at the end of the corridor, Luffy stared at the dense sea of zombie heads before him, laughing coldly to himself. At this moment, the hotel was packed with enough zombies to fill several city streets.
That very night, someone was caught off guard and opened their door, allowing the zombies to surge into the suite. Agonizing screams echoed through the night. Luffy recognized the homeroom teacher’s voice among them.
As their teacher, he had done absolutely nothing after the apocalypse, allowing Li Yufeng and his gang to target Luffy while also taking the lead in bullying some of the female students. He was no different from that infamous teacher on the news who had abandoned his students to flee alone during an earthquake. He deserved to die!
The following few days were relatively quiet. Luffy was now sitting inside an abandoned Land Rover parked on the street.
Suddenly, a muffled THUD rang out. Luffy immediately recognized the sound: it was a human body smashing against the ground after jumping from a building.
He got out of the car and saw a person from a distance, twitching on the concrete pavement. A pool of blood spread slowly beneath the body, beckoning temptingly to Luffy.
It was Mi Xiaoxiao.
Luffy’s gaze was drawn to a wound on Mi Xiaoxiao’s arm. A chunk of muscle tissue was missing, clearly sliced off by a sharp object. He could easily guess the gruesome reason behind it.
Looking up, he saw a man peering out of a window. It was Li Yufeng. On his face, Luffy could see frustration and regret, but mostly, absolute despair. Soon after, more heads popped out from other windows.
With a "pioneer" taking the lead, more and more people chose to follow suit over the next few days. Li Yufeng was among them.
The others were somewhat better off; they at least had companions in their rooms. But ever since Mi Xiaoxiao jumped, Li Yufeng had been completely alone in his suite. Outside were endless zombies, and inside, there were zero supplies. Hunger, loneliness, and helplessness constantly consumed his mind.
In the end, he copied Mi Xiaoxiao and carefully climbed onto the windowsill.
There were no intact corpses left on the ground below. The few who had committed suicide had all been devoured by the zombies drawn to the commotion. At the very least, since they died instantly upon impact, they were spared the agony of being eaten alive.
He had tried other methods of suicide, like bashing his head against the wall, but because he lacked the power, he couldn’t kill himself. It only succeeded in attracting the attention of the zombies outside the door. He had also held a dagger to his neck, but simply lacked the courage to plunge it in.
Perhaps jumping was the best way to go. Just close your eyes, spread your arms, and imagine yourself as a soaring eagle. With a single leap, he would never have to endure the agonizing hunger churning in his stomach again.
Look, a few young eagles were soaring in the sky, calling out to him, urging him to take that final step.
Li Yufeng closed his eyes and leaped from the window.
In his final, fleeting moments of consciousness, he saw a terrifyingly disfigured person standing over him, staring down at him...