Li Xiaodong said, “That’s not how you count it at all. I can count it as a participation award—day of speedrun challenge: storming the mutated tree. Hehe.”
He Jin facepalmed. “Stop being stupid and laughing. Keep up.”
They quickly reached the main road of the Teaching Building. Wen Qiao led Wen Jiuya and four others to the right-side high school Teaching Building.
Xue Qi led the remaining people to the left side, heading straight for the left-side middle school Teaching Building. They entered through the fence, ignored the Teaching Building itself, and rushed directly toward the left Broadcasting Room.
There were sounds inside; it seemed that before the apocalypse someone had been broadcasting there, and had turned into a zombie.
One person was responsible for opening the door, while the others were responsible for clearing them out.
On the other side, Wen Qiao and the others entered the high school Teaching Building and immediately went on alert. It was quiet—too quiet. So quiet that it was abnormal.
Suddenly, they saw a girl. Or rather, not just one—because she was carrying two people. She had one girl slung over her shoulder and was dragging a boy with her other hand.
(This was written after the author saw a military training combat drill video where a boy carried two people at once. It was very moving—never give up.)
This… was impressive.
When she saw them enter, she gently put the girl on her shoulder down and explained to them.
One of the two was her younger sister, and the other was her deskmate. When the apocalypse happened, it was during the big break of the accelerated class—a half-hour rest period. She had been struggling with a physics problem and had not noticed anything. It was her deskmate, who was secretly playing games, who noticed first.
At that time, a cold hand landed on his shoulder. Wang Tao shrugged it off, thinking it was just a joke from the person behind him.
“Stop messing around, I’m at a critical moment,” he said, fingers still sliding across his phone screen.
But the cold hand, which kept moving closer to his neck, finally caught his attention.
Wang Tao put down his phone and turned around while cursing, ready to confront the person disturbing him.
“Liu Gang, are you f**king sick?! Ah—what the hell! Li Tingting, there’s a zombie! Stop doing your stupid physics problem!”
His deskmate had already turned into a zombie—and had lost all sense of recognition.
The zombie formed from Liu Gang attacked him.
“Damn it, Liu Gang, I advise you not to act recklessly—ahhh, don’t come closer!!!” Wang Tao screamed, ran for his life, and led the zombie into a corner of the classroom.
Li Tingting could no longer stand it. She threw down her pen, clenched her fists, and was about to rush over.
But she saw that he had already grabbed a two-person carry hold, tore the zombie apart, and then picked up a metal rod, smashing it down repeatedly.
The noise was too loud. Not only did the zombies in the classroom rush toward him, but even the ones outside started coming in.
“Li Tingting! Stop spacing out! Close the door! Otherwise we’re both going to die in this classroom!” Wang Tao shouted.
Li Tingting still had not fully understood the situation, but seeing that Wang Tao was about to collapse, she ran over, kicked away the monster at the door, and slammed the green iron classroom door shut with a loud “BANG!”
The roars of monsters came from outside.
“Grrrrr!”
Li Tingting leaned against the door for the moment. “What exactly is going on?”
Wang Tao ran over. “Hurry and help me! I can’t hold them off anymore!” Six “monsters” were chasing behind him.
Li Tingting was completely calm, because she realized the “monsters” seemed to ignore her.
Among the people in the classroom, aside from her and Wang Tao, everyone else had turned into monsters—but they only chased Wang Tao.
It felt like she had somehow awakened a strange superpower. When she clenched her fist, her strength increased, and being ignored by zombies… did that mean zombies saw her as one of their own?
She continued watching him and waiting for his explanation.
“Zombies! Zombies! Haven’t you watched apocalypse movies? It’s the apocalypse! I was playing games and suddenly this happened, I don’t know what’s going on—ahhh, hurry and help me!”
Li Tingting said, “Alright.”
“Hit their heads. That’s the weak point.”
She took his metal rod and, with a few clean strikes, easily killed several zombies without even breaking a sweat.
Wang Tao wiped his sweat. (°ー°〃)
“My god… you’re a powerhouse.”
“I still need to save my sister, Li Yuli. She’s in the next classroom.”
“Alright, wait for me. I’ll get another stick and go with you.”
Wang Tao knew her sister Li Yuli—she looked gentle and soft, but was actually quite a tomboy, just with very little strength.
And Li Tingting, the older sister, was cold in personality and extremely strong.
The two sisters had been named after the phrase “gracefully standing like jade lilies.” Their grandfather had given them the names before passing away. Later, when their father registered their household records, he felt that “Ting” was more suitable for a girl than “Ting,” so he changed the character.
The two sisters had a very good relationship.
The three of them often ate together as well, but they were definitely not dating. Rumors in the class often spread that he was involved with them, which annoyed him to death.
Later, the two of them went to save Li Yuli, and unexpectedly met a boy who fought his way out with her.
After that, they all lived in the Teaching Building, deliberately avoiding the group heading toward the canteen. They collected food from each classroom, and since Li Yuli was a foodie, she had previously stocked up a lot in a large cabinet in their classroom.
However, during an emergency situation, when they were searching for food and usable supplies on the fourth floor, the boy died. It was a mass of dark, blurry substance. At the time, everything happened too fast, and it moved too quickly—they could not see clearly what it was. Li Tingting could only rescue the injured Li Yuli and escape with Wang Tao.
They had started collecting supplies from the highest floor, the sixth floor, and now they had to abandon the fourth floor and seal it off.
When they returned to their classroom on the third floor, the boy’s death weighed heavily on everyone. Silence spread throughout the room.
Wang Tao felt extremely uncomfortable—both because of the loss of a teammate he had only known for a few days, and because of the pain in his body.
“Tingting, I…” he stood up, but before he could finish, he collapsed.
And Li Yuli clutched the desk. “Big Sister, I think I can’t hold on anymore either.” Then she fainted.
Li Tingting moved Wang Tao onto a chair so he could lean on the desk. Only then did she notice that both of them had been scratched by some unknown creature.
Was this the reason they had fainted?
What should she do?
At that moment, Wen Qiao and the others arrived. With no other choice, she could only ask them for help.
The girl forced a bitter smile at them and asked if they could help take a look at what was wrong. She did not understand it herself.
That was only natural.
Li Ke comforted her, saying, “It’s okay. You’re already very impressive—you protected your sister and your deskmate.”
He even joked to lighten the mood, “You could even say to them while saving your sister, ‘Tell my mom I’m not a coward!’ Seriously, don’t worry too much.”