The zombie was in the open space behind the dorm building.
Liu Ruyan weighed the shovel in her hand and found it particularly easy to handle.
As they rounded the corner behind the dorm, they saw the zombie.
Even though zombies had appeared for several days, this was their first time seeing one with their own eyes.
And now, separated by only a short distance, the zombie stood right in front of them.
The students watching from the balcony above held their breath.
If they failed to kill the zombie and instead got bitten, turning into zombies themselves,
that would be an absolute disaster.
Just moments earlier upstairs, Liu Ruyan had spoken to Chen Xiaoqi as if leaving her last will.
“If I get bitten by a zombie or turn into one, you have to be quick and decisive and smash my head.”
Chen Xiaoqi trembled in fear, her tears freezing into icy crystals on her face, looking utterly devastated, as if saying, “If you die, how am I supposed to live?”
Liu Ruyan was speechless.
“I’m not dead yet!”
The moment the zombie saw them, it became ferocious.
Although its hands and feet had been frozen by the ice and snow, it still struggled free and bared its teeth as it lunged toward them.
After taking just two steps, it stumbled and fell into the snow.
But it stiffly climbed back up again.
Fortunately, Liu Ruyan acted first, rushing forward with the shovel and striking the back of the zombie’s neck.
The zombie twisted awkwardly, as if its neck had been broken, unable to support its head.
With that blow, it fell into the snow again, its movements sluggish, likely due to the cold stiffening its body.
The others immediately rushed forward, wielding knives, shovels, and sticks, smashing down on the zombie in a frenzy.
They battered it until it was completely mangled, its head smashed open beyond recognition.
In that moment, they had all been terrified.
But no matter how afraid they were, they had no choice but to charge forward. If they did not destroy the zombie, they would be the ones devoured next.
Only after seeing that the zombie’s head had been completely crushed did they gradually stop.
The zombie still had a human form. Before it became this way, it had been a person.
That realization slowly returned to their minds, along with a creeping sense of fear.
The zombie’s blood was thick and black, looking extremely disgusting.
Its hair had turned into dull gray fuzz, making it impossible to recognize it as once human. It looked more like an ape from a zoo.
But it was still wearing dirty clothes.
Qiu Xiaolin quietly said that it was the uniform of the art club.
None of them could recognize the twisted face.
But this person had once been their schoolmate.
They just did not know how it had turned into a zombie and returned to the campus.
“Alright, let’s go back.”
Someone said it, and they all nodded weakly.
When they looked up, the horizon was beginning to brighten.
A faint light broke through the darkness in the far distance, only to be dimmed again by the gray haze.
It was getting colder outside, so cold that it felt like their ears might freeze off.
Shivering, they climbed back up the rope ladder into the dorm building, carrying their weapons stained with zombie blood.
Before parting ways, they repeatedly reminded each other to wash the blood off their weapons as soon as they returned, not to let zombie blood come into contact with any wounds, and to take another shower if possible.
Based on how the zombie virus spread, it was most likely transmitted through blood.
Still, it was better to be cautious.
After returning to their dorm and opening the door, Duan Minmin was still sleeping soundly.
As soon as the door closed, Chen Jianwei felt as though she had stepped into spring.
Inside and outside were like two completely different worlds.
She threw the blood-stained knife into the bathroom and rinsed it repeatedly, then placed it behind the door to distinguish it from other knives, so it would not be used by mistake later.
They carefully washed their hands again and again, not daring to sit directly on the blanket.
Ying Ran went in to shower first, while Chen Jianwei and Luo Mushi waited outside.
After being busy for half the night, now that they had relaxed, they felt exhausted.
Chen Jianwei thought that after showering, she would go back to bed and sleep again.
At times like this, even sleeping the entire day would not matter.
Ying Ran quickly rinsed off, changed clothes, and came out in just ten minutes.
Chen Jianwei also went in, washed up, soaked her clothes in a basin, and then climbed back into bed under the covers.
Just as she was about to fall asleep, she suddenly woke up again.
She remembered that she had set her phone to silent mode the night before. She quickly checked her alarm settings and confirmed they were correct, then turned the alarm volume to maximum.
At 3:20 in the afternoon, the second batch of mulberries in the Farm Game would mature, so they had set their alarms for 3:10.
At that time, all the alarms in the dorm would go off at once. No matter how deeply they slept, they would hear it.
Except for Duan Minmin.
After placing her phone in the basket to charge, Chen Jianwei climbed back into bed.
As the blanket gradually warmed up, she drifted into sleep again.
Ying Ran and Luo Mushi also went back to bed shortly after.
After all that commotion, it was finally over.
They had eliminated the zombie and avoided casualties.
At least this time, their operation had been a success.
Duan Minmin woke up at 9:30 in the morning. She quietly pulled open her bed curtain and got down. The dorm was still silent, but she had a vague feeling that something was off.
She went about her usual routine, washing up, and seeing that her roommates were still asleep, she opened her phone. Over 99 unread messages immediately popped up.
Scrolling through the messages, she finally learned about the events of the night before.
What a pity, she had missed such a thrilling event!
Early that morning, Dorm Manager Auntie Lian had learned that another zombie had appeared near the dorm building.
The student outing scheduled for that day was canceled as a result.
The Lanzhou Garden Building 2 group chat was even more active than before.
Whether they had participated in the zombie fight or not, everyone was excitedly discussing it, full of enthusiasm.
Meanwhile, Chen Jianwei knew nothing about all this.
She slept until 3:30 in the afternoon, waking up to the sound of her alarm.
After sleeping for so long, she was no longer tired.
But she still did not want to get up.
The blanket was just too warm.
She really wanted to stay in bed forever.
Thinking this, Chen Jianwei reached out from under the covers and pulled open her curtain. She saw Duan Minmin already sitting on the mat below, with the game’s floating panel open, and felt reassured.
Since Duan Minmin was already harvesting, she could keep sleeping.
Chen Jianwei curled back under the blanket. Although she was a little hungry, she did not want to move.
But in the next moment, Duan Minmin suddenly screamed.
Luo Mushi muttered groggily, “What’s wrong? Did zombies come again?”
“Our farm…” Duan Minmin’s voice seemed stuck in her throat. After a moment, she finally shouted excitedly, “We reached Level 5. And, and we got two big gift packs!”
Leveling up was good news, so Chen Jianwei poked her head out again to see what was going on.
Duan Minmin had just harvested the second batch of mulberries, and their experience points had increased.
But just as the experience bar was about to reach Level 5, a bright red notification popped up.
[Congratulations to player Dawn for killing a zombie. Progress: 1/1]
[Obtained [Lone Hero] Beginner Gift Pack]
[[Lone Hero] Beginner Gift Pack]
1. Experience Points +200
2. Points +20
3. Special Seed [Peashooter] x2
4. Special Seed [Gatling Shooter] x2
5. Special Seed [Sky Eye] x2
[Please keep up the good work!]
[Congratulations to player Dawn for upgrading to Level 5 farm. You may receive the following benefits]
1. Unlock one plot of land
2. Expand crop-stealing range by ten meters
3. Purchase Level 5 seeds
[Congratulations to player Dawn for obtaining the Level 5 Gift Pack]
Snow Pea Seeds x2
Clivia Seeds x2
Evening Primrose Seeds x2
Two major gift packs appearing one after another made them incredibly happy.
Since Chen Jianwei, Luo Mushi, and Ying Ran were still in bed, Duan Minmin read out the rewards one by one. The more they heard, the more excited they became.
It seemed their guess from yesterday had been correct.
Since a Level 12 farm player had appeared on the forum, there must be hidden missions.
For example, this time, by chance, they had participated in eliminating a zombie, which the system had counted as them killing one, thus triggering the hidden mission and awarding the [Lone Hero] Beginner Gift Pack.
But in a world overrun with zombies, even knowing that killing zombies could grant rewards, no one would casually grab a kitchen knife and go out to fight them.
Zombies were too dangerous. One mistake could cost them their lives.
Such small rewards were not worth risking everything. It was safer to stay hidden and farm peacefully.
“But why are these seeds labeled as special seeds?” Chen Jianwei leaned over to look, finding this detail curious.
What made these special seeds so “special” that the game highlighted them?
Duan Minmin opened the information page for the special seeds and compared it with regular seeds, then made a bitter face.
“It seems… the growth time for special seeds is longer…”
She had just checked the Evening Primrose seeds, which took 21 hours to mature.
But the special seed [Peashooter] required 48 hours.
It was doubled.
“Then the points from the Peashooter harvest should be very high, right?” Chen Jianwei guessed.
Previously, the points gained from crops were proportional to the seed price and growth time. Since the Peashooter took so long, it should yield a lot of points.
If that was the case, they would be one step closer to their goal.
That felt great.
But after scrolling through the Peashooter’s information page several times, Duan Minmin could not find any information about its point yield at all.