After witnessing the bloody scene of a zombie attack with their own eyes, Duan Minmin sat on the chair with a deathly pale face.
She wanted to cry, but no tears came out.
The students in Building 2 of Lanzhou Garden who had watched the video did not dare make a sound, afraid that the zombies had already entered the dormitory building, or were lurking outside some room, waiting for an opportunity.
Since they had already eaten a few small French bread rolls in the morning, they were not too hungry yet.
However, if the Lanzhou Garden cafeteria had already been overrun by zombies, they probably would not get any lunch.
Duan Minmin, on the other hand, felt a bit hungry, so she made herself a cup of braised beef instant noodles.
The rich aroma of instant noodles rose along with the steaming heat. The others, who had not felt particularly hungry, suddenly heard their stomachs growl.
Although stockpiling food gave them some sense of security, food still had a limited shelf life, and they needed to consume it before it expired.
They picked through their supplies and chose a few packs of instant noodles with relatively shorter shelf lives, pouring hot water over them.
The group chat still had no new messages from the administrator, with the last update being two hours ago. Students were chattering about the zombies in the video. Someone tagged the Dorm Manager Auntie to ask if they were safe, and students on the first floor began to worry whether the zombies had already entered the dormitory building.
[108 Lin Hewan: I think for safety, everyone should stay inside. We don’t even know if the one knocking on the door is school staff or a zombie]
[121 Qiu Xi: I’m worried about that too.]
[103 Dong Wenyu: I think I heard someone talking outside the corridor. I’m not sure if it’s the Dorm Manager Auntie, but everyone should avoid opening the door]
Room 103 was near the dorm entrance, so they could hear any movement there.
A string of replies immediately followed Dong Wenyu’s message, all urging her not to open the door.
Since the Dorm Manager Auntie had not responded at all, everyone grew increasingly uneasy.
Qiu Xiaolin forwarded the zombie video to the class group and tagged the counselor to ask if it was real.
All the girls from Class 1 of Psychology lived in Building 2 of Lanzhou Garden, but the boys who lived in Building 6 immediately erupted when they saw the video. They kept asking whether it was real, or if it had been digitally fabricated by students from the neighboring School of Media.
Qiu Xiaolin relayed the discussion back to the dorm group. The original uploader of the video, Chen Wenqian from Room 801, immediately jumped in angrily. “We produce videos, we don’t do AI fake edits.”
Qiu Xiaolin replied, “Alright then!”
Students usually stored some food in their dorms. That noon, everyone barely managed to eat something before continuing to hide in their rooms and wait for news.
For most people, the arrival of this disaster had been completely unexpected. Facing zombies that could be anywhere on campus, no one dared act rashly. At least staying inside the dorm still felt relatively safe for now.
Students on lower floors were especially nervous, but they still kept their doors tightly shut and did not dare make a sound.
After finishing their instant noodles, the girls of Room 618 washed their utensils and began worrying again.
For now, water and electricity were still functioning normally, but that might not last long.
Once water and electricity were cut off, the only food they could rely on would be the limited self-heating rice and hot pots, along with the six 4.5-liter bottles of mineral water still sitting on the table behind the door.
By then, they would have to find other ways to survive.
But that was only if they could live long enough to run out of supplies.
If the zombies within the campus were not eliminated, every bite would create more zombies, making their situation increasingly dangerous. The complete fall of the campus would only be a matter of time.
Luo Mushi did not even dare step onto the balcony. She only leaned against the window and looked outside.
Although the dormitory had an elevator, the lines for it were always long, so they often took the stairs morning, noon, and night, complaining endlessly about living on the sixth floor.
Now, she was grateful that their dorm was on the sixth floor.
Even if zombies entered the building, they would not reach the sixth floor anytime soon.
Usually, they would take an hour-long nap at noon, and if they had no afternoon classes, they could even sleep until three.
But today, none of them dared to nap. They kept refreshing the class group and dorm group, waiting for updates.
The Dorm Manager Auntie still had not responded, and in the class group, people speculated that the counselor was still trying to contact the currently missing students.
By one in the afternoon, seven students from Class 1 of Psychology were still unreachable.
All seven had left campus the previous night and had not returned. Now, none of them could be contacted.
In a world overrun by zombies, being unreachable likely meant something had already happened to them.
As the academic representative, Ying Ran worked with other class officers to help the counselor contact the missing students, but there was still no news.
Chen Jianwei kept scrolling through posts on the Haishi University Plaza. She saw that students from other universities were also reporting campus lockdowns, and many had uploaded videos of zombies.
Including Haishi University, seventeen universities had reported sightings of zombies on campus.
There were also large numbers of zombies in the city, posing a serious threat to public safety.
Duan Minmin, on the verge of tears, came over to Chen Jianwei again, whining softly.
“I feel like we’re doomed! Ah Wei, what should we do?”
At that moment, Chen Jianwei saw a rather unhinged comment on the forum.
[I surrender! Does anyone know where to get a zombie virus injection? I don’t want to struggle to survive in a zombie outbreak only to be bitten in the end. I want to become a zombie too, I’m defecting!!!]
Chen Jianwei’s cursor paused on the comment. Duan Minmin also looked over, then whimpered sadly, “I don’t want to become zombie food. I still want to go home. I want to travel with my mom during winter break.”
Chen Jianwei could only pat her head.
She did not want to become a zombie either.
After Duan Minmin returned to her seat, Chen Jianwei casually picked up her phone to check the class group, but froze when she noticed a blue-green app on her screen.
What was this?
The apocalypse had already arrived with disasters and zombies, and now some shameless company was pushing bundled ads?
Chen Jianwei long-pressed the app to delete it, but the moment she tapped it, a large semi-transparent screen popped up in front of her.
Chen Jianwei fell silent.
Chen Jianwei: ???
Zombies were already shocking enough, but this thing was just as absurd.
[Welcome to Farm Game]
[Loading farm…]
[Loading 100%]
[Enter farm]
Chen Jianwei: What is this?
Luo Mushi, Duan Minmin, and Ying Ran all widened their eyes. Luo Mushi even stammered as she pointed at the floating screen. “W-what is this thing?”
Chen Jianwei shook her head. “I really don’t know what this is.”
She showed them the blue-green “Farm Game” app that had suddenly appeared on her phone. The three of them quickly checked their own phones and discovered the same app had appeared.
The semi-transparent panel continued displaying text.
[Dear player, congratulations on becoming a beta tester of “Farm Game”]
[In a zombie-infested apocalypse, are you still hiding in a corner of the city, worrying about dwindling supplies? Are you concerned that the city is about to fall and you cannot fight against zombies? In Farm Game, you can obtain the materials and equipment you need]
The four of them looked at each other.
They had no idea what this “Farm Game” was, but since it was already the apocalypse, nothing seemed too strange anymore.
The most memorable “Farm Game” they knew was the old Penguin stealing crops game from ten years ago. They had also played various versions of farming games since then, mostly as casual entertainment.
But… obtaining supplies and equipment through a farm game?
Was that even possible?
After hesitating for a moment, Chen Jianwei tapped to enter the game.
A login interface appeared in front of them.
[Farm Game]
Player ID: 122053077 (modifiable)
Player Location: Haishi University, Lanzhou Garden Building 2, Room 618
Number of Players: 4
Player Status: Logged in
Below the login information, five options appeared.
[Farm] →
[Warehouse] →
[Ledger] →
[Market] →
[Communication] →
The interface looked fully equipped, though they had no idea how to use it.
“Quick, check what’s inside!” Luo Mushi eagerly tapped on [Warehouse], but the screen switched to an empty page, displaying a prompt:
Your warehouse is currently empty. Please work hard to farm, raise livestock, or trade in the market!
The panel then switched to the [Ledger] section, showing detailed categories:
Food, Medical, Weapons, Other
They selected [Food], and a long list of items appeared:
Braised beef instant noodles ×4
Spicy beef instant noodles ×4
Shrimp fish noodles ×5
Golden soup fatty beef noodles ×3
Mushroom chicken self-heating rice ×6
Braised chicken self-heating rice ×12
Tomato beef brisket self-heating hot pot ×4
Spicy tender beef self-heating hot pot ×4
Braised beef canned ×8
Black bean dace canned ×4
Luncheon meat canned ×3
Yellow peach canned ×6
Orange canned ×2
Lychee canned ×2
Corn canned ×3
Thai fragrant rice 2.5 kg
Egg noodles 60 g ×20
High-fiber rye flakes 1 kg
Mung beans 200 g
Red beans 200 g
Black glutinous rice 500 g
Soybeans 500 g
Red dates 2 kg
Longan 500 g
Goji berries 100 g
Brown sugar 2 kg
Rock sugar 3 kg
Eggs ×48
Pure milk ×20 boxes
Scallion egg rolls ×1 box
Toast bread ×2 bags
Whole wheat nut bread ×3
Lactic acid bacteria bread ×2 boxes
Dark chocolate ×12 bars
Ham sausages ×1 bag
Corn sausages ×1 bag
Apples ×7
Grapes ×1 bag
Oranges ×5
Half a pomelo
Cola ×12 cans
Coconut juice ×5 bottles
Orange juice ×3 bottles
Mineral water 4.5 L ×6
Only after scrolling to the end did they realize that this list represented all the food supplies they currently had.
Each item had a white button labeled [Tradable].
Trade what? Trade supplies?
They had no idea what this “Farm Game” interface really was, but it was clearly something just as unscientific as the zombies.
“I thought we had stocked up a lot, but it turns out it’s actually not that much,” Ying Ran said after carefully reviewing the list.
They had indeed bought quite a lot, but the real staple foods were limited to rice, noodles, self-heating meals, and some short-shelf-life bread. The rest were snacks and canned goods that would not keep them full.
Since the Mid-Autumn Festival had just passed, they still had some fruit in the dorm. Even things like apples, which they usually did not like much, had become useful now.
They then opened the [Medical] ledger:
Thermometer ×1
Banlangen granules ×6 packs ×2
Ibuprofen sustained-release capsules 27 capsules ×3
Alcohol disinfectant 500 ml ×5
Medical alcohol swabs ×2
Huoxiang Zhengqi pills ×1
Bruise patches ×6 ×2
Medicated oil ×4
Sulfur ointment 20 g ×2
Herbal oil 40 ml
Band-aids ×15
And that was all.
The [Weapons] ledger was even simpler:
Kitchen knife ×1
Fruit knives ×4
Scissors ×2
Clothes-drying pole ×1
Chen Jianwei fell completely silent.
Knives and scissors were one thing, but why was a clothes-drying pole considered a weapon?
Were they supposed to fight zombies with it?
This was too ridiculous.
The [Other] ledger contained a miscellaneous assortment:
Hot water bottles ×4
Electric blanket ×1
Hand warmers ×200
Sanitary pads 8 pieces ×13
Safety shorts 2 pieces ×6
Flashlights ×2
Binoculars ×2
Nylon rope 5 meters
Super glue ×1
Life buoy ×1
Rescue boards ×3
Wash basins ×4
Looking at this list, it felt less like preparing for a zombie apocalypse and more like surviving in the wilderness.
Though, perhaps it was not that different.
These past few days had brought torrential rain, meteors, and zombies. Maybe in a couple of days, even Godzilla would appear.
Clearly, their stockpile was still insufficient. They probably could not handle something like Godzilla.
But the real question was not about Godzilla.
Could this “Farm Game” really provide supplies through gameplay?
Now that they were trapped in the dorm, all their information came from group chats and the internet. Trying out this strange game would not hurt.