The news of Dorm Manager Auntie’s death plunged the dormitory group chat into silence.
The apocalypse really did mean people would die.
Zombies really did eat people.
Only when someone they personally knew died did that realization sink in even deeper.
Now, Auntie Lian, the dorm manager of Building 3 in Lanzhou Garden, was temporarily in charge of Building 2 as well.
She updated the dorm group with a new announcement.
[Pinned Announcement]
During this special period, students are requested to observe the following:
When they saw the last message sent by Auntie Lian, they belatedly formed a guess, was the school planning to start using drones to deliver food to them?
But if zombies were roaming inside the campus, would drones flying around above attract the attention of zombie hordes?
Right after that, Auntie Lian sent another check in mini program, asking each dormitory’s leader to check in under their corresponding dorm number and fill in the number and names of the dorm members.
Ying Ran opened the check in mini program, found Room 618, and filled in the names of the four of them.
She then briefly looked at the situation of other dormitories and noticed that many of them were not fully occupied.
Fourth year students had already been going out for internships one after another, and most of them no longer lived on campus.
And fourth year students accounted for nearly one third of Building 2 in Lanzhou Garden.
There were no classes yesterday afternoon, so many students had gone out at night and planned to return the next morning.
But no one expected something like this to happen, and now they could not come back today.
It was relatively fortunate that the four of them were classmates in the same class, but in other dormitories, cross year and cross major arrangements were extremely common, making daily schedules and leisure activities inconvenient.
Seeing that other dormitories were still checking in one after another, Ying Ran exited the mini program.
After Duan Minmin finished showering, Chen Jianwei and Luo Mushi queued up to take turns bathing.
For them, something as simple as taking a shower might become something they could do fewer and fewer times.
While Chen Jianwei was showering, Duan Minmin washed clothes at the sink, complaining as she worked, “I hate hand washing clothes the most, I can never wring them dry, and my hands get all wrinkly after washing. Oh heavens, why not just blow up the Earth, why send zombies to torment us?”
“Maybe there won’t even be running water in the future, then we won’t have to shower or wash clothes anymore,” Chen Jianwei sighed as she bathed.
Although Auntie Lian had tried to comfort them not to feel discouraged, the thought of a suddenly uncertain future still made them sigh repeatedly.
After Duan Minmin finished washing the clothes, she hung them on hangers over the basin, then tiptoed and bent slightly as she quietly pushed open the balcony door and went outside.
The sky outside had already darkened. She felt her way through the darkness to the drying rack on the balcony, carefully hung the clothes up, and after finishing as quickly as possible, slipped back into the dormitory.
Just as she closed the door, she turned around and saw Ying Ran resting her chin on her hand, staring at her, and said faintly, “We live on the sixth floor, even if there are zombies downstairs, they cannot see us at all. But if zombies break in from the corridor, we will have to escape from the balcony.”
Luo Mushi’s expression immediately turned exaggerated and horrified. “This is the sixth floor! If we jump down, we will turn into meat paste instantly, perfect as a bonus meal for the zombie lords.”
Duan Minmin said, “I would rather die first than have my brain chewed alive by zombies.”
By the time all four of them finished showering, it was already nine in the evening.
With the sudden arrival of the zombie apocalypse, their previous routines of studying, music, food, and socializing had all become useless. Zombies roamed outside, and they could only sit together and read messages in the group chat.
After a full day of developments, it was basically confirmed that this disaster involved zombies.
Information online revealed that Haishi was the first place where zombies were discovered, and afterward, traces of zombies were found one after another in cities adjacent to Haishi.
Authorities called on citizens to stay at home and minimize going out.
As for the cause of the zombies, it was still under investigation. Measures to deal with the zombies would be found as soon as possible, and citizens were urged not to panic.
“To be honest, I have a bad feeling about this,” Chen Jianwei said softly, holding a freshly charged hot water bag.
Duan Minmin quickly covered her mouth. “No, you do not have a bad feeling.”
Two days ago, her bad feeling had come true. If she started predicting things again now, it would be far too terrifying.
Ying Ran still maintained her calm composure even in the face of disaster. “What kind of feeling? At least let us die quickly and cleanly.”
This time, it was not because Chen Jianwei had dreamed of something again, but because of the “Farm Game.”
A large amount of information had appeared in the [Market] and [Ledger] of the “Farm Game.”
There were quite a lot of items in their dormitory, but why were things like “hot water bags,” “electric blankets,” and “heat packs” specifically listed in the game’s tradable ledger? That indicated these items had value.
It was already late October, and this year’s winter seemed to have arrived especially early.
In previous years, this time would still be crisp autumn weather, but when they went out yesterday morning, they all felt a biting chill, as if winter had arrived overnight.
“I suspect this winter will be extremely, extremely cold,” Chen Jianwei shared her speculation with her roommates.
“I already think it is very cold now,” Luo Mushi said, tucking her hands into the hot water bag to warm them, shivering as she spoke. “I grew up in the south, and only came to this cold place for school. I thought last winter was already cold enough, but this year is just as cold. We might as well just freeze to death.”
Ying Ran suggested that they could start using the electric blanket earlier this year.
They had bought the electric blanket at the end of November last year.
On one evening last year when they had no classes, they had been cracking sunflower seeds, watching variety shows, and playing cards in the dormitory. But it had been so cold that they wished they could stay in bed all day.
So Luo Mushi had proposed buying something for warmth to make the winter more comfortable.
Chen Jianwei and Ying Ran, who were also from relatively warmer southern regions, had agreed.
Duan Minmin had been responsible for giving suggestions, sending them links to small heaters and warm air machines, and in the end, they unanimously decided to buy an XL sized electric blanket.
They had not expected that this year, it would already be time to use the electric blanket again so early.
While Luo Mushi went to the cabinet to take out the electric blanket, Chen Jianwei casually tapped the “Farm Game” app on her phone again.
Perhaps because there had been no activity for a long time, the game interface had automatically hidden itself while they were eating dinner.
They still remembered that the first batch of crops would be ready for harvest at eleven thirty at night, and there were less than three hours left.
After Chen Jianwei tapped the “Farm Game” app, the semi transparent game interface floated up again.
[Welcome player 122053077 back to the game.]
Seeing the flashing pop-up, Ying Ran paused for a moment before asking her roommates, “Should we change our nickname? 122053077 looks like a default string of numbers…” She refused to admit it was because of her obsessive tendencies.
“Then what should we change it to?” Chen Jianwei asked.
“‘Undying Old Demon.’ What do you think?” Luo Mushi came back holding the electric blanket and eagerly offered her suggestion. “Doesn’t it sound powerful? Undying Old Demon, we’ll definitely survive until all the zombies are wiped out. In dramas, old demons are always really strong. I think the meaning is great.”
All her roommates rolled their eyes in unison.
Did that name even sound good?
Ying Ran, who had a more literary taste, said, “What do you think about ‘Dawn’? It means making it through the night and welcoming the first light of day.”
This time, everyone thought it was acceptable.
At least it was more normal than something like “Undying Old Demon.”
Chen Jianwei manually changed the nickname.
[Farm Game]
Player ID: Dawn
Player Location: Haishi University, Lanzhou Garden Building 2, Room 618
Number of Players: 4
Player Status: Logged In
After changing the nickname, everyone felt that it was quite good.
Suddenly, a pop up appeared, accompanied by red scrolling text.
[Player “Troublesome Girl Loves Eating Jujubes in the Morning”’s crops have matured]
What was this?
The four of them looked at each other.
Luo Mushi, who was closest to the floating interface, tried tapping the pop up.
The pop up disappeared, and the game interface switched to another farm screen.
The information in the top left corner of the farm read “Troublesome Girl Loves Eating Jujubes in the Morning.”
Now they understood what was going on.
There really was such a thing as stealing crops.
And it even directly sent notifications to other players’ pages, player XX’s crops have matured.
This was practically baiting other players to swarm over and steal crops.
This game was truly devious.
If it had been the old QQ Farm, they would definitely not have held back when stealing from friends.
But now, their sense of morality made it hard for them to do such a thing for the time being.
Luo Mushi exited the farm page and tapped the [Return Home] button.
“So we definitely have to guard our vegetable plot in advance, we absolutely cannot let others steal our crops,” Chen Jianwei concluded with deep feeling.
“Whoever steals my crops, I will bring a knife to their door and fight them one on one,” Luo Mushi said, currently in an extremely excited state. Even though she had not been the one stolen from yet, she had already imagined the scenario in her mind.
Just then, Chen Jianwei opened the [Forum] under [Exchange] and saw a newly refreshed post pinned at the top in red.
[Cat Cat Is Innocent: Aaaahhh! Which shameless person stole my crops? If I catch you next time, you are dead!]
It looked like this girl’s mental state was quite concerning, far more agitated than Luo Mushi, who had just imagined going into a real fight.
So the comment section below was filled with lines of “sending sympathy.”
There were also comments condemning whoever had been so malicious.
There were also players shocked that crop stealing actually existed, asking how it worked, and why there was even a system wide notification. Was this intentionally stirring conflict among players? This game was simply too vicious.
Chen Jianwei felt especially relieved that they had had the foresight to set an alarm in advance.