“Students up ahead, come help us! Please, save us!!”
A voice like a broken gong rang out.
The people desperately running for their lives heard the loud voice behind them and were so furious that they wished they could turn around and kick the guy a couple of times.
At a life-or-death moment like this, everyone was struggling just to save themselves.
There were at least four or five hundred zombies behind them. Even if everyone turned around and fought the zombies head-on, they would only be throwing their lives away.
So no one paid any attention to their cries for help. Instead, they sped up and ran toward the cafeteria.
Seeing that everyone was running even faster after hearing his pleas, the man couldn’t help shouting at the top of his lungs:
“Hey, don’t run! Come save us! Help! Somebody save us!”
His voice was shrill and frantic. He was even shouting so hard that his voice cracked.
Someone couldn’t help cursing, “Is that idiot trying to get himself killed? Fuck, doesn’t he know zombies can locate people by sound?!”
Someone else asked doubtfully, “Could he be the one who attracted all these zombies here?”
“Isn’t that obvious? With him screaming like that, of course he attracted all the zombies in the area!”
The man behind them still refused to stop. He shouted loudly, “Help! Someone up ahead, come save me! I’ll give whoever saves me five million…”
Song Weiyi’s short temper finally exploded. He turned around and roared at the male student, “Will you shut the hell up?!”
After being yelled at, the man looked both embarrassed and angry. In the end, he shut his mouth, but he ran even faster…
In less than two minutes, everyone successfully made it into the cafeteria.
They quickly shut the doors and secured the bolts, blocking the zombies outside.
Some of the stronger boys voluntarily braced themselves against the doors from inside to prevent the zombies from breaking through.
Outside the cafeteria, the zombies let out wave after wave of terrifying roars as they frantically slammed themselves against the doors.
“Bang! Bang! Bang…”
The wooden doors shook violently under the impact, as though they would be knocked down by the zombies at any moment.
Seeing this, Xu Mingfan’s expression tightened, and he rushed forward without hesitation.
He placed his hand against the metal doorframe and quickly activated his ability. Metal strips emerged from his hand, continuously lengthening and wrapping around the door.
Before long, they formed an incredibly sturdy crossbar that firmly secured the doors in place.
Seeing this, Zhong Zhenye immediately followed Xu Mingfan’s example and copied his movements.
His actions were slightly clumsy, but he eventually succeeded in attaching the metal strips to the door and interweaving them with the strips Xu Mingfan had created.
Seeing the doors, which had been on the verge of collapsing, finally stabilize, everyone felt the knot of fear in their throats loosen slightly, and the terror on their faces eased a little.
However, the zombies seemed to be attracted by the scent of blood and flesh inside the cafeteria, and they did not disperse despite being blocked by the doors.
As time passed, the situation grew increasingly dire. More and more zombies came rushing over after hearing the noise.
They surrounded the cafeteria in layer upon layer, forming walls of zombies around the building.
The nauseating stench of decay drifted faintly through the air and straight into everyone’s nostrils. The constant roaring sounded like the howls of evil spirits, and they could even hear the zombies slamming themselves against the walls.
The people’s faces, which had relaxed slightly after gaining temporary safety, instantly lost all color again. One pale face after another was filled with terror.
Some of the girls were utterly terrified. They clung together in groups of two or three, quietly sobbing.
Despair spread through the crowd. Some people broke down emotionally and immediately turned their anger toward the more than twenty boys who had attracted the zombies.
“Xiao Yukun, you bunch of jinxes! Was it not enough that you nearly got yourselves killed? You had to drag everyone else into this hopeless situation too! How can you be so vicious?!”
Someone nearby joined in.
“Exactly. He usually relies on his family having a little money and acts like a spoiled brat all day. What good could possibly come from someone like him?”
“People like this are selfish and completely devoid of any sense of responsibility. Even when they’re about to die, they still have to drag innocent people down with them. They don’t care whether anyone else is innocent or not…”
Xiao Yukun’s face turned bright red from the abuse, veins bulging on his forehead.
He shouted angrily, “Stop pretending to be so noble! Just now, you watched more than twenty of us fight for our lives and did nothing. And now you’re blaming me? Is that what you call having a sense of responsibility?”
Someone immediately jumped in and shouted back, “Those zombies were attracted by you in the first place! Just listen to that voice of yours—it sounds like a broken gong.
“If you hadn’t been screaming, would you have attracted so many zombies? Don’t you know zombies can locate people by sound?”
The question made Xiao Yukun’s expression stiffen for a moment.
He stubbornly raised his chin and replied righteously, “I’m not some prophet! When I saw people, wasn’t it perfectly normal to call for help?
“Why are you all being so harsh on us? You’re completely heartless…”
Xia Yan watched the endless argument and raised his voice.
“That’s enough! What good does arguing about this do right now? The most important thing is to find a way to deal with the zombies. Otherwise, we’re all going to die here!”
The moment everyone heard this, the cafeteria fell silent.
Despair filled their faces, and one by one, they looked utterly defeated.
Huo Mian watched the tense situation, her heart pounding uncontrollably faster and faster.
She had no idea whether the novel had ever mentioned zombies surrounding the cafeteria.
At this moment, Huo Mian desperately missed Zheng Wanyue…
Forcing herself to calm down, Huo Mian scanned the surroundings before finally fixing her gaze on the kitchen.
As though she had thought of something, she turned to Bai Ningrong and asked urgently, “Senior Bai, isn’t there a generator in the kitchen?”
Bai Ningrong was stunned by the question but quickly came back to her senses.
“There are two small generators.”
Huo Mian’s eyes instantly lit up with astonishing brightness as she pressed, “If there are generators, then there should be gasoline too, right?”
After all, most generators on the market at the time were powered by fuel.
Bai Ningrong immediately understood what Huo Mian had in mind.
“You want to use fire? But the main doors are made of wood. If we set the doors on fire and the zombies rush in, wouldn’t we all be killed?”
Huo Mian calmly replied, “We can drive the zombies farther away first.”
The moment she finished speaking, Chen Yiqian suddenly came over from the side, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“That sounds easy enough. But how are you going to drive the zombies farther away? If it were really that easy, would we even need to use fire? You really don’t know your own limits. If you have no idea what you’re doing, stop coming up with ridiculous suggestions!”
Huo Mian looked at the girl and saw the undisguised contempt on her face.
She was just about to explain when Xia Yan’s voice suddenly sounded behind her.
“Chen Yiqian, stop acting like a rabid dog, barking at everyone you see.
“Junior Huo is trying to find a way out for everyone. She’s doing her best to come up with a solution. Besides making sarcastic remarks here, what have you actually done for everyone?”
Chen Yiqian looked at Xia Yan in disbelief.
Then she lowered her head, concealing the resentment that flashed through her eyes, and walked toward a corner.
Huo Mian merely glanced at Chen Yiqian and paid no attention to what the other girl thought of her.
The girl clearly held some hostility toward her. She was probably jealous because Huo Mian was prettier than her. Huo Mian had encountered plenty of people like that in her previous life.
With that thought, she withdrew her gaze and stopped paying attention to Chen Yiqian.
Turning back to Bai Ningrong, she continued, “I remember there are students here from the electrical engineering department. Have them make some simple modifications to the generators and use electric shocks to deal with the zombies at the door.”
“The earth-type ability users will build a wall of earth at the entrance. The strength-type ability users will take advantage of the opportunity to splash gasoline over the zombies. The fire-type ability users will ignite it, while the wind-type ability users will fan the flames and spread the fire toward the zombie horde.”
“The frost- and water-type ability users should keep an eye on the flames and prevent the fire from spreading toward us.”
After hearing Huo Mian’s plan, Bai Ningrong looked at her in astonishment.
When she had first seen Huo Mian, Bai Ningrong had instinctively thought she was the troublesome type, simply because she was so strikingly beautiful and alluring.
But after talking with Huo Mian, she discovered that beneath the surface, she was actually a gentle, soft-spoken girl who was mild-mannered and never caused trouble.
Bai Ningrong had originally assumed that someone as gentle as Huo Mian would panic when faced with danger. Yet her performance had completely exceeded her expectations.
She had already come up with the excellent idea of moving the supplies earlier, and now, even after being plunged into such a dangerous situation, she remained completely calm and thought of a way to solve the crisis before them.
She was more capable than many of the boys.
Bai Ningrong’s impression of Huo Mian changed, and admiration appeared in her eyes.
After hearing Huo Mian’s plan, Xia Yan took a deep look at her, unable to conceal the stirrings of his heart.
He raised his voice.
“Electrical engineering students, come with me! Go to the kitchen, bring the generators over, and modify them!”