Chapter 26: Five Thousand People Die in One Night, Business Comes Knocking

Six o'clock in the morning arrived precisely.

This apocalypse had no sunrise, but the eerie, blood-red sky was considerably brighter than during the night, casting a dim, murky light over the super Dormitory building.

And at this very moment, that familiar, icy voice once again resounded in the minds of all survivors.

[Ding! Congratulations to all players for successfully surviving the first night.]

[During the day (6:00 AM - 12:00 AM), all zombies in the school will enter a dormant state.]

[Tip 1: Dormant zombies will not attack proactively, but will awaken if attacked or disturbed.]

[Tip 2: At midnight tonight, an equal number of new zombies will appear. Any dormant zombies not cleared by then will awaken simultaneously and join the wandering ranks.]

[Tip 3: We wish all players a pleasant gaming experience.]

These few prompts were like several massive boulders thrown into an already turbulent lake, stirring up towering waves.

After a brief moment of stunned silence, the public channel's message refresh rate became even more terrifying than when Su Ze had flaunted his instant noodles last night!

[Jinghai Dormitory · Chat Channel · 59013/65131 people]

"3rd Floor-325-Lin Xiao (tenant): Holy shit! The number! Look at the player count! Fifty-nine thousand!!"

"1st Floor-263-Guo Fei (landlord): In just one night... over five thousand people died?!"

"7th Floor-731-Zhao Lili (tenant): Oh my god... and this is only the first day! The seven-day novice period... how many of us will actually survive?"

"5th Floor-527-Zhou Kai (landlord): Stop fucking talking! What's even scarier is the zombie numbers stack! If we don't clear them during the day, tonight's count will be double! Double!"

"10th Floor-101-Fang Ping (tenant): Clear them? Easier said than done! Our dorm has six people. The best weapon from our four-star starter pack is just a common-quality baseball bat with an attack power of only 8! How are we supposed to fight zombies with that?"

[7th Floor-199-Wang Defa (landlord): These rules are such a trap! Zombies you don't clear stack? Who the hell can handle that?!]

"5th Floor-571-Chen Chuang (landlord): Damn it! Last night, a few idiots deliberately lured zombies to our door! Our door was almost clawed to pieces! Don't let me find out who did it!"

"1st Floor-438-Zhang Shanwen (tenant): We're done for... zombies were banging on our dorm door last night. The door's almost shattered, and we're out of Wood material to repair it... Can anyone please spare us some Wood material?!!"

Panic, despair, anger...

The shadow of death, after dawn, pressed down even more heavily on everyone's hearts.

Inside Dormitory 404.

Su Ze's eyelids fluttered, and he slowly opened his eyes.

A faint, sweet fragrance lingered at the tip of his nose.

His head rested on something soft, springy, and warm.

He lifted his head slightly and saw Liu Qiaofei's pretty face, flushed crimson with nervousness and shyness.

The girl's body was tense, her long eyelashes trembling incessantly, not daring to meet his gaze.

"Awake?"

Jiang Yuwan's cool voice came from beside them. She and Yao Qingya had been keeping watch.

Su Ze grunted in acknowledgment, pushing himself up from Liu Qiaofei's stomach.

He stretched his slightly stiff neck.

He had slept for less than an hour, but his spirits had indeed recovered quite a bit.

His first action was to pull up the virtual interface, scanning the messages in the channel.

Then, he retrieved from his backpack a palm-sized card depicting a golden megaphone.

[Small Megaphone Card]

[Quality: Common]

[Effect: After use, forces one message to be pinned to the top of the public channel for one hour.]

This was one of the many spoils he had scavenged last night.

Without hesitation, he chose to use it and sent out the message he had already prepared.

[Pinned Message · 4th Floor-404-Su Ze (landlord): I currently have a surplus of some food, drinking water, materials, and weapons available for trade. Trading location: Outside Dormitory 404 on the 4th floor. Queue for transactions, no loud noises. Limited quantities, first come, first served! Note: The area within two meters of the Dormitory entrance is within the turret's attack range. Trespassers will bear the consequences.]

After doing all this, he finally sat up.

He began untying the ropes binding the wrists and ankles of the three girls.

"Go sleep on the bed."

Rubbing her eyes, Liu Qiaofei nodded obediently, her cheeks still tinged with a lingering blush.

Yao Qingya seemed to hesitate, as if wanting to say something.

But seeing Su Ze's unyielding expression, she ultimately swallowed her words and silently climbed onto the bed.

There was only one bed in the Dormitory, so the three girls had to squeeze together.

Just before lying down, Jiang Yuwan suddenly called out to Su Ze.

"I organized some intel last night."

Leaning against the bedside, her cool voice carried a hint of fatigue.

"Among the over five thousand who died last night, most were 'dormless ones' without a Dormitory. They were almost completely wiped out."

"Another portion died from player retaliation."

"Many people, after being scratched by zombies and knowing they wouldn't last long, dragged their soon-to-be-transformed bodies to retaliate against Dormitories that had refused to help, breaking down doors and luring zombies over at the same time."

"But the strangest thing is, some Dormitories remained completely quiet the whole time, weren't retaliated against, yet were still overrun by zombies, even dying earlier than those wandering in the corridors. I compared those Dormitories and found they all had one thing in common..."

Su Ze didn't even wait for her to finish, cutting straight to the point: "They took in extra people besides the landlord and tenants?"

Her prepared analysis interrupted, Jiang Yuwan was taken aback for a moment, a flash of surprise crossing her beautiful eyes.

"...Yes."

"It seems you already figured it out. The game rules don't allow any non-registered personnel to exist within a Dormitory. Once discovered, they become priority targets for zombie attacks."

"There's also some scattered intel..."

After listening to her, Su Ze learned a bit more information.

Some Dormitories had received five-star starter packs and obtained powerful skill books.

Some Dormitories had started attempting to kill zombies last night and succeeded.

That guy named Zhuang Qianhao had already consolidated several Dormitories on the east side of the first floor.

And then there was Wang Meng on the third floor. Relying on his own high base combat power of 39 and powerful tenants, he was also trying to form alliances with Dormitories on the third floor, faintly showing signs of becoming the third-floor leader...

Additionally, something strange happened on the Eighth Floor.

Many zombies repeatedly launched collective attacks on one Dormitory, even ignoring numerous dormless ones multiple times. That Dormitory was attacked all night long but miraculously held out until dawn.

...

After sharing all the intel, she too climbed into bed, exhausted.

Having stayed up all night, she was truly worn out and soon fell into a deep sleep along with the other two girls.

Su Ze looked at the three stunning beauties squeezed together on the bed, each with a different sleeping expression, but harbored no extraneous thoughts.

He walked to the door, quietly pondering the information Jiang Yuwan had just shared while waiting.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before.

A series of extremely faint footsteps, accompanied by suppressed panting and whispers, came from the far end of the corridor.

"Quiet! All of you, keep it the hell down! Don't wake those damn things up!"

"Damn, this 4th Floor-404 is so far. My legs are jelly from the scare of coming all this way."

"Almost there, almost there! See that? That's the turret! Don't get close!"

The voices grew closer.

Su Ze cracked the door open a sliver and saw a group of seven or eight players, pressed against the wall, moving awkwardly and cautiously towards Dormitory 404.

On each of their faces was written tension, fear, and a deep, desperate longing.

The tall, sturdy boy at the front stopped about three meters away from the Dormitory door.

He took a deep breath and tentatively called out softly in the direction of the door.

"Ex... excuse me, is that Boss Su Ze? We... we're here to trade!"