SSFxWD Ch.9: The Team

Side quests could be done or skipped.

But if you wanted to survive in the apocalypse, facing monsters was inevitable sooner or later.

"This thing won't leave—what do we do?" Chen Luoyin nudged her companion with her elbow, snapping her out of her daze.

"Here's the plan..."

Lin Qiukui decided to give herself a proper workout. Her mind worked quickly as she whispered a few words into Chen Luoyin's ear, then turned and walked up to the landing on the fourth-and-a-half floor.

Chen Luoyin took a deep breath, stepped up to the dormitory door, and called out: "Hey, ugly thing."

The monster turned its head blankly.

"Yeah, you."

She tossed out a piece of frozen pork that Lin Qiukui had given her. The monster dropped to all fours immediately and crawled over.

After wolfing down the two-pound chunk of meat, it was still unsatisfied and kept shuffling forward, its waist-length hair swaying like a ghost's.

"Over here."

Once it was out of the dorm, Chen Luoyin quickly stepped aside, and Lin Qiukui took over, throwing more meat up the stairs.

Her plan was crude, to say the least. She simply guessed that monsters were more sensitive to sounds made by human throats, and that besides hearing, they might also have a sense of smell, which was why the creature had fixated on the girlfriend.

The system had also said that the monsters' main food source was humans.

So they'd attack on two fronts—using both human voice and pork to lure it onto the stairs, overcome the height difference, aim for the weak point, and finish it off in one strike.

Unfortunately, reality was rarely as neat as imagination.

The monster crouched on the eighth step, feasting greedily. Lin Qiukui stood on the tenth step, raised her axe, and swung down with all her might—

In the flash of a moment, the creature seemed unnaturally agile or perhaps it was some unknown mass condensed from the eerie fog that interfered. Either way, the axe was deflected by something black and struck the monster's shoulder at an angle.

A violent jolt ran through her wrist, and Lin Qiukui, axe and all, was thrown hard against the wall.

The axe grazed her skin as she crashed into a corner. In her line of sight, the half-human monster slowly straightened up, its body immense. Its grayish-black skin was mottled with patches of flesh-tone that hadn't fully faded. Even the shadow it cast under the light was so warped it was almost maddening.

"Silly goose!"

Chen Luoyin screamed and charged up the stairs.

The stun baton, cranked to maximum power, pressed against the monster's lower back, crackling with electric currents.

The monster froze for a few seconds, then swatted the nuisance aside with a backhand and roared at its newly discovered prey: "Hungry—, I'm hungry—"

—Yao Yao's voice.

Although it was mixed with the monster's unique vocalizations, she recognized it in an instant—it was her classmate's voice.

"Hey, you okay?" Chen Luoyin picked up the stun baton, holding it with both hands, and tilted her head to check on Lin Qiukui.

"Not dead."

"Good. I was about to ditch you and run."

Noticing that the monster swayed in response to their back-and-forth conversation—human voices coming from both directions—Lin Qiukui pressed a hand to her forehead and said, "Keep talking."

Chen Luoyin blinked: "Say what?"

"Anything."

"Then let's talk about how to deal with this thing. What happened just now? Did you miss by accident?"

"There's something wrong with the fog."

What exactly was wrong with it—hard to say.

"It's standing up now. At this height, I can't reach it." As she spoke, she got back on her feet, feeling a sharp sting across her back.

"If only we could flip it over with a shoulder throw."

Having witnessed her girlfriend's signature move, Chen Luoyin remarked casually.

That sparked an idea in Lin Qiukui. Pretending to rummage through her bag, she pulled a tow rope out of her spatial storage: "Catch. I'll lure the monster upward. You use this to barricade the stairs—call me when you're done."

"Take care of yourself, then."

No further explanation was needed—they split up.

It was true that the monster's limbs were stiff and its movements slow, but it took large steps—one stride equaled seven or eight of an ordinary female college student's.

Lin Qiukui sprinted, her heart thumping wildly in her chest, dodging attacks from the fog every so often.

This time, she saw it clearly—tiny black specks within the fog would suddenly coalesce into various shapes, like hunters lying in ambush, always finding new ways to strike at her.

Hiss— A moment's lapse in distance, and sharp claws tore through her clothes, leaving three uneven bloody scratches.

"Done! Silly goose, can you hear me? I'm done here—come down!"

Just as she was about to reach the locked rooftop door, good news finally came from downstairs.

Lin Qiukui snapped back to attention—the monster was blocking the stairwell.

Without a second thought, she did something dangerously reckless that almost everyone had done as a child—she swung her leg over the handrail, flipped to the outside of the stairs, grabbed the railing, and jumped down.

"Hungry—"

The monster sensed its prey vanish, and its long arm reached across the floor gap, lunging with a rush of air.

Lin Qiukui reflexively threw herself forward, tumbling and scrambling back to the fourth floor.

Together, the two of them grabbed the other end of the rope, counting down in their minds: three, two, one.

Thud! The pursuing monster was indeed tripped!

They didn't hesitate—grabbing whatever was at hand, a broken lamp tube, a long stick, they struck at its head.

Dark green blood spurted out with wet, splattering sounds, until the monster's head was pounded into a pulpy mess. Only then did they stop, panting heavily.

Following the system's prompt, Lin Qiukui collected the alien egg hidden beneath the shredded remains.

After mutation, it had lost its core and now appeared transparent and soft, shimmering with iridescent phosphorescence—more like a harmless, glowing glass bead.

"Congratulations on completing the quest."

Along with the system notification came the sound of doors opening, and pairs of eyes appeared from both ends of the corridor.

"You... killed the monster?"

"What on earth are these things?! Are you two okay?"

Amid the flurry of questions, a sharp female voice cut through: "Didn't the broadcast say not to make any noise, and that the government patrol would come rescue us? You two are from the sixth floor—why did you come down to our fourth floor and make such a racket? Are you trying to get us all killed?!"

Huh...?

"Excuse me..." Faced with the sudden accusation, Lin Qiukui instinctively asked Chen Luoyin: "Do you know her?"

She simply assumed Chen Luoyin had a wider social circle.

Chen Luoyin, however, put on her spoiled rich-girl act and looked down her nose: "Not a clue. Are you sure she goes to our school?"

Hearing this exchange, the girl took it as the two of them ganging up to humiliate her deliberately.

Her face flushed red with anger: "Don't change the subject! All of us have been cooped up in our dorms, barely daring to breathe, and here you two are not staying in your own rooms, but coming down here blasting music and chatting away. What are you playing at? If those monsters get drawn up here, who's going to take responsibility?"

Arguing was pointless. Lin Qiukui had no interest in wasting time on it. She pulled her axe out of the wall where it had embedded itself, and said slowly: "Actually, you could speak a little louder. Then we can have a hands-on discussion about this."

"No need to go that far."

Chen Luoyin crossed her arms: "How many of those ugly things were on the fourth floor to begin with? What are you so worried about? If it comes to that, we'll just put in the effort to round up the same number and bring them back for you. That way you'll be happy, and we'll get some entertainment out of it—nobody owes anybody anything, right?"

Hearing that, some of the onlookers who had intended to stay out of it couldn't sit still anymore. They quickly chimed in to call out the girl's unreasonable behavior, then asked the two why they had left their dorms in the first place—were they planning to fight their way out of the school?

Chen Luoyin: "I'm looking for my girlfriend."

A classmate from Room 419 spoke up hesitantly: "I know your girlfriend—she's the girl who lives next door to me, right? Around one in the morning or so, I heard her talking to herself on the balcony, on and off, in a really unsettling way."

"Later, the faucet next door was turned on, and water ran for hours. That monster was probably drawn by the sound too—it's been stuck outside the bathroom door, scratching and yelling 'hungry.' But I never heard her open the door or come out."

So she should still be in there.

Chen Luoyin unlocked the password door, and there she found her girlfriend lying on the floor, head down, with a gash on her forehead and burning hot enough to steam an egg.

The two discussed and decided to head down to the second floor first to find the person they were looking for, and figure out later how to move the girlfriend to a safer place.

"Um... can I come with you?"

A rather sturdy female classmate stepped out of Room 404, scratching her head awkwardly. "It's all because I eat too much. I had prepared a seven-day supply like the news said, but it only lasted two days. I was hoping to see if any other dorms have extra food to spare me some."

"Do you have any spare weapons to lend me?"

Another female classmate from Room 403 also stepped out.

Lin Qiukui: "I do have some."

As if waiting for that very answer, the girl nodded slightly: "Then count me in."

...

The two new companions—one was Dafang, a consecutive champion in shot put at the school sports meet, with formidable arm strength, who naturally took over the axe.

The other was small and thin, wearing glasses, named Qiaoqiao, who claimed to have quick reflexes and maxed-out agility, choosing a baseball bat as her defensive weapon.

Chen Luoyin stuck with her flashlight and stun baton, while Lin Qiukui switched to a lighter outdoor long knife.

They tidied their gear and set off again.

It had to be said—"many hands make light work" was quite true in the early days of the apocalypse.

As they made their way downstairs, the closer they got to the ground floor, the more monsters climbed up from below.

There was one on the third floor wearing the resident advisor's classic floral shirt; two on the fourth that seemed to have wandered over from the boys' dorm across the way, aimlessly roaming the corridor.

If it had just been the two of them, it would have taken a lot more time—luring them apart one by one and taking them down.

But now they had four. Qiaoqiao handled the baiting, Chen Luoyin assisted with stalling. Dafang was the main damage dealer—once Lin Qiukui tripped a monster with a trap, one swing of her axe would split its head in two.

After spending about two hours clearing out the entire building, they also used a new type of anti-corrosion fabric found in a fashion design class dorm to wrap around thin iron chains, stringing them across each stairway at varying heights to serve as "tripwire barriers."

That way, any monster coming up the stairs would trip first and make noise—giving everyone a warning to either finish it off or make a run for it.

In addition, Lin Qiukui used her universal key to open doors and successfully located the unconscious Tong Jia.

Dafang apologized profusely and expressed gratitude as she collected food from various messy dorms.

Seeing that everyone had accomplished their goals, Qiaoqiao suggested: "You two have two patients with you. Staying on the second floor is too risky, and going back to the sixth floor is too high. Why not come to our fourth floor? It's a good middle ground—easy to advance or retreat, and convenient for carrying them."

"Plus, Rooms 403 and 404 share a common living room and bathroom, with eight beds in total. Dafang's room has only her, and I have one other roommate in mine—that leaves five extra beds for the four of you."

Solid plan. It was settled.

The group took turns carrying the two unconscious, feverish patients to their temporary base.

Their clothes were all soaked with the monsters' corrosive fluids, so they needed to shower and change quickly.

Dafang worked swiftly, pulling out clean blankets from the cabinet and making up all the empty beds.

Qiaoqiao busied herself tidying the table and taking inventory of supplies.

Lin Qiukui, with injuries on her back and bruising on her shoulders, could only face away from the mirror while teaching Chen Luoyin how to disinfect the wounds.

For now, this temporary group seemed to have a decent atmosphere and worked in an orderly manner. But when asked about their plans going forward, they all turned to look at Lin Qiukui.

Under the gaze of three pairs of eyes, her stomach let out a clear, audible growl.

"I'm hungry." She patted her belly. "Are you guys hungry? How about we eat and talk at the same time?"

Now that she mentioned it, they were all a bit hungry. Chen Luoyin looked around: "What's there to eat?"

Lin Qiukui raised her hand: "I'll have a pack of Baixiang instant noodles with sausage."

Dafang raised her arm high too and stammered: "Then... can I have two packs? One pack might not... be enough."

Qiaoqiao also raised a hand.

Remembering she still had a roommate in the dorm, she silently raised her other hand as well: "My roommate and I don't need sausages."

Only Chen Luoyin turned away in disgust: "I'm not eating that cheap, unhealthy junk food like instant noodles!"

Ten minutes later, wearing a pink bow-shaped shower cap, she held a steaming bowl of cheap instant noodles in both hands and let out a blissful, classic exclamation.

"—So good!"