It took a long time before Chen Hao finally stopped vomiting. When he looked up at Yang Bin, something in his eyes had changed.

"Bin-ge, I know you're hungry, but you can't just eat anything! That thing was dug out of a zombie's skull-and you swallowed it!?"

Yang Bin smiled and lowered his voice. "It's good stuff. I'll explain later."

He turned toward Zhao Kun and the others, only to find them staring at him with the kind of expression you'd give a creature in a zoo exhibit.

Yang Bin spread his hands helplessly. "Come on. I just ate something to fill my stomach. Is it really that serious?"

"You... you're not actually turning into a zombie, are you? Why else would you eat something like that!" Zhao Kun's voice carried genuine fear.

"You're all so sheltered," Yang Bin said flatly. "Wait until you're starving badly enough. You might eat human flesh."

"Impossible! I'd rather starve to death than eat a person!" Skinny Monkey declared.

"Exactly. We're not freaks like you!" Old Hei added.

Yang Bin shrugged. "Hope you can keep that promise."

He'd never eaten human flesh. But he knew the feeling of hunger pushed to its absolute limit-the kind where he'd once fought stray dogs over scraps.

"Rest up for a bit, then we keep going," Yang Bin said, looking at the group.

"I can't." Old Hei collapsed flat on the ground, voice thin. "I've got nothing left. I was already starving before, and after puking my guts out just now, I'm completely drained. I probably couldn't lift a brick right now."

"Same here," Skinny Monkey said. "If I don't eat something soon, I won't be able to stand."

Yang Bin shook his head. "That's what you get for having the stomach of a house cat. Throwing up at every little thing."

"......"

The group stared at him, the same thought running through every mind: Whose fault do you think that is?

"Yang Bin, let's figure out food first," Zhao Kun said with a bitter smile. "Otherwise none of us have the strength to fight."

Yang Bin nodded. He didn't actually feel very hungry anymore-probably a side effect of absorbing the crystal's energy.

But looking at the others, he knew asking them to fight zombies in this state was a fantasy.

"Fine. We go down and look for food. Most of the zombies near the stairwell have been cleared out. There's a dorm right next to it with no zombies inside. We get in there and see what we can find."

"Okay."

The moment they heard "food," everyone's eyes lit up. Strength seemed to materialize from nowhere.

"Chen Hao and I will go. The rest of you stay up here. Too many people moving around will attract zombies."

"Uh..." The others hesitated, their expressions transparent-clearly worried the two of them would eat everything themselves.

"How about I go with you instead," Zhao Kun said suddenly.

Yang Bin thought it over, then nodded.

Originally, taking Chen Hao with his Invisibility would've been the safest option. But they were still two separate groups right now. If only he and Chen Hao went, it would look wrong.

The final decision: Yang Bin and Zhao Kun would go down together for food. Everyone else stayed on the roof.

The two crept carefully to the seventh-floor stairwell. Yang Bin activated True Vision Eye and scanned-no zombies in the target dorm, and the ones in the corridors on either side were a good distance away.

He gave Zhao Kun a hand signal, then dropped into a half-squat and inched toward the dorm room door. It was open. He slipped inside without hesitation.

Zhao Kun copied his movements and followed in moments later.

But his frame was bigger than Yang Bin's. Maybe his movements were too large-two zombies far down the corridor turned their heads, staring vaguely in their direction. Then they began shambling toward the door.

Once inside, Yang Bin locked the door immediately. The two started tearing through the room.

The dorm was trashed. Signs of a struggle everywhere. The outcome didn't need explaining.

After a thorough search, they came up with two cups of instant noodles, a few ham sausages, and one bag of bread.

"That's it? This isn't even enough for me alone," Zhao Kun complained.

"Be grateful we found anything. Who stockpiles food in their dorm?" Yang Bin said.

"Fair point. Head back then?"

"Not yet. We need weapons first. Without them, we're sitting ducks."

His steel pipe was basically scrap metal now. The ladder had cracked apart. They had nothing worth swinging.

His physical stats had jumped massively, and he was confident he could handle a lone zombie barehanded. But against several at once? No weapon meant real trouble.

"Yeah, no weapons is a problem," Zhao Kun agreed, feeling it deeply.

"I already searched this room though. Nothing useful."

"Where'd you get that steel pipe originally?" Yang Bin asked.

"Picked it up outside ages ago. Kept it hidden under my bed-figured I'd use it in a fight someday." Zhao Kun's voice turned resentful. "Never got to use it in a fight. Ended up using it on zombies instead. And the most infuriating part? I barely swung it a few times before a certain someone conned me out of it."

"......"

"Hey now, 'conned' is a strong word. You have to admit it was more effective in my hands than yours," Yang Bin said, slightly awkward.

"Oh, effective? So effective you destroyed it completely." Zhao Kun rolled his eyes.

"Would you rather the pipe broke, or us?"

"......"

"Fine. I won't hold the pipe thing against you. But this room clearly has nothing. So where do we get weapons?"

"If there's nothing lying around, we take apart the beds."

Yang Bin's gaze landed on the bunk bed ladder. Iron. The right length. If he could pull it free and knock off the crossbars, they'd have two solid iron rods.

"Don't bother looking," Zhao Kun said. "That's welded on. You can't get it off without tools."

Yang Bin ignored him. He walked over and examined the weld points closely.

The ladder stood on the floor. Its top was welded to the upper bunk's frame. At the bottom, a short iron pipe connected the ladder's lowest rung to the lower bunk's frame.

In other words, the welds were only there to keep the ladder from shifting. They weren't structural. They weren't meant to bear weight.

Yang Bin felt confident.

Before, he might not have managed it. But now, with his stats doubled-worth a try.

He gripped the base of the ladder with both hands and wrenched outward.

The weld point between the stabilizing pipe and the ladder tore apart with a sharp crack.

Zhao Kun's jaw dropped.

"What the fuck-did you pop steroids!?" His eyes were saucers.

"This weld was just to stop the ladder from sliding around. It wasn't that strong. A bit of force and it comes right off," Yang Bin said casually.

"Really?"

Zhao Kun walked to the other bed, skeptical. He copied Yang Bin's stance, grabbed the ladder base, and heaved outward with everything he had.

Nothing. The ladder didn't move a millimeter.

Refusing to accept it, he yanked again. And again. The ladder stood like it was rooted in concrete.

"'A bit of force and it comes right off'!?" Zhao Kun said, voice flat with disbelief.

"You're probably just too hungry. No strength left," Yang Bin said with a grin.

If it were that easy to rip free, the ladder would've fallen apart years ago.

With the bottom disconnected, the top was simple. Yang Bin grabbed the ladder and rocked it back and forth. After a few shakes, the upper weld snapped.

A full iron ladder, roughly 1.8 meters long, came free in his hands.

He gave it a few test swings. Not ideal-the rungs made it awkward-but it would do for now. Once they got back upstairs and hammered off the crossbars, they'd have two clean 1.8-meter iron pipes.

"Here." He handed the ladder to Zhao Kun, then moved to the next bed and repeated the process.

"Process these upstairs and we've got four iron pipes," Yang Bin said, satisfied.

Then-bang, bang-sudden pounding from outside. Both of them flinched.

Yang Bin activated True Vision Eye instantly. Two zombies stood pressed against the door, slapping their palms against it over and over.

"How did zombies get here?" Yang Bin frowned. "They must've spotted us coming in."

"What do we do?" Zhao Kun asked, tension creeping into his voice.

"We charge out. If they keep banging like that, every zombie on this floor will come investigate. Then we're trapped." Yang Bin's tone was hard. No room for debate.

"Got it." Zhao Kun nodded.

After everything they'd been through, the Zhao Kun who once refused to take orders from Yang Bin no longer questioned him. Somewhere deep down, he'd accepted it-Yang Bin was the one who kept them alive.

"I go first and clear the way. You follow with the gear."

"Got it."