The group returned to the Rooftop. Apart from Yang Bin, everyone was wrecked. Holding back zombies was its own kind of exhausting.

Yang Bin pulled out his phone to check for news online, only to find it dead. He shoved it back in his pocket with a sigh. Cheap batteries. Figures.

"Haozi, check if there's anything online. Especially official announcements."

It was already past four in the afternoon. The apocalypse had been raging for most of the day. By any reasonable standard, the authorities should have said something by now.

Chen Hao quickly opened his phone and started scrolling. His face lit up-then fell.

"What's with the face? You look like you won the lottery and lost the ticket." Yang Bin raised an eyebrow.

"Bin-ge, the authorities did post something. But it's... not exactly useful." Chen Hao smiled bitterly.

"What'd they say?"

"They said zombies aren't scary. Told everyone to bravely pick up weapons and fight back. Said once they handle their own internal issues, they'll launch rescue operations. Told everyone not to worry." Chen Hao recited.

"Heh. That's about as official as it gets." Yang Bin chuckled.

"Guess we can't count on them." Zhao Kun shook his head. "Though they're not wrong. With weapons, a normal person should be able to handle regular zombies. It's just a question of whether people have the guts."

"Sure. But this world's never been short on people with guts. I'd bet plenty of folks have already tangled with zombies by now." Yang Bin said.

"You're right, Bin-ge. There are tons of videos online already. People forming groups, fighting back." Chen Hao said.

"Campus network too. Several dorm buildings have organized squads on their own." Skinny Monkey added.

"None in our building?" Chen Hao asked.

"What do you think we are?" Yang Bin grinned.

"Fair point. I was hoping someone else would come help, but I guess that's not happening."

"Maybe not. Could be people on the lower floors have already started moving."

"Mm."

"We rest for one hour," Yang Bin said. "Then we go down and clear whatever's left on the seventh floor. See how many people are still alive. Find food and water while we're at it."

"Got it."

Everyone nodded, then collapsed flat on the Rooftop.

Facing dozens of zombies in one go had drained them body and soul.

An hour later, Yang Bin sat up and flexed his arms. Still sore, but functional. Good enough to fight.

In the meantime, Zhao Kun had broken down his ladder the same way-two iron pipes. He kept one and gave the other to Old Hei.

Skinny Monkey grabbed the steel pipe Yang Bin had bent earlier and hammered it straight with a brick. Serviceable, barely.

"Let's go."

Yang Bin led the way to the stairwell.

The stench hit them immediately-thick, coppery, rotten. The kind that coated the back of your throat.

They forced themselves to look down.

Below the heap of corpses clogging the stairs, two zombies clawed upward with mindless persistence. The blockage held. They couldn't get through.

"How do we get down?" Zhao Kun asked.

Yang Bin pointed at the railing. "Stairs are blocked. Only way is to jump."

"You serious? That's nearly three meters. We'll snap our legs. And there are two zombies down there. You trying to get us killed? What is this, Delivering Takeout?"

"Pathetic." Yang Bin shook his head. "I'll go first. Once those two are dealt with, you follow."

He gripped the guardrail with one hand, swung over, and dropped.

His knees bent on impact, absorbing the force cleanly. He stood on the seventh-floor corridor without a wobble.

The physical upgrade wasn't just raw strength-it was everything. Balance, coordination, durability. Three meters was nothing.

The two zombies spotted fresh meat and lunged.

Yang Bin's pipe shot forward, punching clean through the first one's skull. Without pausing, he drove his boot into the second zombie's chest, slamming it to the ground. He ripped the pipe free and drove it down through the fallen zombie's head.

The whole sequence was Smooth as flowing clouds and water. The group above stared, slack-jawed.

"Damn!" Thumbs went up.

"Save the ass-kissing. Get down here." Yang Bin looked up at them.

They glanced at each other. Nobody moved.

Yang Bin sighed, dragged both corpses over, and stacked them below the drop point. "Better?"

"......"

"I'll go first."

Chen Hao stepped up, climbed over the railing, took a deep breath, and jumped.

His feet hit the zombie corpses. The bodies cushioned the landing. No issues.

Three meters looked intimidating, but as long as you knew how to absorb the impact, it was manageable. The real obstacle was the fear.

"Haozi's getting braver." Yang Bin grinned.

"Can't have you looking bad because of me." Chen Hao puffed out his chest.

Zhao Kun and the others exchanged glances, gritted their teeth, and jumped one after another.

The poor zombies-killed, piled up, and now used as landing pads. Nearly had their guts stomped out.

The seventh-floor corridor was clear. But the rooms were another story.

Twenty rooms per floor, ten on each side of the stairwell. Four beds per room. At least eighty people on this floor.

They'd killed around sixty-something zombies total, and that included some from the sixth floor. So the seventh still had twenty to thirty unaccounted for-some of those might be survivors.

"Let's go. Room by room." Yang Bin said.

"Mm."

He led them left. First door-open. No zombies inside.

They tore through the room. Half a bottle of mineral water and a pack of gum. Nothing else.

Boys' dorms weren't like the Girls' Dormitory. Guys who hoarded snacks were rare. Finding food here was pure luck.

Yang Bin grabbed the water, took a swig, and passed it to Chen Hao. Chen Hao drank and passed it to Zhao Kun.

Nobody was precious about sharing a bottle right now. They were all parched. Water mattered more than food.

By the time it came back around, the half-bottle was gone. Yang Bin dismantled the room's bunk ladder, worked it into two iron pipes. One went to Skinny Monkey. The other replaced his own.

His original pipe had gone through too many skulls. It was starting to warp.

The group chewed their gum and strolled toward the second room.

Also empty. They searched it and moved on.

Several rooms in a row-no zombies. The ones closest to the stairwell had probably been drawn out by the earlier noise and charged straight into the meat grinder.

At the fifth room, they finally found a closed door.

Yang Bin activated True Vision Eye and scanned the interior. Three zombies inside, hunched over what remained of a body, feeding.

He caught the others' eyes and signaled. Then kicked the door in.

Three zombies looked up from their meal, blank-faced and confused. Before they could process the intrusion, pipes were already swinging.

By the time their dead brains caught up, they were done.

Yang Bin skewered two through the skull. The third went down under Chen Hao and Zhao Kun working together-they couldn't punch through bone, so they hammered the thing's neck until it severed. Crude, but effective. Necks were a lot softer than skulls.

They searched the room and pressed on.

Finally, at the eighth room, they found survivors. Four of them. An entire dorm-all four roommates alive, none turned.

The moment they saw Yang Bin's group, the four nearly broke down with relief. Saved. They thought they were saved.

Then Yang Bin opened his mouth and doused that hope like ice water.

"Grab your weapons. You're coming with us to kill zombies."