Chapter 73. Fu Qing stood up, but her steps faltered...

The elite class will be fighting zombies in close combat in the future, and any mercy shown to the enemy could have irreversible consequences.

Therefore, throughout the entire teaching process, Fu Qing imparted all the fighting skills he knew, but he didn't teach them how to conserve their strength.

Over the course of several months, their fighting methods became increasingly aggressive. Even when they were walking around campus, attending classes, or eating, as long as they didn't interact with others, they exuded an aura that was hard to conceal and was terrifying.

If it weren't for their roommates and the fact that they were constantly surrounded by their companions in a communal living environment, Fu Qing would have worried that the group's mental health might suffer.

If the trainees are already this reserved in their daily lives, let alone when they are fighting with their full aura.

Fearing that they might lose control of their strength and accidentally injure each other, Fuqing stipulated that all armed combat must be conducted inside the simulation chamber.

After lunch, everyone went back to rest and recharge before gathering in the room where the simulated combat pods were located.

Fu Qing was the last to arrive and lay down in the cabin with the other thirteen people.

After detecting that someone had entered, the simulator automatically changed from a 45-degree tilt to a flat position, and the upper and lower covers slowly closed. Fu Qing heard a familiar and slight mechanical sound.

The simulator is soft and comfortable, and the special materials automatically adjust to fit the user's body shape perfectly, so you won't feel uncomfortable no matter how long you lie in it.

His limbs were trapped, and countless sensors inside were connected to nerve endings to simulate and transmit the most realistic tactile sensations. His brain was also encased in a helmet-like device...

Fu Qing had used the simulator dozens, if not hundreds, of times. She was familiar with every step, from starting the machine and connecting the sensor head to putting on the helmet. But this time, she realized something was wrong.

After the helmet got stuck, I felt a continuous stinging sensation in my temples, like being pricked by needles. It wasn't intense, but it was persistent, as if the helmet was leaking electricity.

She soon felt her cerebral cortex tighten, discomfort surged upwards from her internal organs, and her breathing became heavy.

The patient even experienced phantom pain in their limbs.

Fu Qing wondered if the other trainees who had lain in the simulation pod with her might also have experienced something unusual.

"System!" she shouted in her mind without thinking, and at the same time operated on her own, trying to leave the simulation pod.

But the simulator seemed to be stuck on the initial page; no matter how she tried to bring up the menu, all she could see was a blank white screen.

There was no response, and it was impossible to proceed to the next step.

The system in my mind responded quickly:

[An anomaly has been detected in part of the [Simulated Combat Pod] item. Troubleshooting is underway. Please remain calm and patient, host...]

"..." Fu Qing said patiently, "Help me disconnect from the students."

[Received, attempting to force disconnect]

A flash of white light, the stinging pain briefly subsided for a second, and then reappeared.

[Attempt failed]

[Second attempt... hiss...]

A piercing electrical hum swept by, and the system's sound became intermittent, seemingly fading away.

[Hiss... Signal isolated... Connection lost with host... Hiss...]

Fu Qing sensed something was wrong: "System?"

There was no response, and then, with a loud "bang," the other end went completely silent.

Fu Qing: "..."

I have a bad feeling.

The system disappeared, the simulator menu button disappeared, but fortunately she could still move.

Fu Qing simply began to stroll in the snow-white void, and moved his arms and legs—aside from feeling dizzy, he was quite agile.

But Fu Qing's mood did not improve much.

She and thirteen other trainees are still trapped inside the capsule machine. The elite class uses the simulator for several hours at a time, and everyone has gotten used to this arrangement. During this time, no one will disturb them.

If others encounter the same situation as her, it means that Xu Mingyue and the others might not notice anything amiss due to the absence of several people until at least dinner time.

Five or six hours is enough time for a lot to happen.

As Fu Qing pondered, the white before him gradually thinned.

Once her vision cleared, she realized she was in a familiar network lobby.

The thirteen students in the elite class stood together, instinctively maintaining a position where they could support each other, constantly looking around with expressions of fear on their faces.

The moment they saw her, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"headmaster!"

"You're alright, that's great."

"What's going on? Why is there no menu?"

"Did we get a virus? What should we do about today's practice?"

They felt like they had found their pillar of support, and after relaxing, problems arose one after another.

They seemed certain that as long as Fu Qing arrived, all the troubles would be easily resolved.

Several people surrounded Fu Qing, chattering like a flock of sparrows. They were a far cry from their usual calm and composed, invincible demeanor in dungeons.

Seeing the trust in the students' eyes, Fu Qing had an inopportune thought.

She seems to have done something wrong.

The mistake was in making them overly dependent on him—if he were to leave Fangzhou one day, would the school still be able to operate?

In fact, with the abilities of the elite class students, they are already fully capable of handling things on their own. During the simulation training over the past few months, Fu Qing has always consciously put them in different dangerous situations on their own, and they have been able to handle them very well.

But in a corner of the trainees' hearts, there still lingers a bit of a fledgling complex. Their outward courage stems from their inner trust and attachment to Fuqing, believing that if they encounter troubles they cannot solve, the principal will step in to bail them out.

During this period, Fu Qing's impressive performance in training was partly intentional.

She always thought that as long as she acted in an unshakeable way, she could stand ahead and become a benchmark so that they would never lose their way.

In the process of pursuing her, they themselves will become stronger and stronger.

This is the simplest and fastest way to force them to grow up.

But Fu Qing overlooked the fact that those who were used to watching her run away would only become more lost once they lost their goal.

Since a solution can't be found anytime soon, this might just be a good opportunity to practice.

Faced with the questions from the group, Fu Qing simply shook her head: "I don't know."

The unexpected answer stunned the trainees, who exchanged glances, a brief look of bewilderment flashing across their faces.

They were somewhat unsure of what the principal meant.

Su Huaijin was the first to speak, suggesting, "Let's think of another way. Some of us can continue trying to access the menu, while others can wander around the online lobby to see if we can find an exit or something unusual that we might be able to analyze."

After she finished speaking, she glanced at the principal.

Fu Qing nodded calmly: "I have no objection."

The crowd then dispersed.

Fu Qing stood still, pressing her temples. The pain was becoming increasingly unbearable, but she didn't show it on her face. She looked up and observed the others.

The trainees moved about freely, seemingly unaffected except for being trapped in the hall.

So the discomfort caused by the helmet is unique to her?

Fu Qing suddenly remembered that a few months ago, when she brought Yu Cheng to the simulator for online play, she had also experienced a brief discomfort when logging in. But because that strange feeling quickly disappeared, she didn't pay any attention to it.

So, is this the seed that was planted back then?

The group circled around twice. The entire hall was the same as before, except that there was no way to pop up a menu or find an exit. It was like an old computer that had crashed and could not be operated. The only difference was that the holographic pod did not have a power button that could be pressed and held to force a restart.

A slight anxiety welled up inside me, but it was soothed when I saw the principal.

In fact, Song Rushuang and the others did not know when this dependence began, but by the time they realized it, it was already deeply rooted.

Not only them, but all of the more than two thousand people in Fangzhou trusted the principal completely. It was just that the months of living and working together, and the effort Fu Qing had put into them, made the students in the elite class even more attached to her.

A cold, electronic voice suddenly rang out in the hall, disrupting everyone's thoughts.

Welcome to the simulated combat pod!

Importing a copy:

...Hiss, copy generation in progress... Copy loading in progress...

[Hiss... Loading complete!]

The automatically read copies, the garbled naming, and the occasional ear-piercing hissing sounds mixed in with the smooth electronic voice all made everyone frown.

"What exactly happened?"

"The combat pod imported a copy that didn't exist before?" Liang Yi tried to analyze.

Qin Yufei's expression was not good: "If this were in a game, it would usually mean encountering a hidden boss."

Hidden bosses represent hellish levels with difficulty far exceeding normal levels. Successfully challenging them yields generous rewards, but failure always results in death.

However, the simulated combat pod cannot be completely compared to the game.

Their bodies are still under control, and the helmets are connected to their brains. If they die in this non-existent copy, will it really not affect them in reality?

No one dared to gamble.

Someone was about to start a discussion when their voice was cut off. Everyone, including Fu Qing, felt a dizzying sensation. When they opened their eyes again, their perspective seemed to be suspended in the air, and their souls floated lightly upwards. Only the electronic voice in their ears remained clear as usual.

[This trial feature is now available!]

[Importing historical archives...]

Import complete

[Playing the pre-dungeon animation]

Pre-roll animation?

Previous dungeons also had similar pre-game animation settings. For example, in dungeon 082 where Xiaojuan was, there was a happy time when the team members shared dinner around the campfire. However, that was called "pre-game story" by the system. It is different from the pre-game animation. The latter is a mode that appeared for the first time.

Fu Qing quickly discovered the difference between the two models.

The pre-story requires players to immerse themselves in the character and complete the story, which is clearly intended to evoke players' emotions and enhance their sense of immersion. The pre-story animation, on the other hand, is just a quick cutscene that provides information.

This was simply to make everyone understand what happened before the dungeon started.

But thanks to this opening animation, Fu Qing finally figured out the contents of the garbled dungeon.

She quietly gazed at the familiar scene before her.

The first scene in the animation is a group of people standing in an old house with a lit stove, arguing fiercely over a map spread out on a table.

This group consisted of about five or six people, both men and women, ranging in age from about twenty to forty, all of them young adults.

Before anyone could see their faces clearly, their features blurred and their figures became phantoms. Then, their numbers increased to fourteen, exactly the same as the total number of Fu Qing and the elite class.

Their faces were also replaced with the appearances of the elite class members.

This was standard procedure in the simulator, and they didn't object, continuing to watch intently.

The group, clearly led by Fu Qing, were looking at a map on the table. It was a floor plan of an old factory building. Fu Qing marked several points on it, his lips moving, occasionally frowning, revealing an unhappy expression.

The trainees were intimidated by the principal's expression, but the animation and the real-life experience were different; they couldn't control their actions and could only proceed step by step. Thus, Qin Yufei—the male character closest to Fu Qing—watched himself slam his hand on the table and say something intensely and urgently to Fu Qing, as if strongly opposing her decision.

Qin Yufei: "..."

Mom, save me!

Fu Qing looked at Qin Yufei for a while, rubbed his temples, and then said a few words to the crowd. Someone raised their hand first.

Is it a vote?

The voting results came out quickly, with the minority obeying the majority, and almost everyone supported the decision to support youth.

Qin Yufei watched as he stormed off, went outside for a walk, rubbed his face, and then angrily returned indoors, raising his hand.

This is probably the role of Teacher Lu, Qin Yufei thought to himself.

He just didn't know what had caused the principal and Teacher Lu to start arguing. In his memory, Teacher Lu always had a smiling face, which he could tell from Xiao Juan's copy of the book; she was a very emotionally stable person.

Not only him, but all the students had similar questions in their minds.

The simulator system provides timely answers:

[Background Information: In the winter of the fourth year after the apocalypse, you and your companions are hiding in an abandoned factory. However, the presence of several living people attracts a horde of zombies. By the time you discover them, your companion who was guarding the factory has already been attacked and killed. His body hangs high on the watchtower, unable to sound the alarm before he died. The horde of zombies has already surrounded the factory.]

You escaped in a sorry state, but two of your closest companions were trapped deep inside the factory. After finding a place to settle down, the remaining companions had a heated disagreement. One side advocated returning immediately to rescue them, while the other believed that it would be difficult to break through the zombie encirclement, and that forcing a return would only increase casualties.

Feelings for your comrades overcame the fear of death, and you ultimately voted by raising your hands; everyone agreed to return.

Fu Qing closed his eyes.

She did not upload this memory.

The simulator forcibly accessed her memories.

Based on the background information, everyone thought this was the start of the dungeon, but the animation continued to play.

After a quick discussion, the fourteen-person team split into three groups. Qin Yufei led a group to leave quietly, retrieved two barrels of gasoline from the snow-covered cellar, and poured them into the fuel tanks of two jeeps.

Background information: They were responsible for driving around and honking their horns to distract the vast majority of the zombies gathered outside the zombie factory.

Another team found the materials and was responsible for burying black powder nearby outside the factory. They would then lure the visible zombies inside the factory into the trap and eliminate them in one fell swoop.

Those that the black powder failed to kill, they were responsible for manually eliminating.

The last group, led by Fu Qing, will infiltrate the factory to rescue their trapped companions.

Those who survived to the fourth year of the apocalypse and were still able to keep up with Fu Qing's pace were clearly elites selected from among thousands, even surpassing the carefully chosen students of the elite class.

But by this time of the apocalypse, almost no humans remained on Earth. Any horde of zombies was simply a gathering of tens of thousands of ghouls.

Each of them had to face hundreds or even thousands of zombies.

Initially, all three groups' operations went smoothly. "Qin Yufei" lured away the dark mass of zombies. He kept his speed low, first taking the low-level zombies nearly a kilometer away, then suddenly accelerated, leaving the low-level zombies behind, with only the faster runner-type zombies still in pursuit.

The other vehicle followed at a distance, keeping a low profile, unlike the arrogant car in front that kept honking its horn. It only accelerated suddenly when the runner-type zombie stumbled or tripped over an obstacle on the ground, using its modified, powerful off-road vehicle to run straight over the zombie's head.

Flesh and blood exploded under the wheels, and the evolved special zombies were easily dealt with.

The other group seized the opportunity, sneaking in as the vehicles carried the zombies away. They smeared themselves with foul-smelling fertilizer to mask the odor, arriving at the factory complex unnoticed, and stealthily but efficiently planted the black powder.

Shortly after, a loud bang was heard, and flames shot into the sky.

Most of the zombies roaming the park were blown up, and the rest were missing limbs and were struggling on the ground, unable to move for a while, and were swiftly killed.

The explosion attracted the zombies out of the factory.

The timing was perfect, especially considering that the team originally consisted of only five or six people, or in other words, only one or two people per group, yet they managed to hold back a horde of thousands of zombies. The elite class members were stunned.

They almost forgot they were still trapped.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a familiar figure bending down and nimbly entering the factory.

That's Fu Qing.

When the animation is playing, the perspective does not follow your own character, but is a god's-eye view that allows you to observe the whole situation. Therefore, even Qin Yufei and others who are not physically present notice Fu Qing's actions in the story.

She was clearly extremely familiar with the routes inside the factory, eliminating the remaining zombies along the way. After four years, Fu Qing was still close to being fully developed. Unlike the naive little principal in many other records, her frantic progress was like that of a zombie harvester.

However, the zombies that have evolved over the past four years are not so easy to deal with either.

Special types of zombies are emerging one after another.

She slowed down, and her clothes started to tear, but thankfully she wasn't injured.

After being slammed against the wall by a giant zombie, a trace of blood appeared on the corner of his lips, which made everyone's heart ache. However, Fu Qing simply raised his hand and wiped it away, habitually ignoring the wound.

Zombies crashed to the ground behind her, but her expression did not lighten. She glanced at her watch and became even more anxious.

Every minute wasted reduces the chances of survival for those trapped inside the factory, and the zombies lured away outside will regroup. Trying to lure them away again will put both groups at greater risk.

Time ticked by, and the last zombie fell to the ground, revealing a half-open door behind it. Fu Qing's breathing became unusually heavy.

Each breath he exhaled, trembling and sharp, seemed to strike the hearts of the trainees.

They were so engrossed in watching that they forgot the voice wasn't just coming from the principal in the animation, but also from right beside them.

She pushed open the door, a bruise on her forehead turning into blood that trickled down her brow and the corner of her eye, blurring her vision. Through the crimson light, she saw her companion lying on the ground.

One of them lay on his back, his limbs and face mutilated, clearly having been bitten by a large number of zombies. His eyes were wide open, filled with terror and resentment.

Fu Qing was clearly stunned for a moment, her steps slowed down, and the fierceness she had shown when killing the zombies faded from her body, replaced by a look of bewilderment.

She walked to her deceased companion, half-squatted down, raised and lowered the dagger in her hand, and hesitated to make a move.

Then, as if remembering something, she turned to look at the other person lying beside her.

The person was lying face down on the ground, and it was impossible to determine whether they were dead.

For a fleeting moment, everyone saw fear on the principal's face. This fear of loss caused her seemingly indestructible exterior to crumble, and for a brief instant, she appeared vulnerable.

She has always been someone who holds her destiny firmly in her own hands, but there are always things that are beyond her control.

At this moment, the trainees recalled the key phrase in the system's storyline introduction—the companions they spent every day with.

Is this close companionship a few months, or a few years after the apocalypse?

...They couldn't help but think of their roommates and classmates, and they almost felt the pain themselves.

Fu Qing helped the person who had fallen to the ground up. The person's face and body were covered in blood. Fu Qing's eyes twitched, and he reached out to check her breathing.

But then the movement suddenly stopped.

For the next few seconds, no one realized that something was wrong.

Until Fu Qing gripped the dagger tightly, the veins on the back of his hand bulged, and the blade flashed coldly, plunging into the other's temple at an imperceptible speed.

Several people exclaimed in surprise in the void.

The young woman lying on the ground had her entire body below the wrist transformed into sharp knives, piercing Fu Qing's abdomen. After dying, the woman's hands lost their strength, and the sharp knives slowly slid out with her weight, gushing out a large amount of blood from the wound.

Fu Qing stood up, but stumbled and then knelt down on one knee.

The echo of boot heels on the floor came from the corridor behind me, and a figure appeared in the doorway.

He was one of the two guards who died without sounding the alarm.

Fu Qing raised her eyes and met his gaze coldly.

...

[The intro animation has finished playing!]

[Instance officially begins]

Everything came to an abrupt halt, leaving the trainees stunned by the sudden turn of events. They felt as if their perspective had shifted, and they had become characters in the story. Their location had changed from empty space to a jeep, a park, or a factory.

"This, this..." Song Rushuang was both shocked and angry, unable to believe what she had just seen.

That guard betrayed the principal, killed his fellow guard, introduced the zombies, and also caused the deaths of two other people trapped in the factory.

She was one of the people responsible for planting the explosives, and she wasn't far from where Fu Qing was. Without thinking twice, she turned and ran towards the place where Fu Qing had been attacked.

Su Huaijin happened to be assigned to the side of her, and he grabbed Song Rushuang, who was so shocked and angry that she was about to lose her mind, and almost fell to the ground because of her.

Once they were steady, Su Huaijin lowered his voice and said quickly, "Don't rush over! Let's analyze the situation. Do you remember when we first entered the instance, the system said 'Trial mode activated'?"

Her face was covered in sweat, clearly indicating that she was using the time she was processing the information to force herself to calm down.

Song Rushuang nodded, and Su Huaijin continued, "Assuming it's a player-versus-player online experience mode where players import save files, they'll be permanently assigned to their own characters. So, the current principal—"

The two paused, both seeing fear in each other's eyes.

The current principal will then be forced to be replaced by the original Fu Qing.

"Damn it!" Su Huaijin cursed, leaping to his feet. "What's the point of analyzing anymore? Brothers and sisters, charge! Kill that traitor!"

The principal is in a crisis and can't stay calm.

The others, who were still squatting to the side waiting for her to give them the battle plan, were speechless.

This time, it was Song Rushuang who held Xiao Su tightly: "Wait, don't you think something's off about this?"