Cheng Zhu was the first to wake up again.
She was used to getting up early to exercise, and after brushing her teeth, rinsing her mouth, and doing squats, she saw Mary slowly wake up.
How did I get here?
Mary was initially a little frightened by the unfamiliar surroundings, but she quickly calmed down after seeing her familiar roommates. She was especially surprised to see Alice sleeping soundly in the next bed, seemingly lost in a dream, even licking her lips as she slept – probably dreaming of something delicious. Mary shook her head repeatedly at the sight.
"Do you remember what happened to you yesterday? You were infected with the virus. Luckily, we discovered it in time and sent you to the school hospital before the infection became too severe."
Cheng Zhu omitted what the two women had done to Mary the night before, since knowing those details would only add to the mental pollution. He simply summarized the key points and glanced at the time: "Eight o'clock in the morning, don't you want to sleep a little longer?"
Although Mary showed no intention of going back to sleep, she waved her hand and said, "With something this big happening, let me calm down first..."
About half an hour later, Alice, who was half asleep, raised her right hand and suddenly opened her eyes. She blinked to make sure that she was really awake and not still dreaming.
"What did you dream about?" Cheng Zhu noticed her movements.
"I dreamt of a banquet... It's a pity I just picked up what was supposedly an '82 vintage wine, and before I could even taste it to see if it was really as delicious as the dream made it out to be, I woke up." Alice said with a look of regret. "Never mind, I'm not going to sleep anymore."
She checked the time: "8:40. The teachers at the school hospital don't start work until 9:00. We'll ask them to take us out in a bit."
Mary was basically offline the whole night and was a bit confused: "Can't we just leave on our own?"
"It's not that it's impossible, it's just that it's easy to encounter a virus attack."
Alice simply concealed the fact that she had gone out last night to chop up some viruses with a scythe so she could get a good night's sleep, since it wasn't anything important anyway.
After the school clinic staff came to work and discharged Mary, the three of them went straight to the school cafeteria for breakfast.
Before even entering the restaurant, Cheng Zhu noticed that it was crowded.
This phenomenon immediately reminded Cheng Zhu of the situations he encountered at the entrance of the teaching building and in the gymnasium. Coupled with the current overwhelming crowds in the cafeteria, he naturally made the connection: "Is there a bit too many people in the cafeteria? Could the signal jamming system be malfunctioning again?"
"It should be."
Alice stopped in her tracks and replied with a frown.
As we all know, under normal circumstances, the various systems in a smart city will not have problems. So if problems do occur, it is most likely that they have been attacked by viruses or even directly contaminated.
Mary almost backed down: "Then why don't we just not eat? We won't die from going hungry for a while."
This suggestion elicited disapproving expressions from both Cheng Zhu and Alice:
"No, that won't work."
"That won't do."
Mary pinched her temples in exasperation, at a loss with the two of them. She could only try to dissuade them, saying earnestly, "But there are so many people inside, there might be a lot of dangerous rules. Horror movie protagonists always do this, knowing that leaving would be fine, but they still insist on squeezing in. That's a big no-no!"
Cheng Zhu was about to say something when Alice stopped him with a gesture: "Wait for me outside, I'll be out soon."
After saying that, he rushed into the restaurant under the watchful eyes of the two of them, and a little while later he came out with a large pile of food: "Quick, quick, this food is edible, let's go back to the dorm to eat!"
"Why..." do we have to go back to the dorm to eat?
Before Mary could finish her question, Cheng Zhu grabbed her arm and dragged her away forcefully: "Run! There's a virus escaping from the restaurant!"
She glanced sideways, then quickly turned back, and followed Cheng Zhu and Alice in a hasty escape straight to the dormitory. They rushed upstairs, and finally, the three of them stood by the floor-to-ceiling glass window, watching a group of zombie-like humanoid monsters return dejectedly below the dormitory, and breathed a sigh of relief.
"What exactly did you do?" Cheng Zhu looked at Alice, who was eating beef jerky, with a puzzled expression. "Aren't monsters generally not allowed to leave their designated areas?"
Alice rubbed her nose, looking very aggrieved: "Yeah, that's what I thought too, so I figured it would be a waste to give the food to these viruses that don't need to eat. I went in, grabbed the food, and ran out. Who knew they would chase me out?"
"Wait a minute, what's going on inside?"
Hearing the hidden meaning in Alice's words, Mary realized the strangeness of the matter: "Were all the people inside contaminated?"
"Not everything was contaminated, but the traps in the rules caused quite a few people to fall into them. And because one of the rules was that 'you must finish all the rice on your plate before leaving, and not a single grain can be left, otherwise you will become their food,' many people were afraid to make any rash moves." Alice tried hard to recall everything she had seen at the time. "But since they chased after me, the survivors in the restaurant should have had a chance to escape, right?"
When she stepped into the Slote Dining Hall, no one paid any attention to her actions; everything seemed normal.
If you all act normally, Alice won't need to act normally either.
She went straight to the snack supermarket on the third floor, glanced at the supermarket rules, filled a shopping bag with a lot of snacks, ran to the counter, looked at the standard professional fake smile that was a little creepy, and returned a glittering smile: "Hello, robbery."
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