Inside a spacious dorm room on the third floor of Student Apartment Building C, Lin University School of Engineering.
The dim yellow candlelight flickered, casting faint, ghost-like shadows of people on the walls.
When Han Ning arrived, more than twenty students were already gathered in the dorm room.
Everyone sat cross-legged on the floor in silence. The chilling roars that occasionally drifted in from outside the window and the precariousness of their day-to-day survival had stripped everyone of the will to joke around.
After a little while longer, once the room was packed with twenty-five students, the middle-aged teacher sitting among them finally spoke in a solemn tone:
"Is everyone here? There's something I must tell you all. Our food supply is about to run out."
"This means... we need to leave the dormitory area and venture out to find new sources of food."
A deathly silence fell over the room at his words.
Looks of despair began to appear on many faces.
After a long moment, Han Ning broke the silence. "Teacher Zhou, are you suggesting...?"
"I just finished a meeting with the school's leadership and other teachers. Every teacher must lead a group of seven to eight students to search for food... So, next, I need to choose at least seven people to go outside with me," Teacher Zhou said, his voice hoarse.
Normally, there would be one or two convenience stores at the base of the dorm buildings, making it easy for students to buy daily necessities.
But today was the seventh day in this new world. With hundreds of people needing to eat every day, even with two convenience stores at the base of the School of Engineering's dorms, the food was nearly gone.
And the flesh of the Demon Eye Frogs was highly toxic; no one dared risk eating it.
"It's not just food. Water is also running low. If we want to survive, we have to explore the outside."
Teacher Zhou's gaze swept over everyone present.
"The leadership and teachers of our school will be with you all. For this expedition, aside from the Dean and some of the older, weaker, or injured teachers, everyone else will be mobilized, regardless of gender. Any students who want to go can volunteer. Those who go on the expedition will get priority in choosing more supplies than those who stay behind, and they will have the option to sit out the next expedition."
Silence...
Still more silence...
"If no one is willing to go... then all that awaits us is starvation... Or do you want to be like Hannibal and eat the corpses of your own kind?"
Han Ning looked at the complex expressions on the faces of his classmates, sighed to himself, and raised his hand. "Teacher Zhou, I'll go."
'Just as Teacher Zhou said, it's better to go out and fight for it than to just wait here to die. There might be a slim chance of survival.'
'Besides, he and Yin Yi had grown much stronger now, which gave him a bit more confidence about exploring the outside.'
Han Ning's words seemed to ignite the flame of survival in everyone's hearts. One after another, students raised their hands, including several female students.
Women who would not be outdone by men.
Teacher Zhou looked at the students who had raised their hands, his eyes growing moist with satisfaction. "Good! These are the true students of Lin University! Han Ning, Zhang Sen, Zhao Jingjing... the seven of you, stay. The rest of you may go back for now."
After the others had left, Teacher Zhou took out a sheet of white paper from behind his back and sketched a simple map of the area around the dormitory building with a pencil.
He tapped the tip of his pencil on a building to the southeast of the dorms. "This is Cafeteria Number Nine, the closest one to our dorm. It should have large stores of food and water, as well as a backup diesel generator, diesel fuel, and all sorts of daily necessities."
"Tomorrow, about a hundred people will be heading there. Our small team needs to first find two working cars and drive over. Who among you has a driver's license?"
Driving would undoubtedly minimize the risk factor.
"I do!" "I do..."
Three people raised their hands.
"Good, that's enough. The eight of us will definitely need two cars, and we have to leave space for supplies. For each car, one person will drive and the other three will be on guard duty to prevent Soul Beasts from attacking the vehicles."
"Teacher Zhou, I remember when I passed by Cafeteria Number Nine, there were a few small trucks parked nearby. If we could drive those back, we could probably carry a lot of supplies," a student said.
"Right, right! I remember it was around the time delivery vans were unloading. There might be some small courier vans near the package pickup station, too. They can hold supplies and also help defend against Soul Beast attacks," another student added, his eyes lighting up.
"Mm, let's just focus on getting to our destination first," Teacher Zhou said.
The group then proceeded to draw up a detailed plan for the trip to Cafeteria Number Nine.
Before they knew it, the sky outside had grown completely dark, with only the small flame of a candle illuminating a limited area around them.
Teacher Zhou glanced down at the mechanical watch on his wrist. "Everyone go back and get some rest. We'll gather at the entrance of our dorm building early tomorrow morning. Bring your weapons."
...
It was a sleepless night.
The next day, at the crack of dawn, a sleepless Han Ning rolled out of bed. He got dressed, picked up his silver-white Compound Bow and five Arrows, placed Yin Yi in his backpack, and walked out the door.
'Come to think of it, he had found this Compound Bow in a room in a nearby dorm. As for the bow's owner... they had likely met an unfortunate end in the wilderness.'
A few minutes later, dozens of male and female students stood at the entrance of Dormitory Building C, their faces filled with anxiety.
Every one of them carried a Silver Lotus Wood on their back, but each plant was different in appearance.
Some Silver Lotus Wood plants had exceptionally thick branches, their verdant surfaces dotted with black spots. Others had flowers on top that were more vibrant than their peers, emitting a strange, sweet fragrance. Still others were small in stature but seemed brimming with Spiritual Qi...
Each Silver Lotus Wood had changed differently due to the soil it grew in and the different Soul Beast nutrients it had absorbed.
'Could this mean that even though they were all Silver Lotus Woods, they might grow into different branches in the future?'
This idea occurred to Han Ning. He had analyzed the attribute panels and knew that the Silver Lotus Wood had the three core stats of Strength, Body, and Agility, as well as Spiritual Energy and Elemental Affinity. It was very likely that a plant would grow into a different form depending on which of its attributes was superior.
Just then, Teacher Zhou and a dozen other teachers walked over, carrying bags of unopened Protective Suits.
One teacher put a bag on the ground and said, "Luckily, the infirmary had a strategic reserve. Everyone, hurry and put on these Protective Suits. Most of the monsters outside are venomous, and it would be bad if any of their venom splashed onto your skin."
Soon, Han Ning received a Protective Suit, a pair of medical gloves, a pair of protective goggles, and a mask.
After getting fully geared up, everyone followed their respective teachers and split up, forming combat teams of three to four people. The teams kept a short distance from one another, making it easier to provide mutual support.
Watching the white figures either get into cars or head out to find vehicles, the scene was reminiscent of the volunteers who went to fight the fire at Chernobyl, bidding farewell to their friends before heading to the disaster site.
'And weren't the Silver Lotus Wood plants on their backs just like their "oxygen tanks"...?'
Walking with the crowd, Han Ning glanced back at the dormitory windows, at the pairs of eyes watching them in silence.
He silently cheered himself on. 'I have to survive!'