Chapter 6 TSAE Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Trapped in the Dormitory Building

The women’s dormitory at the Long Province University of Technology has six floors in total, with two staircases for going up and down, but only one main entrance for entry and exit. Although it’s an old building from decades ago, its sturdiness is still commendable.

Rushing to the fifth floor, Jiang Yi didn’t have time to catch his breath. He glanced around and couldn’t help but be shocked. The corridor was littered with corpses lying haphazardly and at a quick glance, almost all of them were zombies. Who killed these zombies?

Before Jiang Yi could think too much about it, he heard growls coming from the fourth floor and had no choice but to continue climbing upward. When he finally reached the last step of the sixth floor, crawling on his hands and knees, he felt like collapsing to the ground and never getting up again.

However, the vigilance ingrained in him from surviving the apocalypse kept him from letting his guard down. Gripping his black blade, he carefully surveyed the top floor of the women’s dormitory. The building followed a standard dormitory layout. After ascending the stairs, a wide corridor stretched out before him, with dormitory doors tightly shut on both sides.

If it weren’t for a corpse lying on the floor not far away and the bloodstains covering the walls, Jiang Yi might have felt as if he had returned to ten days before the apocalypse. Treading lightly into the corridor, he made sure not to make any noise.

Zombies trapped inside rooms were unusually quiet when not attracted by sound or food. As long as Jiang Yi didn’t make too much noise, even if he were face-to-face with an advanced zombie through a door, he wouldn’t attract its attention.

Approaching the corpse, Jiang Yi examined it carefully. The zombie had been killed by a powerful blow to the head. Moreover, judging by the extent of the damage to its skull, it seemed the killer had rummaged through its head after killing it.

His expression darkened. The blood on the floor hadn’t dried yet, indicating the zombie had been killed recently. The women’s dormitory had been surrounded by zombies, making the chance of survivors almost zero. Today, only he and those two scumbags had come here. Clearly, this zombie must have been killed by Shen Tong and Wang Hai.

Jiang Yi stood up, his face grim and his eyes chillingly cold. He couldn’t understand why Shen Tong and Wang Hai, both ability users, would target him. Although he wasn’t particularly close to them, he had previously gone out on supply runs with them.

Among the many ability users, their abilities were not outstanding—they could barely be considered ability users. Shen Tong’s ability was “Strength.” His physical power was two to three times that of an ordinary person, allowing him to lift a cafeteria iron table with one hand and use it as a weapon. Wang Hai’s ability was “Defense.” His skin was like treated leather—even a slash from an ordinary kitchen knife would only leave a white mark that would disappear with a wipe.

With abilities like these, they were considered mid to low-tier among the nearly hundred ability users in the cafeteria. However, the two were Gao Wei’s lackeys.

Even before the apocalypse, they had always flattered Gao Wei. On the same day, the three of them were caught in the rain while wandering outside. As a result, Shen Tong and Wang Hai gained strength and defense mutations, while Gao Wei acquired the ability to transform matter into weapons.

Jiang Yi had once seen Gao Wei place his hand on a metal table and, upon lifting it, turn the entire table into a heavy iron spiked club. This ability undoubtedly made him unrivaled in the cafeteria. Almost all the best resources were allocated to him first. Naturally, Shen Tong and Wang Hai also rose in status, leveraging Gao Wei’s influence to gain significant standing in the cafeteria. Even other ability users rarely opposed them.

But Jiang Yi couldn’t figure out what any of this had to do with him. He had almost no conflicts of interest with these three. Why would they stab him in the back?

Gripping the Skull-Severing Blade tighter, Jiang Yi sneered. Whatever their reasons, they shouldn’t blame him for retaliating in kind since they dared to attack him. He would definitely return to the cafeteria, and he wouldn’t let these three off either. With the Skull-Severing Blade, Jiang Yi had no regard for Gao Wei’s ability. He wouldn’t flatter him like the other ability users did.

Jiang Yi looked around and wondered if those two were still in the dormitory. He couldn’t help but imagine their expressions upon seeing him, who should have been dead. He believed in repaying vengeance in kind. If he encountered them here, he wouldn’t mind sending them to hell.

However, he wasn’t so consumed by anger that he lost his rationality. Given his current strength, facing either of them would put him at a significant disadvantage, especially since Shen Tong and Wang Hai were practically inseparable even in the cafeteria, they ate and slept together. To exact revenge, the most important task now was to improve his own strength.

Jiang Yi wasn’t the type to let anger cloud his judgment. Suppressing his killing intent, he quietly made his way to the end of the dormitory and used the key to open the storage room.

Dust choked him, making him want to cough but he forcefully held it back. The storage room was filled with bed frames, items abandoned by graduating students over the years, and confiscated prohibited electrical appliances.

After a quick glance, he found nothing useful. Disregarding the filth, he collapsed onto a pile of old mattresses, finally allowing himself to relax. A wave of exhaustion overwhelmed him, and he fell asleep almost immediately.

He slept until the sun set before waking up. Dazed, he looked around and remembered where he was. The pitch-black Guillotine Blade convinced him he wasn’t dreaming. Not only had he not died, but he had also obtained the powerful Infinite Combat Level-Up System.

Placing his left hand on the ground, a light screen flickered to life. After briefly checking his information and noting no changes, he took out a piece of Jade Fat Meat and some Celestial Spring Water from his bag to settle his dinner.

After a day of experimentation, Jiang Yi had grown more familiar with his abilities. First, summoning the light screen couldn’t be done mid-air—he needed to place his hand on a flat surface like a wall or the ground. Second, when holding an object, he could also summon the light screen, but it would display information about that item. This function was somewhat like an appraisal skill, though he could only appraise objects related to his abilities, such as the Skull-Severing Blade, Celestial Spring Water, and Jade Fat Meat.

Finally, although he possessed something akin to an inventory space, it came with significant limitations. First, the space could only store items generated by his abilities. Ordinary objects, no matter how small, couldn’t be stored. Second, the space couldn’t be used freely—it required a medium, such as a backpack or similar container, to activate. While this was somewhat troublesome, it also served as a cover for his abilities.

Having figured out his abilities, Jiang Yi picked up the spare keys to the dormitory and began making plans.

With zombies gathering outside, trying to break out with his current strength would be suicidal. He could only wait for them to disperse slowly. However, Jiang Yi didn’t want to sit idle. In his current state, he was even weaker than an ordinary person. Venturing out would only mean certain death. Instead, he decided to take this opportunity to grind for experience.

He couldn’t help but chuckle. He was incredibly lucky to have gained his abilities in the women’s dormitory. The zombies in the building were scattered and trapped in various rooms—what better place to farm experience?

Moreover, Chen Jiazhi was still waiting for him in the cafeteria. He didn’t know how worried and scared she must be. Jiang Yi was well aware of her abilities. Although her water-based ability seemed more mystical than the strength or speed enhancements of other ability users, apart from slowly producing water from her hands, Chen Jiazhi couldn’t use her ability for combat at all. Her physical condition was only slightly better than before the apocalypse.

Their ability to live safely in the cafeteria for a week was entirely due to Jiang Yi’s courage in killing zombies during the early days of the apocalypse, which deterred others from bullying them. The thought that his absence might leave Chen Jiazhi vulnerable to mistreatment made him restless. He stored the unfinished water bottle in his backpack, picked up his blade and walked out of the storage room.

Despite his urgency, Jiang Yi didn’t recklessly seek out zombies for combat. The women’s dormitory had four-person rooms, meaning each room could contain up to four zombies. Jiang Yi was acutely aware of his current limitations—he could handle one zombie, but facing two would be nearly impossible.

Until he grew stronger, Jiang Yi planned to lay low for a while. Compared to the preciousness of life, there was no shame in this.

Outside Room 620, closest to the storage room, Jiang Yi carefully pressed his ear against the door but detected no movement. He then slowly turned the doorknob to try opening it. His movements were deliberate for a necessity due to the dormitory’s age. The wooden doors were old and rusty, and the creaking sound of opening them could echo through the entire corridor.

After painstakingly inching the door open a crack, Jiang Yi quickly slipped inside. Raising the black blade defensively, he cautiously scanned the room. The dorm room was small, with few hiding spots, so he relaxed after a quick glance.

No zombies. Jiang Yi began searching for useful items. The room had clearly been ransacked, and almost all edible items were gone. Jiang Yi wasn’t too concerned, as he likely wouldn’t lack food in the future.

Soon, he gathered all the useful items in the room: a diesel lighter, a roll of tape, two power banks, a rechargeable desk lamp, and a set of unused bedsheets…

After stuffing these into his backpack, Jiang Yi left the room. Using a marker he found inside, he drew a large checkmark on the door before moving to the opposite room, 619. Without even listening closely, he could hear scratching and the sound of objects being knocked over inside. Unfortunately, the door’s window was covered with a poster from the inside, so Jiang Yi couldn’t tell how many zombies were in there.

After a moment’s thought, he carefully drew a cross on the door and quietly moved away.

He continued this method, checking each room on the floor for zombies. The results were better than he expected. Out of ten rooms, only three had zombie activity. He searched the others for useful items.