The group slept from evening all the way until 11:50 p.m. before dragging themselves up.

By then, Hu Wenliang had recovered.

Three people and one cat made their way to the Rooftop.

The iron door to this dormitory's Rooftop was still locked-no one had been up here.

They pried the lock open with the Barbell Rod, slipped through, and pulled the door shut behind them.

Finding a clean spot, the three lay down and waited for the Nine Stars of the Big Dipper to appear.

At 00:00, the Nine Stars of the Big Dipper emerged right on schedule.

Having done this once before, the group settled into the proper state quickly.

Beside them, Little Orange lifted its head too, staring transfixed at the Nine Stars of the Big Dipper overhead.

Threads of spiritual energy trickled into their bodies.

Below, over a thousand zombies raised their heads toward the sky in unison. The night fell quiet.

Most surviving humans had already collapsed into exhausted sleep.

After days of trial and error, people had figured out a pattern: past midnight, zombies went still. They stopped hunting.

That window was when humans rested.

Same as last night, Chen Hao and Hu Wenliang alternated between watching and resting. Yang Bin never moved-eyes locked on the stars from start to finish.

At five in the morning, the Nine Stars of the Big Dipper faded. Yang Bin had gained over thirty kilograms of strength again. Chen Hao and Hu Wenliang each gained around ten.

Three people and one cat headed back downstairs, locked the dormitory door from inside, and crashed on the beds.

This time they woke a little past nine. There was important business today-they needed to find a way out of here.

"Bin-ge, those zombies below haven't moved. How are we supposed to leave?" Chen Hao looked down at the dense mass of undead and felt his scalp prickle.

"If they won't leave, we kill them all. Use the stairwell, grind them down bit by bit." Yang Bin's voice was low and flat.

They couldn't stay trapped here forever. They needed to get out and keep growing stronger.

"But the stairwell's too narrow. Less than a hundred bodies and it's completely blocked. How long would that take?"

"We split the work. One person kills in the stairwell, two drag corpses into the rooms next door. Slow and steady. We'll get through them all eventually."

"Alright." The two nodded.

"Oh-Bin-ge, didn't you say there were four girls upstairs? Why not get them to help haul bodies? Three of us kill, four of them carry. Way faster."

"Right, that works." Yang Bin's eyes lit up.

"You two really dare to dream. Asking those delicate girls to haul corpses? It'd be a miracle if they agreed." Hu Wenliang shook his head.

"Heh. Offer them a few crystals and forget hauling-they'd dissect the bodies if you asked. Believe it or not."

"Shit, you're right. How'd I forget that?"

"Let's go. Little Orange, stay in the dorm or go do your own thing. If other people show up, stay out of sight."

"Meow." Little Orange chirped once, then scrambled onto the corridor railing, made a few bounding leaps, and vanished.

"Bin-ge, it won't run off, will it?" Chen Hao asked, a note of worry in his voice.

"Doubt it. If it wanted to run, it wouldn't have come down to save us yesterday when things got that bad."

"Fair point."

The three made their way up to the sixth floor, stopping in front of the room with the tightly locked door. Yang Bin walked up and knocked.

"Who is it!?"

All four girls inside flinched, eyes snapping to the door.

"We're the ones who came into this building yesterday. Open up-want to talk to you about something." Yang Bin kept his tone even.

The girls exchanged glances. Recognition and tension passed between them.

"What do we do, Qingqing-jie? They actually came. I-I don't want to just spread my legs." A cute-faced girl looked like she was about to cry.

Qingqing drew a deep breath.

"What comes, comes. We can't hide from it. Open the door-it won't stop them anyway."

"...Okay."

A short girl crept to the door and pulled it open.

Three men stood outside, drenched head to toe in dried blood. She stumbled back a step.

This was the Girls' Dormitory. Yang Bin's group hadn't been able to find anything else to wear, so yesterday's gore-caked clothes stayed on.

As the door swung wide, Chen Hao's and Hu Wenliang's eyes brightened. The girls were all decent-looking-especially one tall one. That face was class-beauty tier at minimum.

The tall girl-Qingqing-stepped forward with a polite smile. "Hi. What can we help you with?"

"Here's the deal. We're clearing out the zombies downstairs. If you've got nothing going on, come help us move corpses." Yang Bin didn't so much as blink at her looks. Straight to the point.

"......"

All four girls stared. Who opens with "come move corpses"?

If they didn't already know these guys were dangerous, they'd have told them exactly where to shove that request.

Qingqing swallowed the profanity rising in her throat and kept her smile intact. "That's... probably not something we can help with."

"Shame. I was going to give each of you two crystals if you came along. Since you're not interested, we'll handle it ourselves." Yang Bin shrugged, already turning to leave with the other two.

"Wait!"

Every trace of reluctance vanished. Their eyes went wide. "You're serious!?"

"Of course. No reason to lie to you." Yang Bin said.

"We'll do it! We'll move them!" The words tumbled out.

"Good. Let's go."

Yang Bin headed downstairs without looking back.

Watching the three blood-soaked figures descend, one of the girls whispered, "Qingqing-jie... can we actually trust them?"

"They've got no reason to trick us. Come on-this might be our one chance." Qingqing's voice was tight with urgency. She pulled the others along and hurried after them.

On the fourth floor, the stairwell was packed with zombie corpses. The girls' faces drained of color, but none of them threw up. Days into the apocalypse, they'd seen enough. Their stomachs had hardened.

Yang Bin fished four crystals from his pocket and held them out. "Call these a deposit. Eat them first-you'll be stronger, and the hauling goes faster."

He'd dug these out of the corpses here yesterday. His group didn't need them right now, but no point letting them go to waste.

The girls stared at the crystals in his palm, then at his utterly casual expression. For a moment, no one could speak.

This was what countless people would kill for. And he just... handed them over like spare change?

Inhumanly Rich. No other way to put it.

They snatched the crystals up, voices shaking. "Thank you-thank you."

To Yang Bin's group, these were surplus. To the girls, they were the difference between living and dying.

Special Zombies weren't easy to kill. Zombies traveled in swarms. Without enough people, you couldn't take one down at all.

As zombies grew stronger, ordinary survivors' odds would only shrink.

A single crystal was practically a life-saving drug for them.

"Alright, enough gawking. Eat up, then start hauling." Yang Bin waved them along.

"Right!"

They wiped the crystals off and popped them into their mouths.

Once the energy was absorbed, all four reached Tier 1.

Without being told twice, the girls got to work moving bodies.

It was grueling-dragging dead weight that used to be people-but with crystals on the line, none of them hesitated.

Yang Bin's group pitched in too, hauling corpses into the adjacent rooms.

As the pile cleared and the stairs below were exposed, zombies surged up almost immediately.

From there, the rhythm settled: Yang Bin's trio killed, the four girls cleared the dead. The cooperation ran smooth.