Fifth Day of the Apocalypse. More than half of all zombies had become Tier-1 Zombies, and the proportion of Tier-2 Zombies had surged as well.

Zombie destructive power climbed sharply. Ordinary doors could no longer withstand their impacts. The human survival environment grew even more brutal.

The odds of obtaining crystals seemed higher on paper-but in practice, it was harder than ever.

Any random cluster of zombies was now over half Tier-1. Average teams simply couldn't handle them.

What proved even more fatal: on the Fifth Day of the Apocalypse, the Mobile Signal... cut out.

No one knew how other cities fared, but Star City's signal was gone.

No Mobile Signal meant no outside information, no contact with family or friends, not even the small comfort of hearing another voice. For people already teetering on the edge of despair, it was salt ground into an open wound.

The food shortage intensified again. With the signal's disappearance, the dark side of human nature accelerated its spread.

Those who'd starved past their limit-people too afraid to fight zombies-turned their eyes toward the people beside them.

And those who'd absorbed crystals and grown stronger? Their inner desires began to swell unchecked.

Cafeteria.

The moment the signal vanished, the students inside the Cafeteria finally snapped.

They refused to survive on thin porridge any longer. They wanted full stomachs.

They stormed the kitchen, clawing and fighting over food.

Teachers, school leadership-all of it forgotten in an instant.

The entire Cafeteria descended into chaos.

The Principal watched the scene and let out a helpless sigh. He understood clearly: this path led only to faster destruction.

But he understood just as clearly that he could no longer control these students.

Zombies still swarmed outside the Cafeteria, and with each passing day they grew stronger. The hope of escaping shrank to almost nothing.

Without rescue, they would die trapped inside these walls.

All the Principal could do now was pray that help arrived soon.

Outside.

The number of zombie-hunting teams on campus had plummeted from over ten yesterday to just four.

The rest had been wiped out.

One of the four was the PE department group Yang Bin's team had encountered the day before. They'd grown from twenty-odd members to over thirty, with nearly twenty already Tier-1 evolvers.

Another was the taekwondo club. Over twenty members, most already at Tier 1.

A third was a team led by a group of female PE students-the largest of the four at seventy to eighty people, with a good number already at Tier 1.

The last was Zhao Kun's group from Dormitory Building 21.

Zhao Kun and his people had been among the earliest to learn about crystals aside from Yang Bin's group, and among the earliest capable of killing zombies.

After Yang Bin's team brought them to the supermarket that day, the group ate their fill. Then Zhao Kun, Old Hei, and one other took a few armed volunteers willing to fight and went out hunting.

That run netted them two Special Zombies. Zhao Kun and Old Hei broke through to Tier 1.

By the next day, once the official announcement about crystals went public, the residents of Dormitory 21 latched onto Zhao Kun like a lifeline. That was how this team formed.

Now, all four teams crouched cautiously in corners, waiting for zombies to appear.

Bloody lessons had taught them well. No more wandering. They hid and let the zombies come to them.

On the other side.

Girls' Dormitory Building 12.

Yang Bin's group and Liu Qingqing's girls continued their methodical slaughter.

With all three men holding the stairway entrance, forget Tier-1 Zombies-even Tier-2 Zombies couldn't break through.

Liu Qingqing and the girls had grown practiced at hauling corpses. Maybe in their old lives they'd never imagined doing something like this.

But now they threw themselves into it without complaint. Because just as Liu Qingqing said-this was their chance.

Yang Bin's trio had shocked them to the core. These terrifying zombies were nothing in front of them-swatted down like flies with a casual swing.

Follow people like that, and would they ever lack crystals?

In just a few hours, the group had already killed over two hundred zombies.

Surely some of those had crystals inside.

What the girls didn't know was that more than half the corpses they'd dragged into the dormitory rooms contained crystals.

"Oh-here comes a big one."

Mid-kill, Yang Bin's eyes lit up.

"Tier 2?"

"Yep."

"Hit it!"

A heavyset female zombie shoved aside the others and charged straight at the three of them.

She barely closed the distance before three Barbell Rods hammered down on her skull simultaneously.

Boom.

A dull, wet crack. Her head split open on impact.

The Tier-2 Zombie didn't even get a chance to swing before it was over.

Yang Bin dragged the corpse up and dug the crystal from its shattered skull with practiced ease. Wiped it on his shirt. Popped it into his mouth.

They'd already agreed: Yang Bin's strength took priority. Only after Tier-2 Crystals stopped working on him would they funnel them to Chen Hao and Hu Wenliang. So he didn't bother asking.

The girls watched the extraction for the first time, eyes wide.

Hundreds of kills and they'd never seen the trio harvest a crystal-until this one. That alone told them it was special.

When they saw the crystal was noticeably larger than the ones shown in online photos, they exchanged stunned glances.

"A Tier-2 Crystal!"

The crystal dissolved into energy the moment it entered his body, merging into his flesh. Yang Bin's strength climbed another notch.

He clenched his fist, testing it. Roughly four hundred kilograms of force now.

"Not bad."

A brief smile, then back to killing.

They kept at it until past one in the afternoon before finally hitting their wall-exhausted and starving.

"Stop hauling corpses. Block the stairway. We rest." Yang Bin's voice was flat.

"Okay."

The girls stopped immediately.

Before long, zombie bodies plugged the stairwell tight again. Only then did Yang Bin's trio drop to the floor.

"Hah... these Barbell Rods hit hard, but god they're heavy. Swing them long enough and your arms fall off." Hu Wenliang panted between words.

"Same. I can barely lift mine anymore." Chen Hao grimaced.

"It'll get easier once your strength catches up." Yang Bin shrugged. He wasn't nearly as spent-his raw power made the difference obvious.

"Brother Bin, think we can get them to bring us food? I'm dying here," Chen Hao murmured near Yang Bin's ear.

They'd last eaten at noon the day before. Nothing since.

Lying still, a person could go a day without feeling hunger. But hours of nonstop high-intensity combat? Their bodies were running on fumes.

Yang Bin nodded, then looked at the girls. "You have any food? Can you grab us something to eat?"

"No-" one girl started.

Liu Qingqing yanked her back and smiled. "We do. We'll go get it for you."

She pulled the girls upstairs without another word.

"That Liu Qingqing's sharp." Chen Hao grinned.

"Yeah." Yang Bin nodded. "She really is."