Chapter 6: Trapped in the Dormitory Building

The women's dormitory at the Institute of Technology was six stories tall. The entire building had two staircases for going up and down, but only one main entrance for access. Although it was an old building from decades ago, its sturdiness was undeniable.

Reaching the fifth floor, Jiang Yi barely had time to catch his breath before a glance down the hallway left him stunned. Numerous bodies lay sprawled chaotically across the corridor—almost all were zombies. Who had slain these creatures?

Before he could ponder further, a guttural roar echoed up from the fourth floor, forcing him to continue climbing. Using both hands and feet, he finally reached the last step of the sixth floor, nearly collapsing to the ground in exhaustion.

Yet, the vigilance demanded by the apocalypse would not let him succumb so easily. Clutching his black blade, Jiang Yi cautiously surveyed the rooftop floor of the women's dormitory. The building followed a standard dormitory layout: ascending the stairs revealed a wide corridor flanked by closed dorm room doors on both sides.

If not for a corpse sprawled nearby on the floor and the bloodstains smeared across the walls, Jiang Yi might have mistaken this place for how it was ten days before the apocalypse. He stepped lightly into the corridor, determined to make no noise.

Trapped zombies inside their rooms remained eerily silent when neither sound nor food drew their attention. Thus, as long as Jiang Yi kept quiet, even facing an advanced zombie just beyond a door wouldn't alert it.

Approaching the corpse, he examined it carefully. This zombie had been killed by a powerful blow to the head, and judging by the damage, its killer had even turned the head over afterward.

His expression darkened. The blood on the floor was still fresh—this death was recent. The women's dormitory had been besieged by zombies, leaving almost no survivors. Today, only he and two others had ventured here. It was clear this zombie had been slain by Shen Tong and Wang Hai.

Jiang Yi rose, his eyes cold and menacing. He couldn't fathom why Shen Tong and Wang Hai—both ability users—would turn against him. Though he was not close to them, they had previously scavenged supplies together.

Among ability users, their powers were unremarkable, barely qualifying them as such. Shen Tong possessed 'strength,' boasting two to three times the force of an ordinary man, able to wield a metal cafeteria table single-handedly as a weapon. Wang Hai's ability was 'defense,' his skin tough like treated leather—ordinary blades left only faint white marks that vanished with a wipe.

Such abilities placed them mid to lower tier among the nearly hundred ability users in the cafeteria.

Yet, they were High Wei's lackeys.

Before the apocalypse, they had flattered High Wei excessively. On the same day, all three got caught in the rain outside.

As a result, Shen Tong and Wang Hai's powers mutated to strength and defense, while High Wei gained the ability to transmute matter into weapons.

Jiang Yi had witnessed High Wei press his hand against a metal table and lift it, transforming the entire table into a thick spiked iron club.

This power made him unrivaled in the cafeteria, granting him priority access to the best supplies. Naturally, Shen Tong and Wang Hai's status rose accordingly, and few ability users dared oppose them.

But Jiang Yi couldn't understand how any of this concerned him. He had no conflicts with the trio—why would they attack him behind his back?

Clenching his decapitating knife tighter, he sneered. Whatever their motives, if they dared strike first, he would retaliate in kind. He would return to the cafeteria and would not spare those three. Armed with his blade, Jiang Yi no longer revered High Wei's power. Unlike other ability users, he would not continue to prop him up.

Glancing around, he wondered if Shen Tong and Wang Hai were still in the dormitory. What expressions would they wear when they saw him—the one they assumed dead? A gentleman does not let grievances go unavenged. If they crossed paths here, Jiang Yi wouldn’t hesitate to send them to hell.

Yet he kept his anger in check. With his current strength, facing even one of them was disadvantageous, let alone the two who were inseparable and even shared lodging in the cafeteria. To exact revenge, the priority was to increase his own power.

Suppressing the murderous intent, Jiang Yi quietly moved to the end of the dormitory and used a key to unlock the storage room.

Dust choked him, but he stifled his cough. Inside, piled were old bed frames, discarded belongings from past graduates, and confiscated contraband electronics.

A brief glance revealed nothing useful. Ignoring the filth and disorder, he slumped onto a heap of tattered mattresses, finally allowing himself to relax. A wave of exhaustion overwhelmed him, and he fell asleep immediately.

He did not wake until the sun had set, blinking groggily as he took in his surroundings. The jet-black decapitating knife assured him this was no dream.

Not only had he survived, but he had also obtained a powerful infinite combat upgrade system.

Pressing his left hand to the floor, a holographic screen flickered to life. After a quick review of changes in his status, he retrieved a portion of jade-fatty pork and some sky spring water from his bag to solve his dinner.

After a day of experimentation, Jiang Yi grew increasingly familiar with his abilities. First, the holographic screen could not appear out of thin air; he needed to press his hand against a flat surface like a wall or the ground.

Second, holding an object also summoned a screen displaying information about that item. This resembled an appraisal skill, but only for abilities and ability-related objects, such as his decapitating knife, sky spring water, and jade-fatty pork.

Finally, although he possessed a space-like storage, it had strict limitations. It could only hold items produced by abilities; ordinary objects, no matter how small, could not be stored. Moreover, the space required a medium—a container like a backpack—to activate, making it more cumbersome yet serving as a clever concealment of Jiang Yi’s power.

Understanding his abilities, Jiang Yi took the master key to plan his next moves.

Outside, zombies swarmed. With his present strength, breaking free was a dream. He could only wait for them to disperse.

But Jiang Yi refused to idle. At his current level, he was weaker than ordinary humans; venturing outside meant certain death. Instead, he would seize this opportunity to grind experience.

He chuckled softly, considering himself fortunate that his power manifested in the women’s dormitory, where zombies were scattered and confined to individual rooms. Could there be a better place to farm monsters?

Besides, Chen Jiazi awaited him in the cafeteria. If he did not return, she would be worried and frightened. Jiang Yi knew her ability well: water-based, seemingly more miraculous than those who enhanced strength or speed, but beyond slowly flowing clean water from her hands, she had no combat prowess. Her physicality was only marginally better than before the apocalypse.

Their peaceful week in the cafeteria was thanks to Jiang Yi’s ruthless willingness to slay zombies early on, which deterred others from bullying them. The thought of Chen Jiazi being threatened in his absence unsettled him. He stowed his unfinished water bottle in his bag, gripped his blade, and left the storage room.

Though anxious, Jiang Yi did not recklessly seek battle. The dorm rooms housed four occupants each, meaning at most four zombies per room. He knew his current strength: one zombie was manageable, but two meant near-certain defeat.

Until he grew stronger, he planned to lie low.

Compared to the value of life, this was no dishonor.

Near storage room 620, Jiang Yi pressed cautiously against the door, sensing no movement. He slowly turned the handle. The old wooden door creaked loudly, the sound echoing through the hallway.

After painstaking effort, he cracked the door open and slipped inside. Holding his black blade forward, he scanned the small room. With nowhere to hide, a quick look reassured him—no zombies.

He began searching for useful items. The room had clearly been ransacked; almost no food remained. Jiang Yi was unconcerned; food would no longer be a problem for him.

Quickly, he gathered all useful supplies: a diesel lighter, a roll of tape, two power banks, a rechargeable desk lamp, and an unopened set of bed sheets.

Stashing them in his backpack, Jiang Yi stepped out and marked a large check on the door with a marker he found inside. Then he moved to room 619 across the hall.

Without even listening closely, he heard scraping and objects knocking inside. Unfortunately, the glass on the door was covered with posters, obscuring how many zombies lurked within.

After some thought, Jiang Yi cautiously marked an 'X' on that door and moved on.

He continued this method, checking rooms one by one on the floor. The results were better than expected: of ten rooms, only three emitted zombie noises. The rest he entered to scavenge useful items.

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