Chapter 26 They Deserve to Die
The simulation ended.
It had been another successful run.
However, the female teacher's actions had caught Liu Yang completely off guard.
When those student-athletes surrounded him, she had stepped forward without hesitation to shield him with her own body.
She was no match for five athletic men, but she hadn't panicked, fled, or abandoned him. Instead, her first instinct had been to protect him.
Teachers like her were rare.
Even though it had only occurred within a simulation and hadn't actually happened yet, Liu Yang took the gesture to heart.
In his past life, he had been dirt poor and had never experienced a shred of genuine kindness.
Someone once said that when you succeed, everyone around you suddenly becomes kind and welcoming.
But the moment you fail, you become nothing more than a speck of dust that everyone wants to trample into the dirt. All you ever feel from the world is overwhelming malice.
Liu Yang had never tasted genuine goodwill before.
This teacher was the first to offer it.
Which was precisely why that small act of kindness felt so precious-and why it burned itself into his memory.
"Whew..."
Liu Yang let out a long breath.
It was time to carry out the plan as simulated.
Only this time, he was determined to wipe those student-athletes off the face of the earth the second they stepped into view.
The real attempt began.
Liu Yang swept up all the food without a hitch and rescued the teacher. As they headed toward the dormitory block, they ran right into the four student-athletes again.
"Well, well, well. Isn't this that little security guard, Liu Yang? Didn't expect this bastard to still be breathing..."
Looking at the sneering, contemptuous faces in front of him, Liu Yang didn't waste a single breath on words.
Crack!
Crack-crack-crack-crack!
Five crisp snaps echoed in rapid succession as their heads exploded instantly. None of them had any idea what hit them before everything went black.
"Ah...!" Zhao Yuting let out a sharp gasp, instantly clapping both hands over her mouth.
She remembered Liu Yang's strict warning not to make a sound, lest they attract a swarm of zombies.
"Y-You... why did you kill them all?" Zhao Yuting asked, her voice trembling violently.
"If I didn't kill them, they would have killed me," Liu Yang said calmly.
"That's impossible! They're students at this university! How could they just murder someone in cold blood?" Zhao Yuting protested, completely in denial.
Liu Yang offered a cold smirk. "They wouldn't just kill me-they'd drag you back as their personal toy and turn you into a sex slave. Five hungry jocks would have worked you to death within three days."
"No... that's impossible!" Zhao Yuting shook her head frantically.
She refused to believe human nature could degrade into something so vile.
In her mind, teachers had a duty to educate, guide, and protect their students in times of crisis.
Students were supposed to support one another. Even during an apocalypse, they shouldn't turn on each other.
Only through unity could humanity survive such a tragedy.
She had no idea how brutally cruel reality truly was.
Especially in the end times, self-preservation was the only rule that mattered.
If you don't kill others, others will kill you.
Resources were scarce in the apocalypse, making every single survivor a direct rival for survival. Every extra mouth meant it was that much harder for you to find your next meal.
"Don't believe me? That's fine. I'll take you to their hideout," Liu Yang said, leading Zhao Yuting straight toward the sports equipment room.
In the previous simulation, he had overheard the jocks mention bringing Zhao Yuting back to the equipment room right before he died.
It was obvious their base was located there.
Before long, the two arrived outside the room.
Pushing the door open, they found a naked female student inside. An iron chain was locked around her neck, securing her to a window guard rail. Both of her arms had been chopped off, and the bleeding stumps were tightly bound with coarse rope!
The girl's face was deathly pale, her breathing shallow and ragged.
Her ghostly skin was covered in deep scratches, human bite marks, and angry cigarette burns.
Zhao Yuting gasped, immediately covering her mouth as her eyes turned bloodshot and tears burst from her eyes.
She couldn't comprehend how students could inflict such unspeakable atrocities on a fellow classmate.
"H-How could this happen... Monsters! They're absolute monsters!"
Noticeable movement at the door caught the mutilated girl's attention. She slowly opened her hollow, hopeless eyes and whimpered feebly:
"Kill me... Please, just kill me..."
Over the past few days, she had suffered endless torture at the hands of those five athletes. At first, they merely raped, beat, and humiliated her, deriving sick pleasure from her agonized cries.
Back then, she had endured it all, convincing herself that surviving as their plaything was still better than being devoured alive by zombies.
But then their hunger set in. Terrified of the dozens of zombies lurking in the cafeteria, the athletes refused to venture out for food.
Instead, they turned their eyes toward her.
They had severed and eaten both of her arms.
It was only then that she realized human hearts were far more terrifying than any mindless zombie.
Now, she wanted nothing more than to die.
Yet no matter how much she begged over the last two days, those monsters refused to grant her release.
Eating her limbs had only heightened their twisted excitement, as if her mutilated body satisfied some deeply buried, sick kink.
They tortured her with newfound passion.
For her, every second of existence was a living hell.
"We can save her! We can take her with us, can't we, Liu Yang?" Zhao Yuting pleaded through her tears.
Liu Yang simply shook his head.
"Don't be naive. Both her arms are gone; she won't survive out here. The only thing I can do for her is give her a swift end."
"No! She's still breathing! We can save her, I know we can! Sob..." Zhao Yuting wept softly.
Seeing a student so horribly brutalized while remaining completely powerless filled her with overwhelming guilt and despair.
She felt as though the sin was partly her own.
"Kill me... Please, hurry... I know I'm not going to make it... Kill me..." The girl's voice was barely a whisper, her desperate eyes locked firmly onto Liu Yang. "Can you please just give me a quick death?"
Liu Yang nodded slowly.
"Thank you..." A look of sheer relief finally crossed the girl's face as she gently closed her eyes.
"Crack!"
Liu Yang instantly crushed her skull, ending her life.
"Ah..."
"Ahhhh!"
Heart-wrenching wails of grief from Zhao Yuting echoed throughout the equipment room.