First Battle

Thanks to the group of upperclassmen, the zombies had been drawn toward the emergency stairs, gathering together in that area and had been locked behind the steel gate. Although she couldn't use the stairs, there were no more zombies in the hallway. 

Jiao Lizhi opened the window and peered outside. She was on the second floor, and there was a water pipe running along the wall near the window. 

She reached out to pull at the pipe a few times before she nodded with satisfaction. Though the pipe wasn't particularly large, it appeared sturdy enough to support her thin frame.

After observing her surroundings, she stored the wooden stick into her space and climbed out the window. Clinging tightly to the water pipe, she began to climb down slowly.

Below her, a group of zombies had already been attracted by her scent. Three zombies gathered under her body, roaring and reaching up their rotten hands, trying to catch her. 

In the surrounding area, nearly twenty zombies were scattered around. To escape, she needed to act quickly and deal with the three zombies directly below her before their commotion drew more attention from the surrounding zombies.

Taking a deep breath, she clenched her jaw and released her grip slightly. In an instant, she slid down the pipe at a fast speed. Just before she reached the ground, she kicked against the wall, flipping midair, and landed lightly with one of her knees bent.

The zombies immediately turned around and rushed toward her. With a flick of her wrist, the wooden stick reappeared in her hand. She wasted no time, charging toward the nearest zombie and thrusting the sharp end of the stick into its eye.

With one swift motion, she pierced the zombie's brain. Black blood and rotten matter coated the stick as she pulled out the stick and it dripped onto the ground.

"Roar!"

The guttural roar of another zombie behind her grew closer as the rancid smell assaulted her nose. Before the sharp claw pierced her flesh, she spun around and delivered a powerful spinning hook kick to the zombie's head.

Crack!

The kick landed with a resounding crack, sending the zombie flying several meters with its head crushed. For a split second, she was stunned, too shocked to react.

Even though elemental ability users had greater physical strength than ordinary people, it was unheard of to send a zombie flying with a single kick—at least not at the early stage after awakening. 

Only strength-type ability users could achieve such a feat. For those with water-type abilities, the possibility of doing this is zero.

Although she was confused, Jiao Lizhi had no time to dwell on the anomaly of her ability and physical condition in the middle of battle. 

As she regained her focus, the third zombie lunged at her and its claws swiped dangerously close to her neck. She sidestepped just in time and countered by driving the wooden stick into its temple.

Stab!

She used all of her strength but the stick was stuck. Seeing that the stick failed to destroy the brain and the zombies were still moving, Jiao Lizhi's eyes flashed with surprise.

"Roar!"

The zombie let out an enraged growl as it swung its arms at her in an attempt to grab her neck. Narrowing her eyes, Jiao Lizhi leaned back to dodge the attack before shifting to the side. She grabbed the stick and using all her strength, she drove the stick further into its skull.

With a puff, the stick pierced through the zombie's head like a skewer. The next moment, it collapsed lifelessly to the ground.

Breathing heavily, Jiao Lizhi wiped the sweat from her brow. Her body felt weak and heavy just from fighting three zombies. If she wanted to survive, she needed to grow stronger—fast.

After catching her breath for a few moments, she bent down to retrieve the wooden stick. As she pulled out the stick, her eyes caught a glimmer under the sunlight—a small crystal lay in the pool of the zombie's rotten brain.

The moment she saw the crystal, her eyes widened in astonishment. She picked up the crystal, turning it over in her hand.

"This is… a level one zombie core. How can a level one zombie appear now? It is just the second day of the apocalypse," she muttered softly, her face was full of disbelief. 

Though the discovery baffled her, she didn't linger in the area. She quickly stored the crystal core into her space and continued toward the university cafeteria while killing any wandering zombies along the way.

After each kill, she checked their brains for more crystal cores, but to her disappointment, she found nothing. 

By the time she reached the cafeteria, she was already too exhausted to move. After confirming that it was safe, she leaned against the wall and rested for a while.

The distance between the female dormitory and the cafeteria was not far yet not close either. Due to her limited stamina and weak strength, she had to take short breaks after killing two or three zombies, which stretched the trip to nearly an hour.

According to her previous life's memories, the cafeteria would fall under the control of the upperclassmen by the fifth day. For now, they were still preoccupied with rescuing trapped students in various buildings since they still have some supplies. 

Only after they had used up their initial supplies did they decide to check the cafeteria and the mini market. Therefore, she needed to act fast and collect the supplies before they arrived.

After resting for more than ten minutes, she finally regained some strength and stood up.