The Last Thought

On the evening of the third day after the apocalypse descended.

A battered Hummer, its body splattered with monster fluids, drove into Yongcheng No.1 High School.

Crushing over corpses scattered across the ground, the vehicle passed straight through the teaching building and parked beneath the student dormitories.

Lu Li, dressed in a black trench coat, opened the door with a black backpack in each hand.

The backpacks were bulging, though it was impossible to tell what they were filled with.

Several male teachers guarded the dormitory entrance. Seeing Lu Li get out, they immediately gathered around.

They did not dare approach too closely, merely standing at a safe distance as they warily asked, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

After recognizing them, Lu Li said helplessly, "Teacher Yang, it's me—Lu Li, from Senior Class 8."

"Lu Li?"

The square-faced male teacher at the front froze. He took half a step back and carefully examined Lu Li before asking skeptically, "Why are you dressed like that? And you came back from outside the school... Has rescue arrived?"

"Rescue?"

Lu Li shook his head, automatically ignoring the first two questions. "I haven't seen any rescue. Teacher Yang, can I go back to my dorm and get something?"

Hearing that there was no rescue, obvious disappointment appeared on Teacher Yang's face.

"Go ahead. But the situation is unusual right now. Someone else may have moved into your dorm."

Lu Li frowned.

In his previous life, when the apocalypse descended, he had stayed in the school dormitory for a full month before leaving, so no one had ever taken over his room.

He had not expected that, after being reborn, he would lose his bed after spending just two days outside grinding monsters.

And Teacher Yang's gaze was a little strange as well.

But Lu Li did not care.

He had only returned to school today to retrieve something, and had no intention of staying long.

If someone had taken his empty bed, then so be it.

Lu Li's dorm was on the third floor—the third room after turning right at the top of the stairs.

Passing through the corridor piled with trash, Lu Li pushed open the dormitory door.

Before he even stepped inside, a foul smell of cigarette smoke hit him in the face.

A lazy voice came from within the room.

"Who's that? Why are you dropping by my place...?"

Lu Li followed the voice and found only a skinny monkey of a man inside, lying on a bed with one leg crossed over the other as he smoked.

The dorm room had been ransacked into a complete mess, looking no different from a garbage dump.

"Huang Bin?"

Lu Li quickly recognized the skinny man before him. It was Huang Bin from Class 6.

This guy usually loafed around and hated studying, spending all year hanging around with shady people from outside the school and calling them brothers.

Before the apocalypse broke out, Lu Li had never had much to do with Huang Bin.

His only impression of him was that Huang Bin's boss, "Brother Knife," had cornered him against a wall and extorted one hundred yuan from him.

"Oh, I was wondering who it was. Turns out it's little brother Lu Li! I hadn't seen you these past two days, so I was thinking maybe a monster had eaten you and turned you into a pile of shit..."

Huang Bin exhaled a puff of smoke, squinting with a mocking expression.

"Those clothes look pretty sharp. Did you go shopping?"

Lu Li did not respond. Expressionlessly, he began searching through his desk.

He was looking for a photograph—a group photo.

It was the last memento his deceased parents had left him.

Yet the photo was not on the desk.

Instead, it was in Huang Bin's ashtray.

"I'm talking to you. Are you deaf?"

Seeing that Lu Li remained silent, Huang Bin, who was reclining on the bed, took another drag.

As if deliberately doing it, Huang Bin turned the cigarette butt in his hand and pressed it onto the photograph Lu Li regarded as his life.

Sizzle...

The scorching cigarette tip burned a pitch-black hole into the photograph, covering the kindly smiling face of Lu Li's father.

Lu Li's gaze instantly turned icy as a violent killing intent rose within him!

"What are you doing?"

Lu Li stared at the photo in the ashtray and said, word by word:

"Huh? You mean this? Heh, I thought you didn't want it anymore..."

As Huang Bin spoke, he raised the cigarette butt again, ready to burn Lu Li's mother's face.

However, this time, there was no sizzling sound of burning flesh.

Huang Bin only felt his right hand, which held the cigarette butt, suddenly grow lighter. Something rolled off the bed.

That seemed to be... his palm?

"Hand? My hand! My hand!!!"

Huang Bin clutched his spurting wrist and screamed in agony.

At some point, a Blade Mantis wreathed in black mist had appeared beside him!

Just as Lu Li was about to command his Soul Soldier to finish off the beast before him, a voice suddenly came from behind.

"Bin, going to pay that chick Xu Xiao another visit today, huh? Who the hell are you?!"

Lu Li turned around and saw that the person standing in the doorway was Brother Knife—the street thug who had once extorted him.

Brother Knife recognized Lu Li at once as well, instinctively taking a step back.

"Lu... Lu Li? Heh, long time no see, Brother Lu Li..."

Lu Li said nothing. What answered Brother Knife was the strange sound of a sharp blade cleaving through flesh and bone.

Huang Bin, who had been wailing and shouting for Brother Knife to kill Lu Li just moments ago, was now a headless corpse.

"It has been quite a while."

A cold smile tugged at Lu Li's expressionless face as two more Blade Mantises condensed at his side.

"Do I still need to pay protection money this time?"

The destruction of the only photo they had together had put Lu Li in an extremely foul mood.

So he had no qualms about killing this street thug who had once bullied him.

However, what surprised Lu Li was that

after hearing his question, Brother Knife, whose face had looked so fierce, did not act tough as usual. Instead, he dropped to his knees with a thud.

Brother Knife plastered a smile across his face and said:

"What are you saying, Brother Lu Li? I was young and foolish back then. Please be the bigger man and don't lower yourself to the level of trash like me..."

Lu Li frowned, having never expected such a reaction from him.

"I killed your underling right in front of you. Aren't you going to demand an explanation for him?"

Brother Knife, sprawled on the ground, shook his head repeatedly.

"What explanation? That brat Huang Bin was blind and brought it on himself! Brother Lu Li, you killed him for me—I'm more grateful than anything!"

"I didn't know this was the dorm room you were staying in, Brother Lu Li. If I had known, I swear I would've had it cleaned three times a day! There's no way I would've let that brat Huang Bin move in..."

"So you're in charge here now?"

Lu Li picked up on a few clues and asked:

"Just managing it on behalf of others, that's all! It's only thanks to everyone's support. Um, Brother Lu Li, how about you stop staying in this dorm? I'll clear out another room for you..."

Brother Knife smiled ingratiatingly, still sprawled on the floor without any intention of getting up.

It was as if, before Lu Li, he was nothing more than a lowly dog.

Without his master's command, he would never dare make an overstepping move.

The street thug who had once extorted him had suddenly become a dog wagging its tail and begging for mercy?

For a moment, Lu Li could not make sense of the logic behind it.

He merely assumed the man had seen the Soul Soldiers he summoned and was afraid.

"No need to clear out another dorm. I won't be staying here tonight."

Lu Li dismissed the Soul Soldiers and picked up his backpack from the floor.

"But just now, I heard you say you were going to 'pay that chick Xu Xiao a visit.' What did you mean by that?"