Night fell. A crimson, broken moon hung in the sky, casting an eerie glow over the silent wasteland.
Chen Shouzhou and Su Wan'er, dragging their exhausted bodies, finally returned to their drafty "five-star safe house." The moment Xiao Hei saw them, it pounced excitedly, circling them with a wagging tail and letting out affectionate whimpers.
Seeing the dog, Chen Shouzhou's heavy mood lightened slightly. He patted its head and whispered, "Good boy. You held down the fort."
Su Wan'er silently unpacked the supplies from her backpack, stacking them neatly in the basement warehouse. As she looked at the extra cases of compressed biscuits and bottled water, a shadow of sadness crossed her eyes. These things had been bought with Da Liu's life.
Chen Shouzhou knew what she was thinking, but he didn't offer any comfort. In the apocalypse, cheap platitudes were useless. He walked to the warehouse entrance and stared at the zombies gathering outside, his eyes turning cold.
The smell of Da Liu's blood was a beacon in the night, drawing every hungry predator in the vicinity. Within half an hour, more than twenty zombies had gathered outside the warehouse, including a few of the zombie dogs they had encountered at the supermarket.
They milled about tirelessly, guttural hhrrr-hhrrr sounds rumbling in their throats. Their rotting arms scraped against the thin iron walls, producing a grating screee that set one's teeth on edge.
"Seems I'm not a very good landlord. Barely opened for business and already got debt collectors at the door," Chen Shouzhou chuckled self-deprecatingly. He turned back to Su Wan'er. "Dr. Su, lock the doors and windows, and stay in the basement. Don't come out. The landlord is starting a big project tonight. It might get a little noisy."
Su Wan'er looked at him with concern, picking up her notepad to write: "You, alone? It's too dangerous."
"Relax," Chen Shouzhou patted his chest with a grin. "I don't have many skills, but I know how to create an atmosphere. Tonight, I'm throwing a grand party for our new neighbors. I guarantee it'll be an unforgettable experience for them."
He wasn't joking.
On the way back, he had thoroughly studied the newly unlocked [Basic Defenses] feature. It didn't magically conjure a wall or a turret; instead, it provided a detailed "blueprint" and a "materials list." He had to build the defensive structures himself using available resources.
He opened the system interface and selected the most basic yet practical option: [Simple Electrified Fence].
The system immediately provided the construction plan: it required a sufficient amount of iron wire or rebar, a functional generator, and insulating materials.
"What a coincidence. We have all of those things!"
Chen Shouzhou sprang into action. First, he started the generator—which had become remarkably obedient after his swift kick—and the dim yellow lightbulb once again illuminated the warehouse. Then, he rummaged through a pile of scrap, pulling out large amounts of iron wire and a few steel bars, and began to set them up at key points around the warehouse perimeter.
Su Wan'er didn't fully obey his order to hide in the basement. Instead, she stood at the entrance, silently watching him work. She saw Chen Shouzhou wrap coils of wire around the main entrances and damaged sections of the walls, using rubber stripped from old tires for insulation. His movements were not skilled, even clumsy at times, and he cut his hands on the wire more than once. But he paid it no mind, humming an off-key tune as if he were engaged in some fascinating art project.
After setting up the fence, Chen Shouzhou looked at the sky, then at the growing horde of zombies outside. He decided it wasn't enough.
"An electric shock isn't enough. There's no atmosphere," he muttered, his mind already latching onto another idea.
He salvaged a still-functional strobe light from a wrecked police car and hooked it up to the generator. Then, from a pile of electronic junk, he found a portable music player that looked like it might still work. Its casing was cracked, but when he plugged in a power bank, it actually lit up.
He scrolled through the songs stored on it. When he saw a familiar title, a mischievous grin spread across his face.
He taped the player to a high metal rack and cranked the volume to the max.
"Dr. Su, cover your ears!" he shouted back to her.
Su Wan'er didn't understand why, but she did as he said.
Chen Shouzhou took a deep breath and pressed the play button.
The next second, a powerful, rhythmic melody erupted like a thunderclap, blasting across the wasteland's night sky.
"The boundless horizon is my love, flowers are blooming at the foot of the green mountains..."
It was "The Most Dazzling Folk Style"!
The soaring vocals and thumping beat instantly drowned out the groans of the zombies. The undead, who had been mindlessly shuffling, seemed to be stunned by the sudden auditory assault, their movements becoming sluggish.
Chen Shouzhou nodded in satisfaction and flipped the switch for the strobe light.
Blinding flashes of red and blue light began to pulse frantically, turning the entire warehouse area into an open-air disco.
The dim yellow light, the flashing police strobes, the "Most Dazzling Folk Style" as the background music, and the crowd of zombies outside, now "dancing" to the sound (in reality, agitated into a frenzy by the noise and light)… the scene was surreal to the extreme.
Su Wan'er stared, dumbfounded. She swore this was the most insane, most absurd thing she had ever witnessed. This man... he was literally fighting zombies with a disco party.
The zombie horde was, indeed, completely captivated by the "party." They stopped clawing at the walls and began to shamble towards the area where the lights and sound were most concentrated—precisely where Chen Shouzhou had laid his electric-grid trap.
"Come on, babies! Follow my rhythm, let's rock and roll!" Chen Shouzhou stood on a safe, elevated perch, waving his arms like a deranged DJ.
As the first wave of zombies staggered into the trap zone and stumbled into the inconspicuous wires, Chen Shouzhou slammed the main switch!
ZZZZZAP—!
Blue-white arcs of electricity exploded across the wire mesh. The zombies at the front convulsed violently, smoke pouring from their bodies. Within two seconds, they fell down, stiff as boards, emitting the burnt smell of cooked protein.
The zombies behind them, clueless, continued to surge forward, only to fall, row by row.
This wasn't a battle; it was a one-sided slaughter.
In the distance, the mutant white dog, "Bai Bai," seemed to sense the danger. It stopped, letting out an uneasy roar at the flashing lights and electrical arcs, as if warning its underlings to stay back. But the low-level zombies had no intelligence; they were still drawn by the music and lights, rushing towards the death grid like moths to a flame.
Bai Bai paced anxiously for a few moments before finally turning away with a reluctant growl, disappearing back into the darkness with its remaining zombie dogs.
After more than half an hour of the "party," the zombies outside the warehouse had been mostly cleared out. Chen Shouzhou cut the music and the power, and the world instantly returned to its dead silence.
He collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily. It had looked easy, but maintaining such intense focus was incredibly draining.
"Well… that was way more exciting than clocking in at the office," he said, wiping sweat from his face. He gave the still-dumbfounded Su Wan'er a tired smile.
Su Wan'er slowly walked over and silently handed him a bottle of water. She looked at him, and her gaze no longer held wariness or confusion, but a hint of admiration and… a sense of security that she herself hadn't even noticed.
Just then, the system prompt sounded again.
[Ding! Basic Defense mission complete. Successfully repelled the first zombie siege.]
[Reward: Safe House level increased to Lv.1 (EXP 5/100). 'Simple Fence' crafting blueprint unlocked.]
[Novice tutorial phase has ended. We wish you a pleasant life in the wasteland!]
Chen Shouzhou looked at the new "Simple Fence" blueprint on the system interface, then at the ring of charred corpses outside the warehouse. He finally let out a long sigh of relief.
With a fence, this "home" finally had its first real line of defense.
He stood up, dusted himself off, and said to Su Wan'er, "Dr. Su, it'll be morning soon. Time to clean up, and maybe… reinforce our 'dance floor'."