Chapter 42

As footsteps echoed in the hallway, Lin Yifan immediately raised his gun, scaring Pingye into exclaiming, "Senior Lin! It's me, it's me! Don't point the gun at people randomly."

Hanging the P90 on his body, Pingye walked into the room with three lunch boxes and sneakily glanced at Saya Takagi: "Saya, Senior Lin didn't bully you, did he?"

Saya Takagi, with a sullen face, turned her head and coldly snorted, "Hmph, I don't need your fake concern."

Lin Yifan picked up a lunch box and shoved it into Saya's hand, "Eat your noodles and shut up."

"You..." Saya looked at Lin Yifan, holding the fried noodles he had forced into her hand. She could act spoiled with Pingye, but it had no effect on Lin Yifan.

Opening the lunch box, he sat on the sofa leisurely, "You're quite good at enjoying yourself. You've made this place quite cozy, with a sofa, TV, fridge, and even a game console."

Pingye scratched the back of his head, "Actually, it doesn't matter whether I go home or not, because I live alone. Sometimes, to avoid people who bully me, I hide here."

While eating the noodles, Lin Yifan picked up the remote and turned on the TV.

"There's no need to watch, Senior Lin. The news these days is all about foreign riots," Pingye, standing beside him and eating noodles, shook his head. He was clearly tired of the repetitive news programs that had been running for days.

"Of course, I'm not watching those. I'm looking for something useful."

Lin Yifan kept changing channels, but most of the news he had already seen, or it was entertainment news, with nothing significant happening.

Lin Yifan was certain that the zombie virus had already erupted in various parts of Japan, but the government was suppressing the information, making it very troublesome. There was no way to find any news about it.

The zombie virus outbreak at Fujimi Academy had no warning, or perhaps he hadn't delved deep enough into the original story.

Lin Yifan didn't know when the zombie virus would erupt, but it was definitely going to happen in the next few days.

The uncertainty was very troublesome. If he was bitten for no reason, there would be no place to cry. So he had to gather information and monitor the movements of the zombie virus.

Suddenly, Lin Yifan's eyes swept over the table and noticed a laptop bag.

"Huh? Pingye, do you have internet here?"

"Y-Yes, because I often chat with my online friends, so..."

Lin Yifan didn't pay attention to Pingye, his eyes gradually brightening.

This wasn't the Japan of the 1990s from "The Ring." It was probably the 2006-2009 period. At that time, he was still carrying a schoolbag to the internet cafe to play "Red Alert."

Internet! Any information could be found on the internet.

"Pingye, open the laptop and search for cannibalism incidents. Just search randomly."

"Got it!" Pingye sat on the floor, opened the laptop, and the brand instantly blinded Lin Yifan's eyes.

An Alienware laptop from before 2009, when others were still using old desktops, Pingye's family must have been very wealthy.

Opening the laptop, the desktop background was a **二次元动漫人物** (a 2D anime character), and Saya, standing nearby, couldn't help but show disgust, "Disgusting otaku."

"Hehe, I forgot to change the wallpaper," Pingye scratched his head and opened the browser to start searching.

As soon as he typed in the keywords for cannibalism, the screen filled with related search results.

Lin Yifan leaned in, barely able to read the meaning from the kanji mixed with hiragana.

He saw a familiar string of English and the words "生放送" (live broadcast), and he roughly understood what it was. In Japanese, it meant live streaming.

Lin Yifan pointed and said, "Pingye, open this niconico website. It should be streaming something."

When they clicked in, the number of online viewers on the right side of the video was nearly 70,000. With so many people watching a live stream, it must be something significant!

As the video loaded, gunshots and screams could be heard.

The streamer held the camera and shouted while filming, "I'm not lying to you, open your eyes and look clearly, what is this! Look, those monsters eating people, ah! I'm going crazy, who can save me, look downstairs, those monsters are attacking my door!"

A barrage of comments flooded the video, mostly praising the streamer's acting, the realistic special effects, and suggesting the streamer should go to Hollywood.

Lin Yifan leaned in to look, and at that moment, the live stream suddenly cut off, showing that the room had been banned.

The three people in the room fell into a deathly silence. Lin Yifan frowned, while Pingye and Saya's faces showed shock.

"Hey... Senior Lin, the... the one with the leg in its mouth, was that fake?" Pingye's forehead was drenched in cold sweat. Watching through the screen wasn't very clear, and the cameras of that era were generally not very clear or due to network issues, making it quite blurry.

After watching the bloody scene, Lin Yifan picked up the fried noodles and ate them with relish, speaking slowly, "What do you think?"

"It... it was real." Pingye swallowed hard. Although he didn't dare to believe it, Lin Yifan had been hinting at something over the past two days, and he vaguely felt there was a connection.

Snapping his fingers, Lin Yifan nodded, "Not bad."

"But... but why didn't the government tell us? If those things are real, why not send the Self-Defense Forces to suppress them?" Pingye was already half-convinced but still wanted Lin Yifan to tell him it was fake.

Saya, sitting on the sofa, put down her fried noodles and touched her chin, thinking for a long time, "No, the government definitely won't tell us. If the truth were revealed, the entire order in Japan would likely collapse quickly. When chaos ensues, it would be even harder to reverse the situation."

"But..."

Saya interrupted Pingye and continued, "If you think I'm a stupid otaku, you won't believe me. In modern society, maintaining a certain level of productivity is essential. The food, clothing, electricity, and water we use all require people. If the government told the citizens, it would only accelerate the destruction. Sometimes, not knowing is better."

"Saya is right. Modern society may seem stable, but if the power supply suddenly fails, food production and transportation would halt, and the technology we've accumulated over hundreds of years would collapse. It seems stable, but it's also very fragile," Lin Yifan nodded in agreement.

Saya, receiving Lin Yifan's approval, felt secretly pleased and continued, "So, no matter what happens, society must continue to function normally. If everyone thinks about escaping, some places would run out of food in half a day without truck drivers, for example..."

"Like the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, which occupies only 4% of Japan's land but houses 25% of the population. If the food supply is cut off for a few days, it would quickly collapse, and all the hard work of humanity would be destroyed in an instant."

Lin Yifan calmly ate his noodles, but his words made Pingye and Saya shiver.

After a long moment of shock, Saya suddenly thought of a question. The terrible thing that Lin Yifan and Pingye had been discussing—could it be this?

Saya suddenly stood up and stared at Lin Yifan for a long time, "You... you know something big is about to happen? That's why you risked your life to buy or steal guns? Those guns, you stole them from terrorists, which is why you were being chased?"

Lin Yifan, who was eating noodles, almost choked and started coughing violently.

Saya's imagination was truly amazing, helping him cover up the situation.

"Cough... cough, you got it right, the guns are stolen." Coughing out a few mouthfuls of noodles, Lin Yifan pretended to be surprised, but inside, he was laughing. Saya, you're a good person.

Saya, looking increasingly surprised, suddenly felt she might have misunderstood Lin Yifan. He had no intention of causing chaos in Japan.

"What are you planning to do?" After understanding "the truth about Lin Yifan," Saya's tone improved slightly.

"Wait, I'm gathering information and pulling together people with combat skills from the school."

Saya touched her chin and thought for a moment, "So you went to find Saeko Takagi and this fat otaku who can use guns? And you also thought of the school nurse, Kikuchi? You're forming a survival team!"

Lin Yifan, praised by Saya, felt a bit embarrassed. Apart from Saeko, the others were gathered unintentionally.

---

(End of the page)