The returning teams were in high spirits, but not all were so relaxed.

Someone brought back a tattered zombie head and went straight to the sixth floor.

...

"Boss, there’s something I need to report."

Wang Ziru found Lin Qi, who was in the middle of Meditation. He was using the high concentration of Spiritual Particles in the Doomsday World to increase his Spiritual Power, hoping to reach the Tier One Limit and break through to Tier Two as soon as possible.

Lin Qi saw the zombie head in Wang Ziru’s hand.

Before Wang Ziru could give his report, Lin Qi had already examined it with his Spiritual Vision.

The Crimson Crystal Stone inside the head had already been removed. This wasn’t unusual, as the camp’s survivors would collect Crimson Crystal Stones whenever it was safe to do so.

The problem was the wound on the head.

There was a round puncture wound right between the zombie’s eyebrows.

It looked like a wound from one of the camp’s Electromagnetic Firearms, but Lin Qi, with his background from the Red Fruit Weapon Research Institute, was extremely sensitive to the marks left by different weapons.

Around the circular hole were a few strange abrasions, tears, and even scratches from a sharp object being pulled back out.

"This was a kill with a bow and arrow. Did someone run into other survivors?"

Lin Qi quickly reached his conclusion and questioned Wang Ziru.

Wang Ziru paused, stunned for a moment, before quickly chiming in, "You truly are the Boss. It took me and one of the professors quite a while to reach that same conclusion."

Having delivered his dose of flattery, Wang Ziru summarized the facts. "A supply team from the camp found a zombie corpse that we hadn’t killed. At first, we suspected it was the athletes, but we checked the gymnasium and didn’t find anyone."

"I suspect survivors from off-campus may have entered Mo University. Boss, I think we need to be cautious. After the apocalypse, zombies aren’t the only danger."

It was hard to tell if Wang Ziru was offering this advice from a wealth of life experience or from watching too many zombie movies.

Lin Qi nodded in agreement. He had chosen Mo University as his base precisely for the advantages college students offered; students in higher education generally tend to be of a higher caliber.

If he were dealing with outsiders, Lin Qi wouldn’t have dared to entrust the camp’s management to someone else.

"Tell the scouting parties to be careful. They are only to make contact with off-campus survivors after ensuring their own safety."

"Furthermore, they are to keep their weapons on them at all times. Do not, for the time being, give any to off-campus survivors."

"If we rescue any off-campus survivors, house them in a separate building. Don’t let them mix with the students."

Lin Qi made his decision, and Wang Ziru nodded repeatedly. His own thoughts had been along the same lines.

But having such a critical decision come from the leader’s mouth was completely different from making such a call on his own authority.

As long as the general direction was sound, the leader’s word was law.

"Understood, Boss. One more thing... I was wondering, if our teams encounter survivors with malicious intent, are they authorized to... fire on other humans?"

This was a sensitive question, and Wang Ziru watched Lin Qi’s expression out of the corner of his eye.

’The Boss’s technical skills are formidable, but he’s just an undergrad with no real-world experience,’ he thought. ’He might still have some naive ideas.’

Lin Qi raised an eyebrow. "What are you getting at?"

Wang Ziru’s heart sank a little, but the next words out of Lin Qi’s mouth made him look up at Lin Qi’s eyes in astonishment.

"If you run into bad people, empty the magazine. Make sure to double-tap. Leave no one alive. That way, if a rescue team shows up later, they can’t hold us legally responsible."

Lin Qi said this with the gravity of someone who had even considered the official powers that might still exist in the Doomsday World.

Lin Qi had a feeling that they might see a rescue team before long.

This was Modu, after all.

Wang Ziru took a deep breath. "Understood. I’ll arrange for the psychology and Marxism students to provide counseling for the scouting parties."

Wang Ziru hadn’t expected Lin Qi to be so decisive, completely free of any psychological burden.

It was as if the weapons about to be used to kill people hadn’t been developed by him at all.

Just as Wang Ziru was about to turn and leave, Lin Qi called out again. "Wait."

Wang Ziru stopped immediately, listening intently.

"There should be some students in the camp with military experience, right?" Lin Qi asked.

Wang Ziru nodded. "Yes. Six of them."

"Equip them with Exoskeletons and have them well-armed. Tell them to actively seek out that group of survivors. Don’t startle them; just observe their behavior for now."

Lin Qi laid out his follow-up plan.

’If this group of survivors has malicious intent, they’ll become a hidden danger,’ he thought.

’Students could get hurt or even killed because of them in the future.’

’Since we’ve found their trail, we might as well follow it to the source and take the initiative.’

Wang Ziru nodded quickly. Only after confirming Lin Qi had no further instructions did he turn and leave.

Only after leaving did it sink in for Wang Ziru. ’That Junior Lin Qi is so decisive,’ he thought. ’I wasn’t wrong to call him ’Boss.’ That one word really fits him; he has the true bearing of a leader.’

What Wang Ziru didn’t know was that Lin Qi had far more life experience than he, a corporate executive, did.

Having grown up on the fringes of Red Fruit City and worked his way up to an L-level Researcher at the Weapon Research Institute, Lin Qi had seen far more walks of life than Wang Ziru ever had.

Resuming his Meditation, Lin Qi intended to make use of every single minute in the Doomsday World.

As he meditated, he also contemplated his future plans for the Doomsday World.

’I’ll keep using Modu University as the base, but a college campus isn’t a fortress like a prison. It’s too open, and we don’t have the ability to fortify it right now.’

’I could set up a large number of surveillance devices, but signal transmission is an issue.’

The environment of the Doomsday World didn’t care where Lin Qi’s technology came from; any and all communication signals suffered from severe interference.

Quantum communication might be unaffected, but the knowledge required for that was too advanced, and Lin Qi hadn’t mastered it yet.

’Purchase it from the Cyber World?’

’Get real. The cost is unimaginable. The one wristband I have was stolen from the Holy Relic Legion.’

’It cost millions, and it can only transmit text.’

’Automated, intelligent robotic sentries could solve the problem, but the production capacity in the Doomsday World can’t keep up. Manufacturing the Electromagnetic Firearms is already working these survivors to the bone.’

Perhaps it was because his thoughts roamed more freely during Meditation, but Lin Qi suddenly came up with an imperfect, yet viable, solution.

In the Cyber World, long-distance data transmission suffered from high latency and low speeds, a situation very similar to the signal interference in the Doomsday World.

When people in the Cyber World needed to transfer massive amounts of data from off-world to the surface, the most efficient method was...

...to use spacecraft to physically shuttle massive servers back and forth. A sneakernet for electronic data.

He could adapt this method, and he wouldn’t even need technology from the Cyber World to do it.

’I can modify Mo University’s surveillance system to use memory cards. I’ll have teams swap out the cards every twenty-four hours and feed the data to the collection bots’ Intelligent Brain for analysis.’

’There’ll be a twenty-four-hour delay, but it will give us a comprehensive picture of all activity on the Mo University campus.’

And so, a group of off-campus survivors gave Lin Qi an ingenious idea, which in turn added to the daily workload of the survivors at Mo University.