Chapter 1 The Dormitories

The dormitory was quite quiet, without a single sound. Strangely, Ding Ning had always been afraid to set foot here. Even when dragging the corpses of the prisoners to bury them, he would detour to the other side, never walking along the dormitory side.

But the moment he pushed open the door, the fear in Ding Ning's heart completely disappeared. He stepped firmly into the dormitory, onto the corridor where his comrades had once marched in neat formation...

The prison guards' dormitory building was a bit better than a university dormitory, mostly double rooms, with many single rooms as well. However, the layout of the corridor was similar to that of a university dormitory.

It was just a corridor, with rooms on both sides, and stairs leading upstairs, the most basic and simple dormitory building layout!

"Creak!"

Ding Ning gently pushed open the door of the first dormitory and walked in. It was a double room, with a person lying on each of the two beds, covered with a blanket. However, due to the passage of time, the room emitted a strong stench, and many flies buzzed in the air.

Ding Ning didn't mind the smell or the flies. He stood there quietly, pointing to the bed on the left, and said:

"His name is Wang Tiejun. He was thirty-one years old. His father was said to be a soldier. He also applied to the air force, but unfortunately, he was rejected because of a scar left from a fight when he was a child. That scar couldn't withstand the gravity of a fighter jet accelerating and would burst!

"Someone who went to apply with him ridiculed him after learning the reason, saying that someone like him wouldn't even be wanted as a prison guard, let alone a soldier.

"So, he really came to be a prison guard out of spite and has been doing it for ten years! He's a senior here. The warden said he could have moved to a single room a long time ago, but he refused, saying he had nothing to hide, so he would stay in a double room and could mentor the rookies!"

After talking about Wang Tiejun, Ding Ning pointed to the other bed:

"His name is Liu Hongtao. He's 25 years old and came in half a year earlier than me. He was also trained by Captain Wang. He's a very good marksman, and..."

Grey Bear listened to Ding Ning's introduction without interrupting him. Looking at the faces of the two corpses, Liu Hongtao and Wang Tiejun had both been killed after turning into zombies. It was just that no one knew if they had mutated from the beginning or had died in battle later and then turned into zombies.

In this way, Ding Ning didn't mind the trouble at all. He went into every dormitory and recounted the information of the people inside, and sometimes even told some funny stories that happened among them!

Grey Bear didn't show the slightest impatience. After all, he was a soldier and fully understood Ding Ning's feelings. Even Li Chenzhou, who came in later, followed obediently as a spectator, completely ignoring the sky that might soon turn dark and the survivors outside who had not yet been taken care of.

Finally, they came to another double room, but there was only one corpse in this double room. It was Xiao Gang, whom they had seen in the video!

In fact, they had seen most of the prison guards in the video, but they didn't have any images of many of them. However, Xiao Gang's performance was too prominent, so Li Chenzhou and Grey Bear recognized the corpse as soon as they saw it!

As for why there was only one corpse here, the answer was obvious. The other bed belonged to Ding Ning!

"You should know him. Xiao Gang! My guide. He was the same age as me. Actually, although I always listened to him and admired him, I always had a feeling in my heart that one day, I would surpass Xiao Gang and become even better than him!"

Seeing Xiao Gang's body, Ding Ning was silent for a few minutes. He even ran to the opposite bed, sat there, and quietly looked at Xiao Gang. After a long while, he said:

"But after what happened that night, I understood that Xiao Gang's excellence is something I can't catch up with in my lifetime. You all saw his performance, right?

"I dare say that if I had been the one who went to the bathroom to smoke and was caught by the warden, then I would have been killed by the warden as soon as he turned into a zombie. Then, I would have become a zombie too.

"But Xiao Gang not only killed the warden, but he also remembered to take his keys and pistol. Even after pushing me back into the monitoring room, he was able to run out and direct those squad leaders who were older than him and joined the team earlier than him to fight, and finally killed all the mutated comrades."

"That's right! He is better than you, but you will never catch up with him because your character will never be as decisive as his!"

At this time, Li Chenzhou, who had been following along and had never spoken, suddenly said. Then, he came to Xiao Gang's bed, looked down at his body, and said:

"Xiao Gang's advantage is that he can quickly judge the situation at the time and immediately take the most favorable measures for the current situation. Just like you said, if you were called over by the warden, you would be killed by him! Why?

"Is it because Xiao Gang is stronger than you? Perhaps that's one reason, but the most important thing is that Xiao Gang immediately judged that the warden had turned into a zombie, and that zombies cannot be cured. And he also knew what would happen to a person after being attacked by a zombie!

"So, Xiao Gang immediately decided to kill the warden! If it were you, you would probably just resist the warden's attack, or try to escape, but you would never think of killing him, because he is the warden, right?"

"Yes!"

Ding Ning nodded.

"Also, after he ran out of the prison, he also shouted to Old Niu, telling him to kill Brother Yong, but Old Niu didn't do that, because Old Niu is the same type of person as you! Brother Yong is his captain, he couldn't bring himself to do it!"

Li Chenzhou looked at Ding Ning:

"Then, the result was that Old Niu also died, killed by Brother Yong. And Brother Yong? But he didn't change his ending because of Old Niu's mercy. Brother Yong was eventually killed by your comrades!

"I'm not saying that Old Niu or you did anything wrong, nor am I saying that Xiao Gang is necessarily right, because the other party is his captain, and refusing to hurt him, no matter what, cannot be considered a mistake!

"I can only tell you that, by comparison, Xiao Gang's character is more suitable for this new world, while you and Old Niu are more suitable for the original world!

"Think about it yourself, if you and Xiao Gang switched places, and you were called up by the warden, and Xiao Gang was in the monitoring room and found something wrong with the monitor, then you would certainly be killed by the warden.

"But what about Xiao Gang? He wouldn't have to fight the warden, or run downstairs, or first pull you back to the monitoring room, and have to tell you those things. He could have rushed out of the prison earlier, at least three or four minutes earlier. With these three or four minutes, do you think... would some of your comrades have survived? Would Zhang Shu's ending have been changed? Would there have been fewer corpses here as a result?"

Li Chenzhou's words stunned Ding Ning. He stared at Xiao Gang's corpse, thought carefully for a while, and finally said somewhat dejectedly, "Yes! Definitely!"