C48 He Thought of a Plan and Worked Hard to Lure the Zombies to Ask Dagang for Help.

The power outage had already cast a gloom over everyone's spirits, and the darkness only weighed heavier on their hearts. Despite this, they all understood the necessity of ample rest to survive.

Tang Bing had managed to sleep until just past 1 a.m. on his bed. Upon waking, he could hear the faint snores from the adjacent room. Holding a candle, he carefully made his way out, taking care to be as silent as possible and minimizing his movements as he opened the door.

Moving stealthily so as not to disturb anyone, Tang Bing methodically searched each room, gathering every phone and alarm clock he could find. He then made his way to the far end, away from the sleeping quarters, and entered the room he had designated as his workshop.

Tang Bing had mastered the craft of making tool benches and furnaces, but constructing a tool bench required smelting enough iron bars in a furnace first. The materials needed for a furnace were simple—leather, iron pipes, and small stones, all of which Tang Bing had on hand. The missing ingredient, however, was clay. Without it, he couldn't build the furnace, nor could he smelt the iron bars and other items that required clay.

Clay was nowhere to be found in the supermarket, and it was a scarce commodity even in the city center. It wasn't like the suburbs or countryside where clay was abundant. But Tang Bing was confident that toy stores or kindergartens would likely have some.

The nearest toy store was about three blocks away, a challenging distance given the current circumstances. The most pressing issue at the moment was the staggering number of zombies roaming outside the factory. Without a solution to this problem, all his plans would be for naught.

Fortunately, Tang Bing had devised a strategy involving the phones and clocks he had collected from the other rooms to turn the tide. Zombies possessed an acute sense of hearing, far superior to their living counterparts, and they relied heavily on this enhanced hearing along with their sense of smell to hunt. Knowing this, Tang Bing saw an opportunity to use it to his advantage.

In the dim candlelight, Tang Bing sat cross-legged on the floor, sorting through the devices he had taken from his virtual backpack. He separated the ones that were nearly out of battery and set aside those that wouldn't turn on. Then he synchronized the working alarm clocks to ring simultaneously and programmed the phones with functioning screens to activate their alarms at the same time.

For the phones that couldn't be unlocked, Tang Bing simply used a needle to poke into a tiny hole, forcing a factory reset, and then he set the alarm times.

By the time he finished, it was around three in the morning.

Surrounded by a heap of clocks and phones, Tang Bing was confident that their cacophony would be loud enough, once triggered, to draw every zombie near the factory.

The real challenge was figuring out how to transport these noisy devices to a distant spot from the factory, creating a safer zone for everyone.

If he couldn't devise a plan before the alarms went off, he'd have to risk scaling the factory wall and finding the least zombie-infested area. With his speed, he hoped to break through first, ideally finding a motorcycle or an unlocked car along the way.

In the worst-case scenario, he'd have to sprint for his life, leading the zombies away. Then, he'd improvise, using whatever advantageous tools and the environment he could to shake them off and make it back to the factory.

This approach was fraught with danger, especially considering he'd nearly been crushed by bricks during the last explosion at the restaurant.

Besides diverting the zombies, he also needed to fortify the factory's perimeter to keep them at bay.

Luckily, he had a blueprint for a barbed fence, which required only 20 pieces of wood to construct.

He wasn't sure about the fence's durability or its protective capabilities, but it was the best option available, especially since wood was the most accessible material.

Without the possibility of chopping down trees, where would he get the wood?

That wasn't a concern. While dismantling furniture with a wrench, Tang Bing had discovered that wooden items yielded wood when broken down.

His task now was to dismantle all the wooden furniture in the vacant rooms under the cover of night, repurposing it into a sufficient number of barbed fences.

There was no time to lose—action was imperative!

Tang Bing swiftly pulled out a wrench and got to work. Time flies when you're busy, and it seemed to pass even faster as he labored. Before he knew it, the darkness had retreated, and light spilled through the corridor windows, filling the room.

Throughout the night, Tang Bing had quietly dismantled the wooden tables, chairs, beds, wardrobes, dressers, nightstands, and any other wooden furnishings from the women's dormitory. He then retreated to the workshop, where he used the system to craft nearly a hundred barbed fences.

The work left him exhausted, yet his alertness never waned. At the sound of footsteps in the corridor, he was on his feet in an instant, his grip on the fire axe firm.

"Bing?" It wasn't a zombie breaching their defenses, but Sun Meng, who was up early. "What happened to those rooms? They look like they've been ransacked. What's going on?"

"All good!" Tang Bing quickly stashed the fire axe out of sight as Sun Meng appeared in the doorway. He faced her with a blank expression. "You're up early, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Sun Meng nodded, "I knocked on your door and you weren't there. So, I figured you might be here."

"Oh."

"Bing, what's the deal with all these cell phones and alarm clocks?" Sun Meng's curiosity piqued as she noticed the pile on the workshop floor.

Tang Bing glanced back and explained, "I gathered them from other rooms last night. I'm planning to use them to draw the zombies away."

"To draw the zombies away? How's that going to work?" Sun Meng asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.

"Hey! Tang Bing, why is all the furniture missing from those rooms? And why is everything such a mess? Has there been a break-in?" Qin Mengli's voice echoed down the corridor, indicating she too was up.

"Keep it down!" Tang Bing admonished as Qin Mengli approached the doorway, his brow furrowed. "Even though we're up high, speaking too loudly could still attract the zombies."

"Oh!" Qin Mengli pouted, "But what's with the rooms?"

"Don't worry about it," Tang Bing dismissed, not wanting to explain and unsure of how to account for the vanished furniture. He opted to feign ignorance.

He couldn't possibly have moved all the wooden furniture out silently in a single night by himself. Their skepticism was understandable! The more he tried to explain, the greater the risk of revealing his secret. It was best to stay silent at this point.

If it weren't for the impossibility of venturing out to chop wood and his urgent need for defensive materials, he would never have considered dismantling the furniture.

"What do you mean, 'we don't have to worry about it'? We're all in this together... What are these?" Qin Mengli's sentence trailed off as she spotted the clock and cell phone in the workroom.

Tang Bing saw his chance as both women were distracted by the clock and cell phone, diverting their attention from the furniture. "I gathered all the clocks and cell phones last night and set them all to go off at noon! That means at precisely 12 o'clock, they'll all start ringing, creating a racket loud enough to drive all the nearby zombies wild."

"You've lost your mind!" Qin Menglian blanched at his words, "If all the zombies outside swarm us, we're done for! What are you thinking? If you're looking to die, don't take us down with you!"

"What did you just say?" Before Tang Bing could respond, Sun Meng's expression darkened, "Mengli, how could Bing ever treat our lives so carelessly? He's been fighting tooth and nail to keep us alive these past few days. You're lashing out at him without even understanding the situation. Isn't that unfair? I respect you, but I have to ask you to trust Bing!"

Qin Mengli's face froze. She had momentarily slipped back into old habits of blaming Tang Bing first. Sun Meng's words made her feel ashamed.

Reflecting on how Tang Bing had indeed been risking his life to protect them all, she realized her doubts were unjustified. She wanted to apologize but couldn't bring herself to face him. Frustrated, she stomped her foot and ran back to her room without uttering another word.

"Uh, Bing, was I too harsh?" Sun Meng asked, concern lacing her voice, "Did I make Mengli mad?"

"Why is she mad? You didn't do anything wrong!" Tang Bing said nonchalantly, "She's just embarrassed and wants to hide for a bit. Give it an hour, and it'll be like nothing ever happened!"

"Bing, you really get Mengli, don't you?" Sun Meng approached him and crouched down to meet his gaze.

"Of course I do," Tang Bing replied with a self-mocking chuckle, "I'm foolishly fond of her, been chasing her for four years. I could list every little quirk of hers, even the ones she's unaware of."

"Oh!" Sun Meng nodded, then fell silent.

Tang Bing gave her a curious glance. This wasn't like Sun Meng; she was usually the type to dig for details. Why the sudden quiet?

"What's up, Brother Bing?" Sun Meng asked, noticing his gaze.

"Nothing," Tang Bing shook his head, clearing his mind of distractions. He had to focus on how to dispose of these clocks and cell phones. If he couldn't figure out a plan, it would be a death wish, just as Qin Mengli had said.

If it came to that, he'd have to step in himself, risking everything on a dangerous gamble.

"Sun Meng, I need your help brainstorming. We've got to figure out how to get these items outside, and they need to be far from the factory," he said.

"Okay!" Sun Meng nodded, sitting next to him, chin in hand, ready to think.

"Bing, you're up early," Zhao Dagang appeared at the doorway, clearly roused by the noise, "What's going on?"

Unlike Sun Meng and Qin Mengli, he hadn't noticed the disarray in the dormitory.

"We need to get rid of these alarm clocks and phones, throw them far from here," Sun Meng explained for Tang Bing, "But we're stuck on the 'how' part."

"That's easy," Zhao Dagang perked up, "I've got an idea!"

"Let's hear it!" Tang Bing stood up eagerly. Zhao Dagang might come off as a bit slow, but he was known to have a few tricks up his sleeve.