After confirming the details, Shen Jinwen prepared to leave.

Before leaving, Xu Zhi tugged the dog's ear and instructed, "Be clever, okay?"

The dog barked and Xu Zhi felt that it probably understood.

Then Xu Zhi tapped the tiny creature pretending to be dead on her wrist. Reluctantly, Xiao Yi spat out its tongue and climbed down from Xu Zhi's hand, resuming the size that Shen Jinwen had seen before.

After Shen Jinwen left with the two spiritual pets, Xu Zhi returned to her room and took out the game console. She could observe their progress at any time through the perspective of the spiritual pets on the game console.

However, the issued command cannot be changed or recalled. During these 7 hours, she can only observe the actions of the spiritual pets through the screen and cannot change the command in real-time. This is one of the drawbacks of initiating automatic hunting.

Perhaps when the spiritual pets become more intelligent, she will be able to remotely transmit new commands in real-time through the game.

And now, she can only pray that Xiao Yi and the dog will be clever.

On the screen, it took about forty minutes for the person and the two spiritual pets to arrive at the gate of the Middle School Attached to the University.

This was the time spent walking through the mist, and even during that time, they encountered other mutated animals that attacked them, slightly delaying their progress. If their vision and movement were not affected, it would take less than half an hour to walk from the Middle School Attached to the University to the old residential area.

"It's too close..."

Even if the Middle School Attached to the University was farther away, Xu Zhi wouldn't have been so anxious to deal with them.

When Shen Jinwen arrived at the gate of the Middle School Attached to the University, through the perspective of the spiritual pets, Xu Zhi also noticed that the iron gate of the school was wide open. There were two teenage boys standing guard at the gate, looking like students. Xu Zhi guessed that in the past two days, they had deceived some people through the broadcast and had people waiting at the gate at all times to "welcome" those deceived lambs.

Xiao Yi had already secretly shrunk and sneaked into the school, while the teenage guard at the gate quickly noticed Shen Jinwen, who was alone with a dog. Without even greeting his companion standing next to him, he excitedly approached Shen Jinwen.

His companion, noticing his movement, instinctively looked in the direction he was walking, as if it was a habit. Upon seeing Shen Jinwen, the companion also immediately walked towards her.

As they approached and saw the large dog following behind Shen Jinwen, their steps faltered slightly, and the excited expressions on their faces faded a bit. One of them looked at Shen Jinwen and asked, "Are you here to join the survivor base too?"

Shen Jinwen nodded at the two of them and said, "Yes."

"Is this your pet?" The two of them looked at the dog's unusual size with some caution.

Although these madmen lack intelligence, they are not completely brainless.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"It..."

As soon as Shen Jinwen started to speak, the dog suddenly pounced towards the two of them without a sound, its sharper-than-usual fangs biting fiercely into one of the boy's legs, eliciting a piercing scream from him.

Even Shen Jinwen was taken aback by this sudden turn of events, but she quickly regained her composure and decisively drew the knife from her back, striking the leg of the other boy who was kicking at the dog.

The fight was imminent. If an ordinary person had been bitten by the dog, their leg would surely be crippled, but these madmen were still able to hobble around, injured but not seriously.

"What an incredible physical strength, are they even still human?"

In front of the screen, Xu Zhi watched the scene unfold. To be honest, she was surprised by the sudden attack of the dog, but upon reflection, she found it understandable. Wild animals were like that, seizing opportunities to attack without hesitation, unlike humans who had to pretend and chat for a while before acting.

These madmen's bodies resemble wild dogs, and their minds are not as sharp as normal humans, but their thinking seems to be stuck somewhere between the level of beasts and humans, resulting in a seemingly low intelligence. This is probably one of their more obvious shortcomings.

During the fight, Shen Jinwen and Doggy intentionally let one of the madmen escape to spread the word. After the fight began, Doggy deliberately howled a few times, which Xu Zhi speculated would attract some people to come out.

At the moment she noticed the progress on this side, she switched the screen to Little One's location. By then, Little One had already shrunk to a size that allowed it to perch on her wrist and had sneaked into the interior of the affiliated high school.

Even in its shrunken form, its crawling speed remained unimpaired, and due to the enhancement of its biological level, its five senses had undergone significant improvement. Its vision was no longer limited to thermal imaging alone; it could easily perceive the scent of blood nearby. Following this scent, Little One made its way to the school cafeteria.

Upon entering the cafeteria, even through the blurred imagery of the mosaic, Xu Zhi was startled by the scene inside.

Blood was everywhere - on the ground, on the tables, and splattered on the walls around. The scene, with blood and mutilated limbs, resembled a hellish nightmare.

Even the words "First Cafeteria of the Affiliated High School" written in red paint on the window were almost obscured by the blood and flesh.

"... How many people have died here, exactly?"

At a glance, the mutilated limbs scattered on the ground alone suggested that there were no fewer than fifteen people who had perished.

This scene struck Xu Zhi as somewhat bizarre. Even if someone enjoyed killing, why would they make such a mess of it?

"They don't eat people, they just dismember them after killing. What kind of sick pleasure is this?"

Moreover, as Xiao Yi crept to a higher position, Xu Zhi peered down at the entire cafeteria through the pixelated game screen. She couldn't shake off the feeling that the mutilated limbs, while appearing to be scattered haphazardly, seemed to follow a subtle order amidst the chaos, which greatly intrigued her.

Unfortunately, it was more like an inexplicable intuition, and the narrator did not appear to confirm her guess. Xu Zhi could only jot down this unusual observation.

The number of madmen in the cafeteria was substantial. Xu Zhi counted and found that there were more than 30 of them, double the number that the student had deceived her into believing were there.

"Is their group growing in size?"

To be honest, Xu Zhi didn't think that the two people had any reason to lie to her about the number of madmen, especially since they had no intention of letting her reach the affiliated high school alive.

What would happen if these madmen were left unchecked and their numbers continued to expand?

Xu Zhi briefly pondered this thought in her mind and then shook her head, realizing that it wouldn't end well no matter what.

In the blood-red cafeteria, the madmen sat calmly in their chairs. Suddenly, the door was violently pushed open, and a bloodied figure stumbled in, shouting something frantically. Immediately, seven or eight people rose from their chairs and rushed out of the door.

Their faces did not betray any sense of urgency, but rather excitement. Their rush out of the door did not resemble an attempt to rescue a comrade, but rather an eagerness to snatch a prey.

Not long after they had rushed out, someone emerged from the direction of the kitchen.

He wore the cleanest clothes in the entire cafeteria, with a pair of spectacles that lent him a somewhat scholarly air. Compared to the maniacal expressions of the other "people" present, he appeared perfectly normal among them.

And yet, precisely because of this, he seemed even more eerie.