Reborn As A Doomsday Villainess-Chapter 145: You have to stay alive too

"Boss. The people they’re asking questions, we can’t stay in this place forever and the zombies are growing in numbers."

Sun Zi Mo asked, they were currently in a decapitated building, there was nothing protecting them from the zombies even they decided to attack.

"I don’t know where my wife is Sun Zi Mo....i have to make sure she’s safe first before I can function. I barely got close to her before we got seperated again. Our numbers are 1 and 2 so why are we not together?"

Ding!

{Incoming message. Sorry for the delay host. Replaying Gu Qingran’s message.}

{Yizhou I’m safe, I’m currently in Moonsai and so far I haven’t seen any survivors apart from myself and the others. I’ll go out tomorrow and hoard more supplies. Take care of yourself and the others. The apocalypse is 30 months, if you can survive that, I’ll marry you when it’s all over.}

.....

{This is where the message ends..}

Feng Yizhou couldn’t believe what he just heard, she said she would marry him when it was all over.

"She’s going to be my wife officially in 2 years and 6 months.."

Feng Yizhou chuckled as he stood up, staying alive was no issue for him.

"You have to stay alive too Qingran. For my sake."

Turning to Sun Zi Mo, he asked him to get him the total number of all the survivors.

"We can’t take outside the food capacity or we’ll have to reduce it drastically so everyone gets a meal.."

Sun Zi Mo gave a shaky sigh, his fingers tightening around the pen wedged between his calloused fingers.

The cracked floor beneath them creaked with every breeze that filtered through the shattered windows of the high-rise ruin they were using as shelter.

There were no barricades, no fences, no real walls just a shell of concrete and steel, exposed to the elements and the undead.

"It’s not going to be easy," he said, eyes drifting to the crowd below. "There are too many of them now. We started with twenty, Boss. Twenty. But these past two days, people just kept coming. I doubt they knew who you were or thought you could protect them. I’m sure they came because they saw others here. They thought it meant safety."

Feng Yizhou glanced down through the hollowed window frame. The plaza at the building’s base had turned into a makeshift camp. People stood in lines, huddled in corners, forming quiet little clusters under tarps and broken street signs. Some looked up at the building like it was a lighthouse.

Others just looked lost.

"Four hundred and fifty-seven," Sun Zi Mo said grimly. "That’s the current headcount."

"...."

"That’s too many people.."

Feng Yizhou’s voice was quiet, but the weight behind it pressed into the air like a warning.

He leaned both hands on the windowsill, eyes narrowed at the crowd below.

They were hungry. Tired. Desperate. And most dangerous of all...hopeful.

Hope could make people brave. But it could also make them foolish.

He stood upright, rolling his shoulders back as if casting off the tension. "We can’t stay here. This building’s already crumbling. If even a small horde comes through, the whole place will collapse before we can get out."

Sun Zi Mo nodded. "We need a new base. Somewhere defensible. Somewhere we can secure food and water. Something like an old factory or a prison anywhere with gates and a strong perimeter."

"I know" Feng Yizhou said. "But we can’t move four hundred and fifty-seven people in one go. Not with limited supplies and not with this many children."

He paused.

"We’ll split them."

Sun Zi Mo blinked. "Split them?"

Feng Yizhou nodded slowly. "We need groups. Smaller units. Thirty to forty people per team. Each team gets a leader and responsibilities. One focuses on scavenging. Another on securing transport. Another watches the perimeter. If one team fails, the others don’t go down with them."

Sun Zi Mo scribbled quickly in a torn notebook, his fingers moving automatically. "That means we need lieutenants."

"I’ll pick them myself," Yizhou replied. "We don’t have time to wait for natural leaders to rise. We need structures now. If people are going to believe this place is safe, then we make it safe. With rules, with discipline and with a fallback plan."

The younger man gave a low whistle. "You’ve already thought this through, haven’t you?"

Feng Yizhou looked at him sideways, the trace of a smile on his lips.

"I made a promise. To stay alive and reunite with the woman I love in 30 months time.."

He turned from the window, the sound of his boots echoing off the cracked tile.

"Gather everyone in the plaza. I’m making this official. If they came here for safety, then they’ll get it. But it won’t come free, they have to work for every meal."

Sun Zi Mo smiled wryly and gave a short salute. "Yes, Boss."

As the message rippled through the makeshift camp, people began to gather in front of the building.

The broken concrete had been cleared just enough to form a rough square, framed by scavenged crates and old road dividers. They came in silence, families, loners, injured stragglers, some still wary, others simply curious.

The children clung to their parents’ legs. A few of the older teens had makeshift weapons strapped to their backs..rusted pipes, kitchen knives, anything that might give them a chance against the things outside.

Feng Yizhou stood at the edge of the crumbling rooftop, looking down. The wind caught at the ends of his coat, whipping it back behind him.

He didn’t look like a leader. His hair was unkempt, the side of his jaw bruised, and dried blood streaked down his left arm from an old gash he hadn’t bothered treating properly.

But when he stepped onto the ledge and raised his voice, silence fell like a curtain.

"You didn’t come here for me. You came because you saw others, because you hoped it meant safety."

He paused.

"You were right."

Murmurs stirred in the crowd, it was filled with cautious and fear.

"But safety is something we have to build ourselves. I can’t promise you peace. I can’t promise comfort. But I can promise survival if you listen, follow orders, and pull your weight."