Reborn As A Doomsday Villainess-Chapter 181: She’s like us

"You’re here in this room today, because you’re going to be assisting me. We’re building a dam and we’ll be taking trips to every construction site we can find. Until we find the materials we need. Its going to be dangerous, heck you might even die. I cannot guarantee your safety during this duration, I hope you’ll understand. We’ll be taking trips even at night, so we’ll be rotate every chance we get. But to save fuel we can only go at most 6 or 7 times a day. To build a dam, we need people with architectural knowledge, but all we have is teens and doctors, we’ll have to learn, I have all the knowledge but I can’t do it alone so I’m going to need all your help."

She paused and continue "Now, were 30 in this room, ten of us will head out to find the materials needed and 20 of you will stay here to start construction. This is a big job, which takes workers months to finish, but to protect ourselves we have to do it in under 30 days. Meaning we’ll have to sacrifice our time, strength and sleep to the cause."

There was an awful silence in the room, Qingran didn’t blame them, she had her own doubts, she just didn’t know how they were going to finish on time.

"I can’t do this. I’m sorry, but someone has to say this, there’s no way we’ll be able to finish, these work they have machines, we don’t have anything. Let’s be real."

The man said, silence followed after.

Qingran sighed, times like this she wished she wasn’t a leader, if she was on her own, she wouldnt be worrying about her safety.

"Alright then. You stated your facts, now tell us a solution. If you want us to be "real" then you have to provide "real" solution." She replied calmly, if they didn’t cooperate with her, she would save the ones she could.

The man blinked, clearly not expecting to be challenged. His lips parted, then closed again, and for a long moment, he looked down at his feet instead of answering.

Qingran didn’t press his silence, so it stretched uncomfortably.

She let it sit there, heavy and thick, letting everyone in the room feel it.

"You don’t have one," she said eventually, voice still calm. "And that’s fine. Most people don’t. But standing around pointing out the impossible isn’t the same as surviving."

Someone at the back of the room shifted. A young woman, barely in her early twenties, raised a tentative hand. "If you teach us... if we work in pairs, maybe the pace won’t be so overwhelming. Some of us can read diagrams, or at least follow instructions if we have them."

Qingran gave her a nod of acknowledgment. "That’s the idea. I’ll assign groups based on strength, patience, and attention to detail. I’ve already drawn the dam layout. It’s crude, but it’ll hold. Every trip we take will bring us closer to completion. If we lose hope now, we might as well open the doors and let whatever’s coming take us."

That got the room’s attention. Some flinched. Others straightened.

The man who had objected earlier ran a hand over his face and muttered, "I just don’t want everyone here to break their backs for something that won’t stand."

Qingran stepped away from the center and picked up a folder off the nearby table. Inside were blueprints she had drawn by hand over the other day, each one detailing every layer of the dam’s foundation, water redirection channels, pressure control systems, and floodgates. She turned them to face the group.

"This will stand" she said firmly. " I know that because Ive lived in a world where it didn’t. I know exactly what happens when the flood comes and there’s nothing in place to hold it back. I know what it’s like to watch people drown with no time to scream."

The room stilled again. Some looked away. While others leaned in.

Qingran laid the pages out on the table and motioned them forward. "You want something real? Take a look. This is what we build. This is what will keep us alive."

They came. Slowly, cautiously, but they came. One by one they stepped closer, circling the table to study the rough plans.

Fingers traced lines they barely understood, but their eyes showed something better than comprehension, it was willingness.

"These materials..." someone murmured, "they’re mostly concrete, metal, heavy things."

"We can’t carry steel beams on foot," another added. "We’ll need wheels. And carts. The SUV won’t be enough."

"We’ll have to reconstruct them somehow, I’m not a mechanic, I have no idea how we’re going to do that but we have to try."

"Reconstruct them?" someone blurted out, disbelief thick in his tone. "We’re just a bunch of survivors, not engineers. How are we supposed to build carts out of scrap?"

Qingran’s gaze swept coldly across the room. "No one here was born knowing how to survive a zombie, or this apocalypse either" she said lightly. "But you’re still alive, so you’ll going to learn as long as it’s going to keep you living."

That silenced him.

Someone else laughed bitterly. "Heh. Leader Qingran really knows how to shame people with a smile."

Qingran didn’t deny it. She was already stressed enough.

"We’ll try our best" said the young woman from earlier, her voice steadier now. "If it’s for survival, then... we can learn."

"Mm." Qingran’s lips curved faintly. "That’s all I ask. I’ll provide the knowledge, and you’ll provide the hands."

The man who’d raised doubts earlier stepped forward again. His expression was still clouded, but his voice was lower now.

"I’ll help with mixing the cement, like I said... But if this collapses, it’s on you."

"No,l" Qingran said calmly. "If it collapses, it’s on all of us. Survival isn’t something I carry alone."

She turned toward the group, her voice like ice under fire.

"I won’t lie to you. There’s a high chance that someone will collapse from exhaustion. A high chance that something we build will fall apart halfway. But if we do nothing, we will die anyway. At least this gives us a chance to stand tall."

The crowd shifted. Someone muttered under their breath, "Tch... She really dares to gamble like this."

A second later, Yu Song stepped forward, his arms crossed. "Then let’s gamble," he said flatly. "If she can draw blueprints like that from memory, who are you to doubt her?"

"We all know we’d be dead or zombies by now without her. The least we can do is to help out when she needs it. She’s also human like us."