The next morning, Lin Chu woke up promptly at 6 o’clock, as usual.

She then began her unwavering physical training.

Even though she had the body-enhancing pill, Lin Chu understood that these pills worked by modifying one’s existing physical foundation—the better your foundation, the better the results of the modification.

She would not abandon her basic training just because she had the pill in hand.

Even after taking the pill, she wouldn’t skip a single training session.

Only by doing this could her body continue to grow stronger.

After finishing her training, Lin Chu took out a portion of soup dumplings from her space and paired it with a glass of milk for breakfast.

She was almost done redeeming all 100 food portions via zombie eyeballs.

However, she had plenty of expired food stored in her space. As long as she used her ability to “turn waste into treasure,” all of it could be transformed into edible food. So, she never worried about food shortages.

When it came to eating, she never shortchanged herself.

Only by properly nourishing her body could she survive longer in this cannibalistic apocalypse.

After breakfast, Lin Chu headed back into the dissection room.

Yu Hongfei wasn’t around, and as usual, she and Zheng Ziyu made their trades every night at 9 PM.

On the fourth day after Yu Hongfei left, Lin Chu noticed that some new people had arrived at the campus, which had previously been cleared by Ma Yan.

Unlike the new arrivals who had been recently dropped in and wandered aimlessly, these newcomers moved with clear purpose, heading straight for the office building.

Lin Chu spotted them through the peephole. One of them had initially targeted the bathroom she and Ziyu used, but upon discovering that all the doors were destroyed, he cursed under his breath and left.

That night, during their trade, Zheng Ziyu also brought it up.

“They don’t look like new arrivals. I just wonder if there’s someone like Ma Yan among them…”

At the mention of Ma Yan, both of their expressions soured.

After a moment of thought, Lin Chu said to her:

“The supplies we previously gathered are still sufficient. For now, don’t go outside. Let’s observe how they act before making any decisions.”

Zheng Ziyu nodded in agreement.

She had plenty of resources and had exchanged enough zombie eyeballs for food. She had no shortage of food or water while holed up in the shelter, so there was no need to risk conflict with the new arrivals.

As for the zombies they’d killed before, Lin Chu still had enough for dissection. There was no immediate need for Zheng Ziyu to take any risks.

“We’ll stick to meeting at 9 PM. Before going out, make sure to observe carefully through the peephole. If there’s any unusual movement, don’t act rashly. There’s no rush.”

After agreeing, the two returned to their respective shelters.

Lin Chu then pulled two rotting boxes from her space. After using her ability to transform them, one box became fresh apples, and the other turned into bright red cherries.

There were about 5 jin (roughly 2.5 kg) of cherries.

Delighted, Lin Chu washed a handful and tasted them.

They were juicy and bursting with flavor.

Lin Chu was very satisfied.

With some time to spare, she began organizing the items she’d retrieved from the courier station.

She pulled out a box containing maze balls.

A maze ball is a transparent sphere filled with colorful, twisted plastic tracks.

By gently tilting it, you could see a small steel ball, slightly smaller than a marble, rolling inside.

Basically, it was a toy designed to challenge the player to guide the steel ball through the internal maze—an educational toy.

Inside the box, Lin Chu found a short planning document. It seemed this box of maze balls had been purchased by a company as props for a team-building activity.

After skimming through the document, she tossed it back into the box.

Then she took out a screwdriver and began removing the screws on the maze balls, extracting the steel balls inside.

Each maze ball contained two steel balls.

She had eight maze balls, giving her 16 steel balls.

Just as she was about to throw the plastic shells and the box back into her space, she unexpectedly found a small packet of spare steel balls in the corner of the box.

It was wrapped in a cheap plastic zip bag, but thankfully, all were intact.

She counted them—also 16.

That brought the total number of steel balls to 32.

Lin Chu found a small container and carefully stored all 32 steel balls.

Then, she took out the “One-Shot Blaster” she had found earlier in a 24-hour convenience store.

This blaster, once its toilet plunger attachment was removed, resembled a long hunting rifle.

Though originally designed to unclog toilets, because it required compression before firing, it had surprisingly strong power.

In Lin Chu’s original world, where guns were banned, someone had once modified this kind of tool and used it with steel balls to hunt birds like a shotgun.

Of course, a modified One-Shot Blaster, with enough pressure, became powerful enough to be classified as a firearm. Getting caught with it was illegal and punishable by law.

That’s how Lin Chu came to know about this tool—she had once conducted an injury assessment for a victim shot with a modified One-Shot Blaster.

A small steel ball, fired with this tool, could pierce human flesh.

Its damage potential was impressive.

The moment she saw it in the convenience store, Lin Chu was reminded of that case and immediately decided to bring it back and try modifying it herself.

She had been too busy these past few days, and lacking steel balls, she had shelved the idea—until now.

With steel balls in hand and a trove of tools scavenged from the courier station, Lin Chu eagerly got to work.

The key part of the modification was attaching a barrel that could hold and shoot steel balls.

She searched through her space and found a thin steel pipe.

With a bit of work, she attached it to the blaster’s muzzle.

It wasn’t very stable, though.

But for now, it was the best she could do.

She grabbed an empty plastic water bottle, filled it up in the bathroom, screwed the cap on, and placed it a short distance away on the floor.

Then she picked up the blaster and began pumping pressure.

Once halfway pressurized, Lin Chu aimed at the bottle and pulled the trigger.

“Pfft.”
A steel ball shot out of the steel pipe and hit the bottle.

It fell over—but didn’t break.

Lin Chu went to check and found a small dent on the bottle.

Half pressure wasn’t enough.

She reset the bottle, picked up the steel ball, and this time, fully pressurized the blaster.

She aimed.

Fired.

“Bang—”

The water bottle was shot clean through.

Water gushed out from the torn hole.

The pressure was definitely enough.

But…

Lin Chu looked at the steel pipe, which had fallen off. She frowned helplessly.

The steel pipe wasn’t secured tightly enough to withstand such a strong impact—it had come off.

That made it a one-time use weapon—not the kind of modification she was aiming for.

She scratched her short hair, then suddenly, her eyes lit up.