Chapter 97
On Academy Avenue, Huang Zheng's eyes were bloodshot, looking as if he hadn't slept all night.
This drew sidelong glances from the early-rising students who were cleaning up corpses.
The vice principal behind him, Zhang Zhicheng, deliberately kept his distance, and both groups, each with their own subordinates and Awakened Ones, hurried to the Meeting Room.
At 7 this morning, Lin An had already sent people to notify them that everyone must be present!
They dared not defy Lin An's orders in the slightest; now it is already the apocalypse.
If before the Apocalypse, being late would at most dock pay; after the Apocalypse, it might cost your life.
Zhang Zhicheng looked with some jealousy at the document tightly clenched in Huang Zheng's hand, which contained the information of all the students in the institute.
Late last night, all the Awakened Ones received the notification.
Lord Lin An demanded that all student information be compiled, even if students had died after the Apocalypse outbreak, they too must be counted.
Although they didn't know the purpose, since it was Lord Lin An's demand, they naturally took it very seriously.
In order to make a showing, both sides stayed up all night, and the Awakened Ones worked overtime before hastily compiling the statistics.
However, Huang Zheng had his nephew Huang Haitao overseeing things, and with manpower deployed he was far stronger than Zhang Zhicheng.
Damn it!
Zhang Zhicheng was filled with regret.
When Lin An spoke last night, he failed to show himself, and he hadn't even completed the latest task well.
His face darkened; he dared not imagine what fate awaited him upon entering the meeting room later.
Lin An is utterly an absolute rationalist!
Iron-blooded, ruthless!
He had no doubt that Lin An would never keep any useless person, or any player who did not help with the Safe Zone's construction!
As an ordinary person, he couldn't shoulder a burden or lift a thing; his only use was to flatter and handle trivial chores.
What if...
Zhang Zhicheng took a deep breath, and his steps quickened again.
Inside the school celebration Meeting Room, 76 people stood silently in place, daring not to make a sound, all gazing curiously at Lin An as he continually flipped through the list.
Among the 76 people, 29 were Awakened Ones, not counting the members of the Rescue Squad.
The others were either student administrators and guards from various departments, or the surviving school leaders.
Even if these school administrators were of little use, at least they understood the institute's situation better than ordinary students.
At least they could still be of some use initially.
"Total institute population before the Apocalypse: 36,301 people."
"Total population after the Apocalypse: 2,779 people (217 deaths last night)."
"Male: 1,996 people; female: 782 people."
After looking at the compiled information, Lin An fell silent; in just six minutes, with his mental power far surpassing that of ordinary people, he memorized all the information.
His heart sank.
Neither the death list nor the survivor list showed any sign of a player suspected to be a Demon Hunter.
Huang Zheng saw Lin An's complexion looking somewhat bad, and couldn't help but feel a little panicked.
"Lord Lin An.."
"Is there any problem with these data?"
He wiped the sweat from his forehead, feeling uneasy.
Heaven and earth as my witness, this information compiled overnight is absolutely the most serious report he has ever made in his fifty years of life!
Lin An spoke slowly:
"The number on the list is wrong; where did the other person go?"
"Another person?"
Seeing Huang Zheng still pondering, Zhang Zhicheng suddenly recalled an oddity from last night's statistics.
A flash of inspiration struck, and he hurriedly spoke:
"Sir! I know!"
"There's a male student who wasn't counted in the male column!"
Lin An raised his head to look at Zhang Zhicheng and asked lightly:
"Reason."
Seeing Lin An's interest, Zhang Zhicheng spoke at a rapid pace.
"That person was previously beaten into serious injury and expelled from the institute level, even his food rations were crossed out!"
"And he was Li Huaqian from President Huang's faction!"
"So they forgot him when compiling the data! Because he wasn't on the list! But he was in the previous total count!"
Having said that, he fixed his gaze on Lin An's expression and noticed a hint of solemnity flash in Lin An's eyes.
He guessed right!
Zhang Zhicheng's heart leapt with joy; although he didn't know exactly whom Lin An was looking for, it now seemed very possible that he had blindly stumbled upon the correct answer!
"Name, age, and the circumstances."
"Tell me."
Ignoring Huang Zheng's ashen face, Zhang Zhicheng hesitated not and directly spilled the information.
He still had some impression of the seriously injured student, after all, the incident had sparked a wave of protests among the ordinary students at the time.
"Six days ago, that is, the day after the sandworms were sealed."
"Our institute's 22-year-old male student Gao Tian was assigned to clean the Physical Education Institute's teaching building, clearing corpses. However, during the cleaning he mistakenly entered the second basement level and startled Li Hua."
Li Hua classmate severely injured him and then ruthlessly dealt a killing blow. If it weren't for the Awakened One Teacher Wang of the same academy happening to appear, Gao Tian would surely die!
Because of this, the school previously had a wave of protests. Fellow Awakened Ones actually have to serve stronger Awakened Ones; enduring hunger is already tolerable.
Now even life safety cannot be guaranteed—who can endure this!
You should know that all Awakened Ones have exerted effort in fighting zombies and searching for food!
Because Principal Huang Zheng wants to win over Li Hua, Li Hua not only escaped punishment but expelled Gao Tian from the academy roster and cut off basic food supplies.
They want to starve Gao Tian to death to intimidate other Awakened Ones into not causing trouble.
He spoke extremely quickly, yet his thoughts were clear.
Zhang Zhi Cheng, with a clear mind, explained the matter clearly as it originally was.
Even with his deliberate wording, a few short words sketch Huang Zheng and Li Hua as colluding villains, utterly evil!
You... you're talking nonsense!
Huang Zheng trembled all over, though he didn't think that missing person was important—just an ordinary Awakened One—but he feared Lin An would think his relationship with Li Hua was too close.
Li Hua and Deng Lian were the ones who first wanted to kill Zhang Tie.
Heaven's conscience, 'Apart from habitually speaking official jargon, Huang Zheng has been clueless all along, with Zhang Tie calling the shots.'
Lin An ignored their mutual accusations.
Bring Gao Tian here!
No, we'll go over!
22 years old, surname Gao, male, from the sports institute...
Although the past life demon hunter's name hasn't been revealed, three key pieces of information can be matched.
Seriously injured and without food, still a zero-rank Awakened One, Lin An doubts that if he had come a day later, one of the Six Kings resembling the past life demon hunter would have been starved to death.
After all, his appearance directly changed too many things at the academy.
Anxious, although not yet certain that Gao Tian is the past life demon hunter, based on the available information it's likely nine out of ten that it's him.
Even Lin An faintly guessed why the past life demon hunter only appeared when the academy was about to collapse!
Damn, if anyone else were seriously injured by fellow academy Awakened Ones and then abandoned by the whole school, not personally destroying the school would already be benevolent!
】
End of Chapter
