The Reborn Otaku’s Code of Practice for the Apocalypse – CH134

Chapter 134 — Under the Table

Luo Xun and Yan Fei chose to walk as usual. The thick snow on the streets had been thoroughly compacted by footsteps over the past few days. The sanitation workers who used to clean regularly hadn’t been seen for quite some time. It seemed they figured that in such freezing weather, garbage wouldn’t rot anyway—better to deal with it all at once later. Besides, the roads weren’t exactly suitable for vehicles now.

Braving the cold wind, the two made their way to the exchange window. After stating they wanted to trade for seeds, the staff handed them a price list with seed varieties and costs printed on it. But when they selected a few types and asked to inspect the seeds first, a problem arose.

At first, the staff insisted: no purchase, no viewing. Once the product was taken out, it had to be bought. Luo Xun and Yan Fei flatly refused this kind of forced sale—they could always skip this place and buy directly from the military exchange window when delivering vegetables to the base canteen.

Perhaps business was slow in the cold weather. After a brief discussion, the staff reluctantly brought out a small bag of barley seeds. Luo Xun hadn’t even taken a proper look before he frowned.

“These are mutated wheat seeds, aren’t they? Don’t you have any normal pre-apocalypse ones?”

The staff paused, then said, “Wheat is wheat. We don’t know anything about mutated or not. This is the only barley seed available in the base right now. Buy it or don’t.” With that, they took the seeds back, refusing to let the two examine them unless they agreed to purchase.

Luo Xun took a deep breath, grabbed Yan Fei, and turned to leave. That kind of service attitude was infuriating. Of course, part of it was because everyone was bundled up in winter clothing, and most people didn’t wear their ID badges outside—otherwise, if the staff had seen the ability insignia on Yan Fei’s pass, they would never have behaved like this.

“Next time we deliver vegetables, we’ll check the military exchange window. We’re not buying anything from outside again!” Luo Xun was still fuming. These public-sector workers, even if their monthly income wasn’t enough to feed one person like him, still acted like they were superior when dealing with ordinary residents—arrogant to the extreme.

Yan Fei smiled, wrapping an arm around his shoulders as they walked back. “Something wrong with those seeds?”

Luo Xun nodded. “The color and shape were off. And they wouldn’t let me inspect them properly. Mutated seeds are actually easy to recognize—they always differ slightly in shape. Remember the mutated rice we ate? Normal rice grains are pointed at both ends, but mutated ones are curved in the middle—kind of like cashews. Those wheat seeds just now had the same kind of curve. Aside from a few naturally odd-shaped seeds, anything like that is usually problematic.

“And the color—did you notice? The seed husks had a greenish tint, even some orange-red hues. That’s nothing like how properly dried normal seeds should look. Normal seeds don’t have such strange colors!”

He exhaled visible white breath as he spoke, then continued, “Also, they wouldn’t even let us touch or package them. Who knows if those seeds had been frozen? Even if we weren’t planting them, there’s no point buying something like that.”

Combined with the staff’s attitude, Luo Xun found it completely unacceptable. Even in his past life, if prices were unreasonable, he would rather browse markets slowly. Now—even if those were normal seeds—he wouldn’t bother.

“Then forget it. If the military exchange doesn’t have any either, we just won’t plant them,” Yan Fei said, patting his shoulder in support. Then he added, “Can mutated crops ever revert to normal?”

Luo Xun thought for a moment and shook his head. “Never heard of it. Even high-quality mutated seeds don’t revert.”

They had gone out full of anticipation but returned disappointed. Hearing their story, Zhang Su—who had just escaped Xiao Xinran’s clutches—laughed gleefully at their misfortune. Xu Mei and Song Lingling, however, were equally indignant—they had dealt with those exchange counters many times before, especially before their own crops were ready, and had endured plenty of that same arrogant treatment.

Luo Xun took out a small notebook and, ignoring a certain someone’s schadenfreude, said to the two women, “If there’s anything the house needs, just write it down here. When we or Li Tie go to the military camp, we’ll pick it up along the way.”

The two women agreed, and simply hung the notebook together with a pen by the corridor entrance. Whoever went out to exchange items could tear off the page and take it along.

—

Around six in the evening, Li Tie and the others finally returned home, covered in dust and fatigue. Before Luo Xun could even ask about their day, they mysteriously pulled everyone into their room, turned on a computer they had assembled from spare parts, and plugged in a USB drive.

“What’s going on?” Everyone was puzzled by their secrecy.

“When we were helping Brother Yan and Brother Zhang look up information today, we found something… this!” As he spoke, they opened an image from a folder.

“What is that?!” Xu Mei and Song Lingling widened their eyes in shock.

Zhang Su also looked surprised, while Yan Fei glanced at Luo Xun. Seeing that Luo Xun looked only mildly surprised, he immediately understood—he probably already knew something about this.

“No idea! But this file wasn’t encrypted—it was just sitting in a folder the higher-ups use frequently…” He Qiankun explained as he opened more images for everyone to see.

The photos were clearly taken from high or distant vantage points. They showed the ruins of the city—and towering, grotesque zombies.

These zombies were at least twice the size of ordinary ones, and seemed immensely strong. In one image, such a creature was easily lifting a small car overhead.

Everyone gasped as they examined the pictures. After they had all looked through them, Luo Xun spoke up to reassure them.

“Judging from the photos, these should be evolved or mutated forms of strength-type zombies. Aside from their larger size, they’re probably still around level three in strength-type classification… Of course, their size is an issue, but their destructive power should be roughly comparable to level-three or level-four zombies.”

Han Li looked up in shock. “Level three? But we’ve encountered level-three strength zombies before—they didn’t look like this at all!”

Luo Xun spread his hands. “Maybe as they evolve, they gradually change shape like mutated animals do? We haven’t encountered them directly, so we can’t be certain.”

“The collapsed buildings in the city… could they have caused that?” Wang Duo suddenly asked.

“Possibly,” Luo Xun nodded. “Right now, they’re probably the only zombies with that level of destructive power. Of course, earth-type zombies might also cause similar damage. But since these photos show them mostly around collapsed structures, chances are high they’re responsible.”

“Then their destructive power is greater than the level-three zombies we’ve seen… At least those couldn’t tear down high-rises!” He Qiankun said, visibly frightened.

A scoff interrupted them. Everyone looked up to see Zhang Su rolling his eyes.

“Have you all fed your brains to zombies?” he snapped. “Are there even any intact high-rises left in the southern district for level-three zombies to tear down?”

That place had long been reduced to rubble. Even if they had immense strength, there had to be something left to destroy in the first place!

The five college students exchanged looks before bursting into laughter. It seemed they had indeed overthought things—and been overly frightened by the images.

Luo Xun smiled as well. In his previous life, he had seen even larger zombies during base defense battles. The main difference between these and regular level-three strength zombies was simply size and combat style. Their biggest use in siege battles was—throwing smaller zombies onto the walls. But now that the base walls had been reinforced by Yan Fei and the others, even that threat would likely be reduced.

—

After calming down, He Qiankun reported the results of their work.

“Brother Yan and Brother Luo only had phone numbers in their records, so we completely deleted those. The base’s resident registry doesn’t list you as working for the military, and the names don’t match the military records anyway, so we left those untouched. As for Brother Zhang—I deleted your address and phone number.”

Nowadays, many people’s records in the base only contained a name and pre-apocalypse ID number, without address or contact details. That kind of incomplete data was perfectly normal.

Satisfied with the job, Luo Xun rewarded He Qiankun with some pickled cucumbers. The latter happily declared he wouldn’t need to bring lunch to work the next day.

—

Days passed quickly. Luo Xun, Yan Fei, and Zhang Su soon adapted to their “stay-at-home” lifestyle. They stayed busy at home, occasionally pulling a flatbed cart to the military camp or meeting points to sell vegetables, then exchanging essentials from the logistics department. Life was leisurely and comfortable.

As the end of the month approached, the reforms to ability-user teams had yet to be finalized. They began discussing whether to go out hunting when Li Tie and the others had their break.

They now had no other source of crystal cores, so supplies were tight. But the recent heavy snowfall had made roads inside and outside the base extremely difficult to traverse. If they wanted to leave, they would need some kind of transportation suitable for snow.

“Let’s build a few modified sleds—electric ones,” Luo Xun decided after some thought.

“Electric sleds? How?” Yan Fei asked. He could create most metal objects, but unfamiliar designs were another matter.

“We have motors and gasoline. As for the sled itself, we can just use smooth metal plates,” Luo Xun paced the room. “Li Tie and the others can access official databases—we can have them carefully download some reference materials. Otherwise, we can try adapting something based on car or electric vehicle drive systems, though it’ll be more troublesome. If we can get blueprints, it’ll be much easier.”

“We can bring it up tonight,” Yan Fei agreed. “If winters keep having snow like this, we’ll definitely need proper travel equipment.” He suddenly smiled. “Too bad the little guy is too small—otherwise we could have him pull the sled.”

“He could maybe pull one at most,” Luo Xun laughed, shaking his head. “Any more than that…” He clearly had no intention of overworking their dog.

—

Just as they were discussing dinner, Luo Xun’s phone suddenly rang.

“Another order for vegetables?” he muttered, picking it up—only to pause when he saw the caller ID. He quickly answered, “Captain Wang?”

The voice on the other end had some static, but it was indeed Captain Wang from the logistics department, whom they had contacted before. After exchanging a few pleasantries, Wang lowered his voice and asked:

“I remember you were looking for metal-type crystal cores before, right?”

Luo Xun glanced at Yan Fei, who leaned in to listen.

“Yes, we were. We also asked about another type at the time.”

They regularly exchanged for metal and sand-type cores at the military camp, though they hadn’t contacted Captain Wang directly since the first time.

Wang chuckled. “Do you still need them? Metal-type ones?”

“If you have them, then of course we want them.”

“How many do you need?”

“Well… the more the better, of course. But it depends on whether we have enough crystal cores to trade.”

Only then did Captain Wang relax and smile. “Come by tomorrow at nine in the morning. I’ll wait for you at XX… Bring plenty of level-one crystal cores or points. We’ll talk in detail when we meet.”

“…What kind of situation is this?” Luo Xun was completely baffled, looking at Yan Fei in confusion. Metal-type crystal cores were usually supplied exclusively to metal-type ability teams. Even when the base exchange had them, the quantity was limited—they could only get a little at a time. But judging from Captain Wang’s tone… he seemed to have quite a lot.

“We’ll know tomorrow,” Yan Fei thought for a moment and shook his head. “It might be related to what happened recently. Let’s be careful tomorrow.”

“Mm!” Luo Xun decided he would bring their newly modified, high-powered crossbow along.

—

In the base’s central hospital, the director and several administrators were discussing a personnel list.

Some of them looked grim—this mission outside the base was nothing like usual ones. A heavy snow had just fallen, and most roads were blocked. It was deep winter—who knew if more snow would come? On top of that, there were the ever-present threats of zombies and mutated zombie animals…

If not for the fact that certain supplies were critically lacking, it would have been far better to wait until the weather warmed before sending people out.

So the medical staff assigned to this mission were truly unlucky.

It seemed like fate always balanced things out—while the military had a high proportion of ability users, the hospital had very few. Even among those few, most had abilities so weak they were practically negligible.

Thus, when the mission order reached the hospital, almost all the administrators immediately set their sights on Zhang Su. They needed to protect their own trusted people, so naturally they had to sacrifice outsiders.

What they hadn’t expected was—

He had simply quit!

“About that… Doctor Zhang from surgery… can we try to find him again?” the vice director frowned at the head of surgery.

Zhang Su’s former superior’s expression twisted slightly. “…We don’t have his contact address. And even if we found him, he probably wouldn’t agree…”

“What kind of attitude is that?! Where’s his professional ethics?! Saving lives—this is how he works as a doctor? Does he have any sense of responsibility at all?!” The vice director slammed the table in anger.

Everyone else lowered their eyes and stayed silent. If his own son hadn’t been on the list this time, would he be this agitated? Wasn’t he just trying to push someone else into taking the slot so his son could stay behind?

In previous operations requiring hospital support, the vice director had always found excuses to keep his son at the base. But now that nearly every doctor had already gone out at least once—some even multiple times—his son couldn’t avoid it this time. That was why he was so desperate to find a substitute.

The director cleared his throat and shot him a look to calm down. “Ahem… Doctor Zhang was only temporarily assigned here, and his contract has already expired. Let’s not discuss him further. Now, regarding the mission personnel…”

His words successfully shifted everyone’s attention.

In truth, everyone knew Zhang Su was a powerful wind-type ability user—someone the entire hospital couldn’t really control.

Even those who disliked him could only scheme against him in secret. But his strength was too high, and his personality… unconventional. Their attempts had never succeeded.

This mission had seemed like a perfect opportunity. It was dangerous, and ordinary medical staff had little ability to protect themselves. Sending someone like Zhang Su—skilled, capable, and combat-ready—was ideal.

Even if he refused, they could punish him—dock his pay, reprimand him, even fire him.

But before they could even act, he had already walked away.

It wasn’t that someone had tipped him off intentionally. While the plan to target Zhang Su was an unspoken understanding among certain staff, it wasn’t supposed to spread.

However, while Zhang Su wasn’t popular among male doctors, he was extremely popular among the nurses.

And in a hospital, who made up the majority? Nurses.

They were everywhere. Even after they learned about his orientation, it didn’t matter—he was still handsome. And as long as they didn’t act inappropriately, he treated female colleagues fairly politely.

Even when he occasionally said sharp things, his looks and that strange “queen-like” aura made people overlook his flaws.

So any news related to Zhang Su spread incredibly fast—and inevitably reached him.

Thus, the moment he sensed trouble brewing, he didn’t wait for anything to happen. He simply quit and went home.

Even if Luo Xun and Yan Fei hadn’t already left their jobs earlier, he might have delayed a day or two—but the outcome would have been the same.

The poor nurses, upon hearing the news, were devastated.

“Our hospital flower was forced out! How are we supposed to stay here now?! Give him back to us!”

—

Early the next morning, Luo Xun and Yan Fei set out on foot, carrying their weapons and crystal cores, heading to meet Captain Wang.

After meeting, Wang warmly invited them into his office above the logistics distribution center.

Thank you for reading 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉