The Reborn Otaku’s Code of Practice for the Apocalypse – CH149

Chapter 149 — Fast Hands, Slow Hands

Hearing the commotion and startled cries as well, the members of the Otaku Squad all looked up toward the distance.

Against the pitch-black night sky, beneath the pale moonlight, with the snowy ground reflecting faint light from afar, tiny black dots began rising out of the densely packed zombie army, gradually lifting into the air.

Their numbers were nowhere near as overwhelming as the zombie birds that had swarmed into the base two days earlier, but launching an aerial assault right in the middle of a zombie siege…

That was basically cheating.

“Damn it! How are we supposed to fight this?!” someone cried out.

The vanguard of the zombie birds reached the skies above the city wall first, and then a rain of fire descended from above.

Quite a few people who failed to defend in time—or who had no abilities at all—were struck directly. Even more were injured by the scattered sparks. Some especially unlucky ones died on the spot.

Fortunately, because Yan Fei was with them, the Otaku Squad had each brought one of the metal shields he made before they came up onto the wall. Everyone immediately raised their shields overhead and managed to survive the wave of fire attacks.

After their assault, the fire-type zombie birds circled once above the base, climbed higher, and returned toward the rear of the zombie horde.

Then the second wave arrived above the city wall.

Water-type.

Water abilities might not seem especially dangerous at first glance, but when people were standing in the dead of winter, with temperatures far below freezing in the middle of the night—cold enough for water to freeze instantly—

This kind of attack was absolutely vicious.

And what made everyone want to curse even more was this—

The zombies now seemed to have activated some kind of cheat code.

As if they had suddenly developed brains and learned entirely new combat tactics.

Because right after the water-type zombie birds passed overhead came an entire wave of ice-type zombie birds.

The water splashed all over everyone before they even had time to deal with it, and then the ice birds flew overhead and did nothing except freeze every wet surface solid.

The ground instantly turned into sheets of ice.

Everyone had to struggle just to keep their footing while continuing to hold off the endless zombie tide below the wall—and at the same time remain wary of zombie birds diving overhead at any moment.

Life had become pure hell.

“Sister Xu, melt the ice around us first! Song Lingling, help move the melted water off the wall!” Luo Xun immediately began organizing emergency countermeasures after enduring this bizarre air raid.

In truth, Song Lingling had already started handling the water after the second wave of water birds attacked. They just hadn’t expected the two waves to come so close together, and the water froze before she could finish.

“Keep fighting. Clear the zombies around us first. When the zombie birds come back again, let’s try concentrated fire and see if we can hit them.”

Luo Xun honestly had no better solution for these birds that attacked and immediately fled. And they flew far too high—no matter how much Yan Fei wanted to erect metal barriers in their flight path and make them crash into them, he simply couldn’t raise them that high.

But the zombies’ assault never slowed.

The zombie bird air raids grew increasingly frequent.

Wave after wave descended endlessly.

And when fire-type birds attacked immediately after the ice-type ones, the flames didn’t melt the ice at all. Instead, the explosions blasted apart the ice and even chunks of the city wall itself.

The sharp shards of ice caused countless injuries among the defenders atop the wall.

Those things exploding and slamming into people hurt like hell.

Before long, the wall itself had become riddled with pits and craters, while the ice accumulated thicker and thicker.

As everyone desperately fought to hold the zombie army back, soldiers transporting supplies finally arrived once more atop the wall.

This time, they weren’t bringing ordinary ammunition.

Crates upon crates of grenades, explosives, and other heavy weaponry were distributed to the ability squads stationed at each defense point, with orders to use them all before the next shift rotation.

The military clearly intended to use overwhelming firepower to suppress the zombie horde beneath the wall—ideally wiping out huge numbers of them and frightening the rest into retreat.

Luo Xun was more familiar with these things than the others, so he quickly grabbed some and taught everyone how to use them.

He also had Yan Fei immediately encase them in metal shells to prevent them from being ruined by water from the zombie birds—or worse, accidentally detonated by fire attacks.

Otherwise, the people getting blown apart wouldn’t be the zombies.

Before distributing the explosives, the military had specifically warned everyone not to let the fire-type zombie birds ignite them accidentally.

But when the next aerial fire raid came, idiots were still idiots.

A massive explosion erupted from another section of the wall not far from Luo Xun’s group.

Nobody had time to care about what happened over there.

They were already taking turns hurling grenades downward.

The stronger men threw them farther out. The women, with less throwing strength, focused on targets closer to the base of the wall.

As for the zombies directly below the wall, they had to shoot them with firearms instead.

After all, if grenades were thrown straight down, who knew whether they’d accidentally destroy the base of the wall itself?

Everyone was exhausted and overwhelmed, yet amid the chaos the sky gradually began shifting toward dawn.

It was still dark, but it was already nearing six in the morning.

Yet no one atop the wall had even noticed.

Then again—who had the spare attention to care?

The ground beyond the wall had already been blasted into a landscape of craters from all the explosives.

Those pits quickly filled with zombie limbs and corpses.

Fresh zombies marched across them endlessly. Some fell in, but more simply stepped over the bodies of their companions and continued advancing, until the pits vanished from sight entirely.

Only when the replacement squads finally arrived beside them did Luo Xun’s group suddenly realize—

It was already time for shift change.

After handing over weapons and ammunition, they dragged their exhausted bodies away, carrying their remaining equipment as they left.

Three squads were assigned to each defense position, rotating roughly every eight hours.

Whether lucky or unlucky, Luo Xun’s squad had drawn the midnight shift.

Visibility was worse than the daytime squads’, but at least their actual defense period was somewhat shorter.

As they trudged home, they still had to remain wary of the occasional “stray shots” dropped from zombie birds flying overhead.

After attacking the wall, some birds casually scattered “surprises” while flying away—sometimes ability attacks, sometimes rocks or debris they’d picked up at random.

Speaking of rocks, there were even strength-type zombies standing far in the distance hurling things toward the wall, just like the ones Luo Xun’s group had encountered outside the base before.

Nobody had the energy to speak during the walk back.

Everyone only wanted to return home, sleep for a while, and eat a proper meal.

Yet even on the way back through the city, they encountered two zombie birds that suddenly lunged out from who-knows-where.

The zombie birds inside the base clearly hadn’t all been exterminated yet.

By the time they finally returned to their residential complex, they were utterly exhausted in both body and mind.

And as they climbed upstairs, they encountered several groups of people looting apartments whose occupants had all died, while others whose own homes had been badly damaged by the zombie bird attack were wandering around the complex, carefully selecting seemingly safer empty apartments to move into.

So by the time they neared their own floor, they realized—

Their building now had more newcomers than any other.

All because when Luo Xun’s group had cleared the apartments earlier, they’d casually reinforced the broken windows with metal bars.

Now everyone else assumed those apartments were safer than their own homes with completely shattered windows.

And Luo Xun’s group couldn’t exactly drive them away—they had no right to.

Luo Xun couldn’t help feeling deeply regretful when he discovered the empty apartments on the fourteenth floor had already been occupied.

Earlier, while defending the wall, he’d suddenly had an inspiration—

If no one remained on the fourteenth floor, they could rent the entire floor from the base and turn it into additional planting space.

That way, the squad would never again need to worry about food shortages.

But before he could act, the three confirmed-empty apartments had already been claimed.

It was unbelievably frustrating.

Suppressing his irritation, he continued upstairs.

When he saw the huge hole sandified into the wall between the fourteenth and fifteenth floors, he immediately knew Xiao Xinran had used her ability last night.

Someone had definitely targeted their place after they left and before Zhang Su returned.

But since neither Xiao Xinran nor Zhang Su had contacted them afterward, Luo Xun guessed nothing serious had happened.

Still worried, he hurriedly unlocked the door, and only relaxed after seeing Xiao Xinran sleeping soundly and unharmed.

Zhang Su and Han Li were also resting in Xu Mei’s apartment on the fifteenth floor.

Seeing everyone return, they briefly explained the situation before everyone hurried back to their own homes, ate something casually, washed up quickly, and collapsed into bed.

Even though wall defense operated in shifts, nobody could guarantee emergencies wouldn’t happen.

If they were suddenly called back to defend the wall without having rested at all, nobody would be able to endure it.

Sure enough, they had barely slept until around noon when a phone suddenly started ringing.

Luo Xun and Yan Fei were jolted awake. After fumbling around for a while, they realized it was Yan Fei’s phone.

“It’s Captain Guo.”

Yan Fei raised one eyebrow toward Luo Xun and casually answered the call.

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