The Reborn Otaku’s Code of Practice for the Apocalypse – CH172

Chapter 172 — A Zombie Horde?

“What?” Luo Xun and the others still hadn’t processed it. They looked at Zhang Su in confusion. Since leaving the base, they had encountered zombies more than once, and not in small numbers. Back when they went out specifically to hunt zombies, they had faced even larger groups. That was why they couldn’t understand why Zhang Su’s expression had suddenly changed so drastically.

Zhang Su pointed in a certain direction.

“I’m saying we may have run into a zombie horde…” His voice was grim. “I can’t detect the edge of it.”

Everyone sucked in a sharp breath, their faces instantly turning pale.

Wang Duo’s voice trembled. “D-Dear… how far away are they?”

“I’ve got some bad news for you.” Zhang Su suddenly turned around, forcing a somewhat strained smile onto his face. “It looks like they’re heading this way… There are Speed-type zombies among them, and they’re moving very fast.”

“Get in the vehicles!”

As long as he had enough time, Zhang Su’s Wind-type ability could scout extremely long distances. Yet now he was saying he couldn’t find the end of the horde.

Good God.

Could they really be this unlucky? Had they actually run into a massive zombie tide?!

The moment everyone scrambled aboard the vehicles, they could clearly feel the ground around them beginning to shake.

Luo Xun and the others immediately accelerated, only to discover another problem.

“Damn it! We forgot about the crates behind us!”

Those two giant metal crates were heavy enough to cut their speed by more than half. Now that an enormous zombie horde was bearing down on them, how were they supposed to escape while dragging all that cargo?

At this point, nobody could even guarantee they would survive. Who still had the luxury of worrying about supplies?

“Drive to those buildings ahead and leave the metal crates there!” Luo Xun made the decision instantly, pointing toward several snow-covered single-story houses in front of them.

The sealed metal containers wouldn’t be damaged if left here. Zombies wouldn’t bother opening them for inspection, nor would they care about whatever was hidden inside.

If the crates stayed here, there was still a chance they could return someday and retrieve them.

But if they insisted on hauling them behind the vehicles and sacrificing their escape speed…

Then they could all stay here and die together.

The vehicles worked in pairs, towing the metal crates to a cluster of snow-buried buildings. Yan Fei directly severed the iron chains he had forged earlier, finally freeing the sled vehicles to reach their full speed.

The engines roared to life as everyone desperately raced back along the route they had come.

Yet the trembling of the ground never lessened.

At least there was one thing to be thankful for.

Before setting out, they had prepared thoroughly, afraid of encountering unexpected situations midway through the trip. The vehicles carried abundant supplies, especially spare batteries.

Each sled vehicle carried at least two people. While the driver focused on steering, everyone else searched through the cramped space for weapons and defensive equipment.

More than half the members of the Otaku Squad were ability users, but supernatural powers had their limits. They needed to carefully balance the consumption of abilities with the use of the weapons and ammunition stored on board.

Every vehicle contained food, water, crossbows, bolts, mushrooms, water guns, and other supplies.

While creating the four large metal crates earlier, Yan Fei had also melted all the leftover metal into the metal spheres they carried as reserves.

Judging by the situation, those metal spheres would soon have a chance to serve their intended purpose.

For the first several hours of their flight, they felt nothing except the constant vibration of the ground. No zombies were visible.

Everyone tried to comfort themselves.

Maybe the zombie horde was simply passing through the area?

Maybe it would ignore a few insignificant stragglers like them?

Unfortunately, Zhang Su kept delivering the same answer.

The zombies were pursuing them.

And even after their group changed direction midway, the horde adjusted course and continued following.

There were barely a dozen people in their entire team—not even enough to fill the gaps between the zombies’ teeth.

Why in the world were they being chased?!

Just as everyone was beginning to speculate that perhaps their speed happened to match the zombie army’s pace closely enough that the horde would never actually catch them—

By noon that same day, they saw the vanguard.

The ones running at the front were Speed-type zombies.

What truly sent chills down everyone’s spines was what flew overhead.

Level Four Wind-type zombies.

Why was such an enormous horde so obsessed with chasing this tiny group of people?!

Wouldn’t it be better to spend that effort attacking a nearby survivor base or something?

There was no way Luo Xun and the others dared stop their vehicles, dig traps, and fight.

This was a zombie horde, not the small groups they used to deal with in the city, where they could draw a circle, trap a cluster of zombies, and casually wipe them out. Even during their previous zombie-hunting trips near the city, they would first clear out the scattered zombies in the target area, secure a building, dig traps, seal the structure, repair the roof, and only then lure larger groups over.

If they had encountered this many zombies right from the start, they wouldn’t have dared charge in no matter what.

“Get the water guns and blossom-bolt crossbows ready. Don’t use abilities in the first wave. Conserve your stamina,” Luo Xun ordered through the radio.

“Got it.”

Everyone felt a heavy weight in their hearts.

They knew their prospects were grim and that danger was right on their heels, yet not a single person showed despair. Instead, their eyes burned with the desire to survive.

Their team wasn’t the strongest, nor were they driven by some grand ideology, but they were all battle-hardened veterans. When faced with danger, they didn’t waste time lamenting, “If only we hadn’t made that choice…” Instead, they focused on finding a way to stay alive.

Mistakes and poor decisions were lessons to be learned from later. But when a crisis was staring them in the face, dwelling on past regrets served no purpose. People who obsessed over such things weren’t prioritizing survival or the future. They merely wanted to shift responsibility and pin their fear and anxiety onto others to ease their own burden.

As for solving the actual problem?

That wasn’t something such people cared about.

Several Wind-type zombies, their bodies surrounded by green currents that resembled wings, swooped toward them from the sky.

The homebody squad were practically all expert marksmen by now. The moment they spotted the aerial attackers, the passengers in the rear seats were already prepared. As soon as the zombies entered range—before they could even dive—the first volley of bolts shot upward.

The modified bolts crafted by Yan Fei exploded inside the zombies upon impact.

The mushroom solution sealed within erupted instantly, melting huge holes through their bodies.

More than half of the zombies struck by the bolts lost arms or legs. Some were melted completely in half at the waist.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

Numerous zombies dropped from the sky and smashed into the ground below, allowing everyone to breathe a small sigh of relief.

Once grounded and missing limbs, those Wind-type zombies lost almost all combat effectiveness.

The Wind-type zombies launched several more attacks, but each ended in failure.

Some managed to dodge the bolts and launch ranged attacks from above. Others dove straight down.

But the ability users riding in Luo Xun’s convoy weren’t there just for decoration.

Yan Fei, Zhang Su, and Xu Mei possessed highly destructive abilities. The three of them alone were enough to deal with any zombies that slipped through.

Eventually, the Wind-type zombies disappeared.

But the Speed-type zombies behind them gradually caught up.

“Xinran, dig pits!”

Luo Xun noticed the distance between them and the Speed-type zombies steadily shrinking.

The zombies were only slightly faster than the sled vehicles.

Just slightly.

But that tiny advantage was enough for the tireless undead to close the gap little by little.

While the vehicle was moving, little Xinran periodically transformed sections of ground into sand, creating massive pits.

The loose sand slowed down the charging zombies, while the pits trapped those coming from behind. The traps weren’t particularly lethal, but combined with Zhang Su and Xu Mei’s abilities, they were effective at delaying the pursuing horde.

Even so, it wasn’t enough.

There were simply too many zombies.

Luo Xun and the others fled for an entire day.

If they hadn’t stocked their vehicles with spare power supplies, the sleds would have stopped long ago.

The drivers and passengers on nearly every vehicle had already switched places several times.

But the people in the back had to fend off pursuing zombies, while the drivers had to remain fully focused.

Each vehicle only carried two or so people.

At this rate, nobody would be able to hold out much longer.

After nightfall, terrifying howls began rising from the zombie horde behind them.

The chilling cries made everyone’s scalp tingle and their nerves tighten even further.

What frightened Luo Xun’s group even more was another discovery.

Because their phones had gone so long without charging, they only realized when they tried checking the time that every single phone had died.

Phones weren’t especially useful outside the base.

They only had one important function: every two hours, they automatically updated and displayed the user’s precise location.

As for emergency distress signals, they were essentially worthless.

If danger struck, who could afford to wait for a rescue team from the base?

And even if a distress signal was received, rescue teams rarely ventured outside the base to search for missing survivors.

The function was practically meaningless.

So the only reason they carried their phones was for navigation.

Now, however, they could only recharge them using the vehicles’ power supplies.

What made Luo Xun even more frustrated was that the adapter needed to charge the phones had somehow bounced off during the journey.

And because phones were usually useless outside the base, Li Tie and the others had brought their phones but hadn’t bothered bringing chargers.

Which meant they now faced a serious problem.

They could estimate their general direction, but they had no idea of their exact location or whether they had already gone off course.

After all, it was night.

They couldn’t even see the tracks they had left in the snow during their journey.

“If you’re tired, lean against my back and sleep for a while.”

Yan Fei’s voice suddenly sounded beside him, easing some of the tension in Luo Xun’s chest.

Luo Xun nodded.

“I know.”

Then he patted the little one on the head.

“If they catch up, give us a shout.”

Not just Luo Xun—almost everyone in the convoy was utterly exhausted by now.

But they still had to conserve whatever strength they had left and endure for as long as possible.

Picking up the radio, Luo Xun spoke to the others.

“The zombies behind us have fallen back a bit. Everyone take turns resting for a while…”

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