The Reborn Otaku’s Code of Practice for the Apocalypse – CH198

Chapter 198 — Destruction

For a group of foodies, nothing brought them more joy than equipment that could increase the variety of their diet. If there was anything more worth celebrating than that, it was naturally a bountiful harvest or hunting mutated animals that yielded a massive amount of meat.

Luo Xun and the team bustled about for a full two days before they finished processing their home-grown grains. The rice and wheat straws could be used for fuel, compost, or various other purposes, so they were temporarily piled inside the original granary. A portion was set aside in the kitchen for fire starters, while the rest would be dealt with later depending on the circumstances; after all, they currently had no shortage of vines and leaves to manufacture fertilizer.

After getting the grain situation completely sorted out, Luo Xun and the others checked the time and realized with a trace of helplessness that it was nearly the end of the month again. They could only stay at home for a few more days before heading back to the Southwest Base to check on the situation. If the team’s mandatory missions grew increasingly difficult, they would simply have to temporarily abandon their team registry and forfeit the apartments listed under the squad’s name.

“Over the next few days, let’s first lay down the underfloor heating pipes and the metal flooring on the first floor. We’ll handle the remaining projects on our next trip back, making a few runs out to visit those locations He Qiankun and Wu Xin mapped out to haul some gear back,” Luo Xun suggested to the group after a moment’s thought.

They had a staggering number of tasks to attend to. He Qiankun and Wu Xin had done a thorough sweep of the surrounding database and located numerous spots that potentially held the resources they needed. Combining this data with the various satellite signals and photos they intermittently received, they were able to pinpoint locations where supplies could actually be recovered.

Although information recovered from pre-apocalyptic maps could help them broadly determine if a location might contain resources, what those places actually looked like after the apocalypse was something the group couldn’t confirm without visiting personally. However, cross-referencing that data with satellite photos allowed them to make a fairly accurate assessment—at least letting them see if the buildings at those coordinates had been destroyed. Otherwise, making a trip out only to find empty ruins would be a minor issue; the real danger lay in running into massive hordes of zombies. Now that they could receive satellite photos, they could even evaluate whether the density of zombies around their intended destinations posed a threat. At the very least, if a small-scale zombie tide was active, they would be able to spot it in advance.

Since they had established a clear plan of action, the next step was to execute it systematically. Luo Xun led everyone to clear out all the items from the first-floor rooms that required underfloor heating. Once the rooms were cleaned and swept spotless, Yan Fei took the blueprints Luo Xun had drawn and began laying down the pipes and metal plating. He had done this numerous times back at the base and was intimately familiar with the process. Utilizing the final days of April, he successfully completed the flooring for all the rooms on the first floor.

Packing their gear and loading the dry rations and metal they had prepared a day in advance, Luo Xun and the team also packed a selection of freshly grown green leafy vegetables into the vehicles. They left their heavily modified large truck behind this time, driving only their small cars toward the main base.

“Salt, gasoline… our primary goal for this return trip is to trade for these things.” Although they could scavenge a bit of gasoline out in the wild, the military had likely locked down all major fuel depots near the base early in the apocalypse. So much time had passed that even if the abandoned cars littering the roads used to hold plenty of fuel, it had mostly evaporated by now.

If Luo Xun and the team wanted to secure gasoline for their usage, their only option for now was to trade with the military inside the base.

“I wonder if there are any restrictions on trading for these supplies right now,” Yan Fei remarked, his brow furrowing slightly. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t searched for gasoline out in the wild over the past few days, but the quantities they recovered were incredibly sparse—so low it was practically agonizing. After all, they had to go out frequently to scavenge resources now, and a single excursion utilized at least five vehicles, all of which burned fuel. Currently, the stash at their base was running dangerously low.

Luo Xun’s fingers tapped against the steering wheel, appearing nowhere near as solemn as Yan Fei. “Didn’t Wu Xin and the guys locate a few places on the map that sold solar-powered vehicles before the apocalypse? We can head over to check those spots out after we finish our business this time. As for gasoline, we’ll just trade for as much as we can.”

That was their only option for the time being—at least enough to hold them over until they could secure an alternative product.

Since they weren’t in a hurry to haul gear back on this run, Luo Xun and the team didn’t leave their small base until the thirtieth, racing toward the Southwest Base. After spending a night camping in the wild, the convoy arrived outside the main gate on the afternoon of the first, registering and entering the city.

The items inside their personal bags were sparse, and the truck beds only held a scattering of cheap metal racks and wooden planks that weren’t worth a dime. Seeing the cargo, the inspection staff clicked their tongues, smoothly pocketing two of the wooden planks with a look of pure disdain before letting them pass.

Luo Xun and the guys spotted the theft through their side mirrors, but they could only treat it as an entry fee, choosing to shut their eyes to find peace of mind.

Once they drove into the base and entered the inner city, they parked the three vehicles along the roadside. Yan Fei took a quick turn around the cars, and the dull, unassuming metal panels lining the vehicle undercarriages were smoothly retracted, exposing rows of vibrant, water-fresh green vegetables to air them out. The roofs of the vehicles also featured a hidden metal compartment where the majority of their dry rations and the various crystals they intended to trade were stashed.

These were the rigged compartments Luo Xun had asked Yan Fei to fabricate out of caution before they set out. There was no helping it; if they returned from a trip outside carrying such a massive haul of fresh vegetables, people might assume they had stumbled upon an abandoned greenhouse once or twice. But if it happened every single time, it would inevitably invite suspicion. Not to mention the mounds of crystals, meat, and dried noodles they carried.

“Let’s head home first. Once we’re back, I’ll call the teams that want to buy vegetables.” On their last trip, he had told the few teams they kept in touch with that if he returned to sell vegetables, it would be during the first couple of days of May.

These two days just happened to coincide with the base issuing the monthly mandatory missions. Generally speaking, barring any unusual circumstances, the vast majority of teams would be present inside the base during this period.

“Mm, there are quite a few cars and people on the road today.” As the weather warmed up, the number of roadside vendors had skyrocketed once more, with crowds of people doing business along the streets. Some utilized a broken car, popping open the trunk to display their wares, while others simply spread a sheet of plastic on the ground to sell items right by the roadside.

The group only drove three vehicles on this run, lining up in a single file as they rolled leisurely toward their residential compound. Entering the compound, Luo Xun rounded a bend, but before he could pull the vehicle into their usual parking spot, he instinctively slammed his foot onto the brakes.

With a sharp thud, the puppy resting in the back bed slammed straight into the back of the car seat. It turned its head to look at Luo Xun and Yan Fei with a look of pure grievance.

“What’s wrong?” Yan Fei asked, having jarred forward slightly as well.

Luo Xun stared with wide eyes, raising a pair of slightly trembling hands to point upward. Following the direction he pointed, Yan Fei’s pupils contracted violently—half the exterior walls of their apartments on the sixteenth floor had completely collapsed! Exposing the silver-grey metal underneath…

The two seemed pinned to their seats, staring blankly at the familiar structure high above. Starting from the sixteenth floor, including the glass terrace they had loved so much, everything was gone… No, it wasn’t gone completely; rather, the outer concrete walls and glass framing had shattered and collapsed downward, landing along the side of the building as a massive pile of rubble in a corner of the compound.

“Brother Luo, what happened?” Li Tie and Wang Duo ran over from the cars behind to check on them. They hadn’t noticed the building’s condition yet, but when they followed Luo Xun’s hand and looked up, their faces turned an identical shade of green.

“Holy crap! Who was this malicious?!”

“…Even the walls of the fifteenth floor were battered to pieces! How the hell is anyone supposed to live here?!”

“Let’s go up and look,” Luo Xun said, his face deadpan, his hands unable to suppress a slight tremor. This was his life’s work, his home—a nest he had meticulously organized piece by piece even before the arrival of the apocalypse. He had initially assumed he would spend his entire life here. Even though they had secured a new base not long ago and were preparing to dissolve the team registry, he had never intended to give up his rights to this apartment. He could easily pay the rent according to the base’s current policies, allowing them to lodge here for a couple of days whenever they returned each month.

But now? At least half the walls of his apartment had been torn down by someone! Had it not been for the massive amount of metal reinforcement holding the interior structure together, heaven only knew if he would even be able to see this entire floor upon their return!

Once the vehicles were parked, Yan Fei directly used his ability to completely encase all three cars in solid metal. Let’s see who dares try to make a move on their property right in front of them!

Hurrying up to the fifteenth floor, before they even had a chance to check on the sixteenth, Luo Xun and the team discovered that the main doors to every apartment on the fifteenth floor had been pried open—and a massive hole had actually been blasted through the living room floor of apartment 1502!!

The concrete flooring of the two central units on the sixteenth floor suffered the exact same fate. Only Li Tie’s apartment and Luo Xun’s apartment remained unbreached because the metal underfloor heating structures had never been stripped down, preventing anyone from blasting through the floorboards.

Taking a deep breath, Luo Xun stood before the door of his home, his face dark.

“This is an absolute insult! These people have gone way too far!” Everyone present was flush with righteous fury. The concrete ceiling of the sixteenth floor hadn’t suffered any damage, but their floors had been breached from below! These parasites had truly put in an unholy amount of effort just to get their hands on a tiny bit of potential supplies!

Suddenly, Luo Xun unslung the crossbow that had been hanging over his shoulder, checking the bolts loaded inside the chamber.

The others froze for a split second, then quickly began checking the weapons they carried as well.

“There are traces of people active inside the apartments on the fifteenth and sixteenth floors,” Luo Xun said, but before his sentence could finish, the sound of movement echoed from the floor below.

Spinning around and heading back down the stairs, they spotted a figure climbing up a ladder through the hole blasted directly beneath apartment 1502.

The intruder caught sight of Luo Xun’s group the moment he emerged, a look of pure shock flashing across his face. Before he could open his mouth to make a sound, Luo Xun let out a cold sneer. “You guys were the ones who blasted this hole.”

The man’s expression shifted instantly as he bellowed down, “People are up here—” In tandem with his shout, he raised a right hand that had been hidden beneath the floorboards, his body dropping downward as he did so. Clutched in his hand was the dark barrel of a gun!

But before his words could finish and before the weapon could find its mark, a sharp thwack cut through the air. A gleaming black crossbow bolt, flashing with a deadly metallic sheen, tore straight through the forehead of the man as he tried to duck back beneath the floorboards!

Thud.

“Ah!”

“Grab your weapons, quick!”

“He’s dead, he’s dead!”

“Damn it! The owners are back…”

A chaotic clamor erupted from the floor below. Luo Xun’s face remained frozen in a cold mask, his hands still steadily leveling the crossbow without lowering it for a fraction of a second. A sudden realization struck him—it seemed that ever since his rebirth, he hadn’t actually shed human blood yet. Ha.

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