The Reborn Otaku’s Code of Practice for the Apocalypse – CH209

Chapter 209 — Stealing a Moment of Leisure

On the morning of June 2nd, the group drove back to their new base. For safety’s sake, when Zhang Su scouted the road conditions this time, he didn’t focus his energy primarily on the path ahead, but rather paid close attention to whether there were any tails following behind their vehicles. Although they had mutated plants guarding the door and a tunnel leading straight to the new base, they didn’t want to leave anyone a single clue about its location.

They completely unloaded their newly traded supplies, placing them into a newly excavated room that was temporarily being used as a storage room. Not rushing to rest, Luo Xun and the others prepared to kick off a fresh round of labor.

Previously, they had excavated two underground planting rooms and a parking garage on the second basement level, while also doubling the area of the two original planting rooms. However, it was blindingly obvious that these spaces were not yet enough. Luo Xun and the team planned to either dig out a few more basement rooms or prioritize finishing the above-ground engineering before the zombie tide arrived. Both tasks were highly critical, and what everyone was currently debating was which one would be better to handle first. If they only got halfway through either project before the zombie tide hit, it would likely have a major impact on their safety.

Sitting around the long dining table in the cafeteria with a slight frown, Luo Xun propped his chin in one hand as he analyzed the pros and cons. “The excavation speed underground isn’t slow, but if earth-type zombies or zombie rats move faster than the main zombie tide, we might find ourselves in danger. However, the above-ground work has its own issues—once we finish the metal structure, we have to paint it, and painting is all manual labor. If human scent is left on the outside of the metal layer, I’m afraid it will attract passing zombies…”

Hearing Luo Xun’s dilemma, Yan Fei pondered for a moment and helped make the final call. “Then let’s stick to building the underground layout first. We can prioritize clearing out the storage room on the second basement level, and then build the storage room and two planting rooms on the first basement level directly on top of that foundation. That way, all the underground metal structures will be structurally connected, which can also conveniently serve as the foundation for our above-ground projects.” Although he could use metal to construct buildings directly on the surface, they still required a foundation. Finishing the deepest underground level first before building upward story by story would prevent the layout from becoming top-heavy and creating dangerous hazards later.

His reasoning was highly sound. For the sake of absolute prudence, they could focus on getting the storage room on the second basement level sorted out first, and then calculate the arrival time of the zombie tide based on the satellite photos to decide whether to continue excavating new basement rooms.

With their decision finalized, the group sprang into action that very afternoon. As usual, little Xinran and Yan Fei handled the core construction of the basement rooms, while the remaining crew served as grunts to haul the soil. This time, they didn’t intend to leave the soil on the surface to dry. For one thing, the amount of soil stored at home was already more than enough; for another, frequent activity on the surface would leave a scent trail. Heaven only knew if those mutated plants would fail to contain the zombie horde if they were overloaded.

The soil excavated this time was loaded directly into the vehicles. Yan Fei replicated the container bed of the large truck to fabricate massive cargo hoppers. Every time two cargo hoppers were filled to the brim, a vehicle would drive out to dump the soil.

The dumping site was highly concealed, located amidst a patch of thick weeds in the wild fields. A small trash mound had originally existed there before the apocalypse, so dumping more dirt over it didn’t stand out at all.

Two truckloads of soil at a time—while dumping the earth, Luo Xun and the others could take the opportunity to bring little Xinran along to harvest crystals near the mutated fields relatively far from their base. This allowed them to unwind mentally while boosting their crystal income, beautifully hitting two birds with one stone.

Constructing an underground storage room didn’t take much time. By the next morning, the room was completely excavated, and the soil had all been transported out of the base to be piled in the abandoned fields. He Qiankun and the guys conducted another meticulous sweep of the newly received satellite photos to evaluate the trajectory, speed, scale, and estimated arrival time of the zombies.

It was exactly like playing a base-defense survival game—cultivating tower-defense-like plants outside their residence that could eat zombies, while deeply burrowing underground to expand all kinds of functional rooms for their home.

“These are the satellite photos received from the day we left until last night. These few show the wave of zombies returning from the coast,” He Qiankun said as he pulled up the images on the tablet computer, enlarging them one by one for Luo Xun and the team to review. “It will probably take at least a week or more for them to draw near our vicinity, right? Should we continue digging holes today?”

Luo Xun studied those photos carefully, then nodded. “Dig. We’ll dig the rooms for the first basement level today.” The volume of metal they had hauled back was substantial. If they didn’t construct various interior fixtures, it was more than enough to fully line the walls of several basement rooms. It could even cover a portion of the above-ground engineering.

However, Luo Xun and the team intended to wait until after this zombie tide passed before considering above-ground structures. After all, above-ground construction had to account for satellite surveillance. If they were going to build, the structures had to be disguised so perfectly that even if a satellite snapped a photo by chance, it wouldn’t raise suspicion that anyone was living here.

The rooms on the first basement level weren’t difficult to construct, especially since the positions Luo Xun selected perfectly mirrored the layout of the second basement level. Yan Fei simply extended his metal ability into the soil to map out the perimeter, and little Xinran just had to follow that blueprint to sandify the earth.

The two coordinated to dig the pits with extreme speed and efficiency. The only tedious part was that they had to transport the soil via the elevator to the first basement level and load it onto the trucks parked at the tunnel entrance. Fortunately, they had plenty of hands, and taking turns made the process highly efficient.

Expediting the work for another four days, they cleared out two planting rooms and two storage rooms at a pace of one basement room per day. One of these storage rooms was constructed directly on top of the storage room on the second basement floor, while the other sat directly above the parking garage. The dimensions of both were substantial; if needed, they could easily be converted into planting rooms later.

Sorting out the ventilation systems, running the electrical wiring along the ceilings, and installing basic lighting fixtures consumed another full day of labor.

Yan Fei personally inspected the metal walls of all the basements and tunnels once more, confirming that the thickness and sturdiness of the plating were perfectly uniform. Only then did he set his mind at ease, shifting his attention to the above-ground structures. He reinforced the outer metal protective shells surrounding the main building they currently occupied, the granary, and the carport once more. Then, he moved the remaining half of the metal into the surface buildings as a contingency—if mutated animals began attacking their base, he would completely seal the surface structures under another layer of metal armor to prevent any unexpected disasters or dangers.

This frantic hustle brought them straight to the eighth of the month, the exact same date listed on the notification they had seen back at the Southwest Base. Luo Xun and the team decided that from this day onward, they would completely stop leaving the base.

This was because they had re-verified the trajectory of the oncoming zombie tide, discovering with a trace of helplessness that because their base was situated further south than the Southwest Base, they would unluckily encounter the zombie tide about two days earlier than the Southwest Base!

To minimize the zombies’ interest in their home, Luo Xun and the team decided to cut down on their excursions, doing everything possible to ensure the zombies wouldn’t catch the scent of human flesh and reducing their curiosity regarding this vicinity.

What also struck Luo Xun and the others as a bit strange was that the two wolves that usually loitered around the area had completely vanished over the past few days. Throughout their recent excursions, they hadn’t encountered them a single time. Had they wandered off to some other territory? Were they huddling inside their den eating beef? Or had they perceived a massive army of zombies passing through and fled early to avoid trouble?

Regardless, the Otaku Team decided to stay thoroughly reclusive over the next few days, enjoying a comfortable stretch of hiding indoors to escape the heat.

Yes, although the weather hadn’t reached the hottest period of the year yet, the recent temperature was climbing steadily. Luo Xun and the team had bitterly forgotten to bring back air conditioners during their recent supply runs! Although a few air conditioners in the school building were unbroken, if zombies passed by, any strange noise would inevitably draw their curiosity.

Fortunately, Luo Xun had bought several electric fans before the apocalypse. Placing one in each room kept everyone quite cool when sleeping at night. And during the day—the basement was vastly cooler than the above-ground buildings! Furthermore, though they couldn’t make too much noise on the surface, every room in the basement was fitted with ventilation systems, combined with rooms packed full of various cultivated vegetables and grains, leaving green leaves everywhere. Although the lighting would raise the temperature inside the rooms, it remained highly comfortable, serving as excellent spaces to escape the heat.

“Let’s just stay cooped up for the next few days. It’s the perfect time to plant the newly sprouted seedlings.” The racks for the two expanded planting rooms were all set up, and the suspended lights and sprinklers were fully sorted out. Luo Xun’s farming soul was reignited once more—although they hadn’t forgotten to casually plant things previously, because they had been constantly building their home, they couldn’t dedicate their full attention to it, which always made Luo Xun feel as though something was missing.

“Brother Luo, we didn’t sprout any mutated plant seedlings this time, right?” Everyone had been busy with intense physical labor recently, leaving the work in the seedling room primarily to Luo Xun, with Xu Mei and Song Lingling helping to manage it concurrently. The others hadn’t paid close attention to the activity inside, so Han Li suddenly recalled the matter and hurried to ask.

“We didn’t. If those things actually sprout, they have to be moved to the surface and planted immediately. Leaving them inside the base for too long is dangerous,” Luo Xun rolled his eyes. He wasn’t stupid; how could he plant something so hazardous without giving everyone a heads-up?

The planting racks brought out from the Southwest Base had all been modified and moved into their new quarters, converted into single-tiered structures according to the new base’s original specifications. At this moment, Luo Xun’s passion for planting flowers and greens burst forth in full force. He selected all kinds of seeds they had harvested and carefully stored previously, categorizing and placing them into seedling boxes to sprout.

Over the previous period, although they had also cultivated vegetables, almost all of them were green leafy varieties that matured rapidly. Among the crops with longer growth cycles, except for rice and wheat, they hadn’t started anything yet. In any case, they couldn’t go outside recently, so if they didn’t spend their idle time farming, what else were they going to do?

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