The Reborn Otaku’s Code of Practice for the Apocalypse – CH215

Chapter 215 — New Information

Right as Luo Xun and the team were in the middle of frantically constructing their new base, He Qiankun and Wu Xin, who were responsible for the routine inspection of the daily satellite data and photos, made a new breakthrough. When the two of them saw the few pieces of information they had broken their backs to obtain, they were first stunned, and then immediately ran over to the busy construction site holding their gear… That’s right, a massive pit had already been excavated on the surface, looking exactly like an active construction site.

“Boss! Boss! Information, brand-new information! Massive news!” He Qiankun’s heavy stomach jiggled back and forth, his excess weight vibrating with a rhythmic cadence that was highly comical.

The soot-covered group, who had been buried in their labor, raised their heads to catch the sight, and everyone instinctively burst into laughter—and choked on a mouthful of sand in the process.

Even the ring of mutated plants outside the perimeter wall began lashing and scraping their vines against the smooth metal plating upon hearing the commotion inside. Only after confirming they couldn’t stretch a claw inside to snatch food did they abandon the enticing thought.

“What’s wrong?” Shifting a hand to wipe his face, Luo Xun failed to notice that his action merely left several muddy handprints across his cheeks as he walked up to greet the two.

“This, look at this! It’s information we just intercepted from the satellite!” He Qiankun panted heavily. Beside him, Wu Xin was in vastly better shape; though he had also sprinted over in a hurry, his breathing was only slightly uneven at most. “We couldn’t receive these transmissions previously because we couldn’t crack the encryption codes, but Fatty and I just deciphered them over the past couple of days… Once we received this data, we realized that these files are completely packed with communications broadcast between the various bases to exchange information! Today, we intercepted a reply sent from the Southwest Base to several other factions. The Southwest Base is apparently going to implement a massive restructuring! After this zombie tide, they even plan to launch a joint expedition with several other bases to head to a mining region to harvest ore!”

The sheer volume of information embedded in these files was a bit overwhelming, and Wu Xin couldn’t explain it clearly all at once. He simply bundled the compiled data and dumped it directly into their server, allowing everyone to log in and review it using their respective devices.

He Qiankun finally caught his breath, his eyes shining with immense excitement. “There is a ton of stuff inside that new frequency! We even discovered that a few satellite TV channels are still broadcasting!! Furthermore, the data hidden inside the encrypted channels is exceptionally comprehensive. Although some sections are still locked, we’ll slowly study them and crack them sooner or later. But we need to haul back more equipment; we should build a massive server room specifically for our base.”

Luo Xun burst into a smile. “None of that is an issue. Once the base construction is finalized, we’ll head deeper into the city center to find some equipment. We’ll build a dedicated server room just for you two later, and you can tinker with it however you like.” When they visited the logistics company’s distribution hub last time, they had unearned several surveillance cameras. However, the models, types, and sizes of those gadgets were completely mismatched. While usable, the operation methods and effectiveness of each unit varied to some degree, and the volume they recovered was quite small. Upon discovering those items, Luo Xun had harbored the intent to make a run into the city center later to secure a batch from a digital market or a specialized electronic vendor.

Those kinds of items were typically concentrated in digital plazas and tech markets, which were bound to hold all kinds of computer hardware, allowing them to hit two birds with one stone and retrieve everything they required in a single sweep.

Hearing Luo Xun’s words, the team members with computer science backgrounds let out a cheer and shared high-fives in celebration. Luo Xun simply declared a temporary break, letting everyone utilize the time to review the newly received information.

The group returned to the first-floor main hall to rest, drink water, and sit in their chairs to look over the new updates. Exactly as He Qiankun had stated, this data consisted entirely of communications broadcast between the surviving bases that possessed the capability to intercept satellite signals. Some sections even included transit logs between two neighboring bases that bartered goods with one another. However, logs of that nature were usually deleted rapidly, so what He Qiankun and his partner secured were files they had systematically intercepted the moment they detected them.

Among the files, several documents from the Southwest Base had been heavily flagged by the two, and what Luo Xun and the team were currently studying were precisely these documents.

One document detailed an expedition following this defensive battle. Because the ammunition and weapons within the Southwest Base had been thoroughly depleted, they desperately needed to head to neighboring mines and manufacturing facilities to haul back raw materials as quickly as possible, resulting in a flurry of communications with another base situated exceptionally close to a mining deposit. The other section was exactly what He Qiankun had mentioned—the notification regarding the complete restructuring of the Southwest Base.

There was a clear precursor to this restructuring, and it wasn’t merely due to the internal flaws exposed within the Southwest Base after weathering this defensive battle. Well before this siege, several surviving bases across the country had already implemented comprehensive military-style management for all citizens, where every individual had to obey all commands issued by the base administration, entering a forced, unified governance protocol according to wartime regulations.

The distribution of food, clothing, and energy for every single person faced strict rationing limits, private property was strictly forbidden, and all resources were requisitioned and centralized under unified management. Every superpower user had to register to enter a unified allocation system, completing mandatory deployments and scheduled missions. All ordinary residents had to undergo military drills, remaining ready to obey superior orders at a moment’s notice and deploy for battle whenever arranged. In times of crisis, anyone who violated the regulations could face military court martial; severe infractions resulted in immediate expulsion from the base, or direct execution under military law.

The factions that initially implemented this governance style were all compact bases containing under a thousand or ten thousand residents. The territorial footprint of these bases was small to begin with, and if the interior consisted of a fractured mass of uncoordinated individuals who rioted over every trivial matter, they would sooner or later perish—either inside the jaws of zombies or through internal infighting.

Now that nearly two years had passed since the onset of the apocalypse, the survival rate of these highly disciplined bases was remarkably higher than that of other factions. Upon learning of this data, some of the larger bases had also begun implementing these protocols, expelling any individuals who refused to obey commands and placing the remaining population under strict military governance. Although various logistical issues would still crop up, when facing absolute danger, the survival rate of these bases was vastly superior to other factions!

This was precisely one of the primary reasons the Southwest Base still hosted an ongoing stream of survivors fleeing from alternative bases. These refugees, driven out by other factions and left with nowhere to turn, could only seek sanctuary within a base that hadn’t enacted these harsh regulations yet.

However, the Southwest Base could no longer afford to remain so undisciplined. If they didn’t tighten their internal management now, heaven only knew if they could survive the arrival of the next massive zombie tide. Previously, it was because the various internal factions within the base were hopelessly entangled, but now that they had finally achieved relative unification among the high-ranking officials and the non-compliant squads had mostly been eliminated, how could they possibly tolerate the continuation of this status quo?

Finishing the document, the group stared at one another in a prolonged silence. No one spoke for a good while. After a moment, Zhang Su let out a cold sneer, flipping the cell phone in his hand. “Should we say we were incredibly lucky to have run away so fast?”

Yes, it was fortunate they ran early, and even more fortunate that they had intercepted this information in advance. Otherwise, if they blindly stumbled inside while the base was mid-restructuring, heaven only knew if they would even be able to detach themselves to escape again.

“We can’t return to the Southwest Base for the time being,” Luo Xun spoke up after composing his thoughts, looking at the group. “If we return under these dynamics, there’s no telling if we’ll even be able to leave safely. It doesn’t matter if we have a massive surplus of vegetables and grain at home; at worst, we can just dry them for storage. If we still have extra, we can capture some mutated ducks and geese to raise later. We’ll continue to prioritize constructing our own base, and then look for an opportunity to head into the city center. We’ll hit the northwestern district to retrieve some digital equipment, and see if we can salvage some furniture along the way. After that, we close our doors and live our own lives.”

The moment the words fell, they received the absolute backing of every single member. Although everyone had harbored various lingering discontents when they first left the base, looking at the situation now, it was a profound blessing that they left early. Now that their new base was established, if they had delayed their departure by a few months, they might not have been able to leave even if they wanted to, right?

Only when they were alone did Luo Xun whisper his complaints to Yan Fei: “I completely don’t understand the future timeline anymore… If the Southwest Base truly shifts according to that transmission, I really have no idea what the future looks like…” In his past life, he had never heard of a restructuring of this nature within the base. Although the military had maintained pre-apocalyptic regulations for their ranks and had eventually centralized all superpower users into a newly established district later on, the ordinary civilians within the base had still remained civilians, which was how he had managed to stay a reclusive shut-in for an entire decade.

Yan Fei chuckled softly. “Isn’t it completely normal for things to differ? With so many things happening every single day, any trivial event has the potential to ripple into a completely alternative trajectory for the future. If reality matched your dreams down to the letter, what would be the point of living through it?” Although the future differed from what Luo Xun knew, Yan Fei didn’t feel a shred of concern. It was for the best that it was different; that way, Luo Xun wouldn’t have to carry the heavy psychological burden of his past life inside his heart constantly.

Besides, wasn’t life precisely called life because it was filled with all kinds of uncertainties? If every single detail was known in advance, yet one still had to march forward step by step according to a script—unable to detour around dangers and forced to re-experience every heartbreaking moment—who could possibly endure that?

Therefore, while Luo Xun’s prophetic dreams were critical, now that they were safely living out their own comfortable life, they appeared far less critical.

Having been comforted by his partner, Luo Xun’s mood improved significantly. Restoring his spirits, he threw himself right back into the labor of overhauling their base. The physical workload for He Qiankun and Wu Xin was heavily reduced by the team; everyone agreed that the two should focus primarily on gathering data. However, the two tech-savvy guys were highly considerate, stating that filtering information only consumed a fraction of their time, and they could completely carve out the hours to help haul soil. After a round of polite deference, they merely ended up like the two ladies, Xu Mei and Song Lingling, having their daily physical tasks lightened slightly so they could slip back to fiddle with their computers at any moment.

The massive pit on the open plaza was quickly excavated. Yan Fei verified the structural depth of the ground, and began constructing a metal floor right on top of the basement ceilings. The thickness of this plating was quite substantial, reaching roughly one meter. Following that, Yan Fei laid down underfloor heating elements across the entire open ground, transforming the entire above-ground structure into a unified greenhouse. Once everything was completed, the group finally set their hands to the next task—pouring soil!!

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