The Reborn Otaku’s Code of Practice for the Apocalypse – CH221

Chapter 221 — Overnight Stay

The Otaku Team’s excursion this time was an absolute, resounding success. The area they had reached was practically overflowing with digital product vendors, experiential showrooms, and flagship electronics stores. These were precisely the kinds of places that almost all post-apocalyptic survivors had absolutely zero interest in. In the wake of the apocalypse, everyone was far too busy scrambling for food, water, clothing, and bedding. Only after a base had completely stabilized and solar panels or other methods of generating electricity became available would a small fraction of people at the very top of the social pyramid begin to enjoy such luxuries once more.

Aside from a few shops that had suffered severe losses due to zombie rampages or deliberate human vandalism early in the apocalypse, the remaining inventory was a guaranteed, massive windfall for Luo Xun and the team, provided they had the ability to locate the storage warehouses.

Even before the apocalypse, the five-man squad of Li Tie and the guys were certified computer geeks, making them intimately familiar with this destination. They used to wander around this area constantly before the world ended. On one hand, it was a personal hobby; on the other, it aligned perfectly with their major. A significant number of alumni from their university worked as software developers in the surrounding office buildings. Moreover, because they happened to know a fellow alumnus who used to work part-time here, they had visited the warehouse of a certain small shop when building custom computers in the past, giving them a clear target and direction right off the bat.

The result of this bountiful harvest was that Yan Fei actually had to attach a massive extension bed to the back of each of the two large cargo trucks. Only then could they load up every single piece of equipment they had unearthed on this trip and head back home.

As he drove, Luo Xun was in an exceptionally great mood, chatting amiably with Yan Fei beside him. “We won’t need to come out searching for this kind of stuff again for the next few decades! But as for furniture and things like that, we’ll have to figure out a way ourselves. If worse comes to worst, we’ll have to rely on you to fabricate them. Sheets, blankets, and pillows, though—those are going to be a bit tricky to find.”

Yan Fei had absolutely no objections to this. He simply smiled, adjusting the position of the baby in his arms, who was currently staring wide-eyed, waving his tiny hands and babbling in baby talk. “I’ve just broken through to level five, so I happen to need to use crystals to stabilize my level-five abilities anyway. Maybe I can even develop some new applications for my level-five superpower while I’m at it, so I’m not afraid of having to make extra things. As for that furniture…” Yan Fei pondered for a moment before suggesting, “I remember Li Tie and the guys marked a lot of locations with potential resources on the map, didn’t they? The furniture plazas marked on there that are close to our base should definitely still be around.”

“They are,” Luo Xun nodded. “There are several of them, but don’t forget, when the apocalypse first hit, the Southwest Base bombed a massive expanse of land. Some of those furniture plazas were right within the targeted zones. As for the ones further away, I worry about whether other people might have visited them after the world ended. The probability of that isn’t small. Making a trip for nothing would be fine, but if we run into a large horde of zombies or other survivor groups, it would be a massive headache…” He paused briefly before continuing, “Still, it’s better to look for potential furniture sources in the southern district of City A. The number of people heading to the southern part of the city for supplies is vastly lower than those going to the northern or eastern sectors.”

They had already deduced this pattern from their various previous excursions. Their new base was situated southwest of City A, even further south than the Southwest Base itself. In order to gather metal, timber, and other raw materials, they had ventured out of their base a true number of times, yet they rarely encountered any base squads out on missions. On this journey north, however, they had spotted signs of vehicles almost every single day. Even yesterday, while they were gathering supplies near the digital mall, they had caught sight of a convoy roaring past on another street from one of the higher floors of a building.

Over the past two days, while searching for digital products, it wasn’t as if they hadn’t seen other types of shops, but without exception, they were all completely empty inside. The only places where resources could still be found turned out to be these digital electronics that couldn’t be eaten or drunk.

“Yeah. Worst case scenario, we can search further south. Aren’t there other cities down south? They aren’t that far away, and the condition of those highways looks decent on the satellite maps.” Yan Fei gently pulled out the hem of his shirt, which the baby had grabbed and was trying to stuff into his mouth, replacing it with his pacifier. The little guy finally settled down a bit. “If it’s not safe, we can just make everything out of metal.” In any case, it would serve as perfect practice for him.

The matter of furniture was set aside for the time being. Although the quantity of blankets and bedding at the new base wasn’t exceptionally large, it was perfectly sufficient for their current needs. Everyone’s desire to collect such items was merely to make their lives more comfortable, not an absolute necessity, so they could just pick closer locations to search slowly after returning.

Gathering the digital hardware had consumed a full two days of everyone’s time, finally filling every single inch of available space across their vehicles.

On the evening after another two days of driving, just as Luo Xun and the team were preparing to find a random spot to settle down for the night, they discovered another survivor squad parking their vehicles by the roadside ahead of them. They were currently kindling a fire to cook dinner, preparing to stay overnight.

“Boss, Boss, there’s a squad ahead. What should we do?” They had stayed overnight in this immediate vicinity once on their way here, and no zombies had appeared nearby back then. On their return trip this time, they had calculated their timing precisely, originally intending to spend another night here, but they hadn’t expected to run into another group of people.

Luo Xun raised his binoculars to evaluate the situation before saying, “No need to pay attention to them. We’ll just rest and spend the night at this intersection over here. We’ll take turns keeping watch tonight.”

In the apocalypse, people out on missions were both worried about encountering their own kind—fearing they might be robbed or targeted—but they also hoped to encounter other humans. In the event of a sudden zombie ambush, they might be able to look out for one another, or perhaps the zombies would attack the other team first, allowing their own squad to seize the opportunity to escape or forge an alliance.

Therefore, while they needed to maintain a high level of caution, they didn’t need to take them too seriously either.

True to expectations, seeing Luo Xun and his team resting and camping from a distance, the squad ahead did not send anyone over to pry into their business. They merely observed them with relative caution. Upon seeing that Luo Xun’s convoy appeared quite substantial in number but clearly had zero intention of coming over to make contact with them, they secretly let out a sigh of relief.

After stepping down from their vehicles, Luo Xun and his team didn’t directly look for a roadside building to move into. Instead, right within the section of the road shielded and enclosed by their trucks, Yan Fei fabricated a relatively compact metal house in the center for them to lodge in. Because there were outsiders not far away, they intentionally left observation slits in the walls, rotating the watch between two people every two hours. Everyone kept their respective weapons right by their sides, so they could instantly grab them if an emergency arose.

By two o’clock in the morning, Luo Xun and Yan Fei were gently nudged awake to change shifts by Xu Mei and Song Lingling, who had just finished their watch. The two ladies curled into the area where little Xinran was sleeping, closing their eyes and falling fast asleep before long.

Holding his crossbow, Luo Xun let out a yawn and peered outside. Through the narrow slit, he could see the direction of the other squad’s campfire. The person responsible for the night watch on that side was currently guarding the post, intermittently casting a few glances toward the direction of Luo Xun and his team. Clearly, they were also worried about whether the people over here would make any moves during the night.

“It should be fine.” Luo Xun rubbed his eyes, washing his face with some fresh water Song Lingling had prepared in advance to wake himself up completely.

“We didn’t light a fire, so they can’t see the situation over here clearly. I’ve already set up a detection net around the perimeter; if anything happens, I’ll know,” Yan Fei patted Luo Xun’s shoulder and whispered to him. “You should sleep a bit longer.”

Luo Xun shook his head. “No need. We only have to watch for two hours at a time anyway; I can just go back to sleep in a bit.”

The protective net Yan Fei used for defense was the exact same kind of metal grid he had previously constructed on the roof of their building back at the Southwest Base. However, now that his superpower had upgraded, his manipulation of metal had grown increasingly formidable. The metal wires he had woven this time were so microscopic they were far thinner than a strand of hair. What was even more astonishing was that he had somehow given the surface of these metals a completely non-reflective finish.

The area within a ten-meter radius of their campsite was entirely blanketed by these imperceptible wires, and an identical metal net was suspended in mid-air around the outer perimeter, completely encircling the position where they were stationed.

This way, no matter what kind of entity drew near, Yan Fei would be able to detect the issue at the very first instant.

He intended to deploy this exact protective net setup around the entrance of their secret subterranean tunnel after returning home. That way, if anyone ever happened to come near the entrance, he would be able to catch the problem in a timely manner.

Thinking up to this point, Yan Fei suddenly realized he must not be fully awake yet. He turned his head to look in the direction of the two cargo trucks—with so many surveillance cameras stored inside them, did he really still need to rely on this kind of primitive method that could only deduce situations from physical disturbances?

The two of them intermittently conversed in low voices while monitoring the conditions outside. By the campfire opposite them, someone had also begun moving around; it appeared they were rotating their night watch as well.

Luo Xun verified that the newly emerged individual had absolutely no idea they were being watched from this side before whispering to Yan Fei again about how they should arrange the rooms in the house after returning home this time. As they were talking, he suddenly felt a flash of light outside.

Initially, he thought the people on the opposite side had shone a flashlight toward their convoy. Only after a brief moment when a faint, rumbling sound reverberated through the air did he realize—”It’s actually going to rain?”

And why wouldn’t it? Summer had arrived, so wasn’t a thunderstorm completely normal?

Ever since the arrival of spring this year up until now, apart from a few scattered drizzles, it had barely rained heavily at all. Now that this thunder and lightning had kicked up together, it truly brought a distinct sensation that summer had finally arrived.

“It’s raining… Fortunately, we’ve already finished gathering our supplies and are on our way back.” Luo Xun thought of something, turning to smile at Yan Fei. “The roofs of those malls weren’t exceptionally damaged, but a substantial number of glass windows were shattered. If a massive downpour happens to strike and rain floods into those plazas, soaking and ruining the inventory inside, we wouldn’t be able to unearth so many good things if we went back again.”

A significant portion of the supplies they had hauled back this time consisted of hardware unearthed from basements or relatively lower levels. Those storage warehouses, in particular, were mostly located on the first floors or inside the basements. If they were submerged under water, heaven only knew what kind of good hardware they would still be able to salvage the next time they visited?

Yan Fei immediately raised his hand, completely sealing off the roofs of all the trucks outside—the tops of their vehicles were all fitted with solar panels, after all.

As for the solar panels back at home? Luo Xun noted highly resourcefully that they had simply placed their solar panels underneath the glass roofing this time, and there was an additional layer of metal framing over the exterior of the glass. If they merely encountered a standard heavy rainstorm, it wouldn’t pose much of a problem at all.

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