The Reborn Otaku’s Code of Practice for the Apocalypse – CH228

Chapter 228 — Inflatable Castle

“What is your main goal for installing these cameras?” Yan Fei suddenly asked, putting down the blueprints.

“To monitor the nearby roads, of course,” Luo Xun said, looking at him with surprise, not quite understanding the point of his question.

“Then, if something passes by on the road at night and comes toward us while everyone is asleep, what good will those cameras do?” Yan Fei continued.

Luo Xun blinked in surprise and didn’t answer right away.

“And if those things are just passing by on the highway and don’t come to our base, is capturing footage of them really that useful to us?”

Luo Xun raised a hand and slapped his own forehead. “You mean the night-vision feature isn’t strictly necessary, so for safety’s sake, we might as well not use it…” Speaking up to this point, he let out a sigh and laughed. “True. If humans are passing by on the highway, they generally won’t travel in the pitch black anyway, since the road conditions are so dangerous now. If it’s mutated animals or zombies just passing through, even if we monitor them, it won’t be of much use. It’s not like we’re going out at night anyway.”

“Brother Luo, we can look into it and see if we can modify this feature so it only turns on when needed. If worst comes to worst, a little brute-force dismantling won’t hurt,” Li Tie said, nudging Luo Xun with his elbow.

“Yeah, exactly. For things we can’t figure out, we can talk about brute-force destruction later. If we can find a way to control it, we can still turn it on whenever it’s necessary.”

Luo Xun made the final call. “Let’s eat first then! In a bit, we’ll study how to install the cameras so they won’t catch the attention of passing travelers!”

The two waterfowl they had snatched from the wolves’ jaws were put to immediate use; everyone had roasted one for its meat that very day. The crew had completely finished off one bird in a single meal, and the next day they had roasted the second one as well.

By now, the two remaining bird carcasses had been tossed into a massive pot by the two ladies, simmering over a low flame from last night until today. At this moment, even before the milky-white broth was brought to the table, its rich aroma filled the entire room, causing everyone’s stomachs to start growling even though they had only been slightly hungry before.

Everyone got a bowl of the milky-white soup, topped with a sprinkle of emerald-green fresh cilantro. A massive pot of it sat on the table; whoever finished their bowl could just go up and ladle more themselves—there was absolutely more than enough to go around.

Two large basins of stewed meat with mixed vegetables sat on the long table. This was a true country-style medley; aside from the stewed pork belly, it held potatoes, green beans, dried eggplant, Chinese cabbage, vermicelli noodles, mushrooms… virtually every kind of vegetable their home currently produced that could be tossed into the pot was in there.

Additionally, various pickled side dishes were arrayed in small plates.

Though the dishes were simple, all the nutritional bases were covered. Once Luo Xun and the team got busy, they explicitly refrained from letting the two ladies cook time-consuming stir-fries. In any case, they had an immense amount of pork stashed at home. They could stew a massive batch of pork belly all at once, freeze whatever wasn’t eaten, and when they were in a rush to cook, pull out a bag, throw in whatever vegetables the complex was currently producing, and whip up a whole pot of stew. It was delicious, practical, and saved a ton of effort, so why wouldn’t they do it?

After eating and drinking their fill, the group resumed their remaining tasks. The volume of furniture needing fabrication was substantial, as was the array of daily lifestyle necessities. Combined with the need to install the cameras and build metal frames for the empty rooms in the basement… it turned out that the absolute busiest person in the entire base was Yan Fei.

After finalizing the wiring layout, Luo Xun cast the pile of papers aside and hurriedly led a squad of inefficient, clumsy grown men to kick off the bedroom decoration.

For instance, they used the foam sheets to make mattresses, crafted backrests and cushions for the metal chairs, and even used the sun-dried rice straw stashed at home to weave trivets and small storage baskets—tasks that completely clashed with their rugged appearances.

Xu Mei and Song Lingling were responsible for cleaning the feathers stockpiled at home, sorting out the fine, soft down that could be used to fill winter coats and comforters. The two waterfowl they secured yesterday weren’t exceptionally large, which meant a significant portion of their plumage consisted of fine, soft down that was perfect for Luo Xun and the team to harvest.

When processing those two waterfowl previously, Luo Xun had explicitly instructed everyone to systematically harvest the soft down from their heads, necks, bellies, and under their wings. Moreover, those two waterfowl weren’t the only source of feathers at home; they still raised quails in the complex! Although they rarely slaughtered their own quails, whenever they did dispatch one, they would always save the usable feathers. Amassed until now, the quantity was remarkably substantial.

Currently, the two ladies were responsible for washing and sun-drying these supplies.

Finally, little Xinran, who didn’t need to join in the frantic hustle, finished her lunch and took a nap in the bedroom alongside the baby. The puppy curled up by the edge of the bed to guard the two of them. Once Xinran woke up from her nap, she sat by the table to complete her homework diligently. Afterward, the little girl played quietly with a few of the most beautiful waterfowl feathers they had explicitly saved—at the moment, these beautiful feathers held far more appeal for her than the gaming consoles. Along the way, she watched over the youngest member of the household.

Crafting the furniture for the home was nowhere near as simple as it seemed. To conserve his partner’s physical energy and mental focus, aside from leading a squad of rugged men who couldn’t even hold a sewing needle steady to thread needles and yarn, Luo Xun also dragged them along to select usable logs with large cross-sections from their stashed timber to cut, sand, and process.

After all, if the rooms were entirely filled with a single, monotonous metal color, it would grow incredibly oppressive over time, wouldn’t it? Wooden accents, in contrast, were highly comfortable to use, and even if they weren’t functional, utilizing them as decorative features was an excellent choice. Most importantly—his own partner was currently working up a storm, so how could he let the others stay so idle?

However, what caught Luo Xun off guard was that because the rugged men were completely unsuited for this meticulous craftsmanship, everyone’s progress was close to a turtle’s crawl. A full half-day of labor wouldn’t necessarily yield a single finished seat cushion. In stark contrast, over on Yan Fei’s end—consuming barely two or three days of labor, he had successfully fabricated all the core furniture pieces everyone had requested and urgently needed!!

“The designs are very basic, and the frames for those sofas and loungers are very easy to construct. Replicating the contours directly makes assembly incredibly fast; it barely consumes any time at all.” Catching the utter bewilderment on Luo Xun’s face, Yan Fei couldn’t help but find it amusing, raising a hand to lightly tap his forehead. “Did you forget? My superpower has already broken through to level five.”

“Right! Level five.” Recalling alternative critical matters, Luo Xun hurriedly asked, “Have you developed any alternative new applications for your ability over the past couple of days? Can the metal perimeter walls be reinforced even further?”

Yan Fei propped his chin in one hand as he pondered for a moment. “Although metal can be refined into a more microscopic density on top of its original foundation, I personally feel the structural effect is no longer as visible as before. But after continuously crafting furniture these past few days, I have actually detected a few differences following the evolution of this superpower.” Speaking up to this point, he pointed toward the floorboards beneath their feet. “I currently seem to be able to perceive the presence of metal trace elements within soil, stones, and even plants…”

“…Plants?” Luo Xun stared at him somewhat blankly. Soil and stones made sense, but… plants? “Then… what about animals?!” If Yan Fei could perceive the metal content inside animals, did that mean he could theoretically even sense it inside humans…

Yan Fei shook his head slightly, offering a soft smile to comfort him. “Even if I focus my mental energy to the absolute maximum, I can’t perceive metal elements inside animals or human bodies. But as for the future… I can’t say for certain either. Regarding plants, take the spinach growing at home, for instance; doesn’t that stuff naturally contain iron elements? I can actually perceive that distinctly. I’ll harvest a leaf in a bit to see if I can extract the iron directly. Still, how much content could a single leaf possibly hold? There’s a high probability that the extracted result won’t even be as prominent as the juice Song Lingling presses from them.”

Saying that, he picked up a small scrap of metal he had retrieved from god knows where at some point, handing it to Luo Xun. “Wait for my signal, then hurl it straight at me.” Saying this, Yan Fei took two steps back and waved his hand at Luo Xun.

Puzzled, Luo Xun raised his hand and lobbed the piece of metal straight at Yan Fei. However, roughly an inch before the scrap could make physical contact with him, it suddenly deflected and shot back in the reverse direction at a velocity even faster than the throw!

“…You manipulated that?” Luo Xun was naturally well aware that Yan Fei could control metal to fly or launch unprovoked assaults on targets, but what exactly was the point of the application he was letting him test right now?

Seeing that his partner didn’t comprehend the nuance, Yan Fei explained, “This wasn’t an active manipulation on my part. I currently seem to be able to instinctively generate a layer of magnetic field around my body that repels oncoming metal from drawing near me. But right now, it can exclusively repel metal.” Speaking up to this point, he mulled it over. “It seems to be some kind of structural application of magnetic force?”

This instantly caused a surge of excitement to resonate in Luo Xun’s chest, and he slapped his partner forcefully on the shoulder. “Could it theoretically be a manifestation of a domain? Go ahead and continue developing it later; who knows if there will be alternative, unexpected windfalls!”

True to expectations, once a superpower broke through to level five, the practical capabilities appeared to become entirely different from before. Luo Xun was currently highly curious about what kind of effects alternative elemental classes would display after reaching level five. Regrettably, within their current ranks, only Yan Fei and Song Lingling had successfully pushed their abilities into the level-five tier. Although Zhang Su had unearthed a level-five wind crystal from the bat previously, because his personal energy reserves hadn’t reached total saturation yet, he hadn’t dared to absorb it for the time being. Meanwhile, Song Lingling’s level-five water ability didn’t seem to manifest anything particularly reality-defying, such as a domain, so they could only observe for now.

Once the furniture for the various bedrooms was fully fabricated by Yan Fei, the next day Luo Xun dragged him along to run the wiring and mount the hardware across the coordinates chosen for the internal cameras. Xu Mei and Song Lingling had finished processing the feathers, and they now took over the primary sewing and tailoring labor. The remaining crew, who could finally catch a brief breather, huddled to exchange ideas and decided to help little Xinran sort out her playroom completely.

Previously, they had already shifted the various toys and interlocking floor tiles from the play structure into a corner of a classroom on the second floor. That room still housed a few alternative supplies that hadn’t been moved out yet, so exploiting the high spirits of the young men right now, they rapidly shifted those items down into the vacant rooms on the first floor, plying the air pumps to inflate the children’s castle for the little girl.

Although the kindergarten originally possessed a mechanical blower, that gadget had been left completely exposed to the elements right beside the inflatable castle, and heaven only knew how long it had been soaked under the rain. Fortunately, when Luo Xun and the team were sweeping the hardware stores previously, someone had casually brought back two pristine air blowers, which were put to perfect use right now.

This inflatable castle primarily functioned as a trampoline structure. Although the little girl was already seven or eight years old, playing inside it carried absolutely zero pressure, and even the adults could climb inside to join in the festive fun.

Once the castle was fully inflated, the group kicked off their shoes and scrambled up to take a lap. Although they didn’t dare riot or bounce too aggressively, it handily counted as a way to satisfy their inner childhood cravings.

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