The Reborn Otaku’s Code of Practice for the Apocalypse – CH231

Chapter 231 — Treasures After the Heavy Rain

The members of the team, who had spent nearly all their free time over the past few days cooped up in the game room, finally abandoned their controllers and online PC matches today to gather around the playroom instead. Little Baozi was placed on the carpeted floor, flailing his arms and legs like a little overturned turtle. Then, using some unknown combination of leverage from his tiny limbs—he rolled over!

The moment he completed the movement, a cheer erupted from the surrounding crowd. Right after that, this band of unscrupulous adults unceremoniously flipped the baby right back onto his back…

By the time they turned the baby over for what felt like the umpteenth time, eagerly anticipating another performance of his “special trick,” little Baozi simply tilted his head, let a trail of drool leak out… and fell fast asleep.

Exhausted from being rustled around by the shameless adults, the baby finally escaped their clutches. His tiny stomach rose and fell rhythmically as he slept like a log, completely ignoring anyone who tried to poke or coax him.

It was fortunate that this child had an exceptionally mild temperament and rarely cried; any other baby would have probably been screaming bloody murder after being fussed over for so long.

Leaving the baby in little Xinran’s care, the group went to tend to the two subterranean planting levels. Afterward, Luo Xun and Yan Fei climbed out of the third-floor window onto the greenhouse roof to check if any of the drainage spouts were blocked.

There was still some standing water pooling on the roof, but the volume was vastly less than what was currently flooding the streets below. After taking a lap around the greenhouse perimeter, the two climbed up to the absolute apex of the main building’s third-floor roof to ensure none of the roof-mounted equipment had suffered water damage. Although the surveillance cameras installed here were waterproof and currently transmitting pristine feeds, it was best not to leave them submerged for prolonged periods.

The satellite dish was completely fine, and the cameras bore zero issues as well. After completing the check, Luo Xun casually raised the binoculars hanging around his neck to scan the immediate perimeter. Out on the tranquil, newly expanded network of ponds, various waterfowl were leisurely drifting and playing. Flanking the bank, the two wolves were curled up together beneath a massive tree, staring longingly with absolute greed at the birds drifting a short distance away.

Luo Xun shifted his line of sight toward another patch of the adjacent mutated farmland, scanning the conditions along the highway, when he suddenly caught a brief flash of reflection out of the corner of his eye. He hurriedly rubbed his eyes and squinted meticulously at the spot. “Yan Fei, look over there. Is something reflecting light on the ground, or am I seeing things?”

Fearing his own eyes were playing tricks on him, Luo Xun hurriedly handed the binoculars over to Yan Fei to help verify.

Yan Fei took the binoculars and studied the coordinate Luo Xun was pointing toward for a good while before noting with a trace of uncertainty, “…It looks like crystals reflecting the sunlight?”

“I think so too! It doesn’t look like the flat reflection of standing water!” Luo Xun bounded upright instantly, his eyes flashing with vibrant excitement. “Do you think they were washed out by the heavy rain, or did the massive gale on the night it cleared blow them to the edge of the fields?”

“It’s highly possible,” Yan Fei nodded, asking with a smile, “Want to go down and take a look?”

Although that specific coordinate sat exceptionally close to the mutated farmland, if the rainstorm had handily washed the crystals straight out to the banks, harvesting them would be vastly easier than before, wouldn’t it?

The two rapidly scrambled back downstairs to break the news to the group. The squad, who had been holed up indoors for days, instantly threw up both hands in absolute welcome, stating they wanted to exploit this opportunity to head out and unwind. Although their home complex was pristine and held virtually everything they required—and their newly fabricated greenhouse along with the third-floor rooms could catch plenty of sun—being indoors was ultimately different from the wild. While they had zero desire to travel far, taking a turn in the perimeter after a massive downpour sounded excellent.

The accumulated floodwaters outside remained substantial. Luo Xun and the team retrieved the rubber rain boots they had stockpiled back at the Southwest Base, lining the interior with the custom metal-fiber leg guards Yan Fei had upgraded for protection, before driving a small electric vehicle out to the main exit of their secret tunnel in a majestic column.

Standing before the iron barrier, Luo Xun turned to look at Song Lingling beside him. “Ready?”

Song Lingling nodded, raising her hand to focus her gaze onto the sloped tunnel exit ahead.

Yan Fei slowly pried open a gap in the metal plate. Sure enough, the rushing floodwaters outside instantly surged toward the tunnel opening, but the prepared Song Lingling asserted immediate control over the liquid. With a flick of her wrist, the oncoming runoff instantaneously transformed into a solid wall of water, suspended in mid-air right before the group.

Once the main gate swung fully open and the external water pressure stopped surging inward, the group stepped outside alongside Song Lingling, who smoothly maintained the levitating water barrier.

The sky outside remained brilliantly clear, a pristine wash of deep azure stretching overhead. The standing water in the perimeter had grown lukewarm under the blistering midday sun, creating a humid, sweltering haze typical of a post-rain scorcher.

“It’s actually less comfortable out here than inside our base,” He Qiankun, who was highly sensitive to temperature spikes, grumbled the moment they stepped outside.

“Our living spaces are all air-conditioned, and the alternative rooms are packed with so much vegetation; naturally, the interior temperature won’t rise very high.”

The group moved as though they were truly embarking on a summer camping excursion. Aside from the pavement being exceptionally muddy and treacherous to navigate due to the standing water, the view of the flooded fields, paths, and marshes—combined with the dense woods in the distance and the waterfowl leisurely drifting across the ponds—formed a beautiful picture of a summer wild.

Virtually every single step caused their boots to sink deep into the thick mire, requiring a substantial amount of physical effort to yank each foot back out. Xu Mei had already left one of her boots trapped in the mud twice, forcing her to double back to retrieve it before she could resume walking.

Ultimately, a helpless Song Lingling had to step up, continuously siphoning away the water while checking the depth of the mire ahead to clear a viable track for the column. By this point, thoroughly experiencing how grueling the ruined post-apocalyptic thoroughfares were to navigate, the team began complaining that the sun wasn’t powerful enough to bake the roads dry instantly. Following that, they grumbled a bit about the fragile drainage infrastructure of the post-apocalyptic world.

Arriving at the edge of the mutated farmland, they didn’t even need to draw close to spot loose, scattered crystals that had been unexpectedly “pushed” out to the banks by the combined forces of the rainwater, gales, and the thrashing vines during the storm.

These specimens were all relatively small in size and light in weight, meaning a strong current and a heavy gust of wind could easily wash them straight onto the banks flanking the fields.

Catching sight of this, the eyes of Luo Xun’s group flashed with brilliant greed, and they began pacing eagerly along the bank. Luo Xun mulled it over for a good while before turning to offer a strategy to Song Lingling: “Try utilizing your superpower to see if you can siphon them out, or at least wash them as close to the bank as possible.”

Song Lingling’s ability had already broken through to level five. Compared to little Xinran, who still hadn’t located a high-tier sand crystal to grind her progression, Song Lingling’s level-five water superpower possessed a vastly superior operational range and a much more formidable output.

Hearing his words, Song Lingling nodded, channeling the standing floodwaters to “shove” the various loose items resting within the liquid and the mud toward their position.

Bit by bit, patch by patch, Song Lingling completed a brief trial, before turning to look at Luo Xun with a slight frown. “Boss, the heavier objects embedded in the mud are too dense for me to shove with the water. The smaller ones are fine, but the large variants won’t budge.”

Evaluating the physical size of the glittering crystals mixed among the loose gravel and debris along the “shoreline,” Luo Xun estimated that utilizing her water ability, Song Lingling could at most “shove” crystals below level three. Anything above level four would likely prove exceptionally difficult. Turning his gaze toward Zhang Su, he noted, “Try joining forces to complete a cooperative sweep.”

Just a few days ago, Zhang Su had successfully used that compact level-five wind crystal from the bat—supplemented by a hoard of alternative level-four wind crystals—to forcefully push his superpower into the level-five tier. This demonstrated that as long as a survivor possessed a level-five crystal to serve as an absolute “medium” or “catalyst,” they could successfully grind their tier progression. As for whether a risk of failure existed… that parameter remained verified by absolutely no one for now.

A level-five wind superpower possessed an operational force that spanned a vastly larger area than even a water-user’s. As long as Luo Xun and the team completed a thorough lap around the four perimeters of the farmland, they could completely filter and screen the surface layer of the fields, which was vastly more convenient than having little Xinran dig for treasure.

With the wind and water classes combining forces, the defensive rows of mutated vegetation near their target coordinates were whipped into a frantic, chaotic frenzy by the currents and gales, their sinister vines thrashing arrogantly through mid-air but failing to snare a single human target.

Little Xinran stood by the bank alongside the rest of the crew. The moment Song Lingling and Zhang Su finished “screening” a specific sector together, she would step up to manipulate the subterranean silt, scooping up the various small and large crystals to drop them safely onto the grass. Li Tie and the young men waiting beside her would then sweep the harvested crystals straight into the gunny sacks they had brought along—these happened to be the exact same bags they had used to haul the river pebbles back from their last long-distance supply run. Having sat submerged through the apocalypse for a full two years until now without rotting, the sheer durability of these sacks was highly visible.

The mutated farmland looked as though it were being struck by ocean breakers; the standing water and the vegetation inside rippled in wave after wave, thrashing relentlessly toward the “shore” exactly like genuine sea waves crashing across a sandy beach.

Two level-five superpower users, one level-four sand user, plus a squad of labor hands to assist them—working for barely two hours, Luo Xun and the team systematically filled a dozen gunny sacks with crystals, completely exhausting their supply of bags.

However, their harvest was far from over. When they set out this time, they had explicitly driven two small electric trucks, and the alternative vehicle bed carried various shapes and sizes of baskets they had woven out of rice straw for entertainment during their leisure hours, which were all brought along right now to serve as storage baskets for the crystals.

Currently, now that the gunny sacks were packed to the brim, they naturally had to deploy these woven baskets—after all, they couldn’t possibly expect Yan Fei to fabricate custom metal crates on the fly every single time, right? Besides, what was the absolute weight of a metal crate versus a woven basket? Even if these straw baskets ended up warped or ruined over time, it wouldn’t matter; once the moisture was siphoned away, they could still be used as kindling to cook dinner. Throwing them out if they broke carried zero risk of environmental pollution, allowing everyone to repurpose waste material while sharpening their manual craftsmanship.

The group had filtered barely under two acres of land, yet the two small electric trucks were already packed to the absolute brim. The team’s momentum immediately skyrocketed, and they rapidly drove the trucks back to unload the cargo before rolling right back out to the fields—exploiting the fact that the standing water outside hadn’t dried yet, they had to seize the time to clear out a few more patches of farmland. A survivor could never harbor too many crystals anyway; they could just stash them away to use slowly over time.

Amidst their frantic, systematic labor, a sudden, heavy vibration rippled through the earth. Raising their heads to look up, the group spotted those two highly familiar wolves running frantically toward their coordinates.

“Careful! Weapons out!” Catching the two wolves racing toward their position, Luo Xun’s very first instinct was—they must be trailing a massive pack of mutated predators behind them!

Yet when they discovered that absolutely nothing was chasing behind the pair, the group was rendered thoroughly bewildered for a good while. Confronted with these two towering, majestic mutated wolves that could easily crush a full-grown human underfoot, the team felt zero trace of tension or dread. Instead, everyone simply stared at them in utter confusion.

The two wolves ground to a halt a short distance away from the group, looking down at them while their massive tails wagged rhythmically from side to side behind them.

“Ah! Look, the puppy!” Little Xinran raised a hand to wipe her cheek, completely smearing a patch of mud across her face as she pointed excitedly at the paws of the two wolves—and who else could be standing there but the puppy from Luo Xun’s household?!

That raised a serious question: where on earth had this creature rolled around to get so thoroughly caked in thick mud?

Wait, that wasn’t right! Since when… had this dog even slipped out of their sight?!

Thank you for reading 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉