The Reborn Otaku’s Code of Practice for the Apocalypse – CH256

Chapter 256 — The Battle (Part 3)

Ever since they discovered that their two eagles also possessed superpowers, Luo Xun and the team had been researching how to best utilize them.

Communication was impossible right now, so they couldn’t issue specific commands to have the birds flexibly attack targets according to their instructions. However, they could get them to directly and simply blast a specific point—for an inherent disadvantage like a language barrier, this was already a massive and remarkable step forward.

Furthermore, ever since they learned that this zombie tide would highly likely pass right by their base, Luo Xun and the others understood that they couldn’t rely solely on those mutated plants for defense. Like the City A Base, they needed more effective fortifications. The pitfalls from before were part of these new fortifications, and this “wall” was now also a part of the system.

At the very beginning, Luo Xun and the team had wanted to utilize the conductivity of metal, using the storage batteries in the house to electrify the perimeter for defense. But the number of storage batteries at home was limited after all, and they had only just passed a long winter during which the heavy snow consistently covered the roof, preventing them from replenishing the power supply.

Once a zombie siege formed, or if something went wrong with the mutated plants outside, how was their household supposed to deal with the zombies crowding beneath the walls?

Fortunately, they discovered the superpowers of these two eagles.

Although they currently lacked the proper equipment to collect the electrical energy the two eagles spat out at random, they could still utilize their superpowers to defend the base at critical moments. In previous tests, Luo Xun and the team had verified that the eagles’ superpowers could be completely conducted outward through this specialized metal wall.

And perhaps because they were the offspring of a mutated animal, the power of their electricity was immensely formidable; a single blast carried immense destructive force. Now that it was channeled into the metal wall, the effect was the same. Their dual blast rapidly conducted in all directions, shocking all the zombies crowding beneath the walls until smoke drifted from their heads!

A higher-voltage electric shock was perfectly capable of killing a target. Even if the voltage fell slightly short, it would leave the target completely numb and immobilized for quite a while, and the same applied to the zombies. Especially with such a wide-range electrical shock, those two blue orbs of light from just now were enough to make the vanguard of the encircling zombies collectively tremble for half a minute.

Half a minute later, the second blast arrived right on cue, letting them once again enjoy the refreshing sensation of an electrical current coursing through their bodies. One had to remember that they were currently standing right by the walls in the snow—that semi-thawed slush and the wet, muddy earth were both deadly forms of assistance!

Before long, after the surrounding mutated plants finished digesting the food they had previously “snared,” they once again extended their demonic clutches, lashing out to snatch up the food that had fallen on and around them…

The pitfalls, the Devil’s Vine, the electrical shocks, plus Yan Fei manipulating the metal on the walls at regular intervals to manifest fine webs for a sweeping dicing of the surrounding zombies, and Zhang Su cooperating with Xu Mei and little Xinran to occasionally unleash a round of ultimate moves toward the walls—several attack methods were rotated sequentially. Everyone cooperated with one another, relying on the massive hoard of crystals accumulated at home to slowly hold the line, day by day, bit by bit.

They should be profoundly grateful that the airborne zombies had thoroughly vanished from sight starting from the fourth day. The absolute majority of those flying zombies that had directly targeted their base early on were systematically slaughtered by the joint efforts of Zhang Su and Yan Fei. The remaining few, seeing that the complex remained unbreachable after prolonged attacks and that the scent of living humans below ran exceptionally faint, turned around, flapped their wings, and trailed back after the primary zombie army.

This left only the horde launching a ground assault, persistently and relentlessly surging into the Devil’s Vines to draw beneath the walls of the compact base.

Luo Xun and the team could only grit their teeth and endure, wait, and hold out, because if they took a single step back, what awaited them would be absolute despair. Therefore, they had to hold the line—they absolutely must hold the line!

“There’s movement underground.” The group was currently stationed inside the basement server room. By this point, power had been restored to the complex, and every member had taken turns executing defensive counter-attacks throughout the night. Yan Fei, who was currently resting, suddenly sharpened his eyes and spoke up.

“Underground?! Earth-type zombies?” Luo Xun sat up instantly. “Or zombie rats?” This colossal zombie army similarly hosted a massive medley of zombie animals alongside the human variants. However, if it were zombie rats, why hadn’t they manifested at the very beginning?

“Unclear, it appears to be earth-type zombies,” Yan Fei felt the parameters once more via the conductivity of the metal walls. “However, the numbers aren’t too immense. I should be able to process them.”

Luo Xun let out a sigh, cradling a massive, transparent, non-attributed crystal to hand over to Yan Fei so he could absorb the energy to deal with the threats burrowing deep underground.

It was still nighttime—or more accurately, it was currently the exact dawn hours right before the absolute darkest stretch of the day, yet those damned zombies just had to stir up trouble, remarkably plotting a subterranean excavation at this hour!

But it was also profoundly fortunate that the metal-type zombies—which Luo Xun and the team had consistently worried about early on—rarely managed to safely and smoothly reach the base of their exterior walls. They had previously verified with absolute certainty via the surveillance monitors that zombie units shielding themselves with metallic armor were launching assaults toward the base walls, but the vast majority of those zombies were systematically slaughtered midway by the Devil’s Vines.

As for the remaining metal-type zombies that did draw level with the base of the walls, the absolute moment they materialized and began tampering with the metal barriers, they were preemptively struck down by a vigilant Yan Fei executing a first-strike maneuver.

While Luo Xun’s thoughts wandered slightly, Yan Fei had already opened his eyes: “Sorted them out. A total of forty-plus targets.”

Forty-plus earth-type zombies. Fortunately, when they burrowed into the dirt, they hadn’t brought alternative classes along to execute a joint maneuver—such as metal-type zombies—otherwise, it would have still triggered a substantial complication for Luo Xun’s team.

As for how they were supposed to process the mountains of zombie carcasses piled up outside?

Who on earth had the leisure to police those parameters currently? Keeping themselves alive was the absolute priority.

Roughly half an hour slipped past, and the exterior finally broke into dawn as the daylight brightened.

The members resting inside the room were awakened in succession by the alarms set on their respective cell phones. Sitting up to rub their cheeks, they skipped their basic washing chores out of sheer urgency, turning to ask Luo Xun, who was managing the final watch shift: “What’s the status outside?”

Luo Xun pointed toward several camera feeds: “Still identical. We can let the eaglets execute another alternative round after waiting twenty minutes.” Those two eagles were mutated animals after all; they seemingly didn’t quite understand how to ply raw crystals, meaning their elemental recovery relied primarily on resting to slowly regenerate their reserves. Consequently, they could only execute a concentrated electrical discharge twice daily, requiring a prolonged rest after every individual round.

This already marked the sixth day their base had been encased by the zombie tide. It had to be said that if it hadn’t been for those wild mutated plants tirelessly attacking the intruding zombies day and night without a single moment of pause, attempting to defend against such a monumental density of zombies with a mere dozen or so personnel would have been nothing short of a pipedream.

Xu Mei rose to her feet: “Lingling and I will go whip up some food.”

“Perfect, keep your phones on hand.” The operational footprint of the base was immensely substantial, meaning they had to guarantee fluent communication lines. It was profoundly fortunate that they had pre-deployed signal receivers, Wi-Fi routers, and alternative fixtures across every corner of the complex long ago, permitting them to maintain mutual contact regardless of which room they stepped into. Otherwise, the powerful isolation effect triggered by solid metal walls alone would be perfectly sufficient to cause all modern wireless devices to short-circuit and fail.

After completing a verification of the conditions outside every single wall, Luo Xun and the team once again severed the entire power grid twenty minutes later. Following that, the two fully rested eaglets excitedly spat a succession of lightning balls straight toward the walls.

Once this round of defensive counter-attack concluded and the central power grid was restored to the complex once more, Li Tie and Han Li went upstairs to relieve Xu Mei and her partner, while Yan Fei resumed his long-range manipulation of the outermost metal walls to systematically dice the zombies.

“We intercepted the latest satellite photos. Let’s complete a check.” He Qiankun and Wu Xin, who were responsible for verifying the incoming external data streams, caught that today’s macro photos had successfully downloaded and hurriedly called out to Luo Xun.

“Yeah, you guys inspect them. I’ll continue monitoring the surveillance feeds.”

The crew divided their labor, every member bustling with their respective tasks. Over on the alternative flank, Wang Duo was assisting the superpower users by hauling applicable crystals out from the storage alcoves. Only Zhang Su was currently resting with his eyes closed, appearing as though he hadn’t fully rolled out of sleep yet. Little Xinran wrapped her arms around the puppy’s neck, currently lowering her voice to murmur something to him.

Before long, Xu Mei and the girls returned with the food. They hadn’t prepared a complicated dish, plying the automated noodle press that had consistently been stationed at the base early on to manufacture dried noodles, which they simmered into a massive pot of tomato and egg noodle soup.

These dried noodles had been pre-manufactured by Luo Xun and the team long ago, explicitly held in reserve to handle this defensive engagement. Fearing they wouldn’t find a window to execute complex food preparations, the crew plying these convenient, elementary meals to sustain themselves during high-intensity hours worked perfectly.

“Brother Luo! Quick, get over here! Evaluate this specific photo!!” He Qiankun’s voice suddenly spiked into a high register, a wave of uncontrollable excitement and intensity bleeding through his cadence.

The crew cast aside their meals on the spot, crowding in a tight circle before his computer terminal to parse the screen.

“Look at this!”

The monitor screen showcased a single, aggressively magnified satellite photo that completely packed the display interface. Regarding this specific map segment, it was immensely familiar to Luo Xun and the team; after all, they panned their absolute focus toward monitoring the conditions surrounding their base daily, meaning they could recognize the local terrain at an absolute glance.

And currently, across this meteorological map, that endless, pitch-black zombie tide that had tightly encircled the perimeter of their base… remarkably showcased its trailing edge!

Being able to catch the rear of the column structurally proved—the dawn of their future had finally crystallized! They merely required holding the line, persistently enduring for another few days, and once this final wave of the zombie force rolled past or was completely annihilated by their defenses, this entire ordeal would draw to a temporary close!!

Luo Xun took a sharp, deep breath. He refrained from joining the thunderous, joyful cheering and bounding erupting from the young men surrounding him, meticulously analyzing the exact condition of the remaining zombies currently besieging their walls instead.

An outsider evaluating this photo file might not necessarily deduce much, mapping it at most as a sector where wild mutated vegetation obstructed the advance trajectory of a zombie army. Yet Luo Xun could clearly parse the absolute dimensions of his own fortifications, the precise spatial footprint of the mutated farmland encircling the complex, and the exact coordinates where those past pitfalls sat.

“This image file was captured when the satellite completed a macro sweep yesterday afternoon. Weathering a full night since then… the rear of their trailing columns has likely contracted straight into the inner boundary where we originally deployed our traps. Maintain absolute focus on our exterior surveillance monitors today; let’s see if we can actively catch the tail of the zombie army within our camera lenses before the day concludes.” The absolute moment the words left Luo Xun’s lips, an uncontrollable, thunderous roar of cheers finally exploded throughout the server room.

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