Chapter 53 — Habit Formed Over Time
“I heard a bunch of big shots came from other bases — people with authority — and they were taken straight into the military zone. But we don’t know any of them,” Li Tie said. “While we were working, we heard rumbling outside, and when we looked — wow! A long convoy! Even tanks!”
After some talk, everyone returned to their rooms. Luo Xun and Yan Fei said goodbye, and Zhang Su, after transferring the food into his own lunchbox, washed and returned theirs. He’d already eaten dinner and honestly thought their earlier promise to “bring him food” was just polite talk — but they really had.
Luo Xun had glanced at the food they brought — and wow, it really had meat and vegetables. Even though the eggplant dish had no meat, the aroma alone was better than what they’d had at noon. The potato stew even had chunks of pork belly and whole boiled eggs.
The two also got two braised eggs from Li Tie’s group — perfect for a little extra dinner treat.
They cooked stir-fried lettuce, dry-fried potatoes with cured pork, and a spinach-and-dried-shrimp soup. With the two eggs and leftover buns from lunch, dinner was quite satisfying.
After eating, Luo Xun went to the balcony to cover the quail cage with a dark cloth — and suddenly noticed something unusual.
“Yan Fei! Yan Fei! The quail laid eggs!!” Luo Xun shouted excitedly.
“They did?!” Yan Fei rushed over. Sure enough, in the tiny nest were three small speckled quail eggs!
Luo Xun quickly grabbed a flashlight and examined them one by one — three in total, two infertile and one fertilized. He placed the fertilized one back and kept the other two aside. “Let’s save them for now. They won’t spoil too fast.” Quail eggs didn’t last as long as chicken eggs, but could keep for three to five days easily.
He placed the two tiny eggs carefully into a large bamboo basket that once held chicken and duck eggs — such a small luxury in this world. Indeed, having quail eggs in the apocalypse was a true luxury.
Quails didn’t live long — two years at most in captivity, three to five in the wild. The ones they had were caught by local kids last year, so no one knew their exact age. It was crucial that they started laying now so the next generation could hatch soon — those eggs were their hope for future food.
“Later, put metal tags on the seven quails’ legs so we don’t mix them up with new ones.” When the older quails grew too old, they’d become part of the food supply. With few mutant animals around and little chance of catching wild meat, these quails were precious.
“Alright, no need for later.” Yan Fei summoned a strip of metal from a nearby sheet, shaping it midair into seven tiny bands, each wrapping around a quail’s leg — neatly engraved with the number “1,” marking them as the first generation.
Luo Xun just hoped their future chicks would include both males and females — or their home’s quail line might end too soon.
After finishing up, they went upstairs. Yan Fei glanced at the large metal sphere by the bed — the one he used every night to drain his excess power — then suddenly pulled Luo Xun, who had just climbed onto the bed, toward him.
“What are you doing?”
“Not sleepy. I napped this afternoon.”
Luo Xun pressed down on Yan Fei’s wandering hand. “If you’re not sleepy, play with your metal ball. We have to get up early!”
“Let’s do something else first — might help you sleep better.”
“Pervert! Hands off—”
Well, he didn’t stop — and since the title of “pervert” was already given, he made sure to live up to it quite thoroughly.
The next morning, before dawn had even broken, the two got up, ate, washed, checked the house, and locked everything up before heading out with their car keys.
Li Tie’s group was also heading out at the same time, so they went together. Luo Xun drove his gold Jinbei van again. There weren’t enough seats in the back, but sitting on the floor was still much better than walking.
They parked the vehicle in a spot near the military base and hurried toward the main gate. After checking each person’s ID badge, the guards let them through. Once inside, the group split up—one team heading deeper into the base, while Luo Xun and Yan Fei went straight toward the large truck that was about to depart.
When the driver saw them approaching, he greeted them and told them to get in and wait. Before long, the squad leader arrived with two other ability users and a few soldiers in charge of security.
“You may have already heard,” the squad leader began, “yesterday afternoon quite a few survivors arrived outside the base, and with them came a good number of zombies. Things might get tense outside today, but don’t worry—the higher-ups have arranged extra defenses for us.”
Both men nodded. They knew the zombies had to be drawn in by those who returned to the base yesterday. When humans gather in numbers, their scent grows stronger. For now, only scattered zombies were being lured in, but once the horde evolved and their sense of smell improved again, they would continuously flock toward the bases.
The truck started up once more. Outside the base gates, they could see groups of new arrivals gathered in clusters beneath the outer walls. Makeshift tents and shacks were packed tightly together as far as the eye could see.
There were clearly more people now. Besides those returning from missions, newcomers were no longer allowed inside the inner walls. As their truck passed, Luo Xun could hear someone using a loudspeaker to rally people to help build new walls.
Those who joined the wall-building crews received three meals a day and a small amount of credits, which could later be exchanged for supplies. It was actually a pretty good deal—especially now, since the credits were worth far more than they would be later on. Unlike pre-apocalypse money, base credits didn’t lose much value over time. Even as the population plummeted, their purchasing power remained stable. It wasn’t until energy cores appeared that credits finally had a potential rival in value. But even then, before Luo Xun’s rebirth, credits had never depreciated much.
Before long, the truck reached the same construction site they had worked at yesterday. The three metal ability users had made good progress—another long section of the wall had already gone up.
Zombies could be seen in the distance. Soldiers stood guard, rifles at the ready, while trenches and wooden stakes—dug overnight—formed barriers to slow the undead’s advance.
The metal ability users resumed their work. Because zombies were visible today, Luo Xun and the other guards were on high alert, constantly scanning their surroundings.
Around nine or ten in the morning, a convoy of battered vehicles came roaring from the city’s depths toward the base gates, with a mob of shrieking, frenzied zombies trailing close behind.
“Everyone stay sharp!” the squad leader shouted. Even though most of the zombies were being gunned down by soldiers stationed farther out, a few occasionally broke through the line and reached their position.
Moments later, gunfire erupted in the distance, and several zombies fell. But there were too many—twenty, maybe thirty in total—and the sound of gunfire drew even more of them from the direction of the fleeing convoy.
“Get ready!” the squad leader barked, raising his submachine gun as several zombies burst through the outer defense line, sprinting toward them.
Bang! Bang bang!
A few shots rang out, dropping several zombies, but not all soldiers could hit a headshot. Even after being shot in the arm or leg, the rest kept charging, ignoring their wounds entirely.
Suddenly, one zombie leapt into the air with terrifying speed, pouncing toward two resting metal users.
Without lifting a finger, Yan Fei merely glanced up—thump! The zombie froze mid-air, then dropped lifelessly to the ground.
The soldier guarding another ability user froze in shock, only to see Luo Xun calmly raise his crossbow and fire. Another zombie—this one lunging at a soldier besieged by two others—collapsed with a bolt in its skull. His aim was deadly accurate.
Even in the army, not everyone was a sharpshooter, but Luo Xun hit every target. Seeing Yan Fei’s utterly calm expression beside him, it was clear this wasn’t surprising to him at all.
With Luo Xun’s help, the group quickly cleared out the zombies that had gotten through.
After confirming the area was secure, Luo Xun instinctively drew the dagger from his boot, knelt down, and pried open the skulls of the zombies he’d killed, retrieving the crystal cores inside. He rinsed them in a bottle of water, pocketed them—and then realized everyone was staring at him.
What? It was just habit! Everyone in the apocalypse collected the crystal cores of the zombies they killed—it was an unspoken rule. They’d get used to it soon enough!
The squad leader snapped out of it first, coughed, and ordered, “Pile up the corpses. Logistics will send a team to burn them.” Then he walked over to Luo Xun. “Nice shooting. Ever trained with a crossbow before?”
Luo Xun smiled awkwardly as he tucked the two crystal cores into his pocket. “Just a hobby.”
Thankfully, though his expression was calmer and less naïve than Li Tie’s, his eyes were still clear and honest. Otherwise, the squad leader might’ve mistaken him for some dangerous pre-apocalypse extremist. He patted Luo Xun’s shoulder and, tactfully, didn’t ask him to hand over the cores.
After retrieving his bolts, cleaning them, and putting them away, Luo Xun walked over to Yan Fei and discreetly passed the cores to him, hidden by their bodies.
These things were only useful to ability users, so of course Yan Fei should have them—either to strengthen himself or as an emergency energy supply.
Yan Fei smiled faintly, squeezing his partner’s hand while taking them. He didn’t plan to use them yet; the supply was too limited. Better to save them for when survival really depended on it.
Half a day passed quickly. Each person worked about three shifts before noon arrived and they could rest.
On the way back to the base in the crowded truck, Luo Xun and Yan Fei noticed there were more people in the camp than before.
At the mess hall, most diners were still lower-ranking officers, but some unfamiliar faces had appeared—likely those transferred from other bases. The higher-ups surely dined elsewhere.
They got two trays of food and sat together by the wall.
“Do you think there’ll be more zombies later?” Yan Fei asked quietly.
“Definitely,” Luo Xun replied without hesitation. “It’s not just the returning teams that attract them. With this many people gathered, the scent alone will bring more. The walls need to go up faster.”
Yan Fei agreed. When they’d returned to the inner gate at noon, they’d seen trucks full of new workers heading out—probably fresh recruits joining the construction efforts.
“Be careful tomorrow,” Yan Fei warned softly. “Try not to go too close to the front line. Those zombies today weren’t like the ones before—I think most out there have already evolved.”
Luo Xun knew that all too well. In his past life, these evolved zombies had made survival… interesting. Deadly kind of interesting.
He was just an ordinary human, fine shooting from the rear, but Yan Fei didn’t want him anywhere near the front. Thankfully, they now had the crystal cores. If things went south, they could use them to restore energy and fight their way out together.
Even two small cores gave them a lot more confidence—and a sense of security.
Lunch was simple, just rice, and they didn’t leave much behind. After returning their trays, they left the cafeteria, retrieved their car, and drove home.
Passing through the downtown area, they saw a propaganda truck broadcasting recruitment for the wall-building teams. Many of the newcomers, realizing they couldn’t just live off rations forever, began signing up. With both old and new people joining in, the recruitment drive was finally running smoothly again.
When they reached home and climbed up to the sixteenth floor, they exchanged a few words with Zhang Su, who peeked out when he heard the door, then finally went inside and relaxed completely.
“These are from yesterday, and these from today.” Luo Xun took out Yan Fei’s earned credits and counted them, combining them with their previous savings. The pay for ability users was generous—Luo Xun had earned six credits for a full day’s work, while Yan Fei got twelve for half a day, plus a free meal.
“We don’t need to spend them yet,” Luo Xun said, putting them in their post-apocalypse wallet. “Let’s save them in case we need to trade for metal or building materials later.”
Yan Fei had no objections to handing over his pay—he even looked rather content about it.
After a day of adjustment, he no longer felt as drained as yesterday. Instead of napping, the two spent the afternoon modifying containers for planting and hydroponics—drilling holes and cutting tubing. In the middle of it, they heard some noise from the quail pen, hurried over, and found new eggs!
Luo Xun shone a flashlight over them and found that out of three, two were fertilized.
“Nice!” he whispered excitedly, putting the fertile ones back and setting aside the single edible egg to cook later.
Yan Fei smiled too—nothing felt better than seeing their little household thriving.
“They’re almost out of mealworms. I’ll get more,” Luo Xun said, heading for the kitchen. But moments later, Yan Fei heard him yell in alarm.
“What happened?!” Yan Fei rushed over.
Luo Xun turned around, pale, and pointed at the large glass jar of mealworms. Yan Fei followed his finger—and saw a bunch of shiny black beetles crawling inside.
“…Are those—”
“Adults,” Luo Xun sighed. “Some of the big ones must’ve pupated and I didn’t notice. It’s fine, just scared me for a second—I thought they’d mutated.”
Honestly, anyone would’ve been startled—expecting soft, squirmy larvae and finding a jar full of dark, winged insects instead.
Having new life in the house should’ve been a good thing — but it depends what kind of new life we’re talking about, right? Breadworms reproducing definitely wasn’t something worth celebrating.
Luckily, Luo Xun had already prepared mesh-covered boxes for keeping adult insects, and the current glass box also had a lid — otherwise, they’d be flying all over the place.
After scooping out some of the worms to reward their hard-working quails for laying eggs, the couple grimaced as they used long tweezers to pick out all the adult beetles in the nursery room. Not just the adults — they also had to separate pupae and the unhatched larvae into another box for breeding, to prevent the newborn worms from being eaten by the larger ones.
Catching bugs was far from pleasant. Even though the two of them weren’t afraid to face zombies, when they finally came out of the nursery that afternoon, both were covered in goosebumps and rushed straight to the bathroom for a shower. At least they managed to regain their appetites before dinner, successfully throwing the image of those dark, squirming things out of their minds.
That evening, Luo Xun and Yan Fei used their household’s only three quail eggs to make a pot of seaweed and dried shrimp egg drop soup. Paired with fragrant steamed rice, homemade pickles, and a few stir-fried vegetables, they enjoyed a satisfying dinner.
When Li Tie and the others came back, they still brought food for Zhang Su, who again decided to save it for lunch the next day.
The next morning, when Luo Xun and Yan Fei went to the camp gate to gather with the squad, they were greeted with surprising news—
“Wait, I can get points too?” Luo Xun pointed to himself in surprise.
The team leader smiled and nodded. “Special approval from the top. Also, the high-purity metals you requested will be delivered later today. Not a lot, though.”
Luo Xun quickly thanked him with a grin — any reward was better than none. Receiving these supplies from the base was much easier than scavenging for them outside.
Metals and points could be distributed, but not crystal cores — at least not yet. The base hadn’t fully figured out what these things did, and until they confirmed there were no harmful side effects, they couldn’t risk widespread distribution.
Some field teams had obtained and used them, but the military bore heavier responsibility. If something went wrong, it wouldn’t just be a few casualties — it could endanger the entire base. So, caution was essential.
Thank you for reading 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉
