The Reborn Otaku's Code of Practice for the Apocalypse

Second Bonus chapter thanks to Vanilla Bean

Luo Xun and Yan Fei still chose to walk, a thick layer of snow had covered the streets. The usual clean up crew had not been seen for a long time. Maybe they thought it would more convenient to get rid of it once it stopped increasing? Besides, the current road conditions were not suitable for vehicles.

The men went all the way to the exchange window for seeds. The sales clerk handed the list with the printed prices. They selected several but there was a problem when they asked to see the items.

At first the person said ’no buying, no looking’ once the product was brought out it must be paid for. Luo Xun and Yan Fei would never accept – they did not buy and went to send food to the canteen while visiting that exchange window instead.

It seemed that the cold weather had a negative effect on the exchange windows. The staff whispered among themselves and eventually took out a small bag of barley seeds.

Luo Xun had barely taken a glance before noting "This is mutant wheat seeds right? There is no pre-apocalypse wheat?"

The staff froze, "Wheat is wheat, don’t know if it will mutate or not. Anyways the base only has these sorts of seeds, buy or don’t buy." He took the seeds back, saying if the couple did not buy, they could not help any further.

Luo Xun breathed deeply and pulled Yan Fei away. This customer service really ticked people off. Of course during winter, when people wore a lot, people’s identity cards were covered. Otherwise if the staff had seen Yan Fei’s card and marking, they would never use this attitude.

"Let’s ask the next time we send food to the barracks, outside things cannot be bought!" Luo Xun was still angry. Those people who public food, one month’s wages were not enough to fill a stomach. In front of ordinary people on base, they would pose with a master’s attitude.

Yan Fei smiled as he held Luo Xun’s shoulder, "The seeds had problems?"

Luo Xun nodded, "Color and shape were not right, he refused to let me get a closer look. In fact mutant seeds are easy to recognize because there are evident differences. Remember the mutant rice we ate? Normal rice is a pointed oval but the middle of the mutant rice is bent...shaped like a cashew nut. The seeds just now were also bent with weird shapes. Did you notice the color? Some were green, some orange – different from normal seeds after drying!"

Luo Xun huffed and did not stop, "Plus the seeds were taken out without packaging, who knows if the seeds were frozen. Even without other issues, we should not buy those."

Coupled with the staff member’s attitudes, it was simply unbearable to Luo Xun. Even if it had been a price problem in his past life, he refused to be cheated and fooled.

"Then don’t buy, if the military exchange window does not have it." Yan Fei patted his lover’s shoulder and then asked, "Can mutant crops be changed back to normal?"

Luo Xun frowned before shaking his head, "Never heard of it, even with high quality mutant seeds there has never been news of normal crops."

The two people returned home and told the others of their experience. Yu Xinran and Zhang Yi laughed while Xu Mei and Song Lingling were sympathetic. They were usually at home, before when their food had been stolen they often had to deal with these food selling windows. Who knew how many times they had dealt with that kind of person.

Luo Xun brought out a notebook and asked the two ladies – while ignoring the gloating. "If there is anything missing at home, write it down and we will buy some when people go to the barracks."

The two ladies expressed their support and hung the book and pen at the gate. When anyone wanted to add something, they would grab it and go.

At six o’clock in the evening, Li Tie and the others came home. Before Luo Xun had the chance to ask them about the day, the group went into their room and connected a disk to their computer.

"What’s the matter?" Everyone was curious about what was going on.

"We found something when were looking for Brother Yan and Zhang’s personal information...here it is!" They opened some photos from a file.

"What is this thing?!" Xu Mei and Song Lingling stared in amazement.

Zhang Yi also looked surprised. Yan Fei looked at Luo Xun, also his expression changed, there was little surprise – he had known about those things.

"Don’t know! However the file was not encrypted and placed at the top..." He explained while zooming in on the photos.

The images were obviously taken from a very high position or from a distance inside the ruins. There was the head...of a tall, ugly zombie.

The zombie was at least twice as tall as the average undead, higher strength since there was a photo of one easily lifting a car.

Everyone looked at the picture, Luo Xun waited for them to calm down before saying, "From the photos, it should be the evolved form of a power type zombie. In fact, in addition to their larger size, their physique should be around level three...Of course size is an issue but the damage should be similar to a level three zombie."

Han Li was surprised, "Level three? But the level three strength zombies we saw before did not look like that!"

Luo Xun waved a hand, "Maybe a higher level and they are slowing their shape like the mutant animals? Of course since we have not actually seen them, we cannot come to a conclusion."

"Those buildings that collapsed in the city...could it have been caused by them?" Wang Duo thought of a possibility.

"Maybe." Luo Xun nodded because those were probably the most destructive zombies currently. Of course it might have been an earth zombie, but with these pictures showing activity near the collapsed buildings, there is a good chance of us being right."

"They are still more destructive than the level three zombies we encountered...at least those other level three zombies did not tear down large buildings!" He Qiankun had a frightened expression.

Zhang Yi sniffed and rolled his eyes while scolding, "Have your brains been fed to the zombies? Were there any tall buildings in the south that could be destroyed by a mere level three zombie?"

It was already in ruins, the strength zombies might have accidentally found the best spot to make an impact.

The five university students looked and each before chuckling. Seemed like they had thought too much and got scared by the photos.

Luo Xun smiled but did not say anything, he had seen these three meter tall zombies during a siege in his past life. The only difference was the size and battle tactics. The larger zombies would mainly throw smaller zombies over the wall! However today’s walls were much higher and even expected to increase in height.

He Qiankun reported today’s results after calming himself down. "Yan Fei and Luo Xun only had their phone number which we deleted. The registration information on base residents indicates that you are not working in the military and the names are not the same so we left it alone. As for Zhang Yi I deleted the housing records and telephone number."

A lot of people on base only had their name and ID number but no address or phone. It was normal for information to appear like this.

He Qiankun had done a very good job. Luo Xun took out his pickled cucumbers as a reward to sate his cravings. He would not bring any other food with him for lunch tomorrow.

Time passed as Luo Xun, Yan Fei and Zhang Yi quickly adapted to otaku mode of life. Busy with daily work at home, occasionally selling vegetables to the barracks or other teams and then exchanging items from the logistics team. Days passed by smoothly.

The end of the month was approaching but the restructuring of base regulations had not finished. So they began to plan – did Li Tie and the others want to go out and hunt for crystal cores.

They currently had no other way to get nuclei, their purse strings were tighter. But the previous day of snow made the roads inside and outside base hard to traverse. If they were to leave base, they definitely needed some convenient snow transportation, their cars would be useless in the snow.

"Let’s make some electric sleds." Luo Xun clapped his hands.

"Electric sled? How would we do that?" Yan Fei looked doubtfully at Luo Xun, as long as it was metal he could help, but other than that we was lost.

"We have motors and gas at home. As for the sled, it would nice to make it out of a smooth iron plate." Luo Xun circled the room twice, "Li Tie can go through the database and carefully gather some information. We could also transform an electric car but it may be troublesome. If they can directly get the blueprints, it will be much simpler."

"This can be discussed with them tonight, if like you said there is going to be a lot of snow in the winter, we really need the tools to prepare ourselves." Yan Fei suddenly laughed, "Too bad Puppy is too small, otherwise it would be nice to them her pull the sled."

"She could pull one person at best, any more and..." Luo Xun smiled and shook his head, he did not want to mistreat his silly dog.

The couple then discussed what they were going to eat tonight when suddenly Luo Xun’s mobile rang.

"Someone asking to buy food?" Luo Xun murmured as he picked up the phone. He froze upon seeing the caller name and quickly answered, "Captain Wang?"

The phone had some static but it was Captain Wang from logistics that Luo Xun had contacted before. They exchanged pleasantries before the captain whispered, "I remember that you were looking for metal crystal cores last time you were at logistics?"

Luo Xun froze and looked to Yan Fei who perked his ears. "Yes, we are looking for some along with other elements." Every once in a while they would go to the barracks to exchange for sand and metal nuclei. They had not seen Captain Wang since the first time.

Captain Wang smiled, "Do you still want some? Metal crystal cores?"

"If there is anything, of course."

"How many do you want?"

"Uh...the more the better but it also depends on how many nuclei we have on hand."

Captain Wang sighed in relief, "You can come over at 9 o’clock tomorrow, I will wait for you...Bring level one nuclei or points over...we will meet again there."

"...What kind of situation is this?" Luo Xun looked over in confusion. "Metal nuclei are usually saved for the team members of the military team, they could only exchange a few at the windows.

However listening to Captain Wang’s tone...there seemed to be quite a few of these things on his hands?

"It will be clear when we go tomorrow." Yan Fei shook his head, "Might have something to do with a previous matter so we need to be careful."

"Okay." Luo Xun decided to go out tomorrow with his newly remodeled, more powerful crossbow!

At the base central hospital, the dean and several higher ups were discussing a list of people.

A few of them did not look very good – the army had more tasks out of base than usual. The land was covered in snow, the roads were almost all sealed and it was dead of winter. Who knew if it would continue snowing without end? Plus the possibility of new zombies...

If not for the material shortage on base, it would have been best to wait until the weather warms up before wandering from base.

As a result, the paramedics out for missions were very sad. It might have been a case of God opening a window for you then closing a door. These people were the opposite of the army soldiers – the military had a high proportion of ability users while the hospital barely had any. Even if they did have one, it would be a low leveled, slag ability.

So once the mission had been handed to the hospital, the leaders set their sights of the outside, Zhang Yi. They needed to keep their lackeys so they could only sacrifice non-staff members. What they did not expect was – he actually left!

"That...Zhang Yi from surgery, can you look for him again?" The vice dean looked at the chief surgeon with a frown.

Zhang Yi’s former boss had a sour expression. "...There is no contact address...and even if we find him, he probably won’t go..."

"What?! What kind of person is he?! Saving lives, wasn’t that what he is supposed to do as a doctor? Does he have any conscience as a paramedic?!" The vice dean pounded the table while cursing Zhang Yi.

All of the people were silent, the vice dean would not act like this if his son had not been on the list. Was he not trying to get someone else to go and leave his son behind? The vice dean had found excuses for his son to stay on base during previous military operations. Only when his son was involved did he want to get other people involved.

The dean coughed to let the vice dean calm down. *Cough* "Doctor Zhang was only temporarily working at our hospital, the agreement he had signed has already expired...we can discuss him later! The men going with the army this time are..."

The dean’s words succeeded in diverting attention. It was clear to everyone that Zhang Yi was a very powerful wind user, the hospital had no way of forcing him.

Even if someone found him unpleasant, they could only plot in the dark to find trouble. Since the other side had power and his personality...was hard to deal with. So this military operation had seemed to be a great opportunity – the task was certainly dangerous, regular medical workers had little defenses. Would it not be best for Zhang Yi, someone with both an ability and the skills of surgeon to go?

Plus he had never been put on one of these missions before, it would be his turn finally. Even if he did not want to go, then he would get hit by all sort of penalties, decreased salary, scolding him etc.

Did not expect, they tripped over themselves to get him on the list but found the man had left.

It was not surprising that someone revealed the news to Zhang Yi in advance. Although the people who wanted him to deal with dangerous missions would keep quiet. But Zhang Yi had little to deal with male doctors, but was close friends with the female nurses.

Which type of worker was most common at the hospital? Nurses, of course!

Throughout the hospital, some places may not have a doctor around, but there were nurses everywhere! Although most of them knew about Zhang Yi’s true personality, he could be polite. As long as a woman was speaking with him, he would generally be more polite, as long as there was no drama. The ladies ignored his bad side because of his appearance and charisma.

As a result, if there were any news related to Zhang Yi in the hospital, the speed of transmission was fast and would reach the man’s ears.

Therefore, upon discovering signs of trouble, whether they were concrete or not. He did not hesitate to resign and return home!

In fact, even if Luo Xun and Yan Fei did not resign, he might have delayed a day or two, but the end result would still be farming at home.

The nurses at the hospital had extremely ugly expressions at the news – our hospital’s flower has run away! The hospital was horrible! Zhang Yi was their best friend!

The next morning, Luo Xun and Yan Fei came to the agreed place with their weapons and crystal nuclei. After the two sides met, the captain warmly welcomed the pair into his office upstairs in the logistics department.