The Reborn Otaku's Code of Practice for the Apocalypse Chapter 122

All the duck meat was distributed according to the number of people. Although it was not very precise, but with the amount of meat, each person got about a human head's worth.
Originally Xu Mei had said that Yu Xinran could be given less since she was young with a smaller appetite, but was rejected by the males. They would be blind not to notice Yu Xinran's strength with her ability. Also how could a bunch of grown men squabble with a child over food?
While everyone was splitting the duck meat, Yu Xinran had collect the nuclei from the pile of zombies. They would absolutely not steal a child's rations, they were not that greedy!
It was near evening when the meat was dealt with. Luo Xun and the others just remembered – the crystal nuclei had not been counted or distributed to each person!
Originally their purpose leaving base was to gather these nuclei, however they unexpectedly had encountered the big duck. They forgot all about the nuclei, even though there had been a pile of zombies killed by the bird…they had paid less attention.
He hurriedly opened the box of crystal cores, colorful splinters filled the container.
Luo Xun scratched his hair, "Why do I think that there are more nuclei than usual when we hunted before?"
"The duck was so loud, it attracted all the nearby zombies? Of course, we usually only use small blood packs." Zhang Yi said carelessly while referring to the pile. "We can eat once we count and separate the nuclei."
The group quickly swarmed the pile and began to sort the crystals based on element.
Xu Mei laughed, "We'll cook dinner, I left some meat to stir fry with some vegetables at home."
"Good, we'll trouble you!" He Qiankun loudly shouted first, gave everyone a shock.
The crowd continued counting the crystal nuclei, the sound of clinking filled the air.
This time they got a large number of crystal nuclei because of the duck. There were more than 17200 first level, 20800 second and even more than 500 third level nuclei!
It also included some zombie animal nuclei, various amounts of zombie animals large and small.
There was indeed more crystal nuclei than usual, once the final number was calculated, everyone looked at each other in silent shock.
"This…many?"
"Don't forget how loud the duck was, I reckon all the zombies were all over its body."
Only after a long time did people accept this fact. They did not expect that they could pick up so many crystal nuclei at almost no cost!
The next time they went out, they would meet zombies and mutant animals…
The group waved away this wonderful delusion, this sort of thing was once in a lifetime. They thought of duck's size and power. As Luo Xun had said, the duck had used the most foolish way to attack, otherwise how had they won?!
If they had not defeated the duck, how would they pick up the crystals? It was a mercy that they did not die outside. Thus, they were contented with their good fortune.
They evenly divided the various nuclei according to elements. Since the number of nuclei were not equal, for example there were more fire nuclei, Xu Mei exchanged some first level cores for third level.
Luo Xun finally patted the largest nucleus dug out from the duck's head. "I think we won't be able to sell this, let's bring it home for now."
Such a large crystal core being used as a decoration…was he not afraid of excessive luxury?
In fact, this thing could be taken to the military and replaced with other smaller crystal cores. Luo Xun was unclear whether the military had the ability to hunt mutant animals and knew the nuclei was in the brain?
The people in their squad were well-known enough that the large core would certainly attract the attention of the higher ups.
Even if they wanted to bring it out, they had to wait awhile. At least until next year, when mutant animals would become common. Now was too early.
After these things were resolved, Xu Mei and Song Lingling brought over the plate.
Simple home cooked food, but with the addition of duck meat, stir fried quail eggs and tomatoes along with other vegetables.
Seeing this, people's saliva gushed forth and they rushed to eat. Lamented that they could not inhale the whole bowl at once.
The team ate and drank their fill and went back home with their bag of nuclei. Luo Xun walked through the door, warmly licked by his dog…Then he remembered…there was something important that everyone had forgotten.
"…I seem to have forgotten something." Luo Xun turned with a wooden face to Yan Fei.
"What's the matter?" Yan Fei asked in confusion, he looked down at the bag of crystals.
Luo Xun took a breath and looked at Yan Fei with surprise. "Didn't we say we would get more wood to grow mushrooms? But…we forgot."
It was the duck's fault! It appeared out of nowhere, everyone focused all their attention. Anything else was ignored.
Yan Fei jerked, wood…oh yes! They were going to collect wood in order to grow mushrooms. Due to the meat, they forgot about the mushrooms.
They wanted to eat duck meat and grow mushrooms! But now…
"Should we…go out and dig out wood tomorrow?" Luo Xun hesitantly negotiated with Yan Fei.
Yan Fei calmly shot down the idea, "We would have to take another mission, like crystal collection, we would need to pay 200 low-level crystal nuclei. But what if we use nuclei in exchange for wood at base? How much would 200 cores get? Which is more cost effective?"
Was this a question? Buying with crystal cores was safe and fast! Originally they went out to collect crystal cores, wood was a side goal. It would be simple to take out some cores for wood.
"Great! Let's take an early break and go to the market tomorrow to buy some wood!" Luo Xun clenched his fists.
They had picked up a lot of crystal cores this time. As the captain he was responsible for fund management and supply procurement. As long as the purchases were recorded, it would be no problem to buy some wood.
Yan Fei calmly patted Luo Xun's back. "Okay, we'll go tomorrow." He then headed towards the bathroom.
Of course, Luo Xun woke up late. They ate lunch before going to the market.
He was not the only one to wake up late, for example Li Tie and the other students and Xu Mei's group. As for Zhang Yi in 1602…he did not appear in the morning. The students busied themselves, Zhang Yi did not appear until Luo Xun said they would go buy wood.
This caused Luo Xun to laugh for a while. "Who let him always laugh at me!" Wang Duo had definitely eaten meat last night for nothing.
The two people slowly drove out the neighborhood, revealing their car's shape. Because of the damn duck, all the glass had been crushed. Today, they could only use some metal to cover some window space, but not completely block the driver's field of vision.
If they did not find windows before the next time they left base, they would not be able to leave – if a zombie jumped towards the car, their claws could breach the gap.
Luo Xun's car was in better shape because of Yan Fei who could counter with metal. But if Li Tie's car was attacked..it would be a serious problem.
Fortunately now they needed only to wander around base. It would good if they could buy wood at the same time as window glass. Even if the glass was poorly shaped, they had Yan Fei who could form the metal around the glass.
What was the purchasing power of crystal nuclei? At least more than points, especially in private trading. On base, teams that went out for supplies loved bringing miscellaneous stuff back. Once the buildings were blasted by the military, their collecting range was narrowed again. This lead to squads acting similar to locusts, collecting everything as they passed.
In the beginning, they found valuable things. As time went by, the further away, the greater the risk and less would be harvested near base. Teams that went out would bring back whatever they could in later stages.
So, Luo Xun easily found the wood they needed on the street. There were many stalls selling all kinds of timber and coal on base. Wood was relatively common and inexpensive compared with other products. Those teams were afraid of heading too far so they dug most of the wood from roadsides. The wood contained a lot of water, burning would produce soot. It was hard to ignite, even had some green leaves.
These things could not be compared with real coal, even dry wood was more useful, thus the price was comparably low.
No need to spend 100-200 crystal cores, the pair only spent 20 level one nuclei and filled their car roof with a lot of wood.
They went again and used third level nuclei to find some more reliable stalls for everyone's needs. After, Luo Xun contentedly drove home.
It was time for the elevator to be operational, plus they never got home when the elevator was functional. This morning, they left a metal shelf outside the window and used it to bring things upstairs. Labor efficient and convenient.
The two went downstairs and sent the others a text message. Li Tie ran to the 15th floor balcony opened the window and dropped a rope down.
The people downstairs started to tie the wood, while the others helped. Everyone worked together to bring the wood upstairs.
There were many people watching the action. Fortunately it was just wood, although it was a necessity, but because of the low value and water content, some people were envious but would not make trouble. Most of the residents knew not to provoke the people on the top two floors. They were very powerful ability users, so most just stood back and watched.
The wood Luo Xun had brought back was not long – at least not an entire tree. But the length was not short, if the crops had not been recently harvested, they were afraid that getting the wood through would be more difficult.
It had been two hours since they brought the lumber back home. Most of the time the wood was suspended in the air – fear that any careless move would break down a neighbor's window.
The large quantity of wood was transported home and then began the process of sawing and hanging them next to the shelves.
There were metal tubes around the planting racks, linking the planting spaces. The wood would be hung like four pillars dedicated to planting mushrooms.
Luo Xun estimated that if there was enough mushroom wood, the amount of poisonous mushrooms that would absorb the toxins would reach saturation point. After it should be possible to grow more regular mushrooms. Ordinary mushrooms were good things if would a boon along with the duck meat. After this, they were afraid that they would not have good luck for a long time.
Next year with mutant animal outbreak, if they wanted to go out and find plants, there would a substantial increase in difficulty.
Yan Fei placed the wood into a mesh metal basket and left enough space for mushrooms to grow. The mesh would not only create a growing environment, but also protect them from people walking around and working.
Especially they wanted to protect the puppy and Yu Xinran. Yan Fei made the mesh as fine as possible so the child and dog would be out of danger.
So Xu Mei and Song Lingling focused on not letting the child and puppy into the room with several hanging metal boxes.
That evening, after a busy day, the team looked with satisfaction at the day's results, and then…ready to go home and eat meat!
Although the food was not extravagant, but cooking a meat dish everyday was great. They had so much meat now, why would they hold back?
As Luo Xun promised, he marinated the brought back meat. The others went upstairs with a spring in their step upon hearing the news.
They climbed to the 16th floor and saw Zhang Yi holding his waist and leaning against the door. Though his eyes had the usual annoying disdain there was also an ambiguous feeling. Luo Xun wanted to laugh but he settled for silence and a provoking eyebrow raise.
Wang Duo rushed towards his Highness. "Why are you up? Is your waist sore? I will give you a massage, find Xu Mei and help us make stir-fry. My cooking is bad…"
Zhang Yi twitched, he wanted to give Wang Duo a kick, but his waist was sore. "I came out for a walk! Found everyone was transporting wood!"
"Come on, let's go inside and you can rest."
They watched as the Queen and his dog went back home before returning to their own places.
As soon as he entered the door, Luo Xun headed straight for the kitchen – his goal was the same as the others, cook!
The first two days, the two women had cooked since Luo Xun had other things to deal with. Now that the corridors were filled with duck meat and he had processed the bacon, he could finally cook a meal for him and Yan Fei.
In thought while standing in kitchen, Luo Xun's eyes wandered to the row of jars in the corner. He had prepared a large pile of jars before the apocalypse. Inside were a variety of pickled vegetables: cabbage, cucumbers, bean curd, leeks and so on. Until now, only a few jars had been emptied, more than half had not been touched.
Even if some had been moved, the entire bottom part was all pickles. This was the reason why Luo Xun had deliberately left some for everyone to eat – the pair had not eaten even half, now that there was more on the way, it would be gone faster if they shared.
Of course, even if Luo Xun gave some away, there was still an impressive number of jars at home.
Luo Xun walked around the jars twice. Eventually he took out some pickled cabbage in order boil some soup.
As for the dish…there was meat at every meal…Luo Xun had something in mind.
Yan Fei sat on the living room sofa, one hand propped against his chin while controlling metal. He constantly separated the elements and then kneaded them together. The puppy placed her chin on Yan Fei's thigh and squinted.
Although Yan Fei had expanded the cars, there was not enough space to bring back the whole duck. So large chunks of wounded meat and most of the guts/bones were left out. Some of that were still good…the meat was finished?
Yan Fei touched his chin, the rich aroma from the kitchen caused him to think of Luo Xun's slender waist. Although his lover's waist was slender, being unhealthy was not allowed. He needed to think of a way to secure a long-term nutritional supplement.
Hot and fragrant pickled cabbage and duck vermicelli along with fried broccoli, tomato and quail eggs. Luo Xun placed the dishes on the table while the puppy leapt from the sofa with a wagging tail. She desperately wanted to show her obedience, docility, and lack of meat in her diet…