《The Reborn Otaku's Code of Practice for the Apocalypse》Chapter 101 - 105
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101
The third "lady" on the team – Yu Xinran naturally dressed similar to her two "adoptive mothers". A small baseball cap on her head, dark sunglasses covering her eyes along with a large white mask. It was worth mentioning that masks were part of the standard uniform for the Otaku squad while they were out on a mission. Covered from head to toe and all in gender neutral clothing. The two women also wore it while buying food for lunch.
The two ladies dressed very low key, from afar, one could not tell there were two women. As for Yu Xinran, her clothing made it seem like she was a young boy. Of course, there were still a few girls that wore skirts from time to time.
After waiting for a full three hours, Luo Xun got up and drove the car back into base.
"There are a lot more people on the streets today."
It seemed that all the refugees arrived at the southwest base at around the same time. The numbers were all concentrated in the past few days.
Luo Xun involuntarily sighed and looked around at the other vehicles that had passed the waiting period. Although he remembered who was on the truck, he could not recall the identity or appearance of those who had abandoned the two cars.
Those people had come together from various places, but the people who could sit in front had capital. Either you had a car, an ability or useful skills. Along with some men and women who held onto their thighs...
Yan Fei glanced at the cars on the street. "There a quite a lot of people who have recently escaped to base. I will reinforce our home again tomorrow morning." He had not forgotten what Luo Xun had said, he would strengthen the house to prevent any surprises.
Luo Xun paused, then smiled at Yan Fei. "Also don't know how our home is, hopefully nothing happened..." After the incident with the thieves, they were worried about leaving their home unattended.
Yan Fei, seeing that Luo Xun's expression had returned to normal, smiled provokingly. "Only another metal user could cause trouble, otherwise nothing should have happened." He had recently turned the doors, windows and walls of their home into metal.
A few temporary shelters at the gate were completely full, some people were moving things from the car. Others who had arrived on base earlier were carrying things from the shelter – the base had assigned them a house.
Luo Xun looked at the people and wondered if there was anyone being allocated a basement – which were almost always the last to be distributed. Because of the zombie virus spreading through base, most of the people that arrived on base before chose to move outside. These new people would be assigned to base.
"What are you looking at?" Yan Fei was puzzled, he walked over to see what Luo Xun was looking at.
"Nothing, just looking." Luo Xun shook his head and quickly grabbed a package of books before locking the car. Yan Fei floated some metal as they went upstairs.
Fortunately, this time no one was trying to steal from the team. Maybe someone had peeped, but two days was too short, no one had the ability to smash down the door and steal things from the metal shelves.
When they came back and confirmed that both iron gates, windows and doors were intact – it was time to go home and rest!
The puppy stood behind the door and wagged her tail. Before Luo Xun went to work, he would let her out to play with Yu Xinran for the afternoon before going home. But it had been two days without a chance to go outside!
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The puppy who was used to playing with the little girl everyday felt a little lonely. If not for the quails in the habitats to relieve boredom, the slippers in the house would have all been chewed!
The little puppy was only appeased after excessive face licks and belly scratches. Luo Xun could then relax, change his clothes and get comfortable at home.
As Luo Xun was about to take a shower, he saw Yan Fei sitting on the sofa, looking at him. Yan Fei reached out and patted the sofa.
Luo Xun suddenly remembered what he had promised before and lowered his head. A short while later, he sighed and sat down beside Yan Fei. Luo Xun basically laid in the other's arms.
Yan Fei did not say anything, but he started petting like he did to the puppy. Puppy found that her masters were sitting on the sofa and jumped to sit beside Luo Xun. The puppy ended up between the two men with room to spare.
The two had long considered their dog as a child and did not notice anything wrong with the puppy crowding together on the sofa. Luo Xun closed his eyes as he laid against Yan Fei's leg and felt the warmth on his cheek and neck.
Luo Xun's uneasy feelings gradually died down and he whispered, "I don't know how to explain...I knew about post-apocalyptic events. I knew a few years before the apocalypse started."
Yan Fei was not surprised, he had doubts from the beginning. Otherwise, how could Luo Xun have prepared his home so well? All sorts of things like seeds, pots and distillers? Yan Fei was surprised to note that Luo Xun's home had a lot of soil for planting.
Other things were acceptable, could be considered his hobbies or habits, but that amount of soil at home...There was so much food that could not be eaten in a year or two. It would have all expired!
Right now, those expired instant noodles at home could be exchanged. As for the rest...was it not evident? In addition to having a stable job on base, the Otaku squad lived relatively good days without needing to leave base. Did these things not relay on Luo Xun's preparations?
He did not provide the materials for Li Tie and the others, but he had knowledge and methods for everyone to improve their quality of life. He also told the team how to more efficiently kill zombies and collect crystal nuclei.
In thought, Yan Fei paused his petting and asked. "Foresight?"
Luo Xun looked up and shook his head. "No...I had a dream about the apocalypse and the zombies..."
It was more reasonable to say that, better than thinking it was some kind of ability. Luo Xun was an ordinary person, whether in this life or the previous. His rebirth had not allowed him to say anything, his second chance mainly improved his living conditions and got him a lover who was also a powerful ability user.
"The dream was too real, so I..." Luo Xun pursed his lips. He wanted to continue but noticed Yan Fei had a smile on his face.
"Did you dream of me?"
"Huh?" Luo Xun froze and then shook his head.
He had never seen Yan Fei in his previous life, never heard of such a person on base before. He had also never seen any metal users in his past life, despite the fact that the metal walls were made by ability users.
After receiving an answer, Yan Fei's heart became warmer. He was not sure if what Luo Xun said was true, but he was willing to believe since there was no other reasonable explanation. Of course, the thought of "rebirth" had crossed his mind, but that was in novels. In reality, no one would pretend to be a prophet, since people would quickly think that the other party had been reborn.
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But all that preparation just from a dream? What if the dream did not come true? What would have happened after he spent so much money on these things? Perhaps the dream was so vivid that anyone who saw it would believe.
Yan Fei pinched Luo Xun's chin and gently placed a kiss on his cheek. "You dreamed that the team we met would pass there?"
Luo Xun shook his head, his eyes flashed with melancholy. "No, my dreams...I stayed at my old home until the apocalypse. I hid inside while the world ended and escaped with the people still living in the area. We ran to M-city base nearby, later the base had an accident. I remember it clearly happened on June 8th but things after that were not clear. As for that day in the city..." Luo Xun helplessly smiled. "I did not think of the two cars until today. I remembered that I had been with that group, in the dream, we had passed that road."
He had just arrived on base after six months outside, though it was just following a team north of the city. He never walked that road again, he only remembered after entering again. After all, when he had escaped M-city, the people in front already knew the roads, Luo Xun simply followed behind.
Yan Fei understood the source of his emotions today, there was an explanation for Luo Xun's mood at the start of June. In his "dream" he had fled all the way to the city. Thinking of Luo Xun facing the situation with the two cars as an ordinary person, Yan Fei felt some anxiety.
If not for their team passing by, he was afraid that the few people in the car would not survive to reach A-city base.
Suddenly Yan Fei also realized that without Luo Xun's "dream" he would not have lived either. It would have been impossible for Luo Xun to be in A-city otherwise.
Then he remembered Luo Xun's guilty expression in the waiting area. Yan Fei skipped his worries and asked, "What did you dream of after reaching Southwest base?"
Luo Xun paused, his expression became dignified. He looked up and hesitantly said, "The eastern base...will be overcome."
"Eastern base?!" Even the ever calm Yan Fei widened his eyes. "Do you know the reason?"
This was big news since many bases in A-city were now destroyed. C-city had a base but it was not large, the size of two neighborhoods with 20,000 to 30,000 people.
But the eastern base? It was similar in size to the southwest base! There were at least a few hundred thousand people in the base!
Luo Xun grimaced, "Zombies sieged the city..." He continued, "There are probably other reasons, but I am not sure. I know that after the eastern base was destroyed, the southwest base also experienced a zombie siege but it survived."
Yan Fei's heart was heavy, no wonder Luo Xun had said to strengthen the house after the incident. He might need to be cautious about air strikes in the future.
"Do you know the exact time?"
"I only know that the eastern base accident was early August, less than half a month is when we..." Luo Xun's expression was not good. "At the start of next month, I am afraid that there will be trouble for zombie hunting missions. Generally zombie numbers will soar before a siege. At the start of August, there will a large number of zombies outside the gate..."
Yan Fei furrowed his brow in realization. "The military just bombed the southern part of the city and killed a lot of zombies. Some smaller bases near the city were destroyed. In August, two city bases would be sieged...is there any connection between them?"
Luo Xun was stunned and his eyes widened. "You mean...the zombies...retalitated?!"
Yan Feo shook his head with a sigh. "Did you dream about the details? Or was there any analysis on base?"
Luo Xun wryly smiled. "Even if I remembered all the dreams...those small things were all related to me. I am an ordinary person, unable to hear some news that even ability users were privy to. Although I had a base in the dream, there were a lot of zombies that people like me would not be able to deal with. I also worked on a construction site for a while..."
He realized that he was adding too much detail and glossed over the rest. "After the zombie siege, there will be a zombie surge. Those who encountered that would perish unless there were strong ability users on the team. Also...there will be mutant animals starting next year. They are more lethal than before, but their meat can be eaten!"
The couple could only rely on the occasional canteen meal ticket to get some bacon, sausage, chicken or duck to supplement their diet. They had not eaten stir-fry with fresh or stewed meat for a long time. Upon mentioning the mutant animals, Luo Xun's eyes were shining and he was salivating.
Yan Fei's mouth twitched...he was stunned.
Luo Xun's memory about his previous life was not too specific but he remembered several important events that could prevent disaster – such as the zombie siege that the base encountered.
At other times, Luo Xun was generally farming on base, so there was not much to know. When asked, he would respond with "Dreams are not too specific."
Both of them had a headache about the destruction of the eastern base in a month and the zombie siege half a month after that. But as Luo Xun had worried about before – a "prophecy" without support of an ability had no way of convincing people/
Even if they told people and it came true, it would prove the accuracy but what if someone locked him up for "prophecies"? Even if Yan Fei was a strong ability user, it would be impossible to protect Luo Xun in something related to the "future of humankind". Plus, Luo Xun was not a true prophet, if someone wanted him to see the future?
He was a regular person who had dreamed only about his own future for the next decade. He did not know how the weapons used to deal with zombies in the future were made. He was also unclear about abilities that would be powerful enough in the future to fight against the zombies for the survival of humanity.
"This matter is not urgent, no need to worry." Yan Fei made a declaration.
It was certain that the military could propose any action. They were beyond the reach of the eastern base, even if they were warned, destiny would likely not be changed. Luo Xun only knew that the Eastern base would break, what what was broken? He had no idea. The two of them did not know the specifics inside the base, for example wall construction, or the virus had spread inside.
Even the reasons were not clear. Being told the future would only add to the chaos in the eastern base. It would not achieve anything other than "people disrupting the peace and spreading malicious rumors."
But they could think of methods for the southwest base – of course it would be a safe method.
These things were not going to dealt with right away, it would useless to be anxious.
Yan Fei carefully asked, "There is something else I need to know."
"Eh? What other thing?" Luo Xun looked at him confused.
Yan Fei raised his eyebrow and smiled. "You know, did you see yourself with someone in the future?"
"Huh?" Luo Xun paused, then his face turned bright red as he turned away. "No..."
"No?" Yan Fei pressed down and his eyes darkened. "No one that tempted you? I remember you told me early on that you liked men. It is not easy to find a girlfriend during the apocalypse but boyfriends..."
Yan Fei immediately guessed why Luo Xun had a guilty expression in the waiting area. Among the people he had met, or those met in the past was someone who had a closer relationship.
Luo Xun grit his teeth, face flushed and looked to the side. "Doesn't matter if you don't believe me. Anyway I had always been single in my dreams!"
He was single but wanted to share his life with someone. The one who had originally talked about the matter did not know him at all, so there would never be a relationship. Therefore there was no reason for Yan Fei to act like he was drinking vinegar.
Wait, vinegar?
Luo Xun squinted with a trace of surprise. "You...are you jealous right now?"
He always thought that having such an attractive boyfriend would cause all sorts of people to chase after Yan Fei, which would lead to him feeling jealous. But now...he was actually jealous in relation to him?!
Yan Fei raised an eyebrow, Luo Xun's reaction made him not want to continue with this matter. Maybe Luo Xun had not had a great life during the dream, but now...
Yan Fei ground his teeth and narrowed his eyes. "Who am I to you? What kind of person do you think I am? Why wouldn't I be jealous at someone else possibly being with my lover?"
Luo Xun had no confidence, did he not realize how much Yan Fei loved him?! How could he not be jealous!!
102
Hearing Yan Fei's confession, Luo Xun's face reddened and his eyes cleared. "I thought...who would think that you would get jealous over nothing?"
In his last life, he and the other person had only held hands – for example pulling each other into a car when they escaped. Even now he did not know the other party's name!
But then again...
Luo Xun suddenly turned to Yan Fei. "Speaking of previous relations, in comparison I am positive that you have had many more!" Yan Fei dared to interrogate him about this?!
Yan Fei's face was unchanged. He gently wrapped a hand around Luo Xun. "How could it be the same? I was worried about a lover from the future, nothing about girlfriends in the past before the end of the world."
Luo Xun retorted. "Who knows if a former girlfriend will suddenly run over with a child from you. If you end up abandoning me...I..." His words became confusing as his mind did not know what to say.
Yan Fei's expression was intense, Luo Xun was stunned by his glaring eyes. His previous momentum disappeared as Yan Fei brought him into the bathroom.
"There are no ex-girlfriends, even if someone came over I would not accept them. But to make up for the pain in my heart due to jealousy and to reassure you for the future...I think we should have a thorough, in-depth conversation..."
Stunned, Luo Xun was dragged into the washroom. Puppy had been on the sofa and lost her warm pillow. She turned and saw the two people enter the bathroom, pieces of clothing flew out one at a time...
The puppy was so pitiful, she had been abandoned for two days, and now her masters were playing without her. *Hmph* The heartbroken puppy jumped to the ground and grabbed a slipper near the door before heading back to her cage.
Luo Xun did not show up the next day. Fortunately all the members of the Otaku squad had learned how to care for crops, harvest and so on. Since the captain was bedridden with "serious injury" the two women picked up the slack. Li Tie and the others helped as well and took care of the crops.
After the shower on the first day, Yan Fei found his slippers chewed to bits. He could only walk barefoot to the sofa. Fortunately the puppy had a conscience and never touched Luo Xun's shoes.
Good thing it was slippers and not something more important. He took his lover, who had no strength up to the second floor bedroom for another round. As for the specific details – because it was too intense and deep, just leave it to one's imagination...
In short, Luo Xun was unable to walk around until the 30th – the first day he only had enough strength to hit the bed.
When he went to work on the 1st, even Captain Guo subconsciously looked at Luo Xun's exposed neck covered in red hickies. Luo Xun hated that he could not immediately go home and change into clothing with a high collar!
The couple faced joking eyes, the captain and team did not say anything more and went to work.
They had seen that the relationship between these two was not simple. Cousins? Look at the pair while resting, the atmosphere of a married couple, only a fool would think otherwise. However, it also meant that Yan Fei could not find a wife after the apocalypse even with his eye-catching appearance.
However the people on the team knew that the two people lived together and there had been no gossiping. Occasionally saw the pair hold hands and hug, although there was no kissing but the other actions were deliberate enough. Especially in the base today, the number of men were only increasing.
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Sword System Academia
2/17 NOTICE: I'm putting this on hiatus, possibly permanently. I didn't want to spam with an "update chapter", so hopefully here and in the story blurb will get enough eyeballs. There are a couple reasons for ending SSA for now. 1) I wrote the next chapter but wasn't happy with it. I've been less and less satisfied with SSA's quality the more I thought about it. Part of the reason is... 2) I am seriously thinking about trying to publish some novels to help pay the bills, since I don't have my other source of income anymore. I have never asked for anything from SSA readers, no money, not even a review or rating. SSA is written for fun to amuse myself, primarily, and I would kind of feel bad actually charging someone money for something as unserious as that. I don't think it is good enough to ask anything in return. To use an analogy from music, SSA is more like a jam session with a bunch of friends. You're just chiling and having fun playing some music. I mean, if you are Mozart or even Eminem, your jam session is good enough to sell, but for an amateur beginner like myself, haha, no. If I want to publish something, I feel like I need to go the proper route of practice and rehearsals, which might be more similar to a classical concert performance. With SSA, I work from worldbuilding notes and a loose outline, but what you are essentially getting is the first draft with lots of so-called pantsing. Pushing out a web novel like this also means it is very difficult to go back and improve things without breaking everything else downstream. I wanted to try this "jamming" approach, as it was a good way to teach me about another aspect of writing, but to move forward, I think I need to hone my "classical" techniques, which emphasize rewriting, or at least, revising outlines. 3) While I intend to try to make $$$, my actual current goal is to "get gud". I've spent a lot of time recently trying to understand the self-publishing industry, and I'm pretty sure I can make some money by using short-term strategies with my current amateur skill level. But I've seen too many authors come and go/burnout, and really, the only way that I think I can enjoy writing and still make money on a long-term basis is to become a better writer. And the next step for me, which I haven't done much before, is to spend more time on rewriting and outlines. That is pretty much antithetical to the way SSA is developing. I've always been kind of 20/80 plotting/pantsing, but I want to spend a lot more time outlining before I even start writing. SSA jam sessions don't really fit my goal anymore. If you're curious about what's next, read on... Among other regrets, I regret not finishing SSA. It's the first story I've dropped, but then again, it's the first web novel I've attempted, so I suppose that's not a surprise. I don't think traditional web novel formats suit me that well. The whole SSA story I had loosely planned (beyond a first book or major arc) is way too large as well. Big story = good for neverending webnovel with Patreons, bad for penniless and fickle writer like me. I am currently outlining a complete trilogy to another story in great detail. I want the story to end concisely, and I also want the chance to really spend a lot of time on the full outline to spot pacing problems, character issues, lost themes, and so on. I'll still share this story on RR. What I intend to do is finish book 1, flash-publish the whole thing here for a few weeks, then publish on the big Zon. Repeat for books 2 and 3. The upcoming story will be about crafting heroes. The backdrop is an isekai-like setting, where elves will summon humans to their world as heroes, but the whole hero crafting business is still in its infancy. The elven mage researchers are figuring out how to imbue heroes with power, while the heroes are trying to figure out how to use the powers that they gain. Humans are the best hero templates because they are blank and have no intrinsic magic. Or at least that what the elves thought. The human MC has his own secrets... There will be some similarities with litrpgs, but I would call it more a progression fantasy or gamelit story. For example, the stats are very low, at least initially. Say we have a stat called Str. Going from Str = 1 to Str = 2 is a huge deal. Also, going from Dex = 0 to Dex = 1 is an even bigger deal. I guess you could call it a "low-stat litrpg", haha. Also, the heroes won't be gaining stats simply by killing things or leveling up. You can't increase stats arbitrarily, either. There will be rules to how stats can increase, and how they work with each other. The elven mages will be figuring out these rules in order to craft stronger and stronger heroes. Some inspiration will be from cultivation magic systems, but there won't be overt cultivation, at least for now. A theme I really want to explore is the idea of interactions. That includes things like hero crafter vs hero, tactics vs strategy, skill synergies, racial interactions (dwarves, elves, etc), and son. Yeah, so hero crafting. I'm super excited about this project and venturing into publishing. If you want to check out the upcoming story, you can follow my RR author profile to see when it drops here. Finally... THANK YOU TO EVERYONE! I'm very sorry that SSA is stopping, but I hope at least some of you will find the next story at least as enjoyable, if not more. Thanks to all the readers who gave SSA a shot. Big hug or solid fistbump to all of you, whichever you prefer! I hope this message is not a downer but an upper, because I am psyched!! -purlcray -------------- BLURB: Talen, youngest Master of the Koroi, makes his way to the Empire's capital to salvage his clan's fate. But the bustling city has few opportunities for the traditionalist. For the old sword clans are fading. With the rise of alchemy, gold can purchase strength that ordinarily took years of training to cultivate. Sword artists, once rare and accomplished, are quickly growing in number, especially among the wealthy noble class. Even with such alchemy, though, no one has advanced to the rank of Grandmaster in countless years. Talen's true dream is to walk the path of a sword artist to the very end while fulfilling his clan duties. And then the Swordgeists return, fabled founders of all sword arts, gods who had touched the world long ago and vanished. These myths turned into reality warn of a coming threat. Alongside this warning, they issue an invitation to the Sword System Academy, a path to power beyond the mortal realm. But first, they will hold an entrance exam... Story notes:Sword System Academia blends elements of western and asian fantasy such as xianxia and litrpg. I took parts from different genres I enjoyed and twisted them into my own creation. There will be an explicit system, both of the litrpg kind and the hard(ish) magic kind, but it is embedded within an academic structure that will develop over the course of the story. This is my attempt to design a unique type of system, the System Academia.
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