Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 1002 - 434: The Eve of the Total Attack

Chapter 1002: Chapter 434: The Eve of the Total Attack

D137 days, on the second morning of winter, as the sun rose, the blizzard ceased. Maya discovered something amiss through drone reconnaissance. The damn team’s task seemed like drinking poison to quench thirst; the more zombies killed, the faster their density increased. There were two wicked aspects to the dead dawn: one was the inevitable blizzards after sunset, and the other was the constantly northeast blowing winds. Knowing that the position of the railway bridge was southwest, it was effectively facing the snowstorm.

By observing Lin Wu’s bolt-pulling speed, one could gauge the density. Yesterday he was leisurely sipping red tea and then firing a shot. Today, he was stepping on sandbags with both hands raising the gun, firing every three seconds. The nearest zombie had already reached the bridge, less than eighty meters from the outpost.

Little Sniper, Little Girl, Lin Wu, and Snow Egg formed a group. Lin Wu and Snow Egg left the interior slightly to the NPC, who, besides their trigger fingers and eyes, were tightly wrapped up.

The logistics team placed two toilet-like chairs for the outdoor positions, under the chairs were fire baskets made of bamboo, with a clay pot inside, filled with charcoal. Covered with a layer of ash, it could provide heat for several hours.

Watching this group snipe was a pleasure; almost every shot was a headshot. They belonged to the long day shift team, working from 6 AM to 6 PM.

There were two night shifts, each for six hours. Group A consisted of Nightmare, Blood Meng, and Maya. Group B consisted of Shana, Little Knife, Xiao Zhuan. Each group had three members, positioned inside the train car’s outpost.

Day shift team’s task: kill as many zombies as possible. Night shift team’s task: maintain silence, the searchlight could only illuminate 15 meters during the blizzard night, thus the main weapon for the night shift was the pistol.

Originally, Maya should have swapped with Snow Egg, considering her superior gun skills, but she had a helicopter toy that required daily attention. The helicopter was parked near the Mountain Base, and traveling there took much time, so she went to the night shift.

...

D145 days, the number of zombies was increasing without reductions. The workload at the railway bridge was growing, requiring more than sentries and cooks, now also needing people for snow clearing. Communication with Mountain Base was essentially cut off, with Xiaoji residing there due to the helicopter. Only Maya insisted on commuting via skis, a 7-kilometer daily round trip. Without seeing the helicopter, she couldn’t even eat.

Truthfully, not many could eat at all. Xiao Yi found during health checks that most people were losing weight, some showing malnutrition. One reason was the lack of fresh vegetables, eating vegetarian didn’t necessarily mean leaner than eating meat. Another reason was the severe snow accumulation in the woods, making it difficult to catch prey.

Thus, two were required for fishing, the task falling on Farmer Stone and Su Shi. The work was relatively easy; every evening the two would descend to the river using ladders on both sides, laying down barbed nets weighed down with heavy objects, and tying the top of the net to the ladders. The next morning they would collect the nets; even on bad days, they could catch a few kilograms of fish.

The work certainly didn’t stop there; during the day the two had to mend the nets and help the cooks process the catch, their hands not only frostbitten but also frequently bleeding from fish scales and spines while butchering the fish.

Effort paid off; after ten days of dietary adjustments, by D155, most passed their health checks satisfactorily.

D160 seemed to be a turning point.

At one in the morning, Blood Meng had a stomach upset; Nightmare and Maya encountered a strong zombie assault during their shift, including about a dozen Frenzies within the attacking zombie horde. This was the first time the outpost utilized the alarm system to call for reinforcements. Minutes later, Lin Wu and others, donning pajamas and armed, joined the fight with two heavy machine guns, and after a continuous three-minute battle, the zombie wave was finally repelled.

This was also the first organized attack by zombies, somewhat akin to defending a city in Hardcore Mode. The attacking zombies weren’t scattered lone walkers anymore; instead, they performed consolidated, group attacks.

Afterward, several were injured, mainly due to falls and bumps on the unlit roads while rushing to support the outpost. The following day, wires were immediately laid out, and emergency lights were installed on both sides of the tractor and train car roofs.

D165 days, the snow finally stopped, because the temperature dropped below negative forty degrees, the sky was overcast during the day, without a glimpse of the sun.

The survival situation for Survivor Alliance and even the Eastern Base had become dire; the railway bridge base also lacked laughter and chatter, those off-duty watched anxiously from inside the train cars. The current temperature was nearing the outdoor outpost’s limits, if there weren’t enough zombies killed during the day, the nighttime attacks would be even fiercer.

D170 days, the ammunition use at the railway bridge base was severe, with rifle bullets being the most, and also the most severely depleted. The machine gun bullets weren’t plentiful either, but there were still plenty of pistol bullets. Given that the zombie horde had encroached up to 30 meters at the edge of the outpost during the day, using pistols for sniping wasn’t impossible.

D175 days, in the evening, the railway bridge experienced the most fierce battle, with Maya driving the helicopter from Mountain Base for firepower reinforcement.

D176 days, contrary to usual, no zombies crossed the bridge, Lin Wu and others resumed long-range sniping.

In the following days, the zombie density at the hand-cranked car base gradually increased, at one point reaching three zombies per square meter. Similarly, in the human survivors’ broadcasts, zombies near various survivor shelters stopped their group attacks but began accumulating numbers instead.

The zombie density outside Starlight Base reached 3.5 per square meter, and both the south and west roads had endless hordes of zombies, just waiting for a signal to fill the big holes at the entrance and rush into the base.