Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 103 - 95: Holdouts_2

Chapter 103: Chapter 95: Holdouts_2

Everyone was very curious, and after waiting a while and seeing no continuation, Snow Egg asked, "And then?"

"And then what?"

"Then how did you ask her? What did she say?"

Little Knife said, "I didn’t ask."

There was a moment of silence, and Stone said, "Let’s go to the bonfire in the backyard to talk, it’s a bit cold tonight. Su Shi, have you managed to make the thermometer?" The base only had medical thermometers scavenged from elsewhere, and thermometers belong to the category of medical supplies. Other scavenged items like televisions are considered miscellaneous and can’t be used directly. They must be crafted in the crafting room before they can be used.

Su Shi said, "Yes."

Stone himself went to the warehouse to get the thermometer and found that the real-time temperature had already dropped to 11 degrees. Shana’s death had caused the Shadow base to lose a person capable of making medicine, and now they were also lacking a player skilled in sewing and clothes making. What puzzled Stone was that sewing skills were extremely rare; he had not heard of anyone in Right County possessing such skills.

Lin Wu got up from the sickbed and, while going to rest in the barracks of the backyard, met Maya and discussed Lili’s Doomsday Alliance with her. Maya was like discovering a new world; she had not realized the game could be played this way.

...

Today’s bonfire meeting was to discuss the Doomsday Alliance mode, which doesn’t have to consider issues of personal morality and others, just the food problem. An alliance of around ten people as the core, with as many players added as possible — the more, the better — can turn the whole city into a safe zone once they reach a certain number.

The Hunter Skill Book is quite rare, whereas the Fishing Skill Book is a common one. Lin Wu kills Frenzy at an average of half a book a day, and now the warehouse has six fishing books. Just as everyone started to think there was something promising about this, Little Knife with his simple thought process dismissed the survival method of the Doomsday Alliance. His reason was that the Fishing Skill Book was a common skill book.

Following that line of thought, Stone believed the Doomsday Alliance, no matter how big or strong, would always be a low-end industry.

To ensure food, most members of the Doomsday Alliance must have the ability to produce food. This inevitably made them lack other life skills, just barely managing to survive. Living in such an environment for two years would become torture. In addition, the Alliance’s leadership needs to be strong and have the ability to handle issues effectively.

After discussing, everyone agreed that an alliance wasn’t out of the question, but the leader of the alliance must be able to control the military power and have the ability to protect the members. Members of the alliance would be responsible for production. To avoid major discord among members and to prevent smaller alliances from staging coups, it is necessary to control the military power of the smaller alliances.

Simply put, it’s like being a warlord, using military force to acquire population and land for development. This could work in reality but is difficult to achieve in the game. Every player has basic armaments; they can all get weapons, giving them the power to resist a warlord. Since they don’t worry about actual death, even the slightest increase in a warlord’s oppression could lead to rebellion. If the warlord doesn’t oppress, then they can’t consolidate their ruling power.

...

Those who wanted to sleep, slept; those who wanted to chat, chatted; those who wanted to read, read. The Shadow Base was incredibly peaceful in the latter half of the night, which Stone, as the leader, found a bit unsettling.

Stone was in the command post listening to the radio and reading a book when he suddenly noticed a non-Base player on the base map. Prioritizing safety, Stone knocked on Maya’s door on his way to grab some weapons and headed to the main gate, where he saw a female player struggling against two ordinary zombies at the edge of the secure area.

"Hey, a little help here."

The female player turned around and shouted, startling both Stone and Maya. Wasn’t that Shana? They immediately stepped forward to deal with the zombies and brought Shana to the backyard. Stone woke everyone up, and Little Knife was the first to show up, hugging Shana’s left arm and nuzzling it: "I’m so happy."

Shana stroked Little Knife’s hair: "I’m happy too."

Su Shi made a typical entrance: "Mommy!" instinctively scared.

"Hey, Su Shi. It’s Shana, not Maya," Shana said in good spirits, delivering a light jest.

Snow Egg and Horse Soul came out from the barracks, and after confirming it was indeed Shana, they exchanged glances, then each went up to contain their excitement and shook hands with Shana: "You’re back?"

"Yeah, I’m back."

The last to arrive was Lin Wu, who was woken up by the commotion. Others slept as a way to pass time, but Lin Wu’s sleep was genuine. Hearing the noise outside, he stumbled out of the barracks and caught sight of Shana by the fire, smiling sweetly at him.

Lin Wu exclaimed in shock: "You’re the stubborn holdout from North Town, aren’t you?"

Shana’s face darkened with anger.

Lin Wu approached, and as Shana smiled and extended her left hand for a handshake, Lin Wu instead embraced her, emotionally expressing, "Life without you is truly painful."

Those words made Shana’s heart bloom with joy, causing a flutter of excitement. The crowd on the sidelines with popcorn in hand looked disdainfully at the Hun Dan brother: Are you guys happy now?

Little Knife: I never thought you were like that, Lin Wu.

Lin Wu released Shana and clapped her shoulders with both hands, saying with deep earnestness, "You have no idea how miserable my experiences were after your death."

Lin Wu recounted all the unlucky events he encountered throughout the day. Getting lost in circles, being slapped away by a black bear, the car running out of gas, running into Exploding Carnage on the road, being stopped at a sentry card...

Shana raised her hand to stop everyone from speaking and asked, "You just said that the days without me were painful, is it because of these events? No emotional pain?"

"Emotional pain? There was some," Lin Wu looked at Snow Egg and Horse Soul, "They have something to say."

Together, they said, "We’re really happy to have you back, Shana, welcome, welcome."

Shana, quick-witted as ever, immediately changed the subject, "I’ve lost my Chemistry Skill."

Lin Wu was indeed led along by the conversation, "This time you didn’t...," No, he wasn’t supposed to know about Shana’s first encounter with death.

Shana thought that Lin Wu had already apologized to her for the matter and wondered why he stopped speaking halfway.

Lin Wu, "So this time you just walked all the way here?" He applauded his own cleverness.

"What?" She was once again at a loss for words. Shana said, "Right, let me tell you all a secret about the game first, a secret related to points."

"What secret?" Everyone was interested.

"Death," Shana said, "Players resurrect 24 hours after death. Normally, the system would give you a cutout background, a stool, and about a dozen books to spend those 24 hours."

Everyone waited.

Shana continued, "But as your points increase with each death, your death benefits improve too. My stool has been replaced with a chair, and the number of books has increased from eleven to thirteen. There are subtle differences between each resurrection period."

Lin Wu said, "Are you suggesting that if someone wants to know their points, they should die once?"

Shana shook her head, "What I mean is, you can understand your current points situation by comparing the treatment you receive upon death."

Lin Wu said, "You don’t have that many points."

Shana covered her face, "Can you not say that about someone? I’ve been trying hard."

Stone intervened at the right time, "Let’s first address Shana’s skills. Shana, are you still willing to pursue the doctor or chemistry route?"

Shana nodded, "I’m fine with that."

Stone explained, "According to the radio, medical books are not very hard to come by, but chemistry books are rarer. The advantage of chemistry is the ability to make fertilizer."

Su Shi interrupted, "I can make fertilizer. However, without the bonus from Chemistry Skills, it requires more materials."

"Minor issue," Lin Wu said, "Stone, go to the warehouse and bring the plugin I scavenged last night."

"What plugin?"

"A composter," Lin Wu introduced, "Just half an hour of work each day can provide the necessary fertilizer for the farm, garden, etc. After installing the plugin, you can no longer use chemical fertilizers."

Little Knife asked, "Load poop?"

Lin Wu asked, "Where would the poop come from?"

While the two discussed, Stone returned with a small pot, "This thing is not bad. Everyone can go work on the farm when they’re bored, just accumulating half an hour each day." Saying this, he installed the composter in the farmyard, which was over ten square meters in size and now had a chair in the middle.

Stone tried it out himself, "The timer starts as soon as you sit on the chair."

So bizarre! A person sitting in the middle of a wheat field, with the wheat stalks blocking their lower half. From the outside, it didn’t look much different from sitting on a toilet.

Snow Egg said, "I think our original topic wasn’t the composter." He was still more concerned about the goddess’s skill development.