Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 111 - 99: Fearless Duo

Chapter 111: Chapter 99: Fearless Duo

Lin Wu was in charge of driving, with Maya sitting in the co-pilot seat in her role as a coach. She thought that Lin Wu’s driving skills were fine, and that what he needed next was to develop his sense for the car through mileage.

The two arrived at Invincible Base at nine in the evening. Since they had contacted the base beforehand, Peanut, from the sentry tower, saw them from a distance and immediately came down to greet them. After shaking hands, they chatted as they walked towards the base, not expecting that inside the main building of the base there was an argument in progress. Swear words were flying, and it was completely unclear what the argument was about, nor who was arguing or who was trying to mediate.

When the three saw that there were visitors, they all stopped and went off to do their own things. As the Deputy Commander, Peanut completely ignored the incident, only apologizing to Lin Wu and Maya. Peanut knocked on the dormitory door, and Emerald Feather came out, enthusiastically shaking hands with Lin Wu and hugging Maya before the four of them went to a side room, the dispensary, to make medicine and chat.

Lin Wu: "Why do girls always like to hug each other?"

Stone: "Idiot, boys also like to hug girls."

It takes ten minutes to produce ten vials of serum and, adding in other medications, roughly 20 minutes in total. Peanut brought out three tags and four bottles of mineral water from the storage room: "Sorry, we don’t have much to offer you." He really wanted to grandly declare: "Let’s have a feast." Comparison is the thief of joy.

Maya didn’t join the conversation, so Lin Wu had to bite the bullet and speak up. He could hear the awkwardness in Peanut’s words: "It’s fine. The day before yesterday we had a fight at our base, but by yesterday we were all fine again. Conflicts are inevitable in communal living."

Peanut shook his head and said nothing.

Emerald Feather said, "Last time during the defense of the city, we lost two brothers. We’ve just recruited three new players. One is a level two Fishing player, another joined the base with an assault rifle, and there’s also a dual-agility scout." Since the arrival of the three, the atmosphere at Invincible Base had started to sour.

The level two Fishing player only fished and never participated in any other base work, always suspicious inside. Due to his suspicions about what others said, alluding to him, he had several disputes with others. Fishing Man claimed he could contribute three food items per day and wanted to do whatever he pleased without anybody else telling him what to do.

The assault rifle wielder had an okay personality but not only did he like to play pranks, he also failed to read the room, often causing awkward situations. His telling of a crude joke to Emerald Feather angered Peanut. Peanut, relying on his status as a veteran, reprimanded the assault rifle player. A base member who appreciated the assault rifle wielder’s pranks felt Peanut was bullying using his position, considering even Emerald Feather herself didn’t mind; Peanut was too sensitive. Though the incident was quelled thanks to Invincible’s intervention, both sides were still displeased with each other.

The scout was a problem during work because he lacked initiative. When faced with situations, he only reported them, asking others to tell him what to do. Neither shift wanted the scout.

The two shifts were each led by Invincible and Peanut, working around eight hours per day. After work, they needed to rotate sentry duty at the base, which presented some scheduling issues. Additionally, with no standardized item production process or designated producers, people would see materials in storage and appropriate them for whatever they wanted to make.

Overall, Invincible Base was somewhat chaotic at the moment, fundamentally because two members who were pivotal to group cohesion had died in the defense of the city, and three new members lacking a sense of community had joined. Of course, there were other reasons as well, such as old members wanting everyone to follow the rules, whereas new members were still not fully committed to the base.

Invincible also wanted to rectify the situation, but the behavior of the three newcomers didn’t constitute grounds for expulsion, and it was impractical to reshape the thoughts of adults, leaving him somewhat at a loss. What kind of person was Invincible? Polite, enthusiastic—those were Lin Wu’s only impressions. However, as one of only two medium-small bases in Left County, Lin Wu believed that Invincible had his own abilities.

After listening, Lin Wu said, "Why not just take them out and get them killed?"

Maya immediately said, "He’s talking nonsense." It’s their base’s business, and even if it were their own base, that’s not how things should be handled.

Lin Wu asked, "What if it happened at our base?"

Maya replied, "I would give the scout a task, in charge of scouting the work targets of the day shift or night shift. This includes the road conditions, zombie distribution, building layout, how many locks there are, whether there’s a safe, etc. I would tell the assault rifle wielder that if others feel offended by his jokes, he must take their shift for them. As for the level two Fishing Master, just let him focus on fishing, restrict other people’s conversations around him, and treat him as if he were air."

Upon hearing this, Peanut felt it made a lot of sense and said, "So the problem isn’t that we have three more people, but that we lack one."

Maya replied, "Thanks for the compliment."

Lin Wu: "She’s not praising you, she’s praising me. If I hadn’t brought her here, would you have known where the problem lay? Right?"

Peanut gave a thumbs-up without a word: You’re impressive.

Emerald Feather laughed and said, "Thank you, Lin Wu."

Lin Wu waved it off: "Don’t mention it."

Maya, who only talked business, said, "Lin Wu can upgrade the radio."

Peanut asked in surprise, "What materials do we need?"

Lin Wu displayed the materials, and Peanut frowned: "That’s a lot."

Lin Wu said, "Not really, right? They’re all from our regular dismantling."

Peanut explained, "We’re missing someone like your Shadow, Su Shi, in charge of materials. When we have a surplus of materials in storage, people start making things. Whether or not they’re useful, I don’t know, but the production process wastes a lot of materials. Also, nobody wants to sit in the production room and dismantle and synthesize all the time, leading to people not wanting to collect large furniture and appliances during regular scavenging."

Having heard Peanut’s explanation, Lin Wu truly appreciated for the first time the significance of Su Shi’s role in the base. A diligent assembly line worker had an irreplaceable function.