Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 146 - 114 Stealth_2

Chapter 146: Chapter 114 Stealth_2

With the painkiller that Maya placed in his palm, Nightmare slowly brought it to his mouth.

His lips touched the large tree, and as he was inserting the pill, he first lifted the mask cloth, parted his left mouth, and shoved the pill inside. Afterwards, Nightmare pulled his head out, not wanting the two to see his ghastly appearance. He turned his back to them and changed his mask before sliding down to sit by a tree with three branches nearby. Only then did Nightmare turn his backpack around to face him and take out a bandage to treat his wounds.

"Thanks," Nightmare said, choosing a spot right beside Maya. Lin Wu was not far on the other side, separated by a tree trunk. So the thank you was naturally directed at Maya.

"You’re welcome," Maya said, glancing at Nightmare’s left wrist.

Nightmare rolled up his sleeve, revealing a mechanical hook installed on the back of his left arm. He pulled out the hook and a thin steel cable followed. The cable’s box was located below the forearm. Nightmare said, "Flying Dragon Claw, came from a golden treasure chest."

Maya exclaimed, "A golden treasure chest." She knew Nightmare and his colleagues were special agents of the Fortress, but this was the first time she’d heard of a golden treasure chest.

Nightmare told Maya, "You guided me through the tunnel..."

"We guided you through the tunnel," Lin Wu interjected.

Nightmare paused briefly, ignoring Lin Wu, and continued, "After passing through the tunnel, I started a task at seven in the morning and didn’t finish until before the seven o’clock deadline in the evening. The reward was a golden treasure chest."

Maya asked, "Did you come to North Lake today for a task?"

Nightmare didn’t hide it: "I’m looking for a secret place; I already received a clue several days ago saying it’s near North Lake."

Nightmare arrived at North Lake during the day without encountering Six Wings nor Blind Bat. However, she ran into an Exploding Carnage horde. A dozen or so Exploding Carnage zombies charged at Nightmare, who drew her light crossbow and blew them up. After Exploding Carnage exploded, they would release a cloud of toxic gas that slowly dispersed.

After the toxic gas cleared, Nightmare continued forward, only to find the lake water contaminated by the Exploding Carnage’s deaths, putting her into a poisoned state. Poison was different from bleeding; bleeding could be stopped with a bandage, but there was no cure for the poison at the moment; she could only tough it out until the poison wore off.

Nightmare could have relied on painkillers to heal and save her life, but the noise from the Exploding Carnage attracted zombies from the lake’s surface and three Frenzies as well. North Lake was barren, with two large rocks a hundred meters away providing no escape—she had to press forward. The further she went, the more potent the waterborne toxins became, quickly reaching moderate poisoning.

If she didn’t move, she would face the zombies; moving forward meant entering the Exploding Carnage graveyard. In such a dilemma, Nightmare chose to reluctantly accept death. She was at North Lake again today searching for the secret place, but even after scouring the entire lake, she found nothing, so she thought of checking the nearby holiday cottage.

After hearing Nightmare’s story, Lin Wu did not appreciate his mindset.

Lin Wu had found himself in desperate straits many times, fighting to his last breath, struggling as if it were his last stand, with a strong will to survive. The reason was that Lin Wu knew death would result in great loss. Unlike Nightmare, who had died several times with no skills to care for but was only concerned about her equipment. As long as her equipment wasn’t looted, it wouldn’t disappear. With this mentality, Nightmare lacked a strong survival instinct, easily resigning to her fate if overwhelmed. Lin Wu, however, would fight desperately because anyway, it was a fight to the death.

Nightmare was sincere and forthright with Maya, and while Maya’s attitude towards Nightmare was quite average, she did not reveal that she and Lin Wu had discovered the A6 laboratory before Nightmare. A discovered A6 lab would randomly appear somewhere in the game world. When someone shows goodwill towards oneself, one can return the favor. If someone expresses affection, one can choose to not reciprocate.

Maya didn’t speak up, and neither did Lin Wu, of course. Nightmare didn’t rush to leave and chatted with Maya, mostly talking while Maya asked a few questions to satisfy Nightmare’s desire to speak. Nightmare seemed to like Maya but also kept a lot of information to herself. She didn’t mention Shana or the business of being a Fortress agent, sticking to encounters and equipment information encountered during the tasks.

This made Lin Wu even more puzzled. Was Shana really Nightmare’s accomplice? Shana already knew about the A6 secret lab yesterday. Musing over human affairs took Lin Wu only a minute, but thinking about zombie affairs took two hours as he drew inspiration from the crowded zombie horde.

Two hours—sitting in a tree for two full hours, Lin Wu didn’t know of any game that could make a player feel so stifled. Even after two hours, the three of them could only stealthily descend from the tree. The two women followed Lin Wu, moving stealthily without daring to attack. Lin Wu concentrated to the fullest, watching the direction each zombie faced, using every gap to sneak behind them, forcefully clearing a path.

They didn’t kill many, just a dozen or so zombies, but the process was extremely risky and took ten minutes to complete. Effort paid off. Lin Wu gained the Passive Stealth Skill.

This Stealth was different from everyday stealth; it had the chameleon function. Once Lin Wu entered Stealth mode, his body would blend with the environment, and zombies could only spot him within a five-meter range. Beyond that distance, even if Lin Wu made faces at the zombies while in Stealth, they would not notice him.

The game mechanism had a visual range of ten meters, once a zombie noticed a player, its effective vision range extended to fifteen meters. If a player jumped over a fence and was more than ten meters away from a zombie, the zombie would lose track of the player’s whereabouts and wander around the spot. Passive Stealth meant that as long as Lin Wu was over ten meters away from a zombie and entered Stealth, or he used any obstacle to block the line of sight and entered Stealth within five meters, he could shake off the zombies.

However, Titans, Frenzies, Screamers, and Exploding Carnages, among other special zombies, don’t work that way. They might as well be blind when not active, but once they spot a target, they not only have the vision range of an ordinary person, but also a certain level of judgment. The most effective method for players to escape Frenzy is to go through doors, enter houses, ascend floors, and even jump between floors, using one obstacle after another to block the line of sight. If you encounter a Frenzy in a place without nearby buildings, it’s a near-certain death.

...

The three of them got into the car, and Lin Wu reminded Nightmare, who was sitting in the back seat, "Your car is over there," pointing at the car that had been blown up into a wreck.

Nightmare didn’t know how to respond for a moment. It wasn’t right to hitch a ride without asking, but with zombies everywhere, you’re telling me to go find my own wrecked car? Fortunately, Maya was more down-to-earth and sped off from the vacation cabin with a press of the gas pedal.

Going downhill to North Lake, Lin Wu reminded again, "We’ve arrived at North Lake."

Nightmare could no longer hold back, "What are you trying to say?"

Lin Wu countered, "Where are you going?"

Maya backed up Lin Wu, "Yeah, Nightmare, where do you want to go?" Nightmare didn’t have a specific destination in mind and planned to hang around Maya for a chat, scavenge together, and play the game together. However, since Maya belonged to a base, she had not yet invited Nightmare to join the team.

"Pull over." The car stopped, and Nightmare got out: "Thanks, goodbye."

"Goodbye." Maya drove towards another vacation house, "Put away the dagger already."

"You talk as if you know me well," Lin Wu quietly stashed away the dagger.

Maya said, "You want to explode her gear but are too embarrassed to do it directly, so you harassed her with words until she turned against you."

Lin Wu denied, "That’s not true. I wasn’t harassing her. It was a completely normal explanation."

Maya asked curiously, "I wonder, why didn’t you do it directly?"

Lin Wu explained, "There’s a big difference. If I see someone with money, and I kill them to take it, that’s wrong. But I can legitimately provoke him, and if he slaps me, I can defend myself and take him down, that’s allowed. After all, he hit me and needs to compensate for my emotional distress. Since there’s no court, I just have to take the compensation for my emotional distress myself."

Maya inquired, "Nightmare seems to be a bit of a loner, but it doesn’t seem enough to provoke such hostility from you."

After thinking for a moment, Lin Wu said, "You’d have to ask Stone about that."

Maya was slightly surprised, "Is there something I don’t know?"

Lin Wu replied, "It’s complicated, but it seems that Stone was right."

Maya commented, "Stone is a very capable person."

Lin Wu showed interest, "Tell me Stone’s story."

Maya responded, "You should ask him yourself."

"Stingy," Lin Wu said, "Then I won’t tell you that I’ve mastered the Passive Stealth Skill."