Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 160 - 120 The Path of Bounty_2

Chapter 160: Chapter 120 The Path of Bounty_2

"Stingy." Lin Wu checked the time and said, "Then Maya and I are off."

Stone asked, "What’s the Threat Value for your base?"

Lin Wu looked at Maya, he hadn’t noticed before, as the Threat Value could only be checked while at the base. Maya said, "Five and a half stars."

Stone sighed, "I knew it. Just go ahead and build."

The zombies summoned by the screamers in the northeast of the supermarket base were within the shooting range of the watchtower. The zombies summoned by the screamers in the southwest were outside the watchtower’s shooting range but within the safe zone’s shooting range of the supermarket base. Killing the former didn’t increase the Threat Value, while hitting or missing the latter increased the Threat Value.

Maya thought Stone made sense, "We should first get those two vehicles that Nightmare mentioned."

Lin Wu said, "And then we’ll make another trip to Invincible Base."

Maya nodded, "Okay, then we’ll hurry." They hurried back to the supermarket base to gather more Serum at the cement factory, to Invincible Base to make some Serum, and to discuss with Invincible about exchanging Serum for a vehicle...

Watching the two hurry off, Stone warned them like a worried mother, "Remember to sleep."

Shana said leisurely beside Stone, "Aren’t you going to ask them what they need all that rope for?"

"For what?"

Shana, "I don’t know, but it’s definitely not something ordinary people can do."

Stone sighed, "Shouldn’t have allowed Maya to mix with Lin Wu. The spilled water can’t be retrieved, Maya is already addicted, and once on the path of the Undying, there’s no turning back."

...

At the sewer entrance under the county sign, there was also a blueprint of the Left County sewers, with the only difference from the one in the city hall being that it marked the player’s location differently.

Maya said, "This time I’ll use the Triangular Positioning Method. I won’t head towards the target directly at the start. Facing the target direction, I’ll determine two points through the 11 o’clock and 1 o’clock directions, which will form a triangular position with the target. The biggest advantage of this method is that there’s no need to memorize the full route, just half of it. If that still doesn’t work, I can break the route down into smaller triangles."

Lin Wu couldn’t understand a word, but he got the gist during the actual operation. If the starting point was A and the target B, one should first travel to point C, then follow the rope back to point A and from there move to D. In this manner, ACD and BCD form two triangles. Then return to point A along the rope to check the blueprint.

In the second phase, points C and D are pushed forward as close to B as possible. The process is tedious, but through continuous positioning, not only will there be no deviation from the direction, but there will also be a clear understanding of the position of each point on the blueprint. Even if there are inaccuracies in the positioning, they can be corrected using the blueprint, and even without adjustment, it won’t be too far off from the target B.

Most importantly, by positioning and walking back and forth repeatedly, Maya was able to reinforce the route memory in her mind. Like a driver passing through an unfamiliar and somewhat complex segment of the road, the driver could use navigation or not use navigation.

If the driver got through the segment by using road signs or asking for directions, they have a certain probability of navigating it successfully the second time, and after several attempts, the driver will master the conditions of the road. If the driver relies entirely on navigation, even after many passages, they are unlikely to navigate successfully without it.

Although the driver using navigation may make many trips, they can’t form a memory of the route in their mind. If Maya can find her way to the city hall on her own, the probability of getting lost later will be greatly reduced.

The process wasn’t smooth, but the result was good. After over three hours of effort, the two finally arrived at the city hall.

Maya’s mission was not yet complete, Lin Wu took on a task. The good news was the mission involved killing Blood Plague zombies, which he could do with Maya. The bad news was that only the Blood Plague zombie corpses killed by Lin Wu himself had a chance of holding the mission-specific item: 20 blood essences. Reward: A set of five, kilometer range bluetooth intercoms that didn’t require charging.

The two set out to return from the sewers under the city hall. They had long run out of sufficient rope. The ropes served as markers, draped across certain key positions. Now the real test for Maya had arrived. Maya first studied the blueprint for five minutes, memorizing the route in her mind, and then led Lin Wu out.

Throughout the journey, they got lost multiple times, but luckily, Maya was quick to notice anything unusual, immediately retreating to correct their course. According to Maya, it was simple—the scenery she saw was unfamiliar. In Lin Wu’s view, however, many of the scenes looked identical. Maya disagreed, citing examples of two seemingly identical paths that had many differences, such as the width and height of the passageways and the scenes that were connected to them, among others.

Regardless, after more than three hours, Maya and Lin Wu emerged from the sewers beneath the Left County marker. Lin Wu was not pleased. Even without getting lost, a round trip took at least two and a half hours. He felt that it wasn’t worth stewing in the foul-smelling sewers for a measly task for two and a half hours. But he didn’t voice his complaint; instead, he praised Maya, who was happy to have turned the situation around.

As long as she was happy, it made up for his seven hours of silent endurance.

Reaching the cement factory from the Left County marker by three in the morning, neither of them had any intention of sleeping. Following the route scouted by Maya, Lin Wu advanced alone in stealth, making his way to the vicinity of the Blood Plague.

But this Blood Plague was a bit problematic. The one in Building No. 2 was isolated in a room, and the one in the tunnel was inside Carriage No. 7. This one, however, was located inside a 3,000-square-meter factory. The Blood Plague clung to a piece of machinery and connected to the ceiling, releasing its plant-like tentacles across the ceiling. The factory was full of both Blood Plague zombies and regular zombies. What was most fatal was that some zombies wore safety helmets, which made beheadings difficult for Maya.

Lin Wu didn’t understand what helmets had to do with necks, but when Frenzy played it this way, there was nothing one could do about it.

Lin Wu squatted and moved stealthily at the south gate of the factory area. He attached a Silencer to his weapon and pulled the trigger at a Blood Plague zombie wearing a helmet about ten meters away. The bullet penetrated the helmet, and the zombie was killed with a single shot. It seemed the safety helmets didn’t have bulletproof capabilities.

After collecting the data, Lin Wu retreated along the same route and climbed to the rooftop of a nearby building with Maya to observe the brightly lit factory from a hundred meters away.

"Can we only use guns?"

"Molotov Cocktails should work too."

Maya calculated, "The cement factory is a kilometer away from our base. We can use a car to draw the zombies away from the perimeter to refresh the blood supply for our base and clear the surrounding zombies. Then we can use the car to draw the factory zombies out. Even if zombies keep spawning to prevent us from entering the factory, it can still replenish our base with zombies."

Lin Wu asked, "You drive, and I handle Frenzy?"

Maya replied, "You can’t use a dagger; you must kill with a gun. Or you could use the gun to draw out Frenzy and then execute it."

Lin Wu said, "It’s all about the details." Maya couldn’t drive too fast nor too slow. While following the vehicle, he needed to quickly identify Frenzy within the horde and take them down. From Lin Wu’s perspective, such detailed operations were prone to mistakes; even if he could guarantee 100% focus, he couldn’t ensure he wouldn’t make an error.

Maya also felt the plan wasn’t feasible; if the car was fast, the zombies would be thrown off, and if the car was slow, it could blow up. If Lin Wu didn’t draw Frenzy away immediately, Frenzy would stand out from the horde and attack the car. They also needed to be mindful of any zombies along the one-kilometer stretch.

Maya said, "Other than that, I can only think of a crude method. I come here every day to practice my swordsmanship and reduce the zombie density to a certain level."

Lin Wu asked, "Why not find another Blood Plague?"

Maya replied, "Of course, I’ve considered that. But apart from the farm where we killed the Titan, no other Blood Plagues have been found nearby."

Lin Wu said, "I’ll have the drones fully charged tomorrow during the day and go look around. The cement factory is too big and not suitable for Serum farming."

Maya agreed, "Let’s head back first and rest up."

"Yeah." Lin Wu stretched out his hand to the sky. "Is it raining?"

Maya stretched out her hand as well, a drop of water landing in her palm. She closed her hand over the droplet and said, "The temperature is about to drop again."

Lin Wu remarked, "Our clothes have been upgraded, so it shouldn’t be a problem."

Maya nodded, "Temporarily, it won’t be a problem." But that was only temporary. Maya believed that this winter would definitely see temperatures drop below minus five degrees Celsius. It seemed that for a long time to come, they could only venture out during the day and rest at night. But she still hadn’t collected all the world classics needed for the library—how would she pass the long nights?