Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 266 - 162 A5 (Part 1)_2

Chapter 266: Chapter 162 A5 (Part 1)_2

Lin Wu understood that this was actually a task that one person could solve, as long as there were enough bullets to kill all the zombies in the clearing, then disable the auto turret alarm, and enter the mine to take away the laptop. Nightmare didn’t want to waste too much ammunition, and since she had the clothes-making skill that the others wanted, she offered to assist with the stealth infiltration.

Lin Wu had no objections and said, "But you’re not a member of the supermarket base now, so you can’t use the earpiece."

Nightmare answered, "No need to communicate."

Lin Wu asked, "Time, place."

Nightmare answered, "Tomorrow morning at nine, at the base near the railroad tracks. It’s the one before I joined the supermarket base."

Lin Wu nodded, "Okay."

Nightmare stood up, "See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

Shana called out, "Wait, I’ve been listening for a long time and I don’t understand—are you asking for Lin Wu’s help, or do you need both of us?"

Nightmare looked at Shana for a while, "You can come if you want, but please don’t hold us back." With that, she left.

Lin Wu quickly stopped Shana who was reaching for her stick, "Calm down, calm down."

Shana huffed and put down the stick, saying, "I remember that you and Maya went to Lab A6 last time, and you had a mission called ’Secret’ with 10% completion. Are you considering letting Maya go with you tomorrow?"

Lin Wu hurried to the entrance of the supermarket, "Nightmare."

Nightmare had just put on her skateboard, "What’s up?"

Lin Wu asked, "Can Maya go?"

Nightmare replied, "That would be best."

Lin Wu waved, "Goodbye."

Nightmare glanced back at Shana behind Lin Wu, "Then she doesn’t need to come."

Shana, hands on hips, wanted to curse but was at a loss for words, stomped her foot in frustration, and called Lin Wu over, "Come here."

Lin Wu came over, and Shana lightly tapped his head, which immediately felt much better.

Lin Wu said disdainfully, "Your stress relief method is gentle and also strange."

Shana replied, "Force has a mutual effect; it’s not right to punish you or myself to punish Nightmare. Hotpot?"

"Barbecue."

Eating, drinking, watching, and sleeping—13 hours wasn’t so hard to endure.

...

A landslide had once occurred near the railroad tracks by the mountainside. The dirt and rocks didn’t cover the train tracks but buried a small freight transit station and partially the road going into the mountains from the station. Winding up this road for 3 kilometers would bring one to the iron mine site.

The iron mine site was surrounded on three sides by steep mountain walls and had a road on one side. To the north was a sloped mine pit, with tracks encircling the central clearing. From this information, one could infer the operating process of the mine back then.

The workers would get up from the dormitories on the west side, have breakfast in the dining hall on the first floor, and then head to the mine pit. They would take the sloping elevator down to the excavation site. The iron ore mined would be sent to a minecart, which was then moved to the surface through electric power and tracks. The minecart would unload the ore in designated areas as required. Large trucks would carry away the ore to the transit station at the foot of the mountain, and finally, the ore would be transported by train to the steel mills.

Dawn had taken the game development seriously, including signal towers, piles of household waste, power stations, and office dormitory buildings. They even went as far as to make sure the clothes and personal belongings in individual lockers in the dorms were all different—each locker told the story of an individual. Even if no players were interested in understanding these fictitious stories, Dawn still paid attention to every detail.

After all, AI doesn’t feel discomfort from calculation, and it has nothing else to do when idle. Humans can do nothing and completely space out when they are idle. AI, however, does not have the concept of rest. Otherwise, it wouldn’t find the time to argue with Lin Wu.

As Nightmare said, there were many zombies, and observation showed this was no ordinary quarry. Among the zombies, there were soldier zombies and lab coat zombies. Therefore, one could deduce another version of the story—where the boss would transport iron ore through the transit station, move it to the flat ground by truck, and dump the ore to create small mounds, simulating a quarry. The endpoint of the sloping elevator was not an excavation site at all but a laboratory.

Integrating all the information resulted in another version of events, where a group purchased an iron mine and made slight modifications to establish the A5 laboratory, showing that this lab was built rather arbitrarily or in a hurry.

Nightmare reminded, "There are two auto turrets to the due north."

Lin Wu used the Silencer to scope out the northern tunnel entrance, where five meters above the entrance, there was a cylindrical turret with dual gun barrels on each side. Above the turrets were light sources, scattering light like flashlights. The two beams swept across the open ground like searchlights.

Lin Wu asked, "Why don’t they attack the zombies then?"

Maya explained, "They rely on infrared heating sensors and intelligent humanoid detection systems. Zombies don’t have body temperature, or theirs is far lower than humans, so no alarms are triggered. Animals also don’t fit the humanoid criteria. I’m not sure how powerful the thermal sensors are, but if they are strong enough, they could detect us even if we hide behind the truck or among the ore piles."

Nightmare inquired, "Any ideas?"

Without saying anything at first, Maya observed for a while before saying, "Lin Wu, can you make it to the rooftop of the three-story dormitory building to the northwest?"

Lin Wu moved to a higher position and surveyed the area for a while before responding, "I should be able to, the rooftop is not within the scanning range of the auto turrets."

"Exactly," Maya said. "I need to get to the top of the cab of the truck due north. Nightmare, you’ll take a detour to the northwest. Lin Wu and I will cover you. As to how you’ll get through the area secured by the turrets, that will depend on your judgment. Based on the scanning speed of the turret, there’s a 3-5 second window. However, all of this is contingent upon the assumption that the thermal sensors can’t penetrate obstacles, so Lin Wu should set off first to verify if the sensors can see through cover."

Nightmare quickly added, "If they can penetrate cover and an alarm is set off, the A5 laboratory will self-destruct in an hour. It would be better to kill all the zombies then take advantage of the turret’s scanning gap to enter the mine."

Maya replied, "It’s not that simple. The ore piles, dormitories, and other covers are not there just for the convenience of players; another purpose is to conceal zombies. Here in the southern area, we only have about a 35% field of vision. It’s impossible to eliminate all the zombies, even surpassing 50% would be difficult."

Lin Wu commented, "No wonder the Fortress agents got beaten up so bad they couldn’t recognize their mothers."

Both looked at Lin Wu, and he managed an awkward smile before asking, "Never fought them before?"

Maya clarified, "The guards are tasked with dealing with warlords, controlling regions, religious groups, organizations, and the scale of private armed forces. The Fortress agents’ job is to gather information through legal or illegal means."

Nightmare corrected, "We are also responsible for the security of key personnel and the protection of trade secrets among other duties."

Realizing this, Lin Wu said, "I see. Shall I go now?"

Maya looked at Nightmare, who hesitated for a moment before nodding, "Okay."

As they watched Lin Wu approach the mine stealthily, Nightmare said, "It seems many people believe Fortress and Dawn are hostile to each other."

Maya responded, "Undeniably, only Fortress has the capability to establish a warlord system."

Nightmare watched Maya, "That statement is loaded with information, it seems Lin Wu wasn’t completely off the mark."

Maya nonchalantly said, "You’re not the boss of Fortress, so why worry? However..."

"However?"

"However, if necessary, the guards wouldn’t mind cultivating informants."

"Heh, our conversation has already crossed the basic ethical line of our work."

Without responding, Maya noted, "I guessed right; the beams can’t penetrate obstacles."

...

After Lin Wu occupied the rooftop of the dormitory building, Maya started making her way toward the blue truck in the northwest direction, constantly surveying her surroundings and occasionally checking on Lin Wu. As she was about to pass by a scrapped truck, Lin Wu raised his left hand, and Maya stopped, pointing at the truck. Lin Wu nodded his head up and down confirming her suspicion: there was something amiss. It was the first time Maya had seen such a comically serious gesture. She pointed under the truck, and Lin Wu gestured with his hand, drawing a circle.

To anyone else, this would have been confusing, but Maya, understanding Lin Wu’s wealth of knowledge, instantly realized that his hand gesture meant he didn’t know for sure but the drone had indicated zombies were nearby the truck. Drawing a circle meant they should take a detour to bypass the truck.

Moving slowly forward, Maya used the Repeating Crossbow and Stealth to avoid the dangerous truck, until she came across a soldier zombie. Crossbow Arrow had a not-so-obvious disadvantage of lacking penetration power; it couldn’t instantly kill zombies wearing steel helmets or tactical helmets. Even so, Maya wasn’t worried, for in the next second, Lin Wu dealt with the soldier zombie.

Maya made it to the truck, climbed to the top, and raised a closed fist to signal Nightmare to the south. Nightmare set off.