Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 269 - 163 Ice Fishing Festival

Chapter 269: Chapter 163 Ice Fishing Festival

Aside from the mutton shop near the fishing gear shop, there was also a furniture store and a cosmetics store. In the end, aside from live baits like red worms, Lin Wu and Shana brought back two mirrors. As for the cosmetics, a bit of trouble arose when the system informed them that cosmetics couldn’t be used directly.

Shana wasn’t having it and decided to file a complaint, just like Lin Wu. Little White Rabbit told Shana that in the future, a luxury goods trading system would be opened where points could be exchanged, but currently, all luxury items, including perfume, couldn’t be used.

What followed was a half-hour long debate between Shana and Little White Rabbit over whether cosmetics were luxury goods or not. This debate was essentially meaningless, but to Lin Wu’s surprise, after losing 99% of the argument, Shana actually won 1%. Little White Rabbit conceded that colorless lip balm fell closer to being a practical item than a cosmetic one,

In front of a triumphant Shana, Lin Wu had only one question: what use does colorless lip balm have in the game? Regardless, Shana’s success gave Lin Wu hope and showed that arguing with Little White Rabbit didn’t guarantee loss.

What irritated Lin Wu was that Juvenile Ghost, Shana, couldn’t stop boasting about her victory over Little White Rabbit in front of him. You won? You’re down to just diapers now, okay? But Lin Wu had to admit that at least she had diapers left, while he didn’t even have a fig leaf left from his skirmishes with Little White Rabbit.

...

The Ice Fishing Festival, lasting 24 hours. Players participating in the Ice Fishing Festival not only didn’t consume food, nor required sleep, but the system also provided food and other life supplies as a gift. Considering this, Shana speculated that on Earth, it might become necessary to rely on ice fishing to find food. Lin Wu was skeptical, but Shana informed him that the survival importance of ice fishing far exceeded its entertainment value. Thousands of years ago, during winters in the northern parts of Earth, people had very limited means of obtaining food, and ice fishing was their primary source of sustenance.

Dawn had never held horse racing festivals, golf tournaments, or football festivals but placed great importance on the Ice Fishing Festival. Therefore, Shana suspected that ice fishing might be a skill that some people needed to master.

Maya affirmed Shana’s thoughts.

Everyone chatted on the radio until 8 in the morning and were then teleported into the instance. The instance was a vast expanse of ice, so large that you couldn’t see its edges at a glance. There were small tents and fireplaces set up on the ice, and inside the tents, there were various hot drink ingredients for heating and preparing. For example, there was sheep milk tea, as well as ingredients for black tea and coffee.

Lin Wu teamed up with Shana, and since they were both from the same base, they were transported to the same spot. Without being too picky, they immediately occupied the nearest tent. After taking the tent, a hundred square meters around it became their private area, where others could pass through but were not allowed to fish.

To accommodate beginners, the system thoughtfully provided an Ice Fishing Festival manual, which not only taught players how to use an auger to drill holes in the ice but also informed them that each tent area had fast, slow, and still waters, all of different depths. As for which water area was good for fishing, that entirely depended on the players’ bait.

According to the manual, there was a mini-fridge inside the tent, stocked with meat and vegetables, and each person was provided with ten instant noodles, with the request that players treat the day as a camping trip and thoroughly enjoy themselves.

Thus, Lin Wu believed that Shana and Maya were mistaken. He felt that Dawn had opened this recreational event to cater to players’ high stress accumulated from surviving in a post-apocalyptic world.

Shana disagreed, arguing that from Waste City to the blizzards, she had never seen a benevolent side of Dawn. Besides, this was a game after all; there was no such thing as high stress. Additionally, she expressed disdain for Lin Wu’s oppositional attitude, arguing for the sake of arguing, and being contrarian just to be contrary.

Since each tent was separated by over two hundred meters, some areas belonged to the public ice zone. While Lin Wu and Shana started drilling their holes, other players began to investigate the public ice zone. Lin Wu joined in the casual conversation and learned that the player wanted to infer the water flow in the tent area from the public ice zone, thus saving time on drilling.

Lin Wu found this enlightening, and after expressing his gratitude, he returned to the tent area to share the experience with Shana. However, he saw a familiar group to the east. Looking through Silencer, he recognized Yellow Hair in the scope. Sure enough, it was the Starfire Base group, a full eight of them. Sunlight, Fire Dance, and Starlight were all there.

At that moment, Lin Wu was convinced, Dawn did have emotions; it just didn’t express them through normal means. Otherwise, how could he explain encountering Starfire twice in two instances?

"Who’s that?" Shana asked, tiptoeing to see into the distance.

Lin Wu didn’t answer, but he squeezed the trigger, and the gun didn’t fire – weapons were rendered inoperative upon entering the instance. He supposed it made sense; otherwise, why not just fire a rocket under the ice and forget fishing – you could just haul out fish directly.

Lin Wu reluctantly set down the rifle, ignoring Shana’s question, and began explaining the ice fishing techniques he’d just learned. Shana nodded frequently, taking the auger and enthusiastically drilling a flurry of ten holes near the tent as if playing whack-a-mole. It was a good thing this was a game, or else in reality, they might’ve found themselves swimming in an icy river.

They lit the bonfire, cooked food, and added the hot pot seasoning brought from the base. Seated on stools by the fire, each manned an ice hole and started fishing. At this point, Shana felt there was some truth to Lin Wu’s words – eating delicious food, drinking sheep milk tea, basking in the sun, fishing, tending to the fire, and chatting away. If one wished, they could even lie on a beach chair and sunbathe. All in all, this Ice Fishing Festival seemed closer to life’s leisure than teaching survival skills.