Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 37 - 36 Fortress Agent

Chapter 37: Chapter 36 Fortress Agent

Lin Wu followed Maya and jumped off the container, then turned around with his shotgun aimed behind him. Quick Gunner! With a loud bang, blood spattered, and the 15% headshot chance finally triggered, a Night Demon, due to inertia, tumbled down at Lin Wu’s feet from the darkness a few meters away.

Maya turned back and saw Lin Wu holding a gun in one hand and looting a corpse with the other. She didn’t have time to argue with Lin Wu about which was more important, life or property, and blindly shot a crossbow arrow over Lin Wu’s shoulder, "Hurry."

"Hurry up," Lin Wu replied, holding the gun with one hand and firing a shot into the darkness, whether there was a target or not, just to give them a scare, then shouted, "Motorcycle."

"Alright," said Maya as she fired another arrow before turning to run. Lin Wu scored some alcohol, fired another shot into the darkness, and then fled at full speed. After the morale penalty from the deaths in Cotton was gone, Lin Wu deduced the Night Demons were slightly slower than him. Even so, he turned on a burst of speed to dash forty yards out the small iron gate and reached the streetlight in double time.

Maya had successfully stolen a motorcycle, and just as she drove up, Lin Wu arrived. He grabbed Maya’s shoulder with one hand and swung himself onto the bike with such coolness that he even impressed himself. They rode the motorcycle to the pickup truck, lifted the bike onto the truck together, and then quickly took off. They weren’t running from Night Demons, but from the guilt of thieves.

Just moments before, Lin Wu had righteously punished a girl for stealing motorcycles, and now, to his own surprise, he found himself committing the same deed, feeling somewhat hot-faced. As they drove off, Lin Wu rationalized, "They’ve already lost two people; they probably won’t need the motorcycle now."

Maya glanced at Lin Wu, not expecting him to feel ashamed of stealing.

Lin Wu pulled out the Desert Falcon from his bag, "When I went to get gasoline, I happened to catch someone trying to steal our truck."

Maya looked at the gun and said, "Nicely done. You hadn’t mentioned that before."

Lin Wu answered honestly, "She said she wanted to join our base; she claimed she was a doctor."

Maya watched the road ahead, struggling to suppress a laugh, then asked, "You killed her and then found out that what she said might be actually true."

Lin Wu nodded, "While I was looting her, I felt there was some credibility to her words. You can’t blame me though, who’d believe a player armed with just a baseball bat claiming to have doctor skills? If you were in my shoes, would you have believed her?"

Maya asked, "Do you want the truth or a lie?"

Lin Wu said, "A lie."

Maya answered, "No, I wouldn’t have believed her."

Lin Wu, "Thank you."

There was silence in the car for a while until Maya couldn’t help but ask, "Aren’t you going to ask what the truth is?"

Lin Wu replied, "Not asking."

"Haha." Maya completely broke down at Lin Wu’s answer. Strangely, it took her less than three seconds to regain her composure and get back to business, "The player base is growing; we need to take some anti-theft measures."

Vehicles were not uncommon in places like North Town, but keys were hard to find, and currently, players lacked the ability to pick locks. Maya had come across this pickup truck yesterday; its lock was already broken, meaning it could be driven without a key. The same was true for the motorcycle.

Lin Wu had a flash of inspiration, "You think the electronics in our warehouse could be used for stealing cars? Without a key, just break the lock to drive the vehicle."

Maya pondered for a while, "It’s best to let others be the guinea pigs for the Skill Books. Tomorrow I will arrange for Stone to contact the player base and share gaming experiences." Skill Books were scarce, but only scarce. Over the past few days, people at the base had obtained several Skill Books. Maya was very satisfied with the current personnel situation at the base; she hoped that everyone could learn valuable skills.

Maya steered the car off the highway, "Since we’re here, let’s take a few basic packages back."

...

On the left side of the highway from the mountaintop church to the Left County sentry post was a continuous line of steep mountain cliffs, and on the right was a vast open plain. The Left County plain was mainly composed of farms, with hundreds of meters between each farm, and sparsely populated. Further to the right were mountains, with a railway line running at the foot of the mountains between the two counties.

In the center of the Left County plain, there were a restaurant, a gas station, and a store selling agricultural machinery parts—Maya’s targets for the evening. Left County plain could be considered a Newcomer’s Land of Fortune, as the number of zombies here was very sparse, and the farmsteads were rich in resources. Maya told Lin Wu that after establishing themselves at the farm base, they had scavenged seven small farmsteads, resulting in a severe surplus of gasoline and food, but without finding a single medical pack or any medical supplies.

When the car approached the stores, the day’s rain finally stopped, the clouds dispersed, and the moon hung high in the sky, greatly improving visibility.

Maya delegated the specific scavenging work to Lin Wu, reducing herself to a supporting role, facilitating Lin Wu’s efforts. Lin Wu picked up a stone and threw it at the restaurant, shattering the glass and drawing the surrounding zombies toward it. After observing and listening for a while, hearing nothing out of the ordinary, he turned and entered the gas station 15 meters from the restaurant, leaving Maya on guard outside.

Gasoline, fuel bag, gasoline, gasoline... What the hell? A gas station with just gasoline? Shouldn’t there be guns? Guns are needed to protect the gas station, there should be... what else should be there?

The distracted Lin Wu opened a cabinet, only to find a zombie standing there. Without hesitation, he quickly closed the cabinet door. Damn Dawn. Although Lin Wu looked cool and composed, his heart thumped wildly for quite a while. He was startled.

Lin Wu heard voices from outside. Surprised, he wondered if Maya had duplicated herself. Looking out the window, he saw Maya speaking quietly with two men wearing bulletproof vests. The vests had a clear Fortress emblem, and their melee weapons were a metal baseball bat and a short-handled machete. They carried a shotgun and an assault rifle as ranged weapons, and their tactical belts were filled with magazines and bullets.

Lin Wu stepped outside, and Maya explained in a low voice, "Mission, to escort and protect Fortress agents to a farmstead to complete a search."

Lin Wu took another glance at their gear, "Accepted."

The NPCs didn’t waste words. After accepting the mission, they followed the two men into the pickup truck. Lin Wu filled the car with gas first, pondering whether he should ask Maya to drive back to the base and call everyone to gang up on these two NPCs. He was wary of their weapons, feeling that even if they could take them down, it would come at a great cost.

The target farmstead wasn’t far, and they arrived nearby in 5 minutes. After parking, several zombies that had followed came closer. Maya drew her weapon and went forward. The two NPCs joined in to help; the machete-wielding NPC grabbed a zombie by the hair with one hand and skillfully chopped off its head with the other, tossing it aside. During this, the zombie managed to scratch the NPC, but it didn’t break through the bite-proof armor on his arm.

The other NPC wielding the metal baseball bat kicked a zombie in the knee, knocking it down, then stepped forward and swung the bat with both hands, shattering the zombie’s skull like hitting a golf ball.

After eliminating the zombies, the two NPCs, without a word, followed Maya towards the farmstead. Maya told Lin Wu the mission would last 5 minutes, and they needed to protect the two agents as much as possible. She said she would start when they were ready.

Lin Wu pulled Maya aside to whisper, and after glancing at the two NPCs, she said softly, "Isn’t that a bit much?"

"You’re in charge of your own mission."

After a moment’s thought, Maya nodded.

Lin Wu approached the NPCs, "I’m going to pee, see you in a bit."