Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 40 - 39th - : Night Battle in Eight Directions

Chapter 40: 39th Chapter: Night Battle in Eight Directions

Lin Wu had been in the bedroom for over a minute without encountering any attack. Looking at the two-square-meter-sized heart that kept pulsating, Lin Wu, holding a shotgun, couldn’t help but wonder why the Blood Plague had no other means of attack or defense aside from the Blind Bats?

Lin Wu first searched the bathroom and balcony without finding anything unusual or discovering the Raider’s rifle. After circling around the Blood Plague a few more times and opening the system interface, still no anomalies appeared. Lin Wu picked up a golf club from the corner, preparing to strike. After a moment’s hesitation, he first took a rope from his backpack, tied one end to the balcony, and threw the other end down below, also signaling to Maya, who was crouching in the bushes.

Maya, seeing Lin Wu holding a torch in his left hand and signaling with his right, was utterly unable to understand the meaning. Maya responded with hand signals, but Lin Wu also couldn’t comprehend, resulting in half a minute of fruitless communication before Lin Wu returned to the bedroom, placed the torch in a vase, and raised the golf club to hit the Blood Plague hard.

Contrary to expectations, the Blood Plague didn’t burst; visibly, it splattered a dash of fresh blood. Lin Wu waited a moment before taking a second swing, feeling the Blood Mist in the room thicken and the scent of blood intensify. No anomalies appeared on the system panel. Lin Wu intuitively felt he shouldn’t swing a third time, but as the guinea pig, he still took the third swing.

Again, a splash of blood, but this time the Blood Mist became so thick it affected visibility. The house began to shake, and Lin Wu heard the sound of door breaking. Glancing towards the bedroom door, he saw a Blood Ferocious Ma burst in, leaping up and swiping its claws towards Lin Wu. Dodging with Wind Stinger, Lin Wu discovered that without being hit, just being brushed by the wind from the paw, his infection rate rose by 10%. One could only imagine the consequences of being clawed or bitten.

The Blood Ferocious Ma, having rolled over from its momentum, got back on its feet. The screams of Screeching Zombies echoed at the doorway, and a horde of Blood Zombies swarmed in. Lin Wu aimed his shotgun at the incoming Frenzy and pulled the trigger—headshot! To Lin Wu’s utter surprise, the Frenzy that was blasted away by the headshot didn’t die but instead ran off to one side, howling and bellowing. It turned out that a shotgun headshot dealt about the same damage to a Blood Ferocious Ma as a small pistol did to a White Crazy Savage. At least three shots were needed.

Lin Wu didn’t dare linger, he ran towards the balcony, grabbed the rope, and jumped down. As he flew through the air, the Blood Ferocious Ma followed, tearing off a large chunk of flesh from Lin Wu with its claw. In agony, Lin Wu let go of the rope and fell to the ground, with Maya lunging over to catch Lin Wu and push him forward, saving his life by a hair’s breadth.

"Run."

Lin Wu had no time to assess his injuries, he aimed at the charging Frenzy and fired another shot. The Blood Ferocious Ma, cunningly agile, landed on all fours and leapt to the side, dodging the bullet. At this moment, countless Blood Zombies crowded onto the balcony and began falling like rain. Building 2 shook incessantly, with the screeches coming from all directions, and waves of zombies began to surround Lin Wu.

What surprised Maya was that the zombies running past him did not attack him but were instead heading straight for Lin Wu. Even so, Maya didn’t linger; it was apparent that he couldn’t rescue Lin Wu, and staying would only make him a liability.

In just a short while, Lin Wu had used up all the bullets in his shotgun, quickly replacing it with a Desert Falcon. Seeing the zombies that had fallen about to get up, and others approaching to encircle him, Lin Wu pulled the trigger. The Quick Gunner ability, with a 25% chance of activation, allowed the bullets to curve as if by magic. A .50 caliber bullet found its mark, shattering the head of the Blood Ferocious Ma in midair.

The system notified Lin Wu of battle spoils; it was the first time Lin Wu had obtained items directly from killing zombies, but he had no time to check the spoils at the moment.

After breaking through the first layer of the encirclement with Wind Stinger, Lin Wu made a mad dash toward the base, with two White Crazy Savages leading the zombie horde in pursuit. Upon opening his interface, Lin Wu realized his infection rate had reached 50%, and due to external injuries, fractures, and bleeding, his life and stamina limits had decreased by 50%, with only 20 life points remaining and his stamina bottomed out.

After running out of stamina, Lin Wu chewed some gum, turned around, raised his gun, and fired. The bullet struck a Frenzy, causing it as if hit by a heavy blow, to leap aside, howling. The other Frenzy didn’t stop and charged at Lin Wu. Lin Wu knew it was either the Frenzy’s death or his own, he held his gun in one hand, calmly watching the recoil buffer bar. The Frenzy, foolishly straightforward, charged directly at Lin Wu. When it was only two meters away, without using Quick Gunner, Lin Wu shot its head off with one bullet.

Lin Wu pointed the gun at the other Frenzy as the zombie horde caught up. The Frenzy charged at Lin Wu ahead of the horde but with his prior experience, Lin Wu was calm and relaxed. The Frenzy’s leaping action seemed to be in slow motion, and with an accurate shot, Lin Wu killed it. By that time, some stamina had recovered but there was definitely no time to examine the bodies, escaping was the priority.

Just as Lin Wu was about to start, a zombie pounced on him like a rugby player, tackling Lin Wu to the ground. As Lin Wu was about to be swamped, Maya, who was supporting from twenty meters away, fired her small handgun, successively blowing the heads off three zombies and giving Lin Wu a chance to get up. A zombie imitated the move and lunged at Lin Wu, only to be headshot in mid-air by Maya.

After resolving the crisis, Maya didn’t wait for Lin Wu; she knew his speed. When Lin Wu ran out of stamina and rested, she would immediately stop and stand guard twenty meters away. Under Maya’s cover, Lin Wu finally made it back to the base alive.

With such a commotion at the base, the people started another round of the cliffside melon-eating event. This time was different from the rest; upon returning to the base, Lin Wu didn’t even have time to smile before he rushed to lie down in the infirmary. At that moment, he was still in a slight bleeding state, with only 4 life points remaining.

Fortune favors the brave after escaping from disaster.

System notification: Hunter profession marking skill unlocked. Mark level 1, marks the target without consuming stamina, lasting for 10 seconds, with a cooldown time of 1 minute. Ranged weapons will inflict 200% damage on marked targets.

Everyone rushed into the infirmary, and on the hospital bed, Lin Wu introduced to everyone the Blood Plague and Blood Ferocious Ma.

Just as Lin Wu finished speaking and before he could receive everyone’s warm concern, an alarm sounded throughout the base. Everyone received a system message: Zombie siege countdown 10 minutes. This siege has a strength of 4 stars and will last for 5 minutes.

Lin Wu had the statuses of infection, fracture, and trauma, and needed to stay in bed for three hours to recover. Since the infection rate was over 50%, it could only be reduced by 15% every 10 minutes. Fracture and trauma could only heal after the infection was completely cleared. Moreover, under the state of infection, the effectiveness of medical bandages and other drugs was halved.

Maya began assigning positions and weapons to everyone. She brought Lin Wu a precious first aid kit, which restored some of his injuries, adding 20 points to his life limit. Then she handed a small handgun to Lin Wu, telling him to protect himself and Su Shi.

Stone, with shooting experience, took the Desert Falcon. Tangtang, being agile, was given a hunting shotgun. Another small handgun was left for Snow Egg, whose great hammer was immensely powerful but stamina-draining, allowing him to maintain offensive capabilities while regaining stamina.

Unlike the last siege defense, there wasn’t much gasoline left in the house, so only a few Molotov Cocktails could be made. However, everyone was relatively relaxed, after all, they had held the church doors last time with just three guns.

Maya, however, felt that the situation was more dire than the previous siege. During the siege, the church doors were atop stairs, giving a high ground advantage and the narrow steps were conducive to defense. If the zombies were to foolishly enter through the main doors this time, unless several Frenzies joined, they would definitely fail to breach the doors.

But there were no ifs. This was a system-initiated siege, and the siege was not just against the players—zombies aimed at buildings too and could even damage the item warehouse, causing the loss and damage of items. Therefore, zombies would swarm the church from all directions, they would take the back door, and they would even break the glass to burrow into the church.

Maya focused the defense on the narrow corridor in the latter half of the church, which was conducive to defense. The downside was that the open-air garden, barracks, and system warehouse had to be abandoned. Should the system warehouse be destroyed, the cap on supplies storage would drop; the current 60 building materials at full storage would be reduced to 40. Even though Stone expressed doubts about this, Maya still decided to concentrate the main defense in the corridor.