Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 42 - 41 Reduction in Staff

Chapter 42: Chapter 41 Reduction in Staff

With a thunderous rumble, a burst of flame surged from the entrance of the church, leaving everyone deep in thought for a moment. What had exploded? In the next second, everyone realized: both the motorcycles and cars had blown up. Cars have a 100% damage countdown of five seconds after being destroyed. After five seconds, if there is still gasoline in the car, it will explode.

The poor car, left desolate in the parking spot outside the church door, was forcibly ripped apart by the zombies.

The car explosion caused everyone to be distracted. The cover at the back door was too high, there were no lights, not even candles. An Exploding Carnage zombie tripped quietly over an obstacle. After falling to the ground, it exploded along with the spreading poisonous gas. Maya immediately retreated. Tangtang could have escaped the poison gas but was knocked down by a zombie. After a struggle, she escaped the toxic cloud to find her health was low, and due to the poison, she kept losing health.

"Go lie down in the sickbed quickly," Maya said. As long as one is not dead, they can be saved; lying down stops the bleeding and poisoning from reducing health.

Tangtang immediately ran into the medical room and flung herself onto the bed. Just then, a zombie broke through the window. Standing on the bed, Tangtang killed the zombie with her shotgun.

After the deed was done, Tangtang checked her status and exclaimed in shock, "Maya, I’m still losing health, I’m down to 5 points."

"What? That’s impossible," Maya quickly went to the door of the medical room. "How could this happen?"

"Don’t know, I’m going to die." Tangtang didn’t mince her words; she said she was going to die, and she immediately collapsed onto the bed.

Maya, perplexed, noticed a bundle at the head of the bed. She went over, pulled it apart, and saw it was Su Shi wrapped in a blanket. Now Maya understood the cause of Tangtang’s death. The sickbed was initially being used by Lin Wu, and after Lin Wu left, the system recognized Su Shi as the one using the sickbed. Because she was panicking and tense, Tangtang hadn’t noticed this and ultimately had led to her death.

Stone mourned, "My... Tangtang." My horticulture! The only set of Agricultural Skills we had in the base, relying on it for major agricultural development after having proper electricity and water. Tangtang’s death meant even if we found a way home, her skills would be reset. Thinking of this, Stone’s heart ached so much that he could not breathe. Naturally, Stone was also saddened by the reduction of the base’s members, Tangtang’s death, and the loss of horticulture.

Triple sadness, heart bleeding.

...

When the time for the siege came, and after cleaning up the remaining zombies, Maya arranged for people to use the sickbed. Stone cleared the rubble and rebuilt the barracks. Others were all sitting quietly by the campfire. Not far from the campfire were the barracks and gardens that had been destroyed by the zombies.

Unlike Cotton, Tangtang had been with the group for a longer time; although she wasn’t particularly outstanding, she had no flaws either, and her sudden death put everyone in low spirits. Stone brought a pot of potatoes to the backyard, placed the pot on the fire, and started cooking the potatoes, the only thing he could think of to boost morale without making empty promises.

Maya then arrived at the campfire and sat on a handmade stool, addressing the group, "Today during the city defense I made a serious mistake—I shouldn’t have let Stone use the Eagle Sand. Although I didn’t know that Eagle Sand had a recoil buffer time, I am responsible for not knowing all our weapons in advance. The death of Tangtang is a blow to the base and everyone here. This world is filled with dangers..."

Su Shi stood up, interrupting Maya, and said, "My fault, I’m sorry everyone, I’m sorry Tangtang."

"Are we holding a confession meeting?" Stone said, "From my personal point of view, this defense was very successful. Tangtang’s death was an accident. We can hold off the zombies, but we can’t prevent accidents from happening. Especially in this game, no one knows whether accidents or tomorrow will come first."

Everyone nodded, agreeing with Stone’s perspective.

"Starting tomorrow, we’ll begin clearing out Buildings 1, 3, 4, and 5," Maya said. "Currently, we are not capable of dealing with the Blood Plague in Building 2. Lin Wu, I’m not assigning you any tasks for the night shift." Maya couldn’t risk giving Lin Wu death-sentencing tasks. If Lin Wu died in the near future due to a task she had assigned, it would greatly impact the morale of the base.

Lin Wu nodded, "Yeah."

Stone asked, "Su Shi, are you short on supplies for your crafting?"

Su Shi knew Stone was deliberately giving him a topic to talk about, "Plastic, wires, metal, wood planks, and other basic garbage. Besides, we also need scrap cloth and pine resin for making torches. If we could get our hands on some empty oil drums, I could set up a few bonfires outside the system, so our base could be a bit brighter at night. The snacks in the warehouse have been depleted. Although they don’t add much stamina or restore much health, something is better than nothing. If you find any, you could just bring them back home."

Stone nodded, "I’ve noted it down. Starting tomorrow, I’ll broadcast trade information over the radio. On one hand, it’ll help us replenish supplies, and on the other, we can look for new members for the base. Maya mentioned Lin Wu earlier, and I think we should pair Lin Wu with a night-time partner."

Maya shook her head, "As of now, there’s no suitable partner for Lin Wu in the base. The most basic requirement is to be fast and not hold him back. Hence, this person must prioritize agility, with will or physical strength as their secondary attribute." Will had a clear function at the moment—the lower the stamina, the slower the stamina consumption, up to a threshold limit, reducing stamina consumption by 30-50% depending on whether it’s the main or secondary attribute.

Lin Wu said, "I don’t need a partner."

Stone replied, "At the very least, a partner could tell us how you died."

"Tch." Lin Wu scoffed, not even lifting his head, "I’m not bragging, but when it comes to the mutant zombies we know of so far... Night Demons are a bit troublesome." Lin Wu intended to say that he could handle all the known zombies, but Night Demons were an exception. Although their attack power and speed were not as intense as Frenzy’s, nor did they possess Blind Bat’s strong stealth capabilities, Night Demons combined the strong points of both, having certain invisibility, speed, and attacking power. Additionally, Night Demons had one unique trait—that was their numbers. Encountering Night Demons at night, you never knew how many were in the area. They didn’t swarm the player but spread out to conduct stealth attacks.

Seeing Lin Wu looking embarrassed, Stone couldn’t help but laugh, "Can’t handle them, huh?"

"Horse Soul, are these potatoes edible?" Lin Wu changed the subject.

Horse Soul looked disdainfully at the potatoes, stood up, and carried away the entire pot of them.

Stone dissatisfied, "What’s that supposed to mean? Are they inedible? I’m telling you, anything is edible once it’s cooked."

"Tch!"

Leaving a meaningful glance behind, Horse Soul went to the warehouse to get a kitchen knife, using a safe as a makeshift table to cut the potatoes into chunks. He took a bottle of mineral water, added salt to it, poured it into a basin, and brought it to the backyard, "Put the potatoes in once the water boils." He then went back to the warehouse to claim some spices and made a large bowl of sauce. By the time he was done and returned to the backyard, the potatoes were almost ready.

Dipping the potato chunks into the sauce, everyone praised Horse Soul’s cooking skills. Stone knew that the morale of the base was still quite low, and they hadn’t yet gotten over Tangtang’s death. However, he also knew everyone was trying to adjust to a more positive attitude, so as not to affect the mood of others.

Stone thought the personalities of the base members were quite good. He had wanted to discuss with Maya the idea of playing it safe rather than taking risks, but he also knew that was impossible. He believed Maya didn’t want anyone to die either.

With Horse Soul’s culinary skills receiving praise, the base decided to set a daily community dinner time at 8 PM. Scouting team members were tasked not only with collecting survival supplies but also to scavenge for spices, various meats, eggs, vegetables, and other food items. In this respect, Dawn was quite humane, as it didn’t set expiration dates on items outside the system.

As everyone chatted and ate potatoes, Lin Wu took a trip to the warehouse. After a while, with his mouth full of potato, Stone questioned, "Lin Wu claimed a treasure box? What treasure box? Where did this treasure box come from?"