Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 432 - 226 Gathering

Chapter 432: Chapter 226 Gathering

Lin Wu asked, "That middle-aged man, what is the research institute working on now?"

Stone rolled his eyes and said, "Basic botany, increasing the crop yield of the base by 3%, which takes 24 hours. If you ask me, Dawn really deserves to die for this."

After completing the dieting research, Dawn sent a gift package. Upon opening the package, Dawn randomly displayed a skill from the technology tree. The skill was the twelfth level combat skill, named Auto Turret. Once the skill was unlocked, auto turrets could be produced in the crafting room. The auto turrets would attack all non-base and non-ally creatures within range, and players could freely choose to turn them on or off.

The appearance of this skill made Maya’s eyes go wide. Stone strongly opposed researching combat skills. He believed that the base’s combat power was already quite good and that they should focus on survival skills first, followed by life skills.

Maya, on the other hand, thought that if they could build a few auto turrets, the Sawmill, a base that was originally drafty on all sides, would turn into a military fortress.

The most tricky part of the research facility was that it wasn’t possible to research the next skill just by completing prerequisite skills. In order to research a skill, two conditions had to be met: one was the prerequisite skill, and the other was the research skill condition. For example, basic botany required the consumption of seeds from three types of crops and passing an exam with a score of 60 before research could commence. If the exam was failed, you could retake it after an hour. The exam content was related to basic botany, and the questions were quite simple, such as asking what the essential element for plant growth was.

The three leaders represented the three views of Shadow. Maya was naturally from the combat faction, Stone was from the survival faction, and Shana was from the life faction. Each of the three branches of the tech tree corresponded to one of them, providing enough for them to hold meetings about their future upgrade paths.

As the men were chatting idly, Shana and Maya came over. Maya, not being one to small talk, went straight to the point and explained to everyone, "At seven o’clock in the evening, Nightmare contacted me and mentioned the A1 laboratory. I told her the location." Lin Wu had once come close to the A1 laboratory during an NPC Seru quest.

Shana added, "Two hours later, just now, the system notified me: My husband is dead."

Lin Wu had once easily ventured close to the A1 laboratory. Compared to the dangers presented by zombies, carrying Dr. Seru up a five-minute staircase was the biggest challenge.

Lin Wu asked, "Do you have any thoughts?"

Maya said, "I had planned to let Nightmare handle the tough creatures near the A1 laboratory first. Since she couldn’t manage it, should we make a trip to A1 ourselves?" Maya and Lin Wu had a mission called Secret, which was to explore ten secret laboratories to uncover their mysteries. They had already explored laboratories A5 and A6.

Stone suggested, "I propose that after Nightmare revives, we contact her and tell her that we’re willing to help her go to the A1 laboratory."

Lin Wu admired Stone’s cunning, "You sly fox, that’s quite devious." Nightmare’s death indicated she had important information. If it was dangerous, they could let Nightmare lead the way. The most important thing was that Lin Ma suffered no loss, they were just carrying out a mission after all.

Stone snorted dismissively, implying that being smart was an obvious choice.

Lin Wu said, "At that time, I heard some noises coming from the direction of A1. It didn’t seem like the sounds made by Blind Bats. I don’t know how to put it, but I always feel that the basement of The Day After Tomorrow Luxury Building is terrifyingly clean."

Maya asked, "Do you mean that you didn’t encounter any zombies in the basement?"

Lin Wu nodded, "Once I entered that door, except for the employee zombies in Seru’s laboratory, I didn’t encounter other zombies. Even the sewers have zombies, so why wasn’t there any in that stretch of the way?"

Shana speculated, "Could it be NPCs? It might be a Fortress Company stronghold, or it could be an Alliance shelter."

Maya nodded, "Alright, we’ll make plans after Nightmare is resurrected. Stone, have you considered taking Nightmare into the base? Every time she dies, she has to rebuild a shelter. Having a stable base would be good for her."

"There’s still one bed available." Each barracks provides six beds, and two barracks provide twelve beds. The food production from the two farms was stable, so feeding one more person wasn’t a problem. Stone said, "But would Nightmare dare to come to the commander-controlled base?" Entering the base means surrendering all your belongings.

"The Meteorological Station Base," Maya said. "Repeated cooperation has proven that Nightmare is a credible person. I think she is someone we can collaborate with long-term. We should utilize all the resources we can."

Stone agreed, "Okay." It was just a matter of spending some construction materials to upgrade the bed. Construction materials and food were the most basic of the five resources, and although Shadow’s reserves weren’t large, they weren’t lacking these two. Medical resources were sparse, but at least they had Little Knife with their Lichenology skill increasing it daily. Ammunition and fuel were the real headaches, currently only obtainable through NPC merchants. Fortunately, painkillers could be resold, making resource packs almost like a giveaway. But merchants came only every few days, and the resource packs they sold were limited.

...

The next morning was for demolition, and the afternoon was for the market. Peanut found Invincible Base’s Raccoon Cat, and before they got into personal matters, they talked shop. Peanut traded an assault rifle for 5 repair kits, which was a fair and square deal without discounts. Peanut inquired about the current situation at Invincible Base.

Raccoon Cat told Peanut that currently, some people inside Invincible Base were feeling lost, stemming from the combat field personnel. Even if Fishing was common, nerfed, or it was summer, it could still provide food for the base. The production personnel, once armed, could hold their own in combat nearly as well as the field personnel. Moreover, with the surrounding resources already scavenged, the importance of field personnel at Invincible had greatly diminished.