Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 443 - 230: Mountaineering Team_2

Chapter 443: Chapter 230: Mountaineering Team_2

Maya said, "At least we can know how they disappeared."

Lin Wu drifted away, whatever you guys say goes, it’d only be if his own brain was fried that he would float by a meeting.

...

There was no talk overnight, and the next morning, Shana’s squad began to climb Husband Waiting Cliff. Unlike the mountains Lin Sha had climbed before, there was no path on Husband Waiting Cliff. Fire-watchers reached it by helicopter, and the simple equipment and facilities on top were also transported there by helicopter.

Lin Wu sipped his tea and continued with the report, "But Shana didn’t come unprepared. Faced with the steepness of Husband Waiting Cliff, she nonchalantly pulled out a bag of chips from her backpack, and the three of them began to discuss around the cliff while eating. Shana said, ’It’s very steep.’ Peanut said, ’We can’t get up.’ Horse Soul said, ’Let’s go home.’ So they continued eating chips, and then Peanut seemed to have an idea; he took out... a thermos from his backpack! It looked like he planned to take a sip of water. He drank, drank, took two sips, two big sips."

Maya said helplessly, "I asked you to be as detailed as possible, not to tell a story."

Little Knife asked impatiently, "Lin Wu, do you think they can make it up?"

"Hard to say." Lin Wu could use a drone to transport ropes, but it could only bear limited weight and couldn’t fly too high. Husband Waiting Cliff was 200 meters high, which didn’t seem difficult from a distance, as the southern slope wasn’t too steep and had quite a few small trees. But no one knew the depth of the roots of these trees. One misstep might make one tumble down.

Lin Wu and Maya continued with Task A1 as Nightmare was revived, so there wasn’t much to do that morning, and everyone spent their time drinking tea, snacking, and chatting. At Maya’s reminder, Lin Wu confirmed that Shana’s trio began ascending from the south side. At this time, a quarrel could be heard from the west parking lot, Snow Egg: "You’re right, it’s all my fault."

Little Knife: "If you know you’re wrong, why are you shouting so loudly? I’m asking you, what did you do wrong?"

"I, I was wrong to be alive," Snow Egg said and walked away huffily.

Seeing this, Little Knife also got angry and said, "What do you mean? Come here, Hurry up, mountain... Mountain..."

Snow Egg stopped in his tracks. When Little Knife counted to two, Snow Egg obediently came back and said patiently, "I think the base needs us."

Little Knife shook her head, "No, you’re just impatient."

Snow Egg: "I’m not."

Little Knife: "Yes, you are. Otherwise, tell me, what does the base need you to do?"

Snow Egg started thinking and seemed to realize that he had nothing to do with the current missions at the base. He said helplessly, "It seems like nothing."

Little Knife: "So?"

Snow Egg apologized, "I was wrong?"

Little Knife: "Wrong where?"

The conversation behind wasn’t loud as an argument, which is why Lin Wu could hear it; he had stealthily approached the west parking lot upon hearing the fight. Maya threw stones at Lin Wu from the backyard, but as Lin Wu returned, Maya hadn’t spoken yet when Stone, sitting solemnly in the farm chair, said seriously, "They might break up."

"Break up?" Lin Wu and Maya leaned in to ask in a low voice.

Stone said, "From their conversation, it can be inferred that Snow Egg has never expressed his true feelings to Little Knife; his relationship with her has always been entirely about appeasement. A man’s patience runs out faster than he thinks. Conversely, the more a woman is coaxed, the more attention she demands, and she might even deliberately be unreasonable to get her lover’s care. There’s a certain power dynamic between men and women, but it’s not fixed."

Lin Wu understood, "Some things you decide, some things I decide, and some things we discuss together."

Stone nodded, "That’s the most basic respect. Seeing that they’ve formed a complete dependency, Snow Egg completely submits to Little Knife. Little Knife’s personality isn’t bad, but Snow Egg giving away all his power will cause him to lose Little Knife’s respect. Little Knife won’t know where the boundaries lie. She might even misunderstand that the lower the boundaries, the more Snow Egg loves her. I think their understanding of love was flawed from the start, so their relationship won’t last long."

Lin Wu said, "So-called ’lickspittles’ never come to a good end."

"Exactly, one can’t earn respect from others by trying to please them at the expense of self-respect. Of course, this isn’t always the case in some workplaces; loyalty is a quality some superiors value most," Stone added. "Like the ancient emperors, they didn’t care how much ministers contributed to the country; they cared more about whether the ministers were completely loyal to them."

Maya also sensed something was off and said, "Little Knife can’t offer Snow Egg the luxury and riches of an emperor, and Snow Egg can’t always treat Little Knife like the apple of her eye. Inevitably, conflicts will arise between them. Since their measure of love is based on the other’s tolerance, things will only get worse. The wedding was just a tipping point, an affair that was entirely their own." There had never been an issue that concerned only Snow Egg and Little Knife in their collective life before, except for this wedding.

Stone: "Exactly."

Lin Wu, half-convinced, half-doubtful: "Old Man, are you that awesome?"

Stone grinned and did not reply, while Maya said, "He managed to woo his wife and also divorce her. His deductions are probably trustworthy."

Lin Wu: "Ex-wife Broken Stone? A divorced man has the nerve to discuss love?"

Stone said, "I divorced because I saw our conflicts were irreconcilable; neither of us would step back. We ended our marriage amicably after a peaceful conversation, before the conflicts escalated."

Lin Wu, curious, asked, "What kind of conflicts?"

Stone replied, "It’s a long story, kid. Mind your own business and go do your thing."

"Tch." Lin Wu pulled up the drone interface: "They’re climbing... They’re using the safety rope technique to climb, pretty clever idea."

Peanut went first, taking the rope to a certain point, then wrapping it around his body, looping it over solid trees. Even if Peanut slipped, Shana and Horse Soul, along with the friction of the tree, would be enough to hold Peanut. After climbing about twenty meters, Peanut used the rope to first pull the lighter Shana into position, followed by Horse Soul. The three of them progressed up the steep cliff by passing the rope in a relay manner.

About an hour later, the trio successfully reached the summit, and soon the system notified all Sawmill members: Shadow took control of Fire Watchtower’s high ground, acquiring Artillery Support Skill. The three exchanged high-fives on the cliff-top, celebrating. However, what happened next caused Lin Wu and the others some concern. The trio looted the Fire-watcher Tower, each obtaining a material pack and numerous items.

This would significantly increase their carry weight. In theory, as long as it’s within the carry weight threshold, it shouldn’t affect the characters’ movements and stamina consumption. But that’s in the context of normal running and walking and doesn’t include climbing cliffs. Moreover, climbing up is hard, coming down is even harder, and they only had two ropes.

What happened next proved that knowledge can conquer all. Shana designed a double-rope rig: use Rope A to slide down to the point, then pull Rope B; once Rope B is pulled taut, untie Rope A, and the three would drag the rope to the location. Following this method, Shana’s group easily and smoothly descended from Husband Waiting Cliff.

Seeing that Shana’s team had ended their toughest challenge, and Nightmare’s respawn time had arrived, Maya and Lin Wu began discussing matters regarding laboratory A1. Half an hour later, Nightmare respawned, only to almost spit blood upon checking her and her spouse Shana’s location. She had respawned a kilometer away from Shana, halfway up a Stone Mountain.

The key issue was that she was no longer a member of the Meteorological Station after her death and couldn’t contact her allies’ base. The only good news was that she was a Fortress agent, so the weapons in her backpack were still there. But where the hell was this? The only option was to find Shana; the electronic map showed Shana’s position, but only Shana’s.

A straight-line distance of 1.5 kilometers, southeast.

...

Lin Wu glanced at the time and asked Maya, "Nightmare has been resurrected for an hour now, why haven’t we heard a thing?"

Before Maya could answer, a response came from the command post. Stone sauntered over, sat down, picked up the walkie-talkie, propped up his feet, and pressed the walkie-talkie button: "Who’s there?"

Horse Soul: "Shana’s missing." Horse Soul’s voice was loud, and everyone crowded around upon hearing him.

"Missing?" Lin Wu questioned. He had considered death, injury, and other possibilities, but had never thought that she would be missing. Lost as in thrown out? Or lost as in wandered off?

Ten minutes ago, Horse Soul and Peanut descended Stone Mountain. Peanut went down first while Horse Soul and Shana collected the ropes, Horse Soul followed after. Shana tied the two ropes into a lasso, the same way mentioned before where pulling Rope B would release Rope A. Shana was to go down last.

But Shana didn’t come down, nor did the ropes. Horse and Peanut waited for a while, called for Shana to no avail, and Peanut took the risk to climb back to the loop point barehanded, finding the rope still there, but Shana was gone.

After Horse Soul finished speaking, everyone looked at Lin Wu. He checked the graveyard at the Meteorological Station: "There’s no grave for Shana."

Stone asked, "Then where could she have gone?"

"I don’t know."

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