Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 445 - 231 Rescue_2

Chapter 445: Chapter 231 Rescue_2

Maya called Stone, Stone: "No response." An hour had passed.

Lin Wu said, "What do you think Shana is thinking about? Is she considering taking her own life, or is she thinking about survival?"

Maya answered, "Survival."

Lin Wu asked, "Why?"

Maya said, "Shana is a very proud person, and her clothes-making skills are arguably the only contribution she can make to the base. She wouldn’t allow herself to become useless. Plus, her will is quite strong; she’d likely work hard to find a way to save herself."

Lin Wu nodded and called out, "Wai, do you smell your cousin?"

Wai barked lightly twice, indicating no. It was then that Little Knife grasped the key point: "When you talk to Wai like that, does it understand you?"

Lin Wu said, "As long as the instructions are simple, it can understand."

Little Knife asked, "Then can you ask it: ’Do you smell Shana?’"

Lin Wu said, "That’s not possible, it’s still an electronic dog. Just as it responds when you call it Wai, it won’t react at all if you call it Zheng."

Little Knife immediately asked the core question: "What nickname did you set for me?" In Wai’s understanding, there was no person named Shana, only a ’cousin.’ So that brought up the question, if Shana is ’cousin,’ what does Little Knife go by?

"Ah..." That question was hard to answer. Lin Wu stamped his foot and said, "It’s very personal, alright? Annoying."

Seeing Lin Wu ready to sacrifice his reputation to protect the secret, Maya grew curious as well: "Could it be ’Baby’?" When Wai was around, Little Knife and Snow Egg were not yet boyfriend and girlfriend. Could it be that Lin Wu had always harbored a secret crush on Little Knife?

"###!" Lin Wu replied nasally.

"What?"

Lin Wu helplessly said, "Walking over head girl."

Little Knife, unable to believe it, put her hands on her hips and fumed, "Change it, right now."

Lin Wu was even more helpless: "It would require a factory reset."

"Reset it. Now."

Lin Wu passed over the pistol: "You do it."

Only then did Little Knife realize that the only way to factory reset was to ’take out’ Wai. In her anger, she stomped hard on Lin Wu’s toes. Lin Wu was in so much pain that he immediately sat down to take painkillers and called Emerald Feather for distant fracture treatment. The three of them had no choice but to rest on the spot for 15 minutes.

Maya asked, "What’s my nickname?"

"You’re Maya," Lin Wu played dumb, attempting to change the subject: "Stone is called ’Old Fart,’ Horse Soul is ’Chef,’ Snow Egg is ’Pole,’ Su Shi is ’Stubble.’ Peanut, Emerald Feather, and Dashuang all use their real names."

"What about me?" Maya said, "Of course, you don’t have to tell me."

Little Knife sulkily said, "It must be ’Machine.’"

Lin Wu immediately deflected the issue: "So that’s what Maya means to you in your heart."

Little Knife hurriedly said, "No, that’s not it." She quickly wrapped her arms around Maya’s arm to show friendliness.

This made Maya even more curious. Lin Wu would rather redirect his anger onto Little Knife than explain; clearly, this nickname wasn’t something as simple as a prank. It could be a kind of beast, or a cold-blooded animal or the like. No, that seemed too extreme.

Maya asked, "Old hag?"

Lin Wu shook his head.

Maya: "Woman?"

Lin Wu continued to shake his head.

Lin Wu knew that Wai’s name could be changed, so he thought other people’s names could be changed too. One day at a gathering, while lying with Wai, Lin Wu half-jokingly introduced everyone at the base: "Don’t mess with that woman, she could stomp your dog head into mush."

"That one named Little Dog Shana, she’s your cousin," Lin Wu said, pointing at Shana: "Cousin."

Wai barked softly twice.

Lin Wu found this so amusing he pointed at Little Knife: "Head-stomper."

Wai barked softly twice, and Lin Wu handed it a stick and commanded, "Give it to the head-stomper." To his surprise, Wai actually took the stick to Little Knife.

Then Lin Wu played even more vigorously, assigning prank names to everyone. Later on, in public, Lin Wu only dared to whisper commands to Wai; he realized too late that he couldn’t change them back, as Wai was particularly stubborn. So Lin Wu complained, and Little White Rabbit explained that only through death could Wai’s memory be reset.

Maya didn’t ask any further, she knew inquiring about the truth would make everyone uncomfortable, so she contacted Stone to distract herself from her curiosity. Lin Wu took the chance to dispatch drones for reconnaissance and found that the likely spot where Shana might have fallen was about 1.8 kilometers away from him. Considering the mountain terrain, Lin Wu estimated it would take about two hours to get there.

The trio continued on their way, and as soon as they reached the peak, Wai immediately became alert, and Lin Wu instantly drew his weapon and entered stealth mode. Maya and Little Knife also prepared for combat. After a wait, they heard "swoosh and rustle" noises from the side as Nightmare emerged from the bushes and stood atop the mountain, looking around from a higher point about ten meters away from them.

The mountain was relatively low, with peaks blocking the front view of the city. After looking around for quite some time, Nightmare couldn’t help but let out some profanities. After cursing, she femininely kicked the small trees beside her a couple of times, then squatted down, cradling her chin in her hands and looking displeased. Incidentally, she blew air from her mouth, fluttering her lips to make the sound of a small motorbike.

Lin Wu said, "She’s a woman," his voice carrying a sudden realization and surprise.

Nightmare immediately turned her head and saw Lin Wu, who had stood up. Despite feeling embarrassed, she asked with a cold tone, "What are you doing here?"

Little Knife nudged Lin Wu and asked quietly, "What’s her name?"

"Silly Bird." The term comes from Water Margin, where ’bird’ is not pronounced ’niao’. It’s used either between dear friends or as a disparaging term for those one despises. Clearly, Nightmare and Lin Wu were not close friends.

Even Maya was somewhat surprised; whether it was Little Knife or anybody else’s dog name, there was an aspect of pranking and jest. But the term "Silly Bird" clearly carried a certain hostility. Lin Wu had previously said that Nightmare was trustworthy, but Maya didn’t know that he disliked Nightmare. On reflection, it wasn’t contradictory—Lin Wu acknowledged Nightmare’s trustworthiness but didn’t like her as a person.

Why the dislike? Does disliking someone need a reason?

Maya stepped forward to keep communications flowing, and Nightmare reluctantly joined the group to search for Shana. After Nightmare joined, Lin Wu’s mood remained unchanged, still leading with Wai as their scout. Nightmare followed at the back of the group, nearly silent, which suited her character. They descended the mountain, climbed another, and entered a forest; Shana was most likely in the east side of the forest, about 500 meters away.

Upon entering the forest, Maya discovered they had lost contact with the base. The signal was interrupted, and she couldn’t help but worry about getting lost. Lin Wu told her to stay calm; he could get lost in the wilderness, in the mountains, or in the city, but he would never lose his way in the forest. By observing the lushness of the tree branches and leaves, Lin Wu could easily determine the direction of north and south. Add to that the small ditches formed by spring water erosion, and Lin Wu was confident.

Under Lin Wu’s lead, the group finally found Shana. Poor Shana was suffering from crushed legs, and she was climbing with her intact hands; from the looks of it, she had climbed at least 30 meters. Lin Wu squatted beside Shana and asked with a grin, "At this rate, you’ll be back at the base within a week."

Shana squinted with a smile, "I feel so fortunate."

Lin Wu responded, "Then how should you thank me?"

"Thank me? No, I thank Little Knife and Maya. If it were just you, you would definitely drag me out of the forest," Shana looked back at Maya and Little Knife: "They would make a stretcher to carry me out of the forest." She gave them a smile.

Maya nodded slightly, continuing to tie ropes, while Little Knife replied with a smile: "Shana, do you know that you’re Wai’s cousin?"

"Huh?"

Little Knife explained, "Say ’cousin’, and Wai knows it’s you. Say ’Shana’, and Wai doesn’t recognize you."

Shana looked at Lin Wu for an explanation. Lin Wu elaborated, "Little Dog Shana, you lost the bet last time."

Shana retorted huffily, "I should be the cousin, not her." That’s when Maya and Little Knife finally understood why Stone said that Shana was tainted by bad company.

After thinking for a moment, Lin Wu nodded, "That’s fair; I apologize."

The stretcher was ready, and the three women placed Shana on it; it was around two in the afternoon. The team now faced a dilemma: They could either take Shana out of the forest for combat medical treatment or bring her straight back to base. If they chose the former, considering the state of Shana’s legs, they would have to spend the night in the forest. Lin Wu and the other two would suffer from lack of sleep, receiving a fatigue BUFF, potentially increasing their chances of accidents tomorrow.

If it were the latter, carrying someone over mountains and through valleys was no easy task and also very likely to result in injuries.