Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 45 - 44 Conflict

Chapter 45: Chapter 44 Conflict

Lin Wu returned to the vicinity of the outpost, standing like a husband-watching stone, looking down the highway toward Left County. The wait had gone from eleven in the morning to three in the afternoon. Counting from nine o’clock when Lin Wu started luring the monsters, six whole hours had passed, far exceeding the expected duration of the operation, which made Lin Wu quite worried. He kept glancing at the base cemetery, fearing that at any moment, there would be a few more people buried there.

In front of him was the horde of zombies at the outpost, and behind him and across the wilderness, zombies could be seen everywhere. Sitting atop a street lamp, Lin Wu was like a lone wolf, quietly observing the world in these apocalyptic conditions.

At three-thirty, there were no new graves in the cemetery, and the base’s pickup truck appeared on the highway, but for some reason, Maya and Horse Soul were standing in the bed of the pickup rather than sitting inside. Lin Wu, standing on the street lamp, waved the flag made of a stick and cloth. Maya leaned out and tapped the door of the driver’s cabin, and the pickup slowly came to a halt.

Lin Wu led the zombies away to clear a path for the pickup, which slowly drove past the outpost. Shaking off the zombies, he ran for five hundred meters before climbing onto the pickup truck. Snow Egg was driving, with Little Knife in the back seat. Lin Wu got into the passenger seat, "Thought I was going to die."

Snow Egg glanced at Lin Wu, "Sorry, my mistake."

The atmosphere was a bit off. Lin Wu turned to look at Little Knife, who wore an expression that spoke volumes. Lin Wu questioned, "Did the mission fail?"

Little Knife shook her head, "Successfully took over the power station."

Huh? If they had taken over the power station, why was everyone so unhappy? Perplexed the whole way, Lin Wu saw that the mood was off and temporarily suppressed his curiosity.

Everyone returned to the base smoothly. Stone and Su Shi greeted them at the gate. Lin Wu could see the electric lights on in the church, but what was odd was that Stone and Su Shi’s emotions were very calm. Stone told everyone that they had done hard work, saying he had prepared some steamed buns. Maya arranged for Snow Egg to go to the infirmary and went aside with Stone for a private talk.

Lin Wu suddenly felt like an outsider. Fortunately, he didn’t see Little Knife as an outsider, and he took her nearby to level up. After asking, Lin Wu learned that there had been a rather intense conflict between Snow Egg and Horse Soul.

When the group was about to reach the hydroelectric station, a female player stopped their vehicle to ask for help. She and another girl had set up a base in the park manager’s residence on the second night of the game. Limited by their understanding of the game and their courage, the two of them hadn’t made much progress over the past few days, only scavenging the manager’s residence for some food and building materials. Lacking medical supplies, they hadn’t even managed to set up a medical station.

The woman was quite shy, as if she had never asked anyone for help, and after stopping the vehicle, she quickly made it clear that she was a good person with no intention of offending anyone, not wanting to delay everyone’s time. Snow Egg only found out after asking that they were entering a two-star defense countdown at their base. Having seen vehicles in the distance outside their base, the woman had left her base to seek help. She offered a piece of rebar, their best weapon and one meant for close combat, in exchange for help in defending their base.

At this point, Horse Soul said on the side, "We have more important things to do." That’s all he said. Snow Egg looked at him with dissatisfaction and asked how many minutes until the siege. The woman replied, three minutes. Snow Egg asked Maya and Little Knife what they thought and, seeing that Snow Egg was inclined to defend the base, they expressed no opposition to helping.

Horse Soul was very bothered by the disdainful glance Snow Egg had given him, feeling resentful. He said that someone had died defending their base the night before. Snow Egg retorted that they were a four-star, and the girls were only a two-star. Horse Soul questioned whether Snow Egg really wanted to gamble with their comrades’ lives just to play the hero.

Little Knife thought Horse Soul’s words were spoken out of anger, but Snow Egg was left speechless by the comment, his face turning red with embarrassment. He immediately told Maya that he could stay behind, and that would be enough.

As they argued, the siege of Jia Female Base had already begun. Maya instructed Horse Soul to watch the car while the three of them walked a hundred meters to Jia Female Base. Since Maya and the others were not members of the base, they did not have unlimited bullets or double stamina recovery, so they could only use melee weapons to fight the zombies. During the defense, Female Yi was injured, with an infection rate of 20%.

After the defense ended, Snow Egg approached Maya to discuss whether they could help two girls find a pack of medical supplies.

Lin Wu chimed in, "It’s a tricky situation, it’s not about whether or not to help the girls, but about their stubborn attitudes. Even if Horse Soul wants to help, he needs to save face. The best way to do that is for Snow Egg to apologize, for both to bury the hatchet and laugh it off. The next best thing is for Maya to discuss it with Horse Soul, who at most will give a non-objective opinion. But knowing Snow Egg, if he believes he’s in the right, he won’t apologize to Horse Soul."

Little Knife slapped Lin Wu on the head and said angrily, "You talk, you talk."

Lin Wu quickly responded, "You talk, you talk."

Little Knife continued, saying that Maya believed they could take some time to help the girls or choose not to, either decision could be justified. Snow Egg said that even if he was left alone, he would still help the girls. Since Horse Soul had not explicitly said he wouldn’t help, Maya went back to discuss with Horse Soul about temporarily staying at the girls’ base to help them find a pack of building materials and a medical pack.

Horse Soul was not opposed, he simply said, "Whatever."

But the search took two and a half hours. Despite searching through the vast suburban park, supermarket, and parking lots, they failed to find a single medical pack, resulting in Female Yi’s death. Even so, Female Jia was still grateful for their help, apologizing for the trouble, and her sincerity made Snow Egg feel somewhat remorseful.

Since Horse Soul also took an active role in the search, their relationship improved a lot. After bidding farewell to Female Yi, they spent some time clearing up the power station and successfully occupied it.

On the ride back, Snow Egg suggested bringing Female Jia back to the base. Maya said that recruitment of new members was up to Stone, so they went to Female Jia’s base and contacted Stone via the radio. Stone guessed the situation from the little they told him, saying there was no problem. However, while Maya was communicating with Stone, Snow Egg and Horse Soul started fighting.

Little Knife rushed to find Maya, and following her to about a hundred meters away from the girls’ base, Maya discovered the two men entangled in a fight, ditching their weapons and resorting to a fistfight, which quickly escalated into wrestling. After separating the two, Maya asked for the reason, and Snow Egg threw a medical pack on the ground.

While Maya was communicating with Stone, Snow Egg was wandering around with Little Knife nearby. Snow Egg was in a relatively good mood at the time and bet with Little Knife about what they might find in the restroom, never expecting to discover a medical pack there. According to their task division, the restroom was Horse Soul’s search area, and the medical pack was conspicuously placed in the restroom’s cleaning room.

So Snow Egg confronted Horse Soul, who claimed he hadn’t seen it. Snow Egg didn’t believe him. Horse Soul stood his ground, saying "Don’t tell me I didn’t see it, and so what if I didn’t save her? Playing the good guy is your thing."

Snow Egg: "Say that one more time."

Horse Soul: "You’re the stupid saint trying to play the good guy, just to make you happy we wasted an entire day."