Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 489 - 249 NPC

Chapter 489: Chapter 249 NPC

The density of zombies had significantly decreased, Titans were no longer found everywhere, and the presence of Frenzy had decreased to a rare occurrence. Highway 99, which had few zombies to begin with, was almost completely clear of obstacles. When they got close to the ramp, Lin Wu called out, "Pull over."

Maya pulled over, and Lin Wu looked towards an ordinary villa about 15 meters from the car, "There’s someone."

Seeing someone was not strange in itself, but they had not seen any players in the area that morning. What was most curious was that the villa had a faint green safety zone that was hard to notice. Normally, safety zones were a regular green color.

Maya said, "Lin Wu, you approach; Cotton and I will split up left and right, Dashuang will stay in the driver’s seat and wait. Don’t reveal the guns for now."

Not revealing the guns meant not holding them in hand, which was a convention within the player community. When approaching another base or preparing to make contact with others, if one held a weapon, it signified ill intent, and the other party was justified in attacking. It was unclear if this convention was upheld elsewhere, but in old North Town, it was, and the convention was posted on the billboards at the town’s entrance and exit.

Lin Wu walked along the roadside pine trees, ready to flee behind them at any moment. As he came within about 8 meters of the villa, a woman came out carrying a bucket. She did not notice Lin Wu and walked to the side of the house where the well was, and started drawing water by turning the windlass.

"Hello," Lin Wu called out.

The woman turned and saw Lin Wu, exclaiming with delight, "Hello, survivor."

In a low voice, Lin Wu said to the headset, "Undying NPC."

Lin Wu approached and spoke with the woman, and Maya quickly followed to make sure that Lin Wu didn’t kill someone out of displeasure, meanwhile signaling to Cotton to stand by outside. The game had too few NPCs to be sure of their allegiance.

The base was known as Cozy Cabin and was formed by three female NPCs. Currently, the relationship between Doomsday Fortress and Cozy Cabin was neutral. According to NPC dialogues and system explanations, it appeared to be an ordinary yet somewhat strange system.

Put simply, after improving relations with Cozy Cabin, players could hire NPCs with resources to provide services for their base. Cozy Cabin belonged to the domestic service category, offering cleaning and sanitation services.

The NPC informed Maya that if they continued five kilometers further, they would find a group of veterans who had established the Backshield Base. Once players improve their relations with them, they could hire these veterans to help defend their base. Their most significant feature is that they bring their own firearms and ammunition and do not require food.

The hiring cost was a weekly salary, and each base had different needs. For instance, Cozy Cabin required meat as food. This meant that meat could be used to hire them to provide a week’s worth of domestic services for the Fortress. The specific cost depended on the relationship between Doomsday Fortress and Cozy Cabin.

How to improve the relationship? There were two ways. The first was to complete active missions. Currently, Cozy Cabin had three needs: three wolf pelts, five kilograms of charcoal, and five large logs.

After killing a wolf, if carrying a short blade, one could skin it. Non-Hunter, non-surgeon professions, or those lacking the relevant skills, had a 20% chance of obtaining a complete wolf pelt and 20% of edible meat. Hunters had a 50% chance of getting a whole wolf pelt and 100% of the edible meat.

By burning fifteen kilograms of wood in the furnace, one could obtain five kilograms of charcoal.

Large logs required going into the mountains to chop trees. There were a few near the cabin, but how to fell them was the issue. After felling and stripping off all the branches, the result was a large log. There were requirements for the diameter of the wood, and checking the tree info would reveal whether it was a large log.

Certainly, these three tasks were all time-consuming or labor-intensive, and they didn’t add much to the amity levels.

Currently, a neutral relationship was at 50 points, each task added 2 points, friendly was at 60, unfriendly at 40. Amicable was at 70, hostile at 30. Friendly was at 80, adversaries at 20, and they would start fighting upon encountering each other. Allies were at 100, at which point NPCs would provide services for free. At 0 points was a deadly feud, when NPCs would not only attack the player proactively but might also hire others to attack them.

The second pathway to improve relations yielded more points but was a passive task. Once two bases established contact through radio channels, they were essentially connected. If Cozy Cabin faced an emergency, they would call for help from Doomsday Fortress, and a successful rescue would result in an increased relationship based on the urgency and rescue executed.

This method had two disadvantages. One was that it was a passive mission; Cozy Cabin might not need to call for help for a month or even a year. The second disadvantage was that Cozy Cabin might not only be acquainted with your base; they could ask other bases for help. Of course, there were no other bases nearby, so the second disadvantage practically did not exist.

On the way back to the base, Maya explained the situation to Shana, who immediately drove out in search of the cabin. After half an hour, they hadn’t found either the domestic or hiring bases but stumbled upon a labor camp instead. At Cozy Cabin, you provided meat to hire NPCs. At the labor camp, you labored to get food.

The work was simple, consisting of digging and filling holes. Calculated according to the volume of soil and efficiency, one person working for eight hours could get four meals, enough for two people for a day’s food needs.

Another half hour later, having burned a barrel of oil, Shana found another NPC Base: Sanctuary Base. Players without food, drink, or a base could reside there for 48 hours.

Unwilling to give up, Shana used the sewer system under Highway 99 to search manually and joyfully found a domestic NPC base at the second exit. Doomsday Fortress established contact with the NPC base using the radio channel provided by Shana. Apart from the domestic NPC that Shana had just discovered.