Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 49 - 48 Shana

Chapter 49: Chapter 48 Shana

Lin Wu led the way ahead and casually chatted with Shana, asking, "Why did you want to join our base?" Eagle Sand was in her bag, not placed on the weapon rack, for no other reason than feeling guilty.

Shana answered, "If possible, of course I would choose the best base."

Lin Wu said, "You’ve come to the right place, we just got the power running yesterday."

Shana was somewhat surprised, and also a bit disappointed, "That’s great."

Lin Wu didn’t understand and looked back at Shana. Shana, walking alongside Lin Wu, explained, "Electricity is a very important resource for a base. You’ve already obtained power, which means any contribution I make in the short term will be hard to surpass yours. Instead, I feel like I’m clinging to a big tree, and it’s kind of uncomfortable."

Lin Wu had wanted to ask Shana if she was 5%, but after the last time with Maya’s 5%, Lin Wu knew such a question was offensive to others and could also cause misunderstandings about his own insecurities. He asked Shana how she got her Chemistry Skill Book.

Regarding this question, Shana said with a smile, "You tell me how you got the power, and I’ll tell you how I got the Skill Book."

The way Shana said this left a lot of room for conversation, giving Lin Wu the space to join in, as well as the chance to expand on the topic. He could jokingly ask her to go first, explain how he got the power, or he could determine her personality to be quite interesting and compliment her for being a cheerful person.

Shana didn’t have Little Knife’s naive honesty, nor Maya’s coolness, but she had her own outgoing charm. In terms of looks, Shana was a bit more attractive than the other two, poised and vivacious, making others feel at ease and wanting to get closer to her. However, Lin Wu felt guilty, like a thief, and wasn’t impacted by the first impression of Shana’s personality and appearance.

Lin Wu puzzled, "Won’t you find out about the power source after joining the base?" What kind of a trade is this?

Shana looked at Lin Wu with her cheeks puffed out for a while, "You don’t often chat up girls, do you?"

Curious, Lin Wu asked, "How do you know?"

Shana shrugged her shoulders, "I just know. But it’s not something to be proud of, just the so-called emotional intelligence."

"Haha, you’re too modest." Saying someone has high emotional intelligence on Blue Star was an insult, implying that person is fickle and opportunistic, only capable of saying what others like to hear. To please others and to be on good terms with everyone, they have to say many things they don’t mean. To make others happy, they add unnecessary stress to their own lives.

It’s not that having high emotional intelligence is bad; people with high EQ are usually more humorous and charming, making it easier to get close to them. Shana’s remark was self-deprecating. The kind of high EQ that the public detests refers to people who are good at reading others’ faces, skilled at guessing superiors’ thoughts, like to delve into cunning strategies, handle things slickly, and lack basic principles and a baseline.

The half-minute radio conversation that persuaded Stone showed Shana’s extraordinary qualities. Even though Lin Wu had his own ulterior motives, he thought Shana was a very easy person to get along with. Therefore, he briefed Shana on the base’s situation. Shana was more concerned about the members of the base. Lin Wu disliked speaking ill of others behind their backs and refused to comment on the members.

Shana didn’t get angry after hearing this and pointed at Lin Wu, "I like having friends like you."

Lin Wu saw that the timing was about right, and said, "Shana, you look a bit familiar. Which district of Blue Star did you live in?"

"District Seven." Shana looked at Lin Wu with a half-smile, "I also feel like we’ve met before."

Lin Wu chuckled, "Fate brings people together no matter how far apart they are; why need we have met before to know each other?"

...

It was the day shift’s turn to start work, and Stone greeted Shana at the door. After a brief exchange, Shana formally joined the Shadow base. Stone called Maya on the radio, and Maya, carrying the walkie-talkie, communicated with Shana, "Welcome. Please clarify your attribute distribution, specialization, and skill situation." She didn’t waste a word.

Facing the no-nonsense field manager, Shana answered crisply, "Main Will, secondary Agility, no specialization, and I only have Chemistry Life Skills."

Maya asked, "Main Will, secondary Agility? Can you explain that?" It was a very novel way of distributing attributes. Commonly, people focused on Strength and Agility; Intelligence was less seen. People with Little Knife’s way of thinking would add to Will, but it was Maya’s first time hearing about someone focusing primarily on Will. She wondered if there were any players who went for extreme double Will attribute distribution.

Shana replied, "My life experience tells me that will is the most powerful weapon of mankind, even the strongest people need the support of willpower to keep their belief in becoming stronger."

Maya said, "I understand philosophy, but in the game, what kind of advantage does this kind of attribute assignment give you?"

Shana answered, "Under the main will condition, the lower the stamina, the less stamina is consumed, up to a maximum of 50%. Before my first death, I had conducted an experiment with the main body’s player. When sprinting at full speed, the distance covered by the main dexterity subordinate and the main will subordinate using up one bar of stamina is the same. The difference is that the former reaches the destination faster and has more ample time to recover stamina."

Maya said, "That’s a disadvantage."

Shana replied, "Yes, a disadvantage." Faced with a formulaic inquiry, Shana gave a formulaic reply.

Maya thought more deeply and said, "Main will players have an advantage in using skills, something I hadn’t considered before." When they have 15% stamina remaining, main will players have their stamina consumption reduced to the lowest 50%. When Lin Wu uses his quick-draw skill, consuming 15% stamina, he can only shoot once. A main will player using 15% stamina can shoot twice."

Maya asked, "Is Lin Wu still here?"

Shana replied, "He said he would escort me to the work site after you had arranged work for me."

Maya said, "You’re in a group with him, you’re currently the only partner who can barely keep up with him."

Shana replied, "Okay. Is there anything else?"

Maya said, "No, hang up."

"Hang up." Shana exited through the back door and said to Lin Wu, who was playing with a fire stick, "Lin Wu, Maya wants me to team up with you."

Lin Wu’s teeth ached. Wasn’t Maya supposed to be 5% clever? Couldn’t she guess that he did not want to team up with Shana?

Seeing Lin Wu’s discomfort, Shana said, "I won’t hold you back, and I’m very obedient. Whatever you tell me to do, I’ll do it."

Lin Wu could only say, "Fine, I’m going to claim some equipment."

What an attitude! Shana said, "I’ll make some ready-made medicine."

The ready-made medicines consisted of: fever reducers, fracture bandages, hemorrhage bandages, and others that could directly treat all wounds and diseases except infections.

After Shana had made the medicines, Stone was overjoyed. Shana didn’t accept the praise, however, believing Su Shi’s contribution to be greater. Making ready-made medicines required many miscellaneous items. For example, for bandages, ten pieces of scrap cloth were processed into one piece of cloth, then two pieces of cloth and some cotton were processed into a cotton fabric, which was finally combined with medicinal supplies to make a bandage. Shana thought that she had merely relied on her skills to simply combine two things, while Su Shi deserved admiration for spending significant time and effort processing scrap. If Stone praised her for her good fortune in obtaining a Chemistry skill book, she could accept it. She didn’t believe she had made a significant contribution.

Stone had a good opinion of Shana; he thought she was someone with a strong sense of self-worth. Faced with a choice between material things and ideals, Shana would surely pick her ideals. This also put pressure on the boss; if Shana believed the pond was too small for her, she would not hesitate to leave the base to seek new value for herself.

Shana and Maya were two extremes, with Shana being an individualist with a strong inner self and a romantic nature. Maya belonged to the collective, a pragmatist who was serious and earnest.

The reason why Stone said "pretty good" and not "very good" was because he judged that Shana’s personality would make her very popular with everyone. Pure popularity is a good thing, but with five bachelors in the base, jealousy and rivalry might arise. Shana’s individualistic style meant she would take the boys’ admiration as a compliment; she wouldn’t stir things up herself but wouldn’t avoid such situations from happening either.

The naive Little Knife, the composed Maya, and the cheerful Shana – whom would you choose?

Sigh... there are sure to be more worries with such individualistic members in the future.