Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 503 - 255 Towboat

Chapter 503: Chapter 255 Towboat

Lin Wu woke up from a deep slumber, startled by the sight of Peanut’s face, so big and close it made him jump. He turned to see Cotton lying flat and asleep. Confused, Lin Wu sat up and looked at Wai: "What’s going on?"

Wai lay on the ground, motionless, the gesture clear: I don’t understand, I don’t know, don’t ask me.

Lin Wu stood up, staggering out of the warehouse, to see Maya still battling under the scorching sun. Lin Wu sauntered over, lazily yawning along the way and dealing with a zombie mid-route, observing that the cleanup was halfway done.

The perceptive Maya, seeing Lin Wu, knew what he was thinking and preemptively said, "I saw they were too tired, so I let them sleep for a while."

Lin Wu asked with concern, "Are you tired?"

"Tired."

Lin Wu sat down in a shady spot: "Then I’ll sing you a song."

Maya frowned and pointed her blade at Lin Wu to prevent the noise, then turned and walked away. She pulled a few zombies out from the group, then fought and retreated, diffusing their momentum, before taking the offensive and finishing them all. To secure moving the barge, she needed to clear a sufficiently wide path. Taking all this into account, Maya’s progress was not fast.

Lin Wu, propped up by Wai and with his feet up, asked, "Why not use the repeating crossbow?"

"Only one box of crossbow arrows left," Maya glanced at Lin Wu: "You help me contact Su Shi."

"Huh?" Lin Wu, not understanding, asked, "Is your headset broken?"

Maya explained, "I rarely give orders directly to Su Shi. It seems that contacting Stone and having him explain to Su Shi makes me appear distant from Su Shi."

Lin Wu remarked, "You have social anxiety, right?" People like this overthink minor social interactions, even rehearsing conversations in their head prior to speaking with a salesperson, imagining possible scenarios.

"No." After finishing off the last zombie, Maya came and sat beside Lin Wu, grabbed his water bottle, and took a few gulps of tea: "Back when we divided the bases, I always considered myself as the Deputy Commander of Shadow. But since we established the Doomsday Fortress, I feel the dynamic has changed. Compared to Shadow, I feel more like a guest. Thank you," Maya said as she wiped her sweat with the towel passed by Lin Wu.

Lin Wu said, "Being assigned to the supermarket sub-base, you took it as a regular job, as you didn’t need to spend effort managing it and could focus more on building up the Shadow base. At the Doomsday Fortress, you’ve spent a lot of effort researching the surrounding area, and you’re in charge of all affairs, big and small. You don’t have the time or energy to look into Shadow’s affairs."

Lin Wu said, "You treated the supermarket sub-base like a hotel, but the Doomsday Fortress is your home."

Maya folded the towel neatly and put it into her backpack, planning to wash it before returning it to Lin Wu.

"You make some sense," Maya said, taking her water bottle and pouring water from Lin Wu’s, ignoring his glare: "I think the core reason is that Stone hasn’t made up his mind, or in his heart, he doesn’t see the Doomsday Fortress as the superior base. It was mostly because of my strong attitude, and his desire to leave a backup plan for the sawmill that he agreed to take over the Doomsday Fortress."

Lin Wu took his water bottle and shook it, then took Maya’s and shook it, angrily taking a sip from each, switching back and forth until he felt they were about even, then handed it back to Maya. She quietly watched his performance, forcibly suppressing the urge to lash out.

After rehydrating, work resumed. Maya stood and walked out from the shadow into the blazing sun, instantly feeling the intense heat from the sun but without hesitation, she headed towards the next batch of zombies.

Lin Wu crawled to the edge of the shadow, beckoning Wai under his head and asked, "Didn’t Stone give a clear response?"

While luring zombies, Maya answered as she ran, "I understand that right now, he can’t give an answer. Because with the two slots at the Doomsday Fortress, there’s not enough to sustain so many. The vegetables, rice, and wheat planted on the two farmlands of the sawmill can achieve self-sufficiency in food, but now the main shortage is meat."

Lin Wu said, "My high school desk-mate was a fishing enthusiast, and also a lazybones. Every Saturday night, he’d set a string of hooks by the river and come back the next day to collect them. He often caught fish."

"No, that method isn’t efficient enough."

Lin Wu, tears streaming, protested, "I’m a fake hunter, I don’t want to climb mountains, I don’t want to climb mountains," kicking and rolling on the ground in a tantrum.

Finally having had enough, Maya took time out of her schedule to kick Lin Wu’s backside, then turned and continued chopping zombies, "We need to build a tidal flat trap."

"Hmm?"

Maya said, "There’s a tidal flat in the northwest area of the base’s safe zone."

Lin Wu replied, "It’s all sand and stones, no beach, no resources." Strictly speaking, it wasn’t even a tidal flat, as real tidal flats at least had clams to dig.

Maya explained, "At low tide, about a thousand square meters of tidal flat will be exposed. We’ll construct a two-hundred square meter dike on the tidal flat. This way, when the tide comes in, the sea will bring fish over the dike, and when the tide recedes, the seafood will be trapped inside. After constructing the dike, we can regularly harvest a certain amount of meat. The meat can be used as payment for hiring, or for personal consumption."

Maya continued, "Additionally, we can set up gill nets, placing them in Left County River or out at sea. Hanging floats on top and weights at the bottom, fish swimming through will get caught in the net. Making gill nets isn’t difficult, provided we have the fishing lines and time."