Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 551 - 273: Hunting_2

Chapter 551: Chapter 273: Hunting_2

...

The severe summer heat lasted until the end of the month, making these twenty-plus days extraordinarily grueling for the players, with work efficiency significantly reduced. Thankfully, due to Lin Wu’s outstanding performance, the Sawmill’s two agricultural fields, and fish from the dam, Shadow maintained a comparatively high living standard.

During this period, Dawn reminded all hardcore players that once winter started, outdoor crops could not be harvested, indoor hydroponically grown crops’ harvest would be halved, and the presence of outdoor beasts would be greatly reduced. Therefore, she hoped that all players would store food early to prepare for the harshest winter.

Dawn only shouted slogans; the problem was how to store? Rice and wheat would also get insects if stored for a long time. Following Starlight’s suggestion, Shadow began making pickles and dried meat, and planned to dig a cellar in the Doomsday Fortress for long-term food storage. However, there wasn’t much daily food left to spare for pickling and drying vegetables and meat.

In the end, it was decided to move into the Doomsday Fortress before winter and set up four hydroponic rooms.

On the other hand, after slacking off for 20 days, the reserve of building materials was about to break through 250.

Besides the good news, there was bad news too. The Threat Value of the Shadow base had reached six stars at 60%, with an estimation to break through seven stars in early next month. After experiencing a four-star siege, the Doomsday Base’s threat level was at a low two-star. Lin Wu had also complained about this.

Little White Rabbit explained the siege system’s calculation method. Each day at eight in the morning, a random draw would take place. If a siege was drawn, then the time was drawn randomly. The probability of a one-star siege happening was one in ten thousand. Two-star, one in a thousand. Three-star, one percent. Four-star, five percent. Five-star, ten percent. Six-star, fifteen percent, leaving players 24 hours of safety time to prepare. Seven-star, twenty percent, 48 hours of safety time. The highest was a ten-star threat with a 35 percent daily occurrence rate.

Why hadn’t the six-star 15% of Shadow triggered in half a month? That was down to luck; theoretically, even a ten-star threat could never trigger.

Little White Rabbit revealed a bit of "fate" here: the higher the difficulty of the siege, the higher the contribution for defending, and correspondingly, more points could be earned. To Stone, this so-called "fate" was just a placebo. Knowing the "fate" or not didn’t change the points anyway.

To prepare for emergencies, the Apocalypse People restricted their activity range to ensure they could support Shadow at a moment’s notice in case of a siege. Shadow also transported all sorts of materials to the Doomsday Fortress, to prevent them from being destroyed by zombies during a siege.

Apart from facing a growing threat, the biggest problem for Shadow was still the issue of fuel. Although there were Snow Egg and Dashuang, two oil producers, the fuel supply for both bases was not abundant, just barely maintaining a standard of ten barrels. One reason was that on some extremely hot days, some people got heatstroke and were forced to use the air conditioning in cars. Of course, the most important reason was for showers; each day, Shadow had to drive two cars to the Doomsday Fortress for showers. As for Lin Wu secretly using incendiary grenades to make fire, that was a minor matter in comparison.

As the second month of summer was drawing to a close, Dawn began broadcasting again. First, she congratulated everyone that next month they would continue to feel the enthusiasm of summer and the refreshing coolness of the typhoons, which would be even more intense than this month’s.

She incited the server’s hardcore players to give her the middle finger salute, before revealing the end-of-season event.

The game started in autumn, so at the end of summer, a rich anniversary celebration event for hardcore players would be launched. When Dawn read out a few of the prizes, everyone was stunned on the spot. The prizes included: strategic bombers, supersonic fighters, battleships, nuclear-powered submarines, and so on.

Everybody, including Dawn, believed that their prize was "and so on."

The event would last for the last seven days of summer.

The celebration content was kept secret for now, but Dawn had given every base a manual for operating a coal-fired steam train from the early 20th century. Operating it was simple: add coal, go forward, stop, reverse, including the relationship between speed and coal consumption.

Naturally, this task was left to the two Deputy Commanders to study. In this weather hot enough to kill, Stone was too lazy to hold a meeting and privately messaged Lin Wu, "Has the game reduced the prey recently?"

Lin Wu replied, "There’s a decreasing trend. Maya says the forest doesn’t compare to the prairie. In addition, hunting in one place for a long time makes the animals wary."

Stone said, "Then change the place."

Lin Wu replied, "There’s no waterfall in a different place."

Stone said, "Take me with you tomorrow, I want to see for myself if that’s the case."

Lin Wu responded, "You better tend to your fields."

Stone asked, "Have you noticed anything odd with the Doomsday Fortress lately?"

Lin Wu asked, "Since when did I become a spy?"

Stone pressed, "I’m asking you."

Lin Wu said, "I leave early and return late, and after I get back to the base I eat, shower, do laundry, and by then it’s nine at night. You didn’t mention it, but now that you have, I realize I’ve hardly interacted with anyone this month. What’s going on?"

Stone: "No problem. Just get more meat. Including seafood, each person’s daily meat supply is only 0.4 kilograms now."

"Really?" Lin Wu asked, surprised.

Stone immediately spat blood: "Are you cooking yourself a separate meal?"

Lin Wu was startled: "I didn’t bring lunch; I have to eat something."

Stone: "Next time, bring a love-filled bento from Cotton."

Lin Wu sighed: "It’s pumpkin every day."

Stone explained: "Pumpkin has the highest yield and the best cost-effectiveness."

Lin Wu: "Oh, I see."

Stone asked: "How’s Peanut doing lately?"

Lin Wu: "I heard he’s been leveling up diligently, main intelligence is at five stars, secondary agility has hit seven. When the stars are low, they rise quite quickly too. I’ve been this diligent, and I’ve only gone up one star in agility this month." Read books!

Stone: "I was asking about... his mood."

Lin Wu said: "Don’t worry, having no skills is a good thing, too. When there is a suitable Skill Book, he can learn it directly. Besides, Nightmare still has a lot of books, Shana and I have been waiting for her to die. I don’t know what’s up with her recently; she hasn’t died in a long time."

"Is that so?" Stone thought for a while: "Alright then, keep it up."

"Bye-bye, boss."

Lin Wu ended the call and looked at Wai in front of him: "Why is Stone concerned about Peanut’s mood? Could it be that he likes him? Did Peanut request to be assigned to the Doomsday Fortress to avoid this love? Don’t jump; sit still; I’m just weaving a story. Can you believe that a middle-aged boss like Stone has remained pure? Unbelievable, right?"

Lin Wu continued: "For the benefit of everyone, should we change our spot for lying in wait for game? Or take a more proactive approach to hunting? You disagree? You think sticking to the Beast Trap is the right way. However, meat has been getting scarcer recently, and in another ten days or half a month, there probably won’t be enough for me to eat... You make a good point, enjoy today’s booze, and worry about tomorrow’s meat shortage when it comes."

Lin Wu lay down, submerged in water, the icy cold sensation refreshing him from head to toe.

...

We can survive without meat, and gradually reducing the meat supply might not necessarily be a bad thing from certain perspectives.

That night, Doomsday Fortress and Shadow, who hadn’t had a meeting in a while, held an earphone conference. The agenda was: they had collected 250 building materials, which was enough for base expansion, and they needed to gather everyone’s opinion.

Doomsday Fortress currently possesses eighteen small cubes and two large cubes. The large cubes are the Sentry Post and Airdrop, respectively. Of the 18 small cubes, there are currently a Medical Room, double Dormitories, a Kitchen, a Workshop, a Bathroom, a Gym, a Cinema, a Library, leaving nine small cubes unused. Considering moving the Sawmill into the Doomsday Fortress leaves seven small cubes available.

There were multiple options for base expansion. The first option was to directly add two indoor or outdoor large cubes.

The second option was to directly add four indoor or outdoor small cubes.

The third option was to sacrifice one large cube and two small cubes for a super large cube equivalent to four large cubes.

The fourth option was to sacrifice five small cubes for a super large cube equivalent to four large cubes.

Although opinions varied, there was a consensus against dismantling the Airdrop. With enough small cubes already, there were only two options: either two outdoor large cubes or to sacrifice five small cubes for a super large cube.

A big base, of course, needs a super large cube. Otherwise, how would it match the status? Lin Wu’s opinion resonated with everyone. Lin Wu added: "The super large cube will definitely be used for farming; the bigger the better. Stone will be the one to work himself to death; we’ll just be eating." And so, amidst the cheers of the crowd, it was settled that the expansion would be a super large cube.

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