Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 56 - 55 Moving

Chapter 56: Chapter 55 Moving

Most of the tents were filled with medical and living supplies, with the largest find being two brand-new winter combat suits rated at 80 points for warmth. The two worked together, searching and transporting goods, and soon the pickup truck’s basic pack was full, yet they had scoured less than a third of the area.

Lin Wu said to Shana, "You drive back, get everyone else to come over, and tonight we’ll empty this place." Demolition was not an option, for there wasn’t enough time, and it might wake the sleeping zombies. They could only sweep up the visible supplies.

Shana asked, "Are you okay with letting a rookie like me take a truck full of supplies back to base?"

Lin Wu questioned, "Where else could you possibly take a truck full of supplies?"

Shana was stumped by the question. Indeed, being a rookie, she couldn’t control too many valuable items. But if she were to embezzle them, where could she possibly go? Resigned, she patted Lin Wu on the shoulder and drove off.

Lin Wu didn’t continue to scavenge for supplies since there would be plenty of people to do the heavy lifting soon. Instead, Lin Wu observed a container that had caught his attention during a previous visit. This container was different from the others; its doors were closed, reinforced with an additional iron gate, and padlocked. This led Lin Wu to suspect there might be valuable items inside, or possibly very ferocious zombies.

Lin Wu wasn’t worried about the zombies; based on his current understanding of them, he could easily escape from the camp’s tent area through the small iron gate and even block it behind him. That was, unless he was incredibly unlucky and a few ferocious mutant zombies appeared, with the damned Night Demons coincidentally respawning. If he was that unlucky, he felt it would be an injustice to Dawn not to die.

The challenge of picking the lock was insignificant, but opening the door still caused his heart to tremble with fear. Gripping one side of the container’s door, Lin Wu took a deep breath. As he slowly created a small opening, the head of a Night Demon thrust out. Lin Wu quickly used his body to press against the two doors, trapping the Night Demon’s head, which roared incessantly. Tremendous force emanated from behind the door, and Lin Wu pushed back with all his might, while his stamina drained away like a cascading waterfall.

With a downward pull, the Night Demon bit down on Lin Wu’s shoulder. At that moment, Lin Wu’s Eagle Sand was already pressed against the Night Demon’s head, and one shot blew it apart.

Infection was a secondary concern, only a 15% chance, but severe bleeding inflicting three points of damage per second, persisting for a minute, could be deadly. A minute later didn’t mean the wound would heal, only that it would downgrade to moderate bleeding and then to light bleeding.

In agony, Lin Wu neither lost his reason nor waited for the zombies, stirred by the gunshot, to get up for a midnight snack. Instead, he scurried atop the container and pulled a Hemostatic Bandage from his backpack to use. It cut down the duration of the severe bleeding to 15 seconds; he had brought only one Hemostatic Bandage with him.

Desperate, Lin Wu took out a bottle of painkillers and swallowed two tablets. All pain was completely eliminated. The bad news was that he was still bleeding, and his life was nearing its end. The good news was that the painkillers stopped the bleeding, and his health bar was struggling to rise. The bad news was that painkillers could not outpace moderate bleeding, let alone severe bleeding.

Lin Wu promptly swallowed another five tablets of painkillers and finally endured through the severe bleeding, entering into a minute-long state of moderate bleeding. Under the effect of the medicine, his life remained full for the first 30 seconds. After the next 30 seconds, as the efficacy of the drug wore off, his life began to drop. Due to the bite causing fractures, infection, and trauma, Lin Wu’s maximum health was down to 60 points; he had no choice but to consume the last painkiller tablet, which finally allowed him to survive a minute of moderate bleeding. Light bleeding was not so frightening, and with the medicinal effects, Lin Wu’s final health remained at 30 points.

Lin Wu, who had a narrow escape from death, felt as though he had been reborn. He owed it all to Shana’s manufactured medicine; without it, he wouldn’t have brought any drugs with him, and he would have been undoubtedly dead tonight. The bad news was that he had consumed all of the base’s painkillers and used a valuable Hemostatic Bandage.

The bandages were counted by the strip, and although the painkillers were counted by the pill, they were all stored in a small bottle, which Lin Wu naturally took with him, bottle and all.

Lin Wu sat there for 10 minutes, and the zombies, startled by the gunshots, returned to their containers, unable to find him. After a while longer, the base’s reinforcements arrived at the Sentry Card.

Either Lin Wu was on night duty, and nobody could hope to rest. The base members had just prepared to enjoy some private time, perhaps to read, chat, or play a hand of poker. The quiet night and bright lights—this rare tranquility after a tiring day—simply disappeared.

As soon as Maya received Lin Wu’s verbal message, she immediately got everyone to work and arranged for Snow Egg to ride the motorbike following the pickup truck.

Lin Wu met with everyone outside the small iron gate and drew out a tent maze on paper. Maya began assigning tasks, "You and you, start from this end. You and you, start from that end. Keep it quiet throughout, unnecessary talk is not needed."

Maya’s tactic was to form pairs, first to locate the nearby zombie containers, and then to light torches for the search. One person would transport, the other would search, bringing any valuable items to just outside the iron door at first, and only later consider transportation.

At the end of the tents, Lin Wu held Eagle Sand, which had only one last bullet. Shana slowly and carefully opened the container door, keeping herself hidden outside. After Lin Wu used the flashlight to check and saw it was clear, he patted Shana on the shoulder to signal safety, and then both of them entered the container together.

This was a temporary command post, set up with radios, screens, and other electronic equipment, and also stocked with some supplies. Lin Wu opened the first box and found an ammo pack, which he put into his backpack. Upon opening the second box, he found another ammo pack and put it into Shana’s backpack. Six boxes yielded six ammo packs.

Maya arranged for Snow Egg, Horse Soul, Shana, and Little Knife to drive, piloting the motorbikes back to the base to unload the goods. Maya stayed behind with Lin Wu to guard the tent area—for one, to prevent outsiders from getting any ideas, secondly, to be on the lookout for a spawn of Night Demons, and thirdly, Maya wanted to interview Lin Wu about his day’s partnership with Shana, to facilitate future work arrangements.

...

Lin Wu skipped his opinions on personality and character, only talking about Shana’s work performance. He found Shana’s attitude towards work to be serious, able to endure hardship, capable of driving cars and riding motorbikes. Her combat ability was average.

Maya asked, "Would you like to partner with Shana over the long term?"

Lin Wu shook his head, "I still prefer to be alone, so I don’t have to worry about someone else’s life or death."

Maya said, "Shana was a big help tonight."

Lin Wu replied, "After I confirm the situation with the tents, I can contact the base using the walkie-talkie. Besides, I can drive as well."

Maya saw Lin Wu as positioning himself as a scout, and thought that the best partner for a scout should be Maya herself. In encounters with zombies, she could support Lin Wu. In the face of danger, Lin Wu would not have to worry about her presence. However, with more people around during the day and more complex tasks and dangers, she couldn’t team up with Lin Wu alone.

Done with business, the two had no more topics of conversation. Maya sat on the edge of the container looking up at the moon, while Lin Wu lay on top of the container searching for stars. Perhaps accustomed to Maya’s personality, today Lin Wu didn’t feel any awkwardness; not speaking was quite fine.