Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 573 - 282 Sleepless Night_3

Chapter 573: Chapter 282 Sleepless Night_3

It was not a night of faint light, on the contrary, the earth seemed to be coated in silver, resulting in relatively high visibility. Lin Wu didn’t find the wolf pack, but he made a significant discovery, "There’s a player."

"Where?"

"Seven kilometers away," Lin Wu said. "He’s riding a horse."

"Riding a horse?"

"Right."

Maya said excitedly, "Horses are the best mode of transport." They don’t need fuel or maintenance and feed on grass. There’s no more hassle-free tool than a horse.

Maya asked Lin Wu to recall the drone and after pondering for a moment said, "Horses should be an animal that only appears in Hardcore Mode. Before this, we’ve seen many farms—cowsheds, sheep pens, stables— all empty. It seems we should stay here for a while, not only to avoid the typhoon but also to look for wild horses."

Lin Wu asked, "Do you know how to catch a horse?"

Maya answered honestly, "No."

Lin Wu asked, "What if you get kicked and break a bone?"

"First learn medicine, preferably become a general practitioner. So we need to find the player first. Did you spot a signal tower just now?"

"No," Lin Wu said. "But I did see a lot of towering high-voltage towers to the northwest."

Maya said, "We set out tomorrow morning and hunt along the way."

...

It wasn’t even six o’clock yet the sky was already brightening. The two, who hadn’t slept all night, packed up and headed out along the road to the northwest. After walking about 4 kilometers, Maya saw the high-voltage towers following the road’s construction, a line of them stretching towards the northwest. The terrain on both sides of the road was mostly Gobi desert and sandy soil. They found a small grassy area, which was presumably due to underground water. Where there’s water and grass, naturally grazing animals would appear. The two decided to rest and go hunting there.

Active hunting wasn’t easy. Rabbits and wild goats were particularly fast and alert. In the past, a bullet would have done the job, but times had changed. Not to mention using guns, even using a watermelon knife would hurt its durability, so the most durable steak knives and kitchen knives became the tools for hunting.

After several unsuccessful pursuits, Lin Wu decisively deployed Wai. As a Hunting Dog, Wai was indeed extraordinary, smartly driving the prey towards the traps. In less than two hours, Lin Ma had caught two wild goats and five rabbits, securing two pelts and cutting 20 kilograms of edible meat.

The player’s backpack was a natural little refrigerator with the ability to keep food fresh, ensuring no spoilage for six hours and slowing down spoilage for 18 hours. Question: What if you take the food out at the six-hour mark and then put it back in? Answer: Dawn is a smart AI, not a mentally challenged AI; trying to take advantage of it is like wishful thinking during the daytime.

Lin Wu climbed to the top of the towering electric tower, dozens of meters high, and looked through his binoculars. He saw the asphalt road extending northward, with what seemed to be a city at its end, roughly eighty kilometers away. Lin Wu couldn’t help but recall a poem, "To extend the vista of a thousand miles, ascend one more floor."

Besides the city, Lin Wu noticed to their west was a body of water—lake or sea, he was uncertain—but it was very large. After observing attentively for a while, he noticed a road from the city wrapping around the lake. The highway they were currently on did not connect to the lake road.

To reach the lakeside, one option would be to go to the city first and then make a detour to the lake. The other was to cross the desert, hills, grassland, and walk thirty kilometers straight to the lake.

What does a lake represent? Water and food. Ancient settlements were always centered around freshwater rivers and lakes. Post-apocalyptic survival wasn’t much different from ancient settlements; a truly smart player would likely set their base by the lake.