Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 59 - 58: The Path of the Pistol

Chapter 59: Chapter 58: The Path of the Pistol

Stone reported, "Currently, aside from food ingredients, the other four types of basic materials are abundant and nearing full capacity in the warehouse. After three days of work, and with everyone’s efforts, our medical supplies reserve is now quite sufficient. As for bullets, we have a total of 120 rounds of .22 caliber. Other types of ammunition are another story." In the tent base, a lot of ammo packs were found and brought into the warehouse, exceeding the base capacity. To avoid waste, Su Shi mass-produced .22 bullets and some tubular bombs.

"We have established a certain level of trust with Invincible Base and agreed verbally to help each other. Moreover, it’s almost certain that North Town in Left County has no tradable agricultural skill books." Some players, after obtaining a Skill Book, learned it directly, lacking the ability to draw others away. Stone said, "The rate of obtaining guns at the Sentry Card is getting lower and lower. Currently, we have 19 small pistols in stock at the base. My proposal is to keep five small pistols in reserve at the base. Tomorrow we’ll make our way through the train tunnel to North Down Town in Right County for trading. I’ve already communicated with the Wanderer Base there, and they will provide a guide, waiting for us at the other end of the tunnel."

Stone went on, "When someone from Invincible Base went through the tunnel to fetch a doctor, they found a large number of zombies inside, forcing them to abandon their plan. Based on Invincible Base’s description, not only is it impossible to drive through the tunnel, but even motorcycles can hardly get through. In addition, they also provided information that about half a kilometer from the tunnel entrance, there is a 15-carriage passenger train. One can imagine the crowded conditions inside the tunnel and train, as well as the density of zombies. The only piece of good news is that every hundred meters inside the tunnel, there is a faint red light."

Stone asked, "Maya, do you think my plan is feasible?"

Maya inquired, "Is there a significant benefit?"

Stone nodded, "According to the Wanderer Base, there are many more players in North Down Town of Right County compared to North Town in Left County, and firearms are extremely scarce, presenting a huge market potential."

Right County is closer to Future City than Left County, which is mountainous terrain. Right County is almost entirely plains, flat as a pancake, with only a few hills less than a hundred meters high. Not only are there more farms in the rural areas of Right County, but the small towns are also numerous, and the town centers of Upper and Lower Town are much larger than those in Left County. Additionally, Right County is coastal with abundant food resources. Besides, scattered throughout Right County’s countryside are grain processing plants, distilleries, vineyards, sports fields, and other large building complexes.

The players in Right County hardly lack food, medical supplies are quite scarce, but what they lack the most are guns. Due to the shortage of firearms, besides the Wanderers, all five collectively managed teams in Right County failed to attack small and medium bases. Currently facing tremendous pressure to defend their territory, the Wanderers are willing to trade three small pistols for 20 kilograms of chewing gum, coffee, beef jerky, energy drinks, and a Cooking Skills Book. They will send a guide to lead the Shadow trade team to conduct the transactions at the Wanderer Base.

Maya arranged her troops, "Divide our team into two. Snow Egg, Horse Soul, and Shana will be responsible for the rear, Lin Wu will scout, Little Knife will play a supporting role and assist Lin Wu, and I’ll be in charge of covering our retreat. The front and rear teams will communicate via walkie-talkies, and if the front team deems progress impossible, the rear team will immediately withdraw. Lin Wu, Little Knife, and I will take turns covering the retreat."

Shana raised her hand, "I’m skilled with a crossbow and can join the front team to clear out the zombies." In recent days, the Shadow Base acquired a Composite Crossbow. Unlike Maya’s light crossbow, the Composite Crossbow’s power and range are much greater, but its arrows cannot be retrieved and it takes two seconds to load a Crossbow Arrow. Meanwhile, Lin Wu’s favorite weapon, the Silencer, takes less than one second to cycle the bolt.

Unlike guns, Crossbow Arrows have a shorter range and spend more time in the air, with a noticeable upward and downward trajectory during flight. To effectively use the Crossbow Arrow, one must accurately estimate the distance to the zombies and adjust the height of the Crosshair accordingly to achieve a headshot. In comparison to firearms, arrows are very cost-effective, and as crossbows have no durability limit and a silence value of 99, they make almost no noise when firing.

After some thought, Maya said, "Alright, Lin Wu won’t carry the trade goods, but will bring .22 bullets and a few more silencers and short blades that Su Shi is to make." A simple silencer has a durability of 6; after six shots, the silencer is useless and cannot be repaired. The materials required are a piece of cotton cloth, a mineral water bottle, and one-tenth of a roll of tape.

Maya continued, "Everyone in the rear team will be equipped with small pistols, to use if necessary. We must especially beware of any Screeching Zombies that appear." Maya considered the rear team to be lacking a lookout who could spot newly spawned Exploding Carnage or Screeching Zombies in time. However, Shana’s proposal made some sense; if Shana moved to the front team, it would reduce the workload pressure on Lin Wu.

In the event of an infection, the affected person must withdraw from the mission and return to base for treatment. It’s also possible that if one person gets infected, it may force the entire team to retreat. Therefore, Maya insisted that the three people in the rear team carry small pistols, specifically to deal with any newly spawned Screeching Zombies or Exploding Carnage.

The advance team was responsible for clearing the zombies, and the rear team could fire without blowing up the group, but the screeching of the Screeching Zombies and the explosions of the Exploding Carnage could potentially lead to a wipeout. Therefore, even if it was necessary to fire a gun, they couldn’t let the Screeching Zombie make a sound, nor could they allow the Exploding Carnage to fall.

In the recent days of work, Shana’s daytime job was to ride a bicycle to deliver Lin Wu to Sentry Card. After sending Lin Wu back to the base, Shana would join the daytime team to scavenge the apartments. Stone, with his rich life experience, noticed during the night-time campfire gatherings that both Snow Egg and Horse Soul had a fondness for Shana.

No one would say anything about Lin Wu not working during the day, as his work, though short in duration, was far more important than others’. But it was a bit unreasonable for Shana, as a newcomer, not to work. Stone had discussed this with Maya, who found it difficult to adjust Shana out of Snow Egg and Horse Soul’s shifts.

Stone didn’t think it was necessarily a bad thing. During the time teamed up with Shana, Snow Egg and Horse Soul were full of motivation to work, their combat desire was off the charts, and each had learned a specialized weapon execution skill.

The specialized weapon execution skill referred to an execution skill that could only be used when wielding a certain class of weapon. Little Knife’s Trample Execution, Lin Wu’s short blade Wind Stinger Execution, and Shana’s blunt weapon Strike Execution all belonged to specialized weapon execution skills. Currently, among those working in the field, only Maya had not yet learned a specialized weapon execution skill because she spent far more time using a crossbow than a knife.

After Maya finished speaking about arranging the troops for tomorrow, she looked around and asked, "What does everyone think?"

Lin Wu and Little Knife naturally had no opinions, they would accept whatever arrangement was made and would have no objections even if they were not allowed to join the trade team. Snow Egg and Horse Soul complied with the arrangements and had no objections. The matter regarding the trade team was thus decided.

...

At seven o’clock in the morning, the trade team began to claim their supplies. In addition to the items for trade, each person applied for medication and weapons according to their own needs and preferences.

Lin Wu, following his own preferences, took two short blades, carried a dagger, pocketed 120 rounds of .22 bullets, held the Silencer rifle, took one bandage each for bone fractures and bleeding, and four painkillers. Lastly, he didn’t forget to put 5 improvised silencers into his backpack as well.

It was no exaggeration to say that the trade team took 90% of the base’s assets with them, so it was quite a gamble for Shadow Base. If they won, they would gain the scarce resources; if they lost, Stone and Su Shi would only be able to start assimilating other small bases to make up the numbers, and strengthening Shadow Base again would be a difficult task.

Stone sent everyone to the door reluctantly, and watched as the cars and motorcycles disappeared from his sight, unable to calm himself for a long time. Seeing this, Su Shi approached and asked, "Boss, when did you become so emotionally overwhelmed?" The system overload was very unreasonable, as even one person over the carrying capacity would immobilize the car. So, they had to draft the motorcycles as well.

"Worried, worried about the safety of the trade team, and also concerned about the safety of the base," Stone said, "If the system dares to attack the city today, I’ll be at odds with Dawn for the rest of my life." Even with only two-star difficulty, Stone wouldn’t be able to cope alone and would have to abandon the base and Su Shi and leave.

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