Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 67 - 66: Base 01

Chapter 67: Chapter 66: Base 01

On the streets of North Town, one could see a dozen zombies lined up in a queue, walking down the street, which was visually striking. The horde in the county seat was, of course, incomparable to the countryside. Nearly a hundred zombies densely packed and occupied half of the road, shuffling along slowly. Ordinary zombies were in the middle of the road, with many Screeching Zombies mixed in. Seven or eight Frenzies were bouncing around on either side, following the horde and occasionally knocking scattered zombies to the ground.

Using Lin Wu’s Silencer scope, Shana observed for a while, "It looks like they are closely packed, but there is quite a bit of space between the zombies, minimizing the effect of the Molotov Cocktails and giving zombies room to run."

The Corpse Tide Patrol came from Road 1, bypassed the county marker, and took Road 2. After they had moved on, another wave of Corpse Tide Patrol arrived on Road 1 as if they were a patrol squad. Shana calculated the time and noted, "The interval is about 10 minutes. There are quite a few scrapped cars on the road, and vehicles, bicycles, and motorcycles can be seen everywhere on the roadside. I want to check out the area of 0, 7." She was referring to the V-shaped complex behind the county marker.

"Let’s go!" Lin Wu didn’t plan on which direction to go; if Shana wanted to go, they would.

The two slid down the straight ladder, progressing while clearing zombies with the Silencer and crossbow on either side. They followed Road 1 and approached their target area when the new wave of Corpse Tide Patrol headed towards them. Lin Wu pried open the door to a dental clinic next to the parking lot opposite the V-complex, and they quietly slipped inside, quietly closing the door behind them.

After Lin Wu had cleared the five zombies inside the small clinic, he returned to the entrance and asked Shana, who was observing, "How is it?"

"Across from us is a seven-story apartment complex. There are multiple entrance and exit roads. Look, the community roads are dimly lit, but you can still see a park inside. I estimate there are about a thousand units in this community." Shana said, "The apartments on the roadside all have shops on the ground floor, including restaurants, recycling centers, convenience stores, phone shops, real estate agencies, pharmacies, cake shops... A dazzling array, with no signs of being scavenged."

Lin Wu said, "The zombie density is very high."

The sidewalk alongside the road was over two meters wide. Along the edge of the sidewalk near the road, a mango tree was planted every 10 meters. Even with the shadow and trunks of the trees providing cover, one could still see a considerable number of zombies wandering about.

Shana said, "There are abundant resources, but the risk of scavenging is high. If we can’t take them down first and a Screecher lets out a scream, attracting the horde, we will most likely not escape with our lives. The best strategy is to find a medium-sized base and then use the safe zone to start work after occupying it."

After the horde had passed, the two crossed the street and entered the V-shaped community. This stretch of the road had many scattered zombies, and it took some time to get through.

The community was composed of several apartment building units. The first unit was encircled by twelve apartment buildings surrounding a small park, which had some fitness equipment and, of course, zombies. As they explored further, they found that many units had a similar structure. There were also shops scattered throughout the community and they discovered a Blood Plague.

Digging deeper, they discovered the two-story community activity center, surrounded by a small lake where several pedal boats were docked, and many zombies floated on the lake’s surface. Suddenly, a zombie stood up, revealing the water was only a meter deep.

While the unit structures were similar, their contents were quite different. Some buildings had the ground floor hollowed out to park bicycles and cars. Others had their ground floors fenced off to grow flowers and plants. Some buildings had food carts on their ground floor. The types of trees planted in the community varied, with palm trees, camellia trees, and various green shrubs and lawns, among others.

A sense of a labyrinth.

Shana said, "If we keep walking in one direction, we’ll eventually make it out." As she spoke softly, Shana stepped on a branch, which hit a can, and the can clattered away. The zombies in the vicinity immediately homed in on the sound, and the two retreated, only to discover three zombies blocking their way back, with a Screecher just five meters beyond them.

Lin Wu raised his gun and shot the Screecher dead, while Wind Stinger took out a zombie in a second. Shana killed two zombies with her crossbow. They thought they could escape smoothly. But their noises had already alerted the zombies in the nearby apartment buildings. Several zombies broke through windows and jumped down from the third floor of the buildings on both sides.

Shana was hit solidly by one of the zombies and fell to the ground with it. Lin Wu quickly stepped forward, put down the zombie, and pulled Shana up. The sound of breaking glass startled the zombies inside the apartment buildings, and about a dozen of them fell down. The two had no choice but to retreat to the left. What they hadn’t anticipated was that among the falling zombies, one was a Frenzy, and unlike the others, it didn’t fall upon landing. Instead, it pounced on Shana after a bounce, its claws piercing her body, ready to bite down.

In a critical moment, Lin Wu drew his Eagle Sand and used its last bullet to blow the head off a Frenzy, the loud gunshot alarming the entire community as screams instantly echoed through the neighborhood.

Shana didn’t have time to load her crossbow and drew her pistol, continuously shooting approaching zombies in the head, while Lin Wu kept pulling the bolt, picking off zombies one by one. Seeing that zombies were swarming in, as unstoppable as a mountain, Lin Wu grabbed Shana’s hand, "Run."

The two of them shoved their way through the zombies and ran into the park, attempting to cut through it. Everything went smoothly at first. But as they ran past a swing, Lin Wu stumbled over the sandy ground, losing his balance, and Shana quickly steadied him. Just then, a Blood Zombie lunged at them from behind a bush, tackling Shana onto the sandy ground. Lin Wu, occupied on the other side, didn’t have time to worry about Shana as he shot dead two zombies that had nearly caught up to them.

Only then did Lin Wu realize that Shana hadn’t pushed the Blood Zombie off; it was biting into her shoulder, sucking her blood like a leech. Frantically, Lin Wu switched to his dagger and stabbed it into the back of the Blood Zombie’s head.

Pulling Shana up, they ran forward. Shana said, "83%."

"Infected?"

"Yeah."

"Congratulations," Lin Wu said, "chew some gum, bandage it up."

Shana, with one hand, pulled out her medical supplies, "You take them, don’t waste it."

Lin Wu, unable to contain his impatience, said, "Cut the crap, bandage it up." He aimed the Silencer and killed a Screaching Zombie four meters away that had suddenly emerged from behind a pillar.

"Quick," Lin Wu killed two more zombies blocking their path as the horde behind them closed in.

Seeing Shana finish bandaging, Lin Wu pulled her up, shoved a Screaching Zombie aside at the stairwell, and they dashed upstairs, "Leave the base."

"What?"

"Just do it."

Reaching the second floor, Lin Wu raced down the corridor, hearing the crowded noise of zombies on the stairs, and kicked open the door to apartment 202, "Hold them off." He then ducked into the room.

Shana fired her gun, close range, adequate light, one headshot per zombie, taking down those rushing towards her, but soon her ammunition ran out. A Screaching Zombie at the stairwell let out a roar, sounding the horn of death, and just as Shana was falling into despair, Lin Wu’s voice came through, "Join."

A prompt appeared before Shana, Lin Wu invited you to join private base no. 01. Shana immediately clicked to agree, and instantly saw the green line of the Safe Zone. This Safe Zone was very small, barely covering the corridor, not even reaching the stairwell entrances on either side.