Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 686 - 324 Defense II_2

Chapter 686: Chapter 324 Defense II_2

Dormitories are decent. The kitchen and production areas don’t even have exterior walls; it’s all open plan, lacking privacy, with everyone’s every move visible to others.

There are many items worth twenty thousand points active on the train. So far, Lin Wu still felt that tents were the best value. At the very least, on dark nights in the wilderness, they provide a warm shelter.

As Lin Wu rolled around on the ground with Wai, Maya’s voice came through the headset, "Lin Wu, do you copy?"

"I’m here!"

Maya said, "I’ve reached the defensive point. There are no buildings nearby, no hills or lakes, just a three-meter-wide dirt road. On both sides of the road are reeds and bushes. Every fifteen meters or so there’s a tree about three meters from the road. It seems the attacks come from these concealed places."

Lin Wu said, "Walk a little further ahead."

Soon, Maya reported, "On the left there’s a wetland overgrown with aquatic plants which are nearly two meters tall on average. On the right is a sparse forest. Looks like I was right, it’s likely an escort mission." To escort an item or person through dangerous territory.

Lin Wu asked, "Are the attackers zombies or NPCs?"

Maya replied, "If they’re NPCs, we can only disarm and surrender. The escort route is estimated to be about five kilometers. I’m heading back."

As they spoke, the alarm sounded, starting the three-star siege countdown. Before reaching three stars, the Threat Value had risen very quickly. At ordinary bases, three or four people not firing guns daily could reach two stars in a day or two, and three stars in a little over a week. Clearly, the tent camps didn’t account for the Threat Value when dismantled; it had taken half a month to reach three stars.

A three-star defense was far too simple for Lin Ma. Nevertheless, Maya borrowed two metal melee weapons from Lin Meng, saving bullets whenever possible. Four minutes after the siege ended, Lin Wu returned the weapons. Since it was Lin Wu who was returning them, Lin Meng didn’t dare to be polite and promptly took them back, hoping that Lin Wu would leave quickly.

Being alone in a room with Lin Wu, Lin Meng felt a severe lack of safety. Setting aside what kind of person Lin Wu really was, he was someone capable of stealing a young girl’s shrimp crackers.

Following the small incident was a quiet night, and the next morning the tent base offered breakfast. Lin Wu made cheeseless grilled pancakes with dried meat, tomatoes, and other toppings, which tasted quite good.

At seven-thirty they packed up the tents. Maya went to the riverbank to fish, and Lin Wu took Wai out hunting. They gathered some food for lunch.

At two in the afternoon, the three of them arrived at the defensive point.

As per the mission brief, the three waited at the defensive point for two minutes, after which a Worshipper NPC appeared before them, taking three steps then bowing repeatedly; he was the defense target. The mission was to safely escort the Worshipper to the Leisure Farm, five kilometers away.

Lin Wu’s idea was to knock the Worshipper out and carry him there, but both women opposed in unison. Having been harshly defeated by Dawn before, they didn’t believe it would stand by idly. Thus, the trio started the escort mission according to Maya’s arrangement.

Maya advanced ahead, Lin Meng covered the rear. With Wai beside him, Lin Wu took the lead, swiftly moving through the right side’s underbrush and sparse forest with stealth.

The Worshipper moved slowly, bowing with his forehead touching the ground every three steps. Even Maya grew impatient watching this. Not a hundred meters into the walk, a chime sounded as the Worshipper’s forehead touched the ground, and a card dropped from his location, floating in mid-air. Lin Meng reached out, touched it, and reported, "Ah, we got fifty points."

As soon as she finished speaking, Maya turned to the left side. A zombie burst out of the aquatic plants. She almost pressed the muzzle to its head before firing, blowing its head off as its inertial force carried it toward Maya, who sidestepped to avoid it. More zombies emerged from the watery plants at the front and back. Maya and Lin Meng retreated to the right side of the road, leaving themselves enough time to react, their rifles spinning non-stop as they shot one zombie after another.

Compared to Maya, Lin Meng was much less combat-ready, exhausting a magazine first and barely managing to kill a zombie with a handgun. After emptying her rifle’s magazine, Maya immediately switched to her handgun, advancing instead of retreating. She firmly grasped the handgun, headshotting targets less than three meters away and stabilizing the situation with Lin Meng’s help.

Meanwhile, Lin Wu, armed with a Continuous Silencer, was picking off zombies hidden in the forest with short bursts. These zombies, either leaning against trees or swaying in place, were waiting to rush out as soon as the group of the Worshipper made noise.

In the beginning, Lin Wu, while in Stealth mode, made his way relatively smoothly, harvesting zombies, but this area was too Concealed. Lying in ambush, Lin Wu moved sideways two steps and collided with a zombie in a group of reeds. Because of the sideways impact, Lin Wu was scratched a bit, and to make matters worse, he was holding a spear, rendering him temporarily unable to counterattack effectively. Bravely, Wai, seeing her beloved owner in danger, immediately jumped up and head-butted the zombie. The undead creature lost its balance and stumbled a few steps to the left, giving Lin Wu the chance to blow its head off.

"No enemy detected, one point deducted," Lin Wu continued to advance. Of course, this wasn’t Wai’s fault; the forest merged with the reeds, hiding zombies everywhere. What was even more annoying was the Exploding Carnage, using the bushes to hide their torsos and trees to cover their heads, suddenly charging down from the trees. While Lin Wu was reloading his magazine, he spun around, scooped up Wai with one hand, and ran.

Lin Wu ran ahead while the Exploding Carnage chased after him. About ten meters later, the Exploding Carnage, exhausted, fell and exploded into a cloud of poison, but Lin Wu had already run beyond the range of the toxic cloud. Standing on the road with his hands on his hips, Lin Wu caught his breath, and Wai lay beside him, tongue out, apparently also very tired.

Turning back, Lin saw that Lin Meng and the others were still a hundred meters away. Through the earpiece, Lin Wu said, "There’s no way through, it’s all zombies."

Before Maya could respond, the zombies from the left marshland began their second wave of assault. After walking two hundred and fifty meters, Maya used up 30 rifle rounds and 15 pistol rounds. With the waves of dense attacks, melee weapons simply couldn’t hold up. All she could do was pray not to encounter a Frenzy, since regular zombies just ran out of the bushes, while a Frenzy could launch a direct attack by pouncing. In fact, the Titan wasn’t so frightening; given its size, it was likely to be spotted well in advance.

The defense mission for a Fortress agent naturally changed.

But Maya’s dictionary didn’t include the term "to give up halfway": "Continue."

After speaking, Maya added, "Safety first, if you get hurt, withdraw from the mission."

With a snap, a zombie trying to sneak attack Lin Wu burst out of the marshland, stepping into a Beast Trap. Lin Wu immediately switched to his handgun. As expected, this was followed by a charge of ten zombies. Seeing this, Maya said, "Lin Meng, go over to Lin Wu’s side, help him watch the left marshland." As long as the front team killed enough zombies, the pressure on the rear team would greatly decrease.

Lin Meng ran to Lin Wu’s side to provide cover, while Lin Wu took the opportunity to launch his drone; he couldn’t skimp anymore.

After the drone took off and scanned the area, the distribution of zombies was clearly displayed. Lin Wu said, "Maya, ten meters ahead, on the left, two of them."

"Received," Maya replied. "Advance."

Lin Wu held out his hand, "Pistol ammo."

Lin Meng quickly traded him a hundred rounds of pistol ammo, and Lin Wu, looking at the distribution map, attacked proactively, picking off the zombies hiding in the reeds and the forest one by one. However, Lin only cleared the right side, not daring to venture to the left where the marshland was, a world of mud and water, where one could easily sink.

This unfortunate task naturally fell to Lin Meng. Lin Wu instructed, "Four meters ahead, on the left, three zombies."

Lin Meng waded through the reeds into the marshland, where she had a more open view and successfully killed three zombies. When she started walking forward, the sludge under her feet sucked her in, and she fell flat into the muddy water.

Alarmed by the noise, Lin Wu exclaimed, "What’s going on? A Titan?"

Lin Meng hurriedly wiped the mud off her face, "No, no, it’s just me falling over."

"Oh, that was quite a noise," Lin Wu remarked, not to be harsh, but in his view, even if one fell, they could use their hands to brace themselves; they should never make such a loud noise, enough to splash muddy water onto the road.

Lin Meng felt conflicted. On the road, the view was obscured by the reeds. In the marshland, movement was difficult. So, Lin Meng had a compromise in mind, to shuttle between the marshland and the road through the reeds. After traversing several dozen meters and killing five wetland zombies, Lin Meng returned to the road, the exposed parts of her body slashed with dozens of cuts by the sharp reeds. The cuts were not deep, all self-healing wounds, but seeing them one after another on her face and arms was quite frightening.

Lin Wu crawled from the forest through the reeds back to the road, reloaded his two handguns, and turned his head to see Lin Meng, which gave him a start, "Who are you? Oh, it’s you. What did you do? Get cozy with a Frenzy?"

How annoying this man was, Lin Meng thought and didn’t bother listening, focusing intently on guarding the left side. Lin Wu looked at Lin Meng skeptically once more before turning back with his reloaded guns to reenter the forest. As Lin Wu left, Lin Meng continued to move through the reeds. Although bleeding and in pain, taking this route through the reed cluster was the most effective attack and defense tactic.