Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 697 - 329: Forward

Chapter 697: Chapter 329: Forward

Maya, who usually maintained a calm disposition, became quite talkative after acquiring the iron supplies, unable to suppress her excitement. It wasn’t because the metal was valuable, but rather, to Maya, metal was a ticket home.

Seeing this, Lin Wu became somewhat worried. He sincerely hoped that the road was Highway 99; otherwise, the disappointment for Maya would be cruel. Maya let herself get excited, kept busy, and didn’t have the time to think about whether it was Highway 99 or not. Wasn’t this a form of escape?

When the usually composed Maya showed such emotions, it represented the eager desire she had to return home. Lin Wu didn’t want Maya to be disappointed, but their chances were only 50%, and their fate was not in their own hands.

The heart should harbor hope, but not be excessively demanding, otherwise, it can easily fall into endless hell.

With the metal weapon as her backup, Maya began slashing zombies with abandon. However, compared to her previous swordsmanship, her knife method lacked fluidity; in short, the combo rate was low. In this type of head-on battlefield, Lin Wu’s role was quite limited. His weapon was a stick made of the simplest materials, and he could only shout from the side while Maya shooed him away with her knife to rest in the shade.

Inspired by Lin Meng’s slingshot, Lin Wu tried to combine wood and plastic in the crafting area, resulting in a plastic-handled wooden stick. He then combined leftover rubber and wood to make a rubber-headed stick. Continuing to experiment, he combined plastic and rubber to be presented with four options, and Lin Wu chose the elastic band. Using the wood and elastic band together, he finally made a stone thrower.

What the hell!

Placing a stone in one end of the stone thrower and swinging the handle, the stone would be catapulted out. There was no way to speak of accuracy; at the beginning of training, he could even hit himself.

Lin Wu continued to dig through the junkyard and remade the elastic band. Now the problem was with the wood. Lin Wu used a stick, but logically, he should have used a fork, yet the crafting area didn’t recognize a fork.

Having no choice but to seek the opinion of the more intelligent, Maya listened and said, "It’s a stick, an elastic band, and a piece of cloth or a rubber block. Three items, not two." Maya indeed admired Lin Wu for being able to produce an elastic band through his haphazard tinkering.

Maya said, "Make more elastic bands when you have time."

"Do you also want to play with a slingshot?"

"No, I’ll use them to tie my hair."

Under Maya’s guidance, Lin Wu finally made a slingshot that was recognized by the system. Its lethality was almost zero, silent, with a range of 15 meters, and an effective range of almost zero, because the effective range was linked to lethality. The 15-meter range indicated the maximum distance. Could he pull the elastic band harder to extend the range beyond 15 meters? No, because the slingshot would simply break.

With the assistance of the slingshot, Maya’s efficiency skyrocketed. She no longer needed to pull zombies towards her; Lin Wu used the slingshot to draw each zombie from over ten meters away directly to her. During this, because Maya got distracted, Lin Wu’s Wind Stinger got scratched filling in, which immediately made Maya change their strategy: first, make a serum syringe.

The road home was still very long, and they were sure to face many zombies. Although veteran players moved with practiced ease and the zombies’ behavior was predictable, if one often walks by the river, is it not inevitable to get one’s shoes wet?

On the second day of camping, Lin Ma gave up on pushing forward and rode four kilometers along the mountain edge, slaughtering Blood Zombies in the Blood Mist area. At this time, Lin Wu, as a Blood Plague survivor, became the main force in killing zombies. Blood Zombies differed from regular zombies; regular zombies didn’t necessarily infect you if they scratched your skin, only bites would infect. Blood Zombies were covered in the virus, and even without touching you, just getting close could result in a low chance of infection.

The most ferocious among them was the Blood Ferocious Ma, whose palm swung within 30 centimeters of one’s head, the wind from the strike alone could lead to a 100% infection rate. A bite from a Blood Ferocious Ma sent the infection meter skyrocketing. However, the chances of a Blood Ferocious Ma dropping the serum were pretty high, with about one bottle for every three killed.

Mixing painkillers or other drugs with serum could produce a serum syringe. In Hardcore Mode, the serum syringes also came in different grades; a Biochemist combined with antibiotics could produce a first-grade serum syringe, the effects of which were the same as the non-Hardcore Mode serum syringe: it eliminated all infections and provided immunity to the virus for two hours.

Maya, the general practitioner, could only produce a level-five serum syringe with painkillers, reducing the infection rate by 30%.

...

At 6:30 PM on the fifth day of camping, there were only about twenty zombies left on the road; they were just a shiver away from breaking through the passageway. Maya halted the attack, stating that it was the Night of Glimmering Light. Lin Wu didn’t argue and returned to the tent with Maya to prepare dinner.

Indeed, it was the Night of Glimmering Light, but there was still an hour left before nightfall. Lin Wu knew that Maya didn’t want to reveal the answer too soon; she needed time to adjust her mindset.

Throughout the first half of the night, Maya sat outside the tent, lighting a bonfire. Lin Wu didn’t disturb her, knowing she needed time to be alone.

In the early morning, they began to pack their belongings. By 1 AM the tent was packed. At seven in the morning, after packing the tent and finishing breakfast, Lin Ma set off on the road. Overnight, three zombies had respawned, but it was no problem, taking just 10 minutes to kill all thirty zombies.

The road turned onto an on-ramp, where there were scattered zombies that they could deal with while walking. The ramp looped around to the highway, and the signpost was erected 30 meters away from the entrance of the on-ramp. It was a signpost that stood 1.7 meters tall with very small font, and the writing faced away from Lin Ma.

When they were about 10 meters from the signpost, Maya said, "Wait for me here."