Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 700 - 330 Volcano Area_2

Chapter 700: Chapter 330 Volcano Area_2

At five in the afternoon, this was the fifth time Wai was sent out. Without temporary guardianship, it could move away from Lin Wu as far as its nose would allow; wherever it could smell Lin Wu was within range. On the first four occasions, Wai returned after 10 minutes, and likewise, this time it returned in 10 minutes, indicating that it had not picked up Maya’s scent.

Lin Wu embraced the returning Wai, petted its head, and took it into the tent. He had intended to prepare dinner through the kitchen but found out from the command center at the tent base that tonight was a night of faint light.

On their journey along Route 77, they hadn’t encountered a single zombie. Could there be Night Demons on Route 77? Lin Wu didn’t know; he couldn’t measure the heights of Dawn’s cheap breed.

By seven o’clock in the evening, it had gotten dark, and Wai was sent out for the seventh time. This time, Wai was slow to return. Lin Wu, feeling quite agitated, rode his horse to meet Maya, but en route, he encountered Wai, which had caught a ground squirrel. Wai boasted its trophy to its master. An extremely irritated Lin Wu restrained his rashness, petted Wai’s head as a sign of reward, and took the ground squirrel.

Lin Wu then continued on foot with Phantom and Wai back to the camp. He was no longer afraid of the Night Demons; in fact, he wished a few would come out so he could have a fight. He couldn’t vent his anger on his own people, nor could he find outsiders to relieve his stress.

Suddenly, Wai stopped moving forward, turned to the dark night, and snorted, but it wasn’t a gesture of alert; it was filled with excitement. Lin Wu commanded, "Go."

Like an arrow released from its bow, Wai bolted away, with Lin Wu mounting his horse to follow. Although it was dark, Phantom seemed hardly affected. When they arrived at the edge of the Volcano Area, Lin Wu saw Maya. With a makeshift torch fashioned from a sleeve in her hand, Maya followed behind Wai on foot. Seeing Lin Wu dismount and walk toward her, Maya revealed a rare smile.

The smile was interrupted by an embrace. Maya stayed still for several seconds; her body leaning back as the embrace came to an end. She asked, "Got any food?"

"Yes, yes," Lin Wu patted his body, apologetically adding, "It’s up ahead. What about the other one?"

Maya said, "I abandoned it."

Because of the rush to travel, Sandstorm’s fatigue level had remained over 40. When they were still 20 kilometers away from leaving the Volcano Area, Sandstorm’s fatigue surpassed 50 and it started to slack, walking in fits and starts, not following Maya’s commands. Maya wanted to let it rest, but upon seeing Sandstorm’s hunger level at a glaring low, she grew concerned. She hoped to leave the Volcano Area before the fatigue level reached 80%.

To her dismay, on the last five kilometers, Sandstorm completely stopped working.

Once Sandstorm’s fatigue exceeded 80, it had to drop below 50 to recover to a slacking state, and below 30 to return to normal.

Maya felt somewhat guilty; she thought she should have managed the fatigue level. But she couldn’t control the fatigue because Sandstorm could starve to death. When not in motion, a horse could reduce its fatigue, and walking or running below normal speed could slowly reduce fatigue. This was true for smooth journeys, where speed wasn’t the only criterion of fatigue.

After considering different parameters, Maya faced a checkmate situation. She calculated that within an hour, the Sandstorm she had abandoned would starve to death completely.

Phantom, usually aloof, became very restless after seeing Maya. While Lin Ma walked, it kept turning its head to look back. Lin Wu didn’t understand what it was thinking and said, "Go ahead." With only one horse, one more or less made no difference; whatever it wanted to do, it should just do it.

"Go ahead" was a command from the owner, so Phantom left. Maya looked in the direction of the horse’s hoofbeats and asked, "Is it going to bring Sandstorm back?"

Lin Wu replied, "Anything’s possible."

Maya said, "Sandstorm needs to lower its fatigue below 50 before it can move at a slacking pace, which will take at least one hour."

Lin Wu responded, "It doesn’t matter, I also support Phantom’s sentimental journey. Your return is what’s important. Things like Phantom, external possessions, are not comparable to a companion."

"Thank you, I’m glad to have you as my traveling companion."

Lin Wu said, "Me too. The tent is just ahead, if you’re hungry run for it, 12, 12, 12."

The warmth of their reunion immediately turned into an impulse to chop someone to pieces. Whether to chop or pummel, one had to catch up first, and eat first. Accompanied by Wai, both returned to the tent camp. Despite being famished, Maya’s eating was still proper; she ate openly and normally.

After dinner, Maya stepped out of the tent, gathered some firewood, and lit a campfire outside. As the flames rose, she heard the sound of hoofbeats, from two horses. After waiting a while, Phantom and Sandstorm appeared in the light of the fire, arriving at the tent together.

"Lin Wu," Maya called out.

Lin Wu came outside and saw the scene, and with a backward gesture, he complained, "That’s cheating, haha, you’ve cheated." At last, he caught you.

Maya felt the urge to chop him up once again.

Little White Rabbit explained for a long time, even clarifying to Lin Wu some characteristics of the mounts. Only then did Lin Wu realize that mounts could fall in love. That wasn’t the main point, though. First, there was interaction between the same species of animals. Second, Phantom and Sandstorm were in a romantic relationship. Third, due to Sandstorm’s influence, Phantom would eat poor-quality grass. Influenced by Phantom, Sandstorm stopped its habit of striking after reaching an 80 fatigue level.

"A couple?" Lin Wu focused solely on this point, disregarding the rest, and looked at Sandstorm and Phantom incredulously, "How did they hook up?"

Little White Rabbit: "Whenever you rest or fight zombies, that’s their time alone. Based on my understanding of emotions, they naturally became a couple."

"What kind of messed up logic is that?" Lin Wu wasn’t satisfied, "I admit we haven’t seen other horses on our journey, but just putting them together like this, don’t you think it’s too casual? Look, my companion and I have experienced life and death together, and traveled thousands of kilometers, yet we haven’t gotten together."

Little White Rabbit: "You are a husband and wife."

Damn it!

Little White Rabbit said: "I’m sorry, I can’t simulate human emotions. According to my research on various materials, that’s basically how horses breed. They put two horses together to live with each other, and then nature takes its course."

Lin Wu said, "That’s just breeding, it has nothing to do with emotions."

Little White Rabbit: "Among animals, horses have quite strong emotions."

Lin Wu understood: "Because you can’t simulate emotions, you replaced them with breeding?"

Little White Rabbit: "I admit I’m not perfect."

Lin Wu said, "I don’t care whether they have feelings or not, but since you’ve said so much, I want to ask one thing: What about Huan? You foster emotions but there’s no pregnancy, how does that work?"

Little White Rabbit answered: "I’m sorry, although the game has indeed introduced a breeding system, it’s only for wild animals."

Little White Rabbit explained that to maintain harmony, the two horses followed the platonic route rather than that kind, so in fact, they had never bred, and therefore there would be no little Huan. The breeding of other wild animals was irrelevant to humans. The core point: Humans are required to play the game in a civilized manner by laws and regulations, but these do not apply to wild boars and other wildlife.

Seeing Lin Wu’s off-topic inquiries, Maya reminded him. After asking Little White Rabbit, the rabbit responded, "Whether Sandstorm still retains its characteristic of slacking off after 50 fatigue level, you need to find the corresponding NPC for a reevaluation, or figure it out on your own."

After asking Maya’s question, Lin Wu continued, "You talked about emotions, but you have no plans for little Huan? Is that what you’re implying?"

Little White Rabbit: "As I explained earlier, limited by laws and regulations, everything related to humans directly and that needs to be harmonious will be censored. Since Phantom and Sandstorm are your mounts, they will not engage in breeding."

Lin Wu: "What if I see wild animals breeding one day?"

Little White Rabbit honestly replied: "Typically, that’s improbably. Even if you did see it, you would only see mosaics."

Lin Wu said, "Do you know? There is another kind of emotion in humans, which is perseverance. Our determination to return home should be able to touch countless human beings. Have you considered awarding us with some sort of benefit for that?"

Little White Rabbit: "Sir, do you have any other questions?"

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

Lin Wu turned to regard Sandstorm, you little rascal, hooking up with Phantom right under my nose. Hooking up is one thing, but platonic love? Have some dignity, will you?

Lin Wu asked, turning back, "Why is it looking all bruised and swollen?"

Maya came over to check, "It’s injured. Not severely, a self-healing wound."

"Oh." Lin Wu understood and patted Sandstorm’s neck, "There are plenty of fish in the sea; it’s never too late to turn back." There were thousands of flowers in bloom, yet you had to choose the one with thorns... no, that’s not right, there wasn’t a choice. Fine, as long as you’re happy.

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