Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 710 - 334: Shadow Mutation (Part 2)

Chapter 710: Chapter 334: Shadow Mutation (Part 2)

Starlight assessed the situation immediately, "Retreat, no time left." By then, it was too late to make the cut. At that moment, Shana had made up her mind to do so, but she simply couldn’t bring herself to make the first cut. The only one encouraging her to take action was Horse Soul, while everyone else was noisy, with all sorts of ideas and opinions being thrown around, some even trying to pry open the rocks to pull Horse Soul out.

In the end, amid Starlight’s roars, everyone abandoned Horse Soul, who thus left Hardcore Mode. As an elder of Shadow, the loss of Horse Soul hit everyone hard, and Snow Egg couldn’t help but blame Shana for assigning him to pick people up. Shana didn’t respond. Dashuang answered for Shana, "Because you guys were taking so long to return."

Snow Egg retorted, saying that before they went down to the coal mine, Shana had clearly stated that everyone must return within a specified time and that she wouldn’t send out any rescue; she asked everyone to be careful on their own.

Seeing the situation escalating, Stone stepped in to mediate the conflict. Starlight made a suggestion, given the chaos in Shadow People’s staffing and low morale, they should employ delay tactics during the event. That meant stopping whenever possible, using up as much time as they could; no mishaps would happen as long as they didn’t reach their destinations.

There could be substantial delays at each stop. During these stops, they could scavenge for food resources in the wild and also dig for coal.

Shana accepted Starlight’s suggestion, and so Shadow No. began to slack off in their movements. There were quite a few locations in the wild to obtain coal for the event, though the quantities were small since the coal was meant to offer a chance for the coal-empty trains to refuel. But with the Shadow’s innate ability to utilize resources, once they stopped, several people would run forward, and several would head back, scouring the area thoroughly for food and coal. With some luck, they might find five coal hiding spots.

By the fourth day, the activity on Shadow No. concluded, and they entered vacation mode.

Back at Doomsday Fortress, Shana’s enthusiasm for managing affairs began to wane. When Stone noticed this, he called a meeting where he reiterated that until Maya returned, Shana was the only Deputy Commander of Shadow, and everyone should follow her orders.

This situation persisted for nearly two months since there were no worries about food and clothing and not much work to do on a daily basis, most of the time was spent playing and chatting. Shana and Stone thought the issue with Horse Soul was over.

Then came the second issue, where Stone stepped on a minefield.

Stone accidentally discovered that Starlight and Peanut had become a couple. As Sunlight’s former leader, Stone had a private discussion with Starlight about this. Stone’s view was that Starlight should clarify things with Sunlight before dumping her. The most important reason was that Sunlight and Starlight were not only in-game spouses but also engaged in real life, being recognized as a couple within their community.

Starlight felt this was a personal matter, but Stone disagreed, stating that Starlight had stayed in Shadow because of Stone’s respect for Sunlight, not for Starlight. Stone expressed his respect for Starlight and Peanut but demanded they clear things with Sunlight before "greening" her.

While they couldn’t do "that," holding hands, hugging, and even kissing were permissible.

Stone told Starlight that he only found out about this issue quite late and that Starlight’s and Peanut’s private displays of affection had already sparked controversy. Starlight asked if Shana was the one who had a problem with it, to which Stone of course denied.

What to do, then? Stone made a request: they weren’t to engage in any displays of affection within the secure zones of the base, as a kind of settlement with Sunlight.

Starlight knew that Shana had witnessed her intimacy with Peanut, and because they shared overlapping abilities and thoughts, Starlight and Shana did not get along well. Ultimately, Starlight agreed to Stone’s terms.

The third incident followed shortly after, where Dashuang and Emerald Feather had a conflict.

After joining Doomsday Fortress, Dashuang enjoyed interacting with the seagulls on the watchtower, holding out some food and waiting for the seagulls to snatch it away. Due to a lack of meat at the base, everyone’s daily meat ration was limited, causing Emerald Feather and Peanut, two old Invincible members, to hit it off on a scheme, where they caught more than a dozen seagulls using food at the watchtower. The next morning, Dashuang, while on duty, noticed that the seagulls kept their distance from the watchtower and, upon discovering that the breakfast was made of seagull meat, became furious.

Given Dashuang’s emotional state, Shana criticized Emerald Feather and Peanut on the spot and comforted Dashuang. Shana’s actions put Emerald Feather in an awkward position; she claimed that her seagull-catching was for the welfare of everyone, denying any hoarding of food. Dashuang disagreed, arguing that it was inexcusable for Emerald Feather to use her daily playtime with the seagulls to trap them.

Starlight spoke up for Emerald Feather, insisting that food was of utmost importance in the post-apocalyptic world. Shana backed Dashuang, believing that the seagulls were important to Dashuang’s mental well-being and that the base was only short of meat, not food in general.

Stone was tormented by a headache, seeing that Shana couldn’t calm the situation, reluctantly stepped in to admit that Emerald Feather was at fault. Even if Emerald Feather wanted to catch seagulls, she should have discussed it with Dashuang first. Peanut argued that the seagulls didn’t belong to Dashuang. However, given Stone’s authority, the matter was settled, and though Emerald Feather and Peanut offered insincere apologies, Dashuang did not accept them.

All Shana could do was set aside the day’s issue and work to mediate between the two parties. She then made a mistake by wishing everyone would get along and like each other, which was, in reality, impossible.

Dashuang accepted Shana’s mediation, but Emerald Feather felt that Shana was biased towards Dashuang. In frustration, she raised a point that people from the Doomsday Fortress saw those from the Sawmill as outsiders.

Was this really the case? Indeed, it was. People from the Doomsday Fortress had already established their own way of life, and after merging with the Sawmill, there were bound to be some conflicts, such as the disputes between Cotton Candy and Little Knife over food issues due to misunderstandings of each other’s intentions.

In the end, it was Stone who had to call in the parties involved, and both sides promised not to let similar incidents happen again. Stone instructed Shana to separate their duties, and with that, the issue was put to rest.

Soon after, a fourth issue arose.

Snow Egg made Little Knife a ring with high-end materials, which nearly enraged Su Shi. Snow Egg knew his actions were inappropriate, but he couldn’t admit his mistake as it would implicate Little Knife. Ultimately, Stone stepped in once more, Snow Egg apologized, and everyone celebrated Little Knife’s birthday.

As the boss, Stone knew that he couldn’t keep intervening in the personal lives and conflicts of ordinary employees, because those were never-ending.

Stone could never have imagined that because of Snow Egg’s incident, Starlight would call a grand Shadow meeting to discuss how to manage resources in the base.

Starlight believed that Shadow was facing significant challenges and that the root cause was the personal system. The reason why decisions made by the Commander and Deputy Commander dissatisfied some was that they were only commanders in name, without any real power.

For effective management, Starlight proposed a motion to revert back to a Commander system. The method would be to dismantle buildings, transport items, abandon the base, and then reoccupy it. This would come at a great cost, not to mention the Airdrop System; the expansion system would also be reset.

Starlight made a rational argument and pointed out that there was almost a year left; if everyone wanted to maintain basic harmony during that time, then the Commander system should be implemented. Currently, Shadow’s resources could sustain long-term operations, but at the cost of gradually lowering living standards, hence the need for everyone to contribute to the collective. Even those unwilling to make an effort should not hinder Shadow’s progress.

First, Starlight illustrated the base’s fuel shortage, criticizing those who used gasoline to drive around for meaningless pleasure, let alone those making Incendiary Grenades without any necessity. Next was the breach in the dam from seawater, where there was a lack of enthusiasm, taking three days to repair the dam. The fish from the dam were crucial to the base, yet some people found various excuses to avoid participating in the restoration work.

The worst part was that after the incident, there was no blame, no criticism, and no punishment, which would inevitably harm others’ motivation.

The Incendiary Grenade issue involved Cotton, but of course, it was Lin Wu who had set a bad example. The issue wasn’t Cotton, after all. As for the dam, it concerned Dashuang, who had been eagerly awaiting the newly flying baby seagulls and had used the excuse of needing to keep watch at the post, avoiding the work of transporting rocks to repair the dam.

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