Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 722 - 339: Occupation_2

Chapter 722: Chapter 339: Occupation_2

Although there wasn’t a biochemist in the team to treat infections, the Shadow’s resources were still abundant. Everyone carried several serum syringes, and Maya’s backpack contained about ten more substandard serum syringes.

After more than an hour of battle, the first floor was mostly cleared of zombies. Cotton ventured alone into the first floor, cautiously searching for any hidden zombies, while the others moved up to the second floor.

At this time, there was good news. The system indicated that Maya couldn’t take over the clinic without zombies nearby, suggesting that the clinic wasn’t an independent unit. Of course, there was another possibility that Leimeng Town didn’t allow players to take control.

As the zombies on the second floor were dragged down the stairs by Lin Wu’s team, the number of zombies in the commercial street was dropping rapidly. Everything was going according to plan when suddenly a mishap occurred.

There was a long corridor on the first floor, with the back doors of various shops on one side. On the other side were the restrooms, a water fountain, a smoking area, and a back door. The staircase was closest to two narrow shops.

Cotton first cleared the western room, then turned to clear the eastern shop and smoking area, and finally entered the restroom. The hidden zombies were primarily intended to scare. With a pistol in hand, Cotton looked down and saw the feet of a zombie in the stall, pushed the door open, and to her utter surprise, her pistol jammed.

Cotton glanced at her pistol out of habit, then was tackled to the ground by the zombie. She immediately called for help, "Need assistance, right now." This was because another zombie hidden in a different stall joined the fight upon hearing the noise.

Lin Wu was in the process of taking down ten zombies down the stairs when Maya just said, "Lin Wu, stop pulling," and saw Lin Wu coming down the stairs with the ten zombies.

Maya immediately picked up the Silencer and shot two zombies, while the remaining eight were already upon her, forcing her to draw her blade and join Shana and Stone in battle. Maya said, "Lin Wu, go inside to help Cotton."

"Okay," Lin Wu ran inside and asked, "Cotton, your location?"

"The restroom."

Knowing there were two restrooms, Lin Wu asked, "Which one?"

Cotton flipped a zombie over, rolled on the ground to dodge another zombie’s attack, and propped herself against the wall: "Just the restroom." She had no chance to draw her weapon or stand up, nor did she have any sense of direction.

Without hearing any noise, Lin Wu went to the western restroom and found it empty, both in the men’s and women’s sections. Realizing his mistake, he immediately ran to the eastern restroom. The corridor was 80 meters long, with restrooms at both ends, and considering the time Lin Wu spent checking both restrooms, more than 20 seconds had passed by the time he reached the spot where Cotton was attacked. Inside, only Cotton’s corpse and the two zombies were left.

"Cotton is dead," Lin Wu attacked the two zombies.

Maya said, "Loot the corpse." Cotton and Dashuang were married and could return. There was no time for sorrow; the priority was to minimize losses as much as possible.

Lin Wu used his Wind Stinger on the two zombies, then quickly looted the corpse. He was halfway through when two more zombies hidden in the women’s restroom entered the men’s upon hearing the noise. Frustrated, Lin Wu had to abandon the looting and tackled one with his third Wind Stinger. At this point, his body was seriously drained from the rapid running and consecutive Wind Stingers.

Wielding a dagger, Lin Wu stabbed relentlessly into the zombie’s head, leaning on his attributes to avoid the swiping claws. But due to the narrow space and the corpses littering the floor, Lin Wu failed twice to get behind the zombie. By the time he had killed that zombie and returned to loot the corpse, there wasn’t enough time left, and Cotton’s equipment was lost to them completely.

This incident paused the battle for ten minutes, partly to give Lin Wu a chance to catch his breath as he still needed to keep running, and partly for Maya to organize everyone to search and clear the small, elongated area outside the first floor and rear door.

Was Maya responsible for Cotton’s death? Maya could have organized everyone to ensure the first floor’s safety after it was mostly cleared. But she didn’t, choosing instead to let Cotton clear it alone, which could seem somewhat eager for quick results.

Cotton is dead, at least within these 24 hours, no one knows what happened in the restroom. Lin Wu said over the channel, "When I entered, I saw Cotton’s body and two zombies."

"It was a deployment error, my fault," Maya admitted, her mistake was misjudging people, overestimating Cotton’s abilities. This made her start to reflect, after nearly three months of separatation, that she should reassess the combat strength of the Shadow People to ensure a more objective understanding.

Shana countered, "Is it really that bad? Cotton couldn’t handle two zombies?" It’s not just that Cotton could use guns, she wouldn’t have died at the hands of two zombies even if she were using a knife.

Maya, who wasn’t on the same channel, explained, "I had hoped to make the most of our manpower resource before the NPCs went to work at the airport by occupying the commercial street. I was overzealous. I should have first organized a team to clear the first floor."

Shana said, "No, that’s not what I mean. I think your arrangement was right, Cotton was suitable and capable of searching for hidden zombies on her own."

Lin Wu added, "She will be back after 24 hours, there’s no need to review the situation now. It would be better to use this time to give me a foot massage."

His comment interrupted the two Deputy Commanders’ reflections and explanations.

...

Ten minutes later, the clearing operation continued. When the number of zombies fell below ten, Team Leader Maya saw the occupation information. The first part of the occupation information was an electronic map showing how many zombies were still around and their locations. However, since it was a flat map, it was impossible to confirm whether the zombies were on the first floor, second floor, or the rooftop.

The second part was a description of the base.

The commercial street was a large base, with 5 big blocks, including two outdoor blocks on the rooftop and three indoor blocks on the second floor. There were 12 small indoor blocks, all on the first floor; 8 storefronts along the street, two narrow shops inside, and two restrooms. The base could be expanded, with the first expansion requiring 500 building materials, adding an extra level and three big blocks. The second expansion needed 1000 building materials, adding a basement level and twelve small blocks.

It looked pretty good, but some blocks had designated construction units. The clinic’s small block could only be built as a ward, the gym’s small block could only be built as a gym, the laundry room could only be built as a laundry room. The two restrooms could only be equipped with facilities like restrooms, hot springs, saunas, or shower rooms. In addition, the burger shop corresponded to the kitchen, the bookstore to the library, and the game shooting store could only be built as a shooting range.

Out of the 12 small blocks, 7 were designated for specific constructions. All in all, the number of small blocks was neither too many nor too few. But the designated buildings couldn’t be constructed at will, for example, building a bathhouse required water, building a shooting range required the investment of a variety of bullet caliber weapons.

Of course, Lin Wu was most concerned about whether a washing machine was needed to build the laundry room.

The third part was the occupation conditions. There were no requirements for the players’ attributes, only for the number of people, as the occupying team had to consist of no fewer than 4 people. If the leader or a member belonged to other bases as a Great Commander, upon occupation, the other bases would immediately dissolve. If team members belonged to any other base, they would immediately leave that base.

The current team consisted of four members, with tent owner Lin Wu recognized as the Boss by the tent base. Under any circumstance, if Lin Wu died or left the base, the tent base would be dissolved, and all the stored building materials and constructions would reset to zero. On this journey, Lin Ma had cut down many trees, with the tent base storing nearly two hundred building materials.

The best solution was to drive the pickup to pick up people, and that was the plan everyone intended to follow. The thoughtful Maya raised a possibility: the NPCs might find the car plates stolen when they go to work at the airport in the morning, and the plates on the pickup might already have been canceled by the system.

The first solution was to let someone drive the pickup into surveillance. If it didn’t trigger an alarm, that would be best. If it triggered an alarm, it would be difficult for the vehicle to escape the drones’ pursuit, since the vehicle’s plate couldn’t raise the parking barrier arm. The barrier would have to be crashed through. A bad gamble could lead to being chased by drones. A good gamble, and the pickup won’t be able to enter Leimeng Town again for the time being.

The second solution was for the 4 people to set up the base first. Doing so would waste the building materials and facilities in the tent base. Another minor issue was that Su Shi and Dashuang would temporarily be homeless.

The issue circled back to the pickup, would the fake plates on the pickup still be valid after the NPCs went to work?

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