Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 78 - 77 Thunderstorm

Chapter 78: Chapter 77 Thunderstorm

"You’re back so early?" Stone looked at Lin Wu’s expression with surprise. It showed neither decadence nor desperation, but a bit of restlessness mixed with resignation, as if his soul had left him... What’s with the motion of strangling someone behind Shana’s back?

"Yeah." Shana turned and glanced at Lin Wu.

Lin Wu quickly retracted his hand: "Yeah, it’s too cold and it’s raining... Hi, Horse Soul."

Horse Soul raised his cup: "Hi."

Lin Wu asked, "How many recipes have you unlocked?"

Horse Soul replied, "Three."

Lin Wu said, "So you’re the person with the highest life limit in our base?"

Horse Soul paused, "103 points, if that counts as high."

"Let’s talk in the infirmary."

Shana hastily intervened, "Hey! That could kill someone."

Lin Wu said, "Players have protection." When a player is attacked by another player, they won’t be killed instantly if they’re at full health and health limit.

Shana: "Are you sure?"

Lin Wu pondered for a long while, then shouted, "Little Knife, Little Knife."

Stone asked Shana, "What’s he doing?"

Shana replied, "He wants to test a weapon on a human subject."

"What weapon?"

"Beast Trap."

Stone: "This..."

Shana: "The Beast Trap that can blow Frenzy’s head up."

Stone quickly went over to interrupt Little Knife and Lin Wu’s whispering and gave the order, "No experimenting on people in the base."

Lin Wu turned to look at Shana and said playfully, "Sneak."

Shana held her forehead: Juvenile Ghost.

Back and forth, Maya and Lin Wu started discussing the technical aspects of the Beast Trap. Maya had Su Shi make several wooden dummies and placed them in the church hall for Lin Wu to practice on.

"First practice the smashing and slapping motions," Maya instructed. "The smashing action is for close range and doesn’t involve swinging your arm wide. Prepare your arm for a throwing motion, activate the skill, and the Beast Trap will appear in your hand, then just toss it. With practice, you can save 0.5 seconds on the activation time."

"For slapping, directly smash the Beast Trap onto the target’s face. Make the motion first, then use the skill, and instantly your hand will become a Beast Trap."

Maya demonstrated the movements a few times and corrected some details to help Lin Wu minimize the execution time. In the future, a hand extended by Lin Wu might not always be just a hand.

The first set of movements was relatively simple. The second set was a flinging motion, and Lin Wu didn’t use much strength, so his throwing distance for the Beast Trap was limited. In this case, he had to use his waist strength. Stand firm, twist backward, then rotate forward, while rounding the arm for maximum centrifugal force.

Under Maya’s guidance, Lin Wu was able to throw the three-kilogram Beast Trap from 6-7 meters up to 11 meters. However, his accuracy could only be described as painful to watch.

The third set of movements involved throwing with both hands.

The fourth couldn’t really be called a movement but was more about how to hide the Beast Trap. Maya led Lin Wu in experiments, showing that the Beast Trap would only be triggered when piled with multiple layers of objects. She then taught him how to hide the Beast Trap using dried grass, sand, shadows, and other methods. This technique was aimed entirely at players.

"Maya, thank you." Lin Wu had benefited greatly from the more than two hours of instruction.

Maya just nodded, "No problem."

Seeing that everyone was watching the excitement, Maya said, "Starting tomorrow, we’ll begin scavenging and dismantling apartment buildings 4 and 5, paying attention to collecting more scrap fabric. Su Shi can start making F4. I suggest that the night shift, Lin Wu and Shana, go to Wilderness Farm and scavenge as much gasoline as possible to make Molotov Cocktails. In four days, we will launch an attack on Blood Plague in apartment 2. The specific action details depend on the resources we have."

Stone wanted to add something but saw Lin Wu running towards the warehouse and quickly followed, "What are you up to now?"

"Blind Bat should have respawned by now." Speaking of apartment 2, Lin Wu remembered Blind Bat and the promise he made with Shana, calling Maya and explaining to Shana, "We’re going to collect some important data."

...

Ten minutes later, on the highway from the commercial district to the base, Blind Bat had a Beast Trap hanging from its left leg and was struggling to crawl towards the onlookers a few meters away.

Little Knife, "So that’s what a Blind Bat looks like."

It was everyone’s first time seeing the full view of a Blind Bat. Filled with curiosity, Horse Soul tapped its head twice with a water pipe and exclaimed with delight, "Just as I thought, the sound is indeed very crisp."

Shana asked, "Are those gems on its body?"

"It’s armor. Only Sharp Blades with a sharpness enchantment can penetrate the crystal-like armor protection," Maya circled around Blind Bat, "The only unprotected part is its face, Lin Wu."

Lin Wu picked up the Silencer, walked behind Blind Bat, and fired a shot at its head, prompting Maya to evaluate, "There’s damage, but not a fatal wound. How did you break its leg last time?"

Lin Wu answered, "I used an Eagle Sand .50 bullet."

Maya said, "That’s a limit value. Little Knife."

Little Knife stepped forward and crushed Blind Bat’s skull with one foot, causing everyone to boo in dissatisfaction, which made Little Knife stick her tongue out at them.

Maya stated, "The weakness is blunt weapons."

Little Knife took a booklet from Blind Bat’s body and tossed it to Horse Soul, "Braised chicken wings."

Horse Soul caught it, adding, "Beast Traps should be able to handle all the known types of zombies."

"Back to the base," Maya said as she walked, "Being able to singly deal with every type of zombie, or surviving when chased by all zombies, is the first fundamental condition for survival. The player’s tactical awareness is the second condition. Whether to run, kite, or confront the enemy head-on. Early detection of zombies and accurately judging one’s situation are the keys to a player’s survival. The scariest thing about zombies isn’t their type, it’s their numbers."

Lin Wu agreed, "One Frenzy is a toy, two Frenzies are suffering, three Frenzies mean you only have one option: run for your life."

"What about regular zombies?"

Lin Wu said, "Being surrounded is troublesome. If not surrounded, the Silencer can kite and handle an entire legion of regular zombies. But the efficiency in killing them is low, and you have to constantly be on guard for zombies suddenly appearing from behind or on both sides, especially Frenzies."

Snow Egg said, "I’m most afraid of Exploding Carnage while driving. The day before yesterday, when I was transporting goods back to the base and took Horse Soul to the commercial street, we hit an Exploding Carnage lying asleep in the middle of the road. Poison gas instantly filled the whole car, and we had to jump out with Horse Soul. If it wasn’t for the base being close, if we hadn’t jumped out quickly, if we hadn’t been slow, we’d both be dead."

Lin Wu exclaimed in surprise, "You never mentioned this."

Tears streaming down, Snow Egg said, "We didn’t die, so we didn’t bother you with dismantling cars." Shana knew about it—she didn’t inform Lin Wu during her night shift. Did this mean that Shana rarely talked or hardly ever spoke with Lin Wu?

As Snow Egg was talking, she seemed to see something, reached out to grab the flashlight hanging from Lin Wu’s chest, and shone it on Maya’s hair. Maya had a red cloth tied around her forehead and would tie her shoulder-length hair into a ponytail while working. When not working, she would let her hair down. It was non-work time now, yet Maya’s hair was standing on end and floating upward.

Snow Egg urgently said, "Electrostatic lightning strike zone, run!" The only reason for static electricity causing hair to stand on end in an open space is being in a dense static area, and lightning prefers static zones.

Several people hadn’t reacted before a lightning bolt struck down, hitting an Exploding Carnage over 1.9 meters tall twenty meters away. The Exploding Carnage turned to ashes without even a fart. This alarmed everyone; they bent down and sprinted home. Lightning strikes continued to drop from the sky and the thunderous roars as if exploding just above their heads made everyone’s hearts pound with fear.

Everyone safely ran back to the base as a torrential downpour began to fall.

Following that, everyone received a system notification: The entire server of Homeland is experiencing a severe typhoon, which will last for 48 hours. During this period, all regions will experience thunderstorms and typhoons of Level 10 and above. All players are advised to pay attention to their safety.