Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 79 - 78: Second Attack

Chapter 79: Chapter 78: Second Attack

Stone stood at the entrance of the church, watching the lightning fill the sky and the downpour, and said, "The pressure to survive has begun. Are we still going ahead with our plan?"

Maya replied, "Proceed as usual. Shift the night shift to the day shift and cancel the daily water collection. Drive back and forth to the apartment building during the breaks in the lightning. Stone, the issue of the water source should also be addressed."

Stone said, "The first solution is to establish a water pump station. The condition for building a water pump station is that at least one base member must master piping study. After the water pump station is built, we can pump water manually, which should allow us to transport water directly to the water tank of the veggie patch." Communicating game experience via radio is Stone’s main occupation.

Stone said, "The second method is the Outpost Card. That’s out of the question; even with an Outpost Card, we wouldn’t use it on the water pump station."

Stone said, "The third method requires the Public Utilities Living Skill. A player who has acquired this skill can craft a rain collector at the workbench. The rain collector can be installed on the farm, and then we won’t need to carry water. Currently, only a player in Right County is known to have this skill, but he died not long after learning it, so it’s impossible to know whether the Public Utilities have other uses."

After pondering for a moment, Maya said to Stone, "We now have two copies of the piping study."

Stone asked, "Do you mean just pull in anyone to join us?"

Maya: "Not just anyone. This person can be without contribution, but there must be no problem with their character."

Stone understood, "Someone who is obedient."

Maya nodded.

Stone said, "And we can’t tell them about it."

Maya didn’t understand, "Why not?"

"Once someone learns piping study, they will demand that we convert the warehouse into a bathhouse."

Maya said, "Got it, can we find someone who is willing to tirelessly carry water?"

"Not for now," Stone said. "Perhaps in half a year, as long as there’s food to eat, everyone will be willing to do it."

Who would willingly be a laborer in a game? But when resources become scarce to a certain degree, players, after starving and freezing to death multiple times and knowing that this cycle will continue for a year or two, might find hundreds of them competing for the job of water carrier by then.

At this point, Maya looked towards the storm outside the church and said, "This bout might take away quite a few people." Players can go without food for two days, but on the third day, they still need to make up for the food they missed. Not eating doesn’t reduce morale; instead, it increases fatigue, which affects stats by a percentage.

A call came through the radio, and Stone picked up the radio to respond. The call was from Boss of Invincible at the Invincible Base in North Town. Boss of Invincible was inquiring about the food situation. Invincible had calculated that their food supply would only last two or three days, and their base, being quite remote, faced greater difficulty in resupplying. Stone said he could spare three packs of food for Invincible. Shadow Base was not far from Wilderness Farm, the granary, but due to storage capacity constraints and having access to a farm, they had not specifically collected food.

There was no discussion of trade during this, which left Maya a bit puzzled, but Stone said, "Leave these matters to me."

"Hmm."

Stone asked, "Are you facing any difficulties with your work?"

Maya nodded, "Lin Wu has a strong ability to learn and has integrated the skills with hands-on practice very well."

Stone was puzzled, "Is that a problem?"

Maya said, "Compared to others, including myself, our individual strength has been stagnating. Even I am beginning to doubt the effectiveness of my crossbow training."

Stone didn’t understand.

Maya explained, "Analyze Lin Wu’s abilities. Quick Gunner, Hunter, Wind Stinger, aren’t they all directly related to Agility? Little Knife’s execution is the same, linked to her strength. For Snow Egg, Horse Soul, and me, our skills are exclusive to weapon executions, a kind of execution skill that you can get after reaching a certain proficiency with a weapon, which is not related to attributes."

Maya said, "Snow Egg should learn to be a chef. Although Horse Soul is strength-based, Physical Strength is his secondary attribute; he’s actually more suitable for using heavy melee weapons. Snow Egg’s strength is too low to fully unleash the power of heavy melee weapons. If my understanding of the system is correct, Lin Wu can still become stronger."

Stone asked, "How can he become stronger?"

Maya said, "He has the marathon keyword, pity that Physical Strength is a secondary attribute, but after all, he chose Physical Strength. If Lin Wu controls his stamina to keep running, I think he will develop skills related to Physical Strength."

Stone asked, "You have always been using a light crossbow, are you planning to break through to some skill?"

Maya answered, "Marksman skill." Like Horse Soul, Maya added points to strength.

Stone thought for a while, "Do you think Lin Wu knows how to train attributes?"

Maya shook her head.

Stone said, "I have a suggestion for you, not forcing a breakthrough is itself a breakthrough. No one knows the calculation model of Dawn. So many players in Right County and Left County, yet only Lin Wu has mastered Wind Stinger. You ask if Lin Wu has anything special? Yes, he chose the steak knife as his beginner weapon, which almost no one chooses. Perhaps to master the Wind Stab Skill, you need to add points to Agility, have the marathon keyword, the college student keyword, choose the steak knife as your beginner weapon, and perform actions similar to Wind Stab in real combat multiple times."

Stone said, "The same goes for Trample Execution, Little Knife has a Big Stomach King keyword that increases strength by 30%. Maya, striving and forcing are two different things. I suggest you don’t force yourself to gain certain skills, just play how you want to play. Ask yourself, what weapon do you really want to play with?"

Maya answered, "Silencer."

Stone waved his hand, "Go talk to Lin Wu about it." He had once said in a meeting, asking everyone not to claim the Silencer.

Suddenly the alarm sounded, initiating the countdown to the Four-Star Siege. Stone exhaled deeply, "It’s finally here." If it didn’t happen soon, he would have to initiate silence protocol at the base. First, he must thank the Beast Trap for keeping someone busy and not shooting guns around during the day.

Stone asked Maya, "Can you figure out the pattern of the siege?"

Maya shook her head.

Some bases suffer a siege every two days. Whereas the Wanderer base in Left County had not yet experienced a siege, about to break through seven stars, had already implemented a silence policy base-wide, with everyone praying that the siege would happen soon.

"So why force it?" Stone shouted, "Family, gear up with your weapons."

...

This four-minute-long siege was but a drizzle for the Shadow base, with everyone armed with a gun sitting at the church entrance, the zombies had no chance to even touch them before falling one by one. Among the three Frenzies that emerged continuously, two were slaughtered by Lin Wu to accompany the drink, and the third had an even worse fate, facing off against Little Knife who volunteered to fight.

The space was too cramped for Frenzy to accelerate effectively, and one diving at them got knocked out by a heavy punch from Little Knife, who had rolled up her sleeves. Though labeled a heavy punch, it was actually a stab punch. After training with Maya, Little Knife had learned how to aim for the head. The fate of the Frenzy lying unconscious at Little Knife’s feet was easy to guess.

Horse Soul asked in surprise; Little Knife extended her fist and knocked Horse Soul out to let him personally experience the skill. After knocking out Horse Soul, Little Knife looked mischievously at Lin Wu, who was focused on aiming and shooting, and punched his head. Lin Wu, annoyed by the missed shot, picked up his backpack and started whacking Little Knife with it. The previously menacing Little Knife could only crouch down with her head in her arms, silently enduring the blows.