Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 89 - 88 Morning Meeting

Chapter 89: Chapter 88 Morning Meeting

Atop the signal tower, Lin Wu braced against the cold wind, full of vigor, pointing and planning strategy, "Ah, so tall."

Shana couldn’t help but facepalm for the Nth time at Lin Wu’s frequent quirks, "Have you located it?" Don’t join him in his madness, or it will fuel him. Outdo his craziness, and he’ll scorn you as childish.

Lin Wu turned to look at Shana, "Have you noticed the streetlamps?"

Shana resisted the urge to hit Lin Wu and answered, "After two careful observations, I have indeed noticed that there are streetlamps."

Lin Wu, missing the subtext in Shana’s words, turned to view the nightscape and said, "Wherever there’s bright streetlighting, the surrounding areas are busy. Where the streetlights are dim, it’s mostly highways and parks with few buildings."

Shana was glad she hadn’t acted on impulse, as she hadn’t noticed that herself. After examining with a four-times scope, she found things to be as Lin Wu described. This pattern held not just for Route 2, but also within the urban areas. Community lighting tended to be dim, whereas roads piercing through the county were brighter. The brightest area was near the City Hall.

Besides the City Hall, the intersections of Routes 1, 2, and 3 to the south were particularly well-lit. Shana took out the map she had drawn earlier, gestured for Lin Wu to crouch down with her, and used a flashlight to examine the map while correlating it with the actual terrain, "The fire station is on the north side of the road, flanked by about ten shops. The shops on the left connect to the road, and those on the right to the lake. Opposite the fire station is a large commercial area lined with numerous shops that include a police station, a supermarket, and small office buildings."

The commercial district had a grid-like layout with three main roads. Shana labeled the road connecting to the fire station as Route 4, followed by Routes 5 and 6. There was a gas station to the west of Route 6, along with a five-story office building, and behind it lay a sizable factory. Residences were south of Route 6, with many medium-sized villas spread along the road. Route 5 was undoubtedly the community center, running through the entire commercial area. Shana speculated that Route 5 was a pedestrian street, inaccessible to cars.

From these observations, the fire station appeared to be an excellent base, standing three stories tall with a substantial footprint. It overlooked much of the commercial district. However, from the vantage point of the signal tower, it was impossible to gauge the defensive capabilities of the fire station. What could be observed was a major issue: Route 4 was the scene of a vehicular accident, cluttered with various wrecked vehicles, even denser than the death zone in North Town, akin to a wasteland of cars.

Moreover, there were dense patrols of zombies on Route 4, with groups of ten to twenty moving amidst the vehicular wreckage. Every ten minutes, nearly a hundred zombies would pass by in a horde.

Shana said, "Within the ten-minute interval between hordes, we have to take over the fire station. It can be assumed that many zombies are inside the fire station. Once the zombies from Route 4 join the battle, the players will be bogged down."

Lin Wu said, "It’s still uncertain how large the safe area is, how much ground it covers." Before occupying the base, all zombies within the safe zone’s range must be eliminated.

Shana shook her head, "Given such transportation and terrain, it will be hard to lead zombies away with vehicles."

The base location scores a ten, and the difficulty of its capture is also a ten.

...

The second choice for a base was a baseball field, and the two drove across the bridge to the southern part of Shuixi, taking considerable time to observe the baseball field.

The baseball field is located to the lower left of the T-junction, comprising a rudimentary L-shaped building with a broadcast room, coaches’ bench, players’ passage, and changing rooms. An advantage of the baseball field is its vast area, offering ample outdoor space. Two massive walls come together to protect the southeast direction, and the main L-shaped building is reinforced with barbed wire, transforming it into a natural watchtower where players can move around freely.

The downside is the lack of indoor space. Moreover, the baseball field is built in a depression, four meters below the level of the T-junction. There is an open space to the northwest of the baseball field.

In summary, the baseball field is a mediocre medium-sized base. You could say it’s trash, but its defensive capabilities are strong. If you praise its defenses, it lacks protection on the northwest. And if you complain there is no defense, the accessible L-shaped building allows players to quickly transfer, surround the zombies coming from the northwest, and the shooting range from within the L-shaped building is very broad, covering almost the entire safe zone.

Since they had arrived in Shuixi, the two drove to the sawmill, where en route they hit a zombie, causing the car to lose some durability. Near the sawmill, they refueled once.

The sawmill’s advantages and disadvantages are equally evident. The advantage is the vast space inside the factory and the backyard, presumably allowing for more construction units than the fire station or even the baseball field.

The disadvantage: there is a gate on the southern, eastern, and western fences, and although the north side is bordered by a river, the zombies can wade through the shallow river to the rear. However, if sentry towers can be built at two outdoor points, the entire area’s shooting range can be covered.

Resources near the sawmill are not scarce, with many factories and a train transfer station nearby. It is only one kilometer away from a small commercial street in Shuixi.

After a night of work, Shana and Lin Wu returned to base with these findings. Along the way, the car was completely destroyed, and the two spent half an hour flying a kite in Riverside Park, utilizing the guardrails to annihilate a pursuing horde of zombies. Lin Wu’s ability to solo two Frenzy zombies or fewer is merely a foundation for survival.

After disengaging from combat, the two approached the destroyed car, where Lin Wu cleared nearby zombies and Shana used repair tools to restore the car’s durability to 25% before making a swift escape. The car at 25% durability had no doors, no windshield, a smoking engine, and increased fuel consumption. They were attacked several times by zombies lurking on the roadside along the way, but Shana’s driving skills were solid, and in the end, the two severely injured individuals managed to survive back to base.

Overall, the issue is that Shana’s combat ability is weak. Lin Wu isn’t afraid of strong zombies, but he is of large numbers. If Shana could hold her own against zombies like Little Knife and Maya, the two of them would have been able to fully retreat. Of course, the reason Maya paired them up was for stealth, assassination, and escape, not to confront zombies head-on.

Maya and Stone researched and discussed several bases. At seven in the morning, Stone called a meeting, hoping that by pooling their wisdom, they could determine their targets and strategies as soon as possible for a more focused approach to production and work.

...

Maya: "Here’s my personal analysis. The fire station won’t have much more construction space than the mountaintop base, especially when it comes to outdoor units, which might be two, three, at most four. The area around is rich in resources. To take over the fire station, we must arrange for shooters on the rooftops of the commercial street opposite Road No. 4 to draw away the zombies with gunfire. These shooters need to move across the rooftops to protect themselves. After the base is established, it will be difficult for the shooters to enter the base’s safe zone quickly. According to my calculations, we need at least two shooters."

Maya: "The baseball field has fewer indoor units available for construction but more outdoor ones, with plenty of resources around. The difficulty of occupation is relatively low. Additionally, the field’s shooting range is open, favoring the use of firearms, as zombies can’t attack the players directly; they must break through the iron gate and circle around to the stands before they can assault the players above. Thus, the baseball field has strong defensive capabilities. With substantial firepower, I believe the baseball field is the base with the lowest difficulty in defense. The downside is that the baseball field is open on all sides and lacks the sense of security provided by buildings. Moreover, due to its location in a depression, the daily duty staff will be quite miserable, constantly handling zombies that stray into the safe zone."

Lin Wu added, "We observed for over a dozen minutes and concluded that if we settled in the baseball field, we must be equipped with sentry towers. Sentry towers can easily eliminate zombies that wander into the safe area, but we must arrange for sentries to be on duty 24 hours a day. Otherwise, if a Screamer slips through and howls near the base, all the zombies on the T-junction will converge."

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