Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 947 - 410 Waiting_2

Chapter 947: Chapter 410 Waiting_2

Nightmare: "Xiaobing, come here."

Xiaobing walked to the factory entrance, a assault rifle thrown upright from the darkness; Xiaobing caught it and expertly checked the magazine: "Thank you, Captain."

Nightmare: "The others, continue."

Indeed, outside the factory, a bunch of sly little people. Lin Wu cursed them internally.

Nightmare: Is it that the gate is not wide enough, or what?

Soon after, the other two completed their share, and Nightmare neither expressed dissatisfaction nor praise. Two followers each handed a pistol to them, indicating their qualification. Then everyone got into vehicles, and the motorcycle group left.

Maya said, "Praising one and belittling two, Nightmare really has some clever thoughts."

Lin Wu, puzzled, received an explanation from Blood Meng: "If all three were qualified, as newcomers, they would likely form a bond among themselves and could potentially create a new faction or join an existing one. By doing this, Xiaobing feels gratefulness and a sense of superiority over the other two newcomers. After joining the bandit group, if the other two are dissatisfied with their treatment, their first point of comparison would not be Nightmare or the veterans, but Xiaobing."

The bearded man said, "It seems there’s a hierarchy within the bandit group."

Maya said, "A hierarchical system is the most stable." From military ranks to the corporate P-level, it’s all a hierarchical system. Hierarchy does not equate to social class; it signifies that one can climb up through contributions. Without a reward system for promotion, the motivation for middle and lower tiers is likely to lag, and they can easily become lackluster. Similarly, to highlight the differences in hierarchy, it’s essential to distinctly differentiate the treatment of each tier.

Nightmare stated, "They seem to differentiate using guns, higher-tier members have rifles, lower-tier only have pistols."

Maya: "This is quite good, direct and simple."

Beard: "Keep moving, little one."

The little girl nodded and crept into the darkness while everybody else put down their night vision devices and maintained formation as they followed the girl.

The bandit group’s library base was located within a community, which was a high-class high-rise residential area with a total of twelve buildings, twenty-seven stories each, with five apartments per floor. The complex had a perimeter wall, and there were two exits, a front and a back door.

The library was located in the middle of the complex, which also had a community center, park, outdoor swimming pool, and other facilities. The area was spacious, with abundant land, and both the front and back gates were easy to seal. Most importantly, with such a massive number of units, there was bound to be a vast amount of resources left. It was also a suitable place for daily patrols and training newcomers. Each member could be assigned their own apartment, with excellent living conditions, incomparable to the railway bridge base.

For tonight, Lin Wu’s squad was stationed in a show house about two hundred meters from the complex’s front gate. It was a two-story building that displayed various types of apartments from the complex. Each apartment was carefully decorated for prospective buyers to view and choose from.

The show house had many zombies inside. The little girl climbed up to the second floor through a water pipe, entered one of the apartments, shut the door, and dealt with three zombies inside. After the deed was done, she lowered the rope, and Lin Wu and the others followed one by one into the apartment.

It was a duplex apartment, mirroring the top floor of the residential buildings. There was a staircase leading up to a sunroom balcony. From the sunroom, one could clearly see the library.

The reason the library was visible at night was due to its ample lighting; not only were there lights in the reading rooms and corridors, but even outside in the small square by the library there were streetlights. The library had two stories with several bicycles and motorcycles parked outside the entrance to the main hall.

The group also spotted something interesting at the entrance of the complex. A large pit had been dug with a debarked log placed over it. Zombies attempting to enter the complex had to cross the log, which had a rolling section in the middle that would spin when stepped on, causing the zombies to fall into the pit.

How would humans and cars get in and out? On the other side of the hole, there were two steel plates suspended, which could be raised or lowered by turning a winch. One of the plates was one meter wide, suitable for pedestrians, and the other was five meters wide, for vehicle passage.

Six pillars were erected in the pit, and when the steel plates were lowered, they rested right on top of these pillars, indicating that it could support the entry and exit of vehicles weighing at least five tons.

Seeing this, the bearded man couldn’t help but say, "The designer is talented."

Since the entrance cannot be breached, the only option left is to scale the fence. The fence is two and a half meters high with four electric wires strung across the top. Although there is a sign warning of high voltage, everyone knows there is no electricity. The four wires are angled at 45 degrees outward. To get over, one must not only climb the wall but also navigate around the 45-degree angle wires, which undoubtedly adds significant difficulty for any infiltrator.

Bearded man said, "If they place two sentries on the rooftops of the buildings at both ends, equipped with night-vision infrared telescopes, nearly no one could approach the neighborhood without being spotted. Little girl, send the drone for high-altitude reconnaissance, and let’s head back."

Returning to the room, the bearded man took out a delicate small kerosene lamp from his backpack, lit it, and placed it on the table, and everyone took their seats on the sofas and chairs. The bearded man said, "Ladies and gentlemen, my idea is to snipe Starlight, but I do not know what Starlight looks like. From the information we have, it is known that the strength and organizational capability of the robber gang is primarily due to Starlight’s presence."

Nightmare said, "We’re not interested in Starlight or even the robber gang; we’re only interested in Nightmare."

The bearded man said, "We have a sniper rifle with an eightfold scope and an M4 with a fourfold aiming scope that can also act as a sniper rifle, but I don’t think they will appear outdoors at the same time and give us enough time. Therefore, we shall only discuss one target. Killing Starlight would prevent the robber gang from continuing their misdeeds, and I am willing to offer you another batch of bullets."

Maya said, "For killing Nightmare, 10 boxes of instant noodles."

"10 boxes?" the bearded man paused and asked, "How many packets?"

Maya replied, "Each box contains 25 packets, and each packet has 5 smaller packets – that makes 1250 packets of instant noodles. If you eat one packet three times a day, that would last 416 days. Even if you have 10 people, it would be enough for 41 days. With those 41 days, your farming and breeding should yield some results."

After some thought, the bearded man shook his head, "I can throw in a few more rifles."

Impatient with the haggling, Lin Wu threw down the trump card, "50 boxes of instant noodles, provided you come and get them yourself."

Surprised, the bearded man asked, "Do you really have that many?"

Lin Wu sighed, "Yeah, enough to make us vomit." Lin Wu did not mention the additional carriage of instant noodles that hadn’t been touched.

After pondering for a moment, the bearded man said, "Here’s the deal: within the next 24 hours, if Nightmare appears, we kill Nightmare in exchange for the 50 boxes of noodles. After 24 hours, whether we kill Nightmare or Starlight, if Starlight is taken out, we’ll provide a bonus of bullets."

Maya looked to Nightmare, who knew Maya would only seek his opinion if she had already agreed, so he said, "Fine. It’s two in the morning now, let’s start the clock."

The bearded man said, "Xiaobing and I can be the snipers, but we need observers."

Maya replied, "Nightmare and I can be the observers."

Blood Meng said, "My brother and I will take turns standing guard."

The three took shifts, with Lin Wu going first. He slipped out to set up surveillance outside, then came back, lay down on the sofa, and watched a silent film while also keeping an eye on the surveillance feed. The surveillance equipment, originally a hunting tool provided by Caifeng, was limited because they needed some at home, so they only brought one.

Compared to Lin Wu, Blood Meng was much more dedicated. She maneuvered the drone around the model houses to confirm two exits and then tracked down several escape routes following the exits before returning to sleep.

Maya and Xiaobing took a shift together, using the sunroom on the rooftop. They used damaged sofas and bookshelves to build a hideout. Maya removed a plank from the bookshelf and sat on the broken sofa, monitoring the library through the gap. After sighting in and adjusting, Xiaobing quietly lay on the table, waiting for the observer’s signal. Her shooting port was also made by removing a plank from the bookshelf.

Maya gathered some moss and green plants from the surroundings to further conceal the bookshelf. Despite not spotting the target that night, Maya watched throughout the whole night.