Kingdom of Corrosion

The bombing brought Lin Wu some trouble. Although there were few zombies around, the loud explosion sound was irresistible; within ten minutes, zombies continuously arrived at the site of the explosion, inevitably encountering Lin Sha and another resting on the ground. There was also good news: during the combat, Lin Wu found special zombies, a few in white lab coats.

This indicated that the signal interference in the forest might not be due to natural factors, but rather, artificially set up. This forest was very likely concealing a laboratory. Of the ten secrets, Lin Wu and Maya had cracked two. They now knew the precise location of A1 and had an idea of where the next lab might be. This gave Lin Ma, who had not held much hope for completing the secret mission, a glimmer of hope.

The bombing wasn’t as bad as Shana had said. Theoretically, Shana was correct: the noise would attract zombies within a kilometer range. But the actual situation was somewhat different. The zombies, lured by the blast, would abandon the original noise if they encountered a new sound source while en route, instead turning to investigate the new one.

Lying on the ground, looking up at the starry sky, listening to the unidentified insects chirping by his side, a bored Lin Wu drifted to sleep. This sleep was not recognized by the system. After entering summer, there were no system-regulated sleeps—everyone’s sleep depended on their own schedule and quality.

At nine in the evening, after Shana finished her treatment and got up to stretch, she sat down at the edge of the clearing, hugging her knees and gazing into the dark distance. It was unclear how much time had passed when she turned back, only to see Lin Wu sleeping soundly by the campfire, with Wai as his pillow. It was an unnecessary sleep; Shana knew Lin Wu resorted to sleep to avoid deeper contact between the two in a specific environment.

Shana made a decision that once back on Earth, she would certainly give him a piece of her mind. Games won’t work, for Lin Wu possessed the trait of a pig not fearing scalding water: with painkillers in hand, do whatever you please.

...

The next morning, Lin Sha safely returned to the base, and the field agents were off for the day. Coincidentally, it was mahjong night, and the following day was the Labor and Gourmet Festival, another day off. The wager for this mahjong game was roasted fish, with Shana being the biggest loser as she had to catch 50 fish. The winners were Lin Wu, Dashuang, and Little Knife.

In the previous mahong night, Shana and Maya, with their superior intelligence, had dominated. Thinking they would be invincible today as well, the two decisively teamed up. However, they ended up in the same group as Lin Wu, Stone, and Dashuang.

No one expected Dashuang to be a mahjong deity. While others arranged their tiles after drawing them, grouping by suit and even grouping them in threes or pairs, Dashuang needed no adjustment. He scanned them once and knew what he needed, and could infer their opponents’ hands from the discarded tiles.

It should have been an utter domination by Dashuang, but Lin Wu was incredibly lucky, repeatedly winning on his own draws. Although Shana could remember most of the tile positions, she just couldn’t draw the ones she needed. Whenever she was about to, that idiot Lin Wu would declare a kong. The more anxious and frustrated she became, the worse her mindset, allowing Stone to profit, though in the end, Stone still lost, but only five fish.