Kingdom of Corrosion

...

After dealing with Phantom issues, Lin Ma spent the entire week at the Royal Cinema. Maya’s Knife Method reached level three, with a combo rate of 25% and a Beheading rate of 15%, clearly her usual kitchen knife was not the lightest one available.

In that time, Lin Wu rummaged through cupboards and smashed cars to find quite a few things, but there were no firearms, nor any pragmatic items that could aid Hong Yi and the others. As a result, each day when they returned to the base, they had to detour to hunt and bring some game home.

After back and forth, the annual Hardcore Event finally arrived: Escape from the West.

hours before the event started, the system delivered an event manual to each player.

This event was limited to Hardcore players. If one chose not to participate, they would automatically be switched to non-Hardcore Mode at the end of the month. Death during this event would result in leaving Hardcore Mode, but beyond that, there were no additional penalties for dying; one could even be revived immediately.

The event’s setting was the Western part of a certain country in the latter half of the 19th century. Players were not allowed to bring any items into the event, including exclusive items. However, items related to skills were exceptions. For example, Lin Wu could bring Wai, which was summoned through skills, into the event, but could not bring Phantom, lucky outfits, etc. Additionally, drones and personal computers, considered exclusive items of the system, could not be taken into the event. There was no need to even think about handguns or painkillers.

The event recommended a minimum of three participants, with no upper limit. Players could form teams with allies to enter the event together.

The event involved player teams driving a coal-fired train. The total distance traveled by the train in seven days was the participants’ score in the event. Of course, there were additional factors that could increase or decrease the score, which are specifically mentioned because the total distance covered by the train was the base score, the fundamental concept of the event.

Players could choose to have the train stop at stations or in the wilderness to gather resources and route information. How to allocate time was entirely up to the players. However, when the train stopped, it might be attacked by zombies and bandits, and Blood Mist could also start surrounding the train as the stationary time passed.

How much supplies to take, how to allocate time, and which routes to choose all tested the players’ resource management and team cohesion.

Players needed to eat and sleep during the event, just like in Hardcore Mode. The difference was that trash and stains would be refreshed. Initially, players would receive an engine, a carriage, ten bottles of water, and ten pieces of black bread.

The manual stated that when the train’s speed was 50 km/h, 100 kg of coal could fuel the train for 100 km. The more the speed varied from 50 km/h, either higher or lower, the more coal would be consumed.

The carriage was like a grid, where various buildings could be constructed. Hospitals could heal all conditions, including infections, and having a doctor in the group could speed up recovery time. It was also possible to build a farm. If there were players with agricultural jobs among the team, crop yields could be accelerated. The initial carriage was designed to be an 8-person dormitory; if the team had more than 8 players, another dormitory carriage would be added. Dormitory carriages could not be dismantled.

Constructing a hospital did not require building materials, but it did require hospital cards. Building a farm required farm cards, and so on.

During the event, the base received system protection, which included base supplies, properties, and even mounts.

Other game details needed to be figured out by the players during the event.

After reading through the manual, Lin Wu’s first thought was, "Su Shi is doomed."

Maya was still looking through the game manual and said, "He can stay in the dormitory. It’s a pity about Peanut; his scouting skills would probably be very useful in the event. Let’s not talk about Shadow now. Hong Yi, Qinglang, Shuihua, what do you all think?"

Qinglang and Shuihua held hands together: "United we live, united we die."

Hong Yi covered her face: "Drifting with the wind,"

Maya said, "If you trust me, leave the command to me."

The three nodded, "Okay." They had experienced defending against wolf packs and knew that Maya was part of the escort army, so they had no reason not to trust her. Besides, even if they didn’t trust Maya, they didn’t know who else to trust. Without a commander, they would not last long in this event.

Maya said, "There are no attribute restrictions for the activity, so everyone is going to the cinema to level up today. For every point added to an attribute, you increase your chance of survival by one point. Additionally, I need to know your detailed attributes and skills, as well as your combat experience."

Five people, three horses, and a dog, all set out for the cinema. Maya rode with Hong Yi, Qinglang with Shuihua, Lin Wu with Wai... Thinking of this, Lin Wu grumbled inwardly to Phantom: just you be proud.

After arriving at the cinema, Maya arranged for them to engage in trial combat. The trial made Maya want to cry; Qinglang had very weak combat ability. He used a blunt weapon against the zombies, and the volume of his exclamations was louder than the sound of the impact: "Ouch, ouch, ouch..."

Shuihua was much stronger than Qinglang; he also used a blunt weapon and had a skill for a double strike with a 20% trigger chance. A double strike is different from a combo, as a combo can potentially trigger another combo if you’re lucky, continuing indefinitely. A double strike simply strikes twice, and during those it cannot trigger another double strike.

Shuihua was also very brave, but perhaps too brave, lacking tactical awareness for advancing and retreating, clearly showing poor practical combat experience.

The best performer was Hong Yi, who used an axe. Her specialty was the rarely seen handle type weapons, which were divided into long-handle and short-handle categories for development, sadly she hadn’t upgraded either category much. However, having chopped wood frequently meant that she was quite handy with an axe when it came to hacking zombies.

As for cold weapons, they were disappointing, and firearms were even worse. The best situation was with Hong Yi; being skilled with agility, her level 3 agility skill was mounted shooting, which involved shooting from vehicles or while riding, enjoying system accuracy bonuses. She had used guns in reality, but almost always at stationary targets, lacking in live-fire movement combat training. After all, Hong Yi’s profession was a maritime officer and couldn’t be too demanding.

Shuihua and Qinglang, who had both died and then arrived in Technology City, had also used guns before, specifically shotguns. Aside from a sort of violent aesthetic, their shooting experience was of no help in practical combat. This was because basic training was enough for everyone to use a shotgun; pretty much anyone’s effectiveness with a shotgun would be about the same following training.

Qinglang was the worst off; he had only shot a dozen or so handgun bullets, and that was when he was assigned a small pistol just before dying while defending the city.

All this was directly related to the Qiankun Big Move. In the non-Hardcore Mode, they hardly ever defended the city. When zombies attacked, they would just hand over the base to the zombies, leading to their lack of practical combat experience. Now with just a few bullets, there was no way to train them in live combat.

Seeing Maya looking a bit downcast, Hong Yi encouraged her, "Leading a pack of lions to defeat a tiger is not something to be proud of, but leading a flock of sheep to defeat a lion is the greatest victory."

"I know," Maya nodded.

Lin Wu said from the side, "But Dawn doesn’t know."

Maya threw a kick, which Lin Wu dodged, and Lin Wu cheerfully said, "Playing games is all about having fun. You die, I die, everyone dies, it’s no big deal."

Qinglang and Shuihua agreed with Lin Wu’s point of view; they didn’t care whether it was hardcore or not as long as they were together.

Hong Yi offered a thought, "Maybe the purpose of forcing players into hardcore activities is to eliminate players like us who are barely scraping by?"

Of course, Hong Yi was poking fun at herself. Objectively, considering only the basics of survival, lacking combat experience is quite normal. Originally, Hong Yi thought that relying on the Qiankun Big Move and the resources of North Town, they could easily survive until the end of the game. But this hardcore event instead tested their weaknesses.

Lin Wu consoled her, "Just follow the commands, and you’ll be fine. Maya is a genius commander who can even command zombies to defend a city."

Another flying kick, which again missed, and Maya said seriously, "I can’t guarantee who will live or die, nor can I assure you how far the train will go. I’m very thankful that you all trust me, and I hope that you will continue to do so. Everyone needs to hurry and improve their main attributes by one star."

Lin Wu, "I..."

Maya glared at Lin Wu, who obediently shut his mouth. Why so serious? He just wanted to remind Maya that everyone had been playing the game freely for a year and weren’t used to being restricted.

Before long, Lin Wu realized he was wrong. The three of them, including Hong Yi, were working very hard. They weren’t afraid of death, but they were afraid of being separated by death, or of having their current free life ended by it. Despite their inner resistance and the hardships, they knew they had to seize every opportunity, to fight for their free life.

After all, to place them in Future City, there was a very high chance they wouldn’t survive 48 hours.