Chapter 19 One Night

Maya stood on guard while Lin Wu rummaged through a dead player's body and found quite a bit of junk, he called out, "Hey, I found something weird." and tossed it to Maya.

Catching it with one hand, she saw the item was named corpse smell concealer. After consumption, one's body would emit the smell of zombies, preventing zombie attacks during this period, which lasts for one minute. The side effect was moderate poisoning, losing 1 health point per second for one minute.

"No wonder they were so confident; they could use this potion to lure large hordes of zombies to attack our base," Maya thought. If a resurrected player could obtain this kind of drug, it meant that it was not that rare. This implied that in addition to the irregular sieges by zombies, the base also had to contend with the malicious destruction by other players. It meant that the base needed to have a certain number of defenders at all times.

While they talked, the corpse of the player known as 'A' disappeared, and Lin Wu panicked as he hadn't searched it thoroughly. He immediately turned to search player 'C'. However, since the three players' deaths were too closely timed, Lin Wu only managed to find a book in C's backpack.

"Piping study?" Lin Wu was both happy and confused; happy because it was a Skill Book, but confused because he didn't know what piping study was. The book only indicated it was a Skill Book, without explaining what piping study entailed.

Maya didn't understand either, "Gunbarrel? Making homemade gunbarrels? Or plumbing? Capable of running water?"

Lin Wu said, "Those would be called gunbarrel study and plumbing study."

Maya asked, "Are you going to learn it?"

Lin Wu shook his head, "Men should fear entering the wrong profession; you learn it." Normally, each person could only learn one Life Skill.

Maya hesitated for a moment, "Let's keep it for now." The sooner one learned and used a skill, the sooner they could leverage it to create value. It was unfortunate that the meaning of piping study couldn't be understood from the title alone, which didn't rule out the possibility that it was a redundant skill.

"Women should fear entering the wrong profession too, you know?" This was the first time Maya made a retort without meaning.

Curious, Lin Wu asked, "What's your career?"

Maya dodged the question, "Let's head back."

"Butcher?" With such skill in using a knife and reluctance to reveal her career, Lin Wu had reason to suspect Maya was a butcher.

"No."

As they walked, Lin Wu asked, "A stand-in?"

Maya looked at Lin Wu, "I'm not going to tell you."

"Athlete." Lin Wu pointed at Maya with his fingers, mimicking fencing movements while making 'swish swish swish' sounds.

Maya swatted Lin Wu's hand away and silently led the way in front. Just before reaching the base, Lin Wu, who had been pondering all along, caught up with Maya, "Chef." A mastery of one blade, a familiarity with a hundred.

Maya speechlessly retorted, "Please, try not to be so childish and immature. Besides, if you have to guess, at least guess a career that would require some intelligence."

Lin Wu suddenly realized, clapped his hands and said, "A college student? A culinary student? No, that's not right..."

Maya sighed, at least you know you are contradicting yourself.

Lin Wu mumbled to himself, "You're too old to be a college student."

Faced with an undeniable fact, Maya resisted the urge to draw her knife.

Lin Wu ran in front of Maya, turned, and backpedaled as he spoke, "Vocational cooking instructor." The title met both the age and intelligence requirements, and the culinary aspect aligned with the knife skills. Perfect!

Maya was exasperated, "Why couldn't it be a university cooking instructor?"

Lin Wu had a moment of realization, "That makes sense."

Maya said dryly, "No, I'm not any kind of instructor, and I have nothing to do with cooking... well, maybe a little."

"Cooking?"

"No, instructor."

Lin Wu: "Butcher Teacher."

"Go to hell." This was the first time Maya had ever lost her temper, realizing she shouldn't have wasted words with him. Just one more sentence from her own mouth, saying, "Even women are afraid of choosing the wrong career," and she had managed to infuriate herself.

Stone was processing trash at the newly built workbench on the second floor when he heard Maya's outburst, which surprised him. He was one of the few who knew the details about Maya. Throughout the ten years he had known her, he had never seen Maya angry or happy. Her poker face never revealed any emotions.

Stone called out: "Bring the trash."

Grumbling, Lin Wu went to the warehouse to dump all the trash from his bag, then came up to the second floor and asked, "Stone, what does Maya do?"

Stone replied, "I know, but since she hasn't told you, I can't tell you either. Come take over, sort through the trash."

Lin Wu took over, and Stone instructed, "Combine the various fragments into higher-grade materials, dismantle items like switches and circuit boards, sort the resulting trash, and also saw the wood into planks... Where are you going?"

"I'm going to visit the sick," Lin Wu said. "To see Little Knife."

"Damn," Stone muttered as he sat down resignedly, continuing the tedious task of sorting. Eighty percent of the items in the warehouse were junk. Stone had no skills and didn't know which items were needed to make other items. He could only aimlessly organize all the junk.

Maya came to the second floor, picked up a kettle, and poured a cup of boiled water, "A lot of people have arrived."

Stone answered, "As expected. One million people across ten cities, totaling 100,000 per city. Each county averages 25,000 people. That means 12,500 people per small town. Assuming no players have died, that's the player count for North Town. Count the buildings in North Town; even including those in remote areas, there are less than one hundred. After the resource scarcity crisis hits, players who can't settle down in the countryside are forced to move towards the county towns, cities, or even Future City."

Maya said, "Maybe developing in the city is the core content of this game."

"Absolutely not," Stone said. "Without firearms, two Frenzies could flatten an eight-person base. Frenzies appeared on the first day of the game; surely more powerful zombies will follow. Given the zombie density in cities and the current capabilities of the players, there's almost no chance for development."

Maya agreed with Stone's viewpoint and asked, "Is the chapel on the mountain top too small to serve as a semi-permanent base?"

Stone replied, "We took over the mountain top chapel with two goals: getting through the winter and collecting ammunition. Without strong firearms for support, it's unrealistic to think about progressing further. Even if we settle down in the county town, we'll still need the logistical support of the mountain top chapel. In my opinion, until we firmly establish ourselves in Future City, the mountain top chapel will remain one of our most important bases."

Stone said, "The longer you survive, the higher the point multiplier becomes, compounding like high-interest loans. Dawn doesn't want any player to last two full years. However, she's limited by the fairness mechanism and can't specifically target certain players. My guess is that future waves of attacks and challenges will toss the players between life and death. The essence of the Homeland game isn't about the players' joy; it's about competition among the players. The crueler the competition, the more it reflects the value of the points." It's impossible to distinguish who truly has knowledge and skills if the exam questions are all single-digit additions and subtractions.

Stone asked, "What happened between you and Lin Wu?"

"It's nothing," Maya replied. "I'm going to rest now."

Stone said, "Hey, you could politely ask me if I need help cleaning up the trash. I would think you're kind, and I would also refuse your kindness."

Maya said, "I won't ask."

"Why not?"

"Because that's exactly how you tricked Broken Stone into your hands."

Stone slapped his forehead, "I almost forgot you were Broken Stone's best friend."

Maya seemed on the cusp of saying more but stopped and instead said, "I'm going to rest now."

Stone: "Do you want to ask why we got a divorce?"

Maya replied, "I do want to ask, but I won't because I've already suffered enough today from talking too much. Good night!"

"Good night."

At the stairwell, Maya turned back and asked, "Do I look that old?"

Her question stunned Stone, and it took him a while to respond, "I've never seen a girl younger and prettier than you." Has she lost her mind? Why would she ask such a question?

Maya nodded, then went downstairs to the dormitory in the right wing to rest.