State of Decay - Chapter 341

[Chapter 336 Shadow Mutation (Part 1)]

On the 74th day, as the second group of automatic turrets were wiped out by Xiao Da, Lin Ma finally set foot on Route 99. Today, they are only a mere 250 kilometers away from Zuoxian County. Previously, I felt that 250 kilometers was a long way and would burn a lot of fuel. But for Lin Ma, who has a total journey of several thousand kilometers, 250 kilometers was nothing at all.

However, 250 kilometers cannot be accomplished in one leap. I traveled 9 hours and covered 200 kilometers. At about nine o’clock in the evening, after comprehensive calculations, it was confirmed that the shadow could not be found, so we camped beside the road.

One of the reasons for choosing this place is that you can overlook the North City. The highway is about 20 kilometers away from Beicheng. The entire Beicheng is brightly lit and very beautiful at night.

By the next morning, Beicheng had overturned the image of Beicheng in Lin Ma’s mind. This is a rare river city with crisscrossed waterways. Because of the foundation, the west side of the North City is full of low-rise buildings. The role of ships in this area may be greater than that of cars.

The southeastern part of Beicheng is lined with high-rise buildings and is a typical commercial district. The southwest is a new industrial zone. Outside the city to the east, there is a huge plain wetland, cut into pieces by several rivers. Looking at the wetland from a distance, patches of green swaying in the wind can be regarded as a stunning scenery bestowed by nature.

Breakfast was still bacon. Lin Ma almost vomited, but she had to eat it. Each of them took a piece of bacon, chewed it casually and swallowed it facing the rising sun. They missed the grain unforgettablely.

After putting away the tent at nine o’clock in the morning, the two of them continued to set off. During this stretch of the road, they chatted about more topics and for a longer time. Maya also relaxed completely.

About 20 kilometers away from Zuoxian County, a farm consisting of several simple buildings appeared on the roadside. A battle is taking place on the farm. A player or NPC is holding a pistol and using the farm fence to fly kites in circles with more than a dozen zombies.

Lin Wu stood on the side of the road and applauded: “Good fight, he is going to be finished.”

The player did not notice the scream that slowly arrived on the battlefield, and screamed with a long howl, attracting the Big Mac in the distance. Maya put down the telescope and said in an incredible tone: “Shana?”

“Oh? Shana?” Lin Wu: “I can help.” There is no need to say that the other party is Shana, right? I am a warm-hearted person.

“It seems so.” Maya handed the binoculars to Lin Wu, who took a look and said, “Oh, I’ll go, this is such an unlucky woman, hurry up.”

Seeing that Big Mac had been alarmed, Shanna climbed over the fence and prepared to get rid of him. Zombies escape. As soon as she turned around, two horses flew past her without seeing them clearly, and their heads were poked inexplicably. Turning back, the two horses separated and passed by the zombie wave. Maya turned sideways and chopped off the head of a zombie. Lin Wu was responsible for touching the phantom’s back. Every time he touched it, the phantom would kick away the zombies that were close to him.

The roaring Big Mac arrived, and a five-kilogram rocket hit its head at supersonic speed. Not to mention the explosion effect, if a five kilogram iron lump falls at this speed, it can be killed directly.

Lin Ma dismounted, Lin Wu took the pistol, Maya took the knife, and quickly cleaned up the zombies. Lin Wu turned around and saw the pouty Shana, so he put away his pistol, smiled, and spread his arms: “Shana!”

Shana ran over in cooperation, pushed Lin Wu aside, and hugged Maya for a long time without letting go. open. Maya seemed to feel that Shana was wronged and kept patting Shana on the back.

Lin Wu on the side said dissatisfiedly: “Hey, is it my turn?” The two girls raised their feet and kicked him.

Shana let go of Maya and looked around for a while: “I have a lot of problems.” Except for Xiao Wai, they were all problems.

Maya said: “I seem to have a problem too.” She resumed her deputy commander’s tone, calm and serious.

Lin Wu: “I have no problem, I just need a hug.”

This sentence was ignored. The three of them sat on the grass. Lin Wu brought bacon to Shana, hoping that Shana would be wise and hand over the bread and other things, but was put off by a thank you.

Maya: “This place is quite far from the Fortress of Doom? Why are you here alone?” Although there are only two questions in this sentence, it would take a kilogram of saliva to explain Shanna clearly.

…

Linma’s death caused internal problems in Shadow. In other words, because of Lin Ma’s existence, internal problems were covered up before.

There are many reasons for internal problems to break out, Shana explained to the two of them while eating bacon.

The first thing is the train activity.

The Shadow made a big mistake at the beginning. They sold most of their coal in order to buy artifacts that delayed the time of the blood mist and black hole. This resulted in them having to drive the train along the way and dig coal based on clues. When the train stops, blood mist and black holes will begin to spread.

The first person in danger was Da Shuang. As the supreme commander, Shana remained calm and waited until the last moment to allow Da Shuang, who was blocked by the mechanism, to get on the bus.

The second person in danger is Ma Hun. At that time, based on the clues provided by the town mayor, they temporarily stopped and entered the coal mine on the roadside to dig coal. There are many forked roads in the coal kiln. Most people got the coal and returned before the specified time, but Xiaodao and Xuedan still didn’t show up 5 minutes before departure. So Shana sent Ma Hun to investigate.

Two minutes later, Xiaodao and Xuedan came back and informed everyone that Ma Hun’s foot was stuck. They came back in a panic and asked everyone to make up their minds.

Shana immediately took people to the entrance of a branch road, and after checking, it was confirmed that it was impossible to get Ma Soul’s legs out before driving. Shana’s emotional side emerged. She couldn’t move with the only machete in her hand, and looked for someone willing to strike with her eyes. But those who followed were unable to do anything. The people left in the car at this time were Su Shi, Shitou and Xingguang. Xingguang was responsible for sorting out the supplies. Seeing that the blood mist was about to arrive and Shana and the others hadn’t come back yet, he came to check.

Xingguang judged the situation immediately: “Retreat, it’s too late.” At this time, it was too late to use the knife. At that time, Shana had decided to use the knife, but she just couldn’t make the first cut. Only Ma Hun encouraged her to take action. Others were very noisy with all kinds of ideas and opinions. Some people tried to pry open the stone and pull Ma Hun out.

Finally, under the roar of Starlight, everyone abandoned Ma Hun, and Ma Hun also left the hardcore mode. As an old man in the shadow, Ma Hun’s death was a big blow to everyone. Xue Dan couldn’t help but blame Shana for why she arranged for Ma Hun to pick up people. Shanna didn’t answer. Dashuang answered for Shana: Because you haven’t come back for a long time.

Xuedan retorted. He said that before going down to the coal mine, Shana had solemnly stated that everyone must come back within the specified time and that she would not send out rescuers. Please be careful.

Seeing that the situation had escalated, Shitou stepped in to suppress the conflict. Starlight made a suggestion. In view of the chaotic deployment of Shadow personnel and low morale, a delaying strategy was adopted for this event. That is to say, park as much as possible and spend as much time as possible. As long as you don’t reach the stop, there will be no accidents.

Each stop can last for a long time. During the parking period, you can obtain food resources in the wild and dig coal.

Shanna acquiesced to Starlight’s suggestion, and the Shadow began to fish. There are many places to obtain coal in the wild during the event, but the amount is not large. After all, these coals are an opportunity provided by the event for coal-burning trains. However, people who can’t stand the shadows are born with the instinct to use resources. As soon as the car parked, several people ran forward and a few people ran behind, and began to search for food and coal. After searching like this, if you are lucky, you can find five coal hiding spots.

On the fourth day, the Shadow activity ended and they entered vacation mode.

Back at the Fortress of Doom, Shanna’s motivation to take care of things began to decline. After Shitou discovered this situation, he held a meeting. He reiterated at the meeting that before Maya came back, Shana was the only deputy leader of the shadows, and everyone was asked to follow Shana’s instructions.

This situation has lasted for nearly two months. Because we don’t have to worry about food and clothing, we don’t have much work on a daily basis. Most of the time, everyone is having fun and chatting. Shana and Shitou both thought that Ma Hun’s matter was over.

The second thing happened, the stone exploded a big thunder.

Shitou accidentally discovers that Starlight and Peanut become lovers. As the former leader of Rizhao, Shitou and Xingguang exchanged views on this matter privately. Shitou’s opinion is to let Xingguang and Rizhao talk it over first, and not to dump Rizhao so unclearly. The most important reason is that Rizhao and Xingguang are not just a couple in the game, they are engaged in real life and are recognized as a couple by people in the industry.

Xingguang thought it was his private matter, but Shitou thought it was not, because at that time Xingguang could stay in the shadow. It was Shitou’s favor for the sunshine, not for Xingguang’s favor. Shitou said that he respected Xingguang and Peanut, but he asked that before he made it clear with Rizhao, he could not just ignore Rizhao.

Although you can’t do that, you can hold hands, hug, or even kiss.

Shitou told Xingguang that he didn’t know about it until very late, and that Xingguang’s private intimacy with Peanut had already caused controversy. Starlight asked, is Shana the one who disputes this matter? Stone, of course, denies it.

How to do it? Shitou made a request that they could not do some intimate actions within the safe zone of the base, which was also an explanation between him and Rizhao.

Starlight knew that Shana had bumped into her and Peanut. Due to overlapping abilities and ideas, there was no harmony between Starlight and Shana. In the end, Starlight agreed to Stone.

The third thing happened next, Da Shuang and Cui Yu had a conflict.

After Da Shuang joined the Doomsday Fortress, he liked to interact with the seagulls on the sentry post, holding a little food in his hand and waiting for the seagulls to take it away. At that time, there was a shortage of meat in the base, and each person was given a limited amount of meat every day. So Cuiyu and Peanut, two old members of Invincible, hit it off and caught a dozen seagulls with food at the sentry post. When Da Shuang went to work the next morning, he found that the seagulls were not even close to the guard post. He also found that the breakfast was seagull meat, so he immediately became angry.

In view of Da Shuang’s emotional state, Shana criticized Cuiyu and Peanut on the spot and comforted Da Shuang. Shana’s actions made Cuiyu unable to step down. She said that she caught seagulls for everyone’s welfare and that she did not hide food secretly. Dashuang thinks this is not the case. Cuiyu knows that she plays with seagulls every day, but using this to catch seagulls is too much.

Xingguang helps Cuiyu speak. She believes that food is the most important thing in the apocalypse. Shana supports Dashuang. She believes that seagulls are very important to Dashuang’s spirit. The base only lacks meat, not food.

Shitou had a headache. Seeing that Shana couldn’t control it, he had no choice but to show up in person to confirm that it was Cuiyu’s fault. Even if Cuiyu wants to catch seagulls, he should discuss it with Dashuang first. Peanut believes that the seagull does not belong to Da Shuang. However, in view of Shitou’s prestige, the matter was determined. Peanut and Cuiyu apologized insincerely to Dashuang, but Dashuang said they did not accept it.

Shana could only put down her day’s work and turn to the work of communicating between the two parties. At this time she made another mistake. She hoped that everyone would be harmonious and like each other, but in fact this was impossible.

Dashuang accepted Shana’s mediation, but Cuiyu believed that Shana favored Dashuang. In anger, he made the point that the people in the Doomfortress viewed the people in the sawmill as outsiders.

Is this the case? There really is. The people in the Doomsday Fortress already had their own rules of life at that time. After the merger with the sawmill, some conflicts appeared, such as the dispute over food between Marshmallow and Knife. The reason was that they did not understand each other, and then misunderstood each other. the meaning of.

In the end, Shitou interviewed both parties, and both parties promised that nothing like this would happen again. The matter came to an end when Stone asked Shanna to separate their work.

A fourth thing soon appeared.

Xue Dan used high-end materials to make a ring for Xiao Dao, which almost made Su Shi angry to death. Xuedan knew that his behavior was inappropriate, but he could not admit his mistake, otherwise Xiaodao would be involved. In the end, Shitou takes action again, Xuedan apologizes, and everyone celebrates Xiaodao’s birthday.

As a boss, Shi Shi knows that he cannot always be involved in the lives and conflicts of ordinary employees, because the conflicts of ordinary employees can never be resolved.

Shitou never expected that because of the Snow Egg incident, Starlight would launch a Shadow Conference on how to manage materials in the base.

Starlight believes that Shadow is currently facing a lot of challenges, and the core reason for all this is the personal system. The reason why some people are dissatisfied with the decisions made by the commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief is that the commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief are only nominal commanders and deputy commanders and do not have any real power.

In order to manage effectively, Starlight proposed a motion to change Shadow back to a command system. The method is to dismantle buildings, move items, abandon the base and then reoccupy the base. This cost is very high, not to mention the airdrop system, the expansion system will also be reset to zero.

Starlight’s statement is still reasonable. There is still nearly a year left. If everyone wants to maintain basic harmony in the past year, they should implement a command system. At present, Shadow Resources can maintain long-term operation, but the price is slowly lowering the standard of living, so everyone needs to contribute their strength to the collective. Even if you don’t want to contribute, you can’t hold Shadow back.

Starlight first gave an example of the fuel shortage in the base. Even if some people drove out to relax and do some meaningless things, there were actually people who used gasoline to make incendiary bombs, which was completely unnecessary. Secondly, the cofferdam was damaged by sea water in many places. Everyone was not very enthusiastic and it took three days to repair the cofferdam. The fish harvest from the cofferdam is very important to the base, but some people find various reasons to refuse to participate in the repair work.

The worst thing is that there is no blame, no criticism, and no punishment after the incident, which is bound to hurt the enthusiasm of others.

The incendiary bomb was talking about cotton, and of course it was the bad guy in Lin Wu. The problem was that cotton was not Lin Wu after all. The story about the cofferdam was about Da Shuang. Da Shuang finally waited for the little seagull that had just learned to fly, so he excused himself to stay at the sentry and did not participate in the work of carrying stones to repair the cofferdam.

(End of chapter)