Chapter 30

Chapter 30: Military Base

Long Ming slammed the brakes and slid sideways to a stop. He twisted around and saw the Green Corroder stuck in the mouth of the tunnel.

Without hesitating, he raised the M24 Sniper Rifle, lined up the creature’s head, and pulled the trigger.

Bang, bang, bang.

All three shots hit the Green Corroder’s head. Thick fluid and bits of tissue splattered across the ground.

The bug let out a thin wail, then fell over and stopped moving.

After venting his anger, Long Ming lifted his Wristband for a look. The interface showed nothing at all.

He was speechless for a moment. [This game gives no reward for killing monsters.]

As for the Green Corroder’s body, it was clearly toxic. He was no professional, and he had no idea how to harvest materials.

He sighed: “Sigh.”

He put away the M24 Sniper Rifle, turned his motorcycle around, and rode off.

Not long after, on a desolate mountain road, Long Ming kept the bike rolling forward. He did not know where to go and he had no map. One thing was clear to him: do not stop unless you have to.

Even out of the city, the wilds were not safe. He spotted insect eggs from time to time. [Can I really extract from this world in one piece?]

A sign up ahead caught his eye. It read: “Anti City, 215 kilometers.”

Long Ming checked the fuel gauge. It looked like he had just enough to make it, so he followed the sign.

An hour later, the fuel ran out and the motorcycle slowed to a crawl. He got off with no choice, but Anti City was not far now, maybe twenty to thirty kilometers.

He set off down the highway on foot.

Time passed, and the sky began to darken. Breathing hard, Long Ming sat on the guardrail by the road. He pulled compressed biscuits and a bottle of water from his pack.

A light wind blew.

He chewed the dry biscuit and stared at the barren view, feeling a little emotional. While the bugs had chased him all over, things were still okay overall. At least he did not have to worry about another unstable factor. [Sometimes Players are harder to deal with than monsters.]

Then a huge buzz rolled across the sky. Long Ming jerked up and peered into the distance.

A flying insect more than twenty meters long, with six pairs of wings and black markings across its body, shot past at high speed.

He swallowed and gave up on walking farther. He decided to spend the night here and move at daylight.

He got up to look for a safe place to rest. Soon he found a giant boulder and settled behind it. He raised his Wristband to check the map.

The map showed many Extraction Points, but each was far from the next. That made sense. This world’s tech level was high and there were plenty of vehicles.

Night fell at last. Stars filled the sky.

Long Ming lay on the ground, staring up at the night. It was very quiet, with only a few insect calls. His eyelids grew heavy. He did not dare to sleep deeply. [Mutant bugs are everywhere.]

He drifted through the night in a half-doze.

When the morning light touched him, he woke and pushed himself up.

He breathed out: “Whew.”

[This game is real suffering.] He did not complain further. He started walking.

By noon, he stood outside the mountain road guardrail, looking into the distance.

On the plains ahead sat a huge city. Towering buildings rose everywhere. It was clearly larger than the city he had escaped.

The corner of his mouth twitched. In any other world, a city this big would have made him excited to explore. Now it only made his heart sink.

Then he noticed something to the right of Anti City. It looked like a military base.

He raised the M24 Sniper Rifle and used the scope to check. The base was ringed by tall walls lined with barbs and an electric grid. There was only one large gate.

He started thinking it through. The base was obviously not safe, but compared to the city, he still preferred to explore the base. Cities were huge, packed with bugs, hard to search, and gave low short-term returns. A base would have fewer bugs and more weapons. [Short-term gains could be huge.]

He made up his mind and headed toward the base.

More than three hours later, Long Ming reached the entrance. Chewed-up bones lay everywhere. From the torn combat uniforms, he could tell they were fallen Soldiers.

He spotted a semi-automatic rifle beside one Soldier’s remains. His eyelid twitched. He hurried over and picked it up.

The Wristband popped up a prompt:

Baka Rifle (Semi-automatic)
Durability: 62/100
Magazine: 12/30 (5.56 mm)

He glanced at the prompt and stuffed the Baka Rifle into his backpack. He did not swap to it because it had no suppressor. One shot would be loud and draw every bug nearby.

From experience, as long as he kept quiet, the bugs would not all focus on him. He would not use the Baka Rifle unless he had no choice.

He checked the other Soldier remains. They had been issued Baka Rifles too, but those guns had been bitten to pieces.

Long Ming moved into the base.

Inside, the view opened up. The base was huge. He saw wrecks of several downed gunships, and dust-covered armored cars and tanks.

In the center stood a giant round base of steel. Scattered around it were a few small buildings.

He crept toward the nearest watchtower, eyes scanning nonstop. The sight lines were good here, so ambush was unlikely, but he took no chances. He stayed away from the armored cars and tanks. Bugs loved to hide inside those.

At the tower’s base, he climbed the ladder to the top. The top was a hexagon, an open ring structure with searchlights mounted inside.

He gently pushed the door open. After a careful look, he stepped in.

Dust blew into his face. He coughed twice.

There was a table with a radio, a water cup, and other items. Two Soldier bodies lay on the floor. From the uniform of one of them, he looked like a Non-commissioned Officer.

He searched the bodies with care. Each man had a Baka Rifle and one spare magazine. The Wristband scan showed the rifles’ durability at 75 and 81.

He took both rifles and both magazines and stuffed them into his pack. The weight jumped a lot at once.

Then he searched the Non-commissioned Officer more closely and found a metal medal on his jacket. The Wristband showed:

Iron Medal
Grade: Blue
Note: A symbol of honor.

It was small and not heavy, so he slipped it into his pack.

His eyes fell on the dropped helmet of the Non-commissioned Officer. He picked it up, blew off the dust, and put it on. It felt a bit uncomfortable, but he lived with it.