Invincible through Touching Corpses

Chapter 300: A New Plan

At Lin Xinghai’s question, Lin Zhengyang didn’t bother hiding anything and stated directly, "This war with the zombie horde lasted nearly three hours. We killed a total of 2.13 million zombies."

Lin Xinghai was a little surprised to hear a number over two million, but after a moment’s thought, he understood. After all, even after the initial outbreak of the horde, more zombies had been continuously drawn to the area.

Lin Zhengyang continued, "As for casualties, including both soldiers and Mercenaries, 18 were killed in action and 156 were injured. We lost 51,720 Combat Robots."

"So few?" Lin Xinghai was genuinely surprised this time.

He wasn’t surprised by the low human casualties. After all, the Combat Robots were the ones on the front lines. Any injuries or deaths among the personnel were basically due to unforeseen circumstances.

But as for the Combat Robots, logically speaking, the losses shouldn’t have been that low.

"Haha!" Lin Zhengyang boomed with laughter. "Like I said before, it’s all thanks to you."

"At the start, our attrition rate against the zombies was already excellent, at 1-to-30."

"Of course, going by that rate, we would have had to lose at least 70,000 Combat Robots to kill over two million zombies."

"However, after you carried out that decapitation strike—diving deep into the horde and killing seven Mutated Zombies—the news was an incredible morale booster. Our attrition rate improved even further."

"Moreover, later on, it seemed you’d scared the other Mutated Zombies. It even caused the horde’s offensive momentum to slow down considerably, which led to our glorious victory today."

Lin Xinghai nodded in understanding. "A victory like this is certainly glorious, but surely the cost was higher than just that, right? All that ammunition..."

Lin Zhengyang, however, said nonchalantly, "I think the ammunition was well spent. Just think about it! The zombie horde is so dense; this is the only kind of situation where we can maximize the ammunition’s effectiveness. If we don’t use it, it just sits in the armory collecting dust."

"Besides, we collected a massive amount of Elemental Crystals this time. After we sell them off, we’ll have enough to not only replenish our ammunition stores but probably buy an entire new ammunition production line."

Lin Xinghai was surprised to hear that. He didn’t really understand these kinds of transactions between Shelters, but regardless, it was certainly something to be happy about.

"By the way, Elder Lin, Zhang Yue told me you called me over to discuss future development plans. What’s this all about?" His curiosity satisfied, Lin Xinghai finally steered the conversation back on track.

"Yes, that’s right. This battle went far better than we anticipated. We only lost a little over 50,000 Combat Robots, which doesn’t actually represent a significant decrease in our overall combat strength."

"Under these circumstances, I want to move forward with another plan: to turn this entire Industrial Park into a sub-base. We’ll use it as a foothold to deeply exploit the resources of all of Guanghan City."

"I know it’s dangerous. This plan wasn’t supposed to be implemented right now. We were meant to wait at least a few months, until we’d more or less cleared out the zombies in this area."

"But you know the situation with the Abyssal Passage. Even a few months is too long for us. We can’t afford to play it safe and steady; we need to seize every opportunity." As he finished, Lin Zhengyang’s gaze grew resolute.

"Turn this place into a sub-base?" Even Lin Xinghai couldn’t help but draw a sharp breath at the news.

The idea was just too crazy. One had to remember what this place, Guanghan City, was—it was known as the Mercenary Restricted Area! It would be incredibly difficult to put down roots there.

"Exactly. With the zombie horde having just retreated, this is absolutely the period when zombie numbers will be at their lowest. If we miss this window, the cost of building a sub-base here in the future will be several times higher, if not more."

"Guanghan City is a massive treasure trove. Only by leveraging it can we possibly gather enough resources in a short period to upgrade Star Shield Shelter into Star Shield Base," Lin Zhengyang said.

Lin Xinghai asked in confusion, "Didn’t we already haul away all the resources from the entire Industrial Park? Is that still not enough for the Shelter to be upgraded into a Base?"

The amount of Rare Metals in the Industrial Park was absolutely enormous. Although Lin Xinghai didn’t know the exact quantity, he knew they had shipped back at least five or six hundred truckloads. Logically, that should have been more than enough.

"Upgrading from a Shelter to a large-scale Base isn’t that simple. You have to go through at least two expansions just to be eligible for the upgrade."

Lin Zhengyang knew Lin Xinghai wasn’t familiar with this, so he explained in detail, "The first expansion doesn’t actually consume that many resources. It’s mainly about building various facilities to make the Shelter completely self-sufficient."

"For us at Star Shield Shelter, having the Geothermal Energy Extractor means the first expansion is already halfway done. The rest is just a matter of completing more auxiliary facilities."

"The second expansion, however, is about expanding the Shelter’s overall Space. That’s the real resource sink."

"Even if we scrape this entire Industrial Park clean, we’d have at most gathered only about 30% of the resources needed for that."

"Only after the second expansion is complete are we qualified to establish a true Base."

"But for a Base, you can never have enough resources. Otherwise, why do you think I’m so fixated on Guanghan City?"

"If we were to collect resources from other cities, it would take at least a year just to complete the second expansion. And building the Base would take at least another three to five years after that."

"But if we scavenge resources here in Guanghan City, that timeline could potentially be shortened to just three to five months."

After listening, Lin Xinghai couldn’t help but nod. "If we can really shorten the time to build the Base by that much, then it’s definitely worth the risk."

"But Elder Lin, isn’t this the kind of thing you should discuss with Elder Wei? Why are you telling me about it instead?"

"I’ve already spoken with him. That old coot told me to make the call. I want to build the sub-base now, but I’m not entirely confident."

"The construction will take at least five days. If those Mutated Zombies attack, we’ll need an expert who can handle them to hold down the fort!" Lin Zhengyang finally revealed his true purpose.

’So that’s it! All that explanation just to get me to do the heavy lifting!’ Lin Xinghai complained internally.

--------