Chapter 268: A Few Strangers and Two Animals [Part 1]
Ka——
After the last robot was cut in half from top to bottom, White Night put his laser blade away. Unlike Sula and her companions, he wasn’t wearing a protective suit. In fact, he looked as immune to the cold like the robots who assaulted them earlier.
After giving her teammates some basic first aid treatment and confirmed that their life was not in danger, Sula walked towards White Night and asked,
“Why are you here?”
White Night shot her a glance before kicking the decapitated robot beneath his feet to a spot. He replied expressionlessly, “Teacher Guan.”
Sula was surprised for a moment, but she quickly accepted his explanation. They really couldn’t hide anything from Guan Feng.
“Thanks. Are you the only one he sent?”
She was just done asking when her eyes were drawn towards a certain direction. A big wolf about 150 centimeters tall with snow white fur was running towards them in an elegant and orderly manner, its footsteps unaffected by the treacherous terrain. Anyone who caught its gaze would discover that it was a haughty wolf — if it looked you in the eye, then it was granting you a huge honor, or so it thought.
“Rubu?! Who else is coming?!” This time Sula was well and truly shocked. She just couldn’t believe that someone like them would personally attend to a mission like this. What on earth was Guan Feng thinking?!
“What on earth happened? What’s so important that even you two are…” Sula stared at White Night.
It was at this moment White Night took out a protective suit and put it on, muttering, “It’s cold.”
Sula: “...” So not even you were immune to the cold!
White Night was neither a robot nor a wolf with thick fur like Rubu the wolf. He was a human just like them, so of course he could feel the cold as well. However, he disliked wearing insulated clothing, protective suits or even breathing masks while conducting his mission because they were a hindrance. It was only after he killed all of the robots that he put his insulated winter protective suit back on.
Rubu was holding something in its mouth. It was something it had dug out of a robot’s head. After stopping before White Night and spitting out the item it was holding, Rubu said, “It’s tough. It’s tougher than it used to be.”
The robots Sula and her team encountered weren’t everything. There were robots scattered in other parts of the glacier as well. That was why White Night and Rubu had split up and attacked their enemies from two different directions.
Sula shot a glance at the crouched Rubu. Right now the wolf was busy picking out deformed metal stuck from between its teeth in a rather inelegant manner. She asked White Night again, “How many of you have come?”
White Night didn’t answer her. He walked up to Rubu and patted its head once, “Time to go.”
White Night’s attitude pissed off Sula’s companion a lot. Although White Night had saved their lives earlier, that didn’t mean they liked the way he treated them. He was just about to step forward and give him a piece of his mind when Sula stood in his path and shook her head. She was familiar with White Night’s behavior.
“Let’s leave. The situation’s taken an unexpected change, we should check with the higher ups and see if there are any new instructions. Oh right, we should also gather the robot remains. We can use them.” Sula said.
When Cillin drove past that particular glacier, everyone had evacuated already. The snow had covered up the ground and eliminated most signs of battle except for an incredibly long crack stretching down from the top of an iceberg.
“Naimi, you drive.” Cillin said.
“Ah?” Naimi asked after his brain caught up with Cillin’s request, “But why?”
“I’m tired.”
“Oh, I see. I can only do so much though. The other racers’ll probably overtake us.” Naimi was at least aware of his limits. Vege-Fritter might be holding the first place right now, but it hadn’t managed to shake of its tails.
“It’s fine. Let Vege-Fritter assist you.”
Cillin ran his fingers across the control panel for a bit and switched seats with Naimi. The latter accepted the wheel a bit nervously with Vege-Fritter acting as support.
After Cillin had left the driver’s seat, he began typing on the navigator’s analysis panel and producing many smaller windows such as wave frequency analyses or image analyses. The multifaceted data was more than enough to make Naimi’s head dizzy, so Naimi looked away and focused on his driving after the initial glance.
Cillin was able to deduce many things using Vege-Fritter’s analyser. For example, he was able to narrow down the locations where the robots had appeared. He had seen the crack on the iceberg after intercepting and processing the footage of nearby surveillance cameras from the Sizer Family and the media. He had even nailed down the location where Rubu had fought the robots.
From the looks of it, Sula and her team’s goal was probably to wipe out Black Viper’s robots. There were a lot of details that escaped Cillin’s understanding, but he was certain that he had picked up the robots’ presences back at the rainforest. Since they showed up in this circuit as well, it meant that they would make an appearance in all remaining circuits as well. It was impossible to know if Sula and her team could stop them all.
Naimi was speeding up while Cillin was performing his analyses. It was night time when they first arrived at the snowy lands, and it was almost dawn when they reached the end of the circuit.
Although Naimi had done his best, his skill ultimately couldn’t compare to the veterans when it came to adapting to the minute changes brought about by the environment. That being said, the lead Cillin accrued while he was piloting the race was strong enough to guarantee them the second place for this circuit. The first place was claimed by Lightning’s crescent-shaped car, the third place was claimed by Aero’s prism-shaped car, and the fourth place was claimed by Spearhead’s blade-shaped car.
There still weren’t many racing cars who stopped for maintenance at the repair stations after the fourth circuit was over. The next circuit they were about to enter was a vast desert.
The fourth and the fifth circuit were two different extremes. It was only possible because of the unique geography of this place.
Everything was white in color even though the racing cars had left the snowy lands for quite some time now, but anyone who was keeping an eye on the thermometer would realize that the temperature outside was completely different to that you might expect from the arctic. The temperature outside was almost the same as the human body temperature.
The white things were sand, all of them. It was a line that separated the snowy lands and the desert. The temperature here wasn’t as hot as it could be at the desert. In fact, one might even say that this area was relatively cool and humid.
“You want to take over, Cillin?” asked Naimi, but in reality he didn’t really want to switch places with Cillin just. Although he made a small mistake earlier and failed to take first place during the sprint, his craving for racing was brought up to the surface. Frankly, being a racer was just a lot more exciting than being a navigator.
“It’s okay. Keep it up.”
Cillin’s answer pleased Naimi, “Don’t worry, I’ll do my best!”
The white sand eventually turned yellow as they flew deeper and deeper into the desert, and the temperature outside was definitely rising in a straight line; hot enough to turn anyone into dry meat in just a matter of hours. Thankfully, the thermostat kept the internal temperature at a relatively bearable level.
When Cillin saw some animals crawling across the sand from his monitor, he couldn’t help but admire the tenacity of life for a moment. They were incredibly tiny, and they weren’t aided by any equipment whatsoever, and yet they were tenacious enough to live in a place like this through the sheer power of adaptability and evolution.
Hmm?
Finally, Cillin caught some unusual activity on his device. It originated from the robots, and it was similar to machine language in some ways. However, Cillin couldn’t decipher it due to external interferences. Even his attempts to deduce a precise coordinate was hindered because of said interferences. It was impossible to tell if the interfering source was made by the robots themselves or a third party, but one thing was certain: there were robots lying in wait for him.
Cillin had seen what these robots were capable of before, and it was the main reason he had to pass control to Naimi. The race literally wouldn’t matter if he were to die here.
Fleka had seen Vege-Fritter’s blueprint before, and Naimi was right next to Cillin when he was assembling it. However, neither of them knew that Cillin had installed a very, very well hidden, multi-password protected and independent weapons system inside the vehicle.
Right now, Cillin’s plan was to activate this weapons system and deal with any unexpected situation when necessary. The good news was that the weapons system barely affected Naimi’s driving, in fact the young man had no idea that Cillin had activated a dangerous program in Vege-Fritter.
The materials Fleka provided him was restricted, and he was forced to work under a budget, so the weapons system Vege-Fritter was currently carrying couldn’t do any real damage to those robots. That was why their main purpose was to buy time for himself.
Also, Cillin had a couple of weapons inside his ring, including the PTS K and its bullets.
He inhaled deeply. He couldn’t place all his hopes on Sula and her team. He must prepare his own path of retreat.
Naimi was deserving to be called a member of the Sizer Family. After the somewhat shaky start, he was slowly but surely growing more and more familiar with driving Vege-Fritter. Although he couldn’t get to Cillin’s microscopic level of control, he was honestly not far behind, and thanks to Vege-Fritter’s support, they were still among the top four.
The fact that Vege-Fritter, a forgotten car type, was ahead was already a miracle to most people, and it had more than proved itself during the first four circuits. Of course, only the real pros and experts knew that not anyone could drive Vege-Fritter to that level.
Cillin was just done preparing his countermeasures when the unusual activity on the analysis screen suddenly vanished all at once. It was almost as if the robots had winked out of existence.
Cillin stared at the screen for two straight seconds before he quickly conducted a scan for unusual activities, comparing it to the other analysis results on the screen. However, the final result proved that the robots in this area really have all disappeared. There were some minor machine language activity in other places, but none of them are close enough to impose a threat.
Something must have happened to the group of robots Cillin had narrowed down on his screen. Either they were taken out by Sula’s team, or they were taken out by someone else. The rest of the robots were making a run for it.
Who could it be?
Cillin’s concentration heightened as they moved closer and closer to the designated coordinate. Fixing his eyes firmly before him, Cillin got ready to act on first notice the second he saw any machine language activity, even if it would cost him the race.
The good news was that he detected no machine language activity whatsoever. Even better, he detected biological lifeforms not native to this desert. He couldn’t determine who they were or what faction they belonged to because of the interference device, however.
Still, some of Cillin’s tension slipped away from him. Whoever this group might belong to, they had taken out the robots hiding in this area. This meant that they weren’t his enemies at least.
By now a sand storm had descended upon them, and it was impossible to see anything outside without some sort of special sight. However, Cillin as able to catch a glimpse of a round-shaped thing about two meters wide on the desert floor. It was almost completely buried in sand, but Cillin could see some scales on it.
When Vege-Fritter flew away from the area, Cillin saw through the surveillance camera the round-shaped fellow shaking off the sand on itself before rolling down a certain direction.
At a sandstone somewhere on the desert.
The huge rock formation was a natural shelter that blocked both the sunlight and the violent winds on the desert. A man could be seen lying in between the gaps. His hat was pressed as low as possible to prevent any sand that managed to slip in from getting into his face, and his clothes looked ragged from fighting or self-tearing. Probably both.
The man was resting on his arm and shaking his legs leisurely, the half-rolled strip of cloth on his legs flapping almost in sync with his movements. He sure looked like he was having a good time despite the environment.
Not far away from the rocks, the wind continuously rolled sand across something that obviously didn’t belong to this place. However, it wasn’t completely buried in sand yet, a small corner of the object reflecting light like a metal would. If someone was paying attention, they might even catch the sound of electricity buzzing just beneath the sand. It didn’t take long for the buzzing sound to grow weaker and weaker until it died off completely.
Gulugulu.
A spiky, round-shaped object rolled closer and closer towards the rock formation. It was the ball Cillin had seen earlier.
The ball tried to roll its way into the rock formation, but it soon got stuck between the rocks. It rolled backwards and tried charging into the rock formation again, but the result didn’t change. Finally, the ball gave up after a few failed attempts. The entire rock formation might fall apart if it kept trying to force its way in.
The spiky ball unrolled itself and revealed its true appearance. It was an armadillo lizard nearly five meters long.
The armadillo lizard shook off the sand on its body before strutted its way between the gaps of the rocks. This time it didn’t get stuck.
“Fang Fang, everything’s gone smoothly. We can go back now!” The armadillo lizard said to the man lying inside.
The man called Fang Fang let out a long sigh. It was almost as if he was sad that his free time had come to an end. He pushed his hat higher with a finger, revealing a pair of small, thin eyes before glancing once at the armadillo lizard. Then, he yawned, slowly got up to his feet and stretched his back lazily.
“Let’s go. Our work’s done.”
The man and the armadillo lizard walked out of the rocky formation and into the sandstorm. Some time later, they arrived at a small sand dune. He hit one part of the sand dune with his hand while yelling loudly, “Open the door, we’re back, the sandstorm outside’s really big!”
It didn’t sound like he was striking sand when his hand made contact. In fact, when the wind blew away the sand covering the part he was hitting, it revealed a yellowish exterior that shared nearly the same color as the sand outside. It was a spaceplane disguised as a sand dune using protective coloring, material and the sandstorm itself.
It took a lot of hitting and yelling before the hatch finally opened to admit them. It closed just as quickly after both man and armadillo lizard had entered the spaceplane.
Inside the cockpit, a young girl who looked to be around seven to eight years old was busy playing a game on the main pilot’s seat. She was completely absorbed by the screen in front of her, and she didn’t react to the man and the armadillo lizard at all when they entered the cockpit.
It was a driving game; a flying car game developed by the Sizer Family not long ago.
The armadillo lizard was just lying down on the floor to rest when the girl finally spoke up, “Armadillo* you brought a lot of pollutants into the spaceplane again! You’re up for the next cleaning duty!”
*I don’t know what I expected, but the armadillo lizard’s name is Armadillo. Yep.
The armadillo lizard Armadillo froze in mid step. Then, Its huge, armor-like scales swelled like it was about to pop out of its skin as it yelled, “What! Why me! I was the one who cleaned the ship last time!”
“You didn’t shake off the sand on your scales before you came in, so you only have yourself to blame.” The girl was still staring at the screen, but there was no doubt that she was speaking to Armadillo.
Armadillo’s eyes rolled cunningly before he pointed a tail at the man lying on his chair like he had no bones inside his body, “I want to make a report, Nikki. Fang Fang was goofing off and doing nothing for nearly the entire mission! Meanwhile, I nearly lost my tail while I was fighting those robots! Look at my missing scale!”
The man lying on the chair jumped to his feet immediately and pointed at the rags that were barely covering his body, complaining, “Nonsense! Look at my clothes! I did fight, and I was one step away from being completely naked! You have to help me, boss Nikki! You’ve gotta raise my pay!”
It was plain weird to see a twenty years old young man addressing a seven to eight years old kid as his “boss”.
Nikki was still absorbed in her game as she snorted, “Chi Lafang, Armadillo, both of you will clean the spaceplane next time.”
“This is injustice! I’m serious, I really did give it everything I got! Look into my eyes and see my sincerity if you don’t believe me!” said Chi Lafang while moving his face closer to Nikki and pointing at his own eyes.
The girl was finally done completing her mission as she set down the controller. She turned around and stared closely at Chi Lafang’s eyes — still as thin as slits despite his best attempt to widen his eyelids — searching for his so-called “sincerity”. Finally, she concluded, “Your eye boogers are extremely profound today.”
Not only was Chi Lafang completely unaffected by her words, he put a finger to the inner corner of his eyes before replying, “Exactly! The weather outside’s so hot that my eyes are tired and dry, and I think I’m coming down with sunstroke and fatigue! Hmm, they might even become inflamed soon, or should I say they’re already inflamed, so you absolutely should increase my pay don’t you think! Oh, and more holidays, or even better a sponsored vacation trip!”
At the back, Armadillo’s tail twitched before it buried its head between its hand and kept silent.
A moment of silence later, Chi Lafang’s attention suddenly shifted to Nikki’s ears as he asked, “Eh? Boss Nikki, when did you reach thirty five years old? I thought I saw only thirty four teeth on your ears just a while ago.”
Nikki’s ears were sharper than most people, and there was a ring of “teeth” running along the edge of her ear. The number of “teeth” on her ear represented her true age.
The question was immediately followed by a loud thump inside the spaceplane and Chi Lafang’s bloodcurdling scream.