...
Meanwhile, at the advance team camp.
"I didn’t expect Sun Hang to actually find the Desert Sea’s remnants..."
"The key issue is he won’t let us follow him. To be honest, I’m really interested in the current state of the Desert Sea remnants. Even if we’re not allowed to show up, it would be great to have a glimpse from afar." A researcher said while scratching his hair, "Honestly, I’m really anxious right now..."
"You’re anxious, do you think we’re not anxious?" The commander of the advance team sighed, "Sun Hang has decided to follow that remnant to the gathering point of the Desert Sea remnants. Although I trust his abilities, if he doesn’t catch the ghost train five hours from now, then our supplies won’t last until two months later."
Due to the Earth’s rotation direction, only after Chunming City heads to Cairo can they use the time difference to bring the "key" back to Chunming City within the same day. Conversely, going from Cairo to Chunming City, wanting to return to Cairo, it would only be possible a month later.
That means if Sun Hang can’t bring this batch of keys back to Chunming City in five hours, then he can only wait until a month later for a second chance to return. After he returns, to pass the keys to the second batch of the advance team so they can bring supplies to Cairo, it would be a matter of two months later.
Even if the advance team’s supplies are compressed to the lowest consumption level, it can only meet forty days of needs—food and energy are okay to talk about, the main problem is water.
Even with a water recycling system capable of purifying and filtering the team’s urine for reuse, clean water reserves are still very tight.
Plus, once resources are restricted, subsequent exploration and research work will be severely impacted.
"Can we still contact Sun Hang now? I think we should at least remind him." A team member said.
The advance team leader shook his head: "After he arrived at the gathering point of the Desert Sea remnants, we lost signal, most likely due to the presence of some signal-blocking functionality in the gathering point of the Desert Sea remnants..."
"By the way, did Sun Hang mention where the gathering point of the Desert Sea remnants is?" The researcher who had been scratching his hair just now asked, "I find it hard to imagine how humans would establish a gathering point in such an environment... They don’t have technology and resources like we do... I’m thinking, could the so-called gathering point be a large connected sandship?"
"Probably not." Another team member wearing VR goggles and holding a drone control joystick shook his head, "If the gathering point of the Desert Sea remnants was in the form you described, it would be a very visible target in the drone’s view, even from a distance. But I’ve scanned the surrounding areas thoroughly with the drone and found no similar targets."
"Did you find any trace of Sun Hang and his group?"
"No trace either. The dunes keep shifting; even if they left traces, they would quickly be covered by moving sand."
"I have an idea... Do you think, could these Desert Sea remnants be living underground?"
"Underground? Isn’t that the activity area of the Sinking Sand Giant Worm?"
"I mean, deeper down... Although the surface of the Egypt region has turned into a Desert Sea, deep underground there must still be rock layers... It’s impossible for the Sinking Sand Giant Worm to turn this entire region’s crust into a Desert Sea, right? If they really had that ability, the northern end of the African Continent would have collapsed long ago, and these ultra-low friction sand would have already flowed into the sea."
"Hiss... What you say seems somewhat reasonable. It looks like Sun Hang’s signal cutoff is because he entered deep underground?"
...
...
Desert Sea remnant gathering point, some unknown passage.
Nuer led Sun Hang through the "maze" for quite a while. Despite their careful efforts to avoid crossing paths with other remnants, when Nuer turned into a side path, they unexpectedly bumped into another Desert Sea remnant with white totem patterns painted on his upper body.
"Nuer? When did you return? You must have been very successful this time, right? You’re our community’s best hunter, let me see your collec—"
Before he could finish the word "collection," he saw Sun Hang trailing behind Nuer, instantly entering a brief stupor.
In reality, Sun Hang had long sensed the presence of this remnant, but he didn’t inform Nuer that there was someone ahead of the corner, nor did he adhere to Nuer’s request to maintain a small "safe distance" with him.
Nuer was afraid Sun Hang would be spotted by other remnants, but Sun Hang had no such concern.
He was even curious about how Nuer would handle the situation if he were spotted by other remnants.
"He... he, he, he... who is he?" The remnant pointed at Sun Hang, sharply questioning Nuer.
"He... he’s..." Nuer was evidently nervous too, momentarily unsure how to respond.
"He’s an outsider?!" The remnant’s brain seemed to be spinning faster than Nuer’s. While Nuer was still hesitating and fabricating lies, he already guessed Sun Hang’s identity, "He’s an outsider, isn’t he?!"
"No... that’s not it... Baha, let me explain..."
"Nuer! You know it! The priest’s prophecy is clearer to you than anyone! Outsiders will bring us disaster and destruction!" The remnant called Baha shouted angrily, "Yet you brought him back! You brought him back!!"
"I want to take him to see the priest!" Nuer said.
"The priest will kill him first, and then kill you!" Baha growled, "No! He must die!"
With that, he pulled out a dagger made of polished bones from his waist and charged at Sun Hang!
But in the next moment, a bone spear pierced through his chest, freezing him on the spot.
Baha turned back, hardly believing, looking at Nuer who held the bone spear that had pierced him.
"Nu... Nuer... you..."
Nuer didn’t reply but instead forcefully pulled out the bone spear and stabbed it into Baha’s heart once more.
Scalding blood splattered out, dripping onto Sun Hang’s face.
Sun Hang wiped the blood off his face expressionlessly, glanced at the corpse on the ground, and couldn’t help but frown.
He had imagined several possible ways Nuer might handle it, but he didn’t expect Nuer to directly kill the remnant named Baha.
Sun Hang had every opportunity to stop Nuer, but he didn’t do so.
By killing Baha, Nuer already had no chance for retreat—he had fully entrusted his future to Sun Hang.
"Actually, you didn’t need to kill him." Sun Hang glanced at the breathing Nuer, saying.
Nuer looked at Sun Hang, then looked at the corpse on the ground, shook his head, and then said, "We need to find a way to hide him, otherwise others will see."