Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 521 5198
……

"This is the Longcheng Sandstorm Observation Center. We have observed that the 'No. 5198' deadly sandstorm was formed 76 kilometers north of the abandoned city of Yumen. The sandstorm initially had a diameter of 9 kilometers and is currently expanding rapidly."

"The sandstorm is currently moving southwest at an angle of seven degrees, with a speed of 270...290...and the speed has already exceeded 300 kilometers per hour!"

"People in the vicinity of Yumen should take immediate precautions. We will update the movement trajectory of the No. 5198 deadly sandstorm in real time."

"Oh ho, they really are coming towards us." Yang Qiaoxi twisted the throttle of her motorcycle and turned to look at the convoy on the side. Because of the presence of the White Tiger Mech, two-thirds of the hunters had joined the convoy. More than sixty heavily modified vehicles formed a line hundreds of meters long in the wilderness, and the deafening engine noise could be heard clearly from kilometers away. Such a scene had not been seen in the Hexi Corridor for many years.

The others in the convoy had obviously also received the broadcast from the sandstorm observation center. Several hunters and mercenaries opened their car windows and started talking loudly. Before long, the front of the convoy split up, and the entire convoy became three smaller convoys of roughly the same size, heading in three different directions.

"They agreed to meet again at Sunfall Ridge, eighty kilometers ahead," Yang Qiaoxi said in the team's communication channel.

"Let them meet wherever they want, we just need to stick close to Nagano Soya," said Sun Hang, sitting in the passenger seat of the SUV.

The White Tiger mech didn't go directly to the ground to travel; instead, it was towed to the back of a high-powered trailer—the energy that powers the mech is very precious, and using it for travel would be a waste.

“Very good.” After listening to the latest report from the Sandstorm Observation Center, Zhulong nodded. “Sandstorm No. 5198 has started to move eastward. That is the planned route of Convoy No. 3. After the sandstorm gets close enough, Convoy No. 3 will split up and guide the sandstorm toward Convoy No. 1, which has been kept intact.”

"What if the sandstorm doesn't go after Team One?" Yang Qiaoxi leaned forward, her chest almost touching the motorcycle's fuel tank. "Team One should be the smallest of the three teams. I feel that the combined vitality of our current small team might even be higher than theirs."

“Then let’s split into teams again,” said Zhulong. “With Nagano Soya around, the planning and scheduling of Team Two is the least of our worries.”

"I hope so..." Yang Qiaoxi sighed. "I don't know why, but I always have a bad feeling about it."

……

Team number two is thirteen kilometers northeast of Team number three.

Compared to the formidable Second Convoy, which consisted of over sixty vehicles, a heavy mythical beast mech, and several medium and light tactical mechs, the Third Convoy was rather meager in size—it only had a mere twenty vehicles, plus a light high-mobility armored vehicle and a dozen or so drones. On paper, its combat strength was less than half that of the Second Convoy.

"Damn it, how did 5198 find us so quickly?" At the very front of the convoy, in the back of a truck equipped with a heavy bucket for clearing the way, a burly mercenary couldn't help but spit out the window. "We're just a small group, and we still managed to attract the Death Sandstorm?"

“I guess the second convoy has already split up.” The mercenary driving next to him frowned. “When the observation station last broadcast the location of the sandstorm, it was less than five kilometers away from the second convoy. According to the pre-arranged agreement, it is normal for them to choose to split up.”

"Even if Team Two splits up, 5198 should go find Team One. How many people are there in our team? Most of them are mercenaries, and there aren't many hunters." The burly mercenary stuck his hand out of the car window and patted the car door in frustration. "With so few people, our combat effectiveness is already not good, and now we have to split up. Who the hell came up with this tactic?"

"Stop complaining." The mercenary driving the car picked up a bottle of Xikun Special Drink and took a big gulp. "You keep an eye on the broadcast and remind me to fire the signal flare when 5198 gets within five kilometers."

"Okay, okay." The burly mercenary waved his hand impatiently.

"This is the Longcheng Sandstorm Observation Center. According to the latest observation results, the speed of the No. 5198 deadly sandstorm has suddenly increased. It is currently moving at a speed of over 400 kilometers per hour and is expected to exceed 500 kilometers per hour in five minutes."

"Holy crap!" The burly mercenary jumped in surprise. "Send the signal right now!"

"It's not time yet!" The mercenary driving the car shook his head. "Five kilometers! Send the diversion signal when we're five kilometers away!"

"To hell with five kilometers! Didn't you hear the sandstorm accelerating? At this speed, five kilometers doesn't give the convoy even a minute to react! Are you trying to kill us all?" the burly mercenary yelled. "If it were the other two convoys, they certainly wouldn't have waited until there were only five kilometers left before splitting up!"

The mercenary driving the car hesitated for a moment, but then the burly mercenary reached out and pressed the button to fire the signal flare.

With a whistling sound, three green signal flares were launched from the launch tubes on the top of the truck and exploded in mid-air.

Team number three immediately split into three smaller teams, and the distance between them gradually increased.

"This is the Longcheng Sandstorm Observation Center. According to the latest observations, the movement direction of the No. 5198 deadly sandstorm has changed again... In addition, the sandstorm's movement speed has now increased to 450 kilometers per hour..."

"Huff..." The burly mercenary wiped the sweat from his forehead, leaned back heavily in his chair, and said, "Did you hear that? If we wait until we're five kilometers away before splitting up, I reckon our speed will be breaking 5198 km/h by then. Do you think we can still escape?"

……

Team number two, one of the diversion teams.

"Dust storm 5198 has changed direction again and is heading this way!" a hunter in a car said nervously. "Damn it, this isn't what we agreed on! Convoy number three split up when the dust storm was still more than 20 kilometers away from them! These cowards!"

"I knew these useless people couldn't be trusted!" Yang Qiaoxi gritted her teeth and cursed in a low voice.

"It's probably because the sandstorm suddenly accelerated, causing panic within the No. 3 convoy," Zhulong immediately analyzed. "That's only human nature, though."

"It's only natural for them to do this, but they've dumped all the trouble on us! This is outrageous!" Yang Qiaoxi switched to driving the motorcycle with one hand, while her other hand rapidly tapped on the windshield, which also had an AR screen.

The windshield displayed the current trajectories of several convoys, as well as the estimated impact range of the dust storm based on real-time observation data from the observation center—a black vortex whose volume was constantly increasing, with a light black dotted line as thick as the diameter of the vortex directly in front of it, representing the future movement trajectory of the dust storm.

As you can see, this thick, light black dotted line cuts right through the colored lines representing the convoy's movement. "According to the original plan, we should be splitting up immediately now," Yang Qiaoxi said. "But even if we split up, because convoy number three split up earlier, the sandstorm turned back several tens of seconds earlier, and convoy number one can't reach the pre-determined pull point—according to the sandstorm's trajectory calculated by the computer, even if it wasn't attracted by me, it would still run over all of our convoys after the secondary split... Damn it, we have nowhere to hide!"

"Is there a stone forest nearby?" Zhulong asked.

"No! The place we're in now is called Bald Beach. Just like the name suggests, this stretch of Gobi Desert is completely barren for dozens of kilometers. Forget about stone forests, you can't even find a large rock!" Yang Qiaoxi's tone became rapid. "The nearest stone forest is at Sunfall Ridge!"

"Have the convoy slow down immediately, stop, then turn around and drive back!" Sun Hang said.

“It’s too late to turn back now!” Yang Qiaoxi said. “The diameter of the sandstorm has expanded several times, and its center point is nearly nine kilometers behind us… Rather than turning back, we should just go full speed ahead…”

“But even going at full speed won’t get us out,” Zhulong said in a deep voice. “Of all the vehicles here, the only one that can escape the sandstorm’s range before it arrives is probably Nagano Soya’s White Tiger…”

“Nagano Soya, are you still on the communication channel?” Sun Hang suddenly asked.

“I’m here,” Nagano Soya’s voice rang out, sounding completely calm.

However, he really didn't need to panic. Whether he chose to escape or fight it out, his White Tiger could survive the raging sandstorm. If we disregard his identity as "commander," he was indeed the least likely person in the entire convoy to panic.

"Can you get in touch with Team One?"

"can."

"Make them turn around and reverse immediately, then we'll split up and move forward at full speed!" Sun Hang said.

“Just as I thought, I conveyed this instruction to them five seconds ago,” Nagano Soya said.

"That's good."

After Sun Hang and his convoy split up again, the No. 1 convoy became the group with the strongest vitality in this Gobi Desert, and the No. 5198 sandstorm would not hesitate to choose them as its latest target.

Once the first convoy begins to move in the opposite direction, the sandstorm's path will also be skewed, thus causing it to miss Sun Hang and his team who are moving at full speed.

"Calculating the latest interference relationship between the impact range of the sandstorm and the convoy route..." The mainframe's voice came through Sun Hang's earpiece. "The latest route has been corrected, and an additional 20% redundancy has been added to the sandstorm acceleration and expansion speed... According to the calculation results, your convoy will pass by the No. 5198 Death Sandstorm in 49 seconds, with a theoretical minimum distance of 35 meters between them."

"Wow, that's incredibly extreme?"

"This is the result calculated based on maximum redundancy," the mainframe replied. "If the acceleration and expansion rate of the dust storm have not changed, this distance should be 470 meters."

"It's still very close... only a gap of about ten seconds," Sun Hang sighed.

Just as every driver in the convoy was flooring the accelerator, a modified Hummer suddenly lost control of its front end. After colliding with two other vehicles on the side, it was thrown out of the convoy, drawing a huge semicircle on the Gobi Desert before coming to a stop.

"Damn it! The car's broken down! Help!" A wail came over the convoy's public communication channel. "Someone help us! This damn car's totaled! It won't start!"

"I don't want to die here! Someone save me! Anyone will do! I'll agree to any condition!" another mercenary shouted from the stranded Hummer.

Everyone in the convoy heard their cries for help, but not a single vehicle stopped—not even slowed down.

Other people's computers may not be as precise as the main computer, but they can still calculate that they only have a few seconds of spare time at most. Let alone stopping to rescue people, they might not even be able to escape from the sandstorm if they slow down even slightly.

No one spoke on the public communication channel, and the convoy and the broken-down car were instantly separated by a large distance.

"They're doomed," Yang Qiaoxi said quietly.

Now, let alone driving the car back to rescue them, even if a miracle happens and the broken-down car is immediately restored to normal, they might not be able to escape.

Sometimes, the difference between life and death is really just a few seconds.

Just as most of the people in the convoy felt a sense of shared sorrow and secretly prayed that their vehicles wouldn't break down, the White Tiger mech, which had been dormant, was suddenly awakened.

The six eyes on either side of the tiger's head lit up instantly, the hooks detached, the entire machine did a backflip, and the acceleration thrusters on its back were fully engaged, flying directly towards the rear of the convoy in a low-altitude flight.

As the White Tiger mech swept past the convoy, all anyone could see was a blurry, enormous figure and three long, crimson "eyes."

With a loud thud, the white tiger landed heavily next to the broken-down Hummer. One of its two huge claws dug into the ground to slow the vehicle down, while the other slashed at the Hummer, which was several meters away.

Three deep furrows were instantly plowed into the hard sandy ground, and at the same time, accompanied by the sound of metal being cut, the heavy armor plates welded to the outside of the Hummer fell to the ground.

White Tiger grabbed the lightened Hummer, instantly turned the machine around, and activated the thrusters on its back once more!

(End of this chapter)