Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 610 Desert Survivors
……

Meanwhile, at the advance team's camp.

"I never expected that Sun Hang would actually be able to find the survivors of the desert..."

“The key issue is that he won’t let us follow. To be honest, I’m really interested in the current situation of the desert survivors. Even if we’re not allowed to show ourselves, just a glimpse from afar would be great,” a researcher said, scratching his head. “To be honest, I’m really getting anxious right now…”

“You’re anxious, but aren’t we anxious too?” The leader of the advance team sighed. “Sun Hang has decided to go with that survivor to the settlement of the desert survivors… Although I have great confidence in his abilities, if he misses the ghost train in five hours, our supplies won’t last until two months later.”

Due to the Earth's rotation, only by traveling from Chunming to Cairo can the "key" be brought back to Chunming on the same day, taking advantage of the time difference. Conversely, if one travels from Cairo to Chunming and wants to return to Cairo, one can only wait a month.

In other words, if Sun Hang fails to bring the keys back to Chunming City within five hours, he will have to wait a month for a second chance to return. And if he wants to give the keys to the second advance team and have them bring supplies to Cairo, that will be two months from now.

Even with the consumption reduced to the bare minimum, the supplies carried by the advance team could only meet their needs for forty days—food and energy were manageable, but the main problem was water.

Even with a water recycling system that can purify and filter the team members' urine for reuse, the supply of clean water is still very tight.

Moreover, once resources are limited, subsequent exploration and research work will be severely affected.

"Is it still possible to contact Sun Hang? I think we should at least remind him," one of the team members said.

The advance team leader shook his head: "After he arrived at the settlement of the desert survivors, the signal was lost. It's most likely because there's something with signal-blocking capabilities at the settlement..."

"By the way, did Sun Hang mention where the settlements of the desert survivors are?" the researcher who had just been scratching his head asked. "I find it hard to imagine how humans could establish settlements in this environment... They don't have the technology and resources we do... I'm wondering, could the so-called settlements be a large expanse of interconnected sand boats?"

“Probably not.” Another team member, wearing VR goggles and holding a drone controller, shook his head. “If the settlement of the desert survivors is as you described, it would be a very conspicuous target in the drone’s field of vision, even from a great distance. But I have already used the drone to survey the surrounding area and have not found any similar targets.”

"Have you found any trace of Sun Hang and the others?"

"No, the dunes are constantly moving. Even if they leave traces, they will soon be smoothed over by the shifting sand."

"I have an idea... Do you think these people who survived the desert desert might live underground?"

"Underground? Isn't that the habitat of the giant sand worms?"

“I mean, deeper down… Although the Egyptian region has become a sea of ​​sand on the surface, there must still be rock layers deep underground… It’s impossible for the giant sand worms to turn the entire crust of this region into a sea of ​​sand, right? If they really had that ability, the northern tip of the African continent would probably have collapsed long ago, and these sands with extremely low friction coefficients would have flowed into the sea long ago.”

"Hiss... What you said actually makes some sense. So, it seems that Sun Hang lost the signal because he went deep underground?"

……

……

An unknown passageway in a settlement of desert survivors.

Nur led Sun Hang through the "maze" for a while longer. Although they had been very careful to avoid the activities of other survivors, when Nur turned into a side path, they unexpectedly bumped into another survivor from the desert whose upper body was painted with white totem patterns.

"Nur? When did you get back? You must have returned with a full haul! You're the best hunter in our settlement, let me see your catch—"

Before he could even utter the word "gain" from "harvest," he saw Sun Hang following behind Nur, and instantly froze in a daze. In fact, Sun Hang had already sensed the presence of this survivor, but he hadn't informed Nur that there was someone around the corner ahead, nor had he followed Nur's request to maintain a small "safe distance" from him.

Nur was afraid that Sun Hang would be seen by other survivors, but Sun Hang had no such concerns at all.

He was even quite curious how Nur would handle the situation if he were spotted by other survivors.

"Who...who...who is he?" The survivor pointed at Sun Hang and questioned Nur in a shrill voice.

“He…he is…” Nur was clearly nervous and didn’t know how to answer for a moment.

"He...he's an outsider?!" The survivor's brain seemed to work a bit faster than Nur's. While Nur was still stammering and making up lies, he had already guessed Sun Hang's identity. "He's an outsider, isn't he?!"

"No...no...Baha, let me explain..."

“Nur! You know! You know the priest’s prophecy better than any of us! Outsiders will bring us calamity and destruction!” roared the survivor called Baha. “But you actually brought him back! You actually brought him back!!”

“I’m going to take him to see the priest!” Nur said.

“The priest will kill him first, and then he’ll kill you!” Baha hissed. “No! He must die!”

As he spoke, he drew a dagger made of bone from his waist and lunged at Sun Hang!

But the next second, a bone spear pierced through his chest, and his body froze on the spot.

Baha turned around in disbelief and looked at Nur, who was holding a bone spear that had pierced him.

“Nu…Nuer…you…”

Nur did not reply, but instead forcefully pulled out the bone spear and thrust it into Baha's vest once again.

Hot blood splattered out and dripped onto Sun Hang's face.

Sun Hang wiped the blood off his face expressionlessly, glanced at the corpse lying on the ground, and couldn't help but frown.

He had considered several possible ways Nur might respond, but he never expected Nur to directly kill this survivor named Baha.

Sun Hang had every opportunity to stop Nur, but he did not.

By killing Baha, Nur had no chance of turning back—he had completely entrusted his future to Sun Hang.

“Actually, you didn’t need to kill him,” Sun Hang said, glancing at Nur, who was breathing heavily.

Nur looked at Sun Hang, then at the corpse on the ground, shook his head, and said, "We have to find a way to hide him, otherwise others will see him."

(End of this chapter)