Planet of Sand and Oasis of Iron

Chapter 45. Everyone has his or her own strengths. Everyone has...

The moon in the sky today looked flatter than yesterday, and Sefer also observed a third silver moon with a cold glow, not far behind the two larger moons.

On the bright side, there are three moons instead of three suns, so I don’t have to worry about the day when I will shout about dehydration and drill into the earth’s crust.

It is obviously smaller than the previous two, but the light brought by the three moons can also make the desert appear less dim... It is not as good as a flare, but it can help people find the direction at night.

Seifer controlled the vehicle from the main console to follow the main force, occasionally glancing at the observation tower erected high on the lead vehicle to see if the other side had any advance warning.

Before everyone else, Tien noticed the artillery fire from afar. He was very impressed by this ability, but he never found a chance to ask about it. As time went by, everyone forgot about it.

Take this opportunity to ask.

"Tien, I've had a question for the past few days."

"explain?"

"Well, when we first left Edge Node City, even the people on the lookout tower didn't warn of the enemy attack. How did you detect it in advance?"

Tien was silent for a long time, so quiet that Sefer began to wonder if she had asked something she shouldn't have asked or something she shouldn't have known. Was she thinking about how to prepare to open fire?

As a result, the silence lasted for two minutes, and then Tien spoke very solemnly.

"Want to know the secret? If so, exchange it for two cartons of beer."

The two baskets contain 24 glass bottles x 2 of beer. It is impossible to say that there is no such reserve in the car, but why beer?
"Oh, by the way, if you want me to, send me another bucket of fried chicken. Remember, it must be the kind that can feed the dozen or so people in my car. No cutting corners!"

Cypher immediately responded: "Then I'm not curious anymore."

"You're the one who actually said you weren't curious! How about this, you just bring me a portion of fried chicken that I can eat full of, and then bring me two baskets of beer."

"A case of beer will do."

"of course can."

Feeling that he had been taken advantage of, Seifer thought about it and said that he would send it to her when he parked the car during the day. After she happily agreed, Tien told him the secret directly.

“It’s my intuition.”

"...Are you teasing me?"

"I laughed. I fought alone in the desert, relying on this intuition. During the most dangerous period, I couldn't even sleep or eat. It was as if needles were washing my body."

Tien's voice sounded a little muffled, but she immediately raised her voice: "So, I've been roaming the desert for so long relying on this intuition. I can sense danger before it strikes, or before someone with bad intentions gets close to me!"

"Their malice, ambition, and threats are like steel needles, instantly alerting me!"

It sounded like some kind of battlefield intuition. Cypher had come into contact with some commanders before, and they seemed to have similar talents that far exceeded ordinary people.

A pirate who could survive in the desert for so long must have some skills. But then again, is it really reliable to treat such intuition as a special skill and keep it secret?

"So... do you feel threatened now?"

"Hahaha, of course not, so hurry up and time it right. I'm waiting for your fried chicken and refreshing beer!"

After the communication ended, Sefer nodded his forehead, feeling that the people around him were really unreliable.

So he took out the electronic component board that he had roughly disassembled from the drawer and studied it carefully, intending to reverse-deduce the operating mechanism of this thing.

Then I learned some low-level code, hardware programming, etc., and tried to rewrite a program for the fire control management of this vehicle to avoid the trouble of running back and forth with an empty vehicle.

Moreover, having more people means that the battle may result in casualties, and then things like pensions will have to be put on the agenda.

Cypher didn't want to see anyone die in his car, nor could he afford the compensation. Nor was he so heartless as not to pay—some mercenaries would exploit information gaps to do so. The moon slowly sank in the sky, and before it completely sank to the ground, a layer of white light began to gradually appear on the horizon.

Some of the people in communications took a break while others started their shifts. As the lead vehicle issued a sharp warning, the convoy entered a fairly open area between cliffs.

To be honest, this location is a bit dangerous, because there is no guarantee that possible enemies will not fill the hill with explosives and bury everything underneath when the convoy stops.

But it is impossible to resist the temptation of saving a lot of energy by using the shadows of the rock walls during the day, and even using the extra energy for things like ice makers.

Of course, before parking, the convoy also specially sent out a reconnaissance team to carefully check the surrounding area for possible enemies, traps, etc.

After finally getting a safe and reliable answer, they adjusted their postures and retracted their turrets and heavy armor.

The rolling tracks slowly stopped, crushing the stones on the ground into powder. After stopping in place, hot air blew out from under the vehicle body, blowing away all the sand and dust on the ground.

Then the liquid in the cooling pipes began to flow rapidly, and the cooling system in the car was all online, trying its best to resist the huge fireball rising from the horizon, which people could not and should not look directly at.

In this environment, Sefer was leisurely preparing a large and filling fried chicken in the restaurant.

Perhaps he was too focused, for when the fried chicken was sizzling in the frying pan, he turned around and found that Dr. Mei, who was always very sleepy before, was sitting behind the dining table, supporting his head with one hand, looking at him through his messy hair.

"…Good morning, Dr. Mei."

"Well, morning."

When did she come? The partition door... oh, it's not closed.

"The bathroom door wouldn't open, and I couldn't find anyone in the control room. I came here and saw you busy cooking. So what are you doing?"

"fried chicken."

Seifer handed her a piece of fried chicken that had just been taken out of the pressure cooker - but Dr. Mei did not reach out for it, just looked at the fried chicken.

He continued, "I want access to the bathroom."

Remotely controlling the UI, after Seifer told her that she only needed to go over to unlock the door, she continued to sit there and look at the steaming, fragrant fried chicken.

It's normal for researchers to have some quirks, right?

Turning back to continue preparing the things in the pot and on the counter, Seifer heard the sound of someone leaving. When he was about to take back the piece of fried chicken, it had disappeared, leaving only a plate with some oil stains.

——In just one turn of his head, he ate up all the bones?

Maybe it's some convenient way to get nutrition, after all, he is a scientist.

If he had known what the scene just now looked like, he would definitely not have come up with such an answer.

Because at the moment when Seifer turned his head to continue processing the ingredients, Dr. Mei directly picked up the piece of fried chicken that was still steaming hot and could burn off the oral epithelium of an average person, and put the whole thing into his mouth.

He swallowed it whole without changing his expression. The whole process took less than a second and was even silent.

As for Sefer, he frantically got out a whole bucket of fried chicken, made a few more and placed them on the table in the kitchen and dining room, and sent a message to Lin Shenxue asking her to come over for dinner.

Then he changed into the No. 2 spare body and put on a very heavy and silver-shining external walking protective suit. Carrying beer and fried chicken placed in a special insulated box, Seifer felt that he was carrying them all on his back like a deliveryman.

Then he put on his weapon, closed the car door, and walked towards the mobile base at the rear, walking on the gravel road that was gradually getting hotter and even distorting the air due to the day.

In the communication channel, Tien's urging came at a rate of once every ten seconds, which was really a bit too annoying.

(End of this chapter)