Planet of Sand and Oasis of Iron

Chapter 81 81. I didn’t take this job for the money, absolutely not
As daybreak approached, the final artillery battle had ended. The desert was still the same desert, but it was emitting sporadic light.

The holes left by the shells, the exploded car bodies and various traces of impact were left in the dust.

Everyone tacitly stopped fighting and began to repair the car body. Seifer listened to the clanging sounds around him and the sounds of large equipment disassembling and assembling modules, and felt that he had suffered a great loss.

"Hey! You're alive and well? It's just a hole, can't you fix it?"

"It's good to repair it, but this is a new car..."

"Everyone is like a new car. As long as they are alive, that's all that matters. But don't get too comfortable now. There might be another fight later in the day."

During the communication, Tien's voice sounded nonchalant. She was even chewing on the dry food that she had not eaten all night, and commenting on today's opponent.

In the independent mercenary support system, Seifer looked at his ever-increasing bounty and asked, "What should we do with those... captured vehicles and personnel?"

"You got paid, didn't you? You even got more for shooting down a target instead of killing it—that's based on some system's calculations, like, 'Preserving human life is good for the world,'"

"Of course, if you think this reward isn't enough, you can go take some things off those people's cars and mend them for yourself... but only tonight. After daylight, everyone will have to rely on their own abilities."

That is to say, the reward pickup is also time-sensitive.

The mercenary support system is quite extensive. What's behind this thing? Did three major companies join forces to launch it?

The armor plate that had been penetrated by the remote monitoring vehicle was removed and replaced with a new plate (including the cooling duct system). Seifer had a lot of thoughts in his mind, and then suddenly received a message from Dr. Mei.

"I'm sending you a personal commission."

"Send the casualty report in the car. The content is... Dr. Mei has been killed in action. The commission has been changed to transporting his ashes to the Central Node City."

Seifer nearly twisted the spatula in his hand into a knot.

He tried to keep his tone steady and not lose his composure: "Why do you say that?"

"Because of business reasons that I can't go into detail. Simply put, I joined the Desert Reclamation Committee to use their name to do some things, but now I don't need them anymore."

"They don't need it anymore, or you don't need it anymore?"

"Of course it's me. Didn't I tell you that the composition of the team I brought here is like that? Anyway, I'm dead, so please don't bother me."

As Dr. Mei was speaking, the mercenary system cash popped up on the UI in front of Seifer, adding 150,000.

"Okay, I'll sign up then."

The main mission and process remained the same; it wasn't about the money. While mercenaries were truly greedy for money, Seifer's decision was based on the mission itself, not the added terms, not the money.

Some of the city management personnel were also on the ground. They were good at calculating the losses. When Seifer reported it, they just said "oh" and that was it.

From this moment on, the VIP protected by Sefer became VIP-chan.

Or Ashes VIP.

Feeling pranked by his own idea, he went to the experimental section to visit Dr. Mei while waiting for the vehicle body to be temporarily repaired.

But she found that she was leaning on the chair where she usually rested, looking quite leisurely.

"...So, after the communication was terminated, Dr. Mei died in such a meaningless and worthless way in this remote town?"

"Look at it another way. In such a remote area, anything could happen—even to a prestigious doctor."

She shifted her posture, crossing her legs. "A little lesson for those who come after me. This is one of my arrangements for my afterlife... Also, I'm very curious."

"Your crew has just been lost. I even went to check what would happen to someone if they were directly hit by a shell."

"But I only saw tiny fragments of limbs and debris dissipating, all matter slowly fading and disappearing. And now she's back on duty inside the vehicle. What have you been doing during this time?" After hearing her, Cypher was silent for a moment, then folded his arms. "You're now expelled, Dr. Mei."

“This is the curiosity of a researcher.”

This is indeed the case for all scientists, but people like her who faked their death with obvious follow-up arrangements and then continued to do scientific research... their minds are much more flexible in all aspects.

After weighing the pros and cons, Seifer made a bold suggestion: "Since you're so curious, why not sign a contract with me and become a registered passenger?"

Dr. Mei put down his work board and looked Cypher up and down, a look that even made him a little creepy. His gaze seemed to want to penetrate the skin and completely understand the internal mechanical and driving structure.

"Yes, the contract will last until we reach the central node city. Is that acceptable to you... Captain?"

It would seem more comfortable to call him captain, and according to the category, the person who can command such a large vehicle can actually be called commander, captain, etc.

The onboarding process was sent to Dr. Mei's tablet. She quickly checked various options and even took a picture of herself with the tablet as her onboarding photo.

After finishing all these, Seifer allowed the process to proceed after a while with his consent, and then he received a reminder from the main control cabin - his on-the-job training was completed.

After logging into the personnel list, Seifer saw that she had no intention of continuing the conversation, so he temporarily ended the communication and went to take care of other chores.

Taking a look at the personnel information on the way, Seifer was surprised to see that the photo on the employment information card was black with a question mark on it, which was completely different from Lin Shenxue.

It's a bit confusing.

Is it because Dr. Mei is now an undocumented illegal immigrant? But this system on the car doesn't seem to have anything to do with the mercenary system or the population connection of city management.

It’s better to ask to avoid any resentment.

As they were about to take action, the maintenance team outside reminded Sefer that the temporary damage control work had been completed.

Well... let's talk about it after we finish the things at hand.

Dawn is just a few minutes away. Not to mention the fire wall that the high temperature will bring, some people can't stand the hot wind that has already started blowing.

All the staff outside who could be evacuated were evacuated back to the vehicles, and all the strongholds were parked in different areas. When the sky turned from pitch black to slightly white, the sound of fighting had completely disappeared.

All that remains are the howling hot winds and the surging sea of sand, waiting for another round of devastation to this area.

Cypher was on standby in the preparation room. He found that the feeling here was more complicated than in the vision... because in the vision, he only had to think about where to go and what to do.

There are still a lot of things to consider here. If his body wasn't a machine now, he would probably have collapsed from exhaustion.

At least in other vehicles, there were very few people who were still mentally prepared to continue blocking the enemy during the day.

When Lin Shenxue's news came, she excitedly said that she was completely normal, with neither extra things nor missing any organs. This meant that this system did give passengers the opportunity to make mistakes.

"Look at it this way. If you get roasted in the engine room someday, you'll have a chance to get back on your feet."

'evil……'

But the process is definitely painful.

In the UI interface, the No. 2 spare body in the spare body warehouse is almost completely broken and is under repair and maintenance. What Safe is using now is the No. 3 spare body that has just been shipped out of the factory.

The skin for number one is too hard to buy, so it’s better to use it on the safe side.

After checking the weapons and equipment, especially the short swords that could be used for close combat, Seifer hung them all on his body, and then the communication that spread to all the trains on the sand rang.

'The sun is rising! Take cover!'

(End of this chapter)