Under the watchful eyes of the other eleven people, Shi Jinzhe picked up the walkie-talkie that had been moved to a new location and kindly notified the driver, "Open the door."

The pretense was no longer working. Anyway, there was no setting in this instance that prevented them from being discovered. It didn't matter to the driver that they weren't the real people, because that was a matter for the system to handle, and had nothing to do with him.

After a while, the driver opened the door to the driver's cab.

Then, his eyes widened, and he gasped, his beard trembling as he exhaled the hot air.

He had only seen such a clean and bright new carriage in old photographs from two hundred years ago.

Before this, the most technologically advanced things he had ever seen were massive structures like shelters.

The shelter is two hundred years old. Exposed to wind and rain, some of the sophisticated tools are no longer usable, and too many things have not been passed down. The once awe-inspiring shelter is now filled with an aura of decay.

Staring at Shi Jinzhe, the driver had many questions he wanted to ask, but he couldn't organize his thoughts properly and didn't know which question to ask first.

"You can ask me anything later."

Shi Jinzhe placed his palm on the crystal, his fingers tapping rhythmically. "Is it convenient for the two of us to get into the driver's seat now?"

If you didn't see his action, the driver would have thought he was quite polite.

But after seeing these, my feelings were quite complicated.

This isn't some love-struck fool who'd die for a woman.

Rumors have misled me!

Even with this thought in mind, the driver still had reservations and didn't immediately agree: "Normally speaking..."

Shekh sat with his back to him, then turned his head, revealing half of his profile. "Did you see clearly how the bird died just now?"

The driver took a step back, revealing the previously blocked driver's side door, letting his actions speak for themselves.

Shi Jinzhe and Sher immediately entered the driver's seat.

As soon as Schech entered, he saw the center console and said, "It's no different from the one you drive."

"It's still the same old thing." Shi Jinzhe discovered this when he used [Mechanical Transformation] to modify the carriage. Many of the designs on this vehicle were the same as they were two hundred years ago, with only minor differences.

Apart from the addition of a special control panel on the steering wheel and the absence of a passenger seat, the controls in this driver's seat are so intuitive that anyone who knows how to drive can understand them.

"Let me introduce them," Shi Jinzhe asked, pointing to several red buttons on the control panel.

"That's the safety lock for the ray gun. You need to input the command code for the gun to work."

The driver was very helpful and took the initiative to explain: "This blue one is the lock connecting the front of the truck to the cargo compartment, the orange one is the switch for the oxygen supply equipment, and the green one is the switch for the algae preservation equipment."

Shi Jinzhe: "Take us to see that algae that can quickly produce oxygen."

"Here."

The driver went to the passenger seat, where there was a black box, about one cubic meter in size, fixed to the ground, with several pipes protruding from it.

The driver authenticated his fingerprints, the black packaging faded, and the two could see that the bottom of the box was covered with a layer of blue-green liquid.

“This is algae. Just a little bit is enough for a dozen people to breathe normally for a long time. This time, in addition to going to Dota City, you also need to fill 100 of these square boxes.”

"This box can be folded and collapsed?" Shi Jinzhe asked.

"Yes, the temporary boxes can be compressed and stored in the safe. Collecting algae is the task for the four of you."

Shekh promptly corrected him: "Three people."

"..."

The driver looked out from the door and saw that one person was indeed missing.

Of the remaining three, one was celebrating his narrow escape, one was ashen-faced from holding the radiation gun, and the other was incredibly good at changing his expression.

This was arguably the most challenging rescue team he had ever led.

The driver suddenly sighed, "The teams I used to lead all knew what to do, and this never happened before."

"Then it's out now."

Shi Jinzhe sat down, holding onto the back of the driver's seat, and tried to drive the car, asking first, "Who taught you to drive?"

“…It’s my father.” The driver looked reluctant, as if he was afraid that he would break the car. He didn’t know where to put his hands and feet.

"Be careful, be careful, cars are a very important resource."

"Your father taught you how to drive, so where is the car now?"

"The vehicles for the shelter were assigned to me by my father, who was in charge of transportation."

As Shi Jin drove, he kept an eye on Shehe. Remembering that she was still standing, he wove a rattan chair out of vines for her to sit down.

He then asked, "Isn't it dangerous outside? Why would you work as a driver?"

“It’s dangerous, but if you want to climb the ladder, you have to have some skills, otherwise how can you convince people?” The driver rolled out a cigarette. “My father had six wives, and I have more than twenty half-brothers. Every one of them wants to have a better life.”

?

"...Would you mind repeating what you just said?"

“My father had six wives, and I had nine half-brothers, two half-brothers, and twelve half-brothers. In total, twenty-three people had to call him Dad.”

...

These words not only burned Shi Jinzhe's cup, but Shekh also couldn't escape them.

She had only ever seen this kind of thing in nature, where some mothers would do it to increase the probability of reproduction, but she had never seen it done in human society.

Shekh: "If you're not a father, would your father be willing to take responsibility? In nature, many males kill the offspring of their mates and other animals."

"I don't know. I've never seen any normal animals. I can recognize them because I've been to school. I only know that radiation monsters from the outside world are very dangerous, so I avoid them if I can, and I won't look at them much."

The driver stroked his long beard and tentatively asked, "Have you met before?"

That was a very skillful question; it inquired not only about knowledge but also about social status.

Shi Jinzhe countered, "Which one do you want to know?"

The driver, feeling embarrassed, changed the subject and continued what he had been saying.

"It's just an exchange, it's normal. Daughters are given away to exchange for higher-level resources, while hardworking sons are brought in to strengthen the family's power. Everyone does it this way."

He explained to the two of them, “Besides resources, population is also a problem, but the shelters need normal girls, not deformed or sick ones. Those have no reproductive value and are instead a burden. The shelters can’t afford to support them, so the rescue teams take those refugees with them on missions to solve the population problem.”

The two mentions of the population issue were filled with cruelty, and Shi Jinzhe did not ask any further questions.

He drove smoothly and said, "Give me directions, how to get to Dota."

"Finding algae first is the top priority..."

"You don't need to worry about the algae problem." Shi Jinzhe's tone remained unchanged as he asked the driver to take another look at the box.

The driver, skeptical, verified his fingerprints again, only to find the box filled with a tank full of blue-green algae.

"The algae problem is solved. Now tell me how to get to Dota City."

“…Go east, in this direction.”

The driver resigned himself to his fate.