Chapter 92 Top Alpha: He was once a crippled Omega. 2. I am...

At one o'clock in the morning, Qi Pingye tore off the pheromone regulating patch, changed into a set of sand-proof clothes, and went out with Chen Xiang.

Qi Pingye had just completed his second differentiation and hadn't decided whether to get involved with this obviously troublesome escort team, but everyone in Oasis No. 3 knew that he could repair aircraft, so there was no way to avoid it.

The wind was strong outside, making it difficult to walk. Qi Pingye and Chen Xiang persevered for quite a while, taking twice as long as usual, before finally arriving at the town center.

Here is the only decent building in Oasis No. 3, a two-story building, and a large area of ​​abandoned metal sheds, large enough to accommodate most small and medium-sized aircraft and shelter them from the wind and sand.

According to Old Liu, this used to be the transportation station for Oasis No. 3.

Before Oasis No. 3 shrank to its current size and was still considered a large oasis, there was public transportation between it and Ganlu City, including public flying vehicles and trains.

Qi Pingye had never seen a train, but he had seen train tracks. Real-time maps and compasses unaffected by sandstorms weren't things everyone could afford. Most people from Oasis No. 3 who wanted to reach Ganlu City without getting lost in the desert would follow the abandoned train tracks. This was why these tracks, as valuable steel, still remained in the desert.

Qi Pingye often traveled along that track when he went to Ganlu City.

Now, a medium-sized, silver-gray aircraft is parked beside the track, taking up most of the entire metal shed.

At the tail of the aircraft, a control frame was raised, and two people were fiddling with something there, having opened the protective shield against the wind and sand.

Apart from these two people, there was no one else in the shed. A light was still on in the small building next door, as if someone was still awake and keeping watch.

Chen Xiang led Qi Pingye towards the small building, whispering before entering, "The escort team was all handpicked by the city lord. The leader is Wang Ping, the city lord's confidant, a C-level Alpha—there are only a handful like that on the entire Zorro Star. The vice-captain is also an Alpha, a D-level one, formerly the infamous bandit Soros on Zorro Star, who was later recruited by the city lord. His loyalty is no less than Wang Ping's..."

Qi Pingye listened, clicking his tongue in amazement.

Two mid-level Alphas would have been nothing to him in the past; on Central Star, a brick falling from the sky could knock out a bunch of C- and D-level Alphas. But this wasn't Central Star, but the Windwalking Space Zone on the edge of the White Night System, a notoriously desolate place.

According to Qi Pingye's understanding, the entire City Lord's Mansion, both openly and secretly, probably couldn't produce more than ten Alphas. The fact that they sent two for this escort shows how much the City Lord values ​​the benefits this Omega brings.

The old town mayor's cloudy eyes shimmered with the dim light of the small building: "I'm telling you all this because I want to tell you that this escort mission is both dangerous and an opportunity for you. There are important figures from Ganlu City on board, and an extremely rare Omega who's about to go to the Central Star. A little bit of what they slip through their fingers could be enough for us to live on for a lifetime. But the more powerful the people are, the harder they are to please. When they get angry, punishing a few people is nothing to them."

"If you don't want to stand out, then behave yourself and do what you're supposed to do. If you need anything, wait for us to contact you. If you want to leave here, with your quick wit, you know what to do."

Qi Pingye said, "Uncle Chen thinks I want to leave?"

Chen Xiang said, "How many people on Zorro Star don't want to leave?"

That's true.

There is no future on a garbage planet; this is a universally acknowledged fact.

In a few words, the two had already arrived at the gate of the small building. The people inside had already noticed Qi Pingye and Chen Xiang approaching, and opened the door first, not letting them in, but waving their hands to order them to stop.

"Is this the mechanic from your Oasis No. 3?" This escort team member was a Beta, but he was tall and muscular, clearly possessing strength that rivaled that of an ordinary Alpha.

He looked Qi Pingye up and down and asked Chen Xiang.

"That's right, it's him, Qi Ping."

Chen Xiang mentioned Qi Pingye's name on Zorro Star, "He took on quite a few jobs in Ganlu City before, he has a skill."

Beta nodded casually and raised her chin: "Come with me."

Without saying much, he strode forward and led his men toward the aircraft.

When he got near the control panel, he waved and called out in a low voice, "Master Mao, the assistant you asked for is here!"

A man in his thirties leaned out from the control panel, glanced down, and his gaze landed on Qi Pingye, who was carrying a toolbox: "Is this the young man? Okay, come on up."

A ladder was lowered down, and Chen Xiang patted Qi Pingye on the back: "Qi boy, do a good job here. The adults won't mistreat you. Your Uncle Chen will be going back now."

Qi Pingye responded and climbed up.

After Chen Xiang left, the Beta members of the escort team kept watch nearby for a while before returning to the small building.

Oasis No. 3 is not far from Ganlu City. It has a small population and good security. With the escort team's firepower, they are not worried about encountering anything here.

Qi Pingye climbed onto the control panel, glanced around, and discovered that only the man called "Mao Gong" was the mechanic of the escort team, while the other young man was just an assistant, responsible for handing over parts and tools.

The part they were working on was the sublight engine nozzle on the starboard side of the aircraft.

It seems the aircraft encountered a sandstorm, resulting in poor visibility and a problem during landing. It sustained an impact on its right side, damaging the engine nozzle and the landing engine located under the right wing. It's not serious, and repairs aren't difficult, but they will be very time-consuming; a mechanic alone would need at least one or two weeks to fix it.

The city lord of Ganlu City has a bad temper. If he finds out that the aircraft's takeoff failed and caused such a long delay, the escort team will definitely be in trouble. So they probably want to leave as soon as the sandstorm ends and save time.

This sandstorm will last for four or five days at most, and we will definitely need help to finish the repairs within four or five days.

"After looking at it for so long, do you understand it now?"

The mechanic suddenly turned his head and glanced at Qi Pingye.

Qi Pingye flipped through his tools without looking up and said, "Give me this piece. If I can't fix it within a day, I'll call you master."

The assistant next to him had probably never seen anyone so arrogant before. He suddenly turned his neck and stared at him with wide eyes.

The mechanic raised an eyebrow but didn't say much. He simply stood up and said, "Alright, I'll leave this to you. Xiao Luo, let's go check on the land engine."

The assistant quickly packed up the toolbox and followed the mechanic down from the work platform.

After walking quite a distance, almost reaching the landing engine, the assistant seemed to snap out of his daze and whispered, "Sir, this kid from Oasis Number Three is so arrogant, aren't you angry?"

“With several eager and enthusiastic people helping out, the work can be finished sooner, and I can save effort. It’s a win-win situation, so why should I be angry?” the mechanic said. “Besides, on Zorro Star, arrogant people have the right to be arrogant, while those without the right have already been taught a lesson. So this kid must have some skills.”

The assistant, considering Qi Pingye's unusually youthful appearance, still couldn't quite believe it.

The two men reached the landing engine and continued their intensive repairs.

After working most of the night, when it was time for breakfast at dawn, the assistant went to wake up Qi Pingye, wanting to sneak a peek at his repair progress. To his surprise, after a night's rest, he had indeed fixed most of the engine nozzle.

The mechanic listened and went over to take a look. He didn't find any signs of shoddy workmanship. Objectively speaking, the mechanic's workmanship in repairing the nozzle was even neater and more beautiful than his own. It was clear that he had undergone systematic training and had a lot of practical experience. Many famous mechanics on Zorro Star might not be able to match him.

The mechanic gave Qi Pingye a thumbs up: "Amazing! Teach me your skills, and I'll call you master, okay?"

He brought his rice bowl over and approached, showing no respect for his senior.

Most mechanics are like that; they only care about technical skills.

Upon seeing this, Qi Pingye abandoned his arrogant and aloof genius demeanor from the previous night, smiled, and poured the mechanic a glass of wine.

This was specially sent by Chen Xiang to entertain the distinguished guests.

“What master or not, that was all a joke. I should be apologizing to Engineer Mao. I was woken up in the middle of the night last night and didn’t sleep well, so I lost my temper. Please don’t take it to heart. If you don’t mind, I’ll call you Brother Mao,” Qi Pingye said.

The mechanic was stunned for a moment, then realized what was happening, laughed loudly, put his arm around Qi Pingye's neck, and clinked glasses with him.

The two quickly became close friends, putting their arms around each other and calling each other brothers.

The worker's real name was Mao Liang. He wasn't very discreet, and after a few conversations, Qi Pingye managed to get a general idea of ​​the escort team's situation from him.

The escort team consisted of twenty-three people.

The captain and vice-captain were similar to Chen Xiang's descriptions: two Alphas, both middle-aged and married, whose Omegas, though not of high rank, had strong markings and wouldn't be easily influenced by other Omegas. The city lord had considered having more Alphas for stronger protection, but was worried about the escort team's Alphas stealing from them, so after much deliberation, he chose only these two.

The remaining twenty-one people, including Mao Liang and the others, twenty of whom were Betas, and the other was the Omega who was being escorted.

Qi Pingye had also heard about this Omega.

Omega's name is Chenwu. It is said that he was born and raised in Ganlu City. He lost both his parents and grew up alone. Because he was not well-fed and clothed and suffered from malnutrition, he did not differentiate during the normal differentiation age of ten to fourteen.

In May, around the middle of last month, 22-year-old Shen Wu suddenly developed a high fever and collapsed at home. When she was discovered, it was discovered that she had differentiated and become an extremely rare Omega. She was a typical late-stage differentiater described in textbooks, with a pheromone level of B, which was practically unique on Zorro Star.

There are very few native Omega variants here, let alone such a dramatic, older variant. At the time, news about the Fog spread throughout Ganlu City, and everyone was talking about it with great interest.

Qi Pingye inevitably got a earful as well.

Unlike others, he didn't think this belated differentiation was necessarily a good thing for Shen Wu.

Perhaps because he was once an Omega, or perhaps for something else, Qi Pingye was quite curious about Shen Wu.

A day passed, and he still hadn't seen anyone come out. Mao Liang said that the Omega claimed to have only recently differentiated and was still too weak to rest, so he didn't plan to come out to eat sand.

Qi Pingye was a little surprised, but didn't say anything more.

That evening, Qi Pingye and Mao Liang arranged for them to take turns working. Neither of them were superhuman and couldn't go without sleep. This was the only way to balance rest and maintenance.

Qi Pingye rested for the first half of the night, and Mao Liang rested for the second half of the night.

Around midnight, Qi Pingye got up, came out of a temporary rest room a couple hundred meters away from the small building and near the aircraft, took over from Mao Liang, put on gloves, and crawled under the landing engine.

In the early hours of the morning, all was quiet except for the occasional howling of sand and dust outside, which was blocked by the metal shed and sounded like distant rumbling thunder in the sky.

Qi Pingye hummed a little tune as he heated the metal plate at the bottom.

After burning only two pieces, he seemed to sense something and suddenly looked up.

Two long legs appeared out of nowhere in the gap between the landing engine and the ground.

"I am Chen Wu. May I have a chat, Mr. Qi?"

The young man's voice, cool yet gentle, carried the delicate vulnerability unique to Omegas.