Chapter 30 Desert Ruins - 4 Thick Wheels...
The sturdy wheels rolled over the fine sand. As the RV ventured deeper into the spaceship, the surrounding temperature steadily decreased until it stabilized at 37 degrees Celsius.
Tang Bufan and Lu Yi sat in the cockpit, observing their surroundings. Although the mothership was tilted, the fine sand that had been poured in had created a flat area. Moreover, the suitable temperature inside allowed many plants to grow, and some sand dunes even had a layer of lush green grass with bright little flowers blooming on them, attracting butterflies to flutter around.
The interior wasn't as dark as the two had imagined. The mothership had been blasted open with several large holes, which became slanted skylights, allowing the golden desert sunlight to stream in, creating a beautiful scene.
"Wow..." Tang Bufan couldn't help but exclaim in amazement. Who would have thought that in the heart of the desert, which was like a furnace, there was actually an oasis that was invisible from the outside?
"Brother Kai, there's a pond over there." Lu Yi saw a pond that was more than ten meters wide next to a sandy slope covered with grass, so he asked Brother Kai to drive the RV over there.
"I was worried about the danger before I went to bed last night, but I didn't expect it to be so peaceful," Tang Bufan said with emotion.
“This should be the main administrative hall on the upper deck of the mothership,” Lu Yi said. This administrative hall was a grand structure with rooms surrounding a central open space, and it had many floors.
The lower part of the ship's hull is underground.
The RV had already driven to the pond, and the cute fox with two big ears quickly darted into a dark room not far away.
"There are foxes here." Tang Bufan was surprised and got out of the car with Lu Yi, carrying his sniper rifle.
“Fennec fox, also known as the desert fox,” Lu said, looking around.
"Huh? Fennec foxes are actually desert creatures?" Tang Bufan realized this. He walked to the pool and squatted down, finding the water very clear and the fine sand at the bottom of the pool clearly visible.
"There's a faint scent of Anderson here." Only after confirming that there was no danger around did Lu Yi return to his car to get the water hose.
Tang Bufan dipped his hand into the pool; it was icy cold, like it had been chilled, making him want to drink it, but he knew he couldn't just drink it casually.
Lu Yi quickly came down with the other end of the water hose, and the RV's water purifier started pumping water.
Previously, this water purifier could only draw water from the RV's water tank but couldn't pump water back into the tank. After a trip to the "Poisonous People Hospital," it was able to pump water. I don't know how Lu Yi managed to do it.
"Did Anderson go down to explore?" Tang Bufan saw a dark staircase entrance not far away.
Although there was a lot of yellow sand around the sloping staircase, it was not covered up, indicating that there was a deep space below the staircase.
"Yes, the hangar, cargo hold, and engine room are all downstairs." Lu Yi mainly wanted to see the hangar and the main control room.
"Let's go down after we finish replenishing our water supply." Tang Bufan stood up, carrying his heavy sniper rifle, and couldn't help but glance once more at the pretty little sand dune where butterflies were fluttering.
The water purifier quickly filled the RV's water tank. Lu Yi simply looped the water hose back into the vehicle and threw it back in. Then, he and Tang Bufan walked towards the dark stairwell.
Both of them put on light screen glasses.
"Xiao Tang, the RV's local area network signal cannot penetrate deep underground. Please be careful." Kai Ge's gentle electronic male voice came from Tang Bufan's light-screen glasses.
"Understood." Tang Bufan also instructed it: "The RV is yours now. If you encounter any problems, return to the desert immediately. Don't worry about us, getting away is the priority."
“Okay, Xiao Tang.” Kai responded gently, understanding that the RV was Tang Bufan’s protective shell, and protecting the vehicle was its mission as the RV AI.
The two, one big and one small, reached the top of the stairs. The light suddenly dimmed, and the temperature dropped as well. Tang Bufan, wearing light-screen glasses, peered out. Because the ship was tilted at a 45-degree angle, the steps were also tilted, making it almost impossible to stand.
"Teacher, let me hug you." Lu Yi moved closer to Tang Bufan, his strong and slender arms encircling Tang Bufan's waist.
Tang Bufan stopped worrying about being a good-for-nothing and raised an arm to hook around Lu Yi's neck.
Lu Yi reached out and grabbed the dusty handrail, tried to shake it. It wobbled a bit, but it was still quite sturdy. So he carefully helped Tang Bufan down the stairs. With the entire building tilted, even as an orc, he had to be careful not to slip.
When they reached the second basement level, there was almost no light. Lu pushed off the sloping steps and grabbed the door frame of the exit. The two of them lay on the ground at an angle, looking into the pitch black interior.
"It looks a bit like a residential area," Tang Bufan said in Lu Yi's arms, looking at the doors through the light screen glasses.
"Let's go to the bottom first, the hangar must be at the bottom," Lu Yi said, letting go of Tang Bufan's grip on the door frame, and the two slid down the sloping ground, landing back on the stairs.
Lu Yi grabbed the handrail and continued to lower Tang Bufan down.
Upon reaching the third basement level, the light completely disappeared. In absolute darkness, Lu Yi, being an orc, could only see his surroundings through light-screen glasses.
The space carrier was enormous. The two continued to descend, and when they reached the tenth floor, they suddenly heard a heavy, muffled thud from afar.
Tang Bufan was startled and tightened his grip on Lu Yi's neck.
"...Is it Anderson?" Tang Bufan asked Lu Yi in a low voice.
Lu Yi listened carefully in the darkness, his expression becoming much more serious.
"I don't know, it's too far." He answered Tang Bufan in a low voice, his arms tightly wrapped around Tang Bufan's waist, and began to climb up.
"Why did we go back?" Tang Bufan didn't understand, but his heart started racing.
“There’s something else,” Lu Yi told Tang Bufan in a low voice. “It’s very big, it’s walking along the walls and floor, it’s not an animal, it’s the sound of two-legged footsteps.”
Tang Bufan's hearing wasn't as sharp as Lu Yi's, so he couldn't hear the footsteps Lu Yi mentioned at all. But when he heard that they were bipedal creatures, a chill ran down his spine.
"Beastman!"
Suddenly, a loud, indistinct roar echoed from the darkness. Lu Yi, holding Tang Bufan, abruptly stopped. Tang Bufan nestled in his arms, his heart pounding, barely daring to breathe.
"Thump, thump, thump, thump..."
Tang Bufan finally heard the footsteps Lu Yi had mentioned. They were very heavy and deep, definitely the frequency of a bipedal creature walking.
Shh. In the darkness, Lu Yi put his finger to his lips, and Tang Bufan nodded gently in response, indicating that he understood.
Even he, being human, could hear the creature's footsteps, which meant that the creature was very close to them.
"Beastman!"
The creature let out another roar, almost a howl.
"Come out! Come out!!"
It seemed very angry, and it was clear that the orc it was looking for was Anderson.
"Thump, thump, thump, thump..." Its footsteps were getting closer and closer to the two of them.
Tang Bufan swallowed hard, cursing Anderson in his heart. He was the one who had provoked the monster, so how did it end up here?
"Ah~ I heard it... I heard it!" The creature suddenly let out a very unsettling cackling laugh, and that sinister aura reminded Tang Bufan of the mutated poison people in that small town!
Lu Yi suddenly reached out and pushed Tang Bufan to the side. Tang Bufan was startled, and by the time he reacted, his back was already against the wall, and he was huddled in the sloping corner!
The corner of the wall was downward-facing, so Tang Bufan didn't have to worry about slipping while sitting there. He quickly grabbed his sniper rifle, looked up, and saw through the holographic goggles that Lu Yi kicked off the wall and rushed upwards, while a huge, wrinkled face emerged from the stairwell above them!
The face was as big as a round table. Its eyes were closed, and aerial roots, which are common to many trees, grew out of its large face, like a patient with some strange disease. Tang Bufan, holding his sniper rifle, stared in horror. Lu Yi, who had already rushed in front of the monster, deftly pulled out the long curved knife from behind his back and swung it forward, slashing down heavily!
The monster, struck squarely in the face by Lu Yi, cried out in pain and retreated into the corridor. Lu Yi, after his attack, landed, but because the ground was sloping, he bent slightly to steady himself. Then, he leaped high into the air, jumping into the dark corridor under Tang Bufan's watchful gaze.
"Lu Yi!" In his anxiety, Tang Bufan stood up from the corner with his sniper rifle in his arms and immediately grabbed the railing to climb up the 45-degree steps with great effort, but suddenly a hand grabbed his foot!
Tang Bufan's heart suddenly stopped, and he immediately looked down in fear, only to see a slightly thin but very handsome face through the light screen glasses.
Anderson looked down at him with a smile, holding his foot.
"Are you fucking crazy?!" Tang Bufan rarely swore, unless he couldn't help it. He was so angry that he kicked Anderson in the face, broke free of his foot from Anderson's grasp, and continued to climb the railing in a fit of rage.
The monster's roar echoed through the dark corridor, sounding even angrier. Tang Bufan heard many thuds, mixed with the sound of knives slashing.
"What, are you in a hurry for little Louis?" Anderson said sarcastically, looking up at Tang Bufan, who was struggling to climb the stairs, from the sloping staircase: "What good will it do you to go up there? It'll be easier for little Louis to stay in the corner."
"I have a gun," Tang Bufan said in a deep voice, finding that stepping on the railing pipes was actually more convenient than stepping on the 45-degree steps.
"That monster's hide is incredibly tough, like wood. Even our orcish claws struggle to scratch it. Your gun is useless," Anderson said casually from below.
Tang Bufan didn't expect him to go up and help Lu Yi, but when he keenly caught the word "wooden", and thought of the monster's face with air roots, a thought suddenly struck him. He immediately stepped on the gap in the railing and bent down to rummage through his heavy waist bag.
Besides bullets, his two pouches also contained some small tools. Tang Bufan quickly found the square metal lighter, grabbed it, and continued climbing.
Outside, the monster was still roaring incessantly.
"Lu Yi! I have a lighter! Use the lighter!" Tang Bufan shouted into the dark corridor. He had already climbed to the top of the railing and began to crawl on the 45-degree sloping ground, struggling to climb up.
"They're here!"
With a sharp clang of a knife, the monster outside let out another loud howl. The next second, Lu Yi appeared from the corridor doorway, reached down with his long arm, and grabbed Tang Bufan's raised hand.
Their hands met, and Lu Yi took the lighter that Tang Bufan was holding from his palm.
"Don't come out," Lu Yi said to Tang Bufan, quickly glanced at Anderson below, and then returned to the corridor.
"You're not going to transform into a beast!" Tang Bufan yelled at him from his prone position on the sloping ground, "Hurry up and transform into a beast!"
Lu Yi's soft laughter seemed to echo in the corridor. Then, a flash of fire appeared, followed by the monster's agonizing roar that resounded throughout the underground ruins.
"Aaaaaaahh ...
The monster's cries sounded like a wail, incredibly mournful, when suddenly the flickering firelight in the corridor vanished, followed by a loud thud, and the monster's screams ceased.
Tang Bufan was breathing heavily in the stairwell, feeling distressed by the monster's howling, which sounded like crying, but also relieved to know that the monster had been killed.
Lu Yi returned quickly and reached out to Tang Bufan in the corridor where the firelight was still flickering. Tang Bufan immediately gave him his hand, which Lu Yi skillfully pulled up.
"Fortunately, it still retains some characteristics of the poisonous human, such as secreting oil, which has accumulated on its surface, otherwise it wouldn't be able to be ignited." Lu Yi hugged Tang Bufan again and led him to the railing.
Tang Bufan then realized that this space was very large, with many pipes and machines, and it should be the mothership's power compartment.
Meanwhile, in the hold, the monster that resembled a giant was still burning, its limbs outstretched, crackling and popping as it burned.
“He’s also a mutated poison human.” Tang Bufan looked at its humanoid body and turned his head away in unbearable pain.
"Yes." Lu Yi looked up again at the abandoned space carrier that had been abandoned for a thousand years, and said with certainty, "That scientist from the resistance faction has also been here."
At this moment, Anderson came to the two of them. He leaned lazily against the sloping railing, looking down at the burning poison man, his silver hair glowing red in the firelight.
“Little Louis, tell me about it.” Anderson glanced at the two of them with a flippant look: “This place and the poisoners in that town are both very strange.”
He had never seen poisonous people with plant-like characteristics before, especially since they had regained their senses.
Lu Yi hesitated for a moment before telling him, "Scientists from the resistance faction are secretly conducting genetic experiments in this area."
After he finished speaking, he asked Anderson, "You've been in here for two days, have you found anything?"
“There really is one.” Anderson pointed upstairs: “There’s a signal beacon at the very top of the mothership, powered by nuclear energy, constantly sending signals in one direction.”
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