Shangguan Xi’s hair stood on end before Xu Huo could finish speaking, but Xu Huo quickly added, "Or she plans to join forces with you to take me out, since after all, the energy is in the hands of you two."
It seemed that, to Shangguan Xi, collaborating with that woman was more unacceptable than being questioned by Xu Huo. Scowling, he said, "I know most players are reluctant participants, and sometimes I’m no better, but for the most part, I’m a good person. I can’t stand those who play dirty tricks behind others’ back, and I would never cooperate with such a person."
"Do you have enough energy?" asked Ding Wei from below. "The underground storage has been emptied."
"How much energy was in that warehouse?" Xu Huo then asked Teacher Ai.
"It could be amply fit into three luggage compartments," Teacher Ai glanced at the sky, "Dawn is approaching, and there are aliens that are active during the day. You’d better quickly come to an agreement."
Xu Huo asked Shangguan Xi for the communicator.
"Are you really going to cooperate with them?" Shangguan Xi was surprised with a hint of confusion.
Xu Huo tossed a communicator down and began the conversation with, "If we’re going to cooperate, you need to show some sincerity. Hand over the energy to us first, and the same goes for that person over there."
The player who had been keeping their distance from Ding Wei now approached a little and said into the communicator, "Friend, aren’t you being a bit too demanding? If I give you the energy, won’t I be left with nothing?"
Ding Wei shared the same sentiment, but her voice was coquettish and less likely to cause a blunt refusal, "Mr. Xu, I need to keep something on my end too. Both parties holding on to their own chips is the basis of cooperation. Otherwise, I worry about being abandoned by my partner at any time."
Unfortunately for her, Xu Huo was not swayed, "Base 18 surely has more than just one warehouse. We could fight it out to determine the victor or wait for more players to arrive."
This condition was a constraint for both sides. Neither Ding Wei’s party nor Xu Huo wanted to waste time.
"Mr. Xu, this isn’t good for either of us. Maybe you could reconsider o—"
Ding Wei was cut off mid-sentence as Xu Huo was already standing in front of her, face to face, replying, "No need, we can start the next step right now."
Upon seeing him, Ding Wei reflexively retreated, jumping back fifty meters onto the top of a nearby building, but no sooner had her feet touched the ground than Xu Huo, originally far below the protective wall, reappeared in front of her—this time three meters apart.
Ding Wei didn’t retreat further, and she didn’t attack, either, because Xu Huo, who had the initiative, did not strike. Her face lost its smile, and she slightly conceded, "Mr. Xu, I can give you the energy, but where’s your sincerity?"
"A guide plus an off-road vehicle—isn’t that enough sincerity?" Xu Huo raised an eyebrow and paused before adding, "If you have a spatial artifact, you could go directly to Base 19."
Ding Wei’s expression darkened, then she brought back her smile, "If Mr. Xu is so powerful, can’t he make a concession to a weak woman?"
"Sure," Xu Huo agreed easily, "If you think handing over all the energy is unsafe, then I’ll take half, and you two can split the other half. How does that sound?"
No smile remained on Ding Wei’s face, a hesitant look flashed across, and Xu Huo, paying attention, added, "It’s fine if you don’t want to cooperate. In that case, just stop following me."
Ding Wei stared at him with a mixture of surprise and suspicion.
"You can think it over," Xu Huo said as he returned to the wall’s edge, not employing a "gentleman’s stance" but climbing up slowly by holding the guitar strings.
After he got back up to the top of the wall, Ding Wei and the male player began to discuss.
"They must know each other," Shangguan Xi remarked, "Lucky for them to have ended up together."
Xu Huo glanced at him and said nothing, instructing him to give one of the communicators he had also received to Teacher Ai. The communicators here also looked a bit high-tech but were made quite large due to limited materials, looking more like a semi-transparent tablet with grips at the corners, capable of supporting simple holographic projections.
Once the map was found, he had Teacher Ai mark it.
Teacher Ai circled a spot, "Desert winds are strong at night, and animals generally come out to forage during the day. It’s not too hot out yet, which is when aliens tend to roam. However, there aren’t many large aliens in the desert, most have evolved towards being poisonous."
The distance was just over two thousand meters.
"I’ll take the lead," Xu Huo told Shangguan Xi. "I’ll notify you once we find the vehicle."
Shangguan Xi nodded, lifting out two pieces of energy, "Are you taking all of it or just a bit to test?"
Xu Huo took the two pieces from his hand, said nothing more, and, along with Teacher Ai, left.
The two thousand meters to the destination could be covered with just a few uses of the spatial artifact. When they arrived at the spot designated by Teacher Ai, only the vast expanse of yellow sand was in sight. The wind was stronger here, making it nearly impossible to open one’s eyes without a protective shield.
Xu Huo looked to Teacher Ai, who then tapped on his right calf, causing a metal pillar to rise about ten meters away from a low sand dune. Subsequently, more pillars appeared, all angled steeply around the central one. The falling sand slid down the angled surfaces into deep trenches that ran along the sides, gradually clearing the middle.
This must be a facility specifically designed to prevent sandstorms from burying it, but since it had been buried for so long, the vehicle was half-covered when it emerged. However, the part that was unveiled revealed the vehicle’s form.
The car’s all-black metal body was full of texture, about five meters wide and ten meters long, resembling a ground beetle from a distance. Besides the large front windshield, the windows on the sides and back were small and narrow, compensated with greater quantity, and reinforced with welded metal bars on the outside.
The interior was spacious, yet a full metal partition separated the front and rear, with just two narrow viewports. The ten-meter vehicle was divided into three sections, all connected by quick-release fasteners.
"In a dire situation, we can only abandon our teammates." Teacher Ai ran his hands over the car’s rugged tires, "I’ve ridden in cars too many times to count, yet never once made it back to base intact."
"Today might be different," Xu Huo signaled for him to open the car door.
Teacher Ai pulled out the driver’s side keypad and entered the code before turning to say, "Please help me get in."
"Do it yourself," Xu Huo used "standardized weightlessness" to make him float.
After floating up, Teacher Ai grabbed the door and seated himself. The driver’s cockpit had no foot controls—all instruments were operated by hands. He started the master switch with practiced ease, took hold of two handles ahead, and with a thumb press, a control panel popped out in front of the handles, marked with simple symbols rather than explicit instructions, each representing different commands.