Xu Huo had circled the area twice using "Towards the Destination" and discovered that the region they were lost in was not small. The place where the car had been turning in circles was just a small part of it. The surrounding scenery was largely the same, and there were no obvious landmarks in sight, making it hard for one to notice anything unusual under short observation without any navigational alerts.
Moreover, the region itself had spatial barriers, and the route suggested by the navigation wasn’t entirely incorrect; it merely cleverly avoided these barrier points. In simple terms, it was like walking through a maze, going round and round in one place, unbeknownst to the people walking there.
It was unclear whether this was a naturally formed treacherous area or if a player had tampered with it, but as he searched for information on this region beneath the dimension, surely enough, someone was selling a simple map anonymously.
The cost wasn’t high, and after purchasing it, Xu Huo compared a few nodes on the hand-drawn map, confirmed there were no major discrepancies, and then headed back to the car.
Zhao Jiahua had already retrieved his mechanical prop because it seemed to hit an invisible wall when it moved in a straight line, and they had also tried to forcefully break through but were unsuccessful.
Ding Wei suggested ramming with the car, but the other three opposed it—the car was their only one, and damaging it would mean they’d hardly reach Base W37 City.
"We’re talking about going to W37, and we’re all trapped here; even if we abandon the car now, we could team up with others later. Three live samples, to clear the instance, other players would surely want to cooperate with us," Ding Wei complained unhappily.
As she finished speaking, Xu Huo had just returned near the car, and Shangguan Xi hurriedly opened the car door, "Brother Xu, any leads?"
Xu Huo took out the makeshift map, "This region is spatially chaotic, possibly naturally formed. Following the map should get us out."
Shangguan Xi frowned at the crooked map, then turned to ask Teacher Ai, "Can you make sense of this?"
Teacher Ai loaded the map onto the car’s navigation system, looking at him expressionlessly, "It can be autocorrected."
The car finally started moving again, but the ring-shaped routes on the map still made everyone feel irritable.
"Brother Xu, can’t we just pass directly through the Spatial Barrier?" Ding Wei asked tentatively, "Weren’t you able to remove that female player’s Spatial Artifact before? It shouldn’t be hard to pass through here as well."
Xu Huo leaned his arm on the car window, saying nonchalantly, "If it were feasible, why would we bother coming back here to detour? You’re welcome to try if you have a method."
Ding Wei smiled, "If Brother Xu can’t do it, what chance do I have?"
She paused, then added, "There are only three live samples, I wonder what the situation at Base W19 City is like. If we’re unlucky, maybe all three samples have already been taken."
"It’s hard to transport live samples anyway; we can still chase after them," Shangguan Xi chimed in. "The road from Base 19 to Base W37 is rugged. Even with a car, it might take a day or two; walking is out of the question. Having a car gives us a huge advantage."
He appeared quite confident.
Normally, possessing a car would make them a target, but at the moment, the occupants chose not to discuss this.
Ding Wei and Zhao Jiahua in the backseat exchanged glances and fell completely silent.
It wasn’t until nightfall that they finally emerged from the maze-like area, and the Gobi Zone phase came to an end. Next up was a transition zone leading to Base W19 City.
The transition zone was complicated, with harsh conditions; although several small cities had once been built near the base city due to its proximity, they were now empty—whether there were still people or Aliens lurking was unknown.
However, according to their earlier plan, they were to hide the car in the transition zone. Xu Huo and others would then enter the city to retrieve the live samples and then head through the southern gate toward W37.
But upon reaching the transition zone, Xu Huo realized that just hiding the car would be a difficult task.
Due to the low height and severe damage to the nearby small cities, they lacked the conditions to hide it, and considering the altitude of the base city, even standing on the cracked protective walls, one could oversee the area; they might have been spotted by other players as soon as they approached the transition zone.
Xu Huo looked up at the uneven protective walls ahead and, true enough, saw two digits "19" painted in a color that wasn’t friendly.
"Are there Aliens at W19?" Shangguan Xi asked while looking up information, "If not, we can drive the car in. It would be like throwing a meat bun to a dog to leave it outside now."
"No," Teacher Ai responded.
"Are you sure after escaping for so long?" Shangguan Xi was skeptical.
Teacher Ai didn’t say much else, only explaining, "The pollution at Base 19 is severe; Aliens don’t nest here."
"The protective wall also has burnt marks," Ding Wei quickly put on a protective suit, "Could this affect players?"
Shangguan Xi rolled his eyes, "Isn’t he still alive and well?"
If the pollution could kill or sicken a player in a short timeframe, Teacher Ai wouldn’t have survived until now.
"Better safe than sorry," Ding Wei pointed at the protective wall with her chin, "I see someone peeking over the top; should we go scout it out?"
Just as Shangguan Xi was about to speak, Xu Huo interrupted, "No need, let’s go straight into the city."
Teacher Ai looked at him, slowed down the car, and drove in from Base 19’s northern gate.
The two players they had noticed kept a moderate distance nearby but Xu Huo and his team didn’t concern themselves with them for the time being and instead focused on observing the situation inside Base W19 City.
There were clear signs of a fresh battle, with traces of combat scattered across the city’s burnt and broken buildings, and occasional corpses in the shadows.
"Didn’t expect a Rank-C Copy to end up ," Shangguan Xi remarked, looking at a deep pit left by the fight on the roadside, "If we hadn’t driven in, we’d probably be fighting by now."
Xu Huo checked the location on his bracelet, which had lit up upon entering the city. Two live samples were still in Base W19, one in the city center and the other near the southern gate, neither having moved.
"Which one should we go for first?" Zhao Jiahua asked, "The two samples are so far apart, they must be in a standoff."
"Let’s head to the city center first," Teacher Ai said at that moment. "The locator marks it as a Rank-B Laboratory."
"Even for convenience, we should head to the southern gate," Shangguan Xi argued. "Once we get the sample, we could leave."
"Are you stupid? That sample has already been moved to the door; the reason it hasn’t left the city is likely because the players there can’t decide a winner. Who knows how many are there," Ding Wei pointed out. "The one at the city center hasn’t moved and it’s a laboratory; maybe it’s a storage place for samples. If it hasn’t been taken yet, it might be for another reason, and we might find a windfall there."