Chapter 14: A Sudden Sandstorm
As he continued to move forward, the surrounding scenery slowly changed from a desert of rocks and sand to a desert of thousands of miles, and Tisball, who was engulfed in fire behind him, gradually lost sight.
Attacked by the dragons, the above-ground city of Tisball will soon fall, and those who sing and dance and drink green flowers underground may survive for a while.
However, it is said that the flames spewed by the dragon have the ability to burn for seven days and seven nights, and besides, the toppled houses have buried all the roads leading to the earth, and all the food needed for the underground Tisball comes from the supplies on the ground, and once the roads are blocked, then what awaits them is famine, and finally large-scale riots, and even human cannibalism.
I have no doubt that if food is lost, it will eventually be like this, and it is not surprising that those who plunder with an ugly face while eulogizing the good.
In a sense, it's also a kind of purification, destroying everything here. I think so, but what qualifications do I have to say about others? From the moment I woke up, I had become an even more heinous villain. For the sake of my own desires, I sacrificed my humanity and abandoned my morality. I've struggled and hesitated, but I've never regretted it, and even if I do it all over again, I'll still choose this way.
Because in my heart, Cher is the only one, no matter what she can't compare.
The desert was more difficult to walk than expected, and instead of solidifying due to the rain, the sand became softer and softer.
At this weight, climbing a small sand dune often took several attempts, and almost two kicks would lead to a downward slide, which slowed me down a lot.
It seems that because of the rain, the original temperature of the desert has plummeted, a thin layer of frost has appeared on the metal shell of the body, and the wind is getting stronger and stronger, and the line of sight is no longer clear.
Sandstorms and heavy rain and ice made it impossible to get worse unless a dragon species appeared in front of me.
I've got to figure out a way, once the frost covers the exhaust vents and the joints, it's over, I'm going to be stuck here because I can't be dynamic, and now I'm starting to feel shackled.
While I could still move, I quickly ducked to the leeward slope of a large sand dune and reached into the storage space.
Is there anything useful, is there ...... This is?
With a flick, I pulled out a token from the storage space, the same one that Oude had given me earlier to allow me to enter the arsenal. He didn't take it away, he just left it with me.
The design of the token is angular and the edges are a little sharp, and you might even injure yourself if you hold it in your hand, but in this case it is just right, just right to shovel ice from joints and vents.
If it weren't for the state of running, the temperature of this body would still be low, of course, these are just guesses, and I can't know if this is really the case without feeling, but at least it is true for now.
Regardless of power consumption, running at an accelerated pace for a period of time can be very effective in clearing up the frost covered, but now it can't be so, because the time is tight on the one hand, and the deceleration caused by low temperatures on the other hand is really a headache.
But fortunately, it seems that due to the influence of the temperature, my power consumption rate seems to have decreased a bit, which is also a blessing in misfortune.
I picked up the token, pinched the middle and lower part of the token with two fingers, it was still a little inconvenient without a thumb, and firmly put the sharpest part of the edge of the token against the position of the air hole, and gently twisted a few times, and the thin ice fell into the hole.
The metal body is not worried about water ingress, although the surface of the body is now very cold due to rain and strong winds, but the temperature near the internal exhaust hole is still very high, and basically the water droplets will evaporate immediately when they fall into it.
But even so, it is still a lot of trouble to clean all the exhaust holes in the body, in addition to the calf and forearm, there are six in the position of the chest, although these take time but not difficult, the really difficult to deal with is the eight exhaust holes in the back and waist part, each of them is very small, if you can't see it again, it will be really difficult to clean.
It took me about 10 minutes to get rid of all the frost from the exhaust holes, but luckily I didn't feel tired, otherwise it would have been a great deal of exhaustion if I had been affected by my body in such an environment.
The next step is to clean the joints, which is much easier than the vents, carefully scrape the ice stubble out with the edge of the token, and then kick the legs a little harder to throw out the remaining ice.
The problem of freezing has been solved temporarily, but the current environment outside, even if it advances again, it will still be frozen, and the current sandstorm is more serious than just now, and it is impossible to see the road ahead clearly, even if it is close to the dragon's nest, it is very likely to go astray.
Traveling in such bad weather, not to mention being able to arrive early, can be counterproductive. Now we can only wait here for the sandstorm to stop.
I found a relatively dry place, clinging to the sand dunes, and clumping my whole body together, trying not to get the exhaust holes and joints from rain, in this state, the power consumption is also minimal, of course, it is not as good as the endurance in the sleep pod.
Thirty minutes passed...... An hour passed...... Two hours passed......
Waiting silently, except for resting in the sleep pod, I can only stay awake all the time. About two hours later, I got up lightly and looked up at the sky.
The clouds were still overwhelming, completely black like ink, but it was clear that the rain had faded, and the sand and dust were not raging as violently as before.
It's almost, I'm afraid I won't be able to reach the dragon's lair if it drags on any longer, and I'm going to dump it here with an empty battery. Glancing at the battery level on the wrist display, there were a little more than two and a half bars left.
I got up slowly, found a good place to step on the sand dune, the sandstorm had dispersed, my vision returned to normal, and I glanced at the surrounding scenery, it seemed that the route of travel did not deviate too much, but slightly deviated from the north. I continued to walk into the distance.
In this way, I twisted and wound in the desert in the rain, and walked forward for another half hour, stopping in the middle to clean up the frost again, and the rain gradually became lighter, but the temperature did not rise, and as long as the clouds did not disperse, the desert would always be so cold.
Another half hour passed, and the deep gray of the clouds became transparent, and a few rays of sunlight pierced through the dark clouds and shone on the vast desert, bringing a little gold. My speed increased as the rain stopped, and my vision widened. Finally, when the battery was only a bar and a half, I saw the raised mountain in the distance.
Before I even got closer, I could already feel the height of the mountains, and as described on the map, the peaks of the mountains were roughly in a ring, each part was a behemoth, and the mountains in the back were even reaching into the sky, and the peaks could not be seen. Even if the clouds are low now, they are still in the sky, and it is conservatively estimated that the shortest of these mountains is nearly a thousand meters high.
The color of the sand near the mountains is no longer yellow, but black as if it has been splashed with ink, and it looks lifeless and gloomy.
I guess at the current speed, I will be able to reach the bottom of the mountain in another ten minutes, but at least from the current position, the only way to climb and climb over it is to climb and climb over, but my intuition tells me that there must be some way here, otherwise this map would not be in my hands now.
Suddenly, a light flashed in front of my eyes, and I looked up to see that the clouds were getting thinner and thinner, and many places were already shining through the sun, and they were still expanding at a speed visible to the naked eye, and it would not be long before the clouds would completely disperse.
It's not good, it's the afternoon, if the clouds disperse and the sun shines directly, the temperature on the surface will rise rapidly, quickly to the extent that it doesn't adapt to the metal body at all, and then it will be bad, no matter how this body is also a high-precision machine, many of the internal parts are still made of copper, once any important part can't adapt to the huge temperature change, then it is likely to cause the function to stop.
No, you can't just walk quickly, you have to run.
The last thing I wanted to see happened, in the face of such a towering mountain range, the battery itself was only enough to move for another two hours, and in this case it would consume a lot of power, but there was no other way.
I was a little anxious, and with the force under my feet, streams of white steam were released from the various exhaust holes of my body, and the metal plates used to maintain balance on my back when running were also lifted separately, because the balance system was not good, Ou De had specially installed this part, but it was not usable in normal times, and only rose during strenuous exercise.
The scenery around me changed rapidly, and I instantly tripled my speed and rushed towards the nearest mountain. At this time, the clouds in the sky have dissipated, and I have to try to avoid direct sunlight while sprinting.
The range of sunlight is getting bigger and bigger, and I'm dodging more and more often.
Hurry up, hurry up!
The two metal plates behind him were whirring because of the air flow brought by the speed, and the joints were constantly making a "click" sound, as if they were about to scatter in the next moment.
Only a small cloud remained near me, and everywhere else the sky was clear, and even the sand had dried on the ground that I had just passed by.
Finally, at the same time as the clouds disappeared, I also rushed to the foot of the mountain, and at this time, the power on the display was only one bar.