While Sheyan and the rest of team were preparing to board the raft at the bottom of the canyon, Major General Mungo and Major General Fiji had a meeting on the Kitty Hawk base far away.
Their faces were solemn, especially Major General Mungo. He was holding a cup of hot water. Although the temperature in the base was kept at a constant 24 degree Celsius (about 75 F), Major General Mungo held the cup tightly as if he wished to find some warmth from the water.
“Are you sure about this?” Major General Mungo had already asked the same question three times, but he could not stop himself from asking a fourth time.
However, Fiji did not display any signs of impatience. He nodding slowly and replied, “Positive.”
“Damn those Predators. I can’t believe their detection ability is so strong. We only established communication once during the gap between cosmic tides, and they actually managed to intercept the signals?”
Major General Mungo slammed his fist on the table with his teeth gnashing.
Major General Fiji’s facial expression was not any better. If something went wrong with this mission, he would be forcefully demoted to Lieutenant Colonel. So, he was even more unwilling than Major General Mungo to see this happen. But alas, reality was a cruel mistress.
Major General Mungo raised his head, and a 3D constellation map immediately appeared on the wall opposite him. A red dot could be seen slowly moving on it. Major General Mungo uttered coldly, “The Predators were initially expected to arrive a week later, but because they detected the unusual movement, they’ve picked up the speed and will arrive in three days. Is that right?”
“Correct,” Fiji nodded. He looked calm on the surface, but his ten fingers had tightly intertwined together and had turned white. His eyes narrowed as he said in a chilly tone, “Major General Mungo, remember that we’re now on the same boat. If this mission fails, yes, I’ll be demoted, but you’ll also completely lose the trust of the higher ups.”
“If you have any idea, then just say it!” Major General Mungo waved his hand as he yelled impatiently.
A trace of anger flashed past Major General Fiji’s eyes, but he forced himself to calm down.
“We have to make two preparations. First, we have to do everything in our power to intercept the Predator’s spaceship. Second, since the matter of us sending people to Uplos has been discovered, then there’s no longer any need to operate in secrecy!”
“Let the Kitty Hawk go into full swing and overload the energy reactor to its maximum output so that we can keep abreast of the contestants’ movements through the communication device on the cyborgs… If those guys can find enough mineral veins in this period of time, we’ll be able to get video recordings of it. This way, at least we won’t suffer any punishment even if we can’t complete our mission…. We won’t rake in any achievement, but they can’t fault us either!”
“But those upstairs have given strict orders. In order to stop the space-time disorder from getting any worse, we’re not allowed to have too much contact with the Predators, let alone engage in battle,” murmured Mungo.
Fiji gave Mungo a meaningful look. “I never said we have to fight them. We only need to delay them. For example, we can stage a military exercise in front of a certain wormhole. Based on our previous experiences with the Predators, they won’t willingly engage us. They’ll surely make a detour to get to the next wormhole instead of forcing their way through…. Or, we can ask the Imperial Laboratory to launch a particle storm in the path of the Predators to disrupt their course. I happen to know that one of the three highest authorities in the Imperial Laboratory is your uncle…”
Mungo raised his head and laughed heartily.
“But to operate the Kitty Hawk’s energy reactor at full blast and maintain the max output for over seventy-two hours is against regulation. By the rules, we’re only allowed to do that for two hours at most. If we follow your plan, this spaceship will almost certainly become a pile of scrap metal when we return.”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures, Major General,” replied Fiji coldly.
Mungo looked straight at Fiji and said in a faint voice, “But an official document must be signed to give the order to operate at full power. Which one of us will sign that document?”
Fiji stared straight back at him and replied without hesitation, “We’ll co-sign it, of course! If we both do everything we can, we’ll be able to delay the Predators for a day, which means that there are only four days left for those ignorant and barbaric contestants. Hopefully, in these four days, they can give us a pleasant surprise!”
***
The raft looked a little precarious sailing on the turbulent river in the canyon, but every time it seemed like it was going to overturn, it would always right itself. The vines tying the raft together squeaked under the pull of the violent torrent, but these vines miraculously shrank a bit when they came into contact with water, so they actually held the raft tighter together. Their strength was quite reliable.
Sheyan thrust a pole into the bottom of the river and exerted some force on it. The pole was bent like a bow under his strength, and when it rebounded, it provided the propulsion to push the raft to the side. The raft thus skillfully avoided a large rock.
After that, the raft nimbly and smoothly rushed past a whirlpool, after which the turbulent flow of the river started to turn gentler. The biggest reason for that was the widening of the river. A few rays of sunshine even reached the bottom of the canyon, not because the sun had gotten stronger, but because the canyon had started to become shallower.
Sheyan took a deep breath. A mixture of moisture and oxygen was inhaled into his lungs, providing him with an indescribably refreshing feeling. He was, of course, the one responsible for steering the raft. Without Sheyan’s excellent boat control skills, the raft would have sunk long ago.
Sheyan and Pokan were the ones who had to do the most work on this trip. Sheyan was exhausted because he had to control the crude temporary raft, while Pokan, being a topography modeller, had to break down dozens of reefs and rocks in a timely manner throughout the journey. Now that the river had become wider, Sheyan slowly steered the huge raft towards the bank while informing the others that he needed a short rest.
Unlike Sheyan and Pokan who had to do a lot of work, the rest of the team had grown stiff from staying idle for too long. When the raft docked, they eagerly jumped off to stretch their body and explore the area nearby. Who knows, they might get lucky and find a piece of Pi ore.
Poverty had always stemmed from inequality. It would be fine if none of them had any Pi elements, but right now, three people in the team did. So, even if the rest of the team did not say anything, feelings of jealousy and envy were inevitable.
Meanwhile, Sheyan’s humility had won the approval of many. Apart from his cautiousness, the biggest reason for that was because all the contestants had heard that he did not gain anything from the battle with the ant queen.
Everyone had found out that Sheyan’s summoned creature had suddenly gone out of control after the battle, eating several of the more valuable organs of the ant queen. This version of the event was easily accepted by the contestants when they recalled Ramtas’ distinct wild boar traits. They sympathised with Sheyan’s misfortune, a subconscious desire to comfort the unlucky.
Sheyan spread out on the raft without any care for appearances. He closed his eyes and felt the regular impact of the waves on the bottom of the raft. The gentle rocking of the raft was as comfortable as the slight sway of a hammock. On Sheyan’s face was an oxygen mask. High-purity oxygen slowly flowed through his respiratory tract into his lungs. The lungs that had obtained a large supply of pure oxygen instinctively stopped a part of their breathing motion and started ejecting the impurities they had inhaled before.
As mentioned before, although there was oxygen in Uplos’ atmosphere, it was not suitable for the breathing purposes of ordinary humans. Sheyan actually had no problem breathing the air long-term thanks to his high Physique, but others might notice this detail and guess his hidden trump card, so he decided to use the oxygen supply. Besides, proper oxygen intake could also relieve the pressure on his lungs, helping him stay in optimum condition.
Suddenly, Sheyan’s spidey sense tingled.
To be exact, he had felt an abnormality in the waves that had been rocking the raft in a constant rhythm.
For someone like Sheyan, who had many years of experience living on ships, the uniform and regular beating of the waves had long been ingrained in his body, so when any abnormality occurred in the waves, the feeling was as conspicuous as a scream suddenly appearing in a well-known song.
However, Sheyan remained silent. Several thoughts flashed through his mind, and he eventually decided to continue lying on his back and breathe in the oxygen as if nothing was happening.
Suddenly, a crimson thing shot out from the water at the speed of lightning and burst through the thick raft effortlessly. The thing then wrapped around Sheyan and pulled him into the water! Because Sheyan was still lying on the raft, the raft was dragged down together with him!
Sheyan immediately struggled with all his might! But he was perplexed to find that it actually did not take much strength to loosen the crimson “rope”, because the “rope” binding him could stretch elastically like a rubber band. However, as soon as Sheyan stopped exerting force, it tightened back.
Sheyan did not hesitate to yell for help.
“HELP!!!”
William from the neutral faction immediately looked over. Before he had even seen what was happening to Sheyan, he had already half knelt and took aim. Almost a second later, he answered Sheyan’s call for help with his sniper!
