"My apologies, Theresa-sama, Li Sushang-sama." Rita quickly turned around and gave the two a slight bow. "Rita just remembered something amusing."
Theresa's grip, which had been so tight just a moment ago, loosened instantly. With a hint of disgust, she tossed Li Sushang onto the sand.
The moment she landed, Li Sushang's eyes snapped open, but her posture remained unchanged as she stared blankly at the sky.
"Alright, that's enough joking around," Theresa waved a hand dismissively and then stretched languidly. "Rita, you definitely know the way, right?"
Rita nodded. Li Sushang's incredulous gaze shot over.
There's a way? So I was just tricked?
This time, the sky had truly fallen.
Li Sushang didn't get up. Instead, she covered her face with her hands, rolled over, and turned her back to them. She was going to use the coldest, most indifferent isolation to isolate the two of them!
Her social life was dead!
"Although I don't remember the exact route very clearly, the Lord Overseer has already given me the general coordinates of the City of Sighs. As long as we use our current coordinates, we can locate it," Rita said, taking out her phone and smiling as she pressed the power button.
The screen remained black.
Rita: "..."
Theresa: "..."
The two looked at the phone in Rita's hand, then at each other, and then back at the dark screen.
Rita silently tried holding down the power button to restart it. After a short while, the phone finally lit up, revealing a depleted battery icon and a tiny, glaring sliver of red.
Rita's phone was dead.
"Rita..." After a long, mutual silence, Theresa finally spoke slowly. "Did you stay up all night browsing the [Spark] forum again?"
Rita didn't answer. Her gaze didn't even waver.
But Theresa, who had known Rita for a long time, could tell at a glance that this was Rita's guilty expression.
Although Li Sushang still had her back to them, her ears were pricked up, catching every word of their conversation.
What does this mean? Has the nightmare come true? My social life isn't dead?
"Do you remember the coordinates?" Theresa asked, trying to salvage the situation. Rita put away her now-useless phone and nodded.
"Of course, Theresa-sama," Rita's smile was a little forced now. "Rita memorized the coordinates the moment she received them."
Alright, social death it is.
Theresa breathed a sigh of relief. "As long as you remember... but do we really still have several days' journey ahead of us? We have enough nutrient solution, but the water..."
A tube of nutrient solution didn't take up much space, and one could sustain a person for several days.
But nutrient solution couldn't replenish water. To be precise, not even Future City had managed to develop a substitute for water hydration, so they had to carry it the old-fashioned way.
This was their fifth day in the desert. The water they had brought in the car would have been enough, but they hadn't been able to salvage much when the car fell into the quicksand. Plus, the three of them couldn't carry too much water...
So now, they didn't have much water left, probably only enough for a few more days.
If it took much longer, they might really get lost in this desert.
"Does Theresa-sama wish to turn back and resupply?" Rita immediately understood Theresa's thoughts.
They had enough water to go back the way they came, find more, and then find a more suitable vehicle for the desert before setting off again. It was a good, and safer, plan.
Theresa nodded, but then a troubled expression appeared on her face. "But I'm a little worried... won't this delay us? Grandpa said the second wave of support will arrive on time, and they'll need us to provide them with basic information..."
Even though they all knew the true purpose of this trip, on the surface, they had a mission to eliminate the Sandstorm Emperor.
This was no trivial task. There were at least ten thousand survivors in the City of Sighs, all the survivors from this vast desert gathered in one place. Theresa and the others couldn't just ignore them.
But this place was too far from ARC City, and the surrounding cities hadn't been cleared yet. Otto had never paid any attention to this place.
To Otto, the value of these ten thousand-plus survivors was less than that of a fully automated mechanical combat unit. Which of those Nightmare modules or Titan mechs wasn't more useful than these people on the other side of the world?
And their enemy?
The Sandstorm Emperor, a mature variant of the Honkai Emperor, had already transcended the rank of a lower-level Honkai Beast. It was on the same level as, or even stronger than, the Lava Emperor that Shu had dealt with in Canghai City.
After all, the Lava Emperor couldn't maintain its molten state at all times, whereas the Sandstorm Emperor was always surrounded by a sandstorm whenever it appeared.
So, even though Otto had noticed the Sandstorm Emperor's activity early on, he had no intention of sending a squad to eliminate it.
So why not send Gu Chu?
For Gu Chu, the Middle East was too close.
Otto sent Gu Chu to various parts of the world by airdrop, a one-way trip with no pickup.
To return, Gu Chu had to complete his mission and then find the nearest open area for a plane to land.
And the places Otto sent him to were always in the middle of nowhere. Finding a place that could support a plane landing was harder than climbing to heaven. Gu Chu had to travel for days on foot before he could board a return flight.
Did he have any complaints?
Not a single one.
Always in the middle of nowhere? Isn't that what makes the mission difficult?
Why not use a helicopter? Otto said he was sorry that the planes he built by hand couldn't take off and land vertically. He was just an Apocalypse, not a Schariac with their god-like control.
He couldn't use Abyss Flower.
So Gu Chu was tied up. Right now, he was in the Amazon jungle, fighting a giant snake-like Honkai Beast codenamed "Naga."
Theresa also knew that they had come out this time to find Bianka, which was why they had been given this official mission. But who said official missions were just for show?
The safety of ten thousand survivors was at stake. They had to succeed.
"Let's move forward," Theresa decided after some thought. Rita had no intention of persuading her otherwise; she also leaned towards this idea.
They had enough water for five days. A conservative estimate put their journey at four days, leaving them a one-day margin for error.
"Sigh..." Li Sushang, who hadn't gotten a word in, staggered to her feet and continued on her way.
They were all concerned about the Honkai Beast. Nobody cared about Li Sushang~