Chapter 1870 - 1869: Arrival at Ilotan

"So do we need to go charge it?" Anke asked carefully, staring at the battery icon on the screen.

At this moment, the entire Floating Warplane’s battery was already below 30%, and the range displayed next to it was only a little over three hundred kilometers.

Anke didn’t have a strong sense of distance, but he knew that following a caravan from West Carter to Ilotan would take several days.

Even if the roads in the wilderness were terrible and they had to be on guard against exotic beasts, making the caravan move slowly, several days of travel definitely added up to more than three hundred kilometers.

But if they wanted to charge, another problem would come up: they’d have to go to a nearby Wanderer Camp and see if they could buy some power. Yet power at Wanderer Camps was usually extremely precious, the camp might not sell any, and they also didn’t know whether the charging ports were compatible.

If they went back to West Carter, then power wouldn’t be an issue, but if they flew this warplane back to West Carter, it would probably become a target immediately.

Of course, this kind of warplane seemed to support battery swaps, but its batteries were definitely controlled items now, and an ordinary Wilderness Wanderer Camp most likely wouldn’t be able to get them.

Anke suddenly realized that although the warplane was airborne now, the situation didn’t seem all that great.

"Maybe we can just fly to some Wilderness Wanderer Camp closer to Ilotan, sell this warplane, and trade it for an off-road vehicle to get to Ilotan?" Anke ventured.

"No need," He Ao said casually, "this range is enough. Open the map on the main console."

"Huh?" Anke was a bit dazed, but he still followed He Ao’s instructions and opened the map icon on the screen.

A moment later, a larger electronic map filled the entire main console.

The map was showing roughly where the Floating Warplane was at the moment.

"Zoom out a bit," He Ao said softly. "Look to the upper left. Do you see Ilotan?"

Anke quickly operated the map and looked toward Ilotan.

"Compare it—about how far are we from Ilotan on the map?" He Ao continued.

Anke held up his hand and measured the straight-line distance between the two points.

"According to the scale in the bottom left corner of the map," He Ao said calmly, "we’re roughly three hundred and twenty kilometers from Ilotan. If this ship’s range is accurate, we should be able to make it there."

"Huh?" Anke looked at the map in front of him, measured the coordinates and the straight-line distance to Ilotan again, then glanced at the scale in the bottom left, bringing his hand-measured distance close to the scale for comparison.

That distance looked to be about three times the 100-kilometer scale.

"But, old man," Anke said hesitantly as he stared at the map in front of him, "that’s a straight-line distance."

Then, as if afraid He Ao wouldn’t get it, Anke further explained, "Even though the straight-line distance between two cities is the shortest, roads are never laid in a straight line. Because if you go straight, you’re very likely to run into terrifying exotic beasts, as well as all kinds of bizarre natural phenomena. That’s something the people before us proved over countless explorations."

He quickly swiped the map with his hand, pointing to a twisty, looping route leading to Ilotan on the map, and continued rapidly, "This is the normal caravan route. It’s a route the Federation has mapped out over many years. It’s not the shortest, but it’s the safest, and there are Wanderer Camps along the way for resupply."

He glanced out the porthole and went on, "Even though we’re flying up in the Heaven now and not affected by road conditions, in theory we should still be taking the safer route."

"Mm." He Ao said calmly, "We’re going in a straight line. This map looks a bit familiar—I should’ve been around here before. I know an old road that’s pretty much a straight line."

"An old road from the Era of the Great Cataclysm?" Anke asked with some curiosity. "Is that road still passable now?"

"No idea," He Ao said offhandedly. "We’ll only know once we take it."

Anke fell silent for a moment. He lowered his head and stared at the map in front of him. "Taking the trade route will take three to five days. Even with a Floating Warplane, at most we cut that time in half. But if we go straight, we might get there in a day."

He took a deep breath and looked ahead. "Old man, how do we take that old road?"

"See that yellow lever to the left of the control panel?" He Ao said calmly. "Push it to the left, then step on the accelerator pedal."

Anke pushed it to the left as he spoke.

The entire warplane began turning to the left.

"Warning, leaving the safe trade route."

"Warning, leaving the safe trade route."

Soon, accompanied by a piercing mechanical female voice, a series of red windows popped up from the warplane’s console.

As if he hadn’t heard the message at all, Anke turned the lever and stepped on the accelerator pedal.

The Floating Warplane suddenly surged forward, plunging into the continuous emerald mountain ranges, and the map on the screen began flashing wildly, as if it had already gone beyond the collected data.

Finally, the map flickered violently once, the position marker vanished, and only a red frame at the top of the map flashed faintly with the words "Location offline, please return to the normal route."

At this moment, Anke’s heart was also in his throat. Watching the mountains racing past on both sides, he asked nervously, "Old man, why was that old road you mentioned abandoned?"

"How would I know?" He Ao said casually. "Anyway, back in our time we all took this road."

"So this road was safe in your time?" Anke asked carefully.

"Not safe at all," He Ao said nonchalantly. "Out of a hundred people who took this road, eight or nine dozen would die. I think I almost died on this road back then too."

"Huh?" Anke’s body jolted. "And you still want us to take this road?"

"Because it’s fast," He Ao said carelessly. "You’re traveling in the wilderness—how could you not run into life-threatening danger? If you’re on the move, of course the faster the better."

"Old man," Anke paused, "I’m realizing our ways of thinking are a bit different. You folks from the Era of the Great Cataclysm were a little too fierce."

"People dying is normal," He Ao said, sounding puzzled. "You can die out in the wilderness, and living in the city you might still get attacked by exotic beasts."

"We basically don’t get attacked by exotic beasts in the city anymore," Anke said softly. "We have high walls."

"You mean those especially tall city walls? I saw them," He Ao seemed to recall something and sighed lightly. "Times really have changed."

"Old man, is it still not too late if we turn back now?" Anke asked in a small voice.

"Why go back?" He Ao laughed. "Don’t worry, there won’t be any danger if we stick to this road. I’ve walked it once or twice, I’m very experienced."

"You’ve only walked it once or twice?" Anke’s eyes widened again.

"What are you so surprised about?" He Ao said offhandedly. "If you’ve taken it once or twice and lived, that already makes you extremely experienced. There aren’t many like us."

Anke kept feeling that something was off. He carefully chewed over He Ao’s words, suddenly realized something, and blurted out, "Is this route really that dangerous?"

Then something else occurred to him, and he asked in a low voice, "Old man, you’re not messing with me, are you? My elders loved to scare me for fun when I was a kid."

"Did they?" He Ao mused. "But I’m telling the truth."

Anke fell silent, staring at the scenery racing past outside the window. "We’re traveling in the sky. It shouldn’t be that dangerous up here, right?"

His hand gripped the control stick in a death hold, a faint sheen of sweat seeping from his palm.

The Floating Warplane roared forward through the sky, carving its way across the heavens with a harsh shriek.

In the face of this unexpected ’visitor’ intruding into their airspace, the exotic beasts flying nearby didn’t attack. Instead, as if they had encountered something terrifying, they scattered and streaked away to either side.

But those exotic beasts were far away and had flown off long before. Anke didn’t notice them; all he felt was the mountains retreating behind them. The sky around them was so quiet and clear there weren’t even many birds.

"This route actually feels pretty safe, huh." He couldn’t help commenting.

This time, He Ao didn’t answer him. He continued speeding up his Fusion with the Coffin of Time.

At the same time, he stirred up a trace of the Coffin of Time’s aura, letting it coil around them and form an invisible pressure.

This unseen pressure traveled with the warplane as it cut through the sky, startling all the exotic beasts into fleeing.

——

Long, ink-black hair hung down over the girl’s shoulders. Her slender fingers extended out from the Shadow beneath the eaves and gently pushed open the wooden door.

"Miss, you’re back?" The woman inside the room lifted her head, looked at the girl walking in, and stood up respectfully.

"Have we gathered everyone?" The girl walked into the room and sat down in front of the dressing table.

"We’ve just about gathered enough," the woman said, holding a comb as she slowly walked over and gently smoothed the girl’s silk-like long hair. "There are still a few cities whose people haven’t been delivered yet, but the current headcount has already reached the number they asked for."

"Then let’s hold the ritual tonight. When the rest arrive, we’ll pack them up and send them over together," the girl said, picking up a pink lipstick from the table. "Drag it out too long and too many things can go wrong."

"Yes." The woman nodded lightly.

"Have they found that Coffin of Time?" The girl opened the cap, slowly twisted the lipstick out, and brought it to her lips.

Hearing this question, the woman’s hand abruptly paused. "That caravan ran into a third-party attack. The Coffin of Time disappeared, and they still haven’t figured out where it went. They’re still investigating."

"A third party?" The girl’s hand, which was applying lipstick, stopped for a moment. "Do we know who?"

"We don’t," the woman shook her head, her movements slowing a lot. "They’re still investigating. The only thing missing from the caravan is the Coffin of Time, plus some of the firearms belonging to the mercenaries we hired. It’s very likely it has some kind of connection to the Coffin of Time itself."

"The Coffin of Time..." The girl lifted her gaze, looking into the slightly old-fashioned mirror before her, as if sinking into some memory.

The long comb smoothed her silk-like hair from root to tip.

——

Ilotan

"Old man, I think we’re here!" Sitting at the console, a still-drowsy Anke opened his eyes and looked at the map displayed on the screen before him.

At this moment, the map had regained its positioning; the Floating Warplane had flown back into a region with data coverage.

And that position showed they were already close to their destination.

Anke looked up at the front. On the horizon ahead, a magnificent city was slowly coming into view.

"Turn left up ahead," He Ao’s aged voice sounded by Anke’s ear.

Anke froze for a moment, then slowly adjusted their flight direction.

"Old man, we’re almost there," he said, glancing down at the low-battery indicator that had been flashing on the control panel for a long time. "If we just fly straight, we’ll hit Ilotan."

"There’s a Mercenary Corps station up ahead," He Ao said casually.

"Huh?" Anke started and quickly turned his head to look down to the side.

Amid the dense forest, faint outlines of a sprawling camp emerged.

"Holy shit," Anke leaned his head closer and saw the emblem on the tents clearly. "What’s the Rockville Energy Group stationing troops here for?"

"Most likely to control the main transport route," He Ao said softly.

"Good thing you reminded me," Anke let out a sigh of relief like a man who’d just survived a disaster, steering the Floating Warplane around the camp ahead. "Rockville Energy Group is even more overbearing than West Steel. If we flew straight over, they’d probably just shoot us down."

"You’re actually pretty skilled at flying this Floating Warplane now. Looks like you’ve got quite the Talent," He Ao said with a smile as he watched Anke naturally work the control stick.

"There’s nothing you can do when the pressure’s on. I’ve always been like this since I was a kid—under high pressure, I learn super fast. My grades used to be pretty good, just got worse as I grew up," Anke laughed. "But I learned to drive in one go too, and I picked up driving tanks pretty fast."

Before long, they’d swung wide around the camp and arrived not far from the high walls.

"Are we landing here, or flying a bit closer?" Anke asked cautiously. "It’s wartime right now. If we get too close, the City Defense Army might attack us. Even though this isn’t exactly the front line, I don’t know if they’re on alert."

He paused there, glanced at the towering walls outside, and added, "But we’re already close enough that those City Defense Army guys should’ve spotted us long ago."

"No rush," He Ao said calmly. "Is there something like a telescope in front of you?"

Anke lowered his head and looked in front of him, only seeing a small screen displaying the view on top of the city wall.

"This should be a monitoring window," Anke murmured. He’d noticed it a long time ago. "It should be hooked up to some kind of high-definition camera to monitor the area around the warplane."

"See if you can adjust the image to focus on the city gate," He Ao said in a low voice.

Anke thought for a bit, then started fiddling with the screen. Soon he enlarged the image and saw a blurry view near the city gate.

Even though the image was fuzzy and the people were almost just blobs, he could still vaguely see vehicles lining up for inspection, and the inspection process didn’t look simple.

"Crap," Anke suddenly realized what they were doing. His earlier joy and excitement instantly cooled. "They’ve imposed wartime controls here too. You need an entry permit to get into the city under these conditions."