Before leaving Darwin, the last thing Huai Shi did was to take out his mobile phone and turn it off.
According to Crow's words: Since you're looking for excitement, then follow through … Well, although that's not the original words, it's always the same meaning.
After all, this is the Modern Realm. There's no place where you can't receive the signal.
Not to mention an emergency rescue, even an orbital strike can be prepared for you with a phone call.
If you turn on your mobile phone the whole time, scroll through Weibo, sing songs, and post on WeChat, wouldn't there be no adventurous atmosphere at all?
Not long after, he found out that he was blind.
— He was lost.
Australia has more than sixteen percent of the world's iron ore.
Well, that's what the high school geography book said, at least in the Modern Realm.
However, Huai Shi didn't think of this until the compass began to spin like a mad dog … Who knows how many magnetite ores are buried in this desert!
When he was ready to turn around, he found that he couldn't even find the way back.
What's even more ridiculous is … Even the position of the stars is constantly changing.
The Big Dipper in this broken place is like the lottery wheel of some unscrupulous lottery websites. It will randomly spin and point in any direction, but it just won't tell you where the right direction is.
In Australia, he lost contact.
The entire huge desert is like an invisible maze. It looks like the same wasteland and yellow sand, but in fact, it's constantly changing.
Like a senior patient in a mental hospital, every time Huai Shi is frustrated, he will make a sarcastic and sharp laugh.
If you don't move, I'll move; if you move, I'll move; if you move, I'll move blindly …
The seemingly monotonous and desolate world was, in fact, like a chaotic field that was constantly rotating and stirring. Once one walked in, they would be lost in the endless heat and desolation.
Fortunately, even though it's so chaotic here, the sun still maintains its original pattern of rising in the east and setting in the west, allowing Huai Shi to barely find the direction between dawn and dusk.
There are also a few local 'friends'.
"Excuse me, which way is south?"
Huai Shi squatted beside a cactus like a lunatic, grimacing as he reached out and pressed on its thorns, patiently asking for directions. "Don't be so fierce, brother. You don't have a good temper … Don't be angry, I'm just asking for directions. South, where is south? Then where does the sun rise? Brother, you look like you're only four or five years old. How can you have Parkinson's disease? I'll water you, okay? Over there, right? "
Enduring their prickly thorns, Huai Shi repeatedly asked three cactus, sea buckthorn, and shrubs that were relatively close, and finally determined the direction.
Then, taking advantage of the dark night, Huai Shi glanced left and right. After confirming that there was no one on either side, he whistled and watered the three little brothers.
Everyone took what they needed and got along quite well.
Among all the flora that Huai Shi had seen, the flora in the desert could be said to be the most exclusive and stingy.
To be able to survive in such a harsh environment, it was equipped with the ability to haggle over all sunlight, water, and even nutrition.
Just like the black-hearted businessmen in Darwin.
For a foreign mountain ghost like Huai Shi, they were too lazy to pay attention to him. Some were even extremely repulsed, directly rejecting Huai Shi's communication at the moment of contact.
They were determined not to share even a little bit of water and nutrition with a foreign vegetable.
Unless Huai Shi also took out water in exchange.
However, after so many days, Huai Shi had gained a little experience and gain, especially when he found out that this group of local brothers did not care what kind of water he provided …
In this way, for the next two days, he would find a shady place to sleep during the day and travel at night.
When Huai Shi compared the map, he looked at the active volcano that intermittently spewed lava in the distance and finally determined his approximate location.
He had gradually passed through the edge of the desert and was about to officially enter its official range.
Looking up at the gray sky in the distance and the sound of thunder, Huai Shi reached out and took off the gas mask from the hanging of his backpack and put it on his face.
Then he zipped and buttoned the clothes.
Before he could finish his preparations, the dark clouds in the sky had already drifted over. Then, dust drifted from the sky like a blizzard.
The dust was mixed with fine ice crystals, which fell on the mask's goggles and made a popping sound.
In the hurricane, Huai Shi could only bend down and carry the backpack forward with difficulty.
Otherwise, he was afraid that he would be rolled into a rolling gourd by the strong wind. When climbing some sand dunes, he even had to take out a rope first to fix himself.
Otherwise, he would easily be buried by the turbulent sand dunes.
From time to time, pollution clouds from distant industrial cities would drift into the desert, bringing dust and pungent haze, making the desert environment even worse.
He finally understood why Lucian's list repeatedly emphasized the need for gas masks.
After a gray snow, a filter element that could work in industrial pollution for three days was completely destroyed. Huai Shi's filter element reserve was not enough.
He could only use his brain to modify it.
On both sides of the mask, outside of the filter element, there were two Happy Potion jars that Huai Shi had welded onto the mask with her Binding Hands. The jars were layered according to the structure of a hookah and filled with the filtrate that was commonly used in alchemy.
Every time he breathed, he could hear a low rumbling sound from the jars. The pungent smell could not be completely isolated even by the filter element.
But fortunately, it was only smelly and not harmful. Even if the Hillghost's recovery ability was weakened to the limit in the desert, he could still barely deal with it.
In the midst of the arduous climb, Huai Shi lost her footing and staggered. Then, she was blown to the ground by the howling wind. She rolled on the ground pathetically. The moment the mask fell from her face, Huai Shi felt as if she had inhaled a mouthful of concentrated acid.
He instantly lost the sense of breathing.
He could not feel the existence of his lungs.
After he put on the mask in a hurry for a long time, he finally felt the burning pain from his internal organs.
He suspected that his eyeballs had been burned red by this mouthful of old haze.
Why is the pollution in Australia so strong!
After that, he lay on the ground and did not dare to move. The ashes and dust buried him and were blown away by the wind. Finally, with the roar of the volcano in the distance, the gray dust rain and snow gradually dissipated.
Huai Shi finally raised his head and got up from the ground. He shook his body with difficulty to get rid of the corrosive chemicals that had blown into his sleeves and trousers.
In the end, he sat on the sand with disheveled hair and a dirty face, staring blankly at the gradually rising ray of sunlight on the horizon.
It was dawn.
He finally breathed a sigh of relief, got up, looked around, found a backlit place, and struggled to set up his tent.
After he got in, he didn't even have time to change his clothes before lying on the sleeping bag.
He didn't want to move.
"Still too weak …"
He whispered softly and closed his eyes.
After a while, snoring sounded.
.
.
Before this, Huai Shi had never thought that in this desert, the most dangerous time was not during the day, but at night.
During the day, it was just unbearable heat, but at night, what awaited people was endless torture. Similarly, the most disturbing thing was not the endless yellow sand in front of him, but the dilapidated towns that had long been abandoned in the ruins …
Just by getting close, he would feel instinctively oppressed.
Those were either gathering points built by fugitives, or temporary towns built during the gold rush sixty years ago, or settlements that were gradually abandoned with the disappearance of water sources … Most of the remaining were only the dilapidated walls and the vague corners in the yellow sand.
There was an invisible enemy here.
No, it should be said that all he saw were enemies …
The combat power he was proud of in the past was of no use in this situation. After stripping himself of the illusion that he was omnipotent, the young man who remained was no different from an ordinary person in front of the malice of the entire world.
If it weren't for Crow and Beelzebub occasionally chatting with him, he might have already thought of a way to go home.
Traveling was an extremely difficult thing, and it was often asking for trouble.
Now, he finally had some understanding of this matter.
He also fully understood how insignificant he was.
But … he felt that he was looking forward to the next journey more and more.
It was as if he had secretly posted a pornographic picture when the group leader wasn't paying attention and had not been kicked out. He had braved the wind and snow to grow his own branches in this barren desert.
It was so interesting to seek death.
Especially in this kind of adversity that he had never experienced before.
He felt that he must be sick.
But shouldn't the so-called essence of traveling be like this?
There had to be some kind of challenge.
After sleeping for a long time, Huai Shi got up again and looked at the setting sun in the distance and stretched. On the small gas stove next to him, the water in the can and the compressed biscuits inside were churning together.
It was almost ready to eat after they were cooked into a paste.
The taste was very unpleasant, but at least it was filling.
While waiting, he took out a pen and paper and a map to plan the next route. He checked the supplies and equipment again and confirmed that the situation was still within the range that he could handle.
Huai Shi made a spoon and began to wolf down his breakfast.
After eating, he rested for three minutes.
He packed his things and was ready to go.
A new day, a new setback, began just like that.
In the following difficult time, Huai Shi actually found that there was at least a little advantage in this place.
That was, he didn't have to think anymore.
In the beginning, his mind would be in a mess, including what to eat for dinner, what the future would be like, his future life, his future career direction, and even how to find a girlfriend. These were all things that a seventeen-year-old boy would think about when he couldn't sleep.
But as he went deeper and deeper, he became more and more tired and sleepy. Those messy thoughts quickly faded away like the sea at low tide.
In the end, only the most simple instinct was left.
He took a step with his left foot, then with his right foot.
He wanted to keep moving forward.
Other than that, everything else that didn't matter didn't exist in this long hiking trip.
Above his head was the constantly changing starry sky, and in front of him was an endless barren desert.
When the Crow stopped talking, Huai Shi was only accompanied by a long silence, the sound of the wind in the distance, and the deep rhythm from the heart.
Breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe …
He repeated it, and then moved forward step by step.
His heart was empty.
He no longer worried about the problems of the past days, and he no longer thought about the distant future.
For a moment, Huai Shi felt a deep sense of enlightenment rise in her heart.
— He lived in the present.
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