dmims Chapter 557 Route 85 (6)
Chapter 557 Route 85 (6)
“Hu…Hu…Hu…”
After an hour, Frank and Adenauer finally emptied the truck bed. Fortunately, it wasn't full, otherwise they might not have been able to move everything. After dumping all the cargo, Liz, who was waiting below, immediately drove the truck some distance away from the cargo on the ground. Adenauer and Frank hadn't found any timed detonators while dumping the cargo, indicating that the device wasn't among the cargo, but likely stored somewhere else in the bed. For safety's sake, Liz stopped the truck as soon as it was safe, stepped away from the front, and returned to where Adenauer and Frank were.
Frank was panting and coughing a few times. Although Frank was a strong man, he still felt a little dizzy after unloading the entire truck's cargo in an hour.
"Liz, you...you go and help search, I need to...I need to rest for a while..."
With less than an hour left before the truck exploded, finding the explosives was a race against time. Frank was exhausted, so he had to ask Liz to help him investigate the boxes. Liz noticed something: although Adenauer was panting, he wasn't sweating at all. Frank, on the other hand, was completely soaked through with his shirt, and he had already thrown his jacket aside. Frank wasn't a weakling; as a skilled detective, he was in excellent physical condition. Earlier, when Liz was under the truck, she saw Adenauer throw down more boxes than Frank, so he must have put in more effort. But now, his reaction was like he was just warming up. While Adenauer's physical condition was definitely better than Frank's, it shouldn't be this good.
"What are you looking at? Look for it quickly!"
Seeing Liz staring at him, Adenauer seemed to realize that something was wrong, so he immediately spoke up and diverted Liz's attention.
For ease of transport, the truck was equipped with a crowbar, so opening the boxes didn't take long. Many of the boxes had already been knocked open when they were thrown from the truck, making them easy to open. In about half an hour, Adenauer and Liz had opened all the boxes, and they found several time bombs in two or three of them.
"It's not thermite. It's some kind of military incendiary bomb, controlled by a complex timing device."
"These things have special protective shells, so when you two threw the boxes just now, these time bombs didn't explode. What do we do now? Dismantle them?"
"We don't have that much time, Liz. Throw these bombs into the wasteland next to us."
"Row."
Those time bombs were not big, about the size of an 800ml beverage bottle, but they weighed about five kilograms, which was about the weight of a small bag of flour. Liz exercised regularly, so carrying a few bags of flour was definitely no problem for her. Soon, Liz threw the time bombs to the side of the road, while Adenauer returned to the SUV, took out a thermite bomb he had made before from the back seat, started the timer, and threw the thermite bomb directly to the location of the time bombs.
"boom!"
The thermite's temperature easily caused the explosion, but because it was in an open wasteland, there was no sound as loud as the previous truck explosion; it was noticeable, but not as loud. Without the "firewood", the bombs quickly burned out and turned to ash.
"What do we do now?"
"Let's go back to the SUV and wait for the truck to see if it changes again."
We returned to the SUV and waited for half an hour, which was the time when the truck was supposed to explode. This time, the truck did not explode and naturally did not burn.
"fine?"
Seeing that the truck had not been in an accident, Adenauer restarted the car and continued along Highway 85. After driving for a while, they did not see the rest area again. The road ahead finally changed.
"Network connected."
About two hours later, the SUV's central control reconnected to the network and returned to normal. Frank, who was in the passenger seat, tried it and the time was finally normal.
"It seems we've left that damn place."
"What about the stuff on that truck? Has anything changed?"
"Let me see."
Frank took out the things Adenauer had found in the truck from the center armrest box. The map and wallet were unchanged, so Frank was about to check his mobile phone, but the battery of the mobile phone was suddenly exhausted and now it could not be turned on.
"out of battery?"
"I checked earlier, and the phone's battery is still half full, isn't it?"
"Maybe it has something to do with us leaving that damn place. Let's find a small town or something and try getting a charging cable."
Although they left that strange area and felt tired due to the long period of high concentration, this uncomfortable feeling made it impossible for Frank and Liz to rest. Liz was fine, just had a headache, but Frank was not so comfortable. He was tired and had a headache, which reminded him of the days when he was young and he was anxiously reviewing the test questions in order to pass the police academy exam.
However, thinking about the situation at that time, Frank felt a little more comfortable. In his opinion, even if what he had just experienced was very strange, it was still much better than reviewing the test questions.
Around three or four in the morning, the off-road vehicle Adenauer drove entered a truly uninhabited area on Highway 85. The two sides were no longer barren land, but close to the edge of the desert. Although the weather wasn't particularly hot, strong winds were common, sweeping large amounts of sand from the desert onto Highway 85.
Because the roads here are located in an uninhabited area, they're unlikely to be regularly maintained. Furthermore, the sand covered roads are uneven and bumpy. To ensure the SUV wouldn't break down before reaching Johor Bahru, Adenauer slowed down. The small and medium rocking movements, like a cradle, gradually brought on a feeling of sleepiness.
Liz drowsily kept her eyes open, trying to fight the drowsiness, but it wasn't very effective. Frank, in the passenger seat, had already fallen asleep, exhausted from moving the boxes. The thud of the SUV's wheels over the accumulated gravel on the road became a soporific noise, constantly spreading drowsiness. Liz, struggling to fight the drowsiness, finally gave up and fell asleep in the back seat. Everything seemed very peaceful.
"Abnormal biological fluctuations detected."
"It is blocked and cannot be identified."
But what Frank, Liz, and the spectators outside didn't know was that the contractor's equipment had scanned a huge biological signal somewhere on the outskirts of the desert. Since the detection waves emitted by the contractor's equipment were shielded to a certain extent, the scanned creature must have contained enough energy to shield the contractor's equipment from detection. And because of this, the contractor's equipment was unable to identify the specific data of the creature. So although the current signal showed that the creature should be a big guy, it might not actually be the case.
The distance of the biological signal was beyond Adenauer's perception range, so he could not accurately determine what it was. He could only roughly determine the direction of the other party and its approximate moving speed, which was not accurate. According to the information currently known, the thing on the outskirts of the desert seemed to be moving towards the southeast and was leaving the detection range of the contractor's equipment. Perhaps it was chasing something, or it might have sensed the detection waves emitted by the contractor's equipment and was moving away based on biological instinct.
The objects within this desert seemed unrelated to the dungeon's contents. Based on previous knowledge, the desert's interior was already outside the dungeon's scope. Since there were no quests, Adenauer no longer cared. After all, this world still held many secrets and unexplainable things. While Adenauer enjoyed these unsolved mysteries, he wasn't driven to understand them.
Ten minutes later, a strong wind picked up, dispersing the gravel that had accumulated on the road. Adenauer also sped up, leaving the no-man's land. At 4:30 a.m., Adenauer saw the outline of a small town a few kilometers away. He checked his fuel gauge and saw it was half full. Unfamiliar with the terrain, he wasn't sure when the next gas station would be. So, Adenauer decided to enter the town and refuel.
Soon, Adenauer drove the SUV into town. Luckily, the town's west entrance was only a dozen meters from Highway 85. He entered the town via a connected dirt road and pulled into a gas station. He woke Liz and asked her to fill up the gas tank while he went to the convenience store to buy a charging cable for the phone he had found in the truck.
The convenience store wasn't big, but it was tidy. It wasn't that clean, but the shelves and other things were neatly arranged. There was no one behind the counter. Using my clairvoyance, I scanned the entire store and found it empty. However, there was a lunchbox on the register, the food still warm, suggesting someone had been there recently. There was a public restroom at the very edge of the gas station, and I could confirm there was someone asleep on the toilet inside, presumably a convenience store employee.
Adenauer found a suitable charging cable, grabbed two packs of cigarettes, and took out the cash, including the gas money. He waved it at the surveillance camera and threw it on the counter. Then he left the convenience store and returned to the SUV. The car hadn't finished refueling yet, so he could use this time to check the phone that originally belonged to the truck driver.
With the charging cable, the phone can be turned on. Adenauer checked and found that the time on the phone has also changed to the present time. It is no longer possible to search for things from a year ago. Adenauer searched for the news from that year again and found that the news has also changed. The fire in the truck no longer exists. The news has become a case about the disappearance of three drivers. The photos left at the scene happened to be the boxes scattered on the ground when several people were moving the boxes not long ago.
"???? Progress is progressing, 3/1."
A prompt popped up in the Infinite City system's task panel. While there were no detailed explanations, Adenauer understood its meaning. The truck on Route 85 seemed to be part of a special hidden mission. Organizing the burning of the truck was part of that mission, and the rest of the mission was likely related to finding the three missing workers. However, this particular hidden mission had no hints, leaving Adenauer to figure it out on his own. However, it was generally confirmed that the phone, originally belonging to one of the truck workers, was the key to completing the remaining mission.
"So that truck is a special mission. I have to remember this. If I enter this instance next time, I might be able to give it a try."
"So it seems that the phone in Adenauer's hand should be one of the mission props. When the time comes, we need to find the truck in advance and take it out first."
"Did anyone of you remember the numbers of the boxes where the time bombs were located?"
"I remember it, but it might be random, right? Remembering the number might not be helpful."
"Let's try it, what if it happens?"
"Okay, then I'll post a message and write down the number."
Unlike Adenauer, who had shown little interest in the mission, other players had already begun recording relevant information. One even created a post specifically listing the serial numbers of the time bomb containers they had found. The poster had only casually recorded this information, but unexpectedly, a flood of replies and discussions soon followed, revealing that the number of players who had found the truck on Route 85 seemed to be much higher than expected.
Back to Adenauer, since the mobile phone was of no use at the moment, Adenauer put it aside. The car had just finished refueling, and after Liz got in the car, Adenauer prepared to leave the town and continue heading towards Johor Bahru without staying in the town.
After returning to Highway 85, Adenauer briefly calculated the time required. The straight-line distance between the town and Johor Bahru is about one thousand kilometers. Including the normal road, at the current speed, if there is no stop in the middle, it will take about 15 hours. The current time is about five o'clock. The fastest time to arrive in Johor Bahru should be around eight o'clock in the evening. Including some miscellaneous expenses for stopping in the middle, it is estimated that it should arrive near Johor Bahru before ten o'clock in the evening.
After leaving the small town, the two sides of Highway 85 gradually became less desolate. Although there was still almost nothing in the middle, at least it was not a completely uninhabited area. After driving for two or three hours, Frank woke up. His physical condition was indeed very good and his strength had almost recovered, so he asked Adenauer to stop the car and prepared to take over driving.
After getting off the car, the two did not exchange immediately, but prepared to stop by the roadside to get some water and smoke a cigarette. Liz also wanted to go to the bathroom, so she went to the roadside on the other side of the road.
"Do you think that's a figure?"
"It seems so... Wait a minute, why do I feel like I've seen that guy dressed like that somewhere before?"
"That looks like... isn't that the truck driver who came into the rest area to buy something earlier?!"
As Adenauer and Frank were discharging water, facing the newly risen sun, a staggering figure appeared on the wasteland a few dozen meters in front of them. They quickly recognized each other's appearance. It was one of the truck drivers they had seen at the rest stop. The man seemed to have noticed Adenauer and Frank discharging water, and with unsteady steps, he approached them. He extended his hand, as if wanting to say something.
"Boom."
However, when he was more than 20 meters away from the two men, he fell to the ground due to exhaustion. Adenauer and Frank looked at each other, finished releasing the water, jumped off the road, and ran to the truck worker.
"Let's move him back first."
"Row."