Chapter 385: Preset Ambush Circle
With a loud bang, sand filled the sky, and a scorpion gleaming with a cold metallic luster under the sunlight flew out from within, landing on the sand a few meters away.
"Sand Gold Scorpion, a mutant scorpion that likes to devour metal. It won't actively attack humans." Ai Jia signaled Xu Huo and Wan Tingfang not to panic. After watching She Ping continuously kill several Sand Gold Scorpions, each as long as a person, he said, "There seem to be a lot of scorpions today. I'll go check the vehicle's protective measures."
"Is there anything I can help with?" Xu Huo followed him.
Ai Jia didn't refuse his kindness, telling him to come along, and also instructed Wan Tingfang to stay close to Shi Youzhi and not wander off.
The two circled the vehicle to inspect it. Xu Huo asked with slight confusion, "Aren't there measures to prevent Sand Gold Scorpions?"
"Of course there are," Ai Jia said. "Our transport vehicles have a special frequency protection. Humans can't feel it, but mutated animals, as long as they've evolved to a certain level, will actively avoid this frequency. However, it's hard to guarantee that one or two particularly clever mutated animals won't show up."
As Ai Jia was speaking, he suddenly sank into the sand, as if being violently dragged by something, and in an instant, only his shoulders were left above ground!
Xu Huo, just two meters away, rushed over to save him, but only managed to grab his jacket. The sand buried the spot where he had been standing. At the same time, over a dozen funnel-shaped quicksand vortices appeared on the nearby ground. Xu Huo grabbed his strings and flipped onto the train, then warned Shi Youzhi and the others, "Ai Jia is gone!"
At that moment, a large number of quicksand vortices began to appear around the transport trucks, and the vehicles started to sink from the rear.
"Watch the repair instruments!" Shi Youzhi gave the order, took out a vine, and tapped it in the air toward the transport trucks. The three vehicles detached from the vortices and slowly floated up.
By then, the Orbital Supply Department personnel had split into two groups. Half of them entered the station. One of them threw out a transparent square box. The box rolled on the ground a few times, its volume expanding instantly, and soon became a giant box slightly smaller than the station, covering him and the three repair instruments inside the station. The other seven stood guard outside the box.
Meanwhile, Shi Youzhi's group of seven each boarded the three transport trucks. After activating autopilot, a female team member raised a bubble blower as tall as two people and quickly blew three soap bubbles into the sky.
Once formed, these soap bubbles flew toward the transport trucks respectively, gently squeezing to encase the vehicles. The people on the trucks couldn't touch the soap bubbles, only feeling a light breeze pass by.
However, items that could be used as defensive measures certainly wouldn't be low-level. Xu Huo stepped back to make room for the Supply Department personnel and saw another person pouring an ink-like liquid onto the ground.
As soon as the liquid hit the ground, it automatically floated on top of the sand, quickly covering a large area around the station, turning the original yellow sand zone into a black water region. This water region was almost still, so any disturbance anywhere was exceptionally conspicuous.
Xu Huo spotted at least seven ripple points.
"At least seven targets," She Ping said to Shi Youzhi. "They're after the repair instruments. Do we strike?"
"Wait for Ai Jia," Shi Youzhi said calmly. "This is our turf."
The three giant soap bubbles had completely enveloped the transport trucks. Suddenly, several long arrows made of sand shot out from the black water. They soared into the sky at extreme speed, breaking through the floating clouds above the desert area, then rapidly descended. At their terminal velocity, a shockwave barrier actually appeared at the arrowheads!
"Run!" Wan Tingfang blurted out instinctively, but when he looked back and saw that Shi Youzhi and the others hadn't reacted, he gritted his teeth and retreated further toward the truck, avoiding the impact points of the sand arrows while pulling out a defensive item to shield himself.
Xu Huo didn't move away from Shi Youzhi's group; instead, he took two steps closer.
The Orbital Supply Department personnel handled the situation calmly, either because they knew something was going to happen or because they frequently encountered such sudden events. When it came to experience, they had the upper hand; when it came to items, they were also formidable. Right now, in this place, there was nowhere safer than by their side!
And indeed, that was the case. The sand arrows came fiercely, but upon hitting the soap bubbles, their force was neutralized. The arrow shafts were wrapped by the concave bubble walls, and after a few twists and turns, they turned back into sand.
"Crack, crack..." The soap bubbles made a chewing sound, and after a few moments, they slowly returned to their original shape without any sign of breaking. The transport trucks and the people on them suffered no damage at all.
"That's incredible!" Wan Tingfang blurted out. But as soon as he finished speaking, the sand that was about to be expelled by the soap bubbles suddenly began to multiply exponentially, spreading like bacteria along the bubble surfaces. In the blink of an eye, they had formed a thick layer on the outside!
"Collect!" She Ping tossed a dropper outside. The thing was only as long as a hand, but once it squeezed out of the soap bubble, it stuck to the outside and began to rapidly suck up the sand!
The sand that was about to completely envelop the soap bubble quickly shrank back by half. However, the other two trucks weren't so lucky. Their personnel's items didn't work, and they were instantly wrapped into sand balls. The soap bubbles originally meant to protect them instead became an additional barrier!
"Outer bag, inner flip!" The female team member who had blown the soap bubbles reached out into the air and grabbed the two sand balls. The tops of the sand balls immediately broke open, and the soap bubbles inside rolled outward, flipping from top to bottom, scooping all the sand inside before bursting beneath the vehicles.
A large amount of sand fell back to the ground, but those two transport trucks also lost their protective barrier. The people or things hiding beneath the sand seemed to be waiting for this opportunity. Two mechanical hands, each over ten meters in size, extended from the black water, clasped together high in the air, and pressed down on one of the transport trucks, forcing the vehicle toward the ground!
"Rise!" The team member who had poured out the black water, with the help of another, hung upside down to the ground, took out a broom-like item, and stirred it in the black water. The black liquid covering the desert surface quickly retracted, instantly coating the two metal hands. With a forceful twist, a "creak, creak" sound was heard, and the metal hands, along with the transport truck, fell back to the ground, kicking up heavy waves of sand!
At that moment, not far from where the transport truck had fallen, a sudden explosion occurred. Ai Jia, who had disappeared beneath the desert earlier, flew out, holding a dog leash in his hand. And at the other end of the leash was actually a living person!
But as soon as the two appeared, the person leashed by the dog leash vanished into thin air!
"He used a ticket to escape!" She Ping said angrily. "These players who don't do their jobs properly!"
"There are still three people below," Ai Jia said as he returned to the transport truck. He turned his head to look at the station, furrowing his brow. "Could it be that they're not after the repair instruments?"
Everyone present had the same thought. The only thing here of high value and not easily replaceable was the orbital repair instrument. Game technology was monopolized; even if some game zones could produce them, the game wouldn't allow it. An ambush and encirclement would naturally be for this thing. But from the appearance of the Sand Gold Scorpions up to now, the station hadn't been disturbed in the slightest!