Little Four"s forehead was hurt from the flick. He became more afraid and sobbed. "Boss, just now, I almost became unable to see you again."Little Four"s words dumbfounded Ling Lan. She waited for Little Four"s explanation, but he only held onto her thigh and didn"t say any more.
Sensing Little Four"s fear, Ling Lan softly caressed his hair and said, "Little Four, you have to remember that if you suddenly vanish one day, I will definitely find you. Definitely!"
Ling Lan"s serious tone pacified Little Four"s fearful heart. Little Four"s emotions slowly calmed down. He nodded and answered softly, "Okay, I believe you Boss!"
After she caressed Little Four"s head for a little longer and felt that his emotions were returning to normal, Ling Lan instantly pushed him away and left her minds.p.a.ce in a flash. She rejoiced that all of this had happened in her minds.p.a.ce. No matter how many things happened in her minds.p.a.ce, only one or two minutes would have pa.s.sed in the outside world.
Little Four instantly felt hurt after seeing the empty minds.p.a.ce. Wah wah wah, this little brother was definitely brought up by the step-mom, otherwise Boss wouldn"t have tossed him aside so heartlessly.
After leaving the minds.p.a.ce, Ling Lan immediately told everyone what she had discovered. "Logically, the always sunny Yang side of the sea rarely sees rainfall, so its humidity should be lower than the Yin side of the sea. However, as luck would have it, the humidity is higher than the humidity of the location where we had dropped from…"
Those who could partic.i.p.ate in the mecha tournament were all talented and intelligent people. They knew that the humidity of rainy places was definitely higher than that of sunny areas. Qiao Ting nodded and said, "Regarding this point, it indeed doesn"t make sense."
"Is it possible that before we dropped down, a thunderstorm had just occurred in this area?" Someone brought up a very plausible situation that could have happened.
Everyone looked at Ling Lan in unplanned unison, waiting for her answer.
"Yes, of course, there is that possibility. In order to see if that is true or not, I have decided to wait for half an hour," Ling Lan spoke out her decision. "Looking at the current intensity of the sun, the humidity may decrease in half an hour. This way, just like what that team member said earlier, it would be very possible that a thunderstorm had pa.s.sed before we arrived and the humidity in the air had not dissipated completely. However, if the humidity remains the same and doesn"t decrease, then this sea…"
"This sea could be a trap." Qiao Ting understood the meaning behind Ling Lan"s words and immediately said, "I agree to wait!"
"I also agree!"
"Agreed!"
…
All the team leaders had agreed to wait for half an hour. According to the map, if everything went according to plan, the Yang side of the sea was half an hour away from their headquarters" location. That was why they had 30 minutes to waste.
Just like that, all the members of the First Men"s Military Academy silently waited and 30 minutes quickly pa.s.sed by. Many people were monitoring the humidity levels and they found that the humidity in the air did not decrease during this time, but slowly increased instead.
Qiao Ting saw this situation as well. He raised his head and looked at the blazing sun that was almost above his head. His said worriedly, "What is happening? Why did a situation like this occur?"
Ling Lan didn"t answer, but instead, she asked him, "Captain Qiao, I"m not sure if you"ve heard of The mirage city under the sea?"
Ling Lan"s words stunned everyone present. The Mirage City Under the Sea, or Mirage City for short, was a natural phenomenon that resulted from the refraction of light beams, a mirage created from the light from objects of the ancient Earth refracting light through the atmosphere.
Ever since the resources on ancient Earth were all used up and ultimately became a barren planet, they could only gain knowledge of this mysterious phenomenon through books. They had not witnessed the real thing before, which made them forget about it, and so they would hardly ever think towards this idea. Mirage City was way too far away in the past to them.
"You"re saying that the Yang side of the sea is possibly fake and is like a Mirage City?" Qiao Ting"s face was full of surprise. Something that had disappeared from ancient times had somehow reappeared on this unknown planet? Could it be true?
"Yes, that"s the only way to explain it." Ling Lan was a 21st century Earthling in her past life, although she could only stay in the hospital and not go outside because of her body. However, as someone who enjoyed surfing the Internet and finding out everything about Earth, Ling Lan yearned to witness the phenomenon of Mirage City with her own eyes. That was why when Ling Lan saw that the data was not correlating to what she was seeing, the first thing she thought to was the Mirage City.
"Then where is the real Yang side of the sea?" asked someone who was confused.
Ling Lan turned to look behind her. Right then, she could still see that it was hazy and cloudy. She pointed towards that direction and said, "My guess is that this Mirage City is like a reflection of a mirror. It is very likely that the real side lies before it."
Qiao Ting"s eyes suddenly lit up and he said, "You"re saying that the Yin and Yang side of the sea that we see are all fake. They are all Mirage Cities, like mirrors reflecting each other. So the area where we thought was the Yin side of the sea is the real Yang side of the sea?"
"What I guessed is as you say. Whether that"s the case or not, we will have to return to the original location to know. If we get closer to the Yin side of the sea and the humidity decreases, then my guess would be correct," Ling Lan answered.
The team members heard the conversation between the captains. Ling Lan"s speculations made them very confused, but this could not stop the admiration they felt towards Ling Lan. G.o.d, how much must Captain Ling know to be able to speculate and think of a legend like the Mirage City phenomenon?
Li Lanfeng and Han Jijyun were beside Ling Lan. After hearing Ling Lan"s conjecture, they felt both proud and embarra.s.sed. They were proud because of the remarkable person before them was the boss that was leading them forward. The stronger and more aberrant their boss was, the more they found it an honor. However, they could not refrain from feeling embarra.s.sed. It should be known that this job should have been done by them, as it was the responsibility of strategists, yet in this case, they had let their boss do all the work.
Both of them felt a sense of crisis. At this rate, their positions as strategists wouldn"t be guaranteed anymore. The two of them couldn"t help but smile weakly in their mind. With an aberrant captain who was not lacking in mental and physical strength, there was a lot of pressure on those who, like themselves, used their brains.
Ling Lan"s conjectures received everyone"s approval. When Ling Lan gave the order to return to where they started, not only did no one resist, but some even jokingly said they wanted to go back to experience the accuracy of her hypothesis themselves.
In reality, Ling Lan guesses were on point for everything. The closer they moved towards the Yin side of the sea, the lower the humidity level became. With this, Ling became more certain of her judgment. She ordered all her team members without hesitation to closely follow their teammates who were in the front. She went head first into the white fog, which prevented one from even seeing their own hands.
Visibility in the fog was greatly lowered. In the event of dangers within the fog, Ling Lan and the others did not fly too fast. Every mecha operator was closely watching the teammates that were in front of them, not daring to lose focus. They were afraid that one mistake would make them lose sight of their teammate. When surrounded by fog, the most terrifying thing was to lose sight of one"s teammates.
They flew for about two to three minutes when Ling Lan suddenly found that the fog that she could clearly see earlier, had suddenly cleared completely. Having now escaped the foggy area, Ling Lan saw that she was in the middle of the blazing sun. The strong sunlight shined on the mecha. Even Ling Lan, who was in the c.o.c.kpit, could feel the warmth of the sun.
"Wow, this is the real Yang side of the sea!" The teammates who came out after her excitedly screamed upon seeing the sea with the sun shining brightly before them.
At that moment, Qiao Ting had also led his team out of the fog. He had been monitoring the humidity levels the entire time and when they had entered this area, the humidity had dropped again to a new low. It was just as Ling Lan had guessed—this was the real Yang side of the sea.
"We managed to find the right place… those other contestants from the other military academies who flew into the Mirage City in front of us… won"t they be screwed?" Han Yu, who had been doubtful this whole time, also acknowledged Ling Lan"s judgment. He thought about the cadets from the other military academies who went head first into the fake Yang side of the sea and instantly felt a sense of schadenfreude.
"Hopefully they will realize it soon; otherwise, if they reach land on the Yin side of the sea and then turn around, coming back will be impossible without at least 12 hours." Mu Shaoyu looked at the map in his hands and sighed.
The landing point on the Yin side of the sea was located exactly opposite to the map of the battle royale. At this distance, even for ace operators, six hours wouldn"t be enough for them to come back in time.
After seeing the sea on this side, Ling Lan"s lip curled slightly. She gave herself a pat on the back for the accurate hypothesis. Despite her confident behavior, in reality, she had still been feeling somewhat anxious before seeing this outcome.
"All units a.s.semble. Each team is to take a roll call. If all members are accounted for, then we will move forward at full speed." Ling Lan quickly gave a new order. All teams had counted their own team members and reported to Ling Lan. In the end, they made sure that there was no one missing from the group.
Now without worry, Ling Lan led all her team members to advance at maximum speed. After flying tirelessly for a little over an hour, they finally saw the sh.o.r.eline of the Yang side of the sea. The cl.u.s.ter of mountain ranges worked people up and excited them, the reason being that the headquarters location which belonged to them, the Area G17, was situated on a mountain not far from the mountain ranges they were seeing.
Qiao Ting and the others saw the mountain ranges and instantly let out a sigh of relief. Going through that sort of long-distance flying in a seemingly endless sea would cause one to become greatly exhausted. Upon being able to see land, the group"s spirits were lifted and they seemed to become slightly less tired.
Ling Lan and her group should be the first group to get close to this area. They flew over the mountain ranges, but didn"t find any cadets from the other military academies. Very soon, they found the Area G17 that belonged to them and put the beacon that represented their headquarters in a random corner.
Right then, thousands of miles away, on the 5 by 7 meter humongous screen in the main security room of the mecha tournament"s battle royale, the light of the Area G17, which was originally among the grayed out areas of the large map, lit up.