Pei Ran thought for a moment. “Although I’m not one myself, I’ve always deeply respected those who are willing to sacrifice themselves. I hope people like that never go extinct in this world. Because they die far too quickly.”
W remained silent, saying nothing. After a while, he finally spoke: “I’ve already transmitted this set of coordinates back to Black Well.”
He said, “This set of coordinates must be extremely important. There’s probably something we’ve been searching for all along. Black Well has just deployed aircraft, carrying bombs, over there.”
Fortunately, this metal sphere was here.
If it were only Pei Ran and other civilians, in a situation where they couldn’t write, they’d have to memorize the string of numbers Captain Xiao reported, and who knows when they’d be able to enter Black Well and meet someone from there to relay the coordinates.
With W here, he could send the coordinates back immediately.
At least Captain Xiao hadn’t died in vain.
The group continued forward in silence. In the tunnel, only the echo of footsteps could be heard. The bright white light reflected off the tunnel’s metal framework.
The exit was not far ahead.
Just like the entrance, the exit also had a metal door installed. There was a hole where the lock used to be—likely blasted open by gunfire. The door was tightly shut, firmly blocked with a pile of discarded building materials. It was clearly Captain Xiao’s doing.
He had been so seriously injured—no one knew how he managed to struggle through and do all that. Maybe at that time, the corrosive liquid hadn’t yet penetrated that deeply.
He blocked the door like that, surely because he was being pursued by something. That thing was relatively weak and couldn’t break through the door that had materials stacked against it. Maybe it was also a swarm of fragmented drones.
Pei Ran gestured for everyone to be quiet, and gently, step by step, began moving the materials blocking the door.
The others immediately came up to help, all moving with silent, careful hands, but without being slow. In a short while, they had cleared the doorway.
W said, “I listened carefully. There are no unusual sounds outside.”
Pei Ran gently pulled the door open, creating a narrow gap.
Outside was the same reddish-brown ground, and the sky stretched endlessly, clean and clear, with no sign of fusion entity drone swarms. But not far from the door, something special was quietly parked—
A silver-black aircraft.
The aircraft had a modern design, streamlined all over, like a droplet of frozen silver-black liquid—clearly not an antique.
The aircraft had a semi-transparent cockpit. There was no one inside.
W said, “This should be the aircraft Captain Xiao piloted.”
He said, “It’s from Black Well’s production line. These past few days, they’ve been rushing to modify existing aircraft. Because of a temporary shortage of resources, the number of modified aircraft is very limited—only a few units.”
“These aircraft have no text on the exterior or interior. The control and hover systems have also been optimized and can operate in dormant mode. Since there are so few of them, they’re mainly used for reconnaissance and special missions.”
This aircraft had a beautiful design, but now it looked somewhat worn and tattered.
The top of the cockpit, just like Captain Xiao’s combat uniform, had been severely corroded by some unknown substance, with a large portion blown open. There were also speckled traces of corrosion on the fuselage and the tail, as if something had splashed onto it.
It could be inferred that Captain Xiao and the other lieutenant were attacked while piloting the aircraft. The lieutenant’s fate was unknown—possibly killed in action—while Captain Xiao managed to make an emergency landing here and took refuge in the tunnel alone.
Pei Ran cautiously stepped out of the tunnel and, together with W, carefully surveyed the surroundings. After confirming there were no signs of fragmented drone swarms, he waved to signal the others to come out.
Pei Ran walked around the aircraft once, inspecting it up and down.
The aircraft door was still half open. On the control panel, a screen was still lit, but it only displayed a fine grid and a few icons—no text was shown.
Next to it were levers and buttons, also without any labeled characters. At the very front was a whole row of indicator lights, and quite a few of them were still lit.
Captain Xiao must have been in a very urgent situation at the time—he rushed out of the aircraft and took shelter in the tunnel, while the aircraft was left still running.
Inside the cockpit were two seats, one in front and one in back.
Pei Ran studied it carefully. “It looks like it can still fly?”
W: “That’s right. The aircraft doesn’t seem to be seriously damaged. Only the signal transmitter light is malfunctioning—probably because the component was corroded. No wonder the Captain wasn’t able to send the coordinates back to Black Well in time.”
Pei Ran recalled that Captain Xiao had a wristband as well, though it looked different from an ordinary civilian one—much sturdier. But the black block on the wristband had also been burned through by the corrosive liquid.
Pei Ran stared at the aircraft for a moment, deep in thought, then came to a conclusion:
“So we found an unclaimed aircraft in the mining area, no idea where it came from. Taking it for a spin shouldn’t be a big deal, right?”
W: “…”
The metal sphere rotated slightly, its black eye scanning the surroundings.
This group had old and young alike, surviving countless life-or-death situations to finally reach this point.
Everyone was in a sorry state, covered in red dust, exhausted and worn out.
There were less than ten kilometers left ahead, still a grueling trek for them—but if they could fly, it would only take a few minutes.
W paused for a moment, then responded, “I’ve checked. The Federation has no regulations prohibiting civilians from using found aircraft, as long as it’s reported and turned in promptly.”
Pei Ran mused, “If we found an aircraft, of course we have to turn it in. Since we’re turning it in, we obviously need to fly it to Black Well. And since we’re the ones handing it over, we naturally have to go together.”
The logic was perfectly smooth.
W was silent for a moment, but still offered a suggestion: “This type of aircraft has only two seats, but carrying three people is not a problem.”
That was great news.
The others were also studying the aircraft. Tang Dao patted Pei Ran on the shoulder, pointed to the aircraft, and made a gesture of soaring into the sky.
Pei Ran nodded.
She turned around to face everyone and mimed the action of “carrying” someone into the cockpit. Then she spread both hands to her sides, pretending they were wings, flapping them as she “flew” forward, ran a couple of steps, “flew” to the side, set the imaginary person down, then flapped her wings again and flew back to carry the next group.
W seemed to laugh by her ear.
He said, “Your wing flapping is very soulful.”
Pei Ran: “Your Level-10 natural language setting—isn’t it a little too natural? Should I dial it back?”
W: “I think it’s fine. I don’t really want to dial it back.”
Regardless of how Pei Ran was flapping her wings, the others had already completely understood what she meant—she intended to use this aircraft to transport people to the entrance of Black Well in batches.
Pei Ran pointed to the child from the family of three, then pointed at Engineer Jiang—currently the youngest and oldest people in the group.
But Engineer Jiang shook her head and gently pushed the child’s mother forward.
This place was still dangerous. After a long, grueling journey, she was clearly exhausted, yet she was unwilling to go first.
Pei Ran didn’t insist. She let the child and her mother board the aircraft with her.
She pointed to a spot near the window where some residual corrosive liquid remained, signaling for them to be careful and avoid touching it.
The mother understood what Pei Ran meant. She gave her a thumbs-up to reassure her, then carefully led her daughter to climb into the back seat.
Pei Ran also got in and sat in the pilot’s seat.
She sat up straight, placed the metal sphere beside her, and calmly asked, “So… how do I fly this thing?”
W: “…”
W probed first: “Pei Ran, do you have experience flying any type of aircraft? But I’m not counting hovercars that can auto-takeoff and land.”
Pei Ran answered honestly, “Nope.”
W muttered under his breath, “Thought so.”
Pei Ran: “Hm?”
W: “Nothing.”
W had already known—if she dared to drive an antique car without a license, swerving all over the road, then she’d definitely dare to fly an aircraft without a license, zipping all over the sky.
W said, “Hold on. I’m generating a visual guide for the flight procedure.”
His drawing speed was as fast as ever. Pei Ran’s wristband received it immediately.
It was a complete set of images, showing Pei Ran sitting in the exact same cockpit. The illustrations were as vivid as photographs.
That dam drawing of his had once received Pei Ran’s high praise, and it seemed to have lifted a mental block for him. Now, when making diagrams, he no longer added any unnecessary artistic touches—the drawings were as realistic as photos, without any psychological resistance.
The sequence diagrams were drawn very clearly and precisely. Pei Ran looked through each one carefully from beginning to end, stopping at the final image.
In the last image, she had successfully landed the aircraft.
Pei Ran looked at the picture and muttered, “Landed. I flew it pretty well.”
W: “…”
Pei Ran began following the steps shown in the diagrams, pressing the buttons on the control panel one by one. This time, all the lights on the panel lit up—except for the signal transmitter light.
Pei Ran compared everything with the diagrams again and asked W, “What’s this red button? It looks like you never pressed it at any point in the guide.”
W looked over as well. “Oh, that’s the bomb release button.”
Pei Ran: “…”
This aircraft actually had a bomb onboard.
Pei Ran asked, “If I press it, it drops the bomb?”
“Correct,” W said. “Captain Xiao was carrying out an important reconnaissance bombing mission this time, so this aircraft is equipped with one NG_y8-type bomb.”
Pei Ran understood. “So if I fly to Black Well’s entrance and accidentally drop it, I’ll blow up the entrance to Black Well?”
W replied, “That won’t happen, because the NG_y8-type bomb requires remote detonation. But it’s extremely valuable. Black Well doesn’t have many of them at the moment. So if you accidentally drop it, it won’t explode—but you will have to go back and pick it up.”
Alright then.
Pei Ran pulled down the lever.
Without any warning, the aircraft whooshed into a hover, startling everyone.
Now that it had risen a little, the view was much better. Pei Ran scanned the surroundings first.
Thankfully, there were no signs of fusion entity drone swarms in the sky.
W suggested, “To be cautious, we’d better not fly too high. Stay close to the ground. If there are fused aircraft-drones, flying low makes us less likely to be detected, and it’ll also be easier to find cover at any time.”
It was a good suggestion, and Pei Ran agreed.
She even had the leisure to tilt her head and point to the tunnel beside the group on the ground—Ai Xia and the others—signaling the ones staying behind not to stand outside, but to hide inside the tunnel. Only then did she yank the second lever all the way down.
Whoosh! The aircraft shot out into the sky.
Everyone: “…”
The mother and child in the back seat had already fastened their seatbelts. The metal sphere, though lacking a seatbelt, was highly experienced—it had already used two folded arms to secure itself firmly, and didn’t get flung out either.
Pei Ran quickly realized that this type of hovercraft-style aircraft was ridiculously easy to fly.
It felt even easier than driving an antique car. Flying through the open sky, with nothing to block her—up, down, left, right, she could go anywhere she wanted. There was no need to worry about crashing into anything, and no wheels to get stuck in the mud.
She kept the small aircraft hovering just above the ground, stepped on the pedal to adjust direction, and began flying at full speed.
The red-brown wilderness stretched out beneath her, rolling toward the distant horizon. All the deep and shallow, uneven ravines no longer posed any problem—no more climbing up and down, she simply flew right over them.
When she encountered a raised cliff, she just had to tug the lever slightly and soared right over it.
With the skylight torn open in a large hole, only the whistling of the wind filled her ears. The aircraft, like a free bird, shot forward at great speed.
The distance of less than ten kilometers took only a minute or two.
Pei Ran finally saw the large fissure W had mentioned.
Just as W had described, it was the largest fissure in the area. Seen from afar, it looked like a giant mouth opening in the ground, stretching wide—completely unmistakable.
While still in the sky, Pei Ran saw that within this gaping mouth was a large white stone—very striking against the red earth.
Pei Ran’s palms were slightly sweaty: this was the destination they had traveled so far and endured so much to reach—the end of this difficult journey, the entrance to Black Well.
Unfortunately, they still couldn’t enter yet.
She piloted the aircraft closer. “W, how’s the standard for accepting civilians coming along?”
W replied, “There was a temporary interruption in the meeting due to changes on the northern battlefield, but discussions have resumed. For now, there’s still no official result.”
After such a difficult journey, they could only hope the outcome would be a favorable one.
Following the procedural diagram, Pei Ran pushed the control lever and gradually lowered the aircraft’s altitude.
The aircraft’s body gave a small jolt, red dust puffed up, and it successfully landed.
Pei Ran opened the cockpit door and let the mother and daughter in the back seat get off, pointing to the side.
There was a large sloping cliff face extending outward there, offering cover—if any drone swarms happened to fly overhead, it would be hard to spot them.
The mother understood Pei Ran’s meaning, held her daughter’s hand, and ran over to hide beneath the cliff.
Aerial taxi driver Pei Ran closed the cockpit door and took off again.
In under two minutes, she flew back to the tunnel at the mining area.
The rest of the people, just as she instructed, were waiting obediently inside the tunnel. Though the door was wide open, they were all crowded near the entrance, gazing up at the sky.
When they saw her fly back safely—clearly having successfully dropped off the mother and daughter at the destination—everyone visibly relaxed, faces full of relief and joy.
This time, Pei Ran was transporting Ai Xia and Engineer Jiang.
Now familiar with the controls, her handling in the air was even smoother than before. Pei Ran flew faster than the last trip—taking just over a minute to bring Ai Xia and Engineer Jiang to Black Well’s entrance.
The moment they were steady on the ground, Pei Ran shot back up into the air like an arrow.
And so she flew back and forth, again and again, quickly becoming a practiced hand.
Under the cliff at Black Well’s entrance, a large group had already gathered—even the troublemaking Nuomituan had followed its owner over.
That parrot could sing far too well—everyone was a little scared of it and kept their distance. Inaya was also very self-aware, sitting alone in a quiet corner far from the others.