Mya said, “Those men are from Black Mamba.”Adrian beckoned at them and said, “Let’s follow them and find out the situation over there.”“Okay,” Mya answered.The trio quickly headed for the lake, staying behind Black Mamba at all times. They walked for roughly an hour but they still had yet to reach the lake. In fact, it did not look like they were getting any closer. There was no change in the distance. Black Mamba’s initially excited members were exhausted after running for an hour. A few people had already collapsed under the blazing sun. It was clear that they were not to survive until they reached the lake.“Let’s not walk anymore.” Adrian stopped because he could sense that the situation was off. If there really was a lake, they would have reached it in half an hour in view of the distance. If the distance was that far, they would not be able to see the lake at all. It was a lake and not a mountain after all. If it was a mountain, one could see it from afar, but this w
Adrian sat on a dune and pondered deeply. He had to figure out the lake, or it would be difficult for them to walk out of the desert. He considered every possibility to eliminate all the possible occurrences.About ten minutes later, Adrian opened his eyes and said to Gloria and Mya, “Close our eyes. We’ll try walking with our eyes closed.”“Walk with our eyes closed?” Mya was stunned. Was walking closed-eyed through a desert not akin to a headless chicken?Adrian beckoned and said, “We might be able to walk out of the desert with our eyes closed.”He did not explain further and placed Gloria on his back. He then grabbed Mya’s hand and said, “Close your eyes and don’t speak, just walk. When I tell you to open your eyes, open them.”The two women followed his instructions. Adrian started to walk forward, with one hand pulling Mya along and Gloria on his back. The three of them walked in the direction of the lake with their eyes shut. There was no concern of hitting something in
In other words, they were at the farmhouse when their eyes were shut, but were back out in the desert as soon as they opened their eyes. The video continued to play and dozens of corpses showed up on the screen, lying all throughout the farmhouse’s yard. Then a few other figures appeared in the video—the people from Black Mamba. They were walking through the yard.“Those corpses are the bodies of the Wyvern Peak seniors we saw earlier. Aren’t they out in the desert? How did they end up in the yard?” Gloria was extremely astonished to see the corpses on the screen. Mya was astounded and looked at Adrian in a daze. “What’s going on, Adrian? It feels like we’ve been in the yard all this time but we just can’t walk out of it. Are we hallucinating?”Adrian shook his head. “This isn’t a hallucination. It’s real. The yard is the desert, and I believe that there’s some sort of magic circle protecting the farmhouse. The desert that we see is actually an illusion. The desert doesn’t exist.”
They shut their eyes and lost count of how long they had been riding the camel.Suddenly, the blazing heat ceased to exist and the air turned gloomy and cold. It felt as if the surrounding area had changed, and the camel stopped walking.Mya asked, “Can we open our eyes now? It doesn’t feel like the desert anymore.”“I think we’ve gotten out of there,” said Gloria. Adrian hesitated for a while. Then, he slowly opened his eyes. He realized they had entered a forest. There were beautiful flowers and singing birds everywhere, while a farmhouse sat quietly ahead of them. The camel that they rode had vanished.It was as if they were still in the same place and had not left. Gloria and Mya opened their eyes and looked at their surroundings in astonishment.Mya asked, “What’s going on? Where’s the desert?”Gloria was astounded as well. Words could not describe the situation that was happening here. Other than the farmhouse, everything else had vanished. The trio looked toward the
After Adrian picked Gloria up, the three of them walked on. The forest proved to be pretty small, and they managed to exit it and reach a highway about an hour later.Cars drove past on the highway. Adrian immediately said to Mya, “Go offer to buy one of the cars. Noirsandians are friendly, so just talk to them nicely.”Mya made an “okay” gesture and stepped onto the highway to wave down the passing cars. One car stopped. There were a few men sitting inside, and they spoke in Norsand.“Hello, beautiful. Can we help you? Would you like a ride?”Mya pulled out a huge stack of Navien bills from her bag that she flashed to the men in the car. She said in Norsand, “I’d like to buy your car with this money. Will you sell it to me?”That stack of bills was worth a few thousand dollars at the very least. A few thousand in Navien Dollars was worth a few hundred thousand dollars in Noirsandia. These people would become instantly rich if they exchanged these Navien bills at the bank. The
The trio walked into the restaurant. As Mya went to the counter to order, Adrian and Gloria got a table. Adrian removed his coat and draped it across Gloria’s shoulders to keep her warm against Northsea’s cold. He then took a seat and studied the map to draft up a plan for their arrival at Bortuguesa. It did not take long before Mya came over with a jug of hot coffee. She sat down and said, “I talked with the manager and found out that the ship to Bortuguesa will be departing at seven o’clock tonight. We have three hours till then. There’s only one ship that travels to Bortuguesa from here, and it only makes the trip once a month. If we miss tonight’s ship, it’ll be another month before the next one.”Upon hearing this, Adrian said, “Then let’s head off after our meal so we don’t waste time.”Mya answered, “Okay. We’ll need to ask around for the miracle doctor once we get to Bortuguesa. The country is pretty small—only the size of a city. It should be easy to get information there.
It was common to encounter individuals who were arrogant and ignorant of their limitations in a small place like this. These people behaved as if they were overlords who had absolute control over people’s lives. Adrian stood up and walked toward Don Black.The man known as Don Black was puzzled when he saw Adrian approaching. He then flew into a great rage and pointed the gun at Adrian, roaring in rage, “Who the heck are you, boy? How dare you stand up in my presence! Do you not know you’re a slave?”Adrian furrowed his eyebrows and exuded a murderous air. He continued to walk toward Don Black without uttering a word. Don Black was startled but continued to say angrily, “I’m speaking to you, boy. Are you blind or deaf?”All the guns pointed toward Adrian. Don Black never expected someone to have the courage to provoke him. He was so furious that he fired a shot. With a whistle, the bullet flew toward Adrian, who stretched out his right hand to catch it. He then tossed the bull
Thud. Don Black’s body hit the ground, his eyes widened in fear. The moment he collapsed, the restaurant patrons stood up and looked at Adrian as if he was an angel. They were shocked. “Thank you!”“Thank you!”The patrons went up to shake Adrian’s hand.These people’s lives were decided by others, and similar incidents like this occurred frequently in these parts. Many innocents died every time this happened. Yet today, someone had killed the wildly conceited Don Black. One of the local major troublemakers had been eliminated. “Let’s finish our meal.”After taking out Don Black, Adrian returned to his seat and continued to eat. Due to the incident, he decided that they should leave as quickly as possible. The trio quickly polished off their food and left as dusk started settling in.They rushed to Northshore Port, and it was already dark by the time they arrived. The place was brightly lit, and the ship parked in the water was ready to depart. Adrian, Gloria, and Mya saw a