Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 167 - 163: Air Travel

Chapter 167: Chapter 163: Air Travel

"Luo’er, Luo’er!" Luo’er hadn’t relaxed for long before she heard Tangmo’s call coming from outside the wooden box.

This wooden box was just a simple wooden crate without a nailed lid. Naturally, it wouldn’t have a nailed lid, so the people hiding inside could easily lift the lid and come out.

Luo’er pushed open the lid of the wooden box and found that the team members, for some reason, had all already opened the lids of their boxes. Hu Daoke and Cheng Ziang, the two quarreling partners, were arguing. The two girls in the box next to Luo’er had also stuck their heads out.

"Everyone stay put, the airboat hasn’t taken off yet. Those people could still come in to check." Luo’er urged.

"It’s a bit stuffy." Tangmo frowned and said.

"Make do, it’s better than walking." Luo’er comforted.

"Luo’er, let me hide with you." Tangmo suddenly brightened up and asked him, looking expectant.

"No way, what are you thinking?" Luo’er said a bit helplessly.

Refused by Luo’er with a single sentence, Tangmo seemed a bit deflated. After a moment, she suggested again, "How about letting Yue’er hide with you!"

Before Luo’er could respond, Baiyue was already frantically shaking her head in refusal. The thought of being alone with Luo’er turned her cheeks red all the way to her ears.

"Your broken sword keeps hitting me." The voices of Hu Daoke and Cheng Ziang arguing were getting louder.

"As if your broken gun doesn’t take up space!" Cheng Ziang rolled his eyes and retorted without courtesy.

"Both of you be quiet, don’t alert those High-peak people." Luo’er warned them.

"Did you hear that, quiet down!" Hearing Luo’er’s words, Hu Daoke immediately lowered his voice, but he still wouldn’t let it go.

"You were the one who started it!" Cheng Ziang retorted.

"Quiet down, the airboat seems to be taking off." Tangmo interrupted their argument and said, frowning.

Not long after, everyone felt the vibration and the airboat started to shake. This should be caused by the uneven output of the four anti-gravity engines distributed in various locations of the airboat. It would stabilize after adjusting its posture for a while.

The shaking lasted for a while, then gradually subsided. At this point, everyone felt an invisible pressure pushing down on them. This feeling was similar to what they experienced when riding an elevator on Earth, most likely because the airboat was ascending steadily.

There were several round portholes on either side of the cargo hold, providing ample light so that it wouldn’t be too dark. Luo’er glanced at the portholes. He remembered when they were first transported into the cargo hold, he could see the tops of the airport buildings outside the portholes through the cracks between the wooden planks. However, now, apart from the blue sky and white clouds, he couldn’t see a thing.

"If we’ve taken off, let’s get lively then!" Hu Daoke stretched his neck, turned over and jumped out of the wooden box, wandering around in the cargo hold.

Influenced by him, the others also climbed out of their boxes and began to wander around in the cargo hold.

"Wow, we’re flying so high, we’re in the air!" The two girls came to the porthole and couldn’t help but exclaim when they saw the tiny houses on the ground.

"The space is quite big, these people don’t fill up the cargo hold." Hu Daoke said, checking the cargo in the hold, which was mostly food and some daily necessities. After all, it was just the beginning of spring, thus, these items were needed in Helros.

Luo’er still remembered the introduction to Helros that he heard during the information summary before the operation. This was the largest city of the High-peak people and the only city they had established on a mountain.

Helros was located in the middle of the Aifansi Mountain Range in Ronisca. The city was situated halfway up the mountain. The High-peak people, with their fervent pursuit of the sky, leveled several mountains and established a large city of around one hundred thousand people on the mountainside.

Transportation in Helros was inconvenient. Apart from the icy water brought down from the snow on the mountain, practically all the city’s daily supplies had to be carried up from below. Fortunately, they had efficient airboat technology, which made it possible to supply the city on the mountain.

Of course, this was the only mountain city of the High-peak people. Aside from Helros, all the cities the High-peak people subsequently chose were dutifully located by the riverside on the plains, which was convenient for production and development.

Although the population of Helros was only over a hundred thousand, plus the influx of people, it wouldn’t exceed one hundred and fifty thousand. But this city boasted the strongest air force on the entire continent, the largest air harbors were located in the southeast of the city, where nearly half of the High-peak people’s air force was stationed.

Simultaneously, Helros was an essential industrial city for the High-peak people. As it lay on the mountain, they drilled mines directly into the mountain body and used the depleted mines as industrial bases. All the industrial technology acquired from Earth was digested and implemented in this city. Hence, Helros had many advanced military technological products of the High-peak people.

Most of the items transported by this airboat, Valan, were daily necessities and food, with the majority being daily necessities. Before the outbreak of the two Otherworld wars, the High-peak people’s food production had been unable to improve, forcing them to carefully control their population size.

Only after the outbreak of the two Otherworld wars did they receive agricultural production technology from Earth, including a large amount of cold-resistant crop seeds. Ronisca was located at high latitudes. As the eastern mountains blocked the inflow of warm and humid air, the average temperature in Ronisca was around 0-10 degrees. Therefore, the spread of cold-resistant crops greatly alleviated their food pressure.

The two girls marvelled by the porthole, while Hu Daoke wandered around the cargo hold. With him out of the way, Cheng Ziang leisurely slept in the boxes. Luo’er climbed out of the box and stretched her limbs.

Although the High-peak people wouldn’t often come to inspect the cargo hold, they still needed to be cautious so as not to expose their identities and get caught.

"There’s everything here, even fruit wine. It should be fine to take a bottle and taste it, right?" Hu Daoke mused aloud. Before Luo’er could stop him, he had already opened a bottle of fruit wine and gulped it down.

Luo’er sighed and didn’t bother stopping him. Anyway, they were hitching a ride and wouldn’t be returning by airboat. If something got lost, the High-peak people wouldn’t know who to blame.

The cargo hold was a closed environment, so it carried all sorts of smells. Luo’er took a few steps and immediately sniffed a familiar but indistinguishable scent in the air.

"What’s wrong, boss?" Hu Daoke, burping from the alcohol, asked.

"Don’t you smell something like oil?" Luo’er asked, wrinkling her brow.

"No, just the smell of wine." He retched again.

"Stop drinking. If they come to inspect and smell the alcohol, it would be disastrous." Luo’er waved dismissively.

With a thoughtful look, he wondered why this smell was so familiar. Suddenly, he seemed to understand something. He returned to the wooden box where he was hiding, and dug his AK rifle out of the straw.

Quickly, he cocked the gun and sniffed hard. Indeed, no wonder it was so familiar - it was the smell of gun oil.

"What’s up?" Noticing Luo’er’s unease, Cheng Ziang climbed out of the box to ask.

"There’s a smell of gun oil. There may be weapons in this cargo hold!" Luo’er said, his face grave.

"Weapons, isn’t that normal?" Cheng Ziang leaned on the edge of the wooden box and asked.

"That’s not normal," Luo’er shook his head, "Wang Xu said that the High-peak people’s weapon procurement definitely involves their air force transporting the weapons. They wouldn’t entrust commercial airboats to transport them."

"Maybe they just don’t have enough air force transport airboats." Cheng Ziang shrugged.

"The High-peak people don’t allow their people to own weapons, only their military can have them. So there’s no demand for weapon procurement among their civilians." Luo’er analyzed, "And these weapons are stacked with all sorts of goods. The strangest thing is that they haven’t sent anyone to guard them."

"Are you suggesting someone is using this airboat to smuggle weapons?" Cheng Ziang guessed.

"I’m not sure," Luo’er shook his head, "It could be that I smelled wrong. Anyway, we should search first and see if there really are weapons mixed in with these goods."

"Hm!" Cheng Ziang nodded and vaulted out of his box.

"Moumou, Yue’er, start searching around to see if there are any firearms or similar weapons." Luo’er instructed.

"Okay!" The pair nodded and began searching.

"Stop drinking and start searching!" Cheng Ziang kicked Hu Daoke, looking exasperated.

"Why are you kicking me? I’m not causing any trouble." Hu Daoke frowned, rubbing his kicked spot, and joined the search after a burp.

The cargo hold wasn’t packed with goods and had quite a bit of space. With the light coming in from the portholes, the overall environment was not bad.

The outer shell of the airboat was made of metal. Numerous rivets joined steel plates together. Parts of the floor were made of wood, designed to ensure strength while adding comfort.

Above the cargo hold was the passenger cabin. This was a dual-purpose airboat, hence the sparse cargo. Being a closed environment, they could easily hear all sorts of sounds coming from the deck above.

The airboat continued ascending. Luo’er took a quick glance outside and saw they were already in the clouds.

As they were searching, they suddenly heard a loud propeller buzz from outside, followed by the airboat moving forward.

Hu Daoke, already a bit dazed from the alcohol, was caught off guard by the movement. He staggered backward and collided with a stack of wooden boxes. The clattering metallic sound from inside the boxes gave everyone a start.

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