Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 168 - 164: Unexpected Gains

Chapter 168: Chapter 164: Unexpected Gains

Luo’er and Cheng Ziang exchanged glances. As the airboat began to slow down, they approached Hu Daoke. Cheng Ziang rudely grabbed Hu Daoke and tossed him aside, then took hold of the pile of wooden crates stacked together and gave them a shake, once again hearing the sound of metal clashing within.

The wooden crates were sealed with nails. Cheng Ziang inspected them, then returned to the wooden box where he had taken shelter, retrieved his longsword, unsheathed it, and inserted it into a gap in the crate before forcefully prying upwards.

The wooden crate popped open with the sword’s leverage, revealing its contents. The two leaned in and discovered that, like before, the crate was filled with straw but this time, they found traces of firearms.

Cheng Ziang withdrew his longsword, then forcefully pried open the lid of the wooden crate. Luo’er reached in and pulled out a rifle.

It was an automatic rifle resembling a Russian-made AKS74U. The metallic stock was folded in, and the distinctive bell-shaped muzzle brake was visible on the short barrel. However, this wasn’t the original small-calibre rifle; it was a newly produced 7.62 caliber model, as visible by the 7.62X39 inscription on the gun body. This is a customary marking on all weapons produced after the signing of the Arms Export Principles, reminding Otherworld inhabitants to use the correct ammunition.

Luo’er ejected the magazine. It was a traditional steel AK magazine, not the orange ones. The magazine was filled with bullets; Luoer inspected it and found that the rifle’s components showed no signs of wear. It seemed that these guns were fresh from the factory, never having been fired.

"Damn," Hu Daoke exclaimed, surprised, as he watched Luo’er pull a rifle from the crate. He also took out another one to play with, "This is the 762 model, and it’s still full of bullets!"

Luo’er began to feel that something was off. If they were just purchasing weapons, who would load the magazines full of bullets? He checked and found that there were four guns in a crate, factoring in the magazines attached to the rifles, each firearm was equipped with an average of four magazines, each filled with bullets.

Now, Luo’er was leaning more towards the possibility that someone intended to use these weapons onboard the airboat, as otherwise, the ammunition would typically be stored separately from the weapons during procurement. It seemed unlikely that someone would deliberately load the bullets before transporting the weapons.

"What do you think?" Luo’er, unsure, turned to Cheng Ziang for advice.

After counting the crates, Cheng Ziang estimated there were around eight. That meant there were thirty-two guns and a hundred and twenty-eight magazines. If each magazine was full, that would mean almost four thousand rounds of ammunition in those few crates.

"I suspect there’s probably more gear that goes with these guns nearby!" After some contemplation, Cheng Ziang also inclined towards the theory that someone was planning to do something on the airboat.

After a more thorough search, they indeed found more equipment, such as tactical vests, in another pile of wooden crates.

"Could this be gear for those High-peak guards?" Hu Daoke suggested, skeptical.

"It’s unlikely," Luo’er shook his head in denial, "If it were the guards’ weapons and gear, there’s no way it would be mixed with the cargo."

"Maybe the city’s army just wanted to take a shortcut and loaded the bullets in advance so they could just put them on as soon as they arrived at Helros," suggested Hu Daoke.

"Who has so much spare time to load the bullets for transportation? Are the army over there so impatient to gear up that they’re rushing to be reincarnated?" Cheng Ziang retorted with a roll of his eyes.

"For now, it might be best for us to go investigate the passenger cabin and see if anyone there is planning something," Luo’er suggested thoughtfully.

In addition to carrying cargo, the Valan airboat was also transporting over a hundred passengers. Including the crew, the total number of people on board was around one hundred and fifty. This was already an astonishingly large number, considering the capacity of an Earth commercial airliner is typically about a hundred people or so.

As far as Luo’er remembered, information compiled before the operation mentioned that passengers on airboats weren’t allowed to carry weapons. Their weapons had to be surrendered to the crew for safekeeping, and they would only be returned to the passengers upon arrival at Helros,

Which would mean that these weapons couldn’t belong to disarmed passengers either unless the crew of this airboat had lost their minds. It was unlikely they would throw the weapons they were supposed to be safeguarding into the cargo hold.

It seemed that not only had they been smuggled onto the airboat along with the cargo, but some items that shouldn’t have been there were also on board. It appeared that whoever had been in charge of inspecting the cargo likely received a double payback for letting this slide.

"Who’s going?" Hu Daoke asked.

"Umm..." Luo’er scanned his companions before responding, having sorted out his thoughts.

"Ziang, Moumou, you two go investigate the cargo hold," commanded Luo’er.

"Us?" Tangmo pointed to himself, looking nervous and unsure.

"Yes, you two. The rest of us aren’t suitable," explained Luo’er, "I’m a half-elf. There’s no chance I could get on board. Little Ke is a half-beastman, and his appearances are too distinctive. Yue’er is solitary, likely to raise suspicions. Therefore, you two are the best choices."

Luo’er’s arrangement was logical. Cheng Ziang was mixed-blood from the Aud, and he looked more like an Audian than an Earthling. Tangmo was a half-dwarf, and despite having more Earthling features, her dwarf lineage enabled her to blend in with their group easily.

Among the various races in the Otherworld, Dwarves were not insular. On the contrary, many of them intermarried with other races. Hence, in the Dwarven nation, there were quite a lot of mixed races.

In fact, among all the races in the Otherworld, Elves were the most exclusive. The other races, to a varying degree, tolerated mixed races. Of course, Beastmen were also exclusive, but their exclusivity was not due to concerns about blood purity, but rather because they had reproductive isolation from all other races except the Human Race. Thus, the Otherworld would only ever see Half-beastmen, but never mixed races with Beastmen and other races.

"Both of you must lay low and avoid alerting those guards. Make no unnecessary moves when they ask for your tickets," Luo’er warned.

Although the Headquarters also prepared tickets for them, these tickets were all forged. If they were to use them to check in, they would probably only end up squeezing among those passengers who genuinely held tickets.

"Understood," the two of them nodded.

After making the necessary preparations, they arrived at a secret passage connecting the cargo hold and the cabin. It was an emergency escape route, which they found in the manual of the Airboat left by the High-peak people at the Headquarters.

Following this escape route, they arrived under the cabin’s floor. Cheng Ziang looked around, made sure that no one was nearby, lifted the floor, and climbed up, then pulled Tangmo up with him.

"Split up to investigate. Regroup here in thirty minutes!" After looking around, Cheng Ziang said to her.

"Alright!" Tangmo nodded. She didn’t like working together with Cheng Ziang on missions, so she agreed to his plan of working separately.

The location they were in was a corner of a corridor. As Tangmo advanced along the corridor, she came to an outdoor one.

At the moment, the Airboat was approximately three thousand meters above the ground. According to the formula for atmospheric temperature, the outside temperature should only be a few degrees. Even though she was wearing modular clothes, Tangmo could still feel waves of chilliness.

She proceeded along the corridor and came to the Airboat’s open front deck. Many passengers were standing there, with many of them leaning on the railing to observe the scenery below. Most of these people were from the Aud race, and some were from Bobulu. Nonetheless, these passengers were primarily from the Human Race.

Of course, this was only natural. After all, the majority of the areas on the Continent were territory of the Human Race, with all other races being marginal ones.

Among the passengers, Tangmo also saw some Night Elves. They had deep blue and deep purple eyes, pointed ears, and their every movement revealed the Elf Race’s unique elegance.

If the Wood Elves are the most exclusive among the three major Elf races, then Night Elves should be considered social butterflies of the Elf Race. Their nation was located on Xia Yue Island in the southwest of the Continent, but their footprints could be found all over it.

Although the fertility of the Night Elves was also low, they had a lot of mixed races. Because they didn’t exclude mixed races, the treatment of their mixed-race descendants was much better than that of descendants of the Wood Elves and the Snow Elves.

Tangmo remembered that she used to like the Elf Race very much, but it was only now she realized, it was Luo’er of the Elf Race that she liked, not all Elves.

"Mummy, look, an elf!" As she was somewhat lost in thought, suddenly, she heard an infantile voice from behind.

Following the voice, Tangmo saw a mother and daughter standing together. The mother looked to be in her thirties, while the girl appeared to be only five or six years old. They were both wearing thick woolen coats, clearly products from Earth. This indicated that the mother and daughter were no ordinary individuals.

The little girl had an innocent smile on her face, and her chubby cheeks were flushed red from the cold wind. Seeing her like this, Tangmo felt an inexplicable sense of warmth in her heart.

The girl’s shouting reminded Tangmo of the first time she met Luo’er and Shangguan Jiu, causing her to break into a soft laugh.

"Mummy, Mummy, the beautiful lady is laughing!" Seeing Tangmo’s smile, the little girl pointed at her and exclaimed in surprise.

"Sara!" The mother bent down and softly chastised her, before raising her head to apologize to Tangmo, "I’m sorry if my child has offended you."

"It’s alright, she’s very cute." Tangmo waved her hand, saying with a broad grin.

"You don’t seem to be of the Aud or Bobulu races." The mother looked at Tangmo and said tentatively.

"My name is Moumou, I’m a Southerner!" Tangmo replied calmly, still smiling.

The reason why the members of the Advance Team liked to call themselves Southerners was to make fun of these Northerners who had never seen Southerners.

"My name is Yila, and this is my daughter, Sara!" Seeing Tangmo introduce herself, the mother quickly introduced herself as well.