Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 586 - 579: Motion Sickness

Chapter 586: Chapter 579: Motion Sickness

The group, riding in the Church Court’s Rune Carriage, made their way upstream along the western bank of the Roen River. The carriage, drawn by many horses, moved faster than ordinary ones. For a while, the carriage convoy moved in parallel with the steamship.

However, the carriage, being driven by animal power, would inevitably require rest for the horses. In contrast, the steam engine outperformed the horses. Soon enough, the steamship had left the carriage convoy far behind.

"Ah, we have a ship but refuse to ride, instead choosing to ride horses..." Hu Daoke mutters despondently as he watched the steam from the departing steamship.

"If you want to ride, go ahead. That’s a ship full of military hardware. If anything goes wrong, you won’t be safe even if you jumped into the river," said Cheng Ziang.

"Didn’t we also take a ship to Lipei’s place last time?" Hu Daoke retorted defiantly.

"Last time was last time. Our identities are now all public. Don’t you worry that someone might target us?" Cheng Ziang said.

"Who will target us?" Hu Daoke questioned.

"Are you a pig?" Cheng Ziang gave him an incredulous glance, shook his head, and said.

"At present, the headquarters is still alert to sub-humans. You can tell by the number of advance teams they’re deploying. There are only two advance teams in the Otherworld right now, running all over the place. You can’t use your own values to measure the decisions of the headquarters. They would rather lose the resources of ten ships than lose an advance team," explained Luo’er.

"Ten loads of goods... That must be expensive..." Hu Daoke couldn’t help exclaiming.

"The Otherworld cannot employ the high-precision weaponry from Earth, so even if it’s all weapons, a single shipload worth tops a hundred million. The value of high-tech weapons is in the ’high-tech’, not the weapon. The cost of cultivating a sub-human is about the same," Cheng Ziang remarked indifferently.

"Well, if I remember correctly, I don’t think I spent that much money," Hu Daoke scratched his head and said.

"Time is priceless. The Origin Project has been investing for over twenty years to reach its current size. This process in itself is included in the total cost. Otherwise, why do you think the United States hasn’t sent sub-humans to the Otherworld as soon as they learned about the Origin Project? Do you think they can cultivate usable sub-humans in less than two, three decades?" Cheng Ziang shrugged and said.

"The country has dumped so much money into the Otherworld... I don’t know when they’ll get it back..." Hu Daoke lamented.

"That’s not how you calculate it. Problems that can be solved with money aren’t problems. As the saying goes, superior strategists attack plans; inferior ones attack cities. If we use force to conquer the Otherworld, disregarding whether it’ll succeed, even if we did, we’d still have to invest heavily in mining resources, supporting local security forces, being wary of Otherworldly resistance. The funds spent in this process could be several times more than what it is now."

"So, let’s think about it this way, using Ilanadale as an example. This elf nation is located in the south of the continent. If the headquarters wanted to use force to obtain Kedal metal, the fastest way would be to ally with the Ronisca Air Force to attack Ilanadale. As Ilanadale’s military capabilities are weak, victory could be achieved quickly. But then, who will mine the ore? Wood Elves? They’ve been scattered. Even if they surrendered, they might not be wholeheartedly willing to help us mine. They might scheme and revolt from time to time. Thus, we’d need a standing air fleet ready to suppress riots, and this fleet’s worth cannot be compared to an aircraft carrier formation. If we bring in other races to mine in Ilanadale, it might spark racial conflicts... These are foreseeable problems that can be solved with money. If money can solve it, why use force?" Cheng Ziang said.

"I just made a comment, and you keep babbling..." Hu Daoke grumbled, giving him a frustrated glance.

Cheng Ziang’s words hit the nail on the head. The Advance Team’s missions almost always revolve around solving problems that money can’t solve. While nominally a reconnaissance squad, they are an extension of headquarters. With the robust support of the headquarters behind the Advance Team, they had started laying out their plans in the Otherworld long before dispatching the team. Nowadays, the commercial intelligence network and mobile supply stations that span the continent are projects that were initiated over twenty years ago.

Without the logistical support of headquarters, the Advance Team wouldn’t necessarily die, but they would definitely have a hard time. Every step they’d take would be like walking on thin ice, becoming cautious.

They wouldn’t even be able to use their usual swift and forceful suppression strategy, using superior firepower to force the enemy to give up resistance and disperse. Once their ammunition was expended, resupply would be hard to come by. They could only purchase from the Otherworld’s military market. And the weapons dealers in the Otherworld, they only get more exploitative, never less.

That is to say, without the headquarters, there would be no Advance Team today. Numerous achievements the Advance Team has made till now, including saving countless lives and assisting various forces, all stem from the unvoiced support of the headquarters. Otherwise, just the girls that Luo’er saved and brought back would have been enough to give him a headache."

"How long will it take for us to assist with training this time? Last time, how long did it take us to reach Lipei? We traveled by water and then on horseback, it must have been almost half a month," Hu Daoke asked.

"Close to that, I suppose. But this region is mostly flat, with only some hilly areas. Now that the carriage is moving so fast, I reckon we should reach fairly quickly," Luo’er said, glancing out of the window.

Just as he finished speaking, Tangmo suddenly bent down, starting to cough violently. Luo’er, feeling a pang of sympathy, helped her sit up and saw her worn-out expression.

"What happened?" Luo’er couldn’t help but ask.

"Car sickness..." Tangmo leaned against him, answering in a gloomy tone.

"I can’t even... I thought you were really sick or something..." Luo’er said, unable to hide his amusement.

"Isn’t car sickness a type of sickness!" Tangmo mumbled, then rested her head on his chest.

Just as she nestled against Luo’er’s chest, a surprised cry filled the air from Fulajie’er, "Ah, you’re squishing me!"

"Move away, this is my spot!" Tangmo answered gloomily, looking at the empty space in front of her.

Fulajie’er struggled out from the unseen spot, then, looking at Tangmo’s deteriorated face, made a funny face and taunted, "How can you still get car sick at this age!"

Since absorbing the magic power of the magic crystal was an ardous task, Fulajie’er gradually reduced her disassembly and reassembly process. Usually, she communicated with everyone in her invisible spirit form, and only rarely reassembled her body to appear physically, but once she appeared, she wouldn’t disassemble straight away.

"If you have nothing better to say, just shut up! Unlike you, the carriage bounces don’t affect me!" Tangmo responded in frustration.

"Speaking of this, the shock absorption of this carriage seems not that great, even worse than a merchant’s carriage," Hu Daoke turned to Cheng Ziang.

"That’s Church Court technology for you, a mix of the traditional and the backward," Cheng Ziang said, shrugging helplessly.

"I wish we could travel by airboat, so stable and fast. I wonder why the headquarters doesn’t rent more from the High-peak people. Then we could have one as a combat support platform," Hu Daoke sighed.

"You treat it as if it’s a car, thinking you can have it if you want it. We were able to rent even one because we have a good relationship with Ronisca. If all the High-peak people were so agreeable, carriages would have been phased out in the Otherworld, replaced completely by airboats," Cheng Ziang said, rolling his eyes.

"Ah, when will we finally get there..." Hu Daoke sighed, then poked his head out of the window to look at the road ahead.

Suddenly, an overwhelming feeling of nausea hit him. Hu Daoke retched and promptly threw up.

"Like brother, like sister," Cheng Ziang said, covering his nose in disgust and shaking his head.

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