Blind Spot

Stopped at the charging station for a while.

The car was fully charged, and Song Ran bought a bottle of sour plum drink to throw in the car, and then went to the restroom with Li Chengyi.

Inside the bathroom, the two of them stood side by side in front of the urinals.

Li Chengyi unzipped his pants, took it out, and started peeing.

The towering Song Ran, over two meters tall, also unzipped his pants and took it out.

A burst of colorful light shone, casting the surroundings into a spectrum of colors.

"Welcome to the Smart Urination System, current urine component analysis beginning...." A soft female voice rang out.

"Urea nitrogen content normal, uric acid slightly high, urine calcium normal, urine potassium normal, creatinine normal...."

Li Chengyi dumbfoundedly looked down and saw something that was not common.

It was....

It was a clump of golden, wrapped in colorful lights!!

"!!??"

Li Chengyi was gobsmacked, even forgetting he was still peeing, as he watched Song Ran calmly shake off, zip up his pants, and turn away nonchalantly.

He was still immersed in the shock of what he had just seen.

'This guy... he squeezed over to pee next to me just to show off, right???'

These days they're even using gold for... What happened to his original organs??

The sound of the toilet flushing snapped Li Chengyi back to reality; he hastily finished peeing, zipped up, and walked out of the bathroom.

By this time, Song Ran was already standing by the car waiting.

"Let's go, it's fully charged."

"...Brother... awesome!" Li Chengyi said with a bizarre expression, approaching him with a thumbs-up.

The two got into the car and fastened their seatbelts. Together they looked out the front window.

Outside was a straight, black roadway between dense forests.

The road was divided in two by a white line in the middle, with vehicles continuously approaching and moving away.

"Brother Song, that thing of yours is...." Li Chengyi couldn't help but blurt out.

"Heh heh..." Song Ran laughed, started the car, lowered the window, and spat out into the wind.

"A man shouldn't have any weaknesses."

He gave a heavy pat on Li Chengyi's shoulder and then stepped on the gas pedal.

Whirr!

The intense sound of the engine roared to life, and the black SUV began to shake, its rear end slowly raising two large silver metal pipes.

Two bright blue streams of air burst out from the metal pipes.

With a screeching friction sound, the vehicle, like a beast unleashed, began to accelerate, speeding forward.

The speedometer jumped from 0 to 180 knots in a mere two seconds...

Ah!!

Li Chengyi opened his mouth to scream but was drowned out by the wild sound of the car.

For the first time, Song Ran's expression turned passionate and twisted, even a bit fierce.

Singing a song in an unintelligible language, he gripped the steering wheel as his whole body shuddered.

Gradually, Li Chengyi noticed that the trees on both sides of the car were getting shorter.

A shock ran through him, and he quickly poked his head out of the window to look outside.

He saw that the SUV's wheels had retracted, and a pair of black metal wings had unfolded on either side.

The front of the car had also bulged out into a triangular flat structure.

"Don't be nervous, we'll be there soon," Song Ran called out loudly.

'Warning, warning, left wing damaged and not repaired, please fix it promptly.' An icy electronic voice rang out immediately.

A red warning light popped up and flashed inside the car.

Thump.

Song Ran slapped the warning light back down.

"No problem, just forgot to get it repaired; I'll deal with it when we get back," he said with a smile.

"..." Li Chengyi's face contorted, you dare to fly with damaged wings!!?

And you're telling me not to be nervous!!?

He felt his heartbeat skyrocket to 180, blood heating up in his whole body, but the back of his head was growing cold.

The entire experience was even more terrifying than being in the blind spot.

"No worries, we have parachutes," Song Ran, seeing his tense expression, hastily reassured him.

"I don't know how to parachute!!!" Li Chengyi yelled.

"I'll teach you in a bit, it's easy, don't worry," Song Ran said casually.

"I...," Li Chengyi wanted to say more, but a burst of acceleration filled his mouth with gusting wind.

Underneath the azure sky, above the lush forest.

A black SUV with wings soared toward the distance at high speed. Although it wobbled a bit and occasionally veered off to one side, with constant corrections at the steering wheel, it still managed to keep flying in the right direction.

*

*

*

Tiamog, located in the northern part of Yi Country, bordering the Fermo Sea, one of the four great oceans, is a medium-sized city comparable in size to Suiyang.

This place is prone to earthquakes, but its marine products are abundant, so it is populated mostly by fishermen and seafood development companies.

On an unnamed beach in Tiamog.

Bleh!!

Li Chengyi, pale-faced, climbed out of the car, leaned over, and began to retch on the ground.

He had already thrown up everything he could on the road, and now there was nothing in his stomach but a bit of acid.

"Brother, you're not cut out for this. Your constitution is too poor," Song Ran said as he got out from the other side of the car, bent down to light a cigarette, and took a satisfying drag.

Looking at Li Chengyi, who was utterly exhausted and unable to speak, he glanced around and took out a pair of tea-colored sunglasses to wear.

"These are yours," he said, pulling out another similar pair of tea-colored sunglasses from his pocket.

Li Chengyi turned his head and saw the AR glasses being handed to him, he exhales deeply and straightened up.

"Can I... change the color?"

"Adjust it yourself. It's pretty convenient to use in remote areas like this, but you should avoid using them too much near cities. If you run into some serious hackers, you wouldn't even know how you died," Song Ran reminded.

"So it's not connected to the internet, just a standalone local network type?" Li Chengyi suddenly asked. He had known about this gadget for a while, but he could never afford it; the lowest price was two hundred thousand a pair, completely out of reach for ordinary people.

"Yep, the battery can last a whole day. Just don't turn it up to max power," Song Ran confirmed.

He rummaged in his clothes, and pulled out a small silver round box.

With a click, he opened the box. Inside, like rings, there were two silver things shaped like hair clips.

"One for each person, smart simultaneous translation devices."

Song Ran picked one out and handed it to Li Chengyi.

The latter took it and examined it.

"Where do I clip it?"

"Anywhere close to the throat."

"Then the collar." Li Chengyi casually clipped the device on the corner of his collar.

He then put on the AR glasses, and a series of soft prompt tones sounded.

"Please set the activation gesture."

He carelessly made a heart-shape gesture with one hand.

"Setup complete. Please select a mode."

"1—Engineering mode: Can be used for precise measurement and scanning parameters, recording, video recording, basic ray radiation analysis, etc.

2—Common mode: Can be used for enhanced vision, three-dimensional modeling, short-distance communication, medical diagnostics, data study."

"Select Common."

Li Chengyi softly replied.

Beep beep.

After two soft beeps.

In an instant, the beach and the waves in front of him became incredibly clear and delicate.

The sea waters hundred meters away, crashing against the black rocks, the small splashes of water became distinctly visible to Li Chengyi.

He could even make out a piece of coral debris mixed within one of the splashes.

On the right side of his vision was a tiny number.

Available magnification: 1-100.

"Let's go. The boss's men have arrived," Song Ran's voice came from beside him at this point.

Li Chengyi immediately saw a green notification number in the right lower corner of his field of vision.

'3 people, 19.763m.'

This notified him of the position, number, and distance of the approaching people.

Li Chengyi sighed inwardly, only now truly experiencing the level of technology in this era.

At least in his last life, he had never experienced this kind of technology.

But recalling Song Ran's warning about hackers, he took off the AR and looked back at the newcomers.

By this time, Song Ran had already approached and was speaking with the newcomers.

They were three workers in dusty long coats and pants, wearing little yellow hats.

The hats they wore were made of reinforced plastic, hard construction hats. Round like a split yellow bean.

All three workers were rather short, probably not even reaching one meter seventy, and they looked almost childlike and a bit intimidated standing in front of Song Ran.

As they approached, Li Chengyi heard their speech.

It was not the common language of Yi Country, but some unfamiliar dialect.

But immediately, his collar translation device began to work, flashing a tiny green light.

The leader of the little yellow hats' speech was quickly translated into standard Mandarin and sounded in Li Chengyi's ear.

"...Our lodging is still some distance from here; we'll lead the way, you follow behind. It rained heavily yesterday, and the ground is wet everywhere. It's also difficult for our machines to dig."

Song Ran did not wait for the other side to continue, and interrupted directly.

"How's the digging progress? The boss pays the daily wages in full; we only care about the progress."

"We've dug over two hundred and fifty meters, but to continue downwards requires time. The Grecius Parking Garage itself is already in a state of collapse, and we are worried that recklessly damaging the outer wall structure would completely ruin the remaining cavities inside. So we've been waiting for an expert consultant to calculate the optimal digging route," the head of the little yellow hats explained.

Their skin was dark, their frames lean, appearing as typical denizens of a tropical climate.

"Let's go, let's first take a look at the site." Song Ran had no interest in prolonged chatter and stated directly.

"Which expert did you hire?" He suddenly thought of something and asked.

"It's Expert Ding Chongyi," the little yellow hat leader promptly replied.

"Her, huh..." Song Ran visibly hesitated for a moment, "She's doing the calculations remotely online, right?"

"No, Expert Ding arrived yesterday. She's probably still on site inspecting," the little yellow hat quickly replied.

"Why don't you switch to another consultant??" Song Ran's face showed clear irritation.

Li Chengyi followed alongside, and seeing this, became curious about this so-called Expert Ding Chongyi as well.

A character capable of irritating a rough and tough guy like Song Ran might be an interesting character in his own right.

"Let it be, within the second tier of experts, Ding Chongyi is indeed... well, let's not talk about that for now. Let's go have a look," Song Ran waved his hand dismissively.

The three little yellow hats and the duo each returned to their vehicles, started the engines, took a turn around the beach, drove through a small grove of palm trees, and got onto a newly constructed black road.

Li Chengyi sat in the passenger seat, glancing at the coconuts carelessly scattered by the roadside, some so decayed and blackened, yet no one bothered to pick them up, giving him a basic understanding of the area.

"What's the deal with Expert Ding Chongyi? You seem like she's not easy to get along with?" he asked, returning his gaze from the window.

"She's the kind of person... very annoying, but you can't find anyone to replace her. She's got the level of a first-tier expert but is still only second-tier. She's the only one like that in the company," Song Ran said with a pained expression.

"Expert consultants can speed up the digging progress, just tolerate it," Li Chengyi, thinking Song Ran simply lacked patience, said dismissively.

"You'll understand once you meet her." Song Ran took a deep breath and pressed down on the accelerator.

The vehicle roared, like a raging beast, speeding up to 160 instantly and rushing forward along the black pavement.