Evacuation

"Ah!" Gu Yi hadn't even reacted before he fell down. Thud! Thud! Long Ming jumped straight down, bullet after bullet striking the edge of the sewer entrance. Ping! After landing, Long Ming immediately helped the fallen Gu Yi up, and they fled along the passage toward the outside. "Ow, it hurts! Brother, you run on your own. I can't get away. I don't want these things anymore—I'm giving them all to you. Take them and evacuate!" Gu Yi reached into his backpack, pulled out a double-barreled short gun and a short rod over thirty centimeters long, entirely cast of gold, its surface inscribed with intricate lines and a red gemstone embedded at the top, then shoved them all into Long Ming's hands. Long Ming stared at the short rod thrust into his hand, startled. No wonder Zheng Bin and the others were hunting Gu Yi and him down—the rod might be a work of art, but it didn't look like an ordinary item at all; even he felt tempted. Still, he ultimately refused. "I don't want them, and don't say such spineless things." "Brother, I really can't walk anymore. I won't drag you down." Gu Yi said, enduring the pain. At that moment, Zheng Bin and the others also jumped down. Watching Long Ming and Gu Yi running ahead in the passage, they scrambled to reload, raised their guns, and shouted viciously. "Kid, go die!" Seeing the situation was bad, Gu Yi shoved Long Ming forward, then spread his arms to block in front of Long Ming. Bang! Bang! A volley of gunfire rang out. Gu Yi was like a target, hit by one bullet after another. His eyes widened, and he muttered, "It hurts, it hurts so much." Long Ming's face instantly darkened. He immediately raised his single-shot rifle and fired back. Bang! Zheng Bin and the others hurriedly bent down to dodge. But Long Ming's shot wasn't aimed at them—it was aimed at the lighting on the ceiling of the passage! The dim lighting fixtures shattered instantly, and the whole passage plunged into darkness. Long Ming hurriedly stuffed things into his backpack at random, then ran forward desperately. "Damn, chase!" Zheng Bin, flustered and exasperated, led the men in chasing while reloading, firing blindly ahead! Bang! Bang! Unfortunately, all the bullets missed. In the blink of an eye, Long Ming burst through the open iron door and came onto the extended platform. He immediately ran toward the front of the extended platform. When he reached the edge of the extended platform, Zheng Bin and the others also rushed out of the iron door. Seeing Long Ming had nowhere to run, they burst out laughing and shouted. "Run, then!" "Why aren't you running!" Long Ming frowned, snorted coldly, and jumped straight down. "Damn it, Brother Zheng jumped down!" Wu Kang and the others said, stunned. "Damn, he's got a death wish!" Zheng Bin immediately led his men over. But when they reached the edge of the extended platform, they discovered that Long Ming, who had jumped down, was not dead. Instead, he was fleeing in the opposite direction of the moving fortress, the distance already stretched to one or two hundred meters. "How is that possible? He jumped from that height and didn't die?" Zheng Bin's face was full of disbelief. After all, it was over ten meters high. "Brother Zheng, there's a login ladder here." At that moment, Wu Kang noticed a login ladder below the outside of the extended platform. "Damn it, open fire!" Zheng Bin suddenly felt played. He raised his gun and fired at the fleeing Long Ming. Bang! Bang! Unfortunately, they couldn't hit him at all, and soon Long Ming disappeared into the night. "Bastard! Don't let me see you again!" Zheng Bin stomped his feet and cursed in frustration. On the other side, Long Ming glanced back at the moving fortress, then raised his wristband to open the map. Finding no nearby evacuation points, he headed toward an evacuation point he had previously explored. Whoosh— A gust of wind blew, and Long Ming couldn't help but shiver. The temperature kept dropping. He forced himself to press on. As long as he held out until the evacuation point, he'd be free. When a faint white light appeared on the horizon, Long Ming dragged his exhausted body to the vicinity of the evacuation point. But he didn't recklessly approach. Instead, he lay on a sand dune, warily observing his surroundings. As the saying goes, the eve of victory is often the most dangerous. He didn't want to be sabotaged at the last moment—that would render all his previous efforts futile. After a moment, Long Ming confirmed there was no ambush, glanced at the time on his wristband. He had survived in this world for over fifteen hours, so he got up and walked toward the mechanical platform. Soon Long Ming reached the mechanical platform, flopped down wearily, and panted heavily. Huff— Time passed second by second. Long Ming suddenly felt something was off. The mechanical platform had shown no response for a long time. He sat up, his expression shifting uncertainly as he muttered, "What's going on? Did the mechanical platform break?" "No, it can't be broken." Long Ming immediately rejected the thought. He had personally seen someone evacuate from here; the mechanical platform couldn't be broken. At that moment, a notification popped up on the wristband interface. "Notice: This evacuation point has already been used. Please proceed to another unused evacuation point." "No way, am I this unlucky?" Seeing the notice, Long Ming's mouth twitched. He hadn't expected to dig a hole for himself. But he quickly adjusted his mindset, immediately opened the map, and checked all nearby evacuation points. Then Long Ming checked his status. He was now moderately dehydrated, and his stamina had dropped to one-third. Long Ming carefully calculated his remaining stamina, checked all the evacuation points, and chose one that was farther away but still within his limit to reach. He didn't choose a nearer evacuation point because being too close to the ruins made it easy for it to have been used already or for an ambush to be waiting. After selecting his target, he immediately set out. By midday. Long Ming stared at the blazing sun, walking forward panting, his whole body severely dehydrated, his lips cracked. He looked down at the map on his wristband. There were still two kilometers to the selected evacuation point. Just hold on a little longer, and he'd get there. However, at that moment, a sharp whistling sound suddenly came from the sky. Long Ming was startled and instinctively looked up. Then he saw a streak of red light slice across the night sky, flying straight toward him. "No way, am I this unlucky?" Seeing the red streak of light flying straight at him, Long Ming's face turned blacker than charcoal. If he got crushed to death, that would be truly unfair. Fortunately, the red streak of light ultimately passed over Long Ming's head and struck the desert three kilometers away. Boom! A huge explosion swept out with sand and dust. Long Ming was stunned by the sight. He hadn't expected to encounter something like this while retreating. Just what was the thing that fell? Long Ming was very curious inside. He really wanted to go look, but he had some misgivings. He raised his wristband and opened his status. One red warning after another popped up. "Warning: You are in a state of severe dehydration!" "Warning: You are in a state of severe hunger!" Long Ming's expression kept shifting. Although the thing that fell didn't seem very far away, his stamina was nearly at its limit, and he only had two hours and sixteen minutes left. Moreover, judging from the direction of the fall, that thing was off his evacuation route. If he took the risk to go look, he might not have the stamina to reach the evacuation point, and then everything would be over. But asking Long Ming to give up—he really was a bit unwilling. This world's civilization looked low; normally it shouldn't produce anything too good. But Long Ming had a premonition that the fallen streak of red light might be something good. Also, the terrain here was desert; there were probably few people nearby. So basically no one would compete for it, and the risk was low. Such a rare opportunity—giving it up would be a real pity. And even if he encountered another opportunity next time, he might not be able to get it. Still, as the saying goes, fortune favors the bold. Thinking this, Long Ming's gaze became very firm. Then he hardened his heart, changed direction, and walked toward the place where it fell.