under the mask

The next joint exercise between mechs and mechanical infantry left Li Wei with no more opportunities to confirm his doubts.The troops stationed here at the Joint Military Department of the Imperial University Military Academy put on a special welcome performance for the freshmen. Although the following "show" was not as eye-catching as the fighter jet flight show at the beginning, it was used to scare the teenage students. Rookies are enough.The dean of the military academy called it to enhance the respect and love of the new blood for the empire. At least at this moment, this goal seems to have been achieved, because the rookies are all excited and wish they could be in the mecha.

Li Wei listened expressionlessly to the people around him discussing mechs, mechanized infantry, and even the fighter pilots just now... On the other hand, the battleship, because it is only used as a carrier of space fighters, its own powerful strength has not been reflected.He was upset, and it made him even more unhappy when he thought that the space fighter that everyone was discussing was being piloted by that red-haired kid.But it doesn't matter, battleships can be wilder, and one day he will let everyone know this fact hahahaha!

(The uncle in his 40s also has a fanatical hobby, ah.)

The entire auxiliary star has four landing points, which are distributed in the four directions of the only city in the auxiliary star—Skyer, the city of sky. The city of sky is like a castle built on the middle of the mountain in the middle ages. surrounded by the city walls, all people live in it.Compared with the students of other colleges who stay at home, the students of the military college go out more frequently, and the shipyard square at the landing point will be freely open to them—except for driving the starship out of the auxiliary star.

Because the environment of the auxiliary star is not suitable for human habitation, the empire spent a lot of manpower, material and financial resources to build the huge city of Skell on the basis of a small oasis, and around the city of Skell, there is still yellow sand. The desert of thorns is all over the sky, and further away, there is the sea of ​​death.The poor new trainees hadn't recovered from the wonderful orientation party before they were taken away in groups by desert speedboats.

"Brother!" Kashi rushed towards Li Wei regardless of the bumps of the speedboat, his face was full of excitement: "I finally found you!"

Li Wei stretched out his hand calmly, blocking a certain big face with his slender fingers. "Just stand there and don't move."

Kashgar was used to being disgusted, and leaned cheerfully on the side of the speedboat: "We are in a group again... I happened to be next to the girls during the performance just now, and I also found Emilia..."

Li Wei listened absently to his thoughts, but his gaze was cast out of the window of the speedboat. This kind of speedboat, which is only more than 100 meters long, is equipped with a skateboard and a power unit at the bottom. Time does not need power, and the speed can reach a very terrifying value... Hundreds of such speedboats glide on the vast and boundless desert extremely quickly, undulating along the terrain, just like sardines in the deep sea back and forth in the sea Cruising, a white light was reflected at the moment of turning.After a while, he saw the city wall of Skell Rock, the city of sky, and a circle of bright green around it from a distance.

The buildings on this asteroid are completely different from his twin brother. The underground buildings carefully hide the entrances under the desert or in the deep sea.And the buildings on the ground are also trying their best to cling to the ground, unwilling to stick their heads out even half an inch higher than others.

If you have to say that this kind of building is similar to the architectural form of the Arab country on the earth, but the reason is much simpler. There are not only future combatants of the empire on the secondary star, but also many secret research institutions. The combination of these two is undoubtedly a strong attraction for the enemies of the empire... Although the effect is not great, but the lower the building, the lower the possibility of being attacked remotely from outside the star, and if it is close to the auxiliary star, No matter what kind of enemy it is, it will be thwarted by the powerful early warning system of the auxiliary star. When it comes to the real battle, the sneak attack is meaningless.

Jialai Vance's status as a strong player in the Goddess Galaxy did not come from diplomacy alone.

When the speedboats galloped for nearly 10 minutes and rushed to a seven or eight-meter-high sand dune, the team began to diverge. Two-thirds of them headed east without stopping, and the remaining one-third stopped suddenly. At the top of the dunes, the sky was full of yellow sand.

"what happened"

"What's wrong? It stopped suddenly..."

The unprepared students were a little panicked. They wanted to look around but found that the windows on the speedboat could not be opened at all.Li Wei and Kashi looked at each other, and they thought of the "physical fitness test" at the same time. Although they had long expected that the so-called test could not be a child's trick of running for half an hour on an indoor playground or on a physical tester—but like Now, it seems that the situation is not good.

"No, it won't be..." Kashi's mouth twitched, and he looked at his friend hopefully.

Li Wei talked, but did not comfort him as he wished.Because he also thought of a very sad possibility...

"That cabin window can't be opened," Corporal John, who they are all familiar with, opened the door of the cockpit and slipped in, and said coldly to a few students who were still fiddling with the windows: "But if you want to go out, this wish will come immediately." It's about to happen... All off the speedboat now! All! Immediately!"

His stern and cold voice scared many people, but when the speedboat door slowly slid open, more people stood still for a while, and then chose to jump off the speedboat silently and walked to the hot and dry sand dunes. Among these people.

Those who were still hesitating and unwilling to come down were quickly kicked down by John, and rolled all the way far away screaming.

"Excuse me, is this the content of the test?" Among the crowd who walked down first, a young man stepped forward and asked calmly.

Corporal John glanced at him: "If you mean getting off the speedboat, then it doesn't count... Your test is to find the direction of Sky City from here and reach the city gate before six o'clock in the evening."

There was an uproar among the students, and they began to be dissatisfied.Now that this is the situation, they probably understand that the speedboats that got away just now carried students from other colleges. They don't need to be tested, but they will have three months of military training.As for the students of the military academy, because they are labeled as military, even the students of the logistics department have to take the test.

"The speed of these speedboats is fixed. I have roughly calculated that it is at least 25 kilometers since we passed the vicinity of Sky City." The boy frowned and said: "And we have never experienced a desert environment, Corporal John, you Do you mean let us hike 25 kilometers in the desert without giving us any supplies?"

Li Wei looked at the young man. He was tall, with short dark blue hair and fair skin...he didn't know this person, but this hair color...should be Laval, the famous blue bearded family among the five nobles.The reason why he was impressed was not only because of Laval's status in the empire, but also because of the name Bluebeard... Unexpectedly, the Bluebeard in the Grimm's fairy tales actually existed here, and he was the ancestor of the Laval family, Jia. One of the founding fathers of Levans.Their family is just like in cruel fairy tales, with blue hair, they don't believe in love, and their natural tyranny and suspicion are hidden in their characters.

But on the outside, that young man was actually a gentle and elegant nobleman, and he was quite capable.

Corporal John obviously realized this, and took another look at him: "That's right, 25 kilometers is not an exaggerated number. If your direction is correct, this test is just a hike... The desert scenery will impress you of."

Li Wei deeply doubted whether there was gloating in his tone.travel?view?He looked up at the sky, and was immediately stimulated by the extremely bright sun to close his eyes. He wore boots on his feet, but he could still feel the burning of the sand, not to mention the scorching dry air around him, without a trace of wind.Even if you are told the right direction, walking on flat ground is completely different from walking on sandy ground. Whether there are scorpion lizards and water-storing plants in the desert here is also a question mark... What will happen in the future if you walk under the sun for five or six hours? People are uneasy.

Corporal John hooked the corner of his mouth, turned around and jumped on the speedboat, and left a sentence before leaving: "Make good use of the resources on your body."

Everyone began to look down at themselves subconsciously, touching things here and there.

What made them unbearable the most was that the speedboat that was still running on the ground actually opened a gate on the top, and then slowly raised the spiral wing... Li Wei cursed in a low voice in his heart, and the dust raised by the spiral wing started Made a mouthful of sand.Well, the test was covered in sand before it even started.

"Let's go." He kicked Kashi who was still looking up, turned around and walked down the sand dune.

"What should we do..." Kashgar followed closely behind, muttering, "You said that I can do other physical work, but there is nothing here... I can't even figure out the direction..."

"What's the use of your long head?" Li Wei kicked him impatiently, and stretched out his arms to show him: "Did you see the communicator? Do you want me to explain?"

Kashi stared at Li Wei's silver communicator for a long time, and suddenly realized: "Fuck! I even forgot this!!"

Li Wei snorted, sat down with his pockets in his buttocks, and slid straight down.

Many students standing next to Li Wei and the others also showed the same expressions as Kashi.How could they forget that even the cheapest communicator would have the most basic function of orientation.Although the map of the auxiliary star is not within the scanning range of the communicator, it is still possible to measure the east, west, north, south, and north.But none of them thought of it. Excuse me, in which direction is Sky City?

Li Wei and Kashi walked alone for more than half an hour, and gradually separated from the others.Kashgar suddenly thought of this question, hesitated for a long time, but dared not ask his friend.

"that…"

Li Wei glanced at him, and mocked: "You didn't think of asking until now?" He looked down listlessly at the communicator and explained: "There is no way, unless you keep in mind the direction of the road from the shipyard square, it is possible to use this as an excuse." Compare the objects to determine the direction of Sky City."

Kashgar immediately made a bitter face.Is not this nonsensical?Who will pay attention to the direction of Lao Shizi from there?When he was pulled into the speedboat, he was patronizing and surprised, and when he passed by Skell, he was busy looking at the window... Could it be... He turned his head to look at Li Wei.

Li Wei sighed helplessly: "I must have paid attention, so I will tell you, dear!" Just remember that the sky city is in the northeast of the shipyard square, and then write down the approximate distance after starting from the shipyard square, and turn around a few times. Direction, if you roughly draw a map in your brain, you can clearly determine which direction to go.At least the general direction can't be wrong, and the desert is a sweeping terrain, so if they can't find it... then they can only wait for the sea, land and air amphibious speedboat to rescue them.

You can use your toes to guess what will happen next, probably going home with a bag.

At the same time, on the airship heading to Skell, Corporal John returned to the co-pilot's seat in the cockpit, and leaned back in the chair with a sigh of relief.

"The overall level of the students in this period is not as high as that of the same period as you three years ago, Jacob." He said to the boy who was piloting the airship slightly jokingly, without the previous seriousness and coldness at all: "Fortunately, and A few good seedlings."

The boy who was driving the airship seemed to be the red-haired boy Li Wei never forgot.He lazily bit the lollipop, his eyes seemed to be focused on the constantly moving map on the light screen, but he was actually very impatient.

Why is he still being pulled to be a strong man on such a great rest day?Acting... Forget about performing, it's just to entertain Abel, but why does he still come here to bask in the sun? !Why is there no air-conditioning in this broken guy? !

"It's so annoying!!!" The boy suddenly yelled and violently smashed the operating table. John, who was still thinking about it, was frightened and fell silent.

"What are you doing?" Jacob turned to glance at him, and asked impatiently, "What's your expression? I owe you money?"

John coughed, looked at him with a half-smile, and touched a half-filled lollipop from his leg.

"It came out of your mouth."

Jacob stared at him, his youthful handsome face was slightly flushed, which was particularly conspicuous against the fiery red short hair.He nonchalantly grabbed the drool-stained lollipop and stuffed it back into his mouth, then continued to control the falling airship into the air, grunting with sugar, and glancing at John from time to time.

John was terrified, and he just wanted to send the plague god back to Skell as soon as possible.Being hated by the God of Plague is really terrible. He wants to go back to the beautiful military doctor for a checkup and get some comfort.

At this time, the red-haired boy was still thinking about the person sleeping in his dormitory, and he didn't realize that he was also being "missed" by others.

Three hours later, if you look from above the desert, seven or eight thousand freshmen from the military academy have been divided into several teams, and they are already approaching the oasis where the city of Skye is located. You only need to turn over three sand dunes to see... and the slow ones But it's not because of the speed, if the direction is wrong, it will only deviate or even go away from the destination.Because the uniforms issued by the military academy have signal devices, their positions will be monitored at any time.In a short time, there will be an airship to pick up those students who are destined not to reach Skye before the evening, and then decide whether to stay or not according to the specific situation.

Li Wei climbed up the sand dune, stood up tired and looked into the distance.

The gorgeous sunset dyed the entire desert in the color of flames, and the huge city that could be seen was already approaching.

"It's finally here..." Kashgar murmured as he stood beside him.

Yes, when we got there, it was just the beginning.