Chapter 84: Chapter 84: Even at This Temperature, There Are Actually Native Humans Surviving

After obtaining the Sand Worm’s cuticle, Qi Suian tossed the remaining, non-carbonized parts directly into the Melting Furnace.

The Sand Worm’s head was so large it stuffed the entire Melting Furnace to the brim.

It was only thanks to several evolutions that it could even fit. If it had evolved one less time, he probably would have had to cut it into pieces.

"The Extraordinary energy contained in the Sand Worm is definitely greater than that vulture’s. If I hadn’t been lucky enough to find it hiding from the low temperatures, I might not have been able to kill it."

Qi Suian knew that luck had played a huge part.

"Will it be enough for 1 point of armor value after it’s done smelting?" Qi Suian asked.

[It will be approximately 1.5 armor points. There was some degradation due to decomposition from the Ghost Energy Storm and energy loss from the low temperatures.]

"That’s enough for the Tai Sui God to evolve once." Qi Suian’s main goal was to find a slot to install the Sand Worm’s cuticle as a heat-resistant material module.

"What’s the estimated time?"

[It will require twenty-four hours.]

"That fast?" Qi Suian had thought it would take days.

After all, it had taken so long to smelt the special zombies before.

[Based on...]

The AI brain immediately explained the reasoning to Qi Suian.

Qi Suian only gave it a passing glance. It was nothing more than a result of the Melting Furnace’s evolution and the fact that the Sand Worm was already dead.

"Let’s head in the opposite direction while it hasn’t warmed up yet. We need to find a habitable area as soon as possible."

Now that he had what he wanted, he had to leave immediately.

He had no idea how long this "nighttime" and its "low temperatures" would last.

If this world operated on a twenty-four-hour cycle, then there were only four hours of night left.

It had taken him over half an hour just to reach the edge of the desert. Combined with his study of the Sand Worm, at least an hour had passed all told.

Qi Suian wasn’t about to bet that the temperature would only start rising after four hours; it was sure to be a continuous process.

So, if all went as expected, the temperature would begin to rise in two hours.

It would be slow at first, but the higher the temperature got, the faster it would climb.

If he didn’t leave, one careless moment could lead to disaster.

As for returning to the underground cave to hide for a while, that was not an option for Qi Suian.

What if some other accident happened?

[As you command.]

The AI brain offered no other suggestions. In its calculations, the Gobi Desert was a dangerous area, and the desert beyond was extremely dangerous. Leaving as soon as possible was the only logical choice.

The threat in this area wasn’t just the high environmental temperatures, but also those Extraordinary Creatures.

No one could guarantee that the Gobi Desert didn’t harbor other heavyweight Extraordinary Creatures on the same level as the Sand Worm.

He didn’t dare push the Wind Master aviation system into overload. The environment was already hot, and the Tai Sui God’s heat dissipation couldn’t keep up under these conditions.

Once it overloaded, the Tai Sui God would definitely shut down. Then he could only wait for the nanite repair bots to fix it, which would be a waste of time.

So he could only take it slow.

Things would get better after installing the Sand Worm’s cuticle as a module.

[I recommend that for your next module after this one, you select an auxiliary module for heat dissipation. Otherwise, even with heat resistance and insulation, the Tai Sui God’s performance will be affected.]

"I’d love to, but I’m afraid we’ll have to build that ourselves."

"I don’t even know what the deal is with this world."

The knowledge previously downloaded by the AI brain naturally included this, but the problem was the lack of materials.

The Subspace Stable Pocket wasn’t large to begin with, and it was already stuffed with Qi Suian’s precious experimental equipment and specimens. Only a small section was left for miscellaneous items.

So there was simply nothing to build a heat dissipation device with.

Unless he dismantled a part from his own experimental equipment.

But dismantling that would cause problems for his experiments, so the best solution was to build one.

Materials were a problem, but not one without substitutes. In a world this large, Qi Suian refused to believe he couldn’t craft a simple cooling device.

If worst came to worst, even a low-spec air conditioner would do. The module slot could upgrade it to an SSS-rank module anyway.

The AI brain ignored Qi Suian’s complaints and continued forward.

Then it suddenly changed direction.

[Detecting a large concentration of high-temperature heat sources in the air, fifteen kilometers ahead.]

[Preliminary identification is crow-type Extraordinary Creatures. The intensity of their heat signatures is lower than the vulture’s, but they are numerous.]

[Proceeding rashly will make eliminating them difficult.]

Qi Suian, however, held the opposite opinion. "Straight ahead. Don’t turn. Kill them all."

"Fifteen Floating Cannons, unleash a Ghost Energy Storm with multiple volleys. We can wipe them out."

Looking at the data fed back from the reconnaissance network, he saw a dense cluster of high-temperature heat signatures. Each dot represented a single crow-type Extraordinary Creature.

However, as far as Qi Suian was concerned, they couldn’t have appeared on his path for no reason.

He suspected there might be some kind of hidden opportunity involved.

The AI brain’s reasoning for changing course was to avoid delays. After all, two hours had already passed, leaving only two more before the "daytime" phase and the return of the high temperatures began.

Therefore, any and all delays were to be avoided.

[As you command.]

The AI brain naturally prioritized Qi Suian’s orders. It was just an assistant, not the actual controller.

It immediately returned to its original trajectory. At the flight speed of the Wind Master aviation system, a large black cloud soon became visible in the distance.

Within the center of the black cloud, faint sparks flickered.

Those sparks were the energy source of the crow-type Extraordinary Creatures.

And below, an off-road vehicle was stopped, unable to move.

[Detecting two life signs. They also exhibit a high-temperature heat reaction.]

[Their heat signature is two-thirds less intense than the vulture’s, but one-half more intense than the crow-type Extraordinary Creatures.]

In other words, there were two people in the off-road vehicle. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"Eliminate the crow flock first." A look of delight appeared on Qi Suian’s face.

An off-road vehicle meant this was a modern world, which would make many things more convenient.

For example, the modules Qi Suian needed. At least he wouldn’t have to build them from scratch.

That was no easy task.

However, since it was the apocalypse, the old order and laws were likely gone.

Fortunately, Qi Suian wasn’t exactly looking for order. After all, he needed chaos to grow. How could he get stronger without fishing in troubled waters?

And as for laws, considering the number of survivors who had died directly or indirectly at his hands, it would be enough to get him executed for half an hour.

So the absence of both was actually perfect for Qi Suian. When it came to a contest of strength, he had never really feared anyone.

With Qi Suian’s command, the AI brain directed the Tai Sui God to act. A Ghost Energy Storm erupted from the fifteen Floating Cannons.

It instantly plunged into the cloud of crows. In that moment, the entire flock turned into a shower of carbonized particles falling from the sky.

If nothing else, the offensive power of the Floating Cannons had never been outdated.

The Floating Cannons’ Dark Energy Beams had even managed to gouge a chunk out of the Blood Moon back then; this flock of crows, which was far inferior, stood no chance.

After dealing with the flock, Qi Suian had the Tai Sui God adopt a simple disguise, at least to make it look less ferocious.

’I need to put camouflage and mimicry modules on the schedule, and a stealth module too...’

The Shadow Navigator unit module was geared more toward concealing its own signals and fluctuations, making it very effective against technological detection methods.

But the module’s predecessor was an anti-radar coating, and its effects were an enhancement of that foundation, which made it somewhat limited.

However, Qi Suian had also discovered another use for this module: besides technology, it could also effectively block Extraordinary perception.

Of course, it couldn’t block all forms of Extraordinary perception. It would fail if the power gap was too large.

So, it still depended on the number of times the Tai Sui God had evolved.

Just like now, the flock of crows was annihilated before they even saw Qi Suian.

As for the vulture before, it had seen him and initiated the attack, rather than tracking him through Extraordinary perception.

Direct observation through sight and hearing was different from Extraordinary perception. Everyone had the former, while the latter was something akin to Divine Sense or Spiritual Power.

After the crow flock was wiped out, Qi Suian approached the off-road vehicle.

He knocked on the window, signaling for them to open it so they could talk.

The person inside didn’t seem too wary and quickly lowered the window.

Qi Suian felt a blast of cool air wash over his face.

The temperature inside the car was probably only around twenty-four degrees Celsius, a stark contrast to the high-temperature environment outside.

"That armor of yours is amazing! Where did you get it custom-made? I want to buy a set."

"The material is really impressive." The driver was a young man with a face full of excitement.

In the passenger seat next to him sat a woman who appeared to be his opposite in age. She was very beautiful, but her face was pale, clearly frightened by the scene just now.

Qi Suian noticed that only the man had a high-temperature heat reaction; the woman had none.

From those two sentences, Qi Suian immediately deduced several pieces of information.

For one, not everyone in the outside world was an Extraordinary Being. Even in the apocalypse, there was room for ordinary people to survive.

Second, technology had not been completely lost and had even developed to a certain extent.

However, the man seemed to lack the concept of power armor, mistaking the Tai Sui God for a suit of armor.

This point was a bit puzzling for now, because normally, armor was useless against modern firearms.

Qi Suian guessed that either there was a technological regression, or technology had developed in a skewed direction.

The likely cause for all this was the apocalypse brought on by the high temperatures.

Furthermore, the Extraordinary humans of this world, like the Extraordinary Creatures, possessed the ability to resist high temperatures.

"It was a gift from an elder in my family. It’s not so easy to get one if you want it," Qi Suian bluffed, fabricating a non-existent elder and, by extension, a faction.

Hearing this, the excitement on the young man’s face subsided, and even the way he looked at Qi Suian changed.

The man’s previous attitude had suggested he saw his own status as higher than Qi Suian’s, which was why he was so impolite, asking about the armor first instead of offering thanks.

Now things were different. He was already placing Qi Suian on the same level as himself.

’So the factions aren’t isolated. They’re ranked by size and strength, and they have their own ruling classes,’ Qi Suian thought.