“I need to use your arms transport plane.”

Inside the Farion stronghold, Han Xiao said to Antonov.

Antonov was slightly startled, and said slowly, “We only use arms transport planes for large transactions. Even if you are a Blackgold VIP, you have to bear the corresponding costs.”

“I know.”

“Alright, how many people do you want to transport, and when are you leaving?”

“Just me, right away.”

Antonov’s fat face rippled with tremors, and he didn’t speak for a long time before finally squeezing out a sentence, “What a waste.”

The arms transport plane would arrive at its destination in about a day. The plane was equipped with a simple workshop, so Han Xiao could also use it to manufacture machinery to gain experience without wasting time on the road.

“A trip costs 50,000. Are you sure?”

Han Xiao pulled a stack of banknotes from a suitcase containing 100,000 and threw it on the table. “When do I get on the plane?”

“In an hour.”

Farion had a long-term lease on a runway at Morning Star City Airport, and several giant, dark-green transport planes were parked on the platform. Han Xiao carried his equipment and materials onto one of the planes and quickly felt the plane’s structure shaking. The plane began to accelerate and take off, soaring into the sky.

Once it reached the stable stratosphere, he could begin manufacturing machinery.

…

The scorching sun illuminated the boundless desert, heating the yellow sand to an unbearable level.

Twenty-odd people trudged through the desert.

They wore tattered gray robes that hadn’t been washed in ages, emitting a stench. Sweat soaked their clothes, sticking to their bodies. Their lips were cracked, their eye sockets were deep, and their faces were filled with unconcealable fatigue. They swayed as if they were about to fall at any moment, and the packhorses they led were also sickly and emaciated.

The Somal Desert once held a lush oasis country, prosperous and peaceful. After the outbreak of war, the country was destroyed, and the oasis was devastated by gunfire and shells, assimilated into the surrounding desert. These ragged people were once citizens of that country.

An old legend circulated in the fallen kingdom that the depths of the Somal Desert contained the ruins of another civilization millions of years ago, preserving a treasure that could control the desert! During the war decades ago, an abnormal change occurred in the Somal Desert. The sand flowed like the sea, forming a huge vortex that swept across the desert, moving as if it were being controlled. It lasted for seven days before dissipating on its own. Evidence and documents disappeared with the destruction of the oasis country. Some of the former citizens firmly believed in this, hoping to obtain the legendary treasure and entrust their hopes of restoring the country to the legend. They had been searching for many years.

Pilgrims—this was the nickname given to these former citizens by the wanderers near the Somal Desert.

These twenty-odd people were the last of the pilgrims.

“The Fironia ruins, the power of magic, must exist…” the oldest pilgrim muttered to himself.

…

In the Somal Desert, a convoy returned to a heavily guarded fortress.

“Dorothy, was there no gain this time either?” Luo Qing, the leader of the Rose Armed Forces, asked with a cold face.

“This time, the search area was e4, e5, d4, and there are still no clues about Fironia.”

Dorothy replied in a muffled voice. She was a strong, black woman with a centipede-like scar that made her face hideous. Her arms, exposed outside her tactical vest, were strong and powerful, with bulging muscles and tattoos, but they were hidden by her skin color, making them difficult to notice unless you looked closely. It was unclear what the point of getting them was.

The Rose Armed Forces were an armed mercenary organization consisting entirely of women, with their base deep in the Somal Desert. They searched for Fironia year-round.

The Rose Armed Forces had two instructors. The other instructor, Gui Hu (Ghost Fox), was a slender, petite white woman who was a skilled assassin.

“During this search, we had a firefight with Gordon’s men. Wen Li and Xixi died.”

Almost all of the returning female mercenaries were injured, with many bullet holes in their bulletproof vests and the ceramic lining inside shattered.

Luo Qing’s eyes turned cold, and she said indifferently, “Be careful next time you search. The Chaselord family, the backers of that Gordon bunch of bastards, have always wanted to eliminate us.”

The various armed gangs in the Somal Desert all had backers. They were entrenched in the desert to search for Fironia, fighting small battles every three days and large battles every five days. The mercenaries who could survive here had at least ten lives on their hands, all hardened people who licked blood off their blades.

…

Han Xiao felt the plane shake, and the huge force pressed him into his seat. After a while, it gradually subsided, and the plane slowly came to a stop.

“We’ve landed,” the pilot’s voice came over the radio.

Han Xiao picked up his luggage and got off the plane, and the stuffy, hot air hit his face.

The landing site was a medium-sized warehouse base surrounded by barbed wire, with armed personnel patrolling the area. This was Farion’s stronghold in the Somal Desert. Farion, as a global arms group, had strongholds in every region to facilitate logistics. After all, courier companies here wouldn’t ship arms.

“Welcome to the Somal Desert.” Antonov also got off the plane, his fat body stretching his white shirt so full that the outlines of his flesh were clearly visible, no different from being bare-chested.

“Why did you come along?”

“Hehe, the person in charge here in Somal was involved in a shootout some time ago. The unfortunate fellow had his skull blown off by a stray bullet, so I came to arrange things. It just so happened that I haven’t been out traveling for a while.”

Han Xiao nodded and didn’t stand on ceremony. “I need intelligence and coordinate maps of the power distribution in the Somal Desert, and by the way, borrow a desert off-road vehicle.”

“I’ll have someone arrange it for you.”

The Somal Desert was very large. If one drove an off-road vehicle non-stop without deviating from the direction, it would take ten days to cross the desert. Because the desert environment was difficult to recognize directions, only coordinate radar could be used as a map. Many armed gangs were stationed in the Somal Desert.

Han Xiao didn’t understand why anyone would gather in this barren land to fight to the death.

“To find Fironia.”

“What’s that?” Han Xiao was a little curious. He didn’t remember the name, and it was clearly a hidden quest that no one had triggered in his previous life.

But Antonov chuckled. “I don’t know either.”

Han Xiao saw through Antonov’s evasion, raised his eyebrows, didn’t say anything, picked up his equipment, got in the car, and set off to investigate the Rose Armed Forces’ stronghold.

“I wish you a smooth journey.” Antonov waved lazily.

The barbed wire gate opened, and Han Xiao drove the desert off-road vehicle out.

…

Using coordinate radar to locate, Han Xiao arrived in the distance of the Rose Armed Forces’ stronghold after a few hours and observed it through high-powered binoculars.

The Rose Armed Forces’ stronghold was a heavily defended small fortress with concrete walls and barbed wire on the walls. There was only one metal gate for entry and exit.

Inside, sentry towers were built, and lookouts were constantly monitoring the surroundings, providing excellent visibility. They were also equipped with high-powered searchlights that would be turned on at night.

Han Xiao concluded that unless he could burrow through the sand, it was impossible to sneak in.

Moreover, the Rose Armed Forces were all women, with big breasts and curvy butts. His butt was indeed quite curvy, but he couldn’t squeeze out his chest no matter what, and even if he had a simulation mask, he couldn’t disguise himself.

Infiltration plan gg.

Han Xiao glanced at the several grenade launchers and dozens of heavy machine guns mounted on the sentry towers, as well as the hard concrete walls.

Well, frontal assault plan also gg.

“I can only lure the enemy out. I must use trap tactics and need to manufacture some new things.” Han Xiao’s eyes shifted, and he quietly retreated.

He set off back to the Farion stronghold and borrowed a workshop from Antonov.

He had seven potential points left. He raised [Basic Electromagnetic Theory] to level four and [Basic Wide-Area Sensing] to level three, spending a total of four points.

[Do you want to perform knowledge fusion (Basic Electromagnetic Theory lv4, Basic Energy Theory lv3, Basic Wide-Area Sensing lv3)? This will consume 15,000 experience.]