Chapter 39: Let Me Die Under the Sun… Part 2

But this was a special signal flare. It pierced the windstorm, burst into the sky, and bloomed into an eye-catchingly colored display.

The gunfire ceased abruptly. Moments later, Xie Jianxun heard chaotic footsteps from afar.

Many people… he judged preliminarily.

The windstorm weakened.

Krimus dragged him into the side of the ruins, barely evading the patrol troops’ sight, and fled joyfully into the distance.

Behind them, the mechanical puppet slowly lifted its foot and moved in their direction. Its expression vanished, fingers resting slowly on its waist.

Another bullet struck, blasting a small sand pit in the ground.

Krimus slammed to a halt, hands trembling with tension. He pressed Xie Jianxun’s head down as they crouched behind ruins, fearing the patrol troops had arrived first.

The sand bandits appeared, weapons still smoking in their hands.

“Hey, who’s there?”

The leader’s raspy voice rang out as he aimed his weapon’s eye.

Krimus stood slowly, instinctively yanking Xie Jianxun in front of him.

Hearing no shots, he peeked out halfway.

“It’s me, Uncle Jack.” He said tremulously.

Gunfire resumed in the distance.

The windstorm had mostly passed, leaving only peripheral gusts. Visibility cleared.

The faces before them sharpened into high definition.

The sand bandit leader smiled unexpectedly: “Oh, it’s you. Ah, you’re Krimus Doyle.”

“Yes, yes, it’s me, Uncle—sir Jack.”

Xie Jianxun felt his arm trembling as he spoke. Clearly, he wasn’t that close to the sand bandit leader, his words laced with fear and flattery.

He kept his head down: “Over there, the Patrol Army Captain is still in the tunnel below. I took the chance to escape…”

“Well done. Saved me the trouble of locating them.”

The sand bandit leader stepped aside, seemingly studying the sand patterns on the ground.

But the next second, several more sand bandits emerged from behind him, surrounding the two with malicious grins.

Xie Jianxun: “…”

Krimus: “…”

Just as they stood frozen, the deputy arrived with patrol troops.

Through the stone wall ruins and swirling dust, he spotted Xie Jianxun at a glance—neck throttled, pitifully trapped amid the sand bandits.

Even with his helmet on, his voice paled: “Release the hostage!”

The sand bandit leader spread his hands: “You said it yourself—he’s a hostage. What can I do?”

“Too bad this place I just moved into a few months ago needs a new home already,” he sighed, crouching to touch the sand. “Who let Golden City’s dogs… sniff out the scent?”

He placed a red button into Krimus’s hand.

“Press it, and this place goes—boom—” The sand bandit leader grinned widely.

He splayed his fingers like blooming fireworks. “The biggest dog among these patrol troops will be buried underground forever.”

The deputy gasped. “You… stop!”

Xie Jianxun struggled to turn his eyes toward that button.

He breathed slowly, trying to persuade Krimus. “If you want to escape, then go now. If you kill their captain, the patrol troops will hunt you down to every corner of this planet.”

The sand bandit leader added more weight to the scales. “Since I had a way to save you from the laser cannon, I can get you out of here too. As long as you abandon those fools from Mase and fully join us.”

Xie Jianxun grabbed his arm, his fingers digging in hard.

His pupils burned bright. “Don’t you still want to return to Golden City? Do you want to wander the desert like this until you die?”

The sand bandit leader whispered temptations. “Freedom, and money. Isn’t that what you want most?”

Krimus looked down and saw Xie Jianxun’s clear, golden pupils. He fell silent for a moment.

His lips moved, but no words came out.

The deputy whipped his head around and lowered his voice. “Where’s the captain?”

“The captain’s exhausted! The brothers are rescuing him—it’ll take time!”

The sand bandit leader took a step back, and all the sand bandits behind him did the same.

But even as they retreated, the weapons in their hands remained highly threatening. The patrol troops didn’t dare advance a step, afraid of provoking them.

“Hahaha! Press it, then follow us!”

With that, the sand bandit leader turned and leaped into a hidden passage that had appeared out of nowhere.

Their sudden counterattack this time had taken out quite a few patrol troops. Even though some of his own brothers had died too, he felt satisfied.

The patrol troops all stepped forward in unison. Krimus seemed stimulated by something; he gasped and stared at Xie Jianxun. “Sorry, sorry, really sorry… I’m so sorry, I, I…”

He forgot about the massive blade hanging overhead. All he saw was the escape route the sand bandits had left behind.

“Sorry, sorry!”

He shouted loudly, “I’ll protect you!”

The next second, his finger pressed down hard on the button!

The anticipated explosion didn’t happen. The escape passage, which could have saved him, was now sealed.

The little repairman suddenly jerked backward, slamming the back of his head into Krimus’s nose.

His body was soft and flexible. He clawed at Krimus’s rigid arms that pinned him, timed it perfectly, and drove his knee upward viciously—

Krimus froze in place. A slightly curved long knife, still gleaming brightly despite being stained with insect clan blood, now pierced his chest.

His finger was knocked away by the knee, and the dangerous red button flew off, landing right in front of the deputy with the button part pressed into the ground.

The deputy: “…”

His scalp tingled. Instinctively, he dropped flat and shielded his head with his hard armored gauntlet.

All the patrol troops behind him realized something was wrong and flattened themselves in a clamor.

…

…

Nothing happened.

Three seconds passed, and still nothing.

The deputy looked up in a daze. Seeing the scene ahead calm as ever, he immediately realized the button hadn’t actually triggered the mechanism.

He scrambled over, picked up the button, and saw that a small pebble on the ground had jammed the edge.

It had been that close.

Just that close, and it would have detonated the entire sand bandit camp.

Burying them all here.

He didn’t dare move, afraid of setting it off. He was so agitated he could barely speak. “…Gods! This is… too lucky…”

Krimus let the dagger slip from his hand.

He stared blankly at the thin line of blood on Xie Jianxun’s neck, pressed out by the blade when he’d leaned forward with force.

Blood trickled down.

The mechanical puppet indifferently withdrew its blade. Its inorganic blue eyes flickered until Xie Jianxun knelt on the ground, clutching his neck and coughing violently twice.

One tossed its long knife to the ground and knelt down as well.

It remained silent and expressionless, staring intently at the bloody line. It reached out and gently touched the unharmed skin near Xie Jianxun’s wound.

Xie Jianxun coughed as he forced a smile. “Don’t be scared. Hurry and get me bandaged up. In a bit, ah… it’ll heal on its own.”

One: “…You’re wrong.”

At that moment, the mechanical puppet’s voice was especially robotic.

It said flatly, “You’re wrong. I’m not scared.”

How could it not be scared?

If the mechanical puppet hadn’t been installed without tear glands, tears would probably have welled up in its eyes.

If its parts hadn’t controlled its joints, its hands would have been shaking.

That was fear.

Xie Jianxun said, “Your chip logs are about to leak out through your eyes.” He looked at One and soothingly touched its eyelid.

The mechanical puppet stubbornly insisted, “I’m not scared.”

But it lowered its gaze and accepted the comfort.

Xie Jianxun joked, “Alright, alright, Mr. Not-Scared. First, cough, let’s deal with this guy?”

Krimus lay on the ground, the knife wound piercing straight through his chest.

It was the right side of his chest—because he’d kept Xie Jianxun shielded over his left—so his heart was intact, and he wasn’t dead yet.

But blood poured out profusely, staining the sand red. Without immediate surgery, he wouldn’t last long.

Yet in the vast desert, where could they find surgical conditions or a doctor?

Krimus clutched his chest, remembering how in the adventure group, everyone had treated him like a real comrade.

They’d drunk ale with him, eaten roast whole lamb, and he’d even gotten a whole roasted lamb hoof.

The first time he’d led an adventure group to the oasis, guilt had nearly driven him to kill himself.

Now, this was his third adventure group.

He was seasoned, numb to it all, and here his adventuring career would end.

He’d always had the right to live freely outside. If only he’d repented and quit, he wouldn’t have ended up like this.

Krimus murmured, “Mase abandoned me.”

“The sand bandits accepted me, and I… abandoned myself.”

The windstorm had completely moved away. From here, they could still see the distant tornado, its momentum weakening.

The sun had fully risen, its light shining down from overhead onto Krimus’s face.

One lowered its head and used gauze provided by the deputy to bandage Xie Jianxun’s wound.

Over there, the patrol army captain finally crawled out of the hidden passage. His armor was covered in dirt and sand, looking extremely disheveled, but at least he’d made it out alive.

The deputy solemnly handed over the button and pointed at the passage.

The captain was nearly spent but didn’t collapse gracelessly. He sat down slowly, took the button, and glanced at the sand bandits’ escape route.

“They won’t last long,” the captain said softly. “The patrol troops will follow their tracks until they’re wiped out. But right now, we have more urgent targets to rescue, and another nest of sand bandits.”

His tone was gentle as he spoke to Xie Jianxun, who was fiddling with the gauze. “Rest up a bit, then come with us to save your companions.”

Xie Jianxun paused. The mechanical puppet took the chance to tie a neat bow.

The little repairman looked worried. “Are they still alive?”

One said, “The living ones are.”

Over there, the deputy crouched down, checked Krimus’s breathing, and turned back. “He’s dead.”