Jet fuel leaked from the drums, and the truck bed was full.
Suzuki called out to Fujiwara, who was standing on top of the cargo hold.
“Are you crazy!?”
“Oh, crazy.”
A lighter was in Fujiwara’s hand.
Seeing that, Suzuki’s spine went cold.
However, he managed his expression as much as possible and said.
“Fujiwara, I don’t know why you are doing this, but give up! Don’t you know that jet fuel doesn’t catch fire?”
It is not easy to light jet fuel with a match or lighter in cold weather.
Since the flash point is over 40℃, it is normal for the fire to go out even if you throw a match or a lighter.
The temperature here is very low.
This is because deserts have a large diurnal temperature difference, so even if the temperature rises over 50 degrees Celsius in the middle of the day, it drops to below 10 degrees Celsius at night.
Hearing Suzuki’s words, Fujiwara smiled and replied.
“Shall we check whether the lighter catches fire or not?”
“That, stop it!”
A look of bewilderment was evident on Suzuki’s face.
It’s because his trick didn’t work for Fujiwara.
“Suzuki, do you know me as an idiot? Do you think I don’t know that the oil here is aviation gasoline?”
If you think that all jet fuel is the same oil, you are mistaken.
Jet fuel usually refers to kerosene used in jet engines.
The aviation fuel that did not catch fire was ＜aviation kerosene＞.
However, propeller planes and helicopters used internal combustion engines, so they used ＜aviation gasoline＞.
The flash point of aviation gasoline is -40°C, similar to gasoline used in automobiles, and it catches fire easily even in winter.
Suzuki asked him with a burning expression.
“Fujiwara, why the hell are you doing this? If you light it, you will be the first to burn to death!”
Then, creepy words came out of Fujiwara’s mouth.
“As long as I can protect my lord, I don’t care about my life.”
“what!?”
“I told you! Keshikten is still guarding his lord.”
The moment he heard those words, goosebumps ran through Suzuki’s whole body.
“how···.”
“Suzuki! Your struggling ends here!”
Fujiwara fixed her lighter.
Then Suzuki pulled out a pistol and pointed it at Fujiwara, shouting.
“stop!”
But I couldn’t pull the trigger.
It was because the gasoline drum was packed behind Fujiwara.
If a bullet penetrated the Fujiwara and hit the drum, the oil vapor could spark and cause a fire.
‘driving me crazy!’
It was then.
swish-
chin-
The dagger that flew from somewhere was lodged right in the center of Fujiwara’s forehead.
dump-
Fujiwara collapsed.
Suzuki turned his head in the direction the sword had come from.
Hayashi was standing there.
he said with a smile.
“Sometimes a knife is more useful than a gun.”
Whoop-
Suzuki, who almost crossed the threshold of hell, let out a long sigh.
Even if the knife missed and hit the drum, sparks could have occurred, but it was resolved safely anyway.
Suzuki and Hayashi climbed onto the truck and looked at Fujiwara first.
His skull was pierced by a dagger, and he died instantly.
“I can’t ask why. Didn’t you think you should have adjusted your strength?”
At Hayashi’s words, Suzuki shook her head.
“No, I already heard the most important information from him.”
“what is that.”
Suzuki opened her mouth with a serious expression.
“Keshikten knows we’re here.”
***
humming-
I rode an off-road motorcycle and rode through the desert for over two hours.
‘Shall we take a short break?’
I parked my motorcycle on a sand dune.
Then I turned off my headlights and looked up at the sky.
After a while,
Oh oh!
A cluster of stars filling the night sky unfolded before my eyes.
Shooting stars fell incessantly here and there.
The stars were so clear that I felt as if I was in outer space.
‘This is a real stargazing!’
When I used ＜Detection＞ to look around, there were no people around for tens of kilometers.
There was only the desert, the night sky, and ‘me’.
‘Shall we start again?’
humming-
I got on my bike and started riding again.
.
.
.
We arrived at our destination around the time the morning glow turned red over the sandy plains.
hiss-
I put the motorcycle in my inventory.
This place was about 15 km away from the destination of the Suzuki guys.
There was a special reason for choosing this place as a campsite.
Because there is an oasis here.
I really wanted to camp in an oasis called the flower of the desert.
‘Oasis is small.’
From noble mtl dot com
The width and length of the puddle were several tens of meters, so it wasn’t that big.
Still, there were big trees growing by the water, so it was quite tasteful.
hiss-
Take the tent out of your inventory.
and placed under a tree.
As it is a one-touch tent, installation was really simple.
hiss-
hiss-
A camping table, chairs, and cooking utensils were taken out of the inventory and spread out around the tent.
Then I installed a solar generator module outside in the shade of a tree.
I connected the module and the inverter while looking at the manual.
When I plugged the phone charger into an outlet, it worked fine.
‘okay.’
I didn’t do much, but the sun was already on the top of my head.
I spread out a sunbed in the shade of a tree.
Then, he took out an icebox from his inventory and placed it next to it.
The ice box was full of ice and beer.
I sat on the sunbed and drank a cold beer.
‘Feel so good.’
Drinking beer, I looked at the oasis sparkling in the sunlight.
In movies and dramas, there are often scenes where people wandering in the desert miraculously find an oasis before dying of thirst.
Everyone cheers and quenches their thirst with the oasis water, while some jump into the pool and enjoy a swim.
But in real life, it’s a big deal.
Oasis is not flowing water, but water that has been stagnant for a long time, so it was a paradise for all kinds of bacteria and parasites.
Do not use it as washing water, let alone drink it.
It must be purified before use.
If you do not have water purification equipment, do not drink the water directly from the oasis, but instead drink the date palms that grow nearby.
‘Shall we go fishing?’
Through ＜Detection＞, I was able to feel the presence of fish living in the oasis.
It was a strange thing.
To think that fish live in such a remote oasis tens of kilometers in all directions.
This was also the ‘Puddle Mystery’ area.
The puddle mystery refers to a phenomenon in which fish live in remote puddles out of reach of waterways.
Some scientists claim that fish eggs may have been spread through bird droppings.
Anyway, there are fish, so fishing will be fun.
The water is dirty, so don’t eat it, catch it and release it.
But before we started fishing, there was work to be done.
I will use ＜Eyes and Ears＞ to examine the movements of the Suzuki guys.
I lay down on the sunbed and closed my eyes.
As I concentrated, the audio-visual information Suzuki saw and heard began to enter my head.
***
Suzuki set up a base camp by descending 5km further than the initially planned destination.
However, he did not think that he could escape Keshikten’s surveillance to this extent.
This is because there could be Keshikten’s nephews besides Fujiwara among the members of the unit.
“Isn’t it necessary to find out first?”
At Hayashi’s words, Suzuki shook her head.
“Maybe that’s what they want. They are trying to make each other suspicious and break down from the inside out.”
“So what?”
“It has to be done quickly. We’re going to take over their heartland before the gangsters can tell us anything.”
Originally, the plan was to lure the Keshikten out of the hideout with sufficient time and annihilate them with the firepower of the armored vehicle.
That way you can minimize the damage to your allies.
But in the current situation, there was no time for that.
Even if I took the risk, I had to jump into their hideout right away.
Hayashi nodded at Suzuki’s words.
“That’s a good way! The desert is tired now. Let’s quickly get that golden liquid in our hands and leave for Lake Baikal.”
.
.
.
Hayashi selected 40 members of the storm troopers.
And Ueda, one of Hayashi’s mercenary employees, took over as captain.
Originally, Hayashi wanted to lead the assault force himself, but Suzuki opposed it.
“I was going to go and make them into hamburger patties…”
Suzuki said to Hayashi, who felt sorry for him.
“What we are doing here is just preparation work. The game hasn’t even started yet. There are many opportunities to play an active role in the future, so don’t be too sad.”
.
.
.
That night,
The assault force arrived at the first search area 10 km away from the base camp.
I saw a small village nestled beneath the sand dunes.
Ueda beckoned, and the storm troopers pulled something out of their backpacks.
The cylindrical object with a length of about 30 cm was the drone.
ugh-
Dozens of drones rose into the air and moved over the village.
After a while,
The image of the village seen from the sky was reflected on the screen of the smart watches worn by the crew members on their wrists.
It was a dark night, but the heat-sensing camera attached to the drone accurately captured the villagers.
The number of villagers was exactly 72.
＜Operation begins.＞
At Ueda’s command, the stormtroopers entered the village with silenced footsteps.
And soon gunshots were heard everywhere.
Bang bang bang bang-
bang bang bang-
In an instant, all 72 people were killed.
Ueda, who inspected the village once more with a drone, radioed the storm troopers.
＜Operation complete. Gather in the center of rural village.＞
The scattered members of the stormtroopers gathered in an empty lot in the center of the village.
One of them asked Ueda.
“You mean the people here are really Keshikten? They look like civilians to me…”
The other members nodded and opened their mouths.
“There was not a single armed person.”
“There were no weapons in the house…”
“There were even kids who looked younger than 10!”
Then Ueda shouted at the crew.
“Everyone stop talking nonsense!”
Then all the members of the crew closed their mouths.
Ueda continued.
“We are fighting now! If you judge by appearance only, you will go straight to the goal!”
It was then.
Someone’s voice came through the stormtroopers’ earphones.
＜Decades have passed since the collapse of Japanese rule, but you guys haven’t changed. No, you were originally such breeds. Dirty dwarfs!＞
Ueda was startled and shouted at the stormtroopers.
“who is this?! What kind of bastard are you!”
All of the stormtroopers looked at each other’s faces.
And soon, an unbelievable sight unfolded before their eyes.
self-
All the buildings in the town were scattered like smoke and disappeared.
Looking around again, they were standing in the middle of a desert with nothing.
“How did this happen!?”
“Were you possessed by something as a group?”
Surprisingly, that didn’t end there.
“uh?!”
All of the storm troopers were knee-deep in the sand.
someone shouted.
“It’s quicksand!”
The place where they were standing was the sand swamp.
Ueda shouted at the crew.
“Don’t move!”
The human body is less dense than sand, so it does not move and does not sink deeper into the sand swamp.
“Take off the gun and all the backpacks!”
However, the story is different if you are carrying heavy belongings.
If you fall into a sandy swamp, you have to take off all your heavy belongings.
swish-
chin-
All of the stormtroopers threw down their weapons and baggage.
“Don’t be nervous and lie back slowly!”
You can escape from the swamp by distributing your weight by increasing the area of your body that touches the sand.
The standard way to get out of the swamp was to get your feet out of the sand while lying down and roll on your side in that state.
Everyone lay down and looked up at the sky.
It was then.
Hey hey-
Purr-
The sound of horses neighing in the ears of the storm troopers.
Ueda was surprised and raised his upper body to look around.
“sh*t···.”
A crowd on horseback surrounded them.