Free Web NovelChapter 467: Chapter 271: An Impossible Mission with No Chance of Survival (Part 3)
"If we want to find out if those bastards from the Eternal Night Council are planning a water attack, we have to go to Xitan upstream. It’s quite far from here, and the journey is extremely dangerous. There’s no way we wouldn’t be discovered."
"Besides, at Xitan, we’d have to face the corrupted soldiers and those Heartless Warriors. On top of that, there’s the Eternal Night Council’s vice-chairman and its councilors. It’s a suicide mission. How could we possibly do all that without any sacrifices?"
Fang Zhen didn’t answer directly. Instead, he asked a question. "Roughly how far is Xitan from here?"
Karen thought for a moment, then said, "Between four and five kilometers."
Fang Zhen nodded. The unit of distance he heard had been converted by his Mystical Linguistics talent into a unit from the Curse Seal World.
Fang Zhen met the gazes of Alexander, Karen, Pat, and the others, and said, "You all remember the drone I launched earlier, right?"
"Ah, you mean you’re going to use the drone to scout Xitan? We seem to have forgotten about that." Karen’s eyes lit up.
"If that’s the case, we could use the drone for reconnaissance. The machine might get damaged, but we could still get the intel without anyone having to be sacrificed," Karen said quickly.
Fang Zhen shook his head. "No, my drone has a range limit. Its theoretical maximum control distance is only about five kilometers, but in a real forest environment, the operable range is likely only two to three kilometers."
Fang Zhen was speaking from his own field tests.
An agricultural drone from DJI, like the T3 for example, has a standard theoretical remote control range of exactly five kilometers. But in reality, forests and other interference, including air humidity, all affect control, leaving you with an actual operational range of two to three kilometers at most.
The distances Fang Zhen spoke of were translated by his Mystical Linguistics talent into units understandable in the Curse Seal World.
Hearing this, Karen said in frustration, "Damn it! We’re five kilometers from Xitan, so the drone can’t make it. And there’s no guarantee it could even transmit the video feed back."
Karen had operated the drone earlier, so she knew it could transmit video.
Fang Zhen gave a faint smile and said, "It can’t fly there directly, but I have another way."
"What way?" Everyone’s gaze focused on Fang Zhen once more.
Without a word, Fang Zhen summoned his subspace again. He habitually drew a circle in the air with his left hand, and the subspace materialized.
The subspace expanded from the size of a teacup to the size of a round table, and a white box quickly fell out from within.
The white box was about a meter long, half a meter wide, and half a meter thick. It was rectangular and had two antennas on top.
No one knew what this thing was, and they all looked to Fang Zhen.
Fang Zhen just smiled.
The box Fang Zhen had summoned was a relay station.
After using the drone in the last dungeon, he felt that while it was useful, its signal transmission range wasn’t long enough.
A drone itself can act as a signal relay, but it has to be airborne, and its battery would run out before long.
So, he had bought a signal relay station back in the real world.
The white box he’d summoned was a portable Hytera-brand signal relay station with its own power supply. You just had to flip a switch, make a few adjustments, and it was ready to use.
Fang Zhen had tested it before. With the parameters properly configured, it could extend his drone’s control range by a significant amount. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
Fang Zhen pointed to the relay station on the ground and said, "This is a piece of Alchemy Equipment that works with the drone. It can more than double the drone’s control range."
"If we place this relay station two to three kilometers out, I can fly the drone directly to Xitan and film the situation there."
Upon hearing this, everyone present couldn’t help but gasp in amazement, their eyes shining.
"Does this mean we don’t have to send anyone to their deaths?" West asked.
"Uhh..." Hearing this, Pat’s face suddenly turned bright red.
He felt deeply embarrassed, his eyes darting away. He especially couldn’t bring himself to look at Laura, his face as red as a baboon’s ass.
After all, Pat’s earlier inner monologue had been tantamount to a confession. It would have been one thing to die a tragic hero’s death in front of everyone.
But now, while Pat hadn’t died physically, he was experiencing a kind of social death.
Fang Zhen continued, "No, we still need someone to take the relay station out in the direction of Xitan. The range extension depends heavily on its placement. I need someone to position this relay station somewhere between Lanxi City and Xitan."
"This means they’ll have to travel at least two kilometers. Once they reach the designated spot and find a place to set it down where it won’t be destroyed by abominations, I can operate the drone."
"We still have to send someone out of the city, but they only need to go two kilometers. They won’t have to enter the areas heavily defended by the abominations, so their chance of survival will increase dramatically. I’d guess by at least eighty percent."
Hearing Fang Zhen’s words, everyone’s eyes lit up again.
It was true. Outside the city was dangerous, but if they avoided the places where the abominations and corrupted soldiers gathered, the probability of survival would indeed increase immensely.
Karen was overjoyed. "If it’s only two kilometers away, the round trip is just four kilometers."
"That greatly reduces both the time and distance they’re exposed to enemy attacks. The chance of survival is very high."
"I’ll do it!" Pat roared. He was blushing so hard he looked like he wanted to find a hole to crawl into, not daring to look at the people around him or at Laura.
Pat sounded a bit defiant, as if he’d rather die in battle for real than continue suffering this social death.
"If it’s two kilometers, I’ll go with you," Karen said.
Seeing the looks from Pat and the others, Karen said, "I just don’t like to take on missions I’m not confident about. The situation has changed now. While there’s still a risk, I’m confident I can handle a two-kilometer round-trip operation." freewebnσvel.cѳm
"How do we keep the abominations from destroying this... relay station thing?" Pat didn’t object, and asked.
Karen reverted to her usual, rather arrogant demeanor and rolled her eyes at Pat. "Your brain really doesn’t work, does it? Did you forget we have that medicinal powder the abominations hate?"
"We just need to sprinkle this powder around the box and find a relatively secluded spot. The abominations won’t go near the powder, and the box isn’t human. There’s no flesh and blood to attract them."
Pat scratched his head. "Right, I forgot."
"We shouldn’t delay. Let’s get this done quickly. Two kilometers isn’t very far," Karen said.
Karen was a woman of action. As soon as she finished speaking, she was ready to leave.
Just then, Fang Zhen raised a hand, and an AWP sniper rifle appeared in it.
Fang Zhen said, "If you run into any powerful abominations during the mission, like a Black Armored Fierce Ghost, don’t engage. I’ll cover you from the city wall."
"I’ll take care of the tough ones for you."
"And me." At that moment, a voice, aged but heroic, came from below.
Fang Zhen turned to look. It was Anglo. He hadn’t noticed when Anglo had come back up to the city wall.
