Following the usual routine, He Wuning issued his threat to the Voice of World. Although it didn’t answer, he assumed it had received the message and then signaled Yi Luo to draw the schematic.
Even if it did nothing, it at least felt ceremonial.
Yi Luo didn’t seem to care either way.
In hindsight, the spike bumpers they’d drawn at the start weren’t anything spectacular, but they’d transformed the milk tea car—when the baseline is low, even a little upgrade counts.
This time, anything usable underwater would be a good find.
A flash of light, and a schematic dropped into Yi Luo’s hands. He Wuning leaned in, curiosity in his eyes: “What is it?”
Yi Luo glanced and replied, “A harpoon.”
He Wuning frowned. “A harpoon?”
Like the fishing tool he imagined?
“Don’t worry — not the kind you swing by hand,” Yi Luo said with a grin and made a motion. “It’s launched on a rope, shots out like a bolt. Damage should be pretty decent, and it’ll also limit how much a target can swim around.”
He scanned the car. “We could mount one on each side of the chassis. If the next draw’s also bad, we can even replace the anti-air machine gun with harpoons.”
Q-chan immediately objected. “Ew, don’t say such unlucky things! We’ll definitely draw something great!”
Yi Luo found it amusing — this alien friend from who-knows-which-galaxy actually believed in lucky words. “Where did your little system come from? So superstitious — you can’t even say one unlucky thing?”
“Hey!” Q-chan, emboldened by He Wuning’s presence, got cocky and upped the stakes, urging Yi Luo to repeat after him: “Say it again! We’ll definitely get something good!”
“All right, all right, we’ll definitely get something good,” Yi Luo sighed resignedly. “Fine — I’ll try the charm and see if it helps.”
He drew another schematic.
Like He Wuning picking gear, Yi Luo’s choice was blunt and straightforward: all points into attack. He hadn’t even opened the paper before Q-chan was shouting, “Good stuff! Good stuff!”
Yi Luo opened it and raised an eyebrow in surprise. “I actually drew… a torpedo.”
“See? See?” Q-chan preened with pride, floating over to He Wuning to take credit. “I got the torpedo!”
Yi Luo smacked his head. “How did it become yours? I drew it — stop stealing credit.”
Q-chan protested, “It’s thanks to my spell! That’s my credit — you didn’t believe me before!”
Yi Luo poked him. “Who taught you to be more shameless every day?”
He Wuning propped his chin on his hand and watched their back-and-forth like a spectator at a kindergarten fight. He curved his mouth a little. “Probably you.”
Yi Luo was momentarily stumped. There were only two living people on the car—himself and He Wuning—so the remark was hard to refute.
He awkwardly changed the subject. “The car itself can’t carry that many weapons, especially once we go underwater. Exact loadout depends on how we refit it for submersible operations… we should drag Zuo Qianming out and get him to take a look.”
“But getting that guy out of the lab’s a pain — it’ll take a lot of effort…”
Yi Luo fell into thought, then turned to He Wuning. “What about you? Any ideas?”
After all, it was He Wuning’s vehicle — any modifications should consider the owner’s preferences.
He Wuning looked up, thought a moment, and nodded slightly: “Fit as much as we can.”
“Underwater ramming won’t be as effective as on land. Even if we lose some maneuverability, we need to keep beefing up firepower.”
Yi Luo gave a wry laugh. “Still impressively blunt and practical.”
“Torpedoes only work underwater. We’ll need to design loading tubes; with Q’s size he’d have trouble loading torpedoes, so I’ll probably have to stay on the car — you’ll be the only one diving down…”
“But harpoons can be mounted now. Attach ropes; once we cluster enemies, we can just tow them around… let’s try installing two of them in these two positions first.”
Yi Luo spread the schematics on his hands and glanced to He Wuning for his opinion.
“Mm.” He Wuning leaned in as well. Yi Luo planned to mount a harpoon launcher on each side of the anti-air machine gun, and add more later if needed.
When Yi Luo looked up, he realized their heads were almost touching — He Wuning was right next to him, leaning down to study the schematic.
From this close-up angle, He Wuning’s lowered eyes and calm expression looked almost gentle. Even though Yi Luo knew perfectly well what a bad temper the man really had, for a moment he was still fooled by the appearance.
Maybe his gaze lingered too noticeably, because He Wuning sensed it. He looked up. “What?”
Yi Luo hesitated between playing it safe and deliberately digging his own grave — in the end, he couldn’t help smiling. “Looking at you.”
He Wuning’s eyes didn’t move. His brow lifted slightly. “Why?”
“No reason.”
He just shamelessly wanted to look a few more times.
Yi Luo was about to speak again when Q-chan shouted “Ah-da!” and launched a headbutt, which Yi Luo narrowly blocked. Q-chan flailed his tiny arms and yelled, “Sweetie, he’s acting weird! His eyes are weird! Stay away from him!”
He Wuning snorted. “You think I’m afraid of him?”
“Heh.” Yi Luo restrained the thrashing little system and smiled nostalgically. “Funny — I remember the first time we met, you actually liked me. You even took the chance to cling to me.”
“That was before I saw your true colors! I thought you were a decent person back then!” Q-chan glared at him furiously, looking exactly like a kid whose embarrassing childhood story had just been told in public. He tried to save face by shouting even louder, “Now I see through you completely!”
“Heh.” Yi Luo picked Q-chan up, mimed a bowling motion, and sent him flying from the front of the car to the back. Then he grinned provocatively. “Look here.”
He reached out and poked He Wuning’s nose before the other man could react, then laughed triumphantly. “I touched his nose. What are you gonna do about it?”
Q-chan stared in shock. “!”
Yi Luo cheerfully reached out again. “And I can still—”
Smack. He Wuning slapped his hand away. Yi Luo didn’t even blink. “See? He touched my hand first. Doesn’t that make you mad?”
Q-chan was horrified. “So this is what humans mean by shameless…”
He Wuning kicked Yi Luo. “Go install the harpoon launchers.”
“Wait, let me check if we’ve got enough materials.” Yi Luo rummaged through his backpack and, dropping the banter, focused on work.
They were talking in the rear compartment of the milk tea car. He Wuning stood up, leaned against the wall, and watched Yi Luo — when he was serious, he actually looked decent.
If only he didn’t talk so much.
He shook his head and glanced outside.
……
A little later, the newly modified milk tea car charged out again, barreling through the rainforest and smashing its way toward the red ant nest. It plowed through every red ant in its path before screeching to a halt right in front of the Red Ant Queen.
—The reckless driving alone made it obvious that He Wuning was at the wheel.
The Red Ant Queen hovered above the nest, twin maces in hand, her pitch-black eyes locked on the car.
He Wuning peeked out. “This the right direction?”
“A little off,” Yi Luo said, gesturing. “Turn a bit to the right — smaller angle — yeah, just a little more, that’s it!”
Following his directions, He Wuning adjusted the car’s aim — and in the process, slammed another red ant that had just recovered from knockback.
The Queen’s gaze tracked the car closely, but as long as it stayed out of her attack range, she couldn’t strike first.
He Wuning looked again. “Now?”
“Good.” Yi Luo’s words had barely left his mouth when two harpoons shot out from the car’s roof. The Red Ant Queen, alert as ever, swung her maces — clang! — and managed to deflect one, but the other buried deep into her lower abdomen.
“It actually landed one?” Yi Luo was a little surprised. As he reeled in the rope, he called out to He Wuning, “Let her drag us for a bit — let’s see if one line can hold her!”
He Wuning gave a brief acknowledgment, and the milk tea car shot backward, speeding away from the ant nest. The Red Ant Queen, dragged behind by the harpoon lodged in her abdomen, let out a shrill, furious scream as she was forcibly pulled from her lair.
Dragged along the ground, the queen flailed helplessly. Lacking any real intelligence, she only knew to attack the source of her pain — the harpoon embedded in her abdomen — and kept hammering at it again and again with her heavy maces, never realizing she should pull it out to free herself.
He Wuning glanced at the rearview mirror. Under the Red Ant Queen’s wild strikes, the barbed harpoon looked as though it might tear loose. Suddenly, he turned the wheel sharply, bringing the front of the car around. Yi Luo cut the rope attached to the first harpoon, reloaded, and fired another.
This time, the queen had no strength left to deflect it. The sharp harpoon sank into her body again — she looked like a meatball skewered on chopsticks, completely powerless to fight back.
They hadn’t actually come here to beat her up — this was just a test of the harpoon’s strength. But since they’d already dragged her out, it would be a shame not to take advantage.
Yi Luo got out to collect the loot and glanced at the broken harpoon. “Shame these are basically single-use. Can’t really recover them mid-battle.”
He Wuning said calmly, “Whatever. We can just farm levels with the harpoons.”
“Let’s head back to the plains,” Yi Luo said. “Try the piercing power on a stone giant. If we run into something with a shell in the ocean zone, we’ll need to know whether it can punch through.”
“Mm.” He Wuning nodded.
Yi Luo added, “By the way, you’ve been practicing driving for so long — how is your reverse still this bad? What have you even been practicing?”
He Wuning’s expression stayed blank. “Crashing into monsters.”
Yi Luo: “…”
…Fair point. Hard to argue with that.
“Fewer obstacles on the plains — you can practice more there,” Yi Luo said, then turned to Q-chan. “What about the driving assist system?”
“Where were you just now?”
“I thought we were gonna start shooting!” Q-chan said, sounding genuinely disappointed that the anti-air guns hadn’t been used at all today. “But if Sweetie wants driving practice, I can assist first!”
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