Chapter 287: The Pleasure God Patted Your Shoulder

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"Alex, you've finally returned."

Beneath the back mountain of Folaka Town, the Mayor said this when he saw the young man bringing Yun Mu and the others over.

"Dad, how much further is the Extreme Cold Core from here?"

Upon seeing the Mayor, Alex asked this immediately.

The Mayor looked at Yun Mu and the others following behind Alex, and seeing that he had no intention of avoiding them, he said directly: "One thousand five hundred kilometers; the estimated time of arrival is three hours."

"It's already like this with another one thousand five hundred kilometers to go?" Alex looked at the thermometer hanging on his shoulder with a grave expression; the temperature inside the shelter was currently 10° above zero.

This was mainly because the shelter was built entirely of thick stone bricks, which could effectively insulate heat, and because the building was buried entirely underground, it was not subject to the blowing of the cold Wind.

Coupled with the indoor Heater left behind by the previous expedition team, the indoor temperature could still be maintained at a relatively comfortable level.

However, as the Extreme Cold Core approached, the ambient temperature outside the shelter would likely drop even further; Alex's previous calculations were still somewhat conservative, and according to this trend, even a terrifying low temperature of minus 100° was not impossible!

He was now incredibly grateful to have met Yun Mu and the others; otherwise, facing such a natural disaster, he, as merely an ordinary Senior Engineer, would be able to do nothing.

"This shelter cannot withstand such a cold wave; we need to leave here!" he said with a resonant, forceful tone.

"Calm down, Alex." The Mayor looked at him helplessly: "There is still a Blizzard outside; even if we go out, how far can we get?"

"Everything that can be done has already been done. Next, all we can do is stay here quietly and offer a Prayer in our hearts for the Goddess's mercy."

"No, there is still hope!"

Alex interrupted the Mayor, saying: "We can go to Miss Yun's ship; that ship is equipped with the Kingdom's most advanced Heating devices!"

He paused, thought of something, and added: "This is a ship specifically designed to explore the North Pole; it will definitely be able to survive this Blizzard."

The Mayor had wanted to refuse immediately, but he hesitated slightly upon hearing about exploring the North Pole.

Exploring the North Pole... what a long-lost term.

The scene of setting sail with his companions on an expedition ship thirty years ago felt as if it were only yesterday.

Almost everyone chose to leave after the expedition failed; only he stubbornly remained here, standing on the northernmost coast of the North Continent, looking across the sea at that white, frozen land of his dreams.

"Hmph, do you think this kind of talk can convince me?" Coming back to his senses, the Mayor gave a light huff: "How could that old ship, which still uses sails for power, have been developed by the Kingdom?"

"Does it also harbor delusions of blocking the cold current with such a thin layer of wooden planks?"

"Even if you stuffed the Kingdom's Energy Tower into that ship, it would be absolutely impossible to withstand such a terrifying low temperature."

"Don't be so stubborn, Dad!" Alex said loudly: "Believe me, when you step onto that ship, you will know that what I said is true!"

"You really cannot feel a shred of cold in there!"

"I think you've been frozen by the Blizzard to the point of having a Hallucination; this is normal. When the temperature is too low, the human body will feel hot. Many crew members in the expedition team froze to death after feeling stuffy and unbuttoning their collars," the Mayor said, unmoved.

"I ****" Even though the other party was his own father, Alex was still furious.

"Can't you just listen to me once!?" he said angrily: "If it weren't for your insistence on staying here, we would have already reached the capital of the Kingdom by now!"

"I have also said many times that I will not leave; why won't you listen?" The Mayor frowned tightly and asked in return.

"Is this my problem!?" Alex was so angry he laughed: "Since you won't listen, then I will go and tell the other townspeople; I believe they will believe what I say."

"Nonsense!"

The Mayor's eyes widened in anger; the townspeople had not received higher education like him and Alex, and facing the only Senior Engineer in the small town, they might really listen to him.

"You are leading them to their deaths by doing this!" he said.

"Continuing to stay here is a slow death!" Alex retorted without hesitation.

"Both of you, please calm down..." Brenna walked forward at this moment and persuaded the two.

"As a Senior Engineer, Alex's judgment is based on reason and there is nothing wrong with it, and the Mayor is only considering the townspeople of Folaka Town."

"If it were me, I probably wouldn't believe it so easily either."

Her words successfully softened the expressions of both men. Seeing this, Brenna struck while the iron was hot and said: "In fact, the reason why Xiangyang uses sails for power and wood as the material for the hull is because—"

"This ship was built using Elf technology; the wood of the hull comes from the Elf Forest. Besides that, the Kingdom has also carried out a certain degree of modernization on the hull..."

The Mayor still wanted to say something, but Brenna did not give him a chance to speak at all and continued: "Alex's feeling alone is an illusion, but could the feelings of so many of us also be an illusion?"

She turned to look at Yun Mu and the many crew members standing behind Yun Mu: "The vast majority of people here were drunk last night and lay in the cabin of Xiangyang without wearing many clothes."

"If Xiangyang truly did not have the ability to resist the severe cold, how did these crew members survive?"

"I swear on the honor of the Third Princess of the Frost Kingdom, Brena Saierliya, that everyone in this small town will live!"

"Please trust your son, trust the judgment of Alex as a Senior Engineer!"

"..." The Mayor was silent for a long time, his dim, aged eyes staring fixedly at Brenna.

"You really are the Princess?" Although he could not see her face clearly, that long silver-white hair could not lie; besides, in the Frost Kingdom, impersonating royal nobility was a serious crime.

The Mayor did not understand Elf technology, nor did he know what magic plants were, but he understood royal nobility.

"I will go and gather the townspeople to take refuge on the ship right now." After knowing Brenna's identity, his attitude underwent a 180-degree turn.

"... That detestable Old Man, if I had known this, I should have just brought up the Princess's identity from the start." Seeing the Mayor turn and leave decisively, Alex immediately felt that all the breath he had just wasted was for nothing.

"Don't complain; you still have things to do." Brenna patted his shoulder at this time.

"It will take time for the Mayor to gather the townspeople; take advantage of this time and lead me to the place where the old-fashioned Heaters are piled up."

There was no shortage of the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled among the townspeople of Folaka Town; under such a terrifying Blizzard, even those few steps from the shelter to the port would be fatal.

Therefore, Brenna intended to fix those old-fashioned Heaters for individual use; at the very least, she had to ensure that those townspeople who were not strong enough would have one each.

"I understand, walk this way..." Alex understood her idea and nodded immediately.

He led Brenna and Yun Mu toward the corner of the shelter, where many metal boxes were piled up, filled with all kinds of supplies, among which the old-fashioned Heaters occupied three large boxes.

And before leaving, Yun Mu did not forget to instruct the crew members following behind her: "You few, go and contact the crew members inside the shelter and tell them the current situation."

"Move quickly; we don't have much time to waste."

"Yes!" The crew members acted one after another, while Brenna looked at the three large boxes of old-fashioned Heaters.

"Except for those few from which you removed parts, the other Heaters are not damaged very seriously; they should all be repairable," she said.

"Huh?" Alex looked at her in surprise: "How is that possible? For those broken parts, you can only find unbroken ones to replace them."

Besides, what do you mean by the ones he dismantled?

"You can disparage me as you please, but you cannot question my technique!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean that your technique is bad." Brenna realized Alex had misunderstood her, so she explained: "As an ordinary engineer, you have already done very well."

"It's just that, from my perspective as a Transcendental..."

Brenna did not realize her words had made Alex even more depressed; she simply lifted her hand gently, and the Qi Strength within her body surged into the three large boxes of old-fashioned heaters in front of her.

As a Mechanic, Brenna's Qi Strength attribute is Magnetic, which can enhance the performance of machinery and reduce energy consumption.

Besides that, it can also be used to control machinery to float in the air through magnetic force.

Consequently, a large number of old-fashioned heaters were wrapped in Qi Strength and floated up from the boxes, and then... 【Emergency Repair】

This is an active skill that a Mechanic can master at the Apprentice stage; in addition to this, there is also a passive skill called 【Mechanical Repair】.

The effect of the latter goes without saying, while the effect of the former is to restore damaged machinery to its original state, provided the extent of the damage does not exceed the Mechanic's skill range, at the cost of a certain degree of decline in quality.

The reason these old-fashioned heaters were damaged was simply because they had been in the shelter for too long, so the extent of the damage was not severe.

As a Tier 3 Expert Mechanic, Brenna easily repaired all of these damaged old-fashioned heaters.

"Is this the ability of a Transcendental?"

Looking at the scene before him, the depression in Alex's heart was swept away in an instant, and the flames of yearning flickered continuously in his eyes.

"You are a Senior Engineer, right? You should be qualified to take the Apprentice Mechanic exam."

Brenna withdrew her Qi Strength at this moment and looked at Alex.

"Ye-yes." Alex nodded: "I was already planning to participate in this year's assessment."

"I see." Brenna smiled softly: "It seems there is one more reason to save people; I won't let the Kingdom's future excellent Mechanic die in the blizzard."

"Hey—I'm taking all the canned goods in these boxes." Yun Mu opened a few other boxes at this time and found that they were all filled with canned food.

It is hard to say how long this blizzard will last; to be safe, it is better to take this food along.

Nearly thirty-year-old canned goods... I wonder if they can still be eaten.

Before transmigrating, Yun Mu had heard on the internet that those doomsday survival canned goods could basically be eaten for a lifetime.

It's just that in this world, the technology of the Frost Kingdom is still far less developed than on Earth, not to mention these are canned goods produced thirty years ago.

Oh well, they are just backups anyway; when it really comes time to eat these things, I probably won't be able to worry about whether they are expired or not.

As long as they don't kill anyone.

Yun Mu threw all the canned goods from the boxes into the storage space of her earring, and over at the town mayor's side, the townspeople had already been mostly persuaded.

Brenna had Alex distribute the repaired heaters to the townspeople, with priority given to the elderly and children, followed by the women.

As for the kerosene used by the heaters, there was plenty stored in the shelter; each heater could be used for twelve hours when filled with oil, which was completely enough for the townspeople to reach the Xiangyang.

"Um, can anyone help Beiliya?"

"She has a fever."

After everyone had been assigned a heater, Qigefei suddenly noticed something wrong with his partner beside him and immediately said loudly.

"What's going on? Why does she have a fever?"

Yun Mu walked over to Qigefei's side and asked softly.

"When we were coming to the shelter, Beiliya accidentally fell, and she was covered in snow..." Aersasi, who was standing beside Qigefei, immediately explained.

"Where are your parents?" Yun Mu asked with some confusion.

"I, I am Beiliya's father, let me hold her." Just as Yun Mu finished speaking, a middle-aged man wearing a felt hat with thick eyebrows squeezed out from the crowd.

For some reason, Yun Mu always felt this guy looked familiar; it seemed he was someone she had met at the tavern last night.

Looking at the middle-aged man's limbs, which could not be called strong, she shook her head: "Let me do it. The wind and snow outside are very heavy, it might not be easy for you to walk while carrying a child."

Yun Mu took Beiliya into her arms: "There is fever medicine on the Xiangyang, let's go quickly."

"This... alright."

For some reason, handing his daughter over to a stranger should not have been something he would agree to so easily.

But Beiliya's father felt that the young girl in front of him was worth trusting.

"Get ready, I'm going to open the hatch!"

Alex walked at the very front of the group, with the town mayor, Brenna, and Yun Mu beside him; he placed both hands on the hatch and then turned it with force.

"..."

"Sigh, I told you, can't you learn a lesson?" Yun Mu looked speechlessly at this guy who was faster than anyone else to put his hands on the hatch.

If you can't open it, why are you being so proactive? "Move aside, move aside, I'll do it."

Yun Mu held Beiliya with one hand and easily opened the hatch with the other.

Accompanied by the harsh sound of metal friction, the cold, biting wind poured in from outside the mountain cave.

And when everyone walked out from the excavated cave, a group of unexpected creatures? blocked everyone's path.

Yun Mu's Game Panel indicated that the other party was hostile at the very first moment.

【You have encountered an enemy—【Extreme Cold Element Lv18 (Elite)】】(End of chapter)