Their tracks happened to be completely worn out at this moment.
No matter how Xiao Mei tried to repair them, the tracks simply couldn’t work any longer. At this point, they had already become a pile of scrap metal.
As Xiao Mei put it: They couldn’t be of any use even if they were re-smelted.
Hence, Rong Gui dug a hole on the spot, and buried the tattered tracks in it.
“Maybe iron ores will be formed here in the future~” Patting off the dirt, Rong Gui cast a final glance at the burial site of the tracks.
Xiao Mei: ……
“There won’t be any iron ore. The buried metal will only be oxidized and disappear.” Xiao Mei the robot refuted him coldly.
Rong Gui scratched his hat.
“S-so that’s how it is…well, then…”
He thought for a moment, and soon became high-spirited again: “This time it happens to be my turn to name this new place. I’ve made up my mind – this new place will be named after our tracks!”
Standing up straight, Rong Gui announced:
“From now now, this place will be called Track Town.” He said solemnly.
“Judging from the size of this place, are you sure it’s a town, not a village?” Glancing at Rong Gui, Xiao Mei walked towards the spot where he parked their car.
“We’ll know that after we drive for a while, won’t we?” Trotting behind to keep up with Xiao Mei, Rong Gui closely followed his companion’s footsteps to climb back into the car.
As it turned out, this time, Xiao Mei was right again.
“It’s really a Track Village~” After Rong Gui finished, he found Xiao Mei was looking ahead all the time. Rong Gui couldn’t help but follow Xiao Mei’s sight to look, and he froze.
“My God…Xiao Mei, didn’t you say that we were underground?”
“Then…then what the hell is this?!” Rong Gui shouted out loud.
Lying quietly before them was a vast expanse of water with jet-black, mirror-like surface. What else could it be if not a boundless ocean?!!!
“So, this is the Subterranean River.” Without any change in his tone, Xiao Mei said quietly.
“J-just a river? But…it looks…it looks…” Obviously more like a sea!
Stuttering, Rong Gui stood still, stupefied.
Xiao Mei withdrew his gaze, his eyes now landed on Rong Gui’s face.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
He’s waiting to see panics on that face, even despair.
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Who could have known –
Rong Gui’s subsequent reactions indicated that he was indeed at a loss. But he’s not at a loss due to panics, and nor did he show any sign of despair.
He let out a huge scream, and the next second, he actually jumped out of the car and ran into the black water in front of him!
“Wow!!! It’s sea! So this is a sea!!! I have never seen any sea since I was born!!!” Rong Gui jumped for joy.
Xiao Mei: ……
This was absolutely not the reaction from a normal person!
As a result, Xiao Mei got off the car as well.
“Correction – it’s not sea, but just a river.” Standing by the river and quietly watching Rong Gui running around, Xiao Mei corrected the mistake in Rong Gui’s words.
“C’mon, just let me have my fun. In my eyes, such a wide expanse of water is a sea, or at least, nothing short of a sea!” Rong Gui ran another lap before trotting back to Xiao Mei’s side. Sitting next to Xiao Mei, he gazed at the large area of river before him with fascination. Only after a long while did he whisper: “It’s so good to be alive. I finally get to see the sea.”
He looked at Xiao Mei while speaking. Shrugging his shoulders, he smiled again: “Well, alright. It’s a river that resembles a sea.”
“However, I have a feeling that, if Xiao Mei and I, we continue to walk together like this, sooner or later, I will see the real sea ahead.”
“……” With his hands gently resting on his laps, Xiao Mei…Xiao Mei didn’t speak.
Hugging his knees, Rong Gui sat there cheerfully to enjoy the river view for a while. It took him another moment before turning his head and starting to speak again.
“Okay then, Xiao Mei, which way should we go next?”
Xiao Mei slightly turned his head to look at Rong Gui.
“There are four directions in total~ If we’re unable to go ahead, let’s try the other directions~” Rong Gui said in a taking-it-for-granted manner.
Xiao Mei tilted his head.
Hmm…was this the reason why he never despaired? Before being overcome by despair, he had long raised the ambition to work hard towards the next direction.
Although this guy lacks common sense, yet, to some extent, his brain is quite flexible.
Xiao Mei stared at Rong Gui again for a while.
Perhaps because he stared for a little too long, Rong Gui became somewhat embarrassed – a rare sight.
Pulling down his hat, Rong Gui wiggled his shoulders: “I…I know my method is rather stupid~ But what do you expect from a person with a poor sense of direction? They all say that boys are good at finding directions, but growing up, I have always been the one who got lost the most.”
“If one way is blocked, we’ll just switch to another. Once we’ve tried every way, there must be a way out, right?”
=-=
Fine, so it turned out that these remarks came from lessons learned by an expert in getting lost?
↑
Xiao Mei averted his eyes from Rong Gui and stood up. He gently patted off the dirt on his body, and then said in a monotone: “Correction – there are not just four directions, but six.”
“Apart from the east, south, west and north, we can also consider going up or down.”
Bending down, Xiao Mei put his hands into the black water before him. He stayed silent for a long time.
Rong Gui didn’t dare to bother him. He knew that whenever Xiao Mei started to look like this, he must be planning something big. Yet, Rong Gui was also extremely curious. Since he really wanted to know what Xiao Mei was planning, he secretly connected the port on his body to Xiao Mei ← for the two robots, such was their way of sharing information. As long as Xiao Mei didn’t object, Rong Gui could see things that Xiao Mei was willing to let him see.
As expected, the next second, a very intriguing “map” appeared in his head.
And then, Xiao Mei’s voice rose next to his ears:
“This is a map created by the feedbacks from the sonar detector. It’s true that there is only a river before us, but beneath the river, there is a path. That path is very deep, and leads to a wider world.”
“So you mean…the path is under the river?” Rong Gui was a little dazed by what he heard, but at least he caught the key words.
“Correct. There is a U-turn under the river. Once we pass that U-turn, we can get out of here.” Xiao Mei confirmed his understanding.
“My God…” Rong Gui looked intently at the map in front of his eyes. However, as someone with a terrible sense of direction, he already had difficulty understanding ordinary maps, let alone such complicated ones!
“Xiao Mei, does that mean your people need to dive under water to get out every time before?” He asked bluntly.
Xiao Mei didn’t utter a word.
Pulling off Rong Gui from his body, he walked towards the trunk of their car.
For the question that Rong Gui just asked, he had also thought about it before, but only once.
“I don’t need to know the paths that others have taken. I only need to know my own path.” Xiao Mei said coldly. He was standing with his back to Rong Gui. Viewed from behind, his figure looked firm and resolute.
What he said was his true thought. Whether in the past, the present, or the future, he had never changed.
↑
Unfortunately, Xiao Mei was no longer the Xiao Mei of old.
Were he still in his original human body, his words would perhaps indeed achieve the effect of creating an image that could be described as “steadfast”, “glorious”, or even “magnificent”. Yet, unlucky for Xiao Mei, he’s now only a robot.
And even worse – a shabby robot in its crudest form.
Which made the whole situation a bit funny.
Rong Gui, who possessed the same type of body, was stunned by the hilarious effect created by Xiao Mei before him. He rushed over to help.
“Obviously we are just going to jump into the river~ Why made it sound so complicated?” Rong Gui complained in a small voice.
After moving around a few vehicle parts, their car looked different again.
More holes on the car were exposed to the outside, and the car body was also compressed into a flat shape. It now looked a bit like…
“A submarine?” Like other men, Rong Gui used to occasionally flip through news in military-related area.
“Not really. Just a storage chamber with a power plant.” Xiao Mei took the time to answer Rong Gui’s question, without dropping his work in hand.
As he spoke, he called on Rong Gui to place everything which needed to be stored into the narrow space inside the chamber, one by one.
The most important thing that needed to be stored and protected was, of course, their freezing cabin, followed by a pile of Rong Gui’s tattered odds and ends. In the end, Xiao Mei also put his toolkit inside.
And the chamber was full.
Rong Gui was dumbfounded.
“What about us?” Pointing at himself, and then pointing at Xiao Mei, Rong Gui stared blankly.
Did Xiao Mei forget to make room for a place to store their current bodies? This didn’t seem like a mistake that Xiao Mei could make!
Indeed –
Picking up the brush placed outside beforehand, as well as the small iron bucket next to it, Xiao Mei said to Rong Gui: “There’s no place to put our mechanical bodies. We will be responsible for pushing the car into the water, and after entering the water, we will become part of the car to keep pushing it forward.”
“What? Are we going to turn into propellers?” After listening to Xiao Mei’s design, Rong Gui was dazed.
Xiao Mei’s design had always been streamlined. He would take all the items at hand into consideration, and make use of each item to its fullest extent.
Their mechanical bodies were no exception. As early as he was building the car, Xiao Mei had reserved a position behind the car for the installation of two power-driven propellers. After diving into the water in a proper manner, the two robots themselves were able to become part of the car and drive it forward.
Rong Gui was coated with a layer of waterproof paint. During the paint drying process, he listened to Xiao Mei’s careful explanation on all the precautions regarding “how to become a good propeller”. With a basic level of mastery of his lessons, Rong Gui was now going to work under water~
The moment he jumped into the water, he deftly embedded his body in the designated place. He knew he had succeeded when the system inside his body generated a beeping sound signaling the completion of connection.
Rong Gui finally let out a sigh of relief.
And next, his body was out of his control – it was now automatically controlled by the system loaded on the car, and it began to work skillfully as a propeller. Rong Gui glanced at Xiao Mei next to him, and found that Xiao Mei was in the same state.
His heart relaxed at the sight, and he was suddenly happy once more.
A Gui is always so optimistic ;w; What a good boy~
Ah Gui is so adorable. I love how optimistic he is! I just wanna pinch him and keep him in my pocket <(￣︶￣)>
I really wanna know more about him and Xiao Mei as well especially the lives they lived before.
ANDDD! They’re going to a new place which means new and more adventures!! I’m sooo excited!
I wonder if they’ll get a new body or they’ll just repair, upgrade, or whatever.
Thank you very much for this chapter! It’s amazing and you did great!