Wow! The item-dropping rate is really high!

The car's rear compartment was cluttered with miscellaneous items.

Everyone had prepared for a maximum three-day mission, bringing plenty of logistical supplies such as weapons, ammunition, food, and medicine, all of which were piled up in this section of the car.

Fortunately, everything was well-organized and sorted into categories.

Bai E cleared a space by pushing aside the clutter and spread out the jumble of items on the floor of the carriage.

After accessing the relevant knowledge and technological skills, the potential uses for various objects became as instinctive as nature. Holding those things in hand, subtitles explaining how they were directly related to the device he intended to craft based on his own thoughts sprang to the front of his mind—

[Inoperative Information Gathering Transmitter (Sensor Type I): This small, black, round metal disc can transmit your vital signs and current location to a pre-set channel's fixed reception center, albeit imprecisely, provided it hasn't been damaged. Your only option now is to attempt to extract the pre-set signal emission module, which may assist you in crafting the long-range communication device you need.]

Technology is a capacity for mass production through the collective skills of many people, to say nothing of an individual's handcrafted efforts.

Armed with both information technology and electrical manufacturing skills, Bai E wanted to see if he could create a communicator capable of contacting the urban information reception base using semi-finished materials... even if it could only transmit simple signals.

[You are attempting to assemble a machine...]

[Free Creation Mode: You are employing your knowledge skills to attempt to create an entirely new unknown object. Based on your expertise, the current success rate is "low." You can assist your effort by paying a certain cost (General/Scientific Research Experience). (Consumption: 20 points of experience/min)]

No more nonsense, start the burn!

Bai E concentrated deeply and began to work.

[You are paying General Experience to assist your creation attempt... (Consumption: 20 points of experience/min)]

The attempt was far from smooth sailing.

Like the Sensor Type I in his hands, the instincts granted by technology and knowledge merely let Bai E "know" that a particular module within this gadget "might" be useful for his own experiment.

The useful parts provided by other small electrical devices were even more elusive.

Even the control panel's assessment of the creation possibility was "low," meaning that this manual endeavor was not as simple as reading a bar code.

[You are attempting to assemble a machine...]

[You are paying General Experience to assist your creation attempt... (Consumption: 20 points of experience/min)]

[Free Creation Mode: ... current success rate "medium"...]

The carriage shook gently, not violently.

The difficulty did not come from the outside; the abundance of choices and ideas was the real challenge troubling Bai E.

Lacking relevant experience, he could only attempt every idea through trial and error, but thanks to the natural "progress bar" that could determine the right and wrong, he could continually move in the right direction.

...

Luckily.

The ten squads, spread over a wide area, were indeed thinly dispersed, but during the first day of exploration, they had not strayed too far from the initial planned area.

Considering the potential encounters and coordination between squads, each squad's vehicle was equipped with a local area network center that would automatically include any walkie-talkies entering the communication range into the contactable channel.

In other words, when two squads approached each other closely, they could connect through voice communication, allowing them to meet even without a direct line of sight.

"Tch~"

Da Shan drove up next to another quiet resting squad's vehicle.

The other side had already opened their window and shouted across, "What's the matter, brother?"

"Did you guys find something big you can't handle?"

The other side's tone was somewhat excited.

They had been tracking for a day and had eaten dust the whole time.

Almost no traces that could provide information were found in the tunnels left by the sandworms, and they could only track the past locations of the sandworms using primitive methods, just like Bai E's squad.

When another squad came rushing over all of a sudden, did it mean that they had found the target and they would soon be able to complete the mission?

"No," Da Shan replied through the rolled-down window, with an urgent tone, "Quick, check your sensors, are they still on?"

"Sensors?" The person on the other side was taken aback.

That thing was stuck close to the skin, hidden beneath layers; they didn't even need to shower during the mission, and in these few days, they wouldn't even take off their combat suits—who would check this?

However, Da Shan's tone sounded ominous, and while instructing his teammates behind him, he casually asked.

"What exactly is going on?"

Da Shan remained silent, waiting for the other side to provide an answer.

A quick self-check was all it took, just a lift of the shirt.

"It's not lit."

"It's not lit."

"Mine's not lit either..."

The data were combined, and as the opposing squad leader stuck his head out of the vehicle window, his expression immediately turned serious, "What's going on here?"

As he spoke, his eyes were fixed intently on the mountain, "Are you guys experiencing the same thing?"

"Yeah... We are too."

Even if something were to go wrong, it shouldn't all happen to everyone at once.

The items from the Scientific Research Institute might occasionally be unreliable, but they couldn't possibly be unreliable to this extent.

Everyone instinctively understood this clear reality, so the current situation indicated that their sensors had all been attacked by a mysterious force without their knowledge.

None of them were technical experts, and they neither cared nor understood how their opponent had managed to do this.

What they did care about was...

"Who did this!?"

Da Shan spread his hands helplessly, "We just discovered the problem ourselves and thought to check with you for confirmation. Now it seems... it's not just us."

When it became ineffective... they didn't know.

Where it became ineffective... they didn't know.

They were completely in the dark.

The unknown was always more terrifying, and the opposing team leader asked with furrowed brows, "What do you plan to do?"

"Continue the mission?" Da Shan looked bewildered, "We don't know either..."

They hadn't come to any conclusion from their recent discussion.

In their minds, fulfilling the responsibilities they were tasked with was certainly the top priority, but returning to report the anomalous situation seemed equally valuable.

"How about you go back to report, while we continue with the mission?" Song Ying leaned out and offered the plan he had been contemplating.

"That's one way to do it..." the other side nodded, thinking it was not a bad idea.

If one team experienced this, it might still be a coincidence, but if two separate teams both encountered the same issue, it was hard not to be vigilant.

"Shh!" Song Ying, seated behind Da Shan, suddenly spoke out.

The teammates' unspoken understanding immediately silenced the whole team, and Da Shan, sitting by the window, also signaled the other team to stop talking.

Even the engines that had been running were instantly turned off.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle..."

Song Ying's sharp gaze turned to the other side of the opposing team's transport, his head poking out with a look of surprise and uncertainty, "Where is the tunnel you discovered?"

There was no need to wait for a response; the members inside the opposing vehicle had also noticed the anomaly.

"Captain!"

Following a shout, the large transport vehicle was flipped over in an instant.

Right before Da Shan and the others' eyes, the other team's transport, positioned at a right angle, was lifted off the ground by an immense force, followed by a storm of sand and stones flying about like bullets.

"Boom!"

The flipped transport rolled several times on the spot, but the commotion it caused was no longer a concern for Da Shan and the others.

More pressing matters lay before them—the bugs! Experience more content on empire

The sand worms bursting from the ground screeched menacingly in the air.

The deep droning of the worms overpowered everyone's eardrums.

Was it a premeditated attack?

Or had their unusual gathering behavior triggered the vigilance of the Bug Race, which had been secretly monitoring them by some means, leading to an early outbreak?

But one thing was certain: the masterful sabotage of their sensors was indeed the handiwork of the bugs!

These subconscious thoughts spun through different minds as a chilling voice rose from the back of the vehicle.

"Engage the enemy!"

Bai E stood by the open door of the carriage, glancing back at the assembly apparatus he had crammed into a bundle of soft materials.

The palm-sized device, connected in an ungainly fashion with cables exposed to the air, was blinking with a red light inside the dark cabin, as a stream of data beyond human perception was being sent through a special channel in a certain direction.

The pre-set signaling device would be just as faithful in performing its duties in a different location.

[You have completed an assembly of a communication device, Computer Hardware Maintenance Experience +12, Basic Electrical Manufacturing and Processing Experience +8.]

One could only hope that it would alert the base to the unusual situation of the squad out on the mission...

"Bang!"

Bai E slammed the metal door shut and, with a machine gun in hand, sprayed a burst of fire at the sand worm flailing in the air.