Chapter 119: 100 Meters!
Li Hui couldn’t help but feel a trace of sadness in his heart.
He knew that Zhao Jianguo had already completed his mission and silently sacrificed himself in this pitch-black Lunar Underground Passage.
And a few minutes later, he himself would follow in his footsteps.
This was the only ending, with no possibility of a second kind. At the same time, even before carrying out this mission, he had already clearly known about this situation.
Humans are not plants and trees; who can be without emotion. He couldn’t completely eliminate the emotions in his own heart.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t be a person, but a stone.
No one could do this, not even the most determined warrior.
But Li Hui also knew that some things, no matter how sad, sorrowful, or fearful, even if destined to lose life, still had to be done.
There are always some things more important than one’s own life.
In just an instant, he withdrew his gaze looking toward the rear of the passage, walked forward without any hesitation, and once again drew out the metal sheet from the top of the vehicle body, pasting it onto the part of the vehicle body where fluorescence was leaking out.
Amid the busyness, those lights were finally barely suppressed. But as expected, the light on the radiator behind was getting brighter and brighter.
At the same time, the gas leak spots on his own Mechanical Spacesuit were increasing.
Looking at the time, he had already been carrying out the mission for several minutes at this moment, and along with this minibus, he had traveled over three hundred meters.
Assessing the damage extent of the radiator, estimating it could withstand another tens of seconds, Li Hui gave up on the plan to replace it.
The cooling devices that could be carried inside the minibus were limited, and they needed to be used sparingly.
Watching the numbers on the mechanical pedometer gradually increase, when it reached 4877 meters, a chill instantly assaulted Li Hui.
An irreparable and unstoppable explosive gas leak occurred.
In less than a second, the remaining air inside the spacesuit leaked out instantly. The rapid flow of air took away the heat from Li Hui’s body surface, making him feel bone-chilling cold.
At this moment, it was as if his throat was being strangled, and his consciousness began to fade rapidly.
He also uncontrollably fell down, staying in place.
The minibus ahead continued to advance without stopping. So he watched helplessly as that glow moved farther and farther away from him.
In the last moment before his consciousness disappeared, he saw the minibus door open, a glow exiting from the door, quickly drawing out a new radiator and heading toward the rear of the vehicle.
In a haze of chaos, he barely lifted his arm, waved it at that figure, made a silent farewell, and then completely lost consciousness.
Inside the minibus.
The remaining 10 astronauts were still furiously pedaling the pedals under their feet simultaneously.
Because two comrades had been lost, the force originally borne by them was distributed to the remaining 10 astronauts, making people’s physical consumption faster.
At this moment, Tong Zheng even felt fine beads of sweat emerging on his body.
It must be known that the temperature in the Lunar Underground Passage at this moment was minus 30 degrees Celsius, and the vehicle body temperature was around minus 195 degrees Celsius.
And there was no heat source inside the spacesuit.
But in this situation, due to continuous movement, he still sweated. Moreover, because of sweating, the internal air humidity increased, like the muggy weather before a thunderstorm.
Fortunately, they had anticipated this situation long ago and conducted targeted training, so at this moment it wouldn’t affect the mission execution.
As time quietly passed, the third astronaut stood up and left the compartment.
To ensure success and prevent accidents, the plan formulated before the mission required that once past 4500 meters, one astronaut go down every 400 meters.
The third astronaut leaving the compartment meant that the minibus’s travel distance had now reached 5300 meters.
Still 1700 meters left.
In a silence, another astronaut left.
He was already the fourth astronaut to leave, then the fifth, the sixth…
At this moment, there were still 6 astronauts left inside the compartment.
Fewer astronauts sharing the force meant each person needed to exert more.
Although the inside of the spacesuit was becoming increasingly muggy, and leg muscle fatigue was becoming more obvious, Tong Zheng’s heart was uncontrollably becoming more excited.
At this moment, if there were no accidents, this minibus should be only 100 meters away from the end of the passage.
Under the influence of that negative matter field beyond their technology, even beyond their theoretical system, which they completely couldn’t understand, they had advanced the front line to just 100 meters remaining using only their own technology!
As long as they crossed these remaining 100 meters, they could truly reach that floating city from the intelligence, attempt to destroy it, and then…
End this apocalypse!
But at this moment, the minibus that had been running for over an hour suddenly vibrated violently.
On the dashboard, the number representing mileage, which had been continuously turning, instantly stopped.
Tong Zheng suddenly looked up. But besides the vehicle body gleaming with metallic luster under the cold light, he saw nothing.
Because radio communication couldn’t be used, and they had no other communication means at this moment, the inside and outside of the vehicle body were almost isolated.
He couldn’t judge what exactly had happened outside.
As his brain rapidly turned, he perceived another slight vehicle body shake.
And this shake seemed to have a pattern.
His heart sank instantly.
This was the signal that an emergency situation had occurred outside, and the on-duty astronaut couldn’t handle it!
The only way to communicate between inside and outside the compartment was for the external astronaut to forcefully hammer the vehicle body, transmitting signals through vehicle body vibration.
But this would obviously damage the superconducting armor on the vehicle body’s outer layer.
So before the mission started, the astronauts had already determined that unless it was a true emergency, this communication method would not be used.
And now, even this method had been used.
Then…
Tong Zheng didn’t stand up immediately, but moved a joystick.
This allocated more manpower from the astronauts to driving the vehicle body forward.
Pedaling continued, but under the full drive from the six astronauts, the minibus vehicle body remained steady as a rock, with no sign of continuing to advance.
In an instant of rapid thinking, Tong Zheng moved the lever back to its original position, restoring power to cooling, then stood up, met his comrades’ gazes, and gently pressed down both arms.
This was the instruction to signal his comrades to continue staying here while he went to investigate.
Quickly pushing open the door, then quickly closing it. Turning around, Tong Zheng immediately saw the astronaut who had gotten off earlier squatting on the ground, arm pointing to the underside of the minibus.
Tong Zheng looked over, and his pupils instantly contracted.
He clearly saw that the wheel at this moment had only half left.
