The advance team members immediately got to work, while Sun Hang walked to the edge of the "ice cap" and set down the backpack on his back.
He opened the pack and took out a folded "skateboard."
This was a piece of individual mobility equipment that Tianshu Tower's Equipment Department had rushed to develop over the past month specifically for the sand sea environment. Once fully unfolded, it looked just like a surfboard. Paired with the compact vector thruster mounted at its tail, its top speed over short distances could even surpass a Sand Skiff.
That speed was enough for Sun Hang to make two round trips from Cairo to the Nile estuary within the five-and-a-half-hour "activity window."
Of course, that was assuming Sun Hang did not lose his bearings in this sand sea, where there was almost no landmark to be found.
Stepping onto the board, Sun Hang glanced again at the armband around his right arm. Hundreds of square, chip-like particles were neatly arranged across its surface.
Those particles were wrapped in carbon-fiber protective shells, while their cores continuously emitted faint, low-frequency vibrations. The entire armband was a modified "Nephthys" device created by Professor Cao. With it, as long as the wearer maintained a safe distance of three hundred meters, they would become invisible to the Sand-Sinking Giant Worm's senses.
However, that three-hundred-meter safety distance required the wearer to remain in "silence"—that was, not actively use any memetic abilities.
Once an ability was used, Nephthys's concealment effect would be greatly weakened. Candle Dragon had participated in testing the new Nephthys model. When he merely deployed a liquid protective barrier, Nephthys's safe distance expanded to two kilometers. But when Candle Dragon used his full power, Nephthys's concealment effect failed entirely.
In other words, unless it was absolutely necessary, the