"Phew~"
The moment he appeared, Li Yang looked toward the door and windows. Seeing that they were still tightly shut, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. He then glanced around and relaxed only after confirming that everything was exactly as he had left it.
I hope there's something here that can surprise me.
Li Yang unpacked the portable drone case he was carrying and gave it a try. To his satisfaction, the drone's video feed transmitted normally.
"Looks like the money wasn't wasted."
He muttered to himself. A closer look would reveal that there were still many things inside the case that he had yet to take out. It was precisely this set of equipment that allowed the drone to function normally in this unfamiliar world.
But... whether it was actually because of him remained unknown. After all, no one knew whether this world still had a data network like Earth's.
Li Yang looked into the case and nodded in satisfaction. During his days in Heyang, aside from buying a house and doing his exercises, he had either been training his body or learning to operate drones. Now was the time for those investments to bear fruit.
He quietly opened the back door of the Gold Shop and sent the drone out, then hurriedly shut the door again. He sat down on a chair inside the Gold Shop, stared intently at the data-feed screen, and controlled the drone as it took off and began exploring the building.
"Bzz..."
A barely audible whirring of rotors rang out in the corridor. As a model Li Yang had specially commissioned, this two-hundred-thousand-yuan drone had a flight noise that could be said to have been reduced to the lowest level achievable by current technology. At the same time, its video clarity, filming range, durability, power, sensitivity, and stability were all top-notch.
At that moment, inside this Other World's building, the drone took off for the first time. Under Li Yang's quiet control, it flew upward along the corridor.
After several landings and turns, the second floor reached by the staircase appeared in view. A few scattered zombies made Li Yang's expression grow solemn. Looking around, he discovered many offices containing numerous desks that looked highly technological. Strangely, there was no office equipment on them. The only things on those empty desks were ornamental potted plants, water bottles, and the like.
Could there be something more to these desks?
A guess flashed through Li Yang's mind. He immediately controlled the drone to take numerous clear photos of one of the desks for later reference, then continued piloting the aircraft upward to explore.
The entire building seemed to be a commercial space. Almost all the floors above consisted of various commercial companies. What made Li Yang somewhat solemn, however, was that some of the companies had very few desks. Instead, there were only areas divided by lines on the floor and rows of chairs that looked like they would be incredibly comfortable to sit in.
"Could it be that activating these things would make them form something like a computer?"
A guess flashed through Li Yang's mind. Unable to resist, he continued controlling the aircraft as he explored, hoping to find something valuable that he could understand.
In the end, the aircraft flew back to the second floor.
Compared with the empty spaces on the higher floors, the highly technological-looking desks on this floor were the only things he felt he could gain something from.
At worst... he could at least take a few desks with him.
"There are fourteen zombies in total. They seem to all be cleaners from the building..."
"These cleaner zombies... don't look too difficult to kill."
Li Yang's gaze shifted as he watched the zombies, which had become restless after noticing the drone's movements. He then had an idea and deliberately piloted the drone to lure several zombies closest to the staircase down toward it.
"Grr..."
The drone led the way ahead, its noise drawing the zombies down the stairs in a stumbling mess. During the process, some fell over while others slid straight down. By the time the drone hovered above the area facing the back door, the zombies following it had gone from five to two.
"Thwack, thwack."
Two crossbow-launching sounds rang out in succession. Two arrows suddenly shot through the narrow gap in the opened back door, instantly killing the two zombies whose attention was fixed on the drone and sending them crashing to the ground.
Li Yang, standing behind the door, lowered the crossbow in satisfaction and resumed controlling the drone. He lured the zombies faster, then had it hover once they reached the space behind the door, where he used the crossbow to kill them.
Repeating the same process, it did not take long for all fourteen zombies to meet their deaths there.
For safety's sake, Li Yang lured down the zombies from the third floor as well and cleared them out with the crossbow. Only then did he happily open the back door all the way, sling the Miao Dao and repeating crossbow over himself, and stride upstairs.
"Thud, thud, thud..."
After climbing dozens of steps in a row, a rather large space appeared before him. It looked strange, as though there were no doors installed between the corridors. But as soon as he thought of that, he could not help making another association—could these be some kind of high-tech doors that had been damaged for some reason and could no longer be used?
The thought stirred Li Yang's interest. He glanced at the at least one hundred high-tech desks on the second floor, then rushed over and began an intense squat-and-carry operation.
"Swish, swish, swish..."
Li Yang could be seen hugging a desk as his figure flashed, vanishing from the spot together with the desk. When he appeared again the next moment, he was back—but the desk was gone.
After doing this one hundred and twenty times in succession, Li Yang finally moved all those "desks" into his suburban house.
Fortunately, whatever else could be said about that house, it had plenty of space...
By the time he had finished moving the one hundred and twenty "desks," it was noon. During his final trip back, Chen Qian called to ask whether he was coming home for lunch. Li Yang replied that he would eat out. Then, gazing at the roomful of high-tech desks, he reappeared in the Other World with renewed vigor.
With his enthusiasm undiminished, he moved everything on the second floor that looked impressive despite being incomprehensible back to the house. He continued until after three in the afternoon. Finally, as he looked at the pile of things that he did not understand but that seemed incredibly amazing, he felt as though he had struck it rich.
"So... how am I supposed to make these things realize their value?"
Li Yang sank into thought. He then entered the Other World once more and rummaged through the second floor, but unfortunately found nothing resembling an instruction manual.
Then... if he did not even know what these things were, how was he supposed to use them?
Have scientists from the Real World study them?
Don't be ridiculous...
"I wonder whether there are any human survivors left in this world..."
Li Yang pondered for a moment, then launched the drone again in the Other World. This time, he controlled it out of the building and began exploring the city.
"Bzz..."
The drone nimbly passed through layer after layer of the building and entered what appeared to be a deep-blue sky, where it began filming and surveying its surroundings.
The desolate, dilapidated streets were overrun with zombies, while the layers upon layers of buildings were also draped in a gray, lifeless hue.
As the drone rose to an altitude of one thousand meters, the ruined city, steeped in decay, appeared in its field of vision.
The drone searched in all directions through the city. Finally, inside one of the buildings, it discovered... two filthy human beings.
"People?"
Through the video-feed screen, Li Yang saw the two humans appear at the edge of the camera's view. He froze for a moment, then a trace of delight flashed between his brows.
People were great. Only with people could he communicate, better understand this world, and obtain its resources.
"Just like a pillow delivered when you're sleepy."
Li Yang was brimming with excitement, but then a trace of wariness rose in his heart—people also meant that he might encounter hostility.
After considering it, however, he still controlled the drone and moved closer.
Whether they were hostile or friendly, he had to make contact with them before he could gain anything of value.
As he pondered, the drone gradually drew near. Two tall, broad-built figures—a man and a woman, both blackened with grime—appeared in Li Yang's solemn gaze.
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