Planning

"I'm not familiar with the configurations of these alchemical creations. I hope I didn't damage any equipment you wanted to keep," White Bone replied. "Now you can tell me your thoughts on how we're going to escape."

Given the vast disparity in their combat strength, Su Ming didn't think they could take the enemy head-on, even if they could now get help from Earth.

"It's only a preliminary idea. I need to gather information first," Su Ming said. "Let's go to the top of the tower."

At the top of the Tower of White Bone, Su Ming didn't casually poke his head out this time. He carefully stayed behind an observation hole and took a close look at their surroundings.

The Tower of White Bone stood on a seaside cliff, about a hundred meters above the water. The cliff was steep and uneven. A slope ran down the other side, and the knights were stationed at its foot. From a defensive standpoint, the terrain was highly favorable.

Of course, it was also a dead end.

Behind the temple's knights were hills that were visibly difficult to traverse.

"I can actually fly," White Bone said. "But I lose most of my strength in flight form. They have wyverns, and I can't shake them off."

White Bone told Su Ming that her original plan had been to force her way through the air and carry him out, then stay behind herself to intercept their pursuers. But that plan had come to nothing after Su Ming awakened as an undead.

Su Ming asked White Bone for details about her flight speed and endurance, and the two also took the opportunity to standardize their units of measurement.

"Flight speed converts to 120 kilometers per hour, with an endurance of twenty minutes. That's worse than an early propeller plane." Su Ming wrote it down in his notebook.

"Spells that provide continuous propulsion consume a great deal of magic power," White Bone explained. "That's while retaining my combat capability. If I disregard everything else, I can go a little faster."

Su Ming pointed at the sailing ships in the sea on the other side. "What are those?"

"Warships of the Pearl Duchy Navy. Their mission is to block our escape route by sea."

Su Ming went on to ask about the warships' performance. Their tonnage converted to about 500 tons, and their speed was roughly ten knots, depending on the wind and sea conditions.

Su Ming noted that they were on the level of sailing warships.

"They can also use wind magic for propulsion, reaching over fifteen knots for short periods. With a favorable wind and magical propulsion combined, twenty knots is normal," White Bone continued.

Su Ming wrote and calculated. He drew several rough maps, then added several sets of circles based on his calculations.

He opened the notebook flat and pointed out the first diagram to White Bone.

"This is our position, the cliff. These circles are the enemy's interception zones. They have forces on land, at sea, and in the air. These are their positions."

"This is their pursuit range after one hour." He turned to the second diagram, where the radii for sea and land differed. On land, the distance reached seventy kilometers, the wyverns' maximum range while conserving their stamina. The cavalry could only pursue them for about thirty kilometers.

At sea, the ships could cover twenty-seven kilometers and the wyverns thirty-five, since the wyverns had to account for the return trip.

The necromancy scholar understood the diagrams with ease and even added, "They have several bishops and archbishops. They can fly too."

After asking for the figures, Su Ming added a semicircle with a sixty-kilometer radius on the landward side and another with a thirty-kilometer radius on the seaward side.

He turned to the third diagram, which was labeled with the pursuit range after two hours.

This time, on land, the bishops moved into the lead, with a pursuit radius of 100 kilometers. At sea, the ships took the lead at forty-five kilometers, since the wyverns had reached the limit of their endurance.

But Su Ming added another fifty-kilometer circle on the seaward side. "The bishops could take a ship for the first part of the pursuit," he explained to White Bone.

"Interesting. You people seem to be very good at these pursuit problems."

"This is only a rough estimate," Su Ming said. Real accuracy would require calculus and limits of functions, but there was no need for that in a rough draft like this.

Projecting farther ahead, the cavalry and ships moved into the lead. Su Ming drew the enemy's pursuit ranges at different times.

"Are you trying to play a racing game? There's no hope in the air or on land," White Bone said. "As for the sea, I do have a ship form, but I can't outrun sailing warships. Besides, we already tried it while Galio was alive."

She pointed out a spot at sea to Su Ming, where the wreck of a ship lay. It was the result of the battle when Galio and his group had tried to break through by sea a few days earlier.

"Now I'm the only one left. I'm even less able to fight those warships."

Su Ming showed White Bone his notes. "But going by sea means facing the fewest enemies. We only need to reach twenty knots, or get a twenty-minute head start at fourteen knots. Then none of them can catch us, and naturally there'll be no need to fight."

The power of wind began to gather at the top of the tower, lifting Su Ming's hair.

"I don't have sails in ship form. I can only use wind magic for propulsion. My top speed is twelve knots, and I can maintain it for twenty minutes," White Bone said. "There's no way I can meet that requirement."

"So." Su Ming tapped the tower-top floor with his toe. "Miss Tower of White Bone, how much do you weigh?"

On Earth, in the mechanical factory's storeroom, the skeleton Little Spiky Head took out the phone and plugged it into a charger. Since it was an old phone, it took quite a while before it powered on.

The first problem, unexpectedly, was that bones couldn't operate a touchscreen. Su Ming pressed Little Spiky Head's bony finger against the screen for a long time, but nothing happened. He remembered he had a glove for using a phone in his backpack, so he found it and put it on Little Spiky Head. Only then could he use the phone.

Su Ming had been hoping to find someone he could contact who would accept the whole situation and help him.

He tried to log in to his messaging app, but failed. The app said verification was required, using an SMS code, facial recognition, or similar methods.

He couldn't do any of them!

The phone also had no SIM card, so he couldn't make calls or send texts.

Su Ming stopped for the moment.

There were ways around it, but he decided to set the matter aside. Putting himself in their shoes, he imagined hearing from a friend who said he had transmigrated, had only a skeleton on Earth, and had also awakened the power of space, then asked for help.

He would definitely be taken for a prankster. This was worse than "I'm Qin Shi Huang. Send me money"!

Prove it with a moving skeleton?

Wishful thinking. For someone in the mechanical trades, making something that moved and looked like a skeleton wasn't a big deal, as long as they were willing to spend the money. Give them enough, and they could even make a whole group dance the yangge.

Let the other person examine the skeleton closely to prove Little Spiky Head wasn't mechanical?

Faced with the unknown to that extent, people would only think it was some new technology, like magnetic levitation bearings. Maybe they would eventually discover it could be real-yes, they. How could anyone not call their friends over for something like this?

Once word got out, either experts would drag Little Spiky Head away for research, or, even more likely, the police station would confiscate him-for spreading superstition and disrupting public order!

By the time someone talked to him properly and tried to understand what he needed, he and White Bone would have been long dead in the other world!