Pet King

With the low level of human activity that the desert saw, a sudden bright light didn’t automatically mean that there were humans around. The sunset’s light might be reflected if it hit a certain reflective rock with the right shape at the right angle. When Zhang Zian saw the reflective light, he was really excited at first, but he managed to calm himself down.

Still, with the endless sea of sand around them, it was really weird for a rock to suddenly come out of nowhere.

The other members were gathered together, happily laughing and chatting. Some of them took the chance to walk further away to answer to Mother Nature’s call, while some of them stayed in their cars with their headphones on to play games. Only Nabari noticed the weird flying pattern of the drone, hovering in midair for some time without moving when it usually would have started flying across the spine of the sand dune.

The first time Nabari saw the drone, he was extremely shocked. He couldn’t figure out for the life of him how such a tiny metal thing could actually fly freely in the air like an eagle. At the same time, he was extremely impressed with Zhang Zian, who was able to control the drone with ease. To him, this was nothing short of a miracle.

The others had already lost interest in the drone, while Nabari always watched its takeoff and landing with his full devotion and respect.

The evening sun reflected off the white metal covering of the drone, making it shine like a star.

He didn’t know anything about these high-tech things, so even if he had questions, he kept them to himself without rushing Zhang Zian, patiently waiting for its next action.

Other than Nabari, even if Peter Lee wasn’t fully paying attention to the drone, he could acutely feel that this search was taking longer than usual.

“Jeff, have you found a suitable place for us to cross?” Peter Lee asked through the walkie-talkie.

Zhang Zian picked the walkie-talkie up. “Mr. Peter Lee, Professor Wei Kang, Mr. Nabari, I think it’s best if you come over and take a look.”

In order to maintain constant contact and prevent any mishaps, everyone brought their walkie-talkie with them wherever they went, even if they went to the toilet. Other than those with their headphones on, everyone else heard what Zhang Zian had said.

They weren’t stupid, and they immediately heard the weirdness of his words. Clearly, the drone had found something out of the ordinary.

Therefore, it wasn’t just the three people that Zhang Zian had called—everyone else came toward him too.

“What happened?”

Peter Lee and his team came to Zhang Zian’s car. Zhang Zian showed them the screen on his controller, explaining the situation simply.

Nabari squinted as he looked at the bundle of black dots, asking, “Could it be a wild camel?”

That was certainly a possibility, no matter whether it was a wild camel or a lost camel. But there were two weird things in that case. One, did camels reflect light? Two, this black dot didn’t seem to be moving at all. Even if it was a camel, it was probably a dead one.

Peter Lee took off his tea-colored crystal spectacles, taking a closer look. “I think it looks more like a house.”

Well, that guess was even more improbable. How could a lone house be in the middle of the desert? Even if it was, it was probably a haunted house that no one dared to enter.

“We’ll know if we fly the drone closer, won’t we?” Wei Kang suggested.

Zhang Zian nodded. “I thought so too. We can fly the drone in that direction to take a look.”

“Just be careful and take note of the distance. Don’t let the drone go out of control,” Wei Kang reminded him.

“Understood.”

Seeing that they did not object, Zhang Zian flew Nekhbet in that direction. Their heads all crowded around the small screen, close enough to hear each other’s breathing.

The others crowded outside, passing on the information that they heard to the others. The mysterious black dot had piqued their interest, and they passionately discussed what it could be.

With the drone getting closer, the black dot on the screen got bigger. But the sunlight was constantly changing as well, so it was still relatively blurry.

Beeeeeep!

The remote control gave a warning signal, reminding them that their connection with the drone was pushing its limits.

If it were a flat desert, their range could still be wider. But before them was yet another huge sand dune. When the drone flew over it, the sand dune stood in the way of the connection between the drone and controller, preventing effective signaling between the two.

Zhang Zian didn’t dare risk it and immediately made the drone stop its path forward. He instead flew it upwards instead to avoid a blocked signal. The connection between the controller and drone got stronger, but their distance from the black dot became greater.

Right then, the black dot became a vague shape, turning into a black blob instead.

Everyone usually complained about how the sun was too bright, but now they couldn’t help but wish the sun would shine a little longer, a little brighter. The few of them were inches away from having their eyes plastered directly onto the screen, and they were finally able to see the true form of the black blob.

“It… It’s a car?” they said, looking at each other, confused.

The black blob was clearly a jeep, half-buried in the sand. And the light was the reflection of the rearview mirrors, the car’s body itself, and the windshield and other glass panels.

But therein lay the question. Other than them, who would drive all the way out here to the desert in the middle of nowhere?

Zhang Zian watched Peter Lee’s face. “Other than you guys, who else has seen the sheepskin map?”

Peter Lee quieted as he thought, shaking his head. “I’m not sure. I know that before I got my hands on it, it had already passed through countless hands, but no one has treated it seriously, and no one has really investigated where the spot on the sheepskin map was…”

“Maybe someone has and you weren’t aware of it,” Zhang Zian said.

“That is a possibility,” Peter Lee admitted.

The sheepskin map was clearly ages old, and the previous owners hadn’t realized its potential value or weren’t insane enough to believe a map that hadn’t been proven to be true. It could just as well be a prank that someone had left behind or a random scribbling that some naughty kid had done—Peter Lee had thought of those things as well, but he had also considered the opposite.

“It might have been from other expedition teams or the oil miners.” Wei Kang pointed out another possibility.

Nabari is more inclined to believe Wei Kang’s suggestion and pointed to the west. “They might be expedition teams that set off from the Kufra Oasis.”

The Kufra Oasis was within Libya’s borders, the start of the ancient smuggling routes. Their team might have chosen to start from the Siwa Oasis, but other expedition teams were free to start from the Kufra Oasis.

Nabari was the best guide from the Siwa Oasis, but he dared not say that he was the best guide in the whole Sahara Desert. There might be a guide just as good or even better than him in the Kufra Oasis.

The possibility of the existence of oil miners wasn’t out of the question either—they couldn’t underestimate the desire that the oil conglomerates had for looking for more oil mines.

The only kind of people that he was more jealous of than the ones who had mineral mines were the people who had oil mines.

If they wanted to know the truth, they definitely couldn’t just stand around guessing.