252: Chapter 249 Promoting Cooperation, Aiming for the Moon

More and more people collapsed on the sand dunes from exhaustion.

Zhang Mu saw that things were almost wrapped up and planned to turn back to NH.

But just as he turned around, he found that the explorers didn't seem discouraged; instead, they were fully exercising their subjective initiative, engaging in a battle of wits and courage with the tycoon's subordinates in the desert.

The first was a man named Mike, who led his family members to dig holes in the sand, using the limited equipment they carried to camouflage the traps.

Then, they sent out the man with the most stamina as bait to lure the dune buggies into the pits.

This plan wasn't initially trusted by everyone, but Mike keenly perceived the opponent's hesitation—they didn't dare to actually harm these people.

Although he didn't know the specific reason, after observing the dune buggies chasing others, he was basically certain.

So, Mike's crude plan was hastily implemented and executed.

The effect was outstanding; the front wheels of a dune buggy successfully sank into a sand pit.

Mike led his family to swarm forward, grabbing wrenches and removing the wheels almost in the blink of an eye. Then, they ran off with the bolts, leaving the driver in the tire-less vehicle, dazed and helpless.

"Where are my wheels?"

Practice brings truth; Mike quickly spread the successful plan to the surrounding explorers who hadn't been targeted yet.

After that, the situation between friend and foe reversed, and the scales of victory began to tilt toward the explorers.

However, although they regained some ground through tactical planning, the personnel losses caused by the initial passive flight were unfortunately too heavy.

Moreover, the group lacked effective means of communication and unified command, and a few people were caught due to operational errors. The comrades still resisting were ultimately dwindling at a slow but unstoppable rate.

Seeing that they were facing total annihilation, Mike was anxious but had no countermeasures.

But as the old saying goes, no one knows whether the next second will bring a pleasant surprise or an accident.

As Mike removed another set of wheels and prepared to flee with his nephew, he suddenly saw figures cresting a distant sand dune, sliding down the slope in a crouch.

What happened?

Stuffing the bolts into his pocket, he struggled through the yellow sand and ran up to the person.

The two sides then briefly exchanged information.

It turned out that Mike's brave wave of resistance against "oppressive authorities" had been broadcast live by helicopters the entire time, and the audience in front of their televisions was deeply moved.

Later, seeing Mike steadfastly removing wheels even as his comrades continuously decreased deeply touched them.

With hot blood surging, the viewers who loathed oppression spontaneously took leave from their companies, packed their bags, and drove their own cars frantically toward the desert.

They finally arrived in time, injecting fresh strength into the nearly defeated explorer team.

Furthermore, reinforcements were still streaming in from all over the country.

Mike was greatly encouraged, swinging his wrench wildly. The tires were like adolescent teenagers eager to escape parental control; as soon as they found an opportunity, they hurriedly distanced themselves from the axles.

The tycoons were not panicked by the sudden surge in the crowd's morale.

They had an absolute advantage that the explorers lacked—logistics.

Dune buggy drivers could be rotated, and there was dedicated personnel to supply food and water.

No matter how tenacious the people's will was, their stomachs would eventually empty, and their mouths would eventually dry up.

Once they were dehydrated and exhausted, a total defeat was only a matter of time.

Just as the tycoons felt victory was within their grasp, another accident occurred.

The second wave of reinforcements not only came prepared with vehicles but also had cars filled with survival supplies.

Because they didn't dare cause casualties, the tycoons didn't even have the courage to order the interception of the vehicles, watching helplessly as they delivered goods into the hands of the explorers.

With no shortage of supplies in the short term, the idea of exhausting their strength naturally fell through.

Ultimately, after suffering many losses—too many dune buggies had broken down, and even the tycoons couldn't replace them immediately.

The two sides chose a ceasefire for negotiations.

Mike was not only the first person to organize the resistance but also the first to formulate and execute a plan against the enemy, and his results were the most fruitful—his wheel-removal count was at the top of the list.

It was only right that he take on the heavy responsibility of negotiating with the enemy forces.

After a barely cordial consultation, the meeting site was set on a flat patch of sand at the foot of a dune.

Due to time constraints, the facilities at the scene were quite simple—a long table was placed on a carpet, with two wooden chairs facing each other.

Next, the two sides engaged in a heated discussion regarding the ownership of the desert treasure.

Mike stated that the treasure buried by Mr. Dumbledore should not be monopolized by careerists; it belonged to all of humanity.

The representatives sent by the tycoons and MPs explained sincerely that there was no treasure, and it was all a misunderstanding caused by some accidents.

To this, Mike responded with a cold sneer and said, "We have no interest in exposing your lies. Sign a treaty for a joint treasure hunt, or we will resort to war."

The representatives were a bit frantic.

After multiple failed requests for Mike to withdraw from the desert, they helplessly drafted the treaty in duplicate.

The results of the negotiations soon reached the MPs and tycoons. With twitching lips, they cursed "these idiots" while reporting the situation to the Queen.

The Queen's reply came quickly.

"Instead of scolding them for being stupid, you should reflect on why you lost their trust."

"Let them make a fuss. Establish supply and medical stations in the desert to ensure no one dies in distress.

By the way, don't use those low-quality goods from before; otherwise, if the Headmaster comes knocking, solve it yourselves."

From these words, it seemed the Queen had no intention of allocating funds.

Everyone looked at each other and dejectedly urged their assistants to calculate the supplies needed to establish the supply lines.

Once the reports were out, everyone claimed a portion and then fully mobilized their companies and government forces, striving to complete the task as quickly as possible.

Zhang Mu, suspended high in the air, watched all this dumbfounded.

After a long while, he regained his senses, shook his head in amusement, muttered "they brought it on themselves," and headed toward the Queen's palace.

Since he was in Ying Country, he might as well handle the transaction business to save himself another trip.

He flew very fast and arrived over the Queen's palace in about half an hour.

He deactivated the Shadow Technique, transformed into Dumbledore's appearance, and followed the normal visiting procedure by first going to the main gate to have a Guard announce him.

Actually, this wasn't exactly a normal procedure.

Normally, one would book an appointment in advance and go through a series of security procedures before meeting the Queen.

Being announced directly by a Guard was considered an exclusive channel opened for Dumbledore.

Before long, the Queen arrived, wearing a princess dress full of youthful charm and walking gracefully in high heels.

The two exchanged a few pleasantries at the gate and walked side-by-side across the threshold, through the stone path in the middle of the lawn, and into the reception room.

Although her breathing was steady and her movements weren't hurried, remaining as elegant as ever, Zhang Mu could tell she had an irrepressible excitement in her heart.

He naturally knew the reason.

Still in a hurry to get back to NH to see how the research team prepared by the three Academicians was progressing, he didn't beat around the bush and directly explained the details of the transaction between the two parties.

Zhang Mu himself was busy with a myriad of affairs and had a lot on his shoulders, so he naturally didn't have time to personally oversee this—he could use the Transformation Technique on a puppet, but he had to return to Saul Continent, and the magic would fail without mana to maintain it.

So he simply dispatched a puppet to be permanently stationed at the Queen's palace.

As for the identity, he casually made up a "Hogwarts Logistics Department Manager" and even gave it a personality—not fond of talking but easy-going.

For all future transaction matters between Ying Country and Hogwarts, the Queen could just interface directly with him.

Zhang Mu then pulled out a long-prepared list, which included the exchangeable supplies and their prices.

After taking it and looking at it for a few moments, the Queen asked who would appraise the value of the items provided by the Kingdom.

Upon receiving the answer that the "Logistics Department Manager" would be responsible, she immediately called for Butler Lee to bring all the stockpiled items to the palace.

Seeing this, Zhang Mu didn't stay any longer. He left a message saying, "The Manager will be here in two days," activated the Shadow Technique, and disappeared.

Leaving the palace and heading toward NH, he pondered that once the Queen's supplies were ready, he would have to find time to visit.

It wasn't that he was worried about the puppet's intelligence being unable to handle linguistic communication with humans, but rather he wanted to guide the Queen to develop aerospace technology and then go to the moon to mine.

After all, he would be going to Lake Royal Capital soon, and the mass production of magic-conducting weapons was urgent.

While thinking, Zhang Mu arrived over NH. He wasn't in a hurry to go in and first pulled out his phone to browse videos.

As expected, yesterday's three-way battle had already spread across the Huaxia internet.

Perhaps because the leadership of the Special Investigation Bureau was all in "The World," no one knew what was appropriate to post. Following the principle of "do more, more mistakes; do less, fewer mistakes; do nothing, no mistakes," the domestic TV stations were unusually quiet.

He then flipped through the comments section.

The tone of the netizens was somewhat beyond Zhang Mu's expectations.

In his mind, the Mountain Gate's style of aggressively forming a team to go to someone else's territory would be disliked by most people for being a bit overbearing.

But most of the comments argued that the Ying Country army was powerless against the calamity, and since the Mountain Gate went with the purpose of rescue, whether they had the other party's permission was not important.

Because the people qualified to approve the opening of national borders would not be on the front lines of resisting the calamity.

It wasn't impossible that they would disregard the lives and safety of the people for the sake of their own face.

The Mountain Gate wasn't saving black-hearted capitalists; they were doing it for the common people.

Zhang Mu looked at it for a bit but didn't care too much, opening the light gate and entering "The World."

As usual, he first went to check the "Senior Brother Zhou" puppet—these guys were too chatty, and the language system was the puppet's weakest function, so Zhang Mu had to maintain it whenever he had free time.

After the routine check, he replenished some mana for the Core and then connected to the Core to extract the recorded information from the two days he was away.

It was basically the same as usual; the three old men would come together during the puppet's working hours to ask about everything, and then leave without hesitation when it was time to clock out.

Afterward, Zhang Mu connected to Fellow Daoist Liu, who was responsible for monitoring everyone.

After Luo Xiling's group of five returned, they weren't lazy either, concentrating on practicing sword techniques.

The Director and the others, likely stimulated by Lin Miao, set out every morning and returned at night, sweating profusely as they worked hard to chop trees on the back mountain.

It wasn't the iron trees on the mountaintop; they couldn't cut those.

Clearly, this kind of effort was useless. After all, although the Mountain Gate was filled with mana, without the aid of a Meditation Method or Knight Magic, they simply couldn't absorb mana into their bodies.

Well... at most, they just felt the air was fresh, and their spirits were a bit more invigorated after breathing it for a long time, nothing else.

Opening his eyes, he felt a bit emotional. The temptation of the supernatural to humans was truly terrifying; even these guys who had been slacking off in the Special Investigation Bureau for over a decade had started to strive.

When it was time to send them back, he'd give them some diluted Body-Strengthening Potion.

Having made the decision, with a thought, Zhang Mu arrived in front of the Director, who was swinging an axe at a tree trunk.

He originally wanted to say hello first, chat a bit, and then ask how the research team's preparations were going.

To his surprise, the Director had been waiting for him. As soon as he saw him, he immediately asked Zhang Mu to take him out for a bit.

There was no sun or moon inside the Mountain Gate, and electronic devices were useless, but the Director had calculated that a day in the Mountain Gate was basically consistent with Blue Star.

One cycle of day and night was twenty-four hours. The Director was counting the days and estimated that the urgent research personnel had probably arrived yesterday.

The efficiency was fast enough.

Zhang Mu was secretly pleased, but his expression remained calm as he waved to call Kunpeng over, carrying the Director through the opening light gate.

His calculation was quite accurate.

Through Kunpeng's eyes, Zhang Mu saw a temporary airport built on the coast.

A transport plane was taxiing and landing on the runway. After it stopped, a batch of large construction machinery drove out of the cabin.

Without staying in place, under the direction of ground crew, excavators, cranes, and so on turned right onto a road and drove directly toward the nearby hills.

They seemed to intend to hollow out the interior of the mountains to establish a laboratory hidden from satellites.

Zhang Mu felt this was an unnecessary operation.

If they just mentioned it to him, he could directly outline a Sealing Array to block the view—he hadn't learned that kind of functional development, but Mihe had a lot of experience with it. Going back to Saul Continent to learn from him for a day would solve it.

However, since work had already started, Zhang Mu couldn't proactively offer to help without the Director speaking up.

That would seem too deliberate.

Again, never treat the leadership of a country with over a billion people as naive children who can be toyed with at will.

The persona Zhang Mu had been building was one of indifference toward Blue Star's modern civilization.

I'm easy to talk to and provide some things out of a "helping" attitude; how you develop depends on yourselves.

If he ran over and said, "You guys are too slow, let me help."

Forget the Director, who appeared honest but was actually a shrewd person; even the somewhat dim-witted Zhao Qi would probably sense something was wrong.

After all, Chinese people emphasize that "courtesy without reason means a hidden motive," and there's the ancient saying regarded as truth by modern people: "When the weasel pays a New Year's visit to the chicken, it's not with good intentions."

So, he couldn't do anything to break his persona.

Zhang Mu could only watch as the Director found the on-site manager, communicated with him, helped coordinate and allocate human resources, and started excavating the body of a mountain.

He was indeed anxious. Since he had nothing else to do, Zhang Mu used Kunpeng's two round eyes to spy on the construction progress every day.

Five days passed in a flash.

During this time, Zhang Mu rushed to Ying Country to deliver the puppet to the Queen's palace and incidentally asked about the preparation of supplies.

Learning that some parts were still not in place, he returned the way he came.

On the other hand, the progress of the construction team busy in the hills was pleasing.

On the third day, the Director inadvertently noticed Kunpeng circling in the sky above—Zhang Mu told him that the Senior Brother liked their work and was playing at the scene.

He pondered in his heart, since the Kunpeng Immortal liked watching excavators carve mountains, why not ask him to help?

Zhang Mu, who had long since run out of patience, took the opportunity to control Kunpeng and directly hollow out the towering mountain.

Afterward, Zhang Mu simply made a secret move, using mana to reinforce the mountain that was now just a shell, and appeared to inform them that it was all done by the Senior Brother on a whim.

The excited Director quickly moved the experimental equipment into the base. With the researchers in place, the development of a new generation of moon-landing rockets officially began.