Chapter 321 - 318: The Sprinting Cyclist

Chapter 321: Chapter 318: The Sprinting Cyclist

Xiaozhang took a deep breath, put on his helmet and goggles, adjusted his sand-proof mask, and gave an "OK" sign to the people in the distance.

He checked the sand piled on the sand table, his gaze shifting to the bicycle beneath him.

"Multi-speed bike, ten-times acceleration!"

As he spoke, everything around him came to an abrupt halt.

The movements of the people in the distance became incredibly slow.

However, Xiaozhang’s own body suddenly felt heavy, as if it couldn’t bear the strain.

Gripping the handlebars tightly, Xiaozhang leaned over and began to pedal furiously.

Propelled by Xiaozhang, the bicycle sped away from the Quicksand Monitoring Station.

The wind howled and sand filled the sky, the view shaking unsteadily.

What’s more, the sky was filled with a dense swarm of bats. They were the same color as the yellow sand and tiny, flying in tight formations. From a distance, they looked like a yellow river, flowing endlessly toward the horizon.

Moreover, a cacophony of noise emanated from the swarm.

"It’s ultrasound."

With his time accelerated, Xiaozhang could even hear the bats’ chaotic ultrasonic waves, which only served to agitate him further.

Looking at the bats, his breathing grew heavy and his heart began to race.

"I might not have as much time as I thought."

His gaze quickly shifted back, taking in the full external structure of the Quicksand Monitoring Station.

It was a tall, yellow, sand-covered tower. Its footprint wasn’t large, but it was extraordinarily high. The exterior was rugged, with many bizarrely shaped pieces of equipment jutting out from it.

Swarms of bats flew across the upper half of the tower. Its very top was completely obscured. The churning yellow river of bats blocked his vision, leaving only a vague silhouette visible.

Xiaozhang’s hands on the handlebars began to tremble. He took another deep breath and began circling the perimeter of the Quicksand Monitoring Station.

While the silhouette of the upper sections was obscured, the structure at the base was perfectly clear.

His gaze swept back and forth across the lowest section of the station. After one lap, Xiaozhang returned inside.

Using the sand and water he had prepared, Xiaozhang circled the sand table on his bike. Then, freeing both hands in a feat of juggling, he quickly constructed the base of the station.

He then put his hands back on the handlebars and quickly sped outside the station.

Xiaozhang breathed a sigh of relief, seeing how smoothly it was going and that he hadn’t made any mistakes on the sand sculpture.

Next, he just had to repeat the process.

Without a moment’s rest, Xiaozhang shuttled back and forth, in and out of the Quicksand Monitoring Station on his bike. The sand sculpture grew ever higher, slowly taking shape, until he finally reached the most difficult part: the top.

That part was completely obscured by the swarm of bats, its features impossible to make out. Xiaozhang could only try to peer through the gaps, piecing together the station’s original form bit by bit.

This slowed his progress on the sculpture considerably. Each time he returned to the station, he could only add a little. This made Xiaozhang’s heart race again, his anxiety mounting.

Time ticked by...

Xiaozhang kept muttering to himself, trying to stay motivated:

"I still have a whole day. Don’t rush. Just piece it together, bit by bit. It’ll be fine..."

However, because of the time acceleration, the entire bat swarm moved in slow motion. He couldn’t get a clear look at many sections for long stretches of time, bringing his work on the sculpture to a halt.

’If the copy isn’t perfect, the relic won’t work at all.’

Xiaozhang remembered the Researcher’s instructions. He didn’t dare improvise. The top of the station had many protruding devices and structures; if he added one too many or left one out, the sand sculpture would fail to activate.

He rode outside the station for a long time, but he still couldn’t see the obscured areas. He was getting more and more anxious.

’I can’t go on like this. It’s just a waste of time.’

Gritting his teeth, Xiaozhang looked at his bike again.

"I have no choice. Multi-speed bike, one-hundred-times acceleration!"

The moment he finished speaking, all sound vanished.

The air became incredibly dense. Xiaozhang’s body felt another crushing weight. He reached out and grasped at the air in front of him, feeling a powerful sense of stagnation in his hand.

The air, once thin, had become as viscous as mud.

"Almost there... Multi-speed bike, two-hundred-times acceleration..."

Xiaozhang’s voice was hesitant; he seemed worried about what would happen next.

Sure enough, the air grew harder still. The front of the bicycle suddenly jerked upward, and he shot into the sky.

"It worked!"

Xiaozhang quickly righted the handlebars and charged into the sky.

He was flying.

Pedaling hard, Xiaozhang soared through the layered swarms of bats.

His hand brushed lightly against one of the fragile creatures. It immediately disintegrated like sand. Its yellow flesh and blood turned into soft yellow grains that spattered against him, its wings shattering into drifting fragments.

At two hundred times the normal speed, the bats were as fragile as paper to him.

As he crashed through, he tore a shocking rift in the yellow river of bats. He had finally reached the top of the flow that had been obstructing his view.

His body was covered in yellow debris and his goggles were smeared. Xiaozhang reached up and wiped the lenses, and the scene before him opened up.

Beyond the sea of yellow sand was a vast, blue sky—and the Quicksand Monitoring Station, stretching up to the heavens.

"I can see it!"

The upper half of the Quicksand Monitoring Station was laid bare before his eyes.

He circled in the sky on his bicycle.

The once-insurmountable heavenly chasm was now mere sludge beneath his tires.

His bicycle rolled over the stagnant bats as Xiaozhang rapidly committed everything he saw to memory before speeding back to the station.

Working from memory, he quickly completed the final part of the sand sculpture.

At last, a strikingly lifelike sand sculpture stood on the sand table.

Xiaozhang had replicated every detail to perfection, even the suspended equipment and separate external structures.

And yet, after the sculpture was complete, nothing happened.

’What about the levitation phenomenon?’

The Researcher had told him that once the sculpture was complete and activated, the entire thing would levitate and hang suspended in the air.

But the sand sculpture before him remained motionless.

Xiaozhang thought it might be because of the time acceleration. He waited by the sand table for a long time, even dialing the speed back to five-times to let the world around him start moving again.

But still, the sculpture gave no reaction.

’It didn’t activate.’

The brief relief Xiaozhang had felt vanished, his heart leaping back into his throat. He must have done something wrong, causing the sculpture to fail its validation check.

’If it didn’t pass validation, of course it wouldn’t activate, and it wouldn’t float.’

Xiaozhang stood there for a long time, scrutinizing his work, but he couldn’t see anything wrong.

’Are the details not good enough? Is there some part that isn’t refined enough?’

He began to wonder what he had done wrong.

With that thought, he began riding his bicycle back and forth inside the station again, comparing the sand sculpture to the real structure.

And sure enough, he found many flaws, which he corrected one by one.

After several rounds of comparisons and adjustments, the sand sculpture became more and more perfect, increasingly flawless.

But still, the sculpture gave no reaction.

Xiaozhang checked the time. More than half of the initial two hours had passed. In the distance, the people had shifted their positions many times.

"One hour and twenty minutes left... I have to adjust the acceleration ratio again..."