Expelled From Paradise - Chapter 3.4

Chapter 3 Part 4

    The land rover approached the next stop, the city of Grabika. In the passenger’s seat, next to Dingo, a completely recovered Angela was seated.

    “Sleep. There are six more hours until Grabika.”

    While adjusting her blonde hair, Angela said, “I’m already fine. And if I continue to lie in bed, I will just go crazy.”

    “Is the bed so uncomfortable?”

    “It’s rather the fact that in Deva, I do not take rest often.”

    “Then how do you relax? Or do you not sleep at all?”

    “No, we rest, of course, just the resting process in Deva is optimized. But for this, you just need a click on the corresponding icon in the system’s capabilities, and then all the resources are unloaded. Like this, I can sleep for five minutes.”

    “A dream in five minutes? Yep, sounds terrifying.”

    “And you sleep too much.”

    There was still only sand and rocks around the land rover. From time to time, a few vestiges of the departed were seen. But these cities were completely absorbed in sand. These ghost towns were like islands in the burning sea of sand. It looked like the end of the human race on Earth. Angela looked at Dingo. Despite the landscapes that surrounded him, he was humming something happy and fun to himself. This was just impossible to understand.

    They saw a large truck for long-distance transportations parked at the side of the road. The hooded man was waving his hand. It seemed as though he wanted them to stop. Dingo pressed on the brakes and slowed down. He stopped behind the parked car.

     Surprised, Angela asked, “Why did you stop? This is just a waste of time. Let’s keep driving.”

    “No. Maybe he stopped because something broke. Anyone rarely passes here. Staying here is just life-threatening. We can’t leave him here.”

    Angela pouted.

    “Nothing will happen to our work. Wait a bit.” having said that, Dingo got out of the car.

    He approached the man and spoke to him. Angela opened the window and listened in. She heard a tired voice of a man.

    “Please excuse me. I just thought that the engine was jarring, but then it stopped working. I don’t understand what’s the matter.”

    “Maybe the battery.”

    “No, that’s not it. Something else broke, but it’s not clear as to what broke. I will not be able to move until I find the reason.”

    “Hm… And where were you going?”

    “To Jed. Listen, can you tow me?”

    Dingo folded his arms on his chest.

    “Well, I don’t know. We will need to go back. Maybe it would be better to go to Grabika?”

    “There’s no one who can repair my truck there. Please. This is a matter of life and death. If I don’t get there…

    They heard a voice.

    “Show me the drive unit computer control.”

    Turning around, Dingo saw Angela, getting out of the land rover.

    “What are you going to do?”

    “I want to look inside. Maybe the programs are faulty.”

    “Is this possible?” Dingo asked the man.

    He nodded and let Angela into the driver’s seat. Angela looked at the dashboard connection terminals and asked Dingo standing behind her.

    “Is there a cable that could be used to connect to my terminal?”

    “I think so. I’ll bring it now.”

    Dingo brought out a connecting cable from his car. Angela connected her wrist terminal to the control computer. The display on her palm showed the language of the program code. With just a glance, she was outraged.

    “What’s with this code? Did a child write this? There are only system errors here. It is amazing that this even worked.”

    With fast movements of her hands, she began to fix the program code.

    “I think this is good. I rewrote the algorithm. Try to start the engine.”

    She let the man into the driver’s seat and he carefully started the engine. The engine growled and the console indicators lit up. Everything worked normally.

    The man jumped from joy.

    “You’re good, little one. It works better than before. Before it always made weird sounds. Incredible… Thank you! Thank you so much!”

    Without stopping, he shook Angela’s hand. Taking off his strong dirty hand, standing next to him, Dingo quickly said.

    “The repair – 20 nano-carat.”

    “You repaired my truck, which is dearer to me than my life, so this is nothing.”

    The man gave Dingo the money. His car started off and he kept signaling them many times in gratitude on his way to Jed.

    “Good job.”

     Angela puffed out her chest proudly.

    “How else? Who do you think I am?”

    Dingo smiled and wanted to give the money to Angela.

    “What?”

    “You earned it.”

    Angela waved her hands.

    “I don’t need them. I don’t know what to do with it anyways. Keep it.”

    “We’ll buy something tasty in Grabika.”

    “And yet, it’s such a childish program that makes a car move.”

    “Nothing surprising. Deva lives at the expense of software.”

    Angela was confused. For her, a hacker of the level of Pioneer here was a real mystery. They went back to the land rover and continued on their way.

    Admiring the scenery from the passenger’s seat, Angela asked, “He was lucky that we were driving by. But what would have happened if no one showed up?”

    “If he has a motorcycle or a buggy, he would have gone to the city, if not, he would have gone by foot… And would be attacked by something like the sandworms. Due to the environment, he could have died from dehydration. So moving from city to city is rather risky.”

    “Just because the cities are so far apart from each other, so many problems are made. It would have been better if everyone was in one place.”

    “There aren’t many places to live in amongst the surviving buildings.”

    “And you don’t build new ones?”

    “First we would need Deva’s data. For large-scale construction, a large number of people and materials are needed, and also a lot of time. It’s so much easier to live in ruins. In addition, a lot of the cities have their own advantages.”

    “Like what?”

    “It’s fun.”

    “Huh?”

    “They are all different and we live differently there. As a result, all these cities have something unique: goods or food. Isn’t this great?”

    “Do they not understand, how risky it is to move from city to city?”

    “If they properly prepare and behave carefully, then they should be fine. Maybe you don’t think so but traveling is actually very fun.”

    “Is it like this everywhere?”

    “On the other continent, there is something that can be called a metropolis. But mostly, yes, all are like this.”

    “Hmm.”

    Dingo looked at Angela slyly, “Did the real world interest you all of a sudden?”

    “Where’d you get that idea from?”

    “You’re just asking so many questions. You weren’t interested at all before.”

    “Collecting information is very important.”

    “Oh, yes of course.” Dingo smiled suspiciously.

    He turned on the radio, and old rock began to play loudly in the car. Angela frowned but did not complain. She just silently looked at the desert through the window.