Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 588 2. Big Truck

"Eat sand, eat sand, eat sand~" Carl hummed softly, and his voice echoed in the narrow carriage with a hint of helplessness and ridicule.

The world outside the car window has been swallowed up by yellow sand. The sky and the earth seem to have merged into one, leaving only endless gray-yellow color. Carried by the strong wind, the sand particles hit the car body like countless tiny bullets, making intensive "crackling" sounds, as if they were going to completely swallow up this lonely car.

"What are you humming, Carl?" V's voice came from the driver's seat, with a hint of fatigue and confusion. He gripped the steering wheel tightly with both hands. Although the car had stopped long ago, his posture was still tense, as if he was ready to deal with any emergency at any time.

“I’m not humming anything. I’m just expressing my feelings about the current environment.” Carl shrugged, his eyes still fixed out the window.

He looked through the glass blurred by sand and dust, trying to see the scene outside, but he could see nothing but rolling sand waves. Occasionally, a few larger grains of sand hit the car window, making a "click" sound, as if reminding them that the power of this sandstorm was far from over.

"We came here to look for the lost demon lizard, but now we are trapped in the car by a sandstorm." Carl sighed, "Sand can be eaten as soon as the door is opened. The weather in the Badlands is really too 'friendly'." After he said that, he reached out and wiped the accumulated sand and dust that poured in through the gaps on the window sill, but soon, new sand covered it again.

"No one expected this to happen." Jack, who was sitting in the back seat, whispered in a low voice. His voice was partially covered by the wind and seemed a little vague.

He leaned back in his chair, listening to the rustling sound of gravel being blown against the window by the wind, as if countless tiny hands were knocking on the glass. He sighed and continued, "We even checked the so-called weather forecast, but we didn't expect to encounter something like this. Do we have a tacit understanding with bad weather when we are working? Every time we need good weather, bad weather comes."

"I have thought of a way to describe it," Carl turned his head and looked at Jack, with a smile on his face, "That is, after the environment is destroyed, this is probably how nature takes revenge on humans."

The car fell silent for a moment, with only the sound of wind outside and sand hitting the car body.

Carl retracted his gaze and looked down at the single-molecule wire in his hand. One end of the wire was still connected to the communication device in the car. After a pause, he shook his head and disconnected it: "No, there is no way to get in touch with Thor and the others. We were originally scattered in this area to look for the magic lizards, but a sandstorm suddenly came and the contact was directly cut off. Now we don’t know their situation. There is only the sound of disconnection in the communication channel."

"Can you still drive, V?" Jack's voice came from the back seat. He looked out the window at the gradually falling dust outside, frowning, "If this continues, we will be buried under the sand when the sandstorm passes. I now wonder if the truck that transported the magic lizards is like this. Being buried in the sand is not a fun thing."

"No, it can't be started now." V replied. As a former wanderer, he understood the cruelty of the Badlands better than Jack, a city dweller.

He shook his head and continued, "Starting the car now will cause sand to enter various places, which will damage the vehicle equipment and may even cause problems with the engine. In addition, in this kind of sandstorm, even if we start the vehicle, we will not be able to find a direction to move forward. If the car breaks down, we may have to crawl out from some unknown sand pile in the Badlands and wait for Adecado's people to find us."

"In other words, we are completely and truly trapped."

Carl rubbed his eyes and said, "I don't know how long this sandstorm will last. If it lasts for a day or two, we will not only have to dig out the sand, but also go hungry for a few meals."

"You can rest assured about this, Carl."

V opened the co-pilot storage box in front of Carl: "I have prepared it a long time ago. Energy bars and necessary water are enough for us to survive for a few days."

“This brand of energy bars.”

Karl picked up an energy bar that fell out when V opened the storage box. Looking at the brand, he showed some hesitation on his face: "I remember it was octopus pancake flavor. Is this thing really edible?"

“It tastes very good, I highly recommend it.”

"I don't really trust your taste as a wanderer."

Carl complained, but still picked up the energy bar and tore off the seal on the edge, and put the paste into his mouth according to the recommended squeezing method. According to what Carl had learned before, unless the geographical environment is special, sandstorms rarely last for more than a few hours.

However, it is obvious that the environment in the past is completely different from that now. Carl and his companions have been trapped in the sandstorm for three hours. Judging from the situation outside, the sandstorm will probably continue for a long time. Carl is already feeling a little hungry, and in order to maintain good physical strength, he must eat something.

Carl didn't even need to chew the octopus pancake-flavored energy bar when he put it in his mouth. The toothpaste-like substance slid into Carl's mouth with the force of squeezing it out.

Karl's expression froze for a moment, and then he revealed a very complicated expression.

Jack somehow understood Carl's expression at a glance.

This is like eating something disgusting and wanting to spit it out, but the food just melts on your tongue.

But Carl has made a lot of progress compared to when he first arrived in Night City. Even though he thought this thing tasted bad, after taking a bite, he still forced himself to squeeze the rest into his mouth and finished it in one breath.

The only side effect was that the expression on his face had become distorted.

"Fufufu, as expected, I shouldn't have trusted your sense of taste, V."

After Carl finished eating the octopus pancake-flavored energy bar, he looked at the storage box in front of him that was full of energy bars, and there was a hint of despair in his eyes: "If it takes too long, we won't really have to eat this stuff to fill ourselves up, right?"

"Is it unpalatable? I think it tastes pretty good."

V took out two energy bars, threw one to Jack in the back row, and tore the other open and started eating. Judging from his expression while eating, he really thought it tasted good.

Jack took the energy bar thrown by V. Just when he was hesitant about whether to try it because of Carl's distorted expression, he heard a voice in the sandstorm.

That was the roar of the engine that even the dust could not cover up.

Jack looked up and he saw the lights.

Blurred by the dust, they could still make out the car lights coming straight towards them.

And that light was coming towards them.

'car?'

When this thought flashed through Jack's mind, he realized something was wrong.

The size of this light is a bit strange, isn't it? If it were on a car, then what would the size and brightness of this light be?
Jack's pupils widened.

'Big truck!'

(End of this chapter)