When they got close enough to the hole, by the light of the faint stars, William saw that the man was not at all horrible. He was dressed in a green military uniform, a flying helmet and a pair of black shoes. He didn't notice, though, that his black shoes had a snake logo on them. "It looks like he's a pilot." Thought William, "I'd better find out, however."

They approached the man. Unexpectedly, he even took the initiative to greet, "Hello, I have been waiting for you for a long time. Come in."

"Oh?" Ranran grumbled doubtfully, "How does he know us? And he waited for us?" But it was not yet time for her to find out the answer, so she had to go into the cave first.

The man opened a door and showed them into a spacious room. "You guys sit down please." He said enthusiastically, noting that the party was still full of doubts.

"Do you know why I bring you here?" He asked, as if he had something on his mind. The party shook their heads, still looking at him quizzically. "Who on earth is he?" Aria said to herself.

"You guys are very dangerous." He said with a sigh, "Really really really very dangerous. I suppose your compass has told you about the drone fighter, William."

"Yes, Sir, but we don't know what to call you yet."

"That's all right. Just call me Colonel Michael." The man replied, continuing in a heavy voice, "I know why there is a drone.

"I retired early, boy, about a dozen years ago. I had been serving at a place called Floyd Air Force Base, and that's where the fighter came from. More than a decade had passed, but I still knew what was going on at the base, because I had free access to it using my colonel's badge.

"But just a few days ago, when I went back to my old place of work, I suddenly noticed something different. The air was suddenly still, no longer as fresh as it had been; from one of the hangars came an angry, hoarse, deafening voice,

" 'I must let William die here!'

" 'William? Who is William?' I thought, puzzled. But what was even more surprising was that, almost exactly while I was thinking about this, a new email arrived in my mailbox with your photo included!"

William broke out in a cold sweat. He asked Colonel Michael to show it to him. Colonel agreed, turning on his computer and opening the email. It turned out to be William's most recent ID photo shoot, and he was horrified.

"Why is my picture here? Who sent it to you?" He asked nervously. Colonel's computer, however, showed that the sender was anonymous.

"Oh no." Suddenly William felt a shiver all over him. He noticed the time again, and it coincided with the time they had landed on the planet. The difference between the two was not even more than a minute.

Suddenly the same whisper rang out in his ears again. Seconds later, an invisible hand gripped his neck so hard that he fell to the ground, unable to move. His eyes were wide open and he struggled with his hands to remove the hand.

"Take things as they come. After finally getting to this planet, you still want to go? Stop dreaming, dear William! You won't escape!"

Hearing the voice whisper fiercely, William shouted angrily,

"It is you who are dreaming! I swear that I will go home!"

"Really!" The voice grew angrier, "My only job is to break your spirit so that you can die here for good!"

"Your task will never be done!" William gasped as hard as he could.

"Let's wait and see!" The hand loosened, and the voice died away.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Poor William lay on the ground, still motionless. Aria saw all these happen, and now she was speechless due to fright, "M... Master, are you all right? ... What time is it? ... Who is this gentleman in front of you?"

"You must have been like this for a long time, boy." Colonel said. "Yes, but why would You-Know-Who want to see you, Sir?" Ranran asked curiously.

"I knew a lot about building fighters when I was serving at the air force base, so he wanted me to build the fighter. It makes it easier for him to kill you. I refused him at first, but he took revenge on me in a way similar to what you just saw. I almost breathed my last! Oh, my God. That's terrible. So I had to build the drone, and I had it do two things all the time: refueling and patrolling. You-Know-Who told me that if I didn't, he'd be back at me any minute."

Colonel Michael sighed heavily. The others were silent, too. They had no idea it would be like this, let alone have any idea that You-Know-Who could be so wicked. The silence was like a thick wall that surrounded them all.

"Boy, you're really miserable." It was about fifteen minutes before Colonel Michael broke the silence.

"Yes, I am miserable." Answered William, "But I still believe I can escape and go back to my own planet."

"That's right, especially with the help of your friends. Mark my words, boy; don't let your spirit be collapsed by You-Know-Who. Never let the flame of faith die.

"I remember when I was in the army I was involved in the development of a relatively advanced fighter. There was a part that involved a man-machine battle with the most advanced fighter of the previous generation. In order to improve the performance of the airplane, our system set the AI as a very strong opponent, so this was a very difficult task, and one mistake and you would fail miserably. Fortunately, my colleagues and I didn't give up hope and passed the test. Otherwise, the fighter would be delayed or even dismounted."

"Sir," Said Rebecca, "since you made that drone, do you know how to evade its detection? Our only solution now is to hide by going invisible according to warnings of this compass."

"Or do you know how to shoot it down, Sir?" Asked Photon boldly. Everyone else stared at him, gaping.

Colonel asked William to show him the compass. After one look at it, he blurted out, "This is a fine treasure. You must cherish it. Griffin and I are very good friends, so I knew early on that he had developed this powerful compass. But do you really want to know how to shoot down that drone? You-Know-Who has warned me that if it is shot down, he will continue to take revenge on you with even stronger means, boy. Look before you leap."

Without hesitation, William replied, "Why should I fear his revenge? Even if he asks you to build hundreds of millions of these planes, I'll shoot them all down!"

"Good!" Exclaimed Colonel, clapping his hands vigorously. Then he cleared his throat and said, "Though it looks advanced, yet the drone has one fatal weakness -- its radar is very unstable. This means that it is very sensitive in good weather and very dull in bad. In fact, I had designed the flaw on purpose, and I had fooled the You-Know-Who. Because I think you're miserable, boy. How sad it would be if you died without a place to be buried! I'm a soldier, and I know this, even though our planet has been relatively peaceful for a long time."

William was filled with respect.

"So, now do you know how to shoot it down, boy? I'll give you another hint: there is a big wheat field near here, and there are a lot of frogs living in it. One of them knows how to make bad weather like smog, rain and snow." Colonel said.

"I know!" William replied, "I could go to that frog and ask him to tell me how to make bad weather to dull the plane's radar. But I'm not quite sure what tactics to use to defeat it."

"I'll tell you in no time, boy. The fighter relies heavily on radar because it needs to destroy the enemy before they can find it. So when its radar is dull, you can approach it until it's within firing range. Then the next step is to dogfight with it. The smaller your turning radius, the better. I over-enhanced the beyond-line-of-sight ability, which made it less effective in close combat. Then there's no problem."

"Aerial combat is my strong point, Sir." Photon volunteered, "I would like to meet it myself for the safety of my master."

"Excellent!" Colonel Michael clapped his hands, "Then it will be up to you to do the hard work, Photon. Protect everyone. And you, William, have to be ready. I bet You-Know-Who's going to do something even crazier next."

"I promise I will get the mission done!" William saluted.

"Now do you know why I said I've been waiting for you for a long time?" Said Colonel, "I would be guilty if I hadn't told you that! Soldiers can't live without war, but they don't want to see too many useless sacrifices!"

"We won't let you down, Sir." Ranran said firmly.

"Well, you'd better act quickly. But if you feel tired, you can rest here for a while before you start."

"No, Sir. We're not tired." Natalie said.

"Oh? You guys do look tired."

"We have medications for fatigue. Eating them is like sleeping once." Natalie was referring to the sleep capsules they got on the fruit growing base on the previous planet.

"Oh, that's good. I've never heard of such a thing. However, proper rest is also very necessary. The drone may spot you when you're not alert. Be sure to keep an eye on the compass!"

"Got it." William replied firmly.