William turned to look again at the shattered remains of the drone fighter. Then he set out in silence.

On either side of the road was still the eerie forest. Photon felt that the trees were more like monsters. They looked malicious, and as the party passed, they all faced them. Some of the trees were still swaying, which Photon took to be a sign of the trees' displeasure, but it was not clear why they were upset about something that had nothing to do with them -- that William had shot down the fighter.

Fortunately, the forest was not very big. Ahead was a field of wheat. The wheat were much friendlier: they swayed gently in the breeze, as if celebrating their victory. The compass needle kept turning, so they turned corners from time to time.

Checkpoint 32 and 33 are cleared. Energy charge: 1.5%.

The scene ahead changed. That wide wheat field suddenly ceased to be replaced by a golden desert. The tiny, crystal clear grains of sand reflected the faint starlight. A gentle breeze blew, and the grains of sand began to slide slowly. Soon, more grains of sand slid. So one after another "sand tide" undulated, danced and flew, drawing curves that any tool could not draw.

But Aria wondered why the grains of sand could fly up again after they hit the ground. "Ouch!" William got stuck in the sand and hit something. He bounced a few times before landing steadily on the ground. This made Aria even more perplexed.

Ranran took out the object -- a treasure box. The compass showed that the answer was hidden in the treasure box.

"Be careful. There may be danger in there, though the compass didn't tell you." Ranran whispered.

"Got it." William pulled out his laser gun and slowly opened the box. At once, the golden light shone out, rising to the sky above. After a few seconds, the light disappeared and a small green snake crawled out of the treasure box.

Ranran was horrified, and so were the others. William immediately turned the gun on the snake and said, "You mustn't hurt them..."

"Don't do that." The little snake replied in a very kind voice, "Here's my information card." She crawled back and came out with a note. William took the note and read it carefully,

Millie, female green snake. The characteristics are mild, non-toxic, non-aggressive.

"Are you relieved now?" Millie smiled, "I hear you want to know why this desert looks like a trampoline?"

William replied, "Yes. I've never seen a desert like this before."

"Well, let me tell you. My friends actually have a lot of giant springs buried in the ground."

"You even have friends?"

"Of course! It's just that they like to be underground."

"Wow, that sounds great!" Aria laughed, "This place is magical!"

"Certainly! Would you be interested in meeting my friends? They have a surprise for you!" Millie said.

The party didn't know what the surprise would be. "Will we be in danger? I just had a very dangerous battle." Asked William fearfully.

"Oh, take it easy, friends! I can guarantee your safety, but the surprise will have something to do with your fighting." Replied Millie mysteriously. This made the others even more confused. Why did she say "something to do with fighting" when she didn't yet know what the fighting was? What would the relationship be between that surprise and fighting?

Millie dived into the sand and led the others to a passage. It was so dark that they could only see where Millie was by the light of the compass. "We're almost there!" Millie's voice echoed through the passage, "How? This passage is very secluded, isn't it?"

"That's right. Hardly anyone could find it." Photon said.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"I owe this to the help of my friends. Oh, here we are! Wait here for me, and I'll tell my friends you're here." She opened a door, got in, and shut it again.

William and his party were alone in the passage. "Master, what do you think the surprise will be? Millie just told us that 'it will have something to do with fighting', but I don't think she knows what it is yet. Do you know what she means?" Natalie asked. But William just shook his head, so she sighed and fell silent again.

The door opened. "Come in, friends!" Millie put out her little head and smiled. The party walked in slowly, paying attention all the time.

"Surprise!" A voice called out of the darkness. William jumped up in a flash of shock. Soon, however, he hit the roof, fell back to the ground, and was bounced off again. This repeated itself about ten times before he finally stopped. Stunned William looked at the lighted room and the hundreds of green snakes staring at him.

"Was it funny, Mr William?" Joked a male snake next to Millie. The other snakes laughed. William smiled awkwardly, too, "How funny..."

The snake could see that William was still frightened. So he handed him a picture, "You know this man?"

William saw that the man was wearing a military uniform, a flying helmet, and black shoes. "Isn't this Colonel Michael?" He asked, "How did you get a picture of him?"

"He's our owner." With that, Millie crept up beside him and showed the others another pair of Colonel Michael's black shoes. "If you had looked carefully, you would have noticed the icon. That way, he'll tell you about us in advance." Millie pointed with her tongue at the icon of the snake.

Suddenly everyone saw the light. Photon did notice a strange object on Colonel Michael's shoes at the time, but he didn't look at it carefully. "So there it is," He said to himself.

"I am Hook," Said the snake who handed William the photo, "and this desert is called Hook Desert. This name has two meanings: one, I am the owner of this place; two, the desert is resilient. Look, that's why it's elastic." Just then, a few green snakes crawled out from under the floor. The party saw that in those positions there were several very strong springs holding the floor. "You're standing on a trampoline that looks like floor." Said Millie, "And under the trampoline are giant springs that my friends have assembled."

William's doubts were solved. "Wow, that's really a clever design. Is that the surprise you gave us? That's really nice."

"That's not all!" Replied Hook. "Oh? What else?" Rebecca asked curiously.

The snake hissed and a door opened slowly behind him. Several white spherical objects flew out of it. Natalie leaned over to observe. Their shapes were extremely regular, much like that of a perfect sphere. There was a huge camera in front of each object and eight openings around it that fired plasma bullets. A circular hatch on each side provided access to the cockpit. A large circular nozzle was mounted at the rear -- it was the exhaust port of the ion engine. When the engine was working, an enormous number of ions would gush out of this port, and the object would be driven by this powerful force. These objects did not need tail wings, for the exhaust ports could be rotated within a certain range.

"Colonel Michael has heard about your shooting down the drone. He was ecstatic, and asked us to tell you." Hook laughed, "You are really an ace pilot, Mr William."

"Oh, no no no, I do not deserve this. Thanks to Rebecca's cooperation, we were able to shoot down the enemy plane." Replied William respectfully, "But what are these white spheres?"

"This is the sphere fighter that Colonel Michael has just produced." Hook said," They are equipped with the best radars, which allows them to detect targets far enough away quickly. Eight plasma cannons can do a lot of damage and can carry very many bullets. The vector engines allow the fighters to have good enough aerodynamic performance while maintaining good enough maneuverability. Most importantly, they can also drive themselves without human control. Colonel Michael said to make your equipment better, because You-Know-Who will soon take revenge on you guys." Saying this, his face became serious.

William said quickly, "Thank Colonel Michael for me." His heart burst with joy. "I thought we were going to have to rely on Photon and Rebecca to keep fighting. I didn't think we could have such a surprise!" He thought.

"Now I'll set up for you. Please wait a moment before you can use these powerful fighters." Millie volunteered to climb into the cockpit of a fighter, activated the system, and methodically worked her way on the console. Moments later, the screen in front of her read,

Setup succeeded. You can use now.

"They're yours." Said Millie, climbing out, "This one with the 'C' on it is the captain plane, and all the others are wing planes. All you need to do is to protect the captain plane, because Colonel Michael has written an intelligent program."

William walked to the captain plane. He remembered the deadly battle they had just had with the drone. Seeing the shiny fighters now, he felt a sudden surge of confidence. "With them, our fighting power will be greatly enhanced." He thought, "Even if You-Know-Who sends out more fighters, we can shoot down enemy planes with their help."

Ranran and Natalie blinked to make sure they weren't dreaming. Ranran reached out and touched the sphere fighters -- they were real. "This is really a nice surprise," She thought, but she began to yawn.

Indeed, it had been a long time since they had a good rest on this planet. "Can we rest inside the sphere fighters?" Natalie asked. Millie's answer was yes.

Everyone started to yawn. Seeing this, William let them into the sphere fighters. William could no more resist the tide-like drowsiness that came over him, so he soon fell asleep.