Chapter 70 1/2

Honestly, Sheng Quan was witnessing such a scene for the first time.

She had heard of people using drones to create “patterns” or “fireworks,” which could be quite impressive at night. However, those were programmed and couldn’t compare to the current situation, where each person controlled a drone.

Each drone represented a pair of eyes, flying in the sky like helicopters, searching for signs of life.

The sound of drones, compared to helicopters, was relatively quiet. However, with so many gathered together, it was different. People below, busy with their tasks, heard the commotion and looked up to witness this overwhelming fleet passing overhead.

They had planned the routes in advance. Upon arrival, the drones immediately formed several teams, meticulously searching in different directions.

On a tree almost about to be completely washed away by the flood, a middle-aged woman clung tightly to the trunk. Half of her body was submerged in the water, relying on the dense branches and their interwoven buoyancy to survive.

These branches saved her life but also formed a “big umbrella” above her head. As the massive helicopter flew overhead with a deafening roar, even though the exhausted woman tried her best to call for help, she couldn’t expose herself in the pilot’s line of sight.

“There’s someone here! I’m here!”

She clung to the tree branches, watching the helicopter pass over her head with a deafening roar. The hope on her face gradually turned to despair.

—Buzzing.

—Buzzing.

—Buzzing.

The woman, half-crouched on the branches, heard this strange sound close by and struggled to lift her head to see.

—Buzzing.

A completely black drone, its wings rotating, descended slowly in front of her.

Two seconds later, two more identical drones circled around the branches from behind, hovering to the left and right, emitting the same buzzing sound and looking at the woman.

The woman’s cracked lips were slightly parted, expressing hope but uncertainty.

“Are you… here to rescue me?”

The foremost drone swayed up and down, as if nodding.

At this moment, for the trapped woman, calling them heavenly messengers wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

In the following time, the other two drones slowly ascended and left. They had other places to search. However, the woman wasn’t afraid because the first drone stayed with her.

It continued to stay until the rescue team arrived with a lifeboat.

“Rescued a trapped individual.”

Watching the woman being rescued onto the lifeboat by the rescue team, the drone that had stayed with her slowly ascended and continued flying forward.

There were many such rescue examples after the swarm of drones appeared.

Their smaller size allowed them to move flexibly in the ruins, finding those stranded individuals that were difficult to locate.

Blocked by trees.

Trapped in vehicles

Stuck in narrow corners.

With communication interruptions, these drones also effectively served as messengers. Some drones even carried food and water, providing supplies to temporarily non-life-threatening stranded individuals.

On the elevated square where they had gathered, people either sat or stood, earnestly operating the drones in the distance, occasionally reporting their discoveries.

“Found about seventeen stranded individuals, sixteen children, and one adult.”

“I found one stranded individual, an adult male, who urgently needs rescue.”

“I found two stranded individuals, one male and one female; the male has a head injury and is unconscious.”

Of course, five hundred drones weren’t immune to danger when shuttling through various perilous locations.

Buried by collapsed buildings.

Hit by debris carried by floodwaters.

Trapped by branches

Entangled in power lines, many more situations continued to occur.

The model of these drones was not cheap, even arguably on the more expensive side among drones. The person responsible for recording the damage felt pain just listening to it. However, Sheng Quan remained calm.

More accurately, she wasn’t just calm; she even remotely operated, purchasing another batch of drones as replacements.

The main issue wasn’t the number of drones or their destruction. It was the scarcity of experts who could skillfully operate drones in such harsh conditions. Sheng Quan, in her forties, first thought:

“Should I make another call to see if we can gather another batch from those stores that sell drones?”

“Pooling resources from one household to another, we should be able to gather enough.”

It was a clumsy method, but it seemed to be the quickest way to assemble people at the moment.

Sheng Quan was about to nod when she suddenly paused.

“Wait a moment; let me check something first.”

The reception leader didn’t know what the young CEO Sheng was going to check, but as she took out her phone and examined something, the furrow on her forehead gradually relaxed.

Not only did Sheng Quan’s brow relax, but when she looked up, even her tone became a bit more relaxed.

“Don’t worry, I have a way to bring in drone experts, and the numbers will definitely not be lacking.”

***

The characteristic of the internet age is that, in any community, as long as there are a few people interested in something, these individuals will naturally gather together.

For someone who has developed a new hobby and wants to find a community or seek guidance from experienced seniors, they only need to search lightly on social platforms such as forums, Weibo, QQ groups, and other platforms to quickly find various experiences shared by people.

If a person is not satisfied with just reading experiences and wants to communicate closely with like-minded seniors, they either post for help when encountering problems or join interest groups.

One can’t deny that, in the current era, the time spent networking can sometimes be even longer than the time spent making friends in real life.

Just like Sheng Quan, whether in her past life or this one, she had a bunch of novel groups, manga groups, calligraphy study groups, and more.

Those purely for entertainment interest groups were fine. They were mostly like the novel group Sheng Quan joined, where members gathered to share food, discuss fictional relationships, and chat about gossip from all corners of the world.

However, when these hobbies involve technology, the group tends to be divided into categories like “Guru,” “Intermediate,” “Experienced Seniors,” and “Novices who don’t know anything and just say ‘666.’”

Drone enthusiasts fall into this category.

Perhaps Gu Zha’s perspective was somewhat correct. Humans naturally admire strength, especially when that strength can be of help to them.

In some drone communities, the status of a “Guru” could be described as commanding respect. Every time they appeared, people would follow, shouting “666” and praising them lavishly.

In most cases, these “Gurus” would also be the group administrators. They loved drones more than most people in the group, sometimes even organizing offline events.

Wang Xujie was such a “Guru.” Despite his ordinary name and relatively young age, due to his well-off family background that allowed him to access drones early, he had a high status among “drone enthusiasts.”

In high school, he had already formed a group of drone enthusiasts. After entering college, he actively competed and became the president of the drone club. One could say that he spent most of his time on this hobby.

As an active and well-off drone enthusiast, Wang Xujie had organized dozens of large and small offline events. His online alias, “Fei Ying” (yes, it sounds quite adolescent), was extremely popular in the drone community.

As a college student still retaining a bit of adolescence, Wang Xujie was satisfied with his current life. He didn’t know if others had vanity, but he did, and it was very strong. Every time he patrolled the group he built, he felt a sense of joy, as if saying, “This is the kingdom I conquered.”

Although his parents thought he was neglecting his studies and playing with these “little toys” all day, he had thick skin. As long as the pocket money was enough, he pretended not to hear.

Sometimes, when he got annoyed by their complaints, he would defend himself: “I don’t street race; I don’t hang out in bars every day; I don’t spend recklessly; I just love playing with drones. Why do you always criticize me?”

Of course, parents wouldn’t bother much about such things. At least Wang Xujie’s parents didn’t. Faced with a son who was immersed in playing with these “little toys” all day, their sentiment was, “This kid is a waste.”

Fortunately, he was their biological child, so even if they complained, Wang Xujie’s pocket money was still substantial. This allowed him to focus on building his “drone kingdom.”

He often recruited members for his group online and even bought two phones, one for daily life and one specifically for his “drone kingdom.” When leaving his number during events, he would provide the one dedicated to drones.

This day was supposed to be an ordinary day for him until he received a phone call.

“Lvcheng disaster relief? Drones?”

After carefully listening to the situation, Wang Xujie was even a bit dumbfounded.

After playing with drones for so long, he had never thought that they could be used for disaster relief.

After a brief moment of bewilderment, this young man in his twenties almost immediately agreed:

“No problem, I’ll organize the group members with strong technical skills. Wait a moment, let’s exchange contact details on Feixin, and you can tell me the specific flying conditions and current difficulties over there.”

For some reason, Wang Xujie found himself shaking with excitement.

Perhaps it was because he was needed for the first time, or perhaps it was because he could go to help people for the first time.

He maintained this excited state, cross-checked the situation with the other party, and once everything was confirmed, he solemnly opened his computer and composed the following message: