Again, Zeel was walking through the desert…

And again, he had grown tired of doing the same thing for another day…

The Smart Phone was great company, but the coding was far less complex than a Sentient, and Zeel preferred Sentients…

His mind briefly wandered to The Red Queen, but with not many memories to truly remember her, he was left without much of a comparison…

Still, he was able to gather essential information from the Smart Phone…

First, judging by the technology, Zeel could tell that the current Universe was two years more advanced than Elizabeth's Universe…

Second, after examining the phone's maps in detail, he determined his location to be within the Registan Deserts…

Fifty miles in the opposite direction should be a settlement, but that was in the opposite direction of what his [Omni-direction] ability had indicated…

So, either his ability was wrong, or his map-reading skills were wrong…

Either way, he was wrong and that didn't sit well with him…

At his current strength, after killing the previous Jumper, Zeel was confident he could manage a stable run at 80 miles per hour…

But such a run would lead to exhaustion after reaching the location…

It would be stupid to run towards possible enemies and not be prepared to fight them…

And there was no guarantee that there would be food and other essentials at the location…

Even worse, should there be food available and locals refused to share, Zeel would have no choice but to kill them and take the supplies by force, and he didn't want to be that person anymore…

Killing was a hard instinct to bury…

Zeel had to admit, the moment he met the First Jumper, he definitely wanted to kill Stefan immediately…

At the very least, his purpose in this Universe included learning to talk before he killed someone…

Luckily, every cloud had a silver lining, and after hours of walking, Zeel found one – the phone…

At first glance, the smartphone was just that – a smartphone, but when he realized a simple voice response system was on the device, Zeel spent his time chatting with the AI…

The enjoyment didn't last long since the responses were limited, but it did take his mind off all the walking…

Still, Zeel wasn't so distracted that he would miss the trail left behind by camels…

The trail was a couple of hours old, and Zeel knew he wouldn't have any problem catching up with whoever had passed by…

Honestly, he didn't want to interact with others as yet, but following the trail could lead to water, food, and possibly even internet…

Zeel followed the trail with a light jog for nearly an hour before he spotted the slow, steady trek of a dozen camels ahead…

Two young men walked next to the camels, directing the creatures to ensure they would not wander off…

Of course, the oldest man stayed on the back of the tallest Camel…

The trio wore the typical desert clothing – thick, long pants to fend off snake and scorpion attacks, wet cloths over their faces to shield from breathing sand particulates, and brown sandals…

The sandals didn't serve a specific purpose other than shielding the feet from the desert heat…

The Old man struck Zeel as someone wise, which was ironic since Zeel, himself, was rapidly approaching two hundred years old…

Then again, appearing to age and simultaneously getting closer to death was the nuance of the wise…

Zeel paid more attention to the dozen camels, noting the creatures as a possible food source…

After all, why would he ride camels when he could probably outrun them?

Raising his hands in the air to show he had no ill intentions, Zeel advanced forward, catching the attention of the two young shepherds and the old man…

They seemed abnormally alert as if they were sure an attack would come and not just possible…

From this alone, Zeel could tell the area was not as sparsely traveled as he had experienced over the past two days…

The family of three didn't appear hostile, as for how Zeel could tell they were a family – the facial features were far too similar to be anything else…

Maybe, genetic clones, but that was an unlikely possibility…

Still, Ella and Alle would never appear hostile, but they ripped Ahmanet's tongue out of her mouth…

The moment the Young Men noticed Zeel, they quickly recovered the rifles slung over their shoulders and took aim…

Clearly, it was a threat meant to redirect Zeel's path, but he could care less about guns, especially ones that could only fire one bullet at a time…

Highly inefficient and not great accuracy from a ten-meter distance…

Honestly, Zeel was confident he could kill them by the second bullet should they fire…

Lucky for them, the trio didn't plan to fire, or things would have turned very bloody, and Zeel would have used the camels to have a very hearty meal…

"بس کن جايي که هستي…"

"بس کن جايي که هستي…"

The young men started to yell the closer Zeel drew towards them, but the language was foreign to the Homo-Superior…

"بس کن جايي که هستي… [Stop -------]"

One word was analyzed…

"بس کن جايي که هستي… [Stop where -----]"

Two words were analyzed and countless extrapolations were made…

"بس کن جايي که هستي… [Stop where you-----]"

Three words were analyzed and a model of the Alphabets had been established…

"بس کن جايي که هستي… [Stop where you are!]"

The entire sentence was analyzed and the language was learned to the point of near-fluency…

By the time Zeel was a couple of meters away, the language had been memorized in its entirety…

It took a bit longer without the nanites, but he achieved it nonetheless…

---PEW---

Zeel pulled his right foot back the instant a bullet impacted the sand in front…

It took everything inside him to restrain himself from attacking, and apparently, the old man on the camel was also displeased by the errors of his sons…

The old man hopped off the lead camel and smacked both his sons in the head, walking forward to meet Zeel…

'A hostage…' Zeel though, but dismissed the idea since the man was too old to be truly useful…

The Old Man walked towards Zeel with confident steps, and Zeel met his strides with confident steps of his own…

It felt like two forces going to war, but Zeel could tell the Old Man was just that – an Old Man…

And, when they met, The Old Man and Zeel shook hands like long-lost friends…

"من برای پسرانم متاسفم [I'm sorry for my sons] …" The Old Man said, genuinely apologetic…

Zeel shrugged "مشکلی نیست [No problem!]"

The two Young Men ensured the camels would not run away before they also came over at the beckoning of their father…

"This is Afhrak and Afi…" The Old Man introduced in broken English "And I am Mojdeh…"

"Zeel Croft…" Zeel introduced, gesturing to the two bottles of water on his waist "I am willing to trade water for a camel…"

Mojdeh seemed to cough awkwardly as if there was something wrong with Zeel's trade proposal…

"Is there something wrong?" Zeel inquired, knowing a bottle of water in the middle of the desert was a God-sent, pun intended…

"We live five miles in that direction…" Mojdeh replied, "It would not make sense to trade camels when we are so close to home…"

Zeel frowned, wondering if he should just steal a camel and be done with it… negotiations would take some time, and there was not much he could offer…

That was the thing about primitive civilizations, even if you gave them the formula for a fully functioning Dyson Sphere, they wouldn't know what to do with it…

"Where are you going?" Mojdeh asked, and for an instant, Zeel's paranoia kicked in before he restrained it and pointed in a particular direction…

"About fifty miles that way…" Zeel explained, reminding himself that someone asking for his intended location was not always an assassination attempt…

Mojdeh shook his head "You can't go there… tribal land they say, but the truth is – filled with terrorists… It is best to come to the village with us, and use a phone to contact your comrades…"

With the new piece of information, Zeel quickly activated his [Omni-direction] and noticed it was still telling him to venture in that general direction…

So, either his [Omni-direction] had mutated to seek out death, or there was something else going on and his ability was still working fine…

It was very likely that [Omni-direction] had mutated to seek out death since Zeel's abilities now required Death Energy as fuel…

Maybe, this was his ability's way of telling him that seeking Death Energy would return him to full strength?

Nevertheless, everyone thus far was speculation, and Homo-Superiors did not function with speculations, only guarantees…

But to test Zeel's theory required he defied the very instincts that were telling him to avoid the men's village…

"A good experiment…" Zeel muttered under his breath…

"What?" The Old Man inquired, his hearing had clearly not deteriorated with age…

"Nothing…" Zeel shrugged, gesturing to the camels "Can I have a ride to your village? I promise not to kill anyone there…" he pledged…

"Kill?" The Old Man questioned, startled, and his sons both strengthened the grip on their rifles…

Zeel sighed…

Things had turned very troublesome with one slip of his tongue…

It was time to test his bullshitting skills…