Chapter 233 - 231: Attempt to Escape
Injury brought massive inconvenience to Chen Xin; even just getting dressed was a huge torture for him.
The impact of the right hand fracture made Chen Xin suffer unbearable pain around the fractured area just by moving his right hand, as the pulling of the muscles would cause the broken bones to provoke sharp pain.
Dressing itself requires cooperation of both hands, so every movement Chen Xin made was like enduring a needle-pricking pain, yet the fracture itself hindered him from completing the dressing quickly, and his right hand couldn’t cooperate.
This resulted in Chen Xin spending more than half an hour to get dressed, with the pain causing him to break into a cold sweat.
If it weren’t for his foresight in biting a towel to avoid injury, Chen Xin felt he might have bitten off his own tongue due to the pain; it was truly agonizing.
After carefully dressing and resting for a while, allowing himself to recover, Chen Xin finally started to ponder over how to escape.
No damage was found during the previous system self-check, except for the vehicle being buried in snow and the previous overload damage; the avalanche did not cause any harm to the vehicle itself.
Therefore, Chen Xin could leisurely spend time inside the car dealing with his injuries, dressing, resting, and contemplating how to escape, instead of immediately finding a way to rescue himself.
In fact, for Chen Xin, even if buried by snow, it wouldn’t pose much of a problem.
This car is powered by an Isotope Thermoelectric Battery, and theoretically, the three batteries on board are enough for Chen Xin to use for decades, ensuring sufficient heating, lighting, and daily electricity.
Prior to fainting, Chen Xin hadn’t even turned off the engine, merely released the accelerator. If it had been a regular car, the fuel in the tank might have been exhausted by now, but this car had no such issue; once Chen Xin started the engine and stepped on the accelerator, it still had ample and surging power.
The water and food reserved in the car were also sufficient for Chen Xin to use for a long time; he could even nurse his injuries in the car before attempting to escape.
If it were before the disaster, he could have waited until spring when the snow melted to try escaping.
However, he couldn’t wait for the snow to melt now, so Chen Xin had to consider how to free himself from the snow left by the avalanche.
Escaping from the snow wasn’t extremely difficult.
Chen Xin had long ago read an article about escaping from an avalanche, which mentioned that if one encounters an avalanche outdoors and gets buried by snow, making it impossible to run, one should try moving limbs while the snow had not solidified.
This is to increase the air around oneself so as not to suffocate, and also to expand the moving space around one’s limbs, increasing the chance of self-rescue.
Once there’s enough space for activity around the body, one can attempt to dig out the surrounding snow to free oneself from the snow.
With the car, Chen Xin found it not too difficult to achieve these tasks.
At least a car’s strength is far greater than a person’s; with the car started, Chen Xin believed that the vehicle’s horsepower could easily clear the snow overhead and drive out.
The crucial problem now was that Chen Xin did not know how much snow was overhead; if there was too much, escaping would still require considerable effort.
Moreover, wanting to escape by forcefully revving the engine and relying on the vehicle’s power alone to push the snow aside was not the optimal approach.
Doing this might not mean failure, but it is the most labor-intensive and inefficient escape strategy.
For quicker escape, more efficient methods need to be adopted.
With the fractured left hand braced, Chen Xin returned to the driver’s seat, feeling a bit headache seeing the thick snow outside the window, but no matter how numerous the difficulties, they would ultimately be defeated and overcome.
Though the snow is overwhelming, it doesn’t mean that brute force is the only option; Chen Xin already had some ideas, but he needed to search the car for any useful items to see if they could ease his escape.
Using his left hand, Chen Xin opened the console to pull up the list of installed equipment on the vehicle, trying to find anything that could possibly improve the situation.
"Radar? The antenna was broken by the avalanche and can’t be used before it’s repaired... Auxiliary shovel? Now that the entire vehicle is fixed, deploying the auxiliary shovel is simply redundant..." Chen Xin scrutinized the functions of various equipment installed on the car, assessing their potential roles, yet he was still somewhat unhappy.
Under other circumstances, these car-installed devices were highly functional and could provide good assistance to Chen Xin, boasting comprehensive features.
Yet against an avalanche, these things were almost of no use.
Just as Chen Xin was thinking about whether he could only rely on brute force, considering these devices were of no use, a special piece of equipment gave Chen Xin an idea.
The inflatable floating bag, made of flexible materials attached to the outside of the vehicle, provides additional buoyancy when the vehicle encounters danger and falls into a river, or needs to pass through terrain like swamps or beaches that are prone to sinking or accumulating water.
This was prepared by Chen Xin for crossing the Yangtze River; he worried that if he fell into the river or got stuck in an ice hole, the bag would prevent the car from sinking.
However, this equipment hasn’t been of much use now, as the cold weather doesn’t call for using a floating bag anywhere.
But for the current situation, this set of equipment can somewhat come in handy.
Opening the car window, Chen Xin reached out to test the snow’s hardness. He found it quite soft, and a mere flick of his hand scattered it like powder instead of it being frozen into blocks. This gave Chen Xin more confidence in escaping the predicament.
Soft snow is easier to compress. With this, one only needs to expand the floating bag, using its increased volume to compress the snow around the car’s body, then retract the bag to enlarge the space around the car.
After gaining larger space, the vehicle itself will have more room to move. This way, the vehicle will have some distance to exert force, even if short, making it easier than starting the vehicle directly.
With an idea in mind, Chen Xin decided to begin.
After all, he was still injured. Although he had performed emergency treatment, it would be best to find a professional doctor to check it and redo the treatment for more safety.
Especially since Chen Xin’s right hand was still fractured; if he didn’t find a doctor for bone resetting and refixation quickly, his hand might end up permanently bent.
Though it’s not impossible to repair, Chen Xin preferred to heal himself quickly to avoid future hassle in handling various inconveniences.
Besides, fractures are no joke; if the injury worsens or dies off, this hand will truly require amputation.
While the Mantis Blade is cool, and Chen Xin was tempted to try one, he absolutely didn’t intend to cut off his healthy hands to install prosthetics. He’s not a cyber prosthetic enthusiast; using his original hands is still preferable.
As Chen Xin operated the control panel, a slight explosion sound came from around the vehicle, followed by the sound of air inflating.
Chen Xin could clearly feel the vehicle’s body sway briefly, and as the inflation sound started, the snow around the car windows appeared to be slightly pushed away.
"Seems it’s working." Chen Xin’s face lit up with hope for escaping the predicament.
Next, Chen Xin needed to start the car, using the inflating bag to push aside the surrounding snow, setting the car in motion to shove more snow forward.
However, once the car is started, he needs to retract the floating bag; otherwise, if left inflated, the pressure between the car and the snow would easily burst the bag despite its sturdiness.
Therefore, Chen Xin waited for a moment until the surrounding snow slightly stabilized before releasing the air in the floating bag through the control panel.
As Chen Xin released the air from the floating bag, the nearby snow noticeably collapsed, at least the snow outside the car window visibly slid down.
Seeing this, Chen Xin hurriedly started the vehicle, keeping the throttle low, and adopted the highest torque output to get the car moving.
Thanks to the loosening of the surrounding snow, the car started smoothly, though Chen Xin felt considerable resistance; he could still feel this car was steadily moving forward despite its slow pace.
However, Chen Xin aimed to escape; merely moving the car forward wouldn’t easily break free from the snow. To escape, it must drive upwards.
But this poses a significant challenge for a car.
After all, a car easily moves left, right, forward, or backward, even making an S-shaped turn isn’t difficult, but asking a car to drive upwards is challenging, as no car is designed to operate that way.
Fortunately, Chen Xin wasn’t stumped by this; he drove the car forward a short distance until he felt the vehicle couldn’t move anymore, then stopped and reversed.
Through this forward and backward operation, a five-meter space opened up in front of Chen Xin’s car.
"It’s working; now all I need is to place something under the tracks to lift the car’s front!" Chen Xin realized the space in front matched his expectation, boosting his hope for escaping.
However, the next task couldn’t be done inside the car; placing something under the tracks requires getting out of the car first.