A jet fighter that used to be only on TV was spinning and falling from the sky, obviously out of control. The deafening thunderous roar it released as it was approaching the ground left ears ringing and heads reverberating.
Many people in the village looked at the jet fighter getting closer and closer to the ground and could almost see the pilot in the cockpit. Their hearts clenched. For some reason, the pilot did not eject and parachute like on TV. Maybe he was worried about hitting the houses or people.
Village Chief Cao stood stupefied, not knowing whether to run or not. He watched the fighter getting nearer and nearer, straight into the just-harvested cornfield in the village. Just as it was about to hit the ground, it suddenly slowed down, as though an invisible hand was supporting it. The jet fighter twisted its airframe head up and bottom down, forming a ninety-degree angle with the ground. The flames spouting from the tail caused thick smoke, debris, and corn stalks to fly all over the air.
At the last moment, the jet fighter looked like a nimble swallow as its tail, which had not even been one meter away from the ground and almost hit it, spat out flames and shot into the sky like a rocket lifting off. With a roar and flames, it quickly disappeared from the eyes of Chief Cao.
“Oh God! Wh-what just happened?!” Chief Cao stood on the edge of the cornfield as the red plum cigarette he was holding fell to the ground.
The villagers saw the jet fighter stabilize and began to rise vertically, and they could clearly see the pilot in the cockpit raising his thumb in one hand, causing them to burst into cheers.
“Good job!”
“It’s flying again. Fantastic!”
“Amazing!”
“Well done!”
The people on the ground looked up at the Chengdu J-10 flying in the blue sky and all cheered in response to the thumbs up.
No one realized that what they saw just now was not something a jet fighter should have been able to do. Not to mention fourth-generation fighters, even fifth-generation ones could not.
…
“Damn it! Notify Regiment Commander Jiang and Commander Ma that Lin Mo has crashed!”
The moment the person in charge of the tower, Chicken Nest, saw Lin Mo’s J-10 disappear from the radar screen, he tore off his headset, panted heavily, and sat down hard on the chair. He clenched his fist tightly and knocked on his head in frustration. Misfortunes never come alone. It was another major accident—a crash in a densely populated area with still unknown consequences.
“Staff Officer Yan! Unit 11 is still connected to the satellites!” A staff member in the tower suddenly shouted. Unit 11 was the Chengdu J-10 that Lin Mo was flying.
“What!?” The person in charge of the tower, Staff Officer Yan Guoqiang, shouted as he jumped up and heard a soft beep. The J-10’s signal appeared once again on the originally empty radar screen. “What’s going on?!” Staff Officer Yan rushed to the radar screen, seemingly having made a trip from hell to heaven. Looking at other related display screens, he saw that the altitude data reported by the J-10 was continuously climbing and that the latitude and longitude were not changing much. Obviously, it was climbing at high speed vertically.
“The altitude was probably too low when it recovered, so it was out of radar monitoring!” The staff member responsible for the radar said that radar was not omnipotent and had blind spots. If something was too close to the ground, the radar might not detect it.
But no one could understand how Lin Mo pulled up the plane at such a low altitude. Normally, it should have crashed.
“Gold Coin calling Chicken Nest! Gold Coin calling Chicken Nest! Successfully recovered!” Lin Mo turned on his microphone and headset once again and reported to ‘Chicken Nest’ that he was safe.
“Great! Please report the status of the airframe immediately!” Staff Officer Yan asked anxiously while pressing on the microphone.
“Airframe is in good condition. There are no alerts currently!” Lin Mo looked at the meters and gauges and estimated from the pointers and readings of the instruments that were still scurrying normally. The flying altitude had reached six thousand meters again. But Lin Mo’s hands were not on the control stick, as though the plane was flying on its own without needing any control.
While this appeared a little too magical, Lin Mo’s heart was at ease. Just like how it had been in the other world, the Metal-Attribute Giant Dragon Gold Coin’s talent of ‘Void Magnetic Field’ could withstand any kind of turbulence. This flying ability did not require it to flap its wings to push against the air to obtain lift. Lin Mo could rest easy with Gold Coin acting.
Although he had narrowly escaped, Lin Mo was still worried. Now, he was not flying a J-10, or rather, a Metal-Attribute Giant Dragon with the appearance of a J-10. How was he supposed to explain the base leaders later? He still did not have a fixed jet fighter. When he returned this temporarily piloted J-10, wouldn’t it be flown by other pilots? If the mechanics found something abnormal, or if it reverted to its egg form, there would have been one less J-10 on the base. If the investigation found it was related to him, there would be trouble.
Following the navigation guidance, Lin Mo did not encounter any accidents along the way. The J-10 fused with Gold Coin was a lot easier to fly. At least, he did not have to be concerned with the instrument panel and whatnot. It was as though Lin Mo had returned to the time when he was a Dragon Knight in the other world and did not need to be bothered with the details of flying and only needed to focus on tactical command and combat.
The J-10 Lin Mo was piloting returned to the flight line on the base and slid slowly to the hangar under the inertia. Lin Mo was worrying about what he was going to deal with Gold Coin having devoured the J-10. He could not have it shrink into a ball, put it in his pocket, and leave in full view. There would be no way that would work.
While Lin Mo was troubling over it, a bulge suddenly formed on the cockpit walls and then condensed into a golden dewdrop. When it appeared, it quickly expanded from the size of a soybean to the size of a chicken egg. It rattled as it separated from the cockpit and rolled down onto Lin Mo. Then, as though it was candidly violating the Earth’s gravity, it tumbled into Lin Mo’s anti-G suit pocket without making a noise, returning to where it came.
Lin Mo was stunned. Gold Coin had always devoured metal it came across and never let it go. It actually had the ability to merge in and then come out in its original form. Why had it not shown this before? Had he known it had this ability, there would have been no need for the Dark Steel Mystic Armor and Dragon Slaying Sword. This fellow could just merge and transform into all kinds of weapons and armor, and it could even change every day based on his moods. Furthermore, it would have even been the best quality.
“Gold Coin, why didn’t you tell me that you have this ability?!” Lin Mo turned off the power in the cockpit and made sure that the black box had stopped working. He exploded in anger. Gold Coin’s ability could have improved the Dragon Knight’s combat effectiveness by a great extent, but this fellow had never used it before, causing him to think that the Metal-Attribute Giant Dragon could only go in metal but not go out.
“I hate Dragon Knights, and I hate being rode on even more!” Gold Coin’s angry attitude toward Lin Mo was still as dismissive as ever.
Lin Mo rolled his eyes angrily. It really was too bad.
“Second Lieutenant Lin Mo! Why didn’t you follow the order to eject?!” Staff Officer Yan, the person in charge of Chicken Nest, aggressively rushed to the J-10 before Lin Mo could climb down.
“As long as there is altitude, I can’t give up easily!” Lin Mo said a well-known phrase used in the other world’s Dragon Knight Legion.
A pilot was far more valuable than a jet fighter, and the cost of training an excellent pilot was often no less than the value of the plane. As long as the factory production line started, planes could be manufactured and assembled continuously. However, the entire process of growth, selection, and training of pilots required more than ten to twenty years to produce qualified pilots, especially fighter pilots. It was not easy to train a pilot, so ejecting and parachuting had been ordered, and it was the duty of soldiers to obey orders. Although Lin Mo was legally authorized to parachute and escape in the suburbs, he did not execute it. Obviously, his unwillingness to accidentally injure civilians violated the order.
The result was not unexpected. Although the task of purchasing seafood in Dalian was completed, there was no reward. Soon, Lin Mo received the order and was confined for a week.
This unlucky fellow had clearly saved a Chengdu J-10 worth nearly two hundred million yuan, avoided major casualties, and also perfectly completed the task assigned by Regiment Commander Jiang. But he was locked in a confinement room for a week. He had nowhere to air his grievances. But it was because the base attached great importance to the lives of pilots and cared for Lin Mo, so other people who sympathized with Lin Mo could not say anything.
There was only a small window, a lamp, and a toilet in the confinement room. Apart from someone delivering meals, it was like a sealed small entertainment room. Of course, there was no TV, but those above had policies, while those below had their countermeasures. In order to get through these difficult seven days, his comrades thought of ways to send stuff to Lin Mo for him to have fun with.
Chen Haiqing had secretly stuffed Lin Mo’s laptop in. Lei Dong and a few others had secretly set up a wireless AP nearby so that Lin Mo had internet access. The other cadets used the window for food delivery to bring him some magazines, games, books, and even Playboy magazines.
After all, Lin Mo did not actually commit any crime. There were also no guards to guard the confinement room, and the person delivering food also closed one eye. This kind of behavior of entraining private goods seemed to be not uncommon, and Lin Mo would not cross this week in confinement too blandly.