The lead cook glanced at Lin Mo. “Of course, Comrade Lin Mo’s share is free!” Suddenly, his expression hardened, his tone full of threat. “If you don’t agree, hehe, we’ll settle it at Regiment Commander Jiang’s place!”
Everyone glanced at each other. They could obey and unwillingly empty their wallets to the lead cook’s daylight robbery.
On a runway, there was a medium-sized four-engine turboprop Y-8 (Yunshuji-8) transport plane that had just completed its engine warm-up and began to enter the take-off area. Lin Mo’s luggage had already been packed and sent onto the aircraft. This special flight was not just for Lin Mo alone. There were also five veterans onboard this domestic transport plane made by the Shaanxi Aircraft Corporation based on the Antonov An-12.
Lin Mo received a parachute when he got on the plane.
Yes, he was just a passenger who would get off halfway. As soon as he got onto the plane, his luggage was loaded into a special airdrop box and tied with a parachute.
When the transport plane flew directly above his designated location, Lin Mo would need to parachute off, and someone would be waiting for him on the ground.
Parachuting not a stranger to Air Force pilots, and they were no less professional than paratroopers. One was to save their lives, and the other was for combat. They could not be mentioned in the same magnitude.
Lin Mo knew the veterans who had retired. Two of them were from the guard company, and four of them were the ground crew in charge of signals and communications. They sat in the simple cockpit, looking at each other and sending signals from time to time. If they wanted to chat, they would need to do it loudly.
Transport planes were not like passenger planes that had good sound isolation. In the cabin, the noise from the four propeller engines was even louder than the Chengdu J-10 that Lin Mo piloted.
“Second Lieutenant Lin Mo, what time is it now? Yo! Your watch is pretty nice! Is it Rolex or Omega?” Peng Yong, a veteran of the guard company, stared at Lin Mo’s wrist with envy. He just wanted to know the time but became captivated by Lin Mo’s watch.
Lin Mo lowered his head. A black lacquered watch was fitted tightly on his left wrist. The unusually smooth and supple metal, complex dials, and exquisite bracelet all displayed meticulous craftsmanship and materials, showing an aura of extravagance and mystery.
“It’s an imitation and broken, so it’s not accurate!”
Lin Mo could not help but howl in his heart, Oh Gold Coin, Gold Coin, why can’t you keep a lower profile?! Are you trying to court death by looking so shiny?!
At least one thing was certain. Lin Mo did not have a watch before he entered the base. Needless to say, it was the work of the Metal-Attribute Giant Dragon, whose temperament had changed. Its latest research results allowed it to transform into a watch according to images found on the internet. It could become anything, a Rolex, Longines, or pocket watch, and change as it liked.
Lin Mo was not happy at all. It looked beautiful, but that was just the appearance. This so-called luxury brand watch was very unreliable, and it had no functionality whatsoever. Its hands were useless and for decoration only!
It seemed to have heard Lin Mo’s words, and the needles on its face suddenly spun like crazy, as though it was venting dissatisfaction. It made people looking at it feel dizzy, as if time had suddenly accelerated.
Lin Mo turned his wrist silently so that the others would not be able to see the face of the watch. His heart was thumping like mad. It would be the least of his worries if someone saw it and thought it was a time bomb. Why didn’t Gold Coin just turn into a genuine gold coin? It was just reluctant to stay in his pocket.
“Tsk tsk! What a good quality imitation. Where did you buy it? Help me buy one when you have time.” Peng Yong was nearly drooling as he looked at it. That watch looked manly on Lin Mo’s wrist.
Of course, its design naturally passed through the hands of famous designers since it was a high-end luxury product, and its original cost was millions of yuan. Gold Coin had only taken a few minutes to copy it.
“Someone gifted it to me, and I don’t know where he got it. I’ll help you ask if there’s still stock,” Lin Mo replied casually. There was no telling if he could still maintain contact with the outside world after joining ‘Dark Night’. He was doubtful about whether this retiree would be able to contact him anyway.
“All right. Thank you, brother!” He smiled dreamily, as though the same watch was already on his wrist.
A person walked out of the cockpit and pointed to his own watch. “Second Lieutenant Lin Mo! Prepare to parachute in five minutes!”
Lin Mo gave an OK gesture and began to prepare. He made sure that his parachute was in good working order and in the right position. He was going to drop from several thousand meters in the sky. If something went wrong, becoming minced meat was a guaranteed ending for him.
Y-8 transport planes were not like civilian passenger airliners. The cabin shook, and someone with a poor physique constitution would have vomited. Lin Mo was used to it, as though he were walking on the ground. He loosened his safety belt, walked to the side of the baggage compartment in the cabin, and pushed toward the exit. The parachute was already bound onto the standard airdrop box and only needed to be pushed out of the aircraft. When the parachute opened, its positioning beacon would automatically activate, and Lin Mo would be able to find his stuff very easily.
In fact, there was nothing much in the box. There was his laptop that was given by the base, some personal daily necessities, various miscellaneous stuff, and books, which took up almost half of the space, at around half a cubic meter.
At this time, the door at the rear of the cabin made a roar and opened. The body of the plane shuddered violently as the turbulent airflow immediately swept into the entire cabin. Breathing had become difficult, even though the aircraft had lowered its altitude.
The veterans in the cabin grabbed their safety belts tightly, and their hands covered their mouths to prevent the turbulent airflow from forcefully entering their lungs while they waved goodbye to Lin Mo with the other hand. Anything that they wanted to say would just be swept away by the wind.
A red light on top of the cabin lit up. The airdrop box began to move along the conveyor belt toward the door. When the red light turned green, the claws of the conveyor belt were released, and the box was sent flying out of the aircraft by the turbulent flow and flung far away in the blink of an eye. A white parachute opened.
The advantage of the subsonic aircraft manifested at once. It only needed to throw the item out. A supersonic aircraft would require a strong ejection. Otherwise, it might still be pressed tightly in the airplane by the airflow.
Lin Mo waved goodbye to the people in the cabin, sprinted a few steps, and jumped out of the plane.
It seemed as though he had rediscovered the feeling of riding on his Giant Dragon while wearing his Dark Steel Mystic Armor and resisting the frantic airflow at high altitudes. He did not dare to do this previously because he was afraid that Gold Coin would happily let him fall to his death. Now, however, he had a parachute and did not need to worry about landing safely. The two worlds had entirely different approaches.
This world spoke of the rapid secretion of adrenaline. Lin Mo was wearing a breathing mask and goggles and enjoying the thrill of free fall. He spread his limbs open and used the airflow to move gradually to the position of his airdrop box. A small error in the sky would spell a huge distance on the ground.
“You’re crazy! Do you want to die?!” Gold Coin’s roar echoed in Lin Mo’s mind through the soul contract. Lin Mo’s wristwatch immediately transformed and stretched out, as though it was about to morph into a Giant Dragon to stop Lin Mo’s madness.
In the other world, Gold Coin had been eager for his knight to make such a rash mistake so that it could become a free Giant Dragon. But now, it was so afraid of the weapons in this world that it could not allow its long-term meal ticket to die here. The humans in this world were very weak, and there was not even any fit to be warriors here. However, they possessed terrifying wisdom that far exceeded the humans of the other world and developed powerful weapons of destruction. Moreover, they were no less warlike. Gold Coin did not have the courage to challenge radars and missiles once again. This damned world was a civilization built on metal utilization. It was such irony for the Metal-Attribute Giant Dragon. It deeply regretted that it was not a Giant Dragon of another attribute.
“Haha!” Lin Mo laughed loudly. His body lifted up suddenly, and his descent speed reduced drastically. The parachute had opened by itself.
“Y-y-y-you!” The Gold Coin that had transformed halfway was stunned as it stared at the parachute above Lin Mo. There was actually something like this in the world. It had heard that there were ejection parachutes on jet fighters, but Gold Coin did not link it to the bag that Lin Mo was carrying. How could someone be afraid of falling from the sky with this toy?! The Air Riders just had their lives extended.
It was still thinking about how it wanted to shake Lin Mo off from the sky before, but it was more difficult with this thing now.
“Study more! Hahaha!” Lin Mo burst out laughing.
Tsk! Gold Coin shrank and changed back into the watch without a word, and the strap contracted around Lin Mo’s wrist tightly. Since when was the pride of a Giant Dragon stomped upon by a tiny human. Hmph! Wait and see!
Lin Mo did not care at all about Gold Coin’s plan for revenge. He continued laughing until he was slightly out of breath. It was a rare opportunity to deflate the ego of this proud Giant Dragon. Ever since he came to this world, he had been desperately studying all kinds of knowledge and had more time to experience it than Gold Coin. This was the gap, the gap of knowledge.
With a roar, the Y-8 transport plane disappeared into the sky.
Lin Mo controlled his parachute to land about fifty meters away from the airdrop box. Lin Mo took out a dagger, cut the ropes of the parachute, and folded the now useless parachute. He then did the same to the airdrop box.
The four corners of the yellow airdrop box were flashing orangish-red light, looking very eye-catching. Lin Mo’s landing point was on a grassland that had withered away. It was already January, and the Siberian cold wind blew down from the north, making him feel as though he had fallen into an ice cave.