Chapter 145
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Chapter 145: Soaring with the Wind, Rising Dragon!
For Lin Mo, trading two MiG-21s from "Fish Nest" for one Su-30 "Flanker" was a profit. If he could down another Su-30, it would be an enormous victory. Shooting down two enemy fighters already showed the outdated MiG-21’s impressive performance. He believed it would be easy to get approval from the President for such losses, possibly even acquire another Chinese J-10 "Mighty Dragon." Truly, as the Chinese saying goes, "a mighty dragon does not cross rivers lightly." The pilot, codenamed "Gold Coin," turned out to be an ace, making the joint procurement with Zambia and a few other countries incredibly worthwhile—comparable to receiving an FC-20 for free.
Chinese military instructors and engineers shared strange glances with Major General Mora, who seemed to treat the Chinese pilots as if they were gods, boasting such confidence without a single bullet or missile—why not let him try for himself?
"Haha, Chinese pilots, amazing!" Major General Mora awkwardly gave a thumbs-up, using his clumsy Chinese to mask his embarrassment.
Lin Mo’s actions had clearly violated regulations. After receiving permission from Major General Mora, he disregarded the MiG’s condition and pushed the aircraft’s performance to the limit. In a normal situation, this MiG-21 would barely have been able to land safely, and it was easy to imagine that the plane would never fly again after this.
Yet now, in Lin Mo’s hands, this old clunker became a deadly missile, its nose aimed directly at the Su-30’s flight path.
Lin Mo accurately predicted and calculated the Su-30’s flying posture, quickly locking onto the control stick. He decisively pulled the ejection seat lever beneath him, launching the MiG-21 toward the Su-30 like a guided torpedo.
In an instant, the canopy exploded off, and Lin Mo was shot out with the rocket, soaring over sixty meters. At that moment, the Su-30 pilot, who was intersecting with the MiG-21’s flight path, widened his eyes but had no time to react. Both pilots screamed briefly before being engulfed by a massive fireball and a violent explosion.
This wasn’t a repeat of an old trick; it was a suicide crash, the pilots’ last resort.
As Lin Mo parachuted down, he gazed at the empty void below him and exhaled deeply. He knew he had done his utmost, using neither special abilities nor relying on the gold giant dragon. This was his limit, especially considering he had no ammunition. A clever woman can’t cook without rice—he hoped the Zambian authorities wouldn’t demand compensation for the loss of the MiG; otherwise, he might end up as a struggling pilot in Zambia for life.
The fireball exploded five hundred meters away, sending a scorching shockwave that caused the ejected seat to sway outward by over twenty meters. Even though he wore a tactical helmet, Lin Mo felt the intense heat radiation and the strong shockwave from the explosion.
Countless small fragments flew across the sky, some fiery debris screaming past Lin Mo. Suddenly, a pull from the backpack eased his descent speed, and a pure white parachute blossomed amid the fireball of the two colliding jets, gently rising on the air currents before drifting further away. The farther he got from the burning fireball, the safer he felt.
In the distance, he heard distant thunder, and several small black spots quickly appeared beside Lin Mo. They spotted the massive fireball and black smoke in the sky and almost simultaneously broke the sound barrier with a piercing sonic boom. Those tiny black dots transformed into clearly visible MiG-21s in Lin Mo’s line of sight.
As Lin Mo waved to the MiG-21s below, signaling he was safe, the late-arriving reinforcements from Lusaka Air Force Base circled around him and the descending smoke, dipping their wings to show they had seen him before heading back toward the base.
Since Lin Mo had ejected, the ground would surely send someone to retrieve him safely and bring him back to Lusaka, a special privilege for air force pilots.
The signal light on his survival gear began to work, flashing a vibrant red light as it broadcast his coordinates.
Just as Lin Mo leisurely swung his legs while awaiting a safe landing, a sudden gust of wind stirred up, causing the parachute to be thrust back into the high sky.
In Africa, the weather changes drastically; moments ago, the sky was filled with fluffy white clouds. In an instant, a fierce gale whipped across, drastically reducing visibility. Grass blades and dead branches were swept up into the air, and Lin Mo’s parachute was no exception as it swayed dangerously.
A tornado formed, slender columns of smoke connecting the ground to the sky.
"Whoa! Where is this taking me?!" Lin Mo lifted the visor of his helmet, only to see the weather change in an instant, a strong cyclone forming amidst flashes of lightning.
Before he could even turn his golden giant dragon into a phone, the parachute lost its shape, the ropes tangled around him. In that moment, the gold giant dragon unfolded into a metallic safety pod slightly larger than Lin Mo, wrapping him securely inside. After all, it was its long-term meal ticket, and it aimed to protect him.
The chaotic nylon cords bound the shelter tightly while the white parachute fabric covered the pod, blocking Lin Mo’s and the Gold Coin’s view, but it added an extra layer of protection. Anything swirling in the air would be absorbed by the parachute fabric as long as it wasn’t too sharp.
All Lin Mo could hear was the howling wind outside, twisting and turning. The gold giant dragon activated the phone module, and Lin Mo dictated a number, automatically dialing out.
"Hello! Hello! Major Huang… Yes, I can’t come back right away; I’m up in the sky… I ran into a tornado. Yes, yes, a tornado! Who knows where it’s taking me? So I’ll be late… No problem, don’t worry! I’m quite safe; I can sort this out myself."
Lin Mo spoke casually on the phone, appearing completely unfazed. After a brief chit-chat, he quickly hung up.
On his first day in Africa, he had already received a text from China Mobile on his phone, “Dear Global Pass User, receiving domestic calls is 18 yuan per minute; dialing domestic numbers is 33 yuan per minute…”
This ridiculous domestic SIM card was basically a money-eating machine. Lin Mo hadn’t even had the chance to switch to a local SIM card yet.
"What’s happening? Who’s calling?" Others nearby noticed Major Huang De’s odd expression after he picked up the phone.
"It’s Lin Mo! He ran into a tornado!"
Major Huang De didn’t know what to say. Captain Lin Mo was ridiculously calm; caught up in a tornado flying all over the sky, he maintained a nonchalant tone while calling home as if it were just a traffic jam.
Everyone exchanged bewildered glances, not knowing how to react.
Based on the messages received from the MiG-21 squadron earlier, Lin Mo should still be floating in the air, and now he was swept back up by a tornado, unaware of the danger he faced. This guy had nerves of steel, behaving as if nothing was amiss.
Heaven help him; hopefully, he would return safely.
The gold giant dragon was not a wind element dragon; although it possessed the talent for Void Magnetism, it had to submit to the tornado’s whims without acceleration, unable to withstand the forces of nature. Though it could expand its shape to counteract the wind’s force due to its weight, being a large metal target in the sky was too conspicuous—it could only drift along with the wind.
At least, with the coffin-like safety pod of the gold giant dragon protecting him, the world outside was dark, and he could hear the winds howling ominously, along with clashing objects. The load-bearing suit and helmet felt like wearing light armor, and thanks to the padded walls, he didn’t even need to activate his battle energy to protect himself against the storm.
He couldn’t tell how long he had been spinning in the sky, but eventually, Lin Mo felt the wind strength gradually weaken, and the safety pod softly landed on the ground, rolling several times before finally tipping over and coming to a stop. The once intact parachute fabric now bore gaping holes, allowing him to see the pitch-black sky above.
After a moment, several razor-sharp blades burst forth from the tightly wrapped shelter, slicing through the layers of parachute fabric before swiftly swiping and cleaving, scattering fragments of fabric and chopped nylon ropes all around.
"Ah! I’m so tired!" Lin Mo yawned deeply, rubbing his eyes. The landing site was secluded with no signs of civilization, only the chirping of insects accompanied by distant roars of nocturnal beasts.
Looking up, he saw a sky full of stars bathed in moonlight, casting their glow on dense patches of wild grass, leaving him unaware of his exact location.
After unfastening his seatbelt, Lin Mo stood up, stretched lazily, and addressed a pressing physiological need. He retrieved emergency rations and water from his survival gear, equipped for wilderness survival and distress signaling.
The supplies in his survival backpack could keep a pilot alive for three days in isolation.
The beacon seemed to have malfunctioned, as the signal light no longer flashed. Lin Mo checked his gear, assembling a handgun first. After taking a sip of water for hydration, he turned on the distress radio.
All he heard was static, and after switching channels a few times without success, it seemed like the call had exceeded the 80-kilometer range.
When he transformed the gold giant dragon back into a phone, it immediately displayed a "not in service area" notice, and even China Mobile could not help him. Clearly, the signal was poor with no base stations nearby, and he had no immediate plans to use a satellite phone, which was not something most people carried around. While it could connect, it would look too suspicious.
Using his parachute knife, he cut a circle of waist-high wild grass nearby and sprinkled powder to deter snakes and insects before curling up in his sleeping bag to rest for the night. The gold giant dragon transformed into a circular travel tent, quickly covering a patch of grass from above.
