Chapter 23

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Chapter 23: The Wind Tightens!

“Damn, that was brutal!” One student muttered in disbelief, and others nodded in agreement, unable to find words.

“Come on! Call the police and get out of here!” Chen Haiqing quickly snapped everyone back to reality. Taking down dozens of burly thugs was definitely no small matter; this place had turned into a hotspot for trouble.

“Boss! I’m paying for everything! Including your losses today!” Without hesitation, Chen Haiqing pulled out a large stack of bright red bills, stuffing them into the restaurant owner’s hands without counting and urging everyone to hurry and leave.

Upon seeing the students approach, the downed thugs shrank back in fear, looking like they had seen something terrifying, clearing a path for the trembling students to make their escape unscathed.

There was no time to think about who or what had taken down over a hundred hoodlums. If the police arrived, that would surely spell trouble.

The group of future pilots returned to the aviation university’s dorms, walking back quietly as if nothing had happened. They instinctively fell into a solemn silence, each heading to their own room.

Only Chen Haiqing, while going up the stairs, kept a thoughtful eye on Lin Mo. There was something eerie about today’s events. He wondered if it were possible for Lin Mo to take down so many people in just half a minute. However, Lin Mo had entered looking completely unfazed, his face as calm as ever.

It was puzzling. Chen Haiqing couldn’t wrap his head around the large-scale brawl that almost happened and could only chalk it up to some kind of supernatural occurrence.

“Wow, today was thrilling!” Lei Dong, now sober, lay sprawled on his bed, gasping for breath, forgetting about the trouble he had dragged everyone into.

“Yeah, this place isn’t exactly safe. There are thugs around!” Lin Mo sat at his desk, which held mostly books rather than clothes. The prices of books in this world were astonishingly low, allowing even ordinary citizens to buy whatever they wanted without issue. This accessibility to knowledge pleased Lin Mo greatly.

The human race here was generally weak, possessing unique weapons and systems of order, so Lin Mo wasn’t in a rush to create specialized self-defense tools.

Dragon Knights often learn special skills to deal with isolated situations, understanding how vital logistics are to support a knight in battle, with money flowing like water during combat.

Lin Mo did feel a bit disappointed that there were no magic crystals in this world. Perhaps because of that, magic energy civilizations hadn’t developed; instead, a mechanical civilization thrived.

Fortunately, the lighting technology was highly advanced. There were plenty of light sources at night, and as someone with light element affinity, Lin Mo found it easy to thrive in this environment. He didn’t need to search for light; he could draw energy from any small source around him whenever he wanted. The energy he had accumulated these past few days was just about enough to use for a couple of simple spells.

After murmuring a few words, Lei Dong succumbed to sleep, snoring loudly. This foodie could only do three things: eat, sleep, or cause trouble.

Lin Mo, however, kept his small desk lamp on, reading quietly through the night until the dorm announced lights out and cut off the power. In this semi-militarized school, everyone had to cease all activities at a set time, except for the designated reading room, which could remain lit overnight.

After the lights went out, Lin Mo didn’t attempt to use a light element spell to continue reading. Instead, he put his book down and silently sat on the bed, drawing out a thin thread of barely detectable battle energy to reflect on his recent gains. The sunlight, moonlight, and surrounding lights—though restoring slowly—still brought him some progress.

Strength represented everything to him, his survival principle and unchanging law of the jungle between people. Lin Mo carried little memory of his original life, but his experiences here taught him that the world was wrapped in laws and bounded by morals, while the harsh reality of the jungle rule showed clear distinctions between nations.

Historical records revealed that for most of its existence, this world had been in conflict, with peace being extremely transient.

Though people’s outward survival methods changed, their essence remained. In his original world, people killed with magic and swords, while this world added firearms, economics, and legal morals to their means, making the dynamics much more complicated. Skills that people needed shifted to become the basis of society rather than pure combat skills.

As a Dragon Knight, learning new survival skills would be difficult and inefficient. Lin Mo chose to maintain his personal combat expertise; returning to the sky was his path to survival.

Lin Mo touched the metal coin left to him from the gold giant dragon, its surface etched with faint runes that gave it a unique texture. It had a strange property of swallowing metal without growing much in size. Last time, it had secretly absorbed his mystic steel armor, increasing only a little, but now it had returned to nearly the size of the egg he had found. It served as a sentimental keepsake.

If only the Gold Coin could follow him to this world, it would thrive here—this world boasted metallurgical capabilities that dwarfed those of his original realm. Any city possessed metal stocks comparable to the entire reserves of the Su Lan Empire. Metal was everywhere—doors, windows, trash bins, and railings.

If the gold giant dragon came here, it would thrive without even needing to move, easily gobbling up pure gold metal in large chunks. Even if the entire gold dragon kin migrated here, the scraps of metal would be more than enough to keep them well-fed until the end of their days.

Fortunately, the country Lin Mo found himself in was powerful. Although there were hostile forces, they lacked influence or the threat of war. After the constant tension of the past battles in the Su Lan Empire against the Texi Empire, his nerves finally had a chance to relax. No warrior, no matter how strong, could endure a prolonged state of high tension and combat for long. For Lin Mo, this was a rare and comfortable environment.

He spent the night sitting on his bed, only accompanied by the loud snores of his roommate, Lei Dong. The heating kept the room warm, ensuring he wouldn’t catch a chill.

As dawn broke on the horizon, the wake-up call sounded from various loudspeakers around the dorm.

Registration for the special recruitment pilot program had officially closed; today marked their first day of classes.

There were a total of forty-seven new students. The aviation program typically kept enrollment small and did not hold a large opening ceremony. Instead, they gathered in a large classroom for roll call and introductions to the school leadership, before splitting into Class A and Class B.

Lin Mo was randomly assigned to Class B, which also included Lei Dong from his dorm, and after a brief moment of excitement about flying, the instructors quenched their enthusiasm with grim reminders. They would have to endure six months of theoretical study before they could even touch the planes. Even then, it would only be “touching”; they would first train on simulators before getting any real flight time with seasoned pilots. Those who wanted to actually fly would be judged based on performance; not everyone could soar into the sky right away. There would be plenty of training and assessments ahead.

The school’s reasoning was straightforward: planes are not bicycles. Even the most basic training aircraft costs more than any luxury car on the market. A mishap could be deadly, and no one would risk letting inexperienced beginners fly.

Being a pilot is a high-risk profession; even a moment’s distraction could lead to catastrophe. The school leadership emphasized this during the first day’s briefing for all new students.

In the special recruitment pilot training program, there were even harsh elimination criteria. For Lin Mo, this came as no surprise—back in the Dragon Knight Corps, they had faced a similar brutal rate of elimination.

It was better for those who didn’t make the cut to be weeded out than to fail in battle. This meant that every Dragon Knight learned to value each of their comrades deeply. Before slaying enemies on the battlefield, they had often stepped over the bodies and blood of their own.

To survive, one must sometimes become a beast; such harsh standards were nothing new for Lin Mo, who had once roamed the streets of a small city in another world.

Both classes rotated instructors, and the first task for the new students was military training.

This was not merely for the sake of torturing them or improving their physical condition; the goal was to instill strict discipline, ensuring that they maintained composure under pressure, which was what the military sought. They needed to avoid making catastrophic blunders on the battlefield.

On the four-hundred-meter running track, about twenty figures jogged slowly, contrasting sharply with the heavy-set, muscular instructors of Class A. The instructors of Class B were lean but full of energy, their uniquely raspy voices echoing as they counted laps.

The distinct hoarse voices of soldiers have become a special dialect passed down through generations.