Chapter 430

Chapter 430: Stunned and Fearless

Meng Yinan’s wailing, like a big cat’s cry, completely failed to grab Lin Mo’s attention. The J-10B performed maneuvers in the sky that were even sharper than those in textbooks. The tremendous roar and swift movements turned heads on the ground, making many people glance up in awe.

The usually quiet candidate number one now soared through the sky, breaking the perceptions many held of Lin Mo. He truly embodied an Air Knight born for the sky!

An eagle may clumsily scuttle on the ground like a hen, but once it spreads its wings, it soars higher than most birds, far surpassing any hen or rooster that merely clucks and forages.

The selection process at the aerospace training center had been postponed for a week due to the invading incident. An investigation team had been dispatched from above, and the training center’s defense capabilities had rapidly increased several levels in a short time.

The leaders had to focus on cooperating with higher-level inquiries, yet no one would allow the selection process to be impacted by the investigation.

Space endeavors are always significant. The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center is the only manned spacecraft launch center among the four major launch centers in the country. The selection of astronauts, dubbed the "dragons among men," is a sacred and solemn affair. Even in times of war, such selections must proceed in an orderly fashion.

Human growth is not easy; raising children is not like raising chickens that can be sold after a year. It requires decades of growth, development, and learning. The government cannot expend vast resources nurturing from infancy, for the cost of broad planting with limited returns is a burden any nation cannot afford.

An ordinary soldier needs the support of at least ten civilians to survive, while an astronaut requires support from at least one million people to meet the standards for flying to space.

Going to space is not about clinging to life to obtain a license. Aerospace training resembles a challenging rapids race: if one doesn’t advance, they will fall back. If training lapses even slightly, they quickly become unfit for the space environment.

Humans are, after all, ground-dwelling beings; forcibly maintaining a high fitness level to adapt to space involves considerable sacrifices.

With a massive population of 1.4 billion, the nation relies on talent and growth to continuously select astronauts through layers of rigorous screening, ensuring a steady supply of skilled professionals for the aerospace field.

During the rare week of free time, pilots seized the opportunity to stretch their wings, piloting familiar fighter jets to blow off some steam.

The radio channel remained connected to the public channel, and several more J-10s took to the skies.

“Number one, isn’t this a bit too risky? Look at poor number eighteen. I think he’s about to pass out from motion sickness,” Wei Yuni’s voice chirped in Lin Mo’s earpiece, clearly sympathetic to number eighteen’s plight.

What bad luck he had!

“Alright then, number eighteen, you take over!”

Lin Mo declared as he relinquished control, handing over the controls to Meng Yinan in the front seat.

With the throttle suddenly uncontrolled, the output quickly decreased, and the fierce flames shooting from the aircraft’s tail rapidly diminished until the engine effectively shut down mid-air.

“Ahhh! Boss, are you trying to commit suicide? Have you lost your mind? We’re only at two thousand meters!”

Meng Yinan was stunned by the sudden stall and scrambled to restart the engine, realizing they were in a life-threatening situation. The safest altitude for engine failure was above four thousand meters, yet Lin Mo irresponsibly chose to let go at two thousand.

The J-10B, under inertia, continued to lurch forward. Its unstable aerodynamic design became evident. Since the J-10’s structure was inherently unstable, it could not glide. Without power, it swiftly transformed into a metal chunk, tumbling downward.

“Number one, number eighteen, what are you doing?”

Wei Yuni shouted as she watched Lin Mo’s J-10 suddenly slow and lose power, plummeting straight towards the ground.

“Calling number one, are you out of control? Eject! Eject now!”

The training center tower had tracked Lin Mo and Meng Yinan’s number one training J-10.

“Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah…”

Meng Yinan shouted in a fluster, desperately trying to restart the engine before the aircraft fully entered a spin. He succeeded just in time, igniting a bright orange tail flame that surged straight out, propelling the aircraft upward once again and pulling it out of danger.

The J-10B nearly skimmed the ground before narrowly pulling up.

Height: Three Hundred Meters!

Meng Yinan struggled to breathe as she deftly transformed a perilous situation into a safe one. Thankfully, her quick reflexes saved her; otherwise, she would have ended up like a human pancake on the ground.

She had never felt her heartbeat race like this before, as if it might leap out of her chest. With adrenaline pumping through her, her face flushed and her neck thickened, while sweat poured down her body.

“Not bad!”

Lin Mo’s voice rang in her ears, seemingly devoid of any normal stress response, treating the whole ordeal as if it were a trivial matter.

“What do you mean, not bad? Boss, are you trying to kill us? Oh my goodness! We both nearly lost our lives! You can’t make jokes like this! We are proud members of the Chinese Air Force, not the Kamikaze pilots of some small nation. If we’re pushing it, it shouldn’t be to die without purpose!”

Even though Lin Mo was her boss, Meng Yinan’s temper flared. There are limits to joking, especially when they had almost lost their lives.

During the intense struggle to control the aircraft, she hadn’t even registered the tower’s command to eject.

“Murder? How could that be? At this height, you should be fine. Haha, you’ve got this!”

Contrasting with Meng Yinan’s desperate breaths, Lin Mo maintained a calm and steady voice, completely unfazed by the recent crisis, as if he were merely watching a scene from a movie.

“I’m amazed by you! Goodness, flying with you is dangerously thrilling. I think I need to buy additional personal insurance.”

Meng Yinan’s complaints fell on deaf ears. The adrenaline from the recent scare was the most thrilling experience of her life, though her hands still trembled.

“I’ll take over! Your hands seem to be shaking!”

Lin Mo spoke with a touch of schadenfreude as he noticed in the reflection of the cockpit glass that Meng Yinan’s grip on the control stick appeared strained from the effort.

“Number one, you went too far!”

Wei Yuni was quite unhappy with Lin Mo’s recklessness. She knew number eighteen held an almost superstitious respect for number one and recognized Lin Mo’s exceptional piloting skills. However, such low-altitude landings were unacceptable; if anything happened to this fighter jet valued at over a hundred million yuan, the loss wouldn’t just be financial—it was a matter of life and death.

“Number one, you maniac! I finally understand how you got so good at flying!” Wang Xuejun’s angry voice chimed in over the channel. Lin Mo’s attitude was disheartening. After all, this was one of his subordinates; how could he make such dangerous jokes? After a brief pause, he continued, “It’s one thing to disregard your own life, but to not value others’ lives as well? Today, I’ve truly witnessed the idea that the soft fear the hard, the hard fear the reckless, and the reckless fear the fearless. This level of fearlessness is indeed unmatched.”

Although Wang Xuejun’s demeanor had softened after mingling with fellow astronaut candidates who were equally capable, his deep-seated pride couldn’t be erased overnight. Reflecting on his past experiences with number one in the simulator, Lin Mo’s ruthless maneuvers showed that he truly didn’t care for his own safety. He had just been unlucky in sustaining structural damage.

Hmph! That theory is all nonsense. Let him keep boasting.

Wang Xuejun looked forward to the day when everyone would uncover the hypocritical mask of that detestable number one, revealing him for what he truly was, leaving him embarrassed and wanting to flee.

Meanwhile, Lin Mo, seated in the back of the cockpit of the number one aircraft, was unaware that this younger pilot, once somewhat respectful, now regarded him with disdain due to his reckless actions.

“Hahaha!” Lin Mo ignored Wei Yuni and paid no attention to Wang Xuejun’s barbs. Instead, he laughed heartily and said calmly, “Eighteen, want to learn the ultra-low altitude Cobra maneuver?”

It was like enticing a curious big cat with a mysterious gift; curiosity could indeed kill the cat.

“Ultra-low altitude Cobra maneuver?”

Meng Yinan shook her head in confusion, having never heard of it. However, the maneuver, while tactical, required high standards for aircraft performance and pilot operation, much like other essential flight training maneuvers that involved stalling and spinning.

“Ultra-low altitude Cobra maneuver!” Wang Xuejun exclaimed in surprise. The name sounded familiar to him. In his mind, this maneuver was but a legendary fantasy, mere nonsense. Perhaps it was nothing more than bragging about maneuvers above one thousand meters, mistaken for ultra-low altitude capabilities.

Maybe it only existed in fleeting moments within computer flight games, as even the most realistic simulators rarely showcased such maneuvering skills.

From the very first lesson on flying, instructors told young pilots that altitude is the very life of an Air Knight—it is everything! Without altitude, there is nothing.

What can you do at a height of one hundred meters?

Take off!

Or land!

Nothing else, unless you’re flying a helicopter or considering yourself an air-to-ground missile.

Ultra-low altitude flying means flying at altitudes below one hundred meters from the ground or water surface.

However, no one dares to perform stalling maneuvers below one thousand meters; that isn’t just risking life—it’s directly speeding toward the depths of hell.

“Ultra-low altitude Cobra maneuver!”

Wei Yuni, echoing Wang Xuejun’s astonishment, immediately grew puzzled, as if recalling a shocking video.