"Go get acquainted with your ’Gray Donkey’."
"Sharp Sword Team One has a mission tomorrow morning. You’ll be participating."
After saying that, Zhang Hao seed to rember sothing and added,
"Oh, right."
"Since this is your first mission with the team, there’s a rule I have to tell you about."
"When our club takes on a mission, thirty percent of the base reward goes back to the club. It covers daily maintenance, upkeep, and depreciation costs for the fighters."
"The remaining seventy percent is distributed based on combat contribution."
"You don’t have a problem with that, do you?"
Han Feng shook his head.
’That’s very fair.’
’After all, he was getting the plane from the club for free.’
’Getting seventy percent was already more than he expected.’
"Good. Go familiarize yourself with your plane."
After the assignnts were given, the crowd gradually dispersed.
Han Feng stayed behind by himself.
He walked toward the "partner" that would soon accompany him through life and death.
He opened the canopy and jumped in nimbly.
The seat was indeed a bit hard, a compromise for the structural design.
To fit the extra monitoring and repair equipnt, the cockpit space felt especially cramped.
The instrunt panel was covered with modified monitoring screens.
In addition to standard flight paraters, it could monitor the damage and Spiritual Power status of every fighter in the formation in real-ti.
Han Feng gripped the control stick and entered his identification code.
The system booted up with a low hum.
[Flying Sword: Falcon - Heavy Support Type (Gray Donkey)]
[Grade: Lower Grade Magical Artifact (Modified)]
[Traits: Solid, Heavy Load, Redundant Spiritual Energy Circuits]
[Status: Establishing Spiritual Link...]
A familiar feeling, like a bond of blood, surged through his body from the control stick.
Although the fighter was clumsy, the sense of profound power it emanated was transmitted with incredible reality into his arms.
"Gray Donkey, huh?"
A slight smile touched the corner of Han Feng’s lips.
He reached out and adjusted the angle of the seat to make himself more comfortable.
"From now on, we’re partners."
...
「The next morning, at 6:30.」
East Sea Fortress City, Military Runway Number Seven.
The sky was a murky, lead-gray, hanging heavy over the city.
The acrid sll of acid rain, not yet dissipated, filled the air.
It was mixed with the unique, pungent scent of aviation-grade Spiritual Power fuel.
Inhaling it brought a slight burning sensation to the lungs.
The roar of engines warming up rose and fell.
The scorching jet wash distorted the view at the end of the runway.
Han Feng stood beside the Gray Donkey’s massive landing gear.
In his hands was a Spiritual Power torque wrench that was half his height.
He was performing the final reinforcents on the huge maintenance pod under the aircraft’s belly.
The clumsy behemoth, parked among a row of sharp, streamlined fighters, looked completely out of place.
Just then, a voice full of disdain sounded from behind him.
"Hey! Get back, get back!"
"Don’t get the sll of engine oil from your clothes on my ’Alice’!"
Han Feng turned around.
The speaker was a young man.
He wore a custom, pure-white Flight Suit that was completely spotless.
There was no na tag on his chest. Instead, a huge portrait of a beautiful ani girl was printed there.
The art style was extrely exquisite.
He wore a pair of tactical sunglasses.
He was holding a microfiber cloth and carefully wiping down a fighter jet next to him.
That fighter jet... was extrely flashy.
Its fuselage wasn’t painted in conventional low-visibility camouflage.
Instead, it had a brilliant "itasha" paint job.
A White-haired Witch holding a magnificent Magic Staff was airbrushed across the entire wing.
The colors were vibrant, looking especially flamboyant in the dim morning light.
This was Gu Yun.
The genius Pilot of Sharp Sword Team One.
He was also the young master of so major family from the Inner City.
At that mont, he was staring at a tiny speck of dust on the wing with a pained expression.
As if it weren’t dust, but so kind of deadly virus.
"What are you looking at?"
Gu Yun noticed Han Feng’s gaze.
He almost instinctively turned sideways, blocking the image of the White-haired Witch.
His face was full of vigilance.
"You may be a new teammate, but I’m warning you."
"This is my brand-new, limited edition ’White-haired Witch Alice’ paint job!"
"If your beat-up ’Gray Donkey’ so much as scratches a bit of the paint, I’ll stuff you into its air intake and grind you into at paste!"
Han Feng looked down at his own oil-stained blue work overalls.
Then he looked up at the gaudy fighter jet.
The corner of his mouth couldn’t help but twitch.
"Your plane is... unique."
"Of course it is!"
Gu Yun’s expression changed in an instant.
He put on a proud expression that seed to say, "You’ve got good taste, kid."
He even deliberately turned sideways to show Han Feng the full design.
"Miss Alice is this season’s T0-tier strongest Mage."
"With her Magic Power blessing, today’s mission is absolutely foolproof!"
After saying that, he glanced at the "Gray Donkey" behind Han Feng.
His brow instantly furrowed.
"Tsk, so ugly."
"Having this thing flying in the sa formation as my Alice is just visual pollution."
"I’m telling you, Han Feng, can you fly a little farther away?"
"Don’t let your ’Gray Donkey’ show up in the middle of my radar screen. I’m afraid Alice will get a stye from looking at it."
Han Feng ignored his lunatic ranting.
He focused on tightening a screw on the landing gear with his wrench.
It made a crisp "CLICK" sound.
"You’d better pray your ’Alice’ doesn’t get her face scratched up by a Demon Beast."
Han Feng patted the Gray Donkey’s thick composite armor plating, which gave off a dull, tallic echo.
"My ’Gray Donkey’s’ belly is loaded with a full set of spare skin panels and touch-up paint pens."
"If your ’wife’ gets her face ruined, rember to have a better attitude when you’re begging to fix her."
Gu Yun’s expression froze instantly.
"Shut up! My Alice is perfect! She will never get hurt!"
He angrily pulled a brightly polished gold coin from his pocket.
It was his good luck charm.
The coin flipped rapidly between his fingertips, making a crisp clinking sound.
"If Alice doesn’t perform well today, hmph, I’ll wash her off when I get back and replace her with ’Furious Warrior·Lin’ from the other studio!"
’This kid has so serious "spiritual" cleanliness issues.’
’He’ll swap out his "waifu" as soon as she underperforms?’
Han Feng shook his head, not bothering to argue with this ani nut anymore.
Just then, the ground began to tremble slightly.
"THUD! THUD! THUD!"
The sound of heavy footsteps approached from a distance.
A tall figure blocked out the morning light.
The newcor was at least two ters tall.
He wore a specially made, extra-large Flight Suit.
His exposed arms were thicker than Han Feng’s thighs.
His face was fleshy and fierce, and with his buzz cut, he looked like soone not to be trifled with.
Wang ng.
The main firepower of Sharp Sword Team One, nicknad "Brother ng."
He strode up to Han Feng.
He grinned, revealing a set of white teeth.
The smile looked a little intimidating, but his tone was exceptionally hearty.
"Haha! You must be the new guy, Younger Brother Han, right?"
Wang ng reached out a huge hand and clapped it heavily on Han Feng’s shoulder.
Han Feng felt his shoulder blade go numb, and half his body almost lost all feeling.
"I’m Wang ng, just call Brother ng!"
Wang ng’s booming voice made his eardrums ring.
He glanced at Gu Yun beside them, his face showing undisguised contempt.
"Don’t mind that psycho. He spends all day calling a pile of scrap tal ’wife’."
"Last ti, he almost missed an ergency assembly because he was giving his plane so bullshit ’manicure’."
Gu Yun, having his sore spot poked in public, imdiately blew his top.
"Those were aerodynamic fairings! Not a manicure!"
"What would a barbarian like you who only knows how to swing an axe around know about it!"
"Bullshit fairings. It just looks like a waste of money to ."
Wang ng snorted with contempt.
He turned back to Han Feng and pointed at his own heavy fighter, which had a blood-red shark mouth painted on its nose.
"Little brother, we’re practical people."
"In the future, up in the sky, if this kid keeps whining and doesn’t listen, just confiscate his spare parts. Let’s see him act so smug then."
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