Chapter 155 What kind of ghostly signal is this?!

After some preparation,

A few days later.

In the early morning of Baishui City, there was a hint of chill in the air.

Inside the office of the Li Family Toy Factory, Li Jiajun held a phone, his tone as relaxed as if he were ordering takeout.

"Hello, Brother Zhao, it's me, Xiao Li."

On the other end of the line was Xiao Zhao, Liu Jianguo's personal secretary.

"So, give a report to Uncle Liu for me. I've built a new large-scale model airplane and I'm preparing to help Express Delivery Company with a long-haul test. The flight path is a direct flight from Baishui City to the Great Northwest Gobi. Do you think you could approve a permit for me?"

Xiao Zhao on the other end was clearly stunned for a moment, followed by the sound of flipping through documents.

After a while, Xiao Zhao's voice came through, carrying a hint of unexpected relief:

"Factory Director Li, this is rare. You actually know to report your flight path in advance now? Minister Liu just said that since it's a civilian logistics test, as long as you don't fly into no-fly zones or cause a low-altitude nuisance, the permit will be approved if the procedures are compliant."

"Minister Liu also said for you to fly steadily and not stir up any more trouble for him."

"Got it! Brother Zhao, thank Uncle Liu for me! Don't worry, it'll be absolutely steady this time! This is just a delivery plane; it flies high and sees far, it definitely won't disturb anyone!"

Hanging up the phone, Li Jiajun looked at the electronic permit that arrived quickly on his phone, a 'law-abiding citizen' smile appearing on his face.

He turned his head and said to Wang Dachui, who was staring nervously at the monitoring screen nearby:

"See that? This is what you call professional! This is what you call official!"

Li Jiajun curled his lip and switched into his signature inner-monologue roasting mode, muttering to the air:

"Those things in the past were all misunderstandings. As long as the paperwork is complete, who can say I'm causing trouble? Uncle Liu is the same, always making a fuss over nothing. This time, I'm going to bring warmth to the people of the Northwest and happen to save President Wang some fuel money. For such a positive thing, he should be giving me an award..."

Roasting aside, there was still work to be done.

"twin-tailed scorpion, take off!"

With Li Jiajun's command, the massive dark-grey painted beast on the helipad let out a low roar once again.

This time, fully loaded with fuel and carrying simulated cargo, it soared into the sky like a giant bird of prey under the morning sun.

Just ten minutes later.

"Altitude 10,000 meters... 12,000... 15,000 meters! Reached designated cruising altitude!"

Wang Dachui shouted excitedly while looking at the data.

The twin-tailed scorpion had already pierced through the clouds and entered the lower edge of the stratosphere where the airflow was stable.

The air here was thin and the temperature extremely low, an area rarely frequented by ordinary civil aviation aircraft.

"Activate Albatross Mode."

Li Jiajun calmly pressed the Enter key.

The next second, the data on the screen changed.

The originally roaring turbofan engines instantly dropped in RPM, entering a state of maintenance nearly equivalent to idling.

Meanwhile, the aircraft's slender wings, under the control of the smart AI, began to undergo imperceptible deformations.

It was no longer relying on thrust to push through the air; instead, like a real albatross, it keenly captured the invisible turbulence and air currents of the high altitudes.

It wove between the peaks and troughs of the air currents, occasionally diving slightly to accelerate, and occasionally using the force to leap and glide.

If you didn't look at the instrument panel, you would think it had lost power and was falling.

But in reality, its speed remained at a high subsonic 900 km/h, and the instantaneous fuel consumption... was almost a straight line!

"Perfect..."

Li Jiajun took a sip of cola, satisfied as he looked at the outrageously low fuel consumption data.

"This is what you call technology changing lives. Flying like this, by the time we reach the Northwest, the remaining fuel could probably go another half-circle around the Earth. If President Wang saw this data, he'd probably wake up laughing in his sleep."

However.

What Li Jiajun didn't know.

Was that in order to pursue extreme fuel efficiency and gliding effectiveness, the aircraft's posture and trajectory in the sky had become extremely... flamboyant.

It wasn't flying in a straight line; rather, it was as flexible as some people's moral compasses—er, that is to say, it flickered uncertainly between different altitude layers.

Add to that the special matte coating applied for sun protection and the infrared signature that plummeted due to the engines idling...

At this moment, the twin-tailed scorpion was simply an indescribable monster in the eyes of certain specific observation equipment.

...

Northwest, a certain Air Force radar base.

This was a strategic stronghold guarding the airspace of the motherland's Northwest. Massive spherical radomes stood on the desolate Gobi Desert, scanning the sky above day and night.

Inside the radar control room, the air conditioning was blasting, and there was only the slight hum of the instruments running.

Two young radar operators, Xiao Zhang and Xiao Wang, sat before a massive circular screen, staring boredly at the dull green light dots.

"Sigh, another peaceful day."

Xiao Zhang yawned and rubbed his dry eyes. "In this godforsaken place, even passing civil aircraft are rare."

"Rare is a good thing." Xiao Wang picked up his thermos and took a sip. "If something actually happened, then we'd have to..."

Beep!

Before he could finish his sentence.

An extremely faint yet extremely abrupt notification sound interrupted him.

Xiao Wang's hand shook, and the water in his thermos almost spilled out.

He subconsciously looked at the screen.

On the edge of the radar scan sector, a light dot so weak it almost blended with the background noise flickered without warning.

In the instant he blinked, that light dot disappeared again.

"Did you see that?" Xiao Wang was stunned and turned to ask Xiao Zhang. "It looked like there was a dot just now?"

"Your eyes playing tricks on you?"

Xiao Zhang leaned over and stared at the screen for a long time. Aside from the regular circular scan lines, there was nothing.

"Our radar is the latest model. Within a five-hundred-kilometer radius, never mind a plane, we can see even an eagle clearly. If there were something, it would definitely be locked on continuously."

"True..."

Xiao Wang scratched his head, thinking he was just too tired and seeing things.

However.

Just thirty seconds later.

Beep! Beep!

That light dot appeared again!

And this time, it appeared dozens of kilometers away from its previous position!

"Holy crap!"

Xiao Wang snapped upright, his fingers flying across the keyboard, attempting to lock onto the target.

"Altitude: 15,800 meters! Speed: 920 km/h! Radar Cross Section... 0.01 square meters?!"

Looking at this string of data, Xiao Zhang's eyes nearly popped out, and his voice instantly changed pitch:

"That's impossible! What could fly that high? That's almost into the deep stratosphere! And this cross section... is this a freaking stealth fighter?"

What made their scalps tingle even more,

Was that just as they were about to further confirm the signal characteristics,

That light dot disappeared again.

Like a ghost playing hide-and-seek with them, it appeared abruptly and vanished abruptly.

The radar waves swept past like a stone dropped into the ocean, without a single echo.

But, after only a dozen seconds,

It popped up again in another completely illogical position!

Flickering up and down, fast and slow.

It completely defied the movement logic of any known aircraft!

"It's changing orbit! It's performing high-maneuverability orbital changes!"

Xiao Wang looked at the intermittent trajectory lines, and cold sweat instantly soaked his back.

"No transponder signal! Not civil aviation! Not one of our military aircraft!"

"It's penetrating deep into our territory at high speed!"

At this moment, terrifying conjectures about UFOs or enemy stealth reconnaissance planes simultaneously surfaced in the minds of the two young soldiers.

Fear instantly transformed into a soldier's instinctive reaction.

Snap!

Xiao Wang flipped open the red protective cover in front of him and slammed down the button representing the highest-level alarm.

Wooo—!!!

The piercing alarm instantly resounded throughout the entire base, breaking the silence of the Gobi Desert.

Xiao Wang grabbed the communicator and roared into the microphone with all his might, his voice cracking:

"Reporting to Command! Unknown high-value target detected in Airspace 03!"

"Target possesses high stealth characteristics! Trajectory is abnormal! Performing ultra-high altitude penetration!"

"Unable to lock on! Repeat! Unable to lock on!"

"Ghost signal detected!!!"

...

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