74: Chapter 74: Test flight a success, though it was a bit too noisy.

"Hum—clack, clack, clack."

Accompanied by a dull sound of mechanical gears, the dome of the underground base slowly slid open to the sides.

Blinding sunlight poured down like a golden waterfall, illuminating the black behemoth lurking in the darkness.

Chen Yuan sat on the dragon's back and took a deep breath.

The air was filled with the scent of dry dust—the scent of freedom.

"Initiate neural synchronization."

He issued the command in his mind.

【Neural link established.】

【Synchronization rate: 100%.】

In an instant, Chen Yuan felt his senses amplify infinitely.

He no longer felt like a human sitting in a saddle; he had become the behemoth itself.

He could feel the sensation of every scale slightly flaring in the wind, the airflow surging beneath its wings, and even the violent power of that massive heart pumping blood within its chest.

This feeling was truly marvelous.

It was as if God had granted him a second body.

"Take off!"

He didn't use words, just a thought.

"Roar—!!!"

The dragon raised its head, unleashing a roar that seemed to pierce the clouds. Its massive wings snapped open, their span blotting out the lights below.

"Boom!"

Its powerful hind legs kicked hard against the launch platform.

Hundreds of tons of explosive force were released in an instant, leaving two deep pits in the alloy platform.

A gale howled.

Chen Yuan felt a massive force shove him back; he felt like a cannonball being launched, instantly shooting out from the underground and piercing straight into the sky.

The speed was incredible.

The scenery blurred into streaks of light.

The wind in his ears shifted from a howl to a sharp whistle, and the data on his goggles indicated that his climb speed was approaching the speed of sound.

"Woohoo—!!!"

Chen Yuan couldn't help but shout out into the wind.

Awesome!

This was fucking awesome!

The thrill of riding a prehistoric behemoth and conquering the blue sky was ten thousand times more exciting than driving any Bugatti Veyron or flying a Gulfstream private jet!

This was the ultimate romance for a man.

The dragon broke through the clouds.

His view instantly opened up.

Below him lay the boundless Nevada desert, where golden sand dunes rolled like ocean waves, and winding roads looked like thin black threads.

In the distance, Las Vegas looked like a pile of scattered building blocks under the sunlight.

"Is this... the feeling of being the King of the Sky?"

Chen Yuan looked down at the earth, a surge of heroic pride rising in his heart.

Here, there were no laws, no rules, and not even gravity could bind him.

He was the master of this sky.

"Woo!"

The dragon seemed to sense its master's excitement, joyfully performing a high-difficulty cobra maneuver in the air before diving into an acceleration.

The intense sensation of weightlessness sent Chen Yuan's adrenaline soaring.

"Alright, don't just focus on playing."

Chen Yuan patted the dragon's neck, soothing the restless beast through the neural link. "Let's test out the 'new teeth' Zola installed for you."

His gaze locked onto an isolated rocky mountain a few kilometers away.

It was a barren, dead mountain made of granite, standing about a hundred meters tall.

It was the perfect target.

"Lock onto target."

As Chen Yuan focused his intent, the dragon's optic nerves immediately switched to fire control mode.

The scene before him transformed into a red thermal imaging display, with a green crosshair locked firmly onto the stone mountain.

【Target locked.】

【Weapon system: AGM-114 'Hellfire' missile (Custom Modified Version).】

【Warhead type: High-Explosive Anti-Tank / Thermobaric Hybrid.】

"Custom modified?"

Chen Yuan raised an eyebrow. "That lunatic Zola, what exactly did he pack into this thing?"

Whatever, fire it and see.

"Launch!"

With a single thought.

"Whoosh—"

The missile mounted beneath the dragon's left wing ignited instantly, trailing a long white plume of fire like an angry dragon as it whistled toward the stone mountain.

One second.

Two seconds.

"Boom—!!!"

A deafening blast instantly shattered the desert's silence.

Chen Yuan instinctively ducked, even commanding the dragon to gain altitude.

But even then, the terrifying shockwave nearly knocked him off.

A massive, almost comically large mushroom cloud rose from the desert.

Red and black flames, mixed with debris, shot hundreds of meters into the sky.

The entire stone mountain was gone.

That's right; it wasn't just blasted into a crater, nor was it just collapsed halfway.

It had completely vanished.

The granite mountain that once stood there had been replaced by a massive crater dozens of meters in diameter, its edges still glowing with a dark red, magma-like light.

This wasn't an ordinary explosion.

It was the high-temperature, high-pressure effect of a thermobaric weapon, instantly vaporizing and pulverizing the rock.

"Cough, cough..."

Chen Yuan waved away the smoke, staring at the smoldering crater, the corners of his mouth twitching involuntarily.

"That bastard Zola..."

"He calls this a 'mini missile'?"

"This kind of power is almost on par with a tactical nuke, isn't it?"

Though he complained, he couldn't hide the excitement in his eyes.

This wasn't just a biological bomber; it was a flying strategic cruiser!

"Boss, how was the result?"

Dr. Zola's expectant voice came through the headset. Clearly, he was watching the live feed on the base's large screen. "Was it powerful enough?"

"Powerful."

Chen Yuan looked at the crater and gave a candid assessment. "It's just that the noise... was a bit much."

"That blast just now? I bet the seismograph instruments at the earthquake bureau are already sounding alarms."

"What's there to be afraid of!"

Zola dismissed it carelessly. "This is the desert! Even if we leveled it, no one would care!"

Chen Yuan smiled.

True.

This desert was essentially the U.S. military's backyard for testing all sorts of superweapons; even if a few loud bangs were heard occasionally, it was unlikely anyone would pay it any mind.

"Since the results are good, let's go for another round."

Chen Yuan stroked the dragon's scales, still feeling the thrill. "This time, let's test the Gatling gun on the right..."

"Beep—beep—beep—!!!"

Just as he was about to activate "strafing mode," a sharp, urgent alarm suddenly blared in his mind.

It wasn't Zola; it was Red Queen.

"Warning! Warning!"

Red Queen's voice was cold and urgent, entirely devoid of her usual calm.

"Boss, we have been locked onto!"

"Right after that explosion, three F-22 'Raptor' fighter jets changed course and are closing in on your coordinates at full speed!"

"Thirty seconds until contact!"

Chen Yuan paused.

F-22 Raptor.

The world's most advanced fifth-generation stealth fighter, known as the "King of the Skies," and the absolute symbol of the U.S. military's air superiority.

"They got here fast."

Chen Yuan narrowed his eyes, looking in the direction indicated by the radar.

On the horizon, three barely visible black dots were rapidly growing larger.

That was the visual pressure of supersonic cruising.

"It seems that the commotion just now wasn't just heard by the earthquake bureau."

Chen Yuan licked his wind-chapped lips, the fanaticism in his eyes growing rather than fading.

An ordinary person's first reaction to seeing an F-22 would be to wet their pants and raise a white flag in surrender.

But he wasn't an ordinary person.

And what he was riding wasn't an ordinary mount.

It was an ultimate biological weapon, a fusion of ancient genetics and future technology.

"Red Queen."

Chen Yuan gripped the control stick, feeling the tremor and excitement radiating from the dragon beneath him as it sensed a formidable foe.

"Patch me through to the communication channel of those three jets."

"Boss, what are you planning?"

Red Queen asked. "Those are U.S. military aces. If you open fire, it will be tantamount to a declaration of war."

"Who said I was going to open fire?"

A playful smirk curled the corners of Chen Yuan's mouth, a smile filled with a hint of madness and a touch of provocation.

"I just want to ask them..."

"Have they ever seen a flying dinosaur?"