223: Chapter 223 Why is this guy flying towards Dongda University?

On the viewing stand.

Mr. Kim slammed heavily into his wide leather chair.

He raised his hand to straighten his signature red tie, while his chief of staff behind him scrambled to fix the hairstyle that had been messed up by the jet stream just moments before.

A few seconds later, the blonde hair returned to its anti-physical standard curve.

Mr. Kim extended his right hand, palm up.

"Phone."

The chief of staff froze, still holding a comb in his hand.

"Sir?"

"Give me my phone. Hurry."

The chief of staff hurriedly put down the comb, fished out a custom-made, gold-rimmed phone from a black briefcase, and handed it over with both hands.

Mr. Kim took the phone, his thick thumb swiping skillfully across the screen twice.

"Open my personal account."

The chief of staff's hand hung in mid-air, his expression changing.

"Sir, are you going to start a livestream?"

"Yes."

Mr. Kim lifted his chin and pointed spiritedly toward the fleet of aircraft regrouping on the distant horizon.

"The whole world should take a good look at how invincible the American Air Force is. I want them to witness this power with their own eyes."

The chief of staff grew anxious and lowered his voice.

"Sir! This is Kadena Air Base, a top-level military facility! Fighter formation information and takeoff/landing positions are all classified defense secrets! A livestream will absolutely violate Article 7, Section 3 of the National Defense Security Act, and as for The Pentagon..."

"I am the boss of The Pentagon."

Mr. Kim interrupted him rudely, his thumb pressing the "LIVE" button in the center of the screen without hesitation.

The front camera lit up.

On the screen, a face flushed red by the sea breeze filled the frame, with the azure sky of Okinawa and the reflective metal buildings on the tarmac in the background.

The traffic floodgates opened instantly.

Three seconds. The number of online viewers exceeded five million.

Ten seconds. The numbers jumped frantically, smashing through the twenty-million mark.

The scrolling speed of the comments on the side of the screen became a blur.

[Holy crap, who is this? This blonde hair... Mr. Kim?!]

[The real Mr. Kim?? He's actually livestreaming??]

[Oh my God! Mr. Kim, I love you!!]

[It really is Mr. Kim!]

[Brothers, hurry into the stream! The Global Leader is putting on a show!]

Characters in various languages flooded the screen, and the server load skyrocketed.

Mr. Kim looked at the data jumping in the top left corner of the screen, extremely satisfied. He flipped the phone and pointed the rear camera at the sky directly in front of him.

"Hello everyone, I am your favorite Mr. Kim."

He cleared his throat, his voice transmitting across the globe through the microphone.

"Today, I'm going to give you a surprise. A top-tier, free air force show for the whole world."

The comments exploded.

[Free? As expected of Mr. Kim, he knows traffic so well!]

[The White House Chief Streamer is online!]

[Mr. Kim personally narrating a military livestream? CNN can close down.]

Mr. Kim held up a thick, short index finger and pointed to a few black dots appearing on the distant horizon.

"Look over there. The first batch flying over is our F-18 Hornets."

He paused deliberately, his tone carrying a hint of mockery.

"A bit old, I admit. But it's still the best carrier-based aircraft on this planet."

He spread his hands toward the camera.

"Of course, the main reason is that there aren't many combat-capable carrier aircraft on this planet anyway."

The livestream room immediately descended into chaos, with military fans and trolls starting to argue frantically, doubling the popularity again.

In the distance, a formation of nine F-18s kept their altitude low, roaring in from the end of the runway.

The grey-white airframes were less than two hundred meters above the ground, flying at a speed of 550.

The moment they swept past the viewing stand, the roar of the engines almost tore the air apart, and the phone's microphone emitted a piercing screech.

The next second.

Nine F-18s pulled back on their control sticks simultaneously.

The noses violently tilted upward, shooting straight into the clouds.

Nine snow-white contrails burst simultaneously against the azure sky, arranged perfectly.

The livestream room boiled over.

[Holy crap! Nine pulling up at once!]

[This scene is too explosive! Gives me goosebumps!]

[The image quality is even better than the Department of Defense's promotional videos!]

[The number of online viewers has broken fifty million!!]

Mr. Kim glanced at the comments, curled his lip, and couldn't hide the smugness on his face.

"Uncultured."

He shook his head and pointed his finger toward the higher sky.

"Don't rush. What's coming next is the real good stuff."

"The world's strongest air superiority fighter, the F-22 Raptor."

The comments paused briefly.

Then, they erupted with ten times the intensity of before.

On the horizon, a new batch of diamond-shaped black dots appeared.

An F-22 formation.

The grey airframes shimmered with a cold matte finish in the sunlight, the stealth coating swallowing the light. Seen from the front, these steel beasts were flat and sharp, carrying a suffocating sense of oppression.

They cut into the flight path at a lower altitude and faster speed.

The airflow plowed across the runway, and the standing water on the ground was whipped up into a mist.

Passing the viewing stand.

Pulling the stick.

Nine F-22s pulled up vertically simultaneously.

The twin vector-thrust engines output full power, and the airframes completed the transition from horizontal to vertical in less than a second.

The climb rate was unreasonably fast.

The nine contrails were thicker, straighter, and more violently aesthetic than the F-18s.

The number of viewers in the livestream room officially broke two hundred million at this moment.

[My God! What kind of monster machines are these!]

[The F-22's climb rate is terrifying!]

[It's lagging! The platform server is about to crash!]

[Two hundred million people watching the US military flex its muscles, a historic moment!]

Mr. Kim's mouth was grinning almost from ear to ear.

He suppressed his emotions and leaned close to the phone's microphone, acting mysterious.

"The last one."

He held up one finger, slowing his tone.

"I want to show you the world's most advanced single-engine fifth-generation stealth fighter, the F-35 Lightning."

"Open your eyes wide. This is a sight you might not see in person in your entire life."

The comments flooded with a uniform "Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes."

In the distance, the F-35 formation appeared at the edge of sight.

Nine grey-black fighter jets kept their altitude at two hundred meters, approaching at high speed along the runway.

At this moment, inside the cockpit of JP-0047.

Li Li sat in the middle of the formation.

The green data stream on the HUD (Head-Up Display) refreshed like a waterfall.

Distance to the viewing stand: eight kilometers.

Seven.

Six.

In the radio channel, the voice of Lt. Col. Reynolds cut in right on time.

"All F-35s, attention, prepare for a joint pull-up."

"Three."

Five kilometers.

Li Li held the throttle with his left hand and steadily controlled the joystick with his right.

"Two."

Four kilometers.

Li Li's gaze swept over the fuel gauge. Full.

"One."

"Pull!"

The moment the order was given.

On the left and right sides, four F-35s each pulled up on their control sticks simultaneously.

The noses of the eight fighter jets lifted violently, piercing vertically into the sky, their engine exhaust spitting out scorching tongues of fire.

The phone camera on the viewing stand faithfully recorded it all.

Eight white trails surged toward the clouds in unison.

But.

A spot in the middle was empty.

The ninth F-35 did not pull up.

It held firmly to an altitude of two hundred meters, at a speed of 550.

Unwavering, it flew straight ahead.

No climbing.

No decelerating.

Not even the slightest deflection in attitude.

On the viewing stand.

Mr. Kim held the phone, the smugness on his face freezing.

He stared at the phone screen.

In the center of the screen, that lonely little grey dot was rapidly moving away.

One second.

Two seconds.

Mr. Kim slowly lowered the phone and turned to look at the chief of staff.

"Is it that Japanese guy again?"

The chief of staff's hand hung in mid-air, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He didn't even dare to wipe it off.

"It should... it should be him, sir."

The chief of staff swallowed, his voice dry.

"He might... might be wanting to perform some maverick maneuver again, wanting to leave a deep impression on you."

"Maverick?"

Mr. Kim interrupted him, raised the phone again, and locked the camera onto that F-35.

In the livestream room, over two hundred million viewers also noticed something was wrong.

The screen full of exclamation marks turned into question marks.

[Wait, why didn't the one in the middle pull up?]

[Mechanical failure? Or did the pilot fall asleep?]

[That's not right! It's still accelerating! The fire in the tailpipe has changed color!]

[What is this guy doing?? Is he not returning to formation??]

[The direction is wrong! He's flying west! What's in the west?]

[The west... is the Pacific Ocean, holy crap!]

[Three hundred nautical miles ahead is the East's Air Defense Identification Zone!!]

[The East's East Sea Fleet is there! It's over!]

Mr. Kim held the phone, following the grey dot.

The grey dot got smaller and smaller, and the speed got faster and faster.

A sonic boom cloud burst at the tail.

That was the sign of breaking the sound barrier.

Mr. Kim's hand slowly dropped.

He stared at the western sky, his eyes squinting into slits.

"How is he..."

He paused, seemingly searching his brain for a reasonable word.

"Why does it look like he's running away?"

He turned his head abruptly, staring intensely at the chief of staff.

"Did you tip off the people from the Cherry Blossom Kingdom in advance? Tell them I was going to blacklist him? Did you scare him off?"

The chief of staff did not answer.

His right hand had already reached into his suit pocket, gripping the encrypted communicator connected directly to the control tower.

His knuckles were pale from excessive force.

In the communicator, the roar from the Kadena Air Base tower was completely out of control, leaking through the tiny earpiece.

"JP-0047! Report your heading immediately! You are deviating from the designated airspace!"

"Calling JP-0047! Yamada! Respond!"

"Sir! 0047 has cut off the transponder! Radar signal lost! He has entered full stealth mode!"

"He's carrying a full tank of fuel! His heading is due west! He's going to cross the border!"

"Sound the base-wide level-one air defense alarm! Intercept him! Stop that plane!!!"

The piercing air defense alarm sounded abruptly over Kadena Air Base.

Wailing.

Frantic.

It drowned out the sea breeze, drowned out the waves.

And it was clearly transmitted into Mr. Kim's phone microphone, which was livestreaming to the entire internet.

In front of two hundred million people's screens, that little grey dot disappeared completely into the depths of the clouds.

In the sky over Kadena, only one white contrail remained, pointing straight toward the east.