Chapter 302

Chapter 302: The Japanese Get Hit While Lying Down

"This mysterious submersible, which has caused the Americans considerable trouble and nearly used a nuclear depth bomb, has been identified. It was confirmed that it was not an experimental sub made by us or surrounding countries. Its maximum speed is 200 knots, which is only the speed currently monitored and not necessarily the highest it can achieve, and it can dive to a depth of 5,000 meters. These details were provided to us by the Americans as a detailed report to ensure their safe departure from the South China Sea."

Captain Bai, who was on duty yesterday, stood in front of a large LCD screen, while several high-definition cameras captured him and the screen behind him, transmitting it via satellite.

Other screens displayed images from remote connections, showing the commander and specialists.

"Our carrier-based aircraft instructor, Dragon Knight, noticed an unidentified object rushing up from below the water and perfectly intercepted the American Crocodile Squadron’s unauthorized air-to-air missile launch. Therefore, Dragon Knight holds the most authoritative position to discuss this, so I’d like to invite him to explain the situation in detail."

Captain Bai gestured to Lin Mo to come up; due to security reasons, Lin Mo’s name was intentionally replaced with a codename.

After returning to the George Washington aircraft carrier, David, the Captain of the American squadron, sent an apology statement to the China South China Sea Fleet. The entire squadron was confined for a month for launching the Super Sidewinder without authorization, damaging Sino-American relations. The squadron leader lost all ranks and duties and was sent back to America to live as a common citizen.

On the other hand, the Chinese’s Dark Sabre is a formidable presence. If provoked, it could launch two anti-ship missiles directly; at that moment, they weren’t even out of missile range. The Americans took the blows with no redress.

Lin Mo smiled slightly and habitually touched the watch on his left wrist. Gold Coin had just returned this morning, having come back early with one day left of the holiday. He had gorged himself, spending 12 hours digesting to integrate the metals consumed, restoring one-tenth of his strength. Now, he obediently remained on Lin Mo’s left wrist focusing on work.

Lin Mo had agreed to prepare the J-15 Dark Sabre operation drive system written for the maintenance crew’s engineers from the Shenyang Aircraft Manufacturing Plant. He was waiting for this gold giant dragon to submit his work.

Living off metal, the long-lived gold giant dragon would consume countless metals in its lifetime; no ordinary human empire can afford it. Besides being unruly and difficult to control, the huge consumption of metals was another reason it couldn’t be the best combat contract partner for Dragon Knight.

Every year, feeding a giant metal dragon would consume half of the entire metal output of a province in the Su Lan Empire. If not for the abundance of metal resources in this world, Lin Mo truly couldn’t sustain this glutton.

Standing on stage, Lin Mo took the laser pointer from Captain Bai. The demonstration PPT was created by technicians for Lin Mo. Since this wasn’t an internal meeting of the ship, they had rehearsed beforehand.

As Lin Mo entered the camera frame, the video being filmed was immediately pixelated, blurring his features.

It was just that Lin Mo had a yellow bean-sized identifier stuck on his eyebrow. The computer system would automatically recognize it, using the identifier for positioning, releasing a mosaic that covered his entire face.

This was not merely for the confidentiality of Lin Mo’s identity as required by the General Staff in the Foreign Affairs Department, but more importantly, to keep details of the event confidential.

Lin Mo chose a video and clicked play.

The footage from the camera under the belly initially appeared steady, as Lin Mo wasn’t performing any flashy maneuvers at that moment. The camera stabilizer ensured the image was clear and stable, and since the video was recorded for training use with the carrier-based aircraft, the quality was exceptionally high, following the 2160P ultra-high-definition recording standard, reaching a frame rate of 100 frames per second.

Although storing such high-quality footage required extensive capacity, for a combat aircraft worth tens of millions of dollars, it was negligible and hardly substantial.

The video depicted the sea surface continuously; as the aircraft changed direction, the water ahead suddenly began to ripple. Subsequently, the aircraft began to climb, and a sharp object suddenly shot up from below the surface, quickly enlarging, revealing a size that even exceeded that of a jet fighter.

A gray shadow zipped past, representing the Dark Sabre swiftly flying past the emerging unidentified object, followed by another shot of the vast ocean. A camera pointed towards the tail captured an enormous object leap out of the sea.

Immediately, a burst of smoke and water erupted, indicating that nine Super Sidewinders launched by the F-18 Hornets were all intercepted by the giant object that had leaped from the sea, and inside the cockpit, Mike clearly recorded the explosion that pressed against the Dark Sabre jet engine.

The actual time between the turn and the passage over the unidentified object was only one or two seconds. Lin Mo replayed the footage in slow motion, making it a breathtaking display. A faster second would have resulted in being caught by the pursuing Super Sidewinder, while a slower second risked direct collision with the object, leading to an explosion.

Each second was a matter of life and death; the Dark Sabre narrowly evaded disaster by utilizing the mysterious submersible that emerged from the underwater terrain to block the following missiles; otherwise, it would have ended quite differently.

The missile guidance system isn’t human and cannot assess and respond to such unexpected situations.

"Dragon Knight, how did you realize something was rushing up from the sea?"

Captain Bai, the group captain, posed a question that many were curious about; spotting an abnormal object in the vast ocean was not an easy task, especially when there were many missiles tracking behind. It was hard to believe that anyone could maintain such composure and rapidly respond perfectly in such a dire situation.

"Well, that’s easy to answer. Firstly, the onboard small laser radar detected something rapidly approaching the shallow water below the sea surface. I also saw something speedily nearing the surface, leading me to determine that it could leap out of the water, so I changed direction and let the mysterious submersible shield me from the missiles. In fact, I had already spotted the anomaly 20 kilometers away."

Those present and those on the remote video call heard Lin Mo’s voice differently; his voice was also modified before being sent out. This was not difficult, and any primitive technical method could accomplish it; the simplest way was to have Mike’s recording status altered.

Carrier-based aircraft primarily utilize active phased array radar for reconnaissance against air and sea surfaces. They also have small laser radars to detect underwater targets close to the water’s surface.

In fact, it was simply because Gold Coin, being ravenous, ignored Lin Mo’s warning, dangling near the American aircraft carrier task force, prepared to sneak an opportunity, and coincidentally sensed Lin Mo’s nearby presence through their dwindling soul communication capacity in the dragon deity contract, thus hastily rushing out to help Lin Mo.

Times had changed; that tough-skinned beast could effortlessly intercept missiles for Lin Mo. Even a barrage of missiles wouldn’t necessarily harm it.

It was aware that it had drawn attention, shrank its form, and returned to Shilang with a newly added "fire seed" module, while Lin Mo acted as cover for this greedy creature, effectively distancing himself from any involvement.

Lin Mo’s words stirred the experts participating in the remote video conference, showcasing an unusual level of sight and searching capability.

A submarine expert asked, "20 kilometers? That’s about 11 nautical miles. You can see that far?"

"Yes, indeed; long sight is my specialty!"

Lin Mo candidly stated, and without the aid of the Light Mirror Technique, his vision was still significantly stronger than that of ordinary pilots.

No one disagreed with Lin Mo’s answer; vision was indeed the first criterion for selecting pilots. If the eyes didn’t measure up, everything else was irrelevant.

"Very well, our Dragon Knight is an ace. We won’t elaborate further; let’s look at the final message received from the mysterious submersible, which is likely the only communication it sent us, consisting of text."

The screen displayed a text message, with the original text above and the translated Chinese below: “さようなら！-Flying Little Boat/Goodbye! – Flying Little Boat”

"According to the intelligence department’s professional analysis, this appears to be a prank with a framing nature!"

Lin Mo’s heart skipped a beat when Captain Bai uttered this. He realized that the dragon kind, now well-fed and looking for trouble, had nothing better to do. Did they think such a large “boat” could exist? Who was pulling a prank like this?

The Japanese were the ones really caught off guard, someone popped up saying goodbye in Japanese while they were lying down, getting hit out of nowhere.

"Exactly, Japan does not acknowledge their technological abilities to construct such vessels. Although they are an island nation heavily invested in developing marine transportation tools, a submersible with such capabilities is not feasible not just for Japan, but even for us or the United States. Even experimental magnetic fluid propulsion systems can barely achieve 50 knots underwater, and their range remains very limited, mainly due to the constraints of superconductors. Humanity currently lacks more advanced high-temperature or room-temperature superconductors capable of forming high-intensity magnetic fields to accelerate seawater."