bioinnovel Chapter 286 The Vermilion Bird Ascends!
Chapter 286 The Vermilion Bird Ascends!
Zhang Yan put the Vermilion Bird into the system space, but the feeling still lingered on his fingertips.
Thirty-meter wingspan, a solar resonant state power furnace, and a plasma fire rain array.
This thing shouldn't be in the basement.
He glanced at the time: 3:47 a.m.
There is a nearly 40-minute window of airspace over the Jinghai Sea between 4:00 and 5:00 AM, during which almost no aircraft pass over the eastern sea area of Jinghai.
Zhang Yan did not hesitate.
He walked out of the underground laboratory, through the back door of Tianji Security, and went directly to the abandoned parking lot surrounded by barbed wire at the back of the company.
It was pitch black all around, and even the streetlights had been removed by Qin Xiao as he had requested.
"Suzaku, come out."
A dark golden light exploded in the darkness.
A mechanical bird with a wingspan of thirty meters lay sprawled on the concrete ground, with two rows of high-frequency particle generators lined up along the inner sides of its wings. Dark red light seeped out from the gaps, turning the entire parking lot into the color of a furnace.
It has no eyes.
The entire head is a seamless radar matrix, and the stardust gold armor shimmers with a cold silver-blue hue in the dim light.
Zhang Yan entered the cockpit through the lifting platform on the abdomen.
Completely different from the oppressive feeling of being encased in steel like the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Suzaku's cockpit is a semi-open panoramic cockpit, with 360-degree holographic projection that projects the outside world onto the inside of the cockpit walls in real time.
The moment you sit inside, it feels like you're floating in the void.
"Neural synchronization activation".
The moment the brainwaves were connected, Zhang Yan's perception instantly spread to every corner of the Vermilion Bird.
He could "feel" the temperature of each particle generator on the wings, "hear" the humming of the Blazing Sun Crystal resonating in the ring matrix, and "touch" the night wind flowing over the surface of the Star Sand Gold Armor.
"take off."
There is no runway for acceleration, and no catapult launch.
The anti-gravity engine in the Suzaku's abdominal cavity was directly ignited.
The entire mech, like a leaf swept up by the wind, silently left the ground.
Five meters... ten meters... thirty meters.
After passing through the skyline of the buildings, Zhang Yan pulled the control lever.
The Vermilion Bird instantly switched from vertical hovering to horizontal flight, with its main thrusters on its back firing at full power, leaving a dark red trail of light that stretched nearly a hundred meters across the night sky.
The speedometer started climbing rapidly.
Two hundred kilometers... four hundred kilometers... seven hundred kilometers.
Breaking the sound barrier in ten seconds!
At an altitude of 12,000 meters, Zhang Yan saw a sight he had never seen before.
All that remained of Jinghai City beneath my feet was a blurry patch of orange light, like a small clump of gold scattered on a black velvet cloth.
On the distant horizon, the sun had not yet risen, but the easternmost horizon was already tinged with a very faint pale white, gilding the edges of the clouds with a silvery edge.
And at even higher altitudes, the starry sky overhead is so clear it seems unreal.
Without atmospheric refraction or light pollution, the Milky Way stretches nakedly across the dome, as bright as a frozen river.
Zhang Yan released the control lever.
The Vermilion Bird glided along with its momentum, its dark red tail flames converging into a faint point of light, like a newborn star merging into the Milky Way.
He leaned back in his seat, looking down at the world through the panoramic projection.
Quiet.
True silence.
At this altitude, there were no monster roars, no system alert pop-ups, no blue light from the fragments of the Heart of Heaven, and no dark red giant eye of the Ruins lurking in the deep sky.
Only the wind.
Zhang Yan suddenly understood why birds are never afraid.
From a high enough vantage point, everything appears insignificant.
He stayed at an altitude of 10,000 meters for a full fifteen minutes.
Then pull back the stick, lower the nose, and the Suzaku plunges into the ground at a 70-degree angle.
The speedometer spiked again, and at the instant it broke the sound barrier, a white sonic boom cloud exploded around the fuselage.
Three thousand meters... one thousand meters... five hundred meters.
It suddenly pulled up at a height of less than two hundred meters above the ground, skimming across the sea surface, its tail flame casting a straight red line on the water, and the seawater was pressed into two white walls by the air currents.
Zhang Yan's lips curled into a grin.
He couldn't remember the last time he laughed like that.
At 4:32 AM, Zhuque silently landed back in the abandoned parking lot and was stored in the system space.
Zhang Yan jumped down from the elevator platform and stood there for a few seconds to catch his breath.
He took out his phone and sent a message to Nie Qingcheng.
"Are you asleep?"
Reply in three seconds.
"No, what's wrong?"
"I made something great, I'll show it to you tomorrow."
"How wonderful?"
"The kind that can fly."
There was a five-second silence on the other end.
Then a voice message popped up. Nie Qingcheng's voice had a heavy nasal tone, clearly recorded after she got out of bed.
"Zhang Yan, if you dare to have your fun on your own without me, just you wait and see."
Zhang Yan put his phone back in his pocket and walked into the night.
……
The following evening, at the entrance of the villa.
As soon as Nie Qingcheng's Maybach came to a stop, the back door was pushed open first, and "Sister," dressed in a red haute couture suit, got out expressionlessly, carrying Nie Qingcheng's briefcase and a bag of takeout.
Nie Qingcheng got out of the driver's seat, the sound of her high heels clicking on the floor tiles carrying a certain uncompromising rhythm.
The first thing she said when she walked in wasn't, "I'm home."
"Where's the plane?"
Zhang Yan was cooking in the kitchen, an apron tied around his waist, flipping the pan over with a spatula.
"Let's eat first."
"I won't eat it."
Braised pork ribs.
Nie Qingcheng paused for a moment.
"...Watch the planes first, then eat the ribs."
Zhang Yan turned off the fire.
He glanced at the sky outside the window; the sun had completely set, leaving only a last sliver of dark purple afterglow over the city.
"Okay, but there are a few conditions."
"explain."
"First, no screaming."
Do I look like that kind of person?
"Second, once you've fastened your seatbelt, don't move around."
"nonsense."
"Third," Zhang Yan looked at her, "once we get up there, you're not allowed to rush me."
Nie Qingcheng raised an eyebrow: "Why?"
"Because you'll definitely urge them."
Twenty minutes later, over the eastern sea off Jinghai City.
The Vermilion Bird cruised at a subsonic speed at an altitude of 3,000 meters, without activating any weapon systems. Its heat dissipation plates were in a low-power state, and the entire mech was as quiet as a gliding seabird.
Inside the panoramic cockpit, Nie Qingcheng sat in the makeshift passenger seat behind Zhang Yan, the five-point seatbelt fastened tightly.
She did not speak.
She didn't utter a single word from the moment of takeoff.
Zhang Yan saw her expression in the rearview projection—her lips were slightly parted, and her usually cold and shrewd phoenix eyes were now reflecting the starlight of the sky, her pupils dilated, like a child seeing snow for the first time.
The fishing lights on the sea are like scattered stars, facing the Milky Way overhead.
The wind seeped in through the gaps in the panoramic cockpit, carrying the unique coldness and cleanliness of high altitude, and blowing Nie Qingcheng's long, loose hair.