Sky-cracking Rider

In the Dragon Clan of the Cangqiong Realm, the Metallic Dragons have always been viewed as outliers.

Light, Dark, Water, Fire, Wind, Gold, Earth, Wood, Lightning, Spirit, and Space—the eleven main branches of elemental magic. Only the Metallic Dragons seemed to be without affinity for magic, yet they were known as the "Divine Weapons," naturally aggressive and cruelly brutal. They weren't pushovers but rather iron-hard and prone to inflict harm as much to the touch as to the heart if mishandled.

Only the Silver Dragons of the Space Series could perfectly counter the Metallic Dragons, easily disposing of them by tossing them into the chaos of spatial currents—a finished business!

Even thirty years ago, the Metallic Dragons had a great opportunity when their entire clan was collectively upgraded to the digital dragon level, acquiring many new abilities. Though finally able to cast spells, including those of more than one elemental series, they still fell short of the other elemental dragons, who wielded their magic as naturally as an extension of their body.

Being inherently devoid of spiritual power and unable to comprehend the concept of space, the Metallic Dragons remained completely insulated from psychic and space magics, even after their upgrades.

From a certain perspective, the Metallic Dragons' casting ability was conditional; they needed to convert from weapons to magic artifacts or even electrical devices. If not charged with a magic crystal full of Magic Element and a Crystalline Block brimming with electricity, their new powers remained merely ornamental.

The upgrade simply expanded their capabilities and created an unprecedented branch of dragonkind without fundamentally altering their nature.

Lacking innate magic and spiritual power, the reason the Metallic Dragons had not been expelled from the Dragon Clan was largely due to them, like other dragons, possessing a Dragon Soul—an unalterable fact.

Like the dragons of all other series, the souls of the Metallic Dragons resided within their Heart Core.

As dragons aged and the years passed, their Heart Core would purify and eventually crystallize into a sparkling Dragon Crystal, with powerful dragons even seeing their bones gradually crystallize.

The value of a Dragon Heart Core could nearly account for a third of a dragon's remains. Even if not used to create special devices or equipment, it could be traded with the Dragon Clan, including the Metallic Dragons, for very precious resources. Even the historically priceless SEG core unit could be obtained, tantamount to the hardest currency in both the Cangqiong Realm and the Blue Star Realm.

The successive Dragon Kings of the Dragon Race never missed an opportunity to reclaim the Heart Core of their kin. All fallen Dragon Souls should eternally rest in Sky Dragon City. Dragons, though not avaricious, were never short of money. If handled properly, a single Dragon Heart Core might be exchanged for another immense profit of one hundred billion Star Yuan.

In search of the elusive Metallic Dragon Heart Core, Hanna Gagel, a Level Two Inspector of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, arrived at Aircrew Base 911 with this secret mission. Holding the position of executive manager would provide ample convenience and cover for the covert investigation.

As everyone's attention was drawn to the unlucky "Genuine Fragrance" Combat Flight Squadron with the new official's first big move, Hanna Gagel's team had already quietly begun their arrangement.

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Under the leadership of Major Chekhov, the squadron leader of the "Genuine Fragrance" Combat Flight Squadron, all pilots were actively responding to the first challenge posed by the new executive manager, Hanna Gagel, vigilant and not giving the opponent any opportunity to take advantage.

As the deputy squadron leader, "Devil Pepper" Irinei Rusios was similarly too busy to continue giving Chen Fei lessons. She simply tossed him her own flight notebook and let him play with a gaming console, amassing some flight experience from scratch, which was basically of little help in learning to fly.

The contents of the flight notebook were less about flying experience and more an understanding of three-dimensional spatial movement.

Terrestrial creatures tend to perceive the world in two dimensions, while flying creatures and marine animals add another dimension with height and depth.

Chen Fei hadn't had the chance to study "Devil Pepper" Teacher's flight notebook in detail before he was called by the logistics department of the Aircrew Base to help.

The three main departments of Aircrew Base 911—the logistics department handling life and materials, the ground crew responsible for all equipment use, and the Aircrew Department in charge of flying and combat operations—all departments had various teams managed by the executive manager.

The "Luo Jing Number" Phantom-366MAX Heavy Transport Airship brought so many supplies to 911 in one go through its formidable carrying capacity that it far exceeded the base's normal consumption rate. It would take at least a decade, if not more, to use them all.

Moreover, there was a large amount of perishable goods; thanks to the Crystalline Magic Array-powered preservation containers, they could be kept fresh for several years, but the sudden reception of such a wealth of supplies still required a lot of manpower to reorganize and categorize them and make a proper usage plan.

A giant standard container is not a child's plaything, and moving them around is certainly not a simple and easy task.

Now in the Blue Star Realm, there is no lack of spatial series alchemy storage devices from the Cangqiong Star. These alchemical products are perfectly suitable for storing and organizing a vast amount of materials.

However, the aircrew bases have no use for the smaller-capacity spatial series alchemy storage devices, and the larger ones are astronomically expensive.

Those comparable to gigantic warehouses, the ultra-large spatial series alchemy storage devices with tens of thousands of cubic meters of capacity, are simply out of reach for private military contractors like the Apocalypse Defense Group. Only first-rate and second-rate sovereign states that are not short on cash can afford them.

Slightly poorer and low-tier third-rate sovereigns can only look on and sigh with envy.

Moreover, using spatial series alchemy storage devices isn't something just anyone can do.

At a minimum, one must possess a certain level of spiritual power strength. Otherwise, after a few uses, one's spiritual power would be nearly depleted, which would just be an exercise in futility.

It would be better to honestly use containers and rely on manpower for moving them.

For an aircrew base, spatial series alchemy storage devices, though very convenient for storing and organizing materials, are still too high-end.

Therefore, the logistics department, which oversees multiple groups and is responsible for the day-to-day living and material management of the aircrew base, was incredibly busy from the get-go, almost collapsing from collective exhaustion and forced to temporarily borrow manpower from other departments.

Newcomers have no rights, like bricks used wherever they are needed. This unwritten rule of the workplace is the same everywhere.

Even with Big Brother Xiao's protection, Chen Fei could not escape this. An originally half workday that belonged to the "Genuine Fragrance" squadron was temporarily lent to the logistics department.

Fortunately, out of respect for this burly mechanic, the logistics department did not dare to treat Chen Fei like a beast of burden. Instead, they assigned him a simple job that they didn't have time to handle yet but nevertheless required a helping hand, to ensure the newcomer could get up to speed as quickly as possible.

In fact, within the entire 911 aircrew base, there were hardly any idle hands. It wasn't just the logistics department's cleaning and warehousing groups that were borrowing people across departments; just about everywhere was understaffed.

Even with such consideration, Chen Fei still saw a mountain of trash accumulating to three or four meters in height.

The air was filled with a foul stench, which came from the categorized garbage bins at the foot of the trash mountain, filled with all sorts of household waste. Flies buzzed around them, indicating it had been days since they were last managed.

With a little over two hundred people, even without work, just their eating and drinking would inevitably produce a lot of garbage daily.

If full-scale work commenced, the consumption of a large amount of materials would result in an even more considerable amount of waste.

If this trash wasn't disposed of properly, it would not only waste the limited space of the high-ground platform where the aircrew base was located but would also severely pollute the environment, possibly incurring a huge fine.

The 911 aircrew base has always sorted and processed various types of waste. Biodegradable waste mainly comes from the canteen and personal daily life, including food scraps, paper, used plastic products, replaced engine and lubricating oils—all tossed into reaction tanks, sprayed with biodegradable agent, and quickly decomposed into fertilizer.

The grass beside the main runway and the various green plants scattered throughout the base have grown from these fertilizers little by little.

Non-decomposable glass, ceramics, metals, and other organic or inorganic materials are separated by magnetic detection equipment, then processed into multi-colored glass bricks and alloy bars by crushing machines and smelting equipment, either reused on-site or awaiting transport to specialized companies for recycling.

The aircrew base already has some small smelters and metalworking facilities. Local sourcing and resource recycling can effectively reduce supply pressure and operational costs.

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