Chapter 7: Challenge! (Vote and Collect)

  The scene cuts back to the apron: Sun Xiang and Eric have both boarded their planes, and suddenly the sound of massive propellers fills the air as the two planes take off simultaneously. Sun Xiang is the first to pull his plane up, and Eric, not to be outdone, also pulls his plane up, with the two planes charging into the sky one after the other.

  Erich was eager to regain his lost face, and as soon as he took off, he hastily fired at Sun Xiang's plane. However, the bullets had been modified, so even if they hit the plane, they would only leave ugly colored marks on its body. Sun Xiang's plane seemed to have anticipated Erich's sneak attack, and as Erich fired, it suddenly flipped over a wide range, not only dodging the machine gun fire but also reversing their positions, with Erich in front and Sun Xiang behind, tightly biting onto Erich's plane.

  "Oh! Damn it! How did I not hit him," Eric found that Sun Xiang's plane suddenly disappeared, and he had no choice but to constantly dodge left and right. However, how could a rich young master who hadn't received formal training be the opponent of a special flight pilot? Eric also wanted to learn from Sun Xiang, using a large-scale roll to change his unfavorable situation. As a result, when Eric pulled up his plane, Sun Xiang's machine gun bullets also hit at the same time. Since Sun Xiang had been following closely behind Eric, Eric's action of pulling up and rolling over looked like he was deliberately putting his plane in front of Sun Xiang's machine gun bullets.

  At this time, Lieutenant Reed's voice came over the broadcast. "Oh! The match is over, it's too fast, Sergeant Steve has won the victory! Oh, I have to say that was a great flying performance, I think you can all wait and see Eric's plane, haha! I think you'll find something surprising."

  Two planes landed on the ground, Sun Xiang got off the plane to a heroic cheer, apparently his brilliant performance just now had won everyone's support. Eric's plane landed and was greeted with a huge boo, everyone thought that the great flight ended quickly because of Eric's poor skills, it seemed that everyone still had some unfulfilled wishes. Eric sat in the cockpit, shaking his head, muttering to himself, his face full of astonishment. Nobody understood what happened to him, Andy and Richie rushed through the crowd, trying to climb onto the plane to pull Eric out, but as soon as they got on the plane, they also looked like they were enchanted, their faces filled with incredulity. But what did they see? More people ran towards the plane, then left in amazement.

  Two beauties, Emilie and Shirley also wanted to know what had happened that would cause everyone's astonishment. However, the nature of women made them not squeeze under the plane to see the outcome, let alone they couldn't squeeze in. But soon, many people loudly exclaimed, solving their doubts. "Oh my god! There are two neat bullet holes on Eric's plane, and they're parallel lines along the wing!" "Not to mention, buddy! If this were a real air battle, Eric's plane would be like a bird with its wings cut off, crashing down, oh God, it's just unthinkable." Steve's performance piqued the interest of the two women, but there were more people surrounding Sun Xiang. Helplessly, they could only stand on the periphery of the crowd and chat with another group of female soldiers, but the soldiers' words made them feel even more unbelievable about this person.

  Female soldier 1: "Oh! Steve! He's so handsome, he's just like the man of my dreams."

  Female soldier 2: "Yes, yes! He's really amazing. I just heard that when he first arrived, he got into a fight with John and the others and took down six of them by himself!"

  "Really?" Sherry interrupted. "Is this Steve really that strong?" The female soldiers looked at Sherry with anger, not believing her.

  The female soldier 3 continued: "That's right, I heard from my sweetheart that he saw Steve's appearance that day and didn't even use his full strength yet."

  Seeing the girls' indignant expressions, Sherry couldn't help but stick out her tongue in embarrassment, and her adorable expression made it impossible for the girls to scold her anymore.

  Girl 4: "Yes! I've decided, I must be her girlfriend!"

  Female soldier 2: "Hehe, your appearance will scare people away."

  Female soldier 4: "Ahh... you're annoying."

  Andy and Richie, who were standing on the wing of the plane, also found it unbelievable. Eric suddenly crawled out of the cockpit, grabbed the two men and started running, saying: "Hurry, hurry! I want to learn flying skills from him, oh! He's really great."

  Three people ran towards Sun Xiang, many people surrounded him, and his newly revealed flying ability and capture of the fighter plane left many people in awe. Everyone was expressing their admiration for Sun Xiang, who could only continuously wave at everyone. At this time, Lieutenant Ryder also walked over and said something that got everyone excited again: "Steve, I'm looking forward to a showdown with you!"

  Sun Xiang was stunned: "Lieutenant, are you serious?" Ried replied with a straight face: "Of course I'm serious." Seeing Lieutenant Ried's expectant gaze, the surrounding soldiers shouted in unison: "Steve! Steve!" The deafening roar almost overturned the planes on the base.

  Sun Xiang looked at Lieutenant Ried seriously for a moment, then said loudly: "Alright, Lieutenant!", The soldiers on the apron suddenly burst into even louder cheers. At the same time, the base's broadcast announced: "Hello everyone! I'm Ralph, and this time I'll be the judge. Looking forward to your performance, gentlemen. Now please have both gentlemen prepare for takeoff."

  When they learned that Captain Smith was also concerned about this matter, everyone's enthusiasm was even higher. Lieutenant Reed walked up to Eric's plane and saluted Sun Xiang, then got into the plane, fastened his seatbelt, and started the engine. Sun Xiang returned the salute to Reed and also started the engine, and the two planes took off from the runway simultaneously, flying into the sky without distinguishing who was first.

  Sun Xiang wanted to try out Fang's detective skills, which was his lifesaving technique after all, so he had to master it. After activating the search function, a semi-transparent screen-like thing suddenly appeared in front of Sun Xiang, clearly displaying Rudder's plane and his own plane's positions, both planes' speeds, the range of their weapons attacks, etc. Lieutenant's plane flew into the sky and immediately made a rapid left turn, circling around in the air, quickly spiraling upwards to seize the advantageous position. In aerial combat, occupying the high ground was often the key to victory.

  Sun Xiang didn't go to provoke Ryder, he just kept his plane at a slight angle below Ryder's, making it impossible for Ryder's plane to aim at him. Sun Xiang was now like playing a game with cheats on, feeling extremely cool. Ryder was getting very annoyed, chasing Steve for half a day without finding a good opportunity to fire. It was as if he knew what Ryder was thinking, every time Ryder aimed at him, he would dodge out of the shooting hole. When Ryder aimed at Sun Xiang again, Sun Xiang suddenly made an emergency evasive maneuver and his plane flew out of Ryder's line of sight.

  Sun Xiang's plane was slowly following behind Reed, like a venomous snake ready to strike at any moment. Reed also felt something was off and made consecutive rolls. The soldiers on the ground saw such exquisite techniques and cheered loudly. When they saw Reed's plane disappear from their line of sight, Sun Xiang immediately reacted, pulling up his plane and flying upwards. Sun Xiang knew that in an air battle, giving the opponent a single opportunity would simultaneously mean GAME OVER.

  Two planes soared upwards in a competitive manner, Sun Xiang knew he was facing an extremely skilled air combatant. To show respect for their battle, he turned off the search function of his plane's computer, but having just used such a convenient tool, suddenly shutting it down made Sun Xiang feel very uncomfortable. The plane also stuttered, and Ryder seized the opportunity to adjust his plane's angle and launched a sweep attack at Sun Xiang in an extremely bizarre posture. Sun Xiang was also very familiar with his plane, making a sideways flight, passing through the middle of the two rows of machine gun bullets, taking advantage of Ryder's pause during shooting, turning around and launching a sweep attack at Ryder's plane as well.

  Although Sun Xiang's series of operations were completed in a very sorry state, he still won Ryder's praise: It can't be seen that this kid not only has an extremely keen sense of spatial position, but also has first-class reaction ability! Ryder was as calm and unhurried as if he had expected him to counterattack, adjusting the flight angle of the plane to avoid it with elegance like a swan. Sun Xiang, seeing that he didn't hit Ryder, also chose to evade quickly, both being extremely cautious, trying their best to make the planes not reveal any flaws in the air.

  The planes had been fighting in the air for over ten minutes, neither of them hitting each other once. Both of them simultaneously chose to engage in a head-on confrontation at this moment. The planes that were entangled in the sky suddenly pulled away from each other. Reed launched the first attack, quickly seizing the high ground and firing at Sun Xiang. Sun Xiang fired back with his machine gun while evading, four tongues of flame spewing wildly across the sky. Sun Xiang's plane was hit by Reed, fortunately not in a critical location, which did not affect the continuation of the dogfight. Reed's plane also took several bullets to its wing, but it wasn't severely damaged either.

  The planes crossed each other in the sky, and both of them were frightened afterwards. Although they were modified bullets, being hit at such a close distance would still result in destruction. The planes that crossed each other were eager to turn around, cutting through the smallest turning radius, and again simultaneously facing each other in the sky.

  Sun Xiang thought that Rudder might continue to make a small inside cut, so he changed his strategy and made a large-scale slanting roll, waiting for Rudder's inside cutting radius. As expected, Rudder was still making an inside cutting motion at this time, and had not expected Sun Xiang to use a slanting roll. When Rudder's plane turned around the corner, there was no sign of Sun Xiang in the sky. At this moment, Rudder felt his plane shake violently, and suddenly realized he had been hit. He shook his head regretfully.

  "Superb performance, gentlemen! I think our base has just gained one more ace pilot from today!" Colonel Ralph's voice echoed through the base on the broadcast.

  After turning off the radio, Ralph made a phone call. "I'm Ralph, you go check, in Washington there's a Chinese guy named Steve Sun, his father was a pilot, see if there are any suspicious points about his identity background." Looks like Ralph has started to suspect Sun Xiang.

  5 minutes later, the phone rang: "Sir, we've checked it out. He has a small farm near Washington, only one father, his father was a World War I pilot and also a western farmer with rich flying experience, but he passed away a few months ago. He sold the farm and completed a solo flight across America, then met Howard Hughes. Finally, he entered the Pauling base and became an aviation cadet." Colonel Ralph nodded in response: "Got it, thank you very much." After confirming Sun Xiang's identity, the colonel felt a sense of relief in his heart. Such a person is a rare talent that cannot be bought with money in today's unstable international environment. He was glad he chose to join the US military. Colonel Ralph decided to have a good talk with Sun Xiang and immediately got up and walked out.

  The screen turned back to the apron, and the two planes landed, causing a huge cheer. Almost everyone rushed towards the plane that had just stopped, and Sun Xiang and Lieutenant Ryder's performance brought these fledgling pilots or some old birds on the base a classic work of world-class air combat.

  The two men had different understandings of flight, but their skills (on the F2A aircraft) had reached the pinnacle. Reed's simple and practical school, Sun Xiang's heavenly horse-like flying tactics, convinced almost all spectators.

  Sherry, standing on the outside of the crowd, was gazing at Sun Xiang with admiring eyes. A 20-year-old young man, flying a plane as if it were an art form, had the same aura as her father, who as a surgeon, had once made her feel the shock of charisma with his focus. Sun Xiang's flight skills were indeed praiseworthy, and at the same time, Sherry was becoming increasingly curious about him. A seed had already been planted in Sherry's heart, waiting for someone to water it. Of course, Sherry herself wasn't aware of it yet.

  Emil's face lit up with excitement as he pulled Shirley into the crowd, eager to get a closer look at this Chinese hunk who had defeated the instructor. "Let's go check out this amazing guy!" he shouted to Shirley.

  Because everyone was shouting and cheering, Emil's voice was instantly drowned out by the many voices, but Sherry also had the same idea, understood what Emil was thinking, so the two of them tried to squeeze through the crowd. However, no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't squeeze into the middle of the crowd, and Emil could only stay on the outside with Sherry. At this time, Sherry's heart was already in a mess and she didn't have any interest in continuing to wait, so she turned around and left, curious about Sun Xiang in her heart. Emil looked at Sun Xiang in the crowd, then looked at Sherry who had already walked far away, and could only stomp his foot and chase after Sherry...

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