Sky-cracking Rider

Although defeated in the seventh round, Chen Fei's battle is not yet over; he still needs to continue participating in the ranking among the 15th to 28th positions, so supplementary lessons are still necessary.

However, the information of the opponents has become much clearer. The tactical arrangements for the 13 Sky Knights, including his own peers, like the "Light Asura" Ke Liang from the local Sky Knights facing Chen Xiao'er, will not hold back; giving it their all in a battle is the greatest respect.

In the "ranking battle" list that is full of Sky Knights, even if he wanted to lie down and stop trying, finishing at 28th place would still be a fairly decent position for Chen Fei.

He even has the right to boast, "Below the Sky Knights, I am invincible; when facing a Sky Knight, it's a one-for-one trade."

No sovereignty would trade with Chen Xiao'er; they would definitely steer clear, as no one would exchange a precious Sky Knight for an amateur commoner due to the heavy loss.

Even though "Light Asura" Ke Liang, who eliminated Chen Fei, is scheduled to join the next round of simulated battles tomorrow, he still set aside some time to personally coach Chen Fei.

"Your tactical jet performs quite well, not much worse even when compared to a real Crystal Jet, but lacking an exclusive aerial combat skill is a major weakness."

Both Chen Fei and Ke Liang are clearly aware of the key to victory or defeat in their duel.

The hands-off, full-power battle against a true Sky Knight allowed Chen Fei to truly feel the actual gap between himself and the opponent, as well as the differences between an immaturely designed tactical jet and a finalized Crystal Jet; linguistic or textual descriptions and videos prior to this could not convey it.

Apart from personal physical qualities, the vehicle itself is incomparable.

"I have no idea what an exclusive aerial combat skill really is; I am completely clueless."

This also gives Chen Fei quite a headache; he is not a specialist in this area, so he has no way of grasping it.

Every Crystal Jet is unique and custom-made to match a specific Sky Knight, lacking general compatibility. If a different Sky Knight or a different Crystal Jet is involved, the exclusive aerial combat skill cannot be utilized.

The combination of human and machine is more like an integration of soul and instinct, truly achieving a man-machine unity.

The tactical jet's prototype is the Crystal Jet "Holy Grail," a knockoff Crystal Jet and F-22 "Raptor." One might say its congenital pedigree isn't inferior, and it had an outstanding foundation from the start, but merely relying on Nangong Ruiyang and other young technical personnel to fiddle with this Crystal Jet prototype, there is likely a long road ahead.

Not only is each Crystal Jet unique, but even the exclusive aerial combat skills are unique. Due to the lack of relevant experience and technical documentation to refer to, it's no surprise that Nangong and others are on the brink of madness. Except for a bunch of disposable prototype machines, their existing data and technology are very limited, with too many technical hurdles to overcome, requiring extensive technical verification.

Ke Liang remarked with some regret, "It's a pity you lack the qualities of a Sky Knight; otherwise, the country would solve these problems for you!"

Even the poorest and weakest sovereignty would tighten their belts and spare no expense to custom-make a Crystal Jet for the Sky Knight born in their own country.

Ke Liang personally tested that Chen Fei lacked multiple talents, failing to meet standards in most Sky Knight selection projects.

For instance, if a handful of coins, anywhere from 20 to 100 pieces, is thrown casually, any Sky Knight can accurately count the number of coins at the first moment they are airborne, while Chen Fei, well, not just him, most people cannot do this, let alone other rigorous projects.

If not even this can be achieved, how can one find a glimmer of hope amid a barrage of missiles and directed-energy weapon attacks?

If assisted by Artificial Intelligence AI "Adam," Chen Fei could still meet a considerable number of Sky Knight selection standards, perhaps even enough to bridge the talent gap with Sky Knights, just barely crossing the threshold of a Sky Knight. This is the true reason he could last over a minute in the simulated battle against "Light Asura" Ke Liang.

But the additional compensation by "Adam" is not Chen Fei's innate talent; it was never something that belonged to him.

"I'd better contact a technical expert first!"

Chen Fei took out his phone, preparing to shake some people, no, to find people!

A technical expert?

Ke Liang, who was tutoring Chen Fei, was momentarily stunned, then came to a realization.

Exactly, without technical experts, where would those combat spaceships come from, especially tactical jets comparable to Crystal Jets?

With just one person's ability, it is clearly impossible to accomplish so many things.

Besides, Chen Fei is an economics major; his awakened Metal Elemental Psychic Power is only suitable for copying others' work, not for proactive innovation, and he completely lacks technical foundation in this area.

If there is an expert team behind him, then it makes sense.

"Nangong?"

Before dialing, Chen Fei glanced at the time zone; it should be daytime at home, so it wouldn't affect the other's personal rest time.

"'Rookie,' are you here to extract the latest technical data?"

Every now and then, Nangong Ruiyang would send Chen Fei a research progress update. Of course, there would be times when he hit a dead end, but Chen Fei's network was enough to solve these technical problems.

Although Louis Industrial Company, which had a deep cooperation with Chen Fei, was not a professional aerospace equipment manufacturer, the accumulated technical depth was enough to solve the young engineers' confusions. Moreover, if Louis Industrial couldn't resolve them, answers could still be found among other strategic partners. This higher-level technical support lineup was remarkably bold!

Even though he was already obsessed with this project, unable to extricate himself, Nangong Ruiyang was well aware in his heart that he couldn't find a more suitable partner than Chen Fei to showcase his skills. More importantly, no real Sky Knight was willing to cooperate with their "nonsense." If anything happened to them, their parents would definitely hang them up for target practice.

Sky Knights are related to national defense security, so who dares to act recklessly!

"No, quite the opposite. I'm providing you with the latest data, and it's of considerable high value, comparable to real combat intelligence."

The "Americas Gang" engaged in "ranked battles" at the slightest disagreement—are they really so full of themselves? Chen Fei had held a negative attitude from the very start.

Nobody is a fool; the American Federation is in the guise of "ranked battles" trying to secretly feel out the strength of each sovereignty's Sky Knights, while also accumulating valuable simulated battle data for themselves. Regardless of the final result of the ranking battles, the combat pilots of the "Americas Gang" will benefit for a long time.

If it weren't for the Artificial Intelligence AI "Adam" obtaining top-level access to the simulated battle system at the first instance, they might not have been able to conjure such detailed and specific simulated battle data, which is exactly the high-value intelligence Chen Fei mentioned.

"Oh?"

Ke Liang also caught the implication and reacted similarly.

Hearing his astonishment, Chen Fei made an OK gesture to the Sky Knight, exchanging glances that showed their mutual understanding.

The Northern Weapons Industry Group is a state-owned enterprise. Sending it to Nangong Ruiyang is no different than submitting it to domestic sovereignty. It might automatically trigger a keyword filtering mechanism during transmission and be conveniently copied.

"Such a thing? Where did you get it from?"

Nangong Ruiyang was greatly surprised. From Chen Fei's words, it seemed related to sovereignty, but where could such intelligence be so easily obtained? If not careful, one might end up in prison, without even having the chance for extradition.

"Don't worry about the source. Just focus on researching its technical value. I need you to add a research item, which is Exclusive Aerial Combat Technique. I need this now."

Chen Fei didn't have much time and energy for explanations; he could only let the other side comprehend by themselves. Moreover, knowing too much isn't always a good thing.

Just like the long-time worries of Miyoshi Monk, "knowing too much" is a capital offense—not a casual remark in films or novels but a real life threat.

Moreover, given the special period now and the upcoming secret mission, it's not appropriate to explain too much to avoid leaks.

"Exclusive Aerial Combat Technique? You're not even a Sky Knight! What's the point of that?"

Nangong Ruiyang frowned. Even if he developed an exclusive aerial combat technique, Chen Fei, not being a Sky Knight, couldn't use it. This is why the crystal jet they tinkered with was dismissed as a trivial pursuit by veterans of those group companies. Regardless of their tinkering, they treated it as an exercise in youthful enthusiasm. If it turned out well indeed, they wouldn't think so, as the necessary conditions were too lacking.

The threshold for Sky Knights is very strict, even a tiny bit off would not do. Just look at the number of Sky Knights each Blue Star sovereignty possesses; it has never been a large group.

Scarcity enhances value, and Sky Knights are a highly envied and even revered military profession.

"Anyway, I need it, that's all. Don't ask too many questions. Besides the intelligence data you received, I can also provide you with computing resources. Use them freely, no need to worry about running out!"

Chen Fei introduced another topic, which was crucial for the other party to know.

"A craftsman must sharpen his tools if he is to do his work well. Besides support from various technical data, productivity tools are also indispensable. Right now, that's precisely what we have in abundance."

"Our need for computing resources is immense!"

Even with sample machines provided by Chen Fei, simulated calculations were indispensable. Nangong Ruiyang often relied on favors to use public equipment, borrowing the supercomputing centers of group companies during their idle times to help with simulations.

However, as the supercomputing center of a large group company, with numerous research institutes and labs, compute power resources are always in short supply. There's never enough to let Nangong and his team have an upper hand, forcing them to sometimes rely on small machines they purchased themselves to run data, with predictable efficiency.