Sky-cracking Rider

The sunlight that spilled into the room was momentarily blocked, as if a small mountain had abruptly appeared; he couldn't help but widen his eyes.

Standing outside was a tall, expressionless, and burly man who glanced at Chen Fei and handed over a thick bag, saying, "Change into these clothes, and then follow me to start the job."

A distinct, indescribable smell of machine oil hit him, and the light grey overalls could not hide the big, rippling muscles; the man was at least two meters tall, his head could easily hit the doorframe.

With such a size, no wonder he didn't like the effeminate tinkling of a doorbell; even his light knocking sounded like hammering.

"Oh, thank you!"

Chen Fei took the bag, which contained work clothes, and was about to close the door to change when he suddenly remembered something, opened the door again, and asked, "Did you just say this is for onboarding training?"

The man had seemingly omitted the word "training" earlier.

The man still expressionless, said, "No training, straight to starting the job, I am the chief mechanic, Xiao Ming."

The promised onboarding training was gone; it was a push into the deep end.

It was probably that inhuman HR manager, Takar, playing tricks, eliminating the training undoubtedly made the job much harder.

Just arrived at Aircrew Base 911, hit with a stern challenge right away, starting off in the mechanical repair group, hell-level difficulty from the start.

That old Neanderthal, Barut, was right about one thing — the HR manager is really not a nice guy!

Though Aircrew Base 911 was privately contracted, it was ultimately a military unit with many secrets that could not be disclosed, especially to newcomers like Chen Fei, who were also not free to pry.

However, during the drink last night, as fellow workers, Barut still shared quite a bit, either explicitly or implied, giving Chen Fei a heads-up, preventing him from bumping into walls repeatedly.

In return, the big bag of homemade bread that Teacher Shen Fei gave to Chen Fei ended up entirely in the stomach of that old Neanderthal man.

So old and still such an eater!

"Alright, just a moment, please!"

As a rookie, Chen Fei had no right to question and had to quickly change into his work clothes, appearing once more in front of the chief mechanic, Xiao Ming.

The light grey jumpsuit with spacious pockets made Chen Fei look rather sharp.

"Follow me!"

Xiao Ming didn't say much and turned around briskly to walk away.

He didn't look back; walking quickly with a whoosh, his voice came again.

"Are you specialized in aviation? Do you have a CCAR license?"

Eagerly catching up, Chen Fei honestly replied, "No, I don't, I am..."

Before he could finish, Xiao Ming interrupted and continued to ask, "Do you have a pilot's license?"

The tone was inexplicably stern; irrelevant with the wrong profession, any question seemed redundant.

"Uh, no!"

Chen Fei's mouth twitched.

An average Joe being proud of having a car was enough, who would dare dream of flying?

Too many drinks, perhaps!

"Can you operate a computer proficiently?"

The chief mechanic's tone became even sterner, and he seemed to be in a rather bad mood.

"Yes, yes, I can use all kinds of office software,"

After all, he was a college graduate from a prominent university who once prepared for postgraduate studies; how could he not be familiar with computers, the most basic tools of productivity? Chen Fei quietly breathed a sigh of relief, glad to know something at last.

Otherwise, being clueless would have been really awkward.

If he couldn't even use a computer, the other party would probably next ask if he could even read — questions not too harmful, but highly insulting.

In reality, he was overthinking; if he dared to utter a "no," the tall, burly chief mechanic would directly take this rookie to the cleaning team to devoutly dedicate his youth to sweeping and moving bricks.

Having seen deeply-eyed, hook-nosed men with big beards or mid-region men with sun-burnt skin, seeing black-haired, black-eyed, light yellow-skinned again naturally evoked a sense of affinity.

However, Xiao Ming was not Chen Fei's compatriot; he had Samoyed ancestry, naturally possessing a physique not inferior to Caucasians, perhaps even surpassing them.

Due to geographic location, transportation, and safety factors, Aircrew Base 911 has always been short-staffed, and no department has ever been fully staffed, not for lack of salary or benefits—on the contrary, the income levels here are not low, and the benefits, including insurance, are quite generous.

Yet, few people want to waste their youth in this desolate and bitterly cold place where not even birds would defecate.

Isn't life in the big, comfortable cities much more appealing?

Even if you earn just a little extra, it's never enough for a down payment on a house mortgage!

If it weren't for this, Aircrew Base would not be desperately hiring even fresh undergraduates who aren't even qualified for the job—everyone here is a tool anyway, all you need is a human, anyone will do; working here is like being a beast of burden—there were never many requirements to begin with.

The news of a genuine college undergraduate's arrival had the maintenance team, which held high technical standards, rushing to scout him first thing in the morning,

Excitedly coming to knock on the door, Maintenance Chief Xiao Ming was immediately doused with a splash of cold water; this newcomer wasn't from an aviation-related field, didn't have a CAAR (Civil Aviation Machinery Repair License), nor an aviation license, and had absolutely nothing to do with aviation.

His closest relation to it was having flown a few times, just knowing how to buckle up—a complete newbie, even more pristine than a blank sheet of paper.

Due to its continuous normal flying missions, 911 Aircrew Base has generated a daily workload of maintenance and repairs that has kept the already undersized maintenance team working overtime without a moment to catch their breath, turning regular vacations into a luxury.

However, some tasks can't just be rushed to finish earlier; each job has its standard hours, and not a minute of work can be skimped on. Any slip-ups could lead to material losses, which are a minor issue, or might even require starting from scratch, placing additional pressure on the already overwhelmed maintenance team.

After a series of disappointments, what relieved Xiao Ming was that this youngster knew his way around computers; it wasn't as if he needed to start from scratch. Xiao Ming hoped that with his hands-on teaching and the college graduate's learning capabilities, he wouldn't let him down!

911 Aircrew Base was built on a highland with its mountain top leveled off, the 1500 meters long main runway occupies two-thirds of the entire base area, fully supporting the smooth takeoff and landing of medium-sized transport aircraft.

Although large transport aircraft can also take off and land, it requires the activation of the Magnetic Capturer, which consumes the entire output power of the Target Low Temperature Nuclear Fusion Energy Tower, potentially halting over half of the base's electrical devices.

A hangar as large as a basketball arena is the tallest and most conspicuous building near the main runway, consisting of two interconnected arch-shaped buildings—Hangar 1 and Hangar 2—also the workplace of the maintenance team.

It's to Hangar 1, which had already begun work, that Maintenance Chief Xiao Ming led Chen Fei. Six propeller aircraft were lined up in a row, enjoying their dedicated work area.

Across the main aisle, two helicopters sat with aggressive weapon mounts—either large-caliber machine guns or rocket nests—and there were two empty mounting points on either side, possibly for missiles, giving off a tough look.

In stark contrast to the bustling activity in Hangar 1, a group of seven or eight guys occupied a small area; some were exercising with gym equipment, others lay on beach chairs, nonchalantly drinking beverages, some wore headphones, their eyes closed as they enjoyed the music, and some were engrossed in reading thick books, while others scrolled through their phone screens.

None of them were doing any proper work, instead engaging in various activities.

One of them, noticing Xiao Ming and Chen Fei, immediately burst into an exaggerated cry,

"Hey, Captain Xiao Xiu, you're early today. And who's the new guy beside you? He looks unfamiliar. Hei-mo-hei-mo..."

He even winked at Chen Fei, displaying a slick and incorrigible demeanor.

"It's none of your business, Yamada!"

Maintenance Chief Xiao Ming snapped back, irritated.

Chen Fei struggled to maintain a harmlessly stiff smile, uncertain of what to say.

Yamada—definitely not a real name.

"Hey, little bro, fancied doing some 'machine' work?"

A short-haired girl licked her lips at Chen Fei, holding a large dumbbell. Her smooth, chocolate-colored skin stretched tight over clearly defined muscles. She wore a cropped sports bra—pack-ab below, small bust above.

Doing 'Jī'?

Is it 'machine' or 'maiden'?

Also, who's the little bro?

Chen Fei was a bit dazed. What exactly did the short-haired maiden mean by that!

"Back off, he's my man!"

Xiao Ming solemnly declared Chen Fei's affiliation.

Σ(°△°|||)︴

This, this seems even more ambiguous!

"Tss! Machine Bro!"

The spirited short-haired girl flicked her middle finger at the tall and burly Maintenance Chief.

In Aircrew Base, the maintenance team has a nickname "Machine Bro," known for working intensely on machines along with the flight squadron's crazy ones, meant in the most literal sense, nothing else.

The big boss of the flying squadron is not here at the moment, otherwise, he could have exchanged a few more caustic remarks with the Machine Bro leader.

"Ignore them. The flight squadron guys only know how to talk."

Xiao Ming lifted his fists, the size of mortar bowls, squeezed them tightly, and proudly declared, "Our maintenance team can fix aircraft, and we can fix them too!"

With arms thicker than Chen Fei's thighs, the latter was speechless. Boss, whatever you say goes.

A mixed-race Samoyed with purely natural muscle bumps, inherently reinforced with Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training and Iron Shirt Golden Bell Cover, 360-degree absolute defense, a mere sight of which was intimidating. Pitted against the right opponent, he really didn't need to fear anyone.

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