Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 680 - 673: Familiar Helper

Chapter 680: Chapter 673: Familiar Helper

The air fleet moved swiftly above the clouds. Only Ronisca in the Otherworld had aerial vehicles, so there were no specified air routes, nor was there any concern about aircraft colliding.

During the air fleet’s flight, two ground-support ships continually released high-speed reconnaissance aircraft to conduct ultra-low-altitude flights. These aircraft confirmed the current coordinates of the air fleet and searched for the so-called virus and engine.

These reconnaissance aircraft were no longer the propeller-driven type of the past. They were equipped with a type of turbofan engine. Compared to propellers, the primary advantages of these engines were their lower noise and significantly improved speed.

They were termed ’like turbofan engines’ because their operating principle was completely different from the turbofan engines of Earth.

This type of engine employed the magical operation principle of the Otherworld. The inner wall of the entire engine was engraved with complex wind magic runes, and magic crystals were used for power supply.

Once the engine was started, the runes on the interior wall would produce powerful wind magic. A strong airflow would be spat out from the tailpipe, propelling the aircraft forward.

Compared to Earth’s turbofan engines, these engines’ only advantage was their lower noise. In terms of speed and energy consumption, they were much worse than real turbofan engines.

Since both the anti-gravity engine and ’like turbofan engine’ needed a lot of magic crystals to provide magic power, both transport planes and reconnaissance aircraft were made as large as possible to accommodate more magic crystal storage.

However, the increase in size would cause the plane’s speed to become sluggish. Moreover, even if the aircraft’s size was increased, the stored magic crystals were still far from meeting the demands of combat. Generally speaking, a reconnaissance plane carrying standard weapons and ammunition and using a No. 10 magic crystal could only stay airborne for less than two hours. With a payload box, this could be extended to about four hours.

The Ronisca air force had once imagined researching a fixed-wing light combat aircraft that relied entirely on the lift of air and did not need an anti-gravity engine. However, due to various reasons, they eventually chose to freeze this project and not continue research.

Even the high-speed reconnaissance aircraft equipped with ’like turbofan engines’ could only reach a maximum speed of approximately 500 kilometers per hour. Such a speed couldn’t even match the propeller plane of Earth during World War II. The direct reason was that the thrust provided by the so-called ’like turbofan engine’ was still too small.

To the Ronisca air force, the transition from propellers to turbofan engines felt as though they had overcome a technological barrier, accomplishing a technical upgrade. But in essence, for Earth people, there was not much difference in the principles of propellers and ’like turbofan engines’- both relied on harnessing wind power for forward propulsion.

Earth’s aircraft transition from propellers to jet engines was a fundamental change. Until they fully explored the deeper nature of magic, the magic explorers of the Otherworld were unlikely to bring about any qualitative change to this world.

As previously mentioned, Earth people’s three-decade-long research into magic had far exceeded the Otherworld’s thousand-year-long study of magic. Essentially, the main reason for the lack of significant breakthroughs in the Otherworld’s magic research was the lack of accumulated quantity.

Fortunately, people from Earth made up for this shortage. Once Earth people intervened in magic research, Otherworld’s magic research documentation began to increase dramatically. In their lifetime, the people of Otherworld could foresee the leap in progress in this Magic World.

As Earth’s basic scientific theory almost stagnated, more and more Earth scientists began to focus their research on the magic of the Otherworld. They hoped to find a way to break through Earth’s existing scientific theories by studying magic.

In the command center of the air fleet, the advance team from Headquarters along with Zhuyan Yu, Nightingale, and others listened to the reconnaissance reports from the air fleet.

The commander of the air fleet was a High-peak dwarf who was over five hundred years old. He had a full face of beard and wore a sky-blue wide-brimmed hat. Currently, he reported the intelligence information sent by the reconnaissance planes to the representatives from the Headquarters.

"According to the reconnaissance report from the reconnaissance aircraft, there are approximately fifty convoy teams in this area. But we still can’t determine in which team the virus and engine are, so we must dispatch ground forces to search for them one by one," the dwarf commander pointed at the map on the wall and said to the people present.

So that everyone could understand, he did not use the dwarven language but explained in the Tasta language. This was not surprising. Most of the higher-ups in Ronisca could speak Tasta, whereas only the lower-class citizens or soldiers only knew how to speak the dwarven language.

"Over fifty convoy teams, how long will it take to find them? And these people might carry weapons. If they mistakenly think we are highway robbers, it would be troublesome if there was a shoot-out," Hu Daoke commented with his arms crossed.

"With the help of the Air Force Marine Corps, it shouldn’t be too difficult." Luo’er said.

"Sorry," the Dwarf Commander coughed and said, "This place is not our territory, nor is it neutral territory, so our people may not be able to operate here."

"What do you mean by not being able to operate, you guys even sent people down to search for wreckage of the plane before..." Hu Daoke’s words were interrupted as he got kicked by Cheng Ziang from the side. He rubbed the kicked spot and then cast a glance at Luo’er, saying with a frown, "Why can’t we talk about it?"

Luo’er did not stop Hu Daoke from speaking, clearly agreeing with what he said.

"If it’s just landing to search for targets, we can certainly deploy the Marine Corps. But if we are setting up military checkpoints and intercepting convoys on foreign soil, the situation could turn very ugly, possibly escalating into a diplomatic problem." The Dwarf Commander said, his face filled with worry.

"I agree with the Commander’s view." Zhuyan Yu nodded, as a Major in the regular army, she knew and was wary of such matters.

"So what should we do, if we just rely on the Advance Team, we definitely won’t have enough manpower." Hu Daoke shrugged his shoulders and said.

"I’ll ask Li Si if we can call in the Murong Squad." Zhuyan Yu suggested after a moment of thought.

"Even with the addition of the Murong Squad, it’s just a drop in the bucket, it won’t help much." Hu Daoke whispered to himself, evidently unsatisfied.

Luo’er and Cheng Ziang were both silent, deep in thought. Cheng Ziang, looking at the map in front of him, suddenly got an idea, and asked: "Commander, where is the Air Fleet currently?"

"Here!" The Dwarf Commander pointed on the map to the west bank of the Roen River.

"Over there..." Cheng Ziang stepped forward, tapped his finger on the spot on the map, and fell into deep thought.

The current location of the Air Fleet is in the sky above the mid-stream western bank of the Roen River, crossing over to the eastern bank would place them in the Masaya Kingdom. Cheng Ziang asked about their current location because he had thought of a familiar person.

"Luo’er, I have a pretty good solution to our problem of manpower shortage, but I’m not sure if you’d agree." Cheng Ziang turned to Luo’er, a half-smiling, half-serious expression on his face.

"If you have a good idea, why do you need my agreement?" Luo’er glanced at Cheng Ziang’s expression, feeling a chill run down his spine, as he had the feeling that Cheng Ziang meant no good.

Cheng Ziang didn’t say anything, but leaned in close to Luo’er and whispered a few words in his ear. As soon as Luo’er heard his whispers, his expression froze, staring blankly at him.

"What do you think?" Cheng Ziang asked casually, a faint smile on his face.

"What is there to be embarrassed about? I don’t have any particular relationship with her. Your antics will only make people suspicious and misunderstand our relationship." Luo’er frowned as he looked at him.

"So I can tell others?" Cheng Ziang asked, grinning.

"Do whatever you want, why are you asking me." Luo’er said, sounding a bit guilty.

Hearing his response, Cheng Ziang gave a satisfied nod, glanced around at everyone and said in a serious tone: "Everyone, I do have a good solution that can solve our manpower shortage."