Sky-cracking Rider

Shen Fei had turned out to be a gun enthusiast, so it was no wonder she chose the user-friendly Type 95 automatic rifle as her self-defense weapon.

Chen Fei immediately explained, "Don't get the wrong idea, this isn't mine. It's a gun Major Chekhov lent me for self-defense. He's the squadron leader of the Combat Flight Squadron."

Such an expensive antique gun, probably worth around two to three million Star Yuan, was beyond his means to gift.

"Genuine Fragrance Squadron's Chekhov Leonidovich Ivanov—yes, I know him. To think that this big guy weighing over two hundred pounds would have such a fine piece, a legendary firearm indeed! I see now, this AK isn't just for self-defense; he lent it to you for show-off, I'm impressed."

Shen Fei's eyes lit up as she cradled the AK-47 automatic rifle, gently caressing it inch by inch.

Although Chekhov recklessly used it for hunting, the everyday maintenance of this AK-47 was impeccable.

The smooth, delicate patina was not only on the wooden stock and handguard but also on the surface of the metal, a thin layer not of the oily kind used for rust protection, offering an excellent touch which made it easy to find the right grip, thus facilitating better control and shooting.

In a certain sense, this old gun seemed almost to have its own soul, incomparable to a brand-new firearm still reeking of residual smoke and gunpowder.

Clutching the still-excellent-performing AK-47 automatic rifle, Shen Fei was extremely reluctant to put it down, continuously expressing her admiration.

"Great gun, great gun, the feel is just amazing!"

It was really hard to imagine that a young woman, determined to devote herself to elementary education in remote, turbulent areas and who liked to bake bread to share with others, could have such a great interest in firearms.

Seeing teacher Shen Fei's fascination with the AK-47 automatic rifle, Chen Fei's gaze involuntarily fell on her neck, becoming somewhat entranced there.

The harsh conditions and tough environment hadn't made her slender neck rough or yellowed; it remained fair and tender, likely very pleasant to the touch—if one were to choke it tightly, water might be squeezed out, and continuing for five minutes could send this kind-hearted teacher to meet King Yama!

...

Wait a minute! What kind of horrifying thought was that!

Chen Fei shuddered involuntarily, snapping back to his senses.

Only then did he realize his hands were clenched in fists, and his leg muscles were tense, ready to pounce at any moment to put that inexplicable sinister thought into action.

What was happening to him? Recently, he occasionally had these malevolent thoughts, which he had never experienced before—something was seriously wrong, very wrong.

Chen Fei was frightened into a cold sweat by his own terrifying thoughts.

Possibly sensing the malicious glare, Shen Fei looked over in confusion and noticed Chen Fei's expression was a bit off. She asked, "Chen Fei, what's wrong with you?"

"Er... nothing, just having some issues with my eyes lately."

A lie needed more lies to cover it, so Chen Fei opted for the truth, albeit changing the subject.

Shen Fei reluctantly set down the AK-47 automatic rifle and asked with concern, "Your eyes? Is your vision getting worse, or did the wind blow sand into them?"

"No, no, none of those. I've been seeing a lot of strange characters lately; the doctor calls it 'Phantosmia,' a type of visual hallucination. They still haven't found the cause, so I was wondering whether some high-tech alien civilization has implanted something in my eyes."

Chen Fei also used this topic to bring his attention back, as it wasn't the right time to talk about his recent brush with death.

The medical team at Aircrew Base couldn't find anything wrong, nor could the more skilled International Medical Ship. He had pretty much given up on seeking treatment from other hospitals.

Fortunately, the characters produced by the "Phantosmia" were somewhat transparent, causing only some visual inconvenience and not completely obstructing his view.

Chen Fei's particularly troubled expression made Shen Fei almost want to laugh. She covered her mouth and said, "A third kind encounter? Then again, the humans of the Cangqiong Realm are also aliens; their planet is Cangqiong Star."

"Who knows? I assure you I've never seen a UFO, nor have I ever encountered any unknown aliens."

Chen Fei spread his hands and shrugged his shoulders, uncertain if Magic Medicine counted.

Shen Fei asked curiously, "Then what did you see?"

"It's rows of text, like error messages saying 'Unrecognized valid CPU type, running memory self-check failed, no input/output device found', ending with a bunch of 'illegal operation or incorrect command' stuff like that."

Chen Fei read through the "Phantosmia" characters that flashed before his eyes again.

He couldn't understand what they meant at all.

Shen Fei blinked her eyes, surprised, and said, "Huh? It feels like the error message that pops up after a computer system fails to boot."

Unless it was a hardware failure, personal computers nowadays rarely encountered issues, especially since cloud terminal and hardware technologies had become prevalent in recent years. Users just had to open them and start using; everything else, including system security and cache cleaning, was taken care of by cloud services.

With the help of cloud AI, operation methods had become increasingly simple—even cats and dogs could use them without barriers. Upgrading to a more powerful computing performance with hardware acceleration services was also easy; one could simply pay for a more advanced cloud hardware acceleration package and get it done in one go, significantly saving the cost of physical hardware upgrades.

If there was any downside, it would probably be the requirement to stay online. Special high-efficiency communication algorithms ensured that it didn't take up too much bandwidth. In cities and towns, as long as there was a wireless communication base nearby, there would be no problem with the stability and speed of network connections.

Moreover, Chen Fei and Shen Fei's homeland had achieved comprehensive network signal coverage with no dead zones as early as forty years ago. From the Snow Mountain Summit to the Desert Gobi, and then to the depths of the Primeval Forest, any remote place could get a sufficiently strong public network signal, ensuring the widespread application of cloud technology.

The leading superpower of the world, its national strength was indeed unmatchable.

"What, what? A computer system? How could that still be a thing?"

Chen Fei was dumbfounded; he found it hard to imagine that he had "phantosmically" envisioned a computer malfunction, which was utterly inconceivable.

Should he eat a CPU to make the "cannot recognize valid CPU type" message disappear, devour a few memory sticks to succeed in memory self-test, and then plug in a keyboard touchpad to himself...

But then came the question: where should he plug it in?

This was very metaphysical!

"It does sound like it, just don't know which system it is."

Shen Fei increasingly affirmed with a nod.

Chen Fei said helplessly, "I'm not a mechanical being; how could I possibly have a computer system in my brain."

"That's why it was diagnosed as 'Phantosmia.'"

Shen Fei seemed to understand the origin of Chen Fei's diagnostic result.

Since he was not a mechanical being, it was defined as "Phantosmia." These character hallucinations were neither fatal nor injurious; they were just annoying, but nonetheless, they were better than losing one's sight.

If it were a mechanical being having this problem, it would be easier to deal with; just reset the system—unless there was a hardware fault, it would recover immediately.

"My vision is like a subtitle screening, I also don't know how to treat it to restore normalcy."

Chen Fei shook his head in distress; he began to miss the time when "Phantosmia" showed only a short sequence of characters, "A:>\\", quietly confined to a corner, barely affecting his vision.

But he had never expected that after waking up, the characters mysteriously multiplied, clutteringly filling his vision, causing immense frustration.

"Maybe treating it like a computer system malfunction is an option; just give me a moment."

Shen Fei went to the bookshelf next to the heated brick bed and started flipping through the books layer by layer; finally, she forcefully pulled out a book with its damaged cover fixed with now-cloudy transparent adhesive tape, its pages noticeably yellowed, and handed it to Chen Fei.

"'Introduction to DOS'?"

Chen Fei read the title on the cover, puzzled.

What is DOS?

He had never heard of it.

"You told me earlier that you saw 'A:>\\' first; I guess it might be a command line mode computer system. There's also a more advanced UNIX system mentioned in this book, but I don't have that kind of book here."

"Is this book from the last century?"

Chen Fei looked amazed; he had encountered another antique.

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