Sky-cracking Rider

The sudden restlessness and frenzied barking of the dogs immediately put the teachers and students on alert. The clear sound of reading vanished in an instant, and even the barking quickly quieted down. The entire courtyard fell silent, as if it were empty, eerily quiet.

Those who had rooted themselves here, dedicating their efforts to educational support and cultural output, were certainly not naive. They would never base their safety on the innocence of the local mountain people or the "rules" of the bandits. Friends are greeted with delicious food, and enemies with rifles.

The Type 95 automatic rifle in Teacher Shen Fei's hands was not just for show, she would actually fire it.

Once the alarm was lifted, the courtyard once again filled with the sounds of the students' laughter and chatter, as if nothing had ever happened.

In less than half an hour of brief bustling, the third relay station was installed in the vegetable garden at the back yard. The converted WIFI signal was strong enough to cover the entire courtyard and then some.

Chen Fei's phone connected smoothly to the Internet, and the mountain school finally had a network signal for the first time.

The wireless signal strength sent over from the relay station on the distant ridge was a solid 32dbi, which, after being converted by the AP endpoint, became the most commonly used WIFI signal, with a speed test peak of 5998Mbps. Although this fell short of the highest theoretical value, it was already an ideal result.

"Come, 'Xiao Jiu', say hello to Teacher Shen."

Chen Fei had set up a video call with Chef Abel and immediately saw the bouncing little creature.

Before leaving the Aircrew Base, he had entrusted the little bird to the chef for care.

Abel still had no idea that this lively and adorable little creature was actually a Magical Beast from the Cangqiong Realm.

"Jiu Jiu! Jiu!"

Pure Light Sparrow Xiao Jiu curiously examined the phone screen.

Upon seeing Chen Fei, it immediately tried to peck at the screen with its tiny beak, as if wanting to jump into the screen to be with Chen Fei.

Shen Fei, unexpectedly gaining internet access, was moved and grateful as she had not expected Chen Fei to do so much for her. "Chen Fei, you've really gone to too much trouble. I have a satellite phone here; I can still make calls."

She thought of the effort it must have taken to bring the network signal all the way from the Aircrew Base 911 to here, which probably cost more than a small sum just for the equipment.

Although Teacher Shen Fei was not truly cut off from the outside world here—she had an emergency satellite phone on hand—the costs of calls and internet were exorbitant, and it couldn't be used as casually as a regular phone.

"We're all fellow villagers, helping each other out is the right thing to do. Don't worry, it didn't cost anything. I reused old equipment that the base was discarding, along with some recycled material. At most, it's just a bit of spare time labor, and it wasn't too difficult."

Chen Fei shrugged his shoulders, giving Teacher Shen Fei an unexpected answer.

Setting up three relay stations was a mere trifle. If he had to pay for it out of his own pocket, he wouldn't have had so much spare cash.

Now that Teacher Shen Fei's mountain village school was connected to the internet, future visits could be arranged with a heads-up, eliminating the need for sudden unannounced visits that risked being in vain if no one was there.

"Really?"

Shen Fei was skeptical.

"You see, there are signs of age on it."

Without further explanation and letting facts speak for themselves, Chen Fei took out a spare AP endpoint.

The cleaned surface of the device bore some friction marks and was not as immaculate as a new one straight out of the packaging. The manufacture date on the product label was also ten years ago – a truly old and used item.

The Apocalypse Defense Group guaranteed the quality and performance of various kinds of equipment it uniformly purchased for its subsidiary units. Despite regular replacement cycles, the AP endpoint Chen Fei had could last at least another ten years, if not twenty.

Teacher Shen Fei shifted her gaze from the product label on the AP endpoint and confirmed tentatively, "So you're really not using this anymore?"

The extravagance of the Aircrew Base 911 exceeded her imagination. If that was indeed the case, the cost wouldn't have been much.

Even if there were costs, they were limited to some labor and a bit of network bandwidth.

For Aircrew Base 911 and the Apocalypse Defense Group, the public network was always in use anyway. Allocating a little bit to their neighbor, Teacher Shen Fei, didn't really count for much.

"More genuine than gold, in fact, there are still dozens of AP endpoints that haven't been used up."

Chen Fei swung the AP endpoint in his hand. He had collected hundreds, only used three, and kept the rest as spares. If any relay station malfunctioned, a direct replacement was ready.

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These gadgets weren't even worth fixing, let alone Chen Fei knowing how to repair them, replacing whatever broke down—pretty much the same routine as the mechanics crew.

If the solar panels and the storage batteries were sufficient, a seamless network connection all the way might be possible.

An AP end could blanket a 500-meter radius with WIFI signal; two could cover a kilometer. From the Aircrew Base to Teacher Shen Fei's school, the total distance was 21 kilometers; theoretically, just 43 AP ends would be enough.

"You're not violating any regulations with this, are you?"

Shen Fei was still a bit worried.

Although these networking devices had been phased out and weren't worth much, she feared that abruptly taking them out of the Aircrew Base could cause problems if someone decided to make an issue of it.

"Do you believe that I picked these from the base's trash heap?"

If it hadn't been for the logistics department asking Chen Fei to deal with those discards, he likely wouldn't have stumbled upon so many treasures.

Even those with independent data storages had already been cleared; any truly important equipment would never just be thrown in the trash heap but would be disassembled on the spot by specialized personnel.

"You're really something, my old townsman!"

Originally thinking that Chen Fei would have to expend funds, now it seemed like a mere trifle. Shen Fei finally relaxed, a smile appearing on her face.

"Heh heh heh, a piece of cake. I've set up the network for you, use it with ease, free of charge..."

Chen Fei, hearing the praise, laughed and scratched the back of his head. Before he could finish, a sudden loud bang swallowed his words.

What the heck!

What's going on here?

Before Chen Fei could understand the situation, Shen Fei reacted immediately.

She took the Type 95 automatic rifle slung over her back, nimbly disengaged the safety, and chambered a round.

"Take cover!"

The Xingdu Kush Mountain Area was never particularly peaceful, though there were no bandits to bother them, yet one should always prepare for the worst. Teacher Shen had never taken things lightly and often organized various emergency drills for the students.

At this moment, seven or eight little black dots were thrown in from over the walls, with two or three landing even in the backyard vegetable garden.

"Disabling bombs, duck, cover your..."

When Shen Fei saw clearly what had been thrown into the yard, her face instantly turned ashen.

"Wha..."

Boom... A series of earth-shattering explosions ensued.

Chen Fei's ears were ringing as he felt the world around him shake. Somehow, he ended up lying on the ground, tried to lift his hand but found it as heavy as lead, completely unable to move, and without the strength to turn around and see how Teacher Shen Fei was.

With his peripheral vision, he could barely see some students who hadn't managed to make it back to the large classroom sprawled on the ground just like him, with all the classroom window glasses shattered, leaving an eerie silence inside.

A black and a yellow dog struggled to stand up but kept vomiting, collapsing on the ground with limp legs, clearly affected as well.

About a dozen individuals armed with automatic weapons stormed the gate or simply climbed over the walls, alternating cover as they advanced, and in the blink of an eye, they took control of both the front and back courtyards.

One of them scanned the entire courtyard, his gaze finally resting on Chen Fei; he curled his lips into a smile, said something indistinct, and walked over to him.

But Chen Fei's consciousness was gradually fading.

Help me!...

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