"The Devil Flyer?"
"What's that?"
"A strange monster that appeared in Southeast Asia before!"
"How could there be such a thing?"
Lu Zhe was also drenched in a cold sweat. For him, it didn't matter what was invading. What mattered was that the aircraft was a treasure, and once it was damaged, no amount of money could bring it back to repair.
He quickly turned the camera to observe the attacker.
It was a black bird with a long tail, flying away gracefully, making a turn in the sky, and then charging toward the aircraft again.
He saw clearly now, it was just a bird!
"A frigate bird?"
"No, frigate birds' feathers can't get wet. They wouldn't risk hunting in the rain!"
"Then what is it?"
Shen Bing stared at the screen intently: "It looks a bit like a skua!"
"A skua?"
"Aren't they polar birds?"
"The long-tailed skua and the South Polar skua occasionally make it to Southeast Asia as well!" Shen Bing said with some uncertainty, then added, "Right, Lu Zhe?"
How would Lu Zhe know? He had no idea what it was without touching it, so he just said vaguely, "Uh-huh, yeah...right!"
But he really wasn't in the mood to think about what kind of bird it was.
He was now gripping the controls tightly, judging the trajectory of its next attack!
When the bird was about ten meters away from the aircraft, he suddenly tilted the aircraft upward, simultaneously turning on the spotlights and shining two beams of light at the bird.
The bird, caught off guard by the sudden illumination, flailed about in the sky for a while before regaining its composure.
It was curious to try and grab the aircraft again, but saw it rapidly descending towards a large banyan tree!
Seeing the thing flying lower and lower, it was tempted to give up, but its intense hunger drove it to continue pursuing.
Lu Zhe knew the aircraft's flight speed was too slow to shake off its relentless hunter, so he handed the controls over to Shen Bing:
"Bing Jie, you take over the controls. I'll shoot it down!"
With that, he took out a Type 52 pistol, checked the magazine and bullets, pushed it back in, and took off the safety.
Shen Bing took the controls: "Hey, I think our roles might be reversed here?"
"What do you mean?"
"Shouldn't you be flying the plane while I do the shooting?"
Lu Zhe turned back and said, "Do you think you could hit it with one shot?"
Shen Bing felt a little sheepish: "I can barely see it clearly, who could guarantee hitting it..."
Lu Zhe nodded, walked to the entrance, and raised his gun!
Shen Bing sighed helplessly.
Whatever...
Boys do like guns!
Let him play with it, it's just wasting two bullets...
"Hey, aim carefully, don't hit the plane..."
"Bang!"
Before Shen Bing could finish, the gunshot rang out!
The skua let out an "Ohh" sound, violently shuddered, then plummeted straight down, crashing into a bare tree branch and getting stuck there!
Shen Bing's mouth fell open, her pretty face filled with disbelief.
"You've fired a handgun before..."
"What makes you say that? I've never fired a handgun before!"
"Then how were you so accurate?"
"My master taught me well!"
"Who's your master?"
Lu Zhe took off the safety and smiled faintly: "You forgot? You taught me yourself, Bing Jie!"
Shen Bing's pretty face turned red!
She should have remembered the scene of teaching Lu Zhe how to shoot, but instead, another scene appeared in her mind.
"You're a fast learner."
Ning Shu said blankly, "What predatory words."
Jiang Yao nodded, "Completely out of pace."
Lin Qianqian said softly, "I didn't quite understand what they were saying."
Tang Xiaoguo also nodded, "I'm too young, I don't get it either!"
Shen Bing praised, "But Lu Zhe, you're just too gifted, your shooting was way too accurate!"
"Never mind that, the aircraft is about to hit the tree!"
"Oh no!"
Shen Bing quickly maneuvered the aircraft, barely stabilizing it beside the banyan tree.
There were faint "Ohh Ohh" sounds coming from the sky, evidently there was more than one skua in the night sky.
Lu Zhe jumped down, braving the rain to pick up the skua. Sure enough, information about the long-tailed skua came into his mind!
It seemed Shen Bing was right.
If this was inland, killing one of these birds would land you in prison for eight to ten years.
But here, it didn't matter. He'd just take it back and roast it to try its flavor.
Lin Qianqian sketched a rough overhead view of the island, and Lu Zhe finally realized that the area they had explored so far didn't even cover one-fifth of the island.
But the sketch was still too rough.
What should they do next?
They had only flown for less than 5 minutes, but according to the manual, this aircraft could fly for 40 minutes on a full charge.
Without using any spotlights, it could fly for an hour.
They had used 5 minutes, and the display showed 70% battery remaining, so without using the spotlights, they could probably fly for about half an hour more.
"Too many skuas, we can't go to the beach!"
"To the jungle?"
"We can't go too far, let's go to the volcano bottom!"
"Alright, let's check on our little garden!"
The group unanimously agreed.
Ning Shu's hands were itching: "Let me operate it for a bit."
Shen Bing handed her the controls.
Watching the footage from the camera, Ning Shu steadily operated the aircraft, flying over the dense jungle.
Among the lush foliage, occasional branch movements could be seen, probably monkeys or squirrels foraging.
It seemed they were also taking advantage of the light rain to look for food.
Ning Shu carefully maneuvered the aircraft, not wanting to attract the attention of other animals. Soon they reached the lake.
The camp was only a few hundred meters from the lake, but normally they would have to trek through the jungle to get there, which took longer. With the aircraft, they arrived in less than five minutes.
Ning Shu circled the aircraft over the lake, spotting wading birds on one shallow end of the shore. To avoid unnecessary trouble, Lu Zhe told her to keep some distance from those birds.
Then they followed the tree line, flying up towards the mountain ridge and ascending over the dense jungle all the way to the volcano's mouth.
The higher they went, the sparser the vegetation became. About thirty meters from the volcano's mouth, there was almost no vegetation left, only various rocks and rubble scattered around.
"The minerals here must be great!"
"If we're lucky, we might even find diamonds!"
"Does that mean we could open a jewelry store later?"
"If we can't cut and polish gems, even if we find diamonds, we could only use them to cut glass!"
Looking down over the volcano's mouth, it was a perfect circular geological formation, as if they had arrived on a new planet.
They carefully descended, passing through vegetation at different heights, getting a clearer view as they went lower into the denser foliage.
"What kind of tree is that? It's so tall!"
"Wow, so many bird's nests, we should get a ladder next time!"
"Be careful, with all the plants, don't get caught in the trees."
"Got it!"
"Look, there's our bird's nest!"
"Haha, my idea!"
Just then, some branches in front of them moved, and a dark figure appeared on the screen!
Everyone immediately tensed up!
"What is that?"
"A wild man?"
"No, have you ever seen a wild man covered in hair, with arms longer than legs?"
"It's King Kong!"