73: Disadvantage in air combat? Wang Wei: Give a pig wings and it can fly!

Although the "Bird Catching Convention" was in full swing, everyone knew it was only treating the symptoms and not the root cause.

On the ground, players used all sorts of bizarre traps and could indeed occasionally capture one or two unlucky "Birdman Gundams," but in the sky, that massive floating warship, the Heavens Punishment, was the true threat.

It was like the Sword of Damocles hanging over everyone's heads, occasionally raining down volleys of light cannons to clear out areas where players were too densely packed.

Air superiority was completely in the enemy's hands.

"Dammit! This is frustrating! So frustrating!"

Li Qiang (Also a Ruthless Person) smashed the head of a netted Angel flat with a hammer and spat toward the sky.

"No matter how much fun we have playing with these little chicks on the ground, we can't reach that big guy in the sky! It'll wear us down sooner or later!"

"Brother Qiang is right!" Retired Soldier King (Retired Soldier King) analyzed calmly. "Our anti-aircraft fire has limited range, the pangu vessel is too large to maneuver in the city, and its energy is almost depleted. We have to find a way up there!"

Get up there?

How?

Everyone looked toward their only hope—Wang Wei, who was buried in the ruins studying the remains of an Angel.

Wang Wei (Luban No. 7) was currently in a state of frenzied excitement. He used a mechanical arm to brutally tear open the Angel's breastplate, pulling out the Anti-gravity core and mana crystal within, his eyes gleaming with obsession.

"I get it... I completely get it!"

Wang Wei stood up abruptly, weighing the Anti-gravity core in one hand while picking up a smoking Demonic Energy engine salvaged from a player's modified motorcycle with the other.

"Brothers! Aerial disadvantage?"

He laughed crazily, a laugh filled with the kind of confidence only a tech geek could understand.

"As long as our thinking doesn't backslide, there are always more solutions than problems!"

"Tell me, if you put wings on a pig, can it fly?"

Without waiting for the players to answer, Wang Wei pointed to the two items in his hands and gave the answer.

"I don't know about the pig, but I know that if we attach this to the engine, we can fly!"

With that, he rushed into his makeshift laboratory—a blacksmith shop with only half its walls remaining—and began an earth-shattering modification under everyone's astonished gazes.

Sparks from welding flew everywhere, and the sound of metal clanging was incessant.

"Wrench! Give me a size 32 wrench!"

"You there! Take the fuel line off your motorcycle and give it to me!"

"Not enough! Not enough power! Who else has spare mana crystals? Bring them all to me!"

Ten minutes later.

A monster full of violent aesthetics and safety hazards was born.

It was a steel backpack... with a Demonic Energy engine as its main body, two fragments of Angel light-wings crudely welded to the sides, a massive fuel tank strapped to the back, and secured with several leather belts.

[Spiral to the Heavens · Jetpack (Suicide Edition)]

Wang Wei gave his new invention a very fitting name.

"Who wants to try it?" Wang Wei pushed up his goggles, looking expectant.

An unlucky fellow with the ID "My Fate is Mine to Command" volunteered.

He strapped on the backpack and, under Wang Wei's guidance, pressed the start button.

"Vroom—Boom!"

The engine let out a massive roar, billowing black smoke. In the next second, the player shot vertically into the sky like an out-of-control cannonball.

"I'm fly—aaaaaah!"

He slammed headfirst into the rock ceiling above, and both man and pack shattered into a pile of parts on the ground.

The entire place went silent.

"The data is slightly off," Wang Wei recorded calmly in his notebook. "The thrust is too strong, and it lacks directional control. Next!"

In the dictionary of the "fourth calamity," the word "fear" did not exist.

The second, the third, the fourth... one brave soul after another strapped on the Suicide Edition jetpack.

The crash sites were too gruesome to look at.

Some disintegrated in mid-air, scattering parts everywhere.

Some leaked fuel and turned into human fireballs rolling on the ground.

The most ridiculous one spun three hundred and sixty times on the spot because of uneven power in the wings, finally fainting with foam at the mouth.

Just as everyone was on the verge of despair, a miracle happened.

A player with the ID "Mount Akina Veteran Driver" actually managed to fly, albeit crookedly! Using his racing experience, he miraculously maintained balance in the air by constantly twisting his body!

"Holy crap! It can fly! It can really fly!"

"Steady, brother! You're the hope of our whole village!"

A thunderous cheer erupted from the ground.

Since someone succeeded, it proved this path was viable!

"Get me one too! I want the one with the most thrust!"

Li Qiang stripped off his shirt, revealing scarred muscles, and snatched the newly modified Unit 5 directly from Wang Wei.

He strapped on the jetpack, which was larger than he was, and scooped up two shotguns loaded with slugs that had been seized from the dwarves.

Ready.

Li Qiang looked back at the group of eager, waiting players behind him and grinned, showing his trademark reckless expression.

He pressed the start button and, amidst a deafening roar, soared into the sky, bellowing to everyone:

"Boys! Follow me!"

"To the sky! Let's go open those birdmen's eyes!"