"Dragon Fang XG091, what are you doing! Daydreaming? Get into formation, quick!"
Just then a rebuke came over the communication channel.
Only now did Zhao Chen come to himself.
Before him an image of a provisional formation had appeared: thirty T5 Dragon-Fang fighters that had just taken off, making up a temporary fighter formation.
The one who had just spoken to him was the squadron leader.
Zhao Chen said nothing, but quietly flew his fighter into place with the squadron.
This was no time to dwell on such things.
By the look of it, he was on a planet where war had broken out.
Whether or not these pitch-black flying creatures had anything to do with the Pitch-Black Legion,
if he did not destroy them now, things would go very ill for him.
Zhao Chen took a deep breath and set about learning this fighter more deeply.
Just then the squadron leader noticed on radar that at the tail of her own formation one fighter was behaving very strangely.
Now swaying left, now swaying right.
Or else rolling right over.
It felt as though this fighter's pilot were drunk.
The squadron leader frowned and rebuked him again over the command channel: "XG091, what is the matter with you! Has your brain been hit by a fighter, or are you drunk? Hold formation; can't you even manage that much?"
Hearing the squadron leader's rebuke again,
Zhao Chen still said nothing, but by now he had essentially learned this fighter.
He also found that, though this body was no match for his old one.
For whatever reason, perhaps the super-soldier serum he had once been injected with, this body's physical quality was rising very fast.
Soon the squadron entered a combat zone.
Here there were over a thousand black flying creatures, but among them one priority target.
It was a black flying creature a hundred meters across the wings, the same kind as the one that had spat the black column of light and destroyed the ground defense tower and the hangar.
"Main flight, prepare to destroy the target alien. Wing flight, assist us in controlling the battlefield and destroy the other alien units," the squadron leader ordered over the command channel.
Alien.
That was what this world called these creatures.
As the name says, an unknown species from another dimension, hence "alien."
And the aliens' fighting power was graded too,
by this world's technology grades.
This world's technology grades differed hardly at all from those Zhao Chen had known.
T1, T2 and so on.
In the fragments of Zhao Chen's memory, the highest technology grade in this world was T6!
Much like his own Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
And it was rumored that T7-grade technological weapons were being researched.
Of these black aliens before them, the strongest was that twin-winged black alien, a grade-five alien; the rest were grade-four and grade-three.
Judging these aliens' strength could be done by shape alone.
The larger the shape, the stronger.
The smaller the shape, the weaker.
But aliens came in two types.
One was alien creatures, the strange-shaped things before them.
The other was alien starships, starships from the other dimension, with the same features as the aliens, pitch-black from end to end.
And once destroyed, they left no wreckage at all, vanishing utterly.
Zhao Chen looked at these aliens.
Within this squadron, naturally, his was the wingman's task.
Zhao Chen kept to his task as well, hunting chiefly on the periphery, clearing away the grade-four and grade-three aliens.
This T5 Dragon-Fang fighter could handle grade-four and grade-three aliens well enough.
The Dragon-Fang fighter carried ten missiles and one six-barreled Gatling-type laser cannon.
Zhao Chen observed these alien creatures closely.
He found that though these alien creatures had no technology like a star shield.
The black vapor about them flowed, like a flowing liquid, and the moment a threatening attack came near.
The black vapor would move to block that direction, serving as a shield and stopping the attack!
And once it had stopped an attack, the black vapor would thin somewhat.
The principle was much the same as a star shield, only somewhat different in form.
Zhao Chen found these aliens' weakness: once they came under attack over a wide area, this black-vapor defense could hardly cover several directions at once.
But striking one target at the same moment took great mutual understanding and coordination.
A provisional squadron such as this could hardly reach such coordination.
But Zhao Chen was like a gliding dragon.
Relying on the Dragon-Fang fighter's agility, he moved about the edges of the battlefield without pause; he never chose prey on his own initiative.
Instead he watched what his own side's fighters were attacking.
Then he would pick a target to suit, and join with the friendly fighter to bring that target down.
It looked like fine mutual coordination; in truth it was wholly that Zhao Chen had guessed what his comrades would do, and coordinated one-sidedly to secure the kill.
It was in this way.
That Zhao Chen's fighter could be seen everywhere along the outer battlefield, everywhere but the main fight in the middle against the grade-five alien.
At the same time, on the communication channel,
more and more people were mentioning this remarkable Dragon-Fang fighter.
"Damn, Dragon Fang XG091, that finishing shot came at the perfect moment!"
"Dragon Fang XG091, are you the worm in my belly? How did you know I'd attack in that direction?"
"Dragon Fang XG091, there's a target over here; give me a hand, please."
From Zhao Chen seeking out 'partners' at first,
to these people, once they found how well this Dragon Fang XG091 coordinated, asking to work with it themselves.
Zhao Chen did not stand on his dignity either.
He swept his eyes over the battlefield,
and spoke for the first time.
"Prey number 7721, grade-four alien. XG318 and XG117, assist me; if you hear, answer," Zhao Chen said.
"XG318 receiving. Taking on a grade-four alien between us, isn't that a bit much…"
"XG117 receiving. Just tell me how we're doing it, brother!"
Zhao Chen said calmly, "XG318, from…"
Once Zhao Chen had given out the combat task, simply and swiftly, the three Dragon-Fang fighters began their coordinated charge at that grade-four alien.
One missile launched.
At the same time the cannons of two Dragon-Fang fighters opened fire.
The angles of attack chosen, and the timing, were perfectly matched.
This grade-four alien, after a brief struggle, was killed outright and dispersed into nothing.
Everyone saw this.
Afterward, whenever Zhao Chen proposed working together, hardly anyone refused.
Who would leave battle merit lying there for the taking?