Seeing the fire in their eyes, the corner of Liao Ming's mouth twitched, and he immediately poured cold water on their excitement.
"Don't get your hopes up."
"I've given you the opportunity, but let me lay out the ugly truth first."
"If your skills aren't up to par, you won't pass the assessment, even with my recommendation."
His voice wasn't loud, but it was exceptionally clear in the vast, empty hangar.
"If you fail the assessment, you won't be allowed to reapply for six months."
"If you fail a second time, you'll be sent packing to wait for a whole year."
"What's more, as your recommender, my bonus will be docked."
As Liao Ming said this, his tone grew heavier, and his gaze swept over the four of them.
"So, every one of you had better be on your toes!"
"If you're taking this assessment, you pass on the first try!"
"Yes, Director Liao!"
Han Feng and the other three shouted in unison, their hearts ablaze.
"Alright, stop standing around. Get started."
Liao Ming waved his hand, stepped to the side, and folded his arms.
He struck a pose that clearly said, 'I'm just going to watch. I won't say a word.'
The four of them exchanged a look, both excited and nervous.
This was the first time they were independently responsible for overhauling an entire fighter jet!
"Follow the procedure! First, read the fault codes!"
Xiaoli was the first to react.
He grabbed a data terminal from the tool cart and deftly hurried to the data port on the jet's underbelly.
This was the most standard and efficient method.
The vast majority of common problems could be analyzed through the fighter's own system logs.
Han Feng followed behind him.
As Xiaoli inserted the data terminal's probe into the port, Han Feng reached out and gently placed his palm on the cold fuselage.
In that instant.
In his mind, the dormant system interface suddenly lit up!
[Ding! Unfamiliar Flying Sword detected. Model: "Hunting Falcon"]
[Grade: Lower Grade Magical Artifact]
[Establish Spiritual Link?]
A thought flashed through Han Feng's mind, and he selected "Yes."
VMM!
A peculiar sense of Perception instantly erupted.
His consciousness flowed from his palm, directly penetrating every corner of the fighter jet.
The entire massive war machine was completely enveloped by him.
Human-Machine Unity!
At this moment, the "Hunting Falcon" fighter was no longer a mere collection of steel and wires.
It was no longer a cold machine.
All of its statuses were clearly relayed back to Han Feng.
The physical state of every single component.
The flow rate of Spiritual Power in every circuit.
The fatigue level of every interlocking gear.
Even the subtle metal deformation of a single screw, caused by high-G maneuvers, transformed into a stream of data and was projected clearly into his consciousness.
The hidden internal damage that would normally require completely dismantling the jet and spending hours with high-precision flaw detectors to find were now, under his "Introspection," completely exposed!
A perfect, holographic, three-dimensional schematic slowly rotated in his mind.
This was practically a god-tier cheat custom-made for a Mechanic!
"Crazy, what's with that stupid grin? Find some gold in the fuselage?"
Xiaoli's voice snapped Han Feng out of it.
Han Feng came back to his senses, unable to hide his unbridled joy, a wide grin spreading across his face.
He chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, something like that."
"For real?"
Xiaoli leaned skeptically toward the data terminal.
The progress bar on the screen was crawling along.
[Data Exporting... 7%]
"We haven't gotten a lick of data yet. What the hell are you looking at?"
Xiaoli was speechless, thinking Han Feng was messing with him.
Han Feng didn't explain.
He left the data terminal to Zhou Wen and turned toward the toolbox himself.
With practiced motions, he took out a set of disassembly tools and walked straight to an access panel beneath the nose of the jet.
Seeing Han Feng's actions, Xiaoli and the other two, who were gathered around the terminal, were all stunned.
"Crazy, what are you doing? We haven't even analyzed the faults, and you're just taking it apart? Are you nuts?" Pang Hu's eyes went wide as he whisper-shouted.
"What if you take apart the wrong part? Director Liao will have our hides!"
Zhou Wen's face was also filled with worry.
Sure enough, Liao Ming, who had been watching the show from the sidelines, noticed Han Feng's actions.
His brow furrowed. He walked over, his eyes filled with a mix of confusion and scrutiny.
In his impression, Han Feng had always been the steadiest, the one who followed the rules most closely. Why was he acting so out of character today?
However, Liao Ming didn't say anything to stop him.
He had said he would let them handle it, and he had to keep his promise.
He only cared about the results.
If it turned out Han Feng was just messing around, then this recommendation spot would be completely out of his reach.
Under the watchful eyes of the three teammates and one director, Han Feng moved deftly, removing the access panel's outer plate in a few swift motions.
He reached in, fumbled around for a moment, and precisely pulled out a palm-sized metal plate from a tangle of lines and pipes.
"Is that... the power regulation Rune Board for the Spiritual Power boost circuit?" Zhou Wen adjusted his glasses, recognizing it at a glance.
He leaned in for a closer look, his pupils suddenly contracting.
There were several fine, black, fused marks on the edge of the Rune Board.
One of the core Rune's Energy nodes was completely dim, and you could even smell a whiff of ozone.
It was clearly burnt out!
"Holy crap! There really is a problem!" Xiaoli was so shocked his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
Pang Hu also leaned in to look. Although he didn't understand what he was seeing, that didn't stop him from exclaiming, "Crazy, how did you know this thing was broken? We haven't even started the engine, and the fault codes haven't given us jack squat!"
Liao Ming was also stunned.
He strode forward, took the Rune Board, and examined it carefully, confirming that a core component had been damaged by an overload.
He looked up, his gaze locked on Han Feng, as if trying to see right through him.
Han Feng scratched his head and grinned, a little pleased with himself.
"Maybe... it's a Talent."
"Just now when my hand touched the plane, my head buzzed a little, and I just felt like something was off with this board."
"A Talent? You awakened a Perception-type Talent?" Xiaoli's voice went up an octave.
There were indeed Martial Artists in this world who had awakened all sorts of strange Talents.
But for it to happen to a roommate he had lived with for three years still felt absurd, something he instinctively couldn't believe.
"When did you awaken, you brat? How come I didn't know?" Pang Hu reached out to pinch Han Feng's cheek, wanting to see if he was talking nonsense.
Han Feng dodged with a smile, not bothering to explain further.
Actions speak louder than words.
'This system thing... when you get right down to it, isn't it just the ultimate form of "Talent"?'
'It just hadn't been activated before, and now I've finally cracked it.'
'Is that any different from a latent Talent being activated by some special condition?'
'No difference at all!'
Han Feng thought, completely at ease with his reasoning.
So, under the skeptical gazes of the others, he didn't stop. He picked up his tools and walked toward the hydraulic system access panel at the wing root.
After a few more deft movements, Han Feng pulled out a yellowed and hardened sealing ring from inside.
"This sealing ring for the main hydraulic arm has aged and is leaking slightly."
"It doesn't affect normal flight, but there's a risk of failure during high-G maneuvers."
He then went to the tail and removed another panel.
"The Energy conduits for the tail's auxiliary power unit have three breaks in their insulation. It could cause a short circuit during high-power output."
"And here, the buffer module for the left landing gear. The internal Spiritual Power shock-absorption Runes are more than seventy percent worn. The impact force during landing would be huge..."
Han Feng moved around the massive fighter jet.
Everywhere he went, he was able to pinpoint deeply hidden faults with incredible precision.
And he removed each problematic component, one by one, placing them on the parts tray nearby.
Some of these problems were critical, others were minor, but none of them could have been detected by the data terminal alone.
They all required dismantling the fuselage and spending a great deal of time scanning with specialized flaw detectors to discover.
But Han Feng, from start to finish, had only touched it with his hand.
Watching the pile of large and small parts growing in the tray, Xiaoli, Pang Hu, and Zhou Wen were completely floored.
The three of them looked at each other, then their gazes fell in unison on the data terminal's screen.
The line of text on the screen hadn't budged in ages.
[Data Exporting... 34%]
At that moment, the high-tech terminal in their hands seemed incredibly ironic.
Xiaoli opened his mouth, and after a long moment, squeezed out a single sentence:
"Dude… I thought we were all in this together. Are you fucking using cheats?"