The Mysterious Soldier of the Anti-Japanese War

Chapter 478: The Ghost Operator on the Radar Screen: The Last 30 Seconds of the Kwantung Army

Three hours later, in the birch forest outside Changchun.

The wind tore through the trucks of the Kwantung Army's Seventh Intelligence Department like a wild beast. The rustling of snowflakes against the steel plates created an eerie symphony with the low-frequency vibrations of the generator. Sergeant Sato gripped the radio receiver tightly, his knuckles turning pale from the strain. The pale beam of the searchlight swept across the snow-covered rails, carving streaks of cold light across the ground.

"Frost Falcon One reports, we've arrived at the monitoring point." His voice, shrouded in the white mist of his breath, sounded particularly hoarse over the radio. "Requesting radar activation."

"Commander Yamada wants live intelligence." The superior's voice crackled with electricity. "Any abnormalities must be reported immediately. Do you understand?"

"Hai." Sato hung up the radio, his gloves wiping the sweat from the corners of his mouth. In the rearview mirror, the operator, Corporal First Class Kameda, was staring at the radar screen, his Adam's apple rolling like he was swallowing crushed ice.

"Kameda," Corporal Kobayashi tapped the young man's helmet with the barrel of his gun. "If you keep shaking, the antenna will tango."

"Corporal..." Kameda's voice was soaked with tears. His fingertips tapped the steel of the aircraft, and his voice broke into trembling powder in his throat. "I just heard! That plane, it's like... a Death Plane bursting out of Yomi Hirasaka!"

"Baka!" Kobayashi slapped Kameda in the face, "That's nothing but lies spread by the Chinese army to mislead the people. In the Fengtian Sky Battle last month, wasn't it also forced to flee in panic by our infrared lights?" He patted the Type 14 Nambu pistol at his waist, and the cherry blossom engraving on the handle flashed a cold light under the searchlight.

Sato suddenly grasped the two men's shoulders, and the ripples on the radar screen suddenly intensified. "Full power scan 43 degrees north latitude." His thumb brushed against the sweat on the back of Kameda's neck. "Find that rat for me."

At that moment, Lei Tao had already returned to the airspace in his F-35B fighter jet, activating the Bagua gyro system. He activated the radar scan and spotted a surveillance radar over a hundred kilometers away, just outside Changchun. His eyes instantly sharpened like an eagle, and a sneer curled up at the corner of his mouth. "Looks like someone's not willing to give up." He quickly adjusted his fighter's attitude, ready to teach these blind men a lesson.

Kameda trembled as he turned the knob. The snow on the screen suddenly surged violently, like a snowy lake onto which a boulder had been dropped. "Electromagnetic pulse!" he screamed, pressing his earpiece. "Communications lost! The screen is completely black!"

At that moment, a strange curve emerged from the snowflake-like noise, like some enormous creature stretching its body in the clouds. Kameda's pupils reflected the screen, and a strange gurgling sound came from his throat: "Dragon... It's a dragon!"

"Shut up!" Sato's slap made Kameda's nose bleed. "Switch to mechanical mode!" He knocked over the kerosene lamp when he turned around, and the orange flame illuminated the spiral line on the coordinate paper - that was the death pattern engraved by the radar needle in its crazy rotation.

"This trajectory..." Xiaolin's voice suddenly became sticky. "Does it look like a geisha's sleeve?"

Sato grabbed the radio receiver and said, "Reporting to the headquarters, coordinates X-47, Y-21, found——"

The sound of metal scraping came from the roof, like the sharp claws of a giant bird scraping against the steel plate when its wings were folded. Kameda's scream pierced his eardrums: "It's up there! It's up there!"

The radio suddenly erupted in a shrill buzzing, followed by a cold, male voice in Chinese, his pronunciation so clear it chilled people to the bone: "The Frost Falcon radar's 3.2-centimeter wavelength can't even pick up a sparrow." Kameda's pupils constricted. The voice seemed to seep from his very bones. "Next time, try the 10-centimeter band. Maybe you can see me for five more seconds."

"Who the hell are you?!" Sato roared at the radio, but the only response he got was the buzzing of a swarm of mechanical bees, like the flapping of the wings of the god of death.

Kobayashi suddenly grabbed Sato's arm, swallowing his saliva with a rolling sound of his Adam's apple. "Sergeant... The wounded soldiers who returned from North China said that there was no pilot in the cockpit of that plane, only a shadow at the controls..."

Sato was about to give an order when he heard a sharp whistling sound. The sound was like a venomous snake spitting out its tongue, sharp and piercing, instantly ripping the silence of the night sky. He suddenly looked up, anxiously looking left and right, his eyes anxiously darting across the night sky, his eyes full of fear and anxiety. At first, his eyes only caught a few faint starlight in the dark night sky, but soon, he caught a glimpse of a strange light in the southwest sky. It was an unidentified object with a tail flame, flying towards them at an astonishing speed. Sato's pupils contracted instantly, he could clearly feel the oppressive feeling approaching at an astonishing speed. His expression became more solemn, and a trace of panic flashed in his eyes.

He flipped over his chair in a panic and drew his command knife: "Everyone retreat! Quickly--"

A deafening roar erupted overhead, as if the entire world had been torn apart. Flames shot skyward, illuminating the night sky like day. Several vehicle-mounted radars were instantly shattered by the blast, sending fragments raining down across the entire monitoring point, ruthlessly destroying everything in their path. Before they could react, several Japanese agents and radar operators were lifted aloft by the immense force. Steel ball fragments from the exploding infrared tactical missiles pierced and tore through their bodies, instantly transforming them into a cloud of flesh and blood. At the center of the blast, Sato was tossed to the ground by the immense blast. He felt a dizzying sensation, his mind went blank, and his vision went black before he lost consciousness.

Lei Tao piloted his F35B fighter jet, drawing a graceful arc in the night sky. He gazed at the monitoring point below, which was engulfed in flames, and muttered to himself, "You know I have a sharp blade in hand and I am in the dark, yet you still come to offer me a head. I'd be embarrassed not to accept it."

Then, he climbed quickly and disappeared into the night sky, leaving behind only the flames rising into the sky and the diffuse smoke, as if telling the thrilling story of this snowy night.