50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 773 Crossing the Arctic
Sun Zhiwei chose this route for two reasons. First, he didn't want to leave any trace at the various airports along the Pacific route, as piloting the C-141 alone was still a bit too shocking to the world.

Secondly, he could land at Beijing Airport under the pretext of refueling halfway through the journey and drop off the bulletproof Rolls-Royce.

His current disguised identity doesn't overlap much with those in China, so it's not advisable for him to have too much direct contact.

Once the Robert Group expands into the domestic market through commercial means, he will be able to stay in China more often.
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The Arctic that people usually refer to is the Arctic Circle, which is a circular area centered on the North Pole, ranging from 66°34'N to 90°N.

The aurora borealis can only occur in this region.

There are a total of eight countries in the world that have territory within the Arctic Circle: America and Canada in North America, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Russia in Europe.

The central area of ​​the Arctic Circle is mainly ocean, where the seawater is frozen year-round, generally consisting of ice sheets 3-4 meters high.

The total area of ​​the Arctic ice sheet is approximately 1330 million square kilometers, of which 1100 million square kilometers are sea ice and 200 million square kilometers are land ice.

During the movement of sea ice, massive icebergs are often formed due to compression. The thickest of these icebergs exceeds 1900 meters in thickness.

There's a Chinese idiom in our family: "the tip of the iceberg".

This means that the part of an iceberg that is visible above the water is only a small part of the entire iceberg; the massive main body of the iceberg is hidden below the sea level.

But beneath this thick ice sheet, unfrozen seawater flows year-round. It has always been a paradise exclusively for strategic H-class submarines.

Both the Russian and American families regularly dispatch strategic H-submarines to operate hidden beneath the Arctic ice cap.

This place was not only regarded as a strategic location by the Soviet Union and the United States, but its vast sea area and underground also concealed enormous resources.

The America Geological Survey stated in a public report on Arctic resources that the Arctic Circle holds approximately 13% of the world's undiscovered oil reserves and 30% of the world's undiscovered natural gas reserves.

The region contains 47 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and over 90 billion barrels of oil. This discovery has further intensified competition among Arctic nations for these resources.

Sun Zhiwei took off from the national airport on October 4th and traveled across Canada in 5.5 hours, entering the Arctic Ocean from the Arctic Archipelago region in northern Canada.

Although it was already October, and most countries in the Northern Hemisphere were in autumn with pleasant temperatures, a distinct difference could be felt once you entered the Arctic Circle.

Looking down with his naked eye, he couldn't see any azure seawater at all; all he could see was a vast expanse of white below.

Those are the permanent ice caps of the Arctic; the eye has lost its ability to determine direction when looking over the Arctic.

Without instruments, airplanes have no way of knowing their direction or determining where the ice sheet lies beneath the sea and where it lies beneath the land.

During this period, the Arctic has begun to enter the polar night, but because the Arctic Ocean is covered with white glaciers, it is still possible to see outside with the naked eye.

Sun Zhiwei looked at the glacier below for a while, but his eyes were stinging from the white light, so he quickly gave up observing the ground and started to admire the scenery around the plane.

Because now, beautiful aurora lights occasionally flash across the sky, making the entire sky colorful and magnificent, as if you have entered a dreamlike country.

As he was about to leave Canadian waters, he quickly went to the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face to keep himself alert.

Then I made myself a cup of coffee and placed it on the teacup holder in my right hand.

Before he could even get back into the driver's seat and settle in, the radar sounded an alarm, and he quickly checked the radar's detection status.

Radar indicated a large group of flying objects approaching. However, when he looked ahead, he didn't see any aircraft approaching in his field of vision.

As the radar warnings grew increasingly urgent, he had no choice but to stretch out the entire space around him, keeping his eyes fixed on the direction the radar indicated, ready to respond to any unexpected situations.

Finally, he noticed something unusual: several kilometers ahead in the sky, many small black dots were approaching him.

Once these black dots entered the space exploration range, he discovered that they were actually a flock of migratory birds.

Only one type of bird can migrate through the Arctic Circle: the Arctic tern.

These birds are quite unique; they migrate between the North and South Poles every year. During the Northern Hemisphere summer, the Arctic experiences the midnight sun, and they live under its rays.

When autumn arrives in the Northern Hemisphere, they begin their southward migration, reaching Antarctica before winter. At that time, Antarctica experiences the midnight sun, allowing them to enjoy six months of sunshine.

Therefore, they are also known as "the only creatures on Earth that live in the light forever".

Therefore, they are also called "day birds".

This flock of daybirds migrated relatively late, probably the last one, and Sun Zhiwei's C-141 happened to be on their flight path.

This is very dangerous. If a bird gets sucked into the propeller or hits the windshield, it could cause serious damage to the aircraft.

At this point, he no longer cared whether these day birds were rare animals, and quickly used his spatial ability to collect them all.

Once the crisis was over and the radar alarms stopped, he slumped into the driver's seat and relaxed.

During this time, he did not change the flight route, but maintained the speed and turned on all air identification signals on the aircraft.

His C-141 is now like a bright light bulb in the dark; as long as other people's radars aren't broken, they'll definitely be able to detect his presence.

But that was Sun Zhiwei's purpose; he didn't need to hide himself.

His C-141 is now a civilian transport aircraft and has been legally registered under the name of Pinkerton.

There were no weapons on board, and the flight route had been approved by the Soviet Union, Canada, the United States, and China. If he were to engage in any radio silence or low-altitude flight now, that would be suicidal.

In such dangerous airspace, flying through it openly and honestly is the best option.

It's perfectly fine for them to see all the planes, submarines, icebreakers, research vessels, etc., as long as no one misjudges the situation and launches a missile at them, then they'll suffer a huge loss.

Time passed by, minute by minute. He had originally thought this place was a place where strategic bombers carrying nuclear bombs patrolled everywhere.

He had been flying for half a day and hadn't seen a single plane, which disappointed him greatly.

Just then, the radar alarm sounded again, and he quickly went to check it.

Radar showed that an aircraft appeared behind his C-141 and was following him.

(End of this chapter)