Courtyard House: Home Alone

"Long live His Majesty the Emperor!" Seeing that the situation was hopeless, a Japanese agent roared and charged forward with his bayonet, but he was shot down by a burst of bullets after only a few steps.

The battle was exceptionally fierce and swift. Under Shi Tou and his men's precise and relentless attacks, the Japanese special forces and agents quickly lost their ability to resist.

At the same time the ambush began, the roar of airplanes could be heard from the sky at the "fake trial site" less than ten kilometers away.

Lin Yifan stood on the anti-aircraft attack position and looked up. He saw that in the distance, countless Japanese bombers and fighters were breaking through the clouds and flying towards the "fake trial location".

"Perfect timing." Lin Yifan's lips curled into a cold smile, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes. He took a deep breath, raising his mental power to its limit, and locked onto the enemy planes whistling towards him.

An unprecedented battle is about to break out over Beiping.

At this moment, Hiroshi Ikeda, the squadron leader of the fighter group flying ahead, was on the phone with Yuuma Kobayashi, the squadron leader of the bomber group behind him: "Kobayashi-kun, the target area should be ahead, but the visibility is too low. We need to reduce our altitude."

"Okay, Ikeda-kun! Let's lower the altitude to 1,000 meters first, and then decide whether to continue lowering it after we see the situation."

However, our optimal bombing altitude is around 500 meters to ensure bombing accuracy.

"You must also be vigilant. Although intelligence indicates that the Chinese don't have anti-aircraft weapons, it's always better to be safe than sorry," Kobayashi Yuma replied cautiously.

Hiroshi Ikeda snorted: "Don't worry, those Chinese junks are no threat to the eagle of our empire. I'll keep my men on high alert."

After speaking, he ordered the entire formation to begin descending. As they continued to descend, the smoke screen became thicker, severely impairing the pilots' visibility; they could barely make out blurry outlines below.

"Squadron Leader, I think I've seen some movement on the ground!" a fighter pilot reported nervously.

Hiroshi Ikeda frowned, carefully observing the area below: "What's that commotion? Is it Chinese ground troops?"

"I can't see very well, the smoke is too thick. However, it seems that the smoke was created by the Chinese," the pilot said helplessly.

A sense of unease rose in Hiroshi Ikeda's heart, but he forced himself to remain calm: "Don't panic. The Chinese are definitely afraid of our bombing raids, so they're deliberately creating this smoke. This further proves that the Chinese have no anti-aircraft weapons. Maintain formation and prepare to cover the bombers dropping their bombs!"

However, at that moment, Lin Yifan moved. Since most of the Japanese planes had entered his area of ​​effect, a glint flashed in his eyes, and his mental energy instantly locked onto the leading fighters. The next instant, with a thought, the eight fighters locked onto by his mental energy vanished.

The other Japanese pilots flying through the smoke above didn't notice anything amiss. Then, six, nine, five... and then bombers appeared. The Japanese planes kept disappearing.

As soon as the Japanese planes that were taken into the space entered, Lin Yifan used his mind to shut off their engines and imprison the pilots in their respective planes.

Haha! Now that's great, we have flight instructors for the Red Party too. There are so many planes, more than seventy licensed pilots alone, and the bombers behind them have quite a few bombardiers and machine gunners.

With so many people, surely the political commissars of the Red Party could convert some of them? Even if they couldn't convert them all, keeping some technical personnel would be good, at least they could help train their own pilots.

Lin Yifan thought about it more and more and felt it was a good deal, and a smug smile appeared on his face.

At this moment, Kobayashi Yuuma, flying at the very back, was still directing the group: "Ikeda-kun, we've descended to 1,000 meters, but we still can't see the ground targets clearly. What should we do? What altitude are you at now?"

However, all that came through the radio was a crackling, static-like sound.

Kobayashi Yushin's unease grew stronger. He slammed on the accelerator, trying to penetrate the damned smoke in front of him, while yelling into the radio, "This is Lieutenant Kobayashi! This is Lieutenant Kobayashi! Calling all aircraft! Respond if you hear me! Kobayashi calling all aircraft!"

His response was still that unsettling electrical noise.

He looked around and saw that the once dense formation of aircraft had become sparse. Several wingmen that were in formation just moments before had disappeared without a trace, as if they had never existed.

"Baka! What's going on?" Cold sweat beaded on Hiroshi Ikeda's forehead as an unprecedented fear gripped him.

This eerie smoke, like a giant, devouring monster, is silently consuming his companions and the Empire's warplanes.

He felt a chill run down his spine; this was beyond his understanding of combat. This was not war at all; it was more like a... hunt.

Just as Kobayashi Yuma was frantically shouting into the radio, trying to contact any of the friendly aircraft, he suddenly felt the fuselage shake violently, as if it had crashed into an invisible wall.

Immediately afterward, the hands on the instrument panel in front of him began to jump wildly, the engine emitted a piercing, strange noise, and then went completely out. The plane lost power and began to plummet rapidly like a kite with a broken string.

"No—!" Kobayashi Yuma roared in despair. He prepared to pull the control stick and try to control the out-of-control plane, but it was too late. He felt that his whole body was out of control and he couldn't even shout.

He couldn't understand how the planes could suddenly go out of control when they hadn't been attacked at all. Could it be a mechanical failure? But it was impossible for so many planes to malfunction at the same time!

A bizarre yet chilling thought flashed through his mind: This smoke... this smoke is something wrong! It's not just meant to obscure vision; it's a huge trap!

Fear, like a cold, venomous snake, instantly coiled around his heart.

He struggled to jump, but his body seemed to be firmly fixed to the seat by an invisible force, unable to move.

The scene outside the cockpit began to spin rapidly; thick smoke, the earth, the sky… everything was distorted and blurred. The last thing he saw was a strange, eerie light, as if from the depths of hell, before he was plunged into boundless darkness.

Another bomber disappeared silently into the thick smoke, without an explosion or fire, like a drop of water merging into the ocean, leaving no trace.

Standing on the high ground, Lin Yifan felt the increasing "gains" in the space, and his smile became even brighter.

His mental energy was like an invisible net, constantly "scooping" intruding enemy planes into his space under the cover of smoke. He naturally accepted these "gifts" that came to him without hesitation.