Shock! Spy Photos Exposed, Military Enthusiasts: Who Said We Were Developing a Generation 4.5 Fighter? (Please Subscribe)

"This might be a little too early. Eagle Sauce's health bar is still pretty thick," Lu Ze murmured.

Perhaps the timing really was a little early. It wasn't quite perfect yet.

Although Eagle Sauce had suffered a massive financial crisis last year that had nearly detonated the entire stock, bond, and currency markets, it had still managed to stabilize its foundations by draining the whole world dry.

Though it had been constantly losing blood, its health bar was still fairly healthy. The dignity of the world's number one superpower remained intact.

But if their daddy got beaten up, could Eagle Sauce, as the son, still sit still? Could those people on Wall Street sit still?

"Let's cheer them on together," Lu Ze said devoutly.

Justice would prevail. What else was there to say?

Meanwhile, back in Great Xia, it was afternoon.

Inside some obscure, shady internet café in New Time and Space, the air was thick with the smell of tobacco and instant noodles.

More than fifty computers were packed neatly into the less-than-forty-square-meter space, yet the place was still crammed full.

Although minors were banned from going online, this internet café clearly did not take it seriously. Several elementary school students stood behind many of the seats.

So what if they couldn't afford to get online? Couldn't they just watch without playing? Sometimes, they could even pick up a game someone else had finished with and have fun for a while.

Zhang Wei sat down and turned on a computer, ignoring the rapid clattering of the spacebar from his left. The young man beside him, with hair dyed in every color imaginable, was clearly playing Audition with great enthusiasm.

In Great Xia in 2009, the entire internet was still obsessed with the non-mainstream trend.

He skillfully opened Hello Kugou and started listening to music, trying to block out the elementary school student on his right, who kept imitating gunfire with "da-da-da" sounds.

Zhang Wei, now nearing middle age, was not particularly fond of online games like CF or Dungeon & Fighter. He preferred chatting idly on forums.

One forum he frequented was the Great Xia Military Forum, a gathering place for the vast majority of military enthusiasts.

The moment he entered the site, Zhang Wei clicked on the trending post at the very top. It had only been posted a few hours ago, yet it had already drawn over a thousand comments.

[Under What Circumstances Could a J-8 Reasonably Destroy an F-22 Fighter Jet?]

:OP is an idiot. You're comparing a third-generation fighter to a fifth-generation fighter? That's already the most unreasonable part.

:I suggest sending in Old Five. My J-5 may be old, but it can still fight!

:If we're really making a reasonable guess, the J-8II's high-altitude, high-speed performance might give it a slim chance to spear the F-22 out of the sky with its cannons above 20,000 meters.

:You think the F-22's avionics are just for decoration? No matter how fast the J-8 is, can it outrun their air-to-air missiles?

:Then send up a whole squadron of J-8s and exhaust all the F-22's missiles. I refuse to believe we can't kill it!

Reading those posts, Zhang Wei shook his head helplessly. "How could the J-8II possibly compare with a fifth-generation fighter... The gap is just too huge."

He knew that, and the forum users earnestly debating "a J-8 spearing an F-22 out of the sky" probably knew it too.

But what else could they think? Eagle Sauce's F-22 was like a towering mountain pressing down on their chests, leaving them unable to breathe.

Why not compare it with Great Xia's most advanced J-10 instead of the J-8II? That fourth-generation fighter was also completely outclassed. At least the J-8II had the advantage of high altitude and high speed, giving it something to try. The J-10 had no chance at all.

Just then.

Zhang Wei suddenly noticed that the entire forum seemed to be going insane. The latest reply feed on the right cascaded downward like a waterfall, densely packed with new posts.

Just as he was about to refresh the page to see what had happened.

The entire Great Xia Military Forum suddenly froze. A circle spun endlessly on the screen, as though the massive surge of traffic had crashed the forum's servers on the spot.

Zhang Wei anxiously pressed F5, frowning as he muttered, "What happened? Why haven't the forum admins fixed it yet?"

"What could make everyone on the entire forum go crazy?"

What had happened?

He had only seen the reply timestamps on the right start jumping wildly, changing from the usual dozen or so per second to several thousand per second. Before he could refresh the page, the site had crashed.

Finally, after he had repeatedly pressed F5 for nearly ten minutes, with even the internet café owner standing behind him with a dark expression, thinking Zhang Wei was playing some strange new game, the familiar page finally refreshed before his eyes.

In an instant, he spotted the trending post pinned at the top.

Of course, he did not even need to deliberately look for it, because every post on the page was discussing it.

[Is Our Country's Fifth Generation Fighter Already Under Development? Ground Taxi Tests Seem Complete, and Its Maiden Flight Is Just Around the Corner!]

:Fifth-generation fighter?? Our country's fifth-generation fighter?

:Am I still dreaming? We already have the capability to develop a fifth-generation fighter?

:Impossible. Where did OP get this clickbait title? The J-10 hasn't even been in service for that long. A fifth-generation fighter would have to wait at least another ten years, right?

:No pictures, no truth. I think this is made up.

:OP's account level doesn't look fake. This is an old account registered nearly seven or eight years ago, and it's still making up stories like this?

"Could this be some kind of misunderstanding? The forum crashed over this?" Zhang Wei wondered.

He forcefully scrolled down several times and found the original poster's reply more than fifty floors down. At last, he understood why the forum had erupted.

Several distant photos with somewhat blurry outlines appeared on the screen before him.

It was a fighter jet, and one with an extremely distinctive appearance. Its body was flat, covered in silver paint, and marked with the number 001.

Like a six-winged angel spreading its proud wings, it seemed ready to soar into the skies at any moment.

If this was not a fifth-generation fighter, then what was? Its design philosophy was completely consistent with that of the F-22 fighter jet. Its appearance alone suggested that it possessed super stealth, supercruise, and supermaneuverability. If its avionics could achieve superior situational awareness, then it would be a qualified fifth-generation fighter.

With that familiar resolution and that refreshing new angle, Zhang Wei did not need to think twice to know that this was definitely the work of the wall-climbing crowd.

Moreover, whenever news like this emerged in the past, Great Xia would immediately issue a denial to prevent any accidents.

Yet this post had been up for more than an hour, and there had been no response or action whatsoever. That seemingly tacit attitude only strengthened everyone's suspicions.

In other words.

"Gasp... This is actually real?" Zhang Wei said, dumbfounded.

At that moment.

Everyone on the military forum erupted.

Good lord, they had barely dared to imagine the J-10 entering full service, yet Great Xia's fifth-generation fighter was almost developed already?

Just moments ago, they had been talking about "the possibility of a J-8II spearing an F-22 out of the sky!"

Now they no longer bothered pretending. They wanted a fifth-generation fighter. Who the hell wanted Old J-8? Never heard of him, didn't know him, don't contact me.

However, some people finally came to their senses.

"Who kept spreading fake news before, saying we were developing a Generation 4.5 fighter?"

"I actually believed you, you old bastard!"