10 minutes later…
“The last ten teams in the Queue, please head to the runway.”
After hearing the announcement, Felix stretched his arms behind his back as he stood up.
He picked a medium-sized camping bag that was placed next to his feet and said, “Let’s go.”
The rest picked up their bags as well and followed after him. As the announcer mentioned, only them and 9 other teams were left in the entire airport. Despite so, they were glad that the delay was merely 10 minutes instead of 15 minutes.
After a while…
“Follow me, I will be taking you to your ride.”
The moment the teams stepped outside of the terminal, a staff member who was wearing an orange jacket, informed them while walking towards ten planes.
Soon, they reached them, and the staff member sent a team by a team to their designated plane.
After Felix’s team turn came up, the staff member gestured for them to follow him.
“Put your camping bags next to the plane. We will put them all inside a package box and send it down near your drop location.”
As he said, the instant they reached their plane, they saw a medium-sized chest that was attached to a closed parachute.
Felix went beside it and placed his backpack. Then, he climbed inside the blue colored aircraft.
“Oh? Hello.” Felix greeted politely after noticing that the pilot and another man were already inside.
Since the plane wasn’t really that big, Felix clutched his tail, which was lying dormant outside of his skydiving outfit, and stepped inside.
“Welcome aboard.” The pilot said, smiling politely.
“Good morning, Sir. Felix.” The man, who was wearing a red skydiving outfit and goggles on his forehead, extended his hand at Felix respectfully.
Felix shook his hand and asked, “Are you going with us?”
“Yes, I will be here to make sure that you guys don’t miss your jump.”
“Glad to have you.”
After saying so, Felix went to the back of the aircraft, leaving space for the rest to come inside.
He sat on a foldable seat and put the seatbelt on. A few moments later everyone was inside.
Even the package box was placed in the middle of the aircraft, carrying their ten camping backpacks.
After seeing that everyone was ready, the pilot didn’t waste time as they were already behind by ten minutes.
Thus, he swiftly drove the aircraft to the runway and took off after reaching the required speed.
During mid-flight, Felix could see other planes flying horizontally with them.
They were keeping a wide distance from each other, making Felix notice only three planes even with his enhanced vision.
“We will be reaching your drop spot in ten minutes.” The Pilot announced, “You will have a window of two minutes to jump, if you missed it, you will land outside of the competition zone and you will be disqualified.”
“Alright.” Felix looked at the instructor with them and notified him, “We will be jumping in the first minute.”
The instructor nodded his head in understanding and reminded them, “Double check on your AAD.”
Upon hearing so, everyone swiftly checked yet again if their Automatic Activation Device was turned on.
They already checked three times and it wouldn’t hurt to check right before jumping.
After all, AAD was the last emergency solution in case shit hit the fan during mid-dive.
The device was installed in rigs to deploy their reserve parachute in the event that they couldn’t deploy either their main or reserve parachute.
For example, if for some reason they found themselves unconscious in freefall. The AAD monitors their descent rate and altitude, and if they were still falling at freefall speeds by a certain height, it would use an electrical charge to cut the loop that held their reserve parachute in.
Thus, saving them from certain death.
“All good?”
“Yes!”
“Now, who’s going to be tandem skydiving?” The instructor offered, “I will help you get strapped.”
Felix straight away went to the deadpan Olivia and removed her seatbelt. “Stand up, the instructor will strap you with my rig soon.”
Olivia did as she was told while chewing on her lips. She knew that it wasn’t time to throw a tantrum as it was already too late.
Felix put Olivia in front of him and left the instructor to strap them together.
After pulling the straps twice and feeling their steadiness, Felix nodded in satisfaction.
He wasn’t worried about his weight causing troubles as they were told that the rigs were purchased from the UVR, and the parachutes inside them were capable of handling up to 400 KG in weight!
The materials they were made of were leagues apart from the ones made here on earth. But, just to make sure, Felix did a quick search on the brand of the rig in the network and found out that truly the details match the information given to them.
Thus, after doing a simple check-up, he moved out of the way, dragging Olivia with him like he was strapped to a baby.
Adam and Lexie moved forward and got strapped as well.
8 minutes later…
“Alright, put your goggles on and get ready.” The instructor said while opening up the aircraft’s gate.
Whoosh! Ruttle!
The moment it was opened, the noise from the plane’s engine started resounding loudly within the aircraft.
After seeing the clouds and the sun up close, Olivia’s heart started beating out of her chest as fear started creeping up on her.
Sensing that she was quivering, Felix decided to comfort her by whispering in her ears, “I have a wings potion, so don’t worry, everyone can end up dead but us.”
Although his words were too insensitive for others, she did feel comforted by the idea of having a certain 4th emergency measure.
Thus, she sighed in relief and put on her goggles. “I am ready!”
Alas, if Olivia wasn’t feeling out of it due to her exhaustion, she would have realized that Felix might have the wings potion, but the spatial card feature was disabled like the rest!
Felix couldn’t hide the potion on his body as they were searched thoroughly before entering the airport!
Hence, there was no way for him to use the potion!
He was simply trying to comfort her as it wouldn’t be fun to bully her midair when she was scared shitless from the dive.
“In 30 seconds, you will jump one by one. After you, we will send the package.” The instructor informed them, “When you land, lift your heads in the air and track the package as it is going to land in close proximity to you guys.”
Upon seeing them nod their heads, he moved away from the door, giving them enough space to stand on. Soon, the 30 seconds passed by, making everyone feel pretty nervous but mostly excited.
“I am going first! WHOHO!!” Thrilled, Walton did a peace sign with his hands as he jumped from the plane.
He didn’t even hesitate as he already skydived many times before. For a rich junior like him, adrenaline-inducing hobbies like those were his favorite.
Unlike Olivia or Noah, the rest had experienced skydiving when the world was still undiscovered by the Alexander Kingdom.
Thus, they didn’t show any signs of fear as they jumped after Walton.
Soon, Felix’s and Olivia’s turn arrived.
“You ready?” Felix asked while standing on the edge of the door, still holding his tail.
Whoosh!
“Wai…AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
Before Olivia could finish, Felix laughed out loud as he belly jumped outside of the plane.
While Felix was enjoying the wind caressing his face, Olivia had her eyes closed shut as she tightened her grip on straps.
‘Felix, you prick. I hate you!’
Hearing Olivia curse at him using the Queen’s voice, Felix switched his focus on her instead of enjoying the freefall.
After all, he didn’t bribe others just to let go of this one time opportunity.
‘Say cheese.’ Felix sent a message as he took a selfie with his bracelet.
Yet, he wasn’t satisfied by just one as he soon started kneading Olivia’s oval face into making funny faces while taking a picture after another.
By the time Felix finished filling up an album, Olivia was on the verge of breaking down into tears by his bullying.
Like it wasn’t hard enough that she was skydiving for the first time, now she was even forced into taking selfies, which god knows how she would end up looking in them.
‘Stop it already, my cheeks are aching.’ Olivia whined.
She wanted to massage her reddened cheeks but she was too terrified to let go of the straps.
Thus, she could only voice her displeasure, hoping for Felix to have mercy on her.
Thankfully, Felix stopped at once after noticing that he reached the right altitude to open the parachute. The altimeter device attached to his wrist made it easier.
‘Open your eyes, you will be the one who steers the parachute.’ Felix informed her while having his finger placed on the ripcord.
He could already see that everyone had dispatched their parachute successfully and were gliding in direction of the wind, so they would land in almost the same area as their package.
‘I can’t.’ Olivia shook her head vehemently while tightening her grip even further on the straps.
Whoosh!
Felix didn’t respond as he pulled the ripcord at once, forcing the container to open up and release the main canopy inside!
The moment the folded canopy was out, it started flattering with the wind for a second or two before it was inflated fully.
Felix and Olivia got tugged by the straps, forcing them to change postures from falling on their belly to be in a standing posture.
Just as he was taught yesterday, Felix lifted his head to check if the parachute and the lines were alright.
After he didn’t notice any problems, he gripped the two toggles and started steering the parachute in his teammates’ direction.
“Give me your hands Olivia.” Felix spoke out loud since the wind wasn’t going to cause them any more troubles with their slow speed.
Feeling that they were gliding safely, Olivia didn’t feel that nervous anymore as she toughened up and opened her eyes.
Immediately after doing so, she was left amazed by the breathtaking scenery of the black forest under the morning sunlight.
The greenery of trees, the peacefulness of the lakes and rivers, and lastly her teammates gliding in the air while shouting out loud in enjoyment, having the best time of their lives.
Everything hit differently.
