Armed Train in the Apocalypse

Chapter 71: Chapter 70: Dire Wolves! Dire Wolves!

Su Huan pinched his chin, ”Let’s go with five levels then, from D to S grade.”

As for why it was divided this way, he wasn’t exactly sure, but that’s how the Steel Council did it.

There are a total of five levels. The teams formed by newly absorbed external survivors are D-grade, then above that is their C-grade basic squad, consisting of five people.

But these five people are equivalent to five Lu Xiaos; even if there are a thousand regular passengers, they aren’t counted.

No matter how many die or get injured or added, the Steel Council doesn’t care.

To them, what truly belongs to them are these five people.

That’s why Su Huan previously told Lu Xiao, ”They are working for you.”

Trying to bypass the captain who leads them daily to directly gain the loyalty of regular members is a troublesome and unreliable thing to do.

It’s like a medieval king trying to bypass his vassal to manage his vassal’s vassals.

Pure madness.

So, in Su Huan’s realm, the so-called squad members eligible for exchange are just Lu Xiao alone.

He only acknowledges this one person; if Lu Xiao dies, then this squad no longer has a purpose.

Then there’s the B-grade tactical squad, with twenty people.

The A-grade is war-grade, with a hundred people.

S-grade is catastrophe-grade. On the surface, it’s three hundred-person convoys, but in reality, it represents the mobilization of all armed forces, halting the logistics system’s production of basic life supplies, with everything aimed at achieving victory in war.

Lu Xiao let out a sigh of relief, ”Not too complex.”

Su Huan displayed a strange smile on his face.

Not too complex?

In his past life, if it weren’t for Lin Jin’s timely favor, promoting him to a Tier One ”Electromagnetic Mage,” he wouldn’t even have made it onto the D-grade basic squad list, forever consigned to follow other evolvers until death.

A single zombie can yield a normal Pan-energy Crystal, and one to three of these crystals can spawn a regular evolver.

So, low-level evolvers are really not valuable.

They’re like the base layer of bricks in a pyramid, continuously building towards a higher possibility.

This is the ”quantity” in quantity leading to qualitative change; a vast base, an overwhelmingly large denominator.

When the cards shuffle, some rise, others fall.

The apocalypse, in the end, is a carnival for a few ambitious ones.

But he had had enough of being the denominator in his past life; in this life, he wanted to taste what it’s like to be the numerator.

So far, it’s looking good.

”Keep it up, I have high hopes for you. Take a good rest tonight, in a few days there will be an opportunity for you to show your skills.”

With a perfunctory smile that didn’t reach his eyes, the two walked out of the train car.

All the wounded in car 15 had been given basic treatment and were moved to the back cars, but in this scorching heat of thirty to forty degrees, Su Huan wasn’t optimistic about their injuries.

What surprised Su Huan was the woman who went out alone had returned, bringing back a big bag of two-meter long grass.

The armed train now had a second D-grade squad leader.

Repeating the previous steps, just as Su Huan was about to eat, more people arrived outside the train.

Their arrival was quite unforgettable.

...

The once lush fields on both sides were now scorched yellow from the heat, with only mutated plants rustling and twisting as they grew, crawling up to the concrete road of the highway.

Suddenly, a buzzing vibration approached from far away, and two headlights pierced through the darkness.

Accompanied by the screeching sound of brakes abruptly stopping, ”Bang—”

Two shadowy figures, as large as calves, were thrown off the vehicle, sliding tens of meters on the ground, resilient fur scraping against the ground without leaving any wounds.

Shaking off their stunned minds, their oily green eyes locked back onto the vehicle, and they lunged again.

”Accelerate, run them over! Run them over—”

The engine roared, tires spun in place, and a sticky dragging noise came from the hot ground, as if countless charred hands were reaching up from below to pull them down.

The car shot out again, colliding directly with the lunging blood hounds.

”Boom!”

A violent tremor erupted, the windshield shattered into pieces.

A terrified scream came from the driver’s seat.

It was quickly drowned out by the roar of more vehicle engines; over a dozen cars charged forward, each chased and bitten by numerous dark figures.

”Bang!”

The tense driver suddenly saw the parked car in front, flinched in fear, jerked the steering wheel hard, and ended up colliding with a side vehicle.

Both cars spun out of control, flipping sideways on the highway, triggering more chain-reaction crashes.

The evolutionary beasts swarmed up, using sharp claws and teeth to pry open car doors and windows, dragging the occupants out.

These small cars, weighing several tons, were like oversized cans in front of these brutes.

Being torn apart and shaken relentlessly.

The vehicles behind, realizing the chaos, could only veer into the wilderness on either side.

The headlights lit up the armed train sprawled across the tracks.

And the human faces behind the glass, the driver initially jumped in fright, then, recognizing them as living people, was overjoyed, frantically honking for help.

But this piercing sound attracted all the evolutionary beasts in the passageway.

”Turn on the overhead spotlights.” Su Huan’s calm voice rang out.

Liang Kuan immediately complied.

”Click—”

A dozen high-power spotlights instantly lit up the entire wilderness as bright as day.

The carnage on the highway was fully revealed, and everyone in the train drew a sharp breath.

Several wolf leaders, not much smaller than vehicles, stood atop the cars, green eyes staring at the spotlights, pupils contracting slightly, their pre-apocalypse instincts making them choose to cautiously observe.

Among the vehicles, there were also over twenty calf-like gray wolves.

”They’re Fearsome Wolves.”

Su Huan quickly identified these evolutionary beasts.

Unlike blood hounds, Fearsome Wolves had no exaggerated mutations in appearance, still resembling pre-apocalypse gray wolves, only their overall size had escalated, from medium-sized dogs to the scale of large lions or tigers, with even greater strength.

One slap could dent a regular car door, bending the A-pillar and shattering the glass.

To regular people without firearms, they were a terrifying nightmare.

The kind of evolutionary beast escape teams least wanted to encounter.

”Howl...”

Seeing the armed train unresponsive for so long, the Wolf King let out a low growl.

Over twenty gray wolves, led by several robust males, began to spread out and surround the armed train.

The driver inside the car, oblivious to danger, kept honking, sticking his head out to shout for those inside the train to let him in.

In the next moment, jaws fanged with sharp teeth appeared instantly behind his head.

Like a summer watermelon exploding, luscious juices burst forth.

The crisp sound sent a chill down everyone’s spine.

”Howl howl!”

As if signaled, the wolf pack launched an attack on the armed train.

”Bang bang bang...”

Terrifying collision sounds rang out, and passengers near the window instinctively stepped back a pace.

Their faces were panic-stricken, panic-stricken...

Until they could no longer maintain.

Su Huan looked at a snarling Tier One Fearsome Wolf outside the riot protection net.

And returned a mischievous toothy grin.

He extended a hand, flicking its moist nose with force, ”You didn’t eat, little buddy?”