Armed Train in the Apocalypse

Not giving him a chance to speak further, he got up and left.

Mr. Shu looked at the steak on the ground and frowned slightly.

He wasn’t upset about the steak; his anger was because that steak had been personally cut by him.

Even though it was extremely precious food in the outside world now.

To his power, however, it was nothing more than leftovers.

It didn’t even constitute a part of his resources; rather, it was one of the gifts obtained through his position and the power he wielded.

At this moment, a waiter approached reluctantly, bent over, and whispered, ”The Vice President of Business Development from Deep Blue Data wants to see you.”

Mr. Shu’s face remained impassive, but a trace of doubt flashed in his heart.

What did Deep Blue Data want from him?

However, given the other party’s identity, he couldn’t ignore them either.

He took the hot towel handed to him by the waiter, wiped his hands, and any trace of reluctance towards Wang Yi disappeared entirely from his face. Instead, his face displayed that deep and fierce intensity characteristic of an old man as he stood up and walked out.

”Don’t waste food.”

Several waiters behind him bowed slightly, expressionless, as they picked up the steak from the ground and ate it.

...

Two days had passed since the armored train left Shun’an.

That night’s rain was light, and the wind was strong.

The Iron-Eating Trees proclaimed that it was the most beautiful bonfire they had ever seen in their lives. They danced wildly around the bonfire all night until the gathering dispersed in satisfaction.

As for Black Kite and the people from Deep Blue Data, they hadn’t appeared by the time they left either.

Perhaps they were held up by the enthusiastic Iron-Eating Trees for hospitality.

Or maybe they encountered something else.

Su Huan didn’t know either.

The armored train maintained a maximum speed of 75 km/h, heading north all the way.

Most of the time it traveled on tracks, using treads only when encountering track breaks. Besides running faster on the tracks, fuel consumption was also a problem.

At the same speed, tread consumption was nearly eight times that on the tracks!

Even with quite a bit of fuel refueled at Shun’an Station, it couldn’t withstand such usage.

Energy was needed everywhere on the train.

So the logistics team selected a portion of power suppliers to inject electricity into the train’s engine in batches daily, alleviating some of the energy pressure.

Although it couldn’t fully cover fuel consumption, the remaining fuel was enough to allow this batch of power suppliers to grow.

On the way to Guangren City, the armored train encountered many survivors.

But the train no longer needed too many outsiders, so it only absorbed a small number of exceptional talents.

After sending out some teams for trading and exploration, they quickly left.

Two months of acid rain, communication breakdowns, and endless zombie evolution beasts made even the most optimistic survivors lose hope. Emotions transitioned from fear, despair, and collapse to numb survival.

Apocalypse didn’t actually come so fast.

It came in batches.

The first apocalypse was when high temperatures erupted and all things mutated.

This was the environmental apocalypse.

A sudden apocalyptic crisis shrouded human civilization.

At this time, people’s hearts were hung by fear, trying every possible way to escape, to survive, trying all means to struggle.

There was always a bit of expectation.

Or perhaps it was the rescue that didn’t know when would appear, or resources that were unreachable in the past, or a sudden escape from monotonous and dull work.

After two months, survivors became slightly more stable.

They suddenly realized that they could never return to that prosperous and peaceful era.

Without convenient water and electricity, without social networks, without delicious food that could be delivered at the push of a button...

The old rules formed by humanity over thousands of years were shattered.

Some people didn’t even know what they relied on to live, how to live, or why they lived...

The second apocalypse then truly arrived.

This was the apocalypse of the human heart.

So whenever the massive armored train passed by a location, countless survivors would cheer excitedly because that roar brought the afterglow of old civilization.

But once the afterglow passed, only endless cold dark nights remained.

Fear and restlessness were the norm.

But Su Huan didn’t care about any of that.

As the train conductor, he only needed to be responsible for his train.

Under his pressure, everyone on the armored train functioned like parts of a precision machine, operating efficiently and orderly.

No one was found to have any psychological issues thus far.

Because Su Huan gave them a goal, one that was distant yet visible, ”Plum.”

”The train is heading north all the way, then we can escape the disaster.”

Of course, this was not said by Su Huan.

It was a phrase that emerged as he initially explained the train’s goal to Wan Xing and others, gradually changing in meaning.

Coupled with the heavy workload each day, even the evolvers had no time for fanciful thoughts.

Since everyone on the train was an evolver, there was no issue of insufficient energy, so train time changed from a 24-hour system to a 36-hour cycle.

A cycle of thirty-six hours.

Working twenty-four hours a day, with the remaining twelve hours all used for rest.

Everyone was indifferent to the change in time, exhibiting little resistance.

If the train was a company, they already lived in the company; what else could they do but work?

The production efficiency of the armored train increased by another two to three percent.

...

An interesting test was taking place in the armored hall between the two trains.

Soldiers of the Armed Corps filled both sides, including He Jie, Yu Yue, and Xiaoba.

They surrounded the two people in the center.

One was Yu Jing, wearing a large exoskeleton.

This was the latest research result from her Mechanical Testing Laboratory.

A customized exoskeleton: [Engineer-Type Ⅰ], weighing 110 kg.

The prototype was the enhanced functional exoskeleton, and on that basis, all the metal frames were replaced with Tier One Titanium Steel.

It was a new material made by combining titanium alloy metal with bones from the Tier One spinal canine and ironwood.

Compared to the green steel, Titanium Steel hardness exceeded by more than one-fifth, and it was even lighter than green steel by twenty percent, but its ductility and tensile strength were much poorer than green steel.

Moreover, the difficulty in manufacturing made it less suitable for synthesis than green steel. Previously, when it was produced, it was only stored as a new material rather than used extensively on the train.

Now used by Yu Jing to create the exoskeleton, it turned out to be a perfect fit.

Compared to the [Scavenger], the [Engineer] was something entirely different.

The exposed hydraulic pipelines were wrapped in carbon fiber freeze-proof sheaths, using bionic tendon structures at the joints, covered with cold-resistant composite armor plates overall, presented in matte iron-gray, with special fluorescent orange marking stripes.

A standard engineering mount was reserved on the back, which could quickly carry scientific research instruments, welding arms, or light weapons.

There was an additional pair of five-joint high-mobility mechanical arms on both sides.

The two-node shoulder, one-node elbow, and two-node wrist allowed the mechanical arms to flexibly turn.

The mechanical arms had two modes: hydraulic tongs and precision operation. The former could exert a gripping force of over two tons, while the latter could perform laser ranging and 3D emergency printing.

Focused on engineering manufacturing, the [Engineer] series appeared taller and more robust, with a coarse and cold mechanical texture.

At 1.6 meters tall, once Yu Jing donned this exoskeleton, she reached a height of two meters.

Taller than even Liang Kuan, the tallest on the train.

At this moment, Yu Jing held two pistols, each in her hands, and an Iron Curtain assault rifle with each mechanical arm.

On her back was a light machine gun, all aimed at the target a hundred meters ahead.

Standing beside her was the mongoose of the Armed Corps.

A table stood before them, displaying the same two assault rifles and light machine gun.

He Jie, standing between the two, glanced towards the train conductor.

Su Huan nodded slightly.

He Jie pinched a timer and raised a hand.

Accompanied by a single beep.

Fire spat from the muzzles of both simultaneously.

However, three streams emerged on Yu Jing’s side: one from the light machine gun on her back, and two from the pistols in her hands.

The fifteen bullets in the [Law Enforcer-S1] tactical pistol and the ammo belt of the light machine gun on her back were almost depleted simultaneously.

Meanwhile, the mongoose had already emptied the pistol and was reloading.

This round of competition would require reloading once for the assault rifles and light machine guns, and three times for the pistols.

Yu Jing calmly operated the exoskeleton on her body. With several clicks, the spare ammo belt was chambered, aimed at the target in front, and fired.

Meanwhile, she unhurriedly replaced the magazines in the two pistols in her hands.