Armed Train in the Apocalypse

”Of course, ordinary ’function users’ definitely can’t provide enough power in the early stages. We can use them for small-scale power supply and have them gradually ramp up later.”

Su Huan nodded. He was only here to see how to build the city’s basic infrastructure; there was absolutely no way he’d stay behind as a power plant worker.

He turned to look at Shu Wei behind him. ”Mutant beetles—are there a lot of them?”

Shu Wei’s voice was icy. ”They crawled out from an underground wellhead. After one Tier One beetle was killed, Lao San directly blew up the shaft. But Zhijin’s underground pipelines are interconnected. We suspect there are far more beetles down there, maybe an entire large nest.”

Su Huan frowned. ”I’ve swept Zhijin’s underground. Although there were scattered Pan Energy fluctuations, there shouldn’t be any large Mutant Beast populations...”

Shu Wei suddenly lowered his head. A moment later, he held a tablet flat in front of Su Huan. ”Latest intel: the carapace on these beetles can block Pan Energy fluctuations.”

Looking at the huge rock-like beetle on the screen, Su Huan instructed Professor Ma, ”Postpone inspections of underground cables and pipelines for now. Continue after we finish the investigation. Have He Jie and Yu Yue come see me.”

...

Several relatively intact beetles had been laid out around the big pit. All of them were killed by Evolvers using their Abilities, so there was little external damage.

They’d long since been pressure-washed clean. Three were unranked, one was Tier One, all waiting for the higher-ups to inspect.

Because he’d been a bit farther away, Su Huan was the last to arrive. The pit was fully sealed off by the Armed Corps. He Jie and Lao San were squatting beside the beetles, watching Director Xu’s researchers dissect them.

Yu Yue was cradling a sniper rifle, standing in the shadow of a building by the street with a solemn face.

When they saw Su Huan land, everyone stood and gathered around him.

”Keep going.” Su Huan looked at the half-dissected beetle on the ground and spoke in a low voice.

Washed clean, the beetle didn’t look that hideous. Its body was made of a single slab of yellow rock-like carapace. The dissection team had used an electric saw to cut it open; the thickness reached a shocking 3 cm. An ordinary rifle round could only chip it. It took two to three bullets hitting the exact same spot to ensure a kill.

”This thing is way harder to kill than a zombie.”

Lao San muttered on the side.

”How about the underside?”

Su Huan asked.

The dissection staff flipped the beetle over. ”The bottom is still very smooth. Most of it is tough connective tissue with only two pairs of strong legs. But they’re not as hard as the carapace; regular handgun rounds can penetrate them.”

”And this is just an ordinary unranked beetle. For a Tier One, the shell thickness can reach 5 cm. Regular soldiers won’t have any effective countermeasures against them. I suggest we suspend the base city plan and first confirm the scale of the underground swarm.”

He Jie said seriously.

There were many people here, so He Jie didn’t spell some things out, but Su Huan understood what he meant.

Very likely this was another big pit Black Kite had left behind!

Not even talking about the extreme case of a Tier Three—if it was all unranked and Tier One, as long as the numbers were too high, the current operating state of the Armed Train would collapse on the spot.

The Armed Train followed an elite strategy: lock onto the enemy’s position, concentrate all power, and smash into them hard.

But the train had just fought a brutal battle with a corpse tide. All kinds of supplies were severely depleted, the spoils hadn’t even been fully recovered, and this time the target was underground. If they rushed into a fight, they could very well suffer a disastrous defeat.

Of course, with the conductor around, they’d never truly lose. But once Su Huan got involved, he’d end up flattening Zhijin City, which they’d just barely cleaned up. Every plan would get scrambled. Might as well go find some wilderness and restart from scratch.

Su Huan didn’t answer. His calm gaze shifted to Yu Yue at the side; she shook her head.

”Sounds from underground are hard to monitor, and it’s very noisy—hard to distinguish anything.”

Staring at the big pit in front of him, Su Huan narrowed his eyes. A moment later, he said firmly, ”Fill it in first. Surface cleanup continues. In the next two days, you nail down the swarm’s numbers and positions for me. Even if there’s a whole city underground, I’m still building this base city right on its head!”

Seeing that Su Huan had made up his mind, He Jie stopped arguing and had Mountain Goat go command the soldiers to backfill the pit.

The two of them walked to a quiet spot and used Yu Yue’s Shared Acoustic Field to talk.

”Time to expand the troops.”

He Jie was concise.

”We can’t keep that many on the train.” Su Huan said calmly. ”But off the train, we can.”

He Jie froze for a moment. ”You mean the City Defense Army?”

”Before we leave, they’re all still our own people. And if you’re expanding, you’ll be selecting from these hundred thousand anyway.”

”Then I’ll talk to Lao Er and get a new recruit camp ready.”

He Jie thought it over. That did make sense.

”Dial the training intensity a bit. The training levels for the City Defense Army, the Garrison Corps, and the Armed Corps need to be different. If we turn out two more deserters, you can go back to the recruit camp yourself.”

Su Huan gave him a sidelong glance and said flatly.

”Damn!”

The plan that would affect an entire city’s fate was settled in just a few words.

Small matters get a big meeting, big matters get a small meeting—truly words of gold and jade.

...

”July 15th, gale.”

”Turns out there really is a city under Zhijin—a Beetle Kingdom.”

Lab tests showed the beetle’s shell hardness was similar to marble, and a Tier One’s was comparable to basalt.

Director Xu named them Giant Rock Beetles.

And worse, according to Yu Yue’s probing, the entire underground beneath Weinan District was packed with beetles. They didn’t just fill the underground network, they’d also dug who knew how many layers deeper down.

There were even Tier Two Giant Rock Beetles spotted. The whole of Zhijin was like a decoy structure built on top of the Beetle Kingdom.

”But unexpectedly, the Giant Rock Beetles aren’t very aggressive. They also feed on soil, rock, and plant roots. In fact, to some extent, they have fairly high affinity.”

Director Xu studied the Giant Rock Beetle feeding inside the huge glass tank, surprise in his eyes.

Standing behind him, Su Huan spotted a glass vat labeled ”ethanol” on the shelf. It was filled with amber-colored liquid. He couldn’t help opening it for a sniff. A rich, mellow aroma of liquor hit him, along with a strong Pan Energy pulse that sent every cell in his body into a frenzy, screaming at him to drink it.

Cautious, Su Huan used Pan Energy to lift a thread of the ethanol-blended liquor, while asking, ”Affinity?”

”They’re highly obedient. We still don’t know if they answer to a queen or something else, but once we figure out the logic, we could even domesticate them.”

”Like the Iron-Eating Tree?”

”More or less.”

A wave of dizziness washed over Su Huan, but it quickly faded, leaving his whole body radiating heat.

With his inhuman physique, anything that could make him dizzy even briefly was more than enough for this vat of liquor to be proud of.

”...Tastes pretty good, actually.”

He muttered under his breath.

”What?”

Director Xu turned back in surprise, half amused and half exasperated. ”Don’t just drink that stuff. That’s what Wan Xing and I made together—using liquor to amplify the Life Potion’s effect. It’s still in the testing phase. We don’t even know what it actually does yet.”

Su Huan waved his hand, his gaze clear again. ”My gut says it worked.”

Director Xu came over and covered the vat, joking, ”My research experience says there’s still room for improvement.”

Su Huan shrugged. ”Get the beetle research done fast. Otherwise, I’m just going to blow them all to hell.”

Director Xu put the glass vat back on the shelf and adjusted the label so it lined up perfectly with all the other glass vats, then clipped it in with a small fastener to keep it from falling when the train moved.

”Got it. I’ll pull in a couple more people. This kind of behavioral observation project isn’t hard; it just needs patience.”

”Funny.” Su Huan smiled faintly. ”Patience is exactly what I don’t have.”

Director Xu answered with a helpless smile.

”Come on, let’s test your Life Force. This feeling is a bit off.”

”That bad?”

Director Xu said calmly, ”Two more Chongying experimental subjects died. Only seven are left.”

Following Director Xu into the next lab, Su Huan saw a silver-haired girl sitting in the middle of the room. Sato and six Chongying People with devout expressions were kneeling at Lin Xi’s feet.

”Well now, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?”