Armed Train in the Apocalypse

The Fungus Carpet was scorched into charred mush by the torrent of lightning, and the train rolled over following the tracks.

Everyone standing on the train clearly felt the ground sink by a meter. The entire town, like a deep-sea creature suddenly awakened, surged with waves, exposing half-digested car wrecks from below, sweeping toward the train.

Inaudible screams sounded, growing more frenzied and sharp as the Fungus Carpet seethed. The spores clinging to the walls expanded and contracted, spraying out mist that enveloped the train. Within seconds, even the road ahead became obscured.

Yu Yue activated her ability, and the sharp cries abruptly ceased.

Lin Jin’s eyes swirled with flames, a series of incandescent white firelights appearing one after another from the train’s front to its back, resembling street lamps suspended in mid-air, a hundred pairs lighting up within a few breaths.

At the moment the Fungus Carpet lunged forward, Lin Jin clenched his hand into a fist. The hundreds of firelights quietly disintegrated and charged at the enemy in the fan-shaped area ahead, clashing like water and fire and raising a large plume of white mist.

With almost no time for entanglement, the meter-thick Fungus Carpet was burnt through, then landed on a building and caused a secondary explosion.

Sparks flew like fireworks shooting into the sky, then landed on more Fungus Carpets.

Some fungi emitted gray mist, while others secreted honey-like yellow goo at their severed ends, trying to extinguish the flames on them. But no matter what they did, the flames stubbornly burned on, even if a weak spark was extinguished; it would rekindle by absorbing Pan Energy from the surroundings without warning!

As the east was suppressed, the west flared up; as the west was suppressed, the south blazed intensely!

In an instant, the entire town was covered in Lin Jin’s flames, and amidst the roaring blaze, the train advanced silently.

The flames maintained a meter’s distance from the train, no matter how fiercely they burned, never crossing the line. The train seemed to traverse through a museum of flames, with the fiery walls on either side encasing the agonizingly twisting Fungus Carpet, like a flowing epic.

Except for a few teammates in Lin Jin’s squad, everyone was rendered speechless by the scene before them.

Inside his Power Armor, Lu Xiao looked at the raging fire with a complex expression.

He had boarded the train much earlier than Lin Jin, yet somehow, the gap had widened so significantly.

Su Huan, however, wasn’t surprised, given the attribute restraint combined with Lin Jin’s high talent. Failing to achieve such results would be more unusual.

Casually, he asked, ”Is the ’High Temperature Barrier’ already capable of extending so far away from the body?”

Lin Jin’s voice was amplified through the external speaker of the Power Armor, ”As long as it’s within the range my flames can reach, all passive skills can be effective.”

”And what’s the limit range?”

Su Huan posed another key question.

For a ’Manipulator,’ aside from basic attributes and skills, the attack range is also a crucial factor affecting combat power.

Different particles or energies manipulated by each ’Manipulator’ consume varying amounts, Yu Yue and Qu Hang only need to consume very little energy to extend their range.

Like his ’Fusion Reactor,’ the output range is only about 1-1.5 kilometers, and he has to limit the output each time; if he exerts too much force, he may get caught in it himself, so he mostly relies on electrical energy conversion, which is his skill with the greatest attack distance, close to eight kilometers.

Using a Fire Spear, the range is only two kilometers at most, beyond which he can’t hold the energy in check, leading to fission and dissipation.

So, Su Huan’s regular combat radius is within three kilometers; beyond this distance, even a Tier Two Evolver can escape without being killed by him.

Lin Jin thought for a moment and said, ”Normally, I can directly control within five hundred meters, and if the flames spread, I can control it more, the limit distance is somewhat tricky, it’s three kilometers.”

Su Huan raised an eyebrow, ”How’s it tricky?”

Lin Jin lifted his hand, a flame clutched within the Power Armor, and, squeezing it tightly, flames burst from between his fingers, growing in the wind, instantly forming a Flaming Longbow.

He casually drew the bowstring, and an arrow materialized out of thin air, flying about a kilometer and piercing through a giant mushroom, then exploding with a loud bang, the flames shooting up over ten meters high.

”I send the Fire Seed out this way, but remote control consumes significant energy, so usually I don’t bother once it’s out.”

Squinting, Su Huan’s palm surged with lightning, an azure Thunder Liquid instantly forming a longbow that appeared more solid and imposing, emitting faint arcs of electricity in the void, but he didn’t use it, glancing at it briefly before waving it away.

Because the longbow in his hand was merely a shape, without any actual function.

This highlights the difference between ’High Energy Compression’ + ’Energy Shaping’ and ’Flame Mimicry.’

His two skills target comprehensive and extensive energy manipulation; he can compress electric currents and similarly compress flames, light, and even pure Pan Energy, shaping them into forms as small as a palm or as massive as a Thunder Pool covering thousands of meters.

But Lin Jin’s mimicry does not have this functionality.

The two directions have respective strengths.

Neither is superior nor inferior.

During their conversation, the train had passed through the mushroom town, the gray mist veiling the sunlight above, plunging the world into sudden gloom, illuminated only by steady glows of lightning and fire.

”What’s your total energy level now?”

”Level 7.”

Su Huan fell silent; it barely reached the Tier Two pass line, and whether even thirty percent could be harnessed after surgery remains uncertain.

”Save it, there’ll be more occasions to use it later.”