Armed Train in the Apocalypse

”February 20th, 2037. Gravity is balanced.”

”Feels like I don’t need the train that much anymore, but I still don’t want to leave it behind.”

The train invited Donghuang Heavy Industry and all the combatants who hadn’t left yet to take part in its rank-conferring ceremony.

The Four Nations War wasn’t organized by Su Huan, but by his standards, if you win, you deserve a reward. And everyone needed a ritual-like event to draw a line under this war; the meaning was more important than the reward itself.

Because the speed of evolution didn’t match the new military system, the train hadn’t promoted any new officers for a long time. Even those two farsighted ones just got some points as a reward.

In this big war, the train added three new Tier Two: ”Azure Gale Sniper” Qu Hang, ”Hidden Edge, Grim Purge” Mongoose, and ”Steel Body Shield Guard” Liang Kuan.

As for Tier One, there were just too many. He Jie’s line ”average Tier One” was a bit of bragging, but right now, with all kinds of evolution resources and battles pushing them, eighty percent of the Armed Corps soldiers had reached Tier One, more than 180 people in total.

On the crew’s side, their breakthrough speed hadn’t changed, still around a dozen or so per month.

After all, the train crew doesn’t go to war, and non-combat professions don’t have such a desperate need to level up.

But the losses were just as brutal: of the eight hundred Armed Corps troops, three quarters were gone. The NCOs took a heavy hit, the combat group lost one chief purser and half its members. If Licking Rabbit hadn’t kept Lao San in the dark, the train’s combat group could’ve been disbanded after the battle of Tan Junyue.

At the same time, this was also the first chief purser the train had lost in battle.

Of the outer members organized by Wen Biao, only a bit more than 170 remained. Aside from a few who left, all of them were absorbed into the train.

Luckily, thanks to the repeatedly upgraded armor, the train itself was never breached. The crew were almost unharmed, though even when cleaning up the battlefield there were casualties. In the post-apocalypse era, both people and things can have bizarre tricks; no matter how insanely prepared you are, you still can’t avoid everything.

Lao Er’s new recruit camp had reopened recently, pulling in around three hundred people from four channels: the crew, outer followers, Donghuang reinforcements, and Donghuang Heavy Industry.

It might not sound like much compared to Zhijin’s several thousand or tens of thousands, but these were elite, tempered by the apocalypse and war. With just a bit of training they could slot right into the train’s current system.

Especially those soldiers from the Donghuang Heavy Industry Heavy Armor Brigade—top-tier manpower that fits the train perfectly.

Su Huan had thought that woman Lord Lian had turned over a new leaf. Later, when Lian Jin was drinking, she told him that after a year of the apocalypse, many soldiers in the Heavy Armor Brigade had lost their heart. If the outside environment weren’t even harsher, people would’ve left long ago. Now that they had a chance to go see other places, naturally there was no need to cling to them.

The train didn’t exactly get a bargain either; the next day Lord Lian came to Su Huan asking for money.

She said it’s not easy for a woman to maintain a faction, blah-blah, and now she finally has a man she can rely on... In short, she was absolutely righteous about asking for money.

Su Huan pinched his nose and handed over the flesh and blood of one and a half Tier Three Evolution Beasts, plus a bunch of evolution materials and technical information. He couldn’t shake the feeling of being robbed by bandits. But afterward, Donghuang Heavy Industry did send the train a batch of basic supplies, especially military hardware, which was in short supply after the big battle.

As for research data and evolution info, both sides basically shared everything.

That night, the train formed a ring, and in the middle they piled up several giant bonfires ten meters high. After He Jie’s carefree speech featuring eight ”I, your daddy” and six ”damn it,” Lin Jin lit the bonfires and casually set off a few fireworks. Tongues of flame blossomed in the air, illuminating the whole camp.

The drones that used to kill and burn soared into the sky as stage spotlights. A bunch of wrecked-car voices up there were wailing like ghosts and wolves, while Xiaozhao led a group of senior and junior brothers backstage, busy as hell, controlling the equipment. The cook led the train’s chef team in a neat row off to the side, providing endless supplies of all kinds of coveted canned goods, vegetables, and food.

Zhong You stood guard at the water tank with a dark face. When someone came over with a metal basin, he waved his hand and a big mass of clean, purified water poured down into it. Next to him sat a Tier One Evolver from Donghuang Heavy Industry in charge of making ice. He’d been planning to complain, but the moment he saw Zhong You, his mood brightened up instantly.

Beside them, Li Han was discussing fruit cultivation with Huang Sea while making delicate fruit platters. The colorful plants made the little stall look like some kind of pure land paradise.

The kangaroo was tearing around the field like a stray dog, chasing a rooster like crazy.

Lin Xia lay over the train window, eyes glued to the bustle outside. There were still quite a few wounded in the cars, so he had to stay on duty. Director Xu and a few other old men had also come out for once, sitting in front of the bar, each holding a cup, listening as Chen Ziliang, full of passion, drew symbols on a small blackboard.

Xiaoba had finished his tasks during the preparations; now he was sitting in a wheelchair, playing the old game ”Eagle Catches Chick” with a group of kids.

Over by Giraffe and Lian Jin’s spot, the bottles were already piled as high as a mountain before the event even started. When He Jie came rushing down, all hyped up to drink, he flew into a rage, and chaos broke out all over again.

As soon as Lin Jin squeezed into the backstage area, he spotted Little Box among a group of women. The girl had put on a delicate light makeup today and was wearing a green dress. Her fair shoulders and slender collarbones were bare, making his chest tighten for a moment.

Little Box was helping another woman adjust her costume. Suddenly feeling a scorching gaze, she turned to find it was Lin Jin. Her face immediately lit up with a bright smile; she lifted her skirt slightly and trotted over, grabbing his hand. ”Were you missing me?”