Chapter 326: The Matriarch’s Gift
Everyone immediately showed anticipation on their faces.
Although everyone knew the Train Conductor was strong, without a reference, no one knew just how strong the Train Conductor was.
Moreover, in battle Su Huan mostly displayed violent energy, rarely taking action personally, so everyone was curious about the extent of his basic attributes.
Lin Jin’s pair of eyes shone even more brightly.
“Tier 2 ‘Fighting Expert’, should be the most balanced ability among ‘Defenders’.”
Director Xu emphasized.
“But I have Tier 3 profession bonus, so it might not be accurate.”
Su Huan reminded, while exerting force he activated ‘Internal Vision’, instantly seeing energy lines even more accurate than General Energy Perception.
And the displayed number was also skyrocketing, quickly surpassing the 5000kg mark from 3000kg.
But the speed also slowed down, gradually breaking through 8000kg, everyone’s expressions turned serious, the flame in Lin Jin’s eyes burned even more fiercely.
His own data was just 3100kg, nearly three times less!
‘Is this the Train Conductor’s true strength?’
By the time it stopped, it had reached 8400kg.
He Jie directly cursed, “Where the hell is this balanced?”
Just as everyone thought it was over, General Energy on Su Huan’s body suddenly surged, the number skyrocketed again, reaching 9000kg!
“What’s the situation?”
“Holy shit!”
He Jie looked shocked at Director Xu, “This counts as cheating, right!”
“A skill broke through.”
Su Huan frowned and sat up, energy on his body surging uncontrollably, the intense energy fluctuations even He Jie and other evolvers not good at perceiving General Energy could detect.
Genes were like an out-of-control carriage, unable to stop after the reins were released.
The reason Su Huan had always suppressed himself was because he foresaw this kind of madness combined with evolution.
After being suppressed by the Matriarch, it had calmed for a while, but unexpectedly, simply doing a test today caused the skill upgrade to trigger gene riot again.
Just as he was headache over how to handle it, a cool sensation came from the earring, spreading throughout his body, locking the rioting energy layer by layer.
Just like when he was promoted to Tier 3.
“Huh, your earring changed color!”
Yu Yue let out a light exclamation.
Everyone looked at the Train Conductor’s earring, the originally gold and silver earring had turned into a pure black earring, absorbing light, quietly hanging on the exquisite earlobe, with a mysterious texture.
Su Huan removed the earring, the cool sensation in his body gradually faded, but the evolution runaway was braked.
“This seems to be a special material for energy solidification too.”
Director Xu said in surprise.
The train first discovered this material in the Flood Zone, Su Huan called down lightning to bomb the crab for three days, forcibly enchanting a Tier 2 crab, later taken by Yu Jing, saying it was to make exoskeleton, still no progress until now.
Later Director Xu conducted small-scale research on this material, but due to scarcity, progress was limited, until recently obtaining Black Kite’s General Energy Weapon, manufacturing a General Energy-consuming defense device.
Currently used on [Defender] Power Armor.
“About right, there’s a pure Tier 3 energy, but hidden very deeply.”
Su Huan’s eyes also showed surprise.
He didn’t expect the big trouble to be solved by this little thing, just didn’t know how long this energy could last.
“It’s fine now, continue with the next test.”
The small interlude passed quickly.
The deck was once again filled with an increasingly heated atmosphere.
Each test had multiple branches, like speed testing sprint, reaction speed, limb frequency…
Defense testing skin toughness, impact resistance, bone strength, etc.
Because there were too many people and too many test items, several assistants split up to help test everyone, while Director Xu only handled the Train Conductor.
Soon all kinds of data were compiled.
By the time the most complex energy test was done, it was already early morning, but no one present was tired, He Jie leading a group of men around the strength test area sweating it out, whether flesh-oriented or not they enjoyed it tirelessly, every time breaking data accompanied by heated wild roars.
The women weren’t as interested, after testing they brought a bunch of snacks up, starting a tea party in the corner.
Tan Yunxi and Deputy General Manager Deng didn’t know what they were talking about, arguing intensely, big tail swishing back and forth.
A piece of moonlight quietly sat in the corner, until discovered by the woman with a head of purple hair, Yin Yinan looking at the young girl before her like a moon goddess, feeling Li Xinlong wasn’t so appealing anymore.
Li Han had long lost the tension from when he first boarded, proudly showing off to Huang Hai the new plant he recently cultivated, green vines in his hand like a magic trick, growing section by section, soon reaching over two meters tall, the top blooming a pale yellow flower, bending down, emitting warm light.
The huge glowing flower attracted a small figure, propping ground with tail, stealthily looking around, then crawling into the cavity in the flower pistil, skillfully like returning to mother’s breeding bag.
Hu Shuo smiled watching all this before him, putting everything he saw to paper.
[…Compared to the early days of the apocalypse, people now prefer pre-apocalypse clothes, looser, more comfortable, and prettier, rather than constantly preparing for danger from who knows where.]
After recording this text, Hu Shuo looked up, suddenly finding Xiao Zhao standing on a chair, holding a camera in hand.
Hu Shuo walked over, with some curiosity, “Where’d the camera come from?”
Xiao Zhao came down, smiled, “I fixed it myself when idle, though many functions don’t work, but the basics are still there, want to try?”
Hu Shuo shook his head, “I prefer recording with words, but photos are good too, can they be printed?”
“With a printer, yes.”
“Can I have one of tonight’s photos?”
“Of course, I took many from before too.”
“You took photos every gathering?”
Hu Shuo’s eyes lit up slightly.
“Might miss one or two, but most should be there.”
A smile appeared on Hu Shuo’s face, “Thanks for the trouble.”
……
Su Huan didn’t disturb his subordinates’ small cozy space, instead gathering with Director Xu around Professor Ma, the other holding basic data just calculated by the supercomputer, with Old Jiang, Wang Duoyu and other new talents standing nearby.
Unlike the old man, they needed to show face more in front of the Train Conductor to build impression.
Director Xu, “This data has a big gap from my estimate.”
Wang Duoyu, “The formula seems correct, but I’m not sure on this aspect, any ideas?”
Professor Ma, “Still short on people, especially lacking basics disciplines, but the formula should be fine, what does the Train Conductor think?”
Su Huan picked up a stack of paper in hand, frowning, “Why is it all symbols, not even a single Chinese character?”
“Cough, that’s the detection paper, data is below.”
Flipping to the next page, Su Huan glanced twice and put down the documents, seriously, “Alright, give me a concise overview.”
The many scholars: “……Did you not understand?”
Of course they didn’t dare say it, said the Train Conductor held grudges especially.
Director Xu explained, “Based on data comparison, I found each type of evolver has a relatively balanced profession, like ‘Fighter’ in ‘Defender’, then using that profession’s basic attributes as base, perform comprehensive calculation.”
“Then got lv1 strength, lv1 speed, lv1 defense… these basic attribute data, then derived from these data, got everyone’s current basic attributes.”
“The tier conversion method same as skill level.”
After his explanation, Su Huan immediately understood the principle.
Then picking up a basic attributes report about himself, “So my attributes are lv7 strength, lv8 speed, lv5 defense, lv6 stamina, lv6 constitution, meaning my speed attribute is near Tier 3, defense less than Tier 2, the rest a bit more than Tier 2, stuck at the standard line?”
Director Xu nodded, “Using 3 levels per tier conversion, yes.”
“Then I get all this.” Su Huan pointed at the question mark after total energy, “What’s this mean?”
Director Xu helplessly, “That’s why I said the estimate deviation is too big, the calculated data is way over spec, so I’m not sure if it’s wrong.”
“Then what’s the concluded number?”
“lv13.”
By this total, Su Huan should be Tier 4 evolver, not even entry-level Tier 4.
This wasn’t arithmetic sequence, huge gaps between levels, lv12 and lv13 could differ by over a hundred Tier 3 evolvers.
So Director Xu kept muttering if the data was wrong.
Su Huan pondered a moment, “Shouldn’t be wrong, my profession isn’t conventional ‘Energizer’, but extreme growth total energy profession direction, this data isn’t strange.”
The scholars nodded, could only explain it this way for now.
“Right, previously speculated profession promotion related to basic data, can we use this test result as reference?”
“Theoretically feasible, but specifically needs experiment, might waste some resources on those Chongying people.”
Director Xu said.
As for the Chongying people he mentioned, were the Pan-Asian Alliance evolvers packed by Lin Xi, now still working in Director Xu’s Laboratory, contributing to the train.
“After stabilizing, still need to clean Zhijin City north, train won’t lack resources short-term, go all out.”
“Mm.”
……
“July 11, no wind.”
“Seasons disordered, twenty-four solar terms intermittent, world left with twelve heavenly calamities divided by region.”
Whether early May or now July, Storm Zone either endless sandstorm or blazing sun, only a few extremely brief rains.
Reason air dehumidifier could still extract moisture, probably due to adjacency to Flood Zone, preventing this land from drying to death.
Due to General Energy, zombie corpses rotted extremely slowly, so even left long, those corpses still lifelike, maintaining pre-death vitality, just muscles somewhat atrophied, blood dark and dry.
But under over 30 degrees temperature, the emitted stench enough to make ordinary person seriously ill just from smelling.
Qi Zhenbang adjusted the mask on his face, shouldering spear and shovel towards his “battlefield”.
As one of the few “outsiders” on the train, the train didn’t mistreat him, work standards fully aligned with Level 1 Attendant.
At first he wasn’t used to it, worried about Iron Mountain Shelter, anxious if he could find army, but after period of regular work on time off time life, Qi Zhenbang’s mentality stabilized instead.
No need to worry about shelter’s mess, even evolution speed faster.
Already at the doorstep.
“Today we clear this short street, no alleys, no entering building interiors, shout for help if anything, got it?”
At a tragic crossroads, Manufacturing Group squad leader instructed them.
Because worked several days, otherwise just rules would take half hour.
Qi Zhenbang thought it good, even felt like back in army, everything arranged, just need to do it, even work content similar to his peacekeeping days.
Moreover zombies didn’t lose bowel bladder control before death, smell not that disgusting.
Bypassing a half-melted Tier 1 Butcher, Qi Zhenbang reached a pile of corpses, ferocious zombies mowed by heavy machine gun intertwined, forming strange you-in-me me-in-you shapes.
He first poked corpses with spear, confirming none alive, then viciously stabbed belly of every intact corpse, ensuring pierce through, releasing residual gas inside, before next step.
First spread two huge black bags on ground, then dragged intact corpses onto them.
Those severed legs feet ignore first.
Some machine gun-shredded corpses hard to drag but relatively intact, could extract plenty material, so needed princess carry to hug over.
Once intact corpses done, take shovel and spade, scrape off all organs and unknown filth stuck to ground, in scorching weather these stuck tighter than glue.
These garbage and General Energy-lost limbs packed together in another bag.
Someone would come drag away later.
Occasionally Combat Group members in Power Armor came patrol, preventing possible dangers.
Busy one morning, squad cleared dozens of meters, nearing large pit ahead.
Such giant pits they saw many these two days, biggest before Chenxi Plaza, all left by Train Conductor.
These pits hardest to handle, they not only cleaned battlefield, but repaired war’s “wounds”, like this road-middle big pit involving city wiring, sewers etc important facilities, needed careful cleanup.
Otherwise bury now, dig up later, more trouble then.
Squad Leader carrying set of clothes walked over, “Old Qi, take a break, us two go down finish this big pit, aim to complete today, otherwise in two days sandstorm, more misery.”
As squad’s strongest two, naturally bear more dangerous tasks.
Qi Zhenbang took water bottle from waist, sipping small mouthfuls, squinting at sky.
“Go down now, I feel wind coming soon.”
