Chapter 322: Want To Join The Train?
The cold and stern youth before his eyes had killing intent boiling in his gaze.
“Kill him.”
The sky change stirred up sandstorm, sweeping toward Zhijin in overwhelming waves.
Su Huan narrowed his eyes, then after a moment, he smiled faintly and extended his hand. “A good transaction. I accept.”
Zhong You decisively gripped the Train Conductor’s hand and said gravely, “When do we make our move? He won’t stay in Zhijin too long. Once he returns to headquarters, even if you’re strong, you might not be able to intercept him.”
Su Huan used the force to stand, brushing past him. “Now.”
Zhong You froze in place. In the instant they had brushed past each other, he saw faint patterns emerge on Su Huan’s body, like some kind of energy circulation diagram, but embedded in human flesh—more complex and more mysterious.
Especially the patterns at his heart; just one glance gave him a dizzying sense of suffocation.
‘So this is Tier 3…’
Zhong You’s expression was complex as he suddenly asked, “Aren’t you afraid I’m tricking you?”
“Then I’ll kill you too.”
“Let’s go.”
……
In the underground laboratory, the assistant suddenly said, “The data has been packaged and sent back to headquarters. Task complete.”
“You all withdraw according to plan.”
Number 1’s voice came from the innermost room.
The two assistants wasted no words, carrying nothing, donned the exoskeleton in the corner of the wall, and walked straight out.
In the room, Number 1 looked at the repeatedly padded file before him and murmured to himself, “The probability that Zhong You believes me is less than ten percent, so the chance he returns to the scene is over ninety percent. The probability of him directly attacking the Train Conductor is less than thirty percent, and the remaining seventy percent… is coming to kill me.”
“Based further on Su Huan’s behavioral logic, over seventy percent chance he’ll seek the laboratory’s location, and subsequent headquarters…”
“Which means I still have two chances to obtain Tier 3 data.”
“Need to further enrage Zhong You.”
……
The three traversed the rooftop, with Zhong You occasionally hurling a water mass to smash the heads of zombies blocking the way.
This time, Su Huan had only brought Yu Yue, leaving He Jie and the others to clean up the battlefield.
Though everyone objected, there was no way to change the outcome; the train was the Train Conductor’s absolute domain.
Su Huan also needed an experimental battle to probe his own combat and ability limits.
Tier 3 professions were far more complex than he had imagined. Tier 1 had three skills; even with creative combinations, that was just seven possibilities at most, and they didn’t even require much training—relying on instinct alone could easily activate the three skills to achieve the goal.
Slightly more complex ones, like “Static Swamp” and its advanced “Lightning Pool,” required some training and creativity.
But at Tier 3 “Fusion Furnace,” there were already seven basic skills, plus the five from Tier 2 “Fighting Expert.” This level of complexity required him to use his brain to sort it out.
The energy in his body had also multiplied to a degree he himself couldn’t find a reference for, impossible to estimate.
The acceleration of Gene Primordium and Gene Collapse hadn’t disappeared either.
It was just that with this promotion, his Gene Collapse had been repaired a bit. What was once a gaping wound was now just a small one, but it was still collapsing as it should.
It was like angels and the King of Hell fighting over him, sawing at his neck—the King of Hell pulling toward death, the angel toward life, and Crown Pear’s effect was like the adrenaline shot when he was on the verge of collapse.
In this complex state, Tier 3 had added many more changes and possibilities for him.
In the past, his cognition of general energy was just a kind of energy, without distinction, only more or less.
But in his current perception, general energy had different factions. For example, Yu Yue and Zhong You beside him—their internal general energy was different from that in the air. He could easily absorb the general energy from the air but couldn’t directly absorb theirs.
But when they used general energy to drive a skill, Su Huan had a feeling that he could pay some price, make some small manipulations…
“Snap!”
The water ball gently landed on the zombie’s face, blowing away the sandstorm to reveal a young iron gray face.
The young zombie was dissatisfied with this perfunctory face-washing service and roared as it charged at the three.
Zhong You abruptly stopped, his shocked and suspicious gaze falling on this unranked zombie. He tentatively drove the purified water scattered on the ground, forming a thin water curtain that enveloped the zombie’s head.
His five fingers clenched, instantly crushing it.
Then he manipulated the purified water to separate from the filthy blood.
He quickly sensed something wrong. What was usually a casual wave was unusually difficult today, requiring more concentration and energy.
But under the serious manipulation of Tier 2 “Cold Abyss Guard,” the purified water was still extracted.
That inexplicable resistance vanished.
Su Huan at the side had deep eyes. More general energy surged from Zhong You’s body. Even at full effort, he couldn’t break the balance, but he had also figured out the limit of this interference and gave up the tug-of-war with him.
“What’s wrong with him?”
Yu Yue was puzzled by Zhong You’s actions and subconsciously took her sniper rifle in hand, but she hadn’t heard any suspicious sounds.
Su Huan withdrew his hand, letting the water mass fly into Zhong You’s hand, and shrugged. “Maybe he’s past his prime.”
Hearing Su Huan’s words, Zhong You whipped around, shock in his eyes. “You did this?”
Su Huan tsked lightly.
“Would I tell you?”
He scooped up Yu Yue, who had been listening intently at the side, into his arms and leaped toward a high-rise building in the distance, crossing over twenty meters. His foot landed on the window ledge edge, instantly crumbling the weathered concrete, but the figure had already climbed upward against gravity, each step precisely on the less-than-ten-centimeter outer edge of the windows, traversing the ninety-degree vertical building surface as if it were flat ground.
Indoors, zombies spotted them and surged toward the window side one after another, but could only watch desperately as Su Huan’s shoe sole leaped down from the high building.
Tier 1 Night Demon’s climbing speed on buildings was also inferior to his.
If they really blocked the way, a snap of the fingers sent a high-temperature projectile to easily take them out.
The high-temperature projectile that half a year ago could only roast an ordinary person’s skull had now come into its own.
Zhong You took a deep look at Su Huan’s back and quickly followed.
As a Tier 2 Manipulator, though jumping twenty-plus meters from standstill was difficult, he could manage it with a sprint.
The three soon passed through the zombie tide and arrived at the edge of Zhinnán District.
This location was quite delicate—a bit further north and they’d cross the river into the city center; south would collide with the forefront of the war.
Three hundred meters away was a large mall; underfoot was the tallest building nearby, an office building over twenty stories high, sealed externally with a glass curtain wall, countless layers impossible to discern.
The moment the three landed on the rooftop, an electronic voice rang out on the rooftop.
“You let down Cao Yong.”
Hearing this voice, Zhong You’s body stiffened abruptly, his fair skin visibly turning red, eyes filling with bloodshot veins.
“I’ll slaughter you!”
Su Huan looked at Yu Yue in his arms. She flipped down, rummaged in the corner, and pulled out an electronic device—crude, mainly a large horn and battery, with general energy fluctuation inside, probably a general energy crystal.
Su Huan took it. “Hello, hello, Number 1 Director?”
The horn fell silent for a moment. Just as Su Huan thought it lacked sound-receiving equipment, Number 1 Director’s response came from inside.
“How does it feel to have advanced to Tier 3?”
Su Huan narrowed his eyes. “Great. We’re here for nothing else—to thank you for last night’s gift, today I plan to return one.”
With that, he crushed the small device. His perception swept around, finding no other general energy fluctuations nearby, then turned to ask.
“You sure he hasn’t crossed the river?”
“I only know he’s in several nearby blocks; exact position unknown, with three or more Tier 2 Evolvers around him.” Zhong You’s voice was icy, but he restrained himself.
“I have no search abilities, and he’ll definitely isolate sound. Three people—how do we find his exact position?”
Su Huan glanced at the zombie tide below and shook his head. “No need for that much trouble.”
“Where’s the quietest place, with the fewest zombies?”
Yu Yue at the side thought for a moment and pointed out five locations, not far apart, all within one kilometer.
“Then no need to waste time.”
Su Huan extended his right hand and, under their puzzled gazes, snapped his fingers.
Hidden under his shirt, the strange patterns reappeared. The energy originally suppressed in his body slowly stirred, racing along the energy cycle path forged at Tier 2, but faster and more complex. During this movement, the general energy in the air madly burrowed into his body.
Then, driven by his internal general energy, it instantly broke through the Matriarch’s blockade and injected into the most complex pattern at his heart—the Energy Storage Core.
Under Zhong You’s grave gaze, three seconds slowly passed, but nothing happened…
And Su Huan had already scooped up Yu Yue and turned to run.
Though puzzled, Zhong You followed. After running just tens of meters, he heard a rumbling vibration from underground and whipped his head back.
The entire block seemed lifted by a giant beast’s spine; concrete and steel bars shattered and rolled like fragile eggshells, asphalt pavement twisted into waves, cars tossed into the air like toys and disintegrated in blazing white firelight, swathes of buildings beginning to collapse.
Fire dragons burst from cracks, licking the high-rise glass curtain walls, reflecting millions of glass shards blood red.
The shockwave swept through like a transparent giant wall; wherever it passed, office building glass curtain walls peeled off in sheets, turning into a rain of sharp diamonds.
The shopping center rooftop three hundred meters away was wholly uprooted, steel bar skeleton snapping like dead branches, the billboard star’s smiling face twisting into a scream in the flames.
And this terrifying explosion’s affected range absolutely exceeded one kilometer!
‘What the fuck is this, a person?!’
Cracks spiderwebbed across Zhong You’s icy expression. He knew Su Huan had become Tier 3 and had witnessed that battle from the shadows, but that explosion had been blocked by the Matriarch, affecting only a scant hundred meters, barely toppling a few buildings around.
Those in the know would recognize it as evolutionary ability; the clueless would think a Little Boy had been dropped!
‘Is Tier 3 really this much stronger than Tier 2?’
‘If I reach Tier 3, Uncle Yong probably wouldn’t have…’
A shade of gloom added to Zhong You’s shocked face.
……
Underground laboratory.
Red alarm blared madly, illuminating a face calm to the point of inhumanity.
Number 1 sat naked on a chair, various data cables connecting him to it. Before him was a massive monitor; as the screens went black one by one, data streams flashed wildly in his eyes, then transmitted out by the chair’s sending device.
The laboratory was a temporary conversion, low strength, with only basic defense measures.
It naturally couldn’t survive such an explosion.
The walls cracked open huge gashes; white light burst from the fissures, destroying everything in the room.
Number 1 on the chair was like a melting candle; half his body including his head vanished instantly, exposing various precise machinery and electronic components.
The chair’s transmission indicator light also completely stopped at that moment.
Soil surged in, the entire laboratory physically erased.
……
Su Huan, sprinting wildly, stopped and stood on a building at the explosion zone’s edge, admiring his handiwork.
Though the power didn’t match a nuke—or even an atomic bomb—Su Huan was quite satisfied with this destructive force.
And this wasn’t even maximum release.
The farther the distance, the harder it was to trigger this “fusion,” like pinching two repelling magnets—the farther apart, the harder to force together; closer, easier to trigger, and the easiest place—was inside his body.
This was the true meaning of “Fusion Furnace.”
“Energy Storage Core” was his heart, “Circulating Vortex” was within his body, and he himself was the “Fusion Furnace”!
This was the foundation of being an Energizer!
Absolutely not some damn power bank.
Su Huan looked down and suddenly noticed Yu Yue’s pale complexion. “What’s wrong with you?”
Yu Yue pushed against his chest with her hand, moving her ear a bit away, and hesitated as she looked at Su Huan’s increasingly demonic face. “The sound inside your body… scares me a little.”
Su Huan glanced at his wrist; the numbers there had stayed at “0000” unmoving—either broken from the big battle or exceeded its limit.
In any case, it was busted.
But his current magnetic field could even affect Tier 1 Yu Yue—that was real trouble.
Staying anywhere would cause mass panic.
This instinctual fear wasn’t something easily overcome.
Zhong You caught up, covered in a thin water shield, his tone complex. “I didn’t expect the gap between Tier 3 and Tier 2 to be this huge.”
Su Huan recalled some info from his previous life and sighed. “Tier 3 is a major threshold—the limit of what humans can reach.”
Zhong You’s mouth twitched as he looked at the city behind like it had been bombed, forcibly suppressing his urge to retort.
‘Aside from looking human, where’s the human appearance?’
“Could it be you’re just particularly special?”
Zhong You asked.
“The transaction’s complete. This is the additional price.”
Su Huan said flatly.
Zhong You took a deep breath, suppressing his curiosity and desire for that power, and stayed silent.
Su Huan continued, “We can make a new transaction.”
Zhong You’s eyes lit up. “How so?”
“You can tell me where Black Kite’s headquarters is.”
Zhong You sighed and shook his head. “If I knew, I wouldn’t need you to ask. The problem is I don’t know either. We enter different branches normally; only in extremely special cases are we blindfolded in perception and sent to headquarters. Maybe Shu Wei by your side knows.”
Su Huan hissed in regret. Should’ve asked Mister Shu a couple more questions.
As Number 3 Director, he definitely knew.
Then, just as Zhong You was about to turn, he asked again, “Want to join the Armored Train?”
(Really sorry, yesterday I ate some local snack. I said, “It’s sour,” and the old man said, “That’s the specialty.” I half-believed him and took a few more bites. Yeah, it was sour. Tonight my stomach suddenly hurt for over two hours—not intense pain, but continuous. Just eased up at dawn.)
