Chapter 316: It’s The Train Coming To Save Us!
“It’s the train, the Armored Train has come to save us!”
A dirty scavenger pointed at the Armored Train and shouted loudly.
The crowd, originally with ashen complexions, saw the train and their eyes immediately lit up.
Perhaps… no need to escape?
Maybe they could follow the train and make a fortune?
Although many people had never seen the train, they had all heard about the “death test” and the “generous treatment.”
In the eyes of scavengers, big meant strong, hard meant good, and if talking about which force in the entire Neutral Town was the toughest, it had to be the Armored Train!
What did other forces have?
A few broken cars, a few broken guns, even the leader could barely manage to keep warm and fed.
But what about the Armored Train?
Everyone could eat their fill, everyone had hot water for baths, everyone had the safe and heavy Armored Train for protection, even their clothing outclassed the Four Greats by a wide margin!
The moment the Armored Train appeared, all those without the ability to survive this escape pinned their hopes on the Armored Train.
“It’s the train!”
“The Armored Train has come to save us!”
“What did I say, the Four Greats are unreliable, it has to be a force on the level of the Armored Train.”
“Only the Armored Train can truly guarantee the success of the Base City plan.”
“Save me, I’m injured, not bitten by a zombie, let me on the train…”
“My dad is behind, can you help me find him, please.”
“The Armored Train will take us back to fight, brothers, turn around!”
“The real Savior has come!”
“…”
When he heard the first shout.
Su Huan: “?”
When someone shouted that he could guarantee the success of the Base City plan.
Su Huan: “??”
When the words “Savior” came out, Su Huan was completely stunned.
“It seems you’re very surprised by their response.”
A warm voice appeared behind him.
Su Huan turned his head, his eyelid twitching slightly, the corner of his mouth lifting to reveal sharp white teeth, “Are you mocking me?”
Dean Zhou, with white strands at her temples, appeared on the deck with Yu Jing and Tan Yunxi.
Dean Zhou was slightly stunned; this was the first time she had seen Su Huan like this.
“This is praise.”
“You’re mocking me.”
Su Huan repeated expressionlessly.
Tan Yunxi’s big ears stood up uneasily, hesitation in her eyes.
Yu Jing said indifferently, “He’s like a dog, you’ll get used to it.”
She casually stroked Tan Yunxi’s fluffy ears as she spoke, “Not cursing you.”
Tan Yunxi: “…”
Now she was cursing.
Tan Yunxi carefully glanced at the Train Conductor’s complexion; cursing her was fine, but cursing the Train Conductor, was that really okay?
Yu Jing seemed to know what she was thinking, “When debts pile up, no need to worry; when lice abound, no more bites.”
Su Huan stared at the increasingly vigorous General Energy in Yu Jing’s body and suddenly laughed out loud.
“Train Conductor, there are people blocking the road ahead, how should we handle it?”
Glasses’ voice came from the broadcast.
“Run them over.”
Su Huan’s smile did not fade; the sunset’s golden glow passed through his wind-tossed black hair, shining on his distinctly bony face, momentarily dazzling Tan Yunxi, but the chill hidden in those words made her shiver.
She muttered darkly in her heart.
‘This is a pervert, this is a pervert, Tan Yunxi ah Tan Yunxi, why are you swooning at a time like this…’
Panicked shouts came from below the train, but they were soon drowned out by the increasingly loud “Savior” calls from the distance.
“What is it?”
Su Huan’s complexion suddenly calmed, as if the earlier teasing had never happened.
“The [Guardian] Power Armor we just developed in R&D has results.”
Yu Jing answered.
Su Huan was slightly surprised, his gaze naturally falling on Dean Zhou; he knew Yu Jing’s level—she had ideas but lacked time and experience, so the main merit in Power Armor R&D naturally belonged to Zhou Qing.
“Results?”
Among the three, only Yu Jing wore the [Engineer] Exoskeleton; the other two were in normal work uniforms.
……
The Armored Train officially entered Zhijin City, encountering more routed scavengers.
Some were completely terrified out of their wits; even if someone led the way, they wouldn’t go back.
But correspondingly, some were unwilling to accept defeat and wanted to follow the Armored Train for a big score.
In the face of choice, gamblers were never lacking.
As the distance advanced, the Armored Train inexplicably gained over ten thousand fanatical followers, as if following behind the Armored Train put them in the same camp; this bizarre fanaticism was still spreading.
The most depressed one was Wen Biao in the rear.
Clearly he was the Train Conductor’s number one Dog Leg; when he heard the Armored Train was coming to Zhijin, he dropped his bustling little tavern and followed, but now he had to compete with this pack of wild dogs.
No, he had to think of a way to stand out in front of the Train Conductor!
Accompanying the advance, the train finally met the zombie tide at the edge, but the numbers weren’t as terrifying as in the city center—just a thin layer, about the density of a weekend commercial street, not even stacked up, with Tier 1 Zombies sparse.
But even at this level, the terrified scavengers immediately stopped in their tracks.
One by one, pale-faced, they looked toward their backbone.
Liang Kuan wasn’t on the train, no one was blowing the horn, so it barreled straight ahead.
A zombie tide not even as thick as the tracks had no qualification to waste ammunition on.
The zombies instantly boiled over, and the scavengers boiled over too.
They saw the terrifying zombie tide fed into a meat grinder, bones mixed with flesh and blood crushed into sticky clumps; buildings on both sides of the street were like sprayed by a water truck, evenly coated with a layer of dark red slurry.
Then scraped hard by the severely oversized Armored Train Armor.
Walls collapsed, buildings toppled to both sides.
The rumbling momentum was even more massive than the zombie tide.
……
Watching the Armored Train charging wildly on the screen, Number 1 frowned tightly, like facing an unsolvable puzzle.
“Why did the Armored Train appear at this time?”
The assistant analyzed, “From the train’s recent actions, their goal is collecting materials and top-tier talent, and Zhijin City has both; here they can save many people…”
“Impossible.” Number 1 decisively rejected, “According to Su Huan’s personality model, 96% probability he wouldn’t care about Zhijin City’s affairs; from a realistic angle, over 90% probability, virtually certain!”
The assistant realized, “Then there’s some factor we don’t know intervening, but it shouldn’t affect the final result, right?”
Number 1’s voice was ice-cold, “The train intervenes early, scavenger losses won’t exceed fifty thousand; the Butchers converted from these numbers won’t be enough; without sufficient low tier zombies, the Tier 3 ‘Matriarch’s’ maximum strength can’t be unleashed.”
“Then…”
“Release Zhong You.”
The assistant instantly shivered, “Tier 2 Evolver?”
Number 1’s face remained mechanically calm, but data streams flashed madly in his eyes, like a sunken starry sky.
“Able to let a Tier 1 Evolver skip many shackles and directly become a Tier 2 Butcher—is the difference among them merely emotion?”
“If we master this secret, the shortcut to evolution will open for me.”
Though he had done many mad experiments with Number 1, the assistant still felt a chill down his spine.
He took a deep breath and said lowly, “I understand.”
“Have each observation point prepare, fully compute the collected data, then transmit back to headquarters as soon as possible—fill the final blank.”
……
“Cao Yong is dead.”
The assistant stood before the iron cage, looking up at the sculpture inside, his expression complex.
The “sculpture” surface was coated with something, giving an iron gray sheen; three meters off the ground hung an extremely fine Exoskeleton, thicker than captain-level, but without operation permissions, all joints locked—that was Zhong You’s cage.
Besides this Exoskeleton, the entire underground room was equipped with three large dehumidifiers, constantly keeping air humidity below 10%.
No response; the entire space held only a low, irritating hum.
“Bang!”
The wall suddenly emitted a muffled thud, the entire prison trembling.
The assistant hurriedly said, “Don’t get agitated, I’ll let you down!”
He quickly operated a few times; the Exoskeleton hanging on the wall clanged to the ground, helmet opening to reveal Zhong You’s pale face and abyss-cold pupils.
The assistant inexplicably felt like he was releasing a beast from its cage.
But his hands showed no hesitation, quickly completing the final steps; over a dozen iron pillars retracted into the ground, no barriers left between the two.
He could even feel a steel-knife-like chilling killing intent scrape over him.
Chills all over.
Zhong You stepped out step by step; the assistant retreated a few steps, but he didn’t even glance at him, simply dismantling the matching steel bottle and Short Spear from the wall.
“Don’t you want to know how he died?”
The assistant suddenly asked.
Zhong You’s movements paused slightly, “Will you tell the truth?”
He grabbed the two sections of Short Spear, twisted them together in the middle with a click.
The assistant choked, his prepared words shoved back down his throat.
“Was it that thing, or… the Armored Train?”
Zhong You asked with his back to him, expression inscrutable.
The assistant hesitated, “Both.”
Zhong You unscrewed the steel bottle, his hollow gaze fixed on the empty bottle.
Moments later, a shrill scream echoed in the underground prison.
Zhong You left the prison carrying the full steel bottle on his back.
……
Luo Jingyi had thought many times about how to end his calm yet magnificent life.
Ordinary because his family was well-off; bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD all at top foreign universities; graduated smoothly at 26, apprenticed under industry titans, participated in major Artificial Intelligence projects; in 2030, 35-year-old he returned home laden with honors, becoming Zhijin University’s youngest full professor.
Money, honors, lovers—he lacked none, but even so, up to the day before the Apocalypse erupted, Luo Jingyi still considered this an “ordinary” life.
After the revelry, in the beauty’s arms feeling his aging body, he mocked that his life would probably rot away in such intoxicating wine and lust.
Then the grand Apocalypse descended; terrifying zombies and a madly evolving world gave him a burst of vitality.
With renewed vigor and vigorous ambition, he organized the first alliance of universities.
Many professors were more renowned and knowledgeable than him, but they weren’t as young as Luo Jingyi; those younger lacked his ability.
Though the alliance eventually broke apart, he had secured enough benefits for himself.
Leaping to become a Tier 1 Evolver.
But the sudden zombie tide forced him to huddle in a dusty display car in the mall, clutching two General Energy Crystals to restore his body’s energy.
Thanks to the carriage’s excellent sealing, the shadowy zombies around surprisingly didn’t detect him.
Luo Jingyi carefully lifted his head from the reclined chair, looking at the girl huddled sobbing in the corner via the rearview mirror.
She was his student, his most outstanding and favorite student.
Her young tight body had once given him countless inspirations.
After the Apocalypse, the girl not only became his right-hand woman but also got a boyfriend.
Luo Jingyi didn’t care, because the other was already dead.
The girl was crying over her dead boyfriend; occasional passing zombies sniffed at her head and left.
This puzzled Luo Jingyi greatly; he didn’t even dare call out to her rashly.
He sensed a subtle change in her.
Dull footsteps approached; a Tier 1 Butcher entered from the hall’s main door, dragging a heavy sabre upside down, the heavy sabre scraping the supermarket floor to pieces.
Luo Jingyi’s mouth twitched; if he remembered right, this was a metal ornament from a large sculpture five kilometers away.
He never thought it would actually be used in battle one day.
The Butcher’s pair of scarlet small eyeballs darted around; it first seriously looked at the girl in the corner, then saw the display car in the center of the showroom, immediately grinning happily and striding over dragging the sabre.
He loved opening little boxes the most!
Luo Jingyi in the car suddenly remembered this, breaking out in cold sweat.
He grabbed the door handle to rush out.
Suddenly, a whip-like bone segment fiercely wrapped around the Butcher’s leg; the Butcher puzzledly looked up.
Luo Jingyi followed the Bone Whip, his pupils shrinking sharply.
The crying girl gradually stood up; her original 1.63-meter height grew over forty centimeters, her head painfully retracted into her chest cavity, only tall shoulders and scarlet eyes peering from the chest cavity crack.
One Bone Whip wrapped around the Butcher, the other hand turned into a one-meter Bone Blade.
Her whole body covered in gray-black keratin layer.
‘Butcher!’
This name instantly flashed in Luo Jingyi’s mind.
Though he didn’t know why the girl became a Butcher, the two monsters were already fighting.
The Butcher had great strength and used weapons, but the over-five-meter sabre was useless in close combat.
Stabbed fiercely at close range by the Tier 1 Butcher.
The over-one-meter Bone Blade swished right into the Butcher’s fat belly.
The hall’s zombies were also startled by the sound, quickly gathering.
Though Luo Jingyi was curious about the outcome of this zombie infighting spectacle, survival came first; while the two were locked in fierce combat, he escaped.
With Tier 1 Evolver agility and his handmade weapon, he took out a few obstructing ordinary zombies and rushed straight to the street from another door.
Not through building interiors, but directly on the street.
Compared to the dim complex environment inside buildings, the street was actually safer.
Just out the door, he saw a group of scavengers running past.
Both sides paused stunned, recognized each other as human, and hurriedly grouped up to run forward.
Not because they trusted each other much, but the pursuing zombies behind left no time for caution.
“Run fast, we’ll be safe once we reach the train!”
One of them shouted lowly.
Luo Jingyi was stunned.
“What train?”
“The train!”
“What train?”
“The Armored Train!”
