Chapter 310: Earthquake
Su Huan narrowed his eyes.
It was hard to poach talent from the Four Greats anymore, so the only option left was Zhijin.
As for zombie material, there was even less need to worry.
Everyone also realized this issue, but they all fell into silence without prior agreement, looking toward the contemplative Su Huan.
Su Huan pondered and said, “The Four Greats have already begun clearing Zhijin. There will be a steady stream of materials transported back to the Scavenger Market. We don’t need to worry about materials for the time being. We just need to finalize the Phase Three Renovation Plan completely and steadily advance it.”
The Armored Train was not incapable of clearing Zhijin, but he had no forces in Zhijin that needed support, nor did he plan to establish a station there. Clearing it would just be making wedding clothes for Black Kite.
As for the so-called Four Greats, in front of the train and Black Kite, they were no different from the scavengers outside who ate one meal without knowing when the next would come.
If the Storm Zone was a chessboard, Black Kite had already surrounded Zhijin with chess pieces.
Jinfeng, Fuyuan, Black Star… these small forces were just isolated chess pieces standing on others’ territory. Only when exploring outward would they discover that the surroundings were already Black Kite’s welded copper wall and iron wall.
If lucky, they could seize one or two breathing holes to cling on desperately.
If unlucky, once Black Kite finished circling territory on the big map, they would turn back and clear them out.
He had no interest in helping Black Kite clear territory.
Moreover, putting himself in their shoes, Black Kite might even stab him in the back. Facing five million zombies plus Black Kite’s sneak attack, even the train had the risk of capsizing.
What’s more, beyond Zhijin, Jinfeng Province would have even more zombies, so materials would never be in short supply.
The most troublesome thing was talent. As the apocalypse intensified, it would only become scarcer. The limited talent would be divided up by foresighted forces, just like in Zhijin.
……
Seeing that Su Huan was still thinking, Shu Wei stood up and said.
“Then today’s meeting will temporarily end. This afternoon, I will summarize everyone’s ideas, and tonight the departments will have another meeting.”
“Each department’s purser and supervisor will preliminarily summarize the supplies needed for the renovation and upgrade and hand them to me.”
“The matter of the engineering team will be handled by Conductor Hu, with Old Jiang assisting.”
“The basic materials needed by the Manufacturing Group will be handled by…”
Shu Wei’s gaze searched around and fell on Su Leiya, who had her arms crossed and was leaning against the wall. “The procurement matter still has to be handed to your Logistics Group.”
Su Leiya shrugged, accepting it without surprise.
Previously in Black Kite, she was ridden over by her dad, and now on the train, she still had to be ridden over.
She didn’t hope to stand out, so just like this.
Seeing Su Huan still in contemplation, everyone left quickly without greeting.
Everyone had a pile of work to do and naturally had no time to waste here.
“Then what should I do?”
Su Huan yawned lazily.
A thoughtful look flashed in Shu Wei’s eyes as the tablet spun on her few cold white fingers. “There are many things at the moment, but few that need your personal involvement. There will be some personnel transfer approvals tonight, but I hope you can walk around the laboratory and carriages more.”
“Why?”
“Hu Shuo the purser mentioned an interesting phenomenon. The output in the laboratories and workshops you’ve visited will increase somewhat in the next three days…”
Su Huan was slightly surprised. “My effect is that big?”
“You’re underestimating your prestige on the train. The lowly attendants also hope their merits and results can be seen by you.”
“You can go to the Bullet Workshop first, perhaps it can provide some inspiration for the train’s currency matter.”
“Alright, as long as it’s not charging.”
……
“Clang clang clang…”
Rhythmic knocking sounds rose and fell in the Bullet Workshop.
To save floor space, many automated equipment were dismantled and replaced with manual labor.
The workers here mainly came from the families of research personnel in various laboratories, mixed with some soldiers’ families.
Old Da squatted next to a machine in the corner, teaching a thirteen-year-old youth how to cut a complete copper plate into round copper pieces suitable for making bullet casings.
“Speed can be slower, but you must concentrate. Don’t let this thing catch your hand, or else…” Old Da stepped on the pedal, and a coin-sized hole immediately appeared on the hard brass plate.
The youth pursed his lips and nodded cautiously.
Old Da wanted to demonstrate a few more times, but a flash of black caught the corner of his eye. He instructed the two women nearby to look after the youth and hurriedly walked toward that black shadow.
The Train Conductor, with hands in pockets, shuttled through the massive machines like a ghost.
The busy attendants inexplicably felt a palpitation. When they turned back, they saw nothing.
Muttering “seen a ghost,” they continued their work.
Su Huan stood next to a basin of freshly pressed bullet casings, casually picked one up and pinched it between his index finger and thumb. The brass instantly turned scorching orange-red, faintly transparent, and when thrown back into the basket, it made a slight sizzle.
“Train Conductor.”
Old Da stood respectfully behind Su Huan.
By now, the last bit of resentment in Old Da’s heart about being tricked onto the train had long vanished.
As the Armored Train grew stronger, he became increasingly awed by Su Huan.
Su Huan casually placed his hand on Old Da’s shoulder and sighed with a tsk. “Old Da, there’s already a thick barrier between you and me…”
A hesitant and uncertain expression appeared on Old Da’s face as he moved his lips, clearly saying, “It seems like ‘pitiful thick barrier’.”
Su Huan’s expression froze. “You damn well read literature too?”
A glint of cunning and confidence shone in the eyes under Old Da’s thick eyebrows. “Reading firearm magazines got boring, and there weren’t many books on the train, so I casually found a few to read. It also lets me teach the kids.”
“You, teach kids?”
Su Huan’s eyes still held naked disbelief and astonishment.
‘Which good person lets you teach their kid?’
Old Da pointed around the workshop with his thick finger, pride on his face. “That one, that one, and that one, all taught by me. Every day after work and rest, I teach them. Of course, I don’t teach much, just share whatever I read in books.”
The two walked into Old Da’s small compartment for gun making.
The smile fell from Old Da’s face as he sighed. “They have no dad or mom. After work, they have nowhere to go. Instead of following those drunkards to brag and fart, better to learn characters with me. If they’re a bit older and want to go this path, I send them to Professor Ma. It’s much better than the corps’ fighting and killing.”
“How many kids in the workshop?”
“Many, how could there not be.” Old Da swept the firearm parts on the bed into a big box, making space for Su Huan. “But I can only take the bigger ones. The too-small ones don’t understand words, can’t work, and easily get hurt by machines…”
“Originally I wanted only adults, but there’s nothing else for them to do on the train. Like today, I took a small one, just a bit bigger than Xiao Ba—no, same age as Xiao Ba. Xiao Ba is also thirteen this year.”
“His father was previously in the Armed Corps and died last time. His mom works as a helper in the kitchen and has no time for him. She didn’t want her child doing odd jobs in the kitchen for life, so she begged me.”
“But don’t look down on them being small. They’re all quite obedient, work nimbly, no worse than adults.”
There were many such trivial matters that couldn’t be mentioned in meetings.
Today, with Su Huan finally dropping by, once he started talking, it seemed especially long.
Su Huan sat on the bed, silently listening to his nagging.
Seeing the quiet Su Huan, Old Da belatedly felt a bit guilty. “Did I talk too much?”
Su Huan didn’t mind the stinky clothes piled on the bed, found a comfortable position to lie down, feet propped on the wall panel at the end, and relaxedly said, “If the apocalypse ended, what would you do?”
Seeing Su Huan still willing to chat, Old Da felt relieved.
“I’m thinking once it’s peaceful, find a place, open a small tavern, tinker with guns, teach kids—that’d be pretty good…”
“Pretty good.” Su Huan said, “Better than most people without dreams.”
“What about you, Train Conductor?”
In Su Huan’s mind, images subconsciously flashed: the great fire in the acid rain, the old man bowing with tears, that repeatedly crossed-out title…
He grinned. “I’m just most people.”
Old Da was stunned for a moment, as if suddenly remembering something. He took a box from the drawer and handed it over. “Train Conductor, take a look at this.”
From the sound, Su Huan judged it was a box of bullets.
But what surprised him was that it actually had some “weak” general energy fluctuation.
The intensity was roughly comparable to unranked general energy crystals.
He casually picked up one and fiddled with it in his hand. Su Huan asked with some surprise, “You’ve incorporated general energy into bullets?”
Old Da nodded. “This is from the research over at the General Energy Weapon laboratory. It’s currently in the trial stage. Bullets with general energy incorporated have slightly higher initial velocity, but still can’t gap ordinary bullets. Currently trying to incorporate other abilities, but it’s very difficult…”
The bullets were standard 7.62mm×51mm rifle ammunition, with copper casings.
In appearance, they were no different from ordinary bullets.
But Su Huan suddenly remembered Shu Wei’s reminder.
The train’s currency was a points system, but points were worthless once off the train—just a bunch of meaningless numbers, unable to serve transaction purposes.
When setting it up initially, Su Huan hadn’t thought of physical currency, as that stage would only waste supplies.
But now that the train wanted to expand its influence, physical currency had become a necessity.
This required careful consideration.
In his previous life, various forces had issued their own currencies, but they only worked within their ruling areas. For example, the currency issued by the Steel Council was not recognized by Deep Blue Data.
Transactions between major forces only used supplies, not each other’s currencies.
In the wasteland, “bullets,” “food,” “purified water,” “general energy crystals” and such were more commonly used as currency, but only for small-scale trades.
Theoretically, general energy crystals should be the most suitable currency.
But general energy crystals were high-value items that major forces hoarded for their own evolvers and never let flow out.
He had also considered using bullets as currency. The train’s points system was also built on hard currency like bullets.
However, problems arose accordingly.
One 9mm bullet equaled 0.5 points, which was fine on the train. But if the system opened to the outside?
Someone could buy most things on the train with two hundred thousand bullets.
The entire points system would collapse.
So the points price could reference bullets, but absolutely not equate to them.
These general energy-incorporated bullets gave Su Huan a glimmer of hope.
If special function bullets research succeeded, then these bullets themselves would have “value,” and because production was difficult with the process mastered by the train, they would have the conditions to serve as currency.
The current issue was how to give these bullets value matching currency.
……
“Bang!”
A violent gunshot made a Tier 1 Butcher banging on an iron box on Zhinnán District streets collapse to the ground.
The zombie horde on the street let out noisy roars, but they were quickly drowned in the sandstorm.
The zombie horde was like a bunch of headless flies, scurrying everywhere. Soon, unable to find the attacker, they resumed blindly wandering.
In a twenty-story residential building directly opposite, Pang Ke yanked off his night vision goggles and excitedly pulled the gun bolt. “Big stuff is done. Tell Master Rong, prepare to clear the field!”
The younger brother beside him quickly ran down the stairs.
Dozens of vehicles roared out from the underground garage, knocking away ordinary zombies wandering at the intersection, and charged straight toward the street where the butcher fell.
The moving vehicles attracted the zombies’ attention on the street.
They roared and rushed toward the vehicles.
The lead off-road vehicle suddenly drifted, sliding sideways across the street. Half of the dozens of vehicles behind split off to circle back via the side streets, while the rest stopped in place, forming a temporary defense position.
Li Xinlong sat in the back seat, loaded the freshly filled magazine onto his rifle, pressed down the car window, and unleashed a barrage at the charging zombies. The bullets in his hands seemed guided by God, each precisely drilling into the zombies’ foreheads.
Exactly two per zombie, none wasted.
Relying on an assault rifle and two magazines, he easily suppressed the first wave of zombie tide.
More zombies heard the noise and surged toward the Black Star Convoy.
Li Xinlong tossed the backpack full of magazines to the woman beside him. “Hold the magazines, follow me out!”
With that, he kicked open the car door and stood directly on the street, spraying the zombie tide.
The woman next to him rolled her eyes, gritted her teeth, hugged the backpack of magazines, and followed.
On the adjacent street, a Night Demon heard the sound, hid its form using the sandstorm, and silently crawled over from the rooftop.
Sharp claws dug into the concrete wall. Head down feet up, it spied the entire battlefield. Its scarlet gaze quickly locked onto the foremost Li Xinlong and pounced down without warning.
Li Xinlong’s ears twitched slightly. Expressionless, he ejected the empty magazine. “Reload!”
“Rumble—”
The ground shook, the cement road cracked, and a yellowish-brown sandy soil drilled out diagonally from the ground like an earth dragon, roaring as it charged straight at the pouncing Tier 1 Night Demon in mid-air.
The two collided with a muffled thud.
The soil that nourished all things came alive, extending tentacles that madly pulled at the Night Demon.
Facing the sudden change, the Night Demon let out struggling roars, but no matter how it thrashed, it sank deeper into the soil.
The yellowish-brown soil flooded the Tier 1 Night Demon like flowing water, instantly silencing the roars.
The bulging soil ball retracted into the ground crack.
Moments later, dark red blood soaked the sand and soil on the surface.
