Chapter 220: Survivor
By the time the battlefield was cleaned up, it was already dusk.
Golden light and shadows gently soothed the ruined city. Amid the rippling water waves, the Hammer of the Alps slowly pushed aside the miscellaneous items in the water.
The noise attracted zombies on the buildings on both sides. Hasty footsteps sounded, and heads poked out from behind broken windows, but before they could roar, they were headshot by snipers on the train.
Any fish that slipped through the net were directly killed by large drones carrying assault rifles.
If there were any rare Tier 1 zombies, they were put on the deck, where Xiao Ba and the others would harvest them.
Yu Jing and Old Da led the manufacturing group on the deck to decompose materials. Excess flesh and blood was directly grabbed by the mechanical arm and thrown into the water, disappearing in no time.
The mechanical arm end switched to a sprinkler head, washing away the bloodstains on the deck, making it immediately clean.
Gunshots, water waves, sunset… the joy of the harvest was breathtaking.
Su Huan sat cross-legged on the front of the train, with Shu Wei standing three meters behind him, wearing a black professional suit. However, the clothes were selected by Yu Yue according to her daughter’s measurements, so it was a bit tight on her chest.
White Deer and Giraffe held guns and stood guard on both sides of the train conductor in a showy manner.
After this period of trial, Shu Wei’s identity as secretary had stabilized on the train.
There were some factors from the night shift, but it wasn’t absolute.
The secretary position was too important. The train conductor valued ability more. If Shu Wei wasn’t up to it, she still had to take shifts, but she would still be kicked out if necessary.
For now, though, she was doing very well.
She got along with everyone at a neither distant nor close distance. All the pursers, including He Jie and the others, gave positive feedback about Shu Wei.
What surprised him was that Shu Wei and Yu Yue maintained a pretty good relationship.
Perhaps it was the tacit understanding formed from taking turns on duty during that time, but Su Huan didn’t want to break it for now.
Four days up, three days down, seven days and seven nights, exactly forty-nine. The train conductor’s lost essence could be refined into a great elixir.
The two women not only had nothing wrong with them, but their complexions were also much more vibrant.
Seeing that the high-rise buildings around were no longer dense, Su Huan said faintly, “We’re about to leave the city, right?”
Shu Wei looked at the map displayed on the tactical tablet and responded crisply, “Yes, twenty minutes more, and we will leave Guan Chong City.”
After Professor Ma’s busy work during this time, the tablet in her hand was already connected to the train system and database. As long as it didn’t exceed one kilometer range, she could still communicate with the train.
However, the armored train didn’t have the capability to independently produce this kind of tablet, so the only device on the entire train capable of wireless communication was the one in her hand.
As for the communication equipment on the exoskeletons of their six people, it was still being modified.
The finger tapping the tablet suddenly stopped, and a trace of surprise flashed in Shu Wei’s eyes.
Su Huan, with his back to her, asked faintly, “What’s wrong?”
“According to the detection from the command platform, survivors have appeared ahead again.”
“Again?”
Su Huan’s gaze turned dangerous.
“According to the close-range observation by the drone, this time it’s real.” Shu Wei quickly pulled up the footage and handed the tablet to Su Huan. “They are trapped on a high-rise building outside the city area, probably survivors from Guan Chong City.”
Su Huan took the tablet. Perhaps because it had been held by a woman for a long time, it carried a faint scent of cedar and bitter orange.
He glanced at it: a residential community of about thirty stories, total of four buildings, facing each other in pairs.
Because of the higher terrain, not many floors were flooded, and at the worst, only about five floors.
Now that the flood had receded somewhat, it only stayed at the third floor.
Quite a few survivors gathered there, waving at the drone hovering in mid-air.
“Finally saw some living people. Are there still large deep sea worms underwater?”
Su Huan asked one more time.
Although that thing posed little threat to the train, being pulled down and suffocating for ten days or half a month would still delay things.
“There is one underwater, similar to the one we encountered before. The general energy fluctuation is very weak and poses no threat to the train.”
“Change course, go take a look, and by the way, pick something up for me from Director Xu.”
……
The afterglow faded, and an unknown wind blew, making the water waves surge.
Something unknown lurked in the dark deep water. Miscellaneous items floating on the water surface would sink one by one in a moment.
Li Han glanced out the window from the sixteenth floor and shrank back. The hunger in his stomach had long turned into a numb sense of emptiness. He felt neither hunger nor the existence of his stomach. His limbs were heavy, and no matter how long he slept, his eyelids always fought to stay open.
A banging sound of kicking doors echoed in the corridor, instantly startling Li Han awake.
He struggled to crawl up from the balcony and walked toward the door. Before the other side could kick, he opened the security door ahead of time.
A group of six people walked over in the corridor carrying extendable batons and long sabers. Leading them was a man with messy beard, sinister eyes. Although his hands were empty, his waist bulged.
Several people kicked the doors beside them as they walked. “All come out, Brother Lei has something to say. Whoever doesn’t come out, we’ll come to your door, break your legs, and feed you to the zombies!”
Li Han didn’t dare to meet eyes with that group, lowered his head, kept the door open, and stood silently inside the room.
“Hey, Brother Lei, this one is quite sensible.”
A tall and burly guy pointed at Li Han’s shoulder with the extendable baton in his hand.
Chen Lei’s sinister gaze scraped over Li Han like a steel knife. Seeing nothing unusual, he walked forward.
The guy holding the extendable baton poked his head into the room for a look, confirmed there was nothing good, then viciously pushed Li Han. “Wait and go to the top floor, don’t keep Brother Lei waiting.”
“Understood.”
Li Han said listlessly.
Only after the group went upstairs did Li Han raise his head, his weary eyes full of icy hatred.
Although the flood came somewhat abruptly, the residents of Nanshan Highlands had higher terrain. Except for the bottom few floors, most were fine.
Also because of the Chinese habit of stored food, just his own family’s food was enough for a year.
Although it was chaotic at the beginning, there were quite a few survivors in the community. Several evolvers organized the residents into a temporary residents’ committee, hunting zombies and distributing supplies evenly, bringing order to the whole building.
They even established contact with the building across.
They tied a rope in a slightly lower place for bartering.
But just a few days later, a terrifying monster appeared in the water. Vines could extend over forty meters from the water and wrap people down in one go.
Just after that incident, Li Han was woken by a scream in the middle of the night.
He carefully checked and found that zombies had somehow entered the opposite building, crazily slaughtering the residents inside. Even those hiding in rooms didn’t escape.
The crowd was forced to jump into the water from the windows, then disappeared one by one in the pitch-black flood.
Not a single one swam over.
That night, the whole building fell silent as if by agreement.
After this happened, Li Han no longer participated in the residents’ committee activities.
Anyway, he had plenty of food at home. With these supplies, he could hole up without going out.
Then some time ago, a gang of fierce people came from nowhere, overthrew the residents’ committee formed by the community survivors, killed several evolvers, and then went door to door opening canned food.
Without using any tools, they opened ten-centimeter-thick security doors in one go.
Even the evolvers in the residents’ committee couldn’t do that.
And they had guns. The residents of the whole building instantly became lambs to the slaughter.
Li Han dragged his stiff legs upstairs. Quite a few people in the stairwell had already started climbing up. Luckily his home was on the sixteenth floor, so he only needed to climb half.
He finally reached the top floor. Days of hunger had made his vision go black. He slumped down in a corner of the wall.
The doors of several rooms on the top floor were wide open. Through the windows, he could see that it was completely dark outside.
He wasn’t sure if it was his illusion, but he seemed to hear the sound of a boat passing below the building.
Li Han mocked himself in his heart. At this point, he was still clinging to the fluke that someone would come to save them. Looked like he was starved silly.
“No noise later. Whoever dares make a sound will be thrown off the building directly. Got it?!”
Someone inside shouted, and the crowd filling the corridor fell deathly silent.
Inside the room, Chen Lei’s gloomy gaze looked at the drone hovering outside the window. “When did those lunatics get such high-end equipment?”
The thin man nearby looked up, pondered, and said, “Not necessarily from New Eden. Could also be an external force.”
“You mean, external force, could it be…”
The thin man’s mouth twitched. “Definitely not from the organization. Even if it were the organization, so what? The world is already in such chaos.”
Hearing his words, Chen Lei calmed down a lot.
Just as he was about to speak, his gaze toward the window suddenly froze, and he said in horror, “What the hell is this thing?”
Two bright headlights tore through the darkness like swords, piercing through several blocks. In this pitch-black world, they were even more dazzling than torches.
The thin man looked out the window in shock at the massive thing getting closer. “They really drove a boat in?”
The armored train got closer. From their high vantage point, the two finally saw the overall shape of the armored train.
Two gray-white heavy industrial-style carriages in the middle clamped a large deck, filling the main road below. Lit car windows extended from below the building all the way to the distant buildings, with no end in sight.
The sci-fi-like scene instantly stunned the people upstairs.
“If we board this ship, we can go back!” the thin man said excitedly.
“Go back?” Chen Lei’s face turned ferocious with excitement. “If we seize this thing, we can set up our own shop. Why go back?”
“Seize it?”
The thin man looked at Chen Lei in bewilderment, then at the massive armored train and the shadowy figures in the car windows.
Is there a hole in your brain?
Six people, you want to take down such a big thing?
With that little handgun at your waist?
Even hitching a ride depends on whether they are willing.
“I think Brother Lei is right. If we seize this thing, we won’t have to live in trepidation anymore. Load up the supplies, get a few pretty women, and then us brothers can play however we want!”
Another person suddenly chimed in, eyes gleaming.
The thin man was shocked.
A phoenix chick within three steps of a reclining dragon.
He dares to say it, and you dare to agree?
Is there a hole in your brain too?
Luckily the other three didn’t chime in, which comforted the thin man a lot.
The thin man hesitated, “Brother Lei, how about we make contact first? If the situation allows, we seize it; if not, forget it…”
Chen Lei patted his shoulder, a sinister greed in his eyes. “Don’t worry, so many people in this building were taken down by us six, right? As long as we take down the one in charge, the rest won’t dare fart!”
“Just watch!”
……
Inside the armored train, front command platform.
Su Huan took the bracelet handed over by the secretary. “Did Director Xu say how to use it?”
“It has magnetic attraction on top. Slap it on your hand and it adsorbs automatically. No charging needed. Normally it absorbs the energy dissipating from your body surface.”
“Pa”
Su Huan slapped the black bracelet onto his hand.
He turned to the people beside him. “How is it? Any effect?”
A trace of surprise appeared in Shu Wei’s eyes. The moment Su Huan put on the bracelet, his entire temperament instantly softened.
If the original Su Huan was a tiger, even doing nothing, just standing there, he continuously emitted a powerful bio-magnetic field. Without looking, one could feel that intense presence.
That power and beauty attracted people on a genetic level.
But after putting on the bracelet, that bio-magnetic field was disrupted.
It was like suddenly turning from a tiger into a deer. It still existed, but that instinctual genetic attention disappeared.
Shu Wei nodded. “Very effective. At least that sense of threat is gone.”
Su Huan turned to Yu Yue, who was fully armed with a sniper rifle on her back. “What do you think?”
Yu Yue tilted her head. “Still pretty handsome, but not so addictive anymore…”
Addictive…
Su Huan twitched the corner of his mouth. He shouldn’t have asked her.
Through the front panoramic screen, he could see a group of people on the building waving below.
Shouting something in their mouths.
Xiao Zhao translated, “Train conductor, the people upstairs want to invite you up.”
Su Huan raised an eyebrow. “Have him come down.”
Xiao Zhao hurriedly shouted outside through the loudspeaker. Moments later, she frowned and reported, “They insist you go up.”
Su Huan turned to Yu Yue. “What’s the deal with those people upstairs?”
“Not well-intentioned.”
“Oh, have He Jie negotiate with them and invite the person down for me.”
Five minutes later.
Chen Lei and the thin man, six people in total, knelt in a row on the armored train deck, each with a grenade stuffed in their mouths.
Li Han and other survivors knelt behind.
Fully armed armed corps soldiers stood on both sides, coldly watching the crowd in the field, with all gun safety catches off, ready to execute at any time.
He Jie paced a few circles on the deck and lit a cigar.
Seeing the hatch open, he hurried over.
“Got rough?”
“How could it? Anything over 20mm is rough. This is at most gentle, and for politeness, who on the entire armored train knows better than me, He Jie?”
He Jie exhaled a smoke ring and said smugly.
Su Huan walked onto the deck, glanced at the six people, and smiled. “I am humbly the train conductor of the armored train. Which one of you is in charge?”
