Chapter 119: Train Expansion
“January 6th, heavy rain”
“When people want to escape, they sleep longer, accompanied by nightmares, and the Train Conductor’s nightmare is seafood soup.”
Putting down the logbook, Su Huan thought about it and decided to walk out of the carriage.
He acted as if he didn’t see Yu Yue busy in the kitchen and went straight to carriage 3.
The bright red shrimp sashimi on the table made him lose all appetite; even a glance from the corner of his eye brought to mind the slippery, oily texture and the taste of wasabi.
His mouth felt fresh as if he had swallowed an octopus.
It had been several days since he last ate that kind of coarse, chewy grain.
Like corn, zongzi, and such…
But fresh produce is really hard to store, and there aren’t many cold storages or refrigerators on the train, so it can only be consumed as quickly as possible.
The things in carriage 3 were piling up more and more, with various furs and materials almost filling the entire carriage, blocking the water purifier, looking just like a hunter’s cabin filled with exotic flair.
Unfortunately, Wan Xing didn’t look like a hunter; she looked more like the cold foil second sister who highlights the princess’s purity in fairy tales.
‘If she weren’t so young, witch would be more fitting.’
The woman hid under a large jacket, holding two test tubes with colorful liquids inside, taking no precautions, just like a worker mixing dyes into two paint buckets.
Through the dark blue liquid, one could clearly see her delicate and thin chin, as well as the exaggeratedly large glasses on her face.
Black and white coloring, with temple arms having a silver-gray aluminum alloy texture.
“Where did you get the glasses?”
Su Huan asked casually.
“Dug it out from the logistics center, a high-tech glasses that can quickly measure the proportions, volume, and length of objects I see, record data, take photos and videos, and do some translation work.”
Wan Xing answered while staring at the potion in her hand.
After a moment, she casually poured the potion into a glass bucket on the side, where various colors mixed together, forming a strange, murky color.
Obviously, the potion production had failed.
“Making potions is much harder than collecting; failures are very normal early on, even Tier 1 apothecaries only succeed about thirty to forty percent.”
Su Huan comforted her.
She had just absorbed a skill potion from an apothecary and didn’t even have a Tier 1 profession yet; failure was normal, success would be the unexpected gain.
A flicker of thought passed through Wan Xing’s eyes, then she opened the cabinet next to the workbench, where a row of pink test tubes were neatly arranged on the rack, surrounded by soft glass padding that wouldn’t break even if the train jolted violently.
“Following the formula you gave, I made some recovery potions, but I don’t know if they can achieve the effect you want.”
Exactly ten of them!
General Energy Perception feedback told him they were recovery potions, and ones with extremely active general energy, top-quality recovery potions with over ninety percent effectiveness!
Su Huan looked at the ten neat potions, then at Wan Xing, his expression inscrutable.
‘Could this be the sweet beet?!’
Picking up Yu Yue was already a surprise, but how was the gift packed by Eighth Master also so powerful?
Could it be that his cheat wasn’t rebirth, but a talent guarantee SSR?
At the start, he hadn’t had high expectations for the two.
The obedient Little Aunt leaping from maid role to an important perception-type team member had already exceeded his expectations.
Considering her shy personality, he assigned her as a sniper to just go through the motions.
But after deep oppression, he found Little Aunt’s personality actually rebounded from the bottom.
Sensing the opportunity in battle, she decisively seized control, eyes drooping at the corners, one shot per enemy, exactly like her daughter carved from the same mold; all the obedience and shyness were just later environmental coloring.
If he’d known, he would’ve gone straight for sound wave reinforcement; large-area instant kills on rookies would be quite suitable later on.
But now the skill was selected, no way to redo it.
He could only grit his teeth and stick to the sniper route.
Wasting one talent was one thing, but what was up with Wan Xing.
Su Huan was a bit unsure whether apothecary just happened to match her talent, or if this was the most mediocre level of her talent.
Wan Xing took out a potion and shook it; the pink liquid swirled in the test tube. “But as you said, the success rate is very low, about one in ten, and from last night until now, I’ve only managed this one type; the others all failed.”
“If you could succeed all night, that’d be spooky; even the Train Conductor would have to do you.”
Su Huan’s words were exaggerated, but his tone was very calm.
“Have you kept the gene potions from the transaction safe?”
Wan Xing pushed aside a wolf pelt, revealing a refrigerator modified and welded to the wall.
Inside, the depth was shallow, about ten centimeters, divided like cabinets; rows of gene potions needing refrigeration were stored here, connected not only to the train’s power supply but also to a battery, thermometer, and camera.
This refrigerator was one of the results from Professor Ma and the others during this time.
It could monitor the potions’ quantity, status, and temperature at any time, even power supply stability.
According to Professor Ma, it could be controlled from the backend to adjust the refrigerator temperature and switch power sources; moreover, this new wiring setup didn’t rely on the carriage’s original lines, forming a closed loop, so even if the original train lines shorted, communication could be maintained via these new lines.
“They’ve been stored according to the potion storage requirements: 35 basic potions, 20 skill potions, 2 sets of Tier 1 matching potions totaling 6, one set of Tier 2 totaling 5.”
Wan Xing reported the quantities.
This was Su Huan’s main gain from selling the logistics center to Deep Blue Data, plus over a hundred less important evolution information pieces.
Opportunities like this pick-up weren’t common; in another two years, low-tier evolution information would be released by big companies, but high-level info would be locked even tighter, traded only sparingly between major forces.
Su Huan hesitated a bit before reminding her.
“Don’t rush to use the ‘Apothecary’ gene potion to evolve; during this time, absorb more general energy crystals to raise your skill level, then use some basic potions, practice the skill often, and after getting proficient, use the potion to promote; don’t get stuck at the standard line.”
Wan Xing nodded thoughtfully.
Only then did Su Huan go upstairs; some things he was still foggy about.
Logically, major forces didn’t lack general energy crystals or gene potions; why didn’t they mass-produce high-level evolvers in his previous life?
Was it because they didn’t want to?
That was pure nonsense; there must be something restricting them.
Preventing them from piling up strong evolvers with resources.
But in his previous life, he hadn’t done well and never experienced being piled up with resources.
This life, though he’d saved up quite a few general energy crystals, he had to consider the team’s overall evolution progress.
Especially Xiao Ba; his promotion concerned the upcoming New City Plan.
The second floor of carriage 3 had been turned into Wan Xing’s material storage, with materials extracted from this logistics center placed upstairs.
Various large and small control panels and cabinets divided the space with no room to step.
It had only been a little over a month since the apocalypse, and the entire train interior was increasingly gaining a lived-in feel.
Carriage 4’s roof had already been modified with a second floor.
The hydrogen-powered train was originally shorter than the green-skinned carriage by a section; after dismantling the hydrogen part and reassembling, the space expanded a lot, with height just right for installing a comfortable second-floor carriage.
Mainly used as rest space for train members.
After all, the dining car was a public area.
Though the Train Conductor was very handsome, not everyone wanted to face him every day.
Descending two steps, entering carriage 4’s second floor, he was greeted by several clothes drying; the ones he recognized best were Yu Yue’s, like a sunlit pasture with a traditional, conservative pastoral vibe.
Passing through carriages 4 and 5, he arrived at storage carriage 6.
This one had just been completed yesterday; since no one lived there, the overall ceiling was very low, requiring him to hunch when entering.
Inside, various foods were stacked densely with almost no open space, and there was no spiral staircase, just a round hole cut in the ground; going up and down relied entirely on jumping in place.
For an armored train full of evolvers, it was even more convenient than stairs.
Pushing open the tail door of this carriage, slanting rain poured down; Su Huan quickly closed the room door.
Workers in raincoats were installing the second-floor walls of carriage 7 under the crew’s command.
Seeing Su Huan, Huang Hai and Wang He hurried over.
“Train Conductor, Boss Su.”
Su Huan nodded. “Continue, don’t affect the construction progress.”
The surrounding workers kept moving; with the crane’s help, a piece of synthetic armor was hoisted up, four or five workers carrying it on top and placing it in the cut position at the roof edge.
Inside the carriage, Xiao Ba used his ability to fuse the metal edges.
Energy around Su Huan formed a sealed shield, repelling the acid rain as he walked to the roof edge to take a look.
The new armor had three layers total: the outermost was 15mm Tier 1 light armor researched by Yu Jing, a material named Qing Steel.
The second layer was that soft glass which melted at 300°C, and the third layer was another 10mm Qing Steel.
The new armor’s thickness reached an astonishing 30mm, but its weight was about 13% lighter than 15mm steel plate, with defense at least tripled, and most crucially, it resisted armor-piercing rounds.
Except for the dining car, this new armor was currently used for building the second floors.
Su Huan knocked on the thick armor, looking at the dark ground below and the world in the distance obscured by rain and mist.
A long-lost sense of security welled up in his heart.
This was completely different from the security from improving strength; his previous frantic evolution speed boosts were because the train upgrades were too slow, unable to give him enough security.
Now that the train was upgraded, it was time for him to appropriately further enhance his own strength.
After watching for a while, Su Huan turned and continued walking toward the rear carriages.
Carriage 8 had just been converted to a carriage farm, with second-floor modification not started; carriage 9 was temporarily used by Yu Jing to pile miscellaneous items.
Su Huan went atop carriage 10, then turned and leaped down.
He slipped in through the back door.
Professor Ma said he could come check the information terminal’s progress today.
