Chapter 15: Construction Squad
The abandoned guy wanted to climb onto the carriage, but he was called to a stop by Su Huan.
“Where’s your ticket?”
The man cursed at Su Huan like a mad dog, pointing at him, “You’re in cahoots with them, tricking us onto the train, fuck you—”
“Bang”
The corpse fell to the ground.
Energy compression was a bit taxing against mutated beasts, but killing unevolved ordinary people was truly one shot, one kill.
Su Huan dug in his ear, “What a waste of time, just get to the point. Next.”
……
“December 18, early winter, 26°C—29°C”
“People seem to have elected a new leader.”
——「Train Conductor Logbook」
Su Huan recorded the temperature at the hottest point of the day in the logbook.
1201 old passengers, currently only 624 have returned; the rest either died outside or ran away—this was normal.
Su Huan was never afraid of them running away.
The train was ironclad, passengers came and went; if old people left, new ones would come, just like that family yesterday.
Including the new group of workers, there were a total of 744 people.
There might be another wave returning in the evening, but today’s number wouldn’t exceed a thousand.
The crane task was taken by a young man named Gao Zhe; he wouldn’t return until evening, but Su Huan didn’t plan to waste time waiting idly.
He looked at the new names on the roster, then raised his head to size up the group of workers with fear on their faces, “There’s a job, you want it?”
The workers glanced at the corpse on the ground, not daring to step forward.
They stood in place, muttering softly.
“How about we just leave.”
“Where to? There’s no food at the factory, I’m so hungry I want to eat people! This is the only train that’s come by in days.”
“Nowhere else to go either, monsters that eat people are everywhere…”
“There are fewer zombies to the north, we can go out that way.”
“Fewer zombies there, sure, but large pupae are everywhere, they look eerie. If you want to go, go ahead, I’m not.”
Su Huan had been listening casually at first, but his eyes sharpened suddenly at one word.
He pointed at a skinny man in the crowd, “What did you just say? Large pupa?”
The man jumped in fright and retreated a step.
But seeing he didn’t suddenly collapse like that guy, he relaxed and shouted from afar, “Yeah, large pupae over a person’s height, looking like silkworm cocoons.”
“How many are there?”
Seeing Su Huan just asking questions, the worker grew bolder and stepped forward to reply, “A lot, everywhere—on the roads, in houses.”
Su Huan’s complexion flickered uncertainly.
The “large pupae” the worker mentioned were the necessary path for zombies’ second stage of evolution.
Zombies that accumulated enough general energy would, driven by high temperature, form a special kind of “corpse pupa”; when they broke out of the pupa, they would reach the second stage.
Also known as Tier 1 zombies.
Their strength was worlds apart from ordinary zombies; some with special abilities could even hunt evolvers with professions.
In his previous life, he had been constantly on the run and hadn’t noticed the zombies’ evolution nodes; he hadn’t expected zombies to start evolving so soon.
It had only been nine days.
When this batch of corpse pupae hatched, people without heavy firepower would face the true apocalypse!
“This intel is valuable. Here, this is yours.” Su Huan took a deep breath and tossed over the half-pack of cigarettes he’d just taken.
The worker was overjoyed, not caring that Su Huan had thrown it on the ground; he picked it up and shared it with his fellow workers.
Having heard this news, Su Huan had no mood to persuade patiently and said directly, “Who’s your leader? Come talk.”
The workers looked around, and finally a man about 1.8 meters tall stepped forward.
Though not very tall, his frame was extremely broad, comparable to Liang Kuan; his voice was deep and thick, “That’s me. You said there’s a job for us, but given the situation now, we don’t want money.”
“I’ll cover three meals for you…” As he spoke, Su Huan suddenly had a new idea and changed his words, “Work one day, I’ll cover two meals; if you don’t work, one meal. As long as you’re on the train for a day, this promise holds, but only for you people right now.”
Though the man looked honest, he was sharp and asked, “I saw you collecting their train tickets earlier, so you need tickets to stay on the train?”
“Of course, who rides without buying a ticket?”
Su Huan didn’t beat around the bush this time and said directly.
Speaking to fit the person, whether human or ghost, wasn’t entirely derogatory; it included many techniques.
Being straightforward with honest people was often more efficient than playing mind games.
“We want free rides.”
“Free rides are impossible. You can ride free when there’s work; without work, you still need to earn train tickets.”
Su Huan rejected decisively; 120 workers all free—he’d have nothing to eat later.
Covering meals was already the biggest concession.
Train tickets were his handle over everyone; even nominally, he couldn’t casually create a bunch of exemption privileges.
The man hesitated a moment, glanced at his fellow workers, gritted his teeth and said, “Alright, what job? We’re from the steel mill, can’t do brainy work.”
Su Huan’s complexion eased a bit, “It’s steel plates. You’re Wang He, right? From now on, you’re the head of these 120 people; I’ll only deal with you. Got it?”
Wang He agreed, “When do we start?”
Su Huan looked at the sky; the sun had shifted west, less than three hours until dark.
No one knew if that batch of corpse pupae would hatch tomorrow or tonight.
Time was short.
He didn’t dare bet.
He stared straight at Wang He and said solemnly, “Now.”
……
The dark red front of the train gleamed coldly in the sunset; the 25mm shovel-style armor meshed with the added 1.2cm steel plates into a ferocious ramming horn, like an enraged steel rhinoceros.
On the crisscrossing railway tracks, a group of men in work clothes carried 1.2cm steel plates close to the train; their blue clothes were soaked through with sweat.
Luckily, they didn’t need to weld; they just had to hold them up for a bit, and a youth in a wheelchair inside would “attach” the steel plates.
Someone tried pulling one; it felt more solid than welding.
Thus, the workers grew even more in awe of Su Huan, who managed the train, and worked even harder.
Su Huan tapped the outer wall of the carriage with his finger; the metal vibration mixed with heat waves rippled through the air, the thick steel giving him an extremely solid sense of security.
He squinted at the cutting line Yu Jing had drawn with chalk by the window, smooth as if polished.
The steel plate opening was a circle smaller than the window, perfectly covering the explosion-proof net and tempered glass inside without affecting the window operation.
Su Huan was very satisfied with this.
Sweat beads rolled down his Adam’s apple into his collar, gradually evaporating into salt stains at 29°C.
Even licking his lips slightly tasted salty.
“Have your mom make boxed meals for the workers first, extra oil and salt.”
“Already doing it.” Yu Jing climbed onto the roof and poked her head out, her jeans smeared with patches of dirt, “Catch me.”
