Chapter 162: Crew Reforms
After two or three seconds, Hu Shuo pushed the door open and came in. Seeing that everything was normal in the carriage, he stepped aside to let the somewhat embarrassed Lin Xia and the others enter.
Besides him, there was also a medic and Han Qin with her daughter, three in total.
The group first greeted the Train Conductor before turning to do their respective tasks.
Hu Shuo took the booklet to Su Huan’s bedside and showed him the things that had happened on the train in the past two days.
There were more and more people on the Armored Train, and more and more things to handle. With refined management, a large number of administrative matters that required Su Huan’s decisions were generated every day.
This was even after Yu Jing had processed it once.
Su Huan casually took the thick booklet from Hu Shuo’s hand and pretended to hold it in front of his eyes, while his eyes glanced toward He Jie.
To be honest, his wife Han Qin was really quite beautiful, and as a teacher who taught painting at the university, her temperament was also good.
Her personality was not pretentious, and she was generous in dealing with people.
In just two days on the train, she got along quite harmoniously with everyone on the train.
Although Han Qin was a few years younger than Old He, she was a full generation older than Qu Hang.
Su Huan had thought that Qu Hang’s matter was a misunderstanding, but who would have thought the world was so small.
The photo in Qu Hang’s arms was indeed Han Qin.
Under the Train Conductor’s forceful observation, it took quite some time to finally figure out the whole story.
His old superior Qu Hang had fallen for his university teacher Han Qin back in school. Even knowing she was a married woman, he pursued her, but Han Qin had a child that old, so how could she accept her own student? She treated it as a moment of hot-headedness and rejected him. Later, Qu Hang joined the army, and the matter was dropped.
So in reality, nothing happened between the two.
But no one likes this kind of cuckoldry.
If He Jie weren’t such a genuinely kind person, he would have killed Qu Hang long ago.
Once Han Qin and the child left, the originally harmonious atmosphere dropped back to freezing point.
He Jie’s smiling complexion instantly darkened, and he stared fixedly again at Qu Hang, who was leaning against the wall nearby with his eyes closed, resting.
Qu Hang’s cheek moved, and he spat a lump of metal into the trash bin.
“Tsk, Old He, your wife is really virtuous. She even prepared spinach soup for you. I haven’t had dehydrated vegetables in days.”
The Train Conductor smacked his lips and sighed.
Yu Yue’s pretty big eyes flickered, and she silently swapped the dried fruit in her hand for freeze-dried strawberries, holding them to Su Huan’s mouth.
He Jie was used to the Train Conductor’s nature of stirring up trouble wherever he went. Treating it as farting, he sternly warned, “You boy, remember this. I might even allow you to have ideas about my daughter, but my wife—absolutely not!”
Qu Hang crossed his arms, silent.
Seeing his demeanor, Su Huan knew there was no spectacle to watch today.
His old superior might not be old, but his personality was extremely steady—not like Liang Kuan’s outwardly broad but inwardly explosive type, but like a stone: wherever it’s thrown, that’s where it stays, only revealing a flash of sharpness when the enemy passes by.
Seeing the Train Conductor come back to his senses, Hu Shuo carefully turned the booklet in his hand to another direction.
Su Huan felt no embarrassment at being caught slacking and smoothly continued reading.
Yu Jing and the others knew him well and had put the Post-War Summary right at the front, especially the spoils of war section, with a list.
Divided into two parts: one Supplies List and one talent list.
“Reinforced train with ten carriages, one ten-thousand-ton front of the train.”
“Three Armored Personnel Carriers, equipped with 12.7 heavy machine gun + anti-mine V-type chassis.”
“One modular Bullet Production Line, capable of producing multiple models of common Rifle Ammunition.”
“Twelve large medical equipment, twenty-six matching small equipment…”
“Enforcer-discarded [Iron Curtain-A2] Assault Rifles, 200 units, cannot mount Grenades, sidearms, tactical kits…”
“Ten thousand Ordinary General Energy Crystals exactly, 136 Tier 1 General Energy Crystals, 2 Tier 2 General Energy Crystals.”
“Various Gene Potions totaling 314 vials.”
“74 kinds of Tier 1 Materials, 12 kinds of Tier 2 Materials, 35 kinds of Mutated Plants, 22 kinds of new synthetic materials, all with cultivation instructions and synthesis recipes; some missing with corresponding Researchers.”
“…”
The Supplies List filled three full pages.
From Weaponry and Equipment to Evolutionary Supplies, and ordinary survival supplies—everything was there, making Su Huan’s furrowed brows relax considerably.
“Train Conductor, the following has specific explanations for each spoil of war item,” Hu Shuo said respectfully.
Su Huan flipped further down, a hint of appreciation in his eyes.
Worthy of professionals; they had basically listed all the questions he wanted to ask.
For example, parameters of the newly captured train: whether it could pull the already ten-thousand-ton Armored Train, detailed data on what terrain it could pull how much weight in carriages.
The Armored Personnel Carriers originally mounted not heavy machine guns but Cannonballs, but since the Steel Council lacked cannon production capability, they used heavy machine guns instead.
“This Bullet Production Line can replace molds, so why can’t it produce Handgun Bullets?”
Su Huan suddenly asked curiously.
Hu Shuo had clearly done his homework and immediately replied, “Handgun Bullets (fast-burning propellant) and Rifle Ammunition (slow-burning propellant) require different filling equipment. Current Bullet Production Lines can easily handle it via AI intelligent control, but this line from the Steel Council—nobody knows where they got it—can only switch within standard Rifle Ammunition.”
Su Huan nodded.
In the recent battles with the Steel Council, the train’s highest consumption was actually large-caliber ammunition above 12.7, then conventional Rifle Ammunition; Handgun Bullet consumption was even less than Yu Yue’s Armor-Piercing Rounds.
Stock was completely sufficient.
No need to worry about train ammunition issues in the short term.
The following Evolutionary Supplies didn’t need Hu Shuo’s explanation; a glance allowed him to estimate their full value.
With this batch of General Energy Crystals and Gene Potions as foundation, the previously small-scale Point System could be boldly expanded. Now core members like Xiao Ba had all reached Tier 1, so he no longer needed to suppress the passengers; the Armored Train had fully entered the evolution era.
Though this battle was hasty, it coincidentally absorbed quite a few talents from the Steel Council.
Besides combat personnel led by He Jie, Qu Hang, and Goat, there were also Researchers pre-arranged onto the train by Director Xu, totaling twenty-one.
The survivors rescued by Xiao Ba were also high quality, with all sorts of talents.
Including over thirty professional soldiers.
All these people could be incorporated into the Crew.
Perhaps it was time to subdivide ranks within the Crew…
Various thoughts flashed rapidly through his mind.
As Train Conductor, he not only had to consider combat but also how to use rules, personnel, and supplies to generate new power, propelling the train in the direction he pointed.
This kind of thing wasn’t just solvable by evolving; now his brain was sharper than before, but the details he could think of were more numerous, and the process of structuring thoughts more complex.
If Li Tao were alive, he might be quite suitable for this job.
Su Huan suddenly thought.
But he just felt a bit regretful; even if Xiao Ba hadn’t killed him, he wouldn’t have felt secure using him.
The deputy Train Conductor position was too critical.
Couldn’t give it to a fool, nor to someone too smart, and certainly not to an ulterior-motived undercover agent.
Yu Jing was only temporarily sitting in the position; these past few days, because she couldn’t focus on researching Evolutionary Abilities and machinery, she had complained to Su Huan several times.
But on the specific division of ranks, he was a bit conflicted.
Should it emphasize individual Evolvers like the Steel Council, or Evolver teams?
The advantages of the former were obvious: with a core, combat power could form quickly. The latter required considering team composition, balance, checks, etc.; if combat losses occurred, the former could quickly recover as long as the core wasn’t lost, but the latter could easily develop gaps.
But for Su Huan, for the Armored Train, the former was hard to control.
Even if these people initially obeyed the Armored Train.
Suppose Su Huan assigned Goat to He Jie’s command; after a few years, would this group be more accustomed to listening to Su Huan or to He Jie?
The Steel Council had many people, with duplicate talents; they only needed to control top-tier talents like “He Jie” and “Lin Jin.” The others—like that medic, Goat, and even other soldiers—were just replaceable consumables.
But Su Huan couldn’t do that; the Armored Train had limited space, and the number of people it could carry was fixed.
Including Goat, Qu Hang, and even Huang Hai and his assistant Xiao Wang.
Everyone had critical roles.
Directly throwing them out was no different from handing initiative to these various captains.
After thinking it over, Su Huan had a rough idea.
The rear carriage still needed to cultivate captains like Lu Xiao for external military deterrence; as long as Lu Xiao wasn’t lost, ordinary member losses, no matter how many, wouldn’t hurt.
The Crew needed more detailed rank handling.
‘Level 3? Level 5?’
Su Huan thought about it; Level 5 was better, to give them more drive.
Above Level 5 Crew Member, add a Purser position, like Hu Shuo’s role: coordinating group members, etc., perfect as an assistant to a core member.
Having just figured out this rank system, Su Huan saw a Report below.
The Report’s general content was that Yu Jing had used her authority to allocate Carriages 9 and 10 plus the second level entirely to the newly established “Manufacturing Group.”
‘Finally caught her little tail.’ Su Huan pinched his chin with interest.
Hu Shuo glanced at the Train Conductor’s expression and peeked at the paper, immediately understanding.
In the stack of papers in Su Huan’s hand, there were many various supplies usage applications, but only this “Manufacturing Group” was acting first and reporting later.
Strictly speaking, this counted as breaking rules.
But the Train Conductor was the biggest rule on the train; as long as he didn’t speak, whatever Yu Jing did was reasonable.
Su Huan flipped a few more pages; Yu Jing had mainly called for a batch of supplies, then gathered the Crew’s Manufacturers in Carriages 9 and 10 for overall development of new materials.
It aligned with his thinking; he just needed to refine it on this basis.
After pondering for a moment, he said, “Later, go tally all Evolver ability types in the Crew, then divide into four subgroups: ‘Manufacturing Group’, ‘Combat Group’, ‘Research Group’, ‘Logistics Group’. Wang He’s Worker Group also folds into the Logistics Group; reward all workers with one General Energy Crystal.”
“Back then, the disassembly and installation of the Water Purifier was on him for evolution; give Wang He five extra Tier 1 General Energy Crystals.”
“Logistics is roughly repairing vehicles, repairing guns, cooking, forging… anyway, you get my meaning?”
Su Huan raised his eyelids.
The latter replied deferentially, “Following your idea, I should also be in the Logistics Group.”
Su Huan nodded approvingly, “You are the Purser of the Logistics Group.”
“Then, those who can’t do research, assign based on situation: good fighters to Combat Group, those who can’t fight to Manufacturing Group. But Manufacturing Group is mainly ‘Manufacturers’ and ‘Collectors’, responsible for train production and manufacturing—don’t stuff it with a bunch of ‘Defenders’.”
“Understood.”
Shaking the paper in his hand, the Train Conductor grew a bit impatient again, “What’s next? Summarize briefly, just the important stuff.”
Hu Shuo sorted his thoughts and quickly said.
“Director Xu applies to continue research on Evolutionary Abilities; Professor Ma applies to expand laboratory area… Armored Train carriage reorganization order, classified storage of living supplies, Evolutionary Supplies, Weapons and Ammunition; also, Manufacturing Group leader Yu Jing asked me to ask you: next, accelerate production, or the train’s second phase modification plan, or improvements to existing train issues?”
“Point System trial currently successful; should the captains’ reward points be exchanged? Should we open point exchange system to the whole train?”
Su Huan’s mouth twitched, “And the unimportant ones?”
“That would start from specific equipment and personnel…”
“Forget it, then don’t say.”
Su Huan, head aching, quickly interrupted him.
The issues just raised couldn’t be resolved immediately. Director Xu was nominally subdued, but unlike Qu Hang and them who just needed to fight, Su Huan hadn’t had time to understand his research content, so naturally couldn’t let him start rashly.
Then Professor Ma’s lab expansion was also troublesome.
Truth be told, though the train added ten carriages, there were no spare empty carriages left.
Could only wait for second-level modifications, but that was after the train’s second phase modifications.
The Point System was even more complex; he needed to study the data from this period carefully, check for loopholes, then consider rollout.
The only thing solvable now was the captains’ reward issues.
Lu Xiao had paid a huge price to kill an Elite Soldier; Jiang Rong drove to bring him back from the Zombie Tide; plus those two clumsily acting undercover agents from Deep Blue Data—all needed rewards.
Hearing this, Lu Xiao nearby also perked up his ears.
He was just waiting for that batch of points to pay medical fees.
“Issue as usual.” Su Huan waved his hand grandly.
Suddenly seeming to think of something, he continued, “Captain Lu’s Pickup Truck is good; compensate with an extra five hundred Bullets.”
After noting it down, Hu Shuo probed, “Then the remaining matters…”
Su Huan narrowed his eyes, scanning the carriage left and right, finally landing on Yu Yue, who was sneaking his freeze-dried strawberries.
She noticed his scrutinizing line of sight; confusion flashed in her almond eyes, then she looked down at the strawberry with the tip bitten off in her hand and, as if possessed, held it out.
Su Huan glanced at her disdainfully, “The remaining matters go to Yu Yue; have her select and hand them to me.”
