Chapter 169: Treehouse Black Market
“No wonder, there are far fewer zombies here.” Lin Jin suddenly realized.
Su Huan’s fingertips glowed red as a high-temperature projectile gradually formed. After two or three seconds, it shot toward an iron-eating tree dozens of meters away. With a muffled bang, sparks flew, and a charred patch appeared on the bark. The high-temperature projectile, which could easily melt ordinary human flesh, did not cause it any harm.
The attacked iron-eating tree belatedly began flailing its branches wildly, sending gravel flying and leaving green whip marks on the cement ground.
After flailing for a while, apart from shaking off a bunch of leaves, the iron-eating tree still hadn’t spotted the enemy. It then laboriously pulled its roots from the ground and slowly migrated into the distance.
After teasing the iron-eating tree, the Train Conductor turned to Lin Jin beside him and said, “Go, cut two branches.”
“Okay!”
Without thinking, Lin Jin jumped down.
Heading straight for the iron-eating tree that was moving house.
Sensing the heat from behind, the iron-eating tree ran even faster.
Su Huan smiled, a reminiscent look flashing in his eyes.
He wasn’t mocking Lin Jin. The reason Shun’an Black Market could be established was precisely because of these iron-eating trees.
He didn’t know which smart people came up with the idea of feeding metal to iron-eating trees. Later, they discovered that these trees could be tamed like dogs. Survivors began feeding them en masse. The iron-eating trees would shelter the humans who brought them metal, gradually forming a symbiotic relationship.
Plus, the iron-eating trees were tall and sturdy with lush branches and leaves, so people began building treehouses on them.
In his previous life, the largest iron-eating tree was seventy meters tall, a true overlord of Shun’an. Even zombies with a husky-like temperament like the Butcher were unwilling to provoke it.
It was only with these mobile treehouses that humanity’s survival rate stabilized.
However, the iron-eating trees were unwilling to leave Shun’an. With limited metal on the surface, survivors could only trade metal with passing forces, gradually forming large and small treehouse trading platforms.
That’s why Shun’an Black Market was also called Treehouse Black Market.
It was still early now, and he didn’t know if anyone had started taming iron-eating trees yet.
But the iron-eating trees were just a side goal. What Su Huan truly valued were the resources accumulated in Shun’an before the apocalypse. The railways here were well-developed and resources abundant, so many raw material factories were established. Later, with policy support, automobile manufacturing plants were built. After the industrial foundation was established, a small high-speed train production base was set up. The factory area for train production alone was comparable to a town, which is how they could feed so many iron-eating trees four years into the apocalypse.
In terms of overall scale, it was comparable to the Steel Council’s heavy industrial zone. The only difference was that these manufacturing plants belonged to different companies and hadn’t formed the Steel Council’s kind of monopoly enterprise.
At first, Su Huan only knew there was a black market here. It was only after perfecting the map that he learned about the high-speed train production base.
The goal of this trip was also this base.
With the ready-made equipment here, the train modification progress could be accelerated significantly.
Moreover, there should be professional talents related to high-speed trains here.
Meanwhile, Lin Jin returned with two still-writhing iron-eating tree branches. Su Huan waved his hand in disgust. “Don’t bring them to me. Give them to Huang Hai and have him cultivate two. Remember to feed them plenty of scrap metal. Don’t let them chew up the train.”
“Xiao Zhao says there’s someone ahead.”
Yu Yue’s gentle voice suddenly appeared in their ears.
Su Huan looked up. In the distance on the railway track stood a rusted gantry crane. Its towering metal skeleton sliced the sunlight into sharp geometric shapes, casting shadows on the ground. As the train moved, they could see abandoned train carriages hanging below.
Behind the gantry crane was a gigantic “metal building” piled from trucks and containers, over thirty meters tall, no less impressive than the gantry crane.
It wasn’t the wreckage of a car crash, but a stacking with certain regularity and wild intelligence.
There were welding marks between the scrapped carriages, explosion-proof nets with lighter rust on the windows, and removed car doors welded to the “building” exterior as armor. On top was an anti-climbing frame welded from axles and drive rods, with sharpened tips. Oil tankers’ tanks were stood upright and converted into watchtowers.
With one glance, Su Huan identified off-road vehicles, RVs, oil tankers, and other different vehicle bodies on this metal building.
He couldn’t help but admire the survivors’ imagination and creativity.
In his previous life, he hadn’t seen this spectacular metal building when he came here. These iron-eating trees really could eat.
Su Huan tapped the front of the train under his feet and said indifferently, “Have Liang Kuan give the other side a heads-up. Prepare to stop. Have He Jie and Old Hu prepare for the transaction.”
“Okay, what if they refuse the transaction?”
“Then rob them.”
No sooner had the words fallen than a high-frequency buzzing sound came from ahead. A detection drone with an optical fiber trailing from its rear flew back. At the same time, the train below emitted a piercing whistle that split the clouds.
As the train gradually approached, a man wearing a rubber apron emerged from the watchtower. From several hundred meters away, Su Huan could clearly see the astonishment on his face.
After hesitating for a moment, the man picked up a huge iron hammer and swung it to strike a hanging chain. Rust-colored debris rained down, simultaneously triggering some kind of alarm. An old wall clock-like clanging sound rang out from the metal building.
The man waved toward the train, shouting something loudly.
“He’s greeting us, wanting to confirm our identity.”
“Then tell them.”
Yu Yue clearly paused, then confirmed again, “As is?”
Su Huan smiled gently. “Why not as is? Is the Train Conductor the type to say one thing to your face and another behind your back?”
Yu Yue clearly paused on her end.
From the sound, she took a deep breath, as if making a great resolve.
“I’m ignoring you.”
……
Carriages 13, 14, and 15 were extremely crowded due to the addition of many Steel Council survivors.
Fortunately, this had been considered during the reorganization of the carriages, and part of the families had been arranged into the two newly added carriages at the rear, right next to Director Xu’s four research carriages.
The first three carriages barely housed the crew.
“15”
“14”
“13”
At this moment, He Jie was walking down the corridor with hands behind his back, counting down enigmatic numbers. Old San and Old Er stood behind him with straight faces. Besides their equipment, each carried a rubber short stick.
Combat group members hurriedly ran out of the rooms.
No one wanted to taste Captain He’s intimidation stick.
Fortunately, they were all well-trained soldiers. Plus, having been in the new environment for not long, their nerves were taut. When the countdown ended, they all stood in the corridor, no one falling behind.
The corridor was extremely narrow; even one soldier standing there felt cramped.
But He Jie acted as if he didn’t see it, squeezing in sideways with his broad shoulders.
The soldier at the front, caught off guard, couldn’t block the deliberate charge of a Tier 1 Defender. Even the two soldiers behind him who were bracing him were knocked sprawling.
The few felt a bad premonition.
Looking up, they saw He Jie’s upturned whites of the eyes and his sinister smile.
“Bang bang bang!”
The sticks instantly blurred into afterimages. Standing behind, Old San cursed inwardly. He finally saw it clearly.
This bastard He Jie had swung nine sticks in one second!
Everyone was evenly struck with three blows. No wonder when he was hit with just one, it felt like his whole body hurt!
And back then, it was just an ordinary rubber roller.
After being disciplined by Su Huan several times, He Jie had grown fond of the taste of electric shock, replacing the rubber short stick with an electric baton.
The three brothers had been busy lately, and He Jie hadn’t found anyone to test on. Today, he finally got his chance.
The three soldiers on the ground gaped in pain, like catfish flopping on dry land.
They couldn’t even cry out, let alone exhale.
The other soldiers immediately went on high alert.
Feet spread apart, bodies tense.
Seeing everyone’s reaction, He Jie grinned in satisfaction. “Maintain this tense state. This is the combat group’s first mission. Although you’re under Old Er, Old Er is my soldier. If you lose face, he loses face. If he loses face, I lose face. If I lose face, I’ll stuff all your brains into your asses!”
“Got it?!”
“Yes!”
All veterans, they naturally wouldn’t give He Jie a second chance to strike. Each shouted at the top of their lungs.
The three front soldiers also climbed up and stood rigidly in the line.
He Jie nodded in satisfaction and waved his large hand. “Line up to get guns. Total of twenty [Tiewei-5] assault rifles, twenty [Tiexun-2] submachine guns. Each takes one base of main weapon ammunition. One magazine for the sidearm is enough. Then 12.7mm bullets for the heavy machine gun—take as many as you can carry. If you can’t hold them in your hands, bite them in your mouths! Not one left behind!”
“Understood?!”
“Yes!”
The soldiers had already put on bulletproof vests and tactical vests. They just needed to pick up firearms and bullets from the ammunition depot.
Two people stood on either side of the ammunition depot, passing items backward in sequence at extreme speed.
The train hadn’t stopped yet, and the forty people were already fully geared and ready.
He Jie, with a cigarette in his mouth, patted his pocket but found no lighter. He ejected a handgun bullet, flicked the bullet head off with his index finger, and lit the cigarette using the gunpowder smoke, savoring it.
Turning his head, he saw that dog Qu Hang leaning against the wall with a sniper rifle in his arms, flanked by Goat and several elite soldiers.
Currently, Su Huan hadn’t assigned groups to core members. Before orders were given, they acted freely, but everyone instinctively gathered together.
Just as he was about to go pick a fight, the Train Conductor’s voice came over the broadcast.
“Old San, take two people to protect the negotiation personnel. Qu Hang and Goat, one group—find sniper positions on your own. He Jie, Old Er, organize the combat group to set up firepower points and ensure the train’s effective output.”
He glared fiercely at Qu Hang, then He Jie began directing the soldiers to set up defenses.
Everyone dispersed.
……
A rumbling vibration sounded. Blinding lights stabbed like swords. Wang Fei barely opened his eyes to see a ferocious armored train roaring toward him in the lights, scaring him so much his scalp exploded, fine hair standing on end, desperately wanting to flee.
But the road under his feet had somehow turned into grid-like railway tracks, tripping him hard.
He scrambled forward on all fours.
But the train behind him grew faster and faster, accompanied by a shrill whistle. With a “boom,” it bore down.
“Ah—”
Wang Fei jolted awake and flipped over to run.
His hand grasped at empty air, startling him as he lunged onto the control panel.
Coming back to himself, he looked at the room converted from scrapped buses and the somewhat scorching sunlight outside the window, realizing he was no longer in the Steel Council’s heavy industrial zone.
That day had truly been full of ups and downs.
That morning, he had just been rewarded by the company for discovering the armored train and transferred back to headquarters in the heavy industrial zone from the New City front line.
But since it still needed time to confirm, he hadn’t entered the interior.
He was temporarily staying in the survivor camp outside.
He had been fantasizing about what expression that bitch Zhang Min would have after he entered the Steel Council.
Then he saw the nightmare scene: the persistent armored train bringing thousands of zombies and mutated beasts howling in, flattening the survivor camp in an instant.
Fortunately, he had started fleeing on condition reflex when he heard the whistle.
Not having the wall for protection actually aided his escape.
Using the habit of abandoning teammates honed in the Mojian Mutual Aid Convoy, he finally fled the zombie tide amid the chaos.
Thinking the train was heading north, he had a flash of inspiration and decided to flee east.
Along the way, he gathered survivors, taking almost no detours, and arrived directly at Shun’an.
Seeing survivors here, he decided to rest his feet first.
His subordinate outside the door heard the noise and burst in, stunned to see the empty bed and Wang Fei sprawled on the control panel.
“Fei Ge?”
“Damn nightmare woke me.” Wang Fei jumped down from the control panel without embarrassment. “Got the local situation figured out?”
The subordinate immediately said, “Shun’an has no big companies, few outsiders. Mostly locals, roughly divided into four groups. One is from the train manufacturing base—mostly intellectuals. Two factions from manufacturing plant workers: some following the original leadership, others going independent. Finally, a group of outsiders like us.”
“What about the locals?” Wang Fei frowned.
“Locals are scattered in small groups everywhere, like these hundred or so in the gantry crane—no organization. Heard the fiercest are those outsiders; they have guns.”
“Fierce?” Wang Fei scoffed disdainfully. “Fiercer than a train?”
“No way. These country bumpkins have been stuck in this small place since the apocalypse. They’ve never seen a showdown like a powerful dragon crushing the local tyrant.”
The subordinate showed a terrified expression.
Wang Fei showed a smug expression. “I’ve figured it out. If we can’t beat them, we can hide. As long as we avoid that armored train, in the vast Qingchuan Province, we can do whatever we want—guns if we want guns, people if we want people.”
The subordinate flattered, “Still got to be Fei Ge. In that chaos, you thought of this. We were like headless flies.”
“Enough, less bootlicking. Later, set up a meal with that Ma Baozi for me.”
“I’ll go right—”
The younger brother’s ears twitched, and his voice cut off.
He looked puzzled and tentatively asked, “Fei Ge, did you hear…”
“What?”
“Whistle sound?”
