Chapter 191: Armored Train!
“February 1st, clear”
“Power has its limits, but unknown malice has no end.”
Tong Zizhan and Gao Yuan returned, and brought the Train Conductor some unexpected information.
A force with an iris flower as its logo.
Another thing completely beyond Su Huan’s understanding since the Apocalypse.
He had only heard of this force in the Steel Council’s database, Black Kite Laboratory, abbreviated as Black Kite.
But what this force did before the Apocalypse, how large it became after the Apocalypse, and which fields it involved, he knew nothing about; even with Qu Hang’s permissions at the time, he couldn’t access this information.
Powerful enemies are not frightening; what is frightening are unknown enemies.
Especially this kind, where you are out in the open calculating victory or defeat a thousand ways, while they are already rewriting the rules in the darkness.
This is the most disgusting part.
A trace of gloom flashed in Su Huan’s eyes.
In his previous life, other forces intervening in the Acid Rain Area was already years later.
The true beginning among them should be the “Crown Pear Plan”; before that, the entire Acid Rain Area was almost the Steel Council’s private territory.
Su Huan found it hard not to speculate on the other side with the utmost malice.
It’s coming for Lin Xi…
Or coming for him?
However, the situation wasn’t too bad; Black Kite’s headquarters might be even farther than Deep Blue Data, and they had only sent out an elite squad.
A total of twelve people, average Tier 1 Evolver level, possibly with Tier 2 existences.
It put pressure on the current Armored Train, but not absolutely.
Looking at the dusty Tong Zizhan and the other, many speculations flashed in Su Huan’s eyes.
“According to your prediction, where is their goal?”
Gao Yuan twisted his ring, somewhat nervously replying, “We don’t know what task the other side is executing, but their route is roughly from north to south, moving very slowly; they should cross paths with us in about ten days.”
“Cross paths?” Su Huan tugged at the corner of his mouth, his cold smile unmasked.
That meant they were coming for him!
The Train Conductor never believed in coincidences.
“If we don’t provoke them, there shouldn’t be much problem…”
Tong Zizhan added.
Su Huan looked at the two mildly, “Traveling over a hundred kilometers for the scouting task, you’ve worked hard; five hundred points will be issued directly, and if the information you provided proves useful later, the Armored Train will offer additional compensation.”
Although these two must have reported the news to Deep Blue Data, he still had to give the reward he should.
Even if his company wasn’t as wealthy as theirs, the attitude of respecting talent and valuing talent had to be shown.
“Not hard at all, not hard at all; every day working for the Train Conductor fills me with hope! There’s a sense of pride in rebuilding order!”
Tong Zizhan said emotionally.
The company’s rewards didn’t know when they would come, and even if they did, he’d have to go back to claim them, but the Train Conductor’s rewards arrived that very night.
The flattery came out of nowhere, even disrupting Su Huan’s train of thought.
He could only helplessly wave his hand to let the two leave.
‘Where was I thinking earlier?’
……
“February 7th, heavy rain.”
“Armored Train Phase Three upgrade and modification plan, initially completed.”
Cold blue indicator lights clearly and steadily emitted light in the heavy rain; violent acid rain scoured the iron-black watchtower, flowing along the drainage channels toward the ground, pouring into an extremely deep large pit in the courtyard.
(Shun’an Station Base—Watchtower)
Su Huan stood on the watchtower on the base’s outer wall, overlooking the entire train base.
The current train base had completely changed its appearance.
Besides the outermost twelve-meter-high wall, the interior was also divided according to different functional areas to prevent zombies or the like from rushing in unimpeded.
Compared to the initially spacious and modern High-Speed Rail Manufacturing Base, the current base was more like a military fortress.
All metal surfaces were coated with protective paint, cold and dull, without any reflection.
These constructions were done without affecting the train modification progress, and since the building materials were all from the base’s existing stock, Su Huan didn’t pay much attention, letting Wan Hao and the Factory Director mess around.
Deputy General Manager Deng was someone he had to take with him; the Manufacturing Group was still short a Purser.
This filled the gap.
And those experts who participated in the train modification and upgrade—if he missed them, it would be hard to find so many later when the train wanted to continue upgrading.
The acid rain in the large pit had accumulated to a terrifying depth; the storm whipped it up, even creating one-meter-high waves across the pit’s hundred-meter length and width.
Murky water splashed against the pit’s edge, and something like a giant beast seemed hidden in the black water.
Suddenly, two beams of cold blue light emerged from the water.
Refracted by impurities in the water, they scattered ghostly, but grew brighter and brighter.
Accompanied by a whale-like sound, the water surface was blasted open; a black steel behemoth appeared on the surface, murky water flowing wildly along its metallic edges, and two enhanced searchlights pierced the rain curtain and clouds, shining on the wall.
Two trains connected side by side steadied on the water surface; the six-meter-wide Ironwood Deck in the connecting middle provided ample buoyancy for the trains.
The originally muffled whistle became loud and clear upon reaching the surface, water splashing everywhere.
Layered sound waves impacted surrounding objects, finally feedbacking to the train like sonar; the onboard system would reconstruct the sound wave feedback data into a 3D pattern via three-dimensional modeling, making it convenient for the Driver to observe.
“Toot—toot—”
Liang Kuan pulled two short whistles, like activating some signal.
He Jie on the other watchtower sucked his cigarette down to the butt, aimed the Iron Rain 14.5 at the Armored Train floating in the heavy water pool, and pulled the trigger.
Metal sparks brutally tore through the rain curtain, streaking to the train’s deck.
On the other side, Old San simultaneously operated a heavy machine gun to shoot at the train.
But whether 12.7 or 14.5 caliber bullets, none showed any signs of ricocheting off the vehicle armor.
Su Huan gripped the handrail at the watchtower’s edge; suddenly, Deputy General Manager Deng’s excited voice came from the communication device that Professor Ma had made beside him.
“Report to Train Conductor, not a single bullet penetrated the vehicle armor; I request permission for the next test.”
Su Huan’s mouth curved up, “Approved.”
As soon as the words fell, red light glowed on his fair palm; flames appeared out of thin air in his palm, gathering into a small fireball that, with time, turned into a flame spear.
This fire spear contained half of his body’s energy.
With Su Huan’s current lv6 “General Energy Conversion,” that’s sixty percent, equivalent to a Tier 2 ability user’s full energy; its power even exceeded some small-caliber cannonballs!
Pushing open the window, facing the heavy rain pouring into the watchtower, Su Huan hurled it toward the train below.
“Boom—”
The fire spear exploded into a massive firework the instant it touched the front of the train.
The front of the train didn’t budge.
The moment high temperature met acid rain, it turned into thick white mist steaming up; countless rain threads were blown backward by the explosion’s power.
His flames didn’t have as many additional effects as Lin Jin’s.
Only the ultimate high temperature.
After three or five breaths, the acid rain regained dominance, suppressing the flames and white mist on the vehicle body.
The upgraded Armored Train remained steadily anchored in the water pit!
A following electric spear lit up the heavens and earth dazzlingly.
Su Huan, drained of energy, felt some weakness in his body, but his eyes were fixed firmly on the train in the water pit.
Deputy General Manager Deng’s excited voice came from beside him, “Report to Train Conductor, carriage armor normal, equipment and instruments normal, sealing status normal, circulation system normal! Our modification plan succeeded!”
Deputy General Manager Deng’s voice was drowned in the cheers of the workers and experts.
General Energy Crystals clutched in Su Huan’s fingers, he walked down the watchtower and straight toward the Armored Train.
The Armored Train’s underwater propellers turned, pushing the massive body forward on the water surface until the front touched the shore; tracks slightly higher than the railway track on both sides of the undercarriage quickly lowered, propellers and tracks pushing simultaneously.
The train seamlessly switched to amphibious mode without hindrance, climbing from the water pit onto the ground.
From the watchtower, the front seemed somewhat tall; but standing before the upgraded Armored Train, he felt like an ant prostrating at the feet of a steel giant dragon.
The [Xuanjia] series front was not for pulling passengers but a new type created for the growing demands of industrial transport.
One alone was 7.6 meters high, matching the previous two carriages.
Its width reached 4.8 meters, comparable to some small living rooms.
Besides the high-strength vehicle body frame, the shell was clad in full Tier 1 Armor, all Qing Steel sandwiching glass, with no corners cut anywhere—not even the tracks below were unprotected.
To increase the vehicle’s overall buoyancy, an expert proposed embedding Iron-eating Tree wood inside the armor.
Iron-eating Tree material itself wasn’t as hard as Ironwood, with poor fire resistance, but its advantages were lightness, good buoyancy, high resistance, and insulation; most crucially, the material was easy to obtain.
Shun’an had the most Iron-eating Trees besides the factory.
They could casually chop down over a hundred, and with a little processing by the Manufacturing Group’s Evolvers, they became good boards.
This was also key to withstanding 14.5mm bullets.
To penetrate the train, bullets first had to pierce the carefully developed 50mm thick Tier 1 Armor outside: two 20mm Qing Steel sandwiching 10mm soft glass.
Then penetrate 30mm thick Iron-eating Tree boards, and finally the carriage’s own 10mm composite steel plate.
A full 80mm thick composite armor!
If Qing Steel production weren’t limited, Su Huan would even want to replace the entire carriage body with this material.
Actually, with [Xuanjia]’s pulling power and load capacity, they could continue stacking armor thickness.
But the cost-performance was already very low.
Better to save the load capacity to carry more supplies; later, when “Manufacturer” could batch-produce Tier 1 Evolvers, they could manufacture Tier 2 Materials.
Achieving lighter and harder with thinner thickness!
The two fronts alone reached ten meters wide, plus the Ironwood Deck connecting them in the middle; the current Armored Train was a full sixteen meters wide!
Like a mobile land fortress.
The massive protruding mechanical structure at the front slowly descended; this thing was called [Hammer of the Alps], a tungsten alloy obstacle-breaking cone that theoretically wouldn’t be affected even if the train was shattered.
Used to replace the previous steel plate welding obstacle-breaking cone.
The hammer descended, connecting to the ground to form steps; the front directly opened.
Liang Kuan’s burly figure stood at the doorway, sighing, “This is a truly worthy Armored Train; it’s just that the space is too small to show the train’s effects.”
Su Huan chuckled lightly and stepped inside.
“Then let’s go out for a spin!”
……
Ten kilometers outside the base, in a small plaza formed by near-civilian space.
Rows of simple shops stood; plaster doll painting, flower arrangements, various specialty snacks in all varieties.
Deep Blue Data’s five-person investigation squad hid in a wedding design shop, silently gnawing compressed biscuits while observing the outside situation.
The Captain fiddled with the tactical tablet for a moment, coughed lightly; the other four quickly gathered.
“According to intelligence, Black Kite’s squad appeared in Hongyi City at the Acid Rain Area boundary fourteen days ago, moving steadily north; they should pass Shun’an in about three days, but may not enter, and our task is to figure out what Black Kite is doing without alerting the Armored Train.”
“Regarding local Shun’an forces, the one to watch is the Armored Train; relevant information was sent to you before departure.”
A team member said lowly, “This Armored Train is quite interesting; it’s actually a survivor force that rose after the Apocalypse, and it controls a lot of information.”
The Captain’s gaze was calm, “It should be a pawn cultivated by some force, specifically to muddy the waters; watching it instead achieves their purpose, so ignore it; the Armored Train can at most develop into a force like the Steel Council, collapsing at the first setback.”
“Eh?”
The scouting team member standing by with eyes closed reviewing data suddenly made a surprised sound.
The other four, including the Captain, instantly quieted.
The other’s perception ability was the core of the investigation squad; relying on it, they had investigated many dangerous areas after the Apocalypse and still retreated unscathed.
The scouting team member said, “I just extended a perception tendril toward Shun’an and found they’ve come out.”
“Come out?” The Captain was stunned, “According to intelligence, the Armored Train shouldn’t have any actions recently.”
“Could it be related to Black Kite, the two sides… doing some handover?”
A team member suddenly said.
The Captain frowned, “Can’t rule that out; A Shan, lock on to it; we’ll follow.”
……
North of Shun’an, three All-terrain Land Battle Vehicles raced across the ground.
As if they had already confirmed a certain target.
Faint engine oil smell permeated the carriage; the rear seats were all removed, with only Zhao Kuo “virtually sitting” there, exoskeleton joints locked, the whole person like embedded in the carriage.
His eyes opened and closed, smiling faintly, “Deep Blue Data people are like a kind of fawn-like animal; no matter what happens, they want to go see; don’t know if they have the strength to watch the excitement this time.”
HT-426 said calmly, “Based on our misdirection, they’ll only send out a scouting squad, trying to identify our target, then dispatch the real combat squad.”
(End-of-month summary: wrote 134k this month, much less; though there are objective issues, subjective laziness is a factor; next month is the last month of new book period, Aqian will definitely double efforts!)
