Chapter 234: Stand Firm!
“Why do you think I’m willing to shelter you?”
Su Huan turned his head, a faint doubt between his brows.
Zhang Min stood at the rooftop edge, facing him across a five-meter steel beam.
Sizzling electric currents pierced the air, filling the nostrils with the scorched smell of watery fishiness.
Getting closer, he could increasingly feel the terrifying pressure from Su Huan’s body, like approaching a ferocious beast grinding its teeth and sucking blood, his heart instinctively rising to his throat.
Feeling the trembling of her body and the fear in her heart, Zhang Min became even more excited instead.
This was the Train Conductor in her memory.
Although unfathomable before, he had hidden it too deeply, which instead disappointed people.
Zhang Min sarcastically curled her lips, “Of course I know the Train Conductor doesn’t get up early without profit.”
After speaking, she reached out to take off her jacket, revealing the white sports bra underneath.
The onlooker Shu Wei was shocked by this action, her eyes wide open.
How was this girl even more reckless than her?
There were so many people here.
She didn’t want any face at all?
However… such perky youthful vigor.
Then she caught the key point and looked down at herself.
The accumulation of time had manifested heavy fruit on her body, but even if healthy, it had to follow physical laws, the fruit humbly hanging its head.
Each had its pros and cons.
Shu Wei pursed her lips with a slightly worried look.
Su Huan’s eyes were deep, because Zhang Min didn’t continue undressing, but instead unfolded the clothes toward him, revealing the greasy handprint on her shoulder.
Although the clothes were soaked by rainwater, the different color from the surroundings was still visible.
Zhang Min didn’t speak, but her eyes clearly flashed with [You used me to wipe your hands, it’s not too much for me to ask you to shelter me once, right?].
Seeing Su Huan’s silence, Zhang Min knew he understood her meaning, and while putting on her clothes, she calmly said.
“Of course, I’m not one to eat free rice. I’ll help you solve the trouble downstairs.”
Hmm, this was squeezing him about his earlier mockery of her wanting to eat free rice.
He just didn’t expect his little action to be discovered.
“Fine, but only until dawn. The price after that will be separate.”
Since the other party had clearly stated not joining the Armored Train, the accounts had to be settled clearly.
“No problem, after dawn, we’ll go our separate ways.”
Zhang Min calculated that the mutated beast downstairs would definitely be gone by then, so she readily agreed.
……
Hearing the two reach an agreement so straightforwardly, Shu Wei nearby was completely dumbfounded.
If Yu Yue’s conversation with Su Huan had some trace to follow, then Zhang Min’s conversation was completely inexplicable.
Just because she took off her clothes once, he agreed to shelter her for a night?
Also, since she could resolve the crab tide downstairs, why come back to seek shelter?
Looking at Zhang Min who seemed to have won a victory, doubts arose one after another in Shu Wei’s mind.
Her eyes kept shifting between Su Huan and Zhang Min; she was now even more curious about what exactly had happened between the two to have such tacit understanding.
“Fulfill your promise.”
Su Huan dispersed the lightning from the bottom of this building.
The blue crabs that lost restraint instantly perked up, piling one on top of the other and excitedly climbing toward the rooftop, already reaching past the twelfth floor.
Su Huan locked General Energy Perception on Zhang Min.
This skill had been promoted to lv7 due to frequent use, keeping pace with the main skill.
The perception wasn’t precise, but it had helped Su Huan solve many problems.
He “saw” an invisible general energy fluctuation spreading from Zhang Min’s body, like a large net capturing the crabs below, but what surprised him was that a general energy fluctuation actually came from himself, as if actively responding to Zhang Min’s ability.
But this fluctuation flashed and passed, making Su Huan suspect it was his illusion.
Soon, the general energy in the large net began to return.
This general energy was heavier, as if wrapped with something; this thing exceeded the scope of “general energy,” so Su Huan only vaguely sensed it without accurate judgment.
Zhang Min’s aura visibly elevated.
“They’re retreating, the crab tide is retreating!”
The soldiers at the building edge immediately shouted.
Su Huan looked down; the blue crabs downstairs weren’t dead, but retreated orderly like organized by someone, a thought flashing in his eyes.
This was another ability he didn’t know.
It seemed a bit like manipulation of mutated beasts or something, but from the earlier sensation, it clearly wasn’t a normal information interaction process.
He had seen evolvers who manipulated mutated beasts in his previous life.
They mostly transmitted their orders to mutated beasts, unlike Zhang Min who stripped something from the mutated beasts.
But not understanding wasn’t scary; just be cautious.
He was a full level higher than Zhang Min.
No risk of capsizing.
The crab tide receded like ebbing seawater, surging down from top to bottom in extreme order.
Revealing the pitted walls battered by their claws.
Su Huan stood up, energy surging to dry his clothes.
Although the result was somewhat unexpected, solving the problem was good.
“Why are those crabs coming back again?”
Hearing the soldiers’ shouts, Su Huan looked down.
The retreating crabs showed a trend of making a comeback, rebuilding ladders on the water surface like helmeted soldiers, clacking as they began the siege.
Zhang Min’s complexion changed, activating her ability again to disperse the crab tide.
Ten minutes later.
Su Huan shook his head, “Don’t waste time; these aren’t the same batch of crabs. To disperse the crab tide this way, you’d have to go through every single crab.”
“Not only that, the previously dispersed crabs have swum back, meaning as long as you don’t handle all crabs at once, the dispersed ones will still be assimilated by the group.”
Shu Wei added.
Zhang Min frowned, “Then what to do?”
“Only the dumb method.”
Su Huan sighed, sitting back on the steel beam again as a thunderous boom struck, scattering the gathered crabs.
Crackling explosion sounds once again surrounded the entire Iron Mountain Shelter.
The storm grew more intense, but the Armored Train on the water barely rocked.
Because the deck was piled into a crab mountain, the train’s waterline had deepened by a meter.
Zhang Min bit her pink lips, watching Su Huan’s back, stubbornly driving away the crabs again and again.
Besides her, Lin Jin was also silently manipulating flames in the corner to bombard the surrounding crab mountains.
He was currently still a Tier 1 Flame Wielder.
But his abilities had made significant progress; the three main skills Flame Control, High-Temperature Barrier, and Kindling had all reached lv3.
In addition, he had awakened a skill called Explosive Flame.
It could attach explosive properties to flames.
As long as he wanted, he could make any flame explode in the most brilliant way.
Kindling was attaching a flame seed to a creature’s body; within a certain time and distance, he could choose whether to ignite this seed.
The condition for planting Kindling wasn’t harsh; as long as his flames had touched the other party, even if the flames extinguished, the seed would still exist.
Kindling wasn’t a physically existing flame, more like a mental mark left by Lin Jin.
Now with the Explosive Flame skill, combined with Kindling’s trait, he could detonate Kindling directly like igniting a bomb.
Tested personally by the Train Conductor, a Tier 1 caught off guard would suffer minor injuries.
But the truly terrifying part wasn’t this explosion.
It was the flames produced after the explosion; with Lin Jin’s water-unquenchable flame trait, once ignited without countermeasures, one could only wait for death.
In terms of ability, on the entire train, only Shu Wei could completely counter him.
But Lin Jin’s eyes were only on the Train Conductor.
But now…
Lin Jin felt the distance between himself and Su Huan not only hadn’t closed but was growing farther.
The roar continued for another ten minutes.
Zhang Min’s spirit was excited, but absorbing too many negative emotions had made it hard for her to control herself well; looking at Su Huan ahead, she gritted her teeth and persisted in dispersing.
Lin Jin was somewhat fatigued.
To blow up those crabs, he had to use multiple skills in coordination each time.
This high-intensity output was a huge test for both energy and spirit.
Su Huan showed no change.
Half an hour later.
Zhang Min had stopped dispersing, her gem-like eyes staring straight at Su Huan, biting her nails, lost in thought.
Shu Wei watched vigilantly from the side.
Lin Jin was very fatigued and began reducing flame intensity, no longer aiming to burn to death at once, merely retaining the blast effect.
Just enough to blast apart piles of crabs.
Lin Jin looked toward Su Huan’s position.
The storm blew so hard eyes couldn’t open, but that blurry black figure stood like a nail, without a hint of swaying.
Tall, mysterious, dignified.
Lightning snaked across the sky, steadily striking the gathered crabs.
After an hour of use, Su Huan not only wasn’t fatigued but had even better control over his energy.
The currents that occasionally mis-hit allies now skillfully avoided Old San and the others every time.
Even with rainwater guiding them.
Because he could feel his visible progress, even the tedium was absent.
Another two hours passed.
The lightning not only didn’t weaken but grew fiercer; previously crabs could hold around the tenth floor in a tug-of-war with Su Huan, now barely exceeding the water surface by three meters, and once past that limit, thunderous strikes awaited.
Looking at the vibrant Su Huan.
The thought arose simultaneously in everyone’s minds.
“Is this guy even human?”
Even the power plant wasn’t this outrageous, right?
Lin Jin had completely lost the will to persist, sitting under a tin house, pinching a general energy crystal in one hand, staring blankly at the electric lights filling the sky.
If this was evolution.
Then what were they?
Evolved wrong?
He had a strong illusion.
Perhaps they were the ones evolving.
Su Huan was ascending to godhood.
Zhang Min had gone downstairs; she wasn’t surprised by any performance from the Train Conductor.
Even if Su Huan now stepped on his left foot with his right and ascended on the spot, she’d find it natural.
But her gaze toward Su Huan grew increasingly strange.
Shu Wei didn’t leave, standing in the wind and rain, blown for two hours until numb.
Her whole body was wooden.
She actually wanted to leave, but her body was stressed and couldn’t move.
Then no one noticed her condition, so she inexplicably stayed here listening to thunder for two hours.
Old San wasn’t shocked by this; in his simple view, the more badass the Train Conductor, the more badass he was, and how badass should the Train Conductor be?
As badass as possible!
So after arranging the soldiers’ patrols, he dragged a few officers to play cards and boast.
At first Qu Hang and the others were reserved, but no big deal; except Old San, everyone here were soldiers from the Steel Council.
The group caught two blue crabs, and after eating and drinking their fill, chatting about soldier days and cursing He Jie, they all loosened up.
A bunch of blood-licking killers who didn’t care about danger at all.
Even if crabs charged up, it’d just be a “damn dogs,” grab guns and fight hard.
Die leaving a national essence curse, or leave clean.
“Four sevens, bomb!”
“Awesome!”
“Can’t follow!”
“Train Conductor is the most badass!”
“Brothers, toast to the Train Conductor.”
“No booze? Go downstairs and grab some, red or white doesn’t matter…”
The people of Iron Mountain Shelter didn’t have such big hearts.
The survivors on the rooftop were all driven inside the building—not because Su Huan was harsh, mainly because wet iron sheets attracted lightning, hard to control at first.
Might as well herd them down all at once.
They weren’t like Old San; zapped twice just perks them up.
Ordinary people were too fragile; a casual current could take out a bunch.
After all, he had decided to protect this group.
If he accidentally killed half, it’d be a huge joke.
The Qi Family hid in the crowd downstairs too.
Xiao Dong clung to the window, eyeing the lightning pouring outside.
Qi Jianguo asked in a low voice, “How long has it lasted?”
Qi Zhendong, “Over three hours; shouldn’t be an evolver, some means we don’t know.”
Hearing their conversation, someone nearby chimed in.
“Definitely; no matter how evolved, still human. This thunder is heavenly might, not something humans can control.”
“Right, they must’ve used some means we don’t know.”
Qi Zhiyuan, squatting in the corner hugging his knees, lifted his head.
Eyes flickering, like seeing hope.
“Must be it; they just used some trick to fool us, Dad. As long as we find their lightning device, we can beat them.”
Yu Yue cooking upstairs twitched her ears slightly, suddenly smiling.
Then her complexion turned serious as she pondered how to handle the crabs on the counter.
People around hearing Qi Zhiyuan’s voice made way.
Qi Jianguo then saw his son huddled there, frowning at his bruised and swollen face.
“Come here.”
Things happened too fast before; he didn’t know how his son’s face got injured.
Qi Zhiyuan quickly scrambled up and ran over.
“What’s with your face?”
Old Man Tie by the window didn’t turn back.
Qi Zhiyuan’s eyes flickered, but facing Grandfather, he didn’t dare lie, only said evasively, “Made a mistake, got beaten by Grandfather.”
But Qi Jianguo was a veteran, not so easily fooled.
And he knew his son’s character well.
Tonight’s Iron Mountain Shelter incident was at least seventy percent his doing; if not for Old San killing all who knew, he’d have asked long ago.
Qi Jianguo gazed calmly, “Tell me in detail: why he beat you, how he beat you.”
Seeing his father’s expression, Qi Zhiyuan knew he was doomed.
Legs trembled uncontrollably; the previously urine-soaked pants were chilly, like eerie wind drilling into his body.
Picking the lightest parts, he recounted tonight’s events lightly.
He didn’t dare lie, but he’d pick what threatened him least.
Qi Jianguo finished listening, not erupting in anger like usual.
Just softly said, “These years I’ve been in the troops, paid little attention to you; it’s my fault as a father.”
Qi Zhiyuan was stunned, abruptly lifting his head in shock.
“Dad?”
“Zhiyuan, stand straight!”
While Qi Zhiyuan was dumbfounded, an even fiercer slap landed on his other unmarred cheek.
