Chapter 242: Tier 21
“He said I was too impetuous and needed tempering, not to go straight for purser.” Su Leiya said hatefully.
Tong Zizhan’s eyelids twitched. Truly, same people, different fates.
He was cautiously hiding here, while the other was jumping around.
He perfunctorily comforted, “Anyway, you’re a Tier 1 Evolver. As long as you stay grounded, you’ll rise sooner or later.”
“Isn’t this grounded enough? At first, I wanted to go for train conductor.”
Tong Zizhan: “…”
Gao Yuan: “…Let’s handle the main business first.”
Idle chat ended, Su Leiya handled the procedures for the Qi Family Brothers.
Her job was simple: ask what they did before, and some pre-prepared questions.
Actually, her handling procedures was just a cover. There were eight people in the room, each with different tasks: secondary scouting of evolutionary degree, ability classification, personality judgment, and so on.
If it was really about assigning tasks, there was no need for Qi Zhendong and the others to make a trip, wasting time and delaying things.
Hu Shuo’s purpose in arranging this was to go through all five thousand people completely.
Previously, they had simply filed them, but there was no time to verify.
No telling if someone gave false information; this time, screen them again.
That way, when the train conductor made a move, he could cooperate.
Su Leiya had just started not long ago when six more doors opened nearby. Including Su Leiya and the supplies exchange window, there were eight doors total.
The clerks inside came out to divert the handoff people.
“Don’t crowd in Carriage 27. Deputy Carriage 28, Deputy Carriage 27 can all handle it…”
At first, it was the clerks shouting on their own initiative. Soon, discovering more and more people gathering, they reported to the command platform.
He Jie’s rough voice soon came from the broadcast.
“All you fuckers crowding together like rushing to be reborn?!”
“Lu Xiao, Pangtu, disperse all these people for me!”
All sorts of filthy language flowed out from the broadcast like water.
While everyone was still in a daze, Lu Xiao and Pangtu, unable to bear the humiliation in the crowd, shrank their necks and quickly called familiar soldiers to lead their respective hands in diverting the crowd.
The guides were all armed corps soldiers, not like ordinary people hesitating; they only executed orders immediately upon receiving them.
Soon, the crowd in Carriage 27 was dispersed to different carriage windows.
This time, the ones squeezing next to Tong Zizhan and the others were a group of women.
Mongoose leading the team.
Greeted Tong Zizhan and the two, then turned to discuss something with the woman behind.
The matter of Mongoose and Old Wu a few days ago had already spread on the train.
Truth be told, not many stood by Mongoose.
Except for a few with families, the atmosphere on the train wasn’t too upright. No one knew how long they could live, so seizing the day was the main theme now.
But the armed corps side tacitly kept silence externally.
If anyone dared jump out and babble now, no need for the train conductor; He Jie alone could kill him.
The combat group side, though fewer in number, had united hearts compared to the armed corps.
Back at the Steel Council, they started at similar points, but due to elimination, their later statuses were worlds apart.
If it was just ranking a few thousand, fine, but the 301st definitely couldn’t stand the 300th.
But everyone was surrendered soldiers, so naturally didn’t dare make trouble when just arriving on the train.
Recently they had adapted, originally wanting to borrow Old Wu to challenge the armed corps, but unexpectedly the train conductor set the tone.
So everyone secretly anticipated when the conflict between these two would erupt.
Tong Zizhan also looked at Mongoose a couple more times with a mindset of watching the fun.
Mongoose first sent someone to report, then turned to the woman, frowning, “You’ve gone to find him again recently?”
The woman’s expression was somewhat unnatural, “No.”
Feeling the odd gazes from the sisters around, she felt very embarrassed, just like that day, as if stripped bare standing before everyone.
But Mongoose was the soldier currently managing them, temporarily not good to offend.
Disappointment slightly showed in Mongoose’s eyes, “You get nothing from finding him.”
The woman lowered her head, a flash of unwillingness in her eyes.
“Clearly he owes me; I just want back what I’m owed.”
“So what did you get back?”
“He said he deceived me, but he will compensate me.”
Mongoose stretched out white tender palm, coldly said, “Where’s the compensation?”
The woman opened her mouth, “He said he’ll give it after things pass.”
“Then you let him have another free ride?”
Mongoose regretted saying this a bit after speaking.
It was a bit sharp.
But she was afraid if she spoke euphemistically, the woman would find excuses to dodge, and continuing to entangle with Old Wu would only make the woman lose more.
The armored train only respected warriors who gained status through strength.
The woman was like a bristling hedgehog, shrilly said, “Why do you have to speak so harshly?!”
Mongoose felt guilty inside, but still stubbornly looked at the woman.
If it could prick the other’s self-esteem, that was great.
Only those with self-esteem would love themselves.
But the woman was like a trapped beast cornered, regardless of others’ views, pointed at Mongoose and hysterically cursed.
“If you hadn’t blown things up back then, would I have ended up like this?”
“Now it’s good, you had to say it in front of everyone, just to tell everyone I’m a slut, a whore anyone can have, to fulfill your hypocritical sense of justice!”
The surrounding women instead showed sympathy in their eyes, with a trace of barely perceptible disgust toward Mongoose.
Seeing the woman’s venomous gaze, Mongoose’s pupils slightly dilated.
An indescribable chill spread from the heart to the limbs, whole body shivering cold, as if falling into an ice cave.
So she thought it was a consensual matter.
So…
It was she who was wrong…
“Bang!”
Intense pain from the shoulder interrupted Mongoose’s thoughts.
Subconsciously swiped claws backward, seeing He Jie’s face sneering while holding a short stick, hand abruptly stopped mid-air, sharp nails also retracted.
“Old Da…”
Mongoose said with head lowered, like a little cat defeated outside, dejectedly poking out its round head at home.
He Jie looked at Mongoose before him, complexion softened a bit, but when gaze swept over the woman behind her, tiger eyes bulged, killing intent fully revealed.
Like a brown bear opening its bloody maw, tongue with barbs and sharp fangs blowing waves of foul wind.
Everyone was scared into retreating several steps, legs trembling.
The woman even more pathetically fell sitting on the ground, eyes rolled back.
Mongoose heard footsteps, somewhat puzzled turned to look, suddenly remembering He Jie was still in front.
Thought to self, ‘This is bad!’
But waited half a while with no expected beating.
He Jie just poked her shoulder with the electric baton.
Rebuked, “Didn’t you hear what I said on the broadcast?”
“Told you to hurry up, not block the carriage, but you turned it into a fucking market, huh?!”
“Had to come personally to disperse?!”
“Huh?!”
One sentence, one poke to the shoulder.
But Mongoose was already used to being disciplined, just body swayed, feet unmoving.
The women behind seeing this scene, different thoughts arose in their hearts.
…
The small interlude passed quickly; with He Jie’s arrival, no one dared watch the fun.
Tong Zizhan and Gao Yuan had long slipped away.
Only Mongoose led the group of women out of the carriage.
The women behind started whispering.
“…Doesn’t seem that impressive.”
“What’s so great about her? Just an ordinary reserve, meddling so much. They were consensual, now it’s all blown up, how to live…”
“Reserve? Not regular army?”
“The name says it, lowest level soldier in the armed corps. That Old Wu is from the combat group.”
“I know the combat group. The whole train has four groups, combat group has the fewest people.”
“Status much higher than armed corps soldiers, right?”
“Of course. Women just can’t do it in this aspect; still need to find a man to rely on…”
Mongoose walked while listening to the whispers behind fading like fine rain.
Though they tried to lower their voices, with her hearing, every word fell clearly into her ears.
No making a fuss like a little girl to argue with them, Mongoose just took a deep breath.
Continued with her own task.
…
Su Huan learned of this small interlude the next morning.
After a day’s confirmation, the Crown Pear Tree was completely saved. Now even if he left, its vitality was steadily recovering.
So the train conductor finally didn’t need to sleep in the tree, returned to the train that day and slept soundly.
Su Huan stretched on the bed, narrow eyes curving, “Such an interesting thing happened…”
The neatly dressed secretary searched around for a while, didn’t find the trash can.
Simply grabbed a tissue to wipe her mouth.
Then handed the tablet to Su Huan’s side, “Conductor Hu has compiled all relevant information on the train’s survivors. Do you want to take a look?”
“Survivors?”
Su Huan looked up in surprise.
Casually took the tablet.
It was divided into two major categories: one was the armored train’s existing formal members.
The other was the filing information for the five thousand survivors.
Su Huan first opened the survivors side; various abilities were classified by type and strength.
Surprisingly, among the five thousand, the highest evolutionary degree wasn’t the Qi Family Brothers, but Old Man Tie.
The old man was a collector; not only handy at such work, but experience rose very fast.
And the strongest in combat power was a wrestler.
There were also rankings in personality, ability, potential, etc.
Hu Shuo marked some he favored with key notes at the end.
“Conductor Hu also wants to ask if there’s any limit on absorption quotas.”
Su Huan glanced casually, “Done pretty well. He can decide how many to absorb specifically.”
Then opened the train’s formal members.
This was what he paid more attention to.
Originally the train had only seven Tier 1s, most from the Steel Council. Now with Black Kite and Deep Blue Data, the numbers surged.
Armored train’s own cultivated: Xiao Ba, Lin Jin, Yu Jing, Yu Yue, Liang Kuan, Lin Xi.
Wan Xing was almost there too; perhaps in another half month she could catch up with the main group. Professor Ma evolved slowly due to being busy with experiments.
As for Lin Xi, she evolved too fast and needed Director Xu to suppress her.
To avoid generating useless abilities wasting vitality.
After all, she wasn’t Su Huan; no matter how many messy abilities generated, they’d soon be destroyed by collapsing genes.
Steel Council brought: He Jie, Qu Hang, White Deer, Goat, Pangtu.
The Steel Council’s three hundred elite soldiers weren’t all Tier 1 Evolvers, but had relatively high evolutionary degrees.
Like Giraffe, just one step from Tier 1; right opportunity and he might cross it.
Deep Blue Data’s two moles: Tong Zizhan, Gao Yuan.
Black Kite had the most; including Shu Wei and Su Leiya, seven total.
The armored train now had a full twenty Tier 1 Evolvers!
Though most were captives, it was still visibly stronger.
Among them, Su Huan focused especially on Yu Jing.
Like Xiao Ba and Lin Jin, he was at ease with them.
These two would become strong even if left to grow wild, but this woman was different.
Intuition told him, leaving Yu Jing to grow wild would produce a monster.
Thinking this, Su Huan tapped the tablet a few times, entered password to access train cameras. Shu Wei lacked permissions here, so he had to do it himself.
First scanned Carriages 9 and 10; only a group of manufacturing group’s attendants synthesizing materials, no sign of Yu Jing.
Not even Crab visible.
Su Huan frowned, looked at Deputy Carriage 9. Because last time they killed quite a few crabs, this carriage became a materials storage carriage.
Only crabs here, no Yu Jing.
Had to look at the last, Deputy Carriage 10, where Yu Jing evolved.
Still as crowded as before.
Coincidentally, the camera was blocked.
Su Huan swept with “General Energy Perception,” sensing exactly three energy sources.
“Fucking causing trouble again!”
Flipped off the second floor bed.
Su Huan in slippers, headed straight to Deputy Carriage 10.
Pushed open the door; air filled with strong disinfectant smell.
Mixed with something unknown, bitter, fishy, sweet.
“You’re here?”
Yu Jing’s faint voice came from inside.
Su Huan glanced at the puppet standing guard nearby, walked inward.
Shu Wei looked at that puppet, complex expression, followed inside.
Though always thought Zhao Kuo was an unambitious waste, seeing him end up like this still stirred inner sigh.
Su Huan passed various mechanical exoskeletons, walked to the innermost control room.
Yu Jing’s exoskeleton hung on the wall; her tall figure stood in the room center. White tactical clothes wrapped her whole body, yet gave a naked sensation.
Normally he’d cop a feel, but Su Huan’s gaze was quickly drawn to the thing on the control panel.
The control panel originally holding Zhao Kuo now had two eerie things.
A tall muscular man with grayish-white skin; unfortunately only half body. If proportionally fitted with legs, height probably over three meters.
Beside it, a pile of octopus-tentacle-like tendrils.
Things that should be dead solid were swaying in bright yellow liquid.
“This thing isn’t dead yet?”
Su Huan raised brow asking.
The thing inside was none other than the mutated Tier 2 Zombie that nearly whipped him to death that day.
Yu Jing’s gaze carried inquiry, “Originally used its lower body, tossed the upper body in storage. Thought it’d die after a while, but after some time an attendant reminded me it was still alive and tendrils regrew. What you see now is after my third cutting.”
