Chapter 243: Down The Drain
“It looks a bit like Cthulhu.”
Shu Wei, standing behind him, suddenly said.
Su Huan tilted his head, puzzled, “What is Cthulhu?”
Shu Wei pointed at the wriggling tentacles on the control panel, “A kind of bizarre myth, in which one god’s representative image is like this, covered in tentacles…”
“It can’t be called a god. This mutated zombie just has strong vitality, but it still needs to absorb nutrients and general energy from nature to generate new limbs.”
Yu Jing shook her head and said.
While the two were talking, Su Huan had already walked up to the control panel, listening to them while lowering his head to examine the severed tentacle.
He extended one finger.
The tentacle seemed to sense it, its wrist tip wrapping around the fingertip, the slippery sensation making one’s heart numb.
‘It has a bit of consciousness, huh? Then you can’t be kept.’
Su Huan curled the corner of his mouth.
“Thunderstorm.”
Frenzied lightning snakes surged out wildly, instantly covering the entire control panel. Crackling explosion sounds and bright lightning filled the entire carriage.
Illuminating the surprised faces of the two women.
The alarm buzzed incessantly. Shu Wei went out and said a few words, and the shrill sound stopped.
It lasted a full minute before Su Huan stopped.
He leaned back and turned his head to Yu Jing, “Sorry, I killed it.”
The thunderous sound disappeared instantly, making the room dead silent.
Shu Wei glanced at Yu Jing standing in place. Relying on a woman’s intuition, she felt there was something between them.
Yu Jing’s eye corner lifted slightly, as if somewhat surprised, then dropped, and she said indifferently, “I was originally thinking of calling you to help me weaken it a bit. Now it’s convenient.”
Su Huan: “(＃￣Д￣)→”
Realizing he had misunderstood, Su Huan was a bit annoyed and angry, “So what were you originally planning to do with it?”
Yu Jing moved her long legs and walked to the side of the control panel, “My ability currently can’t compete with living creatures for flesh and blood usage rights, so I can only first turn the opponent into dead, or half-dead, like now.”
“Life Devouring Reshaping” activated, and her mechanical puppet had walked in at some point.
The tentacle on the control panel was lifted by an invisible force.
The scattered parts next to the control panel that Su Huan hadn’t paid attention to flew up, embedding into the octopus tentacles under the drive of general energy.
At first it was a bit messy, looking like an iron plate octopus.
When various parts formed a structure, it highlighted a kind of mechanical beauty.
The octopus wrist feet combined with metal into a tense exoskeleton device. Before Su Huan could appreciate it carefully, it fell onto the mechanical puppet’s back. Various parts meshed together, and after a series of crisp clicks, the mechanical puppet like an octopus doctor was completed.
Su Huan breathed a sigh of relief.
“As long as you don’t install it on yourself.”
Hearing this, a hint of temptation flashed in Yu Jing’s eyes.
Seeing Su Huan’s expression gradually become dangerous, she quickly dismissed the idea, “Don’t worry, I won’t easily modify my own body.”
“Best that way, but what’s the point of all this effort?”
Su Huan carefully observed the mechanical arm on the puppet.
After a minute of thunderstorm, all the tentacles should have been half-cooked by him.
Now it looked like nothing happened, overall an even gray color.
Like the mortar mixed by a mason.
Paired with mechanical parts, it looked less disgusting than on the control panel.
Yu Jing pinched her chin, thought carefully for a moment, and said, “First, for me, flesh and blood mechanical is easier to control. Second, these tentacles have strong vitality and can repair the puppet body when damaged.”
“No combat assistance effect?”
Yu Jing said regretfully, “Even if there is, it’s useless. I haven’t grown tentacles, so I can’t bring out combat effects, unless you let me try it myself.”
Su Huan raised an eyebrow, “You try it?”
Yu Jing decisively gave up discussing with the petty train conductor who exactly should try it, and changed the topic.
“By the way, what is this tier 2 zombie called? Can you get some more?”
“Name… just call it Eight-Claw. This is a tier 2 zombie, you think it’s cabbage, available whenever you want?”
“You just came up with that, right.”
“You’ve been talking too much lately. Put more effort into material manufacturing, don’t delay my construction progress!”
Su Huan glared at her.
Unfortunately, this move had no lethality against Yu Jing anymore. Anyway, her experiment was done.
No desires, whatever.
The train conductor didn’t show anything on his face, but silently noted Yu Jing in his heart.
After briefly chatting about material production issues, they walked out of the carriage with a strange smell and came to the deck.
Just in time to see He Jie returning with over a thousand survivors rowing small boats.
The lead fishing boat had a howitzer mounted on it, and He Jie was smugly carrying a mortar beside it.
As they got close to the train, he jumped directly onto the deck and burst into hearty laughter at Su Huan.
“Haven’t played with cannons for a long time, it feels fucking great!”
Su Huan glanced at the scale of the small boats behind and asked, “How was the effect?”
He Jie wiped his freshly shaved buzz cut and said candidly, “Tested all six, effects top-notch! A tier 2 butcher roared at me, howitzer flat-fired and directly turned it into meat foam!”
Although he had psychological preparation, Su Huan was still a bit surprised.
A tier 2 butcher was somewhat equivalent to an armored vehicle. Its already thick body plus corpse armor made small caliber guns feel like tickling.
In his previous life, he and Qu Hang carried out such cleanup tasks relying entirely on that electromagnetic sniper rifle.
Otherwise, it couldn’t penetrate.
One shot turned it into foam?
In his previous life, when he saw cannons hitting zombies, it was already two or three years into the apocalypse, targeting a tier 3 spine hound.
Bombed for half a day with one hit, it shook its head and got up again.
In the end, it was taken down by an evolver.
Perhaps because the Steel Council’s caliber was too small. At that time, several cannons were only 80mm, not as satisfying as these 155mm ones.
The caliber was nearly twice as large.
Seeing him thinking, He Jie slapped his thigh, “This is a cannon! Not to mention carbon-based lifeforms, even our armored train would get a big hole with one shot. Leaving some shredded meat is already impressive, okay?”
In Su Huan’s heart, his reverence for cannons, more accurately pre-apocalypse weapons, increased a few degrees.
“How much ammunition was used?”
“Used twenty rounds, bombed a few buildings, killed thousands of zombies, and incidentally blew up a few schools of fish.”
He Jie said carelessly.
“120mm mortar cannonballs have 180 left. I used a full amount, still six bases left. One base is thirty rounds, total 180. Howitzer ammunition is more complex, total two bases. Sixty percent high-explosive rounds, ten percent anti-armor ammunition, remaining thirty percent precision-guided ammunition, illumination rounds, and other functional ammunition.”
He Jie recited the ammunition count casually.
As commander, he knew these ammunition quantities by heart. If it was like before managing only twenty people, he knew exactly how much ammunition each had left.
Seeing Su Huan’s gaze fall on the mortar in his hand, He Jie handed it over.
In his previous life, He Jie’s tier 3 “Guns and Cannons Master” was named from carrying a heavy machine gun in one hand and a mortar on his back.
Su Huan was naturally curious, took it and weighed it, slightly puzzled, “Is the mortar this light?”
“The tripod and base plate are removed. The barrel alone is about 75 kilograms.”
He Jie pointed to the frame soldiers were carrying onto the train.
Su Huan understood.
The mortar’s structure is very simple, just a smooth barrel with two frames and a disc.
When using, sit directly on the ground, muzzle to the sky, throw the cannonball in, and two people squat nearby hugging their heads.
But for firearm evolver like He Jie, it’s not that troublesome.
Hold the barrel, cannon whoever you want, fire however you want.
“Train Conductor, what are we hitting next?”
He Jie asked excitedly.
Su Huan tossed the mortar barrel to White Deer behind him and snorted coldly, “Wait until we find the electromagnetic weaponry, then these cannonballs are yours to fire!”
……
“March 22, urgent water”
“‘Floating Giant Wood’ plan comes to an end, heading to Jingchao Lake.”
When Su Huan put down his pen, Glasses’ voice came from the train-wide broadcast.
Su Huan walked out of the cabin door and directly came to the top of the carriage, looking at the distant power plant.
At this time, besides busy personnel on it, there was a towering giant tree, with branches and leaves sprouting, tender and green.
The seven-to-eight-meter-high cultivation pod compared to the forty-meter-high crown pear tree was like a pair of “iron shoes,” barely covering the feet. Over three-quarters of the trunk and canopy grew outside the cultivation pod.
“All departments make final preparations.”
“Armed Corps check explosives loading again.”
“Combat Group count personnel, ensure everyone retreats from power plant.”
“Research Group check crown pear tree status…”
“Good, all groups withdraw.”
“3”
“2”
“1”
“Boom——”
All supporting walls and columns of the power plant standing in the rainwater exploded with puffs of smoke and dust simultaneously. Instantly, the huge factory structure collapsed.
Falling into the water like pushing a mountain or toppling a jade pillar.
Raising towering waves of over ten meters, pushing the nearby floating armored train five or six meters away.
The water surface immediately became turbid.
Amid the smoke and dust and water mist came a “thud” muffled sound, like some colossal object falling on the water surface.
Factory Director and others in the front of the train broke into a cold sweat. Soon they saw the footage projected by the drone on the panoramic screen.
A forty-meter-high giant tree stood shakily on the water surface, its root a “giant iron basin” four or five meters above the water, namely the cultivation pod built by the armored train at great cost.
“Success!”
No one knew who spoke first, and cheers erupted inside the train.
Although this wasn’t the first time the armored train had built something, it represented the maturing organizational scheduling ability of the armored train organization.
Truly gaining independent design and research and development capabilities.
Su Huan standing on the front of the train also breathed a sigh of relief seeing the cultivation pod steadily landing in the water.
The resources weren’t that precious. Even if the crown pear tree capsized, it wouldn’t drown.
But time couldn’t be delayed.
To set up this tree, he had delayed nearly a month in total.
He wasn’t willing to do it again.
“All departments prepare to connect the cultivation pod…”
Su Huan smiled, walking from the roof all the way to the end.
At this time, under the towing of the rear front of the train, the armored train’s end approached the cultivation pod on the water surface.
Large numbers of manufacturing group and research group personnel emerged from the train.
Seeing Su Huan on the roof, they hurriedly greeted him.
Everyone’s face carried a hint of excited smile.
Witnessing a project from design to realization was fulfilling, not to mention they were all direct participants.
In this world where destruction was the main theme, every construction was humanity’s struggle refusing to slide into the abyss.
When the cultivation pod approached, they didn’t connect immediately.
Instead, they sent large numbers of experts aboard the cultivation pod to inspect.
Only then did they start connecting.
Although interface issues were considered in the initial design, connecting various energies and equipment, sealing work made “connection” itself a troublesome project.
“How much longer estimated to complete?”
Su Huan asked.
The secretary following like a shadow calmly replied, “At least three hours.”
“Let them connect slowly. I’ll go up and take a look first.”
Su Huan took a running start and jumped directly onto the cultivation pod.
The cultivation pod wasn’t enclosed like the armored train.
On one hand, the crown pear tree and plants inside needed rainwater; on the other, the internal space was too large, requiring terrifying weight to submerge in water.
Once something happened, the train needing to dive to hide would be very troublesome.
It simply couldn’t sink.
Better to make it open. If something happened, just let water in directly.
Anyway, the crown pear tree wouldn’t drown.
So from this angle, Su Huan could see Professor Ma below directing students to carry that supercomputer into the cultivation pod.
From the appearance, it was like carrying metal cabinets one by one.
Because afraid of damage from vibrations, the supercomputer was transported in only after entering the water.
The supercomputer would be reassembled in the space under the crown pear tree roots. Meanwhile, its massive weight would also stabilize the cultivation pod’s center of gravity.
Further below was the reserved position for the data center, which should now be full of water.
Then the data center placed there could directly dissipate heat.
The crown pear tree trunk was surrounded by a spiral upward spiral ladder.
These ladders were movable. If the crown pear tree grew thicker, it would push the ladders outward to stretch, avoiding damage to the tree body.
Below the roots was a lush grassy area, shaped like simulated natural hills, planted with two small pear trees and some plants that didn’t occupy much fertile land.
Huang Hai planted half of the carriage farm’s Fertile Soil Heart here.
Above the grass were crisscrossing walkways.
These walkways were equipment added later by Deputy General Manager Deng.
Through precise calculations, these walkways could pop out transparent pedals on both sides, sealing the entire grass area.
Only exposing the crown pear tree canopy outside, avoiding washing the carefully grown crops into a mess when filling water.
At the same time, the walkways also prevented people below from being suddenly attacked by some evolved plants.
‘Perhaps we can build a garden… park floating on the water surface.’
Su Huan suddenly thought, looking at the walkways below that cut the circular grass into beautiful geometric shapes.
