Chapter 292: Golden Pupil Hunt
In the western frontier of the great sun, mad winds rolling billowing sandstorm covered the train.
The carriage darkened, and two silhouettes sat facing each other in front of the car window.
One small, one with triangular ears.
The mongoose felt her brain buzzing. Xiao Ba’s story had a huge amount of information, and it was mixed with a lot of contradictory and conflicting parts, causing her claws to extend in confusion after listening, yet she didn’t know which one to ask first.
“So that means the Train Conductor killed his parents… and then you saved him?”
“Why did the Train Conductor have to fight head-on against the Steel Council?”
“Why do it so decisively?”
“Xiao Ba, weren’t you the biggest supporter of the Train Conductor? Why save the child of the Train Conductor’s enemy?”
“…No, why?”
The mongoose painfully grabbed her hair, her voice thick with confusion.
The youth quietly watched the mongoose spit out a series of questions. “It’s not that I most support the Train Conductor.”
“Hm?”
The mongoose’s ears perked up.
“It’s that the Train Conductor most supports me.”
The mongoose dazedly looked up. The youth’s eyes reflected not the storm outside the window, but a gentle light, like a candle flame wrapped in sheet metal, stable and warm despite the storm raging outside.
Infected by Xiao Ba, the fear fluttering in her heart also settled a lot.
“So the Train Conductor tacitly allowed me to bring Cheng Cheng onto the train.”
The mongoose subconsciously hugged her legs to her chest, her tail quietly wrapping around her shoulder, her whole demeanor carrying a low aura.
“I don’t understand.”
Not that she didn’t understand Xiao Ba, but she didn’t understand the Train Conductor’s motives for doing all this.
Whether it was the near-suicidal motive for starting war with the Steel Council.
Or the madness of leading a million zombies to slaughter a human base.
She didn’t understand any of it.
This was quite a gap from her impression of the Train Conductor.
She had thought that understanding the Train Conductor would change her views, but she never imagined her emotions would become so complex.
Upon hearing that the war had begun, she would feel nervous and put herself in the Train Conductor’s shoes from that time.
Thinking about how to break the situation.
But no matter how hard she racked her brain, she couldn’t imagine such a madness way to break the situation, using such a tragic method to perish together with the opponent.
But her sensitive nature also made her empathize with the oblivious ordinary people in the Steel Council.
Feeling their panic and despair at the time.
She aspired to become a “hero” like the Train Conductor, but she also deeply sympathized with those ordinary people from the same background as her.
So when she heard that the Train Conductor had fallen into the water, her heart was already a tangled mess.
All her past cognition was madly attacking her inner heart.
Plunging her into deeper confusion.
That tragic war scroll unfolded before her: cannonballs seemed to whistle past her ears, the vibration of wings like thunder, the black crow flock blotting out the sky, gathering into spears connecting heaven and earth, gunpowder and bloodlight splashing across the night sky together.
But when that figure stood above the lightning pool, her heart still couldn’t help but be shocked.
Her beast pupils reflected the dazzling lightning from the story.
She hated this side of herself, this unprincipled side.
“I don’t understand him.”
The mongoose repeated once more, her voice carrying pain along with confusion.
“No one understands him.”
Xiao Ba’s calm voice interrupted the mongoose’s emotions.
“He doesn’t understand us either.”
The mongoose tilted her head slightly and sighed, “It’s getting more and more complex.”
“But Su saved Lin Jin and his sister, saved He Jie’s family.”
“His methods are always very extreme.”
“He never demanded that we understand him either.”
The mongoose’s voice was a bit hoarse. “Like this time executing Old Wu?”
Xiao Ba’s eyes were calm. “If you think it was too much, why not try to stop him?”
“Stop… who?”
“Stop Su, or stop Old Wu from abusing recruits, stop things from happening. Even at any link, doing something would be fine.”
The mongoose was stunned.
“But at the time it was already…”
“Su never stops me from saving people, nor others from getting off the train. As long as it doesn’t interfere with his goal, he doesn’t care what we think or prepare to do. If you think Old Wu didn’t deserve death, why not speak up for him?”
The mongoose was struck like lightning.
From beginning to end, Xiao Ba had been telling her a simple truth.
If something looks wrong, why not try to change it yourself?
The truth he spoke was very simple, so simple that she had even overlooked it.
She herself seemed to have done nothing from start to finish. Whether facing He Jie or Old Wu, she just stubbornly expressed her attitude and waited for the Train Conductor to make a decision.
Waiting for others to decide, but dissatisfied with others’ decisions.
Then falling into internal conflict and struggle…
But this was the apocalypse.
Without her own decisions, her own will, relying entirely on others—could she go further like that?
The mongoose suddenly realized that she wasn’t even as insightful as Xiao Ba, this child.
A massive epiphany impacted the mongoose’s heart.
She didn’t even notice that the fur on her tail had all puffed up. All the emotions accumulated since the apocalypse reached their peak at this moment, every cell in her body trembling madly.
“What if, what if the Train Conductor will harm many more people?”
Xiao Ba smiled shyly. “Then in the future, I’ll save even more people in his place.”
“If you think killing is a sin, then he should share the sin he bears with me.”
The amber beast pupils reflected the slightly shy youth, instantly turning into clear gold.
Like the ornate eaves of a palace, the crisscrossing patterns on a kasaya robe.
Clear and translucent.
A sharp aura unconsciously spread outward from the mongoose at the center.
The papers on the desk were silently sliced in half.
Xiao Ba’s pupils contracted. The mongoose before him was still the same, but no matter how he looked, she seemed a bit more “perfect” than before. This wasn’t an illusion—because the mongoose had evolved in that instant.
Becoming a Tier 1 Professional, with her temperament also leaping forward. This was evolution at the gene level.
……
“Tier 1 ‘Golden Pupil Patrol Hunter’.”
Su Huan looked at the mongoose before him and faintly uttered a few words.
Shu Wei instantly lowered her head, picking up the tablet to search the database for this profession.
“No need to check. I know all the professions in the database. We haven’t recorded this profession yet.” Director Xu said with slight amazement.
As he spoke, his gaze subtly swept over Su Huan.
As the top-tier evolution researcher from a former major force, Director Xu often felt crushed by the Train Conductor in terms of breadth of knowledge on evolution professions, giving him a sense of absurdity.
But as an old ginger who had lived for decades, he only suspected Su Huan.
“Tier 1 ‘Golden Pupil Patrol Hunter’. Cat Sis, this profession sounds really powerful.”
Xiao Ba said admiringly.
After awakening, the two immediately thought to report the information to the Train Conductor, but after searching they didn’t see him, so they planned to register with Director Xu first, just in time to run into the Train Conductor checking on scientific research.
The moment he saw the mongoose, Su Huan recognized this profession.
From the name alone, it was clear this was a promotion path summarized by Deep Blue Data.
Since “Beast Transformation” was a major direction of “Defender”, many forces had research on this direction.
Among them, the publicly acknowledged strong one was this feline Beast Transformation direction: “Golden Pupil Patrol Hunter”.
In the Steel Council’s data library, this profession was placed in the first few pages under “Defender”. Those clear, translucent golden eyes left a deep impression on Su Huan.
And that skill called “Nine Lives” made him toss and turn, unable to sleep.
“Nine Lives”—as the name implied, nine lives.
The data described that as long as more than seventy percent of the body remained, one would revive again.
And nine times!
A full nine revival chances!
Simply like cheating.
Of course, such an awesome skill wasn’t something a Tier 1 Evolver could have—at least Tier 3 was needed to awaken it.
But this was terrifying enough.
For such a top-tier assassin, nine lives could at least take down nine same-level Evolvers.
Last life’s Su Huan, with only a power bank and weak combat power, naturally coveted this skill immensely.
Though even if he had gotten it last life, it wouldn’t have been of much use.
Not necessarily.
Nine sections are better than one.
But when this profession appeared alive before his eyes, Su Huan still felt a bit jealous.
“If I remember right, this seems to be a four-skill profession. Little Cat, you should only have three skills, right?”
Su Huan asked with narrowed eyes.
The mongoose nodded. “I just awakened a common skill ‘Strengthen Will’, and then promoted.”
Su Huan exhaled lightly.
Director Xu beside him smiled wryly. “‘Strengthen Will’ isn’t any common skill. From my research, this skill can immunize against many mental manipulation and emotion guidance skills, and assist many other skills.”
“That powerful?”
The mongoose’s eyes widened round. She hadn’t expected that just casually chatting with Xiao Ba would awaken such a powerful skill and profession.
“Future promotions will be very difficult, but combat power can be called invincible at the same tier.”
Su Huan gave a fair evaluation.
The mongoose was like pumped with chicken blood, her ears twitching as she glared fiercely at Su Huan. “Can it beat the Train Conductor?”
Su Huan was stunned, then chuckled. “Premise is you have to be the same tier as me.”
“Same tier is enough?”
“Only at same tier will you know what despair is.”
Su Huan said faintly.
As long as it wasn’t tier suppression against him, there was only being crushed by him. Only at Tier 2 would one qualify to know how strong he really was.
Below Tier 2, insta-kill was insta-kill.
A slightly stronger ant and a normal ant weren’t much different.
The mongoose’s ears drooped dejectedly, but quickly perked up, full of fighting spirit. “There will definitely be a chance in the future to ask the Train Conductor for guidance!”
“Oh?”
Su Huan looked playfully at this cat that had suddenly become aggressive.
This wasn’t a change evolution could bring.
“Train Conductor, I think there’s one thing you did wrong.”
As the mongoose’s voice fell, everyone’s complexion stiffened slightly.
Su Huan keenly noticed Xiao Ba using his ability to turn the wheelchair to flee, so he extended his toe to jam the wheel, smiling. “Which thing was wrong?”
The mongoose’s gaze clashed sharply with Su Huan’s.
“I think it shouldn’t have been done with such cruel means to publicly execute Old Wu, even if he did very excessive things.”
“Specific reason? Speak boldly. I, the Train Conductor, am happy to hear opinions.”
“I think executing Old Wu that way was too demoralizing. It should have been announced to everyone’s face what crimes Old Wu committed, then formally executed. And that ancient punishment of clubbing to death shouldn’t have been used.”
As the mongoose spoke, she suddenly felt the figure before her draw close.
Sharply sensing danger, her base code activated, and she subconsciously wanted to open her mouth and hiss at him.
Amid crackling electric light.
The mongoose’s eyes glazed over as she stood in place, knees slightly bent, in a half-squat ready to leap backward at any moment. Su Huan’s large hand had already landed on her head, wickedly kneading her two slightly scorched furry ears.
Only when the electric light faded did the mongoose leap out of Su Huan’s range.
Her round eyes’ upper eyelids turned into a fierce straight line.
(No time to find a picture, anyone with a better one can replace it)
Her sharp tiger fangs were also bared.
“Hiss…”
The change came too fast—even Xiao Ba and Shu Wei didn’t react.
Su Huan looked surprised at his hand.
Though he hadn’t used much energy, the mongoose’s escape speed was much faster than he expected.
It seemed this “Strengthen Will” was really quite good.
Facing the somewhat wary mongoose, Su Huan revealed a wicked smile, his sharp white teeth matching hers.
“I heard your suggestion, but—I don’t plan to follow it.”
“So, what’s your choice?”
The first sentence was teasing, the latter serious. Even Xiao Ba’s face showed some gravity.
The mongoose calmed her state, clenched her fist seriously, and said, “Train Conductor, one day you will follow my suggestion.”
“With my strength!”
Seeing the mongoose’s chuunibyou appearance, Su Huan’s taut face instantly cracked, and he laughed heartily, extending his hand. “Congratulations, you’ve entered the train’s first echelon.”
The mongoose looked at Su Huan’s extended hand, her golden eyes flickering, then firmly grasped it.
“Please take care of me, Train Conductor.”
……
On the same day, two new professions were added to the Armored Train Database.
One was the mongoose’s “Golden Pupil Patrol Hunter”, the other was Tong Zizhan’s “Twilight Robe”.
It sounded quite abstract—all skill effects combined for one purpose: reducing one’s own presence.
As an information reconnaissance personnel, strong might be an option.
But concealing oneself was always a choice that wouldn’t go wrong.
Director Xu had long targeted Tong Zizhan for research. Based on Tong Zizhan’s daily characteristics, he compared skills one by one, finally piecing together this “Twilight Robe” profession.
Su Huan had only learned of this clear progress recently.
The Armored Train itself hadn’t sorted this out clearly yet, and he had no idea of cultivating spies.
But even without follow-ups, this profession would be useful in the future.
(My schedule is messed up—sleeping days, energetic nights—but today to host a guest, I forced myself to stay up all day, eyelids fighting, no update today. Tomorrow, definitely tomorrow!)
