Chapter 294: Kangaroo
The bungalow is four rooms enclosed together, similar to a Siheyuan.
And that General Energy feedback was in the last house, with no damage to the door and window, not knowing how that thing got in.
‘Could it open doors?’
Su Huan thought with his mind wandering.
Old San, with his injured arm, stubbornly walked ahead of the Train Conductor to clear hidden dangers in advance.
Several Combat Group soldiers cautiously kicked open the door, then saw the injured Mutated Beast right in the middle; the latter turned its head, saw them, shifted its butt a bit, but showed no reaction.
At this time, Old San noticed the huge wound on its chest, sneered, “So it’s injured and can’t move, don’t shoot yet, watch me capture it alive!”
……
Outside, Su Huan suddenly turned his head and looked at the two canned foods that had been following him.
Yu Jing and Tan Yunxi.
The two said the exoskeleton design had hit a snag and needed combat testing, but they had followed him all the way without making a move.
“Aren’t you going?”
The canned food on the left opened, revealing Tan Yunxi’s petite face; the young girl looked troubled, “Train Conductor, there’s no chance to act, weren’t there supposed to be man-eating zombies everywhere outside, with zombie hordes numbering in the thousands at the drop of a hat? Why is it so quiet…”
Shu Wei wrapped her trench coat tighter and explained, “Black Kite Special Operations regularly clears dangerous areas within its sphere of influence, especially rural towns and counties, to avoid merging with city hordes into a major zombie tide.”
Su Huan glanced at the dry bones in the corner of the wall, scoured clean by the sandstorm; small convoys and settlements lacked the strength of major forces to sweep city ruins, so they targeted these small villages and hamlets, and it was precisely these countless villages and towns that sustained ninety percent of survivors.
And this was the so-called “Wasteland”.
“So, your newly developed exoskeletons are only for large-scale zombie tides?”
Su Huan frowned as he looked them up and down.
Previously, whether Scavenger or Engineer, they were mounted externally on the body, like a set of bones attached to the muscles, with a clear structure.
The most complex was the set worn by Black Kite Special Operations personnel, but it only had defense modules loaded at key positions, with the mechanical structure on the back still clearly visible.
But these two in front of him were fully encased in matte black metal, showing no clues from the exterior.
“To be precise, it’s called power armor.”
Yu Jing’s cold voice came from the power armor.
Su Huan was just about to ask what the difference was when he heard a muffled bang from behind.
Old San flew out of the house like a tumbling gourd, rolling until he was covered in dust and dirt.
Without even looking at them, he slammed the ground hard and charged back in.
Su Huan was stunned for a moment, but hearing no gunshots from the house, he suppressed his curiosity and waited for their explanation.
Tan Yunxi beside him continued, “We discussed it for a long time and felt that current evolvers don’t lack agility; whether Scavenger or Engineer, the boost to evolvers isn’t much, at most adding some load capacity and weapon hardpoints.”
“But that’s just scratching the itch from afar, so combining current combat needs, I replanned the exoskeleton design.”
Speaking of her specialty, the young girl’s eyes sparkled, “After all, not everyone is Eighth Master; standing firm on the battlefield is very important, so I designed this set of Defender power armor with defense as the main requirement; all weapon systems are uniformly designed and integrated into the armor.”
As she spoke, she raised her hand, showing Su Huan the two gun barrels extending from the power armor’s arm.
Yu Jing frowned at Tan Yunxi’s rash action and reached out to press her arm down a few centimeters.
Su Huan didn’t mind and instead leaned closer to observe the gun barrel.
The color didn’t match the power armor, and it looked familiar, like it was directly removed from an Iron Curtain Assault Rifle.
Next, Tan Yunxi resolved his doubts, “The arms are equipped with two conventional assault rifles, firing 7.62mm bullets; compared to traditional holding, with this I just lift my hand to fire, and the ammo bay supply is much more stable than magazines, no need to worry about reloading.”
“How many specifically?”
“Two bases on each side.”
Su Huan nodded slightly.
According to train standards, one base was 240 rounds, four bases were 960 rounds, enough for a single soldier.
Wars since the apocalypse were limited by the environment, rarely prolonged; mostly quick battles, and for soldiers awakened with firearm skills, often one or two magazines could achieve effective results.
Last time in the big battle with Black Kite, though it was so intense, on average each person consumed less than two magazines, around sixty rounds of ammunition.
“Anything else?”
Tan Yunxi thought for a moment, then smashed a fist toward the wall beside her.
Earth and stone flew, a bowl-sized pit appearing in the brick wall.
Tan Yunxi turned proudly, “This is the weapon system I designed: quality over quantity; even if bullets run out, as long as there’s energy, I can punch my way out of a zombie horde.”
Su Huan narrowed his eyes; this power was about the same as the physique strength of a non-Defender Tier 1 Evolver.
Weaker than a Tier 1 Mutated Beast, but as a conventional means, it was sufficient.
What surprised him more was that Tan Yunxi could boldly push her own design without being restricted by previous results upon arrival.
He didn’t know what Yu Jing thought.
Su Huan looked at Yu Jing’s eyes behind the iron mask, filled with the same excitement as Tan Yunxi’s, and immediately realized he was overthinking.
“So where’s the difficulty you mentioned?”
Yu Jing sighed, “We didn’t use Black Kite or past exoskeleton templates; because it’s a completely new design, the drive system, joint structure, sensors, etc., all have major issues; at least mid-level engineers or above in robotics or control engineering are needed to push it forward.”
Tan Yunxi spread her hands, “Our expertise is a bit off; there are two mechanical design majors on the train, but they’re just technician level, not enough to drive research.”
Su Huan rubbed his brow; those major forces thrived effortlessly, but for him, it was a stumbling block at every step.
After bustling for so long, they still hadn’t recovered to pre-apocalypse tech levels.
With the Armored Train’s current talent and research level, it was at best pre-apocalypse civilian tech level, and not even comprehensive or top-tier.
If all those major forces were destroyed, at the Wasteland settlement level, human civilization might not perish but would regress a century.
“Bang!”
In the time of a few sentences, Old San flew out again, landing face-first in the dirt.
This time even Tan Yunxi couldn’t help but look at Old San’s bruised and swollen face.
“Damn it!”
Old San wiped his nosebleed, charged back in with a ferocious aura.
“What’s Old San doing in there?”
The power armor issue couldn’t be resolved quickly, so Su Huan followed Old San inside curiously.
The General Energy fluctuation in the room had been stable, not like a fight was going on.
As soon as he entered, he saw several Combat Group members holding guns, surrounding a huge creature over three meters tall crouched in the room.
Because of its oversized body, even Su Huan had to tilt his head up.
This Mutated Beast had a head like a donkey-horse, yellow all over, a big bag on its abdomen, a thick tail on its back, and a wound on its chest like it was bitten by something, with fur stained red.
“Eh, is this a Kangaroo?”
Su Huan was stunned for a moment, said in surprise.
Mainly because the size difference was too great, he didn’t recognize it at first.
Seeing Su Huan enter, those brown eyes immediately filled with fear, its two feet kicking the ground, trying to retreat.
But the back was already against the wall, no space to retreat.
Old San, seeing this, stood on tiptoe, pressed the muzzle against its head, and snarled, “Now you know fear? Hit me again, you damn thing! Hit me again?! Huh?!”
“Are there still Kangaroos in Dong Huang territory?”
Su Huan stepped forward in surprise.
“There are in the high-temperature zone, but here it’s probably from a zoo import, escaped after the apocalypse.”
Shu Wei analyzed.
The Kangaroo saw Su Huan approaching and panicked backward; in its tension, its big foot kicked out, sending the nearby Old San flying.
The several Combat Group members looked like they wanted to laugh but didn’t dare, faces contorted from holding it in.
Su Huan’s mouth twitched; this Kangaroo was indeed the injured Tier 1 Mutated Beast he had sensed.
“How did you take it down?”
A nearby soldier immediately explained.
Perhaps due to heavy injury, the Kangaroo showed no attack behavior, but the Purser probably got too close and got punched in the face; today it had already happened twice, Old San was fuming and wanted to regain face.
Then came the second time, and just now the third.
Su Huan wanted to laugh but held it back as much as possible seeing Old San limping back.
After all, with so many subordinates present, he couldn’t hurt Old San’s pride.
As for the Kangaroo in front of him…
Su Huan pinched his chin, “Does this thing eat people?”
The Combat Group soldiers looked at each other; how would they know? Before, they just shot them down.
Facing a Tier 1 Mutated Beast so calmly was a first.
Shu Wei spoke up, “After research, some Mutated Beasts retain pre-apocalypse habits and can be approached; even some that were close to humans still live with them, but I can’t guarantee this one.”
“I see…”
Su Huan stared at the wary-eyed Kangaroo.
After thinking, he extended one hand, faint high-temperature red light gathering in his palm.
Suddenly, a fluffy head poked out from the bag on the Kangaroo’s chest, landing right in Su Huan’s palm; wet eyes like a fawn’s curiously looked at him.
Directly scattering the red light gathered in his palm.
Under Su Huan’s stunned gaze, it stuck out its tongue and licked his palm.
Everyone was stunned by this sudden scene.
The Train Conductor’s mouth curved up.
Whatever, it’s the apocalypse.
Raising two Kangaroos isn’t bad.
……
On the other side, the fat man looked at the bullet hole that had flown past his head, smashing through the sunroof.
He was furious like a rampaging groundhog.
“You son of a bitch Hu Tieche, daring to provoke us alone, counterattack! Hit them hard!”
Tires screeched on the ground, the off-road vehicle roared forward.
Soon everyone saw a blurry figure in the middle of the road ahead.
“Damn it, daring to act big in front of me, ram him dead!”
The fat man’s face grew more ferocious, a trace of barely perceptible wariness in his eyes.
The driver floored the accelerator, the off-road vehicle buzzing as it charged.
Up close, the driver felt something off.
“Boss, doesn’t seem like Hu Tieche…”
“If not him, who? This damn Pingqiao Village only has that one living person!”
“This is clearly a child.”
“Don’t fart, even if it’s a baby, I’ll ram it today!”
At the moment of imminent collision, the driver suddenly realized he couldn’t hear the sharp tire screeching on the ground anymore; instinctively he floored it more, but even maxed out, there was only engine roar, like it was spinning in air.
He instinctively glanced at the rearview mirror and saw the terrifying scene.
The buildings were under the vehicle.
Meaning—
The off-road vehicle was airborne!
Soon screams from Big Goose came from inside the vehicle.
Another off-road vehicle following closely saw the lead car floating mid-air, didn’t even turn the head, threw it in reverse, frantically accelerating.
A nimble figure shuttled between buildings on both sides; even buildings dozens of meters apart, with one boost it leaped across.
Clear golden eyes reflected the off-road vehicle below.
At the instant the other tried to turn the vehicle, the Mongoose leaped down from a dozen-meter-high building.
Back arched, hands and feet landing almost at one point, tail straight up; the moment it landed on the roof, all power gathered in its claws.
“Rip—”
The sheet metal roof tore open like a delivery box under the Mongoose.
A man raised his muzzle but before pulling the trigger, clutched his wrist in pain and crouched down.
The driver turned his head, vertical pupils glaring viciously at the Mongoose; but those golden eyes glared back, and the driver felt like a fierce tiger pouncing, face instantly pale as paper, unable to even scream, seat already soaked.
“Cat sis, taken care of?”
A figure about 1.5 meters tall walked out from the sandstorm, eyes like steel balls, holding a huge off-road vehicle five meters above her head at a slant, sharp screams coming from it.
The Mongoose was stunned.
Xiao Ba thought she felt it wasn’t secure enough and shook the off-road vehicle hard.
Like a child shaking a toy box.
Clanging sounds from inside the vehicle for a while, then suddenly quiet.
……
Ten minutes later, the Train Conductor leaned on the leather sofa, one hand teasing a small Kangaroo like playing with a dog, while half-lidded narrow eyes sized up the ten people kneeling before him.
The Giraffe beside him barked.
“Where from, what do you do?”
Several people instinctively looked at the fat man nearby.
Su Huan disgustedly wiped the saliva on his hand with the little one’s fur, “Just asking a question, no need for so many.”
(These two days I read two books, one is Wang Pao’s “Force Me Up Liangshan, Do You Have That Strength?”, one is Hua Hai Kai’s “This is Very Apocalypse”, and one is Ai Che’s z “Power Minister Ximen Qing, Usurping in Dream of Red Mansions”; I say I was gathering material, would you believe it?)
