Chapter 308: I’m A Softie
A small riot occurred in the Zhijin City zombie tide, but the sound was muffled layer by layer, only audible to Yu Yue.
Su Huan sat at the command platform in the front of the train, watching the surveillance inside and outside the train, and exclaimed in surprise, “Zhijin zombie tide riot?”
Yu Yue said softly, “It’s large-scale, but it was suppressed extremely quickly, only about a minute from start to finish.”
“Who cares about that, I’m not going.” Su Huan said, reaching out to point at a few people on the screen, “These ones barely moved their pens from start to finish. Go check their situation. If they’re just filling seats, drag them out and execute them.”
The bespectacled person beside him respectfully acknowledged.
……
The wind weakened, and the buildings ravaged by sandstorms on the roadside gradually revealed their full appearance.
Mutated plants cautiously poked their heads out from inside the buildings, pushing away the piled sand and dust at the doorways, cleaning the human-forgotten city like hosts, occasionally pausing to cautiously “observe” the massive convoy on the abandoned highway ahead.
Under Li Xinlong’s anxious gaze, Hu Shuo led a group of people out.
Meeting his gaze calmly, he said, “A total of twelve people passed, two of whom reached instructor level with an extra reward of sixty points. Should we proceed with the exchange according to the previous scheme?”
“One 12.7mm caliber heavy sniper rifle, one Chi Ting-2 sniper howitzer, and convert the rest all to bullets. For the heavy sniper rifle, I don’t want iron-head ones; I want the 30-year new production dragon-head ones.”
Without looking at the list, Hu Shuo shook his head decisively, “The talent provided by Black Star Convoy is only 90 points, but a single 30-year produced heavy sniper rifle already costs 75 points, and the sniper howitzer’s value is even slightly higher than the heavy sniper rifle. This transaction is impossible.”
Li Xinlong and Pang Ke exchanged a glance, somewhat conflicted.
Hu Shuo reminded, “If you two haven’t decided, you can discuss first. I’ve already recorded the points; come back later.”
With that, he headed toward Jin Feng Chamber of Commerce.
This time, Jin Feng Chamber of Commerce was the big contributor, providing over sixty talents just from them.
Pang Ke cursed at the few who were sent back, “None of you can fight, none of you can study—what the hell are you eating for?!”
Everyone hung their heads and didn’t dare make a sound.
Li Xinlong irritably waved his hand, and only then did they retreat with relief.
The armored train had too many good things; he wanted every one of them, but what Black Star lacked most right now was this kind of long-range deterrent firepower.
Black Star did have sniper rifles; over the past half year, they had scavenged quite a few from enforcer institutions.
But the Night Demon sniper rifles issued to enforcers had too little power. Forget mutated beasts with their huge builds; even hitting people now was a bit strenuous.
Without ultra-long-range deterrent firepower suppression, facing high-level zombies and mutated beasts meant trading lives.
Take the heavy machine gun on his vehicle roof; it had already gone through six gunners, one of whom was a near Tier 1 Defender.
It wasn’t a lack of firepower; it was that the evolutionary levels were too high.
Too far and they couldn’t hit accurately; too close and whether Night Demon or any mutated beast, they could trade one-for-one before dying. It was because Black Star Convoy’s weapons were too thin, unable to form layered firepower strikes.
The armored train’s situation was the complete opposite.
Before zombies generally evolved, the train could easily crush them with its tough shell and rifles.
Once Tier 1 zombies increased, heavy machine guns, anti-aircraft machine guns, grenades, rocket launchers… became the train’s standard output methods.
Most could only see He Jie firing anti-aircraft with both hands, arrogant and rampant, but above his head were dozens of drones, beside him were trains loaded with anti-aircraft and armed personnel carriers with heavy machine guns, inside the vehicles were hundreds of thousands of bullets and soldiers to reload for him, behind him were Qu Hang, Yu Yue, and over a dozen heavy sniper rifles, in front was Liang Kuan holding an iron shield to hard-tank the Butcher, plus Goat and a bunch of well-trained veterans.
Once zombies reached Tier 2, the armored train’s combat radius had evolved from over a thousand meters to dozens of kilometers around.
Waiting for zombies to charge into the train under cannon fire, what greeted them was the train conductor with an even higher evolutionary degree…
So along the way, the train rarely suffered major casualties facing mutated beasts and zombie tides.
This was the meaning of weapons’ existence.
“How about we sell some more supplies?”
Pang Ke suggested.
Li Xinlong sighed, “The traded supplies are already on the market, and given the train’s wealth, what supplies do you think we have that could move them?”
Pang Ke thought about it and agreed, his eyeballs rolling around.
“How about skipping the sniper howitzer and just getting two iron-head heavy sniper rifles? They’re a bit old, but military stuff is sturdy and durable. Two together only cost 80 points, and convert the rest to bullets.”
“It’s just a bit of a waste to exchange for bullets; we still have plenty of 12.7mm×99mm bullets, and the train’s points are worth way more than bullets.”
Li Xinlong said gravely, “We’ll have to do it that way.”
Pang Ke was just about to call Hu Shuo when he suddenly slapped his forehead, “Almost forgot, isn’t that idiot also a teacher?”
Li Xinlong was stunned, “Which idiot?”
“I’ll go find him for you.”
……
“Wei Ge, we’re rich! Master Rong wants to see you and that idiot.”
A person hurried over and kicked the pickup truck body.
A dark figure quickly crawled out from under the vehicle, his whole body black except for the whites of his eyes.
“Master Rong wants to see me?”
The man curled his lip, “Pang Ke said it personally—could it be fake? Bring that idiot and hurry over; don’t keep Master Rong waiting.”
Yuan Wei hurriedly crawled out from inside the vehicle, looking toward the front of the convoy. Vehicles stretched endlessly out of sight, miscellaneous and blocking his view, but they couldn’t block that seven-to-eight-meter-tall steel monster.
Over an hour had passed since they were stopped.
More than twenty people from the convoy had been called out, and none had returned yet.
By apocalyptic moral standards, who knew what the armored train wanted with people like them?
Yuan Wei’s complexion flickered uncertainly.
Suddenly he felt his sole of foot being tugged; Yuan Wei looked down to see the idiot neighbor using his sole of foot as a pivot to crawl out from under the vehicle.
“Look, I just dug this up—it’s sweet!”
The idiot neighbor opened his hand; in his pitch-black palm was a white root.
Yuan Wei glanced at it, his face changing drastically in anger. He slapped the white root out of his hand and without a word kicked the idiot in the stomach. The latter fell sitting beside the vehicle, clutching his abdomen in painful dry heaving, vomiting for a long time before spitting out something like white foam.
Yuan Wei grabbed his collar and delivered several hard slaps, snarling ferociously, “Don’t eat random things, don’t eat random things—are you fucking trying to die?!”
The idiot trembled in fear all over, “I I…” for a long time, unable to say a complete sentence.
Yuan Wei heard distant urging voices and looked at the neighbor before him like a child, red bloodshot veins crawling into his eyes as his grip tightened on the wrench in his hand.
Better to end him himself than let him suffer in this world!
Yuan Wei steeled himself in his heart, raising his arm; from the excessive force, his entire hand trembled.
“I just wanted… to give you food; your stomach was growling…”
“Bang!”
The wrench smashed a dent into the pickup truck; the idiot’s words were scared back down his throat.
Yuan Wei felt like all the bones had been drained from his body; the surging exhaustion in his heart made it hard for him to stand.
He turned his head and walked toward the front in despair.
Covering his face in sobs, “Yuan Wei, you’re fucking just a softie!”
……
“Extra test?”
Su Huan spun once in his chair, his gold and silver earrings floating with centrifugal force.
Hu Shuo said respectfully, “Yes, after the transactions, some small forces and scavengers who came from afar want to take the extra test.”
“Oh, then what are you all here for?”
Su Huan curiously looked toward Professor Ma and the others behind; the old men hadn’t gone to grade papers but had all come to him instead.
Professor Ma said slowly, “We discovered a very impressive scholar, but his condition is a bit off…”
Su Huan was greatly surprised, “How off? Bring him for me to see.”
The door opened, and Giraffe led in a disheveled, dirty man.
The man was over forty, but had none of an adult’s steadiness, curiously eyeing the various facilities inside the carriage, even reaching to touch the lights glowing on the floor.
Su Huan was shocked, “This guy isn’t an idiot, is he?”
Hearing Su Huan’s voice, the man looked up at everyone on the command platform.
His black pupils slightly centered, filled with pure bewilderment.
“Are you calling me?”
Damn, it’s solid!
Su Huan looked speechlessly at the refined old scholar beside him.
Professor Ma sighed deeply, “His name is Chen Ziliang, a newcomer in the math field with boundless prospects, but his brain tissue was somehow damaged, and now he seems a bit mentally challenged…”
Su Huan frowned, “What level is this newcomer? Academician?”
Professor Ma was immediately choked.
Deputy General Manager Deng smiled bitterly and explained, “There are no academicians left outside; they were all taken by the organization long ago. Chen Ziliang’s teacher is a top figure in international math circles. He himself solved…&*%￥#@（&&***&&）… and many other problems at a young age. After returning home, he taught at Zhijin University. Though I never met him, I’ve heard friends mention this rising star. Sigh, what a twist of fate.”
Su Huan skipped the messy proper nouns in the middle.
For a science scum, the greatest despair wasn’t not being able to solve it, but not even knowing what the problem was.
But he could tell these old men highly valued the idiot below.
“Alright, since we know him, let’s take him in. Skip the test for now, clear the road, let them go to Zhijin. We’ll head straight to the scavenger market.”
Su Huan instructed.
Anyway, the train’s foundation was thick now; keeping a couple of idlers was no big deal. Maybe this idiot could create a surprise for him.
With the train conductor’s order issued, the train directly split in the middle into two sections, clearing the road.
The convoy, stalled for an hour, could finally move forward again.
But the massive crowd split into two parts.
One part continued with the convoy toward Zhijin, the other followed the armored train to Neutral Town.
This wave directly expanded the train by 210 people, covering various academic, military, and medical experts. Except for a few purely academic talents, most were immediately usable practical ones.
Greatly filling the armored train’s talent gaps.
Upon reaching Neutral Town, the train began the second exam.
This exam admitted far fewer, only around forty, but news of the armored train’s abundant supplies and generous treatment had spread.
Everyone had forgotten the dozen or so executed on the spot for cheating.
This attracted more scavengers toward Neutral Town.
Around Zhijin, nearly 200,000 scavengers had originally gathered. Per Black Kite’s plan, they were to slowly approach Zhijin, but now because of the armored train’s talent exam, nearly 30,000 to 50,000 chose to stay in Neutral Town.
Over the next three days, the train quickly held the third, fourth, and fifth extra tests.
But each time, the number of talents gained was fewer, while the number executed on the spot increased.
The last three combined had over a hundred killed.
But people still came endlessly.
……
“June 17, wind easing.”
“The apocalypse doesn’t need people bad at studying.”
Sandstorms howled against the windows. Su Huan stood on the second floor of the dining car, using a telescope like a cannon barrel to look at the convoys coming and going on the highway outside.
He let out sounds of amazement.
“What’s the principle here? It can see through the sandstorm?”
Deputy General Manager Deng beside him explained with a smile, “This is a byproduct of our general energy weapon research. Simply put, we use general energy as a medium to receive scenes after the sandstorm, then replicate them through some method.”
Su Huan stood up satisfied, “Not bad, just feels a bit choppy, shaking around.”
“This is just preliminary results; it needs further improvement. But this piece represents a major breakthrough in our general energy research…”
Seeing Su Huan’s brows furrowing, Deputy General Manager Deng quickly switched back to normal speech.
“Professor Ma’s proposed ‘radar’ device can be built ahead of schedule.”
Su Huan raised an eyebrow—was this a case of unintentional success?
“How far has the Phase Three Renovation Plan progressed?”
“The renovation framework is mostly set; they’re discussing specific details in the mechanical laboratory.”
Su Huan immediately took interest, “Let’s go see. Talk while walking.”
Following behind Su Huan, Deputy General Manager Deng said, “We call the armored train’s Phase One renovation the basic renovation stage, meeting basic survival needs. Phase Two is reinforcement renovation, checking and filling gaps on the original basis for enhancement and completion. For Phase Three, after discussion, we feel the train’s current goal is to build a three-dimensional attack-defense network.”
“Though the train has many functions—like amphibious capabilities, electromagnetic attack-defense, carriage farms, etc.—all the functions are too scattered, not systematic. Simplest example: our attack and defense means can’t effectively link up.”
Su Huan listened half-heartedly; though Deputy General Manager Deng couldn’t go three sentences without guns and cannons, the point about “not systematic” was spot on.
Because his rebirth time was too short with no prep time, the train’s initial renovations were completely from his whims.
Many times it was just fixing whatever was missing.
Later with Yu Jing’s joining, it became a bit more systematic, but each design still started from practicality, without overall design.
Only at Shun’an train manufacturing base, through the factory director and others, did it get a relatively overall framework.
But back then, the factory director and others were forced into it and didn’t clearly understand the train’s future development direction.
