Chapter 312: This Cigarette Is Really Harsh
Then participate in the train’s famous “death test”.
To deter those hot-headed scavengers, those who want to take the train’s talent test need to pay an exam fee.
Three ordinary general energy crystals each time.
But even so, the crowd is still endless. Even though the train lowered the exam standards and no one passed for three consecutive days, more than three hundred people have already been shot on the spot for cheating.
The talent test is also jokingly called the death test.
But as those who passed spread the word about the armored train’s benefits, the entire neutral town boiled over.
Crew level 1 attendants have a base income of 20 points per month, and the armed corps’ lowest third-class soldiers have a full 60 points income.
The former can ensure a person no longer goes hungry, the latter can ensure the whole family doesn’t go hungry.
But for scavengers who live in daily trepidation and exposure to wind and dew, this is the least important thing.
A sturdy and safe shelter that lets them not worry about seeing zombies’ scarlet eyes upon opening their eyes or smelling the stench of mutated beast saliva upon closing them has a fatal attraction for these scavengers who have struggled in the apocalypse for half a year.
Not to mention boarding the train with food, lodging, and wages provided, with water, electricity, and stable work—even if it meant handing over food every day and getting electrocuted daily, there would still be crowds flocking to it!
Even if worked to death, they’d have to tuck in their tails and hook, shouting “Great lord of justice!”
To pass this “apocalypse civil service exam,” the entire neutral town erupted in a huge wave of learning enthusiasm, studying train exam questions every day and shouting slogans.
“Better to get shot on the train,
Than gnaw garbage off the train.
Fail the exam and brains explode,
Better than feeding corpses to rot into mud!”
But adults’ learning ability is limited, and more people turned their ideas to unorthodox ways.
Like on the main street of neutral town at this moment.
“Armored train real exam papers, Zhijin University professor one-on-one guidance, just five packs of instant noodles!”
“This morning’s sole passer recounting real questions, just two general energy crystals!”
“《How to Handcraft an Internal Combustion Engine》 manual, one copy…”
“Wireless earphones, cheating artifact, guaranteed to work!”
“…”
Various hawking voices mixed together, but listening carefully, none are selling legit stuff, all related to the talent test.
White Deer looked shocked, “Can this even sell?”
Giraffe snorted lightly, pointing at a pair of ragged father and son standing by the roadside, haggling with a man selling internal combustion engine manuals, “Isn’t that someone buying?”
“Pretty interesting, let’s check it out.”
Su Huan grinned and sidled over; the father and son had just bought the manual.
Seeing the neatly dressed Su Huan, they were stunned at first. The train conductor’s attire has no distinctive markings, always changing but in black, and with rare appearances, ordinary scavengers don’t recognize him, just awed by his clean clothes and handsome looks.
When the father and son clearly saw the two deer in uniforms behind him, their faces instantly showed fear.
“We… didn’t, didn’t cheat, just bought a book to read.”
“Don’t panic, I just got on the train too.” Su Huan grinned and asked, “How much for this booklet?”
Hearing this, the father and son relaxed, their tone becoming more friendly, “He opened with ten general energy crystals, I said that’s robbery, and finally bargained it down by half.”
Su Huan expressed admiration, said some auspicious words like “get on the train soon,” and let the excited father and son leave.
They vaguely muttered, “If your mom were here, we could’ve bargained another half off!”
White Deer came over with the just-bought manual, cursing softly, “Train Conductor, this bastard is too black-hearted, daring to ask ten general energy crystals for something like an instruction manual. With this stuff, I could glance at a book and make one myself, sell to ten people for a hundred ordinary general energy crystals—with neutral town’s foot traffic, couldn’t we sell at least a thousand or so?”
White Deer suddenly felt the train conductor and Giraffe giving him a subtle look.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You bought it at full price?”
White Deer was baffled, “Isn’t that the price?”
Giraffe patted his shoulder, “Listen to me, from now on, you must let your wife manage the money.”
White Deer immediately anxiously said, “Is that the point? The point is these people are taking our train’s profits! Train Conductor…”
Su Huan beckoned to the roadside, and a young man selling real exam papers dashed over in a few steps.
He said respectfully in a low voice, “Train Conductor.”
White Deer stared at the familiar face in a daze, then suddenly realized, “Xiao Wang?!”
This was no opportunistic scavenger; clearly the assistant who usually followed Huang Hai, unassuming daily and with a bit of makeup, White Deer hadn’t recognized him.
Xiao Wang smiled and put his index finger to his lips.
Su Huan said flatly, “How are the real exam papers selling?”
“Over three thousand sold in the past two days, two general energy crystals each, pure profit!”
“Raise the price.”
Su Huan glanced at White Deer and said meaningfully.
Xiao Wang was stunned, “Raise by how much?”
“Ten.”
After waving goodbye to Xiao Wang, White Deer silently followed behind the train conductor, but his eyes kept staring at the people by the roadside.
“Stop looking, just Xiao Wang and two or three others, recouping the cost of the papers.”
Su Huan said lightly.
“Xiao Wang isn’t the first, is he?”
White Deer suddenly asked.
Su Huan gave him a sideways look, pointing at him and grinning oddly to Giraffe, “Yo, he’s wised up!”
Bidding farewell to this little interlude, the three strolled to the street center as if pre-apocalypse shopping.
Here, both sides of the street were neat four-story buildings, with shops on the ground floor.
Taller buildings were farther back.
After half a year, it had been developed by the four greats into a decent trading market, selling various supplies and junk scavenged from Zhijin and surrounding county towns.
At first everyone had shopfronts, but now with more people, shopfronts charge fees.
Ordinary scavengers just set up on the ground, a large cloth with corners tied by rope to a stick, ready to pick up and run at any sign of trouble.
But after these days of observation, neutral town is still pretty stable.
Otherwise those small forces wouldn’t spend big to build shopfronts here.
The three reached the street’s busiest middle section; on the left, a man with dragon and tiger tattoos on his head directed a group of younger brothers to hang the words “Brother Biao’s Tavern” above.
The big man suddenly shivered, his fierce gaze sweeping over, turning into a fawning smile upon seeing Su Huan’s signature smile.
“Train Conductor, I was just planning to invite you personally, and here you are—too much face, really too much face…”
Su Huan adjusted the small square-like wristwatch on his wrist, watching the numbers flicker before stabilizing around three hundred, then entered the tavern under Wen Biao’s welcome.
This was a new biological magnetic field jammer from Director Xu’s laboratory, making Su Huan feel like an ordinary person.
At the same time, the device converts received “momentum” field strength into numbers.
Through a series of complex calculations, into intuitive numbers representing vitality.
Currently still in testing, he is the only tester.
Passing the counter, Wen Biao pointed at the shelves full of various liquor bottles, “Train Conductor, what would you like to drink?”
Su Huan scanned with interest; the bottles were brand new and varied, as if directly scavenged from some mall storeroom. Though just past noon, people were already drinking, one or two bottles per table, but the atmosphere was quite lively.
“Plain water.”
Su Huan casually sat at a table by the side.
Then he watched a younger brother at the counter hurriedly turn off the dehumidifier, pour a full cup of plain water from the sink, and bring it over by Wen Biao.
Might as well have ordered alcohol…
Though the water in the cup was clear, Su Huan still felt it odd.
He sipped, a faint inescapable dusty taste lingering.
“How’s their base city plan progressing these two days?”
Su Huan put down the cup and asked.
Wen Biao instantly turned serious; a younger brother nearby unrolled a map of Zhijin City on the table, marked with precise auxiliary lines—clearly prepared in advance.
Seeing the lines on it, White Deer and the others’ expressions also grew grave.
Zhijin City is on plains, not many gullies, so the whole city is very orderly, with only one small river running diagonally from northwest to southeast through the city. South of the river is about one-fifth of Zhijin City, namely Zhinnán District.
“Train Conductor, look, there are four national highways over Zhijin River to the city center. According to intel I’ve gathered these two days, the four greats have already reached the riverbank, but Zhinnán District isn’t fully cleared, so they’re stationed by these river paths, turning back to clean Zhinnán—altogether killing over three hundred thousand zombies.”
“These four roads are…”
“Heard there’s a tough battle at Chenxi Plaza, Black Star Convoy took a small loss…”
“And here, three small convoys wiped out, over seven hundred people, Jin Feng lost over two hundred, scene was particularly brutal…”
Wen Biao gathered all the collected info on the map; Su Huan listened silently, not rebuking even when it didn’t match his knowledge, silently cross-referencing in his mind.
Suddenly, some commotion came from the tavern doorway; Su Huan looked up.
Just in time to see the tall and slender Shu Wei walk in.
Su Huan casually asked, “Did those five confess?”
Shu Wei shook her head, “The laboratory has always been Director No. 1’s private domain; my father has no say here, let alone me. Moreover, their status isn’t high, they don’t know Black Kite’s detailed layout in Zhijin, but what I’m saying is something else.”
Su Huan raised an eyebrow, waiting quietly.
“Black Kite internals seem to have had a small rebellion, and just now, we received Jiang Rong’s distress signal.”
“Where is she?”
A rare hesitation appeared on Shu Wei’s face.
“According to Professor Ma’s positioning… right in Zhijin City. He Jie and the others are on the train waiting for your orders.”
“Oh ho…” Su Huan’s eyes narrowed, his ink-like eyes half-smiling, “You’re forcing my hand, huh?”
…
…
Three hours earlier.
North of Zhijin River, some commercial street; the hole in the street grew ever larger, even the building across it about to collapse in.
Hundreds and thousands of zombies jammed here, blankly howling twice.
Within three hundred meters of the hole, all miscellaneous items cleared; nearly a thousand various tier 1 zombies gathered here, and further ahead, dozens of tier 2 zombies whose mere sight oppressed the heart.
But more terrifying, these zombies showed no unrest, like students waiting for class, obediently staying in place.
Cao Yong sat cross-legged by the wall, using his remaining hand to pull a cigarette from his pocket, flick one into his mouth, but fumbled forever without finding a light.
“Click.”
A hand reached over, lighting Cao Yong’s cigarette.
Cao Yong looked at the calm, still eyes of the person before him, slightly surprised.
No. 1 said calmly, “After analysis, I think you need a smoke to relieve pressure now.”
“Hey…”
“Did he scold you?”
Looking at the silent No. 1, Cao Yong suddenly let out a long string of half-laughing snorts.
Then coughed, choked by the smoke.
The room filled only with Cao Yong’s violent coughing, as if coughing up his lungs.
Data streams flashed in No. 1’s eyes; he thought he should perhaps reserve some brainpower to analyze these complex emotions.
Tier 1 for tier 2, a no-brainer profitable deal.
He stated per his established logic, “As long as you bring the item into the hole, Zhong You can be reinstated after this, and his promotion within Black Kite won’t be affected.”
“You’re already crippled; with current means, can’t be fixed. Exchanging for an old friend’s future is your greatest value.”
Cao Yong suddenly stood, grabbed the box on the ground, and headed downstairs.
“That previous sentence is enough.”
After a while, fierce explosions sounded outside the window, zombie roars deafening.
No. 1 overlooked from above.
Several elite special operations squads struck from all directions, drawing away the dense zombie horde below.
Tier 2 zombies reacted fastest, nearly instantly charging out over half.
At the edge, Cao Yong injected himself with a potion, box in hand, charging madly toward the hole at speed no less than a tier 2 night demon, stomping over unavoidable zombies’ heads in a frenzy.
Zombie roars turned chaotic, discovering the intruder only when heads were stepped on.
Tier 1 zombies reacted, starting to chase and intercept this tier 1 evolver.
In normal combat, Cao Yong couldn’t survive no matter what, but his goal was merely to rush through—much simpler.
Various zombies surged forward like waves, trying to drown this daredevil.
Dodging several bulky butchers, the hole ahead grew larger; an instinctive fear urged escape, but Cao Yong ignored it all. The dark red light spot at his mouth wasn’t extinguished by the sandstorm but grew brighter.
Memories of old trivial matters grew clearer in his mind.
‘Old Zhong, stop smoking, it’s choking.’
‘Can’t you learn some of my good points out of so many?’
‘Besides a pretty wife, what good points do you have.’
‘My son is handsome too, good at studies, makes me proud!’
Facing two blocking tier 2 night demons ahead, Cao Yong’s neck veins bulged, squeezing the last of the potion’s power, hurling the box in his hand.
“Pfft!”
Night demon sharp claws slashed, severed arm and box flying together.
Cao Yong, like a diver, leaned back, falling into the zombie tide.
Light spot extinguished.
‘Old Zhong, this smoke really chokes…’
