Chapter 38: Hell On Earth
Su Huan turned his head to look at Qi Xiao Ba and handed him the steel plate in his hand. “Try to see if you can manipulate this metal.”
Xiao Ba focused intently on the palm-sized steel plate. After a long while, the steel plate slowly floated up and, in the air, was kneaded like by a pair of large hands into a spherical shape.
“Bang”
The steel ball fell onto the table. Qi Xiao Ba shook his head. “This kind of metal is already very hard to control. Compared to ordinary metal, it consumes four to five times more of my energy, as if there are a lot of impurities mixed in it.”
Su Huan was pensive. Qi Xiao Ba’s words confirmed a certain guess of his.
In his previous life, Eighth Master manipulated Tier 1 light armor and ordinary metal without any difference—at least that’s how it seemed to him.
But Eighth Master at that time was already a Tier 2 Professional.
He was quite famous among the Wanderers in the acid rain area.
Perhaps when “Metal Affinity” advanced to its superior ability “Metal Control,” one of the conditions was to devour these new materials.
In that case…
If the armored train’s armor was forged with new materials, wild metal manipulators wouldn’t be able to shake the train in the short term.
However, he wasn’t sure if those big companies had manipulators with high-level skills like Xiao Ba’s.
This was a point he had always been puzzled about.
Clearly the apocalypse had only begun four years ago, so why did these forces all have Tier 5 Evolvers?
Moreover, they had researched many mutually complementary professional systems.
Even if they occupied more manpower and resources, the overall environment had changed—could they accomplish so much in four years…
Evolution was crazy; could scientific research also be crazy?
Taking advantage of the gap while Su Huan was speaking, Yu Yue ladled a bowl of wonton for her daughter.
Yu Jing looked at her mother’s flushed cheeks and was slightly puzzled. “Mom, what’s wrong with you?”
Yu Yue stealthily glanced at Su Huan, her complexion embarrassed as she stuck out her red tongue tip. “I tasted something spicy; my tongue still hurts.”
Yu Jing said helplessly, “If you can’t eat spicy food, then don’t taste it. You sit and eat; I’ll go get water.”
Seeing her daughter stand up to head toward the kitchen, the woman’s face instantly showed a terrified expression.
She quickly stopped her. “No need, no need; I can get it myself.”
Although her daughter was gifted and strong in hands-on abilities, for some reason, she had an explosively disastrous talent in cooking. Even making cold dishes could make pots, bowls, and pans produce festive New Year-like fireworks.
Yu Jing hesitated for a moment but still sat back in her original spot.
After a while, Liang Kuan also returned.
Su Huan explained the next plan.
One: Complete the first phase of the armored train.
Two: Collect electronic products as much as possible to lay the foundation for full-train surveillance and subsequent modifications.
“Next, you all need to prepare to welcome the true apocalypse.”
“Apocalypse? Isn’t it already now?” Yu Jing asked puzzled.
Su Huan’s mouth curved up. “This?”
“It’s just the beginning.”
……
08:20.
The armored train left the outskirts of the water plant and quietly headed toward Mo Jiang City, which had a population of 7 million.
Due to the large amount of steel plates and water purifiers, the train’s initial traveling speed was very slow.
After an unknown amount of time, on the railway tracks outside the water plant, a heavy panting sound appeared. A mutated pig three meters long stepped out from the bushes, its robust and plump body like a small mountain.
Dark red mane stood up like steel needles, tusks flipped outward forming bone blades, hoof armor mutated into metallic texture, and every step made the sleepers and gravel underfoot creak.
If Su Huan were here, he would recognize it as a Tier 1 Mutated Beast, the Gluttonous Pig.
Its combat power was much stronger than the blood hound, but it didn’t have such strong ferocity.
It spent most of its time foraging every day.
The Gluttonous Pig’s nostrils twitched, its tusks picked open an instant noodles box to lick the remnants, and its throat issued satisfied purring sounds.
The sprayed oily fishy smell lowered its alertness; it didn’t notice the abnormality at the rail joint behind it.
Several pale white bone spikes came through the air.
“Crack!”
The Gluttonous Pig reacted extremely quickly, kicking the ground with its hind hooves. Its huge plump body flexibly leaped up, and the metallic hoof armor collided with the bone spike, producing a muffled sound.
But another bone spike was missed, piercing about ten centimeters into its buttock.
Before the Gluttonous Pig could howl in pain, a bone whip came through the air, wrapping around the pig’s body.
With a hard yank, mane broke off, large cracks appeared on the skin, and blood flowed.
The Gluttonous Pig was thoroughly enraged. Its small eyes turned blood red, staring at the intruder. Its four limbs kicked the ground, charging violently toward the opponent like a speeding tank.
“Boom!”
After the vibration.
A huge figure three meters tall stood in front of the Gluttonous Pig, with no neck, its head sunken into the chest cavity, only a pair of black-red eyes glowing faintly.
One hand was the bone whip wrapped around the pig’s body, the other inserted into the wild pig’s eye socket.
“Heh…”
The tall figure issued a vague syllable, flipped onto the pig’s back, and bone spikes popped out from the knee joints, rotating like a meat grinder into the wild pig’s abdomen.
The Gluttonous Pig wailed in pain, flesh and blood splashing from its waist, but it had no room to struggle.
The tall figure lay in the expanded flesh and blood, its shoulders slightly unfolding to reveal a pitch-black human head inside.
It opened sharp teeth and viciously gnawed at the flesh and blood.
An hour later, large patches of flesh and blood on the ground were evaporated by high temperature into something like blood grease, the color gradually darkening.
The tall humanoid zombie finally raised its head from the meat mountain.
Its pitch-black face was full of scarlet bloodstains. Looking at the railway extending into the distance, its eyes seemed to regain some clarity.
“Heh… Train… Bad seed!”
……
On the elevated railway tracks, “creak creak” sounds were incessant.
The twisted steel rails became straight under some inexplicable great force.
The armored train advanced slowly. Except for Liang Kuan driving, several people were now standing on the second-floor sightseeing carriage overlooking this once prosperous big city.
Hundreds of thousands of cars were stacked on the streets. Some were burned to leave only a scorched skeleton frame, some had struggling zombies inside, some had survivors who didn’t escape in time.
Despairingly trapped in the center of this pile of car wreckage.
On the right side of the tracks, a derailed train pierced through three office buildings in a twisted parabolic posture.
The front of the train embedded into the concrete load-bearing wall on the twenty-seventh floor of the central building. The sixteen carriages were like the skeleton of a steel-cast iron giant python, with glass curtain wall fragments peeling off like scales, refracting millions of points of phosphorescent fire in the noon sunlight.
The glass curtain walls of the skyscrapers on both sides were shaken to pieces, revealing numerous dark holes.
With the daylight, one could clearly see the white corpse pupae inside.
Vaguely, twisted curled humanoid outlines inside were pulsating violently.
Dense ordinary zombies wandered among them. Hearing the train’s sound, they surged toward the windows. After the glass broke, they fell to the ground like dumplings, piling up a corpse mountain.
The passengers in the back, every face showed complex indescribable expressions.
Fear, shock, bewilderment…
And more.
Scarface looked at the terrifying scene before him, his expression horrified. “What is that Su guy trying to do?”
“The city is full of zombies now; is this delivering food?”
The old man sitting in his seat nearby looked at the once glorious city, a trace of nostalgic expression on his face. “No, if he wants to go north, this is the fastest route.”
“Mo Jiang Bridge?”
“Yes, to get to Mo Jiang Bridge, we must pass through Mo Jiang City.”
The old man’s expression was grave.
“How many people were in Mo Jiang City… several million, right? Even if only seventy percent turned into zombies, that’s still millions. Is that Su guy crazy!”
“If he wants to die, don’t drag us down with him!”
Scarface cursed madly, large beads of sweat surging out on his face.
Suddenly seeing the pale-faced woman nearby, he grabbed her over, viciously wiped the sweat on his face on her chest, then pushed her away and cursed, “Stinky women, full of sour stink! Really cheap!”
But even his younger brothers could see his bluster hiding fear, venting his inner terror through angry cursing.
The woman was pushed down but didn’t dare complain, instead showing a fawning smile and leaning forward.
Her man was dead, Dog Brother and the Tattooed Man were also dead. Without relying on Scarface, she couldn’t even scrape together the next train ticket.
The old man saw the woman who was abused but didn’t dare make a sound, and sighed silently in his heart.
Ever since Gao Zhe died, no one could check Scarface anymore.
Now it was just that the time was short and his brain was still somewhat useful, so the other could maintain surface respect.
His time was running out.
In the apocalypse, no one would use precious food to support useless old men. Only by controlling the train and using the abundant supplies could he survive.
Perhaps Mo Jiang City was his last chance.
