Chapter 42: Liang Kuan Awakens
Su Huan turned his head and glanced at the streamlined carriage, mainly white with aquamarine gradient stripes, looking far more techy than the wasteland-modified aesthetics of the armored train.
Visually estimated, the height was just over 4 meters, but a single carriage was clearly longer than the green-skinned ones.
He casually flung out several high-temperature projectiles, giving Liang Kuan a moment to catch his breath.
Under the thirty-plus degree high temperature, swinging the shield to fight was clearly a deadly job.
“Is this an electric train?” Su Huan tapped the shell with his finger and asked.
Liang Kuan wiped the sweat flowing onto his beard and gasped, “Hydrogen-powered train, aluminum alloy shell, moisture-proof and waterproof!”
After speaking, he raised the shield again and smacked the zombies ahead.
Hydrogen energy—
This was a bit beyond Su Huan’s expectations, but hearing about the moisture-proof and waterproof features later made his eyes light up.
They would enter the acid rain area later, so the whole train needed to be waterproof and sealed.
“Can you drive it?”
“I can, I know a bit of everything!”
“Without hydrogen energy, can this train still run?”
Su Huan’s leisurely inquiry came to his ears.
Liang Kuan shook his increasingly muddled brain, pausing for three or five seconds before finding the answer in his memory.
“This train has kinetic energy recovery design, efficiency…” Liang Kuan swung his shield sideways, knocking down two zombies, “Efficiency, I heard it’s 20% to 40%.”
Liang Kuan walked over and opened the car door, which seemed stuck, with a suitcase blocking it.
Right hand holding the shield, left hand pulling open the stuck car door.
He completely failed to notice that Su Huan behind him had already focused all his attention on him.
The moment the train door was pulled open, a thick bloody smell mixed with the sour stench of fermenting rotten flesh rushed straight into his nostrils.
An instinctive shudder made his scalp explode.
His head tilted back.
Sharp claws grazed past his Adam’s apple, the knife-like airflow scraping fine blood beads on his skin.
His pupils suddenly contracted; a Night Demon was hanging upside down from the narrow train ceiling, dagger-like claws like steel nails embedded in the ceiling lining, its scarlet compound eyes under the armpits splitting into eighteen blood lines in the darkness.
“You’re asking for death!”
The hairs on Liang Kuan’s nape stood on end; after brushing death, his ferocity was fully ignited.
His thick calf stepped on the pedal, and he plunged into the train.
Su Huan, standing behind, withdrew his right hand hanging in mid-air, smirked, and followed onto the train.
He casually closed the car door.
But as soon as he got on, he saw the Night Demon’s claws piercing into Liang Kuan’s left chest, startling him so his brow twitched.
Just as he was about to step forward, he instinctively deployed general energy perception, abruptly halting his steps; after a thought, a cold blue current shot out from the side wall, silently striking the Night Demon’s sole of foot.
The Night Demon’s fluid movements suddenly stiffened.
……
Armored train, Carriage 20.
Passengers were all standing up, silently organizing their things.
Every time they stopped, they had to prepare to get off to collect supplies or to run.
No one would leave their things on the train.
Because it was too stuffy and hot, hardly anyone talked, only rustling sounds.
“Su Huan went out just now.” Scarface looked at the scene outside and said in a low voice.
“Temporarily, but I feel he should go out again.”
The old man said thoughtfully.
Due to the sweltering weather, his suit had been soaked with sweat countless times, sticky and tight, his neat and sharp silver hair greasy against his scalp, completely devoid of his initial big-shot appearance, more like a down-and-out old beggar.
Only in those calm eyes could one sense a hint of extraordinary aura.
“Mo Jiang City should have what he needs, and this outing is our last chance.”
“What do you mean?”
Scarface’s face twitched.
“He already knew of our existence long ago; do you think with Gao Zhe dead, he would let us stay?”
“Sooner or later, even if Su Huan doesn’t kill us directly, how many searches can you survive?”
“We’re all old passengers; you know the speed at which newbies replace old ones on the train.”
The old man’s gaze was calm, but his words left no room, shattering Scarface’s ostrich fantasies.
Scarface’s face darkened as if water could drip from it; he glanced at his two younger brothers who kept their heads down, gritted his teeth and asked, “What should we do?”
……
“Boom boom boom—”
Inside the train, it was like two ferocious beasts had entered; whether sharp claws or the shield like an axe, they shredded the train’s interior to pieces.
The intense pain in his left shoulder made blood threads burst in Liang Kuan’s eyes.
But the flame in his body burned even hotter, as if to melt him.
He simply tore off his clothes, revealing knotted arms and a body of rugged muscles, veins bulging like purple snakes wrapping his limbs.
The immense stuffiness inside the train made him feel like he was in an iron can.
All his senses were like canned food over flames, his brain bubbling.
He had long forgotten Su Huan behind him, even forgotten why he came aboard; only one thought in his mind: tear open this damn can!
“Roar—”
The shield’s serrated edge wedged viciously into the ceiling iron sheet; his already burly pectoral muscles instantly swelled two sizes, shoulders and back like battlefield sandbags.
With a muscle fiber-tearing explosion sound, the entire ceiling iron sheet was torn apart by him.
In the instant Su Huan’s eyelids twitched wildly, the Night Demon claws pierced his abdomen again.
“Die for me!”
His white teeth bit the surging blood; his once mild face now showed only ferocity and madness.
At this moment, he was like a skinned beast, covered in blood yet fighting more madly; the shield edge scraped sparks along the carriage iron wall, smacking the Night Demon into the seat wreckage at the waist.
Leather and steel frame shattered under the immense force.
His size 44 big foot suddenly kicked the Night Demon’s chest cavity, making the entire carriage creak.
“Die!”
Right hand shield flipped, whistling down toward the Night Demon’s head!
“Boom!”
Sticky brain matter sprayed from the shield’s flat surface in all directions; Liang Kuan instantly felt like countless glass shards were shattering in his blood vessels.
As if in the north during early spring, every sound entering his ears was the crisp crack of melting ice and snow.
“It’s done.”
Su Huan looked at the evolving Liang Kuan, joy in his eyes.
Suddenly, blue current burst from under his feet.
A black shadow by his side instantly stiffened against the wall.
It was another Tier 1 Night Demon.
Su Huan stepped forward, placed his palm on the Night Demon’s head; with a high-temperature burst, the head was incinerated to ashes.
The unsupported Night Demon slumped to the ground.
Su Huan glanced at his palm and muttered, “Little one, you really thought I couldn’t one-shot you?”
……
Standing in place, Liang Kuan’s muscle fibers tightened like steel cables; the pierced wound grew together visibly, turning into tender red scar.
Clang, the shield fell to the ground.
Sobered Liang Kuan looked down at his body swollen two sizes, and with a slight movement, purple-red blood vessels under his skin wriggled like live snakes.
He dazedly raised his hand, clenched a fist, joints popping like fried beans.
Looking at the wrecked carriage around and the sky torn open above, though fragments of memory remained, he still couldn’t quite believe he did this.
As if remembering something, he instinctively turned back to Su Huan.
Hesitant, he said, “This… was me?”
Su Huan gave a thumbs up, “Fierce like a war god.”
