Chapter 65: Carry It Or Die
Because each person only had time for one sentence, in half an hour they had already screened over a hundred people.
There were a total of 1002 people in the rear carriages. When the high temperature suddenly erupted, three died suddenly, and two more were scratched by zombies when they were too close to the window while rushing out of Mo Jiang City.
After signs of corpse transformation appeared, they were beaten to death on the spot by other passengers.
So accurately speaking, there were fewer than a thousand people.
After screening dozens of people, the remaining passengers knew Su Huan’s standards. Except for those confident in their own abilities, the others turned to try with Lu Xiao.
These people had nothing particularly worth picking; those with somewhat special talents had all been kept by Su Huan. The people Lu Xiao picked only had the advantage of being strong and robust.
After one round of screening, Su Huan picked six people, and Lu Xiao picked twenty.
Seeing no one else coming up, Su Huan beckoned to Wang He in the back, and the man immediately ran over.
Respectfully, “Boss Su, you called me.”
Su Huan counted on his fingers, “Now you take people to start cleaning from Carriage 10 to Carriage 15. From now on, this section of carriages will not be open to passengers. How many workers do you have left now?”
A trace of tension appeared on Wang He’s face, “A few bastards ran off, and a few more died on the job. You know…”
Su Huan frowned and interrupted, “Don’t talk about irrelevant things. Tell me how many people.”
“Eighty-three left.”
“From now on, Carriage 16 is yours. As for how to fit over eighty people, figure it out yourselves—whether converting hard seats to berths or whatever, it’s up to you. You’re the professionals when it comes to hands-on work.” Su Huan thought for a moment and said.
This was recognition?
A hint of joy appeared on Wang He’s face, “Hey, got it. No need to trouble Boss Su with such a small matter.”
Su Huan turned to look at Lu Xiao, “If you can bring back those plants, Carriage 17 will be yours.”
“Good. Can I borrow one of the fire trucks from the back first?”
Lu Xiao tried to negotiate.
Su Huan kept smiling and stretched out one hand, “Then can you give me the plant seeds first?”
Lu Xiao immediately knew it was hopeless and further lowered his standards.
“Then can you provide some weapons?”
“You haven’t passed the test yet. Don’t bargain with me. Bring back the stuff alive and then we’ll talk.”
Su Huan refused very straightforwardly.
Just as the two finished speaking, a voice came from the crowd, “I wonder what the test is? Train Conductor, can you give us a chance too?”
Everyone quieted down, eyes flickering as they searched for the source of the voice.
Su Huan turned his head to look. A somewhat slender woman stepped forward, her face showing some fatigue and her clothes somewhat dirty, but because she stood straight, she didn’t look disheveled. She was probably not yet forty.
It was the woman who had previously brought back the air pump, whose husband was a carpenter.
But she herself could only be considered a helper worker, and plus her age was a bit older, so Su Huan had eliminated her.
Su Huan raised an eyebrow, “Even if we don’t get off the train today, I will provide food. Are you sure you want to fight for this opportunity?”
Nearby, Lu Xiao’s gaze also fell on the woman as he secretly pondered.
“I want to know what we get if we pass the test.”
“You gain team leadership qualification, an independent carriage, priority to take tasks, and exchange qualification. However, the test is to seek specific supplies, which is much harder than normal collecting.”
“I see.”
As Su Huan spoke, he kept observing the woman. Her eyes were very calm, without ambition or too much fear. It was this calmness that made it hard for Su Huan to judge, like wild grass outside—ordinary yet resilient. No one knew what it would grow into.
“So your decision is…”
“Please give me a chance too, Train Conductor.”
The woman said calmly, just like decades ago when she accepted marrying her current husband, and now accepting separation from her husband and child.
The great mountain of the era never considered them and never gave them opportunities; it smashed down whenever it wanted.
Either bear it or die.
Now someone was finally giving her a choice, which was more important than anything.
“I invite you to join my team.”
Lu Xiao suddenly said from the side.
The woman glanced at Lu Xiao, hesitated for a moment, then shook her head, “No, I’m fine on my own.”
The other was well-trained; joining his team would greatly increase survival chances.
But what she wanted wasn’t simple survival; she wanted to live her own way.
Su Huan clapped his hands and looked toward the other passengers in the back, “Does anyone else want to give it a try?”
In the end, over a hundred people stepped forward, forming three teams. The largest had over fifty people. What surprised Su Huan was that one of them was made up of workers, led by another guy.
But Su Huan didn’t care about that; as long as they brought back supplies, it was fine.
He gave the same list to these four teams, but the woman’s note had two extras besides plants: medical equipment and materials like steel plate, glass, etc.
As long as they brought back one item from these categories, it counted as passing the test.
Although the woman had more choices, these tasks were customized relatively for groups. She was alone, so any of them would be very difficult.
Because Su Huan’s original intent was to cultivate teams, like the Steel Council.
If it weren’t for the armored train’s different situation, he would have directly adopted the Steel Council’s system.
He planned to divide the train into three parts. The front of the train would naturally be his small team; no points levels or such would be set up. Everyone’s tasks would be assigned by him, with all matters decided with a single word.
The second part would be the crew, mainly for talent reserve, internal train production, and order maintenance—considered the train’s middle layer.
The third part would be the external combat group. This part would adopt the Steel Council method, divided into small teams of different levels, responsible for supplies collecting and external combat.
Ordinary passengers were the fourth class on the train, with no rights at all. Correspondingly, as long as they didn’t break the train rules, Su Huan wouldn’t make things hard for them.
Although this division was somewhat crude, the rules were slowly forming. For their own interests, people would spontaneously maintain their own class.
What Su Huan needed to do next was to edit and revise these spontaneously formed rules, keeping what he liked and removing what he didn’t.
The train was a small society, not a real society.
Its space size determined it couldn’t form waves strong enough to overthrow rule.
At two o’clock, the prepared everyone set off one after another. Wang He began leading the workers to clean the carriages, and the rest silently retreated to the back of the carriages.
“Train Conductor, what do we do next?”
The auto mechanic pulled a crumpled cigarette from his pocket, a fawning smile on his face as he offered it to Su Huan.
Su Huan casually took the sweat-stained cigarette and glanced at the man—face wide and round, pitch black.
“Did you go to school?”
