Chapter 98: Damage And Repairs
Immediately after, Yu Jing handed over the one-meter-square thing in her hand.
“This is a material I newly developed, used to replace the existing tempered glass. On the basis of the original glass, I added goo collected from the Butcher’s body, the Skull Crusher’s Hammer, and special fibers collected by Wan Xing from a plant…”
Su Huan was greatly surprised. In his previous life, he had little contact with manufacturers and collectors, only knowing that these were two magical fields.
But he didn’t expect it to be so magical.
“I can probably understand adding goo, but what’s the deal with the Skull Crusher’s Hammer?”
“The structure of the Skull Crusher’s Hammer is very special; it’s a hollow special shape. It looks very large but is actually very lightweight, only filling with blood and becoming hard during battle.”
Su Huan chuckled speechlessly, “It can even change weight? I thought it was always like that.”
“It might be utilizing this structure. Under the erosion of my ability, these materials fused together, forming this special glass.”
Su Huan took the glass and transmitted some energy to the light overhead, making the corridor brighten up.
Then he lowered his head to observe this piece of “glass”.
Under the light, he could see that there was a hexahedral shape inside the glass, arranged in an orderly manner, carrying a sense of beauty from order.
Tilting it slightly, it disappeared again.
Yu Jing explained from the side, “I’ve already tested the glass. Its hardness is about the same as stainless steel, but its toughness far exceeds steel. Even if it receives an unbearable attack, it will only show damage like a plastic film rather than shattering completely. Most importantly, it can withstand temperatures of one thousand two hundred degrees Celsius and won’t melt like the previous one.”
Seeing that Su Huan wasn’t speaking, thinking he didn’t understand, Yu Jing used a simpler explanation, “In other words, it’s actually a soft material.”
Su Huan pondered for a moment and sincerely asked, “Stainless steel… how hard is it exactly?”
“…It’s considered a common high-hardness metal, generally used for high-end knives and bearing balls.”
“Can it stop bullets?”
“If it’s stainless steel, probably not. Stainless steel has too poor toughness. The new material has high toughness, so I’m not entirely sure. Testing would require more precise equipment.”
“No need to go to that trouble; we can test it in ten minutes.”
Su Huan quickly called Xiao Ba and had Liang Kuan and the others move some firearms and ammunition to Carriage 10.
Xiao Ba used metal manipulation to fix the new glass onto the carriage.
Su Huan tested it with various models of firearms.
After a thorough wasteland test, Su Huan accurately figured out the limits of this glass.
It could easily deflect conventional handgun bullets. 5.56 rifle ammunition was barely manageable, but multiple shots to the same spot wouldn’t work. 7.62 conventional bullets could just penetrate, and the damaged area stretched long like goo.
Another piece of good news was that against this glass, armor-piercing rounds and conventional ammunition made little difference.
Clearly, the properties of this material countered armor-piercing rounds well.
“Is the production rate of this glass high? How many can be made in a day?”
“I’ve confirmed the material ratio, but replicating it will take quite some time. The two manufacturers in the crew, together, can produce four pieces a day, assuming sufficient materials.”
Su Huan narrowed his eyes. It seemed they needed to greatly increase the proportion of evolvers on a large scale; otherwise, at this efficiency, enemies would come knocking before the train was fully armed.
“Any difficulties with materials? I remember you mentioned a plant earlier?”
“Yes, the mutated plant brought back on the train body. Wan Xing saw it and tried collecting some, obtaining tough fibers, which are the lines outlining the multifaceted crystals inside the glass.”
“Bring it here for me to see.”
Soon, Wan Xing brought the mutated plant over.
Su Huan glanced at it and felt relieved.
Casually explaining, “This is wire grass, also known as tripwire grass. Besides being tough and abundant, it has no danger. Because it’s extremely corrosion-resistant, it grows everywhere in acid rain areas and can be collected easily.”
Yu Jing nodded, “Then I’ll have them both focus on making it fully and see if there’s a way to increase production later.”
“Do that, and try to replace all the glass on the carriages with this.”
After settling the new material matter, Su Huan listened to reports from various sections and checked the train’s damage.
The body as a whole was corroded somewhat, but corroding through 3mm steel plate would take at least several years, so no immediate worry.
Because the power was cut decisively, the body’s own circuits had no issues; just some sockets soaked in acid rain needed overhaul to use.
Liang Kuan had specially gone out to check: the front of the train had no major damage, just the later-welded ramming horn and plow being corroded unsightly.
The brake lever system was corroded some, plus previous collision damage causing some wear and deformation.
There were cracks on the bogie, deformation on the rim, but these metal issues weren’t big deals.
While Su Huan and He Jie were talking, Xiao Ba had already fixed them.
Also, Carriage 8’s miscellaneous items and electronics were soaked quite a bit by acid rain.
These all needed to be sorted out quickly.
……
At eight in the morning, after a simple breakfast, the train started again in the acid rain, heading towards repair shops, steel mills, furniture cities, material factories, and such around Yi Jin.
During this time of running around, even metal materials were running low.
Washed clean of bloodstains by acid rain, the apocalypse iron-blooded train donned a wasteland rust-eaten paint job, wandering through the rainy city.
Everyone in the carriages naturally wasn’t idle either, using the spare time to start a new round of internal modifications.
First, using steel recovered from the last scrapped vehicles, they solved the workers’ bedding problem, ensuring everyone had a bed to sleep in. Though the three-layer bunks were a bit cramped, it was better than sleeping on the floor.
Then came the internal partition modifications of the carriages.
A gate was set up between Carriage 1 and Dining Car 2, similarly between 5 and 6, 6 and 7, 10 and 11, 11 and 15, dividing according to different functional areas.
The gate material used Yu Jing’s previously developed Tier 1 lightweight steel.
Due to its hard-to-manipulate properties, it cost Xiao Ba a lot of energy.
In addition, the carriage farm’s space needed reallocation to accommodate more plants.
After finishing these, Xiao Ba still had to help Yu Jing build a new workshop.
Could be called the busiest person on the entire train.
Almost all modifications had to go through him; his original Level 2 metal control had upgraded to Level 3.
Could be considered… training from the train conductor.
As for the ammunition depot design, Su Huan didn’t plan to store it in a dedicated carriage like food.
If it accidentally got blown up, the whole carriage would chain-explode.
Like the water tank and fuel tank, use a distributed design: build an ammunition rack in every carriage, with bulletproof treatment.
