Chen Mang immediately spotted the train racing through the blizzard high above—it was Er Dan's Azure Dragon.
"I'll give it a try."
He glanced at his copper ore balance, which stood at 825,000 units, while the cost to craft a level 6 missile was 300,000 units of copper ore.
"Ha."
Chen Mang took a deep breath, not thinking too much about it. He had to try to know if it would work, and that zombie had been roaring incessantly. If he could accurately stuff the missile into its mouth and make it explode inside its body, the power would be greatly enhanced.
One missile probably wouldn't be enough; he needed two.
Before long.
After consuming 300,000 units of copper ore, a level 6 ground burst missile was crafted.
"Shh shh shh."
Accompanied by the sound of mechanical gears turning, a pitch-black missile slowly rose from the 14th carriage, angled toward the sky, ready to launch at any moment.
"Can it shoot into its mouth?"
Chen Mang turned his head to Xiao Ai beside him and said in a low voice.
"Yes."
Xiao Ai's voice was devoid of emotion, but the response was crisp and clear.
The hydraulic supports on the 14th open-air carriage held the missile like vertebrae, and with a roar, a deep blue tail flame erupted from the hexagonal nozzle at the missile's rear, instantly raising the temperature around the train to a peak.
The missile launched from the train, piercing through the air, aimed directly at the massive zombie caught in the blizzard.
The trailing tail flame cut through the storm, captivating like Satan's brush dipped in pus and blood, tearing through the night sky.
Then, under Chen Mang's unwavering gaze, the missile followed an extremely standard and graceful trajectory, accurately hitting the zombie's mouth, plunging straight in like a deep throat.
Perhaps due to the size of its throat, such a large foreign object entered without any visible signs of the throat expanding.
The next moment—
"Boom!!!"
The deafening explosion echoed through the heavens and earth, sounding even more muffled than the last missile explosion. The compressed explosives contained within the missile detonated at the zombie's throat.
In an instant.
The zombie's head was blown off into the sky.
Its neck snapped on the spot.
Countless orange flames erupted from the severed neck.
Three seconds later.
The headless zombie, still in a frenzy, seemed to finally react, its body crashing heavily to the ground, sending a large amount of blood-stained snow flying into the air, creating a striking scene.
"..."
Chen Mang glanced at the data stream continuously fluctuating on the control panel screen, which was the AI calculating the missile's trajectory, then looked toward the headless zombie lying in the snow, chuckling softly.
"You don't need to display these things; I can't understand them anyway."
"I'm afraid you wouldn't know how hard I work if I don't show them."
The zombie lay in the snow, unable to rise again, with a torrent of rich blood gushing from its neck wound, staining the snow.
The combination of blood and white snow was truly fitting.
The blood-stained snow resembled wrapping roasted meat in lettuce while eating, both refreshing and satisfying, lacking the bloody feeling brought by the blood, yet adding a unique coolness from the snow.
He had initially thought he might need two level 6 missiles.
After all, this zombie was indeed the largest he had ever seen among all the monsters, but unexpectedly, just one missile successfully hitting its mouth caused it to collapse completely.
On the targeting radar, the red dot gradually faded away, signifying that the zombie had no chance of survival.
The next moment—
The words on the light screen at the junction of the two areas also changed.
-
"The area ahead is a green zone, Ice and Snow World."
"Up to level 6 monsters can exist here, and the current train level is 5, with a low danger coefficient. Please pay attention to safety."
-
The lockdown was lifted!
At that moment, the Azure Dragon train, which had been racing through the air, suddenly sped toward the Stellar Train, and Er Dan's excited roar came through the intercom.
"Wait a minute."
Chen Mang smiled and shook his head, immediately controlling the Stellar Train to enter the area ahead. As they got closer, the Powerful Magnet had already drawn in the loot from the zombie's death.
No other trains were nearby.
There was no need to worry about someone snatching his loot; even if someone wanted to, they couldn't outpace him.
Naturally, Er Dan wouldn't snatch it. If he were that kind of person, Chen Mang wouldn't have come to rescue him.
At that moment—
The Azure Dragon train made a sharp turn and landed beside him. Er Dan, wearing a military coat, jumped down from the train compartment, standing in the snow and shouting toward the Stellar Train's compartment, "Bro, come down for a chat!"
With each word, a large amount of warm breath shot out into the cold air.
"Eh?"
Er Dan suddenly noticed that he couldn't see the interior of the Stellar Train through the glass and couldn't help but express disbelief, "Bro, you didn't upgrade that yellow-grade 'Dust-Free Glass' to level 5, did you?"
"Not long ago, a Train Conductor was crying on the train radio, saying he thought the level 5 Supermodel Effect would have something good, but it turned out to be just a one-way window Supermodel Effect, wasting so much iron ore."
As he finished speaking.
Chen Mang pushed open the train compartment and jumped down, leaning on his cane as he stepped into the snow beside Er Dan. He took out two cigarettes from his pocket, lit one for himself, and handed the other to Er Dan. After exhaling a long breath, he looked toward the massive zombie lying in the snow and sighed.
"Bro, when the apocalypse came, did you ever calculate your fortune?"
"This area was fine before; why did so many things happen when you arrived?"
"Hey."
Er Dan said somewhat awkwardly, "I can't take all the blame for this. It's a long story, and I'll tell you slowly later, but bro, I really envy you. S-class potential is just great."
"While level 6 trains are still using automatic cannons, you, with a level 5 train, have already produced missiles."
"That's a serious downgrade."
"Too bad I haven't seen what the large firepower components of the A-class train 'World Weary Train' on Shahe Plain are, but they definitely can't compare to yours."
He then looked at Chen Mang with a serious expression.
"Thanks, bro. If you hadn't come, I would have probably been worn out in this area."
"How much copper ore did that missile use? I'll reimburse you."
Chen Mang glanced at Er Dan and casually replied, "300,000 units of copper ore."
"..."
After a moment of silence, Er Dan continued, "Whether to reimburse or not, we'll talk about that later. I've run out of copper ore in my train. Bro, I remember your kindness. If you ever need me, just say the word."
"As long as it's not a matter of going to my death, I'll come right away."
"I thought you would say you'd face mountains of knives and seas of fire without hesitation."
"That would be a bit fake; after all, who isn't afraid of death?"
"But..."
Er Dan tightened his military coat, looking at Chen Mang, who was dressed so lightly, with a hint of confusion in his eyes, "Aren't you cold wearing so little in this weather?"
"Not really."
Chen Mang patted Er Dan's shoulder and smiled, "The clothing customization production line has been upgraded to level 10, with a temperature lock effect. Standing here for a while isn't too cold. What about you? Didn't you upgrade to level 10? This Supermodel Effect is quite useful."
"..."
Er Dan's mouth twitched slightly, and he didn't speak. Even if he suddenly had a thousand Murphy Stones, he wouldn't spend eight of them on the 'clothing customization production line' for that temperature lock effect; he'd rather wear a bit more!
"Alright."
Chen Mang pointed to the massive headless zombie not far away, "We'll chat later; I have some business to attend to. I need to cut this zombie up and collect it before it freezes."
"Wait." Er Dan looked at the zombie in confusion, "Bro, you're not a Flesh Train; what do you need this for?"
"Just keep it for now; it might come in handy later. After all, such a large zombie is hard to find, and if we trade with the Flesh Train in the future, it could be useful."
"No, bro, when you kill zombies, don't they drop 'corpse meat'? That kind of blood meat material with units is the key to upgrading the Flesh Train. Although the Flesh Train does consume this meat as snacks, it doesn't need this much!"
"Is that so?"
Chen Mang silently gazed at the headless zombie in the distance. He had always thought the Flesh Train upgraded directly with blood meat. He had collected quite a bit over the past few days, but after pausing for a moment, he still walked toward the train compartment, "Let's collect it first; it might be useful."
Ten minutes later.
Chen Mang crafted thirty ordinary carriages, each equipped with ten-meter-wide level 50 car blades. The entire Stellar Train, like a python, coiled around the massive zombie, continuously rotating and drilling up from the ground, directly emerging from beneath the zombie.
Before long, it was dismembered into pieces.
The car blades, forcibly removed from the carriages, shattered instantly into glimmering shards.
All the car blades from the thirty ordinary carriages were forcibly removed, shattering into countless fragments.
Then, a group of train residents disembarked, picking up the shards on the ground, wrapping a corner in rags, and began to carefully cut the large chunks of blood meat from the massive zombie, as long as they didn't exceed the size of the refrigerator door.
Anything that met the size requirement would be instantly drawn into the train's refrigerator by the Powerful Magnet.
After a monster dies, its defenses drop significantly, making it not very difficult to cut. It was even a bit easier than cutting that level 3 Man-Eating Spider back then.
Speaking of which.
He had killed quite a few monsters, but that level 3 Man-Eating Spider was probably the one that died the most miserably at his hands, being slowly tortured to death.
He then controlled the Stellar Train to activate the Geothermal Furnace, turning the train head into a massive mouth filled with countless rotating gears, devouring all thirty ordinary carriages that had already separated from the train.
Afterward—
Chen Mang jumped down from the train compartment, walked over to Er Dan, and leaned on his cane, smiling, "Sorry for the show. I've been through tough times, and I thought it was rare to see such a large zombie for the first time. Collecting it might come in handy someday."
"By the way."
He turned his head and waved to Lao Zhu, "Find some people to dig up some of this snow; don't get it dirty. Look for the clean stuff and freeze it in the refrigerator; it might be useful later."
"Yes." Lao Zhu nodded seriously and then strode away.
"..."
Standing beside him, Er Dan was already dumbfounded. After sniffing, he looked at Chen Mang with disbelief, "Bro, have you always played like this?"
"How come, as fellow Train Conductors, I feel like our train operations are completely different?"
"No way, how can the train play like this?!"
"Not too bad." Chen Mang chuckled, "Actually, it's nothing."
"Ha."
Er Dan took a deep breath and tightened his military coat again, his expression complex, "Having more refrigerators is great."
Even if he wanted to stuff these things into his train, he couldn't fit them. He did have a yellow-grade 'Space Gate' that was similar to Chen Mang's level 10 refrigerator, but he wouldn't dare fill such a precious space with zombie blood meat.
A level 5 'Space Gate' wasn't cheap.
He couldn't afford to spend that money.
The main issue wasn't about affording it; it was that this thing was useless! What good would stuffing so much zombie blood meat into the train do?!
The Flesh Train wouldn't want it either!!
He now fully believed that Chen Mang had absolutely started from scratch, with no big shots backing him. Only someone who started from nothing would develop such a character; those who had big shots supporting them wouldn't care about these things.
"Wait, I'll send you a few refrigerators; these things are quite useful. You can take a few."
"Don't."
Er Dan shook his head seriously, "That's not appropriate. You came all this way to save me and consumed so much of your copper ore. I haven't repaid your kindness yet; if you give me refrigerators, won't I be taking advantage of you?"
"But..."
Er Dan paused for a moment, then seemed a bit tempted, "How about I trade you something for a bit? I got two boxes of cigarettes a while ago, each containing 250 cigarettes. I'll give you one box in exchange for two refrigerators; how about that?"
Chen Mang raised an eyebrow, slung an arm around Er Dan's shoulder, and smiled, "How about I give you six refrigerators in exchange for two boxes of cigarettes? Just keep 50 cigarettes for yourself from those two boxes; after all, you won't give those slaves any to smoke, and you and your management staff won't need that many, right?"
"Deal!"
Er Dan almost immediately jumped in to agree as soon as Chen Mang finished speaking, as if afraid Chen Mang would change his mind. Then he couldn't help but grin, "Thanks, bro."
"These six refrigerators will be a huge help for me."
"By the way, bro."
He suddenly thought of something and said seriously, "Although there are storage boxes and the Space Gate, which can maximize the utilization of train space, there are many times when the function of a level 10 refrigerator cannot be replaced. Have you ever thought about selling some refrigerators at the assembly?"
"Sell?"
Chen Mang shook his head, "Refrigerators are white-grade components, and upgrading to a level 10 refrigerator requires at least eight Murphy Stones. You do the math; how much should I sell them for?"
"Of course, I've thought about selling them, but I didn't plan to sell them in the green zone."
"They can't afford the price."
"I'll sell them when I get to the yellow zone."