Soon—
By the time all residents had exited the train, the thirty-minute countdown was nearing its end.
The moment the timer reached zero—
"Click!"
A crisp yet muffled sound emanated from the locomotive, followed by countless white light particles drifting out from Carriage No. 2 and seeping into the train. Before the eyes of all residents, the Stellar Train suddenly began to... transform?
Or perhaps mutate?
The steel seemed to gain life and soul, growing wildly and uncontrollably. The usually thick armor now flowed like viscous liquid, stretching and crawling through the void.
The entire Stellar Train visibly expanded at a rapid pace.
A complete, overall enlargement.
Wider, longer, taller!
Even the Wind-Fire Wheels rapidly spread outward, increasing in size.
The entire process lasted a full three minutes.
Three minutes later.
Under the awestruck gazes of all residents, the Stellar Train had completely transformed, growing several times larger. Each carriage now measured 10 meters wide, 30 meters long, and 10 meters tall!
The locomotive reached 10 meters in width and 21 meters in length.
The Stellar Train now consisted of 14 carriages plus 1 locomotive, with a total length of 441 meters!
The connections between carriages weren't rigidly welded but had slight gaps, ensuring greater flexibility, so the actual length slightly exceeded this figure.
Most strikingly—
Its height!
Each carriage stood 10 meters tall, equivalent to a three-story building.
At a glance—
This was a true mechanical dragon, a colossal beast coiled across the wasteland. The previously menacing ten Level 20 Doomsday Cannons now looked like miniature toys on the train, lacking their former intimidation.
"..."
Chen Mang observed the scene with a satisfied smile, his sense of fulfillment peaking. This—this was the Doomsday Train he had built within months of crossing into this world!
This was his foundation in this world.
He immediately gripped his cane and manipulated it remotely. Through the Custom Carriage options, he spent 60,000 units of Iron Ore to emblazon three massive characters across the pitch-black train:
「Stellar」!
The character "Stel" spanned Carriage No. 3, "lar" covered Carriage No. 6, and the suffix symbol occupied Carriage No. 9.
Each character was enormous.
Even from a distance, the name "Stellar" was unmistakable.
Both sides of the train bore the name. The price was steep—60,000 units of Iron Ore just for a paint job. No wonder he'd rarely seen anyone use this feature. But now, he wanted it. He wanted to spend 60,000 units of Iron Ore to truly christen his train with its name!
He wanted the name "Stellar" to one day resound across the heavens!
For everyone to know the name of his Stellar.
This was his dream.
And the goal he aspired to achieve.
The residents behind him finally snapped out of their daze, their faces alight with excitement as they roared in exhilaration, their eyes filled with awe as they gazed at the Train before them—now completely transformed into a true steel behemoth.
In the apocalypse, who wouldn't want to follow someone strong enough?
Especially the group of children standing behind Teacher Qiu. They kept tiptoeing, straining to catch a glimpse of Lord Mang sitting on a chair at the front of the crowd. But their short stature and the many obstacles in front made it impossible, leaving them scratching their heads in frustration.
Though they had seen Lord Mang many times on screen, they had never laid eyes on him in person.
"Board the Train."
Chen Mang stood up, cradling Xiao Lu in his arms, and strode toward the Train's control room. He wanted to experience the changes brought by the Train Expansion firsthand.
Following his command through their Iris Chips, the residents lined up in an orderly manner and returned to the Train.
The most immediate impression upon entering the control room was—
Spacious!
Far more spacious than before.
His Single Bed, tucked into a corner, now looked as small and cozy as a dog's nest.
The once-cramped control room now held only a central console, two Refrigerators beside it, and a portal on the carriage wall. The Heavy Machine Guns that had once densely covered the ceiling were now spaced farther apart, creating a more aesthetically pleasing arrangement.
Yet, it felt somewhat empty.
"I need to find something to fill up the control room," Chen Mang muttered, frowning as he surveyed the surroundings. The old control room had been crowded, but it gave him a sense of security—he liked small, cozy spaces. Every time he stayed inside, he felt safe.
But now, the control room felt… hollow.
He rolled Xiao Lu onto the floor. Once Xiao Lu woke up, there'd be plenty of space for her to play around in.
Another issue—
The control room was now over ten meters above the ground. Previously, a simple retractable folding ladder had provided access, but now it was just a climbing ladder. Chen Mang wasn't afraid of heights, but scaling a ten-meter ladder every time he needed to enter or exit the Train was undeniably inconvenient.
"Hmm…"
The Train needed further upgrades.
Chen Mang silently made a mental note: an elevator for easier access, and a few slides or retractable large staircases for the Resident Carriages to help passengers board and disembark quickly.
Though there were drawbacks, the benefits far outweighed them!
Not bad.
But the Train still needed more upgrades. Each upgrade unlocked a new function. At Level 10, the two unlocked functions were "Train Expansion" and "Mechanical Fortress."
The effect of Mechanical Fortress was this:
Pressing the button on the console would cause the Train to encircle itself from end to end, anchoring to the ground for 24 hours. During this time, all "Defensive Components" would automatically upgrade by one level, and all "Firepower Components" would have Halved Consumption.
The trade-off? The Train couldn't move during those 24 hours, remaining rooted in place.
If he activated this effect, his "Armor" would jump to Level 14!
But so far, there hadn't been a situation where this function was necessary. Back then, even Shen Ye hadn't had the chance to use it—not that it would've mattered, given how the Level 13 artillery had crushed everything.
After this Train Expansion—
The Iron Ore reserves in the Train were once again depleted!
Nearly empty.
Only 150,000 units of Iron Ore left—practically back to poverty.
He distinctly remembered earning a substantial amount of Iron Ore recently, so how had it suddenly dwindled to nothing?
"."
Inside the Train's cabin.
Chen Mang frowned slightly. He couldn't keep taking the conventional path. Last night, he had scoured the wasteland all night but failed to find a Level 4 Iron Ore deposit. Another night of searching would likely yield the same result.
Once a Level 4 Iron Ore deposit was discovered by other Trains, it was almost always mined immediately—no chance of leaving it for latecomers.
Finding one that had just spawned or newly appeared was far too difficult.
Though the "Pickaxe Production Line" was only a green-tier accessory, capped at Level 3, this was still the Blue Zone. The Trains here were considered high-tier in this apocalyptic world, and obtaining a few Murphy Stones wasn't entirely impossible.
He had to take an unconventional route.
Tonight, he would head to the Mechanical City Ruins in the Red Zone via the "Train Tunnel." He needed to try something different!
Only after all residents had climbed up the ladders into the Resident Car did the Stellar Train slowly start moving.
Chen Mang didn't activate the Drill Bit immediately.
Instead, he gradually pushed the control lever, sitting in the cockpit and looking down at the ground ahead. Feeling the Train beneath him gradually accelerate and the intense g-force pressing him into his seat, his excitement grew.
The Stellar Train now handled completely differently from before!
The bird's-eye view!
The incredibly spacious cabin, the Train like a steel dragon!
It made him feel as though he were piloting a colossal steel beast, racing across the wasteland. He slowly pushed the lever all the way, steering toward the Corpse Tide marked on the Targeting Radar—30,000 meters ahead!
Thirty thousand meters—covered in an instant!
Seated in the cabin, Chen Mang looked at the Corpse Tide, whose highest-level Zombies were Level 9, and drove the Train straight into them without slowing down.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Countless Zombies were sent flying, shattered into pieces. The Stellar Train mercilessly crushed the apocalyptic horde beneath it.
A few months ago, he had nearly died at the hands of the Corpse Tide.
Now, the Corpse Tide was nearly wiped out by him.
"Damn, that felt good!"
After ramming through them four or five times, the horde was almost entirely pulverized. The Wind-Fire Wheels were now taller than a person. The Carriage stood 10 meters high, with nearly two meters of clearance beneath it.
There was no way the Zombies could jam the wheels and immobilize the Train like before.
Now, he could just drive right over their heads.
The current Stellar Train—
Calling it a behemoth wasn't an exaggeration at all!
After a while, Chen Mang, still unsatisfied, finally stopped wasting time. He extended the Drill Bit, and as it spun at high speed, the "Spider Legs" also emerged, lifting the Carriage and lowering the front of the Train. The Drill Bit pressed against the ground and began boring into it.
The Drill Bit was enormous—
As wide as the Carriage, if not slightly wider.
After the Train Expansion, he noticed many accessories had also scaled up, including the "Spider Legs." Originally large, they had grown even more massive post-expansion.
Looking out the window—
The mechanical, sci-fi-inspired Spider Legs were a sight to behold, exuding sheer intimidation and dominance.
Honestly.
If he had possessed such a train when the apocalypse first descended, his train would have looked more like the apocalypse itself than those Zombies. The source of the apocalypse would have been him.
"Bzzzzz..."
Accompanied by the rapid spinning of the Drill Bit.
The Train soon plunged deep underground again, heading straight for the hole he had drilled in the Train Tunnel last time. That hole was definitely too small now, but it didn't matter—he could just drill it bigger.
Perhaps because the Train's size had increased.
He noticed that the Train now consumed more energy while moving, and its speed—whether underground or aboveground—had slowed by about a third. The reduction wasn't insignificant.
Clearly.
This was the crossroads where he had to choose between speed and size.
He chose size. As for speed...
A reduction was just a reduction. It didn't matter. Who cared about a little slowdown? As long as he gathered enough Iron Ore for a full upgrade of the Wind-Fire Wheel and other speed-boosting components, the speed would skyrocket again!
Numerical reductions didn't bother him much. As long as upgrading the parts could boost the stats back up, it was as if there had been no reduction at all.
But a mechanical weakening? That would be the real disaster.
Worth mentioning—
The Car Blade component was now completely useless against ordinary Zombies. With the Train nearly three meters off the ground, shorter monsters would only feel a chilly breeze above their heads, completely unaffected.
Soon!
The Train reached the entrance of the Train Tunnel and located the hole he had drilled earlier. Without hesitation, the massive Drill Bit plunged into the tunnel again, spinning rapidly.
The Stellar Train smoothly entered the Train Tunnel once more, switching to Bunny Cloud Wheels to float midair.
"Seems like it's about to collapse..."
Inside the Train.
Chen Mang glanced back at the torrent of dirt cascading down like a waterfall. The ground had already accumulated plenty of dirt from the drilling days prior, but the hole back then wasn't as large, and it had quickly been clogged by the falling debris.
But now...
The hole seemed a bit bigger. And it didn't seem like it would clog itself this time.
The dirt poured down like diarrhea.
After a few minutes, a small mountain of dirt had piled up inside the Train Tunnel, but the hole was blocked again, and the cascade stopped.
It wasn't the dirt that had clogged it—the Stellar had fixed it. The solution was simple.
He crafted seven or eight oversized band-aids and sent Zhang Yi, Zhang Er out in mechs to plaster them over the hole.
Not bad.
These band-aids were surprisingly sturdy. No wonder—they were made of Iron Ore. Durability guaranteed!
Of course, the band-aids couldn't withstand the sheer weight of all that falling dirt, but as long as they provided enough resistance, the dirt would eventually clog the hole itself. Who knew how long it would last, but it would do for now.
"See that?"
Uncle Li pointed at the giant band-aids plastered over the hole outside the window. "Back when I graduated and became a safety inspector, it was this kind of dogshit engineering that got me sent for retraining."
After the Train Expansion.
Every Carriage now had windows—floor-to-ceiling ones, stretching from bottom to top.
Immersive as hell.
The train was gradually transforming into something resembling a cosmic train. At the very least, a normal train shouldn't have floor-to-ceiling windows.
But then again, let's not talk about normal trains.
If we're being truly realistic, a normal train shouldn't have any of the components found on the Stellar Train.
"The train has changed so much," murmured the young man who had been following Uncle Li as he gazed at the scene before him. "It's only been a short while, yet the train has transformed from its initial state to what we see now. Uncle Li, do you remember when the Stellar was just a bare train engine?"
"Though the immersion is stronger now..."
"It does feel a bit dangerous."
"Don't worry," Uncle Li reassured him. "Lord Mang said these windows have the same defensive rating as the armor—they're practically black technology."
(End of Chapter)