S-Class Potential, Level 12 Mechanical Train—Stellar!
It was still something worth boasting about.
He wasn't the type to show off, nor was he one to reveal his full hand. The main reason was... to give the still-struggling trains a bit of motivation and hope, so that everyone wouldn't fall into complete despair.
Yeah, that was it.
Chen Mang sat inside the train compartment, glancing at the Train Radio. Although he had been in uncharted territory recently and couldn't connect to the Crisis Valley's Train Radio, his connection with Er Dan hadn't been severed.
They could still communicate.
Over the past month, Er Dan had found another Serendipity Map and was now rushing here. He would arrive soon.
After all, while Crisis Valley was vast, Er Dan's speed wasn't slow by any means.
Then, he turned his attention to the changes brought by upgrading to Level 12. As for the minor changes—like the slight increase in the train's base speed—they weren't worth mentioning.
At Level 12, there were no new components to craft.
None.
No additional functions either. Upgrading to Level 12 brought no changes to the train.
"..."
Chen Mang narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at the upgrade requirements for Level 13. As expected, the conditions weren't exactly simple. Clearly, Level 13 was another hurdle.
He had already figured out the pattern.
Whenever there was a hurdle, the few levels before it wouldn't bring many significant changes.
Before he could dwell on it further—
Beep, beep, beep!
The Targeting Radar sounded an alarm. A train rapidly approached through the air and landed right in front of him, followed by the piercing sound of a Sonic Boom.
Er Dan had arrived.
"Lord Mang?"
Stepping off his train, Er Dan looked up at the colossal behemoth before him, his eyes wide with shock and disbelief. "It's only been a month since we last met. How has it changed this much?"
"Not bad, right?" Chen Mang, who had also landed on the ground, smiled at Er Dan. "The banquet's already started. Let's grab something to eat first. After dinner, I'll take you somewhere special."
"Ah? Oh, oh, oh..."
Er Dan withdrew his gaze from the Stellar in front of him, still somewhat dazed. His Traveling Frog looked like a pocket-sized toy compared to this Stellar.
The banquet ended quickly.
It didn't last too long.
After all, many of the residents had been working nonstop for nearly a month, their bodies already pushed to the limit. While they could maintain high spirits in a state of extreme excitement, a few bottles of alcohol and some carbs later, many of them ended up passing out at the tables.
Honestly.
At first, it scared him.
He thought it might've been food poisoning from his mom's cooking. If so many people were poisoned and had to be sent to the Medical Bay, how much Iron Ore would that cost him? Thankfully, Xiao Ai told him they were just asleep—otherwise, that chef would've been sacrificed to the heavens tonight.
What comforted him the most was that,
even though many were drunk, not a single bad word about him was spoken.
But it also left him a little puzzled.
Sitting in the train compartment, Chen Mang glanced out the window at the group of residents cleaning up the messy aftermath, frowning. "Xiao Ai, do you think Lao Zhu figured out I'd have you monitoring?"
"He only drank two bottles of beer."
"You never stopped mentioning Lord Mang, praising me all night long."
"Hmm."
Xiao Ai paused before continuing, "I can't judge that, but in Lao Zhu's conversations, 89% of the content was praising you, Lord Mang. Perhaps it wasn't flattery, just a straightforward account of your actions."
"After all, Lord Mang, you truly are remarkable."
"Xiao Ai."
"I'm here."
"You've learned to be cheeky."
Chen Mang shook his head and said no more, simply pressing a button on the control panel. Immediately, the first carriage of the train's head slowly opened. Once Er Dan maneuvered the Traveling Frog into the first carriage of the train's head, the carriage door slowly closed again.
He was taking Er Dan to the Train Tunnel.
It would be quite difficult—if not unrealistic—for Er Dan's train to drill such a deep tunnel on its own. But it didn't matter; he could just take the entire train along with him.
Soon—
Er Dan took the elevator from the second level of the train cabin down to the first.
"Lord Mang..."
Standing on the second level of the train cabin, Er Dan looked around at the wrap-around floor-to-ceiling windows and the interior decor, exclaiming in awe, "Your train cabin is decorated so impressively! It's almost like a CEO's luxurious office."
"All that's missing is a glass of red wine in hand, gazing out the window at the horizon, swirling the glass."
"My train cabin, in comparison, looks like a bird's nest."
"Is that so?"
Hearing Er Dan's praise, Chen Mang's lips curled slightly upward without him realizing. He glanced around the cabin's decor again and suddenly felt it did look much more pleasing to the eye. "I don't know much about interior design. It felt a bit too empty, lacking some liveliness, so I thought adding a few things might help."
"Uh... Lord Mang, placing a missile here isn't exactly adding liveliness, is it?"
"That's purely personal preference. I like looking at this thing. Got any suggestions?"
"Pick ten beautiful women and have them stand in the train cabin every day."
"Too tacky." Chen Mang shook his head. "Besides, I prefer solitude most of the time. I don't like having others in the cabin."
After a moment of thought, Er Dan hesitantly proposed, "How about a big leather sofa or something like that?"
"Hmm, that could work."
The next moment—
With the massive drill bit extending and spinning rapidly, the Stellar plunged straight into the depths of the earth, heading directly for the Train Tunnel.
Inside the Train Tunnel.
The Stellar Train hovered slightly above the ground, speeding southward along the tunnel. Since he had traversed this tunnel many times before, he knew there were no dangers ahead—the tunnel was almost perfectly straight, with minimal curves.
The speed displayed on the control panel screen continued to climb.
-
"1802 km/h."
"2239 km/h."
"3223 km/h."
"40—"
-
A deafening sonic boom echoed through the Train Tunnel, penetrating the carriage.
Extreme speed brought extreme pressure.
But...
Thanks to the Internal Space Stabilizer, neither of them felt any chest tightness or discomfort. The only challenge was their eyes struggling to keep up with the incandescent lamps lining the tunnel walls—they blurred into straight white lines, shooting rapidly backward!
"This—"
Er Dan pointed at the digital display on the control panel screen in stunned disbelief, unable to help raising his voice: "Lord Mang, what's going on with this speed?? It's showing 4,000 km/h now?"
"5,000 already."
Chen Mang smiled and pointed at the speed displayed on the screen - "5,040 km/h".
"Wait, Lord Mang, did you activate some kind of speed-related Train Stunt or trigger the Supermodel Effect of some component?"
"Nope, this is just the train's normal maximum speed."
"But... but..."
Er Dan stood there in a daze. His greatest advantage had always been speed, yet his "Traveling Frog" could only reach a maximum speed of 3,000 km/h without using any Train Stunts.
Compared to the Stellar, he didn't even have that advantage anymore.
"Lord Mang... I suddenly feel like the Traveling Frog is completely useless."
"Hey, don't say that. No matter how fast the Stellar is, it can't be in two places at once. There are still many things that need you to handle. Young people should have more drive—don't be so quick to call yourself useless."
"Lord Mang."
"Hmm?"
"I don't know if I've given you the wrong impression, but I feel I should tell you something—I'm not young anymore, Lord Mang. I'm no longer a young man..."
"That's not important."
Chen Mang waved his hand and pointed at the text on the screen: "See where this is?"
"Zombie Basin?"
Only then did Er Dan suddenly realize: "Lord Mang, we're back at Zombie Basin? The regional boundaries can be broken through?"
"Yep. Taking you to a good place."
Last time, it took several hours to travel from Crisis Valley to Shahe Plain. This time, they arrived in just a few dozen minutes.
When the Stellar emerged on the "Tower of Heaven" via the elevator, Er Dan looked around in complete bewilderment, utterly unable to grasp the current situation.
"Hummm."
The Stellar switched to Bunny Cloud Wheels, landing smoothly on the flat ground of Shahe Plain. Chen Mang stepped out of the train cabin and walked step by step through the air to the ground.
Er Dan, following behind, glanced down at the ground nearly ten meters below him.
Then he looked at Lord Mang, who seemed to be performing some kind of aerial footwork as he walked through the air.
After a moment of silence, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly as he quietly climbed down the nearby ladder. Was he seeing things? Did Lord Mang just... float in the air?
Whatever.
It wouldn't be strange if Lord Mang could fly.
At this point, he felt completely numb.
If Lord Mang claimed to be God now, here to save the world, he'd probably believe it.
"This is Shahe Plain."
Chen Mang leaned on his cane, gazing into the distance with a smile. "This might be the last time we can stand here. There won't be any chances to come back in the future—it just won't be possible. You've spent a long time in Shahe Plain—you must have some attachment to this place, right?"
"Of course."
Er Dan nodded, sighing nostalgically. "Shahe Plain holds many of my memories. But Lord Mang, are we... waiting for someone?"
"Yes."
Chen Mang gave a slight nod. "Two friends I met back in the white zone, Iron Ridge Wasteland. Before we leave, I want to give them some gifts. We probably won't meet again after this."
"I contacted them earlier, but they're clearly a bit slow."
"Friends..."
Er Dan paused for a moment with a complicated expression before turning his head toward Chen Mang: "Lord Mang, you're too kind. Going out of your way just to deliver gifts to two friends you met in the white zones—most people wouldn't do something like that."
"Not that kind."
Chen Mang pulled two cigarettes from his pocket, handing one to Er Dan with a smile. "One of them warned me to run when monsters were chasing us, and I also traded some Spider Silk from him. That batch of Spider Silk was crucial for me at the time—it's how I could move freely in the Kunlun Mountains."
"The other gave me a part for an Oxygen Generator, which was really important to me back then."
"At that point, I'd already gotten the Drill Bit component from the Kunlun Mountains. All I needed was the Oxygen Generator to start mining underground."
"Later, I dug up every single ore beneath the Iron Ridge Wasteland."
"They both did me a favor."
"Without them, I wouldn't have risen so quickly. I've always been one to remember kindness. In this world, meeting someone who treats you well isn't easy. When you do, of course you should cherish it."
"I'm not looking for anything in return."
"Just so that when I'm old, I can look back and smile, knowing I didn't leave any debts of gratitude unpaid."
"..."
Er Dan nodded silently in understanding, saying nothing more. Truth be told, this was exactly why he admired Lord Mang—it made him feel safe following him.
Lord Mang was the kind of person who repaid kindness with kindness.
It sounded normal, even mundane.
But in reality, it was a rare thing.
Anyone can return hatred with hatred, but not everyone returns favors with favors.
Just then—
A sharp train whistle pierced the air in the distance!
"Toot!!"
Two Trains were racing side by side at breakneck speed, black smoke already billowing from their Carriages. Behind them, another Train pursued relentlessly, the roar of its Doomsday Cannon echoing continuously.
Clearly, this was a chase.
"Lord Mang!"
Er Dan's expression shifted, and he moved to pull Lord Mang toward their Train. Though Lord Mang's Train was high-level, once outside it, he was no different from an ordinary person. In a chaotic battle like this, bullets didn't discriminate—getting caught in the crossfire would be disastrous.
"No need."
Chen Mang patted Er Dan's shoulder, signaling for him to stand behind him. Then, calmly raising his right hand, he faced the three speeding Trains in the distance and whispered softly.
"Rise."
The next moment—
The entire Carriage of the Mechanical Train behind them lifted uncontrollably into the sky.
"Huh?" Er Dan froze in place, utterly dumbfounded, staring at Lord Mang's right hand as if trying to see through some illusion. What the hell was this? Wasn't this world supposed to have no flashy battle auras or magic—just Trains developed to their purest extremes?
Then what was this?
The last spellcaster of the apocalypse?
The final cultivator in the end times?
At that moment, the two trains had already approached the Stellar and quickly came to a stop. The Dwarf Man and a Young Man jumped down from the train compartment, casting fearful glances behind them. But when they saw the train floating in midair, they were equally stunned, frozen in place.
Just then—
All the automatic cannons on the roof of the uncontrollably floating train aimed directly at Chen Mang and his group, firing without the slightest hesitation.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!!!"
Hundreds of cannon shells instantly engulfed Chen Mang and the others.
However.
Before Er Dan and the rest could react, Chen Mang calmly muttered with an indifferent expression, "Stubborn fools. Die."
The next moment!
The shells that were about to hit Chen Mang and his group seemed to encounter an insurmountable resistance, all freezing mid-air. Hundreds of projectiles hung suspended, completely motionless.
As if someone had pressed the pause button.
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