The factory gates slowly swung open.
Before them lay the most heavily guarded core of this city. Like a maiden lifting her skirt in spring, everything within instinctively drew one's gaze.
"..."
Having completed his task, Xiao Ai expressionlessly glanced back at Li Shiji. The rapid stream of code flashing across the screen behind him earlier had, of course, nothing to do with cracking the iris lock.
His method involved network intrusion—locating all valid iris patterns that could unlock this door from the database, then precisely replicating them through the micro-projector in his Mechanical Eye.
The entire process was exceedingly complex.
But...
As an employee, no matter how intricate your work might be, it meant nothing unless you could show your boss just how complicated it was—and that you'd successfully completed it. That was what truly mattered.
The display on his back screen had been solely for Lord Mang's benefit.
Otherwise, it served no purpose.
He needed to visually demonstrate the difficulty of his work; otherwise, Lord Mang would never realize just how skilled he was. If not for that meddlesome chatterbox who'd exposed all his little tricks.
"Excellent."
Chen Mang said nothing more, merely nodding in satisfaction before turning his attention to the heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns mounted on the factory walls. "When we enter, these weapons won't attack us, will they?"
"They won't."
Xiao Ai shook his head and explained, "This city operates on an intranet. Originally, its firewall should have been extremely stable—my computing power wouldn't have been able to find any vulnerabilities. Even if I did, they'd detect and counterattack immediately. But it seems it's been neglected for so long without maintenance that numerous vulnerabilities have appeared. I didn't need much effort to breach it."
"This factory is the heart of the city."
"The core of the city's network is also located here. Right now, I've only infiltrated the factory's network, but there's another intranet inside this factory that isn't connected to the iris lock."
"It should be in Room 1008 on the first floor."
"Once we infiltrate and take control of the network core in that room's intranet, Train Conductor, you'll have absolute control over this entire city."
"Including..."
"Setting new rules and rewriting existing ones."
Chen Mang laughed, genuinely pleased.
His initial expectation had merely been to access areas he couldn't enter last time with Xiao Ai's help. Never had he anticipated such overwhelming success—direct absolute control over the entire city. "Let's go!"
The heavily guarded square was surrounded by high walls.
Yet its interior was surprisingly simple.
Only a three-story low-rise building stood at its center.
Inside Room 1008.
Everyone gathered in the room, watching as Xiao Ai busily worked before a massive service host. Multiple colorful cables extended from his body into the machine, while his back screen once again flashed with endless streams of code.
"This time it's not 'hello world,' this time it's gibberish," Li Shiji murmured quietly.
This time it took longer.
Nearly three full hours passed.
Only then did Xiao Ai stop his movements, retract the cables back into his body, and display the word "proud" on the screen on his cheek before turning to Chen Mang with pride. "Train Conductor, mission accomplished. This city is now completely under your control."
"There was a Level 5 Intelligence Chip controlling the city's Service Host."
"But I took it down."
"Now the entire city's control is in my hands—which means it's in your hands, Train Conductor."
"Good." Chen Mang nodded in satisfaction before asking curiously, "How do you AIs fight each other?"
"Oh, that?"
Xiao Ai nodded seriously. "Actually, killing an AI is simple—just smash its core. For example, if you destroy my 'Train Auxiliary AI,' I die. Or you could just format and wipe the database, which is pretty much the same as killing it outright."
"But this Level 5 Intelligence Chip AI had a lot of important data in its database, so formatting wasn't ideal. I couldn't find its physical core either, so I flooded its database with high-priority junk data."
"This Level 5 Intelligence Chip AI was in a dormant, inactive state. I stuffed it full of junk data. Normally, unless someone manually reactivates it, it won't wake up. But if it does, it'll take a long time to process all that junk data. If its processing power isn't enough, it might even freeze up completely. That gives me plenty of time to react."
"I think I get it. If there were hundreds of millions of residents on the Train, and they all decided to shop at the Resident Store at the same time, my core would probably start smoking."
"Can you tweak some basic rules? Like..."
Chen Mang shook his wristwatch. "Add a few zeros to my 5,000 balance?"
He mostly understood, but it wasn't that important. He just wanted to know what he could do now. The 5,000 points were leftovers from his last visit here.
"Of course, my Train Conductor."
Xiao Ai grinned and snapped his fingers. "How about 50,000? Too little?"
"500,000? Still not enough."
"5 million? 50 million? Or even 500 million? 500 million should do it."
"..."
Chen Mang stared blankly at his wristwatch as the numbers kept jumping until they settled on—
「500,000,000」.
At that moment, he suddenly felt like he was playing Grand Theft Auto and had just entered a cheat code.
"Huh?"
Meanwhile, Biao Zi and the others standing behind Lord Mang were completely stunned when they saw the string of numbers on his wristwatch. They still remembered how hard it was to earn money the first time they came to Neon City!
They'd barely scraped together a hundred thousand in the casinos.
In the end, it was Zhang Yi who earned a million by fighting in Black Boxing matches.
Back then, that million was enough to buy a ton of stuff at the Mechanical Train Parts Store. But now... 500 million straight up?
Pure cheating!
This kind of thing would've gotten you banned before the apocalypse.
"Can this money actually be used?"
Chen Mang also looked at Xiao Ai with a strange expression: "Is it just for show, or can it really be used for shopping at other stores? Can it actually be spent?"
"Of course it can be used."
Xiao Ai raised his head proudly: "This city's currency system belongs to the Mechanical Civilization. It can be used not only here but also in other cities of the Mechanical Civilization."
"However..."
"Ahem, because this city has been abandoned for a long time and its Firewall has been completely breached, there's no audit during transactions here. It can be used normally. But outside Neon City, in other cities of the Mechanical Civilization, every transaction will undergo multiple audits and would be detected."
"Being able to use it here is enough."
Chen Mang suddenly laughed and immediately turned to walk out the door: "5 billion isn't enough fun. Adjust it to 500 billion for me."
"There's only one task in the next 48 hours."
"Spend all 500 billion!"
Next.
He was heading to one place—the "Mechanical Train Parts Store." This store wasn't just limited to the first floor; it also had a second floor. Back then, he wasn't allowed upstairs, being told only those with Level 10 or higher Mechanical Trains could go up.
Now he had a Level 12 Train.
Surely, he could go up now.
Whatever was on the second floor, he had only one thing to say—I'll take it all!
Money's no issue!
This time, he really didn't give a damn about money.
"Mechanical Train Parts Store."
A familiar place.
Chen Mang pushed the door open, and the girl standing at the entrance greeted him cheerfully with a smile: "Welcome."
"Sir, you may browse freely on the first and second floors. The third floor is accessible only to Train Conductors of Level 20 and above. Your current level does not meet the requirement."
Chen Mang glanced around.
Nothing had changed since his last visit. It seemed no one else had entered this city during that time. Most of the good items on the first floor had been bought by him last time, leaving only the mediocre ones.
Like the Murphy Stones—100,000 points each, limited to 18 purchases.
He hadn't bought any last time; they weren't particularly useful to him. The rest were just average.
But—
Who cares!!!
"Pack up everything on the first floor."
Chen Mang leaned on his cane and strode straight toward the second floor: "Don't talk to me about money. I'll pay ten times the price. Move quickly—money's no issue."
"Ten times! You hear that?! Pack yourself up too!"
Biao Zi, following behind, excitedly grinned at the salesgirl and shouted before hurriedly trailing after Lord Mang toward the second floor. He loved this feeling of throwing his weight around—no wonder so many people liked cheating in games. Nothing could compare to this overpowered sensation.
The layout of the second floor was no different from the first.
Display cases still held several screens.
Each screen showed different items.
-
"Murphy Stone": Special Item, priced at 100,000 points, stock: 14.
"Rare Train Token": Special Item, priced at 500,000 points, stock: 1.
"Random White Grade Blueprint": Priced at 15,000 points, stock: 12.
"Random Green Grade Blueprint": Priced at 50,000 points, stock: 8.
"Time Rift Detector": Red-grade Vehicle Component, priced at 10,000,000 points, stock: 1.
"Extreme Challenge": Special Item, rare edition Map Chip, requires use with a Level 5 'Combat Training Virtual Space', priced at 500,000 points, stock: 2.
"."
-
A scattered assortment of items.
Chen Mang merely glanced casually before grinning at the unfamiliar salesperson standing at the second-floor entrance. "Pack up everything on the second floor—I'll pay ten times the price!"
"Money's no object!"
"Get moving."
With that, he strode toward the third floor—only to bump into an invisible barrier.
A nearby salesperson packing items reminded him, "Sir, the third floor is off-limits. Only Train Conductors whose Mechanical Train exceeds level 20 can go up."
"..."
Chen Mang didn't respond, simply tilting his head to glance at Xiao Ai.
"Wait a moment."
Xiao Ai stood still for three seconds before speaking. "Done."
The next moment—
The salesperson hurriedly apologized, "Respected guest, my apologies. The system data wasn't updated in time earlier. It's now been refreshed. Turns out your Mechanical Train is level 1024—you may proceed to the third floor."
Chen Mang touched the air in front of him—the barrier was gone. He glanced at Xiao Ai. "Isn't a level 1024 train a bit exaggerated?"
"Mainly because it's an auspicious number."
"Fair enough."
The "Mechanical Train Parts Store" only had three floors, with the third being the highest.
The third floor had far fewer items on display.
Only three products were in stock; the rest were all out.
However—
The prices of these three items were absurdly high, including even a gold-grade Accessory Blueprint!
Gold-grade accessories were a tier above red-grade ones.
A quick glance at the total price put it around 80 million.
"Whew..."
Chen Mang exhaled sharply. Damn, this stuff was expensive. Who could afford this? Luckily, he had cheats. Without hesitation, he waved his hand again and addressed the clerk standing nearby on the third floor.
"Pack it all up—I'll take everything. Ten times the price!"
Soon—
Chen Mang and his group left the mechanical store, riding their Off-Road Motorcycle down the street at high speed.
They stopped at every convenience store along the way.
Walking in, they'd say the same thing each time.
"Pack it all up—I'll take everything. Ten times the price!"
Then came the payment.
Placing his wristband on the counter, the points were deducted rapidly. The clerks were honest—when he said ten times the price, they actually charged ten times.
The moment his balance was deducted, Xiao Ai would top it back up.
So, making money was truly a scam. Just set the rules yourself—who could compete with that kind of earning speed?
Zhang Yi and Zhang Er were overjoyed.
This was pure bliss.
Thankfully, they'd brought enough refrigerators—otherwise, they wouldn't have had space for all this stuff. Packing everything into the fridges had them absolutely thrilled!
Biao Zi was excited too.
He couldn't wait for the return trip. On the third floor of the mechanical store, he'd spotted a Supreme Map Chip priced at 20 million!
That thing would definitely boost his overall physical stats even more. Once back, after clearing the map, he could pilot the "Pope" Mecha!
Xiao Ai was also thrilled.
This was clearly a major contribution. He was already fantasizing about how the Train Conductor would praise him upon their return.
Chen Mang was also excited.
This was a huge opportunity that would elevate the Train's overall foundation in every aspect. Whether useful or not, as long as it could be bought with money, he would take it all in one go!
The shop assistant was equally thrilled.
This was a massive deal!
Items that hadn't sold for thousands of years were suddenly cleared out—they had encountered a golden patron!
It could be said that multiple parties benefited.
There were no losers.
The only possible loser might have been the original owner of these Neon Cities, but that guy had long since died who-knows-where. What's the point of talking about wins and losses when you're already dead? So this time, there were no losers at all—only winners!
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