He said it would be a three-day observation period, but in reality, he would choose 10 people to become thugs for the train before nightfall.
After all, he was just one task away from completing his novice train mission.
-
"Within three months, have three thugs, and 10 slaves. Reward unknown."
-
Once this task was completed, his "Train Panel" would officially unlock, and its functions would be revealed.
Moreover.
The shorter the time taken, the better the reward.
The rewards for his other two tasks were so good because he completed them quickly enough. Logically, he might have just received an "ordinary Train Order."
"Old Pig."
"Ah..." Old Pig, who was about to roll up his trouser legs and go collect the carriage, stopped immediately upon hearing Mang calling him and ran over to Chen Mang, saying in a low voice, "Master Mang, your instructions."
"You don't need to collect. I need a Deputy Train Captain, and you're my choice."
Chen Mang patted Old Pig on the shoulder with a slight smile, "You've been a Deputy Train Captain before, so you have the experience. I'll formally appoint you in the train room later and give you the appropriate authority."
"Then you can also tell me what to pay attention to as a new Train Captain. It's my first time being a Train Captain."
"I'll still need your help in the future."
Old Pig's eyes flashed with disbelief and excitement. Then he immediately knelt on the ground with tears in his eyes, hoarsely saying, "Mang, you can rest assured, there won't be any mistakes!"
Actually...
When he saw Chen Mang suddenly take out a Train Order and become Train Captain, he knew he had met a benefactor, and his identity would soon change from slave to Deputy Train Captain.
Besides him, there were no other choices.
He was the only one among them who had served as Deputy Train Captain before, and he was the first to approach, so it had to be him.
A train couldn't be run by one person; it needed multiple people to manage it. The Train Captain couldn't handle all the tedious things, but he still had to show disbelief and excitement.
As a lower-rank, it's best not to refuse the goodwill of an upper-rank, and the feedback should be obvious when receiving such goodwill, not too reserved.
He didn't know how to be an upper-rank.
But having been a lower-rank all his life, he knew exactly how to be a good subordinate.
Moreover... this upper-rank seemed much better than his previous Train Captain, with no messy habits, a strong sense of belief, and a natural aura of authority without the feeling of a petty person becoming triumphant.
"Well..."
Old Pig hesitated for a moment before tentatively asking, "Mang, among these slaves, there are seven or eight women, currently looking shabby and ragged. Do you want them to wash and come over to see you later?"
"No need."
Chen Mang shook his head. "Our current situation is still relatively dangerous, with no basic safety guarantees. Who has the mind to care about these things? Was your previous Train Captain fond of this?"
"Sort of."
Old Pig scratched the back of his head, a bit helplessly speaking in a low voice, "The previous Train Captain had a fetish for 'foot fungus', specifically finding a few slaves with severe foot fungus to ensure his foot fungus could always be maintained."
"Then picking a few girls from the slaves to soak their feet in hot water daily while twisting a towel into a bundle and pulling it between their toes."
"He said it was the most exhilarating thing in the world, a thousand times better than a bridal chamber night, but he didn't touch those women."
Meanwhile—
All the slaves also gathered the resources, neatly placing them aside. Chen Mang gestured for them to move the resources near the train room and had Old Pig count everything.
...
Standing on the wasteland, Chen Mang looked towards the group of somewhat nervous slaves not far away. In the 1-level train's manufacturable "Vehicle Accessories," there was only a moldy bread slice production line, no sand-free pure water production line.
In other words.
The train originally could have given them pure drinking water, but insisted on adding a bit of sand.
However, he quickly understood the situation.
A strategy to artificially create class disparity.
It let the thugs have enough superiority, giving the lower-rank slaves a motivation to rise, softening the contradiction between Train Captain and slaves, maintaining a relatively stable state throughout the train.
He gazed into the horizon.
The wasteland no longer had the shadow of the Corpse Tide, only around hundreds of zombie bodies that still had some morality, not eating their own kind.
He planned to return to the mining site to continue mining later.
After becoming Train Captain, he realized that no matter what he did, it required "iron ore," and he must have enough iron ore.
He also vaguely had some choices for thugs, with a dozen or so individuals who were conspicuously sturdier than the rest.
Soon—
Old Pig ran over quickly, "Mang, all resources have been tallied."
"Here's the list, please have a look."
"..."
Chen Mang took a small piece of paper filled with words from Old Pig, wondering where he got it from.
"12.7mm heavy machine gun level one bullets, over 400 rounds."
"9mm handgun level one bullets, over 200 rounds."
"12 handguns."
"1 heavy machine gun."
"A total of 1500 units of iron ore, 120 units of copper ore, 100 units of wood."
"Over 600 slices of bread, 300 bottles of mineral water, 100 buns, 80 packs of pickled vegetables."
"..."
"Mm."
Chen Mang nodded lightly with satisfaction. It all seemed straightforward now, and the most important part was... he had already counted the number of handguns in advance. If Old Pig's count didn't match, Old Pig would be lying in a pool of blood by now.
He clearly remembered that these handguns were not manufactured by him, but they could harm the Train Captain.
As long as the gun was produced by the train, even if the bullet wasn't, the firearm couldn't harm the Train Captain. That's the train's rule.
"Mang."
Standing beside him, Old Pig softly reminded, "These handguns can't be given to the thugs. All trains only give weapons produced on the train to the thugs to ensure the absolute safety of the Train Captain."
"When collecting resources outside, if a thug or slave picks up a gun and doesn't turn it in, they are executed immediately upon discovery."
"Mm."
Chen Mang stuffed the piece of paper into his arms and then turned to look at the train behind him, which belonged to him. He had yet to name it.
For now.
At Level 1, the train itself wouldn't possess much destructive power. The main combat tasks still required gun-wielding thugs to complete. As the train upgrades, it would unlock higher-level "Vehicle Accessories."
Then, the train would truly be considered a mobile base with terrifying firepower.
For now, it was merely a vehicle.
There was still a long road ahead.