Translator: Anubis Translations
"Ah."
Chen Mang sighed, gently rubbing his temples. He knew he should armor the train's exterior to greatly improve its safety, but the "Steel Car Armor" accessory required 1,000 units of iron ore to craft.
He currently didn't have that much iron ore.
He needed to mine more urgently.
He stepped out of the carriage, summoned several slaves, and had them install the only intact heavy machine gun they'd captured on the roof of Warehouse Car 2. After securing it in place and finding the optimal position,
a panel suddenly popped up before him.
"Please name your train as soon as possible."
"May the accessory 'Third-Rate Heavy Machine Gun' be mounted on the roof of carriage two of your unnamed train?"
"Confirm."
Soon—
The heavy machine gun was seamlessly installed on the roof of Carriage No. 2, looking as if it had always been a part of the train. It would only fall off when this carriage was detached and discarded, just as it had when it was first captured.
He had over 400 heavy machine gun bullets.
For a heavy machine gun, this amount of ammunition was barely enough to sustain a single battle, serving more as a deterrent than anything else.
But that was enough. At least the train, which had previously seemed utterly harmless, now appeared somewhat dangerous with the addition of this weapon.
After moving all the captured resources onto the train and herding all the slaves into Carriage No. 4, he was finally ready to depart.
By this time, all the Soaring Dragon Assault Rifles had been fully assembled. He called out the ten men he had selected from the slaves, appointed them as Train Guards one by one, and then distributed a Soaring Dragon Assault Rifle and three fully loaded magazines to each of them.
"..."
Chen Mang scanned the ten ragged thugs, his brow furrowing slightly. "By dawn, you must elect a Captain. Choose wisely; no casualties that could jeopardize our operations."
He then summoned Old Pig and appointed him deputy train conductor.
With this, the basic structure of the train crew was established. Though crude and makeshift, even the thugs were chosen as the best among the worst—a classic case of picking the tallest dwarf. Yet every journey begins with a first step.
Nothing in this world starts out perfect. All beginnings are humble, evolving toward perfection through development and refinement.
He then announced new regulations:
Every slave will receive one cup of water and two slices of moldy bread per day.
Every thug will receive two bottles of mineral water, six steamed buns, and a packet of pickles per day.
While Chen Mang believed that artificially maintaining class disparities to secure his own position was acceptable in the apocalypse, he also recognized that starving the slaves would leave them too weak for mining. He had seized a substantial stockpile of food from the train, enough to last for now. Once mining operations began and a food production line was established, food scarcity would no longer be an issue.
Finally, all the slaves boarded carriage four, while Old Pig and the thugs settled into carriage three. This carriage, currently lacking in supplies, still had enough space to accommodate them.
For now, they couldn't build chairs, so the thugs sat on the floor.
Old Pig, however, had his own soft bed.
They had seized seven single beds in total. Chen Mang kept two—one for Old Pig in Carriage No. 3, and one for himself in the locomotive cabin.
He still preferred staying in the locomotive cabin. Even when sleeping, he felt safer there. The steel door was relatively sturdy and difficult to breach from the outside. The bulletproof glass in the locomotive's front was also reinforced and hard to shatter in a short time.
He discarded the remaining beds, as there was no space to store them.
Then—
ROAR!
With the roar of the train engine, the all-black train finally ended its rest period. Its wheels spun rapidly as it shot into the distance, heading straight for the iron ore mine they had fled from!
They were still some distance from the mine. During their escape, he had been confined to the slave car and couldn't see the road or determine the mine's location. However, the train's passage through the wasteland would leave tracks.
All they needed to do was follow the wheel tracks back along the same path they had taken.
His current wheels were still the most basic type, not particularly fast, but sufficient for now, especially on the relatively flat terrain of the wasteland.
Inside the locomotive cabin...
Chen Mang glanced at Old Pig beside him and chuckled. "Tell me about the downfall of your former Train Conductor. Maybe we can learn something from it."
He had just used a walkie-talkie—also a captured item—to order Old Pig to come from Carriage No. 3 all the way to the locomotive.
"Another zombie horde," Old Pig said, shaking his head, a flicker of lingering fear in his eyes. "The Iron Ridge Wasteland doesn't often see horde swarms on this scale. The last one we encountered was much smaller. That train was only a Tier 1, not very fast, and when we fled in panic, we ended up trapped in the city ruins."
"The ruins blocked the train's path."
"In the chaos, everyone abandoned the train and ran, only to be overwhelmed by the horde. Most were devoured by the zombies. I managed to escape by running faster and darting into the narrow alleys of the ruins without looking back."
"Large-scale zombie hordes are always commanded by intelligent leaders, and they generally avoid venturing deep into city ruins. That's how I survived."
"I see."
Chen Mang narrowed his eyes slightly and nodded. It seemed Old Pig's narrow escape had been somewhat fortunate. A leader capable of commanding intelligent zombies couldn't possibly be a Tier 1. If that zombie had noticed him, his jammer would have been useless.
But... logically, a carriage should be highly visible amidst a horde. How could it possibly go unnoticed?
Could it be that the zombie responsible for commanding the horde was only Tier 1?
He gazed out the window at the desolate wilderness, lost in thought. His gaze finally settled on the locomotive at the front of the train. Before leaving, he had used the Geothermal Core Furnace to devour all the abandoned trains.
The process took fifteen minutes, yielding a total of 600 units of iron ore.
The spectacle had been quite impressive. The locomotive's front opened like a gaping maw, swallowing the abandoned carriages whole. Inside, countless gears whirled rapidly, grinding all the steel into fine powder.
"Are there no other settlements after the apocalypse?"
"Well, there are some."
Old Pig paused before continuing. "For some reason, many monsters are reluctant to venture deep into the city ruins. That's where a number of survivors are still hiding. Apart from that, we learned from the Train Radio about some large settlements established after the apocalypse. Those settlements have several trains."
"But they're too far away. The previous Train Conductor never planned to investigate them."
"Oh?"
Chen Mang looked puzzled. "From what you're saying, the city ruins seem relatively safe. At least finding food there should be easier than in the wasteland. So why did all these survivors end up on the train?"
"..."
Old Pig hesitated, then whispered, "Brother Mang, the slaves were all captured and brought onto the train. No one volunteers to be a slave."
"Oh."
Chen Mang nodded expressionlessly and said no more. It seemed that the thugs' duties included not only maintaining order on the train but also capturing slaves. As the Train Conductor, he still had much to learn.
Just then—
The birthmark on the back of his hand suddenly warmed slightly. A faint smile appeared on Chen Mang's face. The final newbie mission had been completed.
With this—
His Train panel was finally fully unlocked. He wondered what features it held. He hoped it would help him acquire more resources—he was desperately short.
For example, if it could grant him 10,000 units of iron ore daily, that would be enough. He'd be quite satisfied with that.
(End of the Chapter)
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