Translator: AnubisTL
Old Pig arrived with trepidation but left in high spirits.
Inside the locomotive cabin, Chen Mang watched Old Pig's retreating figure and shook his head with a wry smile. He understood perfectly why Old Pig was so elated. Partly, it was because Old Pig genuinely wanted the Hope Train to thrive and provide a safe haven in this perilous apocalypse. But more importantly, focusing on this aspect allowed Old Pig to maximize his value to the group—a bit of self-interest, to be sure. If Old Pig only cared about fighting and getting his kicks, he'd become dispensable. Even the original core members, as time passed, would gradually see their positions diminish.
Chen Mang found this perfectly understandable. Who doesn't have self-interest? Someone without any self-interest is probably scheming about destroying the world or some other nonsense.
Alone in the locomotive cabin again, Chen Mang picked up a pen and notepad from the table and began scribbling.
"If you can hit someone with the train, don't waste your bullets."
That was his summary of today's battle.
Yes.
He regretted it now. When those men had gotten out of their vehicles, why waste bullets? He could have simply rammed the train into them.
However, if the enemies split up and retreated to their own train, it would become much more difficult to handle.
Thinking about it that way, it wasn't so bad after all.
He then pulled out the blueprint for the White Vehicle Accessory, the "Vehicle Blade," from his pocket. With a thought, 500 units of iron ore from Warehouse Car 2 slowly dissolved into powder and merged into the carriage.
Immediately after—
He felt the entire train begin to tremble slightly.
He immediately stepped out of the locomotive cabin onto the wasteland and looked at his train, the Stellaris.
"Hey!"
Standing in the wasteland, Chen Mang couldn't help but grin as he watched the scene unfold. Steel blades emerged along both sides of the Stellaris locomotive and its three carriages!
They were positioned about a meter above the ground—just the right height to sever zombies at the waist.
The Vehicle Blade completely enveloped the carriages, with a thickness of roughly ten centimeters. The leading edge hadn't been sharpened and wasn't particularly sharp; rubbing your hand along the blade wouldn't draw blood—it was simply too thick.
Even so, once the train started moving, this Vehicle Blade would be more than capable of slicing through any carbon-based lifeform at the waist.
The blade was approximately 30 centimeters wide, which also defined its range of attack.
[ Accessory Name: ] Vehicle Blade
[ Accessory Grade: ] White
[ Accessory Tier: ] 1
[ Accessory Effect: ] Mounts steel blades on both sides of the carriage, dealing damage to enemies that come within range while the train is in motion. The blades can be retracted at will.
[ Upgrade Requirements: ] 100 units of iron ore
"This..."
Chen Mang paused, slightly taken aback. He had initially planned to review the accessory panel first and upgrade it later, since crafting the Vehicle Blade alone required 500 units of iron ore. Upgrading it would undoubtedly require even more, and he currently didn't have that much iron ore.
He hadn't expected that upgrading to Tier 2 would only require 100 units of iron ore.
What was there to hesitate about?
Upgrade!
With the upgrade, the White Vehicle Accessory "Vehicle Blade" had visibly reached Tier 2. The steel blade appeared slightly thinner, but its edge was more pronounced. Its width, however, had increased by a full 10 centimeters, now measuring 40 centimeters across.
Now, any living creature coming within 40 centimeters of the carriage during travel would become a soul claimed by the blade.
The panel remained largely unchanged, with only a small line of text added.
The train component's upgrade limit is Tier 2. It cannot be upgraded further.
"Bullshit."
Chen Mang shook his head, his face filled with anticipation as he muttered again, "Upgrade!"
But...
Nothing changed. It was as if the component truly couldn't be upgraded further. Chen Mang glanced down at the birthmark on the back of his left hand, then placed his right hand on it and growled, "Upgrade."
The next moment—
Detected Tier 0 Authority. This train component can be upgraded further. This upgrade will consume 200 units of iron ore.
Immediately after!
The Vehicle Blade began to transform again before his eyes. The blade thinned further, and its width increased by another 10 centimeters, now reaching a full 50 centimeters.
"Not bad."
Chen Mang couldn't help but chuckle. This upgrade was primarily an experiment to test the effectiveness of the "Infinite Upgrade" plugin. It seemed to be working well enough, although he didn't understand why the panel displayed "Tier 0 Authority." That wasn't important.
As Old Pig had said, the Vehicle Blade was a white accessory, a transitional component for new players. Even if upgraded to its maximum Tier, its effectiveness might still fall short of some green-grade offensive vehicle accessories.
Even at Tier 3, the Vehicle Blade wasn't much stronger than at Tier 1.
But—
It had no Tier cap.
With each upgrade, the blade's edge became thinner and wider. Given enough iron ore, Chen Mang could theoretically create a Vehicle Blade ten meters wide.
It would hang like wings on either side of the train. With a roar of the engine, the train could leap over any obstacle, taking flight.
The lack of a Tier cap meant that, with sufficient iron ore, he could strengthen the Vehicle Blade until it was as thin as a cicada's wing—practically invisible, yet lethally effective.
Wherever it passed, not a blade of grass would remain!
No, he needed more iron ore!
Only then could he complete his grand scheme!
Chen Mang tore his gaze from the Vehicle Blade and checked his Train Conductor Panel. He had only 700 units of iron ore left, not enough to upgrade the blade again. Below Tier 10, the upgrades didn't show significant effects; no qualitative leap in performance.
One slave could mine 1 unit of iron ore per hour. Mining for a full 12 hours a day, a slave could yield a maximum of 12 units of iron ore.
He had 81 slaves.
The maximum amount of iron ore he could mine in a day was roughly 972 units.
Mining could only be sustained for a maximum of 12 hours before becoming too exhausting. More importantly, it was difficult to guarantee daily mining opportunities. The wasteland was full of unforeseen dangers, and he currently knew of only one mine, with no means of discovering others.
Most crucially—
His train only had the single "Energy Stone" it came with initially, and a single Energy Stone could only power the train at full speed for 100 hours. The train needed to be upgraded to Tier 2 and a "Crafting Table" crafted before it could produce more Energy Stones.
In other words, if he didn't upgrade the train to Tier 2 within these 100 hours, the train would completely break down.
He had just done a quick calculation.
If he focused solely on crafting the train components necessary for the upgrade, along with the iron ore required for the upgrade itself, he would need approximately:
"7,100 units of iron ore, 110 units of copper ore, and 100 units of wood."
To be honest, these requirements were quite high, especially with the time constraint.
At least he currently had no idea where to mine copper ore or gather wood.
Isn't this a bit of a catastrophic start for a rookie train conductor? I wonder how other new conductors manage to smoothly get through this phase.
(End of the Chapter)
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