Doomsday: I Build an Infinite Train.

Chapter 335 Where are we?!

"Brother Lin, what... what exactly is going on?" Shi Diyuan asked, looking disheveled.

Not only him, but Monica, Qian Dele and others had also fought side by side just now. They all knew that the serpent was definitely not dead. If it was not dead, how could the dark mark on its body have disappeared?

Lin Xian took a deep breath and directly recounted the story of how the Silver Dragon Ten Thousand Mistakes suddenly turned into a divine intervention, helping them to change the world.

“I’m not sure about the current situation either. If we haven’t been attacked for a while, it means that those strange things are unable to detect us because of our silence… We’re temporarily invisible to those monsters.”

"So weird?"

"Another disaster plant..." Qian Dele immediately became interested upon hearing this: "It sounds even more amazing than superpowers. It is said that disaster plants grow in the Star Abyss and the Polar Night. It makes me want to get a couple to study."

Monica's eyes lit up, and she said, "I saw a caravan in Xilan City before that had a very powerful calamity plant that could accelerate the division of biological cells within a certain range. This greatly speeds up the recovery of injuries and the improvement of superpower evolution."

"Because of this thing, the convoy has been targeted by the Adventists and has encountered a lot of trouble. Now it seems the entire group has been taken over by the Phoenix Society..."

"The Phoenix Society took the Disaster Plant too, right?" Ning Jing asked.

Upon hearing this, Lin Xian frowned slightly and looked at Monica as well.

Monica shrugged: "That's for sure. The Phoenix Society is also paying great attention to the research on the Disaster Plant. However, the Phoenix Society certainly won't take it away unconditionally. The entire convoy was taken to the Phoenix City headquarters by the Nightwalkers. At least before the apocalypse, they won't have to travel around like we do."

Lin Xian frankly said, "This plant was given to me by a friend's car team. It didn't seem to be of any use along the way, but I never expected it to save my life at a critical moment."

Upon hearing this, Shi Diyuan looked at Lin Xian and said, "Brother Lin, the government will definitely want to study the Disaster Plant that can remove the Dark Mark."

Shi Diyuan didn't mince words, and Lin Xian naturally understood what he meant. He simply said, "Heh, if the authorities could rescue us from here now, I would be more than happy. If they could research a way to solve the Dark Mark, like my Hellish Black Chrysanthemum, that would be a blessing for all mankind."

In fact, he had worried about this issue when he was in Xilan City. For the Phoenix Society, the research on the Hell Chrysanthemum was of great significance. However, because it concerned the importance of the Dark Mark and because it was his old friend Wei Kexue, Lin Xian did not keep it to himself.

According to Chen Sixuan, after the battle of Xilan City, Zhao Yu, Wen Zhuo, and the other Phoenix Society members did not mention this matter. Lin Xian guessed that it might be from the perspective of the Phoenix Society's research team that the characteristics of the Hell Chrysanthemum had been discovered and there was no need to study it anymore. If they knew that the Hell Chrysanthemum could also convert dark energy to help enhance and activate superpowers, Lin Xian might have to negotiate with the Phoenix Society officials.

However, that's a story for another time. From Monica's words, it can be seen that the Disaster Plant with its unique characteristics is not unique to Lin Xian. Other teams, including the Federation and the Phoenix Society, must also have it.

After so long, the Silver Dragon Ten Thousand Treasures has only produced one bud, and it's not even known if it will ever produce a second one. Therefore, the true value of the Silver Dragon Ten Thousand Treasures remains to be seen. However, he was also amazed by this life-saving artifact that saved him in the nick of time. If he could master it, combined with his own Heterogeneous Cube, it would be equivalent to having a get-out-of-jail-free card. This is definitely a great treasure.

"Captain Lin, are we stuck here now?"

Zhou Hongqu of the Red Rose Caravan looked tense. She understood that the caravan might be safe for now, but with so many people trapped in this dark forest without tracks and seemingly no dawn, this situation was a dead end sooner or later.

"Yes."

Lin Xian made no attempt to hide his exhaustion; he was physically and mentally drained. His second attempt to use the gravitational lens had nearly caused him to fall apart. The fact that he was still able to stand here and discuss things with everyone was entirely due to his willpower.

"I don't know how long this situation can last. In any case, let's quickly clean up the battlefield, observe the situation, and catch our breath for as long as we can. That giant snake is definitely nearby and could attack us at any moment..."

Lin Xian had no confidence in the current situation. He was unsure how long this delicate silence would last, so he couldn't relax.

Upon hearing this, Shi Diyuan's expression turned grim. "Everyone, please return to your respective caravans to rest and recuperate. We have suffered heavy casualties this time. Having a chance to catch our breath is better than nothing. In short... be prepared to fight at any time!"

In this dark forest environment, no one felt safe. So, after a brief meeting, the captains of the joint convoy immediately returned to their own trains and seized this excellent opportunity to clean up the mess. All communication was conducted through communicators.

As the main force began to move, Lin Xian surveyed the entire train line. Under the carriage lights, figures were scattered about, and the air was filled with the smell of blood and burning.

Outside the camp lay many dead bodies. The worst was along a makeshift escape route from Black Lake to the position, where hundreds of faces that were vibrant just two hours before had now lost their life. In the dark swamp, the dead slowly sank into the mud, and in the forest, eerie shadows dragged away the cold corpses.

No one dared to leave the camp to retrieve the weapons and supplies from their companions. Everyone gathered in the train camp, trying to catch their breath after the fear they had just experienced.

On the outer train, the survivors looked out the windows at the pitch-black, withered forest outside the camp, where they could vaguely hear countless eerie whispers. The distant mountains were still twisting and surging, and the sky was an eerie deep blue.

At this moment, the people in each convoy were quietly clearing the battlefield. The convoys with medical equipment lined up to help the wounded, the convoy leaders were busy counting the number of people and ammunition, the engineering team responsible for maintenance was urgently repairing the trains, and the combat personnel were quickly replenishing ammunition for various vehicle-mounted weapons. Some people whispered, some were sadly silent. The fate of more than 3,000 people in the entire vehicle camp was now linked together, tightly huddled together in the dark forest.

At the beginning, the Infinity, which possessed the Heterogeneous Cube, was the least affected by the darkness and was also the first to react. Lin Xian did not understand why the Heterogeneous Cube, which was originally intended to work on the carriages, would expand to such a large shielding range. However, thanks to this artifact, the Infinity did not undergo any mutations. In addition, the Infinity's automated firepower made Lin Xian's team the only convoy without any casualties.

Lin Xian returned to the Infinity. In carriage number 2, the team members were reporting on the situation in each carriage. Lin Xian deactivated his power armor, sat in the corner of the carriage, opened the sunshade, and looked out at the dark forest. His expression was cold.

"We have seven injured on our side, but it's not serious."

"I have about ten here too, all of them are injured. Old Li's eye was damaged by a flying insect, but the others... are all fine."

Liang Lei and the building's two assault teams were the core personnel and firepower of the Infinite. All one hundred people were using the best weapons manufactured by Lin Xian, and they were also protected by power armor. Under these circumstances, they still managed to destroy 4 sets of armor, and at the same time, a large number of power armors were facing some malfunctions and repairs.

"We've run out of 1130 ammo, and several arc pulse resonators have burned out. Luckily, our armor is thick enough to hold up." Luo Yang, clad in power armor, said, "I've already set up monitoring sensors outside. Combined with our sentry system, we'll know immediately if there's any movement."

"We can only watch; we can't fire now." KIKI rapidly typed on the keyboard, checking the train's condition as she spoke. "Only the railgun is still usable; the others are basically all dead..."

Seeing the somewhat dejected atmosphere after a night of fierce fighting, Shuqin comforted her, saying, "We're lucky we've made it this far. In the past, we could still escape, but this time even the tracks have disappeared. If it weren't for Captain Lin's intervention, we definitely wouldn't have made it through these two hours."

“Yes, on the bright side, our current situation is equivalent to surviving the polar night. As long as we are still alive, there will definitely be a way out!” Li Yi responded positively.

"Hey~ what are we planning to do next?" KIKI turned around from her swivel chair to look at Lin Xian, and at the same time, everyone's eyes fell on Lin Xian.

Lin Xian shook his head, took a deep breath, and said, "We don't have any ideas yet, mainly because we don't even know where we are."

He glanced at the erratically spinning compass on his watch and said in a deep voice, "It's not just about direction; the communication pressure is also immense. Without train repeaters, the communication devices will lose contact after just one kilometer, and all radio stations will be paralyzed..."

The current situation is arguably the most unsolvable one that Lin Xian's Infinite Train Project has encountered since it started in Jiang City. It's no longer a matter of broken tracks or derailment, but rather that the entire train has inexplicably arrived in this deep mountain forest. In this situation, even if Lin Xian could create tracks, he would be at a loss.

At this point, all he could think of was the plan Qian Dele had proposed earlier: by using two all-terrain trains and other vehicles, Lin Xian could devour the trains and create more vehicles, perhaps allowing him to carry more people away.

But in his view, this idea was a really bad idea. Without 1130 and the electromagnetic cannon, so many people running around in the deep mountains and forests would be tantamount to courting death.

Therefore, Lin Xian was at a loss for what to do for the time being.

Upon hearing Lin Xian's words, Shu Qin frowned deeply: "When we were in the polar night, we were able to determine our location. But here, there are no road signs, and no one has ever seen this lake or these mountains before. We don't even know where we are. In this situation, are we really in the Star Abyss?"

"Wait!" KIKI suddenly turned around and said to Lin Xian, "Just now, for a moment it was light, didn't we see the direction of the sunset? At least we could tell which way was north, south, east, and west, right?"

"Then, which direction?" Lin Xian looked at her and said, "If we don't know the exact location, how can we know which direction is away from the center of the Star Abyss?"

As soon as these words came out, everyone fell silent.

Just then, Chen Sixuan walked in and said to Lin Xian with a serious expression, "It's not difficult to know where this place is!"

She and Miao Lu, Xiao Yuan, and the others had just finished tidying up the back of the car when she turned to KIKI and Lin Xian and said, "KIKI, you forgot that our sentry system has surveillance footage. Pull it out right away, first determine the direction by combining the sunset point and time, and then match it with our global topographic map by using the radar scan of the mountain terrain features. Wouldn't that tell us our location?"

Chen Sixuan's words immediately drew everyone's attention. Lin Xian's expression changed, and he couldn't help but exclaim, "How clever, Teacher Chen!"

“But this terrain looks very ordinary. It’s not that easy to make global comparisons, is it?” Li Yi asked at this moment.

"It's not difficult!"

At this moment, Ding Junyi, with her hands in her pockets, also walked into carriage number 2 and said with a cold expression, "There are many methods to help with positioning. For example, due to the influence of the Coriolis force, the erosion of the south bank of rivers in the Northern Hemisphere will be more severe. Although the trees in this forest have withered, they can still be identified as Eucalyptus rubrum, a large tree belonging to the Myrtaceae family and the Eucalyptus genus. This type of tree is most widely distributed in three regions around the world: North America, North America, Oceania, and... the Transverse Mountains."

"The Hengduan Mountains? The Luling Great Forest?!" Luo Yang's eyes lit up immediately upon hearing this: "We really are inside Star Abyss No. 5!"

“That makes things simple!” KIKI immediately understood Chen Sixuan and Ding Junyi’s intentions. She began to review the sentry system’s video recordings and the radar scans of the area’s topographic map, and then compared them with the original topographic map.

"Pay attention to that mountain range to the west." Lu Xingchen said mysteriously, arms crossed. "I have already noticed that there is nothing there at the moment of dawn."

“I saw it too,” Chen Sixuan said at this moment. “That’s definitely not a mountain.”

Upon hearing this, the atmosphere in the carriage suddenly tensed. Everyone understood what Chen Sixuan meant. Sasha, who was standing next to her, quietly pushed open a crack in the sun visor and looked at the silhouette of the mountains in the distance to the west, her little face full of worry: "Could that be some kind of super monster...?"

Lin Xian pressed her head down and said, "It's wrapped up." ...

21:00
Night fell like a pool of churned liquid asphalt, pouring down from between the tree canopies and immersing the entire forest in a thick darkness. Only the sky remained frozen in a sickly deep blue, and fragments of the bay in the western sky drifted in the dark, deep void, making that area seem like it was no longer the real world.

After more than an hour of comparison by KIKI and others, Lin Xian's team finally determined their current location.

Located about 800 kilometers northeast of the center of Star Abyss No. 5, on the southwestern corner of the Hengduan Mountains, there is a swamp lake called Butuo Lake. After learning the name, Lin Xian immediately remembered that he had heard this name before. It was in an exploration program that he had visited this deep water lake in the primeval forest, which was known as the 'bottomless lake'.

Lin Xian didn't know how the joint train ended up in a primeval forest at least 4600 kilometers away from the Aksai no-man's-land, but it did confirm the strange encounter that Lao Mo and Hu Lushou had previously had.

After determining the location, Chen Sixuan used a map to find the nearest place with a railway track.

White City.

A mountain city about 85 kilometers from the United Convoy's position, which had been swallowed and covered by the Star Abyss as early as the beginning of the Apocalypse.

There is a railway line from there directly to Haiqu, which is about a thousand kilometers away from Luling.

Lin Xian stood in front of the information center, looking at the map with a complicated expression. The good news was that 85 kilometers was not far, and it was located east of Xingyuan, with a forest in between and the terrain not being too rugged. By building a simple track, there was a chance to drive the joint train into Baicheng.

The Ocean and Parrot trains have now been scattered, and even their captains have been killed. Lin Xian instructed Shi Diyuan to arrange for these people to be reassigned to other trains. The original supplies were also taken away. Lin Xian then planned to take over these two trains for material consumption. If they could collect materials as they went, the material problem could be solved.

The bad news is that they are currently unable to escape. Lin Xian knows about the shielding mechanism of the Heterogeneous Cube, which can block the power of dark invasion, but cannot resist the dark marks emitted by the strange entity. So the reason they are safe now is because they are in a silent state and the Heterogeneous Cube has isolated the dark invasion power in this area, which is why they are temporarily safe.

However, if we were to start building the orbit, we would have to actively enter the Dark Forest, which would cause quite a stir and slow down the process. Once we were marked with the Dark Mark, even if it was only at level one, it would be equivalent to a death sentence in this Star Abyss.

The circular track array that was hastily constructed in an emergency took two hours to complete, even with the track-laying machine operating in both directions. Moreover, the tracks were very rough, with most of them already sinking into the uncompacted humus soil. Their only purpose was to maintain the status quo and prevent trains from overturning.

Therefore, it is easy to imagine the difficulty if Lin Xian wants to take the Infinite and the Union Train out of this forest.

In carriage number 2, Lin Xian turned on the intercom on the table and discussed the situation with the other key members of the train. Upon hearing Lin Xian's words, Shi Diyuan immediately said, "85 kilometers, and it's all deep mountains and forests. It's impossible not to be attacked by strange entities. This is too difficult. We were only twenty-odd kilometers away in Yijin City, and that was on a paved urban road..."

"Captain Lin, can't your mechanical abilities replace the train's iron wheels with tracks?" Qian Dele asked bluntly.
“No.” Lin Xian immediately replied, “This is even more difficult than building railway tracks.”

Lin Xian had considered this idea before. Both the Queen Mo and the Longshan No. 1 had all-terrain drive modules, and he had already scanned the blueprints. However, the problem was that manufacturing an all-terrain drive module was almost equivalent to rebuilding the train from scratch.

The core of a train consists of the traction power carriages and the track drive wheels; otherwise, the carriages are just metal boxes.

In other words, if Lin Xian wants to convert the Infinite into an all-terrain train, then everything except the metal carriages and nuclear power kits will have to be replaced. The Dragon-class, the Ring Star 10A, and even the Giant Whale 03E heavy gas turbine locomotive will all be essentially remanufactured.

Leaving aside the manufacturing difficulties and blueprints, the sheer volume of materials alone would be enough to give him a major headache.

Therefore, Lin Xian's plan is to enter Jinhai, where there is the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation and a large number of train loading lines, which will give him the opportunity to fully upgrade the train to the standard of an all-terrain, eternal-class train.

Ning Jing then added, "There's another problem. Baicheng was already covered by the Star Abyss on the day of Apocalypse. So, even if we can get there, whether the orbit there will be usable is still a question."

“Yes, nobody knows what’s going on in this Star Abyss. It’s a miracle we’re still alive,” the other team leaders said.

"Are we really going to abandon the train and drive out?"

“We have too many people and not enough cars. We can’t even take one-third of our people with us.”

Why are we here? Has anyone seen anything?

At this point, someone found the root of the problem.

“It should be related to that statue in the Aksai no-man’s-land,” Shi Diyuan said. “Didn’t they say there was a forbidden object? I guess that’s what swallowed us up.”

"Could we find this thing and then take it out of here?"

"Stop daydreaming." On the Queen Mo, Monica looked exhausted as she gazed at the eerie night sky. "We're too busy hiding to even think about looking for her?"

"So, does that mean we're doomed to be trapped here?" Shi Diyuan said gravely.

On the Infinite side, the atmosphere inside the carriage was also somewhat silent. Some of the core members were sitting, while others were standing, and none of them could think of a solution.

"Everyone, please don't rush."

Lin Xian picked up the communicator and said in a low voice, "We've already encountered a situation worse than this. It can't get any worse, so there's no use getting anxious. Inside Xingyuan, every extra minute we can live is a bonus. As long as we're not all dead and we haven't run out of bullets, there's always a way. So, the most urgent thing is for each convoy to clean up the mess and organize the ammunition and weapons. Since those monsters haven't bothered us, we can take a break and conserve our energy. That's a good strategy."

Upon hearing Lin Xian's words, the urgent arguments from the various teams on the frequency band immediately subsided, and Shi Diyuan responded immediately.

"Yes, Brother Lin is right. It won't be any worse than before. We've all died countless times. If we can survive this situation, consider it a fluke. Let things take their course. I want to see if people can actually survive in the Star Abyss!"

"Alright, let's all brainstorm and share our ideas. It looks like we won't be able to get out anytime soon," Qian Dele said with a carefree attitude.

Monica then asked, "In this situation, do we need to turn off the lights and mute the system?"

Lin Xian responded, "Try our best, just don't go outside the train's line of fire. The train's lights have been on since the beginning, if there were any problems, they would have happened long ago."

Lin doesn't need to use common sense to consider the logic of these creatures from the dark world. A flower can explode and create a space bubble, and a heterogeneous cube can isolate the invasion of darkness. Compared to lights and sounds, dark markings are the most direct and deadly. Right now, the entire convoy has no markings, which is the most crucial point.

After he finished speaking, he stood up, but Chen Sixuan stopped him and asked, "Lin Xian, what are our plans?"

"All carriages, please remain on alert and ready for action."

After arranging for each group to return, Lin Xian went to carriage number 3. Ding Junyi knew that Lin Xian would come to find him, so she had already prepared all the observation changes of the Silver Dragon Ten Thousand Mistakes in advance.

"Growth accelerated after entering the polar night, and it also accelerated after we were swallowed by the Star Abyss. However, during your battle just now, the opening of the flower buds showed a strange growth curve, which may be influenced by some kind of energy."

Ding Junyi explained, "But strangely, there wasn't such a noticeable change when we were in Xilan City."

Lin Xian frowned: "When I used the gravitational lens?"

Ding Junyi looked at him: "Your guess is very constructive. Your special ability can indeed induce spatial changes to some extent, which has certain similarities to the spatial bubbles that the Silver Dragon Ten Thousand Mistakes erupted."

Lin Xian stared at the plant with its roots glowing with a purple light, his face grim. "Swallowed by the tide, the entire train appeared in the Star Abyss region, 4600 kilometers away. A calamity plant, a forbidden object... these things from the dark world are really going to kill us humans..."

He then looked at Ding Junyi and asked, "By the way, you've had another affinity connection with the Disaster Plant. Did you gain power with similar characteristics?"

Ding Junyi's face was a little pale as she said, "I don't know yet. This kind of synesthesia is a huge burden on my body. I can't use that power right now."

The little flower seedling on her head had curled up and hidden in her black hair. The last time she did this, she fainted. This time she was able to stand up. It was unclear whether it was because her superpower had improved or because of the disaster plant.

[Converted to non-mechanical energy, gaining 1000 mechanical source points.]

Just then, a transformation message from the Heterogeneous Cube popped up in front of Lin Xian's eyes. After the great battle, a massive amount of black mist was absorbed by the Hellish Black Chrysanthemum and transformed into mechanical source points through the Heterogeneous Cube.

Lin Xian opened the Mechanical Heart panel and discovered that since Aksai, his Mechanical Heart, including Devouring and Building, had improved significantly. However, after the frantic escape and battle, he had no time to check his panel status.

[Current Mechanical Heart Level: LV.5 (6340/20000)]

Mechanical Devouring: 4 (1960/2000) Increases devouring efficiency

Mechanical Manufacturing: 5 (1210/3000) Improve construction efficiency

"The mechanical devouring system is about to be upgraded... and the manufacturing level has also increased so much, it was only 510 last time..."

"My strength has recovered somewhat. Since we're trapped here, let's take this opportunity to devour those trains along with the nuclear-powered locomotives, and upgrade our materials and levels first!"

Faced with this predicament, Lin Xian forced himself to find a direction to take, since he needed a lot of materials to upgrade the train and manufacture ammunition!

　Asking for a monthly ticket~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)