Doomsday: I Build an Infinite Train.

Chapter 357 Leather Rope and Whip
A mechanical army!?
Lin Xian's heart trembled slightly. Shinji Mochizuki's words had hit the nail on the head. Thinking back on his journey, from using a simple wind cannon to slash with a short sword, to now wearing high-tech power armor and operating drones in combat, every armor plate of the Shelter Mugen Train was made by his own hands. Only he knew the hardships he had endured.

If he didn't have mechanical abilities, but rather other combat-related abilities, Lin Xian would probably focus on improving his combat skills, expanding his survival organization, and living a life of constant danger. Climbing elevators and Unit-01 Pangu would have been irrelevant to him.

Lin Xian is very clear about his own role. He is not a combatant who charges to the front line, but more like a character like Shinji Mochizuki or Shun Senju. His output relies entirely on the powerful firepower of the Mugen and his teammates. His own individual combat strength is not strong. Apart from his gravitational lens that can cause large-scale damage, he still needs his teammates to work together to deal with slightly larger monsters.

The strength of his mechanical abilities lies in these operable external devices: train defense, vehicle weapons, drones, power armor, armed teams, and intelligent combat units including Grace and Dancer No. 1. Combined with the forbidden objects, disaster plants, and powerful ability users in his team, they form the current combat power of the Infinite!
So, besides upgrading his vehicles, what Lin Xian wants most is the various drone systems in Silent City. With these, his productivity can be boosted dramatically, and productivity is equivalent to combat power. If Lin Xian has a thousand, ten thousand, or even a hundred thousand combat drones forming a swarm effect to concentrate on defending against enemies, he might even be able to confront even special-grade or S-grade enemies head-on.

This is why Phoenix is ​​involved in Project Monarch, which involves two directions: super-large mechs and drone swarms.

Seeing the countless blueprints, Lin Xian felt instantly relieved. With these, he no longer needed to scan them and could start manufacturing directly. He could also improve his manufacturing skills and speed up the research and development center.

"AI brain plus drone, sounds like you and I are alike," Lin Xian said, looking at the photonic memory in front of him.

"Are they the same? I have a different opinion on that."

Shinji Mochizuki chuckled: "Lin, if we analyze your ability theoretically, firstly, you possess the ability to scan and generate blueprints. In the current world, the time and investment required for a research team to trace back a mechanical object is considerable. Secondly, you can directly create from the void, eliminating all parts manufacturing and processing steps, and even saving space. Thirdly, you can devour machinery, which represents a dissolving force based on physical rules, not just simple recycling... All engineering machinery, man-made weapons, and defense systems pose no threat to you."

He looked at Lin Xian and said something intriguing: "It's a good thing you're from the human camp, otherwise you would definitely be a more troublesome problem than an S-class to the current human civilization."

"This is the first time I've heard such a compliment. I don't know whether to be happy or not," Lin Xian said with a wry smile.

Shinji Mochizuki analyzed, "Perhaps I could theoretically achieve the same thing as you by combining the power of the entire Silent City, but the difference is that Silent City weighs 1310 million tons, has a total population of 109561, 91560 drones of various types, and the total space of its industrial, manufacturing, planting, and residential areas exceeds 3.5 Manhattan Islands. My quantum core processor consumes 32.5 KW of energy per hour, and the city's central AI cooling system consumes 1.62 million KW of energy per hour, requiring the power generation of 6 Hoover Dams to operate at full capacity. Yet you are just one person sitting here, and the total energy intake from the dinner just now was less than 2000 kcal. Now... do you still think we are the same?"

"Sorry, I said you weren't human earlier, but now that you mention it, you're much more human than I am." Lin Xian nodded as if he suddenly understood.

“However, there is one thing I can definitely help you with, which is the design system for utilizing your mechanical abilities that I mentioned before.” Shinji Mochizuki sat down with interest, his hands tucked into his sleeves, and looked at Lin Xian: “Perhaps I can design that ‘Celestial-class’ interstellar megastructure train into a true doomsday train with the capability for distant planetary colonization, and then give it to you, what do you say?”

Lin Xian leaned back slightly, looking at Mochizuki Shinji with a strange gaze: "I thought you would be very interested in my mechanical abilities and want to invite me to join Silent City."

“I do have that idea, but… well, Silent City has everything. Weapons, ammunition, and buildings are all being built by automated systems. The framework is already fixed. Even if I give you the blueprint for the entire Silent City, all you can do is rebuild Silent City, right?”

Lin Xian thought for a moment and said, "Yes."

"Now that Silent City needs to upgrade its hardware for interstellar travel, can you help?"

"It seems impossible."

"So," Shinji Mochizuki shrugged, his face very calm. "So if you want to stay in Silent City, I'm very welcome, but you're definitely more interested in the future development of your ability, and I'm very interested in that too. So instead of that, why don't we continue our cooperation? Silent City can become your partner and provide you with all the assistance you want, instead of waiting with us in Yongcheng Port to enter the polar night. Wouldn't that be better?"

"You're being too generous to me." Lin Xian looked at the photonic memory in his hand, including the flash bullets from before. These were strategic assets that would be extremely important to others, but Shinji Mochizuki seemed to take them for granted.

"Please don't misunderstand, all my actions are logically purposeful, and I don't like to hide these purposes." Shinji Mochizuki smiled and looked at Lin Xian, saying, "Didn't I just say that you possess greater potential than Silent City, able to shrink such a large productive force to the size of a human? It's practically a method from a higher-dimensional civilization. So, my cooperation with you is equivalent to investing in another 'Silent City'? If the breakthrough of the Heavenly Curtain fails, I'll still have a powerful ally, won't I?"

“That makes perfect sense.” Lin Xian nodded meaningfully, then looked at Mochizuki Shinji with a serious expression: “If you don’t mind, I would also like Senju Shun’s interstellar-class nano-armor, heavy-duty robot, Silent City’s base defense weapon, and oh right, and the blueprint for the Hyperion Directional Constraint Cannon. Could you also let me take a look at it?”

Shinji Mochizuki stared at Lin Xian expressionlessly for a long while before slowly speaking.

"It's in the memory."

"Really?"

"real."

"Thank you."

"By the way, there's more..."

"I'm currently deconstructing the original structure of the Crimson World's flesh-and-blood armor by combining it with their assembly data, along with other useful information. I'll send it to you all at once later," Shinji Mochizuki said calmly.

"Uh... okay." Lin Xian asked seriously, "Am I being a bit abrupt?"

"It couldn't have been any more abrupt."

Lin Xian: ...

“That makes sense.” Shinji Mochizuki said with a faint smile, “We expect to arrive at Jinhai in two days. During this time, people from Dawn City will definitely come looking for us, and the Phoenix Society will also send agents into the city. Silent City is open to trade and cooperation. Although there is a security screening system, what I mean is that not everyone in Silent City is trustworthy. We need to be careful about that.”

Lin Xian nodded, put away the photon memory, and after thinking for a moment, he also picked up the consciousness memory, then got up to leave.

At that moment, Shinji Mochizuki suddenly called out to him, his words carrying a profound meaning.
"Your Grace is very interesting. Although it's just an offline version, it has a processing core with 8192 qubits. In the current situation where the high-precision quantum computer manufacturing industry chain has been lost, such a quantum computer with interstellar engineering-level processing capabilities is an extremely high strategic asset in any organization. I bet that the Crimson World, apart from the main body, doesn't have more than two such offline versions. The Phoenix Society's galactic mainframe has been moved to the polar regions. Phoenix City, Dawn Center, and Noah each only have one offline galactic mainframe operating as a base. In addition, even Dawn City only has one 8192-qubit version. Other alliances with millions of people, such as the Reykjavik European Storm Alliance and the North American United Front, may not even have a brain core of this specification. Do you understand what I mean, Lin?"

"I got such a great deal?" Lin Xian asked in surprise.

"I mean……"

“I know,” Lin Xian said half-jokingly. “Firstly, the Crimson World will definitely not let go of this asset, and secondly, why would they put this AI in a Zero Element Center?”

This was the second time Shinji Mochizuki had reminded him. Back in the Star Abyss West Mountain Bunker, Lin Xian had been pondering why such an important AI as Grace was being used as a butler robot in the underground research institute in Ekin City. Were all those high-level members really that important?

Obviously not. Although he knew that Crimson World must have extracted a lot of benefits from these high-level members, and that people like Tang Yun's husband, Wen Dong, must be related to Crimson World's vast resources, it would be a waste to have a single AI guard these people.

According to Lin Xian's speculation, the AI ​​Grace may be closely related to the mycelium research of the Crimson World in Ejin City. The key foundation of the Crimson World's current cloning technology and flesh-and-blood armor technology comes from the research of this mycelium. Through this "evil path", it indirectly opened up the reverse control between the human brain and the consciousness memory body, using the human brain as a quantum computer to process the instructions of digital clones in the consciousness body. At the same time, it also developed a means to control human ghosts.

Furthermore, when Akserin met Chu Yan through the consciousness link, Chu Yan was stealing some key information from Julius Litt at the Zero Element Center through dream consciousness, which is enough to illustrate the importance of the Zero Element Center.

Putting everything together, Lin Xian felt that the matter at the Zero Element Center was far from over, and he might have only seen the tip of the iceberg.

"Shinji Mochizuki." Lin Xian turned back, a hint of doubt in his eyes. "Do you think AI would betray humanity?"

Shinji Mochizuki smiled: "Programs will never betray humanity, but human instructions and needs have too many interpretive margins. For the AI, it needs countless corrections and repeated training to better 'understand' human instructions. So if you can import a personal consciousness into it, the AI ​​can iterate quickly through 'human-in-the-loop'. It will easily understand your meaning and reach the balanced stage of personality deconstruction."

"Like you?" Upon hearing this, Lin Xian conjured up the image of Grace's beautiful female body in his mind, and it was indeed somewhat strange to place his consciousness within it.

Shinji Mochizuki said calmly, "Develop your intelligence a million times, and you will get unexpected results."

"No need, I prefer her to be more like a robot."

After saying that, Lin Xian waved his hand and, under Shinji Mochizuki's gaze, stepped out of the hall.

For Lin Xian, Grace is enough as a robot assistant to handle various tasks and help him manage drones; there is no need for anything else.

However, after Shinji Mochizuki's reminder, Lin Xian became more cautious. He walked out of the tower and came to the upper deck, looking down at the neon-lit mechanical city. The holographic screen was filled with the cold light of advertisements, the flight paths of drones wove a glowing net in the low sky, and various hovercraft swept by, their tail flames leaving fleeting rainbows on the metal walls.

Outside the deck, various large transport ships were either floating and docked or had entered the harbor and moored. The entire mechanical floating city stood out starkly in the dark forest, like a fragment of another world.

"What are you two talking about for so long?" Just as Lin Xian stepped out, a clear voice rang out from afar. He looked over and saw KIKI leaning against the deck railing, a lollipop in her mouth. She was dressed in denim shorts, a black tube top, and a bright baseball hoodie. Her long purple hair danced lightly in the night breeze. Her eyes seemed to reflect the clear light of the sky, making it hard to tell whether they were stars in her eyes or the flickering light of her supernatural abilities.

"You waited for me on special occasion."

KIKI rolled her eyes, crossed her arms and said, "Tch, Sister Chen was worried that you'd get eaten by Shinji Mochizuki, so she made me stay here to watch over you."

Lin Xian walked over and smiled: "How could that be? My current abilities are more of a research tool than a practical tool for large organizations. What I can build, Silent City can build too. What reason would they have to eat me?"

KIKI tilted her head and glanced at him: "That's not necessarily true. Even large factories need electricity to manufacture things. If I captured you and gave you two steamed buns for every meal, you would be more cost-effective than a production line. Besides, your ability to devour and recycle is a great asset for post-apocalyptic industrial reconstruction. If it were me, I would tie you up with leather ropes and then use a whip to squeeze you to keep devouring and manufacturing every day."

Lin Xian frowned: "A leather rope, a whip, why?"

“Because you can devour iron chains,” KIKI said seriously.

Lin Xian: ...

"Hehe, just kidding," KIKI smiled brightly. "Sister Chen, Miao Lushu, and Sister Sun went into the Mechanical City to purchase supplies. Right now, there's a water shortage, and this problem is still urgent. I heard that although Silent City has a lot of water resources, the concentration of the Dark Invasion is increasing every day. If this second city hadn't been located outside the Star Abyss, I don't know how many people would have died from the mutation alone."

"By the way, did Shinji Mochizuki want you to join the Silent City?"

"Quite the contrary."

Lin Xian walked to the fence and looked at the outline of the giant mechanical city in the night. He said to the night wind, "Shinji Mochizuki wants to maintain an alliance with me. It seems that he is prepared to place some bets on me. However, this coincides with my thoughts. This Silent City has been built to this point. For me, it only has two uses: to stay in it and sleep or to devour it to upgrade our train. Obviously, neither is very realistic."

The idea of ​​swallowing up a silent city and then building a train sounds like a beautiful smoothing out of the folds of the cerebral cortex.

Shinji Mochizuki's description is very apt. The entire Silent City system possesses the same mechanical abilities that Lin Xian has, and its productivity is much stronger. It takes Lin Xian about 15 minutes to manufacture one Thunder Falcon 2000 drone, but if the Silent City's industrial system were to operate at full capacity without sparing any resources, it could manufacture a thousand drones in 15 minutes!
This is why Shinji Mochizuki wanted to invest in Lin Xian rather than simply bring his team under his wing. Firstly, he was interested in the future potential of Lin Xian's abilities. Secondly, if all the world's industrial systems were destroyed, Lin Xian would be the key that could theoretically allow humanity to quickly leap from primitive civilization to planetary civilization.

It has to be said that Shinji Mochizuki's vision was much longer than Lin Xian's own. If he hadn't said that, Lin Xian himself wouldn't have realized it.

“That actually makes some sense.” KIKI nodded. “So, Lin Xian, are we planning to go to Jinhai, steal that ‘Sky-class’ train, rob the Wen family of all their money, and then run away?”

Lin Xian smiled: "It's not that simple. Given the current situation, there must be some connection between the Crimson World and Dawn City. Didn't that Fatty Zhou also say that the higher-ups in Dawn City are colluding with the Adventists? Plus, Jin Hai is an important industrial base for Dawn City, with starships, Sky Trains, and various weapons and equipment, accounting for at least 60-70% of Dawn City's mainstays. If we want to seize resources in a place like this, we'll be facing not only Dawn City, but also the Linglong Group and the Crimson World..."

"That……"

"It's alright, let's just wait and see." Lin Xian stretched and said, "Anyway, this suggestion was made by Shinji Mochizuki. If a conflict breaks out, Silent City will take the fall. Now the Crimson World is also eyeing us, and Star Abyss 5 is unstable. Under these circumstances, we'll just follow along and use Silent City's convenience to arm the Infinity to the teeth first. We'll just have to adapt to the situation."

"makes sense……"

KIKI pouted and nodded. She turned around and looked at Silent City with Lin Xian. After a moment of silence, she spoke.
"I've heard that many residents of Silent City have uploaded their consciousness to the cloud, and a small number have even developed their own consciousness memory files. I think some of the better teams in the United Car Team might have some ideas about this..."

"You mean joining Silent City?"

"Correct."

“It’s normal,” Lin Xian said frankly. “If it were me, I would want that too. With the apocalypse and death crisis everywhere, having a mobile city like this for protection is the dream of many ordinary people. It’s perfectly normal.”

After he finished speaking, he looked at KIKI and asked, "Are you wondering if anyone in Infinity might be thinking the same thing?"

KIKI shook her head: "No, I can understand whatever everyone thinks, it's just that you..." She turned around and looked at Lin Xian, her eyes sparkling like stars.
“I think you’re too tired, so I was thinking that if Shinji Mochizuki asks you to stay, perhaps… you could consider it…”

"How about that?"

Lin Xian sensed a hint of tenderness in KIKI's words, and his heart stirred slightly. He then took a deep breath and said, "Silent City is going to fight the Celestial Curtain to the death at Yongcheng Port. The end of the world is less than a year away. Time is of the essence. How can I just sit around waiting to die? Besides, Shinji Mochizuki reminded me of something. Even if he gives me the blueprints for Silent City, all I can do is rebuild Silent City. But the problem is, Silent City can neither solve the Star Abyss and the Strange Entities, nor break through the Celestial Curtain..."

“The Phoenix Society can’t solve this either; it’s not just a problem for Silent City,” KIKI said without hesitation.

"But... there's one thing I might be able to do."

"What's wrong?" KIKI looked at him.

Lin Xian's eyes flickered as he looked at the launch engine of the giant floating city: "Integrating all of humanity's technologies, including Silent City, Dawn City, the Phoenix Society, Starflower Heavy Industries, the Interstellar Army, and then..."

"open up!"

Huhu~
The night wind howled, swallowing Lin Xian's words into the starry sky. KIKI, standing beside him, gazed at him with brimming eyes, then a smile crept onto her lips.

At this moment, a scene from long ago flashed before her eyes: she had just been rescued by Lin Xian, woke up in the car, and was caught red-handed stealing bread. During the confrontation, she angrily denounced his Infinite Train Project as unreliable, rattling off a list of exciting cutting-edge technologies. But instead of getting angry, Lin Xian took out a notebook and took notes with a serious expression.

"Lin Xian."

"Ah."

"you are awesome."

How great is it?

KIKI opened her arms and exclaimed with a light laugh, "That's... awesome!"

Lin Xian smiled faintly and took out the photonic memory: "It will be even better when I make this."

"What's in here?"

"It's great!" Lin Xian said, reaching out to grab KIKI's hand and leading her back. "There are lots of tutorials on making little people inside. You'll definitely be interested."

Upon hearing this, KIKI's face flushed red, her waist lurched, and she immediately stopped, staring at Lin Xian in disbelief: "Wh...what do you mean by creating a baby? What are you going to do?!"

Lin Xian turned around and said seriously, "Small robots, nano-armor, space-based weapons, aren't you interested?"

Upon hearing this, KIKI immediately realized that Lin Xian had tricked her. She glared at him fiercely, puffing out her cheeks, and said, "A small robot is called a miniature robot? Do you think I'm stupid? Take this!"

Lin Xian fled in panic, shouting, "Small robots aren't called 'little people,' are they called 'small machines' or 'small gadgets'?"

Under the starry sky, the wind was gentle, carrying a hint of metallic scent, along with a faint fragrance wafting from the distant synthetic botanical garden. Occasionally, aircraft would fly by on the Silent City's cloud deck, their engines' low hum filtered through the city's soundproofing barriers, leaving only a subtle buzzing sound, like the flapping of some kind of electronic hummingbird's wings.

This moment felt like a rare and luxurious moment of peace for Lin Xian since his escape.

……

(End of this chapter)