Armored train in the apocalypse

Chapter 105 The Beginning of the New City Project

Two days later, northwest of Yijin.

A heavily armored train was parked ahead, its steel plates corroded and rusted, with dark red bits of dried meat on the explosion-proof netting and the edges of the train body. The twin anti-aircraft machine guns on the roof were spinning, making it look like a terrifying train wandering in a ghost story.

But when Lu Xiao saw the train, it felt like he was coming home, and the anxiety he had been feeling finally subsided.

"You came back quite quickly today."

A cheerful voice came from ahead.

Lu Xiao looked up.

A man with a cigarette in his mouth stood beside the train, wearing a bulletproof vest and holding an assault rifle. His bare forearms were strong and muscular, and at his feet were several ordinary zombies with faded clothes.

The other person arrived around the same time as me, but they've already entered the front carriage.

They quickly became evolved beings.

That's incredible luck.

However, Lu Xiao was quite satisfied with his current situation. Although his treatment was not as good as that of the third brother and his brothers, he had a much higher degree of freedom. He could build his own team under the protection of the train, which was equivalent to a small force under the protection of the armed train.

He was very satisfied with this.

Letting out a long breath, Lu Xiao pointed to the zombies at the other person's feet, "Aren't we going to pull these zombies back into the carriage?"

The third brother shook his head. "There are too many first-tier zombie corpses now, and we can't keep up with the extraction. Let's not bother with the ordinary zombies. How was your harvest today?"

Lu Xiao waved his hand, and six of his men unloaded the two bodies, which were in black bags, from the car and carried them onto the train.

He added some more people in the last two days, making a total of eight people including himself and Miao Qi.

"Killed a short guy and a bloodhound, and this thing still wants to snipe me? Heh!"

Lu Xiao gave a sneer, took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, and handed it over.

The third brother smiled, took it, and then took out ten 7.62 standard ammunition rounds with bridges from his satchel and handed them to him. The two men leaned against each other, smoking.

Su Huan tacitly approved of this deal, and the ten bullets he received each week were considered a perk.

There are cigarettes on the bus, but they are not considered necessities and will not be given out free of charge.

If you want it, you can only exchange it. According to the new exchange standard issued by the train conductor, a pack of cigarettes, regardless of its price, is worth 2 points, which is equivalent to two ordinary universal energy crystals, four 9mm pistol bullets (about three 5.56mm and two 7.62mm), and the brand is random.

His weekly salary is only enough to buy five packs of cigarettes.

Moreover, because he was a train guard, he could not go out at will, so he could only have Lu Xiao bring him some of his favorite flavors.

Each time, the other party would bring him a pack of the same bullets, but the amount of cigarettes would be doubled.

For Lu Xiao, this was also a great channel, because a pack of cigarettes was only worth 2 points on the train, but by selling it to Lao San, he could make five times the profit.

Watching his men park the new car in the garage behind the train, Lu Xiao stubbed out his cigarette and climbed into the car.

As soon as I got on the bus, I saw Miao Qi walking over.

Since women have evolved, their clothing styles have become increasingly unrestrained. They seem to have thrown away their old knitwear, replacing it with black bras paired with red leather jackets, revealing their toned abs.

She wore high-waisted jeans, the wide belt creating a striking contrast with her slender waist, making her look hot and sexy.

Miao Qi held a booklet in her hand, her tone filled with joy, "We were lucky this time. The purchase price of the bloodhound increased by one point, which can offset the parking fees for the past two days, settle the medical expenses and water bills owed, and even buy you some medicine."

Lu Xiao reached out and put his arm around the woman's waist. "My leg is almost healed. You can use the remaining points to redeem a sniper rifle."

Miao Qi continued, "I did some calculations today. Although the purchase price of a Tier 1 Universal Energy Crystal is only 10, even an evolved beast or Tier 1 zombie that has had its universal energy absorbed can be sold for 5-6 points. However, a complete Tier 1 corpse is only priced between 12 and 14 points. The price difference is between 1 and 4 points."

"I was thinking that if I didn't go out, I could collect polymorphic crystals and materials in the carriage every day and earn at least 10 points a day, which is equivalent to a level one zombie."

Lu Xiao looked surprised, pecked the woman's luscious lips, and laughed, "Then wouldn't that mean I could live off you?"

After he finished speaking, he noticed that the woman was staring straight at him, her eyes sparkling.

"What, you want to dump me and find a better man?"

"I want more!"

"屮!"

Lu Xiao, a vigorous and virile man, couldn't resist this, and started kissing again.

The third brother had just put out his cigarette and walked out when he looked up and saw this scene. He angrily cursed the two of them and then began patrolling the area, occasionally bending down to check if anything was crawling under the car.

……

Interestingly, although more than a thousand people were on the same train, the atmosphere and demeanor changed drastically in a short period of time.

The people in the back of the train became more outgoing and restless under the pressure of life and death.

The flight attendants became more reserved, more disciplined, and even began to take the initiative to maintain order.

The front carriage... Strangely enough, under the leadership of a very unconventional train conductor, the atmosphere in the front carriage was quite serious, basically in a state of pre-apocalyptic composure, with production, daily life, and even mental outlook all in a very stable state.

The translator, Hu Shuo, carefully observed everything and then recorded these observations in a small notebook. Although the notebook was not very useful, it made him feel somewhat fulfilled.

"I want to redeem an Iron Eagle-3 tactical pistol, two magazines with a total of 22 rounds of 9mm ammunition, and 30 rounds of 5.56 ammunition. Then I want to add this person to my team. Please register."

Hearing the question, Hu Shuo raised his head.

A middle-aged woman dressed in neat casual clothes stood in front of him, her eyes carrying a peaceful strength.

It was Jiang Rong, the captain of the second D-level squad of the armed train.

Behind him was a middle-aged man with graying temples, but judging from his physique, he must have been a manual laborer. He was very robust, and a hint of tension was visible in his eyes.

"For first-time purchases of pistols by D-level teams, there is a price discount. The pistol only costs 10 points, and a magazine is included. Bullets only cost an additional 6 points. There is no discount for submachine gun bullets, which cost 0.75 points per shot. However, your price is a round number, so it's 20 points. You will need to pay a total of 36 points."

Are you sure you want to redeem it?

Jiang Rong nodded. "I'm sure."

"Okay, I'll register you here. Please wait a moment while I go get your things."

Hu Shuo quickly jotted down the exchange records and the man's name; this was his new job on the train.

Then he walked to the front carriage, greeted Zhang Kai, and returned to carriage number 15.

He was in charge of guarding the gate between the flight crew and the several smaller teams behind them.

Passing through carriage 14, the cook was chopping a large chunk of dog meat, his poor knife skills causing juices to fly everywhere.

Hu Shuo's eyelids twitched. "Let's cook it a little longer today. Yesterday's was too hard to chew."

The cook gave a bloodstained smile and said, "Okay," before continuing to struggle with the bloodhound.

Hu Shuo continued walking forward, informed the second of the three brothers, and then entered the first 10 carriages. If you were exchanging miscellaneous items, go to carriage 8, which was managed by Lao Huang; if you were exchanging food, go to carriage 6, which was managed by Yu Yue.

However, all exchanges related to weapons and ammunition must be reviewed by the train conductor.

Hu Shuo walked forward, politely and subtly greeting each carriage he passed with a smile, even though such courtesy might not necessarily bring any benefits.

But it will also save him from some unknown troubles.

When he arrived at the dining car, the train conductor was sitting on his private sofa, listening to He Jie explain some details about battlefield fortifications to Xiao Ba.

Hu Shuo didn't interrupt, but stood silently to the side, listening to their conversation. If the train conductor didn't want him to hear their conversation, he would immediately stop the train to deal with the matter he was reporting.

If he doesn't stop, it means he's allowed to listen to this content.

He had heard the train conductor explain information about the evolved beings several times during this period.

This can be considered one of the hidden perks of the flight crew.

After He Jie had talked until his throat was dry, Su Huan finally looked at the translator and asked, "Has someone else come to redeem?"

"Yes," Hu said, handing over the form.

Su Huan glanced at her and was slightly surprised. Jiang Rong was a very capable woman. Although she had few people and her combat strength was far inferior to Lu Xiao's, she had accumulated a lot of points and always gained something every time she went out.

Two days ago, they were ambushed by the Steel Council, which attracted a lot of zombies to attack them.

It took them a long time to wait for the zombie inducer to wear off before the ordinary zombies were finally left behind, with only some level one zombies still chasing after them.

Su Huan simply circled around and ambushed this group of elites, reaping a hefty harvest of materials.

Then, we let the passengers off the bus to get some fresh air.

Interestingly, Su Huan stopped providing food to passengers in the back of the train these past two days and reinstated the system of paying for supplies before boarding, but not many people ran away.

Only a few or a dozen regular passengers travel each day, a stark contrast to the hundreds who used to travel together.

Moreover, they brought back many survivors, who were all holding up supplies and shouting that they wanted to get on the vehicle.

The last twenty-seven carriages were crammed with two thousand people!

Things only got better when Su Huan drove the train to a remote area, but there were still scattered survivors coming to surrender every day.

"You can exchange it. Go to the ammunition depot in carriage number 4 to get it." Su Huan handed the booklet back to him and casually asked, "Has it evolved yet?"

Hearing this, Hu Shuo smiled subtly. "Thanks to the train conductor for the opportunity, I've become a manufacturer. Besides handling the points redemption, I've mainly been working for Captain Yu these past few days."

Yu Yue doesn't manage people, so the "Team Leader Yu" mentioned by the flight crew can only be Yu Jing.

She practically controlled all the manufacturers of the entire train car.

"Okay, go ahead."

Su Huan held the tablet in his hand and opened an offline map. Because he hadn't downloaded specific city maps, he couldn't zoom in; he could only see the relative positions of the cities.

It can only pinpoint the location to the county level.

It would have been best to download all the maps offline right after the apocalypse, but unfortunately I was too busy and forgot.

By comparing the large map with the accurate Yijin map in his hand, Su Huan roughly determined his location relative to Xincheng.

I have now traveled about 100 kilometers, almost traversing the entire city of Yijin. Further north is Zhongyou City, and the new city is located in Changli County, which is northwest of Zhongyou City.

Because the damn map was no longer searchable, the train conductor could only rely on his excellent eyesight. "He Jie, how far are we from here?"

He Jie glanced at the destination above, his expression twisted, "Are we really destined to be troublemakers?"

"Tsk, stop talking nonsense."

"About 120."

"No mistake?"

"Impossible, unless his scale is wrong, and my eyes can't be wrong either."

"Oh."

Su Huan gave a noncommittal reply, rubbing his chin as he calculated the time.

Today is December 29th. The original plan for the new city was January 10th, but now, due to his actions, things might change.

However, judging from his previous performance, there is no fundamental conflict between the Armed Train and the Steel Council.

Postponement is unlikely, so there is only one option left: to move the plan forward.

Moreover, the other party's transaction also implies that we should develop amicably and not interfere with each other.

So now he should adopt the attitude that he has no intention of interfering in your plans, and then wait until the Steel Council is confident in investing all its resources into the New City project before turning around and driving his eight-thousand-ton troublemaker across the road.

Only then can the maximum effect be achieved.

At that time, the Steel Council had already taken up arms and was unable to retreat or advance, so they had no choice but to fight.

He thought it would be much more convenient to do something.

Just thinking about his former boss's frustrated expression after being hit by firecrackers made Su Huan's eyes light up.

Now we have to wait for the fish to bite; we need to be patient.

Su Huan asked directly, "He Jie, do you know if there are any large logistics centers nearby?"

"A large logistics center?"

Looking into those bright eyes, He Jie sensed that this guy was up to no good.

“I do know of one large logistics center, but it’s not in Zhongyou City, but in Dongping City, which is east of Zhongyou City.”

"Okay, then let's go to Dongping City!"

Su Huan slapped the map against his palm, stood up, and walked towards the driver's seat.

He Jie was left standing there, stunned.

Weren't we going to cause trouble in the new city?
Could it be that he has changed his gender?

wrong.

Twelve out of ten things are wrong.

It would be a miracle if this guy could understand human speech. If he had no interest in the new city, why would he ask about the distance?
……

The train slowly started moving, its excessive weight causing the sleepers and rails to creak and groan.

Although it was washed by acid rain for three days, the main body of the rail is still quite sturdy, with only some parts rusting and gradually peeling off under the high pressure vibration of the wheels.

Ten kilometers away, a clearing suddenly moved, revealing the camouflage netting on the ground.

The soldier holding a high-magnification photoelectric observation scope whispered, "The target has moved. The direction of advance needs to be observed. Notify the follow-up personnel to keep up."

Another soldier quickly ran down and drove away.

On the fourteenth floor of the Steel Council headquarters, the sign for Qinggang Industry outside has not yet been taken down.

Inside the room was a heavy, long table, where sixteen directors, dressed in leather shoes, sat in their respective seats.

Li Tao, who knocked on the door and walked in, immediately attracted everyone's attention. Instead of going to his father's side, Li Tao walked behind his uncle and whispered something in his ear.

Upon hearing this, the latter smiled and tapped the table heavily with his fingertips. "An hour ago, the armed train left Yijin City for Dongping City."

"I propose that the new city plan officially begin on January 10th!"

(End of this chapter)