Armored train in the apocalypse

Chapter 172 Ironwood
I'm in this state because you beat me up.

Now I'm being mocked as a pig's head in front of a beautiful woman.

Thinking of this, an unnamed fire in his heart burned brighter and brighter.

Or should we just go all the way and kill him outright?

This way, he can not only get revenge, but the cold and beautiful woman next to him will also be his!

Wang Fei, on the other hand, had a mocking look in his eyes that was full of murderous intent.

That pockmarked bastard, and he's even thinking of sharing a woman with him.

That's really bold of them!
Not only is Zhang Min his, but the entire Iron City is his too!
The flames of resentment instantly consumed their reason.

Their men were even worse off, each one staring at the other with hatred in their eyes, their hands already on the trigger.

Even the most timid ones looked at Zhang Min while gripping the steel bars in their hands tightly.

The truce of the war broke out without warning.

The two groups fought like excited cockfighting roosters.

They showed no intention of dodging.

Face-to-face combat, gunfights, and intense gunfire perfectly embody the tough, action-packed hero archetype from the movies.

In the eye of the storm of gunfire, the woman showed no panic, her smile as alluring as a blooming datura.

The gray-blue smoke was like a thin veil draped over her body, and the tracer bullets grazed her porcelain-white neck like fireworks bursting forth when a queen is crowned.

The tip of his tongue slowly and deliberately swept away the drop of blood that had splattered on his tiger's mouth, then spat it out with a hint of disgust and contempt.

Zhang Min watched the fight that had started because of her with little interest. For some reason, a sickly flush appeared on her face.

Thirty seconds later, when the last shot stopped.

Only a handful of people remained standing in the field.

The leopard had holes punched all over its face.

Wang Fei wasn't faring much better; his body was covered in gunshot wounds. If it weren't for the Defender's robust physique, he would already be dead.

Even with his mind completely blank, he sensed that something was wrong.

When did I become so impulsive?
When he saw Zhang Min easily take down the last few people in the arena with a single shot, he immediately realized that she was behind it all.

Tactical boots crushed the fine sand and gravel on the ground, trampling the sticky flesh and blood, step by step approaching.

Zhang Min looked down at the man at her feet, who was like a lump of mud.

Even in such a predicament, the other person's eyes still revealed a hint of condescension, as if she were still the woman who could only writhe and beg for survival under his thumb.

Those with shallow minds can see through it at a glance.

Once I've had you, your image will forever be etched on that bed.

The only difference is the train conductor.

Whether she was naked or dressed properly, all he cared about was her intrinsic value.

The purest joy and sorrow.

She felt as if she understood Su Huan, even if it was only a very superficial understanding.

Thinking of this, Zhang Min instantly lost interest in observing Wang Fei and pointed the gun at his head.

"Boring."

Frustration, hatred, resentment... all sorts of negative emotions instantly filled Wang Fei's chest.

He spat out blood and foam, and when he opened his mouth, he could only manage to utter two words.

"Bitch."

With the sound of a gunshot, a large amount of negative emotions were fed back into the "seeds of hatred".

The pistol was holstered on his thigh, and the silver motorcycle roared as it sped along the tracks to the end, leaving behind a trail of blood and the remains of corpses devoid of desire.

……

The train slowly crawls along the tracks at a speed of 3-5 km/h.

Interestingly, a giant iron-eating tree, eight meters tall, was walking alongside the armed train at the same speed.

The two people, one standing on the second floor of the train and the other on a treetop, were chatting happily.

"Did you raise this tree from a young age?"

Su Huan placed his palm on the train window and released a tiny electric current, which repelled the iron-eating tree branches that had quietly draped themselves over the train.

The cycad held up its charred, blackened branches for the young man to see, looking pitiful like a child.

The young man standing on the iron tree smiled as he took the branch, rubbed off the black ash on the bark, shook his head and said, "This tree is over fifty years old. It just grew in front of my house. I've hung my clothes on it since I was a child, and I used to hide on it when I got beaten up as a kid."

"Later, I went out to find food and was chased by zombies. In my panic, I climbed onto it in a few steps. To my surprise, it could move and even helped me kill the zombies. After spending some time together, I discovered that it liked to eat metal, so I took it around to find metal to eat. I named it 'Xiang Liu'..."

The young man was very talkative, perhaps because he had rarely met another man who was also "driving" the apocalypse, although one was a modified train and the other was an evolved plant.

Su Huan asked suspiciously, "Xiangliu shouldn't be a tree, right?"

"Who cares, as long as it sounds good. By the way, where are you guys from?"

The young man asked casually.

Have you heard of Wen'an?

"Forehead……"

"Mojiang".

"I know this one, Mojiang City, which has a bridge spanning the river, right?"

"Yes, we came from that bridge."

"That's great! I wanted to travel when I graduated, and the train would pass by the bridge. I wanted to see if the scenery was as spectacular as the pictures online. But seven or eight years have passed in the blink of an eye..."

Su Huan recalled the turbulent Mojiang River that night and exclaimed, "It was truly spectacular, and there were many adorable little animals too. By the way, what are you planning to do?"

'Cute little animals?'

A hint of doubt appeared in the young man's eyes. Before he could think about it, he patted the empty water tank behind him and said...

“It’s too dangerous outside now. Many people are hiding at home and afraid to come out, so I travel around the city delivering things to people who lack supplies and earn some money in return.”

Su Huan nodded thoughtfully, "Delivery to your door?"

"Don't even mention coming to your door, with Xiang Liu's height, you can even get on the window. By the way, is there anything you need in your car? I can get you some replacements."

Young people have expressive faces, which makes it easy for them to gain the trust of others.

Su Huan rested his arms on the train window and said thoughtfully, "The consumption on the train is indeed quite high, but you can't meet the shortage of ordinary supplies. By the way, is there anything you need?"

"Water, right now the most scarce resource in Shun'an is clean water. I don't know where the acid rain came from, but it has polluted the city's water sources, causing water shortages everywhere." The young man said with a bitter expression.

"I can give you a whole tank of clean water, even the pre-apocalyptic standard drinking water, but I only need some scarce, in-demand things."

Su Huan narrowed his eyes and revealed a sincere smile.

The young man looked troubled. "Right now, the most scarce resources are survival supplies, but if you don't need them... what exactly do you want?"

"drug?"

"Cigarettes and alcohol?"

"Or firearms?"

Seeing that Su Huan's expression remained unchanged, the young man hesitated for a moment before adding the last point.

Su Huan raised an eyebrow. "You can even get your hands on firearms?"

"The quantity is not large, but if you have a large amount of clean water, I can trade with you."

"Well, I don't need firearms anyway." Su Huan stopped him from making wild guesses and took out a universal energy crystal. "Have you seen this before?"

The young man looked enlightened. "You mean energy crystals? These things can turn people into evolved beings, so they're quite sought after."

Su Huan wasn't surprised that the other party knew this. Shun'an had a large population, and it was normal for someone to unexpectedly awaken as a collector and be able to extract universal energy crystals.

"I want not only the Pan-Energy Crystal, but also materials collected from various zombies and mutated beasts, including the Iron-Eating Tree under your feet. The reward is clean water, medicine, food, luxury goods such as cigarettes and alcohol, and various living supplies. However, I do not sell firearms at the moment, only 5.56mm and 7.62mm standard bullets."

By collecting tickets, the train has already stored a large amount of ordinary supplies, so much so that there is no more room to store them.

Cartons of cigarettes, fine wines, and betel nuts are just ordinary supplies stored by the ton for the train conductor. While these are also forms of hard currency, they are far less important than evolutionary resources.

It's such a waste to use such a large space to support He Jie and Lao San, those heavy smokers.

Perhaps sensing Su Huan's changed gaze, the iron-eating tree at the young man's feet brandished the note, trying to intimidate the train conductor.

The young man's gaze toward Su Huan also changed slightly.

These aren't refugees, they're clearly mobile war tycoons!
My small size might be nothing more than a shrimp in their eyes.

After hesitating for a moment, the young man pulled a palm-sized metal ingot from the tree canopy. "Take a look and see if this will do?"

Su Huan took the metal ingot with great interest, and he could feel the familiar energy fluctuations emanating from it.

Judging from the level of fluctuation, things have already reached the first-order level.

Because mutated plants are not as regular as zombies and evolved beasts, people have not figured out a clear way to distinguish the levels of mutated plants. Only evolved beings can judge them through their strange abilities.

The iron-eating tree at the youth's feet, for example, has reached the first-order standard.

"This isn't a regular metal, is it?"

Su Huan carefully examined the metal in his hand. It was very light, had wood grain, and a faint fragrance of grass and wood could be smelled when he got close.

With a flick of his fingers, the metal ingot in his hand was crushed as if it were cork, leaving several finger marks.

Its hardness is almost as good as that of steel!
As the force receded, the fingerprints on the surface began to slowly bounce back.

Su Huan's eyes revealed obvious surprise.

The young man's eyes were filled with horror.

He had tested this metal ingot; it was similar to normal metal. Yet this long-haired young man in front of him could easily deform it as if it were clay.

What terrifying fingertip power!
Even the most powerful evolved beings he had ever seen were not as formidable as Su Huan.

“These are the metal that Xiang Liu excreted after eating them. I don’t know what they are, but I’ve been saving them up. There are more than thirty pieces in total, and I carry them all with me.”

The young man explained.

How much of this material do you have? I'll take it all!

Su Huan said decisively.

Although this stuff isn't as hard as steel and can't be used in armor, its properties are completely different. There must be other applications for it, so collecting it is definitely the right thing to do.

Another point is that in his previous life, he had no idea that iron-eating trees could produce this kind of material.

This is clearly a case of powerful forces monopolizing the trade of goods.

It's definitely a good product.

In the end, Su Huan traded a tank of clean water and twenty 9mm pistol bullets for the metal ingot named "Ironwood" in the young man's hands.

Before leaving, the young man gave him a reminder: "If you want to exchange for supplies, you can try contacting the scattered households in the city. The people ahead of you might not be very friendly."

'Unfriendly?'

Su Huan curled the corners of his lips and waved goodbye to the young man.

He wanted to keep heading north to trace the origins of the apocalypse, hoping to see it once in his life and say a proper goodbye.

The train conductor, in a good mood, turned around, and two elite soldiers, like bodyguards, immediately stepped forward to await his orders.

How far are we from the train manufacturing base?

"There are still about ten kilometers to go. We will stop at the platform one kilometer away from the base and wait for Captain Yu and Captain He to meet up."

"That's what the demolition expert on the left said."

Because of his long neck, he became known as the giraffe.

Another one is called Bai Lu, not the white of fair skin, but the white of an idiot.

Su Huan remained noncommittal, then pointed to the thirty-odd pieces of ironwood on the ground, "Take them with you."

Then, walking up to the back of the second floor of the train, he casually asked, "What do you think the next upgrade direction for the armed train will be?"

The giraffe looked hesitant.

He was a little unaccustomed to the train conductor's speaking style.

Is the direction of train upgrades something he, a newly defector, should be considering?

"Speak your mind directly, otherwise I'll feel like you're cursing me in your heart."

Su Huan glanced at him and said with a forced smile.

The giraffe glanced at his teammate and noticed the white deer staring at him with curiosity. He cursed the deer inwardly as an idiot and said helplessly, "I think we should get off the tracks..."

Seeing that Su Huan did not interrupt him, the giraffe continued to explain his reasons.

"Leaving aside the issue of track maintenance, the train routes are too fixed, making it easy to be targeted, whether for searching for supplies or for combat."

The giraffe didn't dare to go into too much detail, and simply shared his thoughts.

Su Huan nodded thoughtfully.

He then asked the same question to everyone he passed.

Listen to their opinions.

Wan Xing: "It can fly."

'Strange woman. '

Su Huan didn't dare ask any more questions and walked towards the farm carriage in the Yellow Sea.

Huang Hai was feeding the iron tree with a small piece of metal scrap when he heard the question and thought about it carefully before saying, "A multi-level carriage, even bigger and wider than the current one."

Su Huan looked up at the sky.

The renovation of the second floor of carriage number 7 has been completed, unlike other carriages where the first and second floors are completely separated by flooring.

The farm vehicle has a large open space in the middle, like the atrium in a shopping mall, which is vertically connected and has excellent natural light.

The left and right sides are lush with greenery, and sunlight shines in through the upper and lower windows, making it look like a "church" or "hut" for "Druids".

Although they are completely unrelated, these three words fit together quite well here.

Carriage number 7 is similar to a church in terms of lighting, but a church is not as narrow and does not have as many plants.

"You mean to open up a third layer?"

Su Huan reached out and flicked the [Fresh Grass] next to him, and the winding vines retreated as if shy.

Then, just as he was about to retract his hand, he suddenly sprang out.

It even produced a small sonic boom.

For safety reasons, not all the mutated plants obtained in the experimental tower were planted. However, several dangerous mutated plants were added to the functional crops.

【Fresh Grass】is a type of vine that can purify the air.

Calling them vines isn't entirely accurate; many mutated plants nowadays can extend into movable branches.

However, the Fresh Grass will not attack people unless it is an active attack. Its attacks are all subconscious retaliations, so just be careful not to step on it when you pass by.

Moreover, the Yellow Sea is regularly trimmed, so the danger is not significant.

"Two stories is already quite tall, almost hitting the national height limit. My idea is to widen the vehicle body, but that might create some additional load-bearing issues, so we'll have to consult Professor Ma and his team."

Huang Hai took a pair of scissors from his suit pocket and cut off the long, pointed tips of the "fresh grass".

The latter immediately curled up and stopped spreading into the aisle.

"Wide it up...?"

Su Huan rubbed his chin. "That's also a way to expand our space."

"By the way, in a couple of days when the chicks grow up, we can kill the rooster and eat it," Huang Hai said, pointing to the rooster leisurely strolling among the mutated plants on the second floor.

The rooster is battling against the rampant wiregrass.

Several hens followed behind.

With a peck of its bright yellow beak, the tough, wire-like iron grass was instantly severed and fell into the chicken's mouth.

(End of this chapter)