The "Survival on the Train" game has bugs, it's really laggy!

After the woman rolled out of the inspection cover, Wang Hu and Tang Lan didn't give her much time to catch her breath.

Wang Hu grabbed her arm, and Tang Lan pulled a dry cloth and pressed it directly onto her neck and the back of her hands, which were burning white. Someone in the carriage handed her water, and someone else took the old record box from her arms.

"Let go first." Tang Lan stared at her tightly clenched knuckles. "The box won't run away; the person needs to stay alive first."

The woman's throat was steaming, her lips were parted, and she didn't speak immediately. She was dragged into the shadows of the maintenance area, and only when her back touched the cold steel plate did she shudder.

Wang Hu unscrewed the kettle lid and held it directly to her lips.

"Don't drink too fast."

The woman reached out and took the box, gulped down two mouthfuls, and coughed a few times, choking. After coughing, she immediately hugged the record box back to her arms.

Su Yuan stood by the boiler, not looking at her, but only glancing at the boiler pressure gauge.

The clock hands are still ticking.

The announcements outside continued.

"Please turn on the boiler."

"Please hand over the original engine."

"Please turn on the boiler."

"Please hand over the original engine."

It was repeated over and over, making one's eardrums feel tight.

The bollards at the entrance rose another half a finger, and a heavy, metallic dragging sound came from the bottom of the pit. The sound wasn't loud, but it was muffled. It wasn't just one spot, but three spots moving simultaneously.

The veteran mechanic's expression changed immediately.

"There really is a car down there."

Tang Lan looked up at the pit opening, her hand already on her holster.

Not one.

Su Yuan turned the cold spring water valve a little smaller, his eyes falling on the inspection cover on the side wall of the boiler.

"Help her steady."

Wang Hu was taken aback.

"Who?"

"The one that came out of the boiler."

Wang Hu didn't ask any more questions. Together with Tang Lan, he helped the woman onto a repair chair. She was breathing heavily. After catching her breath a little, she finally placed the record box on her lap and her fingers trembled as she tried to unlock it.

When the box was opened, there was no gun or explosives inside.

A stack of yellowed thermal paper was neatly pressed on top. Below it was a metal insert, its edges polished to a shine, with an old number engraved on its front.

Great Wall Defense Line - Certified Insert.

Tang Lan stared at the line of text, her brows furrowing instantly.

"Where did this come from?"

The woman didn't look up; her hand was pressed against her chest, and her voice was still hoarse.

"Left behind by number 04 back then."

She pulled out the top sheet from the thermal paper and handed it to the old mechanic.

"Look at this first."

The veteran mechanic took it, walked to the headlights, and unfolded the paper. On the paper was a handwritten old maintenance diagram, with several stamped instructions next to it.

He stared at it for two seconds, and the veins on the back of his hand slowly bulged.

"That's an old clause."

The young survivors went over to take a look, but couldn't understand it.

"What did you write?"

The old mechanic raised his hand and pointed to the loop on the map.

"The original engine will not be turned on; it will remain in a cold state. Follow the certification process for inserting the chip and proceed with the acceptance procedure. The Great Wall Defense Line will then receive it."

He paused, lowering his voice even further.

"If the furnace is opened, the entire old storage chain will be activated. It won't be accepted, it will be dismantled."

The carriage fell silent for a moment.

The broadcast was still playing, followed by several metallic clanging sounds from the bottom of the pit, each one heavier than the last.

Tang Lan turned to look at the woman.

How did you get this?

The woman leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them again, her face was still pale.

"I used to do maintenance on No. 04."

"And then?"

"Later, a batch of people died, and the system took over a batch." She twitched the corner of her mouth, but there was no real smile. "I didn't die completely. I was left in the boiler water jacket to repair the pipes. After several years of repairs, I finally got my hands on this box."

Wang Hu was getting annoyed.

"Stop beating around the bush. You just said the original engine was a door-to-door type, not burned out. What do you mean by that?"

The woman looked at him, her eyes showing no evasion.

"It's not an ordinary power furnace. It contains an old authentication module from the Great Wall defense system. When the furnace is cold, the system recognizes it as the key. Once the furnace is opened, the authentication module heats up, and the old storage chain will treat the entire train as scrap."

The old mechanic gently shook the thermal paper in his hand.

"It matches."

He looked up at Su Yuan.

"These blueprints are exactly the same as the power supply circuit in our station. They're not fake."

Lu Mingyuan also connected, his voice coming through the communicator intermittently, accompanied by the sound of keyboard typing.

"I checked, it's real."

"This isn't just our current custody system making random noises; it's seizing assets according to old rules."

Su Yuan didn't reply, but instead pushed the inspection cover on the outer wall of the boiler back an inch.

"Wang Hu, keep cooling down the cold spring. Don't stop."

Wang Hu grinned.

"Are you really going to stick with it to the end?"

"It's not about wasting time," Su Yuan said, "it's about blocking its process."

He pulled out the old blueprint and spread it out on the front of the car.

"Pressure relief valve, inspection cover, grounding chain, three wires. It's now calling for boiler start-up verification, which is a pre-start-up procedure. As long as we follow its rhythm, the next step is to lift the crane, disassemble the vehicle body, and then drag the boiler and people into the pit together."

Tang Lan's expression turned even colder after hearing this.

"So it doesn't need a key."

"What they want is to keep the assets on the books after they're dismantled." Su Yuan pushed the blueprints back. "To put it nicely, it's for verification. To put it bluntly, it's to trick you into opening the door first, and then cut them up according to the asset process."

There was another sound from the bottom of the pit.

This time it's clearer.

It wasn't just a simple metal-on-metal collision; it was the sound of the wheel flange recoiling against the rail. The cable chain was retracting, and something was pushing it from underneath.

Little Fire lay on the control panel, its tail taut.

"The rim light is on."

It stared at the monitor screen, its voice tense.

"Three light sources at the bottom of the pit were activated simultaneously."

On the screen, in the darkness beneath the disassembly pit, three rim lights illuminated one after another, followed by a ring of low-level red lights. These lights weren't new; they were old and yellowish, lighting up very slowly, as if squeezed out of the metal casing bit by bit.

Wang Hu glanced at it, and his Adam's apple bobbed.

"There really is a car down there."

The old mechanic slapped the paper on his knee and muttered a curse under his breath.

"It's not the train, it's the spare carriage that woke up."

Tang Lan lowered her voice very much for the first time.

"All personnel, number 013, retreat to your assigned positions."

The young survivor paused for a moment.

"team leader?"

"If you don't understand, just do as I say." Tang Lan stared at the bottom of the pit. "That thing down there isn't dead. It's climbing up the recycling chain."

The carriage immediately erupted in chaos. Some rushed to help the wounded, some gathered up tools, and some instinctively stepped back. The woman who had been panting just moments before looked up, staring at the three illuminated wheel flange lights at the bottom of the ditch, and for the first time, a noticeable change appeared on her face.

It's not fear.

Yes, it's confirmed.

"They woke up faster than I expected."

Su Yuan looked at the boiler pressure gauge and then at the sound waves at the bottom of the pit.

"We're not here to steal the engine."

The woman turned to look at him.

"What is that?"

Su Yuan placed his hands on the steering wheel, his knuckles pressing down on the old leather cover.

"Take back the car."

Lu Mingyuan paused on the other end of the communicator, his voice suddenly tightening.

"What do you mean?"

"Old dispatching procedure," Su Yuan said. "These three spare carriages aren't here to dismantle ours. They're here to replace the system above, towing the lead car back."

── 2000 words ──

The veteran mechanic immediately looked up.

"So they're fighting for permissions."

"right."

Su Yuan raised his hand and pointed to the dripping water line at the door.

"Wang Hu, spread out the grounding chain, insulating clamps, and dry canvas."

Wang Hu moved quickly, squatting down to start disassembling the tools.

"You're going to block the pulling force?"

"It's not about blocking," Su Yuan said, "it's about pressing down on the point of force."

The woman stared at him, seemingly wanting to say something more, but in the end she only asked one question.

"Are you going to keep the boiler in a cold state indefinitely?"

"Um."

"Then they'll have to follow the old rules and recognize the door." The woman's throat bobbed. "What's sealed inside the original engine isn't just the authentication module. There's also the old connector from the Great Wall. That's the interface for turning the car into a key."

Tang Lan turned to look at her.

"Are you sure?"

"I sealed it myself."

The woman took the metal Great Wall clip out of the record box and handed it to Su Yuan.

"When the No. 04 train had the accident, the crew's communication was cut off, and this was the only thing that could be used. We plugged it into the old terminal, wrote the lead car's idling frequency into it, and the system recognized it."

Su Yuan took the insert and rubbed the edge with his fingertip.

Cold and terribly old.

Without asking any further questions, he turned and walked directly to the control panel.

Xiao Huo had already dragged out the old terminal; the casing was dented all over, and the edges of the screen were yellowed. Su Yuan pressed the insert into the slot, the clip popped open, and it locked in place.

"Connect to the frequency."

"Which part should we continue with?" Xiao Huo asked.

"Idle speed. Don't go high."

Wang Hu laid the grounding chain all the way to the doorway, pressed the insulated clamps against the chain head, and placed a dry canvas next to the puddles, his movements were perfectly orderly.

"It's all laid out."

Tang Lan glanced back at number 013.

"Everyone should be in position and connected to the vehicle behind them, so as not to cause the vehicle behind to veer off course."

As soon as she finished speaking, an even louder churning sound came from the bottom of the pit.

This time it wasn't just one place. All three spare carriages moved simultaneously.

The monitor screen flashed, and the red markings on the bottom track lit up one by one, as if three dark lines were resetting below. The wheel flange lights changed from red to yellow, then began to show a bluish tinge.

Xiao Huo stared at the data, speaking rapidly.

"The tension in the bottom recycling chain is increasing."

"The chain was locked three times." The veteran mechanic stared at the blueprints, his palms sweating. "They're connecting."

Su Yuan didn't look up, his fingers typing the first Morse code on the old-fashioned keyboard.

Da, da da, da.

It's not fast; the rhythm is very steady.

On the old terminal screen, lines of underlying text appeared one after another.

Temporary lead vehicle dispatch order.

The original engine's condition needs to be verified.

The injured vehicle crew is being coupled together.

The rescue operation on the outer bridge has been completed.

The old chain of custody triggered the freeze condition.

Lu Mingyuan instantly understood from the control room.

"He's revising the terms."

Someone nearby let out a short, sharp gasp.

"This can be changed?"

"Yes." Lu Mingyuan stared at the screen, his voice hoarse and deep. "He aligned the scheduling chain with the current state. This part was originally in the terms, but we've never actually reached it."

Su Yuan continued knocking.

Instead of immediately suppressing the movement of the three spare carriages below, he first wrote down the idling frequency of the Devourer in segments.

Small flame real-time calibration.

"The frequency is stable."

"The waveform is entered into the underlying storage system."

"Permission to write".

The sound of the cable chain at the bottom of the pit suddenly stopped.

It was so short it wasn't obvious, but everyone heard it.

Immediately afterwards, the wheel flange lights at the bottom of the three spare carriages flashed simultaneously, the red lights went out, and they were replaced by blue lights.

The broadcast paused for half a second.

Then, for the first time, the aged system voice changed its tone, no longer issuing a command, but a confirmation.

"Temporary lead vehicle...verification passed."

At first, no one in the carriage reacted.

The next sentence presses down even more clearly.

"Desolate Devourer, temporary lead vehicle privileges activated."

"The terms for the recycling of spare carriages are frozen."

"Disassembly process suspended."

One by one, the bollards at the entrance fell back to the ground. The four hydraulic clamps above the pit also stopped, their jaws hanging in mid-air, no longer pressing down.

The broadcast continued.

"Please have the temporary lead vehicle follow the maintenance line."

"Do not turn on the boiler."

"Please do not disconnect the connection."

"Please wait for the next level of the recycling chain to review."

The entire Base 04 was initially deathly silent, followed by a series of footsteps.

Someone rushed out of the corridor.

Someone was tapping on the observation window and looking out.

The wounded soldiers' ward, the water filtration room, the boiler room—everyone who could still move crowded towards the door.

"It's stopped?"

"Is it really stopped?"

"Did the storage system give way?"

"Did they give the lead car right to that beat-up car?"

"Who just said they were going to hand over the engine?"

No one replied.

Those who had been pale-faced and waiting to see Su Yuan dragged away now looked as if their mouths had been covered, their eyes wide open in disbelief.

Tang Lan exhaled and raised her hand to press the communication button.

"Number 013, keep it connected and do not move it."

"clear."

Wang Hu retrieved the grounding chain, wiped the sweat from his face, and cursed under his breath.

"Finally, they're listening to me."

The veteran mechanic stared at the blue light at the bottom of the pit, his eyelids twitching.

"Don't get too excited. Those three carriages down there aren't empty."

The woman finally closed the record box.

She raised her hand and grabbed Su Yuan's wrist, not with much force, but very quickly.

"There's one more thing."

Su Yuan turned to look at her.

"explain."

The woman looked deeper into the dismantling pit, her throat bobbing.

"Those three spare carriages are not all filled with recycled parts."

She pointed to the dark, heavy gap at the very bottom of the track.

"There's a section containing the second key that wasn't given away back then."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a short, metallic clang came from the bottom of the pit.

thump.

It's very light.

It sounded like someone inside knocked on the car door.