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

"Supply car No. 009 has already passed through station No. 18 ahead of schedule."

Wang Hu flipped the nameplate over and over again. The metal stamping lettering showed no wear, and the edges were free of rust. It was new. This thing hadn't been sealed off for years—it was only recently put in.

The cigarette butt had fallen from the corner of his mouth, but he hadn't picked it up.

"You've passed ahead of schedule." He handed the nameplate to the driver's observation port. "Who gave you permission?"

Xiao Huo's ear was half-pressed down. The sign for station number 18 on the main screen was still flashing. Blue and white light swept across the train window.

"Overweight vehicles are prohibited from entering."

The light sign doesn't light up once; it flashes every three seconds. The frequency is synchronized with the pulses on the blue and white tracks in front of the platform.

Tang Lan's voice came through channel 013. Short and abrupt.

"Second fixation is complete. The bandages have been tightened again."

The young survivor crouched in front of the double-layered protective compartment No. 005, his right hand pressed tightly against the surface of the anti-contamination shell. The frost had receded before entering the station, but now a thin layer of moisture had risen again. He didn't report it. But his hand didn't loosen.

Su Yuan's gaze fell on the track ahead.

Station 18 isn't far. The entrance is already visible—narrower and brighter than the previous stations. The blue and white tracks stretch straight out, with no clutter or piles of waste on either side; even the gaps between the tracks are polished. It's abnormally clean.

"Small fire."

"Sweeping."

The main screen progresses. The internal structure of Station 18 unfolds.

The platform is short, no more than 400 meters in length. The tracks are perfectly straight, with no curves or forks. A row of white maintenance arms hangs from the ceiling, and the slide rails are coated with a low-friction coating, with slender joints. There are only two rows of side shelves.

But the things on the shelves—

The small torch prints out the results of the shelf scan.

Lightweight armor beams. High-speed bearings. Shock-absorbing honeycomb panels. Low-drag fairings.

Its paw paused on the control panel for a moment.

"They're all high-speed components."

Wang Hu climbed back to the passenger seat from the outer beam and placed his hand on the handrail. He didn't look at the shelf data. He was looking at the platform floor.

Blue and white high-speed calibration rails. Guide wheel grooves are embedded on both sides. The maintenance arm hangs silently at the top.

The entire platform isn't a warehouse; it's an assembly line. A dedicated assembly line for weight reduction and calibration of high-speed trains.

The Devourer now carries a mobile refining furnace, a heavy-duty lifting arm, three nuclear fuel tanks, an external bomb bay, a rapid bridging module, an independent energy dispatch cabinet, a fully loaded rail-pressing passage module, a heavy-duty mobile cargo hold, an eight-cable anti-tow winch, an external material mounting bracket, and a segmented braking array—plus the third section, and tail anchors 013 and 005.

"Overweight" is a polite way of saying it.

Su Yuan didn't stop the car completely.

Hold the throttle. Twenty kilometers per hour. The Devourer slowly makes its way into the station entrance. As the heavy wheels roll over the blue and white tracks, the tracks vibrate with a deep hum. The sound, carrying a metallic resonance, travels from the platform entrance all the way into the depths.

The heavy-duty mobile cargo hold and the eight-cable reverse-tow winch are ready on the left rear side of the vehicle, and the crane arm is half-retracted.

The inspection arm didn't move. The lights shone down. The platform was so quiet that only the sound of wheels and rails rubbing together could be heard.

Then the loudspeaker came on.

"The total mass of the train set was detected to exceed the rated load limit of Station 18."

The system notification tone is neutral and has no fluctuation.

"Current axle load exceeds the standard by 347 percent."

According to Article 3 of the Great Wall Expressway Maintenance Regulations, overweight train sets must be unloaded to the standard axle load before lightweight materials can be received.

"The following items are recommended to be uninstalled:"

"First, the mobile refining furnace."

Second, heavy-duty mobile warehouses.

Third, external nuclear fuel tank assembly.

"Fourth, No. 005, the tail anchor car."

As soon as the announcement stopped, the green lights on all three tracks on the platform simultaneously turned on. The blue and white lights changed to light green, extending from the front of the train all the way to the fork in the middle of the platform.

Three "light load calibration lines".

The guide wheel rose from the rail gap. Twelve rubber rollers clamped the front wheel of the Devourer from both sides. Not by pushing, but by pressing against it. This restricted lateral movement.

A low pusher plate pops out from the ground on the left and pushes against the heavy-duty mobile cargo base.

Metal against metal. Clang.

The mobile warehouse base wobbled. The small lead box in the sorting rack slid into the corner with a click.

Someone spoke first on the AM relay channel.

The communications officer for the Bonebreaker sighed. "This station isn't a combat station. There are no turrets, no dismantling rollers, and the rule is no heavy vehicles allowed. No matter how much Su Yuan can dismantle... there's nowhere for him to exert his strength this time."

The slaughterhouse officer cut the camera to the platform structure. Clean. Inspection arms, alignment rails, guide wheels, push plates. All civilian-grade maintenance equipment.

"It won't hit you. It'll just make things difficult for you."

In the control room of Base 04, the technician scanned the platform structure twice.

"Confirmed. No dismantling rollers. No turret. No energy extraction needle. No recovery well."

He turned to look at the old engineer.

"Purely rule-based restrictions."

The veteran engineer stared at the screen without speaking immediately.

Another voice from the Bonebreaker lowered slightly. "We can only unload part of it this time, right? We can't lose the refinery, but the cargo hold was just loaded. Should we—"

No one answered the call.

A report came from the tailgate of Unit 005 from a young survivor: "The temperature of the outer wall of the protective compartment has dropped slightly. One degree."

The broadcast then filled in the gap.

"Additional suggestion: After unloading the No. 005 tail anchor car, the train formation will be granted priority in weight reduction."

Tang Lan pulled the gun out of his belt and pressed it against the No. 013 hook protection cover.

"005 won't take it off."

The pusher continued to push forward. The mobile cargo base retracted inward by another half centimeter.

Su Yuan did not respond to the broadcast. He also did not look at the guide wheel.

"Pinkish-gray".

Wang Hu didn't hesitate. He picked up the bag of lime.

The first handful was sprinkled onto the nearest green light alignment line. The powder settled on the tracks—undispersed by the wind. There was no wind on the tracks.

But the powder did not settle.

The fine white powder was slowly drawn into the tiny holes in the rail surface, splitting into three gray lines. The first line moved downwards from the weighing rail. The second line moved along the bottom of the side wall shelf. The third line—

The third gray line spreads toward a fresh black drag mark.

The drag mark stretched from the outer edge of the platform all the way to the right. Its width varied; some parts were narrow, others wide. Dust pressed against the edges of the drag mark, exposing the bare metal rail surface in the middle.

What 009 left behind.

The second handful of powder was sprinkled into the seam of the ground next to the push plate base. The powder fell in and was quickly swept away, heading in the same direction as the first handful – converging at the fork in the middle of the platform.

The third shot was aimed at the black trail left by 009.

Dust settled at the edges of the drag marks. It wasn't absorbed. The fine pores in the track surface within the drag mark area are dead. It won't be absorbed.

The three paths of the small torch are superimposed on the main screen.

The red line converges from the three green light alignment lines at the same area—the fork in the middle of the platform. The ground at that location is half a shade darker than the sides, and there are traces of oil seeping out from the seams of the cover plates.

"The end of the calibration line is not the lightweight calibration area," Xiao Huo reported. "It's the segmented unloading area."

It highlighted the drag mark path of 009 separately.

"When 009 passed through station 18, it did not follow the three green light lines. Its drag marks went directly from the entrance to the right outer edge and then to the back of the innermost shelf."

Little Fire's claws scraped along the edge of the console.

"009 did not follow the rules to cross the station."

Base 04 control room. The veteran engineer leaned closer to the screen. 009's path was marked with a red dotted line—perfectly avoiding the three green light lines, slipping behind the shelves, and then disappearing into the deepest part of the platform.

"It stole the innermost batch of high-speed parts." The technician's voice changed.

The old engineer sat back down, tapping his finger on the table. He didn't say a word.

Inside the driver's cab, Su Yuan released the steering wheel with his right hand and pressed the release lever for the fully loaded rail-pressing passage module.

He did not uninstall it.

"Segmented braking. Full lock."

The small fire started. The segmented braking array was activated simultaneously from the Shihuang chassis, the third guide frame, the 013 tail beam, and the 005 front hook sleeve. All four sets of brakes locked, and the entire train plunged into the rails.

The fully loaded rail-pressing module is released from the middle section of the chassis and pressed down. The identification chip attaches to the center line marker on the blue and white rail surface.

The guide wheel was still clamping the front wheel. But the Devourer stopped moving. The entire weight of the train pressed vertically onto the weighing rail, and was evenly distributed to the four locking points through the braking array.

The pusher plate is still pushing the moving warehouse.

Wang Hu squatted down on the left outer beam. He pulled out a spare gear meshing plate from under the base of the heavy-duty mobile cargo warehouse seized at Station 17, took three steps to walk directly above the green light calibration line, and inserted the meshing plate horizontally into the joint between the fine hole in the rail surface and the calibration line.

Heh.

The suction force of the fine pores was blocked by the thickness of the meshing plate.

Two cables extend from the right rear of the winch. Wang Hu loosely drapes the cable ends onto the uprights of the side racks. They are not taut; they are just dangling.

Channel 013 confirmed: "Half-hugging. He's pinned down."

The 005 silencer was lowered an inch. The young survivor pulled the handle and crouched back in front of the pod.

The rubber rollers of the guide wheels rub against the outside of the front wheel of the Devourer. The entire train remains stationary. The rollers, driven by their own motors, spin idly in place. The rotation speed increases rapidly.

Three seconds later, white smoke rose from the surface of the first row of guide rollers. The smell of burning rubber rose from the rail surface.

It can't be pushed.

The top row of lightweight maintenance arms slid along the rail towards the Devourer, but halfway through the journey, an abnormal force feedback occurred—its scanning system read not a vehicle to be inspected, but a steel structure nailed to the rail surface.

The maintenance arm stopped. It hung suspended in mid-air. The joints were locked.

The AM relay channel died for two seconds.

The person on the Bonebreaker who had just said "there's nowhere to exert force" moved his lips slightly but didn't make a sound.

The slaughterhouse adjutant turned to look at the fire control officer. The fire control officer's expression remained unchanged; he simply tapped his finger on the table once more.

Base 04 control room.

The veteran engineer leaned halfway out of his chair, staring at the force distribution diagram of the Devourer.

"He's not racing against the platform."

Lu Mingyuan turned his head.

The veteran engineer pointed to four red locking points on the screen. The segmented braking array held the entire train in place at the four positions. The passage module pressed against the centerline. Eight cables loosely suspended the rack uprights.

"He used super-heavy train sets to turn lightweight calibration rails into fixed ground anchors."

The technician's mouth opened slightly.

In the AM relay channel, someone on the Bonebreaker paused for a second when changing the marker.

"He used his overweight status as a privilege."

The platform announcement paused briefly. There was a half-second gap in the middle of the system notification tone.

Then they changed their wording.

"Axle load abnormal. Please reduce the axle load of the current train group immediately."

The uninstallation suggestion was not mentioned again. The 005 tail anchor was not mentioned again.

Su Yuan did not respond.

The mobile refining furnace is being started at low power. The bucket is half-open, and the dark gold guide tube is not extended. It's just preheating.

Wang Hu stood on the outer beam, looking into the depths of the platform. Two rows of shelves. Lightweight armored beams were stacked on the left shelf, high-speed bearings were installed in standard boxes on the right, and shock-absorbing honeycomb panels were vertically inserted behind the middle partition.

nice one.

And it's the part that 009 didn't take.

The Devourer maintained a low speed as it glided forward. The segmented braking system switched from full lock to half lock, restoring the speed to 10 km/h. The brake array dragged the entire weight of the train across the calibration rail. With each inch of rolling, another layer of rubber burned off the guide rollers.

The pusher was still pushing upwards, but the force was insufficient—the lateral resistance of the entire train far exceeded the design limit of the pusher's hydraulic cylinder. A white mark was worn into the front end of the pusher by the cargo compartment base shell. The pusher was retracting on its own.

The maintenance arm on the top of the third row of the platform suddenly detached from the guide rail limit.

Six slender white robotic arms simultaneously changed direction. No longer aimed at the vehicle body—they aimed at the heavy-duty mobile cargo hold.

The front four arms open their grippers, while the rear two extend their cutting heads. All six arms simultaneously lunge at the cargo hold's outer shell.

Wang Hu saw it. "Up there!"

The grippers of the first arm attach to the top cover of the cargo hold. Metal to metal.

Meanwhile, narrow cracks appeared in the walls beneath the shelves on both sides of the platform. High-speed air duct openings were exposed through the cracks, and silver-white blades began to rotate.

wind.

A powerful directional wind blew out from both sides, sweeping across the surface of the shelves. Lightweight armored beams, high-speed bearing housings, and honeycomb panels were pulled outwards by the airflow.

What's on the outside of the shelf?

Wang Hu lowered his head. There was a wide crack in the ground outside the shelf. The bottom of the crack was dark black.

Waste weight recovery tank.

The materials aren't for you. If you don't unload them, the platform will automatically recycle them.

The grippers of the inspection arm had already gripped the weld seam of the cargo hold roof. The cutting head of the other arm lit up—a bluish-white arc of light.

Su Yuan's voice came in.

"Eight cables. All in place."

Wang Hu's actions were 0.2 seconds faster than the command. He had already sprung from the outer beam to the front of the eight-cable reverse-tow winch control lever.

All eight cable outlets were released simultaneously. The steel cables were thrown out.

The first cable head is fastened to the main upright of the first set of shelves on the left.

The second one hooks onto the second group on the left.

The third item, the first group on the right.

4, 5, 6, 7 – The uprights of the shelves on both sides are locked one by one by the cable heads.

The eighth cable was swung towards the farthest set of half-empty shelves. The cable end struck the top of the pillar, and the anchor claws engaged. It taut.

Eight cables were stretched out radially. The Devourer was at the center. Eight sets of shelves were secured in place by steel cables.

The airflow from the duct was pushing the lightweight material outwards—but the shelf was secured by cables. The material slid to the edge of the shelf and got stuck by a baffle. It couldn't slide out.

"Receiving slide rail. Fully open."

The rapid whole-station material collection guide rail extends from the secondary hook of the hoisting arm to the bucket area of ​​the refining furnace. The three sections of the arc-shaped guide rail are engaged and locked.

Heavy-duty lifting arm fully extended. Rapid storage gripper with three teeth extended to maximum.

Wang Hu pulled the mechanical boom. The crane arm swept across in an arc.

The first claw gripped the entire row of lightweight armored beams on the first set of shelves on the left. All eight beams were grabbed by the three claws and lifted off the shelf.

The gripper swings towards the material receiving slide rail inlet. The teeth loosen.

Eight armored beams slid in a row along curved rails into the refining furnace bucket area. Dark gold guide tubes extended. Cutting. Rolling in.

The cutting head of the top inspection arm is about to touch the cargo hold weld—

The Devourer pushed forward one meter.

The maintenance arm slides along a fixed rail. Its travel is limited. If the Devourer moves forward even one meter, the cutting head will no longer be able to reach the cargo hold.

The arc of light traced a line in the air, then missed.

Second claw. Wang Hu didn't wait. The crane arm swung back. The three teeth gripped the right high-speed bearing housing. All four standard housings were simultaneously lifted. The teeth were released. The housing was inserted into the guide rail. The housing was inserted into the bucket.

The third claw. Shock-absorbing honeycomb panels. The six panels inserted vertically behind the partition are clamped from the side by the three claws and pulled out together with the partition. The partition is stuck at the slide rail inlet, and the honeycomb panels slide out from the gaps in the partition and are poured into the bucket in rows.

Fourth claw. Low-resistance air guide. The curved outer shell is stacked on the top shelf of the deepest section. Wang Hu pushed the lifting arm to its limit, the grab claw reached the edge of the air guide, and the three teeth engaged the lifting lugs. With a pull, the entire row of four air guide pieces detached from the shelf and were sent into the furnace opening along the curved slide rail.

The refining furnace bucket closed. The dark gold conduit simultaneously cut four materials. The furnace temperature jumped two notches. The low-heat adjustment plate was used to suppress the heat.

The side slot begins to eject parts.

Group 1.

"Lightweight airflow housing".

The curved, integral component tapers at the front and widens at the rear, with reinforcing ribs on the inner wall. It is directly fastened to the outer side of the front beam of the Devourer vehicle, with a locking pin inserted into the hole. The wind resistance section has been reduced by 30%.

Second Group.

"Heavy-duty shock-absorbing honeycomb layer".

The structure is plate-like, with unevenly sized honeycomb pores inside—dense on the stress-bearing surfaces and sparse on the non-stress-bearing surfaces. The maintenance team inserted the first piece between the floor plate of the No. 013 casualty compartment and the old shock absorber frame. Tang Lan looked at the water cup holder inside the compartment. The water in the cup changed from sloshing around to a gentle ripple.

"It's safe," she said.

The second piece was tucked under the third guide frame. The veteran mechanic squatted down to receive the part, and as he hammered it into the retaining pin, he cursed, "This should have been included a long time ago."

Group 3.

"High-speed bearing wheel assembly".

The four bearing housings come with pre-installed bearings, and their rated speed is three times higher than that of the original bearings on the Devourer. Wang Hu broke two of the fixing bolts on the old bearing housing before removing it, then pushed the new bearing housing in, aligned it with the holes, and tightened it.

The sound of the wheelset spinning freely has changed. It went from a rough, sandy sound to a steady hum.

Group 4.

"Low-resistance warehouse enclosure".

The semi-enclosed shell has a streamlined cross-section. After being attached to the outside of the heavy-duty mobile cargo hold, the entire cargo hold changes from a square shape to a teardrop-shaped tail. Most of the windward side disappears.

The inspection arm was still hanging overhead. The six white robotic arms had lost their target—the shelves were empty, the warehouse was covered, and the cutting heads couldn't reach any welds.

The air duct is still blowing. But there's nothing left on the shelves to blow away.

Su Yuan switched the segmented braking from half-lock to quarter-lock. He then pressed down on the accelerator.

The Devourer began to accelerate on the short, straight track within the station.

Twenty. Thirty. Forty.

The lightweight airflow deflector cuts through the airflow at the front of the train. The high-speed bearing wheelset does not produce the high-frequency screeching sound of older bearings during acceleration. The shock-absorbing honeycomb layer absorbs a large portion of the impact from the rail joints.

Fifty. Six

Inside the wounded ward No. 013, Tang Lan looked at her water glass. The half-full glass of water only swayed in a thin arc.

seventy.

The stress reading of tail beam No. 005 dropped from 23 to 21.4.

The young survivors stared at the numbers. Since entering the inner ring of the Great Wall, the tail section of the 005 has dropped below twenty-two for the first time.

His palm was still pressed against the protective pod. The temperature didn't drop any further.

The Devourer, dragging the third section, anchors 013 and 005, ran steadily for the remaining 200 meters on the short, straight track at Station 18 at a speed of 70 km/h.

No fishtailing. No swaying. No water spills.

The AM relay channel was down for three seconds.

Control room of Base 04. Lu Mingyuan stood. The technician stood. The veteran engineer also stood—he hadn't even noticed when he had stood up.

The entire channel was completely silent.

Then the old engineer spoke. His voice carried a confirmation that even he himself found absurd.

"Station No. 18 is not meant to make it lighter."

He pointed to the list of new modules and speed curve of the Devourer on the screen.

"It makes it run faster."

The AM repeater channel erupted in chaos. The sound was so dense it was compressed into a cacophony of noise.

When someone changed the map marker on the Bonebreaker from "Overweight and Prohibited" to "Passed," even the marker color changed. It wasn't a yellow warning; it was gray—the abandoned color of the platform.

The slaughterhouse officer turned the volume down three notches. He didn't look at the fire control officer. The fire control officer turned off the screen himself.

The Devourer did not stop.

As Wang Hu jumped back from the outer beam, he casually tore off a piece of the slide rail connecting seat of the maintenance arm and handed it to the refining furnace. The guide tube was then rolled away.

The lightweight maintenance arms lost their rail support, and the six white robotic arms fell from the top, crashing onto the empty shelf base.

The lifting arm swings back. The gripper handles the remaining parts of the maintenance arm, the outer shell of the air duct, the calibration rail panel—everything within reach—and feeds it into the receiving slide rail. The refining furnace operates at low power, moving and absorbing material simultaneously.

The last batch of replacement parts was discharged from the side chute. The rubber and metal core of the guide roller were cast into the mudguards for the front wheels of the "Desolate Wasteland" vehicle. The housing of the push plate hydraulic cylinder was disassembled into the No. 013 bottom reinforcing rib. The low-friction coating plate of the calibration rail was cut into small pieces and attached to the heat dissipation surface of the segmented brake array.

Station No. 18 was completely sold out.

The main screen refreshes.

"New addition: High-speed shock-absorbing wheel set."

"New addition: Low-resistance airflow-guiding housing."

"New addition: Lightweight warehouse shield."

"New feature: Full-site rapid material receiving mode."

"The formation's maximum speed has been increased to 75 km/h for stable cruising."

The loudspeaker is no longer working. The system has lost all operable machinery in this station. The maintenance arm is gone. The guide wheels are burned. The push plate is flattened. The shelves are empty. The blades at the air duct openings are still turning, but they're blowing air.

The Devourer rolled over the last section of blue and white track and drove out of the perimeter of Station 18.

Wang Hu returned to the passenger seat. He bent down to pick up the cigarette butt he had dropped from the footrest and tucked it into his mouth. He didn't light it.

Then he remembered.

"That lead box."

The camera switched to the bottom-level monitoring of the mobile warehouse. In the lowest compartment of the sorting rack, a small lead-lined box, secured with rivets at all four corners, sat quietly in the corner. The vibration from the platform had caused it to slide two inches further, but it hadn't tipped over.

The protruding rivet was still lying on the cargo hold floor. The gap in the container lid was about one centimeter wide.

Wang Hu handed the long hook from the auxiliary hook of the hoisting arm to the maintenance team. One person held the container, while another used the hook tip to pry open the seam of the container cover.

There was no explosion. There was no gas. There was no black liquid.

There was a piece of paper lying in the box.

The old, yellowed paper was rolled into a tube and sealed at both ends with wax. The wax had crumbled. The paper tube was hooked out from the seam.

The maintenance team handed him the paper tube. Wang Hu took it and unfolded it.

Supply list. A standard form used by the old Blue Star Expeditionary Force. Lines, columns, and numbering are all printed in standard format.

But the last three lines were handwritten. The ink varied in shade, but the strokes were strong.

"Number 009 took away all the ammunition fuses from Station 19."

"Destination - Mobile Supply Ring No. 20"

"If any subsequent trains read this message, Station 19 will be nothing but an empty shell."

Wang Hu handed the paper to the driver's side window. Su Yuan took it, looked at it for two seconds, and then handed it back to Xiao Huo.

Scan the data into the database. Mark "Ammunition Fuse Station No. 19" and "Mobile Supply Ring No. 20" on the map ahead.

The messages were still rolling on the AM repeater. Some people in the convoy behind were discussing station number 18. But Su Yuan wasn't listening.

2.1 kilometers ahead.

Station No. 19.

The small fire radar is pushed forward.

There are no lights. The sign for station 19 is not lit. The platform appears as a low-profile structure on radar, even shorter than station 18.

But on both sides of the track—

The radar echoes are dense, orderly, and equidistant. Quantity—

The little fire claw tightened on the control panel.

"Metal cylinders were detected on both sides of the track. High density. More than 120 in number. Regularly arranged."

It outputs the echo shape analysis.

"The shell's shape and caliber are consistent with the ammunition captured at Station 09."

It paused for half a second.

"No fuze signal. Missing warhead signature."

empty.

Hundreds of shells were neatly arranged on both sides of the track at Station 19, without fuses.

009 took all the fuses with him. Leaving behind a bunch of empty shells.

Su Yuan's old terminal screen flickered. A system notification popped up.

White text on a black background.

"A countdown timer has been detected in supply car number 009."

"All unfused munitions will be automatically re-fired after the lead vehicle passes."

The small fire is rising.

"Master. 009 didn't steal the fuse."

It stared at the outline of Station 19 in the darkness ahead.

"It takes the fuse to the front, so we can just run into it ourselves."