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

Outside of Assembly Warehouse No. 22.

The Devourer was traveling at 75 km/h, and the three green dots on the main screen were moving at a constant speed along the downward branch rail. The images transmitted by the first three magnetic exploration trolleys were constantly being refreshed. The magnetic scratches on the 009 road marker steel plate on the rail surface were one after another. The plate was no longer there, and only the bright lines left on the metal surface after being scratched were left.

The location marker for the fourth device is still displayed in the bottom right corner of the main screen. Grayed out. Offline.

The last frame was compressed and frozen in a corner by Xiao Huo—a blurry black outline that filled the entire width of the narrow track, far exceeding the size of the exploration vehicle.

The frequency spectrum of the latching sound was right next to the screen, with a long low-frequency tail that took almost two seconds to decay completely.

Wang Hu stared at the silhouette for half a minute. The cigarette butt at the corner of his mouth didn't move.

"The main track remains unchanged. Let's look at number 22 first," Su Yuan said.

When the beam of light from the Devourer swept across 600 meters ahead, the outline of a massive, semi-enclosed assembly hall emerged from the darkness.

Unlike the previous stations, Assembly Warehouse No. 22 has no archway, no entrance sign, and no red or yellow lights. The entire main entrance is a heavy-duty retractable roller shutter steel door, over forty meters wide and tall enough for two carriages to stack up and pass through.

The door was closed.

The surface of the roller shutter steel door is severely rusted, and the two vertical track grooves are filled with scrap iron and clumps of old grease.

The Devourer approached within 300 meters.

The door moved.

The rolling steel door began to roll up from the bottom, slowly, with the chain creaking and rust falling from the gaps. Cool white light leaked from the bottom of the opening, widening as the door rose.

One cup. Two cups. Ten cups.

Inside the assembly hall, rows of cool white ceiling lights illuminate one after another, extending from the entrance into the depths.

What the light illuminates—

Central assembly line.

Two rows of assembly fixtures line both sides of the track, featuring a steel frame structure with overhead rail hangers and positioning guide wheels embedded below. This is a standard heavy-duty car assembly station. Each station is large enough to hold one complete car.

Most of the workstations were empty.

Only the one in the very middle is not.

One train carriage.

The outer shell is intact. The paint scheme is the dark gray-green of the old Blue Star Expeditionary Force. The side markings are clearly visible – "010 Temporary Formation Vehicle".

Doors and windows are intact. The wheels are brand new. Exposed couplings, one on each side, with seven-point hooks. The roof has vents, an antenna mount, and standard hangers.

As the Devourer pulled into the entrance, the conveyor gears on the assembly line began to turn. Carriage 010 slowly moved from the center of the workstation towards the entrance, being pushed towards the Devourer's formation.

The loudspeaker came on.

"The current status of the lead car (001) has been detected—the tail car (005) is carrying prohibited quarantine items. The third life support compartment has an aging structure, and the interlocking pins are below safety standards. The medical equipment in the casualty compartment (013) does not meet the Great Wall Inner Ring Road connection specifications."

"We are now offering the Great Wall Inner Ring Standard Reinforced Car – the 010 temporary formation car. It integrates functions including a medical compartment, ammunition racks, and fuel buffer. It can directly replace the 005 tail anchor, eliminating potential formation hazards."

"It is recommended to attach 010 and uninstall 005."

The car window of car 010 suddenly lit up.

From the inside. The light isn't an overhead light, but a reading light above the seat; it's low-set and has a warm yellow tint.

A dozen or so figures.

They were seated. Their outlines were clearly defined. Some were looking down, some were leaning against the window, and some were turned to the side.

The old speaker was emitting sound from the side speaker of the 010. The sound was intermittent and had static.

"...There are people inside...open the carriage first..."

A female voice. Her breathing was unsteady.

"...We've been waiting for so long...Please answer..."

In the 013 carriage, a wounded soldier moved slightly.

"Is someone in that carriage outside?"

The young survivor clung to the 005 emplacement, his face pale. He turned to look in the direction of 013, but didn't touch the release cover.

AM relay channel.

Someone spoke in a low voice from the Bonebreaker.

"This time it's different. There are figures, and there's a distress signal. The 010 looks like a standard formation vehicle. No turret, no weapon system."

The adjutant of the slaughterhouse accessed the shared surveillance footage from the rear and scanned the exterior of 010.

"The vehicle body surface is unarmed. There are no dismantling rollers. There are no explosive cords. There is no recovery well structure."

Control room of Base 04. The technician displays the external scan results of 010 on the large screen.

"Confirmed - 010 surface structure conforms to the old Blue Star standard formation car specifications. No obvious trap features."

The old engineer didn't speak. His fingers remained on the table, unmoved.

Tang Lan's voice came in on channel 013.

"Su Yuan, should we try hooking it halfway first?"

There was a two-second silence in the driver's cab.

The seven hooks of 010 slowly unfolded under the cool white light. The seven hooks faced different directions—not aligned with a single point, but spread out.

The first hook aimed at the front beam of the Desolate Ship.

The second hook points toward the third guide frame.

The third hook is number 013.

The fourth hook is attached to the 005 tail anchor.

Fifth hook lock fuel rack.

The sixth hook is a mobile refining furnace.

The seventh hook faces the hoisting arm.

At the top of the assembly hall, more than a dozen overhead cranes simultaneously lowered half a meter. The steel cables were taut, and hooks hung from the ceiling, working in conjunction with the transmission gears to push 010 into the middle section of the Devourer train.

The countdown has started.

"Thirty seconds. If you refuse to register, the lead vehicle (vehicle number 001) will be deemed to be illegally overloaded, and passageway 23 will be closed."

Tang Lan pressed the brake lever down another half step. "Su Yuan?"

Su Yuan did not look at those figures.

"Pinkish-gray".

Wang Hu was already moving. He grabbed the lime bag from the passenger side armrest and flipped himself onto the outer beam.

The first handful of powder was sprinkled below the window of car 010.

Fine white powder fell onto the exterior wall of the car. It stuck for a second. Then it started moving.

It wasn't blown by the wind. There was no wind.

The dust particles were drawn downwards along the surface of the 010 vehicle by a uniform suction force, flowing towards the bottom edge of the windows. Then they disappeared into the bottom of the seats—a row of extremely fine crevices.

It was inhaled.

The second application. It was sprinkled in the gap between the bottom wheelset and the chassis of the 010. The powder didn't disperse normally; instead, it flowed into the interior of the carriage. The direction was uniform.

"Slow fire. Thermal imaging."

The small scanning light from the front of the control panel lit up. The infrared image was projected onto the main screen.

The figure behind the car window—completely black. Zero heat source.

not human.

The human figure shows no temperature characteristics in thermal imaging; it is as cold as the seats and car walls.

But the area under the seat is different.

Beneath the seat base, there are a dozen or so dark silver cold spots. The temperature is four to five degrees Celsius lower than the ambient temperature. The temperature fluctuates periodically. Every three to four seconds, the area of ​​the cold spot expands and then contracts.

Expand. Contract. Expand. Contract.

"The person isn't in their seat," Su Yuan said. "The item is in the seat."

The AM relay channel went down.

Tang Lan tightened her grip on the brake lever. She didn't ask any further questions.

In the control room of Base 04, the veteran engineer leaned forward halfway from his chair. He zoomed in on the thermal imaging image, staring at the fluctuating rhythm of the cold spots. His brows furrowed.

"Dark Silver Cold Spot. Cyclical Fluctuations," he murmured.

The technician looked at him.

The old engineer didn't say the rest. But his fingers unconsciously clenched on the table.

The Devourer did not move.

The countdown is still going on. Twenty-two seconds.

Su Yuan turned to look at the outer beam.

"010 Assembly line edge. Are there any steel plates?"

Wang Hu reacted in half a second. The front-mounted road sign recovery claw extended from the front end of the outer beam, and the magnetic light swept across the bottom edge of the assembly line with low power.

Have.

A thin sheet of steel, bent under the weight, is stuck in the gap between the conveyor gears and the ground. It wasn't on the track; it was brought in by the gears and then thrown to the side.

The retrieval claw picked it up. Wang Hu handed it into the observation port.

Low-light scanning with a small flame.

Scratches. Handmade. Uneven pressure. From the same source as the previous pieces.

The words appeared one by one on the main screen.

"Don't take a full set; the chairs will recognize the keys."

No one spoke in the driver's cab.

Little Fire's claws drew a line on the control panel. It retrieved the frequency characteristics of the cold spot at the bottom of the 010 seat and compared it with several key items carried by the Devourer.

The first one is eye-catching—the Great Wall certification insert.

The second one is interesting—calibration ammunition.

The third one is eye-catching—the second compartment from the right in compartment 005.

All three frequency groups are matched.

"The bottom structure of the seat is not a load-bearing component." The analysis result from Little Torch was displayed next to the main screen. "It's a parasitic identification clamp. Once 010 is engaged in the group, the clamp will lock onto these three frequency sources, and initiate retrieval upon physical contact."

On the AM relay channel, the man who had just suggested attaching the vehicle to the Bonebreaker closed his mouth.

The slaughterhouse adjutant withdrew his hand from the table.

Control room of Base 04. The veteran engineer leaned back in his chair.

"Medical bay, ammunition rack, fuel buffer." He read aloud the three functions mentioned on the radio.

Then he shook his head.

"They're all bait."

Fourteen seconds left in the countdown.

The transmission gears of car 010 accelerated. The entire car moved towards the direction of the "Devouring Wasteland" formation, and the seven-point coupling opened to its maximum angle. The top rail hanger pressed down simultaneously, and the steel cable pulled the roof of car 010 from above, aligning it with the coupling gap between the third car and car 013.

010 requires forced affiliation.

The Devourer did not retreat.

"Eight cables," Su Yuan said.

All eight cable outlets release simultaneously. The steel cable is thrown out. It's not a 010 cable.

The first cable is secured to the base of the left-side top beam of the assembly hall. The second cable is hooked onto the right-side top beam. The third to sixth cables are respectively locked to the column bases of the four final assembly fixtures. The seventh cable is hooked onto the housing of the main drive shaft of the transmission gear. The eighth cable is stretched towards the spare parts rack fixing post at the end of the assembly line.

The crane boom is fully extended. The 010 roof-mounted lifting lug is loosely attached. The goal isn't to pull it over, but to control its direction.

Number 013, Tang Lan's voice. "Half-hugging to death."

Number 005, the young survivor held down the protective pod. The silenced dart dropped three inches.

The prefabricated rail sections of the No. 10 station bridge module popped out from under the train and inserted into the ground anchor holes on both sides of the main rail. The entire train was then anchored in place.

The moment 010 rushed over.

Su Yuan pulled the swirl.

All eight cables were tightened simultaneously. A tearing sound came from the welds on the top beams on both sides of the assembly hall. The hoisting arm applied a lateral force to 010 from above.

010 was pulled off course.

Half a meter.

The entire carriage veered off track from the gap between the train sets, the seven-point coupling grazed the outer wall of the third carriage, sending a string of sparks flying from the metal scraping, and then—

It crashed into the empty space of the adjacent final assembly fixture.

The clamping column closed automatically. The 010 vehicle body was held in place by the positioning guide wheels on both sides. The transmission gear, having lost its load, spun twice before stopping.

010 has stopped.

It's stuck in the final assembly fixture. The hook is hanging in the air, not holding anything.

The countdown has reached zero.

The broadcast content changed. The tone became faster.

"Train carriage 010 failed to dock. Relocate."

010 The undercarriage drive shaft begins to reverse, trying to pull itself out of the clamp.

Su Yuan didn't give it a chance.

"Refining furnace. Receive materials at the entire station."

The mobile refining furnace switched from a low-frequency hum to a high speed. Four dark gold conduits extended from the side of the furnace body.

The first probe pierced the seam of the right-side outer shell panel of 010. It didn't puncture, but rather cut along the weld. The entire outer shell panel was peeled off and rolled into the bucket area by the material receiving rail.

The second bolt securing the bottom wheel assembly bearing seat of the 010 is screwed in. Then it is pulled out. All four wheels, along with their bearings, detach and slide into the bucket.

The third cut went into the edge of the roof vent and lifted off the antenna mount, hanger, and vent cover as a whole.

The fourth one stopped at the edge of the seating area. No further investigation was done.

"Don't touch the seat," Su Yuan said.

The dark gold conduit bypasses the seating area, with only the outer shell frame, bottom crossbeam, coupling base, and roof longitudinal beams being removed.

The outer shell of 010 was peeled off layer by layer.

Under the cool white light, the seating area was exposed.

There are a dozen or so seats. Each seat has something "sitting" on it.

human form.

But it's not a person.

Lead sheet. Grayish-white. A thin layer, pressed into the outline of a human body. The proportions of the head, torso, and limbs are present, but there are no facial features. Inside the lead sheet sheath—a black condensate tube.

A thin tube extends from the bottom of the seat, passes through the "spine" of the lead leather cover, forks at the "chest cavity", and is connected to an extremely fine magnetic needle at the end.

The magnetic needle is facing outwards.

Switch the heat to close-range scanning. The frequency lock-in range of the magnetic needle is completely consistent with the three sets of frequencies detected previously.

Great Wall certified insert. Calibration cartridge. Second compartment from the right in 005.

"Live detection decoy." Little Torch displayed the conclusion on the main screen. "Inanimate object. Lead sheaths and condensate tubing create a humanoid thermal shield. Warm yellow lights on the car windows create a visual silhouette. An old speaker plays pre-recorded audio to simulate a distress call."

nobody.

There was no one there from beginning to end.

On channel 013, the injured person who had asked "Are there people in the carriage outside?" did not speak again.

The AM relay channel was silent for three seconds.

Base 04 Control Room. Lu Mingyuan straightened up from in front of the console.

"010 Fully loaded carriages - classified as pollution inducers. Coupling is prohibited."

His voice was broadcast across all channels.

The veteran engineer added, "The carriage identification and archiving system will be downgraded. All 'complete carriages' pushed out from the platforms will undergo the same level of review."

The person who modified the map on the Bonebreaker made a move at the bottom of the channel. The label on carriage 010 changed from "Supplies Available" to the red "Contaminated".

Inside the assembly hall.

The refining furnace on the Devourer never stopped.

The 010's outer shell frame, wheel assembly, coupling base, roof longitudinal beams, and bottom crossbeams—all structural components not involving the seating area—were removed and fed into the bucket.

At the same time, the tightening of the eight cables also loosened the assembly fixtures on both sides of the assembly line.

Wang Hu jumped down from the outer beam and took three steps to the nearest assembly fixture. He patted the fixture's upright column. Solid. Good steel.

"You're demolishing this too?"

"dismantle."

The lifting boom swings back. The three teeth of the gripper latch engage the top of the column in the first set of clamps. Wang Hu uses a thermal break to crack the weld at the bottom. The entire column is pulled out and placed onto the slide rail.

Group 2. Group 3.

The clamps on both sides of the assembly line were removed one by one. Positioning guide wheels, hydraulic positioning pins, load-bearing crossbeams, and rotary lock seats—all were put into the furnace.

After the steel cable of the top rail spreader was cut, the spreader itself was also dragged down. Heavy-duty pulleys, bearing assemblies, hook seats, and load-bearing rails were also involved.

The temperature at the furnace opening of the refining furnace stabilized at 900 degrees Celsius. The side chute began to discharge parts.

Group 1.

Modular hollow frame with hanging frame.

The lightweight frame structure has the same exterior as the standard carriage frame, but the interior is completely empty. There are no seats, no interior trim, and no wiring. It's purely a load-bearing frame with four standard mounting points and two quick-release lock positions on the outside.

The maintenance team took it. Two men lifted the mounting frame and attached it to the new armor on the damaged area of ​​the right outer wall of Unit 013. Locking pins were inserted into the holes. Four bolts. Unit 013 now had an additional layer of support frame on its outer wall.

Second Group.

Reserved compartment for isolated carriages.

The small, enclosed compartment has an inner wall entirely made of lead-boron composite. Its size is just enough to cover the outside of the second cargo compartment on the right of cargo ship 005. Unlike the previous protective compartment, the inner wall of this reserved compartment has an additional anti-identification treatment—a shielding layer deduced from the frequency characteristics of the magnetic needle in the 010 seating area.

The young survivor took the reserved compartment from behind the tailgate of No. 005 and, together with the veteran mechanic, fitted it onto the outside of the second cargo compartment on the right. Double-sealed. The outer wall temperature reading was zero.

The stress in the 005 tail beam decreased from 21.4 to 19.6.

The young survivor's hand loosened from the pod for two seconds, then pressed back down.

Group 3.

Road sign recovery unmanned vehicle cabin.

The miniature garage module has two internal slots, just enough to hold two spare magnetic pathfinding trolleys. A signal relay antenna and charging port are pre-installed on the bulkhead.

Wang Hu welded the cabin to the reserved position on the right outer beam of the Devourer. Two spare trolleys were then inserted.

Group 4.

Anti-seat identification with lead-boron interlayer.

Thin sheet metal components. Interference layers reverse-engineered from the lead leather sleeve and magnetic needle structure inside the 010 seat. Attached to key nodes on the outer shell of the Great Wall certified insert, the shock-absorbing groove of the calibration bullet, the outer wall of the 005 reserved cabin, and the outer side of the Zhenshan core energy guiding tube.

The interference spectrum of the lead-boron interlayer and the locking frequency of the 010 magnetic needle are superimposed on each other by the small flame. They are completely misaligned.

"All three frequency sources are now in a shielded state. Similar identification fixtures cannot lock onto them."

Group 5.

Quick-release locking beam for final assembly.

The heavy-duty locking beam is recast from the load-bearing crossbeams and swivel lock seats of the final assembly fixture. It can be quickly secured between any two cars, providing an additional rigid connection. It does not replace the coupling, but shares lateral forces when the coupling reaches its limit.

The two locking beams are installed between the third section and No. 013, and between No. 013 and No. 005, respectively.

The bolts are locked in place.

The lateral stiffness of the entire train formation has been improved by a significant margin.

The refining furnace stopped after discharging the last component from its side chute. The furnace opening temperature dropped from 900 to the standby temperature of 300.

The assembly hall has been completely demolished.

The central assembly line was reduced to nothing but the conveyor gear rails on the ground and a few broken bolts that hadn't been collected yet. The positions of the final assembly fixtures were all empty holes. Only broken pieces remained on the top rail hangers.

Carriage 010 – Only the seating area remains.

A dozen or so human-shaped lead-skin covers lay askew on the exposed seat frames, with black condensate pipes leaking liquid from the broken ends, flowing down the ground.

Su Yuan did not allow the refining furnace to touch these things.

"I won't eat. I'm isolating."

Wang Hu placed the last old baffle piece removed from the final assembly fixture around the 010 wreckage, leaving a three-meter distance between it and the main rail.

As the Devourer fleet passed by the wreckage of 010, Xiao Huo's scanning light remained fixed on the lead sheaths.

The cold spots are still fluctuating.

Expand. Contract. Expand. Contract.

But the frequency has changed. It's half a beat faster than before.

The Devourer sailed towards the end of the assembly hall.

23号站方向的通路大门已经打开了。不是系统主动开的——010挂靠失败后，倒计时归零的三十秒强制封锁并没有生效。因为苏元用校準弹反相信号干扰了21号站的控制频段，而21号和22号共用同一组底层管控协议。

The blocking authority for number 22 was also removed.

The main door was wide open. The cold white light shone from the back of the assembly hall, illuminating the first thirty meters of the main track ahead.

The main screen refreshes.

The color of station number 22 was changed from red to gray.

Gray. The color of a discarded platform.

The moment the Devourer's engine crossed the threshold of the gate, there was movement inside the unmanned vehicle cabin where the road sign was being retrieved.

The signal relay antenna on the bulkhead received a packet. It wasn't a transmission from the reconnaissance vehicle; it flew in from the outside. A physical delivery.

Wang Hu opened the side cover of the car cabin.

A thin sheet of steel lay in the receiving trough at the bottom of the hold. It hadn't come back from the down rail—it had been scooped up by the recovery claw during material handling from the assembly hall floor, stuck in the gaps of the final assembly fixtures, and was sieved out during the refining furnace sorting process.

Low-light scanning with a small flame.

Engravings. Handmade. Deeper. With more force.

The words appeared one by one on the main screen.

"Main material warehouse No. 23 is empty; the materials are in the movable wall."

The next line. The text is even smaller. It's crooked.

"Don't let 010 sit on it."

Wang Hu finished reading the line. The cigarette butt at the corner of his mouth stopped.

He turned his head to look at the rear of the car.

Deep inside the assembly hall.

The wreckage of 010.

Those human-shaped lead suits—

Sit up straight.

A dozen or so lead-clad figures simultaneously straightened from their crooked positions to standard sitting postures. Heads facing forward. Hands resting on the armrests. Black condensate gushed from the broken pipe, no longer seeping, but flowing.

The liquid did not spread after landing.

Climb along the conveyor gear rails on the assembly line floor toward the rear of the Devourer vehicle.

It's not fast, but its direction is precise.

"Direction 005." The young survivor's voice came through the channel.

He peered back through the tailgate observation port.

The leading edge of the black liquid was about fifteen meters behind the No. 005 tail anchor, creeping forward along the gaps and bolt holes of the main rail surface.

"Cavity temperature—" He glanced down at his watch.

"Stable. The lead-boron interlayer is effective. It hasn't seeped in."

Su Yuan stepped on the gas.

The Devourer is accelerating.

The speed jumped from 15 to 40, then 50, then 60.

The assembly hall doors rushed past the car windows. The cold white lights were left behind.

On channel 013, Tang Lan released the brake halfway to accelerate. The third recliner lock struggled but didn't trigger the alarm. The 005 silencer swung two inches due to acceleration inertia.

75. Stable cruise.

The small fire's scanning light shone back one last time.

On the assembly hall floor, the leading edge of the black condensate stopped at the threshold of the door. No one chased after it.

But those lead-lined covers remained seated.

On the empty seat frame. In the wreckage of 010, its outer shell completely removed. Sitting upright.

The cold white lights went out. The assembly hall sank back into darkness.

Next to the gray marker for station number 22 on the main screen, Xiao Huo added a note.

"Seating area 010 is identified as having active contamination residue. The lead leather cover has the ability to adjust its posture autonomously. The black condensate has directional tracking characteristics."

Wang Hu climbed back into the passenger seat from the outer beam. He wiped the lime powder on his hands on his trouser leg and put the cigarette butt back in his mouth.

"That time you sat up straight—" He paused, then continued, "Was it aimed at 005?"

Su Yuan did not turn around.

His gaze fell on the main screen.

The green dots of the three magnetic tracing vehicles are still running on the downward branch track. The first one has already gone 500 meters, and the scrapes on the steel plates on the track are still visible in the transmitted images, but the spacing has increased. The second and third vehicles are advancing alternately behind.

Then something new appeared in the feed from the second receiver.

It's not a steel sheet. It's not a scratch.

It's a wheel mark.

A tire track wider than the narrow-gauge tire tracks of 009 lay on top of the scratches on the 009 road sign. Direction—from bottom to top. Coming up against the flow from deep within the Great Wall's main road.

The wheel tracks are very new. The metal scraps on the edges haven't rusted yet.

The second scout vehicle's camera followed the wheel tracks for twenty meters. The tracks crossed from the left side of the track to the right and then back again. It wasn't traveling in a straight line; it was scanning left and right.

Searching.

They are looking for any remaining steel fragments on the rail surface.

"The vehicle traveling in the wrong direction is still moving." The small torch illuminated the wheel tracks as a red dotted line on the main screen. "Direction of movement—continuously upward. Current location approximately 140 meters from the downward fork."

The distance is getting shorter.

That thing is climbing upwards. It's climbing towards the main orbital plane where the Devourer is located.

Wang Hu stared at the red dotted line for two seconds.

"It ate the fourth car. Now it's going up."

Su Yuan moved his right hand off the steering wheel and pressed it on the ejection control lever for recovering the unmanned vehicle cabin.

Two backup scout vehicles are still on standby in the cabin.

He did not eject.

My hand remained on the control lever.

On the main screen, the sign for station number 23 shines through the darkness ahead.

There were no lights. There were no announcements. There were no directional signs.

There was only one iron plaque.

The headlights shone on it.

The words on the iron plate were projected onto the main screen by a small flame.

"Main material warehouse No. 23 - inventory has been transferred. Please locate it yourself."

The line of smaller characters below was carved on later using a sharp tool. (Crooked. Urgent.)

"The wall can move."