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

The Devourer was traveling at 60 kilometers per hour, and the antenna on the tracking relay frame on the roof trembled slightly in the dark.

In the bottom right corner of the main screen, the marker for the fourth scout vehicle changed from gray to red. The two words in the status bar were striking: "Captured." Capturer ID: 011.

Wang Hu stared at the giant hook in the remaining frame of the image. The hook was twice as thick as the one the Devouring Wasteland's original hook was holding. The cigarette butt at the corner of his mouth lingered for three seconds without turning away.

"011," he read it aloud.

Tang Lan's breathing paused for a beat on channel 013. The brake lever remained in the semi-locked position, never releasing.

At position 005, the young survivor's first reaction wasn't to look at the main screen; he turned to glance at the temperature gauge on the outer wall of the protective compartment. The reading on the lead-boron pre-reserved compartment's outer wall was normal. He then placed his hand back on the outer wall of the compartment.

Nobody mentioned decoupling.

The small fireball pushed the spectrum archive of the last frame of the fourth car into the underlying cache. The claw remained still on the console.

"011 Current location cannot be accurately determined. Last signal appeared 80 meters from the downlink junction. Reversing direction upwards."

Su Yuan did not slow down.

Three hundred meters ahead, the darkness began to thin. It wasn't the lights—it was the reflection from the tracks. The large, polished metal surface bounced the light from the train's headlights back, blindingly bright.

Recycling turntable station number 24.

There is no long corridor. There is no entrance dome. There are no guiding light strips as standard in the previous stations.

A massive circular platform, over fifty meters in diameter, is embedded in the center of the track. Twelve short tracks radiate outwards from the platform's center, arranged at equal intervals. Each short track ends differently—a recycling trough, material racks, a bottomless unloading pit in the darkness, or a semi-enclosed sorting bin.

The turntable did not spin.

The bus stop sign is on the left, half-collapsed, the steel frame crooked, and half of the old words "Recycling Turntable" are rusted away. The line of text below is not original; it was engraved with a sharp tool. The force is uneven, and the strokes are of varying depths. It shares the same origin as the hand-engraved marks on the 009 steel plate.

"Don't chase the car, grab the roundabout."

The small scanning light swept across the center of the turntable.

"The turntable's central structure features a high-strength thrust bearing, an old Blue Star military-grade bearing with a diameter of 1.6 meters. It also includes a heavy-duty rotating gear ring with a module of 14 and 120 teeth. Twelve sets of rail-mounted locking pins correspond to twelve short rails. Four waste sorting hoppers are made of cast iron, with intact wear-resistant inner walls."

It displays the bill of materials in the sidebar of the main screen.

"Both can be directly used for upgrading the chassis of the Devourer".

Wang Hu's cigarette butt finally turned.

The Devourer slowed to thirty deceleration. As its headlights swept across the outer guardrail of the turntable, the metal surface shimmered. The entrance markers for the twelve short rails were illuminated sequentially—Recycling Line 1, Sorting Line 2, Unloading Line 3… But by the eighth rail, the markers disappeared. A welded-on iron plate, charred black, blocked the entrance to the short rail.

The loudspeaker came on.

"Emergency Notice - Supply car No. 009 has lost control and is sliding on the downhill main track. The wheels are severely damaged and it is about to derail and disintegrate three kilometers ahead of station No. 24."

The tone was more urgent than at the previous stops.

"Please move vehicle number 001 into the pursuit lane immediately to intercept vehicle 009. The pursuit lane is now open—"

The turntable started moving.

The twelve short rails began to rotate in a staggered manner. The heavy sound of the gears meshing came from the bottom of the platform. The entire turntable slowly rotated counterclockwise, and the short rails passed in front of the Devourer one by one.

Stop when you reach the fourth lap.

Directly ahead of the main track, only a short track with a green light remains—the following track. The green light is stable, the track surface is clean, the guide wheels rise, and the direction is towards the depths of the downstream main track.

Simultaneously, a set of white-light guide arms rises on the right. Three hydraulic arms extend from the edge of the turntable, with magnetic baffles welded to the top, and the words "Safety Temporary Storage 005" are sprayed on the baffles in white.

The broadcast continued.

"The tail anchor car No. 005 and the mobile refining furnace have been detected to exceed the turntable's load-bearing capacity. To ensure the safety of the chase, it is recommended that car No. 005 and the refining furnace be moved to the right-side temporary storage arm. They can be retrieved after the chase is completed."

There are wounded people moving in the communication channel of carriage 013.

"009's wheels are really gone? The road sign says—"

The young survivor didn't reply. He glanced at the temperature of the 005 emplacement, then at the tail boom reading. 18.3. Stable.

On the AM relay channel, someone from the Bonecrusher spoke first. There was hesitation in their voice.

"This time... maybe we should really chase 009? The road sign says 009's wheels are gone, it's like a cry for help."

Base 04 control room.

The technician displayed 009's speed estimate on the large screen. If the wheelset was indeed removed, based on the downhill slope, 009 could glide without power, but the only means of deceleration would be friction. Dismantling was only a matter of time.

Lu Mingyuan frowned. His fingers rested on the table, but he didn't give the order immediately.

On channel 013, Tang Lan stared at the white light on the right, indicating the unloading arm. Her right hand hovered above the release hook protective cover.

I didn't touch it.

The robotic arms on the outer ring of the turntable started moving. Not the group with the white light—but three other hydraulic push arms that rose from the direction of the No. 5 short rail. The push arms had arc-shaped baffles welded to their ends, and they pushed backward along the outer side of the Devourer train formation.

The first push arm grazed the wall armor. A string of sparks flew.

The second pusher arm reached the edge of the expanded layer of the heavy-duty cargo hold. The fourteen boxes of materials wobbled.

The third pusher arm presses directly against the 005 tail anchor.

The tail beam reading jumped from 18 to 21, 22, and 24.

The young survivor's hands were pressed tightly against the protective cabin.

"Twenty-four tail beams!"

The countdown began on the radio.

"If the diversion is not completed within thirty seconds, 009 will completely disintegrate on the downhill main road. The lead vehicle, 001, will bear all the consequences."

Tang Lan's voice cut in from channel 013. Short.

"Su Yuan."

Su Yuan did not look at the green light of the overtaking lane.

"Pinkish-gray".

Wang Hu was already on the outer beam, carrying bags of lime.

The first handful was scattered onto the ground at the entrance to the track. The fine white powder slid along the track surface after landing, flowing deeper into the short rails. It moved quite quickly. At the three-meter mark, the powder changed direction and seeped into the side seams of the track surface.

Below the side seam of the rail is the recycling tank.

The vehicle tracking line leads to the recycling tank.

The second sprinkle was directed below the right-side white light storage arm. The powder didn't stop falling on the magnetic baffle of the storage arm; it flowed down the outer edge of the baffle, along the support of the hydraulic arm, and then flowed backward toward the unloading pit behind the storage arm where the light was not on.

The "Temporary Storage 005" is fake. Going in will only lead you into a trap.

The third time. Sprinkle it on the edge of the turntable.

The dust fell onto the metal surface next to the turntable gear ring.

Didn't move.

It lands wherever it lands. There is no suction. There is no airflow. The tooth gaps of the rotary disc contain only a stable, dark oil stain, the color and viscosity of normal lubricating oil.

Wang Hu squatted on the outer beam and looked for a second.

"The turntable is clean."

Xiao Huo was simultaneously running another set of data. It combined the placement spacing of the 009 road sign steel plates, the transport step length and cycle time of the moving wall toothed rail at station 23, and the angular velocity of the rotation of turntable 24.

The three waveforms were off by half a beat.

It's not random error. It was intentionally marked by 009.

"There is a fixed half-beat offset between the spacing of road sign 009 and the rotation cycle of turntable 24." The superimposed image of the small torch appeared on the main screen. "During each half-beat interval, the number three locking pin of the turntable gear ring will briefly disengage, exposing the bearing bearing surface for 0.6 seconds."

It paused for a moment.

"009 isn't about letting the lead car chase. It's about seizing the axle at the marked turntable window."

There was a moment of silence in the driver's cab.

Su Yuan removed his right hand from the steering wheel.

"The car chase was a hoax. The roundabout was the real thing."

The AM relay channel died for two beats.

The man from the Bonebreaker who had just said "maybe we should chase 009" shut his mouth.

Control room at Base 04. The veteran engineer abruptly leaned forward from his chair. He zoomed in on the overlay image of the small fire to full screen, his finger tracing the intersections of the three waveforms.

"Once the turntable gear is seized, all twelve short rails will lose their switching capability." His finger hovered over the diagram. "Diversion, unloading, and tracking lines—all rendered useless."

Lu Mingyuan glanced at the veteran engineer. Then he switched to the full channel.

"Following the 009 route downgrade. Unverified. All rear support is based solely on actual testing by the Devourer."

In Channel 013, Tang Lan's right hand retracted from above the unhooking protection cover and pressed on the brake lever.

"Half-heartedly embracing death, unchanging."

At direction 005, the young survivor lowered the silencer three inches.

The Devourer released all eight cable outlets simultaneously.

The direction in which the steel cables are thrown out—the first four cables face the turntable.

The first cable is fastened to the base of the first set of track-oriented locking pins on the outer ring of the turntable. The second cable goes around the protruding bushing of the third locking pin. The third cable hooks onto the exposed root of the guide teeth on the gear ring. The fourth cable is attached to the lifting lug of the waste sorting hopper in the center of the turntable.

The last four cables are grouped towards themselves.

Article 5: Secure the 005 silencer sinker fixing stake. Article 6: Lock the 013 tail beam auxiliary lock. Article 7: Hang the newly installed wall armor outer beam hanging point at Station 23. Article 8: Connect the output end of the undercarriage moving wall gear reverse drag device.

Eight cables were stretched into a frame, pulled back and forth. The Devourer was nailed to the edge of the turntable.

The turntable system reacted faster than at the previous stations.

The broadcast speed suddenly doubled.

"Illegal anchoring detected! Locomotive No. 001 is sabotaging core equipment at Station 24!"

The turntable started to accelerate.

The entire 50-meter diameter circular platform suddenly increased its speed, jumping from half a revolution per minute in calibration mode to four revolutions per minute. Twelve short rails sped past in front, the tracking line, temporary storage arm, recovery tank, and unloading pit flashing alternately in the beams of the headlights.

Centrifugal force is transmitted to the Devourer vehicle along the first four cables.

The entire train was pulled laterally.

The front wheels of the Devourer veered off course by half a foot. Carriage 013 was thrown behind, its steel frame creaking as it was thrown. The silencing weight of the 005 stern anchor swung violently from the outer beam. In the heavy-duty cargo hold, fourteen crates of materials rattled back and forth on the expansion rack.

Su Yuan applied the segmented brakes. All four carriages were locked.

However, the torque of the turntable gear ring was too great. The locked wheel slipped sideways on the rail.

"Broad gauge".

Wang Hu reached out from beside the control lever and tapped the release switch in the pre-installed position on the chassis. Four sets of wide-rail obstacle-crossing wheel flanges popped out from the rear chassis, the widened flanges straddling the outer edge of the remaining rails on the turntable. The friction area doubled. The lateral sliding speed decreased sharply.

Tang Lan pressed the brake lever down one degree in the No. 013 compartment.

"Half-hugging to death."

The young survivor moved the 005 silencing pin two inches further. From three inches to five inches. The bottom of the silencing pin dragged on the rail, and a piercing metallic scraping sound came from its tail.

Before Su Yuan could speak, Wang Hu activated the engagement lever of the undercarriage moving wall gear anti-drag device.

The gear drive wheel assembly removed from station 23 was reversed and engaged with the gear ring of turntable 24.

Tooth to tooth.

The moment the anti-tow wheel assembly and the turntable gear meshed, a series of heavy metallic clanging sounds erupted from under the train. The lateral drift of the entire trainset stopped. Not that it came to a complete stop—it was that the anti-tow was absorbing the torque output from the turntable, converting the swaying force into reverse traction.

After being thrown half a meter, the Devourer came to a stop.

The armor plating grazed the outer guardrail of the turntable. Sparks flew all the way. Three white marks were worn into the newly cast lateral pressure-resistant armor plating at Station 23. But the armor plating was thick enough. It wasn't worn.

The tail boom of 005 jumped from 24 to 26. 27. 28.6.

The young survivors' voices tightened.

"Twenty-eight points six!"

She didn't take it off.

The silencing weight dragged a deep groove across the rails. The outer wall of the lead-boron pre-reserved compartment struck a guardrail post, denting the lead plate. However, the inner layer remained undamaged. The temperature reading in the second cargo compartment on the right of 005 remained unchanged.

The turntable was still climbing even after reaching its peak speed. The sound of the drive motor below the gear ring changed, from a low-frequency hum to a sharp screech.

Su Yuan did not wait for it to stop.

"Refining furnace. Low power."

The furnace opening temperature of the mobile refining furnace was increased from 300 to 600 degrees Celsius during standby. This was not at full power.

Two dark gold conduits extend from the side of the furnace body.

The first probe pierced the lubrication chamber of the turntable's central bearing. It wasn't to damage the bearing—it was to extract oil. The gear ring control oil was drawn out by the siphon effect of the dark gold conduit, flowing along the conduit into the sorting trough of the refining furnace.

When the control oil is pumped out, the meshing precision of the gear ring decreases. The turntable begins to vibrate.

The second guide tube was inserted close to the base of the third locking pin. It didn't cut the pin itself, only the locking beam that secures it. The locking beam was made of cast iron, less hard than the pin itself. The high-temperature cut of the dark gold guide tube circled the beam, and the broken edge glowed red.

Simultaneously.

Wang Hu operates the external magazine.

Two low-velocity armor-piercing rounds were ejected from the side opening of the magazine, not in a direct line—they flew horizontally, skimming the surface of the turntable. The first round broke the outer ring's seventh limiting lock beam. The second round broke the eleventh.

After the three limiting locking beams broke, the outer ring of the turntable lost three fixed points. The self-controlled rotation of the entire platform changed from uniform to eccentric. The rotational speed dropped sharply.

All eight cables are tightened simultaneously.

The winch drum operates at full power. Four front cables pull the turntable locking pin, gear ring, and sorting bucket all towards the direction of the "Devouring Wasteland". The entire fifty-meter circular platform is held in place by eight cables, the anti-drag device bites the gear ring, and the wide rail rim nails the edge of the remaining rail.

The turntable turned into a ground anchor.

The system broadcast paused briefly. It seemed like there was a problem with the processing logic—the turntable stopped spinning, all twelve short rails were locked, and the diversion functions of the tracking line, temporary storage arm, and unloading pit were all paralyzed.

When the broadcast resumed, the content had changed.

"Station 24's core structure is damaged. Please proceed immediately—"

He didn't finish speaking.

Because a sound came from deep within the pursuit line.

Heavy. The clanging of metal. The sound of couplings engaging. Not a turntable—it's the car.

In the darkness of the train track, the turntable, slightly off-center, swerved and knocked aside the welded iron plate at the entrance of the eighth short rail. A section of the train's front end peeked out from the gap left by the overturned plate.

Grayish-black. Unpainted. No indicator lights.

The width of the cab is one and a half times that of the Devourer. There is no bucket at the front, only a row of unevenly welded heavy-duty hooks. The largest hook—its diameter is more than twice that of the Devourer's main hook.

Below the hook tip.

The fourth magnetic pathfinding trolley was suspended from the hook, its outer shell deformed by the clamping. The signal light was still flashing. Faint. Red. Flashing intermittently.

"011." The small torch displays the scan data on the main screen.

The sides of the vehicle were covered with thin steel plates. Each plate was held in place by magnetic claws and arranged neatly. The hand-carved marks on the surface of the steel plates were clearly visible under the headlights—they were all road signs dropped by 009.

It was recycled. It was picked up piece by piece from the track by 011.

The 011's chassis is lower. Looking down from the outer beam, Wang Hu could see drag marks on the rails next to the wheelset at the bottom of the 011. They weren't from the 011 itself.

It was left by another car.

The drag marks are the same width as those on the 009 chassis. The marks extend from the underside of the 011 car down into the tracks. There are no wheel tracks. Only scrapes.

The wheels of 009 were removed by it.

The AM relay channel crashed.

The voice of the Bonebreaker's communications officer came through first.

"011 is Qingxin's!"

The fire control officer at the slaughterhouse was a step behind.

"009 isn't out of control, he's being caught by 011. The road sign isn't a distress signal—009 is on the run."

Base 04 control room.

Lu Mingyuan raised his hand from the table and then lowered it again.

The veteran engineer's voice came through the control room channel. A deep, resonant tone.

"011 Retract the road sign. Cut off the information chain. Then use the turntable to divert the lead car into the pursuit line—the pursuit line leads to the recycling tank."

He projected the cross-sectional diagram of the car chase line onto the large screen.

"As soon as the lead truck enters, the turntable reverses, turning the truck-following line into an unloading line. All the materials are swallowed up."

The technician stared at the row of giant hooks in 011. His lips moved, but no sound came out.

Tang Lan didn't speak on channel 013. But she pressed the brake lever down another half degree.

Su Yuan removed his right hand from the steering wheel.

"Don't chase 009. Drag out 011."

Eight-cable reverse-draft winch switching target.

The first four cables remain anchored to the turntable. The last four cables are released and reattached—the fifth cable is detached from the 005 muffler anchor post and thrown toward the exposed front side beam of the 011 vehicle. The sixth cable is detached from the 013 rear beam lock, goes around the turntable lock pin sleeve, and is then attached to the 011 front wheel guide frame.

Adjust the engagement position of the undercarriage reverse drag. Switch from the active tooth of the turntable gear ring to the groove below the short rail that 011 passes through—the groove and the reverse drag module are compatible.

Bite to death.

The crane boom is fully extended. The three teeth of the grabber engage with the weld seam on the side beam of the 011 giant hook. It's not a pull hook—it's a pull cart.

The front of train 011 began to retract. The drive shaft under the train reversed, attempting to retreat into the dark depths of the downward track.

The heavy-duty sweeper is powerful. The drive shaft roars. The wheels slip on the short rails, sending iron filings flying.

But it's on the turntable.

The turntable was locked like a ground anchor by the Devourer. The anti-tow mechanism gripped the teeth tightly. If 011 wanted to retreat, it would mean dragging the entire fifty-meter platform.

It can't be dragged.

011 Lateral offset. Trying to go around to the side via the short track.

Su Yuan spoke.

"Caliber ammunition."

A special ammunition popped out of the side opening of the external magazine. It wasn't an armor-piercing round. It was the "009-ARM-001" calibration round that had been stolen from Ring 20.

The projectile did not launch. The frequency oscillator inside the cartridge case was remotely activated by the small fire, emitting a narrow-frequency pulse. The frequency was the main control frequency band of the No. 20 mobile supply ring—the same as the closed-cycle beat of the 011 heavy hook.

The largest hook at the front of 011 suddenly twitched. The rhythm of the hook's closure was disrupted, and the latch sprang open halfway.

The fourth scout trolley slid off the hook tip.

It bounced twice on the track, the camera flipped upwards, and the signal light changed from red to yellow—it was half-online.

Wang Hu jumped off the outer beam. He rushed to the edge of the turntable in three steps, bent down, and grabbed the fourth car.

The casing is deformed. One of the two magnetic rollers is flattened. But the motherboard is still lit.

"Xiao Si is back." He stuffed the toy car into his arms.

After losing its anchor point, the 011 was pulled halfway out of the vehicle by the crane arm from the side.

The cool white headlights illuminated the entire 011.

It's not a complete carriage.

There was no body shell. No interior. Only the chassis, drive shaft, four sets of wheels, and a whole row of heavy-duty hooks welded to the underframe. The hooks varied in size; the largest was the one that had just lifted the fourth car, and the smallest was still a size thicker than the main hook of the Devourer.

Magnetic claw frames are welded to the side of the vehicle. The frames are full of steel plates used as road signs for 009.

At the bottom, there was a set of road sign recycling magnetic claws hanging on it—not welded on, but modified from old equipment. Half a piece of steel that hadn't been properly collected was still clamped at the end of the claws.

Heavy hook sweeper.

A tool vehicle specifically designed for recovering road signs, clearing information chains, and capturing scout vehicles.

The 011's driveshaft was still struggling. But with half the car body exposed on the turntable, the anti-tow gear biting into the slot, and the crane arm pulling on the side beam, it couldn't back down.

Su Yuan's right hand touched the control panel of the refining furnace.

"Outer side. Only remove the hook."

Dark gold conduits extend from the side of the furnace body.

The first cut entered the root weld of the largest hook in the 011 series. The high-temperature cut followed the weld bead. The entire giant hook, along with its base, detached and was pulled into the bucket area by the material receiving rail.

The heavy-duty buffer spring popped out from under the hook seat. Wang Hu reached out and caught it. There were three springs, each with a diameter larger than his forearm.

The second guide tube hooks onto the fixing bolt of the side magnetic claw holder. Twist. Pull. The entire row of road sign recovery magnetic claws detaches from the 011 vehicle body. The 009 road sign steel pieces are scattered all over the ground.

The third guide tube cuts into the half-assembly of the cleaning cable pulley on the 011 chassis. The cable pulley bearing housing is clamped from both sides by the dark gold guide tube and pulled out as a whole.

The drive shaft of 011 suddenly accelerated to its maximum speed. The wheels screamed on the rails.

It's going to run.

After the giant hook and magnetic claw were removed, the anchoring center of gravity of 011 shifted. The weld of the side beam held by the lifting arm began to tear.

Shards of iron flew out from the weld.

The remaining body of 011 was suddenly ripped apart. The side beam weld broke.

The crane arm's gripper claws held half a broken beam, swaying in the air. The 011 main locomotive, propelled by gravity down the slope, plunged deeper into the ground. The driveshaft reversed at full power. The remaining hooks and chassis disappeared into the darkness of the eighth short rail.

They ran halfway.

But what remains is enough.

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

The giant hook body was recast. Not restored—it was modified. The hook body was split in two, and one half of the material was recast into a giant hook counter-locking hook mount. The purpose of this thing is clear: the next time a giant hook similar to 011 bites, the counter-locking mount can jam the opponent's lock tongue from the inside, preventing it from closing its jaws.

The coupling bracket is welded to the reserved position on the front beam of the Shihuang No. 1. The bolts are then locked in place.

The other half of the hook material and the heavy hook buffer spring are fed into the furnace together. What comes out is a heavy-duty turntable rail catcher—the engagement module of the anti-drag device is expanded from a single tooth width to three adjustable levels, so that it can engage with turntables and toothed rails with different tooth pitches.

The rail catcher is installed next to the undercarriage reverser. Two sets of gears are arranged side by side.

The road sign retrieval magnetic claws are retained as a whole. Three magnetic claws are welded to both sides of the road sign retrieval claws on the front of the vehicle, forming a long-range road sign retrieval magnetic net. The effective grabbing range is extended from two meters to six meters.

The bearing housing of the sweeping cable was disassembled. The bearing was recovered, and the outer shell was recast into four small anti-capture release shells—protective covers that fit over the exploration trolleys. When caught by the giant hook, the outer layer of the release shell will break along a preset fracture line, and the trolley will pop out from the gaps in the broken shell.

Wang Hu straightened part of the deformed outer shell of the fourth car, put on the release cover, and replaced the bent magnetic wheel with a new one. The camera was put back in place. The traffic light changed from yellow to green.

The fourth scout vehicle was reinstalled in the road sign recovery cabin. All four are now green.

The 009 road sign steel pieces scattered on the turntable were all picked up at once by the road sign recycling magnetic mesh and stacked in the storage slot below the headlights of the vehicle.

The small torch scanned the engravings on each of the 009 steel sheets. Finally, the contents of the three sheets were pieced together—

"011 Qingxin. The spacing I left is for the turntable window."

"If you can get the roulette wheel, you can block it."

Don't chase me. Chase the spinning wheel.

The information is complete.

Su Yuan didn't look at the words. He was looking at the spinning wheel.

The refining furnace did not stop.

The dark gold conduit continued to operate. The thrust bearing at the center of the turntable was completely cut out. It was a heavy-duty bearing with a diameter of 1.6 meters, an old Blue Star military-grade bearing; the oil in the lubrication chamber had been drained, but the bearing itself was intact.

The gear ring was peeled off the turntable base. It was a heavy-duty rotating gear ring with 120 teeth and a module of 14. As it rolled along the receiving rail into the bucket area, it struck the bucket frame three times.

The twelve sets of track locking pins were pulled out one by one. The material of the locking pins was harder than any of the existing pins on the Devourer.

The four waste sorting hoppers are collected last. The cast iron hoppers have thick walls and intact wear-resistant layers.

After the refining furnace has completely consumed all the materials, the side slots continuously output parts.

The heavy-duty slewing bearing was reinstalled on the main load-bearing shaft of the rear chassis of the Devourer. The old bearing was replaced and stored in the cargo hold as a spare part. The new bearing has a rated load three times that of the old one.

The gear ring wasn't installed directly; it was too large. It was cut into three arc-shaped gear segments by the refining furnace and stored separately in dedicated slots in the heavy-duty cargo hold. They can be assembled on-site if needed.

The locking pins have been recast into twelve sets of quick-setting rail pins. These are half the length of the original rail-aligning locking pins but have increased rigidity. They can be ejected directly from under the car and inserted into the locking holes on any rail surface.

Two of the cast iron walls of the sorting bins were melted down and recast into new waste collection bins at the bottom of the Devourer. The other two were left as is and hung at the bottom of the heavy-duty cargo hold as spare cast iron.

Station No. 24 has been completely demolished.

All that remained of the turntable was a flat, circular crater. Twelve short rails lay broken at the edge of the crater. The tracking track, the temporary storage arm, and the unloading pit were all gone.

The marker for station number 24 on the small torch has been changed to gray.

On the main screen, all six platforms, from the 19th to the 24th, are grayed out.

AM relay channel.

The people who modified the map on the Bonebreaker have made a move.

He didn't wait for confirmation. He directly grayed out marker 24 and added a note next to it: "System tracking notification invalidated. Marker 009 continues to have priority."

The Slaughterhouse Fire Control Officer posted a comment at the bottom of the channel.

"011 sweeper truck has been confirmed. Any subsequent system prompts claiming that 009 is out of control or requesting assistance will be downgraded to unverified."

Base 04 control room.

Lu Mingyuan leaned back to the front of the stage.

"Standard gray".

The veteran engineer kept an eye on the dark track that 011 had escaped into. He didn't say whether 011 would reappear. But he had saved 011's chassis width, transmission characteristics, and escape direction.

At this moment, Xiao Huo retrieved something from the cache of the fourth scout vehicle.

During the capture, the fourth camera continued recording. The footage was mostly obscured by the vehicle body of 011, and local buffering continued writing even after the signal was interrupted.

The last scene.

The timestamp was forty-seven seconds after the signal was lost. The camera was hanging below the giant hook at the time, angled downwards and slightly to the left.

Another car appeared in the picture.

It's not 011.

It is 009.

009 was dragged past station 24 on the short track next to 011. The wheels were indeed gone. The positions of the four wheelsets were empty, with only broken axles remaining.

But 009 did not stop.

Four things protruded from under the chassis. They were metal strips, bent at the ends, and roughly welded. Temporary skids. Not standard parts. They were welded on-site using materials available on the vehicle.

009 lay sprawled on the four skids, sliding forward along the tracks. No power source; only the gradient and inertia. Direction—Station 25.

The last three seconds of the video.

A thin steel sheet popped out from a gap in the chassis of 009. The ejection force was greater than the previous releases, and the steel sheet tumbled twice in the air before landing on the rails.

The last frame of the small torch is zoomed in.

There was blood on the steel sheet. Not splattered—it was from the engraving process. The marks were deeper than on any of the previous steel sheets. The force was great. It was rushed. The hand was shaking.

Two lines of text.

"No. 25 rail casting furnace, don't let 011 enter the furnace first."

The second line is even shorter. The handwriting is crooked. The last two characters were engraved through the steel sheet.

"It wants to forge itself into a new wheel."

Wang Hu pulled the cached image of the fourth car down from the main screen. He stared at the two lines of text. The cigarette butt at the corner of his mouth was gone—he didn't know when it had fallen off.

From direction 005, the young survivor couldn't see the main screen. But he heard the silence of everyone in the channel.

Tail boom reading 19.2. Stable. His hand did not leave the hull.

The speed of the Devourer was reduced to 65 km/h.

The track ahead is going downhill. Station 25 is not yet visible.

On the main screen's downlink branch track, three exploration vehicles were relaunched. The green light dot moved forward at a constant speed.

New marks are starting to appear on the rails. They're not scratches, and they're not steel plates.

is blood.

Intermittent dark bloodstains. The gaps between them are getting wider. They extend forward along the drag marks left by the 009 skid.