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

The Devourer didn't leave.

Su Yuan pressed his left foot on the clutch, bringing the car's speed to ten. The Zhenshan core's output dropped to the idle range, and the dark gold flames from the exhaust pipe shrank to a thin line. The newly installed wheel tooth anti-slip blocks made a soft, grinding sound on the rails, but the car body barely moved.

The headlights illuminated the lingering reddish heat of the casting furnace dome. The vibration still lingered in the dark groove at the bottom of the furnace.

Wang Hu crouched down at the very front of the outer beam and shone his flashlight downwards. The baffle of the concealed channel was warped by the 011 shell fragments, leaving a small gap through which the light could only penetrate halfway.

The sound of wheels.

Slow. Heavy. Evenly spaced.

It's not 011—the 011's differential has been removed, and the wheelset has no power. It's not a Hound—the Hound's chassis has a narrow track, causing a high-frequency vibration when running. This sound is broad and deep, with extremely short pauses between each beat, a characteristic of heavy-load, low-speed driving.

"The height is wrong." Wang Hu tilted his head. "It's shorter than 011. At most, it's 1.2 meters."

Comparison of the vibration spectrum of the small torch cart with the wheel track data of known vehicles at Station 25. "Wheel track 1400 mm. Four axles, eight wheels. Load class—heavy-duty transport flatcar."

It paused for a moment.

"Non-combat vehicles."

Tang Lan's voice cut in from channel 013. "No matter what it is, keep the formation going." The brake lever was pressed into the semi-locked position, the old posture.

At direction 005, the young survivor, without waiting for a reply, reported: "Cavity 17 degrees. Tail boom 18.1 degrees. Normal."

His hand remained on the outer wall of the lead-boron pre-reserved compartment. The seal on the second cargo compartment from the right hadn't been touched.

Su Yuan neither accelerated nor retreated.

The car is traveling at a speed of 10. Wait.

The sound of wheels in the chute grew closer. Every two seconds, a dull thud could be heard as the wheel rim rolled over the seam of the old rails. They were coming up in reverse. Slowly.

Wang Hu's flashlight beam shone into the gap in the dark groove, illuminating a section of the front of the car.

Low. Flat. Unpainted. No lights. The roof is completely open, topped with two giant cylinders secured to the frame by thick chains. The cylinders have visible casting patterns on their surfaces. Wheel molds.

The white lettering on the side of the car was mostly covered by oil stains, and Wang Hu had to adjust the angle of his flashlight twice to see it clearly.

"012 wheel model transfer vehicle".

He read it aloud.

The train carried more than just wheel molds. Several bundles of new sleepers were crammed horizontally into the gap between the two giant wheel molds. The sleepers were bundled into square bundles with wire; the edges were chipped, but the cross-sections of the steel still gleamed silver. New.

A small scan confirms: "The vehicle is unpowered—it is moving backwards using gravity due to the slope. It is estimated that the hidden compartment will be pushed open and the entire vehicle will emerge from the hole in forty seconds."

No one was speaking in the channel.

Su Yuan moved his right hand from the steering wheel to the edge of the storage slot. The last piece of steel was inserted in the foremost position.

"Don't take the visible tracks at station number 26, go to the hidden side."

He didn't touch the steel sheet. He simply shifted his gaze from the culvert to the front.

Five hundred meters ahead. A structure begins to appear in the darkness—the outline of an arched steel beam at the top. Station 26.

The loudspeaker came on.

It's not the frequency of station 25—station 25 is dead. It's the frequency of station 26 ahead.

"Emergency Notice - Car 012, which is malfunctioning on the lower level of the No. 25 rail casting furnace, is out of control and moving upwards. It weighs over forty tons. Its current path will intersect with the rear of the No. 001 lead car train."

It paused for half a second.

"To ensure the safety of the train formation, please have car number 001 immediately move into the open-track high-speed maintenance line at station number 26. The open track is now fully open, and the guiding lights are on."

In the darkness ahead, the lights of station number 26 came on.

The embedded light strips along the entire track illuminated simultaneously, casting a white light from both sides of the track surface, making the steel rails translucent. The track surface was spotless—not just clean, but polished. The intense reflection illuminated the outline of the dome fifty meters ahead.

The broadcast continued.

"At the same time, it was detected that the weight of the tail anchor car No. 005 and the mobile refining furnace exceeded the open rail bearing capacity threshold. To ensure safe passage at high speed, it is recommended that No. 005 and the refining furnace be diverted to the right-side protective temporary storage arm."

On the right side, a three-section hydraulic boom rises from the side wall of the entrance to Station 26. The magnetic baffle at the boom end is sprayed with the words "005 Pollution Isolation Protection" in white.

The voice of the Bonebreaker's communicator came through first on the AM relay channel. Urgent.

"012—Is it really going to crash? A 40-ton wheeled model vehicle crashes into the tail beam of vehicle 005—"

Control room of Base 04. The technician substituted the 012 tonne and the current slope into the formula. The result was displayed on the large screen.

"If 012 were to collide head-on with the 005 tail anchor with gravitational acceleration, the peak value of the tail boom would exceed 35 at any moment."

The old engineer's fingers stopped on the table.

Inside unit 013, Tang Lan remained silent. She placed her left hand on the wounded soldier's restraints and tightened them half a turn. The two still-mobile operators simultaneously checked the IV stand's locking mechanism. It was a conditioned reflex.

The sound of 012's wheels grew closer.

The hidden compartment panel began to be pushed up. A deep, continuous sound of metal bending came from under the car.

At direction 005, the young survivor's throat tightened.

"Tail beam 18.3 - unchanged."

He was reporting the current data, but his eyes were looking behind him—in the direction of the hidden channel.

Wang Hu squatted on the outer beam and glanced back at Su Yuan.

Su Yuan didn't see the broadcast notification about the track lighting strip. He also didn't see the temporary storage arm on the right.

He was looking at the angle from which 012 emerged from the top of the dark channel.

"Slow down the fire. Four units go out. Two use the exposed tracks. Two use the concealed tracks."

The road sign recovery pod popped open. Four magnetic exploration trolleys rolled out, their newly fitted anti-capture and release shells flashing in the afterglow of the dome. Two trolleys sped straight toward the entrance to the No. 26 open track. Two glided low along the edge of the hidden chute.

On the open track, the first trolley mounted the polished rail. The magnetic wheels moved along the inside of the rail. Under the light strip, the camera feed was crystal clear—the rail was indeed clean, with no side suction and no dust being swallowed.

The second camera followed, reaching a position of fifteen meters. The image stabilized.

The communications officer for the Bonebreaker hesitated. "This time...not sucking up the powder and ash?"

The technician at Base 04 frowned as well. He compared the weight of the small vehicle to the full load of the Devourer. His lips moved slightly, but no sound came out.

Wang Hu was already moving. He was holding a bag of lime. He threw the first handful towards the entrance of the light rail.

White powdery dust fell to the ground. It spread out. It spread evenly across the polished surface.

It wasn't sucked away.

There is no side seam roll-up.

It lay there quietly, bathed in the glow of the LED strip lights, its surface gleaming white.

A technician from the support team whispered in the rear channel, "That area around 009... could it be a mistake this time?"

No one picked up.

The sound of 012's wheels grew closer. The hidden groove baffle was pushed even more crooked.

Su Yuan spoke up.

"knock."

One word.

Wang Hu stuffed the lime bag back into his waistband. He grabbed a wrench with his right hand. He squatted down at the very front of the outer beam, the end of the wrench pointing towards the surface of the exposed rail.

knock.

Metal colliding. Echo—

Crisp. Empty.

It's not the heavy echo of a solid track. It's the sound of a hollow cavity beneath a thin shell. It's clear and bright, and decays extremely quickly.

Wang Hu didn't raise his hand. He knocked again.

The same crisp sound. The same hollow sound.

He put the wrench away.

"Shell".

Su Yuan moved his right foot from the accelerator to the brake.

"Low heat. New gear teeth. Press down half an inch."

Xiao Huo remotely controlled the first exploratory trolley. The trolley stopped ten meters from the open track, the magnetic wheels locked, and the trolley tipped over. The newly installed anti-slip blocks on the bottom of the wheel teeth adhered to the surface of the open track, applying a very small downward pressure.

Half an inch.

Just half an inch.

A sound came from below the track.

Fine, dense. The clicking sound of gears tightening.

Little Fire's claws paused on the control panel.

"Eight centimeters below the rail surface—the three-layer reverse motion structure is activated. Load trigger threshold: pressure on the front wheels of the fully loaded trolley. The trolley's weight is insufficient for full activation, but the preload mechanism has responded."

It displays the cross-sectional projection on the main screen.

"The main body of the track is a hollow shell, with three layers of reverse-closing wheel-stripping cutter assemblies installed inside. When a fully loaded vehicle presses down on it, the shell collapses, and the cutter assemblies close from both sides, peeling off the outer ring of the wheel assembly."

The AM relay channel was down for three seconds.

The technician from the Bonebreaker who previously asked, "Could 009 be wrong?"—is now silent.

The fire control officer at the slaughterhouse directly changed the label at the bottom of the channel. The exposed track changed from white to red. Next to it was a line of text: "Remove wheel speed measuring cable. Verified."

Control room at Base 04. The veteran engineer displayed a full-screen view of the exposed rail section. The structural diagram of the three-layer reverse cutter assembly occupied the entire wall.

He looked at it for two seconds.

"Dust doesn't stick because it doesn't need to. It doesn't rely on suction—it relies on gravity. As long as a wheel runs over it, it physically closes up."

Lu Mingyuan stood up.

"Track No. 26 (open track) - highlighted in red. 009 (covert hint) - confirmed valid."

On channel 013, Tang Lan pulled her right hand back from the direction of the release cover. She hadn't touched that thing. The brake lever was pressed firmly.

"Half-heartedly embracing death, unchanging."

005 direction. The young survivor lowered the muffler by two inches. Tail boom 18.5. Stable.

The Devourer didn't move. Su Yuan's gaze shifted from the visible track back to the hidden track.

012 pushed open the baffle.

The entire low-profile car slid backward out of the culvert, its four axles and eight wheels rolling over the old rails. The two giant wheel molds, bound together by chains, wobbled but didn't come apart. Several bundles of new sleepers peeked out from the side of the frame, tightly secured with wire.

012 has no power. It relies solely on the slope. After exiting the hidden gully, the slope becomes gentler, and the speed decreases.

The broadcast started again.

"Train No. 012, which is out of control, is still approaching! It is expected to intersect with the rear of train No. 001 in 90 seconds! Please immediately move to the open track to avoid it—"

Su Yuan interrupted the broadcast.

It's not about interrupting with methods—it's about taking action.

"Eight-cable cable".

The first four cables were not thrown towards station 26. They were thrown towards station 012.

The first chain is fastened to the traction ring at the front of the 012 low flatcar. The second chain goes around the wheel mold binding chain base in the middle section of the 012 frame. The third chain hooks onto the old ground anchor hole next to the outlet of the culvert. The fourth chain is hung on the protruding beam of the remaining rail casting furnace base at Station 25.

The last four cables maintain their original configuration: 005 silencer, 013 tail beam lock, wall armor mounting point, and fully loaded rail clamping module.

Eight cables are taut.

The reverse speed of 012 dropped sharply, from two meters per second to 0.3. The chain vibrated, but the wheel mold did not break apart.

The eight cables formed a framework. The Devourer was anchored in the middle, and 012 was anchored at the rear.

"012 is not a car crash," Su Yuan said.

Wang Hu looked down from the outer beam. He stared at the hidden channel that 012 had emerged from. There were oil stains on the old track surface next to the channel opening, extending in a direction that wasn't towards the Devourer, but towards Station 26 ahead.

Low. Narrow. The dark chute exit connects to a low rail running along the wall. It's just wide enough for a Devourer to squeeze through sideways.

Dark side.

"The road is just behind 012." Wang Hu stood up.

The broadcast content changed. The speed increased.

"Warning—Train 001 has illegally anchored a malfunctioning vehicle! This action violates the safety regulations of Station 25—"

No one paid any attention to it.

Su Yuan pulled down the anti-tow coupling rod. The three-stage adjustable gear of the heavy-duty turntable rail catcher under the car popped out and bit into the groove of the old rail at the exit of the hidden groove. Gear to gear. Engaged.

The newly installed wide-rimmed outer ring is rolled onto the edge of the low rail with hidden grooves. The wheel teeth anti-slip blocks bite into the pits and grooves of the old rail surface.

The entire train set began to move laterally.

Instead of taking the main track, they squeezed through the low, dark space next to it.

The roof of the vehicle was only thirty centimeters away from the dome's steel beams. The armor plating scraped against the left rock face. Sparks flew all the way.

Car 013 followed behind. Tang Lan slightly released the brake lever, allowing Car 013 to keep up with the lateral movement of the Devourer. The right-side overhead light strip swept past the window, its white light flashing on the interior wall of Car 013. Nobody was watching.

005's tail anchor finally entered the dark side. The bottom of the silencing bobber dragged along the low rail surface, the sound of metal scraping emanating from the tail. The young survivor's hand remained on the hull. "Tail boom nineteen. Cleared."

012 was being led by the eight cables, following in front of the Devourer—the roles were reversed. It wasn't that 012 was colliding with the rear; rather, 012 was being used as a forward anchor, pressed down on the dark side low rail to test the route for the entire train formation.

A 40-ton wheel model transfer vehicle. Natural ballast.

The lower track on the dark side is half the width of the exposed track. The track surface is unlit, covered in oil stains and old chalk marks. Wang Hu shone his flashlight across it, revealing handwritten writing all over the walls—

"Turning left is a trap."

"Official license".

"Passage is possible after 012".

The handwriting is from the same source as the 009 steel plate. The strokes vary in depth and pressure, and some areas still bear dried dark marks.

The entrance to station number 26, located on the dark side, is two meters lower than the entrance to the exposed track. There are no LED strips. There are no guide wheels. There is only a crooked old iron sign nailed to the wall.

"Secondary maintenance lane on the dark side. Height limit: 1.8 meters. Width limit: 3.2 meters."

The Devourer vehicle is three meters wide. It's passable. But there's only ten centimeters of clearance left.

012, acting as a forward anchor, rolled over the dark side entrance first. The low-rail section withstood the impact. There was no collapse.

Su Yuan loosened the anti-tow mechanism by one inch, allowing 012 to move forward another five meters. The weight of the 012 wheel mold pressed down, and the lower rail surface did not deform.

"Spot rail pin".

Quick-release rail-setting pins pop out from under the car. They are half the length of the locking pins removed at station 24, but much stiffer. The first one is inserted into the old locking hole on the lower rail surface. The second one. The third one.

One every two meters. This locks the relative position of the dark side low orbital plane and the chassis of the Devourer.

"rail spikes".

Forty-eight heavy-duty rail spikes popped out of the special slots under the car—the batch cast from the 011 differential housing dismantled at Station 25. Wang Hu leaned down from the outer beam and hammered them one by one into the side gaps of the low rail. The sound of the rail spikes hitting the rails was short and dense.

"The front wheels of the Devourer have passed." Little Fire reported.

"Section 3 passed."

"013 passed."

"005 - Passed. Tail beam 19.1."

All eight train sets were squeezed into the dark side of No. 26.

Sounds also came from the direction of the open track.

Dull silence. The metal closed. The three-layer reverse stripping wheel assembly failed—it waited long enough for the load trigger to fail, and finally closed automatically according to the preset program.

Empty bite.

The three-layered blades converged from both sides of the rail surface, cutting only into the air and fragments of the disengaged shells from the two exploration trolleys. The trolley body ejected from the gaps in the broken shells, rolled a few times along the inside of the open rail, and the camera continued to record.

The image returns to the main screen: the exposed rail after the three-layer blade assembly is closed looks like an iron beast with its mouth shut.

The Bonebreaker channel was silent for five seconds.

The voice that had previously shouted "Maybe we should give way" never appeared again.

Slaughterhouse fire control official modified map. Track 26 is marked in black. Next to it is a note: "Roller speed measuring line stripped. Closed. Irreversible."

Control room at Base 04. The veteran engineer retrieved the load-bearing data for the hidden low-track rail. He reviewed it twice. Then he clicked on the desktop.

"Passage is permitted on the dark side. 009 prompt - confirm again."

Lu Mingyuan opened all channels.

"The system regulations for Station 26 are invalid. The open track, temporary storage arm, and unloading prompts have all been downgraded. The 009 hidden side prompt is equivalent to the actual test of the lead car."

The Devourer was advancing deeper into Station 26 on the dark side low rail at a speed of 15. 012 was pulled ahead by the eight cables, and the weight of the wheel molds and sleepers pressed down on the low rail, probing the bottom for the entire train behind.

The roof of the vehicle scraped against the dark side of the dome. Occasionally, it would bump into a hanging old pipe clamp, sparks flying out and then extinguishing. Both sides of the armored walls were rubbing against each other. The sound of metal scraping against metal was constant.

Wang Hu climbed from the outer beam onto the roof of the vehicle and lay down to observe the area ahead. He shone his flashlight onto the top of the 012 chassis.

Two giant wheel molds. The casting patterns are clearly visible. The dimensions match the outer diameter of the existing wheels on the Devourer.

"Good stuff," he muttered.

The dark passageway suddenly widened about thirty meters ahead. The left wall receded, revealing a low-ceilinged storage space. There were no lights. But when a flashlight shone through, the metallic reflections were dense and numerous.

The small fire's scanning light peeked out from the roof of the car.

"Left-side concealed compartment. Contains: 42 wide sleepers, 16 sets of lateral supports, 8 concealed rail guide wheels, 24 foldable maintenance rail sections, and 3 sets of heavy-duty buffer wheel molds."

The scan results are displayed on the main screen.

"All are standard stockpiles from the old Blue Star Expeditionary Force. No living heat source. No magnetic field anomalies."

The AM relay channel went silent for a moment.

The communications officer for the Bonebreaker sounded a little dry: "The main track is brightly lit but there's nothing there. Why is there so much material piled up in the shadows?"

The fire control officer at the slaughterhouse didn't respond; he simply marked the dark side warehouse green.

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

"Full power".

The furnace temperature jumped from 300°C in standby mode to 950°C. Dark gold conduits extended from the side of the furnace body.

The crane boom is fully extended. The material receiving slide rail is deployed.

The first guide tube is inserted into the fixing seat of the traction ring at the front end of 012. Rotate. Pull. The traction ring falls off and rolls into the bucket area along the material receiving slide rail.

The second guide tube cuts into the 012 chain base. The chain comes loose. The two giant wheel molds slide into the receiving box.

The third conduit extends towards the old shelving lock beam at the entrance to the dark side warehouse. A high-temperature cut circled the lock beam, and the broken edge glowed red.

Wang Hu jumped to the edge of the dark side compartment. The crane arm's grabbing claw worked in tandem with him—grabbing exactly where he pointed.

First batch: twelve wide rail sleepers. Three grippers clamp each sleeper and send them into the refining furnace bucket area.

Second batch: Side supports, four sets. Pull them directly from the old shelving; no cutting required. The mounting holes on the support bases match the pre-drilled holes on the Devourer chassis.

Third batch: Four guide wheels for concealed tracks. Two sizes smaller than standard wheelsets, but with higher speed, thinner walls, and lateral yaw function. Specifically designed for use in narrow-track environments where the wheels are close to the wall.

The refining furnace bucket area is full. The side chute has started discharging parts.

The first set – the low-rail passage frame on the dark side. The cast iron material of the 012 wheel mold and the high-strength steel of the wide sleepers are reconstituted in the furnace. What comes out is a set of quick-release chassis external brackets, one on each side, with adjustable width. When it is narrowest, it is 10 centimeters recessed from the car body, and when it is widest, it is extended 30 centimeters to act as a lateral buffer.

Wang Hu caught the left-side access bracket. It was hot to the touch. He inserted it under the vehicle's left side through his gloves. The pre-drilled slot engaged. The locking pin pressed shut.

Right-side access rack. The maintenance team took it and installed it.

The second group consists of foldable track-laying arms. These are combinations of the lateral support base and the sway bearings of the concealed track guide wheels. Two foldable arms are cast, which fold up and attach to both sides of the front of the car, and extend forward four meters from the front beam when unfolded, with sleeper slots at the ends. In the event of a short-distance rail break, a temporary passageway can be laid on-site.

Two track-laying arms are welded to pre-drilled holes on the side of the front beam. Folded state.

The third group – wheel assembly anti-stripping guards. Three discarded samples of the outer shell material for the exposed rail wheel stripper assembly were found in the concealed compartment – ​​not reported separately during the small-scale scanning, but retrieved from the receiving frame. The wear-resistant layer of the cutter assembly shell is extremely hard. The refining furnace fused it with the cast iron of the 012 wheel mold to cast eight arc-shaped guards. These are fitted onto the inner side of the newly installed wide rims on four sets of wheelsets. The guards will be able to withstand the initial closing force should a similar wheel stripping structure be encountered again.

The fourth group – lateral wall-hugging guide wheels. The remaining four guide wheels on the concealed tracks were not melted and were left as is. Wang Hu installed them into the reserved axle positions on the bottom of the left and right sides of the vehicle. The guide wheels can swing freely and rotate close to the wall, keeping the vehicle centered in the narrow passage instead of grinding against the wall armor.

The four parts are assembled.

The refining furnace has been cooled to standby temperature. The side chute has been emptied. Only some debris and ash remain in the bucket area.

012 was dismantled down to just the underframe and wheelsets. Like 011 at station number 25, it met the same fate—an empty shell. But 012's underframe was still useful. Wang Hu didn't push it aside.

"Keep it," Su Yuan said.

012 The empty shell base frame was pulled forward by eight cables to continue the current exploration of ballast.

The Devourer, Section 3, No. 013, and No. 005 passed through the dark side compartment area in sequence. The side guide wheels of the entire formation began to work—four small wheels rotated along the side walls, freeing the vehicles from the lateral compression. The wall armor no longer rubbed against the walls. The sparks were gone.

On channel 013, Tang Lan released the brake lever half a degree.

"That went smoothly."

In direction 005, the young survivor didn't report the tail boom for the first time in several minutes. Because the numbers stabilized—17.9. No jumping.

An exit appeared ahead in the dark side passage. A low, old iron gate framed a sign with chalk writing: "Go out to the back of the platform. The tracks are on the right. Don't look back."

The moment the Devourer emerged from the dark side exit, the main platform of Station 26 was exposed to the right side of the field of vision.

Open track area.

The LED strip was still on. The rail surface was still reflecting light. But the exposed rail, after the three layers of peeling blades were assembled, had three long cuts on its surface—left by the blades closing when they closed.

The temporary storage arm was still extended. The white lettering "005 Contamination Isolation Protection" on the magnetic baffle was clearly visible under the light. Below the baffle—there was no bottom. Behind the temporary storage arm was a black unloading pit. Just like the previous stations.

The broadcast is no longer working. Station 26 is silent.

The marker for station number 26 on the small torch has been changed to gray.

On the main screen, numbers 19 through 26 are all gray.

AM relay channel. The Bonebreaker map has been modified. Directly marked in gray. Note: "Open track wheel-stripping trap. Passable on the dark side. 009 waypoint cumulative accuracy—100%."

The fire control officer at the slaughterhouse added: "Any route that requires the system to be clearly marked, temporarily stored, unloaded (005), or for the lead car to pass alone—will be downgraded to unverified. Not to be discussed."

Base 04 Control Room. Lu Mingyuan sat back down at the console.

"Standard gray".