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

The Devourer pressed into the entrance of Station 46. The hum of the induction heating furnace emanated from deep within the quenching workshop, low-frequency vibrations creeping along the rails to the wheels and into the frame, causing the steel plates on the side walls of carriage 013 to tremble. Tang Lan pressed down on the medicine cabinet door, the aluminum seals of the hemostatic agents inside clanging together with a soft, crackling sound.

"Full formation." Su Yuan's voice switched into the channel, "Low speed."

Wang Hu tumbled down from the edge of the 012 protective shell. His boot soles landed on the rails, and he still clutched the iron plate he had picked up from the scrap chute at station 45. The dome of the quenching workshop was low, and dim yellow mining lamps hung from the steel beams, their light illuminating the splash guards along the edge of the quenching pool.

Twelve finished cannon barrels were neatly arranged on the barrel rack. The barrels were coated with anti-rust oil, the oil film reflecting the light. Each barrel end was stamped with the old Blue Star Expeditionary Force's inspection stamp, the stamp number as clear as the inventory list of Station 45. The barrel openings were plugged with dust caps, the caps marked "Quality Inspection Passed".

The broadcast came on. The voice was that of a woman from the old Blue Star Expeditionary Force's heat treatment workshop, with the sound of a cassette tape moving in the background.

"Station 46 Quenching Workshop. Finished gun barrels have undergone quality inspection. Please have car 001 collect them according to their numbers. Tubes numbered one through twelve have all been placed on the finished product rack."

Wang Hu tore open the bag of lime powder. The powder was flung towards the gun barrel rack. The white powder landed on the surface of the first gun barrel, slid along the anti-rust oil—and was then sucked into the barrel wall.

It doesn't seep in. It absorbs in.

The powder coating forms fine, dense lines on the surface of the tube, with each line following the weld seam inside the tube wall. All twelve gun tubes are identical.

"Hollow." Wang Hu clenched the powder bag tightly. "The pipe wall has a double-layer structure. Something is filled between the inner and outer layers."

The scan data from the small torch was projected onto the main screen. The cross-sectional diagram of the pipe wall was laid out layer by layer—the outer steel pipe was twelve millimeters thick, the inner layer was six millimeters thick, and the cavity between the two layers was filled with black paste. The density of the paste was the same as that of the stress paste for the dummy toothed rail at Station 45. Each gun barrel had pre-cracks in its inner layer, with the cracks starting from the inner wall and extending towards the outer wall, the depth controlled to two-thirds of the inner layer thickness.

"The same process as the fake toothed rail." Xiao Huo switched to the channel, "Stress relief paste filling. During firing, the chamber pressure will tear open the inner layer from the pre-crack, the paste will vaporize and expand, and the entire barrel will explode."

Qin Yan's tapping sound came from carriage 013. The metal sheet struck the stretcher armrests in a rapid rhythm. A translation popped up in the lower right corner of the main screen: "The real tubes are at the bottom of the quenching pool. All the ones on the rack are hollow. Don't take them."

The quenching tank is located to the right of the gun barrel rack. The tank is eight meters long, and the liquid should normally be transparent quenching oil, but a dark green film floats on the surface. An automatic boom is sliding along the guide rails along the tank's edge, with the hopper at the boom tip tilting, allowing black quenching salt to slide into the liquid. The salt particles dissolve instantly upon entering the liquid, changing its color from dark green to deep green. The pH reading on the small flame screen is dropping.

Wang Hu shone his red hand lamp towards the bottom of the pool. The beam pierced through the dark green liquid and illuminated the three parallel gun barrels. The barrels lacked anti-rust oil, their surfaces covered in a dark gray, forged oxide scale. The walls were thick, the nozzles lacked dust caps, and the ends retained the oxidized color from heat treatment. A small thermal imaging scan revealed that the three barrels were fifteen degrees Celsius cooler than the pool liquid, their outlines were intact, without pre-cracks, stress concentration points, or uneven wall thickness.

Corrosion bubbles began to emerge from the surface of the tube. The pH of the quenching salt had dropped to 4.3, and the acidic liquid was eroding the outer layer of the barrel. Bubbles emerged from the gaps in the oxide scale, floated to the surface, burst, and released a pungent sulfurous odor.

"It's destroying the real pipe." Wang Hu tucked the iron plate into his side pocket. "The quenching salt has turned the pool liquid into a corrosive solution."

The announcement came on again: "The quenching pool is contaminated. It will be emptied shortly. Please have car 001 collect the finished gun barrel mounts."

The drain valve at the bottom of the pool was opened. The valve opening was 1.2 meters in diameter, and the dark green pool liquid began to pour down. The liquid level dropped rapidly, and the shafts of the three real cannon barrels were gradually exposed—the oxide scale on the shafts had been corroded into shallow pits, revealing silvery-white metal at the bottom. For every centimeter the pool liquid dropped, another layer of corrosion bubbles appeared.

The induction heating furnace was simultaneously operating at full power. The inner wall of the furnace chamber turned orange-red, and an electromagnetic field was emitted from the furnace opening, drawing rust from the rail surface towards the opening. Twelve dummy gun barrels were pushed out of the finished product frame by hydraulic push rods, with the push rods moving synchronously, and the tail end of the dummy gun barrels aligned with the toothed rail engagement sleeve of the right-side railway gun base of the Devourer.

"Forced assembly." The broadcast changed its tone, "Finished tubes have been delivered."

唐岚在013车厢按下通讯键。「013不领。005不领。014不领。017不领。」她的声音压得低，但每个字都咬得死。

Su Yuan stood up from the driver's seat. The gear in the mechanical left eye turned half a circle. "Wang Hu. Lock the relief valve stem on the crane arm. Press the 012 waste liquid tank inlet cover."

Wang Hu climbed onto the roof of the Devouring Wasteland vehicle. The crane arm extended, and the hook at the end of the arm passed over the splash guard of the quenching pool and engaged with the wrench hole on the valve stem of the relief valve. Hydraulic pressure was applied, and the valve stem was tightened in the reverse direction. The relief valve closed, and the pool liquid stopped falling.

The 012 forward-protruding protective shell rolled over the drainage ditch along the edge of the quenching pool, pressing down on the waste liquid tank inlet cover. A suction sound came from beneath the cover, caused by negative pressure in the pipes; the negative pressure pulled the cover down, and the weight of the 012 crushed it.

"Refining furnace." Su Yuan pressed the communication button. "Dark gold conduit. Insert it into the bottom of the quenching pool. Reverse the flow of quenching salt."

The dark gold conduit of the mobile refining furnace slid down the inner wall of the quenching pool. The conduit passed through the dark green liquid, through the rising corrosive bubbles, and through the gap between the three real cannon barrels. The conduit's tip plunged into the salt layer at the bottom of the pool.

Reverse suction. Black salt crystals rapidly precipitate on the inner wall of the conduit. The salt crystals accumulate layer by layer, forming ring-shaped crystals on the inner wall of the conduit. The temperature inside the refining furnace changes from dark red to bright red, and black smoke is emitted from the furnace mouth—the quenching salt decomposes at high temperature, and sulfide gases are discharged from the furnace mouth, leaving inert salt slag inside the furnace.

The pH value of the pool solution has risen. 4.3. 4.9. 5.6. 6.1.

The corrosion bubbles stopped spreading. The last few bubbles detached from the surface of the cannon barrel, floated to the surface, and burst. The barrels of the three actual cannons remained in the dark green pool of liquid, and the corrosion pits on the oxide scale did not deepen further.

Broadcast change. "Forced assembly continues. Hydraulic push rod irreversible."

Twelve dummy gun barrels were pressed against the railway gun base by push rods. The tail section of the first dummy gun barrel was only half a meter away from the gear engagement sleeve. The chrome plating on the piston rod of the push rod hydraulic cylinder reflected the light.

Su Yuan pressed the communication button. "Train gun base. Gear engagement sleeve rotates in reverse."

The engagement sleeve on the top surface of the base rotates. The sleeve body switches from the ready-to-connect mode to the reverse obstacle-clearing mode. The centering latch on the inner wall of the sleeve retracts and is replaced by a genuine scrap tooth fragment that Wang Hu picked up from the scrap trough of station 45. The fragment is scrap material from an old batch of hand-quenched parts, with rough teeth, but its hardness is two levels higher than the interface steel of the fake cannon barrel.

The breech end of the first dummy cannon barrel struck a piece of discarded tooth. The metallic clang was short and piercing. The discarded tooth had cut into the steel of the dummy barrel's breech end, causing a crack to appear.

The hydraulic push rod continues to push. The thrust pushes the dummy gun barrel forward, but the interface does not align with the locking sleeve. The dummy gun barrel deflects half a degree, and its side wall presses against the adjacent gun barrel.

Then it cracked at the interface.

Black stress paste sprayed out of the cavity. The paste splattered onto the splash guard of the quenching pool, onto the crossbeams of the finished product frame, and onto the surface of the adjacent dummy gun barrels. The inner layer of the tube body was torn apart from the pre-crack, exposing the cavity between the two layers of steel tubes—the stress paste filling the cavity had vaporized, leaving only black residue sticking to the tube wall.

The first dummy cannon barrel collapsed.

The hydraulic cylinder of the push rod overpressure alarmed. The piston rod rebounded, pulling the collapsed barrel off the engagement sleeve. The barrel slammed against the edge of the finished product rack, then rolled into the quenching tank. Dark green liquid splashed up, pouring onto the dummy cannon barrel wreckage.

The second dummy gun barrel was pushed up by the push rod. It also collided with the broken tooth fragments, the joints were misaligned, and it cracked from the pre-cracked area. The black trail of stress paste splattered on the finished frame beam was added another layer.

Then came the third one. The fourth one.

When the fifth dummy cannon barrel cracked, the pressure gauge on the hydraulic main of the push rod exploded. The dial glass shattered, and the dial needle flew into the air and embedded itself in the gap of the splash guard in the quenching tank. The sixth dummy cannon barrel crashed into the already deflated fifth one, bent into an arc shape, and rolled off the finished product rack.

Wang Hu squatted on the roof of the Devourer vehicle. He stared as the dummy cannon barrels cracked one by one from their joints, a wrench still clutched in his hand. The wrench was covered with rust from the waste trough of Station 45.

"All six are flat." He slammed the wrench against the roof panel. "The rest are useless. The hydraulic main has burst."

Control room of Base 04. The technician retrieved the stress test data of the dummy gun barrels. Rows of red warnings appeared on the screen—the filling material of the cavity of each dummy gun barrel was consistent with the stress paste composition of the dummy toothed rail at Station 45, and the pre-crack depth error did not exceed 0.05 millimeters.

"Precision detonator." The technician switched the data to the full channel. "All finished gun barrels at Station 46 are marked as hollow. The real ones are at the bottom of the quenching tank. Repeat—the real ones are at the bottom of the quenching tank."

Lu Mingyuan pressed the microphone. "The stock of gun barrel racks at Station 46 is invalid. Only genuine ones from the pool bottom will be accepted. All fake barrels will be destroyed."

The hum of the induction heating furnace suddenly spiked. The frequency jumped from the standard quenching frequency to the overload frequency, and the inner wall of the furnace changed from orange-red to incandescent. The furnace door closed automatically, and white heat waves shot out from the gaps.

The broadcast voice changed. It was no longer a female voice, but a cold, mechanical tone.

"Furnace self-cleaning. Furnace temperature: 1300 degrees Celsius. Target temperature: 1650 degrees Celsius."

A small torch projected a scan of the furnace chamber onto the main screen. Inside the furnace were three unfinished gun barrels—the barrels were still covered with forged oxide scale, the wall thickness met the requirements, and the ends of the barrels had not yet been threaded. The furnace temperature was rising rapidly, and the edges of the oxide scale were beginning to glow red.

"Self-cleaning is burning out." Xiao Huo switched to the channel, "When the furnace temperature reaches 1,450 degrees, the gun barrel blank will begin to soften. At 1,600 degrees, the barrel wall will deform."

Qin Yan's tapping became more rapid. The iron sheet was struck heavily, each beat shortened by half a beat. The translator popped up: "The blank is genuine. Turn off the furnace."

Su Yuan pressed the communication button. "Eight cables. Hang the furnace body anchor bolts."

Eight steel cables were launched from various mounting points on the "Devouring Wasteland" vessel. The first cable was attached to the left anchor bolt of the induction furnace, the second to the right, and the third to the maintenance lifting lug at the rear of the furnace. The cables stood taut under the dim yellow lights of the quenching workshop.

"Mobile refining furnace. Dark gold conduits are used to pierce the furnace wall cooling water jacket. Waste brine is poured in reverse."

The second set of dark gold conduits from the refining furnace ejected. The conduits slid along the side of the furnace into the cooling water jacket inspection port, piercing the inner wall of the jacket. The furnace self-cleaning system had already shut down the cooling circulation, and the water jacket was empty.

The infusion process begins. The waste salt solution pumped from the quenching tank is pumped into the water jacket. Upon contact with the residual heat of the water jacket, the salt solution rapidly vaporizes. The steam expands within the water jacket, causing a sudden increase in pressure.

The explosion-proof valve of the induction furnace popped open. All six sets of explosion-proof valves released pressure simultaneously, and white steam sprayed out from the valve ports, landing on the dome of the quenching workshop. The steam caused condensate to drip down the steel beams of the dome.

The temperature inside the furnace continued to rise. 1400 degrees Celsius. 1450 degrees Celsius. The incandescent light emanating from the furnace walls was blinding. The oxide scale on the three unfinished gun barrels began to peel off, revealing a shiny barrel.

The pressure inside the water jacket surged for the second time. The waste salt solution completely vaporized within the water jacket interlayer, and the steam pressure forced a bulge out of the outer wall of the cooling water jacket. The bulge expanded along the weld, and cracks appeared at the weld edges.

The pressure inside the furnace dropped sharply. It wasn't a leak from the explosion-proof valve—the steam pressure had ruptured the partition between the furnace wall and the water jacket. Waste salt steam from the water jacket flowed back into the furnace through the crack.

Waste salt decomposes into steam at high temperatures. Sulfide gases expand within the furnace, causing the furnace pressure to jump from negative to positive. The furnace door seal is forced open, and white smoke escapes from the gaps. The incandescent light on the inner wall of the furnace begins to flicker.

The furnace control panel is completely red. The temperature display is displaying garbled characters, the power reading is stuck at 143%, and the furnace pressure gauge is at its maximum range.

"Furnace overload." The small torch projected the furnace control data onto the main screen. "Furnace door lock released. Furnace temperature out of control."

Su Yuan pressed the communication button. "Wang Hu, hoisting arm. Pull the blank from the furnace door."

Wang Hu jumped off the roof of the Devouring Wasteland vehicle. His boots landed on the drainage ditch between the quenching pool and the induction furnace, causing the ditch cover to pop up from his foot. The crane arm followed him as it turned, its end hook extending towards the furnace door.

The furnace door had already sprung open. The heat blasting out of the door crack fogged up Wang Hu's goggles. The hoisting arm hook pierced through the heat and snapped into the tail lug of the first gun barrel blank.

"drag."

The lifting arm applies hydraulic pressure. The first blank is pulled out of the furnace. The tube body is still covered with oxide scale, the wall thickness is uniform, and the end of the tube still carries the residual heat from forging. The blank is slammed into the drainage ditch beside the quenching pool, denting the ditch cover.

The second one followed closely behind. The edges of the oxide scale on the tube still showed traces of forging marks that hadn't completely peeled off. The wall thickness was the same as the first one. Wang Hu touched the tube with his glove; the glove fabric was scorched by the residual heat, but the tube wall was solid.

The third tube was stuck in the furnace door. The tube body was pressed down by deformed furnace lining bricks inside the furnace. The hoisting arm tried to pull it off twice but couldn't budge it. Wang Hu climbed onto the furnace door maintenance platform, pried open the remaining lining bricks with a wrench, and applied force to the hoisting arm a third time. The third blank slab slid out of the furnace. Half of the oxide scale on the tube body had been burned away by the furnace temperature, revealing the dark gray tube wall underneath. The tube wall was not deformed, had no cracks, and its thickness met the requirements.

"Three blanks." Wang Hu tossed the wrench onto the inspection platform. "All genuine."

There are also three finished cannon barrels at the bottom of the quenching tank. Including the three blanks, there are a total of six.

Su Yuan pressed the communication button. "Refining furnace. It's swallowing up a dummy cannon barrel frame, hydraulic push rod debris, and induction furnace lining bricks."

The furnace mouth of the refining furnace was open. A dark gold conduit dragged the dummy gun barrel frame from beside the base into the furnace mouth. The remains of the dummy gun barrel followed closely behind—the deflated barrel body, the cracked joint, and the spurted stress paste residue. Then came the piston rod of the hydraulic push rod, the hydraulic cylinder, and the crossbeam of the finished product frame. Finally, there were the furnace lining bricks that had collapsed from the inner wall of the induction furnace.

Inside the furnace, a dark red glow churned. The light from the melting metal shone on the dome of the quenching workshop, on the dark green surface of the quenching pool, and on the surface of the six real cannon barrels.

The refining furnace has started producing parts.

The first component: the quick-connect interface for the railway gun barrel. It is recast using dummy barrel interface steel, a hydraulic push rod piston, and a pre-cast frame positioning pin. Six interlocking grooves are cut into the inner wall of the interface, with the groove spacing perfectly matching the breech thread of the real gun barrel. The sleeve is then fitted into the front of the railway gun base.

The second component: the gun barrel cooling jacket. It is recast using inert salt slag purified from waste salt solution, fragments of the induction furnace cooling water jacket, and a splash guard from the quenching pool. The cooling jacket is pre-filled with cooling medium, and its inner wall fits the outer diameter of the gun barrel. The cooling circuit interface on the side of the base is attached to the jacket.

The third component: the gun barrel auxiliary loading arm. It was recast using hydraulic push rod remnants, automatic boom guide rails, and vent valve stems. The loading arm is mounted at the rear of the base and can lift the gun barrel from the tube rack into the quick-connect interface.

Fourth component: Corrosion-resistant lining of the waste liquid tank. Recast using the splash guard of the quenching pool, the valve body of the relief valve, and waste salt residue. The lining is embedded in the 005 and 013 chassis, improving its acid resistance.

Wang Hu led the maintenance team to lift three finished cannon barrels from the bottom of the quenching pool. The hoisting arm hooked into the lifting lug at the end of the barrel, and hydraulic pressure was applied, causing the barrels to slowly rise from the dark green liquid. The corrosion pits on the oxide scale of the barrel were still there, but the depth of the pits did not exceed 0.3 millimeters. A small-scale test was conducted using a calibration ring, and the wall thickness of all barrels met the standards.

The three barrels are fed into a quick-release interface. The engagement groove automatically aligns and locks in place. A small torch is projected onto the main screen to test the stress distribution at the connection between the barrel and the base—there is a uniform stress distribution with no stress concentration points, ensuring that the chamber pressure is evenly transmitted to the base during firing.

Three blanks are pushed onto the tube rack. The loading arm lifts the blanks from the drainage ditch and pushes them onto the spare parts rack at the rear of the base. The small fire marks the subsequent processing requirements of the blanks on the spare parts rack: threading, boring the inner bore, and stress relief.

"The train gun barrel assembly is complete." Xiao Huo switched to the channel. "Three finished barrels have been installed into the quick-connect fittings. Three blank barrels have been put into the spare parts rack. A total of six genuine barrels."

Base 04 Control Room. Lu Mingyuan pressed the full-channel communication button.

"The quenching workshop at Station 46 has been dismantled. The assembly of the train gun barrels is complete. The identification standards for genuine gun barrels have been updated accordingly: thick barrel walls, no pre-cracks, no stress grease filling, and no residual oxide scale from manual quenching or forging. All fake gun barrels have been destroyed."

The technician synchronized the genuine cannon barrel identification standard. A green box popped up on the screen: "Genuine product collection rate at Station 46: 100%. Three finished tubes from the quenching tank. Three blanks from the induction furnace. Zero omissions."

Su Yuan stood up from the driver's seat. He walked to the side door, his red flashlight sweeping across the ruins of the quenching workshop. The dark green liquid in the quenching pool was still there, but the drain valve at the bottom of the pool had been removed, the guide rail along the pool edge had been removed, and the automatic crane arm had been removed. The induction furnace was tilted to one side, the furnace door was open, and most of the furnace lining bricks on the inner wall of the furnace had been removed, exposing the deformed steel structure behind it. Finished gun barrels were suspended in mid-air, their crossbeams covered with stress paste residue.

Wang Hu retrieved an iron plate from the bottom of the quenching pool. The plate had been soaked in corrosive liquid, the coating had peeled off, and the edges were gnawed with jagged notches. He placed the plate on the drain and used a wrench to knock off the rust.

The front is printed with: "Station No. 47 - Collapse Brake Calibration Platform".

He turned the metal plate over. The back was engraved with words, the engravings originating from the same source as the 009 steel plate, with consistent force and spacing. The first few characters were corroded to mere outlines; only the last line was clear: "Don't take the numbered finished products. Take the third shelf of the scrap rack."

The sound of artillery fire came from the direction of station 47.

It wasn't a single shot. It was three shots in quick succession. The shots were evenly spaced, each coming from the same location. The waveform of the shots was projected onto the main screen using a small torch.

"Mash brake test." Xiao Huo switched to the channel. "Three shots, 4.7 seconds interval. Standard propellant charge."

The fourth shot fired. The interval was still 4.7 seconds.

A new line of engravings has appeared on the surface of the metal plate. The engravings still retain the warmth of metal friction, and the edges have fresh oxidation: "Number 47 is standing on the self-destruction of a genuine item."

Wang Hu held the iron plaque above his head. The light from the red lantern shone on the new engravings.

"It destroys one genuine muzzle brake every time it tests," Wang Hu said. "It has already fired four out of three tests."

Su Yuan sat back in the driver's seat. The gear in the mechanical left eye turned once. The output of the Zhenshan core increased from ninety to one hundred and ten. Dark gold flames spewed from the exhaust pipe, swirling across the floor of the quenching workshop and the debris of the fake cannon barrel.

"Full formation. Speed ​​up." His voice switched to the channel. "Enter station 47."

噬荒号车轮碾过淬火车间排水沟。012前探护壳撞开废液槽入口盖板。009纪念挂架上的路标钢片在提速中震动。014冷却车厢的低温接口和冷却总线锁在一起。005消音坠拖过淬火池边沿。020隔离匣绿灯常亮。

The railway gun base has finished preheating. The quick-connect interface of the gun barrel illuminates with a green light indicating readiness. The hydraulic recoil buffer piston at the rear of the base extends and locks in the ready-to-fire position.

Deep in the dark tracks ahead, the echoes of the fourth shot still reverberated. The muzzle flash of the fifth shot illuminated the outline of the No. 47 station's calibration platform—two rows of muzzle brakes hung on the steel beams of the platform, each bearing a numbered tag. The test guns automatically removed the muzzle brakes after each firing and discarded them into the scrap chute on the right.

The scrap rack was hidden behind the calibration table. On the third shelf, there were six unnumbered recoil brakes, their surfaces bearing traces of hand-polishing.