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

An icy blue arc of electricity swept across the front beam of the Devourer.

No one noticed the first weld change color. A white light, no more than two fingers wide, shone through the gap in the door of Station 55, cutting along the track surface and exploding into a ring of blue flames when it hit the lower end of the front beam. Wang Hu stood outside the side door, his glove resting on his wrench, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.

"Heating up the three weld seams on the front beam," Xiao Huo said in a low voice. "One hundred and twenty degrees. One hundred and seventy degrees. Two hundred and thirty degrees."

Su Yuan stood up from the driver's seat and walked to the windshield. The three welds on the front beam glowed dark red, with the red light creeping outwards along the edges of the welds, still forty centimeters away from the core energy-conducting pipe of Zhenshan. The electric arc swept over again, and the welds jumped from dark red to orange-red. The heat wave hit the windshield, baking out a patch of heat ripples.

"Material composition," Su Yuan said.

Xiao Huo dragged the alloy data of the weld to the main screen. Iron, carbon, manganese, chromium—the standard armor steel composition. But the chromium content dropped by 0.3 percentage points, and the manganese was 0.15 percentage points higher. Interspersed with a line of trace element analysis: dark silver ion residue, extremely low concentration, distributed at the interface between the weld and the base material, in the form of a fine filament network.

"Enemy armor plates at Station Twelve," Xiao Huo said. "The three repair plates contain dormant fragments of living metal. The fragments penetrated deep into the weld seam under the high welding temperature, but were not activated during weld inspection and have remained dormant ever since."

Wang Hu had already climbed down through the side door.

His heels touched the rails, and lime powder leaked through his fingers. The powder fell to the ground, neither absorbed nor shaken up. He crouched down under the front beam and tilted his head back to sprinkle a second handful of powder. The powder reached the base of the weld, the white powder sticking to the dark red weld—then a few grains didn't stick. They were absorbed by something, clinging to a thin thread at the edge of the weld.

The thin filament, dark silver in color and less than half a millimeter in diameter, creeps outward along the angle between the weld and the base material. It moves slowly, less than a millimeter per second, and is directed towards the core energy-conducting tube of Zhenshan.

"It's awake," Wang Hu said.

The broadcast came through the crack in the door of station 55. The sound was cold and clear, without any background noise; it was the original sound from the old Blue Star authentication system.

"The lead vehicle is carrying contaminated tissue. Weld numbers: No. 1 on the left side of the front beam, No. 2 on the middle of the front beam, and No. 3 on the right side of the front beam. These are identified as defective welds. Entry is prohibited."

Four gaps opened simultaneously. Not opening doors—but intensifying the electric arc. The gaps widened from two fingers' width to a palm's width, and behind them, the icy blue electric arc converged into four beams, simultaneously focusing on the same position on the front beam. This was at the junction of three weld seams.

The weld temperature jumped from 230 degrees to 310 degrees. The heat wave rushed into the cab, and on the windshield in front of Su Yuan, the heat ripples receded from the edges to the center.

"If the electric arc melts through the weld," Xiao Huo said, "the living debris will enter the inner cavity of the front beam through the weld pool. The inner cavity of the front beam shares a cooling channel with the core energy conduction tube fixing seat. Once the debris enters the cooling channel, it will reach the outer wall of the energy conduction tube within seven seconds."

Inside cabin 013, Qin Yan's metal plate struck the metal armrest. The rhythm was fast; the plate bounced off the metal armrest before striking again.

"Those panels from Station Twelve," he typed out. "They were from Fuel Station Thirteen, which was infected. Back then, living metal was spreading at the fuel station, and some of the black dust adhered to the patches on the armored trains. They replaced the panels and threw the infected ones at Station Twelve as scrap. That's the batch of panels we dismantled."

Tang Lan pressed the brake lever down halfway. Her left hand reached for the pistol grip, her fingers resting on the outside of the trigger guard, not reaching inwards. Inside compartment 013, the wrists of the two frostbitten soldiers began to tremble again, the sensors on the inside of their wristbands flashed yellow, and their heart rates jumped to 120.

"Remove the contaminated weld within thirty seconds," the announcement came over the loudspeaker again. "Otherwise, the entire train will be denied access."

Wang Hu climbed out from under the car and turned to walk towards shelf 012. He untied the securing straps and pulled out the live metal cryogenic suppressor. He aimed the nozzle at the root of the weld and pressed the trigger.

Liquid nitrogen was sprayed out. The white mist at minus fifty-five degrees Celsius enveloped the lower end of the front beam, and the weld seam suddenly dropped from orange-red to dark red, and then faded from dark red to iron gray. The dark silver threads at the root of the weld seam retracted, shrinking into the deep angle between the weld seam and the base material, curling into a cluster of silver dots the size of a pinhead.

The temperature dropped to minus forty degrees Celsius.

However, the electric arc at the door gap of Station 55 did not weaken. Instead, six sets of high-voltage capacitors popped out above the door frame. The capacitor casings were old Bluestar standard models, each with a withstand voltage of 40,000 volts. The positive terminals of the capacitors were connected to the power supply busbars of the two electric arcs on the right, and the negative terminals were grounded to the ground rail.

Xiao Huo's voice was very low. "If all three doors discharge simultaneously, the peak current will instantly melt through the front beam."

The hum of a charging capacitor emanated from the door frame. Low-frequency vibrations traveled along the rails to the 012 chassis, causing the residual quartz sand on the chassis to bounce up. The sand grains struck the lower edge of the steel plate, producing a fine tapping sound.

Wang Hu took a step back, carrying the suppressor. "It doesn't respond to low temperatures."

Su Yuan didn't look at the weld. He was looking at the left door frame.

"Small fire. The power source for the arc focal point."

"There is an independent power supply bus inside the left door frame. The model is the same as that of weighing door No. 38. The voltage is 40,000 volts. The bus runs through the inspection port of the door frame and connects to the arc generating chamber."

Location of the access panel.

"Left side of the door frame, 40 centimeters from the track surface. Cover plate dimensions: 25 x 16 centimeters. Secured with four bolts."

Su Yuan pressed the communication button. "Refining furnace. Dark gold conduit. Probe through the maintenance port. Swallow the power bus."

The mobile refining furnace unfolds from the side panel of the Devourer. The furnace opening is aligned with the left door frame, and three dark gold guide tubes extend from below the furnace opening, running along the rail surface to the maintenance port. The front ends of the guide tubes are replaced with four-millimeter thin tubes, with the tube ends stopping near the cover plate bolts.

"Wang Hu".

Wang Hu tossed the suppressor back onto the shelf and pulled a wrench from his waist. He took three steps to the door frame, kneeling on the rails, the wrench locking onto the first bolt. The bolt was rusted; the first turn wouldn't loosen it. He pressed his entire weight onto it, his shoulder blades bracing against the end of the wrench. The bolt loosened.

The second one. The third one. The fourth one.

The cover was lifted. The inside of the access panel in the door frame was dark, with no lighting, only the blue light of an electric arc shining through the cracks in the door, illuminating the copper busbars inside. The busbars were three centimeters in diameter, their surfaces oxidized and blackened, and the joints were wrapped with insulating sleeves.

The dark gold conduit was inserted.

Align the pipe opening with the root of the busbar, and switch the inner wall to suction.

The copper core was pulled out of the insulating sleeve. Not pulled out entirely—it was melted and absorbed. The copper core turned red, softened, and flowed into the tube cavity at the tube opening. The cross-section of the power supply busbar shrank from three centimeters to two centimeters, then to one centimeter, and finally broke in two. A string of blue sparks flew from the break, landing on Wang Hu's gloves and burning three charred dots.

The two electric arcs on the left side went out.

The door gap shrank from a palm's width to two fingers' width. The power of the two electric arcs on the right was halved, and the weld temperature dropped to 180 degrees Celsius. The female voice on the loudspeaker paused briefly, the ending note turning into electrical noise, and then cut off.

The humming sound of the capacitor charging is still there. But with only the right bus connected, the charging speed is halved.

Control room of Base 04. The technician stood up, pushed his chair back, and stared at the power bus remnants on the transmitted screen. His lips moved, but he didn't speak. The veteran engineer sat at the control panel, took off his glasses with his right hand, and pinched the bridge of his nose with his left thumb and forefinger. After a few pinches, he lowered his hand and pushed the glasses back in.

"He ate the power supply to the lock-up ring."

Lu Mingyuan didn't reply. He picked up the communicator, pressed the all-channel broadcast button, then released it. He remained silent.

The capacitor is fully charged.

Six sets of high-voltage capacitors discharged simultaneously. A 40,000-volt arc shot out from the two door gaps on the right side, not in a scattered sweeping motion—but concentrated into a beam of white light, directly hitting the junction of the three weld seams on the front beam.

Wang Hu hadn't even had time to back away from the door frame. When the electric arc struck the front beam, a burst of white light exploded in his pupils. He instinctively closed his eyes, but the back of his eyelids was still white. The shockwave pushed outward from the point of impact, blowing the dust on the rails into a ring shape, and sending quartz sand flying up and hitting the 012 chassis with a sound like hail hitting sheet metal.

The temperature at the junction of the front beam weld rises instantly. It doesn't rise from 180 degrees Celsius upwards—it jumps directly to the melting point. The weld metal transitions from a solid state to the plastic zone, and the surface begins to liquefy. Tiny silver threads twist in the molten pool, absorbing the heat of the arc and growing from the size of a needle tip to the size of a fingernail, crawling outwards along the edge of the molten pool.

But the molten pool did not continue to expand.

Su Yuan issued his second command half a second before the electric arc struck: "High-voltage arc-ignition needle."

The copper core of the power supply busbar and the remnants of weighing gate No. 38 swallowed by the refining furnace have been recast into four high-voltage arc-starting needles. The needles are fifteen centimeters long, with the tips ground into a cone shape, and the tails have insulated handles and grounding clamps. Wang Hu opened his eyes, tears welling up from the arc light, but he didn't wipe them away. He pulled the first arc-starting needle from the refining furnace's discharge port.

The needle tip pierced the root of the weld.

It's not just a random prick—it's aimed at the silver spot where the fine, dark silver wire curls up. The needle tip pierces the center of the wire, pinning the silver spot deep into the weld. The grounding clamp secures the front beam base material, creating a conductive path.

The second arc-starting needle is inserted into the middle of the weld. The third is inserted into the end of the weld. The fourth is inserted into the junction of weld number three and the base metal.

The arc energy no longer flows into the weld pool. Instead, it travels along the arc-starting needles into the living metal fragments deep within the weld—the four needle tips glow red simultaneously, the needle body transitioning from red to orange, and then from orange to white. Around the needle tips, fine, dark silver filaments vaporize under the 40,000-volt arc temperature.

It wasn't charring, it wasn't melting—it was direct vaporization. Dark silver filaments skipped the liquid phase from solid to liquid, transforming into silvery-white metallic vapor that spewed out from the weld seam. The vapor condensed upon contact with air, falling to the ground as tiny, grayish-black powder.

The weld pool is simultaneously taken over by the refining furnace. The dark gold conduit is withdrawn from the door frame inspection port, goes around the rail surface to the back of the front beam, and the pipe opening is pushed into the bottom of the weld pool. The inner wall of the pipe switches to suction. The molten weld metal is drawn into the furnace chamber, and the dark silver residue is reheated to the vaporization temperature by the electric arc in the furnace chamber, sprayed out from the slag discharge port, and falls to the ground and piles up into a small pile of gray-black powder.

The new alloy was ejected from another conduit.

It's not just simple armor steel—it's the original formula of the base material for the Devourer. The proportions of iron, carbon, manganese, and chromium are exactly the same, and the error in trace element content is no more than three per thousand compared to the factory inspection report. The new alloy is poured back into the weld pool, filling the weld joint from the inside, with the liquid level flush with the surface of the base material.

The three welds were recast under the impact of the electric arc.

The temperature of the front beam plummeted from its melting point to room temperature. This wasn't a slow cooling process—the refining furnace extracted the remaining arc heat and channeled it into the furnace's heat storage chamber to preheat the next batch of materials to be melted. Metallic textures emerged on the weld surface, gleaming a pale blue under cold light.

The texture is completely identical to the original material of the Devourer.

The electric arc was completely extinguished. The blue light in the four door gaps of Station 55 disappeared simultaneously, and the mechanical sound of a relay tripping came from behind the door, clicking six times in a row. The residual charge in the capacitor was conducted into the grounding rail, and a string of thin blue sparks jumped up from the rail surface. The sparks traveled along the rail gap for more than ten meters before finally extinguishing under the 012 chassis.

The broadcast has been restarted.

The voiceprint has changed. No longer cold—it's the standard certified voice of the old Blue Star, speaking slowly, clearly enunciating, with a 0.1-second interval between each syllable.

"The welding trajectory is consistent with the original base material. Contamination is zero. The lead vehicle has passed."

The four doors slowly opened. It wasn't the oppressive feeling from before—the doors slid open to the sides, pushing out the accumulated dust from the tracks, which fell onto the tracks in two thin lines. The space behind the doors was large; the platform ceiling lights were old Blue Star standard warm-colored bulbs, the tubes covered in dust from fourteen years ago, but still able to light up.

Three sets of equipment popped out from the inside of the platform.

The first set consists of a high-voltage arc-starting needle storage box. The box is made of old Bluestar engineering plastic, with a snap-on closure. Inside, twelve arc-starting needles are neatly arranged, each tip covered with a ceramic protective cap. The second set consists of an arc deflection ceramic plate, measuring 30 x 40 cm, with four fixing screw holes on the back. The material is the same as the arc-starting needle caps. The third set consists of eight high-voltage insulating rail pads, each three millimeters thick. These pads, placed between the rail surface and the wheels, can block the arc grounding path.

Wang Hu unloaded the equipment and stuffed it into shelf 012. The arc deflection ceramic plate was tied separately to the outside of the shelf and reinforced with two straps.

Tang Lan released the brake lever. The wristbands of the two wounded soldiers in compartment 013 stopped vibrating, and their heart rates dropped from 120 to 85. One of them opened his eyes, and as his eyeballs moved, there were still residual twitches from the nerve induction field of Station 53, but his right hand had already loosened the wristband buckle, and his fingers were naturally extended.

The Devourer passed the gate of Station 55. The three new welds on the front beam reflected a cold light under the platform lights, blending seamlessly with the metallic texture of the old beam. Weld inspection data was transmitted back to the control room of Base 04. On the screen in front of the veteran engineer, the weld cross-section image was refreshed frame by frame—no porosity, no slag inclusions, no unfused areas. He took off his glasses, wiped the lenses on his cuff, and put them back on.

"Well done." That was all he said.

The green light on the 020 isolation box remained stable. The knocking sound inside the box resumed, the rhythm slow and difficult to hear through the lead sheet. The small torch amplified the sound, revealing the knocking rhythm to be exactly the same as Qin Yan's previous one.

Qin Yan typed out the translation in cabin 013.

"When she passed by, the door was still closed."

No one answered the phone in the control room. The technician pulled up the certification log of Station 55 to the main screen, displaying the certification timestamp and the date Ji Yun went through the manual line side by side—more than 5,100 days apart.

The Devourer departed from Station 55. The tracks behind the station were clean, with no dust in the gaps. The walls on both sides had the old Blue Star standard concrete finish, with an emergency ground light embedded every five meters. The lights were on, with a warm glow.

A small flame scans ahead.

"Station No. 56 is 400 meters ahead. Iron sign reading: Station No. 56 - First Buffer Zone of the Great Wall Defense Line."

It paused for a moment.

"There are two lines of old writing on the back of the metal plaque: 'Welcome home. Please surrender all weapons.'"

Just as the 012 forward trolley pressed into the front rail of station 56, the chassis's pseudo-skeleton countermeasure detection module suddenly turned red. A red warning light flashed on the outer side of the 012 rack, once every three seconds, simultaneously triggering the auxiliary screen in the driver's cab.

The auxiliary screen switches to the underground scan image of station 56.

Three meters beneath the floor tiles of the waiting area, there is a dense network of live, dormant metal signals. Not just a few dots—but a whole patch. The red dots on the screen overlap, their edges indistinguishable from individual signals; only a single red area stretches from the waiting area into the depths of the platform.

There were so many that the screen was covered in red dots.

Wang Hu stood outside the side door, still clutching a wrench in his hand. He looked at Fu Ping and wiped the sweat from the wrench handle onto his trouser leg.

"Buffer zone. The underground is full of that stuff."