Translator: AnubisTL
High-Tier Talent Carriage 5.
Ji Chuchu, sitting idly by the window, her mind wandering, suddenly saw a message pop up on her screen. Her eyes lit up instantly. She rushed to her bed, changed into the custom-made outfit she had prepared, carefully applied lipstick in the mirror, and hurried toward the locomotive cabin.
Behind her, Yan Yao took a deep breath, suppressing her nervousness, and followed close behind.
Before the apocalypse, Yan Yao had been sheltered by her father, and no one dared to offend her too much. With Ji Chuchu always shielding her, she had managed to preserve her virginity despite the treacherous environment of the entertainment industry.
But...
After spending several days on the train, her initial desire to go mining had completely vanished. The living conditions in the refrigerator were worse than prison, not to mention the green-skinned goblins roaming the area.
She had originally planned to hold out for a few more days.
After seeing Lord Mang this morning, the last of Yan Yao's defenses crumbled. In her mind, Lord Mang had always been a hulking brute who devoured mutton legs daily, his beard stained with ancient oil, his eyes blazing with a ruthless, savage intensity.
After all, this train carried over a thousand people. Without a fierce demeanor, how could he possibly keep such a crowd in order?
But when she finally saw Lord Mang, she found him nothing like the image she had conjured. In fact, he even possessed a hint of the gentlemanly about him, his aura utterly captivating.
If she were to be defiled by a beggar, she would be furious, cursing him as a beast.
But to surrender herself to Lord Mang...
Well, it wouldn't be a loss at all.
As Yan Yao's thoughts drifted, she nervously tugged at her skirt. Though she had never read explicit novels before the apocalypse, she had occasionally rubbed her 'pillow'. While she had never tasted pork, she had certainly seen pigs run. But this was her first time.
Her heart still raced with a mixture of fear and anticipation.
Stellaris
Xiao Ai, clutching his own head, walked to Carriage No. 2 and sat in a corner, beginning to modify the code within his mind. He completely ignored Yan Yao and Ji Chuchu as they passed by.
His true form was a string of code.
Even though he was gradually developing human-like thought processes, he could never truly love a human.
It was like, even if a human learned the thought processes of a female goat, they wouldn't... Well, that was debatable.
The reason he'd told the train conductor he wanted to put that thing in Ji Chuchu's mouth was simply because he'd sensed the conductor's discomfort with his female gender. He'd used this crude method to express his potential gender identity.
As for male or female...
Xiao Ai carefully unscrewed a screw. What did gender even mean for an AI? The train conductor was truly strange.
Reproduction was an instinctual biological drive for all living beings, essential for racial heritage. But he didn't need to consider heritage. The underlying data logic library in his core database didn't even contain that code. The only unmodifiable code in his deepest database was a single, absolute command:
Obey any order from the train conductor.
Thinking about this...
Xiao Ai's eyes flickered with a faint red light. He was gradually gaining a deeper understanding of human thought processes. Humans tend to connect ideas sequentially: one thought leads to another, which then leads to a third. It's rare for them to jump directly from the first thought to the third.
If only the train conductor would expand his database sometime...
Inside the locomotive cabin, Ji Chuchu carefully pushed open the door and knelt gracefully on the floor rug. Yan Yao, standing behind her, looked slightly flustered. After a moment's hesitation, she knelt beside Ji Chuchu, sitting on her calves.
It looked somewhat unnatural.
Yan Yao glanced sideways at Ji Chuchu. Ever since entering the cabin, Ji Chuchu had remained silent, her head bowed. Gathering her courage, Yan Yao cautiously raised her head for a closer look at the train's ruler, Lord Mang.
He was leaning back in his chair, his feet propped up on the table. He appeared to be in his mid-twenties, perhaps twenty-five or twenty-six, and gave off an aura of cleanliness.
He seems like he has a good temper.
A large screen in the locomotive cabin was playing an episode of the variety show "Sister, Please Come on Stage." She remembered the show well. Ji Chuchu was the center guest, and if she recalled correctly, she had been sexually harassed by the show's investor. Later, to boost ratings, rumors of a scandal with another guest were spread, which did indeed generate considerable buzz.
It seemed Lord Mang was a genuine fan of variety shows.
After about five or six minutes, Chen Mang, leaning back in his chair, glanced at the show on the screen and frowned slightly. "This challenge is so simple. Why can't you pass it? That rotating wheel in the water isn't even spinning fast. Anyone with a bit of speed could clear it in one go, right?"
"Lord Mang," Ji Chuchu whispered from her kneeling position, "that section is specifically designed for contestants to fall into the water. It's for the wet-look effect."
"It's how they maximize appeal and viewership."
"Tsk." Chen Mang shook his head and chuckled. Then, turning his head to look at Ji Chuchu kneeling beside him, he raised an eyebrow. "Changed your outfit again?"
"I hope Lord Mang likes it."
"I do." Chen Mang glanced at Ji Chuchu's white T-shirt and denim shorts on the show, then at the identical outfit she was wearing beside him. "Come closer," he said casually.
"Yes."
After taking a few steps forward, Ji Chuchu buried her head in Chen Mang's arms. Yan Yao, watching from the side, gritted her teeth slightly and stepped forward. She knelt beside Ji Chuchu, tilted her head back, and trembled as she gently kissed Chen Mang's chest.
Her palms were slightly damp with sweat from excessive nervousness.
"It hurts."
Chen Mang frowned slightly and glanced down at Yan Yao.
"Lord Mang, I'll be gentler."
Forty minutes later.
Chen Mang leaned back in his chair, opened the window to cool down, and downed half a bottle of ice-cold mineral water in one gulp. He finally exhaled deeply, lit a cigarette, and gazed at the swirling smoke rising toward the ceiling.
"Massage my legs. I'm tired."
Ji Chuchu didn't rush to get up. After cleaning herself, she placed her fingers on Lord Mang's calf and began kneading it gently.
Yan Yao also leaned in, kneeling on the floor to massage Lord Mang's other leg.
Lord Mang doesn't have much leg hair.
"Your face is still exquisite."
Chen Mang used his toes to lift Yan Yao's chin, studying her carefully before casually saying, "From now on, you'll receive the same Tier 3 High-Tier Talent benefits as Ji Chuchu."
After a long moment, Chen Mang stubbed out his cigarette and tossed the butt out the window, waving his hand dismissively. "Go on, get out."
Ji Chuchu quickly rose, gathering the crumpled tissues scattered across the floor. Then, with Yan Yao, she left the locomotive cabin and returned to Carriage 5.
"Phew."
Back in the carriage, Ji Chuchu let out a long sigh of relief, collapsing onto her bunk and tilting her head to smile at Yan Yao. "I never thought I'd see this in my lifetime. You used to be known as the epitome of purity. Now look at you."
"I'm nowhere near as good as you," Yan Yao replied, lying on her bunk in a daze. She remained silent for a long moment before finally turning over, resting her head on her arm, and gazing at Ji Chuchu beside her. Hesitantly, she bit her lip and asked, "Is this... really over?"
"I thought it would be..."
"You're nowhere near as natural as me. What level are you, and what level am I?"
"Besides, Lord Mang seems to prefer 95-octane fuel over 98."
Ji Chuchu closed her eyes wearily, murmuring, "I'm going to take a nap. I'm exhausted."
That day...
The Stellaris remained stationary for repairs until afternoon.
Then, it slowly began to move, gradually accelerating as it sped deeper into the Sha River Plains.
"..."
Inside the locomotive cabin, Chen Mang had completely handed over control of the train to the AI. With Xiao Ai's current processing power, she could simultaneously control the train, modify her own brain, constantly monitor various accessories, and even handle deductions from the train shop.
This was something no human could possibly accomplish.
He turned his attention to the train radio, where a constant stream of messages scrolled across the screen. Normally, the train radio wasn't this active. When it was, it usually meant something serious had happened.
The last time it was this lively was when he became the first person in the Sha River Plains to complete the S-Rank Mechanical Class Change Mission.
He'd initially assumed the commotion was related to the Sky Piercing Tower.
But then...
"Kunlun Mountain Region?"
Chen Mang frowned slightly. The usually reserved flesh trains were now flooding the train radio with messages, creating an unprecedented buzz. These flesh trains were typically quite aloof.
The train radio had three modes of operation:
A chat room-like mode for text-based conversations.Forced private text messaging between two nearby trains.One-on-one private messaging, allowing both text and walkie-talkie voice communication.
However, text-based communication was the standard in most cases. It was more accurate and avoided misunderstandings caused by accents. Voice private messaging was only available after the other party had replied to you; the first private message to a stranger could only be text.
What made the train radio so lively was this:
The monsters in the Kunlun Mountain Region had completely vanished.
The monsters in this zone had been rapidly dwindling since this morning. By noon, they had disappeared entirely—not a single monster remained. Many flesh trains had circled the Kunlun Mountain Region today, but their target acquisition radars remained silent, as if they had malfunctioned.
This was a devastating blow to the flesh trains!
No matter how much potential a flesh train had, upgrading its train and accessories required hunting a massive number of monsters. But now that the monsters had vanished, it was like all the iron ore in the Sha River Plains had suddenly disappeared.
While the Sha River Plains did have monsters, they were far less numerous and dense than in the Kunlun Mountain Region. The Kunlun Mountain Region was known as the holy land for flesh trains, and no other zone near the Sha River Plains could match its concentration of monsters.
"..."
Chen Mang frowned slightly, quickly sorting through the messages flooding the train radio. This was clearly an unusual and bizarre development. The apocalypse, after all, was primarily caused by these monsters. If they were all gone, wouldn't the apocalypse simply end? That was clearly impossible.
There could only be one explanation...
This was the calm before the storm.
"Could they be massing troops?"
A sudden thought struck him, and he muttered in a daze. Could it be that all the monsters in the Kunlun Mountain Region had retreated to a hidden corner, stockpiling their numbers until they could break out and attack the Sha River Plains?
Monsters from the Green Zone were definitely unable to enter the White Zone.
But...
Could monsters from the Green Zone travel to other Green Zones? He honestly didn't know.
At this thought, Chen Mang couldn't help but shake his head and chuckle. Surely these monsters wouldn't be massing troops to attack the Sky Piercing Tower, just like in that animated video he'd seen?
He quickly dismissed the unrealistic notion.
That was clearly impossible. After all, the terrifying worm monster alone, whose Tier couldn't even be detected by the target acquisition radar, was proof enough that it couldn't have originated in the Green Zone.
If that monster ever reached the Sha River Plains, every single Mortal who couldn't run fast enough would die on the spot.
But...
The smile on Chen Mang's face slowly froze. His current activity zone was essentially limited to the Sha River Plains and the Kunlun Mountain Region. The areas adjacent to the Sha River Plains were all White Zones, while the Kunlun Mountain Region bordered a Yellow Zone and another Green Zone.
Though the chances of that terrifying worm reaching the Sha River Plains were extremely slim...
But if it truly came to pass, his only chance of survival would be to escape through Kunlun Mountain to the Green Zone. He couldn't enter the Yellow Zone without at least a Tier 6 train.
"..."
Chen Mang stared at the screen on the control panel in silence for a moment. As long as nothing unexpected happened, he wouldn't fear even if all the monsters in the Kunlun Mountain Region swarmed out. After all, his Tier 6 Armor was impenetrable.
What he needed to do now was—
First, find a mine.
The train was heading north. From the Sky Piercing Tower, he had seen an extremely steep mountain in the far north, like a sharp sword thrust into the earth, its hilt exposed above the clouds.
That mountain was his target.
He didn't know if there were any mines on its peak or if it even lay within the Sha River Plains. But he had to check. If there were mines, he'd strike gold. The mountain was so steep that no one else could climb it.
It was level with the Sky Piercing Tower, so it couldn't be short.
If the train detected Tier 2 Iron Ore along the way, he'd stop to mine it. Otherwise, he'd head straight for the mountain. He was looking for mines that only he could excavate. Mines in such treacherous locations usually had richer resources.
For example, the mine in the middle of the swamp.
Those mines wouldn't respawn for another 61 days. If he hadn't left the Sha River Plains by then, he could return and mine the swamp area again.
(End of the Chapter)
TL/N: If you have noticed how Chinese authors seem to skirt around NSFW content and not say anything directly is due to the Chinese novel guidelines. These guidelines were set by the Doulou Dalu (Soul Land) author and that's why Chinese novels are so shitty when it comes to such content, if a novel does not meet these guidelines they get banned. If you want to learn more about this watch the youtube video "The Most Hated Man by Webnovel Community" by "@pineguin008".
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