Translator: AnubisTL
Dawn broke.
"Huuu..."
Chen Mang stretched languidly, then leaped from the bed. His gaze drifted toward the carnage outside, and he paused, slightly stunned.
This was the first time he had witnessed the phrase "corpses strewn across the ground" so vividly.
Thick, crimson blood had stained the soil around the train, creating a scene akin to a sea of blood. Zombie limbs and shredded flesh littered the ground, yet the air surprisingly lacked a strong stench of blood. The scene resembled watermelons crushed by a hydraulic press—scattered pulp everywhere.
As he washed, Chen Mang glanced at the "Train Log" on the control panel screen, finally understanding what had happened the previous night.
"Train Conductor," Xiao Ai's cold, mechanical voice echoed from the robot's throat-mounted speaker, "You did not specify whether to absorb flesh and blood into the train. All dropped items have been collected by the powerful magnet."
"Absorb them now. From now on, collect flesh and blood as well."
"Understood."
After wiping the water from his face with a towel, Chen Mang sat down heavily in his chair, lit a cigarette, and began to slowly check the train radio. He soon learned that the zombie horde's attack the previous night hadn't been directed solely at him; it had targeted all trains.
Last night, almost every train on the Sha River Plains was attacked by a zombie horde.
Many trains were completely destroyed.
These trains were mostly Tier 4 Trains that had just arrived from the White Zone. Lacking drills, they had no way to hide and were forced to flee across the plains, but the zombie horde was simply too vast. Once surrounded, they could only wait in despair for death.
Essentially, almost all the newcomers were wiped out, leaving only trains that had been established on the Sha River Plains for some time.
"Hmm?"
Chen Mang frowned slightly. His first thought was whether this was the work of the Heavenly Balance gang, a revenge plot orchestrated by the resentful young man from the Misanthrope Train.
But he quickly dismissed the idea. First, he didn't believe the young man possessed such capabilities. Moreover, if the target was revenge against him, there was no need to involve so many innocent trains.
The disappearance of monsters in the Kunlun Mountain Region had already led to the conclusion that it was to conceal the entrance to the exclusive flesh train fortuitous encounter map.
Could this zombie horde uprising be related?
No, that didn't make sense.
The flesh train fortuitous encounter map was likely connected to the Sky Piercing Tower. Could it be the Sky Piercing Tower itself?
Wait—
Suddenly, he remembered something. He immediately picked up the train radio walkie-talkie, found the chat box for the Azure Dragon train conductor, and checked to make sure the other person's name hadn't faded before speaking.
"Are you still alive over there?"
"Still alive," came the quick reply.
Erdan's familiar, rapid panting soon filled the walkie-talkie. "I'm alive, but everyone else is almost dead. I wanted to save more people, but it's been tough. There's barely any chance to save anyone. I only managed to rescue about 300 people."
"Almost all the low-Tier trains here have been wiped out. Only a few Tier 5 and 6 trains are left, and they're all desperately fleeing."
"That monster is a Tier 6 monster. I'm organizing a group of Tier 6 trains to see if we can team up and kill it, but it's just too big. Our cannons feel like mosquito bites against it."
"The main problem is..."
"Flying in the air drains too much energy. My train doesn't have much iron ore left. Once that runs out, and I run out of energy stones, I'm probably going to die here too."
"How much iron ore do you have left?"
"A little over 100,000 units."
"I remember the Bunny Cloud can fly for 24 hours on a single Tier 2 Energy Stone. That should be enough for you to fly for about 20 days."
"You know that?" Erdan panted into the walkie-talkie. "Where did you learn that? Don't tell me you have Bunny Cloud wheels too? Damn, you're only a Tier 5 train!"
"Didn't you get yours on a Tier 5 train too?"
"That's not the same! I spent so much time exploring fortuitous encounter maps to earn mine."
Inside the Stellaris train.
Chen Mang glanced at the control panel screen. He had intended to send Erdan some iron ore, but it showed they were in different zones and couldn't trade remotely. After a moment's hesitation, he frowned. "You said that area is sealed off and trains can't enter. Can bullets still be fired in?"
"Probably," Erdan replied quickly over the walkie-talkie. "You mean the Organization's Tier 6 trains on the Sha River Plains could provide fire support from the zone boundary?"
"No way!"
"Bullets are too expensive, and this disaster isn't happening to them. They wouldn't waste that copper ore. Even if they did come, their Heavy Machine Guns and cannons wouldn't do much against that monster. You haven't seen it in person; you don't know how terrifyingly huge it is."
"I'll go try," Chen Mang said.
"Alone?"
"Yeah."
"Wait... I just remembered. You have S-rank potential. You should have a red-grade Heavy Firepower Accessory. You might actually stand a chance. But it'll cost a fortune in resources. You'll be bankrupt!"
"You said you're dying. We're friends, after all. I can't just watch you die in that zone."
"Hey," Erdan's laughter crackled over the walkie-talkie. "Brother, you're truly righteous. As long as that monster doesn't die, the zone lockdown won't lift. We can talk more later. What's the plan?"
Chen Mang looked at the screen on the control panel. "Try to lure that monster to coordinates (7921,2832) at the border between the Ice and Snow Paradise and Kunlun Mountain zones in three hours. I should arrive around then. See if you can pull it off."
One of the biggest challenges of this plan was how to draw the monster's attention.
"Easy," Erdan replied. "As soon as I appear in its line of sight, it'll abandon attacking other trains and prioritize chasing me. I don't know why, but this trick has saved a lot of trains."
"Alright."
Chen Mang didn't say more. He slammed the control lever forward, sending the train speeding toward the Kunlun Mountain Region. "I'll be there in about three hours. Coordinate your timing."
"Oh, and you mentioned last time that the monster was trapped inside the mountain with only an arm sticking out. Was it a zombie?"
"Yes, but I've never seen a zombie this huge!"
On the Sha River Plains, the Stellaris, having rested overnight, switched to Windfire Wheel mode and began speeding forward.
The rain stopped.
The ground was still wet. Soon, they entered the Kunlun Region. Along the way, they saw several trains completely destroyed, reduced to fragments. No survivors remained—clear evidence of self-detonation.
"..."
Chen Mang narrowed his eyes slightly, mentally trying to connect the sudden events in the two zones. The Sha River Plains and the Ice and Snow Paradise were both Green Zones, though not adjacent, separated by the Kunlun Mountain Region.
In the Ice and Snow Paradise, a Zombie King had emerged from the mountain.
In the Sha River Plains, a zombie horde had ravaged the area.
This...
Wait.
On the Iron Ridge Wasteland, he had witnessed a Tier 2 zombie evolve into a Tier 3 zombie. Countless zombies had regurgitated the flesh stored in their abdomens to nourish the Tier 2 zombie's evolution.
This meant the zombie horde from last night likely originated in the Ice and Snow Paradise, seeking to gather meat to feed their leader.
Their primary target should have been the Kunlun Mountain Region, where the most monsters resided. However, the monsters in that zone had all hidden away recently, forcing the horde to settle for the Sha River Plains as a second choice.
This connection made sense. Confirming his theory would be simple.
This morning, the zombie horde on the Sha River Plains had vanished. If he could spot a zombie horde heading toward the Ice and Snow Paradise in the Kunlun Mountain Region, it would confirm his theory.
But this would shatter a rule he had always taken for granted: that monsters could not only remain within their designated zones but could also freely traverse them. Why, then, had the monsters in the Kunlun Mountain Region remained confined to their zone?
Just then—
Beep. Beep.
The target acquisition radar began blaring alarms.
Fifteen kilometers away, a zombie horde was frantically scrambling over mountains and valleys, their destination clearly the Ice and Snow Paradise.
"Looks like my hunch was right," Chen Mang murmured, his eyes narrowing slightly. He immediately adjusted course, heading toward the horde. He couldn't let them reach the Ice and Snow Paradise. If they succeeded in providing their nutrients, the Tier 6 Zombie might evolve into a Tier 7 zombie.
That would make things much more complicated.
Without zone restrictions, even a Tier 7 zombie wouldn't faze him, thanks to his train's "Death Spin" skill. Even if he couldn't kill it, his Tier 7 Armor would make the zombie helpless against him.
But with zone restrictions in place, a Tier 7 zombie would become a much more formidable threat.
Soon—
The Stellaris, equipped with spider leg-like mechanical feet, rapidly closed in on the zombie horde. Ten-meter-wide vehicle blades extended from both sides of the train carriages and began spinning at high speed. The moment the train plunged into the horde—
Countless zombies were sliced into pieces and flung into the air.
Before they could even hit the ground, they were sucked into the train's refrigerator by a powerful magnet.
Seconds later, the Stellaris had already burst through the other side of the zombie horde, leaving behind a bloody path caked with blood and flesh fragments.
Chen Mang didn't rush toward the coordinates. After briefly explaining the situation to Erdan and warning him that he might be delayed, he turned the train around and charged back into the horde.
Minutes later, the zombie horde was nearly completely wiped out. Only a dozen scattered zombies managed to escape, fleeing into the distance. Chen Mang didn't bother pursuing them; these stragglers posed no real threat. The higher-Tier zombies within the horde had been precisely eliminated by his Doomsday Cannon.
Long ago, Chen Mang had acquired firepower weapons like the third-rate heavy machine gun and the 40-Tube Cherry Blossom Fall Rocket Launcher. However, he rarely used them in combat. His primary methods of attack remained the vehicle blades, train stunts, or simply avoiding conflict altogether.
The main reason was the cost of ammunition. Even with nearly a million copper ore in his reserves, he couldn't afford to waste bullets like that.
But with the Doomsday Cannon, everything changed.
Two consecutive overpowered effects that halved consumption costs made a Tier 6 Shell far cheaper than a Tier 6 Heavy Machine Gun Bullet. Chen Mang could finally use ranged firepower weapons more freely, diversifying his attack methods.
After dealing with the zombie horde, Chen Mang casually glanced at the loot. He then steered the Stellaris deeper into the Kunlun Mountain Region. Zombies rarely dropped anything valuable, but among the spoils, he spotted a train token.
Another train token.
It seemed zombies had a higher drop rate for train tokens than other monsters. During the early days of the apocalypse, many train conductors had obtained their first train tokens by killing zombies, launching their paths to wealth.
Once this matter was settled, he'd examine the loot from both this zombie horde and the one from last night. He suspected the primary item would still be corpse meat.
Four hours later.
The Stellaris finally arrived, belatedly, at the destination Erdan had specified. The delay was due to the train's detour to slaughter a dozen zombie hordes along the way. These hordes, like ants, had been swarming from the Sha River Plains, through the Kunlun Mountain Region, and toward the Ice and Snow Region.
As soon as the train reached its destination, Chen Mang's breath caught in his throat. Before him, a blizzard raged, sweeping across the entire zone. The ground was already buried under a thick layer of snow, and even the treetops were laden with drifts, creating a vast, white expanse.
The howling wind that tore through the canyon sounded like the agonizing screams of demons from Hell, chilling the very soul.
This scene stood in stark contrast to the Kunlun Mountain Region. While many trees in the mountains had turned yellow, there was no snow cover, nothing as extreme as the Ice and Snow Region.
At the boundary between the two zones stood a massive barrier of light.
Amidst the howling blizzard, Chen Mang could clearly see a colossal zombie, its body completely covered in white snow, roaring as it charged forward.
"The area ahead is the Green Zone, the Ice and Snow Paradise."
"This zone has been sealed off and is currently inaccessible."
Amidst the howling wind and blizzard, Chen Mang could clearly see a colossal zombie, its body completely covered in white snow, roaring as it charged forward.
The zombie stood nearly sixty to seventy meters tall—equivalent to a twenty-story skyscraper!
Its furious charge shook the very ground beneath its feet.
"Damn," Chen Mang thought, suddenly feeling a twinge of uncertainty. This was the largest zombie he had ever seen. He began to doubt whether his Groundburst Missile could even harm it.
Once a zombie reached a certain size, even a Tier 6 monster's defenses became incredibly formidable.
With this kind of scale, cannon fire would barely make a dent.
He picked up a nearby telescope and peered closely. He could clearly see numerous honeycomb-like bullet wounds on the zombie's massive palm, now oozing crimson blood.
But on such a colossal hand, the wounds seemed insignificant.
They weren't penetrating injuries; the bullets had likely embedded themselves in the zombie's palm.
Just then—
Erdan's urgent voice crackled through the walkie-talkie: "Brother, I see you. Are you ready?"
(End of the Chapter)
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