Translator: AnubisTL
"Alright," Erdan said with a sigh of relief, continuing, "When we passed through that village, I encountered these survivors hiding there, so naturally, I brought them back to the train. Otherwise, they wouldn't have survived in this high-level zone."
"But—"
"That's where the problem arose. Zhang Yiren, the screenwriter, told me that the village experienced tremors almost every night, usually late at night. As soon as I heard this, I knew something was up. After all, I've explored so many fortuitous encounter maps, and such unusual occurrences often signify an opportunity. So, I sent my thugs to thoroughly search the village. Little did I know, when they searched, they discovered a Tier 3 Iron Mine right in the center of the village, in the courtyard of a civilian residence."
"Although the mine was small, estimated to yield only about 700,000 units of iron ore once fully excavated—making it a tiny Tier 3 Iron Mine, even smaller than many Tier 2 Iron Mines—it was still a Tier 3 mine."
"But since it's a Tier 3 Iron Mine, mining will be much faster. I sent the slaves to start digging, planning to finish this mine before looking for another."
"You discovered it?" Chen Mang frowned slightly. "Your resource detection radar didn't pick up that iron ore?"
"That's the problem," Erdan said seriously. "My resource detection radar showed no information about this Tier 3 Iron Mine at all. The survivors hid in capsules to avoid the target acquisition radar, but how did the iron ore evade detection?"
"While I had the slaves mining, I was pondering the mystery."
"As I pondered, a fortuitous encounter map, 'Eternal Imprisonment,' suddenly appeared. The entire train was forcibly pulled in without any time to react. We failed shortly after entering and were cursed."
"Tell me more about that. How exactly were you forcibly pulled in?"
"Hmm..." Erdan thought carefully for a moment before continuing. "It happened right after the Tier 3 Iron Mine was completely mined out and all the slaves had returned to the train. A massive portal suddenly materialized on the ground where the village had been, and the train simply fell into it, transporting us to the fortuitous encounter map."
"I suspect that the Tier 3 Iron Mine might be the key to this 'fortuitous encounter map.' Once we finish mining it, we'll enter the map."
"It's an odd key, but I've seen stranger ones."
"Can we still enter the map now?"
"No, but when the Tier 3 Iron Mine respawns, we should get another chance."
"Send me the coordinates."
"Alright."
Just as the two were about to part ways, Chen Mang suddenly called out to Erdan in a low voice, "Brother, do you remember the names of every slave on your train?"
"No, why, Lord Mang?"
"You said earlier that a survivor named Zhang Yiren told you that normally, only survivors or slaves should be here, not people with names, right?"
"Ah, that."
Erdan suddenly realized what Chen Mang was referring to, then sighed with a hint of nostalgia. "I actually remember that guy pretty well. He was the one who told me the village shook every night, and then, probably because of his job, he started spinning some wild tales about monsters hidden beneath the village. It sounded like something out of a movie, so I asked for his name."
"Are there really monsters underground?"
"Of course not. I scanned the area with my target acquisition radar. Not a single red dot."
Zombie Basin, Wasteland
Chen Mang stood alone on the flat ground, watching the Azure Dragon train disappear from sight. Only then did he turn to Xiao Ai. "Did you record those coordinates?"
"Yes."
He shook his head without speaking further, simply waving his hand. "Have Biaozi bring the others to my locomotive cabin."
Locomotive Cabin
"Big Brother! Big Brother!"
Zhang Yiren knelt on the floor, his face pale with fear. His voice was thick with tears as he looked up at Chen Mang. "This script isn't entirely my fault! The director bears a huge responsibility too!"
"We'll discuss that later."
Chen Mang waved his hand, frowning. After a moment's pause, he asked, "Does your village shake every night?"
"Yes, it does. Though we don't have clocks to tell the exact time, the tremors usually occur at the same point each night."
"So you believe there are monsters hidden underground?"
Seeing that Chen Mang had dropped the subject of the movie, Zhang Yiren cautiously let out a sigh of relief and said, "Because if it were an earthquake, it wouldn't happen every day at the same time. So my guess is that there's a terrifying monster hidden underground, and the tremors are just the result of its breathing."
"When the Lord saved me, I told him about this."
"Hmm."
Chen Mang nodded without speaking further. He planned to investigate the situation after the mine here was fully excavated in the next few days. Erdan's inability to detect it might be due to its target acquisition radar's low Tier. If he could detect it, he might even stumble upon a sleeping monster and get lucky.
Good.
He put the matter out of his mind and turned his cold, mocking gaze toward Zhang Yiren, who was still kneeling on the ground. "Now, let's talk about this movie of yours. I'm actually quite curious why you made such a film, and... what kind of plotlines are typically found in love stories like this?"
"Well..."
Zhang Yiren, kneeling on the ground, looked up at Chen Mang before cautiously saying, "Generally, the audience for love films is predominantly female. This demographic often enjoys emotional conflicts, such as misunderstandings that persist until death, missed opportunities that could have been avoided by a hair's breadth, unacknowledged self-sacrifices, significant efforts that go unnoticed by the other party, and near misses that could have..."
"That's enough."
Chen Mang suddenly laughed, his eyes blazing with fire. "Just listening to that is giving me a brain hemorrhage. Drag him out and kill them all."
"Yes!"
Biaozi, standing nearby with a cold expression, immediately grabbed Zhang Yiren by the collar and dragged him out of the locomotive cabin.
"Big brother, big brother!!"
Zhang Yiren, his legs completely paralyzed with terror, screamed with all his might, his voice cracking with desperation. "It's not my fault! I was just trying to make a living! The market demanded this kind of film, and I was simply catering to the market!"
"Fine, I'll give you a chance to redeem yourself."
"Aren't those your directors? You have a few days. Remake this film into something I'll enjoy. If I like it, you live. Understood?"
"Go ahead."
After the group left, Chen Mang stretched languidly and leaned back in his chair, gazing lazily out the window.
He'd asked Erdan to bring these people here for two reasons. First, the movies they'd made before had been truly infuriating—they simply didn't suit his taste.
In the apocalypse, survival on the train was paramount. But entertainment was also essential. Keeping a few people on hand to make movies just for him was perfectly reasonable. Second, they could later be used to film patriotic movies about the Stellaris, which was a good idea.
Three days later.
The Tier 3 Iron Mine and the 4th Tier Red Heart Rock Mine had been completely exhausted.
Under the cover of night, the Stellaris slowly began to accelerate. The wind was fierce tonight, and its destination was the coordinates Erdan had sent him a few days ago. He intended to investigate.
With the wind at its back, the Windfire Wheel burned rapidly.
From a distance, it resembled the flaming wheels of the Hell Knight's motorcycle—dozens of burning train wheels speeding across the wasteland.
About an hour later, they reached their destination.
In the darkness, the dilapidated village ahead looked utterly unremarkable. Low, crumbling walls riddled with holes, and broken doors on every house—this place had been searched countless times by zombies and other trains. It was a miracle that those few people had managed to hide here for a year.
Whoosh!
Guard Car No. 7 opened.
Zhang Yi jumped out alone, carrying a refrigerator and riding an off-road motorcycle toward the village at high speed. As he approached, he tossed the refrigerator high into the air. First Squad Members and Third Squad Members all tumbled out of the refrigerator.
One person, but instantly at full strength.
"..."
Biaozi, who had crawled up from the ground, rubbed his aching head and turned to glare at Zhang Yi. "Do you think you were throwing a briefcase? If you'd just set the refrigerator down, we could have walked out ourselves! What were you trying to accomplish by throwing it in the air?"
"I'm sorry," Zhang Yi mumbled apologetically. "In my head, I imagined myself tossing the refrigerator into the air, and you all flying out gracefully and landing smoothly on the ground. I thought it would look really cool."
"It would have been cool, but do you think we can fly?" Biaozi glared at Zhang Yi before tossing his briefcase into the air and striding into his Executioner mech. "First Squad, listen up! Form an Arrowhead Formation and advance cautiously. Don't get separated."
"Third team will provide fire support from the rear."
The third team had no close-combat, brute-force mechs. Their only fire support mech was the Third Squad Captain's "Leech."
The group then began meticulously exploring the corners of the village in the night.
Boom... boom...
Chen Mang frowned slightly, glancing at the control panel screen. He had just felt the tremors Zhang Yiren had described, but the target acquisition radar showed nothing nearby.
His radar was Tier 20. It could clearly detect monsters up to 20,000 meters away. That meant any monster underground would have to be deeper than 20,000 meters.
Impossible.
This was only a Yellow Zone, where the highest-level monsters could only reach Tier 9. Chen Mang hadn't even seen a Tier 9 Zombie yet. The highest-level zombie he'd encountered was Tier 8. Even a Tier 9 Zombie shouldn't be capable of causing such a massive disturbance 20,000 meters underground.
Tonight, the sky was clear and cloudless.
The words "night" and "clear sky" shouldn't even be used together.
But...
He looked up at the night sky, wishing he could find a more fitting adjective. Not a single star shone, the light wasn't dim, and not a single cloud drifted across the vast expanse. He could even make out the contours of clouds thousands of miles away with his naked eye, their shapes sharp and clear.
Tonight, the wind was fierce.
Not the gentle night breeze that soothed the soul, but a raging gale that pierced straight to the core.
Just then—
Biaozi's voice crackled over the train's intercom.
"Reporting to Lord Mang, no anomalies detected."
"No resources either. Everything portable in the village has already been taken."
"Return to the train."
"Yes, sir."
Since the village showed no signs of interest, Chen Mang decided to descend directly into the depths beneath it to investigate.
One of the overpowered effects of the resource detection radar was its ability to display the next respawn time of a mined-out mine. However, his resource detection radar couldn't even detect the Tier 3 Iron Mine, so it couldn't provide a respawn time.
"Buzz... buzz... buzz..."
The train plunged into the earth.
The Tier 50 drill bit melted through the rock like a red-hot iron rod slicing through butter, its progress effortless. Behind the train, a long tunnel yawned into the darkness.
The tunnel behind them was unstable.
It could collapse at any moment.
Chen Mang steered the train directly downward toward the village. They had only descended 200 meters—barely a scratch for the train, which had just begun its descent—when:
Beep, beep-beep!!
A piercing alarm suddenly blared through the locomotive cabin!
He had never heard such a shrill and urgent alarm before.
The target acquisition radar suddenly displayed thousands of red dots deep underground, 20,000 meters below the surface—specifically, 20,200 meters down. There, a massive cavern-like space teemed with countless zombies.
"..."
Chen Mang's expression shifted slightly as the train continued its descent.
Yet, he couldn't even see the edge of the cavern on the radar.
The deeper they went, the more red dots appeared on the target acquisition radar. Tier 7-8 Zombies were numerous, and even Tier 9 Zombies were present in significant numbers. At a glance, the entire edge of the radar screen was almost completely red, with no gaps between the dots.
When they reached a depth of 1,000 meters...
He had only just caught sight of the bottom edge of the cavern on his screen, meaning the massive underground cavern was a staggering 800 meters high. Its length and width remained unknown. The vast space was packed with zombies.
But zombies weren't the only monsters present. There were also all sorts of creatures he had never seen before.
He began traversing the underground, parallel to the cavern, to see where it extended.
However...
After traveling roughly ten thousand meters, he finally reached the end of the cavern's extension. The cavern began to ascend vertically toward the surface. Countless zombies had formed a human ladder within this vertical underground tunnel.
Several Tier 9 Zombies stood at the top of the ladder, tirelessly working to carve out this tunnel that rose straight toward the surface.
The cavern's structure was L-shaped.
And the top of the "L" was still extending upward, now only less than a hundred meters from the surface!
This vertical tunnel led directly to the heart of the Zombie Basin—the very spot where he had emerged from the Geocore Nuke fortuitous encounter map.
(End of the Chapter)
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