Translator: AnubisTL
This was the most expensive cigar he had ever bought, and the most delicious he had ever smoked.
He had survived.
At the edge of the Zombie Basin, an endless, black mass of a zombie horde surged toward the small mountain before them. Leading the horde were a dozen trains fleeing in panic, their carriages spewing blue flames from their tail jets like they were free.
Amidst this chaos, one train was moving against the tide, not fleeing but accelerating directly into the zombie horde!
This was the Stellaris.
"..."
Chen Mang sat in the locomotive cabin, gazing at the countless zombies massing hundreds of meters away. His expression remained calm as he pressed a button on the control panel.
In an instant, ten-meter-wide vehicle blades extended from both sides of the train and began spinning at high speed. Purple-blue lightning arcs crackled across their surfaces. At the front, the spiraled drill also extended and began rotating rapidly.
The zombie horde was moving faster than he had anticipated.
In less than two hours, the train at the center of the Zombie Basin had been completely overrun. The horde then began attacking the higher ground of the surrounding hills. The group of zombies before him was now at the coordinates he had set: the base of the small mountain.
The train in the center of the Zombie Basin had already been completely overrun. These zombie hordes began attacking the higher ground of the surrounding slopes. The horde currently before him was at the coordinates he had set—at the foot of a small mountain.
Their numbers were overwhelming.
He had descended from the mountain to clear these zombies and protect the other trains on the slopes.
As for the train he had casually saved earlier, he hadn't given it much thought. He had already saved several trains, some of which had given him iron ore and copper ore, while others had ignored his messages and given him nothing.
He had memorized the names of the trains that had ignored him.
He couldn't remember who had given him resources.
But he could remember who hadn't.
At this moment, the armor of No. 15 "Breeding Car" had also reached 9th-tier.
It could be said that—
All trains in the Zombie Basin were at risk of annihilation, but he was immune. At worst, all other trains would be destroyed, leaving him as the sole train in the basin. The good news was that he wouldn't have to compete for resources anymore. The bad news was that he would become a beacon in the darkness, attracting the attention of every monster.
Mining would become a nightmare.
Just then!
The Stellaris, charging against the tide of the zombie horde, spun its vehicle blades with terrifying speed. Any low-tier zombies that touched them were instantly melted, their flesh torn into fragments that drifted through the air like bloody snowflakes.
The higher-tier monsters hadn't even reached the train yet.
They were already being picked off by the Doomsday Cannon's precise shots.
He hadn't wanted to use the Groundburst Missile. It wasn't suitable for this situation. The lower-tier vehicle blades and drill would suffice for the weaker zombies, and the Doomsday Cannon was more cost-effective against the higher-tier ones. The Groundburst Missile was simply too expensive.
The only good news was that he hadn't encountered a Tier 9 Zombie yet.
Even among Tier 9 Monsters, their size determined how many cannon shells it would take to kill them.
At the train's incredible speed, the Tier 50 vehicle blades, carrying immense kinetic energy, sliced through the zombie horde like a red-hot steel blade through butter, instantly melting a bloody path through the dense mass of flesh and bone.
Then—
The Stellaris began a relentless rampage through the zombie horde, mowing down zombies and higher-tier monsters alike.
All the blood, flesh, and dropped items were sucked up by the powerful magnet and stored in the Tier 10 Refrigerator.
This was both a crisis and an opportunity.
He rarely had so many monsters to kill, and they dropped a wealth of valuable items.
At this moment, on the hillside...
Nearly twenty trains had formed a horizontal barrier halfway up the slope, resembling an iron wall.
The train conductor sat in the locomotive cabin, watching the Stellaris train below relentlessly charge through the zombie horde. A glimmer of hope flickered in his previously despairing eyes. The Stellaris was indeed powerful, even more so than they had imagined!
On top of the twenty trains, Heavy Machine Guns and Doomsday Cannons were trained down the slope, ready to open fire at any moment.
The main force of the zombie horde had been completely annihilated by the Stellaris's repeated charges.
Only a few stragglers had managed to break through.
About a thousand small spiders, each about thirty centimeters in size, were rapidly crawling towards the summit. They were so tiny that they had been completely overlooked amidst the zombie horde.
They were the Third Defense Line!
It wasn't their turn to open fire yet.
The Second Defense Line consisted of... the mechs.
A dozen mechs stood in front of the iron wall, charging directly at the thousand small spiders!
Mechs consumed fewer resources.
Three "Thunder" mechs stood out, towering several meters above the others like behemoths.
Each mech wielded a massive warhammer.
They didn't even need to use the hammer; one stomp was enough to crush dozens of small spiders.
"One... two... three..."
Zhang Yi, piloting the "Thunder" mech, charged forward, each stomp crushing a spider. He could even hear the satisfying squish as their bodies burst, a surprisingly cathartic experience.
All the mechs from the Stellaris train were here. The other mechs belonged to other trains.
"I hate spiders!"
Inside the "Thunder" mech, Zhang Damei's face was contorted in fury. Screaming and roaring, she swung her warhammer, crushing wave after wave of spiders. But the sight of their bodies bursting made her skin crawl with goosebumps.
Still, a dozen mechs couldn't hold back the relentless tide of spiders, nor the stragglers from the zombie horde reforming behind them.
Fortunately, these were all low-tier monsters. The high-tier monsters had already been cleared out by the Stellaris.
"Tutututu!!"
The steel wall formed by nearly twenty trains finally opened fire. Rows of Heavy Machine Guns and Doomsday Cannons began spitting out bullets, though no one fired in full auto. Most were firing in short bursts, as the Stellaris had been allocated most of the remaining resources.
It wasn't just their mountain peak that had become a temporary refuge.
At the highest points along the edge of the Zombie Basin, temporary shelters had sprung up one after another. But unlike the Stellaris, which charged ahead, smashing through the zombie horde and clearing out high-Tier monsters, these shelters couldn't hold out for long.
Before long, they were overwhelmed by the surging tide of monsters.
With a few flashes of fire, the sounds abruptly ceased.
Some trains had tried to reach the Stellaris, but the Zombie Basin was in complete chaos. Zombies and monsters swarmed the hills, making it impossible to break through the horde and reach the designated coordinates.
"Boom! Boom!"
As a barrage of artillery shells rained down, the Stellaris once again rescued a train on the verge of being swallowed by the zombie horde.
Every life saved was a victory.
Chen Mang didn't say much, nor did he send a private message. This was a flesh train, unlikely to carry copper or iron ore.
But...
This flesh train seemed rather bold. Instead of retreating, it began following the Stellaris, rapidly devouring flesh in its wake. After half a day of feasting, however, it found nothing left to consume.
After all, the fallen "corpse meat" and all the flesh and blood had been sucked into the refrigerator by the powerful magnet. There was nothing left for the flesh train to devour.
"Where's the corpse meat? Did you put it away? You don't even use it, so why are you keeping it? Give it to me! I'm in a hurry to level up!"
"..."
Chen Mang ignored the message on the train radio, his expressionless face betraying no emotion. He continued to charge through the zombie horde, but his silence only provoked the flesh train to honk incessantly. Its horn sounded nothing like a mechanical train's; it was more like a bat's screech, piercingly shrill.
"Sigh," he sighed softly. "Does this flesh train erode the mind?"
He immediately opened the train radio and replied:
"Here."
The next moment—
Several artillery shells rained down, quickly turning the flesh train into a fiery ball that soared into the air before crashing back into the zombie horde.
About an hour later, the Stellaris train slowly came to a halt.
The surrounding earth was stained crimson with countless flesh and blood, leaving not a single monster standing. At first, Chen Mang had collected the corpse meat, remembering the need for it in the Ice and Snow Paradise, but he soon ran out of storage space.
Chen Mang discarded the flesh of all low-tier zombies and monsters, storing only the flesh of Tier 6 and higher zombies.
Even the largest refrigerator couldn't withstand such use.
He then slowly steered the Stellaris train up the hillside. By this point, the train had turned crimson, its armor covered in shredded flesh, making it look like it had crawled out of Hell itself.
All the dropped items were stuffed into the refrigerator.
He had killed over a dozen Tier 9 Monsters alone.
He had consumed 1.1 million units of copper ore.
Chen Mang returned to the hillside and waved out the window, signaling all trains to remain stationed and not to make any sudden moves. Then, he left the train alone and walked to the top of the hill.
He had cleared the monsters from his immediate area.
But overall, he had only cleared less than one-fiftieth of the total monster population in the Zombie Basin. Looking down at the entire basin, countless swarms of zombies were still surging toward other hills.
The central area of the Zombie Basin was clear of monsters.
That was now the safest place.
The problem was how to get there.
All three paths were blocked.
"..."
Chen Mang narrowed his eyes, gazing at the scene unfolding in the distance. This time, the Zombie Volcano was teeming not only with zombies but also with various monsters. Strangely, these monsters were coexisting harmoniously, without attacking each other.
Normally, different monster species would exhibit territorial behavior and attack each other. For instance, the zombie horde frequently attacked other monsters to obtain enough flesh to provide the Corpse King within the horde with the energy needed for evolution.
But these monsters...
They were getting along remarkably well.
Moreover, their objective was crystal clear: not a single monster was wandering aimlessly. They were all focused on attacking every train in the Zombie Basin Region!
It was as if...
It was as if...
He didn't speak, but his mind drifted back to the village that shook once every night, the violent gusts of air that suddenly erupted from the massive cavern, propelling all the zombies above ground, and Zhang Yiren's speculation...
Perhaps he needed to return to that village once more.
"Biaozi, get on board."
Soon, all the guards had returned to the Stellaris. Chen Mang then summoned all the train conductors and gathered them around him, earnestly instructing them, "This zone has been cleared of monsters and zombies. For now, this is a safe point."
"If you want to live, don't wander around."
"Erdan, send me a message if anything happens. I'll return immediately."
"Do you all understand?"
The train conductors nodded repeatedly, their doubts about the Stellaris completely gone. Their survival now depended entirely on it.
Without further delay, the Stellaris switched out its standard wheels for the "Bunny Cloud" wheels and shot back into the air, speeding toward the village.
Just as it took off, a 9th-tier Death Bat shrieked and streaked toward them from afar. In a flash of yellow light, it materialized directly above the train, moving too fast to be locked onto!
As the red light flashed again on the train's external speaker, the Death Bat suddenly froze mid-air, preparing to flee. But in that split second of hesitation, the Doomsday Cannon locked onto it. With a thunderous roar, the cannon fired!
The sky filled with exploding flesh and gore, which then vanished. All the dropped items and flesh were sucked into the train. Tier 9 Monster flesh—valuable stuff. They'd definitely find a use for it later.
"How did it get back here?"
On a mountaintop.
Several Tier 9 Trains and over a dozen Tier 7 and 8 Trains had gathered on this mountaintop, facing the relentless tide of the zombie horde below. They were clearly overwhelmed.
The biggest problem was their dwindling copper ore supply.
The middle-aged, muscular man jumped down from his train and strode urgently toward a nearby Tier 9 Train. He shouted at the middle-aged man sitting inside the locomotive cabin: "We're running out of copper ore! The zombie horde just keeps coming!"
"Can Stellaris even send reinforcements?!"
"Didn't a train on the radio say Stellaris had already cleared out the monsters on their mountaintop?"
"I already told them," the middle-aged man replied, his face grim as he turned to look out the window at the endless black tide of zombies on the hillside. "I told them each of our Tier 9 Trains would give Stellaris 200,000 units of iron ore for reinforcements, but they refused and sent back a 'hehe'."
"Damn it! Keep raising the price!"
"Iron ore is useless now. Tell them there are still over a dozen trains here willing to give them iron ore if they hurry and send reinforcements!"
The middle-aged man shouted urgently, his voice strained with anxiety.
"There's no time left!"
"I only have three Tier 10 Doomsday Cannons I dare use. The others are below Tier 10 and consume too much energy!"
"Even if you combine all the Tier 10 Doomsday Cannons from your trains, there are only four! It's not enough!"
Just then—
It was too late. The zombie horde had already surged over the hilltop.
The middle-aged man's expression flickered. He strode quickly toward his locomotive cabin. The situation had worsened. With the horde already swarming up the slope, their only option now was to focus on killing high-tier monsters and ignore the lower-tier ones.
His Energy Shield was Tier 8.
He could withstand the lower-tier monsters, but the other low-tier trains were doomed.
And even if they survived this, mining would become a nightmare. These monsters seemed to have Tier 1000 target acquisition radars implanted in their brains, instantly locking onto their train's location and relentlessly pursuing them. They showed no territorial instinct, only pure slaughter.
(End of the Chapter)
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