Translator: AnubisTL
Soon—
As all the residents disembarked, the half-hour countdown was nearing its end.
The moment the countdown reached zero, a crisp, muffled sound echoed from the locomotive. This was followed by countless white specks drifting from Carriage No. 2 and seeping into the train. Before the eyes of all the residents, the Stellaris suddenly began to... transform?
Or perhaps mutate?
The steel seemed to be imbued with life and a soul, growing wildly and savagely. The once-impenetrable armor now flowed like viscous liquid, extending and climbing through the air.
Before their very eyes, the entire Stellaris was rapidly expanding.
It was an overall expansion—wider, longer, and taller!
Even the Windfire Wheel was rapidly spreading outward, increasing its size.
The entire process lasted a full three minutes.
After three minutes, under the stunned gazes of all the residents, the Stellaris had completely transformed. It had grown several times larger, with each carriage now measuring 10 meters wide, 30 meters long, and 10 meters high!
The locomotive had also grown to 10 meters wide and 21 meters long.
The entire Stellaris train, comprising 14 carriages plus the locomotive, now stretched a staggering 441 meters long!
The connections between each carriage weren't rigidly welded but had slight gaps, allowing for greater flexibility. This meant the Stellaris's actual length was slightly longer than this figure.
Most importantly—it was tall enough!
Each carriage stood 10 meters high, equivalent to a three-story building.
At a glance, it was a true mechanical dragon, a colossal beast coiled across the wasteland. The ten Tier 20 Doomsday Cannons, which had once seemed terrifying, now looked like miniature toys on the train.
"..."
Chen Mang gazed at the scene with a satisfied chuckle. The peak of his satisfaction had arrived. This was the Doomsday Train he had built in just a few months since transmigrating to this world!
This was his reliance in this world.
He immediately grasped his cane and remotely controlled it. In the Custom Carriages option, he spent 60,000 units of iron ore to spray three large characters across the jet-black train:
"Stellaris"!
The character "恒" (Stellar) was painted on Carriage No. 3, "星" (Star) on Carriage 6, and "号" (No.) on Carriage 9.
Each character was enormous.
Even from a great distance, one could clearly see the three characters: Stellaris.
The train had the name painted on both sides. It was quite expensive—60,000 units of iron ore just for a name spray. No wonder he'd rarely seen anyone use this feature. But right now, he wanted to use it. He wanted to spend 60,000 units of iron ore to truly give his train its own name!
He wanted the name Stellaris to one day resound throughout the heavens and earth!
He wanted everyone to hear the name of his Stellaris.
This was his dream.
This was his aspiration.
The residents behind him finally reacted, their faces flushed with excitement as they cheered and gazed at the completely transformed train, now perfectly embodying the image of an iron dragon. Their eyes were filled with awe.
In the apocalypse, who wouldn't want to follow someone powerful enough to protect them?
The children standing behind Teacher Qiu were constantly tiptoeing, trying to catch a glimpse of Lord Mang sitting in the front row, but their short stature and the crowd in front blocked their view. They grew increasingly impatient, scratching their heads in frustration.
They had seen Lord Mang many times on screens, but they had never actually seen him in person.
"Get on the train."
Chen Mang stood up, Xiao Lu cradled in his arms, and strode toward the locomotive cabin. He wanted to experience the feeling of his expanded train.
Behind him, the residents, following the commands from their Iris Chips, lined up in an orderly fashion to reboard the train.
Entering the locomotive cabin, the most immediate impression was:
Huge!
It was much larger than before. His Single Bed now looked like a doghouse tucked away in the corner.
The once cramped locomotive cabin now contained only a control panel in the center, two refrigerators beside it, and a portal on the carriage wall.
The hundred heavy machine guns, which had been densely packed on the ceiling, were now spaced out, creating a more aesthetically pleasing arrangement.
The cabin felt strangely empty.
"I need to find something to fill up the locomotive cabin," Chen Mang muttered, frowning as he surveyed the surroundings. The original cabin, though cramped, had felt secure. He liked the small space; every time he was inside, he felt safe and protected.
But now...
It was empty.
He casually rolled Xiao Lu onto the floor, thinking that when the little green creature woke up, it would have plenty of room to play.
There was another problem too—
The locomotive cabin was over ten meters above the ground. Previously, there had been a simple retractable folding ladder for getting on and off the train, but now it was just a climbing ladder. Chen Mang wasn't afraid of heights, but having to climb a ten-meter ladder every time he boarded or disembarked was inconvenient.
"Hmm..."
The train needed further upgrades.
Chen Mang silently formulated a plan. He needed an elevator to make it easier to get on and off the train. He also needed to install slides and retractable large-scale escalators in the Resident Cars to help the residents board and disembark quickly.
While there were some drawbacks, the benefits far outweighed them!
Not bad.
The train still needed further upgrades. Each upgrade unlocked a new feature, and at Tier 10, the train unlocked two features: "Train Expansion" and "Mechanical Fortress."
The effect of Mechanical Fortress was:
When this button on the control panel was pressed, the train would form a complete circle from front to back, anchoring itself to the ground for 24 hours. During this time, all Defensive Components would automatically level up by 1 Tier, and all Offensive Components would consume half their usual resources.
However, the cost was that the train would be unable to move during these 24 hours, remaining rooted in place.
If he activated this effect, his armor would become Tier 14!
But he had never found a situation where he needed to use this feature. Even the gentleman from that day hadn't had a chance to activate it. And even if he had, it wouldn't have mattered—Tier 13 shells would have crushed him anyway.
After this Train Expansion!
The train's iron ore reserves were completely depleted again!
Nearly empty.
Only 155,000 units of iron ore remained, essentially returning him to poverty.
He clearly remembered earning a lot of iron ore recently. How had it suddenly been wiped out?
"..."
Inside the locomotive cabin.
Chen Mang frowned slightly. He couldn't keep going the usual route. After searching the wasteland all night, he still hadn't found any Tier 4 Iron Ore. Searching another night would likely yield the same result.
Once Tier 4 Iron Ore was discovered by another train, it was almost always mined immediately, leaving no chance for later arrivals.
Finding a Tier 4 Iron Ore that had just spawned or newly formed was proving too difficult.
Although the Pickaxe Production Line was only a green-grade Accessory, with a maximum upgrade level of Tier 3, this was still the Blue Zone. The trains here were considered High-Level Trains in this apocalyptic world, and obtaining a few murphy stones wasn't entirely impossible.
He had to take an unconventional approach.
Tonight, he would venture through the Train Tunnel to the ruins of the mechanical city in the Red Zone. He needed to try something different!
Only after all the residents had climbed the ladders into the Resident Car did the Stellaris slowly begin to move.
Chen Mang didn't activate the drill immediately.
Instead, he slowly pushed the control lever forward, sitting in the locomotive cabin and gazing down at the ground ahead. He felt the train beneath him gradually accelerate, the powerful push against his back building his excitement.
The Stellaris felt completely different now!
He had an overhead view!
The vast locomotive cabin, like a steel dragon, stretched before him.
He felt as if he were piloting a steel dragon, hurtling across the wasteland. He slowly pushed the control lever to its limit, heading toward the zombie horde 30,000 meters away on the target acquisition radar.
30,000 meters!
He closed the distance in an instant!
Chen Mang sat in the locomotive cabin, watching the 9th-tier zombie horde approach. Without slowing down, he steered the train directly into them!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Countless zombies were flung into the air, torn to pieces. The Stellaris ruthlessly crushed the apocalyptic horde beneath its wheels.
Just months ago, he had nearly died at the hands of a zombie horde.
Now, a zombie horde was on the verge of annihilation at his hands.
"Awesome!"
After charging back and forth four or five times, almost the entire horde was pulverized. The Windfire Wheels were now taller than a person. The carriages were 10 meters high, but there was still nearly two meters of clearance between the carriage floor and the ground.
There was no way the horde could trap the wheels and immobilize the train like before.
He could simply drive right over their heads.
This was the Stellaris now.
To put it simply, this thing is absolutely monstrous!
After a long pause, Chen Mang, still unsatisfied, finally stopped wasting time. He extended the drill, and as it spun at high speed, the spider legs also extended, lifting the carriage and tilting the locomotive downward. The drill pressed against the ground and began boring a hole.
The drill was enormous!
It was as wide as the carriage, if not slightly wider.
Chen Mang had discovered during the Train Expansion that many accessories had also been upgraded, including the spider legs. Even though they were already large, they had become even larger after the expansion.
Looking out the window, the massive spider legs, radiating a mechanical sci-fi aesthetic, were both intimidating and oppressive at first glance.
Honestly, if he had possessed this train when the apocalypse first struck, it would have looked more like the apocalypse itself than the zombies. He would have been the source of the end of the world.
"Buzz... buzz... buzz..."
As the drill spun rapidly, the train quickly plunged back into the depths of the earth, heading straight for the hole Chen Mang had drilled in the Train Tunnel before. The previous hole had been too small, but no matter—he would just make it bigger.
Perhaps because of the train's massive size,
He noticed the train's energy consumption had increased, and its speed had slowed down slightly both underground and on the surface—roughly by a third, a significant reduction.
Clearly, this was the crossroads where he had to choose between speed and size.
He chose size. As for speed...
So what if it was reduced? It didn't matter. Who cared about a little speed reduction? Once he acquired enough iron ore to upgrade the Windfire Wheel and other acceleration accessories, the speed would surge again!
Numerical reductions held little significance for him. As long as the accessory upgrade added numerical value, it was as if the reduction never happened.
But a reduction in the underlying mechanics? That would be a disaster.
It's worth noting that the vehicle blade accessory was now completely useless against ordinary zombies. At a height of nearly three meters above the ground, creatures too short to reach it would only feel a cool breeze overhead, completely unaffected.
Soon!
The train reached the entrance of the Train Tunnel and located the hole he had drilled through the tunnel roof before. Without hesitation, the massive drill rammed into the tunnel and began spinning rapidly.
The Stellaris smoothly entered the Train Tunnel once more, switching out its Bunny Cloud Wheels to float in mid-air.
"Looks like it's about to collapse," Chen Mang said from the locomotive cabin.
He gazed at the torrent of mud cascading down like a waterfall behind them. A considerable amount of mud had already accumulated on the floor, the result of drilling earlier, but the holes had been small and quickly plugged by the falling debris.
Now, however, the holes seemed to have widened, and the mud couldn't plug them.
It poured down like diarrhea.
After about five minutes of this, a small mountain of mud had formed in the Train Tunnel, but the hole had finally sealed itself again, and the flow stopped.
It wasn't the mud that had plugged the hole; the Stellaris had taken care of it. The solution was simple: Chen Mang created seven or eight oversized Band-Aids and sent Zhang Yi and Zhang Er out in their mechs to seal the hole with them.
Not bad.
These Band-Aids were surprisingly sturdy, worthy of being made from iron ore—they were built to last!
The adhesive bandages couldn't withstand the constant flow of mud, but as long as they provided some support, the mud would naturally clog the hole. Though it was uncertain how long this would last, they'd have to make do.
"See that?" Uncle Li pointed out the window at the massive adhesive bandages plugging the hole. "When I graduated and became a safety inspector, I was sent for further training because of this kind of shoddy construction."
After the Train Expansion, each carriage now had floor-to-ceiling windows that stretched from the bottom to the top. The immersive experience was complete.
In truth, the train was gradually transforming into something resembling a Cosmic Train. At least, a normal train shouldn't have floor-to-ceiling windows.
But let's not even talk about normal trains.
If we were being truly normal, a normal train wouldn't have any of the accessories found on the Stellaris.
"The train has changed so much," the young man who had been following Uncle Li murmured, gazing at the scene before them. "It's only been a short time, and the train has already evolved from its original bare locomotive to what it is now. Uncle Li, do you remember when the Stellaris only had a bare locomotive?"
"While the immersion is stronger," he added, "it still feels a bit dangerous."
(End of the Chapter)
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