Translator: AnubisTL
He had nothing to contribute here, nor could he offer any constructive suggestions.
The only reason he was allowed to stand here was because Lord Mang trusted him.
But he didn't want to appear foolish, so all he could do was nod along with the arguments that seemed most reasonable.
"Li Shiji, do you know how many people lived on Aquablue Star before the apocalypse?"
"The latest pre-apocalypse data showed 14.7 billion people."
"Do you know how many apocalypse trains there were?"
"No, I don't."
Chen Mang looked at Li Shiji and said softly, "Let me tell you, when we were still in the Iron Ridge Wasteland, we had 50 million trains. Now, after all this time, that number could be lower or higher."
"All trains—"
"—need at least 100 residents to thrive. Otherwise, the progress of mining operations will be painfully slow. We only started selling Mining Robots recently, and we haven't sold many."
"Let me be clear: Mining Robots are Gold-grade accessories, extremely rare. Not every train has one."
"Let's calculate this," Chen Mang said. "If we divide the 14.7 billion people equally among 50 million trains, how many people would each train have?"
"294," Xiao Ai replied instantly, before Li Shiji could even open his mouth.
When it came to calculations, no one on the train could match his speed!
"Good," Chen Mang nodded again. "The 14.7 billion figure is the latest population data from before the apocalypse. One year after the apocalypse, there were 50 million trains. Surely some people must have died during that year?"
"You should all have a sense of the mortality rate by now."
"Even with the most conservative estimate—a 50% mortality rate, meaning 7.35 billion deaths—and subtracting the 50 million train conductors, we're left with exactly 7.3 billion people. That means each train would have an average of 146 residents."
"It's no exaggeration to say that if every train had this population density, I'd believe 99% of them would have already collapsed. Such a small number of residents would struggle to meet the train's basic resource extraction needs. It might be enough initially, but it would quickly become insufficient as the train developed."
"So..."
"I have two possibilities here."
"The first possibility is that among the 50 million trains in the Iron Ridge Wasteland, two-thirds were newly built Tier 1 Trains. These trains carried few passengers, while the remaining population was evenly distributed among the rest."
"The second possibility..."
Chen Mang paused, leaving the sentence unfinished.
Li Shiji's mind flashed with a terrifying thought. He took over, his voice tinged with shock. "The second possibility is that the 50 million trains might not only include those from Aquablue Star, but also trains from other planets?"
"Other planets also experiencing the apocalypse?"
"Yes." Chen Mang nodded softly. "That's a possibility, which is why I'm placing so much importance on this 'Withered Wood Meets Spring' fortuitous encounter map. If this is true, Tuotuo the Mechanical Princess wouldn't just select the wisest individuals from a single planet. She'd be screening across multiple planets."
"If we could contact train conductors from other planets experiencing the apocalypse..."
"Then we could issue 'Neon City Entry Tickets' and try to establish a link between Neon City and those planets, expanding our influence!"
"..."
After a long, complex silence, Li Shiji finally spoke softly, "I really want to say that before the apocalypse, the federation didn't detect any planets near Aquablue Star with signs of life."
"We're not even in the same league as other civilizations. Forget about it."
As they spoke, the train token in the drawer, which had been flashing incessantly, suddenly shattered. Countless tiny red dots emerged from the token, forming a deep crimson portal in front of the train. The portal slowly rotated, resembling a blood-red black hole, utterly captivating.
Everyone fears black holes.
But...
Who wouldn't want to keep a black hole in their fish tank at home? It's truly beautiful, looks delicious, and makes you want to take a bite.
Chen Mang remained silent.
Instead, Chen Mang sat in his chair, slowly pushing the control stick. The train gradually entered the deep crimson portal, re-entering the "Withered Wood Meets Spring" fortuitous encounter map.
As if seeing the world for the first time, everything suddenly became clear.
The Stellaris train materialized in a plaza.
A massive plaza.
Several football fields in size, the plaza was shrouded in white mist. The only things visible were the plaza itself and the nineteen uniquely designed trains parked within it.
The target acquisition radar had been disabled.
Chen Mang glanced at the control panel screen. Both his target acquisition radar and resource detection radar were offline. He couldn't see the accessory Tiers of the other trains, but they all looked incredibly powerful.
All nineteen trains had been expanded.
However, most had relatively short Number of Carriages, typically six or seven including the locomotive, with the longest having nine. In contrast, the Stellaris had fifteen carriages including the locomotive, even without the Giant Beast Car.
His train was the largest expansion here.
It stood out like a sore thumb.
Huge and long.
It was as if he were the flagship of a fleet, and the other trains were merely his escorts, not even in the same league.
Nineteen trains were arranged in a fan shape across the square. Though he couldn't see the normal conditions inside the other locomotive cabins, he could sense that many people were watching him—or rather, watching his Stellaris train.
The next moment—
A massive light screen materialized out of thin air above the square, ensuring every train could see it clearly.
"Pioneers, welcome to the second stage of the 'Withered Wood Meets Spring' fortuitous encounter map."
"When humanity becomes the archaeologist of its own civilization, the truth often proves more chilling than the apocalypse itself."
"After 108,000 years of relentless conflict, the Mechanical Civilization was finally defeated."
"The fate of a defeated civilization is far more terrifying than you can imagine. The Mechanical Civilization may have fallen, but... its seeds will not be entirely eradicated. One day, a seed of the Mechanical Civilization will sprout anew, declaring to the cosmos—"
"The Mechanical Civilization is not yet extinct!"
"108,000 years—this number held great symbolic significance in the Mechanical Civilization's early history. Yet, this history is now lost, even from the civilization's own database. Sadly, this once-symbolic number ultimately became the death knell of the Mechanical Civilization."
"Within the Withered Wood Springs Anew Adventure Map lies a seed left behind by the Mechanical Civilization. This reward will only be granted to those worthy of it. If you possess the strength, claim it."
"And make it sprout!"
"Second Stage—"
"Begin now and strive to reach the finish line ahead. Trains within this map cannot attack each other."
"Time Limit: 48 hours."
"The first five pioneers to complete this stage will advance to the Third Stage."
"Good luck, pioneers."
The next moment!
The white mist surrounding the square suddenly dissipated, revealing a ten-thousand-meter-deep cliff that enclosed the square. Twenty hundred-meter-long bridges connected the square to the other side of the cliff.
The white mist above also vanished.
As the mist cleared, tens of thousands of glass pods hanging from the ceiling dozens of meters above the ground became visible. Each transparent glass pod contained organs cultivated from flesh, blood vessels, human nerves, and wheels.
Hearts, livers, lungs.
And a mechanical heart pulsed slowly within its container.
The twenty bridges were constructed from countless gears and steel blades, spinning rapidly like a metallic storm. They hardly seemed traversable.
Each bridge was accompanied by a screen displaying the name of a train.
Chen Mang quickly spotted "Fuck Everything · Stellaris" on the screen beside the bridge directly in front of him.
Clearly, each of the twenty bridges belonged to a specific train. The first train to cross its bridge would be the first to leave this place. The other side of the cliff wasn't the final destination; white mist still shrouded the area beyond.
Leaving the square was merely escaping the starting point.
"..."
Chen Mang quickly surveyed the scene in the locomotive cabin, remaining silent. He had at least seven or eight ways to cross this chasm!
Spider silk, spider leg jumps, bunny cloud—why bother with puzzles?
A hundred-meter-wide chasm? It couldn't possibly stop the Stellaris.
But—
The problem was that the trains here were all at least Tier 15, trains from the Red Zone. Trains of this level were essentially Aquablue Star's highest-level trains. How could they not fly? Crossing a hundred-meter-wide chasm would be like walking on flat ground.
Yet—
One minute into the second stage, not a single train had moved. Everyone remained still, as if completely unaware the stage had begun.
"Two possibilities," Li Shiji said quickly from the locomotive cabin. "First, this is a clear trap. Trying to cross the hundred-meter-wide chasm by any other means might trigger a train-destroying crisis."
"The only way to proceed is to solve the puzzle, stabilize the bridge spinning like a metal storm, and then cross normally."
"Second, this stage is a reward for the pioneers."
"This fortuitous encounter map keeps emphasizing the concept of the 'pioneer,' suggesting it highly values the first train to confront the unknown and choose to advance. This stage might even allow us to simply fly across."
"And it's highly likely that only the first train can do that. The remaining trains will have to clear the stage the old-fashioned way."
"..."
Chen Mang nodded without speaking. It was obvious to everyone, including the other nineteen trains, but no one moved.
Pioneer.
That sounded good, but what was the difference between that and a suicide squad?
Besides, he genuinely believed his Tier 18 armor could withstand the metal storm on the bridge. He refused to believe it could even scratch his armor.
The experiment was simple: detach a carriage and test it.
If he were alone, he would have done it long ago.
But so many trains were here.
He didn't want to be the one who paid the price while everyone else reaped the benefits.
For a moment, everyone froze. Ten minutes passed without a single train budging. They all remained in their locomotive cabins, observing their surroundings with remarkable patience.
"See anything?"
Chen Mang stared at the tens of thousands of mechanical organs on the ceiling, rubbing his slightly dry eyes. He hadn't noticed anything: "I suspect these mechanical organs aren't clues to the decryption. They might be more like red herrings."
He then pushed the control lever, slowly guiding the Stellaris train toward the bridge it corresponded to, preparing for an experiment.
As the train neared the bridge, he stepped out, gazing at the structure before him—a dizzying array of spinning gears and steel blades. He wasn't fond of decryption, so he decided to try a more direct approach.
"Buzz... buzz... buzz..."
A small drone from the Swarm Platform accessory lifted off from the Stellaris train, flying toward the opposite cliff. This accessory could produce reconnaissance drones, but he rarely used it.
Chen Mang's eyes were glued to the drone.
It flew unimpeded, reaching the other side of the cliff with ease.
"Boom!"
The roar of an engine filled the train. A Viper Drone Fighter, using the carriage interior as a runway, shot out from the rear, completed a half-loop in the air, and landed smoothly on the opposite side of the cliff.
After completing these two experiments, Chen Mang patiently waited for a minute. When the other nineteen trains showed no response, he couldn't help but sigh softly. This group truly had remarkable composure. He then turned to Old Pig and said, "Bring him down."
Soon after—
A hulking, ferocious man with a face contorted in rage was dragged from the train by Biaozi and the others.
This was one of the desperate men who had attacked Biaozi in the ruins of the Stone Man Zone. They hadn't been killed after being captured, but instead kept as expendable resources. A train token was quickly activated, and the man was shoved into the newly constructed Tier 1 train.
Of course, this Tier 1 train couldn't fly across the chasm.
The spider legs were non-detachable accessories, but Chen Mang had his own methods.
In the next moment!
Chen Mang slowly raised his cane. A powerful magnetic force emanated from the powerful magnet, causing the Tier 1 train to levitate and shoot across the chasm.
Couldn't fly?
He had too many tricks up his sleeve!
If he wanted to fly, he could perform a variety of aerial maneuvers using different methods.
However...
Just as the train reached the airspace above the chasm, the space above the cliff suddenly began to tear apart. The unarmored Tier 1 train was instantly reduced to countless iron fragments, which plunged into the abyss of the pitch-black spatial rift and vanished without a trace.
Completely destroyed.
Instant annihilation!
The trap surrounding the plaza was a spatial fracture.
(End of the Chapter)
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