Translator: AnubisTL
"..."
Chen Mang stared at the scene before him, his lips twitching slightly. Even Tier 30 armor won't survive such a space shattering trap, let alone his Tier 18 armor. It seemed he'd have to solve the puzzle to proceed.
Just then—
A train moved.
The train had six carriages. The unpainted door of the locomotive cabin opened, and a middle-aged man jumped out, muttering, "What the hell is going on here?"
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly across the eerily silent square.
Immediately after, as if someone had hit the pause button, the train conductors from the other trains jumped down as well, huddling together to whisper and discuss the situation.
"Let's go."
Chen Mang immediately led Li Shiji and the others toward the group of conductors. He was curious to see how these high-level train conductors operated. After approaching, he scanned the crowd and spoke first.
"The other side of the cliff isn't the final destination. I propose we share our findings first, then compete on our own merit once we're across."
"Based on the current assessment, those tens of thousands of glass pods on the ceiling are likely a misdirection and don't conceal any hidden information."
However—
As soon as he finished speaking, the group continued their own conversation as if he had been completely excluded, completely ignoring him.
"How are we supposed to get across?"
"I don't know. That train tried to fly over earlier and was torn apart by spatial forces, wasn't it?"
"The only option now is to solve the puzzle here. I think we should try firing a burst at those glass pods on the ceiling."
"Hey!"
Biaozi, standing behind Chen Mang, shouted angrily, "Lord Mang is talking to you! Can't you hear him?"
Throughout their journey, no one had dared to ignore Lord Mang like this group.
They felt humiliated by their disregard for him.
"It's alright."
Chen Mang raised his hand calmly to stop Biaozi, then turned back to the group and said, "It seems you're all acquainted with each other?"
Still, no one responded or even glanced at him.
"Damn it!"
Biaozi couldn't help but curse under his breath. Rolling up his sleeves in a fury, he strode forward and shoved aside the nearest thug, intending to grab a train conductor by the collar and demand answers.
But then...
His body froze in place. He glanced at his retracted right hand. Why did that push feel so weightless? He looked up at the closest thug, whose face was set in a cold, hard expression, and reached out to push him again.
This time, he saw it clearly.
His hand passed straight through the man's body without resistance.
Biaozi, bewildered, cautiously stepped forward and reached out to push several nearby train conductors. Sure enough, his hand passed through each one without obstruction.
"I..."
He took a deep, icy breath, slowly retreating to Lord Mang's side. His voice trembled slightly as he whispered, "Grandpa Mang, they... they don't seem to be human."
"..."
Chen Mang said nothing, but simply raised his cane and poked each figure in turn. His cane passed through them all without resistance. He then walked over to a train and poked inside. The cane passed right through it as well.
Confirmed.
The only real entities in the entire station were the Stellaris and their group. All the other trains were holographic projections.
No wonder they remained motionless at first. It was only after he sent a train plummeting into the cliff and destroyed it that they finally emerged.
"Back to the train."
Inside the locomotive cabin.
Chen Mang sat in his chair, glanced at the countdown on the control panel, and murmured, "It's almost certain now. The twenty trains are likely stationed in different plazas."
"Solo challenge."
"In that earlier conversation, they mentioned a train trying to fly across and being torn apart by space. The train they were referring to wasn't the Tier 1 Train, but the '20th Train.'"
"It's like a scene recreation."
"At some point, all twenty trains were here. The 20th Train attempted to fly across but was shredded by space. The Stellaris now occupies that 20th Train's ecological niche."
"If my assessment is correct, they only leave their trains to converse after a train is destroyed."
"Xiao Ai, replay the footage you recorded earlier. See if there are any clues we missed."
"Yes, sir!"
Soon—
The screen displayed the footage of the train conductors gathered in discussion, and their voices echoed through the locomotive cabin's audio system.
The conversation wasn't long, lasting only about two or three minutes.
"Gear." After the video finished playing, Li Shiji paced back and forth in the locomotive cabin. "They mentioned the word 'gear' six times in their conversation, and one of them even said sarcastically, 'Not this "main gear" game again.'"
"Lord Mang, you saw it too. That bridge, spinning like a metallic storm, isn't rotating as a single unit. Instead, countless steel blades are spinning at their own individual frequencies."
"Some blades spin rapidly, while others spin incredibly slowly."
"The power source for all these blades comes from the gears at the rear. These gears are interconnected, forming a vast and intricate gear matrix. Almost every gear matrix has a 'main gear,' which serves as the primary power source."
"As the main gear rotates, all the other gears turn in unison. However, due to factors like tooth pitch and size, each gear rotates at a different speed."
"So—"
"If we can find the main gear's location and adjust its speed so that all the steel blades on that bridge rotate at the same rate, the bridge might return to normal."
"The problem now is, where is the main gear?"
"Good point," Biaozi nodded seriously.
"Could it be on the bridges of the other trains?" Old Pig frowned. "Since the other nineteen trains are holographic projections, not real people, their dedicated bridges should contain clues, right?"
"Possibly," Biaozi mused.
"No."
Chen Mang sat in his chair, his gaze calm as he looked up at the ceiling, his eyes passing through the skylight to the tens of thousands of glass pods above. He spoke softly: "The most crucial piece of information in that video was the train conductor constantly looking down at his handheld game console, playing Link-Link."
"If my judgment is correct, the main gear's location should be on the ceiling."
"Those tens of thousands of glass pods filled with mechanical organs—hearts, lungs, livers—weren't a misdirection."
"They're the puzzle."
"Once we eliminate those tens of thousands of glass pods, we'll see the answer."
"As for how to eliminate the puzzle..."
"Doesn't it feel a bit like Link-Link to you?"
"That's right!" Biaozi paused, then looked up at the tens of thousands of glass pods hanging overhead and slapped his forehead. "It really does look like Link-Link!"
"Give it a try."
A Doomsday Cannon locked onto one of the glass pods and fired without hesitation. A Tier 1 cannon shell shot out and struck the pod containing a Mechanical Heart.
It caused no damage, and the glass pod showed no signs of shattering.
Then, two more cannon shells struck glass pods in the same row, each containing a Mechanical Heart.
Suddenly, all three glass pods, which had been dark and lifeless, flashed with a faint white light. Then, they fell silent.
"Use Tier 10 shells and try again."
Chen Mang's confidence grew. He hadn't dared use Tier 10 shells at first, fearing he might misjudge the situation. But now that he'd seen the three glass pods flash with a faint white light, he knew his assessment was correct.
"Not enough. Tier 15."
"Tier 16."
"Tier 17."
"..."
"Tier 20!"
When the cannon shells reached Tier 20, something miraculous happened. Three Tier 20 shells struck the three glass pods containing the same mechanical organ in rapid succession.
The three glass pods hanging from the ceiling suddenly flashed with a red light, then shattered into dust and vanished into the air.
Moreover, the glass pods suspended from the ceiling began moving rapidly, instantly filling the void.
At that moment!
They finally noticed a hidden recess at the far left end of the ceiling. It was from there that new glass pods had emerged, one after another, to fill the gaps.
"Confirmed, it's Link-Link," Chen Mang said with a smile. Now that they had identified the problem, the solution was much simpler. He turned to Li Shiji and Xiao Ai. "You two join the Cluster Mind and play this game together. I've never been a fan of Link-Link, especially with so many pieces. It hurts my eyes just looking at it."
At first, they had spent ten minutes without even considering Link-Link.
The main reason was...
Link-Link typically has a cute, lighthearted aesthetic. The bloody, wasteland-themed mechanical organs made it hard to connect them to the game. Plus, the sheer number of pieces restricted their ability to think outside the box.
For example, no one had thought to use the stars in the night sky to play a round of Link-Link.
"Leave it to me!" Li Shiji declared confidently, slapping his chest. "President Ai, let's do this together. With so many pieces, we need to be as fast as possible."
"No need."
Xiao Ai's expression was serious. "With my computing power, this level of Link-Link is an insult. I can handle it alone. You rest for a while and save your brainpower."
"I'm the game designer."
Before the words were even out—
The Doomsday Cannon on the Stellaris began firing short, rapid bursts. Tier 20 shells rained down on the glass pods suspended from the ceiling, barely pausing between shots. One by one, the glass pods shattered into dust in midair.
With Xiao Ai's computing power, this Link-Link was indeed rather insulting.
Half an hour later, the ceiling, once densely packed with glass pods, now held only three. These final three pods each contained a Mechanical Heart.
Chen Mang raised his hand to stop Xiao Ai.
He turned to the data displayed on the control panel.
It showed that 99,997 glass pods had already been successfully destroyed. These were the last three. In total, there had been exactly 100,000 glass pods. They had only been able to see two or three tens of thousands at the start; the rest had been hidden elsewhere, only appearing once they had discovered the Game and begun playing.
This meant they had needed to expend 100,000 Tier 20 shells.
The price of a Tier 18 shell was 5,000 units of copper ore.
Tier 19 required 6,000 units of copper ore.
Tier 20 required 7,000 units of copper ore per shot.
The price was exorbitant!
Crafting 100,000 Tier 20 cannon shells would consume 700 million units of copper ore. Even with his Doomsday Cannon at Tier 20, boasting the overpowered effect of halving the cost for three consecutive shots, it still cost him 87.5 million units of copper ore.
Just one fortuitous encounter map had nearly wiped out his entire fortune!
He only had a little over 100 million units of copper ore in total.
But most high-tier trains only had Doomsday Cannons at Tier 10 at most. Few would have enough murphy stones to upgrade them to Tier 20, meaning they would only benefit from the cost-halving effect twice. That would still require 175 million units of copper ore. However, a Tier 10 Doomsday Cannon wouldn't be enough. Using other firepower accessories upgraded to Tier 20 would consume even more copper ore.
If a train didn't have that much copper ore on board, there was no way to clear the First Stage.
Whoosh
Chen Mang exhaled slowly, refraining from immediately destroying the remaining three glass pods. Instead, he lit a cigarette to calm his nerves, preparing to face the mystery behind the answer. The sunk cost fallacy was too strong.
This fortuitous encounter map allowed players to withdraw without penalty upon failure.
When Chen Mang had smashed through seventy or eighty thousand glass pods, yet still saw an endless stream of them pouring forth, despair had begun to creep into his heart. He had already poured tens of millions of copper ore into this battle, yet the bottom seemed nowhere in sight.
Giving up now would mean this fortuitous encounter map had been a complete waste of time, and he would have lost tens of millions of copper ore for nothing.
At that moment, Chen Mang had already made up his mind.
He would endure.
If he ran out of copper ore, he would immediately activate Neon City and set the exchange rate between copper ore and stellar coupons to 1:3, exchanging as many stellar coupons as possible for copper ore to weather this storm.
But in the end, he managed to hold out. He didn't even need a hundred million units of copper ore; 87.5 million units was enough—an exact figure.
"..."
Chen Mang glanced at the Tier 50 Doomsday Cannon on the control panel. If he had felt the situation was dire after firing a few hundred shells, he would have upgraded one of his Doomsday Cannons to Tier 50, hoping for the fourth overpowered effect: halving ammunition consumption.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
The cannon's power simply increased.
This level tested not only one's judgment and observational skills but also the train's foundation. The train needed at least a Tier 10 Doomsday Cannon, 175 million units of copper ore, and a train token to pass.
Perhaps only a Tier 20 Doomsday Cannon and 87.5 million units of copper ore could clear this stage.
Lacking any one of these elements would make it impossible to pass.
If you don't have a Doomsday Cannon, other firepower accessories with an attack strength of 20 would also work, but the Doomsday Cannon is the most cost-effective option. Using other firepower accessories would cost an astronomical sum.
Without lingering, Chen Mang chose to destroy the final three glass pods.
In the next instant—
The pristine ceiling suddenly fractured into a spiderweb of cracks. Intense light pierced through the gaps, and the cracks multiplied rapidly.
A few seconds later, the shattered ceiling crumbled into dust and vanished into the air, replaced by a massive gear. The entire gear was slowly rotating, and countless smaller gears, connected to the main gear by transmission rods, covered the entire ceiling.
The scene was filled with a desolate, post-apocalyptic atmosphere.
"Found it. This is the main gear."
Chen Mang looked up at the massive gear on the ceiling. Beside it were two buttons:
"Fast"
"Slow"
Clearly, this would still consume copper ore. Chen Mang was genuinely worried about running out. He wasn't concerned about others getting ahead of him anymore, unless those High-Level Trains had mined one or two Tier 5 copper ore deposits before entering this fortuitous encounter map. Otherwise, they wouldn't have enough copper ore.
Boom!
A cannonball struck the "Slow" button. If it could stop the main gear completely, he would clear the stage. But the shot produced no effect, indicating this was already the slowest speed.
Another cannonball slammed into the "Fast" button.
The large main gear only sped up slightly, barely perceptible to the naked eye. However, the smaller gears connected by the transmission rods clearly showed a slight increase in speed.
The rotating steel blades on the bridge also adjusted their speed accordingly.
Next came a slow, methodical process of trial and error.
On the twenty-third shot, a crisp clang echoed across the square.
This was followed by the rapid whirring of countless gears. The steel blades on the bridge had synchronized their rotation, appearing as a single, unified structure. Their speed gradually slowed, and finally, the blades came to a complete stop, forming a steel bridge.
"Huu..."
Chen Mang exhaled softly, slowly pushing the control stick to steer the train onto the steel bridge. It was a challenging maneuver.
This level primarily tested the train's Foundation and information-gathering abilities. It was possible to pass without a train token, but without one, there would be no reminders. As long as he could identify the puzzle as Link-Link, he could proceed without the token.
The Stellaris glided across the hundred-meter-long steel bridge, successfully reaching the other side of the cliff.
Here, too, was a plaza.
As they arrived, the white mist gradually dissipated, like a maiden shedding her skirt, revealing a breathtaking scene before them.
Chen Mang glanced around.
Only one train stood in this plaza, with no other paths leading here. He didn't know whether the other nineteen trains that had entered the level with him had also arrived. He had no way of knowing their progress.
A towering wall, tens of meters high, stretched along the plaza's perimeter, its top reaching the ceiling, forming a cage that enclosed the Stellaris.
The wall was covered with human faces.
Roughly a hundred thousand faces, each contorted in a grimace, stared directly at the Stellaris train with piercing gazes. They emitted a chorus of shrill, ear-splitting sounds, creating a slightly unsettling atmosphere.
At the front of the plaza, a whiteboard displayed three lines of text:
"These are the people of the mechanical race who were unjustly killed."
"You must use the Vehicle Audio System to play a sound at the correct frequency to appease them and pass."
"You have only three chances."
"Xiao Ai, which fruits are good for the brain?"
"Blueberries and cherries are both excellent for brain health."
"Have Xiao Fang bring me some."
"Alright."
Chen Mang sighed softly, leaned back in his chair, lit a cigarette, and waved his hand toward Li Shiji. "Come on, see if you have any ideas. My head's starting to hurt."
"Let me take a look."
Li Shiji nervously scanned each face embedded in the wall.
Thirty minutes later, they still had no clue.
Old Pig and Biaozi had already left the train and were standing before the wall, examining the faces up close. They looked incredibly lifelike, as if alive, their eyes staring directly at them with vivid expressions.
"Soft..."
Biaozi tentatively poked one of the faces. "It doesn't feel like a corpse. It feels like it's alive."
Trainmaster Zhu then picked up the massive fire tongs, using them like a mouth spreader to open the face's mouth as wide as possible. He peered carefully down the throat, confirming there were no hidden notes or messages before setting the tongs aside to examine the next face.
"Old Pig, I think we're wasting our time," Biaozi said. "The answer can't possibly be a note hidden in one of these faces. We'd be searching forever."
By now, all the train residents had disembarked, each wielding a giant fire tong crafted by Lord Mang using the Mechanical Heart. They were methodically checking each face's mouth for hidden objects or any other anomalies.
The scene was chaotic. Some used ladders, others stood on elevated platforms, and still others perched on the shoulders of mechs. The goal was to inspect every face as quickly as possible, searching for anything unusual.
"Stop yelling! I swear, if you don't shut up... I'll smash you with this!"
Biaozi, annoyed by the faces' constant wails, raised his fire tongs menacingly at the face in front of him, though he didn't dare actually strike it.
"It looks like their throats are blocked off right around the tonsils," someone observed.
"How do they even make sounds?"
"Wouldn't they need airflow to vocalize?"
"Let's just start doing it. We'll find the answer as we go," Old Pig said, his expression serious as he examined each person's face, checking their mouths. "Lord Mang's riddle certainly wouldn't be solved so crudely, by hiding the answer in someone's mouth. But we don't have any better ideas right now. We can't just sit here and wait. We have to try something. Maybe the answer really is hidden in the mouth of one of these faces."
"That makes sense."
Biaozi pried open another face nearby, examined it carefully, then pulled out a train token from his pocket and moved on to the next.
"But on second thought, if we could take this wall, it would actually make a pretty cool collector's item."
"This wall is embedded with hundreds of thousands of collector's items. What would you do with it?"
"Think about it: one face a night. Wouldn't that be awesome? Always a fresh experience."
"Biaozi, get a grip. There are plenty of male faces here too."
"Life is only thirty thousand days long. You should try everything."
"..."
"I'm just kidding, Trainmaster Zhu. Don't look at me like that."
"..."
Inside the locomotive cabin, the Cola can on the control panel was overflowing with cigarette butts. Chen Mang rubbed his temples with a headache, his eyes closed. He had tried substituting the male and female faces with 1s and 0s and using binary to calculate the answer, but he quickly realized it was a completely idiotic idea.
There were hundreds of thousands of faces here.
And there was no clear starting point or endpoint.
This was completely different from the First Stage.
If the First Stage's difficulty was 1, this one was a 10—a tenfold increase in difficulty.
He couldn't understand it.
The Mechanical Civilization had been wiped out because of insufficient firepower, because they couldn't defeat the Zerg. Shouldn't the selection process be focused on the train's strength and firepower? What use was this face-scanning nonsense? How could it help them fight the Zerg?
And that "Tuotuo."
She was already thirty-eight years old, still calling herself the "Little Princess of the Mechanical Civilization." Couldn't she set up a normal fortuitous encounter map for once?
Xiao Fang approached, carefully removing the overflowing ashtray and replacing it with a fresh one. Without a word, she quietly retreated.
Just then—
"Train Conductor."
Xiao Ai's voice suddenly echoed through the locomotive cabin. "Train Conductor, I've found a new direction. After you upgraded the Mechanical Eye to Tier 100, I recorded all the faces in the database and began comparing them one by one."
"Not all the faces are screaming with their eyes open."
"Twelve of them are screaming with their eyes closed."
"And they all have extremely faint symbols carved on their foreheads."
"There are two types."
"↑" and "↓."
..."
Chen Mang's spirits lifted. He quickly looked up at the screen, where a face magnified several times was clearly visible, its mouth wide open in a silent scream. Its eyes were tightly shut, and a "↓" symbol was etched on its forehead, hidden beneath its bangs.
"Show all the faces with closed eyes."
"Yes."
He quickly jotted down the symbols on paper: nine "↑" symbols and three "↓" symbols.
"That's it! That's it!"
Chen Mang looked exhausted, but his eyes shone with excitement.
"Default initial Hertz: 0."
"The correct sound frequency to pass this stage should be 0 Hertz plus nine additions, then minus two subtractions. The only question now is, by how much do we add and subtract?"
"Are there any other anomalies?"
"Nothing," Xiao Ai's voice echoed in the locomotive cabin after a brief pause. "I haven't detected any further anomalies."
"I'll go check!"
Chen Mang took a deep breath, leaped from the train, and strode toward the stone slab at the front of the square. He had to see if the final answer was hidden there.
The stone slab was incredibly simple.
It bore the three sentences he had just seen. He carefully counted each character, wondering if the added number was the sum of their total. But then, he paused, slightly stunned. Every inch of the square had been meticulously searched, and Li Shiji had visited the stone slab countless times.
Yet, one place seemed completely untouched.
That place was...
Chen Mang looked toward the Stellaris train. It was beneath the train's carriages. He immediately used his cane to remotely control the train, suspending it low in the air. Then, he strode toward the space beneath the train.
Sure enough—
At the edge of the square, beneath Section 14, he found a faint, barely visible number etched into the ground:
"1892"
"I found it!"
Chen Mang grinned. If he was right, there could only be two possible answers: 1892 Hertz, or zero plus nine consecutive additions of 1892, minus three subtractions of 1892.
That would be 11352 Hertz.
"Everyone, return to the train immediately and in an orderly fashion!"
His voice, broadcast through the Vehicle Audio System, quickly spread across the entire plaza. Then, he strode toward the locomotive cabin, sat down, and eagerly accepted a bottle of mineral water from Xiao Fang, drinking it down in one gulp before turning to the screen.
"Xiao Ai, emit a sound at 11352 Hertz."
"Let's try it."
"No problem."
The next moment—
A piercing sound erupted from the Vehicle Audio System. The tens of thousands of faces on the surrounding walls, which had been wailing incessantly, fell silent. Their grim expressions softened, their eyes closed, as if they had fallen asleep.
Then!
"Click, click, click!"
The sound of gears turning filled the air. The walls, which had resembled a prison, slowly parted down the middle, revealing a tunnel wide enough for the Stellaris to enter.
"What a pity," Chen Mang murmured, gazing wistfully at the tunnel before him. The final answer had been 11,352 Hertz. If it had been over 20,000 Hertz, he could have used the overpowered effect of the Vehicle Audio System, which only became possible at Tier 10 or higher.
No other train would have this effect.
With this advantage, he could eliminate nearly all the other nineteen trains here.
He wondered how the other trains were progressing.
This stage had cost him over half an hour. He needed to speed up.
He slowly pushed the control lever, and the train entered the Train Tunnel, which seemed to plunge deep underground. The path ahead was unknown, but having cleared two stages, he felt confident. Even if the next stage proved more challenging, he wouldn't feel completely helpless.
The answer was bound to exist.
With that prerequisite established, it was merely a matter of time.
"Lord Mang," Li Shiji said apologetically, standing beside him. "I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help."
"It's alright," Chen Mang said, waving his hand. "In a situation where data is being rapidly recorded and filtered, human effort can't possibly compete with AI. This stage isn't your time to shine, so don't blame yourself."
"I think we did well in the first two stages. We should still be able to make it into the top three."
"Keep pushing, keep working hard."
The Train Tunnel wasn't too long, and the Stellaris didn't dare to go too fast. At a speed of 500 kilometers per hour, it took three minutes to reach the location of this stage.
The space ahead gradually brightened.
Emerging from the Train Tunnel, they saw a massive "Heavy Machinery Factory" before them. They were standing in the plaza in front of its main gate.
The steel gate lay collapsed to the side, covered in rust and in disrepair.
Wild grass grew around the fallen crane.
The ground was slick with a mixture of machine oil and viscous blood. The entire scene looked utterly dilapidated. In a corner of the factory, they could faintly see a small mountain, slightly over two meters high, built from mechanical wreckage and human bones.
As the train slowly came to a stop, a holographic screen appeared before them.
"Congratulations, Pioneer. Just making it this far proves your strength."
"But..."
"A train is a collective. If only the train conductor is putting in effort, this train will never reach its full potential. In the apocalypse, stockpiling talent is an unnatural act, yet it's absolutely necessary."
"The next part will be fun."
"You can choose to withdraw from this fortuitous encounter map at any time. However, be warned: the moment you choose to give up, you will permanently and voluntarily withdraw from the selection process for the title of Heir of the Mechanical Civilization."
"This is the final stage of the Second Stage. Passing this stage will successfully complete the Second Stage."
"In the next phase, a thousand zombies will launch an attack on you. Each wave will last fifteen minutes, followed by a five-minute rest period for your train after each zombie horde attack."
"You must kill all one thousand zombies within each fifteen-minute window. Failure to kill them all, or if the locomotive cabin is breached, will result in failure."
"Starting with Tier 1 Zombies, each new zombie horde will see the zombies' Tier increase by one."
"In the 'Central Control Room' of the 'Heavy Machinery Factory' before you, a massive gear assembly is jammed, rendering the entire factory abandoned. You must complete thirty-six small missions during the rest periods to successfully clear this stage."
"During this stage, the train conductor must remain on the train and cannot enter the factory."
"Fifteen minutes until the first zombie horde arrives."
"Heir of the Mechanical Civilization?"
Chen Mang lowered his head, pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and took a puff. He had expected the rewards from this fortuitous encounter map to be generous, but he hadn't anticipated they would be this lavish—a selection trial for the position of Heir of the Mechanical Civilization.
At the very least...
Setting aside everything else, he was sure to receive a wealth of resources. Iron ore, for example—he'd definitely get a lot of that.
But why would they only select so few train conductors for this trial? Wouldn't a larger pool of candidates allow them to identify individuals with even greater potential? He didn't have time to ponder this now.
He glanced at the train's copper ore balance.
Only 2.45 million units remained. That was far too little. At the rate of a zombie horde every 20 minutes, the hordes would all be Tier 4 within an hour.
Two hours later, they'd all be Tier 7.
Three hours later, Tier 10.
Four hours later, Tier 13.
Five hours later, Tier 16.
Six hours later, Tier 19.
The train's copper ore supply was woefully inadequate. Fortunately, he still had a substantial amount of iron ore—over 60 million units. He also had 40 Viper Drone Fighters, each equipped with a Tier 20 cannon that consumed energy stones, not copper ore.
He had other offensive capabilities as well, such as mechs, which also ran on energy stones.
He calculated his options.
If he deployed his entire Foundation, he could hold out for a maximum of six hours!
Six hours from now, the zombies we face will all be Tier 19 or higher. Even one of them alone would spell doom for the train, let alone a thousand!
Huuu
Chen Mang took a deep breath, turning his gaze to Old Pig, Li Shiji, and the others. "The rest is up to you. I'll stay on the train to deal with the zombie horde. The horde won't enter the factory. You need to go inside and complete thirty-six small missions."
"The missions are unknown, and the decryption methods are unknown as well."
"In twelve minutes, the first wave of the horde will arrive."
"Xiao Ai will set a countdown on each of your Iris Chips. We have six hours at most. If you haven't completed the missions by the time the countdown ends, it means we've failed this mission."
"I need to stay on the train for this operation. The rest is up to you."
"Too many people would only get in the way."
"Old Pig, Guard Team One, second team, third team, Li Shiji, Xiao Ai, and Uncle Li, you all go. Old Pig, you know the residents well. Pick a few with sharp minds. If we're still far from completing the missions after three hours, I'll send all the residents into the factory for a thorough search."
"Any other questions?"
"Lord Mang," Biaozi hesitated, "shouldn't I stay behind to guard the train? You know I'm not very bright. This decryption work isn't really my thing."
"You have to go." Chen Mang shook his head. "You think you're slow because you're comparing yourself to Li Shiji, but in reality, your mind is already sharper than many of the train residents. Don't you think so?"
Biaozi tilted his head and pondered for a long moment. "You're right, I guess. So, are Zhang Yi and Zhang Er going too?"
"Oh, they're not."
"Then now..." Chen Mang glanced at the countdown on the control panel. "We have eleven minutes until the first wave of the zombie horde arrives. Report any developments to me or Xiao Ai immediately. Everyone, move out now! Hurry, hurry!"
Biaozi and the others didn't dare delay. They quickly left the Stellaris and rushed toward the ruins of the factory ahead.
"Good luck, everyone!" Chen Mang called after them. "The future of the Stellaris rests in each of your hands. Whoever completes a mission will receive 1,000 stellar coupons."
Then, leaning back in his chair, Chen Mang watched their figures disappear into the Abandoned Factory and sighed softly. He settled in to patiently await the first wave of the zombie horde.
Xiao Ai's voice echoed through the locomotive cabin.
"Train conductor, you don't seem very confident."
"The difficulty is too high."
Chen Mang lit another cigarette, paused for a moment, then gazed at the swirling smoke. "We need to complete 36 missions in six hours, and the mission objectives are completely unknown. We have to find the missions first, then find the answers. The time is just too tight."
"And the factory is too vast."
"But I'm waiting for a miracle to happen."
Li Shiji, his face pale with anxiety, hurried deeper into the factory, his mind racing to absorb every detail of his surroundings. He pulled out a cardiac stimulant from his pocket and injected it into his arm to stay alert.
The group quickly dispersed.
Li Shiji circled the factory building, and within minutes, he spotted a locked wooden shack. A faint yellow question mark adorned its door, and it was secured with a combination lock—the kind found on password-protected diaries. This was clearly one of the 36 small missions.
"Password... password..."
Li Shiji's lips trembled as he stared at the eight-digit combination lock. Eight...
He quickly sprinted towards the factory gates, snatching a soldier's tag from the remains of a human in the Security Room. The tag revealed the soldier's birthdate: February 18, 7228.
Then, he turned and fled back towards the wooden cabin with renewed desperation.
Using the cardiac stimulant as a stimulant proved surprisingly effective.
His trembling hands fumbled with the combination lock, rapidly dialing in a series of numbers.
"72280218."
The next moment—
Clang.
A clear sound echoed as the lock clicked open, and the pale yellow question mark on the wooden cabin gradually transformed into a green exclamation mark.
Li Shiji laughed, his voice hoarse but filled with excitement. He clutched the soldier's tag tightly, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.
"President Ai, the first one!"
(End of the Chapter)
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