Chapter 177: Rain Town

Rat-tat-tat-tat!!

The sound of gunfire from the rear cars was deafening, and the roars of the monsters and their attacks on the train’s armor never ceased.

Lin Xian was frantic. The view ahead of the train gradually opened up, and a station with many tank cars, along with the silhouette of a small industrial town in the distance, came into view.

“Rain Town Station?”

Chen Sixuan nervously checked the train’s computer. “This branch line connects to the main Circinus track. We should be able to get back on track if we go forward.”

“We can’t!”

Lin Xian stared ahead. On the track, a tanker car was blocking the Infinity’s path.

His heart sank. He immediately controlled the entire train to brake hard.

Screech!

All the iron wheels stopped turning. Sparks flew from the tracks, which glowed red. Everyone inside the cars was thrown off balance by the inertia, and screams rang out.

As the train braked, a shower of filth fell from the roof. The smell of hot steel from the wheels mixed with a foul stench and began to spread.

“What do we do?”

“Reverse! Let’s charge out!” Lin Xian gritted his teeth. With no other choice, he was about to start backing up.

But at that moment, a strange scene occurred. The sound of attacks from the rear of the train suddenly stopped, and the gunfire gradually died down. Just as everyone was trying to figure out what was happening, KIKI discovered the clue through the surveillance system.

“Lin Xian, the monsters don’t seem to be following us anymore.”

“What’s going on?”

“Shu Qin.”

“Captain Lin, the Aberrations are all gone,” Shu Qin’s voice came through the communicator. “I checked. The rear cars are intact, no damage.”

“The middle section is fine too,” Da Lou’s voice added on the communicator.

In car number 2, KIKI checked through the sentinel system. Although the exterior armor and the roof were a mess, the overall integrity of the armor was not compromised, just that the gaps were stuffed with many insect corpses and chunks of flesh.

Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan looked at each other upon hearing Shu Qin’s words. He immediately got up and ran to car number 2. Sure enough, in the sentinel system, there were no more monsters outside the Infinity.

Hiss~

He went to car number 5 again. Lin Xian opened the door, and a strong, foul smell wafted in. Some monster limbs were still hanging from the roof of the car, but it was indeed quiet outside now. He closed the door again and said to KIKI, “Kiki, use the drones to check.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

KIKI knew Lin Xian was very cautious and immediately launched two drones to inspect the entire train in the dark.

From the drone’s perspective, the outside of the Infinity was a scene of carnage, but thankfully, the interior had not been breached.

When the drone raised its camera view, Lin Xian immediately saw that in the distance, beyond the fork in the road, large black shadows were rapidly disappearing into the old forest by the roadside.

“What’s going on!?” Shasha, standing beside him, said with a surprised look on her face. “Brother Lin, it seems like those monsters can’t get in.”

Can’t get in?

Lin Xian was baffled by her words.

KIKI watched the scene, frowned slightly, and pointed at the screen.

“That’s right, Lin Xian. It’s like there’s some kind of… barrier?”

“Rain Town isn’t a famous place. There are many chemical plants here,” Chen Sixuan said at this moment. “Could it be that a chemical plant leak is preventing those monsters from getting close?”

Lin Xian shook his head, got up, and opened the blackout curtain. He looked at the empty freight station outside, his expression somewhat grave.

“When things are this strange, there must be something fishy. Kiki, first use the drones to scout the road ahead. See how long the line of cars blocking the track is. None of us should get off the train for now. Let’s observe this place.”

“Shu Qin, is anyone in the back injured?”

“Captain Lin, everyone is safe. No problems,” Shu Qin’s voice came, and Lin Xian breathed a small sigh of relief.

Just after nightfall, they had encountered a series of situations that had put Lin Xian on high alert.

He was still racking his brain on how to escape the suffocating tide of Aberrant insects when they suddenly entered this ghostly town. And the strangest thing was, upon arriving here, they were safe.

Lin Xian had never encountered such a situation before.

It wasn’t a steel city wall. Lin Xian wondered, could there be something that could invisibly block those monsters?

Lin Xian walked from car number 1 to car number 12, checking everything. Although the interior of the cars was filled with the smell of gunpowder and anxiety, thankfully, everyone was fine. Many people in the living area were also confused, while some were celebrating their narrow escape.

“Wow, if we were still in our cars tonight, we would have been done for. So many monsters.”

“I know, it was terrifying…”

“Captain Lin, are you okay?” In the living area, the young girl Miao Lu saw Lin Xian walk over and stood up enthusiastically to ask.

Lin Xian replied, “I’m fine. When we entered the station just now, did the monsters suddenly run away?”

Miao Lu shook her head. “I didn’t really notice. It was like, all of a sudden, the monsters retreated, and the noise just stopped.”

“That’s right,” Shu Qin also walked over at this moment. “It’s very strange. We’ve never encountered a situation like this before.”

Lin Xian nodded. “Alright, everyone, stay alert. The situation with so many monsters might happen again, so be mentally prepared.”

The entire train being covered in Aberrations had caught not only Lin Xian but also Shu Qin and the others off guard. If it weren’t for the thick armor, the dozens of people on this train would have become food for the monsters.

Lin Xian used his Mechanical Heart to check the integrity of each car as he walked, and repaired some of the fasteners along the way.

When he reached car number 3, he was stopped by Ding Junyi.

Ding Junyi’s face was serious as she pointed to the pot with the No. 1 Blood Calamity Plant. She took a deep breath and said, “I’ve been continuously monitoring it. Just now, the Hell Black Chrysanthemum changed.”

Lin Xian’s heart skipped a beat. He quickly walked over, looked at the black chrysanthemum with a frown, and immediately said, “The red light… is it dimmer?”

“That’s right.”

Ding Junyi nodded. “Not only that, during the fight just now, I saw a wisp of black smoke being absorbed by it, and then its red light weakened a lot.”

“Black smoke…” Lin Xian frowned. “When we killed Aberrations before, this kind of smoke would appear.”

“So we must have killed some Aberrations in the process just now,” Ding Junyi said.

“What does this mean?” Lin Xian asked.

Ding Junyi crossed her arms. “The appearance of Aberration blood essence is also accompanied by that kind of black smoke. According to this logic, the calamity plant should have the ability to absorb the power of this black smoke.”

“That makes sense.” Lin Xian nodded with a slightly grim expression. “But we don’t know what use it has, or what it represents.”

“We couldn’t monitor this kind of change in the laboratory,” Ding Junyi said. “So now we at least know some of its characteristics. If you have time, please kill a few more, or maybe catch a few Aberrations, so I can test the degree of change in the calamity plant from the black smoke produced after an Aberration’s death, or the distance factor it can absorb from, and so on. The more experiments, the sooner we can know the results.”

Lin Xian was taken aback for a moment. “Huh?”

He thought he had misheard and pointed at his own face.

“Catch a few Aberrations? You mean me?”

Ding Junyi tilted her head slightly, her eyes under the black-rimmed glasses looking very serious. “Yes, from a scientific point of view, conclusions drawn from more experimental comparisons will be relatively accurate.”

Is this woman speaking human language?

“Forget about catching them. If any monsters die near the train later, you can observe them then,” Lin Xian said speechlessly and walked away. Although he knew what Ding Junyi meant, he was really not in the mood to argue about experiments at the moment.

Catch Aberrations? Who would do such a stupid thing? Impossible, not in this lifetime.

Lin Xian thought resentfully.

Bang!