Chapter 12: Advance Deployment Plan

[Current Mechanical Heart Level: LV.1 210/500]

[Tip: Upgrading the Mechanical Heart can grant special skill rewards. Reaching LV3, LV6, and LV9 will grant a mysterious awakening.]

[Base Attributes]

[Strength: LV1 27/50]

[Speed: LV1 8/50]

[Defense: LV0 18/30]

[Current Base Skills]

[Mechanical Devour LV.1 278/300]

[Mechanical Crafting LV.1 112/300]

[Mechanical Scan (Passive)]

[Mechanical Repair (Passive)]

[Mechanical Operation (Passive)]

[Special Skills]

[Air Cannon LV.1 12/100]

“That’s not right. I used the Air Cannon twice on that white monster, how did it increase so much?”

Lin Xian looked at the Air Cannon proficiency, which had become 12, and suddenly began to doubt his life.

He thought it would increase by 1 point each time he used it, but he didn’t expect it to suddenly take a big leap.

“Could it be that in a critical situation, I can greatly improve my mastery of the skill?”

After thinking about it, Lin Xian felt that this speculation was more likely.

At the same time, the benefits of devouring a small-displacement truck were also immense: 30 Mechanical Source points, 10 Devour proficiency, and even a 12-point attribute increase!

It was a huge gain.

“Damn, if you give me a parking lot, I’ll work 996 without even taking a break…”

Lin Xian said resentfully in his heart.

But he knew that this was just a thought.

In the situation just now, if it weren’t for his ancestors’ graves smoking with good fortune, he really couldn’t think of any other reason why he would have survived.

That monster had definitely been standing next to him for a while, because he had indeed heard some movement in advance.

Perhaps it was because he had remained focused and hadn’t made any noise, so the monster didn’t attack immediately.

Otherwise, he would have long since become a spicy kebab.

Sure enough, high risk, high reward.

It took Lin Xian at least an hour and a half to devour one car. Not only did he have to maintain his concentration, but he also had to expend a lot of physical strength. Now, under the influence of the Dark Tide in Jiang City, the daytime was less than 4 hours.

How could he have so much time and opportunity to devour slowly? Once night fell, who knew what kind of strange things would pop out.

“Then can I pull a freight car and then slowly devour it at night…” At this moment, a thought popped into his head.

But he quickly rejected it.

“It seems… tsk, no, no!”

“An empty freight car is just an iron frame, it won’t increase the benefits much, unless I pull a locomotive or something…”

“But it would take forever to devour a locomotive of several hundred tons, and whether I have enough stamina is still a problem.”

Lin Xian had actually made a lot of assumptions in the past few months, but when he put them into practice, he found that it was not as simple as he thought.

3:00 PM

The sky suddenly brightened, and Jiang City welcomed a brief dawn.

The entire city was desolate. Lin Xian looked towards the northwest from the city’s skyline. It was still gray and black over there, as if wrapped in some kind of huge storm.

Lin Xian knew that that direction was Lu City and Dingzhou, which were also the areas that disappeared earliest on Apocalypse Day.

Because that was the center of the number three “Star Abyss”!

Compared to the people there, Jiang City, which was now in ruins, could even be considered lucky. At least it had left a lot of time for the citizens to migrate, and there were still many survivors struggling to survive.

Lin Xian still remembered that he had once traveled to Lu City. The rice noodles and barbecue there were very special, and he had once been reluctant to leave.

However, these cultural symbols of humanity instantly turned into flying ash in the apocalypse.

The light from the gaps in the armored window fell on Chen Sixuan’s face. She slowly opened her eyes and saw Lin Xian welding the bed frame. She immediately turned over in surprise and apologized with a guilty face, “I’m sorry… Lin Xian, did I oversleep…”

“It’s okay,” Lin Xian said without looking back. “I saw that you weren’t in a good state, and last night was special. That strange thing might come back, so I didn’t wake you up.”

Even though it was daylight now, Lin Xian still had lingering fears.

That white giant monster might not even be stopped by his steel fortress. Even if he let Chen Sixuan get up to keep watch, it would be useless.

The top priority now was to continuously strengthen the protection of the “Infinity” and at the same time, quickly improve his own strength.

“You… didn’t sleep all night?”

Lin Xian finished welding the steel bed frame, stood up, and handed a bottle of water to Chen Sixuan. “Today we are going to pass through the freight loading and unloading point in Jiang City. The situation there might be a bit troublesome. You need to be mentally prepared in advance.”

“Okay.” Chen Sixuan, who was full of guilt, quickly nodded. “I’ll follow you today.”

“No need, I have other things I need you to help with.”

Lin Xian brought Chen Sixuan to the cockpit. At this time, he had already started the “Infinity” and was slowly moving forward. As they moved, he said to Chen Sixuan, “This main road should not deviate from the switch when it merges into the Jiang-Yu line. If there is a chance, I plan to tow an electric locomotive on the road today. At that time, I will have to get off the train in advance to operate the track switch. When we are connecting the carriages, I need you to help me operate the connection commands.”

Lin Xian pointed to a few operating buttons and patiently explained to Chen Sixuan.

“This is to release, this is to align and connect, this is to connect the gate, this is to test the passage…”

These professional terms were not unfamiliar to Chen Sixuan. She had been influenced by her father’s knowledge of railways since she was a child and knew that this was the operating procedure for connecting train carriages. However, hearing about it was one thing, and actually operating it was another.

So she listened to Lin Xian’s explanation very attentively, afraid of missing any details.

Connecting the carriages was also a very complicated matter for Lin Xian. The main reason was that he could not control two carriages at the same time and drive them with his Mechanical Heart. And in order to change tracks, he had to get off the train to operate the track switch.

But as soon as he got off the train, the “Infinity” would lose its power source. The only way was for him to ‘push’ it forward from the outside, while the gate and buffer coupler of the other electric locomotive had to be in a released state.

In this situation where he had lost his energy source, he would have to run back and forth…

There was another point. If he found such an electric locomotive, he would have to put this locomotive behind the gas turbine and before carriage 1.

Because the front of this Giant Whale 03E was already equipped with a layer of armor, and the heavy gas turbine was much tougher than an electric locomotive, it could only be placed in the second position.

In general, this operation was relatively complex. It would take Lin Xian at least a whole day to do it alone. Now with Chen Sixuan, he could save at least half a day.

Clang, clang.

The train slowly left the main urban area and headed towards Jiang City Station.

Coming out of the urban area, the view suddenly opened up, and several main roads leading out of the city appeared in front of them.

But in just a moment, both Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan’s expressions changed.

Tens of thousands of cars on several main roads completely blocked the road. Blood, limbs, burning car frames, and scattered luggage and clothes all told them that the road out of the city was already a living hell.

After the darkness passed, there was not a single living person to be seen. The mountains and plains were full of wandering zombies.

“Those who should have run have already run. The rest can’t run away.”

The road out of the city was completely blocked. Unless you were driving a tank or taking an unknown small road, the only way to escape this city was on foot.

But the polar night was getting closer and closer, and the daytime was only a little over three hours. How far could one go on foot?

Or rather, even if one walked out of the city, what would happen after dark?

Even Lin Xian, an ability user, felt helpless against the monsters in the night, let alone ordinary people.

Looking at the tragic scene on the main road, Chen Sixuan’s eyes trembled slightly. She looked at the clear railway ahead, and at this moment, she was extremely glad that she knew Lin Xian, and even more glad that she could board this train.

The slowly moving train also attracted the attention of some survivors hiding in their homes by the railway. A few quiet gazes fell, and some people began to whisper.

“A train? How is that possible!”

“Where did it come from…”

“Stop! Stop!” In a certain building, someone shouted loudly.

“Take me with you, I have supplies…!”

“Be quiet, you’ll attract the zombies and we’ll be finished!”

“Hurry up and close the window!!”

Clang~

Someone even threw a stone at the train and shouted like a madman, “Stop, let me on!!”

“Will they… come and rob us?” Hearing the sound of the stone hitting, Chen Sixuan said nervously.

“They’re definitely not here to be courteous,” Lin Xian replied faintly.

In the apocalypse, it was not uncommon for people to fight to the death for supplies in order to survive.

The third rule of survival: Better you die than I.

“Student Lin, look…” Chen Sixuan’s voice was very pleasant. Every time she spoke, Lin Xian felt that his choice to save her was becoming more and more clear. Having such a woman on a journey of life and death could lift his spirits a little. It always reminded him of the time in school when Chen Sixuan, wearing black-rimmed glasses, frowned and explained words to him seriously.

Lin Xian listened to the voice, looked up, and couldn’t help but his pupils shrink.

It was snowing.

Outside the train, snowflakes were flying, landing on the window and turning into dots of water.

“Is winter here?” Chen Sixuan’s big eyes stared blankly at the snow outside the window and muttered to herself.

According to the season, winter should still be several months away.

But Jiang City had been getting colder and colder these past few days. At this moment, when the light snow began to fall, Lin Xian’s heart shivered. It seemed that his worries were not unfounded.

Besides the darkness, zombies, and strange things, another disaster was beginning to descend with the regional climate change.

A natural disaster!

If extreme cold and ice arrived, then the trouble would not just be the cold. It meant that in order to maintain body temperature, people would need more food, and the train would need more energy to drive.

If there was extreme low temperature, they would even need to prepare a heating system on the train.

“Damn…” Lin Xian cursed inwardly. He was still planning to find a refrigerator to preserve food. It seemed that it was no longer necessary…