Chapter 180: Special Bodyguard

Vroom~

Zzzzt, zzzzt.

Vroom~ Clank, clank.

In car number 12, Lin Xian and KIKI sat on the empty floor, resting and watching the PX-05 robot busily assembling the weapon station.

“Lin Xian.”

“Hmm.”

“Don’t you think it’s such a coincidence? We don’t run into monsters anywhere else, but as soon as we enter the night, we’re surrounded. Then, at the critical moment, someone appears and leads us to this small town.” KIKI propped herself up with her hands behind her, tilting her head to look at Lin Xian.

Lin Xian smiled helplessly, closed his eyes, and took a long, deep breath. “I’d love to know too. If I knew, maybe we could turn from passive to active in this apocalypse.”

“Sigh~”

KIKI sighed faintly, lay down on the floor, and rubbed her small belly. “I hate the apocalypse. I miss my ice cream and potato chips, and milk tea. The thought of some unknown terrifying thing outside the train makes my stomach feel cold and painful.”

Lin Xian said speechlessly, “What does that have to do with being scared? You’re probably on your period.”

“I don’t care.”

KIKI snorted lightly, closed her eyes, and grabbed at the air. “When my Esper ability gets stronger, I’ll fly into the sky and crush all those monsters. I’ll even fly into that Starry Abyss to see what the hell it is.”

“Kiki,” Lin Xian began, “do you remember in your dream…”

“Aiya, aiya, I’m not listening~”

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this topic, KIKI immediately covered her ears unnaturally, seemingly unwilling to discuss her past memories with Lin Xian.

“No,” Lin Xian said with a serious expression, “I mean, in your dream, I saw a giant floating in the air.”

Hearing this, KIKI was also taken aback. “A very big person, a giant, dried-up corpse floating in the air, right?”

Lin Xian nodded. “I was thinking, something like that couldn’t possibly be just a fantasy. Since I could see it, you must have seen it at some point too.”

“It was when the helicopter crashed that day, in Jiang City.”

KIKI looked at the ceiling and said, “Because the plane crashed, I don’t remember it very clearly either. It was only after spending some time with you that I remembered a little. I seem to remember seeing a particularly scary monster in the clouds.”

“A monster?”

“Something that big, isn’t it a monster?”

Lin Xian was at a loss for words for a moment. “You’re right. Such a giant, yet a dried-up corpse. I don’t know if it’s alive or dead…”

“Who knows,” KIKI closed her eyes, seemingly not wanting to think too deeply about it, and complained, “We can’t even handle the things we’re encountering now. We can only run. And the more we run, the more monsters there are, and they get stronger. It’s as if we’re being targeted, like there’s a bounty on us from those monsters in the night. If that’s the case, with so many Espers on our train, we must be worth a lot.”

Hearing this, Lin Xian frowned slightly and fell into silence.

Seeing Lin Xian not speaking, KIKI also sat up. “What’s wrong?”

Lin Xian shook his head, feeling that his thoughts were a bit chaotic. “Nothing, just thinking about what you said.”

“It’s very late now. You should go get some sleep,” Lin Xian looked at his watch. “I’ll wait until this is done, and then I have to deal with the trains behind us.”

“Alright~”

KIKI nodded with a sleepy look on her face. She stood up, glanced at Lin Xian, took a few steps, and then stopped. Then, she suddenly floated back lightly, wrapped her legs around Lin Xian’s waist like a koala, hugged his neck, and buried her head in his chest.

Lin Xian held his hands up, somewhat at a loss. “What are you doing?”

“Don’t move. I’ll just sleep here for a while,” KIKI whispered in his arms.

Feeling the girl’s body temperature and her soft waist, Lin Xian couldn’t help but say helplessly, “Isn’t this a bit intimate, I mean, under these circumstances.”

“Shut up.”

KIKI closed her eyes and directly took Lin Xian’s hands and placed them on her waist. “Hypocrite. Why weren’t you so proper when you were peeking at my underwear? So much to say when I let you hold me. Anyway, you don’t need to move when you’re devouring machinery, and I can protect you~”

After speaking, KIKI shifted her position, seeming to really like this action of clinging to Lin Xian. Her legs were tightly locked around his waist. Her body was light, like a well-behaved cat, making her feel soft and cuddly.

At that moment, KIKI suddenly felt something pressing against her from below Lin Xian’s abdomen. Her face immediately turned red, and she closed her eyes, frowned, and bit her silver teeth. “Per~vert~.”

Lin Xian was at a loss for whether to laugh or cry. “Now you’re being unreasonable. I don’t want to move either. You’re the one who insisted on hanging on me. What can I do?”

“Hmph~”

Lin Xian looked down at KIKI in his arms, her eyes closed and a sleepy look on her face. A warmth spread in his heart. He knew that KIKI was actually trying to protect him.

The situation outside was unclear. To devour those trains, he had to take some risks. With KIKI, a psionic Esper, by his side, he would indeed feel much more at ease. But he also knew that this little girl hadn’t slept for two consecutive days. He had exhausted a lot of energy on the Sky-Lift and had fallen into a coma, but KIKI was actually not much better off than him.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Mmm~” KIKI’s breath was as faint as a thread, as if she was about to fall asleep.

“Alright then.” Although it was a bit strange, since it was KIKI’s ‘special bodyguard service’, Lin Xian didn’t act coy.

He immediately stood up, holding KIKI in his arms, and got off the train from the nuclear-powered locomotive’s cockpit door. He came to the intercity train locomotive that had been towed from Jiazhou City, preparing to start devouring.

Before getting on the train, he glanced around the dark freight station, took a deep breath, and directly boarded the train’s cockpit, which had not been used for a long time.

With KIKI by his side, Lin Xian inexplicably felt much calmer. And this girl seemed to be able to really fall asleep in his arms, her breathing becoming steady. So Lin Xian just sat in the car, holding KIKI who was like a koala, and began the mechanical devouring.

Lin Xian opened his Mechanical Heart panel.

[Current Mechanical Heart Level: LV.3 (565/5000)]

Strength Level: 3 [30%] (Burst 300 kg class)

Speed Level: 2 [40%] (Limit 13m/s)

Defense Level: 2 [26%] (Iron Bones)

[Mechanical Awakening]: Mechanic

[Awakening Skills]: Research Center, Preparation Factory

Mechanical Devouring: 3 (466/1000) Increases devouring efficiency

Mechanical Manufacturing: 3 (260/1000) Increases construction efficiency

Mechanical Passive: Scan/Repair/Decompose

[Special Skills]

Wind Cannon (Common) (Level 3, Maxed)

Ice Shield (Common) (Level 2, 09%)

Flashback (Rare) (Level 1, 30%)

Power Surge (Rare) (Level 1, 23%)

[Notice: The VoG grenade launcher blueprint is undergoing an upgrade research. 0:00:34]

“Huh, the blueprint is almost ready…”

[Congratulations, you have obtained the Thunderstorm A1 Grenade Launcher (Blueprint)]

“Nice, single-shot becomes automatic. Shasha will probably be ecstatic.”

Lin Xian was overjoyed. This research center was simply heaven-defying. If it weren’t for being practical, Lin Xian really wanted to just throw the electromagnetic railgun in there and see what kind of thing it could produce.

But he could only think about it. If he threw something like that in, with his current mechanical manufacturing level, it might take fifty or sixty days. Even if the blueprint came out, he wouldn’t be able to build it. It was purely a waste of effort.

So Lin Xian thought about it and decided to just take Teacher Chen’s A33K heavy anti-materiel sniper rifle and give it a try.

[Please select the research direction for this weapon:]

[Firepower] (3 days 15 hours)

[Mobility] (3 days 12 hours)

“Huh?”

Lin Xian was stunned. “Didn’t my mechanical manufacturing just upgrade to level 3? Why does it need so long?”

He thought for a moment and figured that the anti-materiel sniper rifle itself was probably a higher-tier weapon, so it would take longer.

For the sake of experiment, Lin Xian put the blueprints for the Roarer K23 electric rotary machine gun and the Thunderstorm A1 grenade launcher he had just obtained in to have a look. Sure enough, the former needed 4 days, and the grenade launcher also needed 3 days and 20 hours.