In the middle of the night at Yushan Station Platform, a heavy train was getting its armor fitted under the glow of several bright lights.
Each time he finished welding the armor onto the roof of a carriage, Lin Xian would take a break. There were still at least three days left until the extreme night covered the area, and once they left Yuchi and crossed Daluo Mountain, they would essentially be entering the border of Yu Bei.
After several days of sprinting, the squad had temporarily pulled away to a safe distance.
15:05. The sky began to brighten.
Inside Yuchi Station, half of "Infinity" had already been covered by Lin Xian and Building’s rooftop armor, and he had also taken the time to first install the wheel wing Armor on the two lead carriages. The wheel wing Armor was relatively simple and didn’t consume a lot of steel materials.
More than half of the heavy locomotive was now covered with black Armor, exuding a thick, steel aura.
Lin Xian and Building had been busy all night, almost exhausting themselves to the point of collapse, and they were still not fully done.
In the first carriage, Lin Xian and Building walked in one after another, with Sha Sha hugging the radio while watching over KIKI, while Chen Sixuan cooked a pot of soup and a can of braised pork on the iron dining table made by Lin Xian using the card furnace.
There was a delicious aroma in the carriage, and in addition to that, cans of Coke and fruit were laid on the table, foods they had obtained from Tanghai Station. Lin Xian, sweating profusely, grabbed a can and "pssht!" opened it, then chugged down half a bottle, feeling the refreshing cold sweetness of the Coke instantly revitalizing his body!
"More zombies have started to gather outside." Sha Sha opened the blackout panel, looked at the zombies outside the window attracted by the noises from the train’s Armor installation and welding, and smiled contentedly, "Without those big monsters, these zombies don’t seem scary at all."
The sound of scratching began to arise outside the carriage.
"Don’t worry, once we have more materials, I’ll cover the whole Infinity with tungsten-titanium alloy Armor, so those beasts can only stare." Lin Xian said calmly, looking out the window.
The heavily fortified bastion had slowly begun to take shape. With his Mechanical Manufacturing and more powerful mechanical blueprints, he could further perfect the train.
Chen Sixuan looked nervously outside but seeing that the zombies couldn’t pose any threat to the train, she also relaxed and concentrated on cooking.
Everyone fought a big battle last night, and Lin Xian and Building had been busy until this morning, so she took advantage of this rare stop to cook some hot food to replenish everyone’s strength.
Inside the first carriage, the overhead air conditioning heating system kicked in, and soon the carriage warmed up.
Even though the heating system was more power-consuming and prone to cause dehydration than a water heating system, in the face of imminent thirst, there was no choice but to use it. KIKI was still unconscious, and to fend off the severe cold, they needed to activate it.
"Wow, that smells so good~"
Sha Sha stared longingly at the stove in front of Chen Sixuan and murmured, "It’s been such a long time since I’ve eaten ."
"Is this the first time you and your brother fled after the extreme night?" Lin Xian asked, taking a sip of Coke.
Sha Sha shook her head, her eyes somewhat desolate,
"Even earlier than that, since it was just my brother and me, we kept running, just running..."
"That’s very impressive."
Hearing this, Chen Sixuan said, "You’re so young and had the courage to run outside, not like me—I hid in the house for almost two months."
Lin Xian laughed, "You had plenty of food at home to last you that long."
"You’re teasing me again, because at the beginning, a lot of people brought me things..."
She glanced at Lin Xian and continued to stir the meat in the pot with a spoon.
This didn’t seem like a topic to brag about—those who were eager to please her when the apocalypse first struck were no different from those who later snubbed her in life and death situations.
"Brother Lin, I think your superpower is the most powerful in the world," Sha Sha said with widened eyes looking at Lin Xian, exaggerating her movements. "You can create such a huge steel fortress out of thin air; you are like a god to me!"
"Such a sweet talker," Lin Xian smiled. "Do you want a few extra pieces of meat?"
Sha Sha smiled slyly, then immediately grimaced and said, "Too bad Sister KIKI is asleep; she can’t have her favorite canned fruit today."
"Lin Xian, I feel like she is in a deeper coma this time."
Speaking of KIKI, Chen Sixuan also furrowed her brows as she walked over holding a soup pot.
After all, she was a teammate who had shared difficulties together, and she was still worried about KIKI’s current condition.
"I can see that," Lin Xian nodded his head.
"We need more Mysterious Blood Essence to see if it can help her recover. Furthermore, the Dark Radio and the Soul Swinging Value Detector both need it..."
Putting it that way, this stuff really is in high demand.
"Later, we will go into Yuchi City together; split into two groups. Teacher Chen and I will head to the city’s electric power substation and the building; you and your sister will go to the electronics city."
The building nodded his head.
Brother Lin, tell me mainly what to look for, and I’ll load the car to the brim," Sha Sha said with wide-eyed enthusiasm.
"Anything will do..."
Lin Xian said solemnly, "Bring back everything related to electronics and machinery that you can carry, preferably intact – aside from food, we need daily necessities."
"There aren’t many blankets in the car, and everyone doesn’t have much clothing; bring anything that can keep us warm, including dinnerware, cookware, everything."
In ordinary towns, he didn’t have high hopes for finding things like weapon accessories, nor did he expect a large supply of food resources, since these things had been scavenged over many times by various survivors.
However, for someone with Lin Xian’s superpower, these useless home appliances could be used for devouring, and even a kitchen could be equipped on the train, including a washing machine being of use.
These were conditions difficult for an ordinary convoy to imagine.
"Are we still staying here today?" asked Chen Sixuan.
Lin Xian pondered for a moment, then said,
"If nothing unexpected happens, we’ll wait until I’ve installed all the armor and the Ice-breaking Shield before departing. We’ll also have to check on KIKI’s condition..."
Actually, Lin Xian wanted to wait until nightfall.
Without the Mysterious Blood Essence, they couldn’t use the Dark Radio, and ’Infinity’ had entered a state of silent solitude, which was very unsafe for them about to enter Daluo Mountain and Yu Bei City.
At the same time, KIKI might also need the power of Mysterious Blood Essence for recovery.
So he was considering whether to try and actively search for Abnormal Bodies with the building during the night. The large amount of Mysterious Blood Essence obtained from the White Giant Monster showed that it either absorbed Tang Hai’s superpower or was an Abnormal Body of a non-ordinary level by nature.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t drop such a large Mysterious Blood Essence. The smaller ones traded at the community bonfire, those types of anomalies should be easier to deal with than the White Giant Monster, so he thought that if they were lucky, they might find some creatures in the night that he and the building could handle and then get some Mysterious Blood Essence.
The thought sent a shiver down his spine as soon as it came to his mind.
Actively searching for Abnormal Bodies, how brave must a survivor be to have such a thought?
"By tomorrow morning at the latest."
Lin Xian said, "If it gets light at 16:05 tomorrow, we’ll have three hours to take the southern route of Daluo Mountain. If that doesn’t work out, we’ll either go directly to Yu Bei or retreat and take the northern route."
Upon hearing this, Chen Sixuan nodded in agreement, very much approving Lin Xian’s plan.
With KIKI still unconscious, it would be a good thing for everyone to rest for another day in Yuchi. Since leaving Jiang City, they had been running ragged, and they hadn’t stopped for less than a day even after the escape from North Bay; the train needed repairs in many places.
Now that Lin Xian had re-covered the train with armor, the overall safety index of the entire vehicle would rise another notch.