Destroying a Level 9 train takes only four seconds.
one immutable law has held true: destruction is always easier and faster than creation.
The reason his train hadn't upgraded quickly was largely because he'd spent considerable time strengthening its foundation—this was also why his Level 7 train could instantly annihilate a Level 9 train.
This time, it was a true instant kill.
No exaggeration whatsoever.
On the leaderboard, the name of the Level 9 train, Horizon, gradually dimmed before vanishing entirely.
the disappearance of two trains in such a short time finally caught people's attention.
Panic instantly swept through the Train Radio.
Speculations ran wild—was the Zombie Volcano that Stellar had warned about real? Had it already erupted?
when someone suggested that these two Level 9 trains had likely ventured into higher-tier zones, the panic slowly subsided. Scared me to death—thought it was the start of a disaster.
another person pointed out: Why would they leave now, of all times? They must be running away.
The mood in the Train Radio shifted again, plunging back into fear—this time, even worse.
"Humans are subconsciously herd-minded."
"If 9,900 people turn left toward hell, and 100 turn right toward heaven, the 10,001st person will most likely turn left—even if they know left leads to hell."
"That's why hell is always crowded."
"Because there are always fools leading the way."
Inside the Stellar train,
Chen Mang sat in his chair, calmly observing the sudden shift in tone across the Train Radio. He murmured softly, "You've already developed the ability to self-learn. Your database has no records on riding a motorcycle, but through observing Biao Zi and the others, you've figured it out."
"Train Conductor, are you praising me?"
Xiao Ai, standing in the corner, asked quietly.
Chen Mang paused before continuing, "But if that 10,001st person arrived at the crossroads alone, they'd probably trust their own judgment and turn right toward heaven."
"Humans tend to be wiser when alone."
"Then, Train Conductor, where would you go?"
Chen Mang stood up, lit a cigarette, and exhaled deeply before looking at Xiao Ai. "Nowhere. Aren't heaven and hell both places you go after death?"
"Let's go. Time to check our haul."
no one was sleeping tonight. Even past midnight, the Train Radio remained lively.
In just over two hours,
the discourse had shifted multiple times.
From questioning the truth of the warning,
to reluctantly accepting it—but refusing to provide Copper Ore without compensation,
to now, where almost everyone was willing to contribute most of their Copper Ore, hoping someone would step up and unite them against the impending disaster.
Not every train was equipped with Level 9 or higher weapon modules.
Only by handing over most of the copper ore to these trains could they prioritize eliminating the most dangerous Level 9 Zombies. The remaining Level 7 and 8 Zombies could be dealt with gradually, while lower-level ones could be resisted using the Energy Shield.
The "Train Radio" had been silent for a long time, with the Stellar only silently posting pinned messages to sell items. The remaining nine trains, for some reason, had also gone mute, not uttering a single word.
"634,000 units of Iron Ore, 580,000 units of Copper Ore, 1.01 million units of lumber."
"2 Murphy Stones, various living supplies."
"Over 800 Survivors."
Chen Mang took the inventory list from Lao Zhu, frowning slightly. During the earlier attack, he hadn't thoroughly checked all the components of that Level 9 Train, only inspecting the defensive and offensive parts.
So, he wasn't very clear about that train.
"Go check if that Train Conductor is dead. Ask him what the hell he needed so much lumber for."
"Uh, Lord Mang, should I go down and ask?"
"Would you even make it back up if you went down?"
"Seems a bit difficult."
Chen Mang waved his hand dismissively. "Just load everything onto the train, and hurry up. Same rules as always—kill all the Thugs and management."
"This Train Conductor is full of lies."
"There wasn't even 1 million units of Iron Ore in that train. How dare he come to trade with me? He wasn't even willing to give me the 1 million units—just came to cheat me outright. These days, it's hard to find someone who trades in good faith."
What he needed most right now was Iron Ore.
That Bald Man's Level 9 Train had over 1 million units of Iron Ore in reserve, but this Level 9 Train only had a little over 600,000—almost half as much. Clearly, they'd spent most of their time chopping lumber.
Aside from making clothes, what use is lumber anyway?
He'd never encountered any components that required lumber for upgrades.
With this additional 1 million units of lumber, the train now had a total of 2.5 million units. When would they ever use it all? If they turned it all into "Xiao Ai Pocket Dimensions," they could make 2.5 million of them.
Another 1,500 Survivors had been added.
His usual approach was to only kill the Train Conductor. Back in the days of the "Geocentric Nuclear Bomb," he hadn't killed the Thugs—they were now Train Residents.
The Thugs from these Level 9 Trains were stubborn, tough-talking, and seemed fiercely loyal. They weren't the type to keep around.
If he let them live, he wouldn't sleep well at night.
Twenty minutes later,
All the resources had been moved to the Stellar by the Guardians—well, to be honest, it was mostly just Zhang Yi and Zhang Er doing the work.
Fast and enthusiastic.
They really seemed to enjoy it.
With this kind of work ethic, if they'd run a moving company before the apocalypse, they'd never have to worry about money. Though they might've just moved everything into their own homes—these two shared the exact same hobby, obsessed with hoarding supplies, useful or not. Just having it in their hands made them happy.
The Survivors were herded into the refrigerator in Carriage 11 and temporarily locked up.
Among this group, they'd need to carefully screen for any family members or female dependents of the Train Conductor.
Inside the refrigerator was the Mechanical Eye, which Xiao Ai would use to capture those whose "eyes flashed with a trace of resentment." After the crisis ended, Lao Zhu would also conduct background checks on them one by one.
Especially since Xiao Ai's Mechanical Eye was extremely effective.
It had already caught several people.
There were always those who, in the dead of night, would let their eyes flicker with resentment, only to be precisely captured by Xiao Ai and reported to Biao Zi and the others.
The main issue was that these people could have just kept their thoughts to themselves, but they had to show it—acting as if they were biding their time for revenge.
They practically deserved to die.
After completing all this, Chen Mang once again took control of the Stellar Train, opening its massive maw to slowly devour the Horizon, now reduced to just 16 carriages, inch by inch like a python swallowing an elephant.
This yielded another 670,000 units of Iron Ore.
The total Iron Ore stored within the Stellar Train had now reached 4.341 million!
Halfway to the goal of 8 million units.
"This is much faster than mining."
"Every crisis is both a danger and an opportunity."
Inside the Stellar Train, Chen Mang sat in his chair, chuckling lightly. He then turned his attention to one of the six Level 9 trains he had encountered earlier—the Logitech—planning to repeat his previous tactic.
"100 Murphy Stones for 1 million units of Iron Ore. Interested? Keep it quiet."
The reply came swiftly.
"You were the one behind Horizon and Only One, weren't you?"
"Hmm?" Chen Mang frowned slightly. They had figured it out already? He had hoped to lure a few more. After a pause, he replied.
"Aren't they supposed to have left the Zombie Basin? Take it or leave it. If not, I'll find someone else."
"No deal. Listen here, kid. I admit your train is strong, but let me be blunt—even if you upgrade to a Level 9 train, you won't be able to leave the Zombie Basin."
"And no matter how powerful your train is, without us, how do you expect to hold off all those Zombies? How many Automatic Cannons does your train have? Dozens? Hundreds? And how much Copper Ore do you have? Millions? Tens of millions?"
"Without us, you're as good as dead!"
Chen Mang looked at the message on the Train Radio and suddenly laughed. He understood now. The other party's words made it clear—these Level 9 trains couldn't leave the Zombie Basin either.
After sending one final reply, he blocked them.
No wonder when Horizon and Only One disappeared from the rankings, these people immediately assumed they had been destroyed—not that they had left the Zombie Basin.
Turns out, deep down, they knew better than anyone that their Level 9 trains couldn't leave this area at all.
He had thought they were avoiding the Blue Zone out of fear of its dangers, but it turned out they were trapped here.
This made things much more interesting.
He wasn't in a hurry now.
He had already chosen the second path. At his current pace, even if he couldn't trick any more Level 9 trains, the Zombie Basin wasn't infinite. He could take his time searching. Even if he didn't encounter a single Level 9 train, with 4 million units of Iron Ore, he could already upgrade nearly half of his carriages to Level 9 Armor. The losses wouldn't be too severe.
How were these Level 9 trains planning to survive?
And eager to find out.
Inside the Combat Training Virtual Space.
The seven train conductors of the mechanical trains stood on the platform, silently eyeing each other without a word.
The middle-aged strong man was the first to speak, his tone laced with an inexplicable emotion: "It feels a bit unreal. That bald man who was just talking to me here is dead in the blink of an eye."
"If I'd known that was the last time I'd see him, I would've looked at him a little longer."
"Like you two were close or something," the young man in sportswear leaning against the edge of the platform said gloomily with a grim expression.
The middle-aged strong man spread his hands helplessly: "I just wanted to study his face more, to see what someone about to die looks like. That way, if I ever get that look, I can hide and avoid dying for no reason."
"You've got that look right now."
"Don't say such things lightly. I think my face looks pretty good right now."
At this moment, a man in a white suit stepped forward, his expression icy as he spoke word by word: "We must contact the Stellar. According to the Stellar's estimates, the Zombie Volcano will erupt in at most 20 hours."
"Just give him the base price—50 Murphy Stones!"
"50 Murphy Stones per train, and we can join forces with him to gather all the trains. Collecting copper ore also takes time. We can't wait until the last second. If you're not in a hurry, I am."
"I don't want to die here!"
"I can't go," the young man in sportswear said, his eyes shadowed as he spoke deliberately: "That bastard blocked me and even replied with a 'hehe'!"
Seeing no one respond, the man in the white suit fell silent for a while before speaking again: "I'll go. I arrived late and didn't clash with him."
With that, the man vanished from the platform, reappearing a minute later, though his expression didn't look too good.
The middle-aged strong man hesitated: "Did he refuse? You don't look like he agreed."
"Neither refused nor agreed."
"Then how did the Stellar reply to you?"
No one spoke, all falling into silence. After a long pause, the middle-aged strong man finally spoke again: "How dare he reply like that? Isn't he afraid of death? Can he survive the Zombie Volcano eruption?"
"We all need to work together to survive!"
"Doesn't he understand that?"
Just then, a middle-aged man in the crowd raised his hand timidly: "I think the Stellar does understand. Wasn't this suggestion his idea in the first place? It's just that you're asking for too many Murphy Stones, and he doesn't want to play along anymore."
"I've always wondered—if the Zombie Volcano erupts, it won't just kill the Stellar. Why do you keep targeting him?"
"He's got the most Murphy Stones! If we don't target him, should we target you?"
"Alright." The middle-aged strong man paused for a moment before speaking up. "Before the apocalypse, I was a negotiation expert. Let him stew for an hour, then I'll talk to him. This time, we'll lower our demand to just 20 Murphy Stones per Train."
"That should be doable."
"With seven of us, that's only 140 stones total—already a very modest ask."
The group watched with hopeful eyes as the middle-aged strong man returned. "Well? How did the negotiation go?"
The middle-aged strong man stood silently for a long while before rasping out his reply.
"Neither agreed nor refused."
"Was it those two words again?"
The middle-aged man who had interrupted earlier sighed deeply, sounding somewhat exasperated. "You guys are clearly trying to fleece him. It's obvious he'd rather die than play along with you anymore."
"I'll tell him we don't want a single Murphy Stone—just to sit down and talk."
"After all, the fact that Stellar took down 'Only One' and 'Horizon' in such a short time proves their strength is undeniable. With Stellar joining us, we'd all have a better chance of surviving this crisis."
"If there are no objections, let's settle on this, shall we?"
"Survival comes first. Save your schemes for later."
The others exchanged glances, but no one spoke up—silent acquiescence to the proposal. This was the only way forward: bring Stellar aboard to weather the crisis first.
With that, the middle-aged man vanished from sight.
Three minutes later, he reappeared on the platform, expressionless.
"What did Stellar say?"
The young man in athletic wear finally snapped, slamming his palm against the platform as he lost his temper. "Hehe my ass! All he fucking knows is 'hehe'! We're not even asking for a single damn Murphy Stone, and he's still 'hehehehe'—that motherfucker!"
"Throwing our goodwill back in our faces!"
"What the hell does he even want?!"
"Does he expect us to go begging to him or something?!"