The mecha charged ahead on the asphalt road stained red, pursuing rapidly. It carried no ranged weapons, only the heavy sword in its hand.
"The width is 150 meters, with the spider legs’ top speed, it can jump a width of up to 155 meters, just enough."
Inside the train cabin, Ai’s loud voice echoed.
At this moment, another sinkhole appeared in the distance at the end of the road, but this sinkhole was over 150 meters wide, surpassing the range of the spider silk, which could only shoot up to 100 meters.
Just as they were about to reach the edge of the sinkhole, the wheels instantly switched to "spider legs", using the inertia to leap from the edge of the pit, soaring high into the air!
It heavily crashed onto the other side of the sinkhole and resumed sprinting on the asphalt road. Three seconds later, Chen Mang saw the finish line, a plaza surrounded by yellow circles. As the train rushed in, it felt like entering thick air.
The train, initially speeding, came to an instant halt. The rightful source is novᴇlfire.net
Azure Dragon Train had arrived earlier, waiting there for him.
A few lines of text popped up on the control panel screen again.
"Stage one, passed successfully."
"Reward for this stage: 10,000 units of iron ore. Stage two begins in ten minutes."
Chen Mang looked in the rearview mirror at the mecha that silently headed back the way it came after he crossed the finish line. He then sat on the train’s head, glanced down at Ai through the skylight, and said, "Have Old Pig’s people come to clean the train’s head."
Then he turned his head to look at Er Dan, who was smiling beside him.
"Not bad." In the train cabin, Er Dan poked his head out, smiling with a hint of pride, "After all, it can fly, and it’s a Level 5 train. It must have something you don’t have, right?"
He sat on the train’s head, lit a cigarette, and looked around at the city made entirely of mechanical parts. It was quite spectacular, a sight he was seeing for the first time.
Old Pig was already with his people, starting to clean the sticky bloodstains off the glass. They needed to figure out how to assemble the train’s basic components since it didn’t even have a wiper. How disgraceful.
The ten minutes passed quickly.
The yellow light circles gradually dispersed, and a light screen appeared before everyone again.
The light screen displayed a line of text and two flat maze maps.
"Stage two, C-level difficulty mechanical maze."
"Reach the maze’s end within 10 minutes to successfully clear the stage."
"You have one minute to memorize the maze’s layout, after which this stage officially begins."
A high-rise building in the front plaza slowly revealed two dark entryways, clearly indicating the maze entrances.
"Li Shiji, hurry to the train cabin!"
Almost the moment the light screen appeared, the AI controlled the train speakers, maximizing the volume to shout right in Li Shiji’s ears, who was still leaning against the window enjoying the view!
Hearing the sound, Li Shiji didn’t hesitate for a moment, sprinting toward the train cabin.
He ran so fast that he tripped but had no time to care, scrambling on both hands and feet towards the train head!
Rushing quickly into the train cabin, Li Shiji looked at the two maze maps on the window’s light screen, his mind racing. Only 20 seconds remained, and the urgency made his lips tremble slightly, fingers twitching as he gestured in the air.
"Got it memorized?" Chen Mang turned his head to Li Shiji.
"I memorized both maze layouts, which one are we?"
"The one on the right, you command us next."
Chen Mang suddenly remembered something, picked up the Train Radio, found it still working, and glanced at the anxious Er Dan beside him, asking, "Can you get through? If not, I can help."
"Thanks!" Er Dan’s excited and hurried voice quickly came through the radio, "I really have a damn phobia of mazes now."
Chen Mang didn’t linger and piloted the train into the black entrance on the right of the tall building ahead.
The inside was pitch black.
With the headlights on, they saw a blackened steel passage in front. The passage was enormous, with a height of ten meters, and the intersections were also vast, allowing smooth turning even without a universal wheel.
Li Shiji urgently directed at the three-way intersection ahead, then glanced at the train’s speed on the screen, picking up the radio with a quick tone, "Keep the train speed at 50 km/h, not faster or slower."
"In three seconds, you’ll reach the first intersection, turn right."
"Afterwards, listen to my instructions."
He then looked forward in the passage, "Master Mang, next intersection we’ll need to turn right."
With the whistle, the Fixed Star Train smoothly exited the maze and stopped on a plaza again, where the control panel screen displayed several lines of text once more.
"Stage two, passed successfully."
"Reward for this stage: A random white-grade accessory blueprint, sampling in progress...sampled to ’Iris Chip’, stage three begins in ten minutes."
"ps: All accessory blueprints collected in this Adventure Map can only be acquired in the Heaven-Reaching Tower Adventure Map."
Chen Mang turned to look at Li Shiji, who was trembling slightly from intense concentration, with a hint of surprise in his eyes: "I can understand you memorizing the flat map, but how did you manage to command Er Dan accurately without knowing the situation around him?"
At this point, Er Dan’s Azure Dragon Train slowly emerged, stopping beside him.
The now-relaxed Li Shiji bashfully replied, "Although both maze maps are different, they are marked with a scale on the flat map. As long as the Train Captain keeps the speed at 50 km/h, matching the Fixed Star’s speed..."
"I can infer where the train would be on the map based on the Fixed Star."
"Though I wasn’t sure of the exact rules, I let that train arrive at the destination a bit later, not sure if there’s any advantage, but there shouldn’t be any disadvantage..."
Chen Mang patted Li Shiji’s shoulder as a cue to head back: "There will be a reward after this."
Then he looked towards Ai.
"With your computing power, can you not record the maze maps and simulate quickly?"
Ai’s mechanical voice sounded in the train cabin: "But you need to input the maze map data into the Train Assistance AI for me to process quickly. The robot’s information reception device is too weak to absorb information rapidly."
"However, there are many broken machine parts around here, so maybe we can find some to modify the robot."
"Then it can accomplish that."
"My processing speed is fast, but the download speed is slow."
Er Dan’s excited and grateful voice came through the Train Radio: "Brother, thank you, really thank you. I really have a phobia of mazes now. If not for your help, I wouldn’t have gotten through this stage."
Sitting at the control panel, Chen Mang glanced at Er Dan on the Azure Dragon Train, waving his hand with a smile.
"If it weren’t for you providing the coordinates, I wouldn’t be here."
"There are quite a few stages ahead, let’s keep going."
Soon, the wait ended, and stage three arrived!
A light screen appeared on the plaza again.
"Stage three, B-level difficulty, Desperate Maze."
"Solve the mystery, find the way out."
"Time limit three minutes."
When the light screen appeared, the sound of numerous gears turning suddenly echoed, and the two plazas containing the Fixed Star and Azure Dragon Trains began slowly rotating.
Each rotation enlarged the plaza slightly.
And gradually split into two plazas, separating the Fixed Star Train from the Azure Dragon Train.
Then countless exhaust ports resembling stellar engines emerged from the ground at the circular plaza’s edge, emitting a surge of cold air, forming what seemed like fierce swords piercing skyward!