Five zombie wolves died on the spot without even letting out a scream, and the remaining three struggled for a few seconds before falling silent quickly.
Biaozi looked back at the Constant Star Train, which had somehow climbed up to the rooftop of a thirty-six-story building not far away, and then chuckled. This remote firepower support truly gave a full sense of security.
He had worked as a thug on other trains before.
But he had never felt as safe during field missions as he did now.
With motorbikes as transport, Soaring Dragon Assault Rifles, Car Blade Fragments as weapons, Target Detection Radar, and Cluster Thinking directly providing detailed enemy information, plus the train providing remote firepower support.
Compared to his previous treatment as a thug, it was like heaven and earth.
A pure dimension reduction strike.
The Constant Star Train currently had eleven carriages, but the rooftop of that high-rise couldn’t fully accommodate them, so three carriages hung in mid-air, vertically against the wall.
It evoked an indescribable wasteland aesthetic.
Then he turned his gaze to the carriage exposed on the surface of the pond and began considering how to bring these people back.
Minor injuries were of no concern; the Constant Star Train now had excellent treatments for external injuries, even to the extent of limb regeneration. But if any wound got in contact with this murky pond water, infection was almost guaranteed, and survival would be up to fate.
Biaozi quickly looked around and thought of a method.
Two tree trunks by the pond, sawed off using Car Blade Fragments by Biaozi and the others, were pushed into the pond to create a slightly crude wooden bridge.
These two trunks connected the edge of the pond to the train carriage exposed above the water.
Many survivors crawled out of the train and lay on the tree trunks, their bodies flat against the trunks, slowly and arduously inching along.
When all the survivors were on shore,
the Constant Star Train had somehow maneuvered to the shore as well.
Sitting at the control panel, Chen Mang immediately noticed Ji Chuchu in the crowd; although her hair was messy and her makeup ruined, her features were still quite good.
Besides her, several other women were of decent quality.
They were all small celebrities in this world.
Only Ji Chuchu was more famous and more popular.
Chen Mang nodded slightly, as these were scarce resources.
Soon, Old Pig walked out of the train, approached Biaozi, and said in a deep voice, "I’ll take these celebrities; Master Mang wants them in the thug carriage, have them cleaned up. The rest, take them all to the last carriage."
"By the way," Old Pig casually pointed to a man nearby who was grinning ingratiatingly, "you’re the train captain of this vehicle, correct?"
The man froze on the spot, terror immediately overwhelming his nerves. Just as he prepared to flee, he felt a sudden darkness overcome him; sticky blood dripped into his eyes, and as his consciousness faded, his legs gave way, collapsing him onto the ground.
His last thought before death was:
We... just met at a gathering last time, didn’t we? You... don’t remember?
We had some sort of acquaintance, didn’t we?
Having completed the execution, Biaozi took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, though his index finger still trembled slightly.
"What’s wrong with you?"
Old Pig, who was about to leave, noticed Biaozi’s condition, slightly puzzled: "Have you suddenly embraced Buddhism? Gotten sensitive about killing?"
"That man was the train captain; Master Mang would never allow someone who was once a train captain to become a slave on the Constant Star."
"Anyone who’s been a train captain wouldn’t be content with a subordinate position; they’d definitely cause trouble later on."
"Regardless of whether a train is captured or annexed, the train captain is always doomed, and any slave found to have been a train captain is also executed, isn’t this an unspoken rule?"
Biaozi forced a wry smile and shook his head bitterly: "Yeah, of course, I know that. He was Ji Chuchu’s manager; when my mother was alive, she was particularly fond of that guy, it felt like killing my mother’s idol, so it hit different."
"Really? Someone could like a manager?"
Old Pig shrugged absentmindedly, "Next time, let someone else do it if you’re uncomfortable. Even in doomsday, you can’t force someone to kill their mother’s idol, right?"
"But this works too."
"Since your mom liked him, he can keep her company down there, so Auntie won’t be lonely."
"Get your emotions in check, there’s another task soon; don’t fall behind."
"Don’t worry, Pig Train Captain, there won’t be any issues."
Watching Old Pig’s retreating figure, Biaozi took a deep breath and looked down at the corpse in the blood pool; he’d been a train captain several times. This was his biggest secret on the Constant Star Train, a secret that must not be discovered.
He used to entertain the fantasy that even if this secret were exposed, Master Mang would spare him given his loyalty, right?
This secret must remain hidden; in the wilderness, no one can tolerate someone under them having been a train captain. It’s like a ticking time bomb ready to explode.
And he couldn’t prove that he would never explode.
Self-vindication has always been a tricky issue through history.
The best way is to bury this bomb so that nobody even knows it exists.
He instinctively glanced at Hei Hao and another brother who always followed him; only these two knew his secret, nobody else did.
Hei Hao instantly read the meaning in Biaozi’s eyes, his mouth twitching, "You can’t, right?"
Biaozi cleared his throat, trying to cover his embarrassment, and patted Hei Hao’s shoulder, "What nonsense are you thinking, lost focus didn’t you, hurry and get these survivors into the carriages."
"We still have the next area to search for survivors."
"Don’t overthink it, we’ll always be blood brothers."
With the support of the Target Detection Radar, and the Constant Star Train having "spider legs," it could travel through most of the Taiping City ruins.
This search and rescue for survivors also came to an end.
Different survivors reacted differently when found, but... nobody cared.
Nobody cared about what these survivors thought.
All were bundled into the carriages.
By nightfall, they had thoroughly searched the western outskirts of Taiping City ruins. Apart from areas they really couldn’t access, most hiding survivors were rescued.
Survivors who managed to hide till now were in extremely concealed locations.
Like those hiding in bomb shelters, without opening the doors, they couldn’t force them open from outside, thus if unwilling to come out, they moved on.
By the end of the day, they found 289 survivors.
As night fell, the Constant Star Train stopped in the wilderness outside Taiping City ruins for rest, and Chen Mang was at the train head frowning slightly as he tallied the day’s gains.
An addition of nearly 300 slaves.
Not a bad haul, production efficiency would see a significant boost.
After all, it was a city; searching just one suburb and finding so few people?
Did everyone else die?
Wasn’t the death rate too high?
He’d also taken the train to the library to scour for paper materials, which gave him greater insight into this world; this city wasn’t transient, with a permanent population in the millions.
And just after a year since doomsday’s arrival, was almost everyone dead?