."
After all, with ten men armed with automatic rifles, the twenty-plus Zombie Wolves were easily dispatched before they could even get close.
However,
"..."
Biao Zi frowned slightly as he glanced at the men beside him. Their coordination was still lacking, and their targeting was too scattered. Often, several of them would aim at the same wolf. But there was no helping it. They would just have to train more once they returned to the Train.
None of them were professionals here, including himself. They could only identify and address their issues through actual combat.
He then ordered all the men to aim at the Spiderlings overhead while he began inspecting each Zombie Wolf. After finishing, he sighed regretfully—nothing had dropped.
This was his first field mission, and naturally, he had hoped for a better haul to make his report more convincing.
However.
Biao Zi's eyes soon lit up as he noticed a liquor store not far away—the one with the hidden compartment he had mentioned earlier. He immediately dashed over to ransack it. The fight wasn't missing him anyway.
The battle ended quickly. Although the targets were moving, their movement wasn't significant, making them relatively easy to hit. The Spiderlings' defenses were also quite low.
Upon returning, Biao Zi instructed the others to stand guard while he stuffed all the glowing dropped items into a burlap sack he had picked up from a convenience store. When he saw a familiar item among the loot, he paused for a moment, then couldn't help but grin and scratch the back of his head.
"Damn... this time we really hit the jackpot."
"Lord Mang, Lord Mang, this is a knockout. How are you going to counter this?"
There, lying quietly on the ground, was a token emitting a milky white light.
It was none other than the Train Token.
Thirty minutes later.
Chen Mang, who had been standing beneath the Train, finally saw Biao Zi and his team running swiftly toward him from the City Ruins. He let out a sigh of relief.
Honestly.
This place made him feel far more uneasy than the wilderness. The collapsed buildings were everywhere, and the Train could only travel along a few designated routes, unlike the vast openness of the wilderness where he could go wherever he pleased.
Soon—
Biao Zi and the others reached the vicinity of the Train. With a grin, Biao Zi dumped the burlap sack he had been carrying on his shoulder onto the ground. "Lord Mang, we've had quite a haul this time. It's all in here."
"Oh, and that liquor store I mentioned to the Deputy Train Conductor is nearby. I took the liberty of grabbing some cigarettes while I was there."
"Lord Mang, see if you can make use of them."
"Good, good, good!"
Chen Mang said "good" three times in a row, smiling as he waved for someone to move the items into the locomotive. He glanced at the blood-soaked bandage on Biao Zi's left arm and was about to say something when he felt the ground tremble. Instinctively, he turned around and saw a dense, black mass of Zombies rapidly advancing toward the City Ruins.
"Get on the Train!"
Chen Mang was the first to dive into the locomotive, and the others quickly followed, piling into the No. 3 living compartment.
"Roar!"
With a deafening roar of the engine, the blood-stained Train thundered back the way it had come, narrowly avoiding the Corpse Tide.
The Zombie encirclement hadn't fully formed yet, and they had spotted it early enough. Given the Zombies' speed, there was no way they could catch up.
Inside the Train.
Chen Mang leaned out of the skylight, looking back at the Corpse Tide that loomed like a dark cloud. For some reason, a surge of exhilaration washed over him. It felt incredibly satisfying.
This sensation of skirting the edge of danger was like the most addictive poison—it was truly exhilarating.
Just wait.
Once his Train was upgraded to be powerful enough, he would drive it straight through that Corpse Tide and wipe it out completely. Let those bastards chase him all they wanted these days!
On the desolate wilderness.
The Stellar Train sped ahead, the City Ruins growing smaller in the distance, and the intimidating black mass of Zombies gradually fading away.
"Whoo-hoo!!!"
In his excitement, Chen Mang cupped his hands around his mouth and let out a loud cheer toward the Corpse Tide.
After doing so, he reluctantly pulled himself back inside the Train. This was the happiest he had been since arriving in this world—not because of the Train upgrades or the loot, but purely because of the emotional high.
It felt like...
Taking shelter in a cozy little house during a thunderstorm.
Humans are inherently afraid of danger, but if you have a safe haven before danger strikes, that haven becomes your sweet spot. The more dangerous it is outside, the more exhilarating it feels.
Chen Mang took a deep breath as he returned to the locomotive and opened the burlap sack from Biao Zi's haul. The first thing that caught his eye was... thirteen cartons of cigarettes.
He didn't recognize the brand.
They were probably a local brand from this world.
He quickly tore open a carton, took out a pack, and lit a cigarette. Closing his eyes, he took a deep drag before exhaling a wisp of pale blue smoke. Watching the smoke swirl in the compartment, he felt a sense of peace.
Smoking wasn't a good habit.
But in the high-pressure environment of the apocalypse, one needed a few vices as a mental crutch.
Finally, he wasn't short on cigarettes anymore.
He didn't do anything else, just sat at the control panel and enjoyed the cigarette to the end. Then he opened the window and flicked the nearly burnt-out crimson butt outside. Gazing at the wilderness rapidly passing by, he suddenly smiled... It seemed like this world wasn't so bad after all.
In this world, with enough strength, you could do anything.
Life might be shorter, but... it would be more interesting.
Time for another one.
Chen Mang lit another cigarette and took a drag, gradually calming down. With a smile on his lips, he prepared to take stock of the haul.
It was worth noting that the abandoned compartments from the 3rd-level Man-Eating Spider and the discarded compartments at the edge of the City Ruins had been devoured by his Geothermal Furnace, yielding 500 units of Iron Ore.
He now had a total of 813 units of Iron Ore.
Not bad.
Devouring a regular compartment yielded about 50 units of Iron Ore, which was like getting a half-price return.
From this perspective, the main focus in the wilderness was still on development. Plundering wasn't cost-effective, as no one stored much Iron Ore on their Trains—they used it as soon as they got it, never saving much.
Moreover, most people didn't even have red-tier Vehicle Components like the Geothermal Furnace, and engaging in battles always carried the risk of casualties and Train damage.
This made the cost-effectiveness of battles even lower.
The most efficient way was to find a Mine and develop it yourself.
Unless...
Unless you completely outclassed your opponent, then the cost-effectiveness of battles would be high. After all, even if you couldn't plunder Iron Ore, you could still take Slaves.
As for the abandoned cars, they couldn't be broken down into Iron Ore. However, he discovered that the Geothermal Furnace would devour anything without discrimination. It could be used as a garbage disposal unit, clearing roadblocks—a new function, so to speak.
Besides the thirteen cartons of cigarettes, the burlap sack even contained a bottle of chili sauce, though he had no idea where it came from.
"Great find."
Chen Mang placed the bottle of chili sauce aside, pleased that dinner would finally have a change of flavor. But what he was most concerned about were the drops from the Spiderlings, as they were the primary goal of this mission.
Soon, he finished tallying the loot.
In total—
300 units of Level 1 material: Fine Spider Silk.
200 units of Level 1 ore: Crimson Heartstone.
Special item: One Train Token.
Green-tier Vehicle Component Blueprint: Spider Leg.
"..."
Chen Mang stared at the items before him, momentarily stunned. He then picked up the Train Token from among the ores, weighed it in his hand, and couldn't help but chuckle as he turned to look out the window, exhaling a puff of smoke.
"That guy..."
"He's probably snickering right now, isn't he?"
(End of Chapter)