Clang, clang.
A standard railway line cut through the Clustered Mountains and stretched more than a thousand miles east. Since leaving Jiang City, the Infinite had run through the night and into daylight for the first time.
At 15:47, earlier than expected, dawn arrived.
Chen Sixuan had watched over the train all night. Without stopping to rest, she took Lou Shasha and Lou Ye to inventory the supplies they had collected the night before.
Lin Xian drank a large bottle of water in the Cockpit and felt much more energetic. Fortunately, apart from crushing a few wandering Zombies, the overnight journey had brought the train no trouble that affected its operation.
"Good thing the Mechanical Heart upgraded. I couldn't have kept hauling this many carriages otherwise."
The electric locomotive's stored energy was also less effective at assisting its operation under the heavier load. Even with Lin Xian's ability and stamina, he had to stop and recover after three or four hours.
"I can't ignore the energy problem, either..."
He had envisioned a backup system that could generate power on its own, such as a generator or a fuel tank, in addition to the energy he could recover and store through the electric locomotive with his ability. That way, the train could keep moving even when his strength gave out.
Under the law of conservation of energy, a heavier load meant greater consumption. Only a compact nuclear power unit, combined with a further upgrade to his ability that brought that power into the energy cycle, could break that pattern and theoretically allow the train to run indefinitely.
"Brother Lin!"
Lou Shasha called excitedly from a carriage in the distance. "Come quick!"
The train had stopped, and Lin Xian had been about to step out for some air. Hearing her, he walked over. The rear door of Carriage 5 was already open, and all kinds of supplies were spread across the grassy slope beside the tracks. They had searched in such a hurry last night that many items were still stained with blood.
"Lin Xian, look at all this."
Chen Sixuan wiped the sweat from her forehead, delighted. She had brought a few towels and found a stream not far from the tracks, so she was washing the supplies as she counted them.
Kiki jumped off the train and took Chen Sixuan's inventory sheet. Her eyes lit up.
"Three Colts, two Glock 17s, twelve automatic rifles of various models, and an A33K sniper rifle. And look at all this ammunition..."
"And this!" Sha Sha pulled their M36 Grenade Launcher from the spoils and called out, "This thing packs a punch."
Lin Xian breathed a sigh of relief and smiled faintly at the spoils spread across the ground. "Now we won't have to hack at giant bugs with knives."
"Oh, and there's something else you'd never guess, bad guy."
Kiki grinned. She climbed onto the carriage carrying the armored vehicle, opened its door, took out a remote control, and pressed a switch.
Whirr—
A drone compartment opened on top of the armored vehicle, and two small rotor-powered reconnaissance drones slowly rose into the air.
"With these, we can patrol a ten-kilometer radius without leaving the train."
"That Qian Yu from the Black Flood Dragon convoy was something else." Lin Xian stared in surprise. "This equipment of his must have cost a fortune."
"Too bad they drove off his heavy truck and the tanker..." Lou Shasha said regretfully.
"Besides that, the two supply carriages we took from Tang Hai had over four hundred cans of food, forty-one cases of water, six cases of Cola, and three cases of red wine. Food with shorter shelf lives filled half a cargo container, and there were over a thousand liters of gasoline!" Chen Sixuan let out a long breath. "It's ridiculous. Everything we found in the other survivors' vehicles didn't even amount to a tenth of what was in those two carriages."
"Of course."
Lin Xian's expression turned serious. "That old bastard Tang Hai took over an air-raid shelter and robbed who knows how many survivors. Everything he owned was here. There was bound to be plenty."
Tang Hai had never expected that, after plotting for so long, he would end up handing Lin Xian such a windfall.
There were enough supplies to sustain twenty people for more than three months. Lin Xian's group had only five members. They were swimming in it.
At the very least, they would not have to worry about food or water for a while.
"There's one more thing..."
Chen Sixuan pointed toward the rear of the train with an odd expression. Lin Xian had paid no attention to the last flatbed beyond the four cars. Only when she mentioned it did he notice that the Iron Guard 3 military Assaulter armor, more than three meters tall, and the Heavy TFV600 twin-barreled tank had somehow been loaded onto the train. They sat on the last two flatbed trailers.
Lin Xian's eyes widened. "When did you get those aboard? With the crane?"
That was clearly impossible. The small crane ran on electricity, and no one but Lin Xian could operate it. Besides, how could it lift armor and a tank weighing dozens of tons?
"Hmph."
A smug little huff came from behind him. Kiki jumped down from the train, folded her arms, and lifted her chin.
"Who else? I put them aboard for you. Those things were ridiculously heavy. It took a lot of work."
Lin Xian was delighted. He had been thinking about them. Even if he could not repair them, consuming them with his ability would have been worthwhile. He had not expected Kiki to use her ability to load them onto the train already.
Letting the little girl rest early last night had been the right call. She had come through when it mattered.
"Good thinking. I'll reward you with canned meat today."
"Who wants your canned meat?" Kiki said smugly. "Just... just help me get that radar system and those computers working today. Oh, and the heating. I nearly froze to death last night..."
"Was it cold?"
Lin Xian glanced at Chen Sixuan. He had been enjoying a warm place to sleep last night and had not noticed how cold it was outside.
Chen Sixuan blushed and quickly looked away. "Yes. It's a few degrees below freezing even during the day now."
As if in answer, a bleak, dry, icy wind swept past while they spoke, making them shiver.
The weather was growing colder. Snowstorms were on the way, and the low temperatures would be another severe test for survivors.
Kiki and Chen Sixuan had found a few clothes that fit among the luggage they had collected. Lin Xian and Lou Ye, perhaps because their bodies had been strengthened by their abilities, did not feel the cold as keenly.
"By the way, where's Da Lou?"
Given Lou Ye's size, everyone had agreed to call him Da Lou.
"Brother Xian." As they spoke, Lou Ye stood up beyond the pile of supplies. A motorcycle sat in front of him, partly repaired. It was Lin Xian's.
"Hey, didn't I tell you? He's better at fixing things," Kiki said to Da Lou with interest.
Da Lou scratched his head with an earnest look, a wrench in his hand. "Well... I know a little about it too."
"Really?"
Hearing that Da Lou knew something about machinery, Lin Xian nodded and smiled. "Since we're all on the same side, I might as well lay my cards on the table."
With that, he turned and pulled a thick steel plate out of Carriage 5, then threw it onto the ground.
He swept one hand through the air. A mysterious flash passed over the plate, and it rose off the ground. In moments, it was rolled into a standard shield shape in midair, then dropped back down.
The others stared in shock.
Chen Sixuan covered her mouth. Apart from driving the train, this was the first time Lin Xian had shown everyone what the Mechanical Heart could do.
The Lou siblings stared in astonishment. Lou Shasha cried out, "Wow, Brother Lin! What kind of ability do you have?"
Kiki's eyes went wide, her cheeks puffed out as she watched. She clearly needed a moment to take it in.
At first, she had thought Lin Xian's ability was driving trains. Later, she had discovered he could make ice and even fire a gun with his bare hands. Now she had seen him fold a steel plate in midair. His ability seemed remarkably like hers.
Even after reading all the Angel Project's internal files, she found she could not make sense of it.
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