Conductor's Log

The two rails were polished to a mirror sheen, shimmering brilliantly under the sunlight.

A train roared past, and the "crowd" wandering through the fields and villages came swarming over, running and leaping in pursuit.

In several of the carriages, a group of passengers seemed infected by this "enthusiasm," leaning their bodies out of the windows and roaring loudly in response.

In the remaining carriages, though packed densely with people, there was a chilling silence, not a single sound emitted.

"There are 1,226 people on this train: 670 men and 556 women."

"But only two people can live in the locomotive; the remaining 1,224 must stay in the carriages behind."

"You say you want to join us—on what grounds?"

Su Huan wore a faint smile, looking the girl before him up and down without restraint.

The girl wore a grey, slim-fit T-shirt and dark blue jeans that clung to the curves of her legs, the hems flaring at her feet like a simple, elegant flower.

The girl analyzed calmly, "I am a combined bachelor-master student in Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, currently in graduate school. My father is a railway engineer. If you need to repair or modify the train, I can be of help. Plus, I exercise regularly and am in good health; I won't hold you back."

Su Huan was quite surprised; he hadn't expected to find real talent among these people. Though she was a bit green, his Armed Train plan could definitely use her.

"You may state your name."

"Yu Jing."

"Very well, Student Yu, you are hired."

"Wait a moment!" the girl interrupted Su Huan. "I have one condition."

Su Huan frowned; he disliked people bargaining with him, but for the sake of her being a talent, he held his tongue.

"A condition?"

"Bring one person with me." Yu Jing pulled a woman from the carriage behind her. The woman's brow was etched with sorrow, and she looked at him with trepidation.

"My mother is a nurse; she can treat minor illnesses."

Su Huan's eyes brightened.

The woman before him bore a seventy-percent resemblance to Yu Jing, essentially a mature version of the girl. She wore a beige knit sweater, her long hair cascading over rounded shoulders. Her temperament was gentle, and as her pale lips parted, her soft voice carried a shy, trembling note.

"Mr. Su..."

Very beautiful, though of no help to the plan.

But he was, after all, a man tempered by the apocalypse; his bottom line was much lower than the average person's.

"No problem, Student Yu. Come to my room tonight; I need to examine your professional knowledge."

Yu Jing raised an eyebrow. Although she felt the man's words were a bit strange, she didn't overthink it.

However, the woman, having seen much of the world, naturally sensed something was wrong. She clutched her daughter's arm, her tone laced with a plea, "She is still just a child..."

Su Huan nodded to show he understood. "Then you can accompany her when you come tonight."

"Next."

The crowd grew noisy, and a fat, greasy middle-aged man squeezed his way out.

Su Huan was instantly put off. He waved his hand, "Forget it. That's all for today. Go back."

The middle-aged man's eyes widened, and he shouted, "Why end it when it's my turn? You've only interviewed five people in total!"

Thinking about having to go back to be squeezed into a cramped, suffocating space with a crowd, with the constant possibility of being eaten by the zombies in the rear carriages, the man's voice rose, growing more agitated as he spoke.

"You only picked the two pretty ones out of five! What kind of interview is that? Why don't you just pick all the pretty women and be done with it?!"

The people behind him grew restless as well.

"Whatever conditions you want, just say them!"

"Do you want money or something else? I have a gold necklace here."

"I have some food left; can you let me live in the front..."

"I can sleep with you tonight!"

The smiling expression on Su Huan's face vanished, turning abruptly cold.

He held a finger to his lips and said chillingly, "I will give you one more chance. Get back to the rear."

The middle-aged man felt that since the facade had already been torn away, and combined with the pressure of the apocalypse, he completely gave up on decorum. He pointed at Su Huan and cursed, "You bastard, what right do you have to occupy the locomotive while we thousand-plus people are squeezed in the back? You're going to die a horrible death!"

"And you two sluts, this mongrel just wants to sleep with you both! You've already delivered yourselves to his door and you're still feeling smug? Once he's done playing with you, he'll just feed you to the zombies. There are so many women on this train, do you really think you can stay safe for long—"

The middle-aged man's voice stopped abruptly along with the hole that appeared in his forehead.

His bloodshot eyes still held anger and malice.

Bang.

The corpse collapsed to the ground, yet not a single drop of blood flowed from the wound.

The crowd that had been packed into the corridor between the two carriages suddenly took a large step backward.

Feeling the slight burning sensation on his fingertips, Su Huan said indifferently, "Drag the body back."

The crowd hesitated for a moment, but under the pressure of Su Huan's tyranny, two people stepped forward to drag the corpse away.

Su Huan stepped forward to lock the corridor door, looking at the faces behind the glass that dared to be angry but dared not speak, and revealed a wicked smile.

He took out a notebook and wrote on it.

"First week of the apocalypse, people are still quite obedient."

The notebook flap fell, revealing a few bold characters on the cover.

"Conductor's Log".

Su Huan turned his head and found that Yu Jing's expression remained unchanged, which made him think a little higher of her.

"The last compartment is yours. Do not come out until I call you. There is a pack of biscuits and a bottle of water inside; that is your food for today."

Su Huan said calmly.

The woman wanted to say something but stopped, then was pulled into the soft-sleeper compartment by Yu Jing, who locked the door with a click.

Su Huan covered the glass on the corridor door, walked along the hallway, and arrived at the luxury soft-sleeper carriage.

Just as he pushed open the compartment door.

"Bang!"

A muffled sound came from the window in front of him.

A large patch of scarlet blood splattered across the glass, and a dark shadow was left behind by the high-speed train.

This horrifying scene did not move Su Huan in the slightest. For others, this was the first week of the apocalypse, but for him, it was four years and one week into the apocalypse.

The first thing he did after his rebirth was not to collect supplies or build a safe house.

Instead, he bought a sightseeing ticket for the Global Train, a vintage locomotive.

Because only he knew that the land beneath their feet would continue to heat up over the next month, reaching a terrifying temperature of over one hundred degrees.

Water sources would dry up, society would collapse, and coupled with a massive outbreak of the zombie virus, cities would instantly turn into purgatory.

When the surviving humans discovered that the temperature was lower in the north, they began to flee northward in a swarm.

In his past life, he had escaped only after nine deaths, then struggled for four years against various terrifying natural disasters before dying in despair.

Therefore, the first thing he had to do after being reborn was to run north.

Looking at the sweat gradually seeping out on his arm and checking the thermometer hanging on the wall, the red line had already reached 27°C.

Su Huan calmly took out his logbook.

He flipped to the latest entry.

"December 16th, early winter, temperature 23°C-27°C."

Scattered words were written above, with a few highlighted and circled: [Vehicle], [Sixteen Days], [Resources], [Team]...

It would exceed one hundred degrees in a month, but that did not mean people could survive until then.

The most comfortable temperature for humans is 22°C, and any fluctuation above or below that causes discomfort.

In a humid environment, exceeding 35°C, or in a dry environment, exceeding 50°C, carries a risk of death.

Therefore, the time truly left to him was only sixteen days.

Seven days had already passed, leaving only nine days remaining.

And they were still three thousand kilometers away from exiting the high-temperature zone.

The train traveled at 120 kilometers per hour; at full speed, they could clear the high-temperature zone in two days.

But other regions were in the same dire straits.

Clean water, food, medicine, shelter, clothing...

Every single resource was extremely difficult to obtain.

Therefore, the vehicle for escape needed not only powerful defensive capabilities and long-range endurance but also extreme load-bearing capacity.

This ruled out household vehicles and airplanes.

After screening through his options, only a train met the criteria.

In the early stages of the apocalypse, even this long-discontinued sightseeing train could provide strong shelter.

Once the talent and supplies were in place, he would arm the train.

It would become a mobile fortress.

The train Su Huan had chosen was an old-fashioned diesel-electric locomotive; simply put, it burned oil to generate electricity.

The entire train consisted of forty-two carriages: three for luggage, forty for passengers. Adjacent to the locomotive were the VIP dining car, a two-story sightseeing carriage, then two luxury sleeper carriages, ten standard soft-sleeper carriages, and twenty-five hard-seat carriages.

Currently, Su Huan had directly occupied the first five carriages, driving everyone else to the back.

However, this was only temporary.

These people, including the zombies hauled on the train, were all part of his plan.

The large glass panels on the carriages were fine for sightseeing and could handle the current strength of zombies.

But against the Corpse Kings and evolved beasts of the later stages, tempered glass would be no different from a dry cracker.

Therefore, he intended to turn this Armed Train into a weapon, tearing through zombie hordes to flee all the way north.

Just imagine: outside, lightning flashes and floods rage, while a Corpse King—its body half-severed—can only leave long, bloody streaks on the Armed Train's steel armor in vain, roaring fruitlessly as it watches them sit in the warm, comfortable carriage, eating hotpot and singing songs, whistling away into the distance.

That feeling would be even more exhilarating than streaking on an elevated bridge during a night of torrential rain.

"Time to eat."

After briefly recording the events of the day in his notebook, Su Huan finally put down his pen.

This was a habit he had kept for four years since the apocalypse, using records to combat his gradually collapsing sense of time.

He locked the room door and headed to the dining car at the front.

The dining car was very quiet, save for the muffled thud of the train wheels passing over the rail joints.

Warm sunlight spilled onto the red-and-white checkered tablecloth, and the greenery in a white porcelain vase trembled slightly from the vibrations.

Outside the window, scattered zombies were startled by the noise, gathering into a horde along the tracks and howling as they chased the train.

Then, they slammed headfirst into the iron siding of the carriage.

"Bang!"

Su Huan closed the refrigerator door.

He placed the last remaining green pepper on the cutting board and deliberately rinsed his hands with water to awaken his sense of touch. Feeling the cool, refreshing water slide between his fingers, Su Huan experienced a decadent, luxurious pleasure.

Only by preparing such precious vegetables with his own hands and consuming them could he fully appreciate the joy.

With the vegetables prepped, Su Huan tapped the induction cooker.

The unplugged induction cooker emitted a crisp "ding."

This was the core ability of an Energy Provider: Lv1 Energy Conversion. Currently, he could convert the energy within his body into light, heat, or electricity at a ten percent efficiency rate.

He had used a small trick involving thermal energy to kill that middle-aged man earlier.

Logically, an Energy Provider at this stage could only activate small appliances and electronic products, but Su Huan had four years of experience; he could use minor skills beyond his level.

This was also the core of the Armed Train plan.

The train's energy source.

Of course, that was a matter for the future. The fuel tank was still full, and that was enough time for him to grow until he could drive the train himself.

He dried the water from the pan, turned on the range hood, poured in the oil... Whirrr, the range hood let out a low hum.

The trees along the tracks blocked the sunlight, casting flickering shadows across Su Huan's face.

He added the seasonings and the vegetables; the crackling sound of the stir-fry drowned out the howling outside.

Su Huan looked up in surprise. A lucky soul with a livid complexion happened to be hanging outside the window. Lacking whites in his eyes, his entire pupils were a dull, dark crimson-black. He had his mouth wide open, as if he wanted to eat Su Huan through the glass.

Su Huan smiled warmly. "Sharing is caring."

He casually slid open the window and shoved the leftover packaging and scraps into the zombie's mouth.

Zombie: "＼(〇_ｏ)／"

Having lost its balance, the zombie was thrown off by the whistling train before it could even snap its teeth shut.

As its body was crushed by the steel wheels, the faint sound of a man's voice could still be heard.

"Remember to eat well..."