Conductor's Log

The two rails had been polished until they gleamed, shining brightly in the sunlight.

A train roared past. The "crowds" wandering through the fields and villages came swarming after it, running and jumping.

In several of the cars, a group of passengers seemed infected by this "enthusiasm." One by one, they leaned out the windows and howled in reply.

The remaining cars were packed with people, but they were so indifferent that not a sound escaped them.

"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 can only stay in the cars behind it."

"You say you want to join us. What makes you think you qualify?"

Su Huan wore a faint smile as he brazenly sized up the girl before him.

She wore a gray T-shirt, fitted at the waist, and dark blue jeans that hugged the curves of her legs. The flared hems spread over her feet like simple, elegant little flowers.

The girl calmly explained, "I'm in a combined undergraduate and master's program in mechanical and electronic engineering, and I'm currently working on my master's degree. My father is a railway engineer. If you need to repair or modify the train, I can help. I exercise regularly and I'm in good health, so I won't hold you back."

Su Huan was rather surprised. He hadn't expected to find any real talent among these people. She was a little green, but she would be useful for his Armed Train plan.

"You can tell me your name now."

"Yu Jing."

"All right, Yu. You're hired."

"Wait!" The girl interrupted Su Huan. "I have one condition."

Su Huan frowned. He didn't like people bargaining with him, but he held back because she was talented.

"What condition?"

"Bring one person with me." Yu Jing pulled a woman out from the car behind her. Worry clouded her brow as she looked at him nervously.

"My mom's a nurse. She can treat minor illnesses."

Su Huan's eyes lit up.

The woman before him looked seven parts like Yu Jing—a fully grown version of the girl. She wore a beige knitted sweater, her long hair spilling over her rounded shoulders. Her gentle features and soft voice carried a shy tremble as her lips parted.

"Mr. Su..."

She was beautiful, but she wouldn't help his plan much.

But he had been tempered by the apocalypse, and his standards were far lower than an ordinary man's.

"No problem, Yu. Come to my room tonight. I want to assess your professional knowledge."

Yu Jing raised an eyebrow. His words struck her as a little strange, but she didn't read anything into them.

But the woman had plenty of experience with men, and she could tell something was off. She wrapped an arm around her daughter, her voice edged with a hint of pleading. "She's still just a child..."

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

"Next."

The crowd stirred, and a plump, greasy-looking middle-aged man pushed his way out.

Su Huan immediately lost his appetite. He waved a hand. "Forget it. That's enough for today. Go back."

The middle-aged man's eyes widened. "Why are you stopping just when it's my turn? You've only interviewed five people!"

At the thought of going back to cram into the cramped space with a crowd, where the zombies in the cars behind them could eat him at any moment, the middle-aged man's voice rose. The more he spoke, the more agitated he became.

"You picked the two good-looking ones out of five and call this an interview? Why not just pick out all the pretty women and be done with it?!"

The people behind him grew restless, too.

"If you have conditions, just say so!"

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

"I've got some food. Can you let me stay up front..."

"I can sleep with you tonight!"

The smile vanished from Su Huan's face. His expression turned icy in an instant.

He raised a finger to his lips and said menacingly, "I'll give you one more chance. Get back to the rear."

The middle-aged man figured they had already fallen out. With all the pressure he'd endured since the apocalypse began, he finally gave up trying to hold back. Pointing at Su Huan, he cursed, "You bastard, what gives you the right to take over the locomotive and cram more than a thousand of us in the back? You'll die a horrible death!"

"And you two sluts, this bastard just wants to sleep with you! You're practically throwing yourselves at him, and you're still acting so pleased with yourselves. Once he's had his fun, he'll feed you to the zombies. There are so many women on this train. You think you'll be safe for long—"

The middle-aged man's voice cut off as a hole appeared in his forehead.

His bloodshot eyes still brimmed with anger and spite.

"Bang!"

The body hit the floor, but not a drop of blood came from the wound.

The crowd packed into the passage between the two cars abruptly took a step back.

Feeling a faint warmth at his fingertips, Su Huan said coolly, "Drag him back."

The crowd hesitated, but cowed by Su Huan's power, two people eventually stepped forward and hauled the body away.

Su Huan went forward and locked the passage door. Looking at the angry, silent faces behind the glass, he gave them a cruel smile.

He took out his notebook and wrote:

"First week of the apocalypse. People are still obedient."

The page folded down, revealing a few large, rough characters above it:

"Conductor's Log."

Su Huan turned around and saw no change in Yu Jing's expression. He couldn't help but think more highly of her.

"The last compartment is yours. Don't come out until I call for you. There's a packet of biscuits and a bottle of water inside. That's your food for today."

Su Huan spoke in an even tone.

The woman hesitated, as if she wanted to say something, but Yu Jing pulled her into the soft-sleeper compartment. The door clicked shut and locked behind them.

Su Huan covered the glass on the passage door, then walked down the corridor to the luxury soft-sleeper car.

He had just pushed open a compartment door when—

"Bang!"

A dull thud came from the window in front of him.

A large patch of dark red blood spread across the glass. The train's speed flung the shadow away.

The gruesome sight didn't move Su Huan in the slightest. For everyone else, it was the first week of the apocalypse. For him, it was the start of the apocalypse's fourth year and first week.

The first thing he did after being reborn wasn't gather supplies or build a safehouse.

Instead, he bought a ticket for a sightseeing tour aboard the retro Global Train.

Because only he knew that, over the next month, the land beneath his feet would keep heating up until it reached a terrifying temperature of over a hundred degrees.

Water sources would dry up, society would collapse, and the widespread outbreak of a zombie virus would turn cities into hell in an instant.

When the survivors realized that the north was cooler, they began fleeing north in droves.

In his previous life, he'd barely made it out alive. Then, faced with one terrifying natural disaster after another, he'd struggled for four years before finally dying in despair.

So, after his rebirth, the first thing he had to do was head north.

Sweat was gradually beading on his arm. He glanced at the thermometer 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 16. Early winter. Temperature: 23°C–27°C."

The page was dotted with scattered words, several of them circled for emphasis: [Vehicle] [Sixteen days] [Resources] [Team]...

It would be over a hundred degrees in a month, but that didn't mean people could survive until then.

The most comfortable temperature for humans was 22°C. Any fluctuation could make people uncomfortable.

Above 35°C in humid conditions, or 50°C in dry conditions, there was a risk of death.

That meant he had only sixteen days.

Seven had already passed. He had nine left.

And he was still three thousand kilometers from escaping the High-Temperature Zone.

The train could travel at 120 kilometers per hour. At full speed, it could leave the zone in two days.

But the other regions were in dire straits, too.

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

Every resource was incredibly difficult to obtain.

So the vehicle he used to escape needed more than powerful defenses and a long range. It also needed an enormous carrying capacity.

That ruled out cars and planes.

After weighing every option, only a train fit the bill.

In the early days of the apocalypse, even this sightseeing train—long out of production—could offer powerful protection.

Once he had the right people and supplies in place, he would arm the train.

Then it would be a Mobile Fortress.

The train Su Huan had chosen was an old diesel-electric locomotive. In simple terms, it burned fuel to generate electricity.

The train had forty-two cars in total: three for luggage and forty for passengers. Right behind the locomotive were a VIP dining car, a double-decker sightseeing car, two luxury sleeper cars, ten regular soft-sleeper cars, and twenty-five hard-seat cars.

For now, Su Huan had taken over the first five cars and driven everyone else to the back.

But that was only temporary.

Those people—and the zombies being hauled along on the train—were all part of his plan.

The train's enormous windows were great for sightseeing, and they could hold up against the zombies at this stage.

But against the Zombie Kings and Evolutionary Beasts that would appear later, tempered glass would be no better than a biscuit.

So he planned to arm the train, tear through the zombie hordes, and flee north.

Imagine it: lightning flashing through a storm, floodwaters raging. A Zombie King, half its body sheared away, could do no more than leave a long streak of blood on the armored train and roar in impotent rage as it watched them sit in comfort, enjoying hot pot and singing songs as they roared away.

That would feel even better than running naked along an overpass on a night of torrential rain.

"About time for dinner."

After briefly recording what had happened that day, Su Huan put down his pen.

It was a habit he'd picked up over four years of the apocalypse: keeping records to fight the gradual collapse of his sense of time.

He locked the door behind him and went to the dining car.

The dining car was quiet, save for the muffled clunks of the train's wheels crossing the joints in the rails.

Warm sunlight fell across the red-and-white checkered tablecloth. A green plant in a white porcelain pot trembled slightly with the train's motion.

Outside the window, scattered zombies were drawn by the noise. They gathered along both sides of the tracks, howling as they chased the train.

Then they slammed into the metal sides of the cars.

"Bang!"

Su Huan closed the refrigerator.

He placed the last green pepper on the cutting board and deliberately rinsed his hands with water to revive his sense of touch. Feeling the cool water slide between his fingers gave him a decadent thrill.

Only by preparing this precious vegetable himself and eating it afterward could he savor every bit of the pleasure.

With the ingredients ready, Su Huan casually tapped the induction cooker.

The unplugged cooker gave a crisp little ding.

That was the core ability of an Energy Provider: Lv. 1 Pan-Energy Conversion. At present, he could convert the energy in his body into things like light, heat, and electricity with ten percent efficiency.

The trick he'd used to kill the middle-aged man earlier had been a little application of heat energy.

Normally, an Energy Provider at this stage could only power small appliances and electronic devices. But Su Huan had four years of experience, so he could use a few minor skills beyond his level.

This was also the core of his Armed Train plan.

The train's energy source.

Of course, that was for later. The fuel tank was still full, and he had enough time to grow strong enough to power the train.

He dried the water in the pan, turned on the range hood, and poured in oil... The range hood rumbled to life.

Trees along the tracks blocked the sunlight, casting shifting shadows across Su Huan's face.

He added smoke, then the vegetables. The sizzling and popping drowned out the howls outside.

Su Huan looked up in surprise. A lucky soul with a livid face had somehow wound up hanging outside the window. It had no whites in its eyes; its whole eyeballs were a dull, dark reddish-black. Its mouth gaped open as if it wanted to eat him through the glass.

Su Huan smiled warmly. "If you see it, you get to share."

He casually pulled open the window and shoved the packaging and other trash he'd set aside into the zombie's mouth.

Zombie: "＼(〇_ｏ)／"

The zombie lost its balance. Before it could even close its jaws, the speeding train flung it away.

As its body was crushed beneath the steel wheels, he could faintly hear the man's voice.

"Remember to eat well..."