Construction Crew

The man who'd been left behind tried to climb aboard, but Su Huan called out to him.

"Where's your ticket?"

Like a mad dog, the man pointed at Su Huan and cursed him out. "You're in cahoots with them! You tricked us into getting on the train. I'll fucking—"

Bang.

The body hit the ground.

Energy Compression was a bit of a hassle to use on Evolutionary Beasts, but against an ordinary person who hadn't evolved, it was a one-shot kill.

Su Huan dug at his ear. "What a waste of time. Why not get straight to the point? Next."

"December 18, early winter, 26°C–29°C"

"People seem to have elected a new leader."

—"Conductor's Log"

Su Huan recorded the temperature during the hottest part of the day in the log.

Of the 1,201 old passengers, only 624 had returned so far. The rest had either died outside or run off. That was normal.

Su Huan had never been afraid of them running away.

The train was made of iron, but its passengers came and went. When old ones left, new ones would naturally arrive, just like that family yesterday.

Including the newly arrived workers, there were 744 people in total.

Another group might return tonight, but the numbers wouldn't reach a thousand today.

A young man named Gao Zhe had taken the crane task. He wouldn't be back until evening, but Su Huan didn't plan to waste time waiting around.

He glanced at the new names on the roster, then looked up at the workers, whose faces were full of fear. "There's a job. Interested?"

The workers glanced at the corpse on the ground and didn't dare approach.

They stood where they were, muttering among themselves.

"Maybe we should just leave."

"Where would we go? There's no food left at the factory. I'm so hungry I could eat a person! This is the only train that's come by in days."

"We can't get out anywhere else, either. There are man-eating monsters everywhere..."

"Aren't there fewer zombies to the north? We can get out that way."

"There are fewer zombies there, sure, but giant cocoons are everywhere. They look downright creepy. If you want to go, go ahead. I'm staying."

Su Huan had been listening with a composed air, but at one particular word, his eyes suddenly sharpened.

He pointed at a lean man in the crowd. "What did you just say? Giant cocoons?"

The man jumped in fright and stumbled backward.

But when he saw that he hadn't suddenly dropped dead like the other man, he relaxed and called out from a distance, "They're cocoons taller than a person, kind of like silkworm cocoons."

"How many are there?"

Seeing that Su Huan was only asking questions, the worker grew a little bolder. He stepped forward and replied, "Lots of them. They're everywhere—on the roads, inside houses."

Su Huan's expression shifted uneasily.

The "giant cocoons" the worker described were a necessary stage in the zombies' evolution to their second phase.

Zombies that accumulated enough Pan-Energy would, driven by the high temperatures, form a special kind of "Corpse Cocoon." Once they broke out, they would have reached the second phase.

They were also called first-rank zombies.

Their strength was worlds apart from that of ordinary zombies. Some with unusual abilities could even hunt Evolutionists with professions.

In his previous life, Su Huan had been constantly on the run and hadn't paid attention to the zombies' stages of evolution. He hadn't expected them to start evolving so soon.

It had only been nine days.

When this batch of Corpse Cocoons hatched, people who had lost their heavy firepower would face the true apocalypse!

"This is valuable information. Here, take this." Su Huan took a deep breath and tossed over the half-pack of cigarettes he'd just seized.

The worker was overjoyed. He didn't mind that Su Huan had thrown it on the ground; he picked it up and shared it with his coworkers.

After hearing this, Su Huan no longer felt like coaxing them along. He said outright, "Who's in charge of you? Step forward."

The workers looked at one another. Finally, a man about six feet tall stepped forward.

He wasn't particularly tall, but he was broad as a door, nearly as big as Liang Kuan. His voice was deep and resonant. "I am. You said you had a job for us, but given the situation, we don't want money."

"I'll feed you for three days..." As he spoke, Su Huan suddenly thought of a better arrangement and changed his offer. "You work for a day, I'll give you two meals. If you don't work, you get one meal. As long as you stay on the train, this offer stands, but it only applies to the people here now."

The man looked honest, but he was sharp, too. "I saw you collecting their tickets just now. So you need a ticket to stay on the train?"

"Of course. You can't board without buying a ticket."

This time, Su Huan didn't beat around the bush. He answered directly.

Speaking one way to one person and another way to someone else wasn't always a bad thing; it took a certain amount of skill.

With honest people, being straightforward was often less trouble than playing mind games.

"We want free tickets."

"Free tickets are out of the question. When there's work, you can ride for free. When there isn't, you'll have to earn your tickets."

Su Huan refused without hesitation. There were 120 workers in all. If they all rode for free, what would he live on?

Providing meals was already the biggest concession he could make.

Tickets were the leverage he had over everyone. Even if that leverage was only nominal, he couldn't just create a whole batch of people exempt from the rules.

The man hesitated for a moment, looked at his coworkers, then gritted his teeth. "Fine. What's the job? We're all steelworkers. We're not the sort to do brainwork."

Su Huan's expression softened a little. "It's steel plates we need worked on. Your name's Wang He, right? From now on, you're in charge of these 120 people. I'll come to you if anything comes up. Understood?"

Wang He agreed. "When do we start?"

Su Huan looked at the sky. The sun was already sinking, and there were just over three hours left until dark.

No one knew whether that batch of Corpse Cocoons would hatch tomorrow or tonight.

There wasn't much time.

He didn't dare take the chance.

He looked Wang He in the eye and said gravely, "Now."

The dark-red locomotive gleamed coldly in the setting sun. Its 25 mm shovel-shaped armor and newly added 1.2 cm steel plates fitted together to form a menacing battering ram, like an enraged iron rhinoceros.

A group of men in work clothes carried 1.2 cm steel plates toward the train along the crisscrossing tracks. Their blue uniforms were soaked through with sweat.

Fortunately, they didn't have to weld the plates. They only needed to hold them in place for a while, and a boy in a wheelchair inside would "stick" them on.

One of the men tried to pull a plate off and found it was even more firmly attached than if it had been welded.

The workers became even more awed by Su Huan, who managed the train, and worked with greater enthusiasm.

Su Huan rapped his knuckles against the outside of the carriage. The metallic vibration mingled with the waves of heat and rippled through the air. The heavy steel gave him a profound sense of security.

He narrowed his eyes at the cutting line Yu Jing had drawn with chalk beside the window. It was smooth, as if it had been polished.

The opening in the steel plate was a little smaller than the window, enough to cover the blast screen and tempered glass without interfering with the window's movement.

Su Huan was very satisfied with that.

Sweat trickled down his Adam's apple and into his collar, gradually drying into salt in the 29°C heat.

Even a quick lick of his lips tasted salty.

"Have your mother make lunch boxes for the workers first. Add plenty of oil and salt."

"She's already making them." Yu Jing leaned over the roof and poked her head out. Her jeans were smeared with dirt. "Give me a hand."