A New Evolutionist

A convoy formed by students and teachers from several universities had gathered a large number of highly qualified people.

Of course, they were probably huddled on campus now, and wouldn't start fleeing until they discovered the temperature had doubled.

If he could recruit these people ahead of time, he could solve many technical problems.

As for the most precious thing in the apocalypse, some might say food, others industrial products. In reality, it was the talent nurtured by the pre-apocalypse education system.

That was the one thing that couldn't be replicated. Every death meant one fewer.

In his previous life, all those top research talents had been claimed by the major factions. Few were ever allowed to leave.

If Su Huan wanted the Armed Train to stand on its own, he needed his own reserve of research talent.

Otherwise, once his early advantages ran out, he'd only fall further and further behind.

The atmosphere inside Carriage No. 2 felt somewhat oppressive, amplified by the various tools scattered around it.

Hu An had finally picked out two of his most trusted men with all their limbs intact from among the disabled. Only then did he look at Su Huan.

"Just these two."

Su Huan nodded and glanced at Yu Yue and the others. "Yu Jing, go get the little thing on the table in my room. Everyone else, go back."

Guessing that Su Huan might be about to do something less than kind, Wan Xing hurriedly pushed Qi Xiaoba back to their room.

Yu Yue naturally went to prepare breakfast. Only Liang Kuan stayed behind.

Su Huan looked over the two lucky men he'd chosen. Both were tall, sturdy fellows, about his height. After inspecting them with satisfaction, he poked at them here and there.

He looked just like a butcher sizing up pigs on a chopping block, deciding where to cut.

The two men shuddered under his touch.

Su Huan thought for a moment, then ordered, "Liang Kuan, take off their pants."

At those words, every living creature in the carriage instinctively squeezed their legs together. Even Hu An looked at Su Huan with genuine fear.

Liang Kuan froze for a moment, then stepped forward and yanked off both men's pants.

He pulled their underwear down to their ankles, too.

With their hands tied and rags stuffed in their mouths, the two men could only hunch over as much as they could and let out muffled cries. Their faces were flushed with distress, and their eyes pleaded with Su Huan in terror.

Su Huan rubbed his chin and gave Liang Kuan a look. "Make them bend over."

Even Liang Kuan gave Su Huan a complicated look this time. Still, he turned the two men around and pressed them face-down against the table.

They had no chance of resisting Liang Kuan. They were like a pair of chicks in his hands.

Hu An silently turned his head away, avoiding the desperate looks from his trusted men.

Yu Jing had just walked over when she saw the appalling scene. Her almond-shaped eyes narrowed as she glanced between Su Huan, Liang Kuan, and the others, then she seemed to understand.

She raised the cylindrical object in her hand. "Is this the thing?"

"That's the one." Su Huan's eyes lit up.

Everyone watched as he fiddled with the remote-control-looking device, then looked around and went to the train window. He opened it and knocked a few times.

A chorus of zombie howls rose up.

"Is he going to feed us to the zombies?"

The people lying on the floor shuddered.

The two men bent over the table, their bare bottoms exposed, felt even more uncertain. One of them even burst into tears.

When Su Huan saw the zombies outside drawing near, he tossed the cylinder out and pressed the remote with his right hand.

The cylinder traced a graceful arc through the air and landed right in the pocket on a zombie's chest.

"Boom—bang!"

The zombie's upper body was blown apart by the miniature explosion, and chunks of flesh splattered against the train's armor.

Su Huan nodded in satisfaction. His skills hadn't gotten rusty. He tossed the remaining two cylinders to Liang Kuan. "All right, shove these two up their butts."

The people lying on the floor clenched their cheeks, even starting to feel lucky that they hadn't been picked because their arms and legs were broken.

Wouldn't it feel amazing if those things exploded up their butts?!

Ignoring the howls of misery from that side, Yu Jing looked at Su Huan in confusion. "You know how to make bombs?"

"Just a little hobby."

Looking at the two burly men clutching their backsides with wounded expressions, Su Huan proudly raised his chin.

Steam rose in the scorching heat, like sticky, gray-white cotton wool winding around the tracks.

The lever of an unattended switch ahead suddenly shifted under some unknown force, creaking as it tipped to the right.

The Armed Train rolled over the rain-damp rails. In the muddy swamps on either side lay a mass of rotting corpses, red, web-like grass stalks sprouting from their rib cages.

A blue-gray arm suddenly thrust out of the mud. A zombie half-submerged in the swamp struggled to raise its head, its cloudy eyes turning mechanically toward the train's rumble.

"Bang!"

A corpse was thrown down, knocking it back into the mud.

Su Huan wiped the sweat from his forehead and closed the door. Looking at Hu An behind him, whose face had gone pale, he patted his shoulder and grinned. "In a couple of months, the weeds along both sides of these tracks will grow thick."

"They'll be bright red. It'll be a beautiful sight."

Hu An stared at Su Huan's pale fingers, his face twitching.

He had watched Su Huan touch his men between the brows with those reddened fingers. One touch, one bloody hole.

Then, as the train rolled along, Su Huan tossed them out one by one.

Yu Jing came over. Catching a whiff of charred pig's trotter in the air, she frowned slightly. "Gao Zhe has already set off with those two. They've taken the forklift, too."

"Tell Liang Kuan to slow down. They'll need a while to move the water purifiers."

Su Huan hung Hu An on the wall first, then washed his hands.

"Okay. There's something I need to report to you," Yu Jing said.

Su Huan raised an eyebrow in surprise. This was the first time they had taken the initiative to report something. "What is it?"

Yu Jing glanced at Hu An, hanging on the wall. He immediately pretended to be dead and closed his eyes.

Su Huan understood. The two of them went to the dining car.

The scattered tables had been pushed together in the middle, forming one long rectangular table. Besides the decorative plants, several gruesome claws now lay on top.

A shattered glass sat nearby.

Wan Xing, Qi Xiaoba, and Yu Yue were all seated at the table, their faces still marked by surprise.

"What happened?"

Su Huan asked curiously, instinctively activating Pan-Energy Perception.

Two fluctuations of Pan-Energy immediately caught his attention. One came from the claws on the table.

That one needed no explanation. They were materials taken from a Night Demon.

The other came from Yu Yue, who was sitting nearby.

Su Huan looked at Aunt Yu in surprise. She seemed to have washed up today, her soft hair coiled into a bun at the back of her head. She wore a mustard-yellow long-sleeved shirt, its broad shoulders making it look as though it were simply draped over her.

She didn't look like a married woman who'd had a child. She looked more like a girl in her early twenties.

When she saw Su Huan approach, she hurriedly stood and greeted him with her head lowered. "Brother Su."

"Did you successfully evolve?"

Su Huan: "Someone said I go for both men and women? Tch, how vile!"