Human Purgatory

Su Huan turned his head to look at Qi Xiaoba and handed him the steel plate in his hand. "Try to see if you can manipulate this piece of metal."

Xiaoba focused his gaze on the palm-sized steel plate. After a long while, the plate slowly floated into the air, being kneaded like a ball of dough by a pair of invisible hands until it formed a sphere.

"Clang."

The steel ball dropped onto the table. Qi Xiaoba shook his head. "This kind of metal is already very difficult to control. It consumes four to five times more energy than ordinary metal; it's as if it's mixed with a lot of impurities."

Su Huan was lost in thought; Qi Xiaoba's words confirmed a certain suspicion of his.

In his past life, Master Ba's manipulation of Tier 1 light armor and ordinary metal had been no different, at least as far as he could tell.

But back then, Master Ba had already been a Tier 2 professional.

He was considered quite famous even among the wanderers in the Acid Rain Zone.

Perhaps when "Metal Affinity" advances to its higher-level ability, "Metal Control," one of the conditions is to consume these new materials.

If that were the case...

If they used these new materials to forge the train's armor, wild metal-type Manipulators wouldn't be able to shake the train for a long time to come.

However, he wasn't sure if those large corporations had Manipulators with high-level skills like Xiaoba.

This was a point that had always puzzled him.

The apocalypse had only just begun four years ago; why did these factions already have Tier 5 Evolutionists?

Moreover, they had even researched many interconnected professional systems.

Even if they possessed vast amounts of manpower and resources, the environment had already changed. Could so much really be accomplished in four years?

Evolution itself was madness, but could scientific research be just as insane?

Taking advantage of the gap in Su Huan's conversation, Yu Yue served her daughter a bowl of wontons.

Yu Jing looked at her mother's flushed cheeks, feeling slightly puzzled. "Mom, what's wrong with you?"

Yu Yue glanced furtively at Su Huan, her face embarrassed as she stuck out the tip of her rosy tongue. "I tasted something spicy; my tongue still hurts."

Yu Jing said helplessly, "If you can't eat spicy food, don't try it. You sit and eat; I'll go get some water."

Seeing her daughter stand up and head toward the kitchen, the woman's face instantly displayed a look of terror.

She hurriedly stopped her. "No, no, I'll get it myself."

Although her daughter was naturally gifted and very capable with her hands, for some reason, she possessed an explosive talent for cooking. Even when making cold dishes, one could hear the pots and pans clattering like a festive fireworks display during the New Year.

Yu Jing hesitated for a moment, then sat back down where she was.

After a while, Liang Kuan returned as well.

Su Huan outlined the next phase of their plan.

First, complete the first stage of the Armed Train.

Second, collect as many electronic products as possible to lay the foundation for the train's full-vehicle surveillance and subsequent modifications.

"From here on out, you all need to prepare yourselves to face the true apocalypse."

"The apocalypse? Isn't this it?" Yu Jing asked, confused.

Su Huan's lips curled upward. "This?"

"This is only just the beginning."

08:20.

The Armed Train left the perimeter of the Water Plant and quietly headed toward Mojiang City, which had a population of seven million.

Because of the large quantity of steel plates and water purifiers, the train's initial speed was extremely slow.

After an unknown amount of time, a heavy, ragged breathing sound emerged on the tracks outside the Water Plant. A mutated pig, fully three meters long, stepped out from the bushes, its massive, obese frame resembling a small hill.

Its dark red bristles stood up like steel needles, its tusks turned outward to form bone blades, and its hooves had mutated into a metallic texture. Every step it took caused the sleepers and gravel beneath its feet to creak and crunch.

If Su Huan were here, he would recognize this as a Tier 1 Evolutionary Beast: a Gluttonous Pig.

Its combat power was far greater than that of a Blood Hound, but it lacked the same level of ferocity.

It spent most of its day foraging for food.

The Gluttonous Pig twitched its nostrils, using its tusks to pry open a cup of instant noodles and lick up the residue, its throat emitting a satisfied grunt.

The greasy smell masked the strange noise coming from the rail joints behind it.

Several pale bone spikes tore through the air.

"Crack!"

The Gluttonous Pig reacted with lightning speed, its hind hooves pushing off the ground as its massive, fat body leaped nimbly into the air. The metallic hooves collided with the bone spikes, emitting a dull thud.

But one bone spike was missed, piercing about ten centimeters into its rump.

Before the Gluttonous Pig could howl in pain, a bone whip lashed through the air, wrapping around its body.

With a violent tug, the bristles snapped, and large cracks appeared on its skin as blood began to flow.

The Gluttonous Pig was thoroughly enraged; its small eyes turned blood-red as it glared at the intruder, its four limbs kicking against the ground as it charged forward with the ferocity of a speeding tank.

"Boom!"

After the tremor subsided.

A massive figure standing three meters tall was seen standing before the Gluttonous Pig, lacking a neck, its head sunken deep into its chest cavity, with only a pair of black-red eyes glowing eerily.

One hand was a bone whip wrapped around the pig, while the other was plunged into the wild boar's eye socket.

"Hrr..."

The towering figure emitted a vague syllable, flipped onto the pig's back, and popped a multitude of bone spurs from its knee joints, which rotated like a meat grinder as they embedded themselves into the boar's abdomen.

The Gluttonous Pig wailed in agony, flesh and blood splattering from its waist, yet it had no room to struggle.

The towering figure hunched over the torn-open flesh, its shoulders slightly unfolding to reveal a pitch-black human head nestled within.

It opened its sharp teeth and gnawed viciously at the meat.

An hour later, a large patch of flesh and blood on the ground had been evaporated by high heat into a substance resembling blood-grease, its color gradually turning dull.

Only then did the tall humanoid zombie lift its head from the mountain of meat.

Its pitch-black face was covered in scarlet blood, and as it looked toward the railway extending into the distance, its eyes seemed to regain a glimmer of clarity.

"Hrr... train... bad seed!"

On the elevated tracks, the sound of "creak, creak" was incessant.

Twisted steel rails were straightened by some inexplicable, immense force.

The Armed Train moved forward slowly; except for Liang Kuan, who was driving, everyone else was currently standing on the second-floor observation carriage, looking down at this once-prosperous metropolis.

Hundreds upon hundreds of cars were piled up on the streets; some were burned down to mere charred skeletons, some contained struggling zombies, and others held survivors who hadn't managed to escape in time.

They were trapped in despair amidst this sea of vehicular wreckage.

To the right of the tracks, a derailed train pierced through three office buildings in a twisted, parabolic arc.

The locomotive was embedded into the twenty-seventh-floor concrete load-bearing wall of the central skyscraper, and the sixteen carriages resembled the skeleton of a giant, steel-cast python, with glass curtain wall fragments peeling off like scales, refracting thousands of points of phosphorus fire under the midday sun.

The glass curtain walls of the skyscrapers on both sides had been shattered into disarray, revealing dark, gaping holes.

By the light of day, one could clearly see the white Corpse Cocoons inside.

The twisted, curled-up human silhouettes within could be vaguely seen pulsing violently.

Dense swarms of ordinary zombies wandered among them, and upon hearing the sound of the train, they rushed toward the windows, falling like dumplings onto the ground to form a mountain of corpses after the glass shattered.

Yet, the people on the train felt not a shred of joy.

Including the passengers in the back, every single person's face bore an indescribable sense of shock and oppression.