The bald man cradled the device like a precious treasure and returned to his locomotive. He settled at the control console, fiddling with it lovingly for a few moments before carefully placing it aside.
"Mom," he said.
"When this thing starts blaring and flashing red, crank the train's sound system to maximum!"
"I don't care what I'm doing—sleeping, taking a shit, whatever—wake me up!"
The next moment, a pleasant, mechanical voice echoed through the locomotive.
"Understood."
Every Train Captain could name their Train Auxiliary AI to make receiving commands easier. He had named his "Mom." His actual mother had passed away before the apocalypse, after several rounds of chemotherapy for cancer had failed.
With that settled, the bald man finally relaxed. He leaned back in his chair, gleeful anticipation spreading across his face as he stared at the device on the table, hoping it would start shrieking at any moment so he could claim his practically free reward.
As for not finding a compatible train to descend upon, that was perfectly normal.
The S-rank specialization mission for the "Mechanical Train" was absurd—practically impossible for any normal person to complete. Only a headstrong fool would choose it, even with two chances to select a mission.Completing an S-rank specialization mission required massive investments of time, energy, and resources.
In the apocalypse, no one would do something so foolish, to pour everything into a nearly impossible task.
But...
He wasn't worried. This world was short on many things, but headstrong people weren't one of them. He was confident that before long, some stubborn Train Captain would choose that S-rank mission, and he would be there with a savage grin to deliver a painful and despairing blow!
He would teach them a lesson in reality!
"Thirty Mofei Stones..."
The bald man gazed at the 3D model of his train on the control console screen, biting his finger as he frowned. "How should I spend them? A couple for the 'Tripod-Mounted Heavy Machine Gun,' maybe? Using Mofei Stones on green-grade accessories is the most cost-effective—just two stones for one advanced effect."
"No, no, a Level 5 'Tripod-Mounted Heavy Machine Gun' alone is useless. The heavy machine gun bullet production line would need two more."
"What a headache..."
"I've never been so spoiled for choice. It's torture trying to decide."
"Mom, any suggestions?"
"I suggest you wait until you have the thirty Mofei Stones in hand before considering this problem," the Train Auxiliary AI's voice came through the speakers.
"Alright, that's enough from you, Mom."
...
The next day.
Chen Mang woke from sleep, stretched with a long yawn, then looked out the window at the already-gathered slaves. A satisfied smile spread across his face. He had slept well.
The train had successfully reached Level 3.
And he had found a way to complete the S-rank specialization mission.
He was in an excellent mood.
He glanced at the train's panel. Including the iron ore the slaves had brought back yesterday, the train now had 60,000 units of iron ore.
His task for today was to craft and upgrade all accessories available for a Level 3 train.
In a word: splurge.
The two iron mines were almost depleted. The Resource Detection Radar showed just over 30,000 units of mineable iron ore remaining. They should finish by noon.
The Resource Detection Radar also revealed another high-level rare resource mine five thousand meters further down.
A Level 3 Crimson Heart Ore mine.
Estimated mineable quantity: 1,800 units of Level 3 Crimson Heart Ore.
Although he couldn't use this resource yet and didn't know which accessory required it, he still planned to excavate it after finishing the two iron mines.
The main reason was that the quantity was so small.
Only 1,800 units.
With so many slaves, they could dig it out in an hour or two. He might as well get it done, then head to other iron mines in the afternoon. The Ironridge Wasteland had plenty of underground iron mines—enough for him to dig for a long time!
With that decided, he pulled his gaze from the window and said casually to the door, "Come in."
Soon.
A young woman carrying a tray carefully pushed the door open, placed the tray on the control console, and said in a low voice, "Boss Mang, this is the breakfast Vice-Captain Zhu had me prepare for you. From now on, I'll be delivering your breakfast, lunch, and dinner."
"Mm."
Chen Mang glanced at the woman and said casually, "You can go."
A few days ago, he had Lao Zhu select ten women to handle cleaning the train, plus one specifically to clean his locomotive. This was the woman Lao Zhu had chosen. She was responsible for his daily meals and cleaning the locomotive at regular intervals.
She was quite good-looking.
Though she wore no makeup, her skin was tender. It was just that her clothes, though washed many times, still looked worn and didn't make a good impression.
He had tried trading iron ore for wood on the Train Radio yesterday, but...
On the Ironridge Wasteland, there were only two ways to get wood. The first was to go to the Mohe Hills and chop down trees. There were numerous lumberyards there. That area was part of the Ironridge Wasteland, not another region—just a place name.
But the terrain in that area was too rugged for a train to enter easily, making logging difficult and costly.
The second method was to find the occasional few trees growing alone or in small clusters on the Ironridge Wasteland. Chopping them down would yield a hundred or two hundred units of wood.
Although not much, it was enough.
After all, Level 1 and 2 trains didn't require much wood. For those small needs, chopping down a few trees on the Ironridge Wasteland was usually sufficient.
His demand was relatively large.
After all, the Custom Clothing Production Line would consume considerable wood to produce two sets of clothes for over 1,000 people. His idea was to make two sets of clothes for each slave and guard.
The colors of the clothes for Tier 1 slaves, Tier 2 slaves, and so on would be different.
This would clearly define the classes. He would also add a Stellar train arm patch to the clothes to make it more uniform and official.
The Train Radio didn't have that much wood available.
He would head toward the Mohe Hills later, digging up the underground iron mines along the way, and drive to the Mohe Hills.
After breakfast, Chen Mang had Li Shiji, who had been waiting outside the door, come in. He lay back in his chair, lit a cigarette, and frowned as he looked at the blueprint Li Shiji handed him.
To be honest.
He wasn't nearsighted, but looking at this blueprint made him feel like he had astigmatism.
The blueprint only showed a huge cube outlined with dotted and solid lines. Inside the cube were several marks like "1," "2," "3," and numerous dotted lines.
In the bottom right corner of the blueprint was a corresponding legend.
"1": Refrigerator.
"2": Mirror.
"3": Speaker.
"4": Taunts.
A minute later.
He put down the blueprint and looked at Li Shiji, who stood before him with a somewhat anxious expression. "Relax. I can understand the refrigerators and mirrors on your blueprint. What do you mean by 'taunts'?"
"Boss Mang, it's like this."
Li Shiji took a deep breath and began explaining. "Doesn't the robot you want to trap have superhuman intelligence? Since it has superhuman intelligence, it must have some human emotions."
"And among human emotions, there are many negative ones we can exploit."
"For example, suspicion."
"When this robot faces a fork with three paths, we can mark on the wall that the left side is a dead end, then actually make the left refrigerator a dead end—with no other refrigerators inside, a dead end that can be identified immediately."
"After a few times, this robot will start doubting itself when it sees these signs."
"And mockery."
"We can also write taunting slogans on the walls, like ‘I made this maze with my eyes closed—why are you acting like it's a Herculean task?’ to affect the robot's state of mind. When people are agitated, they often lose rational judgment. If that robot has human emotions, it will be affected."
"Even if the robot has no human emotions, it's just a few meaningless words on the wall. It doesn't affect anything. It's all pros and no cons."
"..."
Chen Mang silently looked down at the maze sketch in his hand again. He suddenly felt that this was somewhat absurd.
At first, he had thought the S-rank specialization mission for the Mechanical Train was almost impossible.
But when he remembered he had a Level 10 refrigerator, he felt it wasn't impossible.
And after hearing Li Shiji's idea today, he felt that the half-hour time limit might be a bit short...
A moment later.
He looked up at Li Shiji again. "In a few days, I'll build you a new carriage and 100 refrigerators. You need to build the maze from this sketch in that carriage."
"If you have any other ideas in the next few days, you can add them in."
"No problem, Boss Mang."
Chen Mang watched Li Shiji's retreating, his eyes narrowing slightly. Although he felt this maze sketch was already perfect, it was just theory on paper. After the maze was built, he would find a few slaves to test it and see how long it took them to get out.
Then he shook his head.
He looked at the train's panel, preparing to start crafting the accessories available for a Level 3 train.