"Exactly," Lao Zhu sighed. "That girl probably knew your stubborn personality, and that’s why she left without a word. But if that’s the case, I don’t think she would have gone far. She might have even rented a place nearby to keep an eye on you."
"One, to see you a few more times before she passed."
"Two, to make sure you didn’t do anything stupid."
"Think about it. Where were you living before you left Taiping City? If that girl were lucky, she might still be alive, hiding in some corner."
"I..."
Shanmaozi stood frozen, his eyes instantly turning red. He dropped to his knees in front of Lao Zhu, his voice hoarse and frantic. "Vice-Captain Zhu, could you... Could you ask Boss Mang to take me to the factory on the outskirts of Taiping City to look for her?"
"She... she might be there, waiting for me."
"I... I’ll trade my life for it. If the train ever has a suicide mission that needs someone to complete, I’ll be the first to go. C-can you?"
"Get up first."
Lao Zhu waved his hand, having Biaozi help Shanmaozi to his feet. After a moment of silence, he spoke. "I’ll find a chance to mention this to Boss Mang. But the train’s most important task right now is mining. Don’t get your hopes up too high.""All I can say is that I’ll find an opportunity to bring it up."
"Thank you... Thank you..."
Shanmaozi shakily got to his feet and returned to his bunk, burying his head in his chest, his body trembling slightly.
"Sigh."
Biaozi glanced at Shanmaozi but said nothing more. He pinched out the nearly finished cigarette butt between his fingers and let out a soft sigh. He only had a bedridden father; otherwise, he had no other attachments.
But it had been a long time since he’d even thought about it.
When the apocalypse first hit, he had wanted to go back and save his father.
Later...
Later, he had accepted in his heart that his father was already dead. Everyone here had family. But in an environment like this, everyone did their best not to think about such things.
If fate willed it, they’d meet again in hell.
Inside Slave Carriage #7.
Uncle Li felt the train moving smoothly beneath him and also breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced at the dim light on the ceiling, then looked down with some regret at the extinguished cigarette butt in his hand.
"If I’d known I wasn’t going to die, I wouldn’t have smoked this one. What a waste."
"I have to ask, Uncle Li," a young man next to him whispered. "Are you that reluctant to smoke the two cigarettes Boss Mang gave you?"
"You’re wrong," Uncle Li said, shaking his head softly. "I don’t have an addiction. It’s just... this thing makes me feel like I still have some connection to modern society, that I wasn’t just born a slave."
"It reminds me of my past, makes me feel like I’m still a person."
"You don’t want to be a slave, Uncle Li?"
"..."
Uncle Li glanced at the young man. What a stupid question. If there were a choice, who would want to be a slave? A look of helplessness crossed his face. "Do you?"
"It’s alright," the young man said, scratching the back of his head. I used to work as an outsourced delivery driver. To be honest, the workload now isn’t that bad. Not much pressure."
"My life can be summed up in one phrase."
"It has been one long struggle, marked by repeated setbacks and unfulfilled ambitions."
"This is pretty good."
"..."
Uncle Li said no more, simply retracting his gaze. He had already figured out how to climb into the management ranks. He had a plan, but he needed an opportunity.
He needed to wait.
Wait for a new batch of slaves to join the train.
That would be his day to shine.
….
Under the starry wasteland sky, the Stellar moved smoothly across the plains, maintaining this speed for a full half-hour.
The trick was... to just keep driving at top speed.
"..."
Chen Mang glanced in the rearview mirror at two small, ferocious-looking rabbits that were relentlessly chasing his train. These two red-skinned rabbits had been on his tail for half an hour.
Their speed was incredible, almost matching the Stellar’s top speed.
—
[Beep, beep. Detecting a Level 3 unknown monster. No matching information in the database.]
[Train Captain, please be advised.]
—
A line of red text had been flashing on the control console screen.
It was a long story.
Half an hour ago, he had been steering the train toward the coordinates of the Apocalypse Abyss. The journey had been calm, without any incidents. Then, suddenly, he felt a jolt, as if the wheels had run over something like a speed bump.
Afterward, he saw in the rearview mirror that the two rabbits, one of which had been on top of the other, had struggled apart and were now chasing his train with ferocious expressions, vowing to fight to the death.
If he wasn’t mistaken, he had probably run over the two rabbits while they were mating.
In that case, a bit of temper was understandable.
An unknown Level 3 monster. There was a high chance it was a newly added boss. He was instantly tempted.
A potential first-kill bonus was right in front of him.
But the Carriage Blades were installed a meter above the ground. These two rabbits were only thirty centimeters tall, too low for the blades to hit. For the time being, he didn’t have a good way to kill them. Although he’d hit them once, they didn’t seem injured.
He wasn’t worried about his safety.
Even if he stopped the train, with its Level 3 armor, these two rabbits couldn’t break through his defense.
Besides—
The Level 5 advanced effect of the "Windfire Wheels" allowed him to double the train’s speed at the cost of rapidly consuming Energy Stones. If he wanted to run, these two rabbits in heat wouldn’t have a chance of catching him.
The reason he was in a standoff was simply that he wanted to kill them.
He planned to lure the two rabbits to the Apocalypse Abyss. That was the burial ground he had chosen for them.
"Huh?"
Just then, Chen Mang, sitting at the control console, noticed that the two rabbits, perhaps realizing they couldn’t catch up, had suddenly stopped chasing. They were now... mating again, right there on the spot.
"Not chasing anymore? That won’t do."
Without a second thought, Chen Mang turned the train around and charged at them again.
Of course, now that they were on guard, he didn’t hit them this time—they dodged with extreme agility. But this act, which had just started to cool their tempers, once again filled them with rage. Their faces contorted ferociously, their mouths full of fangs, and their eyes burning with anger, they charged after him, relentlessly chasing the train.
"That’s more like it."
He nodded with satisfaction. He glanced at the coordinates for the Apocalypse Abyss. Another half an hour to go. The first kill should be in the bag.
He had just experimented.
He had loaded the Level 5 "Tripod-Mounted Heavy Machine Gun" with Level 1 bullets. With the "Train Auxiliary AI" locking on, he had fired a hundred rounds. All one hundred had missed. The two rabbits were too fast, dodging left and right, and were impossible to hit.
So he hadn’t bothered crafting new Level 3 bullets. He still had 510 units of copper ore on the train, enough to make 51 Level 3 bullets.
Given the rabbits’ small size, if all 51 Level 3 bullets hit, they would almost certainly be dead.
But he needed to find suitable terrain, a place where the rabbits didn’t have so much room to maneuver, allowing the heavy machine gun bullets to find their mark. The Apocalypse Abyss was a good choice.
These two Level 3 new bosses probably only appeared in low-level regions. His heavy machine gun, even with its auto-aiming feature, couldn’t hit them. Other trains in low-level regions would have an even harder time killing this fast and agile monster.
His train, with its many high-level accessories, had a top speed of 254 km/h, yet these two rabbits could keep up right behind him. It was clear their speed was in a league of its own among Level 3 monsters.
They were much faster than that Level 3 Cannibalistic Spider.
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