NOVEL NEXT Chapter 328: Run!
September 6, 2069, Apocalypse Day, D-100
100 days after Apocalypse Day, the Joint Train led by Dragon Mountain No.1 and Infinity proceeded east from Akse into the vast uninhabited areas.
At 10:02 AM, the sun burned like a white-hot forge rod, piercing straight into the bare spine of the Gobi Desert. The Joint Train raced over the rust-brown gravel plains, and the saline-alkaline soil on both sides of the tracks evaporated into mirages, twisting distant wind-eroded rock pillars into flickering candle tears.
The train group, freshly prepared from Akse, was now heavily damaged. Many carriages were billowing with thick smoke, littered with fragmented monster remains. The steel, corroded by Black Blood, smoked menacingly in its post-battle state. Fortunately, the combat was brief, and the armor on the trains was thick enough that the insect eggs' corrosive acid could not penetrate through the armor and carriages. However, the carriages hit by those massive black beams told a different story.
At the rear of the Joint Train, several carriages of a team were torn open. The sides and roofs of these carriages had collapsed into crumbling fragments, with nearly two-thirds of the protective structure gone, leaving almost only the underframe pressing on the tracks. In one carriage, even half the wheels had disappeared, dragging half a carriage and the train behind, speeding along in a shower of sparks. The damage was devastating!
The Dawn team, Akse Brotherhood, Windwalker, Fulushou, and other vehicle teams lost more than a dozen vehicles and over a hundred people.
The atmosphere of sorrow had no time to spread; the entire train group dared not slacken, continuing at full speed!
Because there were less than 9 hours until nightfall!
They needed to reach Quan City before dark, but the uninhabited area still stretched over two thousand kilometers. Under such pressure, no one had the time to stop and organize, nor time to weep or mourn, and no one wanted to fall behind!
Clang, clang, the sound of wheels clashing with tracks was like a mournful bell. The quartz sand between the sleepers was shaken into powder, swirling into a golden dust mist with the heat waves.
"I've remade the mounting hooks; hurry up and move them!"
Lin Xian and KIKI arrived at the damaged train team in the rear. Their goal was not just to help treat the damaged carriages, but if these carriages weren't removed, they would pose safety hazards to the entire train.
This train team was the Red Rose Team, with most of the occupants being women. In the recent battle, one of the living quarters almost split in two under the black light, and of the dozen people living inside, only three survived.
Now, with the help of some teammates, the surviving women, unable even to tend to their wounds, urgently moved the remaining supplies out of the damaged carriage. Meanwhile, KIKI was responsible for unhooking and moving the carriages, allowing Lin Xian to deal with them. Then, the following carriages accelerated to connect again.
This operation was not difficult for Lin Xian and KIKI.
"Thank you, Captain Lin."
"Everyone, hurry up and move."
"Don't worry about whether it's good or bad, just take everything."
The steel frame of the carriage jutted out like fishbones chewed by a giant beast. The charred iron skin curled into scales, and beneath the wrecked carriage, the members of the Red Rose Team hurriedly gathered what still remained inside, including even the body parts of their teammates. This team had few men, led by a woman. All these women survived the apocalypse by trading their bodies for a bit of resources. Each woman carried a weapon, all of various kinds but mostly crude. The core combat strength was relatively well-equipped. They had acquired over ten sets of power armor and various supplies in Yijin City, barely enhancing their capabilities.
Lin Xian felt no dislike for this team; instead, he rather admired them. In this apocalypse, using one's body to survive wasn't something shameful. When facing danger, each of these women could pick up a gun and resist. Seeing them now, desperately scavenging any leftover usable supplies with their somewhat crude equipment, even taking a thick-soled military boot off a half-corpse without hesitation and hanging it around their neck, it was clear they lived with utmost caution.
"Captain Lin..." After they finally finished scavenging, the captain of the Red Rose Team, Zhou Hongqu, wearing power armor, didn't have time to wipe the blood and grime off her suit as she gratefully addressed Lin Xian: "Thank you."
Lin Xian nodded, then instructed everyone to evacuate the carriage. He decomposed and devoured the steel connections, after which KIKI used telekinesis to move the entire carriage away. Once the following carriages sped up to connect, Lin Xian swiftly crafted connectors to join the two carriages together while traveling at high speed.
Moreover, he also manufactured full-range armor at the connection point, just as a helping hand.
The damaged carriage was then used by Lin Xian for material conversion through devouring. After finishing that, the two continued to handle several other carriages.
"That gigantic creature, even if it wasn't Special Level, was at least A-level. Damn, it's the first time I've encountered something unkillable,"
Shi Deyuan cursed over the leader communication frequency, having just finished a post-battle report of the train's losses: "If Lin hadn't alerted us quickly, I reckon we'd have lost several carriages."
"Captain Lin!"
At this moment, Hu Lushou's voice came through: "Do we still need to accelerate? Our vehicle teams are struggling to keep up."
After escaping the sandstorm, visibility improved, giving the drivers a break, but with the train accelerating again, those vehicle teams found it difficult to keep pace.