Armed Train in the Apocalypse

Chapter 38: Chapter 37: Tier One Light Armor

At seven o’clock, Xiaoba arrived at the dining car on time.

He had a good routine; regardless of whether he had a night duty assignment or not, he would arrive at the dining car at seven in the morning to wait for Su Huan to assign tasks.

By half-past seven, everyone gradually gathered.

When Su Huan saw Yu Jing, his gaze brightened slightly, not because she wore a new outfit but because of the pan-energy fluctuations on her.

Perhaps due to recent evolution, the unconscious pulsation of pan-energy squeezed into his sensory range.

”Evolved?”

”Level 1: ’Pan-energy Erosion’,” Yu Jing said, placing a palm-sized piece of metal on the table.

Su Huan picked up the metal and weighed it in his hand; surprisingly light, about half the weight of regular steel. The feel resembled some tanks from large companies in his past life, but with subtle differences, his eyes showed slight curiosity, ”You changed its weight?”

Yu Jing pinched her earlobe, with a researcher’s distinct rational clarity in her demeanor, ”I fused the Night Demon’s claw into this steel. Now, this steel plate not only weighs 52% less, but its strength and toughness have also increased significantly. However, without measurement instruments, I can’t give you accurate data.”

Hot temperatures rose in Su Huan’s hand, and the steel plate quickly turned red like a branding iron.

”Rest assured, I’ve done high-temperature testing. Its melting point is slightly higher than steel, and it hasn’t calcified,” Yu Jing said calmly.

”Moreover, I feel this is not the limit. It’s just that time was short, so I brought it to you in advance for validation.”

Su Huan didn’t speak, continuing to fiddle with the steel plate in his hand. The heated iron block’s temperature rapidly decreased, making sizzling sounds, soon returning to its original appearance, slightly grayer than ordinary steel, with no other differences.

His eyes gleamed with delight.

Although the color and feel differed slightly, the steel plate researched by Yu Jing was already approaching Tier One Light Armor in terms of performance data.

In his past life, Su Huan was a lone wolf who had no use for such things, but those large companies invested heavily in these new materials.

Utilizing the Maker’s characteristics and combining doomsday materials, many new things were researched.

”Light armor” was one of them.

Its strength was comparable to excellent carbon steel, but with much higher toughness, not easily fatigued, and only weighing 40% of steel.

If the armored train’s steel plates were replaced with this light armor material, even without increasing power, the armor stacking could easily reach 30mm+ thickness.

It would be highly significant.

”How long does it take you to synthesize such a piece of metal?” Su Huan raised his eyebrow and asked.

Yu Jing pinched her smooth chin and pondered, ”Currently, this material hasn’t reached its best effect. If its limits are finally determined, the speed can be somewhat faster. Considering my energy limit, it should take most of a day to process a 1㎡ panel.”

Su Huan’s brows knitted.

This speed was still too slow, too slow.

No wonder only major forces could afford it; individuals or small teams couldn’t spend so much time on this foundational material.

If Yu Jing didn’t evolve, working non-stop for a year wouldn’t be enough to cover the entire train.

There still needed to be a way to mobilize the passengers’ subjective initiative.

Relying on the current method of driving ducks definitely wasn’t viable anymore.

It needed to be like a construction team, with a separate group specifically formed into a research or production team, with full incentives, working overtime twenty-four hours a day.

One Maker could handle two pieces a day; if they slept less, three pieces a day wasn’t impossible.

They were all Evolvers with good physique, so staying up late wasn’t an issue.

If there were ten Makers, wouldn’t they produce thirty pieces a day?

Seeing it this way, there was indeed hope.

Thinking of this, Su Huan’s tightly knit brow slowly relaxed, suddenly remembering something, he quickly looked at Liang Kuan and said, ”Turn on the air conditioning in the back carriage, too. From now on, as the weather gets hotter, there’s no need to turn it off.”

Almost forgot about this, it’s been raining these two days, the weather is humid and hot, with high temperatures.

It could easily be life-threatening.

If everyone got worn out and died, there’d be no one to help with the work in the future.

Liang Kuan agreed, got up to get busy, only today his steps seemed heavier.

Watching Liang Kuan’s broad back, Su Huan pondered, for now, in the train’s small team, it was only Liang Kuan who hadn’t evolved yet.

’Maybe the method is wrong.’

Like Gao Zhe, he hadn’t been exposed to Pan-energy Crystals or had prolonged contact with zombies or Evolution Beasts, but he still evolved.

It must have been due to his Defender trait.

Level 1: ”Combat Factor”

Previously, he hadn’t paid much attention to the reason for the Defender’s evolution, only knowing that this class of Evolver was easier to break through in combat.

Unlike the other four types, needing to slowly accumulate Pan-energy Crystals and only evolving under specific conditions.

Su Huan suspected his combat style was too cautious.

Which wasn’t conducive to Old Liang’s evolution.

But there was no need to rush, they were entering the city today, and there would inevitably be life-and-death moments, then he could arrange more situations for Old Liang.

Thinking this through, Su Huan continued speaking with a clear mind.

”For now, you don’t need to mass-produce; just produce one sample and then continue researching other things. I want you to explore in two directions moving forward.”

Yu Jing looked up with interest, her phoenix eyes slightly raised, filled with energy.

”Which two directions?”

Su Huan raised his hand, pointing at the window, ”Though there’s steel blocking us, many of the train’s windows are broken with poor airtightness. I want you to continue focusing on materials, creating a high-strength transparent material to replace regular tempered glass.”

”Second, I need you to find a way to solve the transport issue.”

”In the future, we will frequently need to penetrate special terrains to transport supplies and equipment. At our current level, we can’t even lift those big things.”

Bringing back a single water purifier was already a massive challenge.

If the terrain was narrow and forklifts couldn’t enter, they could only rely on manpower shouldering the weight.

But it’s a crisis-laden apocalypse; working on one side while guarding against zombie ambushes on the other, being successful two or three times out of ten was remarkable.

Although Su Huan didn’t know if this was Yu Jing’s specialty, on the entire train, she was the closest fit, so he could only entrust it to her.

Yu Jing frowned slightly, ”If you want to enhance individual transport capacity, the best approach is a simple exoskeleton, but that requires extensive calculations and practice. There are only a few laptops on the train, all offline, unable to download any related software...”

Su Huan’s fingers moved rhythmically, instinctively scanning around, but in matters like these, Wan Xing and the others merely listened silently.

Only Yu Jing could discuss it with him.

He sighed inwardly, still too few talents.

”Don’t worry about the computers for now; today we enter the city, and we’ll find ways to get more electronic equipment. Just as I’m planning to set up surveillance throughout the train, we’ll handle it all together.”