Armed Train in the Apocalypse

Su Huan still agreed to bring along Yu Yue.

If her abilities aren’t specifically countered, they are very useful.

Moreover, Yu Yue has now advanced to Tier One.

What really gives him a headache is that Yu Yue has evolved a new skill, making five skills in total: Level 3 ’Sonic Affinity’, Level 2 ’Shared Acoustic Field’, Level 1 ’Sonic Tagging’, Level 1 ’Sniper Specialization’, and Level 1 ’Ballistic Calculation’.

What’s worse for Cao Dan is that these five skills have indeed combined into a new Tier One profession for her.

Su Huan has never seen this profession before, not even finding a suitable reference.

He feels like he has held her back. If he hadn’t given her the ’Precision Shooter’ skill potion, his little aunt might have already become a master.

Advancing to Tier Two is tough now.

Five skills mean she needs to expend more Pan-energy Crystals than others, and at Tier Two, she must gather four new skills that can pair with the previous five.

As for Su Huan, he just needs to upgrade two new skills to Level 3 to advance to Tier Two.

However, at Tier One, five skills basically crush the competition.

The three sonic-type skills cover attack, perception, tracking, and sharing, and together they have a synergistic effect greater than the sum of their parts. Not like Su Huan’s Pan-energy Perception, which can only detect targets with Pan-energy, and is useless against non-Pan-energy entities. Yu Yue has maxed out perception and reconnaissance.

The two sniper skills go without saying; this gunfire skill set is the best choice to quickly forge a warrior.

With this skill set, if the distance is stretched to over three hundred meters, Su Huan would have to run with his head in his hands.

”Let’s call it ’Audio Shooter’, it’s just a name anyway.”

Su Huan thought for a moment, pulled up the restaurant’s surveillance screen, and entered this new profession into the database.

Yu Yue had no preference for naming her profession and obediently agreed.

Then Su Huan quickly switched the surveillance, and aside from a few carriages, most of the surveillance footage was intact.

However, passenger casualties were heavy, with the total number slipping to around eight hundred.

Especially in the last carriage, almost everyone was dead. If it hadn’t been for Lao San and the others’ quick support, the entire carriage would have been torn apart by that Tier Two Spinal Hound.

The Spinal Hounds were fewer in number than Blood Hounds, but much stronger in combat, and considered quite formidable in their tier.

Their characteristic is an exposed spine adorned with a row of fierce spines.

Upon advancing to Tier Two, they form a body armor of corpses, with astonishing defense, great speed, and fierce attack power. Together, these pose a problem even for modern squads with hot weapons.

In a past life, whenever the Steel Council encountered such creatures, they covered them with firepower, making it nearly impossible to finish them off with just a few grenades.

Unless, like Su Huan, they compressed one and tossed it into its mouth, causing a concussion first, then crushed it under thousands of tons of the train along the tracks.

What concerns Su Huan is the train itself. After bombardment from the Steel Council and the impact of the zombie horde, many parts of the train body have twisted and deformed, and one of the bogies seems to have issues.

If there were another battle of the same intensity, it might fall apart.

Lin Jin walked out of the room, his first words being, ”I need to go save my sister.”

Su Huan lay sideways on the sofa, asking dispassionately, ”How much energy have you restored in your body?”

”About thirty percent.”

”You’d better stay aboard honestly. Lack of energy in the body of an Evolver can lead to mental distraction and fatigue. If you go out now, an opposing heavy sniper could take you down with one shot.”

Lin Jin clenched his fists in frustration, not at Su Huan, but at himself.

Despite becoming an Evolver, he could achieve nothing. He wished to protect his teammates, but they all died before his eyes. He wanted to help guard the train, but ended up being shot into retreat.

He could only do auxiliary work at the edges.

He felt guilty for sending his sister to the company’s hands for human experiments because of his foolishness, while he could do nothing. This guilt burned like a flame, searing his insides nonstop.

He ached all over from the frustration.

His mind drifted back to the fact that Su Huan would drag himself in a near-death state to help rescue his sister...

Lin Jin suddenly froze, looking up at Su Huan in front of him.

Lying sideways, sipping congee slowly with one hand while scrolling the screen with the other. If not for the hideous penetrating wound on his hand, it was hard to imagine he had just gone through a fierce battle and now lay heavily wounded and near death.

”But haven’t you recovered either?”

”Hmm, about forty percent.”

”Just ten percent more than me, isn’t it dangerous for you too?”

”Containers differ just as people do. My forty percent energy might match up to three of you at full strength.”

While checking the train situation, Su Huan returned the response indifferently.

The near-death state had promoted evolution, significantly increasing all his attributes, almost reaching Tier Two levels.

Yet due to genetic collapse, he was now regressing.

The skills generated had become unstable.

But this comparison translated to Lin Jin’s ears as, ”Forty percent state can likely take down three peak combatants like you.”

So this is what a true evolver powerhouse is like...

Not being able to protect his sister boiled down to his own weakness.

”I understand now.”

Lin Jin turned around and walked back; he needed more battles. Only then could he hope to keep up with Su Huan’s pace.

Su Huan cast a puzzled glance at him, ’What did he understand?’

He handled a few things briefly on the system, then gathered a few people alone.

This time, infiltrating the headquarters was to seize the chaos for a surprise attack to rescue He Jie’s family, solving the Genetic Primordial issue along the way.

The train couldn’t be left unattended either. During the time the bait was dissipating, the train had to keep moving forward.

So he could only take four people out: He Jie, Jiang Rong, Yu Yue, and Liang Kuan.

Liang Kuan and Jiang Rong accompanied Yu Yue; both are stable in temperament, making it unlikely they’d run away.

Right now, He Jie’s crazed over his wife, so it was either bringing him or no one at all.

After a few brief exchanges, the time reached two-thirty.

They dispersed, leaving already-prepared Yu Yue with Su Huan in the restaurant.

A call icon suddenly appeared on the surveillance screen.

Curious, Su Huan clicked it, and Yu Jing’s voice came through.

”Calling the train conductor.”

”Hmm, has the entire train communication been set up?”

”Only a few carriages can call the dining car and carriage one, others have one-way communication only.”

”Hmm, is there something you need?”

”The new Scavenger Exoskeleton-I model is ready.”

”Okay, I’ll be over shortly.”

Su Huan hung up the communication, laying back on the sofa, tapping his forehead with alternating fingers.

Trying to ease the dizziness that arose for no reason.

A rustling sound emerged, and gentle fingers fell on his temples, the pressure just right.

...

Five minutes later, a few people gathered in the dining car again.

”The Steel Council Headquarters is located in a comprehensive heavy manufacturing base, initially an industrial area by several companies. After the apocalypse, it was completely taken over by the Steel Council, preserving most of the smelting and manufacturing plants. Most importantly, there’s a military vehicle assembly line, hence the large number of armed vehicles.”

Su Huan pointed to the industrial zone on the map as he introduced.

’Damn omniscient view again.’

He Jie sat nearby expressionless, watching Su Huan explain the Steel Council Headquarters on the screen.

The headquarters of the Steel Council appeared as a flattened inverted trapezoid, encircled by railway and road networks.

Pre-apocalypse, the location was ideal, with no residential areas or farmland, and very convenient transportation.

But in an apocalypse, flat terrains don’t offer much advantage. Coupled with a single industry and scarce resources, the Steel Council planned to establish a new town in Changli County.

Four years later, the headquarters has turned into a purely military industrial zone, differing somewhat from now.

After He Jie’s additions, the whole plan was finalized.

The armored train will circle around the tracks beside the heavy industrial area, loop a big circle, then continue northwards.

The bait has nearly dissipated, and the tens of thousands of zombies converging behind will assault the heavy industrial area.

Several people will charge in from the front, splitting paths through the defensive and manufacturing zones, with Su Huan alone heading to the left scientific research base, and He Jie’s group to the family area on the right. Finally, they’d regroup at the northern freight station, where by that time, the armored train should arrive.

The entire plan was expected to take around forty minutes.

”If there’s nothing else to add, let’s set off now.”

Su Huan grinned, teeth tightly clenched, his blood-stained white teeth conspicuously stark.

Two Slaughterers clambering on the train were suddenly blown apart by rocket launchers.

Lu Xiao’s team’s pickup burst out of the carriage, with He Jie clutching dual light machine guns standing in the truck bed, equipped with a silver motorcycle.

The savage bullet chain shredded the nearest zombies and sped away.