Armed Train in the Apocalypse

Su Huan tapped the edge of the tablet with his index finger.

He asked again, ”Are there many pregnant women on board?”

”A total of sixteen, the latest just conceived, and the earliest is her.”

”Don’t worry, we’ve already coordinated it. In their early months, they’ll continue to work as usual. Only in late pregnancy will they receive certain privileges, so it won’t increase others’ workloads. Plus, the arrival of new life helps ease the service pressure.”

”Tsk tsk tsk...”

Su Huan made a strange sound that was hard to tell if it was of approval or disapproval, as he quickly flipped through the information.

After half a year of expansion, the train’s total population reached three thousand eight hundred people. The crew alone accounted for more than three thousand, cut to the bone with no room for further reduction.

Wen Biao was a surprise to Su Huan.

The guy abandoned the hard-earned high position in Zhijin and, along with a hundred or so loyal followers, resolutely aimed to cling to the train captain’s side. They equipped themselves with vehicles, forming a small convoy to follow the train northward.

Unexpectedly, another thousand people assembled.

Including the train’s main group, that’s a large convoy close to five thousand people.

”How long until we leave the province?”

Shu Wei blinked, ”At the current maximum speed of the train, which is 60km/h, it’s about six hours of direct travel to the Spore Zone if there are no surprises. By tomorrow noon at the latest, we’ll enter the Spore Zone. According to the old provincial standards, we’ll have to enter the gravity imbalance zone to leave Jinfeng Province and enter Yuchuan.”

”Tomorrow noon...”

Su Huan thought for a moment, the progress wasn’t slow.

In terms of pure distance, it wasn’t much. The north-south distance of Donghuang is just over fourteen thousand kilometers. Before the apocalypse, any vehicle could cover that distance. The problem now is the series of natural disasters on the road. Su Huan himself isn’t confident in crossing it alone.

Going slow is fine, at least it’s safe.

Tier Three is far from invincible.

”According to the plan, after crossing the Spore Zone, we need to proceed to Dayunpo and finalize the prior trade with Gunfire. The current production capacity of the bullet workshop is far from meeting the train’s needs. If we can’t secure enough ammunition in this deal, the train’s combat ability might be reduced by eighty percent.”

Shu Wei timely reminded.

Su Huan frowned, ”Didn’t we set up a military factory in Limu Ecological Area?”

”That’s a military exoskeleton factory, not a bullet factory. We still rely on the small production line brought back from the Steel Council. Even though materials are abundant, it can only support daily hunting and low-intensity warfare.”

”How long can we sustain current consumption?”

Su Huan sat up and handed the tablet back to Shu Wei, looking more serious.

Ammunition is no laughing matter. For an armed train, or humanity, to suppress the vast number of zombies, modern weaponry accounts for ninety-nine percent of the credit, while evolution only a minuscule fraction.

Without high-tier suppression like Su Huan provides, and no firearms, the Armed Corps’ strength would be reduced to nothing when confronting around thirty thousand zombies.

This is with over a hundred Tier One Evolvers and two or three Tier Two Evolvers involved.

Take away a few Tier Two Evolvers and increase the number by tenfold, and they’d barely fill thirty thousand zombies’ bellies.

Shu Wei calmly said, ”In the event of high-intensity warfare against a zombie horde in the millions, we couldn’t fight a single battle. The current ammunition only supplies the Armed Corps’ soldiers, and the two hundred heavy machine guns on our rooftops are as good as sticks.”

”Hmm?” Su Huan frowned, ”I stayed in Zhijin for nearly half a year on purpose.”

”But we also fought in Zhijin for half a year, to take down those millions of zombies in one go while also having reserves for the road. The bullet workshop worked around the clock.”

Su Huan’s lips twitched. No wonder He Jie eventually told him to blow up all those tens of thousands of zombies at once; it turns out they couldn’t keep up with the fight.

”Alright, Dayunpo, is it?”

”Dayunpo Bishui County in Jinfeng Province, southeast of the gravity imbalance zone. Traveling through the Spore Zone on the highway and then turning east, it’s an inland large reservoir, far from the floating lands but somewhat close to the Four Countries Peninsula. There might be some trouble.”

The Four Countries Peninsula is adjacent to four small coastal nations next to Donghuang, together occupying a 700,000 square kilometer peninsula. After the apocalypse, they formed a Pan-Asian Alliance and caused trouble when the train landed at Yanbei Pass. Seven people are still serving Director Xu in the lab.

Su Huan sneered, ”Just in time for Director Xu, who could use some more experimental samples.”

...

Northwest of Jinfeng Province, in the gravity imbalance zone.

Sharp black mountain ranges extended from ancient times, suddenly breaking here, the cross-section smoothed by mountain winds like a mirror. The wind here is clean and clear, whistling through the wind-eroded holes in the mountain as if the last gasps of an ancient giant beast.

Directly below the cross-section is a lake spanning over ten kilometers, like a beautiful sapphire once known as the Sky Mirror before the apocalypse.

At the center of the lake is a small island about a kilometer wide, quietly floating on the water.

On the island stand two white towers, silently confronting each other at the island’s ends.

The one on the left is called Alpha, the one on the right Omega.

They are the prototypes of the deep blue twin towers on the Deep Blue Data emblem, and the Storm Zone branch is merely a replica.

At the top of Alpha, a min imalistic space filled with white, over fifty members of the management sat silently on either side of two arc-shaped long tables, the center completely hollowed out, where sat the General Manager of Frontline Business Development and Chief Growth Officer, Wei Mountain.

Deep Blue Data does not have a board of directors. It’s more accurate to say it was ”optimized” out during the apocalyptic transformation.