Armed Train in the Apocalypse

”If that’s the comparison, then machines capable of using energy could be considered more soulful, right?”

Xiaozhao said.

Yu Jing didn’t respond, grabbing a forty-kilogram twin-cylinder engine from the messy pile of parts and tossing it to Xiaozhao like she was tossing a wrench, ”If I remember correctly, the two skills of a Tier Two ’Mechanical Expert’ are ’Rapid Transformation’ and ’Conceptual Grafting,’ right?”

”Yes.” Xiaozhao took the motorcycle engine with a puzzled look, ”Tier One ’Mechanical Apprentice’ can modify the nature of materials, Tier Two ’Mechanical Expert’ targets existing machinery or theories for modification.”

”Then there’s no problem.” Yu Jing pointed to the power armor with its chest open nearby and said, ”Install this thing onto it, let me see your strength.”

Xiaozhao hesitated for a moment, ”Although I have those two skills, I’m far behind a Tier Two, I might not achieve the result you want.”

Yu Jing crossed her arms and said calmly, ”You don’t have anything urgent, do you?”

”Not at the moment.”

”Then let’s get started.”

Xiaozhao, having no choice, rolled up his sleeves and got to work.

Even though he had learned hardware knowledge from Professor Ma before the apocalypse, his foundational subjects were solid. Plus, ’Mechanical Proficiency’ is a knowledge-based ability, so when he had free time, he mostly spent it catching up on foundational knowledge.

Boosted by various factors like evolution, environment, educational resources, and significantly enhanced intelligence, his learning speed was incredibly fast.

The ability ’Mechanical Proficiency’ also reached level 9, at the top level of Tier Two.

Combined with other abilities, he was quite fast once he got started.

If a traditional mechanician faced such a problem, it would take at least a few months, from design to step-by-step material research and handling.

But for a ’Maker,’ there’s no machine that can’t be independently manufactured.

’Conceptual Grafting’ and ’Rapid Transformation’ were born to meet such situations.

The former allows him to graft and modify engineering theories, while the latter gives him the practical ability to test them.

Along with ’Pan Energy Corrosion,’ a bug-like ability that can alter the nature of materials, as long as there are enough materials, a ’Maker’ can produce mechanical creations that stretch the limits of human imagination.

While Xiaozhao was busy, Yu Jing stood meticulously behind him, occasionally handing over tools, casually chatting about mechanical topics.

”Logically speaking, your mechanical modification ability should be stronger than mine, right?”

Xiaozhao asked his long-held curiosity.

”Not really, my evolution direction is different, I don’t even have any skills related to mechanical modification.” Yu Jing shook her head.

In Tier One, she still had the basic skill ’Mechanical Proficiency,’ but by Tier Two, she was entirely focused on flesh and puppetry. In terms of flesh modification, she dared say second, no one dared say first.

”In a pure mechanical path, can you impart a soul to machines by Tier Three?”

This was already the third time Yu Jing mentioned the word soul, Xiaozhao pondered, ”Far from it. I asked Director Xu, the two skills in Tier Three are ’Mechanical Deconstruction’ and ’Mechanical Heart.’ The former can replicate most known materials mechanically, from large mountains to small microorganisms. The latter can impart pseudo-life traits to creations, like metabolism, growth, iteration... But it’s ultimately simulated, not a real soul.”

”Director Xu speculates that in Tier Four, the mechanician’s path might undergo earth-shattering changes, but there’s not enough information right now, they haven’t even deduced the skills.”

Yu Jing listened silently, the modification continued for over four hours, and by the end, Xiaozhao was exhausted.

”All done!”

”Mm, wait for me here for a bit.”

Yu Jing lifted her head, pulled the power armor off the rack, and walked toward the No. 9 carriage.

After waiting for twenty minutes, as Xiaozhao was pondering whether to take care of some business first upon receiving a new notice, Yu Jing returned. Before he could speak, she simply said, ”Could you spare some time every week to help me make something?”

After working hard for half a day, Xiaozhao vaguely already knew what she wanted to do.

Currently, there wasn’t a mechanician on the train more evolved than him, so he could only agree.

Leaving Yu Jing’s laboratory, he hurried off to save people.

Though Liu Yu and Lu Yu were not up to standard as students in front of Vice President Deng and others, their academic level and free time were top-notch among their peers. When setting up the carriage school, they were assigned to be teachers.

According to the train’s working schedule, they could usually start working in the afternoon after morning meetings.

Children aged four to twelve on the train were all arranged to come, those older than twelve could only come after work.

From two little nobodies to department heads, they had the final say in all matters, big or small. Even though their subordinates were a bunch of kids, they were so excited they couldn’t find their bearings, determined to make some achievements.

Then, adhering to interest-based education, they took a group of kids to the Four Nations outpost construction site, intending to let them learn through practice.

But they overlooked one issue: even a wilderness that had been cleared was full of danger for a 4-year-old child, from a mutated vine, a small water puddle hiding an Evolution Beast, to the impact of an Evolver’s ability, any of these could be catastrophic.

As a result, during a teaching session, two kids went missing, one of whom was Xiaoba’s Chengcheng.

Luckily, a patrolling soldier discovered them just in time and brought them back, or the two little guys would have started a wilderness adventure.

Meanwhile, Liu Yu and the others were being scolded by He Jie.