Armed Train in the Apocalypse

The people on the train come from diverse backgrounds like the Steel Council, Black Kite, Deep Blue Data, Donghuang Heavy Industry...

Adding the Business Alliance into the mix doesn’t hurt.

But the premise is that this person must have value.

Su Huan lightly tapped the table twice, ”Do you know Lion Pass?”

The frivolity in Huayang’s eyes disappeared, and he said seriously, ”I know. It’s on the edge of the Rust Area, a necessary path to enter the Wind Snow Zone. Originally, soldiers from the nearby military district guarded the place, but after the apocalypse broke out, they retreated into the Wind Snow Zone. Many people from the south went looking for them, but to no avail.”

”However, I know their exact location.”

Everyone present suddenly felt a chill in their hearts, but the feeling came and went quickly.

Seeing the conductor’s still hovering fingertips, everyone became solemn.

”You know?”

Su Huan’s fingertip landed, causing a tremor in the hearts of people.

Huayang nodded repeatedly, ”When the weather is good in the Wind Snow Zone, it’s minus fifty degrees; in extreme cases, it can go below minus a hundred, far surpassing the pre-apocalypse polar record low. Surviving there every day consumes resources. Apart from us in the Business Alliance, no one can deliver supplies inside.”

”That place is uninhabitable, and I don’t know why they hide there...”

”If you want to go there, you can first head to the Dragon Gate, the largest city near Lion Pass.”

Su Huan let out a small sigh of relief.

As long as people are alive, you can at least get some information.

”Where is the Dragon Gate?”

As soon as Su Huan’s voice fell, the dome overhead instantly transformed into a map of the Rust Area, but the words ”Dragon Gate” were not on it.

Huayang looked up and pointed at the tall city, ”That’s the High City. Half a year ago, a Dragon Gate Colosseum was built here, and later everyone called it Dragon Gate.”

Su Huan looked at Dragon Gate’s location, about a hundred kilometers from Lion Pass.

Waiting for Xiaoba and the others here wouldn’t be bad.

So he asked a few more questions, and under Huayang’s lengthy explanation, Su Huan gained a more profound understanding of Dragon Gate than any Scavenger living in the surrounding area for half a year.

In the Rust Area, because guns couldn’t be used, the zombies were vast, occupying major cities. Even large forces like the Business Alliance couldn’t clear them out, only developing in peripheral cities.

High City was such an edge small county. Initially, it was a base for small forces, like the Three Counties next to Zhijin. After a period of fighting, it was unified by one of the forces, establishing a market and colosseum.

The former attracted Scavengers, the latter caught the attention of the large forces.

Both the Business Alliance and Changbai Pharmaceutical, the two top-tier forces, targeted it, but they didn’t want direct conflict, so each ”invested” a part, using conciliatory means to seize discourse power.

During this process, Changbai Pharmaceutical pulled in the large force Mine City, and the Business Alliance brought in the large forces Longxi High-speed Rail and Iron Pine Forest Camp. Together with the local forces in Dragon Gate, it formed a neutral city controlled by six parties.

The city gradually gathered a population of over a hundred thousand, coupled with high-tier Evolvers from major forces, capable of resisting large zombie hordes.

The large population also made the market increasingly prosperous.

But what’s truly renowned outside is the Dragon Gate Colosseum.

Initially just a place to relieve stress and bet, large forces later found it could be used to test Evo combat power.

Fighting in the wilderness is dangerous, not to mention the many factors outside of combat power that interfere.

These possibilities reduce significantly inside the colosseum.

The Dragon Gate Colosseum gradually became a place for large forces to resolve disputes and showcase strength.

The train originally heading straight to Lion Pass slightly adjusted its direction, heading toward Dragon Gate.

Hundreds of kilometers, if the train crawled on the ground, who knows how long it would take, but flying in the sky, it reached Dragon Gate in a little over an hour.

The train’s massive size and Tier Four aura deterred the Evolutionary Life in the Rust Area, and besides the birds that couldn’t dodge fast enough getting hit, almost nothing blindly came to fill the inventory.

When the train flew over the big city, even the boiling zombie tide fell silent.

The train gradually reduced speed, activating various detection devices.

After glasses compared the data once more, he asked Su Huan, sitting on the sofa behind him, ”Conductor, the train will reach Dragon Gate in three minutes. Should we station outside the city?”

Before Su Huan could give orders, Huayang excitedly said, ”Dragon Gate doesn’t have any tall buildings, of course, drive straight in and let them widen their horizons!”

Glasses glanced at the heavily guarded city wall of Dragon Gate ahead, hesitantly looking toward the conductor.

This is practically like declaring war by stopping on top of their heads.

Huayang turned again to persuade Su Huan, ”Bro, you’re at my house now. Why stop outside, just stop right in the center, and I’ll have my uncle and them come to pick you up!”

”Bro, be a hundred percent assured, half of these people are my family, just treat Dragon Gate as your own home, do whatever you want, stop wherever you want!”

Su Huan glanced at Huayang, this guy’s face had no trace of shame, completely expecting to show off.

The conductor’s mouth twitched, ”Then let’s go in.”

...

Dragon Gate.

Top floor of the City Hall.

Due to metal rusting, most of Dragon Gate’s original buildings have collapsed, even if they’re still standing, no one dares to live in them. Current buildings are rebuilt on old ruins using evolutionary materials.

Even the tallest city hall is only four stories tall.

The gray building is bare, without any fierce defensive structures, the only noteworthy aspect is it’s built on the original government building, looking grand and stable.

This was strongly requested by Ruble. From a young age, his family wanted him to make big money, so they gave him a name that sounds similar to the Ruble, hoping it rhymes, and he did become a businessman for over forty years, but past fifty, he found the most profitable was being an official.

Before he could regret the wrong career, the apocalypse arrived.

As the largest local force in Dragon Gate, under multiple checks and balances, he naturally became the mayor of Dragon Gate.

Since he was elected, the image had to be correct.

The Business Alliance and Changbai Pharmaceutical had no objections to this; after all, their directors and senior officials weren’t living here.

Ruble lived a life of managing Dragon Gate affairs in the city hall by day and counting money at night.

He regarded himself as the mayor everywhere. Not to mention weekends off, he had no time for dual cultivation with his dozens of wives.

Making kids couldn’t compare to the joy of taking, no accepting money from others.

Just as Ruble prepared to go off duty and tally today’s tax, the top brass from the five major forces gathered at the city hall for a meeting lasting two full hours.

There was only one agenda, how to welcome the conductor’s arrival.

After listening for half a day, Dragon Gate realized it was that legendary conductor, but he had no concept of how legendary Su Huan was.

Previously, the train was too far from Dragon Gate.

Dragon Gate seemed impressive caught between the five giants, but actually, it was just a middle-sized force, its reach likely never spanning beyond the Rust Area. Ruble naturally wouldn’t pay attention to a legendary figure far away.

If the Business Alliance and others didn’t keep mentioning it, he might not even know of the armed train’s existence.

He also wondered why, as top-level forces, the Business Alliance and Changbai Pharmaceutical valued each other so highly, the feeling almost flattery, not facing an equal but rather welcoming an upper-level leader’s inspection.

Ruble subtly leaned towards Ge Mian, the news of the armed train was brought by him.

Perhaps because the two shared being plump, they had a decent private relationship.

Hearing Ruble’s doubts, Ge Mian had a complex expression, ”That’s not just any dragon crossing a river. Remember what I told you last time about the standards for promoting to a major force?”

”A population of ten thousand, a territory the size of a county, more than two sub-bases, having multiple Tier Two Evolvers, a well-developed cultivation pathway for Low-Tier Evolvers...”

Ruble thought for a moment and recalled a few crucial points.

”Now there’s an opportunity for you to skip these conditions.”

Ruble mused, ”Related to this conductor?”