"..."
Chen Mang remained expressionless and said flatly, "28.371 million meters minus 280,000 meters equals 371,000 meters? Is that it?"
"That was meant to be a humorous joke, Train Conductor."
"Not humorous at all."
"Understood. I'll keep learning."
This genius plan could be abandoned as soon as it was conceived. A level 100 drill bit could only penetrate up to 280,000 meters into the ground, and it was unclear how much time it would take—especially since the speed would continuously decay. To reach the Earth's core, even a level 1000 drill might not be enough.
And that was only considering the drill bit.
Other factors weren't even accounted for.
Such as whether the Train could withstand such extreme pressure or the temperatures at the Earth's core.
This idea was basically a no-go.
In that case, the only option was to wait until after this transaction was completed and then search for level 4 Iron Ore—or perhaps follow the Train Tunnel to the Mechanical City and see if any Fortuitous Encounters awaited him.
"..."
Inside the Iron Dragon Train, parked beside the Stellar Train, a man with a black dragon tattoo on his arm gently traced the inked design with a complicated expression as he gazed at the distant Stellar Train.
Sharing too much with someone you barely knew was unwise.
Lord Mang hadn't revealed many details to them, so naturally, they wouldn't disclose their own secrets either.
Like this tattoo of his.
It wasn't from before the apocalypse—it was a Special Item acquired afterward.
This was his trump card, something he would never reveal to anyone. Right now, he was mining that level 1 Iron Ore deposit. In truth, he had already completed that S-rank Fortuitous Encounter mission long ago and received the rewards. He had vaguely hinted as much to Lord Mang. The only reason he was still buying ore was simply to show support.
After all, he noticed that not many people were buying, and he didn't want Lord Mang to feel awkward—so he purchased one of the deposits.
Earlier, he had seen Lord Mang step off the Train carrying a plush toy, placing it to the side before firing a round from the Automatic Cannon. Yet, the stuffed doll remained completely unharmed.
No doubt about it.
That had to be another Special Item.
The Stellar Train seemed to be hiding far more secrets than he was.
At the very least...
The white gloves Lord Mang wore, the cane in his hand, and the badge on his chest—all of them were likely Special Items. It almost seemed like his entire body was packed with them. Just how many Serendipity Maps had he explored to gather so many things?
Did he even have time to mine anymore?
And what about this method of producing level 1 Iron Ore? Was it an effect of one of his components?
If he could create level 1 Iron Ore, could he produce higher-grade ores as well?
His eyes gleamed with an unusual light. To be honest, if not for his rationality holding him back, he would have been tempted to strike suddenly—to see if he could take Lord Mang down in one move and seize the Stellar Train for himself.
But reason told him...
If he made a move, the one who'd most likely die would be him.
Meanwhile, inside the Train, Chen Mang narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at the still-pinned message on the Train Radio.
「Level 10 Mechanical Train, Stellar」: Selling mining rights for level 1 Iron Ore deposits—complete ores with clear ownership. Only 3 deposits available, first come first served! Highest bidder wins!
There was nothing wrong with that statement!
His business was fine, but he just didn't have many customers.
At the time, he had come up with two ideas.
The first was to directly sell the special item, the "Drill Command Tablet." This would lock in a specific customer base—those who needed it would definitely buy it, but most customers wouldn't have any use for it.
The second idea was to sell an unknown S-rank reward. Essentially, he would use the difficulty of an S-rank mission as a guarantee to sell expectations, which would attract more customers.
But—
Just moments ago, he had thought of a third idea.
It was inspired by seeing the upgrade conditions for reaching Train Level 11.
He still remembered that one of the conditions for reaching Level 10 was completing a B-rank difficulty mission—any mission would do, whether from the Serendipity Map, a class-change quest, or others. But even this single condition had stumped many people.
After all, B-rank difficulty wasn't so easy to clear.
Level 10 was a watershed moment, blocking all those high-level but poorly equipped trains!
His third idea was to create demand!
Who knew if future train upgrades might require completing an S-rank difficulty mission?
With the precedent already set, this wasn't an impossible scenario.
And S-rank difficulty missions—whether in the Serendipity Map or class-change quests—were extremely hard to complete. Very few could pull it off.
But here—
For just 1.5 million units of iron ore, one could complete an S-rank difficulty mission, securing a future guarantee to avoid being stuck later, while also earning an S-rank Fortuitous Encounter reward.
Wasn't that tempting enough?
Immediately, he reposted the advertisement.
The effect was instant.
Within minutes, four or five Train Conductors messaged that they were on their way to the coordinates. Still, it wasn't the explosive response he had imagined.
"..."
Chen Mang frowned slightly. Wasn't this a good deal?
1.5 million units of iron ore for an unknown S-rank Fortuitous Encounter and a future guarantee—wasn't that worth it? If it were him, he'd definitely buy it!
A few minutes later.
He silently lit a cigarette. He had figured it out—the demand existed, but there was no market.
That "Fortuitous Encounter" was a publicly available mission, and each train could only accept it once. Many trains had already taken it before. Even if they wanted to buy now, they weren't eligible.
Fine.
That was that. Once these four or five Train Conductors arrived and paid, selling for around 10 million would still be decent.
10 million units of iron ore wasn't a small amount. Before coming to Crisis Valley, that much would have crushed him. His needs were just too great—too many things required iron ore, and he was always short.
Level 12 armor didn't feel safe enough. Level 13 would be more reliable.
A day later.
The Stellar Train was once again speeding across the wastelands of Crisis Valley. All transactions were completed—the five Train Conductors who arrived later had only come after accepting the mission, bringing in another 7.5 million units of iron ore.
Once everything was delivered,
he parted ways and began racing across the Crisis Valley wasteland, searching for Level 4 iron ore.
Level 3 Iron Ore deposits were already starting to seem inadequate to him. Unless he absolutely couldn't find Level 4 deposits, he wouldn't bother with Level 3 ones—after all, their output typically capped around two million units.
Two million units of Iron Ore was barely a drop in the bucket for the Train.
It wasn't even enough to quench thirst, let alone fill the stomach.
The Train continued its automated journey.
Night had fallen once again, and under the dark sky, the Stellar Train raced forward. Chen Mang reclined in his seat, feet propped up on the control panel, scanning the inventory list in his hands.
Lao Zhu stood nearby, reporting.
"Lord Mang, these are all the materials we seized from Shen Ye's Train."
"Hmm."
Chen Mang examined the list closely.
-
「5.634 million units of Iron Ore, 3.58 million units of Copper Ore, 120,000 units of Lumber.」
「Various living supplies.」
「Over 1,200 Survivors.」
「.」
-
The Iron Ore haul wasn't insignificant. Combined with yesterday's yield from the Solar Energy Panels, the Train now held a total of 25.01 million units of Iron Ore.
Finally, they were back above the 20 million mark.
With this much Iron Ore, he could accomplish quite a bit.
The ammunition he had used to attack Shen Ye's Train was Level 13 shells.
Level 13 shells were considerably expensive.
For the Doomsday Cannon, producing a single Level 9 shell cost 700 units of Copper Ore.
Level 10 shells cost 1,000 units.
Level 11: 1,500 units.
Level 12: 2,000 units.
Level 13: 2,500 units.
A single shell cost 2,500 units of Copper Ore—just a few shots could deplete a Level 1 Copper Mine.
However, thanks to his three Halved Consumption Supermodel Effects, the actual cost per Level 13 shell was reduced to 312.5 units of Copper Ore.
That was manageable.
His Doomsday Cannon was Level 20 and had three Supermodel Effects, whereas most others only had two. If someone else upgraded to Level 13, a single shell would cost them 625 units of Copper Ore.
Still not too expensive.
This was precisely why many people used Murphy Stones to upgrade their Doomsday Cannons.
Among all Firepower Accessories, the Doomsday Cannon was far from the most powerful—but it was undoubtedly the most affordable for the masses.
What makes a good product?
One that the people can afford!
Back then, he had fired over two thousand shells in one go, burning through 750,000 units of Copper Ore in a single barrage!
He had to make an impact!
At that moment, hesitation wasn't an option.
But now, with the 3.58 million units of Copper Ore seized, not only had he fully recouped his losses, he'd even turned a profit. In these times, frugality was good—but dying with resources left unspent? That would be truly painful.
Thus—
The Train Panel now displayed a comfortably abundant resource count.
-
「25.01 million units of Iron Ore, 4.65 million units of Copper Ore, 2.57 million units of Lumber, 4.48 million units of Crimson Heartstone.」
-
The only regret was—
Shen Ye's Train had no Murphy Stones or blueprints. It seemed he wasn't foolish enough to hoard them—whatever he had, he must have used immediately. Chen Mang had gained nothing in that regard.
"There were supposed to be some Special Items too."
Lao Zhu stood to the side and explained, "But before the immediate ejection, he took all those special items with him, then self-destructed inside the refrigerator, blowing all the special items to pieces."
"Did he die too?"
"No, he got away. He's fine. Uncle Li applied to take him in, saying he wanted to repurpose the 'waste' for some experiment or something—the 'Zombie Spawning Cage' I mentioned to Lord Mang last time."
"Hmm."
Chen Mang narrowed his eyes slightly. Lao Zhu had brought this up before. "Keep a close eye on Uncle Li's project. If he can actually make this thing work, and the refresh rate isn't low, give him first-class high-tier talent treatment."
"...Huh?"
A flash of shock crossed Lao Zhu's eyes, and he almost blurted out, "Is this thing really that useful for the train?"
Currently, only three people on the train enjoyed first-class high-tier talent treatment: him, Biao Zi, and Mundo.
He had always thought Uncle Li's idea was impressive, but he never expected it to be worth first-class high-tier talent treatment. Back when Mundo brought back so much iron ore—and clearly had the potential to earn even more in the future—Lord Mang had only granted him first-class high-tier talent treatment then.
Was this Zombie Spawning Cage really worth it?
"Very useful."
Chen Mang looked at Lao Zhu and smiled. "But I doubt it'll work out. The formation of zombies is more complicated than you think. Xiao Ai, go share our findings from the laboratory with Uncle Li later."
"Yes."
Zombies came in three types.
One was the zombies from the insectoid monsters, another was zombies formed from core energy, and the last was ancient zombies.
The first two were more common, while the latter was rare, usually appearing as bosses.
The first type wasn't worth mentioning—it held little significance.
But if zombies formed from core energy could be mass-produced... that would be equivalent to attaching a "juicer" and a "converter" to the back of this "Zombie Spawning Cage." Wouldn't that make it a "Cosmic Receiver"?
Drawing core energy from the cosmos.
And extracting core energy from zombies—what's the difference?
None at all.
Both followed three steps: absorption, compression, and conversion.
Except...
Zombies formed from core energy, despite having genders, weren't technically living beings. Getting them to reproduce was practically a pipe dream. But he noticed Uncle Li had made decent progress—even getting zombies to react to the opposite sex.
That was a breakthrough.
Worth a shot.
"Keep an eye on Uncle Li from now on. If he needs resources like nuts for experiments, the train will cover it. No need for him to pay out of pocket. The train can afford it."
"Even if the chances of success aren't high."
"But the train is developing."
"This thriving atmosphere is what I want to see. At least everyone has drive, their own goals, and wants the train to improve. If everyone on the train was lifeless, that would mean we're on the brink of collapse—a sign of utter pessimism about the future."
"Having ideas is a good thing."
"Try not to over-restrict the ideas of those below. In the apocalypse, there are no absolutely correct answers. Too many constraints will only stifle creativity."
"Whether it succeeds or not, keep trying and stay encouraged."
"Understood?"
"Understood." Lao Zhu nodded solemnly. "Lord Mang, rest assured, I've got the picture."
"Good, you may go now."
After Lao Zhu left.
Chen Mang turned his gaze to the screen on the train's control panel. Since they had enough iron ore, it was time to upgrade—starting with the armor.
In the next moment—
Inside Carriage No. 3, countless units of iron ore stored in the refrigerators instantly shattered into white specks of light, merging into the carriage. In an instant, all the iron ore reserves across several refrigerators were emptied.
16 million units of iron ore—gone in a flash!
After consuming 16 million units of iron ore, the train's armor finally reached Level 13!
Level 13 Armor!
An absolute first in the entire Blue Zone of Crisis Valley!
"Hmm."
Chen Mang nodded in satisfaction. He felt much safer now—though a Level 14 Armor would be even better.
(End of Chapter)