."
Chen Mang shook his head, clearing his mind of scattered thoughts, before turning his attention to the "Train Ticket" accessory displayed on the control panel screen.
Although it was of white rarity, it was actually quite useful.
Otherwise, it wouldn't have appeared among the craftable accessories for a Level 4 Train.
He had come to realize that as levels increased, relying solely on rapid upgrades to stay ahead of other Trains and survive longer was no longer feasible. One had to venture into Fortuitous Encounter maps or defeat bosses to obtain rare blueprints to truly gain an edge.
The effect of this accessory was the ability to produce Train Tickets.
Guards on field missions could tear a Train Ticket and instantly teleport back to the Train's bound location. The initial teleportation range was 1,000 meters, and it increased to 10,000 meters at Level 10.
This accessory could effectively ensure the safety of field personnel.
Not bad.
In situations where the Train's fire support wasn't timely, this accessory could significantly reduce casualties. Additionally, two Supermodel Effects had been unlocked.
"Train Ticket Level 5 Supermodel Effect": If the teleportation fails, the first-person perspective of the user's last minute before death is transmitted back to the Train.
"Train Ticket Level 10 Supermodel Effect": None.
Overall, this accessory was quite good, though the only regret was the lack of a Level 10 effect. He had hoped that if the accessory level was raised high enough, perhaps even to Level 20 or 50, it might unlock something extraordinary.
Perhaps...
An effect similar to resurrection, where field personnel holding a Train Ticket could be instantly revived inside the Train upon death.
Now, it seemed that wasn't possible.
But then again, such an effect was too fantastical, directly breaking the rules of life and death. Even the "Medical Bay" could only save severely injured people, not resurrect the dead.
With this accessory, he could occasionally venture out.
He could move within a 10,000-meter radius centered on the Train, using the "Hell Staff" to remotely control the Train in case of danger, and if things got too risky, he could teleport back using the Train Ticket.
Nice.
Soon—
The night passed, and it was a restful one, with everyone relaxing.
At dawn.
The "Stellar Train" set off again, heading west towards the city center to search for Yan Yao. For the Stellar Train, rescuing a Survivor was simple, especially with a general description.
The Targeting Radar screen clearly marked nearby life forms.
It was worth noting.
Along the way, the Targeting Radar showed very few Survivors. Most had likely been scavenged by other Trains or had fallen prey to monsters.
Finally!
The Stellar Train slowly entered the park, where approximately thirteen standalone villas were nestled in a corner.
"Quite a few people," Chen Mang glanced at the Targeting Radar, which showed red dots in the basements of seven villas. Did these wealthy people all have their own safe rooms? One villa even had over thirty people inside.
He immediately called Ji Chuchu over the walkie-talkie.
"Take a look at these two people and see which one is Yan Yao."
Among the seven villas, only two had a single red dot. According to Ji Chuchu, Yan Yao should be in one of these two.
"Neither," Ji Chuchu shook her head, quickly scanning the real-time images around each red dot on the screen, before finally focusing on one villa. "Lord Mang, this is Yan Yao. The woman next to her, I don't know who she is."
"Got it."
Chen Mang nodded, looking at the villa with two red dots. Without saying much, he maneuvered the Train into the villa area and came to a halt.
Upon receiving the order, Biao Zi and the others immediately jumped down, forming a cautious three-three formation with their Soaring Dragon Assault Rifles slung across their chests, quickly fanning out towards the villa.
Although the AI had informed them that there was no danger ahead.
It never hurt to be careful.
"Stay alert," Biao Zi, tense, forcefully kicked open the slightly ajar door and looked inside the villa, which was covered in spiderwebs. The blurred footprints on the floor indicated that no one had been here for a long time.
The first thing that caught their eye was the living room with a ceiling height of ten meters.
Under the once exquisite chandelier, a dried-up corpse swayed gently in the breeze.
"Damn it!" Biao Zi cursed under his breath, thoroughly spooked early in the morning. Even in the apocalypse, couldn't people choose a quicker way to die? Didn't they fear being devoured by monsters before they could even hang themselves?
The corpse's legs were missing.
The wounds had completely dried out and turned pale, with splatters of dried brownish-red blood on the floor beneath the corpse.
The legs had likely been gnawed off by leaping monsters, leaving the rest out of reach.
One thing about these monsters was certain—they consumed all human corpses, making this apocalypse at least free from outbreaks of plagues.
Otherwise, with so many bodies in the summer heat, it would have been a disaster.
Directly doubling the apocalypse's difficulty.
Biao Zi shifted his gaze from the corpse—a middle-aged man. A pity, with his plump belly. The monsters had only managed to eat his legs, missing the most meaty part—the belly. The corpse was shriveled, but one could still vaguely see how much meat his belly once held.
The villa's first floor had some blurred footprints.
The second-floor stairs had none.
It seemed that the thugs who had previously looted this villa had only gone through the first floor, completely ignoring the rest. He could understand that. When he was a thug, he would have done the same, avoiding any place that looked eerie.
The Train Conductor's goods were valuable.
But his life was his own.
Why risk it?
Back in the day, if he had seen this scene at the villa's entrance, he wouldn't have stepped inside—too creepy. But today was different.
Biao Zi led the way, following the AI's instructions in his mind, heading straight to the basement and towards the corner safe room. From the outside, it looked like an ordinary room, but he knocked on the wall.
It was extremely thick.
Reinforced with plenty of steel. He tried pushing down on the door handle, then forcefully struck the lock with his rifle butt.
It was a fake door.
The real door was a security door behind the fake one. This was going to be tricky to get into.
"..."
Biao Zi frowned slightly, about to say something when he noticed a swarm of mechanical nanite spiders had somehow crawled into the basement, squeezing through the cracks of the security door.
Seconds later.
With a crisp sound, the security door slowly opened from the inside.
He immediately pushed the door open and looked at the two women trembling in the corner, their faces pale, and said hoarsely, "Do you know Ji Chuchu? She's Lord Mang's—"
At that moment—
"Mei Jia!" Shan Mao Zi, standing behind Biao Zi, suddenly exclaimed, his voice trembling with excitement. "What are you doing here? I've been looking all over Taiping City for you—"
"Wait," Biao Zi, slightly confused, looked at the two women who had been starved thin and frowned. "Are you saying the other woman is your friend?"
"Yes, yes!" Shan Mao Zi said excitedly. "It's her, it's her, it's really her!"
"Shan Mao Zi?"
One of the women hiding in the corner, upon hearing the familiar voice and confirming she wasn't mistaken, instantly teared up. She threw the dagger she had been clutching aside and rushed towards Shan Mao Zi, her voice trembling with sobs. "I never thought I'd see you before I died, I—"
"I didn't either—"
"Alright, alright, enough with the 'I's and 'you's," Biao Zi sighed, interrupting their conversation. "We're on a mission here, keep it professional. You can talk more back on the Train."
"Right," Shan Mao Zi realized he had been a bit too emotional. He took a deep breath, suppressing his feelings, and brought the woman to his side.
"Can you walk?" Biao Zi glanced at the pile of instant food wrappers in the safe room before addressing the woman who was shakily standing up.
There was plenty of food in the room.
And plenty left uneaten. They could take it all back to the Train. It seemed they had enough food and water to last another two or three months.
"I can walk," the tall woman in the corner stood up shakily and looked at Biao Zi's tactical uniform. She took a deep breath. "My father is the head of the Special Operations Bureau in Sand River City. Did he send you to rescue me?"
"Have all the monsters been wiped out?"
"..." Biao Zi pursed his lips, shifting his gaze from the safe room. "The Special Operations Bureau, huh? If your father was a dedicated official, then his death anniversary is probably coming up. If he was a coward, he might still be alive."
"Lord Mang sent me."
"Follow me."
He didn't say much to the woman. Who knew what her status on the Train would be? If she couldn't walk, he'd have to call a couple of female residents to help her. The less said, the better—fewer mistakes that way.
But it seemed...
She hadn't yet grasped the reality that the world had officially entered the apocalypse. Her memories were still stuck at the outbreak's beginning, and it would take time for her to adjust.
"You've got this trick up your sleeve?" In the Stellar Train's control room, Chen Mang looked at Xiao Ai in surprise. "Why haven't you used it before?"
Xiao Ai's emotionless voice came through the robot's speaker.
"I never had the chance before, and I only recently figured out how to use it this way."
"I can multi-task control these mechanical nanite spiders to perform highly precise tasks, allowing them to do more than just repair accessories. However..."
"I can only open relatively simple locks. For more complex ones, I'd need you to find lock-picking materials for me to learn from."
"But this is the limit of my computational power. I can only multi-task control this number of mechanical nanite spiders, and while controlling them, I can't control other accessories."
"Not bad," Chen Mang nodded, then turned his attention to the Targeting Radar on the screen. It showed that during the time they had been parked here, several people had sneaked up to the windows to observe them, but none had made a sound.
It seemed these people didn't want to leave.
At least until their food ran out, staying in the safe room was safer than being on the Train—though that didn't apply to his Train.
And—
He looked at the "Doomsday Marriage Certificate" in the drawer and smiled. An unexpected bonus. Shan Mao Zi's girlfriend, somehow, had made it from Taiping City to the safe room in the Sand River City villa.
Another 100 Inheritance Points.
Though he hadn't used it yet.
But both Inheritance Points and Reputation Points were things you couldn't acquire when you needed them the most. It was always good to stock up in advance. Now he had 200 Inheritance Points.
At that moment—
The Train Radio received a message from the Azure Dragon Train Captain.
"Azure Dragon Train Captain": Bro, are you ready? We might not be able to wait for your two-week deadline. Plans have changed—we'll need to head to the Tower of Heaven by tomorrow at the latest.
"Explain."
"That Fortuitous Encounter map, the Tower of Heaven, officially opens tomorrow. A 'Train Elevator' will descend from the sky to the ground. Even without the ability to climb 90-degree cliffs, you can still get up there."
"I thought it was an exploration-type Fortuitous Encounter map, but it turns out to be a competitive open map, just not open yet."
"I wondered how anyone could explore up there with such harsh conditions. I couldn't even do it, so who else could?"
"This map doesn't allow Level 6 Trains."
"If you're going, bro, then we'll need to meet tomorrow morning and head there together."
"I'm in. Send the coordinates."
"Alright, meet at coordinates '391, 8192, 283' tomorrow morning."
"Three parameters?"
"Oh, right, I almost forgot. Your Train can't fly, so you only need latitude and longitude, no altitude. Just meet at '391, 8192' on the ground."
"..."
Chen Mang looked expressionlessly at the chat message on the Train Radio. Was this guy doing it on purpose?
Even if his Train could fly, would they really meet in the air?
Just wait!
It's not like he couldn't fly. He already had the Bunny Cloud. With a few more acceleration Vehicle Components, he could fly too. Then he'd set the coordinates at '391, 8192, 5000'.
This guy's maximum altitude was only 3,000 meters, limited by the Bunny Cloud's wheel level.
He'd definitely fly higher than this guy.
Good.
He hadn't had the chance to communicate closely with other Trains. He couldn't keep working in isolation. Tomorrow, he'd see how other Trains were developing and see if there was anything he could learn.
(End of Chapter)