"A total of 1500 units of iron ore, 120 units of copper ore, 100 units of wood."
"..."
Chen Mang gazed at the mineral information on the note, contemplating without speaking. The first priority was definitely to craft the carriages, needing to first craft at least two: one to serve as a slave carriage, and another to store these minerals, food, and other tools.
He also needed to set up a production line for the "Soaring Dragon Assault Rifle."
He didn't say much, just walked alone into the train compartment, stood before the train control panel, and looked at the fifth red button under "Train Construction."
After pressing this button.
Several lines of text immediately appeared on the screen.
-
"To construct a standard carriage, it requires 100 units of iron ore."
"To construct a train head, it requires 1000 units of iron ore."
-
This pertains to train construction, not "Vehicle Accessories." Building an additional train head allows the installation of a train head at the end of the train, so that when the train turns around, it doesn't need to make a U-turn but can directly use the other train head as a power source, effectively increasing the train's maneuverability.
He lightly tapped twice on the first option on the screen.
The next moment——
He felt a slight tremor inside the train compartment. Stepping outside, he saw the train head, once solitary on the wasteland, now emanate countless white light lines from the hook at the end of the train head, weaving themselves into two carriages.
As the light from the lines gradually faded, the two carriages also took shape.
They were now integrated with the train head.
Upon looking again, his train now had a preliminary form.
Of course.
These two carriages were bare inside, with nothing but sheet metal. Nevertheless, it was enough. One couldn't expect luxurious treatment in a slave carriage, and in these times, having a reliable train was already a stroke of luck for survivors.
"Pretty good."
Chen Mang stood satisfied in front of the train, examining his train, and he felt a rush of pride. He felt a growing sense of belonging in this world. Perhaps one day, he could indeed build a Doomsday Train that roars across the wasteland like a dragon!
200 units of iron ore were thus consumed.
He then walked into the second carriage and out of his pocket took out the blueprint for the 'Soaring Dragon Assault Rifle' production line*1. It was a light blue, semi-transparent sheet, feeling akin to plastic in texture and looking fragile. Of course, he wasn't foolish enough to test the blueprint's durability.
With the blueprint, specific vehicle accessories could be manufactured.
A train isn't just limited to the accessories shown on the control panel. While those accessories don't require any blueprint, other special vehicle accessories require a blueprint to be crafted.
The grade of this production line accessory was green.
It required 500 units of iron ore to be crafted.
After consuming 500 units of iron ore, the blueprint shattered and transformed into green light points, forming several green lines inside the carriage. These lines slowly wove together to form a production line about six meters long.
Its overall shape resembled the security inspection equipment at a subway station.
With every 50 units of iron ore consumed, one "Soaring Dragon Assault Rifle" could be manufactured, resembling the AK47 in shape, requiring a bullet caliber of 5.56mm.
Regrettably, he currently lacked bullets of this caliber, nor did he have a production line for this caliber of bullets.
Fortunately...
Each rifle produced automatically comes with three full clips, with the gun's bullet capacity being 30 rounds.
For now, it's enough.
He would see in the future if a way could be found to secure a production line for this caliber.
The time needed to manufacture one "Soaring Dragon Assault Rifle" was 5 minutes. He crafted 12 at once, paying an additional 600 units of iron ore.
...
It's worth noting.
Any iron ore consumed during train crafting, as long as it was on the train, would be automatically consumed. There was no need to hold the iron ore in hand or anything of that sort.
Afterward, Chen Mang stepped out of carriage number 2, hesitated for a moment on the wasteland, and then spent another 100 units of iron ore to craft an additional standard carriage.
There wasn't enough space for everything.
His production lines and iron ore needed a carriage to themselves, and remaining supplies like bread, bottled water, etc., also needed a carriage.
Now he had three carriages.
Carriage 2 was tentatively designated as the storage carriage, containing some production lines, minerals, and other items, while carriage 3 would serve as the living carriage, and carriage 4 as the slave carriage.
Thus——
He was left with only 100 units of iron ore, almost back to where he started.
Everything needed iron ore, yet there was hardly enough!
As for the seven necessary components for the train's upgrade, he hadn't crafted a single one. There wasn't enough iron ore to spare, and the train didn't even have a Circuit System yet, not even dim lights in the carriages, unlike the brighter train earlier.
Once the door to the slave carriage closed, it was pitch-black.
However...
Copper ore was required for the "Circuit System" and "Generator."
After pondering for a moment, he thought these two items were crucial. A glance at the 120 units of copper ore he had acquired revealed he needed to spend 110 units of copper ore to craft both items.
The generator was placed in carriage number 2 of the warehouse.
It wasn't small in size.
Occupying nearly one-seventh of the carriage's area.
But...
"..."
Chen Mang stood expressionless inside carriage number 2, staring silently at the generator before him.
"Activating the generator requires one Energy Stone."
"Given the current train's power consumption, one Level 1 Energy Stone can likely provide power for over 300 days."
Energy Stone?
The name was quite unfamiliar.
He immediately ran back to the train head, stood on the train control panel, and opened the beginner's tutorial to start exploring again. Soon, he saw the source for obtaining Energy Stones.
In this world reduced to a post-apocalyptic state, conventional energy sources such as oil had lost their dominance and were replaced by Energy Stones.
When the train upgrades to a Level 2 train, new vehicle accessories — "Fabrication Table" — can be crafted.
Using the Fabrication Table, iron ore can be consumed to create Energy Stones.
But before that...
There was almost no other way to obtain Energy Stones, including driving the train, which also required Energy Stones as an energy source. When the train was initially crafted, it came with one Level 1 Energy Stone, and if he wanted to start this generator, he'd have to extract the Energy Stone from the train head and place it in the generator, which was clearly not feasible.
He then looked at the beginner tips on the control panel.
-
"Currently, there are 3 carriages, and the carriages have no armor."
"It is advised to promptly construct train armor to maximize protection for passengers inside the carriages when the train is attacked."
"Energy Stone status: 100%."
"With the current train weight estimate, it can travel up to 100 hours at a speed of 100 km/h."
"As the train's weight increases, the maximum speed will reduce, and the Energy Stone consumption rate will accelerate."
"Please save as many survivors as possible to acquire sufficient resources."
-
These prompts would automatically appear on the screen when no other buttons were pressed on the control panel.
It was somewhat similar to a beginner's guide in a game, guiding a newbie Train Captain on what to do next.