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"Congratulations, you have completed all the novice Train Captain tasks, and you have become a qualified Train Captain."
"The Train Captain Panel is officially unlocked, and it has the following effects—"
"Unlimited Upgrade."
"The Vehicle Accessories of your train will have no level cap and can be upgraded indefinitely."
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"That's it?"
Chen Mang looked at the translucent panel in front of him with some confusion. It seemed like...the effect wasn't that good after all. It was just that the Vehicle Accessories had no level cap and could be continuously upgraded?
It didn't seem very useful.
When in doubt, ask Old Pig. After all, Old Pig had served as the Deputy Train Captain before, so he understood this better than Chen Mang did. That's the main reason he made Old Pig the Deputy Train Captain.
He already had a certain understanding of this world.
This world itself had become semi-data-driven, and many things had panels, such as "Train" and "Vehicle Accessories." The reason gasoline withdrew from the energy stage was not because it couldn't be used, but because it couldn't be used by "Trains." Everything that couldn't be used by trains gradually faded from history.
And his "Train Captain Panel" was something only he had.
It's a bit like a small plugin in a game. Simply put, it was like inserting a USB drive.
Currently.
After completing the three novice tasks, his golden finger had been fully activated. However, after activation, he found it hard to judge its strength for now, uncertain whether it was a small trick or a direct open cheat, as there are differences between USB drives.
"Old Pig."
Chen Mang immediately turned his head to look at Old Pig: "Does every Vehicle Accessory have a level cap?"
"Hmm, hmm."
Old Pig immediately nodded; it was finally his time to show his skills. He hurriedly and seriously said, "Vehicle Accessories are divided by grades, such as White, Green, and Blue. The higher the grade, the rarer the accessory, and the higher the level cap."
"Like many White accessories, most of them have a maximum level of just Level 2."
"For instance, I know of a 'White Accessory' called a 'Car Blade,' which can install two sharp steel blades on both sides of the carriage. In case of a Corpse Tide, the whole train would become a sharp blade, slicing all zombies in its path cleanly."
"It doesn't belong to train-built accessories, and the blueprint drops randomly after defeating wild monsters."
"The previous Train Captain got this blueprint during a Corpse Tide battle. This accessory can only reach Level 2. Even though after upgrading to Level 2 the car blades become larger and sharper, they're still just white accessories, used for transitional phases when weak. A truly strong train relies on those high-grade accessories."
"..."
Chen Mang's mouth slowly opened, and he looked at the birthmark on the back of his hand with a bit of a dazed expression. At this moment, he fully understood what "Unlimited Upgrade" meant!
That is to say,
Even White accessories can be upgraded without limit.
A Level 2 "Car Blade" might indeed be just a transitional item when weak, as Old Pig said.
But...
What about a Level 10 "Car Blade"?
A Level 20, Level 50, or Level 100 "Car Blade"?
Wherever his train passed, not even a blade of grass would survive!
Now it's stable!
His panel, even in the USB world, was a leading existence!
My parameters are above yours!
"Phew..."
Chen Mang took a deep breath. Damn, although he didn't understand why the birthmark he was born with exhibited such powerful effects after crossing into this world, who cares!
Very possibly, he was a good person for nine lifetimes in his previous life, and this is his blessing in this life!
Right now he only had one Level 2 Vehicle Accessory, which was the "Earth Core Melting Furnace."
A Level 1 "Earth Core Melting Furnace" could only devour a Level 1 train. Just now, to devour those abandoned Level 2 trains, he used the last remaining 100 units of iron ore to upgrade the "Earth Core Melting Furnace" to Level 2.
Currently, he only had 600 units of iron ore left.
Unfortunately.
These slaves still needed to sleep. Otherwise, if they worked around the clock, he would get more iron ore.
First, upgrade the train to Level 2, and then capture more slaves in the nearby city ruins to get more iron ore, thereby crafting a stronger train!
And so it goes, until his train roars unrestrained across the wasteland!
...
Half an hour later.
Chen Mang returned to the entrance of the iron mine. Just like earlier, under the shouts of a bunch of thugs, a gang of slaves came out of the carriage in an orderly fashion to receive picks and mine for minerals.
This scene was exceedingly familiar, as if it had happened before.
However...
In the morning, he was amidst the slaves, and now he was standing in the train room.
Perhaps Doomsday wasn't completely without opportunities. As long as luck was good enough, going from a slave to a Train Captain only took a few hours. In peacetime, going from a slave to a Train Captain required more than just luck.
In the train room.
Chen Mang looked at the train members displayed on the screen.
So far, the train had ten thugs and eighty-one slaves, each with a white name. When someone died, their name would turn black. This function allowed the Train Captain to be more aware of the life and death of his passengers.
Presumably, that's why the thugs rushed over the first time he killed that slave in the carriage last night, all because of this function.
"Just that..."
Chen Mang squinted his eyes slightly, looking off into the distance. Since he had this function, the original Train Captain surely knew that this batch of slaves hadn't died and had even left the original train to join another train.
That runaway train couldn't be coming back to find them, right?
But...
It was merely a runaway train head; even if it returned, he wasn't too afraid, considering he still had ten thugs with assault rifles and a heavy machine gun, so he wasn't without means for self-defense.
...
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the wasteland.
Inside a train head, a somewhat down-and-out man was escaping across the wasteland. He was stunned when he saw the list of train members on the screen.
He was originally grieving over the loss of those slaves. Capturing those three hundred slaves took him a lot of effort.
Now they're all dead.
Trying to make a comeback wasn't an easy feat.
But...
Surprisingly, the "Train Members" section showed that nearly a hundred of his slaves hadn't died but instead joined an "unnamed" Level 1 train. Among them, a slave named Chen Mang had even become the Train Captain!
How could that be!
Back then, those slaves were abandoned in the Corpse Tide. How could they possibly have survived that?
Could it be...
"..."
The man's eyes filled with rage. Clearly, that slave Chen Mang encountered some opportunity, which wasn't surprising. In the wasteland, the opportunities are endless; as long as your luck is good, anything can happen.
But what enraged him was that he had cut his losses and saved himself, only for his slave to find an opportunity and become a Train Captain?
How could he tolerate that!
A freshly built train essentially wouldn't have any offensive capacity, more like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered. Since the Corpse Tide had been left behind, his most crucial task now was to find these slaves, kill that Train Captain, and bring his slaves back!
Though he didn't know the location of those slaves.
But a new Train Captain should soon recognize the importance of "iron ore," so without surprise, perhaps this Chen Mang had returned to that mining area. By going back to the mine, he'd take back his slaves!
"Thank you, indeed."
The overweight man suddenly laughed, a glint of shadow and excitement in his eyes: "If it weren't for you, my hundred slaves would probably have died already. As long as I can find these hundred slaves, a comeback will be much simpler."