A panel simultaneously emerged in front of him once again.
-
「Weapon Name」: gls Handgun.
「Weapon Level」: Level 1.
「Weapon Effect」: Can load level 1 bullets at most, effective lethality against level 1 armor, monsters, etc.
-
He looked at the panel in front of him and touched the brass bullets in his pocket.
The bullets also displayed a panel, indicating they were level 1 ordinary bullets.
"Interesting..."
Chen Mang murmured thoughtfully; he seemed to understand this world somewhat. After Doomsday struck, the world had been supernaturally modified, eventually forming its current state. It's uncertain whether pre-apocalyptic firearms can still be used.
According to the information obtained from Old Pig, even if ordinary people found a "Train Order," it wouldn't mean much.
And nobody seemed to buy the Train Order at the "Market," as only train captains go there; who would buy another Train Order?
Even if you had a "Train Order," upgrading the train requires resources, acquiring resources requires slaves, controlling that many slaves requires thugs, and managing thugs needs...
One must first have a team.
In other words,
One must first have a basic team setup.
If...
If he could feed all the slaves on this train, then he'd have 300 slaves. That would be enough for him to start his business, but this train's Train Captain has never shown his face. Just handling those thugs is beyond him, let alone the few heavy machine guns mounted on top of the train.
Heavy machine guns are absolutely dominant over carbon-based life forms; at least, he thinks he wouldn't survive a few rounds.
...
Meanwhile, in the mine, Old Pig, who was wielding a pickaxe with a sweaty brow, was also biting his teeth and quickly pondering.
The reason he immediately surrendered at the time.
Not only because Chen Mang is capable and decisive but also because Chen Mang has strong conviction. He has met many people in his life, and those who accomplish great deeds possess the conviction that Chen Mang has.
People with strong conviction generally face three outcomes:
Success, sudden death, or having their conviction eroded by setbacks.
He doesn't want to be a slave anymore; he wants to gamble. So he approached Chen Mang. Indeed, Chen Mang quickly started asking him about train information. Generally speaking, slaves never care about how to own a train.
And this happens to be his advantage; other slaves don't understand these matters—only he, who was once the Deputy Train Captain, understands.
As long as...
As long as Chen Mang can become the Train Captain, he can definitely become a core member of the team. Then he will instantly rise, but the biggest issue now is how to get a "Train Order" for Chen Mang.
...
Four hours later—
Chen Mang, who was exploring the mine, suddenly heard a frantic shout coming from the walkie-talkie: "Everyone evacuate quickly, evacuate quickly!!!"
The walkie-talkie's voice was so loud that Chen Mang's eardrums buzzed a bit.
The next moment!
Before Chen Mang could react, the faces of the slaves in the mine changed drastically. They clutched the iron ore they had dug up and ran frantically toward the passage and the way they came.
The mined ore was uneven on the surface, only the size of a chicken egg.
This is 1 unit of iron ore.
Chen Mang saw with his own eyes that after one hour of digging, a slave managed to knock down an egg-sized 1 unit iron ore from the lump of iron on the ground.
"Run!"
Although not knowing what happened, Chen Mang looked at Old Pig, who was running hastily toward him with an anxious expression, and after a shout, he also turned to run the way they came.
It took almost forty minutes to arrive.
The return journey was considerably faster.
Just over ten minutes later, the panting slaves ran out of the cave, seeing the train parked at the mine's entrance and a massive surge of Corpse Tide not far away!
...
"..."
Chen Mang looked at the scene before him, and his eyes instinctively flashed a hint of shock. Originally, this train was quite awe-inspiring—nine carriages in total, entirely black, with three heavy machine guns mounted on top of the carriages.
It felt very safe.
But facing the sprawling Corpse Tide not far away, it suddenly appeared extremely insignificant.
He could even distinctly smell the stench of corpses in the air.
Even the ground was slightly trembling.
That was the commotion caused by countless zombies running wild, only about a few hundred meters away. Although he couldn't see the exact appearance of the zombies, he could already feel the suffocating sensation.
At this moment, the thugs stood at the fully open doors of the slave carriages, looking at Chen Mang and his group angrily roaring: "All of you, fucking hurry up!!!"
Chen Mang dared not waste time and immediately, along with Old Pig, hurried toward their number 7 slave carriage.
The other people in the mine were also rushing out.
When all the slaves crammed into the carriages, the doors hadn't even had time to close.
The train began to start quickly!
However, the start was indeed slightly slow; it took tens of seconds to reach the fastest speed, only… it was already a bit late. At this point, the encirclement had formed; the Corpse Tide was not surging from just one side but from nearly all sides!
...
"Tat-tat-tat!!!"
Chen Mang sat on the grass mat in carriage number 7, his expression fluctuating as he listened to the ear-piercing and muffled gunfire outside—this was the heavy machine guns starting to roar. Only... based on the number of Corpse Tide he saw before boarding, he didn't think these heavy machine guns would have much effect.
To break out of this Corpse Tide encirclement.
He believed they first needed to change the wheels to the "Tracked Wheels" Old Pig mentioned, those that are not easily jammed by bodies. Secondly, the carriage armor must be strong enough; their slave carriage was clearly made of thin iron, a pickaxe could make a hole, and it certainly couldn't withstand the tide-like assault from Corpse Tide.
He gripped the handgun tightly in his arms.
But at this moment, the handgun couldn't provide much security.
The atmosphere in the carriage was evidently tense; many were already emotionally breaking down and speaking chaotically, others were constantly praying to God. Without windows, they couldn't see what was happening outside the train now.
Yet from the fact that the nonstop heavy machine gun fire could be heard, they could roughly gauge the situation was quite dire.
"Mang."
At this moment.
Old Pig, who sat beside him, said in a trembling voice, his complexion faintly pale: "Before boarding, I saw the situation; the encirclement of the Corpse Tide wasn't very tight, there are gaps."
"But these gaps are composed of several small spaces, needing constant extreme dodging within the Corpse Tide, like riding a motorcycle through traffic to break through."
"Train handling isn't as good as motorcycles, the turning radius is too large. However, if the Train Captain had installed "level 2 Assistive Universal Wheels" on each carriage at the time, the train would be much more agile, and that's the only opportunity to break out."
"Just..."
"Level 2 Assistive Universal Wheels are not mandatory for a level 2 train to upgrade to level 3. As far as I know, most Train Captains are reluctant to consume resources here."
"If this train doesn't have these level 2 Assistive Universal Wheels, then this time... things will look grim."