My Doomsday Train Chapter 13

“Sigh.”

Chen Mang sighed, gently massaging his temples without further contemplation. Of course, he knew he should install armor on the exterior of the train as soon as possible to significantly enhance safety. However, the “Carriage Steel Armor” component required a staggering 1000 units of Iron Ore to craft.

He currently didn’t have that much Iron Ore.

He needed to hurry and go mining again.

He stepped out of the carriage, summoned a few Slaves, and installed the only intact heavy machine gun they had seized on top of Warehouse Car No. 2. After moving it to the top and selecting the appropriate position, a panel suddenly popped up in front of him.

“Please name your train as soon as possible.”

“Do you allow the component ‘Makeshift Heavy Machine Gun’ to be mounted on the roof of your unnamed train’s second carriage?”

“Confirm.”

Soon—

The heavy machine gun was seamlessly installed on the roof of Car No. 2, appearing as if it had always been a part of it. Only when this carriage was detached and discarded would the heavy machine gun fall off, just as it had been when he seized it.

He had a total of over 400 rounds of heavy machine gun ammunition.

For a heavy machine gun, this amount of ammunition was far from enough to sustain a battle. Most of the time, it would only serve as a deterrent.

But it was sufficient. At least the train, which had previously seemed completely harmless, now looked slightly dangerous with this addition.

After moving all the seized resources onto the train and having all the Slaves cram into Car No. 4, they were finally ready to depart.

At this moment, the batch of “Soaring Dragon Assault Rifles” had also been fully crafted. He called out the ten men he had previously selected from the Slaves, appointing each of them to the position of “Train Guard.”

He then distributed a Soaring Dragon Assault Rifle and three fully loaded magazines to each of them.

“.”

Chen Mang’s brows furrowed slightly as he scanned the ten rugged enforcers: “By tomorrow morning, you need to choose a leader among yourselves. Who the leader is will be up to you to decide. There must be no casualties that could affect our operations.”

He then summoned Lao Zhu and appointed him as the Deputy Train Conductor.

Thus—

The embryonic formation of the train crew had taken shape. Although everything was still rudimentary, and the enforcers were merely the best of a mediocre lot, everything starts from a humble beginning.

Nothing in this world begins perfectly. Everything starts from a simple, rudimentary form and gradually approaches perfection as it develops.

Following this, he established new rules.

All Slaves would receive one cup of water and two slices of moldy bread daily.

All enforcers would receive two bottles of mineral water, six steamed buns, and a pack of pickled vegetables daily.

While he believed that artificially creating class distinctions to secure his position wasn’t a major issue in the apocalypse, he didn’t think it was right to starve the Slaves to the point of being half-dead. After all, how could they have the strength to mine?

He had seized a considerable amount of food from the train, which would suffice for now. Once they mined enough ore and established a food production line, they wouldn’t be short on food.

Afterwards!

All the Slaves entered Car No. 4, while Lao Zhu stayed with the enforcers in Car No. 3. The living supplies in Car No. 3 weren’t fully stocked yet, so there was still some space for people to stay.

However, chairs couldn’t be crafted for the time being, so all the enforcers sat on the floor.

Lao Zhu, on the other hand, had a soft bed of his own.

They had seized a total of seven Single Beds. He kept two, one for Lao Zhu in Car No. 3 and one for himself in the train’s control room.

He still preferred to stay alone in the locomotive. This way, even when sleeping, he could feel more at ease. After all, the steel door of the control room was relatively sturdy and difficult to breach from the outside. The reinforced bulletproof glass at the front of the locomotive would also be hard to shatter in a short time.

The rest were discarded, as there was no space to install them.

Immediately after—

“Vroom!!”

As the train’s engine roared to life, the pitch-black train finally concluded its rest period. With its wheels rapidly spinning, it shot off into the distance!

Its destination: the Iron Ore site!

They were some distance away from the Iron Ore site. During their escape, he had stayed in the Slave carriage, unable to see the outside and unsure of the Iron Ore site’s location. However, the train would leave tracks as it traveled across the wasteland.

They simply needed to follow the wheel tracks back in the direction they came from.

The train’s current wheels were still the most basic, so the speed wasn’t particularly fast, but it was sufficient for now, especially on the relatively flat terrain of the wasteland.

Inside the control room.

Chen Mang turned to Lao Zhu beside him and asked with a light smile, “Tell me about the demise of your former Train Conductor. Let’s see if we can learn any lessons.”

He had just used a walkie-talkie to summon Lao Zhu from Car No. 3 to the locomotive. The walkie-talkie was also seized.

“It was also a Corpse Tide.”

Lao Zhu shook his head, a hint of fear flashing in his eyes: “Corpse Tides of this scale are actually quite rare on the Iron Ridge Wasteland. The one we encountered last time wasn’t as large. Back then, the train was only Level 1 and not very fast. In our frantic escape, we ended up in the ruins of a city.”

“The ruins blocked the train’s path.”

“In the chaos, everyone abandoned the train and fled, only to be engulfed by the Corpse Tide. Nearly all of them died in the mouths of Zombies. I ran faster, diving headlong into the alleys of the city ruins without looking back, and that’s how I survived.”

“Large-scale Corpse Tides are usually led by a commander, and Corpse Tides generally don’t venture deep into city ruins. That’s how I managed to survive.”

“I see…”

Chen Mang narrowed his eyes slightly and nodded. It seemed he had been somewhat lucky to escape death this time. A Zombie capable of commanding with intelligence was definitely not Level 1. If that Zombie had noticed him back then, his jammer wouldn’t have worked.

But… logically, a single carriage should have been quite conspicuous among the horde. How could it have failed to notice him?

Was the commanding Zombie perhaps Level 1?

He gazed thoughtfully out the window at the desolate wilderness, his eyes eventually settling on the front section of the locomotive. Before leaving, he had used the “Geothermal Furnace” to devour all the abandoned trains.

It took a quarter of an hour, yielding a total of 600 units of Iron Ore.

The scene had been quite dramatic. The locomotive’s front opened up like a gaping maw, swallowing the abandoned carriages whole. Inside, countless gears spun rapidly, grinding all the metal into powder.

“Are there no other settlements after the apocalypse?”

“Well, there are.”

Lao Zhu paused before continuing: “For some reason, many monsters are unwilling to venture deep into city ruins, so quite a few survivors are hiding in there. Additionally, from the train’s radio broadcasts, I learned that there are some large settlements established after the apocalypse. Those settlements have several trains.”

“However, they’re too far away, and the former Train Conductor didn’t plan to check them out.”

“Oh?”

Chen Mang was momentarily puzzled: “In that case, city ruins should be relatively safe, right? At least obtaining food should be easier there than in the wasteland. So why did all these survivors end up on the train?”

“…”

Lao Zhu was momentarily at a loss for words before finally murmuring: “Mang Ge, the Slaves were all captured and brought onto the train. No one willingly becomes a Slave.”

“I see.”

Chen Mang nodded expressionlessly, saying nothing more. It seemed that maintaining order on the train wasn’t the enforcers’ only task; capturing Slaves was also part of their duties. As the Train Conductor, he still had much to learn.

Just then—

The Birthmark on the back of his hand suddenly grew warm again. A hint of a smile appeared in Chen Mang’s eyes. The final task for a novice Train Conductor had been completed.

With this, his “Train Panel” could finally be fully unlocked. He wondered what features it would have. He hoped it w

ould allow him to acquire more resources. He was desperately short on resources.

For example, receiving 10,000 units of Iron Ore daily would be sufficient. He would be quite content with that.

(End of Chapter)