The very thing that had worried the conductor for a month finally happened.

With a violent shake, several railway lines leading to Changli were blown up simultaneously.

Dozens of tons of steel rails twisted into grotesque shapes in the explosion, railroad ties flew into the sky, and debris shot out in all directions like shrapnel grenades, blowing the demining drones into heaps of electronic waste mid-air.

Even the ground beneath the tracks exploded, leaving a large pit.

The dust fell like rain, and faint whispers and cold laughs could be heard.

"See, somebody blew up his tracks."

"What kind of brainless person would think of running a train in the apocalypse?"

"Because they simply don't understand that tracks require maintenance. Who would maintain them in the apocalypse..."

A buffer of just three hundred meters was enough for the slow-moving train to stop at the broken tracks.

The clanging rhythm was abruptly halted.

The lens switched to the train's built-in perspective, and Su Huan stared dazedly at the large pit on the screen.

The first voice to appear was Xiaozhao's report, "The drone line has been fully recovered, and the backup drones are ready. Replacement will take three minutes."

Professor Ma stood up with a smile, "I didn't expect my first ability to be track repair. Quite interesting."

All the shattered stones and railroad ties that had been blown away floated up as if they had lost gravity, hovering a meter off the ground.

The rails didn't float, but their weight was significantly reduced.

The eyes of the young man in the corner instantly turned metallic, the rail transformed like a mutated sea urchin, and in an instant, it sprouted countless soft steel wires that filled the pit with floating soil and debris. The iron fences and telephone poles around, like molten liquid drawn by gravity, turned into metallic railroad ties, settling on the filled pit.

With a crisp "crack," the corrected, straight rails came back down.

No screws were even needed; the newly repaired rails were stronger and more secure than ever!

The two 25-meter-long rails lay back quietly. If not for their brand-new appearance, you wouldn't even notice any changes here.

The entire process took no more than five minutes.

Su Huan's lips curled upward. Without knowing Xiaoba's existence, no one would choose to blow up every single inch of rail and ties for dozens of kilometers.

Even placing explosives at every node, the amount of explosives needed to sever dozens of kilometers of track would be equivalent to filling a football field to the height of a family car, not even those most whimsical pre-apocalyptic novelists would do such a thing.

Just what kind of exceptionally wise person could propose such a great idea?

Su Huan had survived in the apocalypse for four years and had seen hundreds of thousands of zombies assault human settlements, but he had never seen hundreds of thousands of zombies charge at two rails.

Even the Butcher, known for his recklessness, wouldn't destroy such things.

The armed train had encountered two instances of ordinary landmines and one instance of a Pan-energy Bomb on its journey from Dongping to Changli.

As the conductor, no one understood the weaknesses of an armed train better than him.

Which was the tracks beneath his feet.

Before a ten-thousand-ton steel train could fly, he had to do everything possible to ensure the train's normal operation. On these rails, no one would put in more effort than he would because this was his lifeline!

Liang Kuan restarted the train, and at that moment, a battered SUV rushed over and stopped directly on the tracks.

A neatly dressed man got out of the car, waving his hands at the train's locomotive. In the distance, zombies drawn by the explosion had already set eyes on him.

Swarming from all directions.

Thanks to the high-definition cameras, one could even see the beads of sweat rolling down the man's tense face.

This scene was projected onto the screen by the newly replaced drone.

"Conductor, that man said he wants to talk to us."

Operating the drone, Xiaozhao listened to the incoming information and hesitated for a moment before speaking.

Sitting on the sofa behind the cockpit, Su Huan crossed his legs, looking up at the screen with a smile, "How come I don't see anyone on the screen?"

Xiaozhao saw Su Huan's smile and felt a chill, not daring to make a sound.

Professor Ma silently absorbed the Pan-energy Crystal in his hand as if he hadn't heard their conversation.

Liang Kuan was long used to Su Huan's style. Without asking, he pushed the lever to the limit, the train revved up and started slowly.

When a more than four-meter-long blood-stained giant steel spike approached head-on, no one could stay indifferent.

The man shouted himself hoarse, yet the train showed no sign of stopping. As he tried to return to his car, the train kept accelerating.

Seeing the enormous spike, beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.

Gritting his teeth, he abandoned the car and ran off the tracks.

"Boom!"

The steel spike pierced the vehicle's chassis, and with increasing power, the man could only watch helplessly as the car was flipped aside.

But his bigger trouble was the growing number of zombies around him.

He ran to the side of the train desperately, clutching at the metal, trying to climb aboard.

Suddenly, two sharp claws pierced his chest.

His lifeless body fell to the ground, and a Night Demon began to devour the fresh flesh, its crimson eyes glaring at the departing train.

However, inside the train, Su Huan paid no attention to any of this.

At that moment, he was in the cockpit, continuously switching camera views on the screen.

Curiously, he asked, "Who is controlling these drones?"

Xiaozhao replied, "All pre-written programs. Due to limited maneuvering space, these drones serve merely as fixed cameras; as long as they keep up with the train's speed, they require minimal adjustments."

Looking at the map in the bottom left corner, half an hour away from Changli County, Su Huan turned on the in-car surveillance.

...

"It's moving, it's moving; it seems the problem is solved."

The data collector wearing a ring instinctively twisted the ring on his hand, his eyes devoid of any sparkle, in a dim state, looking out the window.

Another young man glanced at the miniature map on his watch, frowned, "Did you see something?"

"The tracks flew up, healed themselves, it should be something in the domain of a manipulator, like metal affinity or telekinesis, what kind of damn profession is this, so mixed."

The ring-wearing man muttered to himself.

A hint of contemplation flashed in the young man's eyes, "Maybe a combination of multiple abilities; according to current research, manipulators can generally manipulate only one thing, unless the other party is a Genetic Primordial, possessing a cross-field profession, but that probability is too small, really one in a million."

The sparkle returned to the eyes of the ring-wearing man, still puzzled, "I also saw someone blocking the train get knocked away."

"Survivor?"

"Doesn't seem like it, and the armed train doesn't reject survivors boarding."

"The direction the train is heading now is a bit strange…"

"What's so strange about it?"

"Seems to be the Steel Council's Changli County."

The ring man was taken aback, "Can't be, did you read it wrong? You've seen the company's information, the armed train just had a little friction with the Steel Council before coming to Dongping City, now the Steel Council's new city plan is booming, why would it go back?"

"…Revenge?"

The young man suggested a reason even he found untenable.

Is there hatred between large factions?

That's obvious.

Only individuals harbor grudges; relationships between collectives are guided solely by interests.

"There's no benefit in it, and the Steel Council has its eyes on Changli County, the armed train can't just seize this opportunity, getting involved recklessly would only lead to falling out with the Steel Council, ending in mutual destruction, and besides, I don't think the train can beat the Steel Council, they must have some cooperation plan."

The ring man analyzed.

"Yes, now everyone is quietly developing, avoiding conflict… Wait, the camera is watching us."

The young man instantly resumed a lazy posture, slumping in his seat like other passengers.

In the top right corner of the carriage, a miniature camera swivelled, scanning across the two.

In the cockpit, Su Huan squinted slightly at the pair.

These two data collectors from Deep Blue Data were discovered by him the day after they boarded.

Because he would inspect the whole train every morning.

Though not passing through the compartments, he would walk outside the carriage or on the roof, using pan-energy sensing to scan for suddenly evolved passengers or anything threatening the train's safety.

When pan-energy sensing detected someone, even ordinary passengers would have a slight pan-energy fluctuation, albeit very weak.

But these two guys were a complete blank.

The first time Su Huan passed by he was also stunned, repeatedly circling around them; they were clearly there, yet that area seemed to vanish.

Coupled with a previous transaction with Deep Blue Data, he vaguely guessed their identities.

Two-person operation, one responsible for concealing themselves, the other for data collection—this is the standard configuration for data collectors.

This indicates Deep Blue Data has taken notice of the armed train but shows no hostility towards it.

Collectors only gather evolution-related information, do not engage in combat, assassinate, or spy on military intelligence.

Once discovered, they surrender immediately, and Deep Blue Data would spend a large sum to ransom them.

If a major power goes to war, these collectors are the first to disappear.

Over time, Deep Blue Data's collectors became likened to goldfish in a well, rats in a mine, their presence tacitly acknowledged by all major factions.

If a faction doesn't have a couple of Deep Blue Data's collectors, they're embarrassed to call themselves a major power.

Even the Mechanical God Cult wouldn't kill them.

In a previous life, a faction had a clever tactic, discovering collectors but saying nothing, waiting until they needed money and then capturing them all to trade for cash with Deep Blue Data.

Then various major powers followed suit, treating collectors as a form of foreign exchange reserves.

Whenever short on cash, they'd capture insiders for internal cleanup activities.

It even became a trend.

Deep Blue Data had to reduce collector scale to save ransom costs.

Along with the explosion of the wilderness profession system, more data collectors ventured into the wilderness and small settlements.

Su Huan was thinking about how to utilize these two.

After all, they are two Tier One Evolvers; letting them idle is a waste, since they're on his train, they must be used by him.

Half an hour later, the train entered the territory of Jinzong City.

There's still a county between there and Changli.

The clouds on the horizon looked like a heavy rust-colored carpet, ominously overcast with a sense of dirtiness, the fierce wind swirled with traces of moisture crashing against the bluish armor of the armed train.

He zoomed in with his fingers, and on the high-definition camera, an armed helicopter bearing the Cyan Steel Industry emblem roared into view.

Even from several kilometers away, Su Huan seemed to be able to feel Li Tao's soaring fury.

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