"Knock, knock, knock."

The sound of knocking abruptly filled the meeting room.

Everyone paused and looked instinctively at Su Huan, who sat at the head of the table.

"Come in."

Wearing an administrative jacket, Old Hu pushed the door open, walked up to Su Huan, and bowed slightly. "Train Captain, the personnel have been settled, and the train has been cleaned up a bit. I've instructed the logistics team to prepare some food. Would you like it brought in?"

Su Huan glanced at the group of elderly men, suddenly realizing they hadn't eaten yet.

As an Evolver, he could go for three or four days without eating, but if these old men were to starve, the train modification plan would be doomed!

He gave Old Hu an approving look. "Bring it in."

With Su Huan's approval, Old Hu straightened up and smiled. "I assume all you experts are hungry after a whole day of discussion. We have prepared some simple meals. You can talk while you eat."

With that, several logistics team members immediately rolled in a few small carts and placed plates of food on the table, making the experts' eyes widen in amazement.

It's not that they hadn't eaten gourmet food before. With their status, what delicacies hadn't they tasted?

But this is the apocalypse.

Before them lay a spread of over twenty dishes.

Despite the lack of fresh vegetables, the abundance was comparable to before the apocalypse.

These were all things not available at the manufacturing bases.

The group now had a deeper understanding of the power of the armed train.

In times like these, whoever could fill people's stomachs held the power!

If you could eat well, you were king and emperor!

While others were setting the table, Old Hu placed the metal lunchbox he was holding in front of Su Huan.

Upon opening it, a fragrant plate of spicy oil-braised chicken with rice was revealed. Just seeing the black sesame seeds on the rice, Su Huan knew who had made it without needing to be told.

In the whole train car, only Yu Yue put in this kind of effort.

After another long discussion, they finally settled on the third phase of the armed train modification schedule.

First, they would modify the frame to widen the train slightly and install tracks without removing the wheels, allowing the train to switch freely between tracks and other terrains.

Next, they would split the train into two segments, supplementing some cars to form two trains, each with fifty cars.

When on tracks, both would drive normally, each with two engines and two power cars.

When encountering floods, the trains would detach from the rails and join together, connected with high-strength materials, creating a space six meters wide and fifty cars long.

With this design, the space on the armed train was more than tripled.

During floods, the middle section could serve as a deck and float, enhancing stability and laying the groundwork for converting the train to a boat later on.

It could be considered a triple benefit.

This was Su Huan's favorite idea of the night; even without sleep for two nights, he was too excited to rest, eager to see the idea implemented.

(This clueless AI doesn't understand this great idea; it can only show you the style. Pay no mind to the details of the sketch.)

Under normal circumstances, just building this frame could take months, but with Xiaoba, the time could be reduced by tenfold.

All projects involving cutting and fusion could be completed in a very short time, and tasks requiring large equipment could even be done manually by Evolvers.

Thus, the main challenge in the modification was to first design these ideas on paper.

Fortunately, they had the country's top train manufacturing experts sitting there. Each had their specialties, accepted their respective tasks, and eagerly returned.

Soon, only a few people remained in the meeting room with Su Huan.

Su Huan stretched lazily and asked blandly, "Have you figured it out?"

Old Hu respectfully replied, "A total of five thousand two hundred and thirty people, no mistakes. The management team is still the factory's original leadership. After the apocalypse, the factory director and some managers used their influence to quickly take control of the warehouse and then led the security to gradually clear out the zombies in the base..."

"There were also several Mutant Beast attacks, but they managed to survive them, so the base has not changed significantly."

Su Huan looked at the night outside the window and calmly said, "As long as these old men are alive, causing trouble won't be easy. Did you find what you were supposed to investigate?"

Old Hu shook his head. "We've searched the entire base; within the security personnel, there are only some retirees, not a single active member."

"No Law Enforcers either?"

"None, though many employees in the base have organizational affiliations, including relatives of active members, but they also don't know where they've gone."

Su Huan lowered his head slightly, his disheveled hair covering his narrow eyes.

The entire Donghuang Military and Law Enforcers—over ten million armed forces—had vanished without a sound.

Just thinking about it was chilling.

"Do you think it's because their level isn't high enough, or..."

Old Hu promptly refuted, "The old factory director at the high-speed train manufacturing base is definitely high enough, including those several deputy chiefs with seniority. Otherwise, they wouldn't be in such critical positions."

After a moment, Old Hu continued, "I've looked at some internal data from the manufacturing base. The high-speed train output has been increasing annually for the past few years, but when I separately asked some personnel, they said this was normal. 2030 to 2035 was a period of rapid development."

Su Huan suddenly turned his gaze to Wan Hao's face. "What does Chairman Wan think?"

Wan Hao speculated, "Could it be that the news of the apocalypse wasn't conveyed according to rank but rather relevance?"

"Relevance?" Su Huan pondered these words.

What relevance did the Steel Council have to the apocalypse?

Why would they get the message, but a manufacturing base like this didn't?

And those big forces in the previous life—they didn't seem more relevant.

"Yes, for example, my company involves shipping, which is not relevant and thus naturally not on the notification list," Wan Hao said.

Old Hu remarked, "For such a significant matter, there was not a single whisper among the civilians."

"The public always knows last, and that's usually after the fact," Wan Hao sighed. "With the mobilization of millions of people, to maintain such secrecy, only Donghuang could achieve that."

"Perhaps those who knew were taken away with them," Su Huan stood up. "There's no point in talking more. Chairman Wan, have you thought about how to take over the manufacturing base?"

Wan Hao stood up and bowed slightly. "The matters of the manufacturing base still depend on you, Train Captain."

"I will only stay here for a month at most. When I leave, I'll take a group of experts. There will still be about six to seven thousand remaining, which is no small scale. Don't say I didn't give you time to build your team."

Su Huan waved his hand.

...

Acid Rain Zone, Dongping City Logistics Center.

The car wrecks originally piled up haphazardly in front of the logistics center had been cleared away, and rows of trucks were neatly lined up on the open ground.

The original metal fences had also been turned into six-meter-high walls, with tactical compact electromagnetic cannons mounted on the watchtowers, having an effective range of ten kilometers, and inside, armed personnel patrolled with guns.

The hall of the logistics center, once piled with corpses, had been completely cleaned out, and its vast interior redivided to form a three-story armed base.

Inside one of the offices on the third floor, Haywood stood before a specialized communication device, nodding and bowing.

"It's like this: the Steel Council is no more, and now Li Wangchuan personally hopes to negotiate with us. He has gathered the surviving members that strayed from the Steel Council, and with recent recruits, their numbers have recovered to five thousand."

"To the company, numbers are meaningless unless he has something more compelling," a deep male voice from the other side of the communication device said. "Right now, his worth is even less than that of the armed train that luckily wiped them out."

Haywood expressed sentiment, "Who would have thought the selected company would be obliterated by a force built by survivors? Fortunately, I sent two collectors in advance, and headquarters will receive a complete battle report in a few days."

"A fluke once doesn't mean it will happen every time. A small force that can't even uncover the truth can only linger in the safe zone to cling on," the voice continued.

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