"Boss, what's your name?"

"Chen Mang."

"Got it, Boss Mang."

After the brief exchange, the two fell silent, continuing to sit cross-legged on the ground as they ate.

Chen Mang was genuinely getting full. He saved two steamed buns and a packet of pickled vegetables, stuffing them into his pockets for later. They bulged conspicuously.

Soon enough—before they had much time to rest—a guard's bellowed command cut through the air.

At his command, all the slaves formed a long line and filed into the mine.

The entrance was nothing more than a small hole on a dusty slope, looking more like an animal's den than a mine. It was completely unremarkable, but the moment Chen Mang stepped inside, he could feel something different about it.

The tunnel spiraled steadily downward.

After about ten minutes of walking, they reached a fork with three separate paths. As instructed beforehand, Chen Mang led the slaves from carriage seven down the leftmost tunnel, while the other two groups entered the remaining paths.

He led his group for what felt like a good half hour before they finally reached their destination.

The space suddenly opened up dramatically.

It was as if they had entered a massive cavern. The ceiling was a good seven or eight meters high, making the space feel vast and empty. Protruding from the ground were lumpy, pitch-black iron formations.

Each one stood about a meter tall.

"This is the ore?"

They look kind of like cauliflower with a bad case of warts, Chen Mang thought. The surface of each formation was covered in grotesque bumps.

Chen Mang squinted, studying the iron lumps growing from the cavern floor. This couldn't be how they mined, could it? It was a far cry from any mining operation he knew of.

"Yeah, it is."

Lao Zhu whispered, hefting the pickaxe in his hand. "As you know, Boss, the world went through some... unique changes after the apocalypse. Supernatural stuff. Take the 'Trains,' for example. If you have a 'Train Token,' you can create your very own Train right out of thin air."

"A lot of resource zones like mines also appeared," he continued.

"Mining in these places is different from the old days. There's no need for purification or anything like that. A slave just has to swing a pickaxe at that iron ore, and an adult male can get about one unit of iron ore per hour."

"This is one of the most common low-level types—a Level 1 Iron Mine."

"We're pretty lucky. Mining here is safe. Not like some of the other mines where you have to dig in lava flows. The danger level there is off the charts."

"This stuff is also the main material for upgrading Trains."

"Here, Boss Mang, take a look at the panel for this pickaxe."

Chen Mang took the pickaxe from Lao Zhu. As he tested its weight, a panel materialized before his eyes.

[Tool Name]: Pickaxe

[Tool Level]: 1

[Tool Effect]: Can excavate Level 1 mines.

The panel was still only visible to him, but from what Lao Zhu said, it was clear that anyone holding the pickaxe could see it. It confirmed that the post-apocalyptic world was full of these supernatural phenomena. That, at least, helped him make sense of things.

"What are the ways to get a Train Token?" Chen Mang asked quietly.

"Oh, there are a few ways," Lao Zhu explained. "For example, killing any monster has a chance for a Train Token to drop, but the probability is tiny. The higher the monster's level, the better the chance."

"Right now, the most common monster we run into is the Level 1 Zombie. A single zombie isn't that strong; any adult with a weapon can handle one. But they rarely show up alone. They usually swarm in a horde."

"If a train doesn't break through the horde's encirclement in time, it can easily get trapped."

"I took a close look at this Train's wheels. They're Level 1 'Windfire Wheels.' 【TN: Wind and Fire Wheels are a famous mythological artifact in Chinese lore, known for incredible speed.】 Their advantage is top-tier speed on flat terrain like the wasteland, but they're useless on rough ground. They can also get jammed up by zombies pretty easily. If we had Level 1 Crawler Treads, we'd handle a horde much better, but we wouldn't be nearly as fast."

"It's all about trade-offs."

"Besides that, there's the 'Market.' From time to time, Train captains get together to trade. You might be able to buy a Token there, but of course, slaves like us would never get the chance to go."

"Those are the only two ways I know of."

"Understood."

Chen Mang nodded, lost in thought. Around them, the other slaves had already grabbed their pickaxes and were swinging them forcefully at the iron lumps, a process familiar to them. No one needed to be told what to do; they all instinctively got to work.

He didn't have to supervise or urge anyone on.

Upgrading a Train requires resources, and gathering resources requires slaves. From that perspective, these slaves are the only real labor force in this world. Their value is self-evident.

"Well, Boss Mang, I'm gonna get to mining," Lao Zhu said.

"Go on."

Nearly a hundred slaves were now hard at work in the cavern. The rhythmic clang, clang, clang of their iron pickaxes striking the ore merged into a single, deafening echo.

Strangely, there was no dust, nor did the iron formations on the ground seem to change at all.

Chen Mang scanned the cavern once more before walking to a quiet corner at the back. He began to study the Train Captain panel that his birthmark had given him.

There were three starter quests.

Only after completing them would the other functions unlock.

The apocalypse had happened some time ago. There were undoubtedly people whose Trains were already at a very high level. In this lawless, dog-eat-dog world, you didn't even have a basic guarantee of safety without a secure Train of your own.

Depending on others was never a long-term plan.

And he had no intention of remaining a slave.

This "Train Captain Panel" was his best shot at catching up.

He looked at the three newbie missions again. The last two—recruiting subordinates and killing ten zombies—didn't seem too difficult. But the first one, owning his Train, felt like a major hurdle.

According to Lao Zhu, getting a Train Token was going to be anything but easy. He'd have to think of a plan.

As he mulled it over, Chen Mang pulled the GLS handgun from his back. It was heavy in his hand, a standard-issue pistol, pitch-black from grip to muzzle.

The magazine was full.

Nine bullets.