"Huh?"

Chen Mang stared out the window, the shock of what he was seeing slow to fade. He finally understood how other trains survived in this region.

You can fucking fly?

The train was too far away for his radar to gather any specific information.

But he could see it had no wheels. It rode on a cloud.

It soared above the earth as if riding the wind and mist.

Is the gap between a white zone and a green zone this big? He thought.

In the white zones, we’re still crawling on the ground, and you guys in the green zones are already flying?

"Huh?"

In the Kunlun Mountains, aboard the flying train, a bald man stared back, equally stunned, at the train moving effortlessly across the sheer cliff face. His eyes were wide with disbelief.

What’s going on?

How can that train drive on a ninety-degree cliff?

And...

He glanced at his control console, which displayed the other train’s level.

"Level 2 Train."

Are you kidding me? What’s a Level 2 train doing in the Kunlun Mountains?

Even among the green zones, the Kunlun Mountains were one of the most difficult. An ordinary Level 4 or 5 train would find it extremely dangerous here. How dare a Level 2 train venture into this place?

He knew about the mechanical leg accessory—the "Spider Legs." But if he remembered correctly, it was a green-grade component. Even at max level, it could only handle a 45-degree slope.

Unless...

The man’s brow furrowed. Could this person have poured a massive amount of "Mofei Stones" into the Spider Leg accessory, breaking its level cap? But a Level 2 train shouldn’t have any way of acquiring Mofei Stones. Unless...

Unless this was the relative of some powerful figure.

With that thought, the man’s brow relaxed. He was sure of it. Mofei Stones were special items that allowed an accessory to be upgraded one level beyond its cap, often used to break through limits and gain advanced effects. They were a rare drop, only found in high-level regions.

"Looks like a lot of big shots have come to the Kunlun Mountains..." the man muttered to himself. Yesterday, the Green Dragon boss had spawned in this region. Killing the Level 5 boss would drop a blue-grade accessory, the "Deep Sea Shield." The grade wasn’t particularly high, but it was extremely rare—it only dropped from this specific boss.

And the boss spawned randomly in different regions, making it hard to find.

The accessory was useless most of the time. It was only effective when a train needed to travel underwater. But there were few lakes in any region, so it was rarely used. As for regions with seas, those were at least blue-level zones, and he wouldn’t dare go there.

But in his green zone, he had stumbled upon an "Undersea Labyrinth" in a lake. He needed the "Deep Sea Shield" to explore it.

Otherwise, he never would have come to the Kunlun Mountains. The death rate here was too high, and the monsters too dense. It was a pure monster zone, without a single mine. No sane person would come here.

Except for those lunatics with their Flesh Trains, no one liked this region.

Most people would choose to stay in the surrounding green zones like the "Sand River Plains" or the "Huan River Basin." The danger level was much lower, and there were plenty of high-level resource mines. Besides, different regions had different terrains and dangers. Trains that had been in one region for a long time developed specific methods for dealing with it; going to another region would inevitably lead to problems.

Oh, and there were plenty of trains that came here to hunt Pangolins for the "Drill" accessory so they could go back to their regions and mine underground. Other than those people, no one ever came to the Kunlun Mountains.

He had thought there wouldn’t be much competition.

But now it seemed...

"Oh, well."

The man let out a long sigh and glanced in his rearview mirror. The centipede-like train, climbing rapidly up the cliff face, was already gone. He’d give it a try. If he couldn’t get the boss, so be it.

Having once again escaped disaster, Chen Mang saw that the "Rock Serpent" was no longer on his radar. His frayed nerves finally began to settle, but he gritted his teeth.

—-

Just let me find a Pangolin!

If I don’t upgrade my armor to Level 6, I am never, ever setting foot in this goddamn green zone again!

Is this a place where people can survive?

But...

Now that he was relatively safe, he glanced at his "Resource Detection Radar," a flicker of confusion in his eyes. He’d been in the Kunlun Mountains for several hours now, and the radar had been silent the entire time.

He hadn’t seen a single mine.

Not on the surface, not underground.

Forget the Level 3 iron mine he’d been dreaming of—there wasn’t even a Level 1.

Didn’t they say high-level regions had high-level resource mines?

Where did all the mines go?

Just then—

A piercing alarm suddenly blared from the train’s speakers, followed by the mechanical voice of the "Train Auxiliary AI."

"Pangolin-type monster detected on radar. Twelve Level 2, one Level 3."

"Finally found you!"

Chen Mang’s eyes lit up. The only reason he had risked coming to the Kunlun Mountains was for this damn Pangolin. After being chased for hours, he had finally found it!

On a nearby mountaintop, a group of creatures that looked like a cross between a hedgehog and a jackal were fleeing for their lives. Behind them, a Level 4 Rock Serpent was in hot pursuit across the grassy terrain.

"Hold on, hold on, don’t die! I’m coming!"

Chen Mang gritted his teeth and steered the train up the mountain, aiming to cut off the Pangolins’ path. Just as the two parties were about to meet—

The four heavy machine guns on the roof of the carriages slowly swiveled. As the AI’s "target locked" confirmation sounded in the control car—

DAKKA-DAKKA-DAKKA!!

The heavy report of the machine guns echoed through the mountains.

He didn’t use the crossbows. And he used all Level 3 rounds. He’d finally found the Pangolins; this was no time to be stingy with copper ore. The crossbows’ rate of fire was too slow. In a situation like this, the heavy machine guns were more reliable.

Hundreds of heavy machine gun rounds rained down, enveloping the dozen or so Pangolins.

In an instant, they exploded into a mist of blood. Chen Mang steered the train to skim past the Level 4 Rock Serpent, using the "Magnetic Harvester" to suck up the dropped items. But he was too close, and the serpent was too fast.

CRACK!

The Rock Serpent, enraged that its prey had been stolen, whipped its tail, slamming it into the train. The immense force sent the train flying, and one of the carriages visibly crumpled on impact.

This was the first time his Level 3 armor had taken such a beating.

The train, now airborne, tumbled uncontrollably. The cliff was a full thousand meters high. A free fall from that height was a certain death sentence.

But the more critical the moment, the calmer Chen Mang became. He let the train tumble, his back pressed firmly against his seat, his eyes locked on the nearby cliff face. Now!

The next second—

Two strands of silk shot like arrows from the Spider Legs, aiming for the cliff. They latched on, and the falling train was suddenly arrested in mid-air. Inertia swung it like a pendulum, sending it crashing into the opposite cliff face.

BOOM!!

As the train slammed into the cliff, a dull impact resonated through Chen Mang’s chest. But he had avoided falling into the valley. Without a moment’s hesitation, the Spider Legs found their purchase, and the train once again scrambled up the cliff face.

The screen next to the control console was now flashing red.

"Warning, warning!"

"Carriage #4, Living Quarters, has sustained heavy damage. External armor integrity at 62%."

"Cola Production Line accessory integrity at 78%."

"Steamed Bun Production Line accessory integrity at 81%."

"Spider Leg accessory integrity at 71%."

Chen Mang gave the warnings a cursory glance, then quickly snatched up the loot the Magnetic Harvester had collected. He spotted the white-grade accessory blueprint for the "Drill" and couldn’t help but grin.

He picked up the blueprint and gave it a hearty kiss.

Then he stuffed it into a nearby drawer.

"You bastard," he muttered. "For you, my thousand-plus people almost died here."

"Time to go home!"

"If I don’t get my armor to Level 6, I’m not setting foot in a high-level region ever again!"

The Spider Legs’ original maximum speed had been 170 km/h. Now damaged, their top speed was only 120 km/h. But the mission was a success. All he had to do now was escape the Kunlun Mountains.

He glanced in the rearview mirror at the Rock Serpent on the mountaintop, its body dozens of meters long.

He gritted his teeth.

When he returned to Kunlun Mountain again, if he didn’t wipe out the Rock Serpent to extinction, then he was a bastard.

"Oh my god."

Inside Guards’ Carriage #5, Biao’s eyes were wide with terror as he clung to the iron railing of his bunk, watching the scenery flash by outside the window. His voice trembled.

"I wish so much that the guards’ carriage didn’t have windows."

"If there were no windows..."

"I might be a little less terrified."

This was the first time he’d ever seen a snake made entirely of rock. The massive tail had nearly hit their carriage. If it had, with that immense impact, a few of the unluckier ones among them would have surely died.

At first, when Boss Mang had planned to come to a high-level region, he had been all for it. He’d thought that with the train’s current strength, as long as they were careful, there wouldn’t be too much danger.

But only after arriving did he understand what it meant to dance on a razor’s edge.

So...

So what he had experienced in the "Ironridge Wasteland" wasn’t the apocalypse at all. That was the damn newbie tutorial. Only in a high-level region could you feel what a true apocalypse was, what true despair was.

Could any train survive in this environment?

Did the Train Captains even dare to close their eyes at night?

Weren’t they afraid that the next time they opened them, they’d be seeing their great-grandmother?

"Hallelujah..."

Lao Zhu, beside him, had his hands clasped in prayer, his face a mask of piety. But his trembling body betrayed his true feelings.

"Vice-Captain Zhu, do you think a last-minute conversion is going to work?"

"That’s why I’m not praying to Buddha."

The train was now climbing a ninety-degree cliff face. Lao Zhu was pressed against the wall, clinging to the bed railing for dear life. He forced a bitter smile. "I think I can hear my mother’s voice."

"She seems to miss me."

"Um..."

Just then, Hei Wa sidled up, whispering, "Brother Biao, my stomach hurts. I probably can’t go to the bathroom right now, can I?"

Their hard-sleeper car had its bathroom.

"What do you think?"

"Aren’t you scared at all?"

"Eh..."

Hei Wa scratched his head. "Boss Mang is much stronger than I. If he’s not scared, I don’t need to be. If he is scared, then there’s no point in my being scared either. So what’s there to be afraid of?"

"..."

"..."

Lao Zhu and Biao exchanged a look. After a long moment of silence, they both suddenly relaxed.

"Makes sense."

"If the big guy’s not afraid, what are we afraid of?"

In the Kunlun Mountains, although the train was damaged, the journey back was much safer than the journey in. They now knew where the powerful monsters were and could avoid them.

Finally, several hours later, as the Stellar finally shot through the white light curtain and returned to the Ironridge Wasteland, Chen Mang, whose nerves had been stretched taut, suddenly went limp. He collapsed into his seat at the control console, a long-lost sense of security washing over him. The Ironridge Wasteland was so much better.

His trip to the Kunlun Mountains had left him with a bit of trauma.

Until he had Level 6 armor, he would never set foot in a high-level region again.

And even with Level 6 armor, it wasn’t enough. A violent impact could still injure the people inside the train. He had to find some kind of shock-absorbing accessory.

"..."

Chen Mang sat at the control console, the back of his shirt soaked with sweat. He didn’t pilot the train any further, just sat there, slumped in his chair. He lit a cigarette, his eyes a little unfocused as he watched the smoke curl toward the ceiling, refusing to disperse.

He was safe.

In the Ironridge Wasteland, he was still the absolute hegemon.

No train or monster could harm him.

He didn’t want to think about anything right now, didn’t want to do anything. He just wanted to sit here quietly and finish his cigarette, to calm the thrill of that dangerous journey.

The damaged Stellar sat quietly at the border between the Ironridge Wasteland and the Kunlun Mountains, like a wounded veteran returning from the front, staring at his injuries in a daze.

After a long time, Chen Mang’s emotions gradually stabilized. The cigarette between his fingers had burned down to the filter. He pulled the white-grade accessory blueprint for the "Drill" from the drawer, held it in his hand, and studied it for a long time before finally breaking into a grin and uttering four words.

"It was worth it."

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