In the cavern, two thousand meters beneath the Apocalypse Abyss.

Biao patrolled back and forth with his rifle, eyes fixed on the working slaves, not daring to relax for a second. With so many slaves now, it wasn’t like before. Any small mistake would be a dereliction of his duty.

He wasn’t worried about a successful slave revolt.

After all, with Boss Mang around, that was impossible.

But suppressing a riot would inevitably lead to slave deaths, and he, as head of the guards, would likely bear the responsibility.

Just then—

"Brother Biao."

Hei Wa sidled up to him and whispered, "Got any smokes? Haven’t had one all day, and I’m craving one."

Biao frowned.

"Didn’t I give you a patrol route? Who told you to wander off? If something goes wrong, are you going to take the blame?"

"I’m out of smokes, too. Get back to your post."

"Heh heh..."

Hei Wa chuckled sheepishly and lowered his voice. "A few days ago, in the Taiping City ruins, we scavenged a lot of cigarettes. I told you to keep a few packs, Brother Biao, but you turned them all in. You said Boss Mang would give us some, but he hasn’t."

"Why don’t you go talk to Boss Mang about it?"

"..."

Biao looked at Hei Wa, his expressionless face. After a long moment of silence, he said softly, "Hei Wa, before the apocalypse, I was your foreman. You followed me on construction sites. I brought you out of the village."

"After the apocalypse, I took you with me wherever I went. I saved your life a few times."

"You haven’t forgotten those two debts, have you?"

"Of course not. What’s wrong?"

"Then don’t make comments that put me in a difficult position." Biao patted Hei Wa on the shoulder and said quietly, "A few days ago, while we were in the carriage, you asked if you could have a chance with Ji Chuchu, claiming it was something Boss Mang had promised. Vice-Captain Zhu’s expression darkened immediately as soon as you said that."

"Is that something you should be saying?"

"Everyone knows your position on the train is as my confidant, someone who’s been with me from the start. If you keep running your mouth like this, where does that put me?"

"You want me to go ask Boss Mang for cigarettes?"

"Do you think I have the right look for that, or do you?"

"If I refuse you, you might even hold a grudge against me, thinking I’m getting all high and mighty now and don’t care about my old brother’s feelings, right?"

"I’m not lecturing you. I just hope you’ll be more careful with your words in the future. My position on the train isn’t that high either. It sounds nice to be called head of the guards but to be blunt, Boss Mang just needs someone in this position. He doesn’t care who it is."

"Understand?"

"Look at Erdan. He barely says a word. He’s still patrolling his route right now. Learn from him. When you’re working, don’t think about other things. Go now."

Erdan and Hei Wa had both been with him since before the apocalypse, from the same village. Many guerrilla construction teams were like that—workers all from the same village, sticking together when they were away from home.

"Brother Biao, but I remember you still have that ’last cigarette’ in your pocket, right? How about you give me that one first?"

"..."

Biao looked at Hei Wa, who suddenly seemed like a stranger. After a long moment of silence, he took the cigarette case from his breast pocket, pulled out the last cigarette, and handed it to him.

He watched Hei Wa retreating for a long time without speaking, a shadow gradually falling over his eyes.

That was his last cigarette.

Although things were going well now, in the apocalypse, you never knew when you would die. So he always kept one cigarette in his pocket, calling it his "last cigarette," to be smoked right before he died, to put a not-so-perfect period on his life.

Hei Wa knew this.

But he never thought Hei Wa would ask for that cigarette.

Hei Wa had gotten a little full of himself, especially with all the new slaves joining. Every slave who saw him was extremely respectful, which made Hei Wa think he had high status on the train, completely forgetting who had given him that status in the first place.

When Lao Zhu reprimanded Hei Wa today, he was essentially reprimanding Biao. Although he was embarrassed at the time, he had still spoken up for Hei Wa.

Now it seemed that if he didn’t change Hei Wa’s character, Hei Wa might even bring disaster upon him in the future.

He knew Hei Wa enjoyed this feeling of being superior.

When he had first joined Boss Mang, on their first field mission, Hei Wa had suggested he hide the "Train Token" they found and start his crew later. He could understand that thought, but such an untimely idea was extremely fatal to the Stellar.

"..."

Biao sighed softly and looked down at the Dragon Assault Rifle in his hands. He and Hei Wa had been together for so long that he certainly wouldn’t kill him over something so small. He admitted he wasn’t a good person, but he couldn’t bring himself to harm his brother.

He’d find a chance to talk to Hei Wa tonight.

If this continued, something bad was bound to happen.

Hei Wa’s mentality was already on a dangerous edge.

Inside the Stellar’s control car.

Chen Mang had his feet propped up on the table, a bag of potato chips in his lap as he enjoyed the apocalypse movie on the screen. Although the plot was a bit cliché, it was still pretty good overall.

From the movie, he could also glimpse the culture of this world.

This feeling of deeply understanding a world was quite nice.

He hadn’t been this relaxed in a long time.

In the apocalypse, moments of relaxation like this were rare.

He glanced at the Train Radio. A few minutes ago, he had asked on the channel if anyone had an accessory that could produce oxygen and headlights. After he sent the message, the Train Radio instantly exploded.

Many people were very excited, some expressing their admiration for the big shot, others asking for his experience, and so on.

But...

Until now, no one had private-messaged him saying they had the relevant accessories.

"Hmm..."

Chen Mang suddenly thought of something. He put the potato chips aside, took out a bottle of ice-cold cola, and drank half of it before sitting up straight at the control console, looking at the green-grade "Train Radio" accessory.

This accessory was Level 1.

Of course, he had never thought of upgrading it before. After all, according to the information he had, upgrading this accessory had no effect. Whether upgraded or not made no difference.

But he suddenly wanted to see what kind of advanced effect this accessory would have if he upgraded it to Level 10.

No sooner said than done.

After consuming 9,000 units of iron ore, the "Train Radio," the most commonly used and most easily overlooked accessory, was successfully upgraded to Level 10, gaining two corresponding advanced effects.

[Train Radio Level 5 Advanced Effect]: You can pin your message to the top of the screen. Each pin costs 10 units of iron ore.

[Train Radio Level 10 Advanced Effect]: You can trade with other Train Captains remotely through the Train Radio.

"Huh?"

Chen Mang was stunned, a flicker of shock in his eyes. He had only upgraded the "Train Radio" to Level 10 on a whim since he was sitting on two Level 2 iron mines and didn’t have to worry about iron ore for a short time.

He never expected the advanced effects to be so outrageous.

The Level 5 advanced effect was basically a controllable announcement slot.

The Level 10 advanced effect was even more incredible. It saved him a lot of time. In the future, he wouldn’t have to go to the gathering to trade with others; he could just do it remotely.

This far exceeded his expectations.

He had originally thought the advanced effect might be the ability to join other regions’ chat rooms.

When he went to the "Kunlun Mountains" yesterday, he had glanced at the Train Radio in his spare time and found that it was blank. He hadn’t joined the Kunlun Mountains region’s chat room. It was probably because he was just a passerby and hadn’t officially entered the green zone, so his permissions weren’t high enough.

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