After consuming 1,550 units of iron ore, the white-grade binoculars in Chen Mang’s hand were upgraded to Level 20.

And he gained a third Advanced Effect.

[Binoculars Level 20 Advanced Effect]: Can see through illusion.

"Illusion?"

A flicker of confusion crossed Chen Mang’s eyes. A Buddhist term appearing in the apocalypse seemed out of place. And he didn’t understand what it meant. What did "see-through illusion" mean?

He immediately picked up the binoculars and looked out at the group of slaves eating on the ground in the cavern.

He shouldn’t have looked.

One look and he was rendered speechless.

It saw through the illusion.

In the binoculars, all the slaves were now naked, sitting bare-assed on the ground. All illusions were gone.

But...

He looked down at the binoculars in his hand. If this were a modern, civilized society, this thing would surely be sought after by many. Not that everyone was a pervert, but every human being had a strong desire to peek.

Especially the feeling of secretly observing others—it was too intoxicating.

Not just limited to peeping at others’ naked bodies.

For example...

Peeking at someone’s diary, peeking at someone’s social media, peeking at someone’s life, and so on.

But in the apocalypse, the existence of this thing was much less significant.

After all, he was the captain of the Stellar. If he had such thoughts, he could just start selecting his concubines. Why would he need "Binoculars"? Just have them all wash-up and line up, and he’d pick them one by one.

That being said...

But...

"Hmm."

Chen Mang picked up the binoculars again and looked out at the group of slaves. The feeling was quite novel. Was this the charm of black technology? This was a bit too black.

After a moment, he weighed the binoculars in his hand and couldn’t help but laugh as he tossed them aside. He was holding a Level 20 pair of binoculars. No one would believe he had upgraded a pair of binoculars to Level 20.

He could have upgraded the binoculars to Level 10 and sold them. Many novice Train Captains would be quite suitable for this thing.

But there was no need.

A Level 10 pair of binoculars cost 560 units of iron ore in materials alone.

Novice Train Captains were all dirt poor. How much should he sell it for?

If it were too little, he wouldn’t make much profit. If it was too much, those novice Train Captains couldn’t afford it. And novice Train Captains didn’t even have a "Train Radio," so he couldn’t even contact them to sell it. He had no sales channel.

He couldn’t possibly run around the wasteland all day looking for novice Train Captains. With that kind of time, he might as well mine more ore.

And...

He wasn’t very keen on exposing his "Infinite Upgrade" secret. A person should have a bit of mystery; being too transparent wasn’t good.

Finally, Chen Mang’s gaze fell on the "Vehicle Sound System" and the "Internal Fire Control System." These were the only two accessories he hadn’t upgraded yet. Especially the former—he was very curious about what its upgraded Advanced Effect would be.

Oh, right, there was one more accessory that hadn’t been upgraded.

The "5.6mm Rifle Bullet Production Line."

It was used to produce the bullets for the Dragon Assault Rifle. The bullet production line he had upgraded last time was for the heavy machine gun. After upgrading these three accessories, besides some really expensive ones like the "Armor," most of the accessories on the Stellar would be Level 10.

If he upgraded the heavy machine gun bullet production line and the rifle bullet production line to Level 5, maybe he could add some special effects to the bullets, like armor-piercing rounds, and get the corresponding Advanced Effects.

The Stellar would truly be a super-equipped Level 2 train.

There were a dozen or so Level 3 trains on the "Ironridge Wasteland," but none of them had a foundation as strong as the still-Level 2 Stellar.

In terms of foundation...

He even felt that even the Level 4 trains in the high-level regions... well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but the Level 3 trains on the Ironridge Wasteland were definitely not as well-founded as his.

"It hasn’t been easy."

Having planned his next steps, Chen Mang felt a weight lift from his shoulders. He looked at the reassuringly large number of iron ore on the train’s panel, leaned back in his chair with a satisfied smile, crossed his feet on the table, lit a cigarette, and let the swirling smoke drift to the ceiling and out the sunroof.

He had been in this world for so many days.

Only today could he say he had truly established his foundation in this world.

Once he had mined out all the iron ore in the Ironridge Wasteland, the monsters in the Kunlun Mountains would no longer be able to chase him like they had last time.

What a difference a few days made.

But...

Chen Mang looked at the "No. 4 Living Carriage" and "Cola Production Line" and other accessories on the control console screen, their integrity having dropped to 70%. Logically, the train would often be damaged.

There had to be a way to repair the reduced integrity. After all, reduced integrity affected the function of the accessories. For example, after the "Spider Legs," integrity dropped, and their fixed maximum speed was reduced by quite a bit.

You couldn’t just replace a damaged accessory with a new one, could you?

Who do you think you are, spending like that?

He asked about it on the "Train Radio," but no one gave him an answer. Only the "Bloodthirsty Bull Train" private messaged him, saying he had once seen a Level 3 Train Captain mention this on the radio, saying that after a train was upgraded to Level 3, there was a way to repair damaged accessories.

Before upgrading to Level 3, you just had to make do with damaged accessories. If they were unusable, you just replaced them.

Chen Mang naturally knew why no Level 3 Train Captain had come out to answer. One, they had no obligation to. Two, they didn’t want to tell him. They were probably a little unhappy seeing a Level 2 train firmly occupying the top spot on the leaderboard.

Although they didn’t dare to show it now, they could at least ignore him, right?

His answer to that was no.

Before leaving the Ironridge Wasteland, he would pay each of them a visit, especially that "Purple Cloud" who said he wanted to have a go at him.

He wondered what that Purple Cloud, who had been so eager to have a go at him a few days ago, was thinking now, seeing his Stellar rapidly climbing the "Ironridge Wasteland Power Value Regional Leaderboard" and firmly occupying the top spot. He probably regretted it a little.

He was probably praying in his heart that he wasn’t a vengeful person.

But...

Unfortunately, he was exactly that kind of person.

If they hadn’t attempted, they wouldn’t know how to write the "Mang" in Chen Mang. 【TN: A play on the character’s name—"mang" (莽) means "reckless" or "rash"】

"..."

Chen Mang glanced down at the "莽" (Mǎng) birthmark on the back of his hand, then chuckled and shook his head.

When a person is riding high, everything seems to feel good.

If only life could always be this good.