CHAPTER 531: CHAPTER 283: WHY DISCRIMINATE AGAINST THE FLESH AND BLOOD TRAIN!

"The first task, Li Shiji completed."

This line of text appeared on the iris chip of every train member exploring the abandoned factory.

It greatly boosted the confidence of Old Pig and the others, who were initially a bit nervous!

Initially a bit worried, since there are a total of thirty-six tasks, but just after entering the abandoned factory, Li Shiji has already completed the first task, which lightened the somewhat oppressive atmosphere considerably.

Everyone also breathed a sigh of relief.

...

"Biaozi... Biaozi..."

The abandoned factory was large, and everyone scattered to explore. Biaozi entered the basement level of the factory, carefully examining the area, which was filled with many large capacity tanks that had been abandoned for a long time, with dust and cobwebs clinging together, drooping along the edges of the tanks.

Biaozi whispered nervously to cheer himself up, and kept a close watch on every corner, not only searching for tasks but also trying to remember every scene he saw, so as not to miss a single clue.

Just then—

The piercing ring of a telephone suddenly sounded on this floor.

"Ring ring ring."

Shattering the previously silent atmosphere in an instant!

Biaozi instantly turned to the source of the sound, clutching the "Giant Wave Gatling" in his arms, and saw an old-fashioned wall telephone continually ringing.

"What era is this, to still see such an old-fashioned telephone? Is Mechanical Civilization really this nostalgic..."

He took a deep breath and looked at the pale yellow question mark next to the telephone.

Stepping forward, he picked up the phone.

"Hello? Can you ask if Old Zhang has arrived over there, this side is already..."

The static was loud.

Only the first half of the sentence could be heard clearly, the latter half was entirely inaudible, leaving only the harsh sound of static electricity.

"Old Zhang?"

After the other party hung up, Biaozi anxiously glanced around. He didn’t even know what the task was supposed to do, could it be to find Old Zhang? There shouldn’t be any living people left in this mechanical factory, right?

The next moment—

A message appeared on the iris chip of all train members who entered the abandoned factory.

"Biaozi triggered a task, needs to find Old Zhang. Provide any relevant clues promptly."

Soon.

Several lines of text flashed across Biaozi’s iris chip again.

"The captain of the third guard team said they saw Old Zhang’s business card on the desk in the security room at the factory entrance, responsible for mechanical maintenance, probably called to repair the giant gear set in the central control room. I’ve already contacted the nearest person to retrieve the business card information in the security room."

"Hold on."

"Found it, the business card has Old Zhang’s contact number, xxx-3148, no other information besides that."

"The first three digits have a coffee stain, unknown for now, hold on... Old Pig has already entered the central control room, there’s also Old Zhang’s business card there, the first three digits are 652."

"Thanks!"

After taking a deep breath and expressing gratitude, Biaozi picked up the phone again and dialed the number. No one answered from the other side, and it automatically hung up after 45 seconds.

But—

The pale yellow question mark on the wall had now turned into a green exclamation mark.

Apparently, the task was simply to find Old Zhang’s phone number and dial it.

"Second task, Biaozi completed."

"Awesome!"

Biaozi excitedly punched the air to cheer himself up, feeling that he had found the right path, becoming more confident, especially with the assistance of President Ai. These people would form a cohesive team, sharing each other’s clues and information.

...

Abandoned Factory, Central Control Room.

Three sides of the control room were glass, with a lone control panel inside, located at a high position. Below the control room was a massive underground space with several giant gear sets, though they were presently in a halted state.

"Nothing at all, just this vending machine."

Old Pig looked at the vending machine inside the central control room and said urgently, "President Ai, help me see if anyone has coins on them."

The casing of this vending machine bore a pale yellow question mark.

"Guided a team member Mountain Cat to return the same route and retrieve the coin from the desk in the employee dormitory, and have also mapped out the fastest route to get here for him."

Ai’s message quickly appeared before Old Pig’s eyes.

Every train member who came to explore, had a Mechanical Eye hanging on the front, back, and both sides of their waist. All visual information of places the train members passed would enter Ai’s database, making it possible to promptly identify clues.

After about five minutes.

Rushed footsteps sounded outside the central control room, and soon, Mountain Cat breathlessly pushed open the room door, holding a coin aloft: "Pig Train Captain, here!"

Old Pig hurriedly took the coin and walked towards the vending machine, glancing at it, it was marked "100" and he casually selected a product priced at exactly 100, inserting the coin.

"Clink."

The sound of coin meeting metal echoed inside the vending machine, a line of text gradually emerged on the screen and it spat out the coin.

"Insufficient change, unable to provide change."

"Please insert a 5-value coin."

Almost simultaneously.

A message appeared once again on the iris chip of all train members who came to explore.

"Need a coin worth 5, everyone keep an eye on clues."

"Let’s go somewhere else, move out!"

Old Pig didn’t linger there further, striding out of the central control room with Mountain Cat and once again splitting up. He had already searched here and found no coin worth 5. That coin had to be in some corner elsewhere, so there was no point in waiting here. Once they found it, they would come back to search.