CHAPTER 535: CHAPTER 283: WHY DISCRIMINATE AGAINST THE FLESH AND BLOOD TRAIN! _5

Just wait here like this, isn’t it?

Anyway, only the top five can enter the third round. Everyone is here, so why is he in such a hurry? Just wear them down!

...

"There’s still one hour left."

In the Fixed Star train cabin, Chen Mang looked at the control panel and said softly. Five hours had passed since the task began, and a new wave of zombies had arrived. All 41 "Viper Unmanned Combat Aircrafts" were hovering in the air, raining bombs on those 1,000 Level 16 zombies.

The zombies appearing now were already Level 16 zombies.

The train could hold on for at most one more hour—this was the limit. Beyond that, it was basically impossible to continue, as the ammunition was running low.

He glanced at the screen displaying Old Pig and the others exploring.

In this level, he had to stay in the train cabin. The task required that "the Train Captain must stay aboard the train," and didn’t specify if he could command them, but he didn’t want to tempt fate. Biaozi and others were performing well, and they didn’t need his directions.

From start to finish, the only time he intervened was when he asked Ai to take the zombie corpse away.

And at this moment—

Three tasks remained.

With one hour left for three tasks, it seemed like enough time. After all, they had completed six tasks in just half an hour at the start, making rapid progress, like a blessed opening.

However...

The reality was that only three tasks had remained two hours ago. An hour had passed, and there was no progress. For one of the tasks, they hadn’t found any clues; the other two tasks hadn’t been located at all.

Yes, they hadn’t even found where the tasks were.

The entire mechanical factory had been searched thoroughly, but they still couldn’t find them. Even the secret rooms on the 3D map drawn by Ai had been visited, yet they stubbornly couldn’t find where the remaining two tasks were hidden.

"Come on..."

All Chen Mang could do at this moment was silently cheer them on. He had already imagined the scene of celebration, and also how to comfort everyone if they failed. He didn’t know which would come true; he could only say he’d do his best.

He had no clue where those last two tasks were hidden either.

He turned his head and looked outside the train, refocusing on the incoming enemies. The monsters’ levels were gradually increasing, and the train could no longer operate on its own. He needed to control it manually. The rest was up to Biaozi and the others, hoping for a miracle.

It’s time to offer incense to the old master up in the heavens.

...

Inside the abandoned mechanical factory.

Old Pig and Biaozi met at the core area of the factory. They looked at the massive gear assemblies in front of them and exchanged a gloomy glance, shaking their heads. They still had three tasks left.

One task’s clues were completely elusive.

That task was related to the several massive gear assemblies at the center of the factory. On the steel surface of one of the gear assemblies, a faint yellow question mark was imprinted.

What were the clues? Nobody knew.

They also had no idea what they were supposed to do.

As for the remaining two tasks, they couldn’t find them at all.

"One hour left."

Biaozi hoarsely said with a grim expression, "Not enough time; why not tell Master Mang and let all the train residents come in to look for clues? By now, there shouldn’t be any clues left to destroy."

Initially, they didn’t allow so many people in because they feared the crowd would destroy the clues, like coins or similar items. With so many people, who knew where those things could be kicked to?

"No way."

Old Pig shook his head. "Haven’t you noticed these 36 tasks are interconnected? If the train residents come in, we’d have to recap the plot for them. With so many people flooding the factory, some clues would definitely be destroyed."

"Keep searching, there are only three tasks left. There must be clues we haven’t found yet."

At that moment—

A message appeared on the iris chip of all the train members who had come to explore.

"Li Shiji found a notice in the archive room from the factory manager looking for his lost password diary. It’s the latest notice, meaning it was probably the last one issued before the factory fell. Everyone, focus on finding the diary related to that clue."

"A diary?"

Biaozi was slightly stunned, then turned to the massive gear assembly beside him, raising his voice, "That’s right, wasn’t it said that the factory manager often deliberately damaged the giant gear assembly? If it was severely damaged, the factory would halt, causing heavy losses."

"If it was only slightly damaged, the factory had staff repairmen, making it unnecessary to hire Old Zhang."

"So, there’s definitely a method to damage this giant gear assembly just right, and that method was likely written by the manager in his diary."

"As long as we find the diary, we can complete this task!"

The two exchanged a glance, seeing excitement and renewed hope in each other’s eyes, urgently striding out of the core area!

"Would something like that be recorded in a diary? Does someone really write such things in a diary?" Old Pig said anxiously.

"Isn’t it a password-locked notebook?"

"Who would have stolen it?!"

"It must have been Old Zhang."

"We’ve already searched Old Zhang’s body and found no diary."

"He must have handed the diary over to someone else. For instance, if he wanted to rope in the factory manager’s wife, he’d need some evidence, right? To convince the factory manager’s wife that her husband was really unfaithful. This diary is likely the evidence, with the factory manager recording his sordid affairs in it, so this diary must be in the hands of the factory manager’s wife."