Following Lin Xian's plan, in order to achieve a real long-term survival cycle for the train, the most fundamental issue is energy.
This point has been mostly resolved by his superpower, with the only downside being it consumes his physical strength and requires his focus, which makes it difficult for him to be distracted to handle other complex matters.
Secondly is to ensure survival in terms of defense and food.
However, Lin Xian also knows that these things cannot be achieved overnight. Just the No. 1 carriage and the external armor alone took him several months of effort, and expecting to accomplish everything immediately is no more than wishful thinking.
Besides, he's alone in this, as Chen Sixuan can hardly provide any help in this aspect.
"There's a need to find some teammates eventually; first of all, a machine team to take charge of the overall mechanical condition maintenance and driving. We also need someone who knows a thing or two about planting..."
"Like a botanist or hydroponics expert, so we can have some fresh vegetables and fruits, and they can assist in providing water and oxygen purification too."
"Right, speaking of eating, we'll also need a chef..."
"A doctor is indispensable too, in case anyone becomes seriously or slightly ill..."
"We can't just have professionals; we also need good fighters, preferably superpower users."
"Yes, and a sentry team as well..."
The more Lin Xian thought about it, the more outrageous his ideas grew, so he quickly took a deep breath and focused on driving the train.
"Aus Furniture City..."
He saw a huge building from afar. Lin Xian's expression became stern, "This place usually sells various furniture and household items. It's sparsely populated, probably doesn't have much in the way of resources, but we could salvage some items for cold protection, like bedding and such."
Lin Xian didn't have gender issues in mind but rather, since Apocalypse Day, many parts of the world affected by the climate change were experiencing a massive drop in temperatures. Although it was supposed to be summer in Jiang City in August, the daytime temperature was only around twelve to thirteen degrees Celsius, and it got down to a few degrees at night.
Moreover, the temperature was dropping every day.
He surmised that the Dark Tide caused by Star Abyss, which blocked out the sun, had a huge impact on the climate, and it might well bring about a cold ice age. Preparing cold protection items in advance was definitely a case of foresight.
Squeak~
Lin Xian stopped the train on an open-air track, surrounded by a tall wire fence, with the city avenue on both sides of the road.
There were quite a few abandoned vehicles on the road, and due to the sparsely populated area, there were only a few zombies around, making it relatively quiet.
Since the terrain was flat, neither in a tunnel nor on an overpass, it was convenient for him to carry things onto the train. Plus, the wire fence nearby made it relatively safer for Lin Xian to stop here.
"Teacher Chen, you wait for me on the train, I'm going to have a look inside."
Lin Xian took his backpack and short knife and said to Chen Sixuan, "Also, don't open the door for anyone but me, no matter what."
"I understand."
Chen Sixuan looked somewhat nervous, "If there are a lot of items, wouldn't it be better to help you with them?"
"Not for now."
Lin Xian said, "This place looks like it's already been looted, there might not be anything useful. I'll go scout first, and if there is, then you can come down and help move them."
He threw Chen Sixuan a walkie-talkie, "Let's keep in touch with this, mobile phone signals might not work."
"Okay." Chen Sixuan replied, holding the walkie-talkie.
Lin Xian opened the hatch, leapt down from the train, looked around, and then climbed directly over the wire fence into the adjacent green belt before crossing the road.
The front of the furniture city featured a large parking lot, which was now in disarray, with a few cars scattered about that had obviously broken down.
His superpower, Mechanical Devouring, was an excellent candidate for scavenging cars, a common sight after the apocalypse. The problem was the long processing time; he estimated that after improving the skill, Mechanical Devouring should become more efficient.
Therefore, to be safe, he could only bring some devourable machines onto the train to operate in a secure environment.
In front of the main entrance of the furniture city, the ground was covered with dark red blood stains, and pieces of seemingly new merchandise were scattered all over, with the cold wind blowing over them, making the scene particularly bleak.
Lin Xian cautiously entered. The space suddenly opened up. He had been here before, and each shop was luxuriously decorated, the corridors wide and quiet, with a low volume of visitors, but now, after the apocalypse, it was even emptier.
Not even a few bodies were seen.
Lin Xian looked at the branded furniture stores along the way. Except for the lights being off, most still maintained a clean and tidy appearance with sofas, mattresses on display, while the second floor had various bathroom fixtures. Because the entire building was incredibly empty, it felt quite eerie to walk inside on his own.
"This memory foam mattress is quite nice, with medium firmness..."
"Latex mattresses, big quilts..."
Such types of goods didn't seem to be valued in the apocalypse, which is why most of the stores here had not been looted.
After all, when it came to life and death, everyone's first thought would definitely be supermarkets and convenience stores. Who would come to a furniture city to grab pillows?
After contemplating for a while, Lin Xian suddenly thought of a troublesome issue - these items were bulky, and it wouldn't be easy to take them away.
He wandered around, then made his way to the loading zone through the fourth exit. There, Lin Xian suddenly spotted several forklifts and a flatbed truck, which caught his eye. Just as he approached, a zombie, rotten all over, suddenly ran out of the freight elevator passage towards him!
Ugh!!!
A strong, putrid smell hit him in the face, and Lin Xian reflexively stepped back. Upon seeing it clearly, he immediately raised his hand and pointed!
Thud!
The Wind Cannon blasted out, instantly blowing a hole in the middle of the zombie's head.
Thud. The zombie lunged at nothing and fell stiffly to the ground, twisted twice, and then lay still.
Looking at the garment, which was still an orange-yellow loading worker's uniform on the zombie, he guessed that it was probably a worker who sought refuge in this building.
[Wind Cannon LV.1 4/100]
Each use of this move increased its proficiency by a point, but Lin Xian found that it wasn't easy on his energy reserve, so he had to use it cautiously.
With this in mind, he pulled out his Short Knife from behind. As a superpower user, he was not under much pressure against ordinary zombies – as long as he didn't alert the Dark Tide or other monsters, there wouldn't be much of a problem.
The door of the flatbed truck was open, and the fuel cap was as well. It was obvious that someone had beaten him to it and had run off after draining the fuel.
No wonder others didn't even bother to rescue it and simply took the oil to escape.
This type of ordinary small truck had a basic configuration and wasn't powerful, which is why few survivors would choose such a low-displacement vehicle.
But for Lin Xian, it was a treasure delivered to his doorstep.
So he got out of the vehicle and directly started up a forklift using his superpower, then boldly drove the forklift back into the furniture city through the rear entrance.
He planned to make his living quarters in Carriage 1 a bit more comfortable. During the apocalypse, having a comfortable living environment undoubtedly lifts one's spirits. With his superpower at hand, Lin Xian did not want to live like a rat in the sewers, always scrounging for survival in damp and dirty shelters.