Drip, drip.
Lin Xian silenced his watch's reminder, staying awake for two straight nights. At this point, his mind had become somewhat hazy.
Listening to the various eerie sounds from outside, smelling the stench wafting from the cold-storage, Lin Xian had finally made it to 16:00 the next day.
It was light outside.
But now it was afternoon, with only 2 hours and 45 minutes left until darkness fell.
Constantly vigilant, Lin Xian peeked out of the watchtower to view the warehouse interior, which was now brightly lit, and he could finally see the scene outside clearly.
The door of Freezer No. 1 had been torn open, the stainless-steel door specially made of composite materials twisted bizarrely, with bloodstains all over the ground. Flesh hung everywhere—on the door, on the floor—while a few zombies still wandered outside the freezer, some even gnawing on a half-eaten corpse.
Lin Xian recognized a familiar tattoo on that corpse, seemingly the middle-aged man's, and a sense of satisfaction rose in him right away!
Served him right!
Those who played the fishing game in the apocalypse deserved a whole family wiped out.
Lin Xian's gaze turned icy as he quickly grabbed the walkie-talkie to check on the others,
"Teacher Chen, are you alright?"
On the other end, Chen Sixuan, who had spent a fearful night, heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing Lin Xian's voice and quickly responded,
"I... I'm fine, what about you?"
"I'm also fine." Hearing that Chen Sixuan was fine, Lin Xian felt somewhat relieved; he continued to survey the outside, ensuring that dreadful insect wasn't present before he continued speaking to Chen Sixuan,
"I'll be right back, everything will go according to yesterday's plan. There's an electric locomotive on Track 4, remember to coordinate with me later."
"Okay!"
After that, Lin Xian once again opened the large door of the cold-storage, aiming the Wind Gun through the crack to shatter the metal chain!
The zombies outside, hearing the noise, immediately screeched and lunged at him.
Lin Xian drew his knife in a swift motion, dispatching several zombies effortlessly with successive shots of the Wind Gun.
Owing to the commotion last night, too many zombies had been attracted; Lin Xian realized there were at least dozens more zombies wandering outside as he stepped out of the warehouse door.
After considering for a moment, he quietly ran to the empty building materials warehouse at Freezer No. 1. There, he let off a few Wind Gun shots, producing noises that quickly attracted the few dozen zombies on the platform over.
As long as there were no strange creatures from the night, dealing with just zombies was relatively simpler for Lin Xian given his superpower.
Soon, he ran off the platform and toward the Huanxing 7F electric locomotive he had spotted yesterday. Activating Mechanical Heart, he opened the automatic door to the cabin.
Then, he disengaged the locomotive's head from its coupling and uncoupled from the carriage bridge. The towing engine roared softly, gradually driving the giant electrical beast away from the platform.
On another note, Lin Xian also uncoupled Carriage No. 1 from the Whale 03E and after a sequence of switches, with Chen Sixuan's assistance, he finally connected the Huanxing 7F electric locomotive accurately to the second position.
From now on, the "Infinity" boasted five carriages, with the armored-enchanced Whale 03E Heavy Gas Turbine locomotive at the forefront, which also served as the cockpit, while the Huanxing 7F Electric Locomotive, designed for kinetic energy recovery and power storage, was placed in the second position. Further back was the No. 123 Living Carriage.
Because the Huanxing 7F Electric Locomotive was twice as long as the Whale 03E, it looked somewhat sci-fi, and both were designed with connected cab bridges, allowing people to walk directly from the front of the train to the back.
However, due to its temporary addition, Lin Xian hadn't had time to upgrade the electric locomotive's armor, but after completing the connection there simply wasn't the time to do so. Taking advantage of the remaining daylight, Lin Xian directly launched the newly formed "Infinity" and began traveling eastward along the Jiangyu Line.
Clang, clang.
The train picked up speed urgently.
Lin Xian increased the speed to around 80KM, and at the same time, due to the increased load, his physical energy consumption was greatly increasing.
"There are no tunnels along the way to North Bay Station, and the terrain is relatively flat. We just need to be cautious about potential rockslides."
Chen Sixuan was beside him, recording the speed, and reminded Lin Xian.
Lin Xian nodded, "Alright, I'll stop the train immediately if anything arises."
"How about those people from yesterday?"
"Dead."
Lin Xian glanced at Chen Sixuan, "A whole family of bad folk, setting traps to rob and murder, all eaten clean by zombies last night."
Chen Sixuan's expression shifted subtly. She knew Lin Xian had his methods, but hearing him speak of an entire family dead, she couldn't help but feel disturbed. In such a short span, a world that was once harmonious and safe had suddenly turned into a life-or-death hell.
For Chen Sixuan, who grew up in the 'honey pot' environment of a highly educated family, it was still somewhat difficult to accept.
"Zzzt—This is the [Oasis] convoy, final call, final call. If you have supplies, weapons, or possess any kind of superpower, you can join our team for a chance at survival. Huddle together for warmth, abandon all illusion..."
"Zzzt—The entire 312 highway outbound from the city is paralyzed and blocked. The only way around is via Forest Road. There are significant zombie hordes in the eastern district, so don't shoot lightly, or no one will be able to break out..."
"Zzzt—[Jiang City Fortress] welcomes all superpower users and beauties. We've taken root in the Jiang City military nuclear facility bunker, with a population over 300, clear division of labor, capable of withstanding the polar night..."
"Zzzt—Today is the last day, I repeat, I am at Mingwang Residential Complex, Block A, Suite 1304, with ample supplies, the safest end-of-days shelter, only offering refuge to beautiful women aged 16-30, with only 2 spots remaining..."
"Zzzt—Communication from the Yu Bei City Patrol Camp: Yan City and Feng City have both entered the polar night; along the Lin Mountain Range moving eastward, from Jiang City to Luolin City and on to Hechi and the Minjiang area, 100 to 300 kilometers out, large-scale Abnormal Bodies have erupted, with ominous radiation levels..."
The radio reported that Yan City and Feng City, not far from Jiang City, had already fallen. According to feedback from numerous survivors, if one could run 200-300 kilometers in the eastern direction, they might regain an hour of daylight.
From this, they could roughly calculate the speed at which the No. 3 "Star Abyss" Dark Tide was devouring the world.
Two to three hundred kilometers might not sound far, but in the context of this post-apocalyptic world where transportation was paralyzed and zombies were rampant, making it through the night meant facing an endless fear of death—it was by no means an easy feat.
Chen Sixuan, with the logbook in hand, calculated,
"If the survivors' reports are accurate, if we pass Yushan today and make it into North Bay Station, we should expect daylight around 16:30 tomorrow."
"We can't make it that far."
Seated in the driver's seat, Lin Xian shook his head, "As soon as it gets dark, we'll have to stop. I have no confidence in driving at night right now, plus road conditions and visibility are problematic."
At this point, Lin Xian started to think that he might need to equip radar or drones to help him check the road conditions ahead, otherwise driving blind could result in anything from derailment to obstacles like boulders on the track, with minor accidents leading to derailment and major ones to a total loss of both train and lives.