Chapter 48: Tallying the Spoils

Clank, clank.

A standard railway ran through the towering mountain ranges, stretching thousands of miles eastward. Ever since departing from Jiang City, the Infinity had made its first journey from night into dawn.

15:47. Earlier than expected, dawn arrived.

Chen Sixuan had stood guard over the train all night. Without resting, she immediately brought Lou Shasha and Lou Ye along with her to take advantage of the daylight and tally the supplies scavenged the previous night.

In the cab, Lin Xian drank a large bottle of water, feeling much more energized. Fortunately, aside from crushing a few wandering zombies, the night's drive had brought no trouble that would impede the train's progress.

"Thank goodness the Mechanical Heart was upgraded, otherwise hauling so many carriages would have completely broken my physical limits."

Because the added traction decreased the auxiliary operating efficiency of the electric locomotive's stored energy, combined with the physical drain of Lin Xian's ability, he would have been forced to stop and rest every three to four hours.

"The energy issue is something we must take seriously..."

According to his plan, apart from the electric locomotive recovering and storing energy through his ability, he also needed a backup system capable of actively generating power—such as a generator or fuel tanks—to ensure the train could continue running even when his stamina gave out.

Following the law of conservation of energy, increased weight meant increased consumption. Unless he had a small-scale nuclear power unit or his ability underwent an upgrade to incorporate such energy cycles into the loop, breaking this rule and theoretically achieving infinite travel would be impossible.

"Brother Lin!"

Lou Shasha called out excitedly to Lin Xian from a distant carriage. "Come here quickly!"

The train had stopped, and Lin Xian, wanting to step down and get some fresh air, walked over upon hearing her voice. The tailgate of Car No. 5 was already lowered, and the grassy slope beside the tracks outside was covered with all sorts of supplies. Because they had been in a rush during the raid last night, many items were still stained with blood.

"Lin Xian, look, there's so much."

Chen Sixuan wiped the sweat from her brow with a bright smile. She had grabbed a few towels, and since there was a small stream not far from the railway, she was cleaning the items with water while taking inventory.

KIKI jumped down from the train, took Chen Sixuan's tally sheet, and her eyes instantly lit up.

"Three Colts, two Glocks 17, twelve automatic rifles of various models, plus an A33K sniper rifle, and look at all this ammunition..."

"And this!" Shasha pulled their M36 grenade launcher out from among the spoils and said loudly, "This has a huge firepower!"

Lin Xian breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at the piles of loot, he smiled faintly, "Well, at least we won't have to hack giant bugs with knives anymore."

"Oh right, bad guy, there's something else you'd never expect."

KIKI giggled. She climbed up onto the armored vehicle transport carriage, opened the driver's side door, retrieved a remote control from inside, and pressed a switch.

Whirrrr~

At that moment, a drone compartment on top of the armored vehicle opened up, and two small rotary-wing reconnaissance drones slowly lifted into the air.

"With this thing, we can scout the area within a ten-kilometer radius without even stepping out of the train."

"Qian Yu of the Black Flood Fleet is quite impressive," Lin Xian muttered in continuous astonishment, unable to help himself from adding, "His equipment is worth quite a fortune."

"It's just a pity his heavy truck and fuel tanker were driven away..." Lou Shasha said with a hint of regret.

"Aside from that, the various canned goods scavenged from Tang Hai's two supply cars total over four hundred cans, forty-one cases of water, six cases of cola, and even three cases of red wine. Other foods with shorter shelf lives are piled up in half a container, plus over a thousand liters of gasoline!" Chen Sixuan let out a long breath. "This is simply outrageous. The things we found in other survivors' vehicles don't even add up to one-tenth of what's in those two cars."

"Naturally."

Lin Xian's expression turned stern. "That old fox Tang Hai occupied a bomb shelter and God knows how many survivors he pillaged. All his wealth is right here, so of course it's going to be substantial."

He just hadn't expected that after scheming for so long, he would end up letting Lin Xian reap the rewards.

Such a massive quantity of supplies was enough for twenty people to live on for over three months. With only five people on Lin Xian's side, they could practically be described as rolling in wealth.

At the very least, it relieved them of any food and water pressure in the short term.

"There's one more thing..."

With a peculiar look on her face, Chen Sixuan pointed toward the rear of the train. Aside from the four vehicles, Lin Xian hadn't noticed the very last flatbed car. Now that Chen Sixuan mentioned it, he looked over and saw that the three-meter-tall 'Iron Guard 3' military assault armor and the heavy TFV600 double-barreled tank had somehow been loaded onto the train, resting on the final two flatbed trailers.

Lin Xian's expression tightened in shock. "When did you get this thing onto the train? Using a crane?"

That was clearly impossible, because the small crane was electrically driven and unusable by anyone other than Lin Xian. Besides, how could that small crane possibly lift a tank and armor weighing dozens of tons?

"Hmph~"

At that moment, a smug little snort came from nearby. KIKI crossed her arms, jumped down from the train, and lifted her chin.

"Of course I got it up here for you, you dummy. This thing is ridiculously heavy, it took a lot of effort."

A wave of joy washed over Lin Xian. He had been worrying about it earlier, thinking that even if it couldn't be repaired, feeding it to the Mechanical Heart for consumption would be a good option. Who would have thought KIKI had already used her ability to load it onto the train for him.

It seemed that telling this young lady to rest early last night was indeed the right choice; she had come through at a crucial moment.

"You've got a sharp eye. I'll reward you with canned meat today."

"Who cares about your canned meat?" KIKI said proudly. "You... you just need to help me set up that radar system and all those computers today. Oh right, and the heater too. It was freezing cold last night..."

"Was it cold?"

Lin Xian's gaze shifted to Chen Sixuan. Last night, he had been too busy enjoying his cozy nest to notice the bitter cold outside.

Chen Sixuan's face flushed. She quickly averted her gaze and stammered, "Yeah, even the days are dropping below zero now."

As if in response, a desolate and bone-chilling cold wind swept past while they were talking, making everyone involuntarily shiver.

The weather was growing colder by the day, and wind and snow were on the way. Low temperatures were another severe test for the survivors.

KIKI and Chen Sixuan found some fitting clothes from the scavenged luggage, while Lin Xian and Lou Ye didn't feel the cold quite as much, likely due to their bodies being enhanced by their abilities.

"Right, where is Building?"

Because of Lou Ye's massive build, everyone had unanimously agreed to call him 'Building'.

"Brother Xian." Just as they were speaking, Lou Ye stood up from a spot near the pile of supplies. He was repairing a motorcycle right in front of him—none other than Lin Xian's bike.

"Hey, didn't I tell you? When it comes to fixing things, he's much better at it," KIKI said to Building with keen interest.

Building scratched his head with an honest expression, clutching a wrench in his hand. "This... I know a little bit about this."

"Really?"

Hearing that Building knew a thing or two about machinery, Lin Xian nodded and smiled. "Since we're all our own people here, I'll lay my cards on the table."

With that, he turned around, pulled a heavy steel plate from Car No. 5, and tossed it onto the ground.

Then, with a single wave of his hand and a flash of mysterious light, the steel plate lifted into mid-air, rapidly rolling and pressing into a standard shield shape before dropping to the ground.

The others stared in utter astonishment.

Chen Sixuan covered her mouth in shock. This was the first time Lin Xian had displayed the abilities of his Mechanical Heart in front of everyone, aside from driving the train...

Brother and sister Building wore looks of absolute amazement, and Lou Shasha even gasped aloud, "Wow, Brother Lin, what on earth is your ability?"

KIKI widened her eyes and puffed out her cheeks as she watched the scene. It was clear that she hadn't quite recovered her wits yet.

She had originally thought Lin Xian's ability was just driving the train, and later discovered he could generate ice and shoot guns barehanded. But now, seeing him fold a steel plate out of thin air, this ability seemed strikingly similar to her own.

Even after scouring all the internal files of the 'Angel Project', she felt completely clueless at the moment.