Chapter 49 Information Center

At this moment, everyone turned their eyes uniformly toward Lin Xian.

Lin Xian took a deep breath. Having thought about it all night, he finally decided to use the explanation of having multiple abilities to justify his capabilities. "It's true that my ability isn't just a single one. Aside from being able to get the train moving, I can also repair machinery and manufacture machinery. Because of this, I had the confidence to initiate this Infinite Train Project."

Lin Xian couldn't possibly keep secretly devouring and manufacturing machinery forever. Since they were teammates, it was better to be honest with each other.

"If there are materials and blueprints, I can directly manufacture weapons, equipment, and armor. Anything related to machinery is something I can handle."

The Lou siblings exchanged a surprised look. Lou Shasha gasped and said, "Wow, Big Brother Lin, you're so amazing! I knew I didn't save the wrong person!!"

At this point, Lin Xian looked at KIKI with keen interest.

"Little miss, the manufacturing I just mentioned includes the radar systems, sentry systems, weapon systems, defense systems, drones, railcars, medical and life-support systems, and powered armor that you envisioned... Now, do you still think my Infinite Train Project is a pipe dream?"

KIKI’s expression flickered slightly. She opened her mouth, and then stubbornly met Lin Xian's smiling gaze, refusing to back down as she said,

"Th—then so what? Can you design and operate all these systems by yourself?"

"No."

Lin Xian smiled with his eyes narrowing as he looked at KIKI. "That's why I need a genius girl like you to join. Without your information center, aren't all these things just empty shells?"

Hearing this, a flash of subtle delight crossed KIKI's eyes. She cast a sly glance at Lin Xian and smiled, clearly pleased.

"Oh my... Why do these words sound so nice today? Well, if you can get the heating sorted out, then this girl will consider it."

"Alright."

Lin Xian let out a long breath, looking first at Chen Sixuan and then at the others.

"At first, I just wanted to build a mobile safe haven so we could scrape by in this damn endless night and apocalyptic world. But ever since this train started moving, every day has been lived amidst various terrors and dangers. You all must be just like me—living from hand to mouth, running around frantically just to catch a breath and drink a sip of water. A lot of people died during the Endless Night, and those who survived are driven nearly mad..."

"So I realized that under this apocalyptic night and bitter winter, this train needs many friends. Only by working together can we live longer and run farther."

"The Circumstellar Orbit is 320,000 kilometers long. We might not necessarily finish it, and we might not necessarily escape the Endless Night. There might be countless troubles along the way, but as long as there's a chance to live one more day, I don't want to give up. As long as I have a shred of stamina left, I won't let this train stop. Therefore, I hope that whoever boards this train becomes family, facing future life and death together."

His words were spoken very casually and plainly, sounding just like idle chat.

Yet at this moment, the expressions of the others quietly began to shift.

KIKI put away her slyness, fixing her gaze steadily on Lin Xian, deep in thought.

Lou Shasha bit her lip, the timid nervousness in her eyes seemingly replaced by a trace of hope.

Big Lou looked at his sister, then at Lin Xian, and nodded. Although he said nothing, his gaze became much firmer.

As for Chen Sixuan, her eyes grew slightly red. At first, she had relied on Lin Xian merely for self-preservation; now, hearing Lin Xian reintroduce his plan and ideals, her heart was deeply touched. For a split second, she even felt that perhaps starting from now, they would live a life of flight and disaster, but one day, the sun would rise as usual!

"Alright, let's make a simple division of labor first."

With a sigh of relief after finishing his words, Lin Xian felt a greater sense of reassurance as the team gradually grew.

"Okay!" Shasha was the first to raise her hand, her face full of eagerness. "Big Brother Lin, I can take watch at night too. Don't treat me like a kid!"

Lin Xian gave a bitter smile. "You use that grenade launcher with such practiced ease; you don't look like a kid at all."

"Heehee." Shasha looked immensely proud.

"I'm in support!" Teacher Chen beamed with a smile and raised her hand as well. Ever since the Endless Night began, it had been a long time since she felt her mood this cheerful.

"Big Brother Xian, just assign whatever you need me to do," Big Lou said.

"Me too," KIKI looked at him with a beaming smile, her expression turning rare and serious.

"Good!" Lin Xian nodded. After taking stock of the spoils, he began a simple division of tasks among them.

Going forward, Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan would take turns driving the train. After stopping, Big Lou would be responsible for sentry duty. Since Big Lou also understood some aspects of mechanical maintenance, Lin Xian asked him to help with routine inspections and upkeep.

After all, as the train grew larger, expecting him to use his abilities to repair everything—especially small details—was completely unrealistic.

As for KIKI, Lin Xian planned to work with her to re-formulate the subsequent designs for the entire train. Once the radar and sentry systems went online, they would gain an extra layer of early safety warning.

This major haul gave Lin Xian immense confidence in the Infinite Train Project, not only boosting his own expectations for his future abilities but also adding the Lou siblings as two powerful assistants.

Lou Ye was honest, straightforward, and hardworking, blessed with an enhanced-type ability. Combined with his iron-tower physique, he gave people a strong sense of security.

With him on night watch, Lin Xian felt much more at ease.

Furthermore, he understood quite a bit of weaponry and mechanical craft, making him an exceptionally good teammate in terms of both physical strength and skill.

And although Lou Shasha was young, she possessed a relatively mature disposition and a strong sense of loyalty. Lin Xian assigned her to assist Chen Sixuan and KIKI. Now equipped with her own little bed and protected by the train fortress, she had completely shed her previous nervous tension and cheerfully helped organize the train's interior preparations.

According to their route, once they passed out of the mountain ranges, they would soon enter Yubei. As a tier-one city far away from the Abyss disaster zone, it was one of the major cities that entered the Endless Night relatively late. Both Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan felt that the situation there was bound to be extremely complex.

However, the train had to pass through its main hub to enter the true Circumstellar Orbit. Before that, the *Infinite* still had numerous preparations and systems left uncompleted, so the situation remained severe.

Gas turbine trains possessed a steam heating system, and passenger cabins were equipped with warm air systems as well. Theoretically, either could be used, and the quickest method would be to connect the electrical circuits and directly use the cabin's heating system.

However, carriages 1 and 2 differed significantly in model from carriages 3, 4, and 5, with a vast gap in their manufacturing eras. Additionally, considering that he planned to build an integrated water and air circulation system for the entire train later on, Lin Xian decided to design an electrically driven steam circulation and filtration system connected to carriage 1 in collaboration with KIKI. This would not only provide thermal energy but also utilize a distillation system to cycle clean water resources, ensuring a constant supply of drinkable water inside the carriages and even allowing for the luxury of a hot shower...

As for the photoelectric sighting unit and small phased-array radar, KIKI and Lin Xian prepared to mount them at the front of the train for emergency early warning. As for the whole-train surveillance and sentry systems, those would be vastly more troublesome.

On one hand, they required a massive amount of infrared dynamic monitoring, and external armor had to be factored in as well.

Weapon and defense systems were even more troublesome. Moving a close-in weapon system onto a train required, alongside electricity and maintenance, a munitions supply level comparable to a small armory.

Yet this was merely limited to Lin Xian's grand vision; you cannot grow fat in one bite. Things like medical systems, plant cultivation, and oxygen circulation were simply not things that could be accomplished overnight.

Therefore, Lin Xian's current priority was to help KIKI install the information system retrieved from the bomb shelter's combat command center into carriage 2, while simultaneously setting up the photoelectric sighting unit, the small phased-array radar, and... the heating.

There was also one more potential and massive headache: how to conduct construction and repairs if the railway tracks were destroyed!

This issue had always been the most vexing one in the back of Lin Xian's mind.

No matter how powerful the train preparations were, if there were no tracks ahead... wouldn't he become a laughingstock?

Thus, for Lin Xian, there were still far too many things to do, and the troubles along the road were truly too numerous.

Inside carriage 2, a makeshift information center featuring multiple screens had already been set up for KIKI. Once connected to the photoelectric sighting system and radar network, a three-kilometer-wide sector ahead of the train would be detected in advance. However, a response module still needed to be designed so the system could identify which scenarios constituted emergencies during movement, thereby triggering warnings and timely braking.

In this regard, Lin Xian knew absolutely nothing and had to leave it entirely to KIKI.

"Buzz..."

"Buzz..."

"Strange. Theoretically, we've moved away from the ionization effects of the Abyss zone, and it's daytime now; why are all the longwave signals still completely unreachable?" KIKI fiddled with Lin Xian's radio for a long time before letting out a sigh, forced to give up in resignation.

"What about the internet?"

"Don't even think about that." KIKI, wearing a headset, flew her fingers across the system interface and said in a flat tone, "I know the federal government still has a few communication satellites remaining in orbit, but they've all successively disappeared from searches—either damaged or subjected to special shielding interference."

Lin Xian clicked his tongue inwardly. He recalled how he was still able to receive Teacher's Chen's call back in Jiang City; not long had passed, and the communication function had completely given up the ghost.

Moreover, the longwave radio in which he had placed high hopes was also unusable. This was what gave Lin Xian the biggest headache.

Over the radio, the train driving deep within the mountains could now only receive shortwave radio frequencies from within a couple of hundred kilometers around them. Yet being surrounded by mountains, aside from villages and towns, there was basically no other signal from survivors to be picked up.

Thus, Lin Xian and his group spent the quietest and busiest daytime since their departure from Jiang City. Utilizing the backup energy of the electric locomotive, the train ran continuously from dawn until dusk. Eventually, feeling a bit fatigued and prioritizing safety, Lin Xian brought the train to a halt on relatively flat terrain to rest and regroup.

After nightfall, all blackout curtains inside the train were drawn down, yet from the outside, a faintly glowing giant train could still be seen resting quietly upon the rails, its third and fourth carriages now blanketed in heavy exterior armor.

However, unlike the original carriages, the armor used here consisted of ordinary steel combined with a small fraction of the high-strength steel he had previously remaining, making do for now.

Following Lin Xian's division of labor, Chen Sixuan acted like a warm family matriarch, holding the allocated food and water as she distributed them carriage by carriage. When she reached carriage 5, she found that Lin Xian wasn't inside the carriage at all, but was instead outside on the rearmost flatbed carriage, tinkering with something that looked like a mechanized suit.