"This..."
Old Pig, who had already prepared to die with his hands tightly holding the pickaxe, suddenly noticed that the zombies at the entrance of the carriage, who were about to rush in, fell into chaos for some unknown reason and then quickly dispersed.
The zombies actually ignored their carriage.
Only the sounds of terrified screams from other carriages could be heard.
He instinctively looked around the carriage, finally stopping his gaze on Chen Mang. Although he didn't know what was happening, he was certain of one thing: these slaves definitely couldn't have achieved this, only Chen Mang could have.
From the very beginning, Chen Mang was different from the other slaves.
Not only did he not have the completely resigned, lifeless look, but his body was obviously much cleaner, clearly recently bathed. Although he didn't know where Chen Mang had been hiding this past year, during Doomsday, not everyone had the opportunity to bathe.
The fellow he recognized as Big Brother... seemed pretty impressive.
...
"..."
Chen Mang's eyes slightly narrowed as he casually glanced back inside the carriage, each slave's expression was spectacular, but overall, there was a mix of terror and a touch of post-crisis excitement.
The carriage was small, but nearly a hundred slaves were packed inside.
If this Corpse Tide successfully dispersed, managing these one hundred slaves would be quite a hassle. He now only had three bullets left. Fortunately, the image he had established from the start was that of cold ruthlessness. These people didn't know how many bullets he still had. With Old Pig's cooperation, it should be possible to try.
If it doesn't work...
The safest approach was naturally to, while the Corpse Tide was still present, throw a part of the slaves out to feed the zombies, leaving a dozen or so slaves, ensuring total control, although productivity would significantly decrease.
During Doomsday, death was constant, especially slaves who were such rare resources; it's best not to waste them if possible.
If he hadn't inherited these carriage slaves from the Train Captain, it wouldn't have been easy to gather a hundred slaves on the wasteland.
Basically, there were no women or elderly, just a group of men.
...
Just like that—
After more than ten minutes, the Corpse Tide continued to swarm ahead like locusts, bypassing their carriage.
When Chen Mang jumped out of the carriage and stood on the wasteland, he looked at the once-empty wasteland. The weight lifted from his heart that he had been carrying. Safety was temporary.
"Mang!"
Old Pig, also holding a pickaxe, glanced around, his tone somewhat helpless: "You've led us through a disaster, but... the train head ran away, and these carriages have no power. We're far from villages and towns, won't survive long deep in the wasteland."
Chen Mang shook his head but said nothing. He simply took out from his pocket the "Rare Train Order" he had just obtained.
The token was shaped in an upside-down triangle, entirely black, with the three words 'Train Order' embedded in scarlet.
"This..."
Old Pig, just about to say something, looked at the Train Order in Chen Mang's hand and was suddenly bewildered, dazedly raising his head to look at Chen Mang.
Where the hell did this Train Order come from?
No, that's not right!
Even killing zombies, these low-level monsters, had an extremely small chance of dropping Train Orders, but when the Corpse Tide retreated and he looked outside, nothing had dropped.
In the next moment—
"Boom!!!"
Accompanied by a tremor in the ground, a train suddenly floated in the air and then landed heavily.
But...
This train only had a train head, with no following carriages.
Entirely black, with a matte texture, it looked unlike a modern train head, more like a steam-era train head, with a heavy sense of antiquity.
...
"You activated the Rare Train Order and obtained a train of your own."
"Due to being a Rare Train Order, compared to ordinary Train Orders, you additionally acquired a level 1 accessory 'Earth Core Melting Furnace', an accessory that can only be obtained from a Rare Train Order."
"..."
Chen Mang looked at the panel in front of him, but compared to the panels originally in the world, his train's panel color was whiter.
Does the Rare Train Order only have the Earth Core Melting Furnace as an extra?
He subconsciously looked at the four words 'Earth Core Melting Furnace' on the panel. These four words were deep red, highlighted.
-
"Accessory Name": Earth Core Melting Furnace.
"Accessory Grade": Red.
"Accessory Level": Level 1.
"Accessory Effect": Can devour level 1 trains and decompose their carriage vehicle accessories into resource units.
"Upgrade Condition": 100 units of level 1 iron ore.
-
"Hmm..."
After pausing for a moment, Chen Mang turned to Old Pig: "Generally speaking, for these abandoned carriages, can I take the vehicle accessories from them for use on my own train?"
"Yes."
Only then did Old Pig recover from the shock of a train head suddenly appearing; he replied dazedly: "As long as they're complete vehicle accessories, of course, you can take them for your own train."
"But if they're damaged vehicle accessories, they can't be used, they're just left there."
"There's a group in the wasteland known as Scavengers. These people use motorcycles to collect the usable accessories from abandoned trains, take them back to sell, while the damaged vehicle accessories are left along with the carriages in the wasteland."
"After all, monsters only eat people, not this steel."
"The wasteland has quite a lot of useless abandoned carriages piled up."
Chen Mang's eyes lit up, and he nodded with satisfaction.
The information was rich.
From it, he gleaned two bits of information: the wasteland had numerous abandoned trains for his train head to devour, and... the "Rare Train Order" was indeed rare and valuable; otherwise, these abandoned trains would have already been devoured by "Earth Core Melting Furnace" and wouldn't be left until now.
Excellent.
Chen Mang didn't immediately check his train panel further. Instead, he first took Old Pig back to Carriage 7 with the slaves, holding the gun while sweeping over each slave, his expression icy cold, one word at a time.
"From now on, I am the new Train Captain."
"You will be my first batch of slaves."
"I will provide you with food; you only need to continue mining like before. Just one thing, I don't want anyone to defy my orders."
"Remember."
Having said this.
Chen Mang didn't wait for any reaction from the slaves, but instead turned to Old Pig: "Make sure each of them submits the iron ore they mined in the caves in an orderly manner. If anyone disobeys you, swing your pickaxe at them."
"Understood."
Old Pig tried his best to look fierce, holding the pickaxe standing at the carriage entrance, yelling: "Are you all deaf? Didn't you hear Master Mang speaking?!"
Then, a not-so-uniform weak voice emerged from the carriage.
"Heard you, Master Mang."
It was Master Kun before, now it's Master Mang.
In the wasteland, all Train Captains by default are Masters.