Night falls, the dark sky overhead, and all the blinds on the "Infinity" have been shut, with warm light leaking through the gaps inside the cabin.
The living cabin exudes a sense of post-catastrophe safety everywhere. The sleeper compartments here have been converted into individual rooms, and although the space is small, it is vastly different from living in a car before. With safety assured, everyone has started to tidy up and transform this mobile apocalypse safe haven, cramming all their belongings into it.
Shu Qin lives alone in one room; her luggage isn’t much, but with some space to move around, the oppressive feeling of being in a car is gone. After dinner, she took a quick shower to wash away the smell of blood, feeling a lot fresher, and emerged from the room to see everyone in the living cabin busy setting up their living areas, every face brimming with enthusiasm, making Shu Qin’s brows relax slightly.
Since joining Infinity, it’s like they’ve found a ship in the turbulent depths of the ocean, a haven worth dedicating everything to protect.
Shu Qin checked the time, set an alarm, and picked up her gun, sitting in a chair in the corridor while resting and keeping watch.
Up ahead is the No. 5 cabin, where the Building exhausted itself for a day, finished a feast early, and then followed orders to bed. The fully loaded Roarer K23 Electric Revolving Gun was placed on his steel-framed bed’s gun rack, just within reach, with the Steel-cutting Greatsword also laid out below.
On the other side, in Lu Xingchen’s personal living area, completely separate from Building’s makeshift rest area, the lights are bright, clean, and orderly. Besides the resting bed and his personal wardrobe, a wooden tea table is also placed in the unoccupied area in front of the window, along with two coir cushions made from somewhere in Rain Town. The tea machine bubbles with steam, offering fragrant tea leaves found by Sha Sha. At this moment, he is sipping hot tea while researching development paths for his Fire Power on paper, drawing various flame-infused stick figures, all in a sanctimonious pose...
"Skyfire Splitting Sky: Using sky lightning to ignite flames, instantly incinerating enemies... Hmm, not bad, but the lightning is..."
"Burn the Heavens: Detonate internal fire energy, forming a sea of fire that burns everything, sounds impressively powerful!"
The No. 4 cabin next door houses a large glass ecological pod in the center, currently empty. Lin Xian plans to plant medium-sized greenery or some green shrubs here. On both sides are two rows of enclosed hydroponics racks with a total of 10 levels, directly fixed to the ceiling, able to cycle through growing many green vegetables. The water circulation system here has been completed, and Ding Junyi has already developed a planting schedule with several young team members, though progress was delayed due to the past two days spent in Rain Town.
In the No. 3 cabin, Ding Junyi gathers her research materials, makes backups per her daily routine, takes a shower, drinks a glass of Qingshui, and then returns to the resting room Lin Xian has remodeled from the disinfection chamber for her. She undresses and lies down on the clean bed, covers herself with a blanket, then opens her mobile terminal filled with academic materials, puts on headphones, sets an alarm, and quietly listens, with her clothes including underwear neatly folded beside her, exuding an aura of meticulous tidiness in the entire resting room.
In the No. 2 cabin, Sha Sha and KIKI, having just showered, are now nestled in the [KIKI Special Entertainment Area], using entertainment equipment Lin Xian brought from Jiang City to play TV games. Beside them is the girls’ rest area, featuring custom-made bunk beds, wrapped designs with built-in lighting, offering a full sense of security and preventing them from rolling off the bed from train bumps.
The entertainment area is covered with thick plush carpets, and after bathing, KIKI, in a pink low-waisted camisole T-shirt paired with denim shorts, sits cross-legged on the ground with her long fair legs, unconcerned with appearances, both she and Sha Sha with a lollipop found by Chen Sixuan in the supply library.
"Hit, hit, hit, on the left, idiot!"
"KIKI Sis, come save me."
"Open that treasure box; there’s something good inside!"
"Hurry, hurry, hurry; it’s about to mutate a second time!"
"It’s going to die soon!"
"I’m out of bullets, hurry, give me some."
"Do you need grenades?"
"Quick, let me blow it up!"
In the No. 1 cabin, Lin Xian’s workbench holds the TRP fourth-generation special industrial type Active Exoskeleton Power Armor, weighing close to 30 kilograms, equipped with a small high-energy electric drive power module and 13 hydraulic power engines. He investigates how to attach the industrial prosthetics onto it, though the three hands look somewhat awkward, but it’s useful for his combat.
The auxiliary system of the Power Armor isn’t very intelligent, akin to a miniature computer. Lin Xian can tell Ding Qing cherished this Power Armor and maintained it meticulously, keeping it powered off usually even not using electricity to preserve the engine’s lifespan.
Not to mention the mecha, under apocalyptic conditions, even simple mechanical structures like firearms are extremely precious; without an industrial system, bullets are finite, and fixing a broken gun is difficult. Few have the ability like Lin Xian to casually create Gatling guns and bullets.
[Prompt, A33K heavy anti-material sniper rifle blueprint undergoing upgrade development, 1 day, 13:49:55]
"A bit over a day still..."
Lin Xian checks the Research and Development Center, feeling a strong urge to put the Power Armor in for an upgrade to see how long it’ll take, as this could directly enhance his personal combat effectiveness. An upgrade for the blueprint equates to an upgrade for himself, surpassing even the priority of upgrading 1130 and the Electromagnetic Gun.
Moreover, he sees the blueprint, the Power Armor is slightly more complex than the PX05-engineer robot, mainly due to the level 3 material Tungsten-titanium alloy I type. If transformed and prepared from level 1 and level 2 materials through the preparation factory, the consumption is significant, but overall achievable.
Since discovering the existence of the [Dark Mark], his next plan is a team armament enhancement, needing at least one Power Armor per person to dramatically bolster everyone’s mobility, improving survival chances against Abnormal Body attacks.
However, the fully-cased combat armor and battle armor are far more complex, requiring atypical materials, which these expensive wartime gears are difficult for the Phoenix Society or Dawn City to produce.
Lin Xian must rapidly increase his Mechanical Manufacturing and Devour levels to plan such high-level equipment.
After preparing the Power Armor, Lin Xian scans a black rifle, finding it is modified from a muscle engine unit within a large mecha, with an added Magnetic Control System and external impact armor, used as a weapon by Ding Qing.
This isn’t easily handled by ordinary people—getting magnetic energy engines usually meant sourcing from black markets, indicating this originates from some technically superior mechanical organization.
Thus, Lin Xian can only scan an unknown model blueprint to keep as backup.
"Feels quite handy using it." He hefts the weight in hand, its power surpasses bullets over certain distances, showing remarkable effects against large Abnormal Bodies, with remote reclaimability, offering Lin Xian a new combat style.
Lin Xian constantly monitors the Heterogeneous Rubik’s Cube and Sentinel System; when he finishes tidying up, it’s already early morning without any abnormal occurrences, allowing him a moment of relief.
After all, he’s been heavily traumatized by thefts, from Jiang City to the present, encountering constant issues, keeping nerves taut, barely having slept well.
Finally, he’s grasping some patterns of the night, an exhilaration surpassing accumulating vast resources.