Biaozi let out a cold snort before slightly squinting his eyes and continued.
"In the post-apocalyptic world, trust between people is extremely weak. To have the Train Captain completely trust us is a difficult thing. Let’s not even mention how to prove that we’ve submitted all of this harvest?"
"This is almost an unsolvable problem."
"But it’s different with the Train Order. We’ve submitted everything that could make us independent. Do you think Master Mang could still not trust us?"
"Old Pig might have been the first to follow Master Mang, but after this, Master Mang trusts me more now. Do you believe it?"
Biaozi let out a helpless sigh: "It’s not that I haven’t tried to go independent before. You both know the outcome. Let’s not even mention it, following those few Train Captains, didn’t they all end up dead?"
"Being the leader isn’t that easy."
"And this time, the leader is different."
He squinted slightly and muttered: "Even if ordinary Car Blade Fragments are upgraded to the max level, they still can’t penetrate the level 3 Cannibal Spider’s defense. As long as this train can develop, our status and living environment will be much better than going independent."
"Alright, you wouldn’t understand even if I told you all this."
"Just know this, follow Master Mang and do well."
Hei Hao nodded timidly and said: "Every time you say this, in a few days the Train Captain is dead."
"That was then, this is now!"
"Master Mang is different from other Train Captains!"
The train finally returned to its original iron ore location. Looking at the familiar surroundings and the mine, he even felt a sense of closeness. It was already noon by now.
A strong sense of drowsiness surged through him.
He had stayed awake for a long time too. Using the walkie-talkie, he gave Biaozi a few instructions to arrange for people to keep watch, then ordered everyone to sleep to replenish their energy. He walked to the bed inside the train and fell onto it without even taking off his clothes.
We’ll talk after we wake up.
Maybe because he stayed up too late, when he woke up, it was already around four or five in the morning the next day.
Chen Mang groggily finished washing up inside the train. With a cigarette in his mouth, he jumped down from the train cabin. At this moment, the wasteland was quite lively as many slaves were gradually coming out of the compartments and heading towards the mine.
Upon seeing Chen Mang awake, Old Pig, who was directing nearby, hurried over to report: "Some slaves woke up early and said they couldn’t sleep, so they wanted to head down to the mine. I thought about it and didn’t dare to bother you with such a small thing, so I agreed."
"They’re distributing slices of bread and water to the newly awakened slaves over there."
"Today’s mining output should be quite a bit since many people went down to the mine around two or three in the morning."
Chen Mang’s eyes flashed with surprise: "They’re all so enthusiastic?"
Old Pig replied oddly: "I asked a few of them, and their response was that they were scared by that level 3 Cannibal Spider. They don’t want to die and want to mine more to strengthen the train quickly to be safer."
"They have such awareness!"
Chen Mang couldn’t help but laugh, then took out two packs of cigarettes from his pocket and tossed them to Old Pig: "Take one and share it with you and Biaozi. Share the other with the slaves. As long as they work well, they won’t be mistreated."
"It’s essential to motivate the slaves. Human potential is limitless."
"Alright, you go busy yourself."
Old Pig responded and hurried off to maintain order, distributing the cigarettes so that each slave got two sticks.
Chen Mang looked at the busy scene not far away, standing in the night breeze, glancing at the star-filled sky with a gentle smile on his face. Having such an assistant was quite good; at least he didn’t need to worry about these trivial matters.
Then he walked alone to the back of the train.
He lit three cigarettes, inserted them one by one into the wasteland, and with a calm expression, he clasped his hands together, looked up at the sky, and murmured.
"Good luck with the start of work."
"Heaven bless me to continue mining here for another seven days. By then, this mine should be about finished, and we can go find another new mine."
Although the unexpected encounter with the Cannibal Spider gave him quite the harvest.
But not every unexpected event ends well.
Ideally, there would be no accidents.
After sincerely praying a few times in his heart, he retrieved the three cigarettes from the ground, patted off the dirt on their ends, stuffed all three into his mouth, and headed towards the front of the train, using a cane as support.
In the post-apocalyptic world.
Tobacco is rare, can’t waste it, the sentiment is what counts.
Smoking three at once, quite invigorating.
Inside the train cabin.
After wandering around for inspection, Chen Mang returned to the control panel and pressed the red button labeled "Vehicle Accessories" on the panel. Immediately, the screen beside it displayed the 12 vehicle accessories that could be crafted after the train was upgraded to level 2.
"Train Radio": Green-grade accessory, requires 500 units of iron ore to craft.
"Crafting Table": Green-grade accessory, requires 500 units of iron ore to craft.
"Three-legged Cat Heavy Machine Gun": Green-grade accessory, requires 500 units of iron ore to craft.
"12.7mm Heavy Machine Gun Ammo Production Line": Green-grade accessory, requires 500 units of copper ore to craft.
"Target Detection Radar": Green-grade accessory, requires 500 units of iron ore to craft.
"Resource Detection Radar": Green-grade accessory, requires 500 units of iron ore to craft.
These six accessories are mandatory to craft and are essential for upgrading the train to level 3.
In addition, there are six non-mandatory vehicle accessories.
"Car Sound System": White-grade accessory, requires 100 units of iron ore to craft.
"Built-in Fire Control System": Green-grade accessory, requires 1000 units of iron ore to craft.
"5.56mm Rifle Ammo Production Line": Green-grade accessory, requires 500 units of copper ore to craft.
"Clothing Customization Production Line": White-grade accessory, requires 100 units of wood to craft.
"Simple Medical Box": White-grade accessory, requires 100 units of iron ore to craft.
"Train Assistance AI": Green-grade accessory, requires 500 units of iron ore to craft.
This time, there wasn’t an extra red-grade vehicle accessory. It seems that the Rare Train Order only grants two red-grade vehicle accessories.
After upgrading to train level 2.
The craftable accessories are noticeably stronger than those at train level 1.
This time, he wanted each of the 12 craftable accessories. He needed each one, but crafting them all and upgrading them to a certain level required a lot of resources.
He also wanted to mount two heavy machine guns on top of each of his train cars, which would greatly increase the sense of security. However, the heavy machine gun bullet production line requires copper ore to manufacture, and undoubtedly, producing bullets also requires a large amount of copper ore, which he hasn’t encountered yet.
"The task is a long road ahead."
Chen Mang sighed lightly, gazing at the depths of the wasteland, wondering when he would possess a fully equipped level 2 train.