MDT Chapter 156 Part 2 (Patreon)

Chapter 156 Part 2: From Survivor to Killer 

The Green Dragon wasn't a particularly difficult monster to kill.

It was only Level 5.

The problem was that it had no fixed territory and roamed constantly. It had recently appeared in the Kunlun Mountains region. The first time Chen Mang had entered the mountains, the flying Level 5 train he saw was Erdan's, out hunting that very same Green Dragon.

There was only one.

Once Erdan killed it, it was gone.

The odds of encountering another Green Dragon were about the same as iron ore falling from the sky.

"So be it."

Chen Mang shook his head, still a bit regretful. He could only comfort himself with the thought that it was just a few Mofei Stones. Not that valuable. Not important!

He didn't care!

Since the "Undersea Labyrinth" encounter map was out of reach, he would just stock up on more iron ore, upgrade to a Level 6 train, and prepare to head for the yellow zone—the "Zombie Basin."

He had already cleared most of the encounters in the Sand River Plains, and he'd even taken care of the ones in the Snowy World.

Only the encounter in the Kunlun Mountains was exclusive to Flesh-type trains; otherwise, it wouldn't have escaped his grasp either.

As night fell, all the train's residents settled into sleep. Apart from the guards on duty, everyone, including Chen Mang, had drifted off to dreamland.

The AI piloted the Stellar across the Sand River Plains, searching for iron ore.

The sun rose.

Chen Mang climbed out of bed and, after a quick wash, glanced out the window. It was a Level 2 open-pit iron mine. Many of the residents had already begun mining. He turned his attention to the train log.

After traveling for three hours last night, they found this mine.

Along the way, they had encountered three other Level 2 iron mines and one Level 2 copper mine, but those were already occupied by other trains. The AI hadn't stopped, following the program he had set to continue searching for unclaimed resource points.

It had also run over a few insignificant monsters on the way.

Nothing else of note had happened.

Chen Mang leaned back in his chair and closed the train log. The night had been peaceful.

He looked at the upgrade conditions for a Level 6 train.

[Upgrade Conditions: All four mandatory vehicle accessory crafted, consume 40,000 units of Level 2 Iron Ore, all accessories must exceed Level 120, and slay one Level 6 monster.]

The requirements were mostly the same, just with a higher iron ore cost—40,000 units.

And a new condition: kill a Level 6 monster.

As far as he knew, there were quite a few "pure development" players who did nothing but focus on upgrading, turning, and running at the sight of any slightly stronger monster. This new condition essentially forced every Train Captain wanting to reach Level 6 to go find and tangle with a Level 6 creature.

Those Level 5 trains that had rushed their upgrades and lacked a solid foundation would likely get stuck on this task for a long time.

For him, however, this condition was already marked as complete.

To be honest, he didn't think he'd ever actively hunted a Level 5 monster. The ones he had killed were just incidentally obliterated when he'd launched a missile into the Kunlun Mountains region.

Then there was Shan Maozi and his girlfriend's wedding.

His original plan, back when he had a Level 4 train, was to invite three other trains of the same level to the feast. The Purple Cloud happened to arrive in the Sand River Plains around that time, so it could have been one of them—they'd had dealings before and were somewhat acquainted.

Unfortunately, the Purple Cloud met its end in the Kunlun Mountains.

His guest list was now empty.

If he upgraded to a Level 6 train, the Azure Dragon could certainly come. He'd just need to find two more Level 6 trains, and he could claim that 500 Legacy Value.

Chen Mang quickly told Erdan about his plan to host the wedding and that he needed two more Level 6 trains to attend.

The reply came swiftly.

"Two Level 6 trains for a feast? I have two friends who are Level 6 captains right here in the Sand River Plains. Should I ask them?"

"You have that many friends?"

"Well, not super close friends. We've never met in person, just chatted on the train radio. But I don't think they'll get any funny ideas when they see your Stellar. They seemed like decent guys on the radio."

"Alright. I'll give you a specific date in a while."

"You got it."

Another matter settled.

Chen Mang stretched and turned to the screen to check on Biaozi's progress. Biaozi had been grinding in the virtual combat training space all night, and it looked like he was making good progress. He was already on the 29th floor.

"Not bad at all."

A flicker of surprise crossed his eyes. He popped a red-heart nut into his mouth as he lounged in his chair. The last time he'd checked, Biaozi was stuck on the 12th floor. He'd reached the 29th floor so quickly.

He was just a stone's throw away from clearing the 31st floor.

On the screen, Biaozi was now almost fully armed. He wore armor, a motorcycle helmet, had a steel saber at his waist, and was wielding a flamethrower with a massive fuel tank strapped to his back.

A rifle was slung over his shoulder.

Biaozi was currently on the 29th floor of the office building, incinerating the zombies that charged at him. Though he still had some significant injuries, they weren't as severe as last night's. His entire demeanor had changed—his gaze was colder, more resolute.

"Wait, where did the flamethrower come from?"

Chen Mang quickly scrolled through the clear history. He found it. On the fourteenth attempt, after Biaozi had secured the fire axe on the seventh floor and cleared the zombies in the fire escape, he hadn't gone up as he had in previous attempts.

Instead, he went down.

He started clearing from the sixth floor down, meticulously wiping out everything until both the sixth and first floors were secure. After finding the flamethrower and the motorcycle helmet, he began his ascent up the fire escape again. On the 12th floor, he acquired the armor and the healing spray.

When the view switched back to the live feed, on screen, Biaozi had successfully reached the rooftop of the 31st floor. After shedding all his weapons and gear, he let out several hoarse, triumphant roars at the sky before walking to the zipline at the edge of the roof.

His hands gripped the short bar on the line, his feet pushed off forcefully, and his body shot across toward the rooftop of the shorter building opposite.

And then—

The screen began to zoom out.

Biaozi's figure on the zipline between the two high-rises shrank. The entire perspective shifted from third-person to a bird's-eye view. The city below was teeming with an ocean of zombies. Countless zombies were even scaling the sides of the skyscrapers like ivy.

As the camera pulled back all the way to the clouds, the zombies in the city had been reduced to tiny black dots.

Finally, four large words exploded onto the screen.

"Clear Successful."

"That wasn't easy."

Chen Mang watched with a sigh as Biaozi wept with joy in the white post-simulation space. Once you clear it the first time, subsequent runs become much easier. Moreover, this "Biohazard" map was more formidable than he had imagined.

It tested many things: timing, choices made on the brink of death, the awareness to explore downwards, and the brutality of life-or-death melee combat.

And so on.

Even someone who had never so much as killed a chicken would undergo a dramatic transformation after successfully clearing this map once. They would develop that killer instinct.

"..."

Chen Mang's brow furrowed slightly. He was pondering something. By reviewing the history, he could see many of the techniques for clearing the map. So far, only Biaozi knew them. He wondered if he should compile these techniques and share them with the others.

It would increase the overall combat effectiveness of the guard squads by at least ten percent.

But that would be a great injustice to Biaozi. It would be like all his effort was for someone else's benefit. Techniques he had died countless times to discover would be handed to others on a silver platter.

And the map was designed this way precisely to cultivate a person's abilities. If he gave everyone all the answers, it would diminish much of that cultivation.

Just then, Xiao Ai suddenly spoke up. "Captain, the Black Market Merchant has returned. I've compiled the footage he collected. Would you like to view it now?"

"Let's see it."

Soon, the image on the screen changed to the footage gathered by the Black Market Merchant last night.

There were many scenes.

For instance, a deserted City of Machines, now overrun by a massive number of zombies. These zombies had even developed intelligence and were actively repairing the city. There were even zombie guard patrols and zombie soldiers controlling heavy artillery on the city walls.

There was also a scene in a freezing canyon where a battered robot crouched on the ground, using a welding torch to repair a completely wrecked train in front of it.

A train pulled to a stop to trade with the Black Market Merchant. It had over forty carriages, moving like a mechanical dragon across the wasteland. Its captain was a burly man with a face full of scars, who stared thoughtfully at the camera on the merchant's chest for a long time.

Who knew what conclusions the man was drawing? His mind was probably conjuring up numerous conspiracy theories, like the Black Market Merchant being a monitor from a higher civilization or some other nonsense.

There was also an empty forest, where the merchant sat on a branch, dangling his legs under the night sky for a long while before being scared into teleporting away by a snake that shot out from below.

And a scene of several thousand humans gathered on an island, having built numerous wooden huts and tents. From time to time, trains could be seen surfacing from the sea around the island.

And so on.

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