MDT Chapter 248 (Patreon)

Chapter 248: Your Train Has Been Upgraded to Level 11

He slept for a long time.

In a daze, Chen Mang dreamed he was fighting a thug with a pistol in a high-rise. After a long struggle, he finally dropped the bastard, only to discover the gun was fake.

"Ridiculous."

Chen Mang rubbed his eyes. After getting up and washing, he lit a cigarette and dropped into his chair to check the Train Log. He'd been out for twelve hours—quite a stretch—and his body still ached when he woke.

A white light flashed inside the locomotive, followed by Xiao Ai's voice.

"According to data I acquired from the last city ruins, there's a theory about dreams. It suggests that when a living being is asleep, their brainwaves are in a special, stable state, and there's a chance they can resonate with the brainwaves of other beings in the universe, thus creating a dream."

"…"

Chen Mang ignored Xiao Ai. His thinking ability was still lacking. Not every question needed an answer, and he hadn't been looking for one—especially not a theoretical one like that.

He glanced out the window.

The area was brightly lit.

A crowd of residents was mining in the ore field next to the train. Three teams of sentinels maintained order. The rest were in the train's Combat Training Virtual Space.

Nothing unusual had happened while he was out.

The only thing that wasn't normal…

It was now seven in the evening.

His biological clock was shot again.

Though in the apocalypse, a biological clock didn't mean much.

His plan for today was…

Train modifications.

After the Train Expansion, several problems needed his attention. For example, the carriage doors were now at the very top—a full ten-plus meters from the ground. Getting on and off required climbing a ladder every time.

He needed to move the doors of all carriages, except the locomotive, to the bottom. That would put them only about two meters up, making it far more convenient.

"Hmm…"

He sat at the control console, pressed the custom carriage button, and began adjusting the 3D model of the train on the screen.

A few minutes later, he'd finished the adjustments. The carriage doors were now at the bottom. He'd originally planned to use the Heart of the Machine to build a ladder, but the custom carriage interface had a template for an escalator, and the price wasn't bad.

He consumed 1,400 units of Iron Ore to build escalators for the left and right sides of each carriage, except the locomotive.

The escalators could be up to 30 meters wide, almost covering the entire carriage.

Much more convenient.

Next—

Spatial modification. The main function of the Train Expansion was to install large-scale firepower accessories and allow more ground troops to rapidly deploy.

For example, when the carriage doors opened, mechs could fly out directly.

But it also brought drawbacks, like a distorted sense of space.

The original locomotive, though not large, had been cozy. Now it was much bigger, and the empty space around him felt uncomfortable. He needed to remodel.

"Hmm…"

Chen Mang stood in place, directing Xiao Fang: "Use the left shelf entirely for Coke, the right one for cigarettes. Fill the cigar cabinet with cigars, too. And… let me see."

The locomotive was 10 meters wide and 21 meters long.

The actual train car was 10 meters wide and 12 meters long.

The front of the train took up 9 meters.

It occupied about 120 square meters, larger than a Refrigerator. He used the Heart of the Machine to build two shelves for snacks and such. Two were enough; any more and it would look like a convenience store.

"Hmm…"

Chen Mang crossed his arms, frowning slightly as he looked around, still not satisfied. His control console was about 2 meters wide, with multiple screens on it.

In front of the console was a chair.

There were control sticks, a throttle, and so on. The train was mainly controlled by thought, but these could also be used. More often, they were there to give his control a sense of reality, providing physical feedback rather than just emptiness.

To the right of the control console was a larger screen.

He usually used this for movies or for information-heavy displays.

Besides that.

There was a Refrigerator, a Combat Training Virtual Space, and a Spatial Door.

That was everything in his train car.

Most importantly—

The internal space of the train was 10 meters high, but to give the Train Captain a better view, the train car was divided into two levels. The first level was 7.2 meters high, and the second was 2.8 meters high.

The control console and other equipment were all on the second level.

This allowed the Train Captain to look down on the surroundings and have a better field of vision. This was also why all the carriage doors defaulted to the top after the Train Expansion, requiring ladders.

He wasn't planning to change the train car.

It was fine as it was; the view was good.

After a moment's contemplation, Chen Mang walked to the control console and selected floor-to-ceiling windows from the custom carriage menu. He decided to install them all around the second floor to make it feel more open.

The defense was equivalent to the Armor.

The price was steep, though—300,000 units of Iron Ore.

"Hmm…"

After finishing, Chen Mang walked to the edge and looked down at the residents working hard below. It felt good this way. Then he created another Level 1 missile and had Biaozi and the others haul it into the train car.

He had them place it on a shelf he'd specially made.

He made another shelf and placed ten Tidal Wave Gatlings on it.

That was about it.

Much better.

He really had no talent for interior design…

Getting from Carriage #2 to the train car had become a challenge.

His train car was on the second level. To get from Carriage #2 to the train car, you had to climb a nearly 8-meter-high ladder to reach the second level.

"The layering is impressive."

Chen Mang stood at the edge of the second level, looking down at Carriage #2 and the connecting sections. For a moment, he didn't feel like he was in a train car, but rather in a huge space station.

Like some kind of military base.

He could clearly see the production lines in Carriage #2 and the Spatial Door embedded in the carriage.

He immediately used the Heart of the Machine to create an elevator and placed it at the junction of Carriage #2 and the train car, so Xiao Fang and the others could easily reach the train car via elevator when they came to find him.

The Heart of the Machine could create these basic living accessories, which could be connected to the generator through the electrical system.

"Not bad."

Chen Mang stood at the edge of the second level, looking down at the internal environment. He liked this space station feeling. Worth mentioning—after the #14 missile carriage was expanded, it could originally only store one missile, but now it could store up to 8.

Theoretically.

If he wanted to, he could launch 8 missiles at once, but that scenario was unlikely unless he achieved copper ore freedom.

Time slowly passed, and two days later.

Residents were still mining. Many had already taken a nap in the middle, then gotten up to work again. Chen Mang hadn't specified any working hours. They could rest whenever they wanted.

It didn't matter.

Work hours were flexible. Hell, they could even not work if they wanted.

It's just that…

So far, he hadn't seen anyone skip work. Seemed everyone preferred earning their food with their own hands. Made them feel better when they ate.

During these few days, he'd made a few more minor modifications to the Stellar, mainly to improve living conditions. As for the "amusement park" he'd planned, he'd already had Li Shiji draw up the design plans.

Time to check the haul.

Chen Mang sat at the control console and looked at the resources on the train panel with a satisfied grin.

[Train Name: The Stellar.]
[Train Level: 10.]
[Train Accessories: Level 100 Carriage Blades, Level 100 Drill, Level 13 Carriage Steel Armor, Level 100 Vehicle Sound System…]
[Number of Carriages: 14.]
[Ore Units: 30.87 million units of Iron Ore, 2.57 million units of Wood, 1.17 million units of Copper Ore, 4.48 million units of Crimson Heart Ore.]
[Legacy Value: 50.]
[Prestige Value: 180.]
[Upgrade Conditions: All three mandatory vehicle accessories must be crafted, 20,000 units of Level 3 Iron Ore must be consumed, the combined level of all accessories in the carriages must exceed 200, and it must possess ten Advanced Effects.]

In these two and a half days, under his command, the residents had prioritized excavating the four Level 4 iron mines. With nearly 6,000 residents mining, work was in full swing. In just two and a half days, they'd completely excavated two of the Level 4 iron mines.

The main reason was sheer manpower, though the iron mines couldn't accommodate them all. The others could only mine the lower-level deposits nearby.

In total, they'd obtained 28 million units of Iron Ore.

Of which, 20 million units came from those two Level 4 iron mines.

"Outstanding."

Chen Mang nodded with satisfaction and couldn't help but grin. Good fortune brought high spirits. First things first—upgrade. Upgrade the train to Level 11 first.

He immediately consumed 150,000 units of Iron Ore to craft the "Star Ring Energy Shield," "Comet Main Cannon," and "Purgatory Wheels," all red-grade accessories. He didn't upgrade them, just crafted them to meet the train's upgrade conditions.

They were too expensive.

He couldn't afford to upgrade them. He'd definitely upgrade the "Comet Main Cannon," but it wasn't a high priority. He'd do it later if he had more Iron Ore.

After all the upgrade conditions were met, he consumed another 2 million units of Iron Ore to upgrade the train.

The next moment—

A line of text appeared on the control console screen.

[Your train has been upgraded to Level 11.]
[More craftable accessories have been unlocked.]

Level 11.

The Stellar was now a Level 11 train.

He immediately checked the craftable accessories. This time, only two, but they were also red-grade.

[Dark Matter Resonator: Red-grade accessory. Crafting cost: 50,000 units of Iron Ore.]
[Resource Tracker: Red-grade accessory. Crafting cost: 50,000 units of Iron Ore.]

These accessories were superior to the "Search Radar," and could be upgraded to higher levels, unlike the Search Radar which maxed out at Level 3. That meant longer detection ranges.

However…

They weren't essential for him.

His "Resource Detection Radar" and "Search Radar" were both Level 100, with a detection range of 100,000 meters. He definitely wouldn't be replacing them anytime soon. He'd wait.

After all, red-grade wasn't the highest grade for accessories.

Above red were gold, pink, and rainbow. He'd wait until he got rainbow-grade accessories before replacing them. More cost-effective that way.

Besides that—

When the train was upgraded to Level 11, a new button appeared on the control console.

"Hmm?"

Chen Mang looked thoughtfully at this new function—"Dream Materialization." Its effect was to collect the dreams of the train members every time they slept and store them in a "sunshine doll"-like ornament on the control console.

When the progress reached 100%, a "Dreamstone" would be born.

The more complete and longer the dream, the more the progress would increase.

"Dreamstone?"

He picked up the sunshine doll with some curiosity and fiddled with it. It didn't tell him what this Dreamstone was for. Oh well, he'd ask the other trains when he got back to "Crisis Valley" and see if anyone knew.

He was currently in an unknown region and couldn't connect to the train radio of the Crisis Valley region.

Anyway, it definitely wasn't a bad thing.

After finishing that, he looked at the other accessories that needed upgrading.

For example…

"Magnetic Levitation."

This accessory could replace the "Windfire Wheels." The Windfire Wheels were about to retire, though he was actually reluctant to part with them.

Before crafting the Magnetic Levitation, he first consumed 980,000 units of Iron Ore to upgrade the "Wheel Swapper" to Level 10 in one go.

From the original 3 wheel slots, he now had 12.

He could freely switch between 12 different types of wheels.

And he'd obtained two Advanced Effects.

[Wheel Swapper Level 5 Advanced Effect: Gives the wheels a defense level equal to that of defensive accessories such as armor or energy shields, taking the highest value.]
[Wheel Swapper Level 10 Advanced Effect: Can devour wheels and use them to strengthen other wheels. Speed will be increased, and there is a very small chance of inheriting the Advanced Effects of the devoured wheels.]

"Well, I'll be damned."

Chen Mang's mouth hung open slightly. After a long moment, he couldn't help but grin. He'd never upgraded this red-grade accessory before, mainly because it hadn't seemed useful, and the slots were enough. He never thought the effects after upgrading would be this strong.

He was extremely satisfied with both Advanced Effects.

The wheels have defense equal to the armor—

He no longer had to worry about a situation where the armor held up, but the wheels shattered.

Especially the second Advanced Effect—

He'd just been lamenting that the Windfire Wheels were about to retire, but he never thought they could keep shining so soon. Not only could they be devoured to strengthen other wheels, but there was also a very small chance of obtaining the devoured wheels' Advanced Effects…

What a shame.

Why did such a good Advanced Effect appear on the "Wheel Swapper"?

If it had appeared on another accessory, like the "Comet Main Cannon," he could've just fed the Doomsday Autocannon to the Comet Main Cannon until it inherited three "consumption halved" Advanced Effects.

Invincible.

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