Chapter 18: First-Level Zombie
"Keep accelerating!" Su Huan’s voice, laced with the efficacy of a tranquilizer, pierced through the darkness.
Liang Kuan’s knuckles turned white as he gripped the control lever; the fluorescent light from the dashboard cast flickering shadows across his sweat-beaded nose bridge.
The train began to trample into the tide of corpses with a violent momentum.
The screeching of the train wheels, mixed with the boiling roar of the zombies, echoed into the cockpit, gnawing at everyone’s nerves.
The zombies clogging the front of the train were like clay; they were scooped up by the cowcatcher, pressed against the ram, and finally split to either side. Blood splashed against the tempered glass like a torrential downpour.
The tide of corpses piled up on both sides of the windows. Grim, terrifying faces pressed greedily against the glass, staring intently at the people inside the carriage.
Yu Yue clutched her daughter’s arm, shivering, not even daring to raise her head. Wan Xing also bit her lower lip, staring straight ahead at the tracks.
Su Huan remained indifferent to the chaos around him, focused entirely on one task: converting the pan-energy within his body into high-voltage electricity to provide new power to the train.
"Bang!"
The train shuddered violently, its speed finally surging. The walls of zombies that had piled up on both sides suddenly collapsed, cast behind them.
A collective sigh of relief filled the carriage.
But Su Huan’s expression remained unchanged, his eyes locked on the tracks ahead.
A massive, bloated foot stepped onto the rail, rolls of fat spilling over the sides and touching the sleepers.
The figure slowly turned. Its thick, muscular chest looked like piled granite, while below it, a gargantuan belly sagged almost to its thighs. Standing two point six meters tall, it looked only slightly shorter than the locomotive.
In its hand, it dragged a metal component scavenged from industrial machinery, which clattered with a crisp, rhythmic sound.
It loomed there like a small mountain, its black and red eyes surveying the locomotive accelerating toward it with keen interest.
It had no intention of dodging, its mouth stretched into a grin that reached its ears.
The horrifying smile silenced the cockpit once more.
"What... what is that?" Wan Xing asked, her voice trembling.
"A Tier 1 zombie: a Butcher," Su Huan said, his voice devoid of emotion, hard and cold as stone.
"Liang Kuan, hit it."
"Understood!"
Liang Kuan gritted his teeth and pushed the speed to the maximum.
Su Huan pulled ten pan-energy crystals from his pocket, clenched his fists, and a flash of madness crossed his eyes.
If he remembered correctly, upgrading from Level 1 to Level 2 pan-energy conversion required exactly ten "zombie embryo" grade pan-energy crystals.
Level 2 pan-energy conversion efficiency reaches 20%, meaning the output power doubles instantly.
No matter how powerful the Butcher was, it was still just muscles, bones, and blood fueled by pan-energy.
He didn't believe that today, a train approaching a speed of 100 kilometers per hour, combined with armor over 30mm thick and a reinforced ram, wouldn't kill this son of a bitch.
The pan-energy crystals in his palms were melting at a visible rate. He could clearly perceive the cold streams of energy crawling up his spine, exploding at the medulla oblongata into billions of tiny energy factors.
His previously dormant genes began to uncoil and recombine, forming the evolutionary blueprint exclusive to a "Power Provider."
*Level 1 Pan-Energy Conversion —> Level 2 Pan-Energy Conversion.*
In an instant, Su Huan felt something that had been restraining him shatter, and a familiar sense of fluidity returned.
His piercing gaze cut through the blood-stained glass and collided with the crimson in the giant zombie's eye sockets.
Neither yielded an inch!
The accelerating train vibrated again, its speed climbing frantically as it roared into the tide of corpses to charge at the Butcher.
The Butcher let out a wild roar, raised its arm, and swung the dragged metal component down onto the nose of the train with a thunderous crash.
"Boom—"
Seen from above, the moment the small giant collided with the steel dragon, its iron-gray skin—wrapped around muscle and fat—was compressed by the train's nose like a rubber ball. In a split second, it reached its limit and shattered violently, splattering the front of the train with a mixture of gore and bone shards.
The violent metallic collision left Su Huan slightly dazed; it took him a moment to realize he was still on the train.
Beneath his feet, the train continued to hum forward, the clattering rhythm sounding like a drum of victory.
Light and exhilarating!
Su Huan couldn't help but grin widely.
No carbon-based lifeform could withstand the impact of tens of thousands of tons of steel. Any zombie standing in his way would be pulverized by the steel dragon beneath his feet!
...
The passengers in the rear carriages were the first to be jolted awake.
Because the steel plating only extended to the tenth carriage, they had enjoyed the "zombie window-tapping" service. The green-skinned carriages were being pounded relentlessly by the undead.
It wasn't until the train accelerated and shook off the ordinary zombies that the passengers in the back recovered from their despair. One by one, they fell to their knees, praising the Lord and the heavens, while hurling the most vicious curses at the conductor.
As for the narrow encounter between the train and the Butcher, to these passengers, it was nothing more than a negligible bump.
The vibrations transmitted to the rear were far less terrifying than the initial roar of ten thousand corpses.
The carriage was pitch black, filled with the cacophony of colliding debris.
The tattooed man, "Little Ghost," squatted on a chair, ranting wildly. "That son of a bitch Su! He only welded the steel plates up to the tenth car and left the rest of us to die!"
"He only cares about himself and doesn't give a damn if we live or die. Every single day, we risk our lives to collect supplies for him while he sits in an air-conditioned carriage, eating gourmet food and playing with women, treating us like dogs. I swear to god..."
"Rip—"
The sharp sound was masked by a sudden vibration.
A razor-sharp claw silently pierced in from the side, passing through the ribs and straight through the heart.
Little Ghost’s eyes widened, his mouth hung open, and blood flowed uncontrollably.
Across from him, "Dog Brother" had a gloomy expression, unaware that Little Ghost was already dead. He assumed the other man had simply run out of breath and was pausing to catch his air.
...
The train sped through the night at 70 kilometers per hour.
The iron-black steel plates were covered in vast patches of crimson blood. From time to time, limbs carelessly left behind by zombies would get stuck in the gaps of the blast-proof mesh or on the steel bumpers.
Yet, this only added a touch of iron-blooded character to the armored train, much like a battle-hardened veteran fresh off the front lines.
Inside the carriage, Su Huan’s calm voice rang out.
"Liang Kuan, check all train functions. Yu Yue, inspect every detail of the nose—see if the blast-proof mesh is damaged or if the tempered glass has cracked."
"Yu Jing, check the dining car. Wan Xing, check the sightseeing carriage, and go up to the second level to see if anything is crawling on the roof."
The person from before had spoken of a swarm of zombie pupae, but only one Butcher had blocked them earlier.
Perhaps there were other Tier 1 zombies following behind.
Besides strength-based zombies like the Butcher, there were many other ways for zombies to evolve, and many were capable of keeping pace with the train.
Su Huan picked up a mobile phone from a shelf in the dining car.
He fed it a bit of power to turn it on and, using the faint light from the lock screen, carefully inspected every corner of the carriage.
Although in his memory, there were no zombies capable of penetrating 12mm steel plates, caution had become a habit.