radicalducati Chapter 163 Where Will the Last Train Go?
Chapter 163 Where Will the Last Train Go?
Chapter 163 Where Will the Last Train Go?
"And this too." Bai Shuyuan took out two more items and handed them to Fang Lian and the others.
Xiao Lü glanced at it and saw that what Bai Shuyuan was holding was an enlarged version of the Shannon counter.
The main structure remains unchanged; it's still that heavily modified Casio calculator with a biopunk style. However, the steel pipe is noticeably thicker, presumably to extend battery life, and more nutrient solution has been added inside.
As expected, both the square-faced man and the two survivors they had just encountered wore expressions of bewilderment and confusion.
Seeing that the three people in front of her were completely confused, Bai Shuyuan briefly explained the function and usage of this thing.
The key points are simply to handle it carefully, avoid violent shaking, and to retrieve the bank statement weekly for maintenance.
Well, the after-sales service is quite good, Xiao Lü thought.
Subsequently, Bai Shuyuan offered some reminders.
"Remember a few key values. First, try to avoid environments where stability is significantly lower than 0.9."
"In addition, if a survivor's stability is found to be below 0.4, or if any survivor with a virtual part is detected, it must be reported to me immediately."
After hearing this, the square-faced man and the two men immediately nodded solemnly.
"Then—what happens if it drops below 0.4?" the new male survivor asked.
"There is a relatively high risk of turning into a monster." Bai Shuyuan's answer was casual, but it made the three people in front of her tense.
Upon hearing this, the three of them immediately tensed up and, almost reflexively, immediately pointed the instrument at themselves.
Fortunately, the final readings stabilized at around 0.7.
Finally, all three of them breathed a sigh of relief.
A few hours later, Xia Zhaozhao's voice came from the entrance to the rooftop, interrupting Xiao Lü's time of slacking off.
"Little Green, Little Green! Little White is looking for you!"
It's obvious without even guessing that there's been new progress on that clay communication system. Little Green left the railing and followed Xia Zhaozhao downstairs.
-
Bai Shuyuan was standing next to a metal box containing clay figures, holding two tiny pieces of paper, each the size of a fingernail, in her hands.
"Messages have come from both outposts."
Xiao Lü and Xia Zhaozhao immediately went over to take a look. They saw that the text on it was so small it was almost impossible to read.
The two huddled together, trying to make out what they were seeing. All they could see were tiny dots and lines.
—This thing probably needs a microscope to see. Just as Xiao Lü was thinking this, Bai Shuyuan had already provided the answer.
This is Morse code indicating that everything is normal.
"—Okay," Xia Zhaozhao said, "So what's next? Continue slacking off?"
"Whatever."
Xiao Lü didn't mind. However, she felt that things shouldn't end there.
"Now that the communication problem is solved, our activity radius can be greatly increased."
"And that train should also be ready for use now."
Upon hearing this, Xia Zhaozhao suddenly realized something.
"That's right! I think we can head north towards Longshan City!"
"Then, find the wolf and give her a copy of this communication device, so you can stay in touch at any time!"
"After all, although she did say she would definitely come back, she didn't say exactly when."
That's a good suggestion. Little Green nodded in agreement. However, a very real problem immediately popped into her mind.
"Longshan City is quite big, how do I find it?"
"————Ah." Xia Zhaozhao seemed to have never considered this question at all.
"Damn it, this is a real problem. I forgot to ask for the exact address—oh well, let's just wait for her to come find us."
Just as Xia Zhaozhao was about to give up on the plan, Bai Shuyuan, who had been silent all along, spoke up.
"A trip north shouldn't be a problem. However, we can shift our main focus to Longshan Mining."
She opened a laptop that clearly belonged to an employee, likely a relic left behind by some unfortunate bank clerk.
She quickly pulled up a PowerPoint presentation and then said, "Large enterprises like Longshan Mining cannot operate entirely on their own funds."
"Having business dealings with Xinmao Bank is a perfectly normal business practice. So, I tried to look into it."
O
She turned the screen towards the crowd.
"I did find some assessment data about Longshan Mining."
The PowerPoint presentation cover was quite standard, typical of old state-owned enterprises. However, Bai Shuyuan flipped through the fancy financial statements and market analyses as if throwing away trash, finally stopping at a page that seemed to be just there to make up the numbers.
[Core Mineral Resource Assessment]
Xiao Lü looked at the PPT slide and read aloud: "—The main vein is a high-grade copper ore deposit, with abundant associated rare earth minerals, and—"
Little Green's gaze caught a familiar word: "—rubidium ore."
----rubidium.
"You still haven't given up on the electromagnetic railgun."
"Yay! Train cannon!" Xia Zhaozhao cheered.
Bai Shuyuan nodded slightly: "That's not all."
"However," she brought the topic back to reality, "that train is still parked near the Left Bank Elevated Road."
Xiao Lü remembers that it was the people from the mall who volunteered to help with the maintenance.
"Wow—!" Xia Zhaozhao's expression suddenly turned strange.
"I don't want that thing to be green-themed! My taste is more sci-fi!"
Bai Shuyuan ignored this, simply extending her fingertip to gently tap the metal box on the table containing the clay communications soldier, and then uttered a fluent English sentence.
Little Green could barely understand what he was saying; the gist of it was that he was asking Square Face to confirm the condition of the train.
In the shopping mall, Fang Lian stared blankly at the tiny piece of paper, about the size of a fingernail, that had been spat out of the metal box.
He carefully picked up the piece of paper, brought it close to his eyes, and his expression quickly changed from anticipation to bewilderment.
"—What is this thing?"
A sharp-eyed henchman came over. However, he didn't even look at the paper; he simply pointed out, "Square Face, there's a magnifying glass stuck here."
He pointed to one side of the box and simply taped it into a magnifying glass shape. The square-faced man hadn't noticed it at all before.
"—What's the point of this?—It's in foreign language, I can't understand it!"
Square-faced gave up thinking and yelled at Jiang Zi to come over.
Jiang Zi took the piece of paper and the magnifying glass, squinted and tried hard to decipher it for a long time, and finally gave a translation.
"This is to confirm the condition of the train with us."
"Huh? What else could be wrong? It's no use! We can't make it turn around!"
Not long after, the box spat out another piece of paper.
"They said there's no way to turn the train around. So, the train hasn't been moved yet," Bai Shuyuan told everyone the translation.
"Yay—!" Xia Zhaozhao immediately let out a joyful cheer.
"Great! I'll go design the coolest peripheral solution for it right away!"
However, the excitement on her face didn't last long before it quickly cooled down.
"What did he just say? That we can't turn around?"
She seemed to have just realized the core issue.
"Never mind then."
"That's giving up way too quickly," Little Green thought to herself. However, this didn't seem to be a problem at all.
"—This doesn't seem like a big problem," she couldn't help but say. "Trains can reverse."
"Huh? Driving backwards all the way to Longshan? That's lame!"
"In fact, even if you don't want to drive in reverse, it's not a difficult problem to solve," Bai Shuyuan said.
"The most common method is to attach another locomotive to the other end of the train for bidirectional traction. However, we cannot do this at the moment."
"Then we just need to drive south and find a specific route," she continued to explain.
"Large transportation hubs are usually designed with circular tracks. Trains can turn around by driving in and circling around."
"Smaller stations, on the other hand, will be equipped with triangular tracks. By using three tracks to form a triangle, the same effect can be achieved by moving the tracks forward and backward."
"So, we just need to drive to the next station."
After Bai Shuyuan finished speaking, she informed the communications soldier in the box of this conclusion.
However, after sending the message, the communications soldier in the box seemed to have taken out some personal items.
Xiao Lü stared speechlessly at the piece of paper that had been spat out of the box. It was a detailed plan of how the train would be armed.
—These guys' fighting instincts are truly ingrained in their bones. Little Green was somewhat speechless. However, when it comes to drastically modifying the train, perhaps it would be wise to discuss it with them.
A moment later, the first reply came not from the square-faced group, but from the temporary base where the newly joined male and female survivors were located.
Bai Shuyuan handed over the equally tiny piece of paper.
[I know this place well; I've taken it many times! If you keep going south along the tracks near the Left Bank Elevated Road, you'll reach Xinmao West Station!]
"West Station, right?" Xiao Lü repeated the location softly.
The West Station is located in the western part of the city, a corner forgotten by urban development.
The Dongtan River flows from north to south, dividing Xinmao City in two. The left bank and the right bank are the north and west of the city, respectively.
The river then turned a corner and flowed eastward, dividing the city into the south. In fact, the south of the city is where the oldest part of Xinmao is located.
In addition, there is a wetland reserve at the bend, where a rare subspecies of egret has single-handedly isolated the west and south of the city from traffic.
As a result, due to transportation issues, while the new northern district of the city was developing rapidly, the western district remained largely ignored. Only during the years when housing prices were at their most insane did a few foolish developers rush to build some properties, which naturally ended up becoming unsellable.
Now, apart from a few scattered industrial areas, there are probably only large areas of ghost towns left there.
"Are we going to such a remote place?" Xia Zhaozhao's tone was also somewhat hesitant.
"At present, there seems to be no better option," Bai Shuyuan said.
"Moreover, before crossing the river, the railway line is still within the northern part of the city, and the population density is still acceptable. We can explore along the way and gather intelligence."
"oh oh!"
Xia Zhaozhao vanished instantly, reappearing half a minute later. She had somehow managed to pull out a gong from some hidden corner.
"We can probably go along the way, beating drums and gongs, announcing our arrival to the survivors, and then wait for them to offer us food and drink—"
"—Throw that thing away. The train is loud enough; they can hear it. You don't need to create additional noise pollution."
Xia Zhaozhao instantly understood: "Oh! Find a loudspeaker and shout along the road that survivors can seek rescue on the elevated highway," then drive slowly?
"—That section of the elevated road was blown up. The suspension bridge we repaired only connects the bank and the shopping mall—there's no one on that section of the elevated road."
"Okay." Xia Zhaozhao deflated.
"Don't think that far ahead. Drive slowly and observe the surroundings. If we can find any trace of survivors, then we can formulate a plan."
So, it was the same old team.
Three magical girls, along with Sasha and her two pets, all boarded the train.
The train looked exactly the same as when they left, so it seemed that the square-faced group really didn't have time to upgrade or modify it.
After Xiao Lü cleared away a few wandering aggregates around the track, Bai Shuyuan went into the driver's cab.
The diesel engine let out a long whistle, and the train slowly started moving forward.
The speed was not fast; Bai Shuyuan seemed to be intentionally keeping the car's speed within a range that was easy to observe.
Little Green flew to a spot a few hundred meters ahead of the train and listlessly surveyed the tracks ahead.
If there were any issues like a broken track, she would immediately signal Bai Shuyuan to brake. However, for now, everything seems to be normal.
In the driver's cab, Bai Shuyuan was focused on controlling the vehicle. The rear compartment became a temporary activity room for Xia Zhaozhao and Sasha.
Sasha held the Shannon counter in the environment mode and recorded the data along the way.
However, the area around the railway tracks is sparsely populated, so the readings have remained relatively stable, hovering around the baseline value after the city was eroded, with only occasional jumps.
Xia Zhaozhao simply pressed herself against the window, idly gazing outside. She claimed to be observing for any signs of survivors, but in reality, the buildings on either side of the railway tracks were too far away to see anything clearly.
This monotonous journey continued until the train approached the Dongtan River.
The river water remained murky, displaying an eerie reddish-black hue. The river had swelled dramatically, its turbid waves churning. From this vantage point, the outline of that wetland seemed faintly visible.
Since the rainwater with black thread-like substances all flowed into the river, there must be many, many monsters in the river, Xia Zhaozhao thought.
Little Green was thinking about something similar.
As they approached the river, she casually blasted a worm-like monster to smithereens, then rose slightly and looked eastward.
The opposite bank of the river is the low-lying southern part of the city, where the drainage system has not yet been renovated and subsidence problems have emerged.
She could foresee that pushing the battle lines over there would be quite troublesome in the future.
"puff!"
She expertly pierced through yet another moth-like monster. Just then, she sensed something was wrong.
Numerous black dots appeared in the sky ahead. There were so many that they didn't seem like scattered monsters.
She immediately took out her walkie-talkie and reported the situation to Bai Shuyuan.
"Is there a problem with the track ahead?"
Bai Shuyuan's voice came through the walkie-talkie, sounding as if she didn't care about the swarm of insects.
Little Green flew to a higher vantage point and took a look. The right bank of the river was largely undeveloped, and the terrain was relatively flat, with nothing obstructing the view.
"I don't see anything wrong with it."
"Come back. Let's speed things up."
Little Green flew back to the front of the car and casually covered the windshield with a layer of ice.
She didn't want the front of the car to be covered in all sorts of disgusting monster slime later on.
However, Bai Shuyuan did not speed up as she had said.
She seemed to have discovered something, and instead slowly reduced the car's speed, pointing to the area where the insects were most concentrated.
"That looks like a food factory."
"I think there might be something useful inside."
"But," Little Green said, puzzled, "there are so many insects, which means the biomass there should have been completely eaten up long ago. And—"
"No, it's not food." Bai Shuyuan shook her head.
"It's equipment."
"I see." Little Green nodded, not understanding, but not asking any further questions.
She just thought that getting rid of the source of these insects wouldn't be a bad thing.
After all, I'll probably be traveling this route to and from the West Station quite a few times. Eliminating this potential threat will at least make future trips safer.
>