Armed Train in the Apocalypse

Although he’d been prepared for it, by the time everyone was done, Lao San was grinning so hard his face went numb inside.

Thirty-two new recruits added, with a full six Tier One Evolvers!

Aside from the high-quality soldiers, the key was the evolution data and Pan-energy Crystals provided by the Armed Train.

After surviving over a year in the apocalypse, even ordinary bodies had been soaked in Pan Energy; with a bit of luck, awakening one or two skills was perfectly normal.

The reason they hadn’t advanced to Tier One was mainly the lack of proper skill combinations; in fact, the energy stored in their bodies was all hovering around the critical point.

Give it just a bit of guidance, and you’d get a wave of mass promotions.

Next came issuing gear. Compared to the armed troops, the combat group had a bit less: no bulky body armor, kneepads, and that sort of thing—just a set of new combat uniforms woven from Tier One evolved plant fibers, including trench coat, helmet, and tactical vest.

A standard-issue [Iron Curtain-A3] assault rifle, plus two sidearms. One was a conventional gunpowder firearm with a random model—it could be Donghuang’s Law Enforcer, something from the "Iron" series, or Mao Bear’s Wolf or Bear, or even captured guns from the Four Nations.

The other was an electromagnetic weapon, specifically for dealing quietly with certain dangerous situations.

On top of that, a [Scavengers-3] refit of the [Sentinel-1] pure mechanical exoskeleton.

Compared to the support-oriented Scavengers, the Sentinel was much heavier, hitting 30 kg, with a load capacity of 200 kg, fully built from Tier One metal materials.

Compared to the Guardian series, the Sentinel carried no weapons; instead it integrated a Pan Energy monitoring module, ultra-long-range comms, a mini Hive, and a high-mobility module.

The Hive housed two small drones and eight mechanical spiders.

In other words, this Sentinel exoskeleton was born for surveillance; the actual fighting depended mainly on the soldier.

This was all the gear the train issued to combat-group soldiers.

No combat armor, no high-powered weapons, no ocean of ammo, and defense was quite a bit lower; the trench coat and combat uniform could only stop small-caliber rounds and struggled against 7.62 mm bullets.

After all, the combat group fought based on the train’s support; convenience and speed were the real essentials.

But that wasn’t everything—that was just what the train issued. Each soldier also had customized, role-specific gear.

Like sniper rifles for snipers, medical exoskeletons for medics, cold weapons for Defenders, mechanical parts for Makers, and material storage cases for Gatherers...

Those had to be custom-ordered separately with points.

As for backpacks, meds, canteens and such, those existed too, but they were handed out as welfare; people could pick them up themselves, and Lao San couldn’t be bothered with that junk.

He was the dignified combat-group chief conductor—was he supposed to hand out socks and underwear to each of them one by one?

The combat group wasn’t like the corps with mandatory five-man squads; generally rookies were partnered with veterans. Lao San was their direct superior, and the deputy conductor position was temporarily vacant.

Honestly, the few of them were pretty inclined to recognize Ding Hui as the veteran.

But he’d only just arrived and didn’t know the train at all, so they were letting him get familiar first, and also seeing if any better talent showed up.

Once the new recruits were settled, Lao San didn’t arrange any extra night training. All those tricks had already been run to death by Lao Er and weren’t fresh to the rookies anymore.

Might as well let them get properly familiar with their own gear.

Like that kid Zhao Zilong—once the exoskeleton landed in his hands he practically stripped it down with his eyes, slathered it in oil and still wouldn’t put it down. Other guys don’t touch their wife that diligently.

He first went back to the dorm to grab a handful of Pan-energy Crystals, then headed straight for the main train’s common area.

It was called the senior members’ activity space, but most of the time it was just this bunch of men grinding themselves into the ground inside; the women preferred the Cultivation Pods or hanging out with Yu Yue, chatting and cooking and such.

Today, he’d barely reached the door when he felt a wave of heat slam into him before he even went in.

Did Lin Jin set the place on fire?

Lao San’s expression shifted and he hurriedly pushed the door open.

Inside, the temperature was even more scorching—despite his Tier One Evolver physique, his face felt like it was being cooked.

He looked further in and froze for a second. He Jie, Liang Kuan, and even Qu Hang were there, with Master Eight beside them; the group had Lin Jin surrounded in the middle.

And right now Lin Jin was sitting cross-legged on a metal platform, dangerous black lines crawling across his face, a faint white glow shrouding him, shifting from white to blue, gradually becoming a blue-black, like a deep sea with no visible bottom.

Normally Lin Jin kept his flames at white; at that temperature they cost him almost nothing.

Only in the instant of battle would he ramp the flame’s temperature up to a terrifying level for a short burst.

"This is..."

Lost control?

Before Lao San could get the rest out, Xiaoba put a finger to his lips. "Shh, Lin Jin is attempting promotion to Tier Three."

Tier Three Evolver!

Hearing that, Lao San’s eyes went glassy. After a brief shock, he lowered his voice, "What’s going on? I remember it hasn’t even been a year since he advanced to Tier Two, right?"

"Got triggered by the train captain, wants to gamble on a big upgrade."

Xiaoba shrugged.

Lao San was at a loss for words—did they think Tier promotions were something you just ’decide to gamble’ on?

He’d been going crazy wanting to hit Tier Two himself, but he didn’t dare rush it; he’d even arranged a late-night appointment with Director Xu to check his Life Force.

Failing a promotion wasn’t the scary part; the scary part was genetic collapse—that’s when things got really bad.

The group waited in silence.

Time slipped by—over an hour had passed. The air in the room grew even hotter, the AC had long since been shut off, and He Jie had called Zhong You over as insurance, in case Lin Jin lost control and the blast spread to other carriages.

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