Chapter 250: Rushing into the Blizzard

Lin Xian's plan was that if he had time after finishing the train inspection and maintenance, he would try to manufacture a set of TRP 4th Generation Special Industrial Active Exoskeleton Power Armor for himself. His first intention was to let Shu Qin or Chen Sixuan use it. Both of them were of the genetic evolution type and needed to strengthen their mobility, so it would be a great improvement if they used it.

Originally, Lin Xian also wanted to find the Sun-Chasing convoy to scan a set of military power armor used by Amin and Luoluo, but he compared it and found that the military power armor only had good performance in weapon expansion and application systems. However, his special industrial type could provide good support in strength and protection. By comparison, he could completely add weapon expansion himself, so he gave up.

Moreover, Lin Xian had the R&D center upgrading this set of power armor. According to the R&D center's style, he thought the result wouldn't disappoint him too much.

Just as Lin Xian was preparing to return to the camp, he felt inexplicably that in the darkness behind him, something was watching him.

Lin Xian, who was always cautious, immediately turned his head, and the flashlight beam swept quickly, but he didn't find anything unusual.

"Turn on the collision volume sensing system, turn on the range radar!"

Lin Xian opened the power armor's early warning system without hesitation. At this time, the system operated rapidly, constantly searching in the darkness.

But after searching for a while, there was no discovery. Lin Xian held his breath and walked out a few steps. What made his spine feel cold was that the feeling of being watched still existed.

So Lin Xian turned his head again, still finding nothing.

Just when he was solemn and confused, his vision seemed to capture something, and then he slowly raised his head to look at the high sky.

The pitch-black sky had sparse stars, and the starlight was dim, as if the night was covered by an even darker night curtain.

Lin Xian looked at the black dome, his gaze constantly staring. In his vision, the vast firmament seemed to become more and more vivid and concrete under the construction of some kind of brain image. The black curtain in the firmament and those starlights outlined it, it seemed...

Like a huge eyeball!

Lin Xian frowned deeply. He shook his head, feeling that he was possessed. Looking again, he only saw that above the firmament, the extreme cold vortex was constantly approaching. It seemed that atmospheric ionization triggered an atmospheric optical phenomenon similar to "polar ghosts" (charged snow dust aggregates). It looked like a huge circular nebula-like shape. The illusion of being watched just now seemed to originate from that eye-like atmospheric cloud.

"Looks like staying up late often really causes hallucinations."

Lin Xian took a long breath, turned around, crossed the pile of fishy insect corpses, and returned to the Infinite.

The extreme cold vortex was approaching, and the temperature was dropping rapidly.

Entering the train carriage from the howling cold wind outside, the heavy armor and warm space suddenly made people feel like they were in two completely different worlds. The strong sense of safety and comfort came, which was incomparably precious in this apocalypse.

On the living vehicles of other convoys, there were also some heating facilities. At this time, logistics personnel had already woken up and started to take care of the convoy's daily work.

Prepare food, check the safety environment, and screen the health of the personnel.

On those large trucks, buses, and campers, small vehicle spaces had been transformed into shelters that were not spacious but made people feel at ease. They were fully equipped with warm and thick bedding, toilets, and storage cabinets. Outside the car windows hung wire mesh and steel plate grilles, and the sides of the explosion-proof tires were also added with anti-collision steel frames. Many cars' power systems had been upgraded for protection, looking like they had done enough work for survival in the wild apocalypse.

Lin Xian noticed the all-terrain polar vehicle of the Eagle convoy, which was driven by tracks. It looked like a very high-value vehicle. He didn't know where Uncle Wu had gotten it.

Lin Xian looked at the tracks and felt a headache for a moment. If he changed the Infinite into this, it would be almost a complete rebuild. The train's chassis and the car's beam frame, power shaft, etc., were not on the same platform at all. The difficulty of modification could be imagined.

In every convoy, people who were good at vehicle technology and mechanics were rare and valuable talents. A convoy often needed such talents to use the materials, tools, and accessories collected by the convoy to modify and upgrade the vehicles so that the convoy could obtain improvements in defensive power.

Actually, Lin Xian liked the feeling of creating a living area in a safe space. He returned to the vehicle and looked at the wind and snow outside, the unknown terror in the darkness, but the goose-yellow warm lights in the Infinite's carriage could give people a comfortable and palpitating feeling.

Since the ancient times when humans lived in caves, the need to live in a space that could shelter from wind and rain had been engraved in their genes.

It's just that now, this need for a living house in the apocalypse has turned into the internal carriage of a steel train fortress.

Lin Xian liked to walk around several living carriages when he had nothing to do. Watching the team members build the inside of the train to be warm and full of life, he felt that the hard and cold steel armor outside had meaning.

Hum!

Lin Xian sat down in Carriage No. 1 and began to operate the Mechanical Heart, covering the recent carriages for detection and fault repair. Some armor fractures were directly upgraded using materials from the decomposition center.

"Damn, so much damage..."

Lin Xian closed his eyes. With the scanning of the Mechanical Heart, his brows couldn't help but furrow deeper and deeper.

The last time he performed full-vehicle maintenance was when he carried out train upgrade and modification after coming out of Jiazhou City. Later, he experienced many great battles, but mainly went to install 1130, electromagnetic railguns, and other defensive weapons. He didn't expect that many places on the Infinite's armor plates had already appeared with not-so-small damage, and some places had even been pierced by monsters' sharp claws into the carriage roof air conditioning box...

"Fortunately, I was cautious."

Lin Xian felt a chill in his heart. At this time, he hurriedly started full-vehicle repair. The blizzard was about to arrive, and these problems might become hidden dangers later.

Rub, rub, rub~

In the darkness, the quietly parked Infinite train carriages were repairing silently at this time, just like an organic life form healing. If people from other convoys knew that the mechanical creation already had such abnormal functional extension under Lin Xian's ability, they didn't know if they would doubt life.

Time passed minute by minute. More people from the other three convoys began to wake up from their rest, preparing for the journey after dawn.

On the Infinite side, Chen Sixuan also woke up early, leading people to manage the internal affairs of the carriage.

Click, click~

The time came to 9 AM. The sky was still pitch black. The engines of several convoys began to start one after another. At this time, the voices of Wu Zhenhai and the others came from the walkie-talkie.

"Brother Lin, it's about time. We are ready to depart. We have all experienced life-and-death battles, so I won't say polite words. I hope you can reach Western Orchid smoothly."

"Team Leader Lin, thank you." Liao Ming said.

"Brother Lin, we are departing first. I wish you all the best!" Luo Yang's voice also came.

"Team Leader Lin, I wish you all the best!" Li Yi also said.

Lin Xian picked up the walkie-talkie and said directly: "Everyone, pay attention to safety. It's best to keep the marks I reminded you of in mind. The snowball is rolling bigger and bigger, and sooner or later you won't be able to hold it. Your three convoys have considerable strength; there's absolutely no problem rushing to Western Orchid. Let's meet again at dawn!"

"Received, see you at dawn!"

"See you at dawn."

"See you at dawn!"

Hum!

The lights of over a hundred vehicles lit up. Following the lead of the all-terrain polar vehicle, the traffic flow began to turn toward the distant highway and left the track area. Soon, the mighty steel traffic flow disappeared into the night with a thunderous roar, heading toward the north.

"They have departed, we should also set off."

Lin Xian completed the train repair at this time and walked into the cockpit. Chen Sixuan and Kiki were already detecting the route.

Woo~

The motor of the Gemini 11R nuclear-powered electric locomotive and the engine of the Giant Whale 03E heavy gas turbine locomotive roared at the same time. The iron wheels crushed the thin ice on the tracks, and the white snow on the roof of the train kept sliding down from both sides. The Infinite began to move slowly along the north track.

The headlights of the train pierced the night. The tracks could still be clearly seen ahead, but Lin Xian knew that as the snow accumulated thicker and thicker, they would soon be like entering the snowfield at the southern foothills of Great Luo Mountain before, completely unable to see the tracks, and could only judge that they were still traveling on the iron tracks from the track walls on both sides and the train's dynamics.

In this situation, speed couldn't be fast, so taking advantage of the fact that the snow layer wasn't thick yet, Lin Xian directly increased the train's speed, striving to quickly enter the Yunzhou Mountains from Origin Pass after dawn.

The Infinite broke through the wind and snow and began to advance. Inside the carriage, Kiki paid attention to the changes in electromagnetic frequency and said to Lin Xian:

"This snow is indeed problematic. After the extreme cold vortex began to cover, even the dark radio using blood essence seems to have very serious signal interference."

Lin Xian looked at the world gradually turning white outside the window and said sternly: "That means many people will become information islands in this blizzard."

"Be careful."

After giving a few instructions, now that the train was running, Lin Xian prepared to sleep for a while first to restore some energy.

The carriage was incomparably warm. It wasn't dawn yet. Under the care of various teammates, Lin Xian returned to Carriage No. 1, tidied up simply, and then fell asleep.

Who knew that as soon as he closed his eyes, he saw a huge eye like a black hole in the sky in the darkness. It looked like some kind of natural phenomenon or a change in atmospheric halo, but in Lin Xian's dream, that "eye" seemed to carry some kind of life, just hanging outside the universe, staring at the earth.

That feeling of the earth being stared at made people feel creepy. Lin Xian didn't sleep soundly at all. Strange and bizarre emotional perceptions constantly appeared in his brain, as if they couldn't be shaken off.

"Hiss."

Lin Xian sat up from the bed and took a long breath. He pulled open the blackout panel and found that it was already bright outside. The pure white snow layer was shining even more brightly under the diffuse reflection of the sun, which was dazzling.

The Infinite was traveling steadily at high speed. The ice-breaking shield at the front of the train cut through the snow like a hot knife through butter and galloped forward.

Looking into the distance, the mountains were on the horizon. Nearby, the trees covered with white snow gradually became sparse and lonely. That vast snowfield was the Parma Grassland, but at this time, the lush green grassland could no longer be seen, leaving only the white snow between heaven and earth.

"You're awake?"

In the cockpit, Chen Sixuan looked at the driving radar intently, her face carrying a gaze that didn't relax at all: "The road can't be seen anymore. The radar basically can't detect anything. I slowed down the speed a little..."

Although she said so, Chen Sixuan's tone still carried a bit of tension.

In the vision in front of the car window, only the utility poles and wire walls that occasionally appeared on both sides of the tracks could be used to distinguish the path of the tracks. But as the tracks went deep into the snowfield, both sides were completely open. The Infinite was like entering a completely white ocean. Looking around, it was beautiful, but Chen Sixuan, who was responsible for driving, knew that this deep snow was very dangerous for driving.

Swish, swish!!

The ice-breaking shield built by forging inner armor steel and tungsten-titanium alloy shoveled open the snow layer. This steel giant weighing over a thousand tons galloped at high speed in the snowfield. Lin Xian looked at the temperature gauge. The temperature outside the vehicle had dropped to -12 degrees at this time, and this number was still constantly dropping.

And the temperature inside the vehicle was set at a constant 26 degrees. Everyone was still wearing casual clothes.

In the howling cold wind, the armor plates outside the train made a slight freezing tremor. Lin Xian frowned slightly. He and Chen Sixuan were worried about the same problem now, but there was no better way at this time, so they could only bite the bullet and drive forward.

The wind and snow now hadn't grown to a certain extent. If they really waited for one or two meters of deep snow plus a level 12 blizzard, that would be truly desperate.

"Drive forward, be bolder. We have ways even if we derail."

Lin Xian's gaze sharpened, and he said to Chen Sixuan.

Fortunately, it was a grassland, and one could see the changes in terrain at a glance. If there was track damage or roadblocks, at worst it would be a collision or derailment. Lin Xian felt this degree was still acceptable, as long as there were no cliffs or caves, it was all easy to talk about.

At this time, the snow outside had already exceeded 20 or 30 centimeters. Looking from afar, the tracks were like a shallow high ridge higher than the plane.

The team members in the living carriage were all opening the blackout panels to look at the whiteness outside. The sun above the sky was gradually covered by the dark clouds and vortex of the blizzard, and the light began to become gloomy.

【Dark fear power detected invading the carriage!】

【Dark fear power detected invading the carriage!】

The Isomorphic Cube issued a warning at this time. Lin Xian's face changed, and he hurriedly picked up the walkie-talkie, letting everyone start checking all carriages.

!

"Check each carriage to see if there is any abnormality!"

Thud, thud, thud. With an order, each carriage began to get busy.

"Carriages No. 2, 3, and 4 have no abnormalities." Sasha reported.

"5, 6, 7 are no problem." Dalou also said.

"8, 9, 10, 11, 12 have all been checked, no abnormalities found." Shu Qin's voice also came: "However, at the connection of Carriage No. 11, a water leakage phenomenon was found."

"Oh, oh, there is also one at the connection of Carriage No. 2 and Carriage No. 3!" Sasha also said hurriedly when she heard this.

"A frozen water leak was also found at the connection of Carriage No. 5 and Carriage No. 4."

Lin Xian frowned upon hearing this and immediately walked quickly toward the nearest Carriage No. 2. Sure enough, at the connection of the carriage, he found the phenomenon of snow water melting and invading. The carriage connection part was constantly dripping water at this time.

Could it be because of this?

Lin Xian was shocked. Snow water carrying the power of dark encroachment, this was too terrifying!

Then he quickly found the reason. Carriage No. 3 and Carriage No. 4 were originally high-level Cole Type 3 biological scientific research cabins. The carriage connection standards were different from other carriages. When Lin Xian dragged these two carriages away from Underground City No. 9, he only performed simple connections, and later did some sealing operations. Last night, he even took the opportunity to reinforce them, but the differences produced by different carriage standards were far greater than Lin Xian imagined. Now, with the temperature difference inside and outside the vehicle, the snow melting on the roof began to enter the vehicle from the gaps, and the dark encroachment fear power carried directly caused the Isomorphic Cube to start alarming.

"Everyone, don't touch this snow water."

Lin Xian saw Sasha and Dalou walking over and stopped them directly. Then he pondered for a moment, turned his head and shouted to Kiki: "PX-05 robot, let it handle it. I'll go up and add a roof cover temporarily!"

"Hmm, okay!" Kiki nodded immediately and started to do it.

Lin Xian put on power armor and cold-proof clothes, wore protective measures, and came to the roof of the train from the lift of Carriage No. 5.

Whoosh~!!!

As soon as he got on the roof, the biting cold wind mixed with white snow blew in his face. The train was moving forward rapidly. Lin Xian went directly to the connection of the carriage and started to manufacture a large carriage cover plate. Because the purpose of the addition was only to prevent snow accumulation and melting, he didn't use heavy armor plates, but used aluminum alloy with good ductility. Considering the shear force brought by the carriage turning, Lin Xian added some flexible materials in the middle connection part.

Soon, the connections of the two carriages had been welded with cover plates. Lin Xian also came to Carriage No. 11. The reason for the water leakage in this carriage was mainly because the carriage was aging, plus the temperature in the living carriage in front was relatively high, and a lot of snow water flowed.

Lin Xian also did the same, installed a cover plate, and for the sake of safety, after handling Carriage No. 11, he simply came to the roof of the last nuclear-powered carriage, preparing to make a wave of precautions.

Just when Lin Xian came to the roof of the last drive locomotive of the train, he suddenly discovered that in the snow layer on both sides of the tracks where the Infinite passed, there seemed to be some living things constantly swimming.

He stopped his movements immediately, turned on the power armor's auxiliary combat system, and began to observe.

The Infinite, like a black lonely boat, traveled in the vast white ocean. The huge track vibration sound caused many "surging" traces to gradually appear in the snow layer passed by behind, as if there were some "fish" or sand-dwelling creatures drilling in the snow layer.

Gradually, there were more and more. Lin Xian squatted down and looked toward the back, finding that those shallow convex roads swimming under the snow layer made an extremely fine rustling sound.

"Everyone pay attention, there is movement in the snow layer on both sides, it might be the Snow Demons mentioned in the intelligence of other survivors!"

Lin Xian issued a warning to everyone in the walkie-talkie directly.

After saying this, he directly gave up the action of manufacturing the cover plate and returned to the carriage from the lift of Carriage No. 11.

Woo~~~

The PX-05 robot held a vacuum cleaner and quickly sucked away the snow on Lin Xian's body. Shu Qin held a gun and walked over quickly with Lv Chang and Miao Lu, looking urgent.

"Team Leader Lin, it's indeed not right. We seem to have been watched by a group of something."

"Guard the tail carriage!"

Lin Xian took off his cold-proof clothes directly and walked toward Carriage No. 3.

"Director Ding..."

"Yes." Ding Junyi had already answered Lin Xian's question one step ahead. While she was seriously recording data with the mobile terminal, she raised her hand and pointed to the Hell Black Chrysanthemum: "Although the change is very small, the dark mark has already been produced and is gradually developing toward Level 1."

"Trouble..."

He immediately realized the seriousness of the matter. It was still daytime, and they had already been marked with dark marks by a large number of unknown creatures, and there were more and more. Once it entered the night, wouldn't they suffer a devastating disaster?

Lin Xian frowned upon hearing this. He remembered the convoy that was wiped out because of running away that he heard on the radio.

"Everyone, prepare to fire at the moving objects under the snow layer!" Lin Xian made a prompt decision and immediately issued an attack order to the whole team.

"Received, fire!!"

Rat-tat-tat! Bang, bang, bang!!

In the snowfield where the cold wind howled, violent gunfire suddenly exploded. The shooting holes on both sides of the Infinite carriage began to launch fierce attacks at the unknown creatures moving under the snow layer outside!

Metal jets instantly raised large pieces of snow dust in the snow, and soon some monsters with sharp spikes all over their bodies and unclear shapes were shot by the bullet stream, making shrill screams, and green blood splashed on the white snow.

At the same time, Lu Xingchen went directly to the roof of the vehicle and began indiscriminate fire spraying at the snow in both sides!

"Cowardly beasts, what's the point of hiding? If you have the ability, come out and fight with me!"

"Godly · Fire Spreading Across the Plains!"

Boom!

Lu Xingchen's moves were open and close, directly spraying out two fire pillars like fire dragons falling to the ground, instantly evaporating a large amount of white snow. His large-area cleaning actually completely exposed many Snow Demons under the snow layer to everyone's vision.

Suddenly, countless ugly strange monsters that looked like white hyenas but had sharp long tails appeared in everyone's vision.

It seemed that under the suppression of the sun and the big fire, these ugly monsters that could move rapidly in the snow layer began to struggle frantically, actually jumping directly toward Lu Xingchen's direction.

"Well come!"

Seeing these Snow Demons rushing wildly to their deaths, Lu Xingchen flashed a arrogant coldness in his eyes. He directly crossed his hands and pushed forward suddenly.

Boom, boom!

A large net made of flames instantly erupted and materialized, pressing down all the snow demons attempting to climb onto the train, causing them to fall continuously while emitting a sizzling, charred stench.

On the carriage, with the firing of the Infinite, the red light on the Hell Black Chrysanthemum was also changing.

Just like Lin Xian guessed, these strange entities that didn't look big appeared in a group-based mode, and they could act under the dark snow layer during the day, marking the prey along the way with dark marks. After entering the night, they would enter their true hunting moment!

"Too many." Ding Junyi said at this time: "Our bullets aren't necessarily more than their quantity, and we can't keep the gunfire going from morning to night."

Lin Xian's face was somewhat solemn upon hearing this. Ding Junyi was right. They couldn't kill from day to night. Not to mention whether their energy was enough, ammunition was also a big problem. Even if Lin Xian manufactured at full strength, he couldn't keep up with the team's firing speed.

"Looks like there's only one way."

Lin Xian immediately called all the key personnel into Carriage No. 3.

"Team Leader Lin, those monsters seem to be getting more and more, and they can't be killed at all!" Shu Qin walked over urgently and said.

Dalou also nodded: "Just like fish in the sea."

"The snow is also getting thicker, and many bullets fired are a waste." Sasha said.

"I understand the situation." Lin Xian simply synchronized the mark problem with everyone.

"Currently, there is only one strategy, and that is to stop attacking first, and then kill before nightfall!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 251 =====