Chapter 306: Lu Xingchen's Change

*Chi~*

In the dark underground track, the *Infinite* train's automatic door opened. Lin Xian, wearing the black Lone Wolf S power armor, walked to the door. The night-vision system and intelligent target search system automatically activated to help him observe the situation at both ends of the dark tunnel.

The overall coordination of this power armor was very good, and it also possessed decent defensive capabilities. Back in Xilan City, Lin Xian had seen soldiers with similar power armor in a mecha regiment of the 7th Investigation Corps, only the paint and model were slightly different, but overall it was similar to the kind Mo Nika's subordinates had.

Soldiers who could wear such power armor usually belonged to special operations units, a grade higher than the ordinary exoskeletons equipped by the entire Interstellar Military. Added to the physical evolution brought about by the dark energy now, these soldiers should also possess at least Evolution-class or even Diamond-class combat power.

However, combat power assessment was one thing, and actual combat was another. The human body was still very fragile compared to those monsters. Even if it was just the most ordinary Snow Demon, if one was careless, they could still lose their lives under its sharp tail needle. Lin Xian had once studied the Snow Demon's tail needle; its density was extremely high, comparable to high-strength hard alloy. It was hard to imagine that carbon-based organisms could grow such biological limbs.

With these Lone Wolf S power armors, the *Infinite*'s ordinary crew members were overall strengthened, not only more flexible but also with higher defensive power. Added to the latest arc pulse guns, they could already compare to the individual combat power of the Interstellar Military. It was just that compared to the tactical literacy of professionally trained soldiers, there was still a gap. Another point was the effect brought by the Hell Black Chrysanthemum, which could be counted as a cold-dark reagent converter for everyone. This would allow the *Infinite*'s crew members to go a step further in evolution, and the Isomorphic Rubik's Cube could provide a shielding effect against the power of dark invasion, which made the evolution of the *Infinite*'s crew members somewhat safer.

"Eh, Lin Xian."

Kiki followed behind Lin Xian and said to him in a low voice: "Don't you feel that Brother Huo has been a bit off from just now until now?"

"How so?"

"This guy is usually the most active when it comes to drinking and tea, and he loves to be vain. But ever since we came down to this underground tunnel, he seems a bit taciturn, and he's even wearing several extra layers of clothes." Kiki frowned: "You say, isn't that strange?"

Lin Xian's gaze pondered upon hearing this, and then he said: "I remember the last time we went to the SIID Foundation's underground research institute, he said he didn't like going underground. Maybe that's the reason."

Kiki nodded: "Oh~ I remember now, alright."

Lin Xian and Kiki got off the train together. He had already manufactured several vehicle track trailers specifically for storing all-terrain armored trucks and Night Star aircraft on the empty track outside the weapons warehouse. Longshan No. 1's people moved them onto the train, and Lin Xian then manufactured simple external carriages outside. When the train departed, the last tail carriage would use cables to hook them up and tow them away, which could save a lot of trouble.

He planned to devour and settle some valuable targets in the Zero Element Center first, and then return to the train to take time to manufacture new electromagnetic railguns to enhance firepower.

The two of them walked along the tunnel and came to the platform of the Zero Element Center again, walking in through the passage that had already been cleared of danger. As soon as the automatic door opened, Luo Yang and the others guarding inside immediately turned around.

"Lin Dui!"

Lin Xian's gaze swept over and found that besides Luo Yang, there were also the injured Li Guangwen and A-Min and Luoluo. Several people were also wearing black Lone Wolf power armor at this time, guarding the hall and talking in low voices. Seeing Lin Xian enter, they immediately greeted him.

"There's no abnormality. Those robots are all acting automatically, but because the main brain is offline, the fault alarm has sounded many times, but it hasn't had any impact."

Lin Xian nodded. After all, there were over a thousand people lying here. To ensure that there were no problems here, he had Luo Yang arrange for people to guard here. He didn't expect that he would bring several injured people himself.

"Lin Dui." Li Guangwen, Luoluo, A-Min, and several other young people also actively greeted him.

"How are the injuries?" Lin Xian looked at the few people. He knew that these people were not lightly injured. Although they had undergone emergency repair of external injuries through the full-effect medical cabin, the human body was not as simple as mechanical repair. Several people had walked on the edge of death, and even Liang Lei, who was as strong as an ox and had metal skin ability, hadn't woken up yet.

"Already much better." Luoluo and A-Min looked at Lin Xian with gratitude.

"Yes, thanks to Lin Dui's medical cabin."

"Eh?" Kiki flew to that row of control terminals at this time, looked at the fluctuation data on it, and said: "The brainwave activity of these people seems to have collectively weakened a lot."

"Yes!"

Luo Yang said at this time: "We discovered it as soon as we arrived. I checked the detection period; it was just after the 'active' period Lin Dui mentioned ended. The brainwave consciousness signal fluctuations of everyone here have all decreased by at least 98%. Among them, over a dozen people have already presented a state of brain death."

Lin Xian walked to the side of the glass curtain wall and looked at the honeycomb center below. Those hexagonal honeycomb cabins were still flashing blue light, and everyone seemed to be sleeping peacefully, while those white mycelium had been cut off again by special blocking instruments.

"It seems that this system should be set to the same cycle as the active frequency of the mycelium: 9 hours of active connection, then 30 hours of disconnection."

"Then that means, the half of the people who died didn't die all at once." Kiki hugged her chest, her gaze swept over: "Those who couldn't hold on for 9 hours all died. I thought these people were in this state 24 hours a day."

"How is that possible? If they were connected all the time, wouldn't they have become those human-fungi?"

Lin Xian said: "It's just that this blocking method is too simple. I thought there was some high-tech technology."

"Then in that case, isn't there no life danger? The bodies are all fine, just happy for 9 hours, how could they die?" Luoluo on the side was clearly a curious character, and at this time, she leaned over and asked.

"Happy for 9 hours?" Lin Xian smiled speechlessly: "In 17th-century Europe, during that period, besides cruel physical torture, there was also a kind of laughing torture. This laughing torture was completely bloodless and adopted a seemingly harmless way to execute punishment, which was to tie the prisoner tightly, then smear honey or salt on the soles of their feet, and then let a goat lick them. Guess how long they could hold on?"

"Licking the soles of the feet? This counts as a punishment?"

"It counts." Luo Yang also followed up at this time: "I know this. In half an hour, people won't be able to stand it. As long as 1 to 2 hours, it's enough to cause cardiac arrest or death by suffocation."

"Right, but this is causing functional damage to the body, while they are only to the brain, so there are still some differences." Lin Xian said: "But the trauma caused by the brain's high-intensity calculation is irreversible."

After speaking, Lin Xian turned his head, his gaze began to scan the monitoring hall, pondering where to start.

Lin Xian had no interest in those operation robots because they were all designed specifically for the honeycomb center, far less practical than his PX-05 maintenance robots. And now he already had the Lei Sun 2000 for attack robots, so these things only had the value of being devoured by him.

However, he planned to deal with these robots, the large suspended mechanical arms inside, and the energy system here last. He would start with those instruments, equipment, and various detectors in the passage, and most importantly, the high-temperature plasma beam cutting array. Lin Xian had thought of this point while on the train just now. If he replaced the electric blade armor system on the train with this thing and arranged it densely, and combined it with the arc pulse string vibrator, if they encountered a monster tide like the previous Snow Demon and Snow Monster, wouldn't the *Infinite* become a large cutting machine, being crushed and shredded as soon as they came up?!

Of course, this plasma beam cutting array couldn't be turned on for a long time with current material technology. Even if it could, the power consumption of this usage was definitely stronger than the electromagnetic railgun. With the current electrical power supply of the *Infinite*'s Gemini, Lin Xian estimated it was a bit risky.

But one can eat a meal bite by bite. Just like the electric blade armor system, Lin Xian could manufacture one first. As long as he could use Grace's AI system for train design and modification, many of Lin Xian's blueprints would have the opportunity for divergence and extension.

Without delay, Lin Xian arranged for Luo Yang and a few people to help patrol in various areas, while Lin Xian began to prepare to devour. Kiki, as a bodyguard and assistant, was bored, so she followed Luo Yang to wander around.

【Devour successful, mechanical source point +15, mechanical devour skill proficiency +10】

Lin Xian first completed the devouring of the energy conversion cabinet of Grace's body, and by the way, prepared to take Grace's power cabin directly. This power cabin could be used for charging and partial body repair. Lin Xian was too lazy to scan and manufacture it, so taking it back directly would be convenient to use.

Since entering Yijin City, Lin Xian had carried out a massive amount of devouring. Because of the convenience of remote devouring, the efficiency had also improved a lot. In a short time, the devouring proficiency had already increased by hundreds.

Mechanical Devour: 4 (1316/2000)

He estimated that after settling this Zero Element Center and then finding a nuclear power device to devour, he would be able to reach Level 5. By then, not only would the devouring efficiency improve, but he could also satisfy the conditions for the mechanical amplification of the electric surge.

*Ka! *

Lin Xian dismantled the maintenance port of the passage, found the plasma beam device inside, and then began to scan.

【Scanning progress 2%】

Although this set of devices was relatively precise and complex, the volume wasn't large. Lin Xian estimated that it should be scanned in about an hour, and then he could devour it.

On the other side, on the *Infinite*, some crew members in the living carriage had already rested, while the remaining crew members were on duty. They had all put on power armor for the first time, and one by one they were incredibly excited, constantly studying the various functions inside.

Xiao Yuan's injuries hadn't healed yet, but she also followed her teammates to learn the operation and use of the power armor, wanting to master and improve her abilities as soon as possible.

After passing through Xilan City, she deeply felt the danger faced by Lin Xian and the core crew members. After being rescued from the mouth of that Abyss Worm by Lin Xian, Xiao Yuan secretly swore in her heart that she must improve herself quickly, be able to keep up with Lin Xian's pace, and help him share some of the burden.

In Carriage 5, Da Lou looked at the size of the power armor in front of him, looking troubled. This power armor had the function of automatically extending to adapt to the user's body, but the problem was that with his height of nearly 2 meters, even if the power armor was opened to the maximum, he couldn't put it on at all.

"Give it up."

Shasha operated the parameters on the power armor and said to her brother: "This thing is for people with standard builds in the army. You're too tall, and I'm too short. Neither of us can use it."

Da Lou sighed: "The monsters we encounter are getting more and more troublesome. My ability growth is too slow, and I'm worried I won't be able to help you and Brother Xian."

"What are you saying?" Shasha smashed her fist onto her brother's arm: "You're much stronger than before. You held off that scary monster tide for several hours with just a knife, even more powerful than my *Sally*. Is this called slow growth?"

"Besides, didn't Lin Ge tell you? He'll manufacture a set of power armor suitable for your build separately later. Don't worry about it."

Da Lou nodded upon hearing this. He knew that his ability had improved a lot compared to when he was at Beiwan, but the monsters encountered along the way were getting fiercer and fiercer, giving him a feeling that the more he grew, the more powerless he felt. He remembered Lu Yong, who sacrificed himself beside him—a hero is no match for a pack of wolves...

Shasha saw that Da Lou's expression was somewhat lonely, knowing that her brother was under a lot of pressure, so she said:

"Brother, the problem in Xilan City isn't something that ability users can solve alone. There were so many planes and cannons, and Lin Ge even opened such a big mecha, and so many people sacrificed themselves to win with difficulty. This shows that in the face of these dark creatures, relying solely on our individual means is hard to win. Don't think too much. Besides, didn't the Night Walker people teach us during the ability test? There's great potential in the development of abilities. You should study more in this area."

Da Lou's brows relaxed upon hearing this: "You're right."

He then got up and walked to Lu Xingchen's room, wanting to ask him for advice on ability development. After all, this kid liked to study abilities the most, and in this Xilan City defense battle, the power of the new skill he used was several times stronger than before, clearly having gained something.

Who would have thought that just as Da Lou walked to the door, he saw Lu Xingchen, who was sitting cross-legged drinking tea inside, secretly pulling up his sleeves with a secretive movement, looking at him with an unnatural expression:

"Looking for me for something?"

"Oh, I just..." Da Lou scratched his head, looking at Lu Xingchen wrapped in thick clothes, feeling somewhat strange, but he didn't say anything and stated his purpose: "I just wanted to ask you for advice on what direction I can develop my blood-qi ability."

"Doesn't the manual given by the Phoenix Society have suggestions?" Lu Xingchen's gaze sank, and he said faintly.

Da Lou opened his mouth, sensing that Lu Xingchen seemed to have a somewhat low mood, so he hurriedly said: "Uh, alright."

After speaking, he turned around and prepared to leave, thought about it, and added: "That... Brother Lu, if there's anything unhappy, relax your mind. Brother Xian gave me a bottle of white wine before that I've been saving. How about we have a drink?"

"No need."

Lu Xingchen shook his head directly and said.

"Alright then."

Seeing Da Lou turn around, a bit of reluctance emerged in Lu Xingchen's complex expression, and he suddenly said:

"The characteristic of your blood-qi ability is that it has a very strong self-healing ability. The stronger the blood-qi, the greater the power. This shows that your body's vitality is very strong. In other words, your resistance to the environment, dark invasion, and nerve paralysis will also be more powerful than other ability users. Then do you think your resistance to black smoke and blood essence toxins might also be stronger? Of course... this is all my guess."

Da Lou was stunned upon hearing this. He understood what Lu Xingchen meant. The dark invasion power carried by the black smoke and blood essence after the strange entities died had a great destructive effect on both the body and the mind. Ordinary people all sought a balance, but for an ability like Da Lou's, the threshold of resistance might be higher.

This showed that although the physical system seemed to have little potential, the survival rate in the darkness should not be low. Thinking about it this way, it seemed understandable why physical ability users were generally more numerous and the degree of enhancement through combat was also higher.

Da Lou nodded, looked back at Lu Xingchen again, and said: "Alright, I'll remember it."

After speaking, he set off to leave.

Lu Xingchen saw Da Lou leave and sighed gloomily. At this moment, he lifted his wrist sleeve again. In his vision, the depths of his wrists were already covered with dark blue-black patterns, as if a large amount of mycelium was spreading on his skin, looking incredibly strange.

"It seems that the path of cultivation for this life of the original self ends here..."

He then looked up at his incredibly tidy room, the makeup mirror, the small tea table, the tea-boiling machine manufactured by Lin Xian, the doll given by Shasha, and couldn't help but sigh lightly.

"Lin Ge, I'm sorry."

【Scanning successful, obtained high-temperature plasma beam cutting array (blueprint)】

【Devour successful, mechanical source point +120, mechanical devour skill proficiency +40】

"Hoo~"

At the entrance of the Zero Element Center passage, Lin Xian spent over an hour finally settling this set of devices. Strictly speaking, this set of devices was designed separately for this passage, and the scanned blueprint was also a rail array with a very strange configuration. So if he really wanted to use it on the *Infinite*, Lin Xian had to carry out blueprint modification.

Looking at the time, it was already 2 o'clock in the morning. According to the calculation, there should be more than 20 hours until the next mycelium active period.

"Let's settle a few more unused pieces of equipment and then go back to work on the equipment."

The materials for the decomposition center were almost ready. Lin Xian planned to start manufacturing the electromagnetic railgun after settling 【Grace】. Besides that, the mechanical arm for Carriage 11 was still missing one, and there was also the automatic bullet press...

Lin Xian pondered in his heart that after rushing out from here, he would merge the *Sun* fleet into the *Infinite*. Luo Yang and Li Yi were both good people, and Uncle Wu and Uncle Liao's group of retired veterans had risked their lives to protect them. Then Luo Yang and the others, in order to follow Lin Xian, had even changed their entire fleet to trains. With such sincerity, Lin Xian had no reason to refuse.

Besides that, Lin Xian also had to expand his influence. Darkness was devouring the dawn, and the road ahead was getting harder and harder to walk. He also felt that there was more hope when these people gathered together.

Lin Xian had learned about that *Sun* fleet; it had an engineering-grade nuclear-powered locomotive with a power of only about 200 megawatts, far from reaching the intercontinental level. However, for doomsday evacuation, having a nuclear-powered locomotive could be said to be incredibly precious.

If it weren't for the fact that the *Sun* fleet followed the Phoenix Society's fleet to avoid entering the polar night, Luo Yang and Li Yi's two fleets wouldn't have been able to trade all their supplies and vehicles with him.

And precisely because of this, Qian Dele's Joker fleet was able to get one.

In addition, the *Sun* fleet had a total of 11 carriages. Although the armor couldn't compare to the *Infinite*'s current mecha composite armor, it could be considered formidable. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to cross the snowfield to Xilan City. As for firepower, each carriage was equipped with machine gun turrets and Gatling cannons. Besides that, the other weapons were taken away by the original *Sun* fleet people. Luo Yang and Li Yi moved their own fleet's light weapons up to use, and the supplies were also their own.

The original Luo Yang fleet here had 34 people. The core was Captain Luo Yang. His ability was similar to A-Bai's, belonging to the strange eye type, where his pupils could accumulate energy and detonate at a long distance.

Then there was the combat core Li Guangwen, a violent thunder fist ability user. Both he and Luo Yang were ability users who had reached the Berserk-class level. There were also A-Min and Luoluo, two genetic evolution physical skill experts with excellent skills, plus a boy named Zhang Xiaobai, who was mainly responsible for the fleet's technical support.

Luo Yang's fleet was mainly composed of student survivors from the original university town. Their ages were about the same, and most of them were from the engineering department and the sports academy, so their execution was extremely strong, and they had also created many defensive weapons and traps.

And Li Yi and Liang Lei's fleet had quite a few people. Excluding those who died in Xilan City, there were about 110 people left. The leaders were the couple Liang Lei and Li Yi.

Liang Lei's ability belonged to a relatively rare type in the physical system. His skin could be metalized and enhanced. He possessed a sturdy build similar to Da Lou's, especially after his whole body was metalized, he was like a metal battle bear. His ability evaluation index was 1100, while Da Lou's was 1120, about the same.

Li Yi was also an ability user, but her ability was relatively useless because it was almost never used. She even took a long time to know that she could breathe underwater and fly quickly. Plus, she was pregnant, so she basically had no opportunity for actual combat, serving instead as the team's strategist and logistics manager.

Besides that, about half of the people in the Running Far Camp fleet were Liang Lei's former engineering team colleagues, all of whom were dragging their families along. This group had a good heart and had rescued many stranded survivors along the way, and the team continued to expand. Because those they rescued were all stranded people with weak combat power and no resources, many of whom had children—one must know that in the doomsday, children couldn't help much. So along the way, the entire fleet had over 20 children, ranging from 3 to 10 years old.

So overall, the strongest combat power of this fleet was Liang Lei and those thirty-something sturdy colleagues with various mechanical and construction skills, as well as some adult men who joined later. Out of 110 people, a total of about 60 had combat power. The rest, besides children, were thirty-something women who were basically responsible for logistics.

Now these 144 people were living in the *Sun* fleet's train. Compared to the environment in the big bus before, it was much better, like a mobile family. Lin Xian pondered that this fleet plus the *Infinite*'s original crew members would be about 180 people. This time, after the armor boosted the overall combat power of the combat personnel, the two sides added up to 140 sets of power armor. Almost everyone except children and some logistics personnel could be equipped, which could be called incredibly strong!

Lin Xian was thinking while devouring the gait scanner, when suddenly, Luo Yang's voice came from the communicator.

"Lin Dui, there's a situation here!"

Lin Xian immediately stopped his movements upon hearing this, got up and woke Kiki, who was dozing off behind his back, and then the two of them ran quickly to the other side of the circular passage. Not long after, they saw Luo Yang, A-Min, and Luoluo surrounding a woman wearing a white hibernation suit, who seemed to have come out of a survival cabin elevator nearby.

The woman had disheveled hair but was very tidy. At this moment, she was lying on the ground, trembling mechanically. While twitching, she looked at the three people with horror, constantly shouting in her mouth:

"Grace! Grace!! Butler! Butler!"

Lin Xian walked over and took a look, finding that the woman's cheeks and head still had some mycelium left after breaking. His gaze turned cold immediately, and he raised his hand, preparing to finish her off.

But before he could make a move, Kiki on the side suddenly called him to stop.

"Lin Xian, don't move yet!"

Lin Xian turned his head and found that Kiki had a strange expression on her face at this time, frowning and staring, and only after a pause did she speak.

"I know her."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 307 =====