Chapter 93: Heteromorphism (7th Update—Request Monthly Votes!)

Lin Xian rubbed his nose and stepped out of Car 2, his face filled with gloom.

“Got bitten—wonder if I’ll turn into a zombie…”

He walked through Cars 3 and 4, both previously seized from Tang Hai, primarily used for storage, but since supplies were scarce, both cars were somewhat empty.

In fact, Lin Xian had stored some supplies in every car except Car 5, just in case of emergencies.

He arrived at Car 5, where Dafu sat on a chair holding a rifle on guard; seeing Lin Xian approach, he stood up and asked:

“Boss Lin, are we leaving?”

Lin Xian shook his head and gestured, “No, you rest for now—I’ll take over the rear watch.”

“Oh, alright.”

Dafu knew Lin Xian had his reasons and didn’t argue—he immediately put down his rifle and went to sleep.

Lin Xian opened the rear ramp of the train, preparing to consume the broken SUV and see if he could repair the armored vehicle.

The armored vehicle still held considerable value to Lin Xian; later, when they needed to disembark and move around, having such a powerful armored vehicle would make things much easier.

The open flatbed platform’s advantage was easy loading and unloading, but its drawback was zero protection—if a bandit convoy climbed aboard like last night, there’d be little way to stop them from stealing it.

But assigning a whole car to a single vehicle was troublesome, so Lin Xian thought it over and decided to drive the vehicle directly into Car 5; after all, Car 5 had a rear ramp for easy access, though it meant unloading the vehicle every time they needed to load or unload other supplies—far less convenient than his motorcycle.

Lin Xian walked over to the armored vehicle, placed his hand on it, and activated his Mechanical Heart to scan.

“Good… it’s not broken—armor does make things tougher…”

“First, get it into Car 5…”

Looking at the thick snow on the flatbed, Lin Xian thought he’d deal with these two burdens after reaching Underground City 9.

But not now—if tomorrow they needed to tow some heavy machinery, they’d still need this large flatbed.

So Lin Xian stepped out, consumed the damaged SUV, tidied up the tool rack at the rear of Car 5, pushed the armored vehicle inside, then closed the rear ramp.

At that moment, he pulled out the old radio, sighed deeply, and gazed toward the tracks ahead.

There, a headless female ghost in a bikini stood eerily in place—only Lin Xian, holding the radio, could see her.

“A taboo object, huh? Since you’ve attached yourself to a machine, let’s see what you really are.”

Lin Xian stared at the headless ghost, his expression tightening as he thought inwardly:

“If you give me even one point of Mechanical Source, I’ll strip you bare…”

Hum~

A faint glow flickered as Lin Xian’s Mechanical Heart began to rotate.

This strange power surged forth; the red-clad ghost and the radio now violently resisted, trembling fiercely in his hands.

【Consumption Progress: 50%】

For small mechanical devices, Lin Xian’s consumption speed took only minutes.

【Consumption Progress: 99%】

Countless terrifying visions flooded Lin Xian’s vision; the red-clad ghost flickered rapidly, twisting and screaming.

But the next instant, just as Lin Xian thought consumption was about to succeed, a strange prompt suddenly appeared on his screen:

【Consumption Failed: Non-mechanical energy detected. Upgrade Mechanical Heart to complete Awakening before attempting again.】

【Prompt: Non-mechanical energy detected. To protect the Mechanical Heart, Auto-Activate Mechanical Heteromorphism to seal the energy.】

Click-click-click!

Suddenly, Lin Xian’s Mechanical Heart spun at high speed; the radio in his hand twisted like a Rubik’s Cube, flipping rapidly until it became a misaligned rectangular radio, its silver antenna coiled around its center.

“Ahh!!!”

A piercing scream rang out; the countless horrifying visions shattered instantly, and an invisible force gathered rapidly, sucked into the strange cubic object in Lin Xian’s hand.

“What the hell just happened?”

This was the first time Lin Xian’s Mechanical Consumption had ever failed.

“Non-mechanical energy… Auto-activate Mechanical Heteromorphism to seal the energy?”

Lin Xian was stunned—he looked around and saw the terrifying visions and the red-clad ghost had vanished; the strange radio-like cube in his hand seemed to be absorbing some kind of energy.

He immediately scanned it with his Mechanical Heart—no results.

The object had become like a lump of stone.

“Sealed…”

Lin Xian murmured the word, then realized it was his own Mechanical Heart’s action—he could only calm himself for now. “Alright, I’ll deal with this after upgrading the Mechanical Heart to Level 3.”

For some reason, Lin Xian had a strong feeling—the power of this taboo object might truly be harnessed through his Mechanical Heart.

…

At 3:00 PM, after a peaceful night, the Infinite Train crew enjoyed a rare night of rest. Lin Xian planned to depart early before dawn, since they still had two or three hundred kilometers to go before reaching the southern route, and daylight hours had shrunk drastically—he had to risk moving now to save daylight.

Chen Laoshi’s complexion had regained some color after sleeping over ten hours—likely the longest and most comfortable night she’d had since leaving Jiang City; she was noticeably more refreshed.

In the darkness, the Infinite Train’s interior glowed with soft yellow light; outside, snow and wind still raged, while inside, Chen Sixuan prepared food.

Now, besides being the train’s navigator, Chen Sixuan also served as the cook.

Dafu and Shasha were fully armed, organizing weapons and ammunition nearby; Kiki had worked all night—not on the water-oxygen recycling system, but, following Lin Xian’s suggestion, upgraded the radar system, repurposing its electro-optical sensors to monitor the track directly ahead of the train.

Lin Xian thought Kiki’s idea was brilliant—it bypassed complex recognition modules and directly addressed the Infinite Train’s most critical vulnerability.

Whoo~

The electric and gas engines roared together; the headlight blazed on. After a night’s rest, the “Infinite Train” slowly began moving.

Soon, the train reached the junction at Mount Dalaoshan; Lin Xian stepped out into the dark to inspect and found a brand-new, high-grade engineering track—he changed the switch and merged the train onto the branch line.

Clank-clank.

Since it was still night, Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan kept speed low, proceeding cautiously while constantly monitoring the track conditions.

!

In the darkness, the distant Dalaoshan range loomed as a majestic silhouette; the train advanced toward the southern foothills.

“Lin Xian, look.”

In the cockpit, Chen Sixuan pointed ahead at the tracks: “Six rails—only a massive engineering project would require so many.”

Boom! Boom!

Suddenly, an abandoned car lay across the tracks ahead; the Infinite Train’s icebreaker shield smashed it aside with a thunderous crash.

Chen Sixuan jumped in fright; Lin Xian stared ahead at the headlights, his brow furrowing.

As they advanced, the sides of the track widened; countless vehicles filled the highways on both sides, many had crashed onto the rails and were buried under snow.

“So many cars?”

“Lin Xian, it’s getting worse…”

Clank~ Boom-boom…

More abandoned vehicles and debris appeared on the tracks; without obstructions, the terrain flattened and broadened, stretching endlessly into a sea of snow-covered cars—oppressively suffocating.

Beep-beep-beep-beep…

The driving alarm and radar sensors kept alerting; Kiki rushed into the cockpit, face tense: “The road ahead is completely blocked—both sides are jammed with at least ten thousand vehicles.”

Lin Xian watched, eyes burning, and said grimly:

“Looks like everyone tried to flee to underground cities after the collapse—wonder if they were invited or just desperate enough to gamble.”

Chen Sixuan said, “Though the underground city project was invitation-only with NDAs, such a massive project couldn’t stay hidden. Even if only one percent believed the rumors online as lifelines, that’d still be hundreds of thousands.”

Kiki shook her head, sighing: “Useless. Underground cities must have heavy armed forces, and resources are limited—those bastards would never let everyone in. Ordinary lives mean nothing to them.”

4:45 PM. Dawn broke.

As if the tide had receded, the sky suddenly cleared; sunlight reflecting off snow became blindingly bright. Boom-boom-boom—Shasha and Dafu entered the cockpit; everyone shielded their eyes from the slanting glare, gradually adjusting… then their faces grew grim.

Across the vast plains beneath the mountains, thousands of cars buried under snow lined both sides of the tracks; countless zombies wandered among them; the wide multi-track rails were littered with broken-down vehicles and suitcases.

Beneath the snow, faintly visible were rigid corpses in various poses—everyone had mistaken them for uneven ground.

But it wasn’t ground at all—there was no ground left. It was all dead bodies…

The blocked highway stretched for kilometers; in the distance, a massive square underground pit appeared, sealed off by layers of steel mesh and walls, surrounded by countless large engineering machines.

“That’s… Underground City 9?”

“Good heavens…”

Shasha covered her mouth: “They dug such a huge hole in the earth—how many people were supposed to live underground?”

Kiki frowned: “But it doesn’t look finished—it seems completely abandoned.”

“Something terrible must have happened here…” Chen Sixuan’s face darkened.

On the snowy tracks, the black armored train slowly pushed through obstacles, its roar drawing zombies like ants converging.

The entire world felt utterly silent, save for the howling blizzard.

New book launch—begging for monthly votes! Infinite Train, soar to the clouds!

Deeply grateful!

(End of Chapter)