Chapter 18: "Detected Level 0 permission. This Vehicle Component can be further upgraded."

Lao Zhu arrived with trepidation but left with excitement.

Inside the Train cabin.

Chen Mang watched Lao Zhu's departing figure and shook his head with a slight, helpless smile. He naturally understood why Lao Zhu was so thrilled. On one hand, Lao Zhu genuinely hoped for the Train's better development, wanting a safe haven in this perilous apocalypse. On the other hand, only by focusing on these aspects could Lao Zhu maximize his own value. It was also a bit of self-interest on Lao Zhu's part. After all, if he didn't consider these things at all and only focused on the thrill of battle, Lao Zhu would lose his significance. Even as an early member of the team, his status would gradually diminish over time.

Chen Mang understood this well.

Who doesn't have self-interest? If someone truly had no self-interest, they were probably harboring some twisted thoughts about destroying the world or something equally chaotic.

Now alone again in the Train cabin, Chen Mang picked up a pen and notebook from the table and began to jot down some notes.

"If you can hit someone with the Train, don't waste bullets."

This was his summary of today's battle.

Yes.

He regretted it a bit. At the time, those people had already stepped out of the Train, so why did he waste those bullets? He could have just driven the Train into them.

But if they had scattered and escaped back to their own Train, it would have been much more troublesome to deal with.

Thinking about it this way, it wasn't so bad after all.

Then, he pulled out the blueprint for the white Vehicle Component, the "Car Blade," from his pocket. With a thought, 500 units of Iron Ore in Warehouse Car No. 2 slowly turned into powder and merged into the car.

Immediately after—

He felt the entire Train tremble slightly.

He stepped out of the Train cabin and stood on the wasteland, looking at his Train.

"Hey!"

Standing on the wasteland, Chen Mang couldn't help but grin as he saw the scene before him. The front of the "Stellar" Train, along with the sides of its three cars, now sported steel blades!

The blades were positioned about one meter above the ground.

Perfect for cutting Zombies in half.

The "Car Blade" fully enveloped the entire car, with a thickness of about ten centimeters. The leading edge hadn't been sharpened yet, so it wasn't very sharp. Rubbing your hand hard against the blade wouldn't draw blood—it was too thick.

But even so, once the Train started moving, this "Car Blade" could easily slice through any carbon-based life form.

The "Car Blade" was about 30 centimeters wide, which also defined its attack range.

Component Name: Car Blade.

Component Grade: White.

Component Level: 1.

Component Effect: Steel blades will be installed on both sides of the car, dealing damage to enemies approaching the car while in motion. Can be retracted freely.

Upgrade Requirement: 100 units of Iron Ore.

"Huh?"

Chen Mang was slightly stunned. He had originally planned to check the component panel first and upgrade it later. After all, just crafting it required 500 units of Iron Ore, so upgrading it would surely need even more. He didn't have that much Iron Ore on hand right now.

But to his surprise, upgrading to Level 2 only required 100 units of Iron Ore.

So what was there to hesitate about?

Upgrade!

With the upgrade, the white Vehicle Component "Car Blade" had now reached Level 2. The steel blade seemed a bit thinner, and the edge was more pronounced. However, the width of the blade had increased by a full 10 centimeters.

Now, the width was 40 centimeters.

Any creature that came within 40 centimeters of the car while it was in motion would meet its doom.

The panel hadn't changed much, except for one additional line of text.

"This Vehicle Component has reached its maximum level of 2 and cannot be upgraded further."

  "I don't believe it."

Chen Mang shook his head, his face filled with anticipation, and muttered again, "Upgrade!"

But.

Nothing happened. It seemed like it really couldn't be upgraded further. Chen Mang glanced at the birthmark on the back of his left hand, placed his right hand on it, and said in a deep voice, "Upgrade."

The next moment—

"Detected Level 0 permission. This Vehicle Component can be further upgraded. This upgrade will consume 200 units of Iron Ore."

Then!

The "Car Blade" began to change again in his eyes. The blade became thinner once more, and its width increased by another 10 centimeters, reaching a full 50 centimeters.

"Not bad."

Chen Mang couldn't help but smile. This upgrade was mainly to test the effect of the "Infinite Upgrade" plugin. It seemed to work quite well, though he didn't understand why the panel showed Level 0 permission. But that wasn't important.

As Lao Zhu had said, the "Car Blade," a white-grade component, was just a transitional piece for beginners.

Even at max level, its effect might not compare to some green-grade offensive Vehicle Components.

Even at Level 3, it wasn't much stronger than Level 1.

But—

He had no upper limit.

Each upgrade of this component made the blade thinner and wider. As long as he had enough Iron Ore, he could eventually have a "Car Blade" ten meters wide.

Like wings attached to both sides of the Train, stepping on the gas would allow it to take off over any obstacle.

And with no upgrade limit, if he had enough Iron Ore, he could refine the blade to be as thin as a cicada's wing, or even invisible, killing without a trace.

Wherever it passed, nothing would survive!

No, he needed more Iron Ore!

Only then could he achieve his grand plan!

Chen Mang shifted his gaze from the "Car Blade" to his Train Conductor Panel. He now only had 700 units of Iron Ore left and didn't want to upgrade the "Car Blade" again. Below Level 10, it wouldn't show significant effects or produce a qualitative change.

One Slave could mine 1 unit of Iron Ore per hour. Working a full 12-hour day, they could mine 12 units of Iron Ore.

He had 81 Slaves.

At most, he could obtain 972 units of Iron Ore in a day.

The mining time couldn't exceed 12 hours, as any more would be too exhausting. More importantly, it was hard to guarantee that there would be ore to mine every day. The wasteland was full of surprises, and he currently only knew of one mine. He had no means of discovering other mines.

Most importantly—

His Train only had one initial "Energy Stone," and one Energy Stone could only keep the Train running at full speed for 100 hours. The Train had to be upgraded to Level 2 and have a "Fabrication Table" built before he could produce Energy Stones.

In other words, if he didn't upgrade the Train to Level 2 within these 100 hours, his Train would completely break down.

He had done a quick calculation earlier.

If he ignored everything else and only focused on crafting the essential Vehicle Components needed for Train upgrades, plus the Iron Ore required for the Train upgrade itself, he would need approximately:

"7,100 units of Iron Ore, 110 units of Copper Ore, and 100 units of Wood."

Honestly, these requirements were quite high, especially with the time limit.

At the moment, he didn't even know where to mine Copper Ore or gather Wood.

Wasn't this a bit of a catastrophic start for a novice Train Conductor? He wondered how other novice Train Conductors managed to survive this period.

(End of Chapter)