My Doomsday Train

There wouldn't be any major chaos, nor would any talent be overlooked.

Chen Mang withdrew his gaze from the train and looked ahead at the city once more. Not a single light was on in the city, only a faint yellow glow emanating from somewhere within the vast underground space.

The entire deep underground had been excavated to create a massive cavern.

This city was situated within that space.

When a city falls into darkness, the sense of oppression it brings is overwhelming. The towering skyscrapers, reaching into the clouds, resembled terrifying monsters ready to devour everything at any moment.

After a long while.

"Let's go."

Chen Mang tossed the burnt-out cigarette at his feet and climbed back into the train compartment, preparing to begin exploring the city.

There was no way out.

Clearly, if he couldn't locate that nuclear bomb and activate it, he would be trapped here indefinitely. Perhaps he could try drilling his way out with the drill bit. This place should be beneath the Zombie Basin.

Theoretically, if he kept drilling upward, he should be able to escape. The only question was whether the boundaries of this Fortuitous Encounter map could withstand a level 50 drill bit.

In any case, the Fortuitous Encounter map in the Kunlun Mountains region hadn't held up.

Right now, he had nothing but an abundance of iron ore—over three million units.

If push came to shove, he could upgrade the drill bit to level 100, or even 200 or 300. At that point, he didn't believe the boundaries of this Fortuitous Encounter map could stop him. It was a backup plan. Even if he couldn't find the nuclear bomb, he shouldn't be permanently trapped in this map.

The Stellar Train gradually accelerated, moving deeper into the city along the road.

After a few hundred meters.

Chen Mang suddenly noticed a question mark floating in the air above the road ahead.

It was a three-dimensional, white question mark, roughly the size of an adult man, slowly rotating.

A flicker of confusion crossed Chen Mang's eyes, but he quickly realized something. He steered the train over the question mark, and as he approached, he noticed a small projector beneath it.

The question mark was being projected into the air by this device.

The moment the train passed over the question mark.

"Whoosh!"

Two mechanical arms suddenly extended from the road beneath the question mark, attaching two walkie-talkie-like devices to either side of the train's front compartment.

At the same time—

A line of text appeared on the control panel screen.

「Train Energy Shield enhanced. For the next ten seconds, your train's Energy Shield level will increase by one.」

"..."

Chen Mang's expression turned slightly odd as he read the message on the screen, then glanced at the next question mark further down the road. So, this Fortuitous Encounter map was supposed to start with some kind of item race?

By collecting question marks, you gained different enhancements, and then raced to be the first to cross the finish line?

Although the map interface didn't explicitly state it.

That was clearly the implication.

But wasn't the first question mark a bit too far out?

The battle's already over, damn it!

Next time, could it appear a bit earlier?

At this distance, anyone who's going to die has already died.

Chen Mang ignored the remaining question marks, as they were useless now. However, this did serve as a reminder for future Fortuitous Encounters: if there's a road like this and all the trains start side by side, it's probably an item race.

Better to speed ahead and grab the items first.

He continued to steer the Stellar Train down the road at high speed, reaching the edge of the city in just a few minutes.

"Get out!"

The train came to a stop again, and Biao Zi and the others jumped off, ready to explore the office buildings on either side of the street.

He had wanted to do this back in the Mechanical City, but that Fortuitous Encounter map had a fixed progression, leaving him no time to explore the entire area. This map, however, had no set progression or time limit. He wasn't in a hurry, so he could take his time exploring.

There had to be good stuff in these office buildings.

Exploration first.

He glanced out the window at the office buildings, most of which were in ruins. Through the cracks in the shattered buildings, he could clearly see countless mechanical gears inside, though they had long since stopped turning.

He had always been curious—if these office buildings were filled with gears, could people actually live in them?

And what were the gears for?

If they were meant to transmit energy, there were surely more efficient, faster, and less lossy methods of energy transfer, especially in an advanced civilization like this.

He turned his attention to the screen.

The first-person perspectives of Biao Zi and the others exploring, combined with the real-time surround sound from the train's multiple sound systems, created an immersive experience.

"Be careful."

Biao Zi silently repeated this phrase in his mind, transmitting it through the Hive Mind to Director Ai, who then relayed it to the team members' Iris Chips. The phrase itself was meaningless—everyone knew to be cautious in an unknown place—but it was meant to give the team some reassurance upon seeing his message.

As they entered the office building's lobby.

The place was a mess.

The floor was covered in dark brown bloodstains, though they had faded significantly. A long, long time ago, there must have been a fierce battle here. Yet, there were no bodies or bone fragments to be seen.

"..."

Biao Zi cautiously knelt down and tapped the floor with his knuckle.

A dull thud echoed.

Sure enough, the floor was a single sheet of steel, with no visible seams. It was pitch black, like everything else in this city. The oppressive atmosphere was overwhelming.

"Wait!"

Biao Zi's expression suddenly changed as he scanned the surroundings. This place... though he had never been here before, it felt strangely familiar.

It was the office building from the Biohazard map chip.

There were some minor differences, but overall, it looked almost identical.

He closed his eyes and stood still, quickly recalling the details.

Back when he cleared the Biohazard map, the final step was on the rooftop, where he had to use a steel cable to reach the opposite building. From there, he had looked down at the city—that city...

It looked almost exactly like this one.

He didn't know if this information was useful, but he relayed it back to Director Ai before continuing his cautious exploration. The lobby had been thoroughly searched, and nothing unusual had been found.

Except for a reception desk.

The desk was completely empty, not even a pen or a piece of paper in sight.

The elevators had stopped working.

Biao Zi led the team, walking at the front as they began systematically checking each floor via the fire escape.

Outside the office building.

The Stellar Train hovered above the city, nearly reaching the top of the cavernous space, which was only a thousand meters high.

Several Mechanical Eyes on the exterior of the train began rapidly rotating.

Countless streams of data flashed across the control panel screen.

「Scanning progress 47%... Scanning progress 99%... Scanning progress 100%.」

「Comparison progress 89%... Comparison progress 100%.」

「Similarity 72%.」

"Train Conductor."

Xiao Ai's mechanical voice echoed through the train compartment: "Comparison complete. The similarity between this city and the one in the Biohazard map is 72%. The differences in certain areas are mostly due to variations in map completeness."

"In Biohazard, the building on the left with a massive lightning rod was intact. Here, that building has collapsed."

"But the overall city layout is identical."

"Which means—"

"The city in Biohazard was still in the midst of war, while this one is the aftermath."

"Hmm."

Chen Mang nodded, not particularly surprised. After all, since the map chip had been created, it made sense that the map had a real-world reference. It couldn't have been conjured out of thin air—that would've been too much work.

This, he could understand.

The only thing he couldn't figure out was why this city, located in an underground cavern, had such a massive lightning rod on one of its buildings.

Could lightning even strike down here?

What kind of oath would require that?

Thirty minutes later—

All three guard squads returned safely, having searched three office buildings. They found nothing of value—the buildings were completely empty, not even computers, A4 paper, fire axes, or office furniture.

Absolutely nothing.

The Stellar Train didn't linger any longer, instead continuing along the central road toward the unknown.

During the aerial scan earlier, Xiao Ai had marked several points of interest. If there was a nuclear bomb in this city, it could only be in one of these locations.

The control panel screen now displayed a simplified aerial view of the city.

Three red dots marked his next targets.

A little over ten minutes later.

They arrived at the first target—a military base located in the city's core area. Surrounded by no other tall buildings, it stood out starkly from above.

It wasn't very large.

About the size of a basketball court, enclosed by a steel fence.

The surface area was small, but the underground space was massive—three or four football fields in size.

Chen Mang glanced at the Targeting Radar, which showed dozens of red dots inside the underground base. There were living beings here, but... the radar couldn't provide detailed information about these red dots. He didn't know what they were or their level—only that they existed.

"..."

He pulled a Laboratory Access Card from the drawer and handed it to Xiao Ai beside him: "Give this to Biao Zi. Have him take the first squad down to investigate."

"Yes."

After Xiao Ai left, Chen Mang turned his attention back to the screen, which displayed information about this Fortuitous Encounter map. His brow furrowed.

-

「This city hides a high-yield nuclear bomb, powerful enough to obliterate the entire city and destroy the monsters along with it. However, the crisis came too quickly, and the bomb was never activated.」

「Mission: Activate the nuclear bomb and escape.」

-

Chen Mang had been to many Fortuitous Encounter maps, but most were relatively simple, focusing on linear progression. This was the first time he'd encountered such a complex one.

There was no detailed progression path, no difficulty selection.

No time limit either, and the buildings had no invisible barriers—he could go anywhere, though he hadn't found anything useful.

He had also thought that being the first to cross the finish line might yield some reward.

But there was nothing—it was as if the item race had been arbitrarily added.

In other words.

The freedom had increased, but so had the difficulty.

Escape... escape the nuclear bomb? Or escape from something else?

Chen Mang suddenly chuckled. Although Fortuitous Encounter maps weren't graded, this one was clearly more complex than any he'd encountered before—which meant the rewards would be greater.

"Boom!"

Biao Zi, piloting a mech, swung a massive axe, cleaving through the steel door of the military base before stepping inside.

Above ground.

There was only a single exposed structure.

A flat, steel building about a hundred square meters in size, looking incredibly heavy-duty.

The interior courtyard was filled with heavy weaponry. At a glance, there were at least a hundred large-caliber Heavy Machine Guns, their barrels as wide as the train's Automatic Cannons. Each gun had a box beside it, filled with Energy Stones.

These Heavy Machine Guns were energy-based weapons.

In addition, there were ten rocket launchers, each with forty rockets, capable of firing forty rockets simultaneously.

And in the four corners of the courtyard stood four objects resembling utility poles, each topped with a steel sphere. It was unclear what they were.

The firepower was impressive.

But everything was in ruins.

Most importantly—

All the weapons were aimed not at the base's exterior, but at the flat structure in the center, as if something terrifying might emerge from it at any moment.

"..."

Biao Zi quickly scanned the area, took a deep breath, and checked the constant stream of information on his Iris Chip before cautiously approaching the building, gripping his axe tightly.

「No signs of life on the surface.」

「At 130 meters underground, you will encounter the first red dot. Monster name unknown, level unknown.」

「Lord Mang's orders: Reconnaissance only. If you encounter an unstoppable threat, tear up the Train Ticket immediately.」

The message on his Iris Chip came from Director Ai.

He slowly walked up to the building's entrance, where the wall was marked with bright red text.

「Military Restricted Area, Do Not Approach!」

「Danger, Danger, Do Not Approach!」

He stood at the entrance.

The door was large enough for his mech to enter.

On the doorpost was a red button labeled "Open." He pressed it, and a series of mechanical gears began to whir.

The door in front of him slowly retracted into the walls.

But there was another door behind it.

Before he could do anything, the second door also began to retract, revealing yet another door.

One minute later.

All eight doors had opened. Biao Zi stood at the entrance, noting that the building's walls were made of solid steel, three meters thick—an absurd thickness.

Inside the building, there was nothing.

Just an exposed elevator shaft, resembling a mine shaft, and a red warning light blinking in the corner.

This was the first time he'd seen any lights in this city.

The floor was covered in dust, clearly abandoned for a long time.

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