My Doomsday Train

Chapter 84 The fixed consumption of 1460 units of iron ore starts as soon as I open my eyes.

Just then—

There was a knock on the train car door. Soon, Old Zhu pushed the door open and reported in a low voice, "Master Mang, we've taken Shān Māozi and checked each of the survivors rescued today, but his girlfriend wasn't among them."

"Okay."

Chen Mang didn't have much hope to begin with. Given the mortality rate, the chances of Shān Māozi's girlfriend being alive were slim. He simply instructed softly, "Tonight, give this new batch of survivors a simple meal, and by the way, ask if there are any couples among them."

"Bring any couples to see me."

"If there are any troublemakers, kill them."

"Understood."

Old Zhu hesitated for a moment, then whispered again, "Master Mang, about Jì Chǔchǔ and those few young celebrities you mentioned, I specially arranged for female slaves to wash them. They're clean now and waiting in the thug carriage, ready to come over at any time."

"Have Jì Chǔchǔ come over."

"Yes."

"Stop looking."

Inside the thug carriage, Old Zhu glared at Black Rat and said unhappily, "Stop looking. Master Mang wants Jì Chǔchǔ to go over. Don't wait until Jì Chǔchǔ rises in the ranks and holds a grudge against you, or your little life will be in danger."

"But…"

Black Rat looked at the departing figure of Jì Chǔchǔ, with her curves, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly as he whispered, "Didn't Master Mang say that as long as the brothers worked hard, after the Abyss of Doomsday was over, he would…"

"Pa!"

Before Old Zhu could speak, Biāozi slapped Black Rat on the head. "Why do you talk so much? Are you so infatuated with a woman that you're losing your mind?"

"But… but she's not just any woman, she's a celebrity."

"It's precisely because she's a celebrity that it's deadly. Throughout history, beauties have brought trouble. Talk less, lest you drag me down with you if you want to die."

"I know what you're thinking."

Old Zhu said coldly, one word at a time, "I need to remind you that there is only one voice on this train, and that is Master Mang's voice."

"Master Mang controls all the firepower and weapons."

"Don't even mention going back on a promise, even if Master Mang has more problems, anyone who complains will only face death. A superior's promise can only be brought up by the superior himself. If the superior doesn't mention it, anyone who brings up the promise is trying to force his hand."

"Do you all understand this principle?"

"Of course, we understand."

Biāozi said seriously, "Carriage Master Zhu, rest assured, we definitely understand this principle. Black Rat just had a momentary lapse of judgment."

Inside the train car.

Jì Chǔchǔ pushed the door open, wearing a suspender dress with a hint of panic and obedience on her face. She knelt on the carpet, not daring to look up at the mysterious man sitting in front of her, burying her head almost in her chest.

Only, she heard a familiar voice.

She couldn't help but look up at the screen in the train car. The screen was playing a variety show she had recorded before. Soon, she lowered her head again, her eyes full of unease.

She didn't know how long had passed.

"Tsk."

Chen Mang, sitting at the control panel with his legs crossed on the table, smoking, looked at Jì Chǔchǔ in the variety show and couldn't help but click his tongue and sigh, "Her acting is indeed mediocre."

He turned his head to look at Jì Chǔchǔ, who was kneeling obediently on the carpet, and raised her chin with his cane. After looking at her pitiful and delicate face up and down, he said casually.

"The real person is a bit better looking."

Chen Mang nodded in approval, then ignored Jì Chǔchǔ and continued to watch the variety show on the screen. After a while, he couldn't help but sigh again, "How can someone act so badly even in a variety show?"

"I don't think I look like a philanthropist. Everyone on this train must show their value to receive the train's protection. Do you have value?"

"Yes."

Jì Chǔchǔ breathed a sigh of relief, raised her head, and looked at Chen Mang with媚意 in her eyes. The unease in her eyes had disappeared a lot, and there was even a hint of a smile: "My acting on stage is average, but my acting off stage is still very good."

"For example?"

"For example…"

Jì Chǔchǔ, kneeling on the ground, smiled: "For example… like this."

"…"

Soon—

Old Zhu pushed the door open without looking sideways, not even glancing at Jì Chǔchǔ beside him, and said respectfully in a hoarse voice, "Master Mang, you called for me."

"Yes."

Chen Mang nodded, pondered for a while, and then said, "From now on, she will enjoy first-class slave treatment on the Stellaris train. She will usually live in the thug carriage. You should have statistics on the number of slaves mining in the Abyss of Doomsday these days. The top-ranked ones, and you and Biāozi, can have her. As for the remaining ones who are ranked lower, didn't a batch of young celebrities come? You can arrange it as you see fit."

"Alright, take her away."

"Understood."

Old Zhu nodded, while Jì Chǔchǔ, who was kneeling on the ground, breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that surviving shouldn't be a big problem. Being a celebrity in the apocalypse also has its advantages. No matter who captures her, her life is basically guaranteed.

Stellaris, inside the thug carriage.

Biāozi looked at Jì Chǔchǔ, who had already eaten sixteen slices of bread and was still eating, with a complicated expression. He couldn't help but sigh, "She can really eat. She must have been starved enough before."

Finally.

After the seventeenth slice of bread was eaten, Jì Chǔchǔ patted her stomach in satisfaction, burped, and licked the bread crumbs from the corner of her mouth as if she was still savoring the taste.

"She really is…"

"She eats too much."

Four days later.

They searched all the suburbs of Taiping City, and almost all the survivors who could be brought out had been rescued, totaling 801 people.

The deeper they went, the fewer survivors there were.

Including the original slaves on the train, there are now just over 1,000 slaves on the train.

As for the urban area of Taiping City, the collapse of high-rise buildings was too severe, and the terrain was too harsh, making it difficult for even the Stellaris train to penetrate deep.

Putting aside everything else,

The Stellaris train has now reached the top of the "Regional Ranking", with a full 4,000 power value, completely crushing the second place, and it is still topping the list with a level 2 train. The train radio has been exploding these days.

And Chen Mang has roughly guessed where the survivors of Taiping City have gone based on calculations these days.

Data does not lie.

Even if the power value of all the trains on the "Regional Ranking" were calculated based on the number of survivors, they would only add up to a little over 100,000 people. Therefore, excluding the possibility of an extremely high mortality rate, the most likely scenario is...

Most of the survivors in Taiping City were randomly teleported after the apocalypse.

Teleported to other areas.

This ensures that even areas with sparse populations have initial survivors for trains to take in, preventing train captains from wandering around for ages in those sparsely populated areas without finding a single survivor.

A train without survivors is like a train without energy stones, destined to break down sooner or later.

This would explain why Taiping City only has so few survivors.

At this moment, dawn is just breaking.

Chen Mang was controlling the Stellar train, speeding across the wasteland. The "Resource Detection Radar" was constantly exploring nearby resource points. He had newly built 8 ordinary carriages to carry these slaves.

But this is clearly not a long-term solution.

He can't possibly install level 3 armor on all 8 carriages, as the cost would be too high. The current resources don't support such extravagance, and the hidden dangers of 8 slave carriages are a bit too numerous, greatly affecting the train's flexibility.

He plans to stuff all these newly recruited slaves into refrigerators.

But to build a level 10 refrigerator with the "Inner Universe" effect requires 4500 units of iron ore.

With so many slaves, he'd need at least four more refrigerators to fit them all, which would be 18,000 units of iron ore.

And he currently only has 1000 units of iron ore.

There are too many slaves. Not only do they eat more, but housing them is also a problem. He needs to recruit a few more thugs, otherwise the current ten thugs will have a hard time maintaining order. Over a thousand people is not a small number.

Piled up in the square, they could fill the entire square.

Finally—

"Beep beep beep"

Accompanied by the beeping of the resource detection radar, he finally found a level 1 iron ore in the wasteland. Although he looks down on level 1 iron ore now, even a mosquito has meat, especially since he needs this little bit of meat right now.

Soon!

The original 200 old slaves in the train began to walk off the train one by one, carrying hoes and entering the mine, starting a new day of mining. They hadn't mined for several days, which was a long rest for these slaves. At this time, they were full of energy.

As for why not let the new slaves do it.

The train doesn't have extra iron ore to build new level 2 hoes. Making a level 2 hoe requires 10 units of iron ore. Equipping each of the 800 new slaves with a hoe would require 8000 units of iron ore.

After dark.

When the old train slaves crawled out of the mine with their hoes, they brought back 2400 units of iron ore.

This amount of iron ore is not even enough to make hoes for the new slaves. It's not that the slaves are lazy, but that this level 1 iron ore is just like that. Unlike level 2 iron ore, one unit of level 2 iron ore is equal to ten units of level 1 iron ore.

Efficiency remains the same, but output is ten times higher.

The next day, at dawn.

Chen Mang used the 2400 units of iron ore from yesterday to create 240 hoes, distributed to 240 new slaves, allowing some of the new slaves to work in the mine with the old slaves. This day, they brought out 4000 units of iron ore.

The work efficiency of the new slaves is obviously much worse, due to various factors such as mentality and physical fitness, but these are all fine. They will be slowly trained later.

The third day.

The 4000 units of iron ore brought out yesterday were once again turned into 400 hoes, distributed to 400 new slaves.

This day.

They brought out 7000 units of iron ore.

Although it is level 1 iron ore, the current output of iron ore is already close to his daily output of that level 2 iron ore below the Abyss of Doomsday. Before the goblins came, the daily output of that level 2 iron ore was just over 10,000 units of iron ore.

The fourth day.

Chen Mang took out over a thousand units of iron ore and once again created over a hundred hoes to distribute. By this point, all the slaves had their own hoes, and the mining progress became faster.

This day, they brought out 8000 units of iron ore.

The fifth day.

There was no fifth day. After the end of the fourth day, the mine was emptied.

Although the output of a level 1 iron ore is not fixed, it is basically in the upper and lower range of 20,000 units of iron ore that can be mined.

Including the consumption of food and water these days.

There are currently 9000 units of iron ore in the train, which is still not enough to build four level 10 refrigerators. He needs to continue searching for level 1 iron ore.

On the wasteland.

The Stellar train is speeding towards an unknown destination, and the "Resource Detection Radar" is constantly running.

Old Zhu walked into the carriage and began to report the daily consumption details to Chen Mang.

"Master Mang."

"All our level 1 and level 2 slaves now have two meals a day, each person eating twenty slices of bread and four bottles of mineral water. It's easy to get dehydrated from hard labor."

"Ten slices of bread are one unit of iron ore, and making ten bottles of mineral water requires ten slices of bread, which is also one unit of iron ore."

"So, each slave consumes 2.4 units of iron ore per day."

"More than 200 slaves, including thugs, etc., cost 500 units of iron ore per day."

"Now there is a new batch of slaves. They have the treatment of level 3 slaves, with ten slices of bread and two bottles of mineral water per day. The daily consumption is 1.2 units of iron ore, a total of 800 people, which is 960 units of iron ore consumed per day."

"Master Mang, your initial instruction was that regardless of whether there is mining today or not, the food is fixed and will not be reduced because there is no mining on that day."

"Which means—"

"Basically, even if the Stellar train does nothing, it still has a fixed consumption of 1460 units of iron ore as soon as it opens its eyes."

"If there is no mine to dig today, then it is pure consumption."

"It was okay when there were fewer slaves before, but now that there are more slaves, if the train doesn't store at least 10,000 units of iron ore, this batch of slaves will starve to death if it can't find iron ore for several days in a row."