Chapter 20: ’Biao, are we still running?

At this moment—

Outside the train, among the ten thugs patrolling, three men are huddled in a corner, whispering and discussing something.

Master Mang had them choose among themselves who would be the leader out of the ten.

Now the leader has been chosen, it’s the one among the three men, a burly man with scars on his face, looking intimidating.

These three already knew each other; originally they were thugs from a certain train. Later, when they went out to collect supplies and encountered monsters, they were caught by Master Kun and ended up slaves. After being selected by Master Mang to become thugs again, with the backing of the other two former minor thugs, he naturally became the leader of the other thugs.

They’ve just been chosen, haven’t had the chance to report this to Master Mang.

"Biao."

A skinny young boy by his side looks at the train next to them with some worry and whispers to Biao, "Are we still running? This time the Train Captain looks younger than me, can he be relied on?"

Their original plan was to find a way to escape when Master Kun’s train went to the ruins of some city, staying extremely low-key for the time being, but the plan couldn’t keep up with changes.

Master Kun suddenly became Master Mang.

And the three of them were selected to become thugs.

"Run?"

The burly man called Biao hesitated slightly; now they have become thugs, and he is even a minor leader, which straightforwardly makes him third-in-command of the train.

Should they still run?

The whole world has become like this; where can they run to? Even if they return to their original train, he would just be one of the most ordinary thugs, with no status or power at all.

Nonetheless, there were more than thirty thugs on that original train, it was a level 2 train, larger and safer than Master Mang’s train.

He was originally a construction foreman with a crew of brothers, all doing manual labor, each with a considerable amount of strength.

After Doomsday came.

After experiencing days of frantic fleeing for survival, he luckily got a "Train Order," and he had many brothers under him, more than thirty people, and he had ambition to create an absolutely safe train.

But...

Before the initial Energy Stone ran out, he personally went into battle but still failed to gather 7100 units of iron ore, couldn’t upgrade to a level 2 train or create a production table, and ultimately his train stalled in the wasteland becoming scrap metal, spending considerable time just looking for mines in the vast wilderness.

Later he learned that many people, after obtaining a "Train Order," wouldn’t activate it immediately, but would first build a team, and only after finding a sufficiently secluded iron ore site in the wild would they begin to activate and build a "Pickaxe Production Line" and rapidly mine, upgrading the train to level 2 in the shortest time.

Or they would preemptively accumulate iron ore and wood through trade, robbery, and other means, and even... someone from another train would run away with resources, establishing their own operation.

Later, he gained experience and again got a "Train Order."

This time the train did upgrade to level 2; however, almost everything was wiped out during a Corpse Tide, leaving only the three of them escaping, hence... he completely gave up the dream of becoming a Train Captain; not everyone is meant to be a Train Captain.

For people like them, the best destiny may be to follow a sufficiently powerful Train Captain, taking the role of thugs.

They then followed a few other Train Captains, but in the end either got annexed or exterminated.

...

"..."

Biao, face conflicted and deep in thought, remained silent for a long time. Initially planning to flee from Master Kun’s train was because slave conditions were too poor; they certainly didn’t want to remain slaves, yet had no hope for advancement.

He couldn’t reach the Train Captain or Deputy Train Captain.

As for speaking with the thugs, that was purely considered as getting beaten less.

However, now...

He’s become a "Thug Leader" on Master Mang’s train; frankly speaking, this is already the highest position he’s ever held. Even if he flees, he would only continue to hide in city ruins or become a thug again, not much better than now.

Moreover, Master Mang, though young, acts decisively and steadily. From the beginning in the slave carriage, when Master Mang lashed out and killed someone, he saw that this person understood the situation; it seemed like just a matter of a straw mat, but it was actually just the beginning.

Plus, having enough ambition—even as a slave, he had to occupy the best spot in the carriage—truthfully, if Master Mang hadn’t monopolized that straw mat from the start, none of the subsequent events would have happened.

Moreover—

Biao glanced at the "Soaring Dragon Assault Rifle" in his hand; this is not something a level 1 train can create. Having briefly been a Train Captain before, he knows well enough what a level 1 train can produce.

This isn’t something taken from Master Kun’s train, otherwise, it wouldn’t have harmed him.

Master Mang has his own fortune.

In the wild, a competent Train Captain must meet one of three criteria.

One, have ability.

Anyone can become a Train Captain with good luck, but that doesn’t guarantee the Train Captain has skill. He’s seen many Train Captains with no big picture perspective, even those who won’t let women become slaves, keeping them in their own harem, causing slow resource collection and ultimate self-destruction.

Two, have fortune.

Even if they have no skills, as long as luck is abundant, they might find high-grade "Vehicle Accessories" blueprints just by walking, and even a fool could enjoy a good stretch.

Three, have means.

If lacking the means, unable to manage, and even if they got overshadowed unknowingly, rebellion below or resource running will eventually occur.

Having any of these is sufficient, and Master Mang seems to lack none of them. Skill is obvious, fortune visible from the assault rifle and the blood-filled mouth with numerous gears on the train head—though he doesn’t know what it is, it’s surely a high-grade Vehicle Accessory—the clues are evident.

As for his means, from the slave carriage’s performance, he knows having someone like this to keep things in check makes rebellion below difficult and unlikely.

Any sprouting issues are snuffed out immediately.

Analyzing carefully.

Master Mang might be the most qualified Train Captain they’ve encountered; after much contemplation, Biao takes a deep breath, looking up at the two fellow workers who’ve been with him for a long time. Seeing the look in their eyes slightly startles him, and he can’t help but chuckle and curse.

"Damn!"

"You guys say one thing but think another in your hearts."

Though they asked if he wanted to run, clearly their eyes showed they didn’t want to run; obviously, they too think following Master Mang is pretty decent.

"Heh heh..."

The skinny dark boy who first spoke awkwardly hugged his assault rifle, "Biao, look, this is a fully automatic rifle, back then all we had were little pistols. Every time we collected supplies and found danger, we had to run."

"Now with this guy, running into ten or eight zombies doesn’t scare us one bit."

"In Doomsday."

"What is everyone after, isn’t it just wanting some sense of security and to live a little better."

"With this in hand, that sense of security is skyrocketing."

"But rest assured, Biao, we always listen to you; if you say run, we’ll definitely run with you."