212: Chapter 212 The Black Tide Surges, the Brave Rush Forward!

The battle had been raging for half an hour.

On the roof of Carriage 08, 08-09 Fan Sinian dragged his almost completely ruined large shield, stumbling back to the side of the turret base.

He sat down with a thump, removed his crystal faceplate, and panted heavily.

The sweat on his face mixed with seawater, tasting bitter and salty.

The Level 3 Bio-Armor on his body was now covered in dense cracks and bite marks.

The armor on his left shoulder had been torn open by something, revealing the bruised skin underneath.

He tossed the large shield onto the ground.

Embedded in the shield's surface were a dozen broken bone spurs and tentacle fragments; the edges were curled in several places, and the core structure was severely deformed, nearly scrap metal.

08-09 Fan Sinian wiped his face and looked toward the distant Black Tide, which was constantly blooming with red light.

"Holy shit..."

He thought of many idioms, but in the end, he could only utter those two words.

At this moment, his other five teammates gathered around, resting briefly by his side.

Their situation was not much better than 08-09 Fan Sinian's; everyone was nursing injuries.

With the help of the logistics personnel, they began to repair their weapons and equipment and treat their wounds simply.

One of them looked helplessly at the leaderboard, his voice filled with deep frustration: "Brother Fan, isn't our score gap too wide?"

Another person chimed in: "Yeah, tell me about it. That Russian guy named Sergei has a higher score than us!"

[Stage 2 · Round 1 Calamity · Real-time Score]

[1st Place: Car 07-01 Lin Xiao, Score 97,400]

[2nd Place: 05-05 Chen Pingan, Score 42,500]

[3rd Place: 14-04 Liu Bi, Score 41,400]

[4th Place: 05-05 Fang Yuan, Score 17,000]

...

[9th Place: 16-15 F Sergei, Score 12,900]

[10th Place: 08-09 Fan Sinian, Score 11,300]

[11th Place: 03-05 Li Kui, Score 9,900]

08-09 Fan Sinian stared at the leaderboard for several seconds.

Then, he lost his mind.

"I'm fucking done!"

He punched the shield beside him, which let out a groan of overwhelming stress, and another crack appeared on its edge.

"I'm holding a shield, I'm a heavy assault warrior with low attack and high defense! Do you understand what a heavy assault warrior is?"

The more he spoke, the angrier he became, his face turning flushed red.

"What can I compare with them? Huh? They kill one with a single slash, but when I slam down with a shield, the monster is at most barely alive, and then the kill reward is fucking stolen by someone else!"

"Sigh, Brother Lin's reward settings are just too unfair!"

"At the very least, there should be a damage-taken ranking, right? You can't just let me, Old Fan, take the worst beating and get the least rewards!"

By the end, his voice carried a hint of grievance, and he looked like he was about to cry.

The teammates nearby wanted to laugh but didn't dare, their faces twisted from holding it in.

Zhou Jun also swapped with the reserve team on the roof at this moment, coming down to rest.

Seeing 08-09 Fan Sinian muttering there, he immediately walked over and sat by the roaring turret.

"Yo, slacking off here?"

Zhou Jun put down his staff, removed his faceplate, and rubbed his aching temples.

Continuous spellcasting had drained his mental energy, and his temples were throbbing with pain.

08-09 Fan Sinian turned his head, making a gesture to punch him: "You want to keep yapping? If you keep yapping, I won't help you pull monsters later!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Jun's expression changed immediately.

He was a magic core; his output relied entirely on his teammates creating the right environment.

If 08-09 Fan Sinian didn't help him pull monsters, he would have to stand still and cast spells, making him no different from a living target on this battlefield.

"Oh, my Brother Fan, it was a slip of the tongue, a slip of the tongue!"

Zhou Jun quickly leaned in, his face full of smiles, "I apologize, a sincere apology. When that group of monsters rushes up later, you absolutely must cover me!"

08-09 Fan Sinian snorted, accepting the apology.

Zhou Jun sat down next to him, looked at the leaderboard, and sighed: "Chen Pingan and Liu Bi, those two are truly fierce."

He paused, his tone carrying a flavor that was hard to tell if it was envy or admiration: "They were thousands of points behind us before, but after just half an hour of fighting the Black Tide, they've gone straight into the top three!"

08-09 Fan Sinian followed his gaze and looked toward the front right of the Astral Express.

In the Black Tide there, sharp blade lights flashed continuously.

It wasn't the extremely violent fighting style of Lin Xiao.

It was a more restrained, and more precise, method of attack.

Every time the blade light flashed, a group of Calamity Creatures was beheaded, without a single wasted movement.

It was Chen Pingan.

08-09 Fan Sinian watched for a long while before withdrawing his gaze, his voice filled with admiration: "Chen Pingan really is something. He's already lost an arm, yet he's still fierce as hell when hacking at monsters. It's really baffling."

Zhou Jun also showed a puzzled look: "I heard from 05-05 Fang Yuan that Chen Pingan bought a blade technique manual from someone, and then he started practicing it non-stop—day and night, practicing while eating, practicing while sleeping, even practicing while going to the bathroom."

He paused, lowered his voice, and acted mysterious: "I heard that every day or two, Chen Pingan's body undergoes subtle changes—his physique changes, his temperament changes, even the rhythm of his walking changes, and his blade technique keeps getting stronger!"

"What kind of blade technique is so mystical?" 08-09 Fan Sinian rubbed his chin, a flash of eagerness in his eyes, "If worst comes to worst, I'll get a copy too and switch to being a main damage dealer!"

"Uh, you?"

Zhou Jun thought the shelling was too loud and he had misheard.

Seeing 08-09 Fan Sinian's unusually determined look, he knocked on the nearly ruined large shield on the ground, then looked at 08-09 Fan Sinian with a look of concern for a mentally challenged person.

"You, you'd better just stick to playing with your shield!"

His tone was earnest, "Mastering one skill is the right path. Someone as highly talented as Chen Pingan is not something you can learn to be."

"Tsk, I just wanted to be like you guys, slaughtering in all directions..." 08-09 Fan Sinian muttered, his voice filled with a hint of unwillingness.

Zhou Jun chuckled and patted his shoulder, about to offer some comfort.

Suddenly, a violent fluctuation came from the carriage beneath their feet.

The anti-slip steel plates emitted a harsh metallic grinding sound, and the entire carriage trembled, as if something huge was breaking through from beneath the floor.

Several passengers located in the rear section of Carriage 8 were violently thrown back by a strange force and fell to the ground.

Before everyone could react, a phantom image appeared on the steel plate.

The phantom was faint at first, like a blurry silhouette seen through frosted glass.

Then it began to expand and solidify rapidly.

The color shifted from translucent gray-white to a deep, dark gray.

Finally, it turned into a massive quadruple-mounted turret.

It was exactly the same as the ones next to it.

Living Armor covered its surface, with vein-like patterns flowing slowly within it.

The turret base was deeply embedded into the bottom of the carriage, merging with the overall structure of the Astral Express.

The passengers of Carriage 8 stared dumbfounded at this behemoth that had appeared out of thin air.

The height of the turret almost reached the ceiling of the carriage, with four thick gun barrels pointing side-by-side into the darkness outside.

"What is going on?"

08-09 Fan Sinian stood up, his face full of horror.

Before he could call his teammates, a turret also appeared on the roof of Carriage 9.

At this moment, in the Black Tide vortex a hundred meters away from the Astral Express.

Lin Xiao's killing intent overflowed, like a god of slaughter.

While wielding his battle axe, he manipulated the information panel in front of him.

[Consume 2000 energy, build new turret]

[Target location: Carriage 01]

...

[Construction successful!]

[Current energy: 2187 / ∞]

[Current number of turrets: 6]

Previously, the Astral Express only had 4 turrets, totaling sixteen naval guns.

Although the power was immense, and every shelling would clear an area, the energy number would jump up significantly.

However, the loading speed of the turrets was constant, and the speed at which the monsters swarmed up far exceeded the firing frequency of the turrets.

Once a direction was breached by Calamity Creatures, it would trigger a series of chain reactions.

Therefore, Lin Xiao intended to build turrets as quickly as possible to increase shooting density and fill the firepower gaps.

[Consume 2000 energy, build new turret]

[Target location: Carriage 01]

Fill in the defensive vacuum zone at the front of the train.

A vibration came from the very front of the train.

A turret was born in the fusion of steel and flesh.

The quadruple-mounted gun barrels extended from both sides of the train head, like the fangs of a giant beast forged from steel.

Keep killing.

When the energy jumped to 3000 again, Lin Xiao built another one.

[Consume 2000 energy, build new turret]

[Target location: Carriage 16]

There needs to be one at the Tail too.

The passengers on the roof of Carriage 16 were terrified by the sudden vibration beneath their feet.

When that dark gray quadruple-mounted turret rose from the floor, some people's legs went weak, and they slumped directly onto the ground.

Then, the gun barrels began to rotate.

Golden beams of light pierced into the Black Tide.

Those Calamity Creatures that had originally surged from the Tail direction were instantly reduced to ashes in the light.

The carriage was silent for a few seconds.

Then, a cheer of survival erupted.

As for Lin Xiao, who was far away in the Black Tide.

He had no time to celebrate prematurely.

He looked at those high-brightness silhouettes that were still dense and endless in the vision of the spirit realm lens.

He revealed a bright, cheerful smile.

Can't kill them all?

Then keep killing!

The turrets are still not enough, far from enough.

Every carriage needs to have one.

What are sixteen naval guns? He wants thirty-two, he wants sixty-four!

He wants to turn this train into a mobile steel fortress.

Let those things that crawled out of the abyss have to tuck their Tails and run just from seeing it from afar!