Armored train in the apocalypse

Chapter 238 Supercomputing
Hu Shuo put this interesting thing into words.

Although such things may have happened many times in history, this is happening now, at this very moment, and he is witnessing it with his own eyes.

"Chief Flight Attendant Hu."

A hoarse but steady voice came from behind.

Hu Shuo capped the pen with a crisp click, then tucked it into his breast pocket.

Looking up, I saw Old Man Tie striding over. Compared to the day before yesterday, the old man's figure was much more upright, with a boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old beside him, his sleeves rolled up and his eyes clear.

The two of them walking together looked like a grandfather and grandson.

The boy was Xiao Dong, and because of Su Huan's attention, he was already considered one of their own by the people on the train.

Moreover, the awakened ability is also that of a "power provider," which even Hu Shuo takes more seriously.

"Does Master Tieshan have something good to tell me so early in the morning?"

Hu Shuo flashed a businesslike smile.

Without wasting any words, the old man handed over a cloth bag, from which came the soft sound of sand and gravel colliding.

Upon opening it, there were approximately five thousand ordinary polycrystalline crystals.

"The quantity is incorrect."

He frowned as he spoke nonsense.

The size of the polymorphic crystals of each grade is not significantly different, and based on his experience, there is no possibility of misjudgment.

Xiao Dong, standing nearby, immediately became anxious. "That's impossible! I collected every single one of them myself. Not a single one is missing."

Old Man Tie glanced at Hu Shuo and quietly slipped a first-order universal energy crystal into Hu Shuo's hand.

This wasn't something extracted yesterday; it's the wealth accumulated by the refuge before it was established.

"Iron Old Man asked meaningfully."

"All the polymorphic crystals extracted yesterday are here. Shall we count them again?"

Hu Shuo paused for a moment, then flipped his hand to reveal a first-tier universal energy crystal, and put it into the bag with a wry smile.

"That was not what I meant."

The old man was puzzled.

Hu asked, "How long did you work yesterday?"

Xiao Dong replied, "Everyone worked until midnight yesterday before going home to sleep, and then got up again at six this morning."

"That's too little," Hu said, shaking his head.

"You are now evolved beings, so stop demanding the same routines as ordinary people. Moreover, as time goes on, the more the pluralistic energy within the mutated beasts is lost, the fewer crystals can be collected."

Upon hearing this, the old man suddenly realized that it didn't mean accepting bribes.

However, a headache soon followed.

Everyone has gotten used to the original schedule, and even if their bodies can handle it, they can't mentally accept working overtime.

I'll have to waste my breath explaining again.

"By the way, how's the sorting out of the hardware equipment for the information industry park coming along?"

Hu asked.

"Come with me."

The old man led the way, and the group arrived at one of the buildings. The room was on the tenth floor and didn't show many signs of living or renovation. It looked like an abandoned machine room.

The equipment in the room was covered with sheets of waterproof cloth.

The old man said, "I don't know what these devices are for, but I thought they would be needed when we rebuild, so I had them installed. If they weren't so heavy, I would have moved them upstairs."

"Is that all?"

"If you don't count the blisters, these are all we have."

Hu said a few words to the person following behind him, and the latter left. He returned shortly afterward with several hardware experts, including Glasses, who had left the car.

One by one, the tarpaulins were lifted, and a group of experts meticulously examined the area for half an hour.

"This is a supercomputer!" the bespectacled man exclaimed excitedly.

Hu Shuo took out a notebook to write down, "Can we achieve our goal?"

"More than enough, but it lacks a data storage device. I wonder if there are any other components?"

The old man looked at a young man behind him, who was still wearing the work uniform of the information industry park.

The young man shook his head. "The data center in the information industry park handles many tasks and is very large; it's not here."

The man adjusted his glasses. "That's true. A supercomputer can't just sit there doing nothing. With the computing power of this supercomputer, even the storage devices would have trouble dissipating heat if placed inside a building. Where is your data center located? Outside in the water?"

"Not downstairs, not even in Guanchong."

"what?"

Everyone was stunned.

Hu Shuo had a bad feeling.

"Where is that?"

Jingchao Lake.

……

"Why would you sink the equipment in the lake?" Su Huan asked, looking at the man with glasses beside him, puzzled.

The latter explained, "This is indeed a real technical solution that has been used in various countries for more than a decade. Some large Internet companies would sink their data centers into the sea or lakes, mainly because of the high cooling efficiency, convenient heat dissipation, and much lower failure rate than on land."

"It's gradually becoming a mainstream heat dissipation method. At first, we thought the information industry park was just a small data center, but we didn't expect it to contain a supercomputer, so the supporting storage devices were also much larger..."

Su Huan narrowed his eyes. "So, you mean if I want the complete equipment, I not only want to take the supercomputer here, but also go to that Jingchao Lake and pry the equipment out of there?"

Glasses nodded. "It depends on the requirements of the factory manager and Professor Ma. If it's just a matter of using some computing power, we can build a small data cabinet using the existing equipment."

Su Huan waved his hand to interrupt him.

“I’m worried that the flood will damage the data center and I’ll have made a wasted trip.”

"There's no need to worry about that. This issue was considered during the design phase. The data centers are all made of titanium alloy shells with laser welding, which can withstand a category 16 typhoon. The shells also have anti-biofouling materials, and the underwater environment naturally isolates seismic waves. Even if the ones on land are damaged, the ones in the water won't be damaged."

Seeing that Su Huan seemed somewhat interested, Hu asked in a low voice.

Should we prepare to go to Jingchao Lake?

Su Huan thought for a moment and said, "Who knows how long we'll be delayed there? Let's get our stuff here first, go back and check on the progress, and if it's not good enough, then we can go to Jingchao Lake."

"Isn't that store one and two located on Jingchao Lake?"

Su Huan then changed the subject.

The secretary, Shu Wei, immediately took the reply and responded.

"New Eden, a newly established religious organization, has clashed with Iron Mountain Refuge twice, and its strength is slightly inferior to that of the Refuge."

"Their strength is even worse than the shelter? Then we don't need to worry about it. Old Hu, speed things up. Can we get the rest of the materials out by tomorrow?"

Su Huan turned to look at Hu Shuo.

The latter bowed slightly, "Tomorrow, on the morning of the 12th, I will take them to put all the materials into storage."

……

Xiao Dong, smelling of fish, followed the old man onto the train deck.

The third brother led armed soldiers to act as guides, diverting the two thousand people and stuffing them into the carriages.

The large space freed up after the train upgrade was once again crowded with people.

"Xiao Dong, stay close to me."

Old Man Tie turned around, grabbed Xiao Dong's arm, and pulled the boy to his side.

The two brothers, Qi Zhenbang and Qi Zhendong, lined up on the left and right, squeezing to the very front.

The armed train only had 2,000 people left, so the old man decided to lead the team himself, while Qi Jianguo and the rest stayed behind at the shelter.

The officers, each carrying a megaphone, shouted from both sides of the crowd.

"Everyone move to the middle, and don't stop unless you're told to!"

"No personal belongings are allowed on the train!"

"Throw out the one with the package."

"Even a schoolbag is not allowed!"

"Don't give me that bullshit. If schools don't exist, what kind of school are you going to attend?"

"..."

As survivors poured in, the Armed Hall turned into a noisy marketplace.

Fortunately, this area serves as an extended space for the train, with no partitions or permanent facilities; it's just a wide, straight line where you can simply walk forward.

The well-prepared logistics staff will divert them to different carriages.

Although these two thousand evolved individuals have been busy with work since the 11th, Hu Shuo had already numbered and filed all of them.

Of course, it's not based on that ID card thing.

The main information that represents an evolved being is their abilities, and with the addition of some other brief information, each person's identity can be accurately identified.

As the procession moved forward and split into different groups, the initial noise of the crowd gradually subsided into quiet.

Xiao Dong followed the old man at the front, looking at the technologically advanced train cabins on both sides, and felt a sense of awe.

The three men, including the old man Tie, became increasingly silent.

The goat at the front stopped and pointed to the carriage on the right, saying, "This is the carriage where you live."

Although the large windows provide ample natural light, the low-color warm white light strips on the ceiling of the carriage remain lit, illuminating the dark gray metal floor and creating a soft atmosphere between dusk and dawn throughout the carriage.

What is a precious resource for the Iron Mountain Refuge is nothing more than an ordinary thing for the armed train.

"It's so bright!"

The old man sighed softly and then moved on.

Unexpectedly, Xiao Dong rushed in even faster than him.

He let out an excited shout.

The sound of running water came from the bathroom.

"Holy crap! There really is water!"

"It's still drinkable clean water!"

Is this water charged?

"Wow, this is amazing! And is this sofa for real? Can I even sit on it? Never mind, my clothes are too dirty..."

"Grandpa Tieshan, come quick!"

Despite Xiao Dong's loud shouting, Old Man Tie felt no annoyance.

Instead, a phrase inexplicably came to mind.

'The world belongs to you, and to us, but ultimately it belongs to you…'

The old man smiled, his face crinkling with wrinkles like mountains.

He walked in confidently.

Although their current status on the train is not exactly honorable, in the future, young people like Xiao Dong will lead the people of Guanchong to a bigger world.

All he had to do was believe.

……

A huge circle with a diameter of 35 meters was laid flat on top of the generator manufacturing plant.

It covers an area of ​​962 square meters.

There are three circles in total, one inside the other.

A small black dot is moving from the outermost circle toward the center.

The heavy exoskeleton feet landed on the ground, creating ripples in the puddles.

The porcelain-white tactical uniform hugged her long, slender legs; if it weren't for the striking color, the uniform would be almost invisible.

The high elasticity allows for a close fit, and the tactical uniform, only 0.3 millimeters thick, feels like a second skin for the driver.

The faint scale-like patterns on the surface of the tactical uniform are interwoven and layered like the belly of a snake.

As the user lifts their leg, the snake scale pattern at the knee slightly curls up like the tail of a rattlesnake, revealing the honeycomb structure of the underground heat dissipation holes.

The factory director and Professor Ma, who were discussing something, turned around, looked up, and greeted him.

"Xiao Jing is here. How's the material coming along?"

"Click——"

The diamond-shaped helmet of the [Engineer-I] popped up, revealing Yu Jing's indifferent and beautiful face.

Yu Jing manipulated the two robotic arms to move them in front of her, each holding a piece of material about one meter in size with a mortise and tenon joint on the back.

"The new material is not strong enough. It can be used as an internal structure, but no matter how it is adjusted, it can't reach the level of Qinggang. If it is used for large-area patchwork of armor, it will easily break."

When the round-faced Vice President Deng saw Yu Jing coming, he also rushed over with a group of people.

With a happy expression, he said, "I have some good news. I just spoke with Director Xu, and that young man named Li Han is quite capable. He has effectively delayed the withering of the crown pear trees, which will extend our time considerably. What are you discussing?"

"That's indeed good news." The factory manager nodded. "We were still discussing the materials." "Currently, the quantity of Tier 1 Azure Steel and Tier 1 Titanium Steel is too small. We'll probably run out after we finish building the framework for the 'Floating Giant Tree'."

Vice President Deng frowned. "Hey, we were just trying to figure out how to increase the production of these two materials, but we've run out of raw materials!"

As the chief flight attendant of the manufacturing team, one of Deputy General Manager Deng's tasks was to coordinate the manufacturing team and provide the materials needed for the plan.

The eldest son personally supervises the work and, when necessary, even acts as a worker himself.

"By the way, is it possible to obtain this kind of raw material again?"

The factory manager asked, puzzled.

Yu Jing shook her head. "These raw materials are basically extracted from land-based mutated beasts and zombies. The material properties of water-dwelling zombies have changed, so they cannot be synthesized into the same thing."

“I’ve been trying out a lot of new materials lately, but they all have all sorts of flaws.”

Vice President Deng sighed.

"How about we send Captain He out with some men to raid some new ones?"

"Then I'll go and talk to him."

……

"No."

Yu Jing frowned. "We don't need too many, even just a few samples would be fine."

He Jie firmly refused.

"The train conductor assigned me the task of protecting the researchers here, not ensuring the smooth progress of the 'floating giant tree' project."

"In other words, even if I watch the 'Floating Giant Tree' project fail, I will not leave."

"That would be troublesome."

Yu Jing crossed her arms and glanced at He Jie's back with her almond-shaped eyes.

There were more than a dozen people hanging there, all with bruises and swelling on their faces, looking very pitiful.

"Is it because you're worried about these guys?"

He Jie stroked his stubble, which he hadn't groomed in a long time. "Trouble is your problem too. Everyone should do their job."

Yu Jing continued, "If it's because of these guys, I think it's unnecessary. We don't even have any first-tier evolved beings. My mechanical puppets can handle them."

He Jie waved his hand, and the soldiers behind him knew that their time to relax was over.

With a cold laugh, he loosened his grip on the rope, and a dozen people fell into the courtyard with long, mournful cries.

With a splash, water sprayed high into the air.

Fortunately, the storm surged over the past two days, and all the filth inside the factory was washed away by the tide.

Otherwise, that sewage alone would be enough to keep several people from getting sick.

“These rotten fish and shrimp are no problem for you, but in my experience, they are just the beginning.”

He Jie said seriously.

Yu Jing's eyes were long and narrow with an upward slant, like two strokes of light ink brushed across rice paper, ending in a sharp hook at the tip. "What omen?"

"This is a bad sign, so you'd better think of another way. I won't go out until the train conductor comes back."

"That's it."

Yu Jing turned and walked out.

The massive exoskeleton was hidden in the darkness, with only a few fluorescent orange stripes shining brightly.

He Jie sat on the railing, reaching into his chest pocket and rummaging around, but couldn't find a cigar. Instead, he pulled out a box of cigarettes with only two cigarettes left.

He muttered a curse, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it.

He took a deep breath, turned around, dangled his feet over the railing, and spat out a mouthful of saliva.

"Bring up those damn days!"

The soldiers nearby immediately dragged the rope, and more than a dozen wet figures were hoisted out of the courtyard.

Coughs and pleas rang out in a chaotic cacophony.

Several others were wailing loudly.

"Ahem... considering we're all from Donghuang, could you... let us off the hook..."

"We didn't manage to grab anything."

"Please, please..."

"You're so generous, just let it go like a fart."

"..."

"If you still have the strength to cry, throw it down."

He Jie said coldly.

Then came another long series of "plop" sounds accompanied by wails.

Then He Jie found various reasons to throw them down three more times.

Just like with military training, the excuse doesn't matter.

The important thing is that I'm going to mess with you today.

It's not enough to just cause trouble; you have to be made afraid and subdued by the trouble.

More than a dozen people were hung up again.

He Jie finished his cigarette "just in time".

He exhaled a puff of smoke, which landed on the face of the nearest person.

What kind of store are you?

"One store, two stores?"

"Ahem, it's New Eden."

"Didn't you want to save me?"

He Jie's smile was chilling as he raised his hand and pressed the cigarette butt against the flushed face of the person in front of him.

"No, no, I don't have that ability, I'm not worthy. I was out of my mind back then, I was talking nonsense, I was wrong, please stop..."

"Now that you can speak like a human, it's one thing to dare to try and take advantage of me, but you also spout nonsense and act as arrogant as a complete idiot—"

Before he could finish speaking, his ears suddenly twitched.

He Jie sneered, flicked away his cigarette butt, turned around and jumped off the railing.

"Keep an eye on things for me, I'm going out to see what's going on."

"Woo..."

The sound of a ship's horn, like the cry of a whale, entered the factory.

He Jie paused for a moment, then with a bang, he shot forward.

A cracked footprint was left on the cement floor.

The fat rabbit behind the pillar paused for a moment, then turned to look at the licking rabbit. "What's going on? When did our boss get so anxious about the train?"

Licking Rabbit snorted coldly, "What train nonsense, he's just worried about his wife. Haven't you seen him staying up all night these past two days?"

"No wonder, his eyes looked swollen. By the way, where are these others?"

Fat Rabbit pointed to the dozen or so people from New Eden hanging there.

Lick Rabbit licked its teeth. "Kill a few, leave some for the train conductor to question."

"understood."

……

The clouds clung to the sea surface, moving as if they might fall at any moment.

Raindrops fell continuously, creating fine, needle-like patterns on the water's surface. The waves became soft and delicate, with the white edges trembling slightly.

A "ship" resembling a unicorn dragon burst through the waves and emerged from the water.

The whale's roar dispersed the drizzle, revealing its sharply defined, iron-gray shell.

Two large lights illuminated He Jie, who stood on the shore like a waiting-for-husband rock.

Inside the armed train.

Xiao Dong pressed his face tightly against the car window.

He discovered an interesting phenomenon.

No matter how much he blows on this glass, there will be no condensation on it.

The waves outside the window seemed no different from those in the shelter, but they were much more interesting.

Anything outside is interesting.

"Xiao Dong, get ready to get off the bus."

Old Man Tie carefully finished the green noodles in the tin box with the sauce, then went to the bathroom to get some water, rinsed the box, and drank it down in one gulp.

The tin box was cleaner than if it had been washed.

"Ok!"

Xiao Dong stood up, picked up his tin box, rinsed it clean in the bathroom, and then placed all the tin boxes of the group at the door of the room.

They can only stay in the car during this period.

Although it may sound boring, the complete bedding and the different meals every day on the train are enough to keep things interesting.

"Sir, is this green noodle meant to be the food for our shelter?"

Xiao Dong asked.

After spending two days together, Xiao Dong and Old Man Tie became much closer.

They really do look like a grandfather and grandson.

"Yes, what do you think?"

"It smells really good, definitely better than fish."

Xiao Dong said with sparkling eyes.

"That's fine..."

The announcement that they had reached the shore came over the loudspeaker. Compared to Xiao Dong's eagerness and anticipation, Old Man Tie's eyes held a lot of worry.

……

"Click..."

The cabin door opened, and Han Qin looked at He Zhenzhen outside and said reproachfully, "We're about to dock, where have you been again?"

He Zhenzhen pinched the hem of her denim skirt, gave a charming smile, and tried to get away with it, saying, "Xixi asked me to go play."

Han Qin tapped her daughter's forehead. "Nonsense! Xi Xi won't play with you. You're just using her as a shield again, aren't you?"

"No, you can ask Lin Xi if you don't believe me."

Han Qin snorted. Didn't she know this girl well enough?

Lin Xi's personality is like a sawed gourd; no matter what you say, she doesn't react. The only people on the train who can talk to her normally are the train conductor, Yu Yue, and a few others.

If she were to ask, she wouldn't get any answers.

"sister!"

The room was filled with an overly clear, even somewhat shrill, sound.

A tiny figure ran out.

He Zhenzhen squatted down and picked up her younger brother, taking out a wind chime made from a bullet casing from her bosom. She smiled brightly, "Xiaoxiao, look what your sister brought you! A bronze wind chime!"

"I love my older sister the most!"

Xiao Xiao gave He Zhenzhen a quick kiss on her fair and tender cheek.

"When did Qu Hang learn this skill?"

Han Qin, who was standing to the side, asked with a smile.

He Zhenzhen's back stiffened instantly, and she shrank back, "How did you know?"

Han Qin sighed, "Put your things away carefully, don't let your dad see them, or he'll worry."

He Zhenzhen said with some resentment, "Hang Ge isn't a bad person, so why does my dad always treat him like a weasel..."

Han Qin said somewhat awkwardly.

“He’s not a bad person… well, but it’s not your dad’s fault. After all, you’re still a bit young. In two more years, your dad won’t stop you.”

"Okay, okay," He Zhenzhen said dismissively while teasing her younger brother.

"Speaking of which, you two are more like newlyweds after a short separation. Should I take Xiaoxiao with me and keep a low profile?"

Han Qin's expression froze for a moment, then a blush rose to her cheeks. "What are you saying, child? How old are your father and I?"

'If a younger sibling comes along, maybe I won't have time to take care of her?'

Looking at the little girl's innocent face, He Zhenzhen had an inexplicable thought.

(End of this chapter)