Armored train in the apocalypse

Chapter 331 Secretariat

Without warning, the latter turned around and precisely met Xiao Hong's gaze, which had not yet been withdrawn, in the crowd.

In an instant, Xiao Hong felt as if he were in a silent ocean, with damp, cold liquid soaking into his body, and an indescribable feeling of suffocation rising from his chest.

Just as despair was about to spread, the sergeant maintaining order gave a cold shout.

Xiao Hong also suddenly snapped out of his suffocation, like a drowning person who had just been pulled out of the water, and broke out in a cold sweat despite being in a crowd.

"You've got some nerve, daring to stare at a first-tier evolver."

A low chuckle came from behind, each syllable carrying a metallic clang.

Xiao Hong glanced at his feet; two tall shadows almost covered him.

Beneath the shadow were two pairs of black combat boots, one in front of the other, and a little above that was the hem of a gray-green garment. Without looking any further, he knew the newcomer's identity: an armed train officer.

There may be many powerful forces in Zhijin, but only the Armed Train can provide uniforms to everyone.

Especially that iconic trench coat, the market price has been inflated to more than a month's worth of food, and there is no market for it, only a very few people are qualified to exchange for it.

The train's supply exchange requires not only money, but also eligibility.

The latter is often more important than the former.

Xiao Hong glanced at the two officers' ranks before slowly raising his head.

The man on the left is burly, with a neck almost as wide as his head. He wears only a black vest, his lower back is concave, and his back is like a crab shell, full of tension.

The man on the right had a neatly shaved short haircut, his trench coat sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and his eyes were sharp.

Seeing Xiao Hong's subtle movements, he suddenly laughed and said, "He's still observing us. He's definitely a good prospect."

The second brother chuckled and said, "Then you take them back first, I'll go catch those two troublemakers."

With a single step, his expression suddenly turned cold and fierce as he walked menacingly towards the two men with the bomb.

The three brothers were definitely in high positions on the train.

Earlier, some people thought that the three brothers were promoted because of their seniority and the train conductor, and that their own abilities were mediocre.

But now, unless they say it themselves, no one knows they are brothers, and each of them is capable of handling things on their own on the train.

The third brother is quick-witted and popular, second only to He Jie in some respects. The eldest brother became a researcher through self-study, while the second brother, who doesn't have such a bright mind, trains diligently to build up his physique.

While he may not be as good as Liang Kuan or as good as Mongoose, he is the benchmark of the corps in both training and actual combat during the pre-advanced stage.

How strong do you want to be? Well, there's no such thing as "strong".

But the second son's foundation is so solid that even He Jie gave him a thumbs up.

Whether it's individual military skills or tactical coordination training, he practices as many times as the new recruits do, and he practices with the next batch of new recruits after this batch finishes.

Practice until everyone is convinced.

Therefore, when Su Huan promoted him from the combat team to the head instructor of the recruit camp, no one questioned it, and the transition was quite smooth.

These two days are for the selection of trainees. As the chief instructor, I naturally have to be there to oversee the process. All the new recruits who pass the first round of selection will be sent to the recruit camp to go through the process with me, and then they will be promoted in groups according to the needs of the train.

But there were just too many people, so Lu Xiao was also called in to help.

"How old are you to join the army?"

Lu Xiao watched the spectacle with his arms crossed, while observing several first-tier evolved individuals in the crowd.

Although the probability of wild Tier 1 Evolvers is very small, there will always be a few if there are many people, and preventing them from causing trouble is one of his tasks.

"You son of a bitch, you dare to ambush me? Let me go if you dare, I want to fight you one-on-one!"

"I'm a member of the Black Star Motorcade!"

"..."

"Bang bang bang!"

"Fifteen." Xiao Hong watched as the second brother kicked the bomb and the other young man over, dragging them over like dead dogs. A hint of worry appeared in his eyes. "Where are we going?"

"He's your recruit training instructor. Where are you going?"

Lu Xiao wore a mocking smile.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Hong silently prayed for the bomb on the ground.

Unfortunately, the Lord did not respond to this ungodly believer.

Bomb and another person were hung at the entrance of the recruit camp, and Xiao Hong's task was to watch over them and prevent them from escaping.

The recruit camp was an old campus with generally low-rise buildings and a large open space in the middle, like a park. After the infrastructure was demolished, it was simply tidied up and became a temporary recruit camp.

The two people with the bombs were located at the entrance of the residential area.

There are many people coming and going, so it's not very harmful, but it's extremely humiliating.

Several sentries would come and go, each time chuckling twice before leaving.

Before long, more people passed by, including patrolmen, sentries, and even people getting food.

With more people, you're bound to run into a few acquaintances from the Black Star team.

Bomb couldn't bear this humiliation and kicked his legs wildly, his roars echoing through several blocks around the recruit camp.

The shock made Xiao Hong's head buzz. He should have introduced a few nice older sisters to the bomb before coming out to burn off his boundless energy.

Suddenly, the shouting stopped.

Xiao Hong looked up in surprise and saw a woman in a gray tracksuit walking over. She was wearing a gray baseball cap and had her ponytail hanging down her back. She looked somewhat young, but based on Xiao Hong's experience dealing with women, she was old enough to be his mother.

The woman looked at the strange trio at the door with some curiosity. "Is it a bomb?"

"no!"

The bomb suddenly turned its head away, and its head and the tree trunk made a muffled "bang".

The iconic red hair was all flattened.

Jiang Rong smiled gently at Xiao Hong and walked into the recruit camp.

The long-necked young man hanging on the other side exclaimed in surprise, "I didn't expect you to actually know people on the train!"

"Bullshit! Do you think you know me if I don't?" the bomber roared.

The young man sneered, "I actually know him!"

"Who was that who just passed by?"

The young man paused, realizing he didn't really recognize the person from before. He hesitated, then said, "It shouldn't be someone who boarded recently, otherwise I vaguely remember them..."

Bomb sneered, "You don't even know her, what are you pretending for! That was our Black Star Rong's mother, the captain of the Armed Train. You don't even know her and you're trying to act like an old hand? You idiot!"

The young man's face flushed red. "I really don't know, but I boarded the bus in Pingqiao Village. Maybe this person had already gotten off by then..."

Xiao Hong suddenly asked, "Do you two know each other?"

"do not know!"

The two said in unison.

Xiao Hong frowned. "Then why did you two start arguing?"

"That redhead insulted me." "Your neck looks like a hanged ghost's, does that mean people can't say that?"

"My name is Big Goose, is there a problem with my long neck?"

"..."

Xiao Hong suddenly felt like he had a splitting headache.

It instantly gave me the feeling of going home and facing more than thirty older sisters and aunts.

Fortunately, the pain didn't last long, and a soldier came out and told them they could go in and officially begin the test.

Xiao Hong was relieved, though he didn't know if it was because of the gentle woman who had pleaded for them. He just needed to pass the test, and then he would definitely stay away from those two idiots.

……

After a month of design work, the design plans for the Zhijin armed station have been finalized.

Since most of the buildings are existing, the work doesn't require major changes; simple repairs are sufficient.

Chenxi Plaza is a large commercial plaza covering an area of ​​30,000 square meters, roughly the size of several football fields. There is also an underground floor, bringing the total area to about 50,000 square meters.

The new city hall is centered around Dawn Square, which defines the core area – the city hall itself.

At the same time, the largest market near Zhijin, the black market for scavengers, was also moved to Chenxi Square.

Expanding outward by one street would encompass the departmental areas of the three bureaus and two courts. Given the current administrative size of the station, it would be more than enough to cover even a single building, let alone a whole street. However, not expanding the area significantly in the early stages would impact the overall size of the city.

Then, during this period, three large residential areas were cleared out, including shopping malls, schools, and other supporting facilities, to accommodate the scavengers.

These are not just a few uniform concentric circles, but rather designed to accommodate the maximum possible population.

Although the space is the same, the residential area can definitely accommodate a much larger population than the commercial street.

However, after experiencing the apocalyptic upheaval, many people are unwilling to live in cage-like buildings and lack sufficient trust in the security promised by the city hall.

These people will make modifications to the existing buildings to meet their own security needs.

This caused a lot of trouble for the actual planning within the site.

So a month has passed, and the station construction still hasn't had the immediate effect Su Huan had imagined. The more people involved, the more they are affected, even the dictatorial train conductor is no exception.

But it's not entirely without benefits.

The parked armed trains are like dandelion seeds that have fallen to the ground, adorning the earth while absorbing nutrients to grow strong.

Everyone knows that a real human city has appeared in Zhijin after the apocalypse.

It is no longer a planned, preparatory city to be conquered, but a large city that truly belongs to humanity and has already been reclaimed.

People who received the news traveled from tens or even hundreds of kilometers away, enduring countless hardships and escaping various deadly disasters, just to see this city that carries hope.

They may not be able to bring any supplies, but they brought news from hundreds of kilometers away.

So even though the armed train hasn't moved an inch recently, Su Huan receives a hundred times more information about this world every day than he used to.

On the second floor of the dining car, the secretarial team of only five people was working with the ferocity of a thousand troops.

But in some ways, they manage far more than a vast army.

The station's municipal hall was hastily set up, and almost every department of the three bureaus and two institutes needed train guidance and coordination, but even if there were enough chief purser, there weren't enough train conductors.

Thus, the secretariat team that Su Huan had been looking forward to for so long was officially launched.

Most of them were high-end secretarial talents selected from 100,000 people. The team consisted of three men and two women, plus Shu Wei, forming a temporary secretarial group of six.

"Sister Shu, two Tier 1 Evolvers appeared in today's thirteenth batch of tests, one crew member and one soldier. I've put the information and list here for you, and the electronic version has already been sent to you via the intranet."

A man in his thirties put down his documents and hurriedly returned to his seat.

Another person immediately chimed in, saying, "Sister Shu, there's some special news. A certain organization called Limu Ecology has built a safe zone and is recruiting scavengers on a large scale."

"Well, let it go."

Shu Wei said without looking up.

"Sister Shu, this is the list of new materials to be collected..."

"Sister Shu, this is the scavenger resource adjustment plan."

"Sister Shu, the Food Production Bureau has requested that two more experts be sent over by truck. All the iron-skinned pumpkins they planted have died."

"Sister Shu, the garrison has discovered..."

"..."

Various voices rose and fell, sometimes even overlapping.

But no matter how thorny the problem, this secretary-general can clearly prioritize and mobilize various departments to implement solutions.

The secretary present had only worked with Shu Wei for half a month at most, but they were all impressed by her abilities.

As night fell, the second floor of the restaurant remained brightly lit, the fresh smell of ink mingling with the aroma of coffee, and even the sound of turning pages did not diminish in the slightest.

Shu Wei picked up the organized materials on the table, stood up, and said, "I'll go report to the train conductor. You can handle it yourselves. I'll have dinner brought up. If you want anything to drink, feel free to ask. It's a perk specially approved by the train conductor."

"Wow……"

"Long live the train conductor!"

A cheer immediately erupted in the room.

When Shu Wei walked directly from the second floor to carriage number 1, the surprise on everyone's faces quickly subsided, and they silently got back to their work, even faster than when Shu Wei was there.

We're all adults, we don't have that many emotions.

But since the boss is providing benefits, the emotional value should still be adequately reciprocated.

Shu Wei stood in front of carriage number 1, checked her appearance against the metallic reflection next to her, and after confirming that everything was in order, knocked three times and pushed the door open to enter.

The train conductor never locks the doors, but that doesn't mean she can skip knocking.

The door was pushed open, and a light tapping sound came from inside, like someone patting some smooth leather item.

Shu Wei stood on the second floor and looked down.

A sandbag with a diameter of one meter was hanging in the center of the room. Su Huan stood shirtless next to it, his hair casually draped behind him. He slapped the sandbag with his palm, which was wrapped in electricity. Each slap caused the electricity to spread and the room to light up suddenly.

It looked like a clumsy electrician fixing a light bulb.

Shu Wei didn't disturb them, but quietly walked down and stood aside watching.

Su Huan struck the sandbag one last time. Although the result was the same—the fine arcs of electricity scattered and escaped—the sandbag flew out as if it had been hit by a train at 120 km/h, emitting a deep whooshing sound.

"boom!"

A dull thud came from the train wall.

Su Huan grabbed a shirt and casually put it on, not even bothering to button it up, and walked straight over.

"Busy working?"

Shu Wei placed the documents on the table and shook her head, saying, "It might be another all-nighter. Should we send a secretary to help you with this?"

(End of this chapter)