Star Forge Titan

"Ahahahahahahahahaha." Khayon shrugged and laughed dryly without any smile, then he asked again:

"Isn't it said that Linde's steam train is a very safe way to travel?"

"Yes, it's very safe, but there are exceptions occasionally."

As he spoke, Ivan patted Diana's shoulder, waking up the silver-haired girl who was resting on the table, and spoke under the latter's confused gaze:

"Wake up, we have a 'guest'."

At the same time, Khayon also echoed in a strange tone:

"Those guys are so unlucky."

Chapter 15 The train stops

Under normal circumstances, steam trains do not stop before arriving at a station.

But now stopping halfway is obviously not a normal situation, but an abnormal situation that is 100% undisputed.

Standing in the corridor of the carriage, Ivan's face showed no sadness or joy, but Ka Yang, who already understood this guy's character, knew that the tall black-haired boy next to him was a little unhappy.

It may sound strange, but the cultists and all kinds of monsters that died at his hands after crossing over could probably form two football teams to play a regular game with enough substitutes. However, Ivan himself actually hoped to be able to leisurely travel with his companions in the real world of Palladia in peace and happiness, just like the tourists in the game of his previous life.

In his own words, he was like a traveler (vagrant) with money, time and fists, visiting super ancient ruins, wandering around the upper planes, or going to the deep hell to see rare sights. In short, he wanted to experience all kinds of scenery that he had only seen in games in his previous life.

You know, even Palladia, which was known as a fully immersive game in the previous life, actually feels closer to a dream, always carrying a sense of illusion that is easily distinguishable from reality, so as to prevent players from confusing the real world with the game world.

If this is not the case, then the players whose average gaming time is almost more than a hundred years in total will probably become psychologically like old monsters. Well, although to some extent modern people in the information explosion era do look like monsters to ancient people, of course it would be more accurate to say that they look like - weirdos?

In short, after arriving in the real Palladio and experiencing the initial panic, Ivan actually felt somewhat happy, especially after gradually gaining enough strength to make himself feel at ease, and meeting Afrediya and other new friends.

Just like this time, riding on a slightly shaking steam train, with new friends beside me, heading along the open fields towards the city that is familiar yet unfamiliar in my memory, it is so romantic.

Originally, this should have been such an interesting experience that Alvin even wanted to write a diary carefully to record his experiences of the trip, just like a primary school student on his first autumn outing.

However, as things stand now, it seems someone has set their sights on this train and wants to steal the goods being transported on it.

This raises the question of how those people managed to catch up with the speeding train and what they were trying to steal.

You have to know that this is no longer the time when steam locomotives were first invented. The era when the maximum speed of trains was only 24 kilometers per hour, which was almost the same as the speed of horse-drawn carriages, has long passed. Now the fastest speed of a train can even reach 100 kilometers per hour.

Although this still cannot be compared with the high-speed rail in Ivan's previous life, the new train towed by the locomotive equipped with the Newcomen III magic steam engine is not like its predecessors, which can be easily caught up by a few train robbers on fast horses with a whip.

If Warcraft or high-speed magic vehicles are used, regardless of the difficulty of obtaining these things, controlling them requires the strength of at least a first-level transcendent.

As a result, the manpower and material costs required for robbery will inevitably increase significantly, and their goal will never be as simple as emptying the pockets of passengers.

Because, it is obviously impossible to recover the cost of expenditure.

In other words, there must be some very valuable cargo on the vehicle.

"What could it be?" Khayon whispered with interest beside him. It was obvious that he was thinking of the same question as Ivan.

"Will the other passengers be in danger?" Diana frowned and asked:

"It's hard to say. It depends on the robber's professional ethics." Alvin shrugged and told a not-so-funny joke.

The three of them had already left the compartment and were outside in the corridor. They could see many other passengers, uneasy about the stop, coming out. The first-class compartment was not crowded, and most of the passengers, feeling confident, remained relatively calm and didn't appear to be panicking.

The three people's conversation was not loud and did not attract the attention of other passengers for the time being. However, in order to avoid causing confusion, Ivan lowered his voice again before continuing:

"If the robbers' target is the high-value cargo being transported on the bus, they likely won't be too concerned about how much money they can get from ordinary passengers. They might even use the act of robbing ordinary passengers as a smokescreen to conceal their real goal. To put it bluntly, they just want to show their appreciation."

"What are you going to do?" Ka Yang asked directly:

"Of course..." Ivan showed a very sunny smile on his face. At this moment, the train had completely stopped.

"Of course we'll kill them, and then see which idiot put some weird stuff on the train, which ended up attracting these bugs that ruined everyone's travel experience."

The black-haired boy spoke in a very calm voice, but the ends of his hair were faintly lit with orange-red flames, just like seemingly extinguished black charcoal wood that was reignited by the angry wind.

He seemed to have completely overlooked the possibility of the robbers being stronger than himself. However, upon closer inspection, this wasn't surprising. With Alvin's current strength, he could easily defeat a few ordinary, untalented Level 3 warriors. Level 3 warriors were the backbone of most situations these days.

If the robbers are stronger than ordinary third-level transcendents, then why would they bother to do a business like robbery that requires no capital? Even if they have a wanted warrant and cannot directly join an official organization, it should not be difficult to find a reliable underground force to join, right?

"Haha, I'm also very interested in what they want to rob." Khayon said bluntly with a strange smile:

"Mammy always said that when we are out, we should help others to the best of our ability." Diana, who received traditional moral education from Mother Theresa, nodded in agreement.

By the way, she pretended not to notice and deliberately ignored the undisguised malice in the words of the two older boys beside her, which were directed at the robbers (probably).

"It's decided, let's go." After saying that, Alvin stood up and walked towards the connection between the carriages.

So, under the astonished gazes of the other passengers, the three of them opened the doors and walked outside.

The connections between today's train carriages are not completely enclosed. When you open the door, you will walk to a narrow platform with a guardrail around it, similar to a balcony. Between the platforms of the two carriages is a padlock structure that connects the two. As long as you open the fence doors on the guardrails on both sides, you can step from this side to the opposite carriage.

Alvin looked around and found that it was a complete wasteland. There was not even a trace of farmland or houses. It was a wilderness area where the official power between cities was the weakest.

"You pretend to be ordinary passengers and move forward along the carriage."

"What about you?" Diana asked puzzledly:

"my words……"

Halfway through his speech, Alvin suddenly bent his knees slightly and then jumped up suddenly. His tall and strong body landed on the roof of the car as flexibly and gently as a cheetah.

The white windbreaker rose upwards due to inertia, then swung to the left and right like a hawk spreading its wings, revealing its bright red lining, making a rustling sound as it flapped against the air. Other than that, there was almost no movement.

Then, the two people below heard the second half of the black-haired boy's words.

"Go upstairs."

Chapter 16 The train shakes

Taking steps of almost the same distance each, Alvin walked alone on the roof of the carriage.

At the same time, he was also thinking about the identities of the robbers. Judging from the fact that the train did not stop suddenly after an emergency brake, the probability that they were ordinary robbers was very, very low.

Just as he had previously speculated, this slow stop was clearly the result of the enemy using a special vehicle or mount to forcibly catch up with the high-speed train, forcing the train crew to stop it normally. Ordinary robbers would likely resort to the crude method of piling obstacles on the track to force the train to brake.

As for why the latter is not used, the reason may be that their targets are of a fragile and expensive type. Even if they have protective outer packaging and are filled with cushioning materials, there is a certain probability that the goods will be damaged due to an emergency stop.

Therefore, the robbers chose a method that was obviously more troublesome and costly to hijack the train.

Of course, it is not ruled out that they are actually a group of masters among masters, so they don’t care about using seemingly more troublesome means to hijack the train.

"Pfft." Alvin was amused by his own thoughts, and then a sound that was too sharp and a little distorted came to his ears.

"The passengers in the regular carriages seemed to have realised the train might have been hijacked. There was a bit of chaos in those carriages, but we still didn't see any robbers."

Judging from the uniquely sweet tone, it was clearly Khayon who was speaking. The voice came from Ivan's left shoulder, where a small monster that looked like a child's pencil drawing lay.

It has a furry black spherical body with a round eye in the middle, and two long legs as thick as toothpicks casually inserted below, which makes people worry that this guy will break because the legs do not match the body.

As for the part that makes the sound, it is a broken harmonica with half of it missing and forcibly welded to the top of its head.

This is a new type of undead puppet invented recently by Khayang after learning Linde's magical engineering technology.

In terms of materials, we used feathers that fell off the crows in the trees when they were chased away with stones by the naughty children in the orphanage, the chicken bones left after the children had happily eaten the roasted chicken legs, a half harmonica found in the trash can, large and small gears removed from the inside of a broken alarm clock, and so on.

Among this pile of very random ingredients, the only thing that looks like something a necromancer would use is probably the eyeball of a stray dog.

Facts have proven that the little orphans who ate their parents out of money and were extremely hungry during adolescence had no love for the wild "little" animals wandering around the downtown area. Or rather, they loved the taste of those wild "little" animals after they were cooked more than their furry appearance.

Although the raw materials are very random, this new form of undead puppet is quite effective, at least it can achieve real-time communication within a range of dozens of meters.

only……

"Isn't this thing of yours smelling a bit bad?" The faint sour smell in his nose made Ivan complain:

"It's not for eating, so don't worry." Ka Yang said perfunctorily without any sincerity:

"Well, we don't see any sentries on the roof. Is this the first time those guys have robbed a train? They're really inexperienced, aren't they?" Ivan frowned and asked in confusion:

"How should I know? Wait, why do you seem so experienced when it comes to robbing trains?" Khayang's voice suddenly became a little surprised.

"Could it be that the tribal witch doctor taught you this again on the northern glaciers? Come on, do you even have trains in that damn place?"

"It's none of your business." Not knowing how to respond, Alvin simply and rudely refused to answer the question.

"Hurry up and say hello," Khayon drawled.

"Wait, something seems to be happening." Diana's voice suddenly came from the communicator, bringing the two men (children?) who had been distracted to their senses.

"What's wrong?" Ivan asked quickly:

"There's movement in the carriage ahead." Diana's answer was as brief as ever.

At the same time, Khayon also heard chaotic screams and rude curses coming from the front.

The Necromancer and Diana exchanged a glance, and the latter pulled out a brown beret and put it on to hide her prominent short silver hair.

Khayon ruffled his hair even more, making himself look like an ordinary scholar who was unkempt. At the same time, he secretly tucked his birch dueling wand into his sleeve.

Soon, the chaos spread to the carriage they were in. Three rough-looking men in leather vests and canvas clothes yanked open the doors. The leader raised a steam pistol and fired several shots at the ceiling. The sound of bullets piercing the metal carriage made the ordinary passengers scream.

"Shut up! Shut up!" The leading man shouted harshly, and the centipede-like scar on his face turned red, as if a living centipede was wriggling there.

Fear forced the crowd to quickly quiet down. For a moment, the only sound they could hear was the hissing sound of the portable magic knife device that came with the gun re-inflating the high-pressure gas chamber after the steam pistol fired a round.

The cylindrical magical device strapped to the robber's waist had a square grid structure on its surface. Through the gaps, a faint magical glow could be seen emanating from within. Simultaneously, the liquid in the water tank was rapidly heated to steam. Driven by the pressurized gas storage device, the steam flowed through the hose connected to the gun handle, continuously injecting it into the high-pressure chamber inside the gun barrel.

While reloading his pistol, the robber with the scar on his face said:

"Hand over all the valuables you have!"

"Don't cause trouble! Think about it carefully. Compared with spending all your wallet early or going to the grave early, the former is obviously easier to accept, right? Hahahaha!" After saying that, he seemed to think he had told a good joke and couldn't help laughing.

The two companions following behind him also laughed when they saw this. They each held a bag in their hands, which was obviously filled with a lot of things, and the other hand was not empty either, also holding a Lind steam pistol that was not easy to get on the market.

However, as the three robbers were laughing, they suddenly heard someone else laughing besides themselves. The voice was so special, how to describe it, it made people want to beat him up.

"Hahaha, this is a really good joke, ahahahahahaha, lying in the grave in advance, hahahaha, then I want to ask, if you lie down in it, haha, can you still get up? Or in other words, can you do sit-ups in it? Haha, hahahahahahahaha."

Khayon was laughing so hard that he fell back and forth in his seat, looking like a fool who hadn't figured out the situation yet.

It wasn't until a still warm gun barrel was pressed against his forehead that the silly boy with messy hair seemed to realize that something was wrong, and the smile on his face froze.

"Is it funny?" The scarred robber asked coldly:

"Uh..." The silly boy with messy hair in front of him seemed to be even more scared and couldn't say a complete sentence for a long time.

"If you think it's funny, then pay more!" The scarred robber took two steps forward, grabbed Ka Yang, and yelled viciously, spraying his bad breath spit on the silly boy's face:

Seeing that the other party was about to cry out of fear, he turned around and shouted to the brothers behind him:

"Hey, you two, pick this guy upside down. I want to see what he's carrying..."

Before he could finish his words, the scarred robber was stunned because he saw that the two brothers who were standing by the carriage door were now lying on the ground.

There was a shoe print on the face of the man on the left. Next to him stood a short-haired girl wearing a beret. Obviously, it was she who had kicked him over just now.

The man on the right didn't have time to react. Diana snatched the gun from his hand before he could even hold it tightly. Then she turned the gun over and used it as a hammer, hitting him hard on the right side of his forehead.

Then, this guy rolled his eyes and immediately collapsed like a sack of potatoes.

The whole process took no more than five seconds, and the passengers next to him didn't even have time to scream.

The scarred robber realized that he was the only one left and was about to raise his gun when he felt something pressing against his back.

Then, accompanied by a purple light that was imperceptible to others, the scarred robber felt all the strength in his body suddenly drain away as fast as a wine barrel with the cork pulled out, and he fell to the ground with a "bang".

His heavy weight seemed to shake the entire carriage.

However, although he had lost control of his hands and feet, his consciousness was still very clear, so he could hear someone making a very angry voice from behind him.

"How many days have you not brushed your teeth?!"

Chapter 17 The Train is Quiet

"It's just trash."

"What?" Khayang's judgment came from the sound-producing device (organ?) made of the harmonica of the undead monster, but the content made Ivan look surprised.

"The bandits who came to rob ordinary passengers are all small fry. They are not even apprentices. They are just ordinary people with pistols." Ka Yang further described the results of his inspection in detail.

"Okay, I'll continue exploring forward, and you try to ask the other party about his origins?" After saying that, Alvin continued to move forward without thinking.

At the same time, Khayon's strange laughter and the robber's screams that sounded like a little girl were heard from the communicator.

In fact, when a few bullet holes suddenly appeared in front of him just now, Alvin thought he had been discovered. He was surprised that he didn't feel any magical fluctuations. Could it be a Wanderer or other extraordinary person who was good at hiding? In the end, he didn't expect that it was just a few ordinary robbers shooting randomly.