Apocalypse: I Built the Infinite Train
Chapter 311: Wasteland World

Beep beep, beep beep.

In the haze of confusion, Lin Xian felt the sound of his watch’s alert chime growing louder, as if approaching from the depths of darkness.

He realized he was awake—or more precisely, he was back in reality.

Lying on the main bed in the living cabin of Car No. 1, Lin Xian felt his eyelids weighed down. Even before opening his eyes, a wave of heat and a chorus of screeches flooded his mind all at once.

His brain responded instantly.

Stifling. Scorching. Parched. Oppressive.

He opened his dry lips and forced his eyes open. Right beside his pillow was the blackout panel of the Infinite Train. That suffocating heat and screeching sound were clearly coming from outside.

Lin Xian focused his mind and lifted his hand to check his watch.

“Eleven o’clock? I actually... slept for nine hours…”

He rubbed his heavy head, recalling the haunting feeling of being attacked by darkness before falling asleep. His brows furrowed—it was a bone-deep sensation he never wanted to experience again.

He reached up and opened the blackout panel.

SCREEECH!! SHRIIEEK!!

The blinding sunlight made Lin Xian’s pupils contract sharply. And what greeted him beyond the multi-layered bulletproof windows of the train were countless withered, decaying zombie faces.

Seeing that, Lin Xian immediately frowned and sat up. Outside the Infinite Train was a literal sea of zombies!

Hundreds of thousands. Millions. Tens of millions! Stretching as far as the eye could see, like an unending tide.

These hordes swarmed forward like airborne magnetic dust, densely clinging to the direction of the joint convoy.

Below the train tracks, the sounds of crushing and tearing were endless. These zombies, long deprived of water and driven by bloodlust, were all dried up and dark-skinned, with tattered remnants of what once were human clothes hanging from their bodies in shreds.

Above, the scorching sun blazed in a cloudless sky, yellow sand filling the air.

Waking up, Lin Xian felt like the Infinite Train had charged straight into a post-apocalyptic wasteland!

Staring at the overwhelming scene, Lin Xian’s mind froze a bit. He quickly pressed the communicator and tried to contact Chen Sixuan.

Click.

Moments later, the door opened. Chen Sixuan, now out of her Black Hawk Armor, wore a light crop top and shorts. Upon seeing Lin Xian awake, she immediately said:

“You’re up?”

“What’s going on?” Lin Xian glanced at her, then at the swarm of zombies outside.

“Don’t worry,” Chen Sixuan said quickly, looking out the window. “Since we exited the Polar Night, the zombies across the Gobi Desert have been gathering more and more. After sunrise, it’s been a literal mountain of corpses.”

“So many?” Lin Xian looked at the tightly packed crowd outside. “That sounds like a problem.”

Chen Sixuan shook her head. “Relax. The convoy is moving just fine. These zombies haven’t really affected us much.”

Hearing that, Lin Xian took a moment to register it. He could feel the train’s movement—now it made sense why she was so calm. Against the armored Infinite Train, the zombie tide could barely scratch the surface. The 15-kilometer-long steel beast moved with the mass and power of a mountain. With 22 connected trains in the convoy and over a thousand megawatts of output, the current defensive capabilities made ordinary zombies nearly irrelevant.

“Zombies are pitiful, honestly... not even safe outside the Polar Night.”

That dream he had... he remembered seeing Chu Yan in Yubei City. There were hardly any zombies there; even the few he saw were eerily still. The city had been completely overtaken by dark entities.

Chen Sixuan added, “That’s why we’re guessing this is the result of Corpse Shepherds driving the zombies out of the Polar Night region.”

Corpse Shepherds…

Hearing that term, Lin Xian frowned. So that’s what it means?

He had never heard that term used officially in Phoenix broadcasts. Looks like even the Phoenix group didn’t have a clear answer yet.

Relieved a bit, Lin Xian remembered what happened last night and quickly asked:

“By the way, how are KIKI and Fire Bro doing?”

“Those two?” Chen Sixuan replied, “They’re fine—slept just as long as you. Probably exhausted after blasting the Sky Mushroom Tower.”

Lin Xian immediately got up and followed Chen Sixuan toward the rear carriages. As soon as they entered Car No. 2, they saw KIKI seated at the front of the information center, piloting a drone to scout the path ahead across the Gobi.

“Oh—you’re finally up?” KIKI greeted him with a smile. “What do you think? Scared stiff seeing all those zombies?”

Lin Xian went straight to the point. “Did you feel anything strange from the darkness while sleeping last night?”

KIKI frowned, first shook her head, then nodded. “Had a nightmare, but nothing major.”

“What’s up?”

Sensing something off in Lin Xian’s tone, Chen Sixuan asked with concern.

Lin Xian paused, his expression shifting subtly before answering calmly, “When the Sky Mushroom Tower exploded last night, we must have absorbed a ton of dark energy. But judging by how we are now, it seems like we’re okay.”

What surprised him was KIKI’s reaction. He thought she’d have suffered the same effects as him—but apparently not.

Maybe it’s because KIKI and Fire Bro’s ability levels have high mental thresholds, Lin Xian mused. While my Mechanical Heart…

Just then, Chen Sixuan added, “Oh, and good news—Liang Lei is awake, and Brother Shi’s injuries are healing well. Seems like Phoenix was right—dawn really does mean everything to us.”

Lin Xian smiled. “That’s great news.”

KIKI chimed in, “According to Phoenix, we’ve absorbed too much dark energy. We need daylight or vegetable juice to neutralize it. If we stay in the dark too long, we’re done for.”

From Xilan City until now, the team had been shrouded in darkness. Even with the Eerie Cube, everyone had absorbed a considerable amount of dark power. It had to be purged, or it might leave irreversible damage.

Now fully alert, Lin Xian sat at the edge of the bed and looked out at the zombie-filled plains. “Any word from Phoenix or other survivor broadcasts?”

“Nothing local yet, but Phoenix’s global channel is coming through.”

Chen Sixuan pulled out the Dark Radio and played the recording.

---

...This is a global broadcast from Phoenix. The Nightwalkers and Xinghua Technologies have jointly developed the new Soul Wave Detector—Soul Compass. By using Eerie Blood Crystals, it can measure personal Soul Wave Value peaks and Dark Mark concentration. It can also detect the presence of eerie entities nearby, helping survivors identify relatively safe zones before nightfall...

...Warning: 1 to 5 levels of Dark Mark exist. Levels 1–4 increase through stacking effects from different eerie entities. Level 5 means you’ve been marked by an S-class entity. Marks can be reduced by killing eerie entities and absorbing black energy. Mark levels are directly correlated to nighttime attacks—though not absolutely. If you’re in an S-class entity’s territory, even a Level 1 mark can get you hunted. Phoenix is airdropping 3 million units globally via the Nightwalker Courier Unit to cities not yet fully covered by the Polar Night. Survivors are urged to pick them up and spread the word—together, we will survive the dark.

---

“We haven’t found one of these Soul Compasses yet,” Chen Sixuan said. “Maybe once we reach Quancheng or meet another convoy, we’ll get our chance.”

“Is it free?” Shasha, fiddling with a Pulse Resonator Circuit, asked skeptically. “Think people are just handing these out?”

KIKI raised a brow. “Nowadays? People don’t give you stuff for free.”

“But isn’t Phoenix handing them out?”

“That’s Phoenix.” She looked at Lin Xian. “Or maybe your Brother Lin can just scan one and make it himself.”

Lin Xian shrugged. “We’ve got a Hell’s Black Chrysanthemum. This thing’s only good for measuring ability thresholds. If Phoenix is mass-producing it, they’ll definitely release the blueprints. Cities like Silent City, the Old Federation, and any group with R& D capacity will start making them too. No point hoarding it for profit.”

For Lin Xian, it wasn’t even a challenge—he could already scan and replicate mechanical structures with ease.

He pressed the communicator, connecting with Dragon Mountain No. 1 and the other convoys.

“Lin bro, we’ll probably reach Luobu in two or three hours. No idea if the zombies will thin out there. If it looks clear, I’m thinking of stopping for water.”

It was Shi Diyuan’s voice.

“You guys short on water?” Lin Xian asked.

“Not yet,” Shi said, watching the water tanks and supply crates from the cockpit of Dragon Mountain No. 1. “But better safe than sorry. Past the Western Gobi, it’s the Tagan Desert. If something goes wrong and we can’t stop, a water shortage is way deadlier than hunger.”

Other convoy leaders echoed the sentiment. Lin Xian looked to Chen Sixuan, who nodded seriously.

“We haven’t had a proper water resupply since Clearwater Town,” Chen Sixuan said. “That’s when we topped off the tanks and loaded up on bottled water.”

But since they’d left Hengshan Pass, there hadn’t been another chance to resupply. The snow from the Extreme Cold Vortex was so saturated with Dark Invasion toxins that even the Eerie Cube had issued warnings. Snow or desert—there wasn’t much difference out here.

Back in Xilan City, Chen Sixuan had managed to trade for some fresh water to bring onboard, but even that was running low.

She had mentioned the issue to Lin Xian before—but at that time, with the entire city on the brink of collapse, water was the least of their concerns.

Now, after escaping Abyss Zone No. 5 and entering the Western Gobi, the extended lack of resupply meant water shortages were starting to hit all convoys hard.

Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan quickly took stock of the Infinite Train’s remaining water reserves—and the result was worse than he’d expected.

The train had a fully functional water-oxygen recycling system. All graywater—shower water, sanitation, even everyone’s urine—was filtered and repurposed. This water was routed to Car No. 4, the plant cultivation carriage, then filtered three more times before entering the drinking supply.

Thanks to the Eerie Cube, all water onboard was safe from secondary contamination by dark energy. But that only applied after it had entered the system. The Cube and filters couldn’t neutralize the initial toxins from raw water. They only blocked bacteria and other contaminants. So, unless the water was absorbed by the body and processed naturally, their supplies were gradually being depleted.

And water couldn’t be reused forever—evaporation through sweat, cooling systems for the nuclear-powered carriages, even the plants—all of it meant a slow but constant loss.

Infinite was still in relatively good shape compared to the other convoys—fewer people, more reserves—but the water issue was becoming more serious by the hour.

“All we have from Xilan and the Zero Element Center are bottled water reserves,” Chen Sixuan reported in the No. 7 supply car. “I’ve limited rations to half a bottle per person per day. Once that’s gone, we’ll switch to recycled water.”

She added, “Right now, our two biggest water drains are the nuclear-powered engine carriage and Car No. 4’s greenhouse.”

“These zombie tides are affecting our pace too,” she continued. “Based on Brother Shi’s report, we’re still two to three hours from Luobu. If we don’t stop there, we won’t reach Akesai before nightfall. As for Quancheng, it’ll probably take us until the day after tomorrow.”

“Our food supplies are holding out better than water,” she admitted, “but yeah, this is a real problem.”

“The Western Gobi is just too vast,” she sighed. “If we don’t get a solid resupply in Quancheng, we’re in trouble.”

“Even if we do,” she added grimly, “Phoenix has warned us: the longer the night drags on, the more toxic the water becomes. And right now, there’s no real way to block or filter out the dark toxins—only our bodies can absorb and resist them.”

Quancheng—a forgotten city deep in the Tagan Desert. It was even more desolate than the Gobi.

Beyond that, they had two routes: head east, across more than 6,000 kilometers of desert to reach Jinhe, or go south toward Luling or Baisha. Either way, it was all desert. There’d be no easy exit anytime soon.

So for now, the water issue was the most pressing concern for every convoy.

“Guess we’ll have to scavenge along the way,” Lin Xian said with a helpless smile. “As for the toxins—anyone still alive now probably has the body for it. We’ll just keep filtering it as much as we can. Better that than dying of thirst. At least we’re not constantly drowning in Dark Tides anymore.”

Screeech! Screeech!!

Countless zombies with blackened blood and dried-out hair surged toward the high-speed train. In an instant, they were crushed into clouds of red mist by the unstoppable force.

“Whoaa!”

A group of kids aboard the Sun Train pressed their faces to the windows, staring in awe at the exploding zombie gore along the tracks.

Standing guard was a burly man with a thick beard—Old Dong. He chuckled, “Pretty wild, huh? Looks cool, but don’t stare too long, kids. Might give you nightmares.”

The sides of the joint convoy were now soaked in dark red gore, as if it had just emerged from an ocean of blood.

Lin Xian made his way to the plant cultivation car, gazing at the lush green scenery with a conflicted expression.

In a world buried under endless sand and blazing sun, this green was a balm to the soul—but it only reminded him of how bad their water situation really was.

If the global water supply kept becoming more saturated with Dark Invasion, there’d come a day when even water drawn directly into Infinite would trigger the Eerie Cube’s alarms. The Polar Night hadn’t even fully spread yet—and already, humanity was facing one of its gravest problems.

Lin Xian had no idea how many people were still alive in the world… or how many died each day. As he stared at the endless tide of zombies—every one of them had once been a living, breathing human on Blue Planet...

Click clack. Click clack~

The train thundered forward. The crew of the Infinite had mostly recovered. In Fire Bro’s car, all the blackout panels were wide open. Wearing his Infinite Bracelet, Fire Bro was lazily floating in the center of the carriage, casually adjusting his position with small bursts of flame from his fingers to stay level with the moving train. He completely ignored the zombies, basking in the sunlight like he was on vacation.

Ever since he got his hands on that strange item, he’d had a breakthrough—like the world was his playground. The whole Thermals incident was a thing of the past.

“Everyone, we might need to stop in Luobu ahead. We’ll be looking for supplies—especially water. Get ready.”

Lin Xian’s voice echoed across the internal comms. Everyone who heard it began donning their power armor and preparing their weapons. Staying alert had become second nature to them.

Lu Xingchen heard the call and immediately hit his communicator.

“Brother Lin! Allow me to lead the scouting party for this mission!”

Ever since he’d learned Lu Xingchen could fly, Lin Xian had been itching to make use of him.

“Go for it,” he replied. “Just don’t stir up any trouble.”

“Understood!”

Back in Car No. 1, Lin Xian was suiting up in his Black Hawk Armor, while 20 Thunder Falcon 2000 drones stood neatly on the ground, charging.

Chen Sixuan glanced out the window and let out a relieved sigh. “Looks like we were right. The further we go, the fewer zombies we see. They really were driven out by the Corpse Shepherds.”

“Now that you mention it,” Lin Xian said, adjusting the magnetic control engine on his Black Rifle, “I’m starting to feel sorry for the zombies…”

Chen Sixuan pulled on her armor. The helmet sealed with a hiss, and her voice came through the internal speakers, calm and mechanical.

“The closer we get to the Federation zone, the more complicated things get. I heard back at Hengshan Pass—the cost to enter Dawn City has already shot up to three Blood Crystals or more.”

Three Blood Crystals…

Lin Xian opened a small drawer and took out the iron box Wei Kexue had given him. Inside sat three shimmering Eerie Blood Crystals.

For someone like Wei Kexue to have gathered three of these—it was no small feat. And he was part of Phoenix. For ordinary survivors, without someone strong on their side, killing three Pale Giants or Crimson Centipedes would be nearly impossible.

“Attention everyone—Luobu ahead.”

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