Apocalypse King: Recruiting S-Tier Beauties With My Ruler System
Chapter 189: Trainyard of the Dead

Chapter 189: Trainyard of the Dead

March 24th, 10:06 AM

Collapsed Bridge, Southern District

John Wang POV

——

The wheels rumbled to a stop.

"Here’s as far as we go," Jiang Roulan said over the radio, her voice calm, even though her knuckles were white on the wheel. She pointed ahead where the road just... dropped. One half of the old bridge had collapsed into the riverbed, a jagged mess of rusted beams and concrete slabs. Just beyond that wreck, I saw it.

A train depot.

Big. Cracked. Haunted.

Dozens of train cars sat scattered around the yard, half of them toppled over or scorched. Some hung off the edge like toy models after a tantrum. Metal gates dangled open, twisted by time and chaos. The buildings nearby were wrecked convenience stores, warehouses with graffiti, and the husk of a supermarket missing most of its roof.

I opened the door and stepped out into the cold morning air. The scent of wet iron and damp asphalt hit first. Then came something worse. Something rotten.

The wind shifted. I heard the distant growl of one. Then another.

"Zombies," I muttered. "They’re still here."

Well, we couldn’t count on Gu Tianhao killing every single zombie. This was a good time to let the villagers and recruits get some experience. So I didn’t mind.

Mu Qinglan stepped beside me, sword slung across her back, unbothered by the smell. "Of course they are. Not everyone’s as lucky as that bastard Gu Tianhao to have a playground to cull them."

She cracked her knuckles.

"Let’s move."

Roulan took charge of the left group, scanning the shops closest to the bridge. She motioned to Deng Hua and Chen Xun, who moved fast despite their injuries. I nodded to Mu Qinglan, who immediately darted toward the corner market with Shen Yifei trailing behind her, that usual pout on her face, muttering about how she hated dirty places.

Tang Wei moved back to stand beside the recruits, wrapping around the other side of the jeeps.

The train station was an elevated bridge over the river, with a series of markets and shops for those travelling through the station heading to the north and south.

I stayed back for a second, just breathing.

Something about this place made my skin crawl.

Maybe it was the silence, not the good kind but the kind where something was watching, waiting, just out of sight.

A low groan echoed between two train cars.

Liang Mei and Liang Qiu froze.

"Cover me."

I flexed my hands and summoned the Crushing Moon gauntlets.

They clicked into place over my wrists with that heavy, perfect weight. My Qi pulsed through them, stirring the cores awake. The faint grind of gears and runes hummed beneath the plates.

Zhou Xue raised an eyebrow. "No blade?"

I smiled. "Blades cannot punch trains off tracks."

Liang Mei and Zhou Xue moved behind me, already checking the perimeter. Yifei followed Qinglan near the market a little more focused than before. She seemed to have worked through some of her issues earlier, but I still needed to pay attention.

Women were difficult creatures...

The villagers were more of a problem. They clustered near the Jeeps, watching us like scared animals. A few held weapons but nothing special; rusty machetes, batons, scavenged rifles, most had nothing but kitchen knives or farming tools.

"They’ll slow us down if we take too long," Tang Wei muttered as she stepped past me. "This place is worse than it looks. Train yards are death traps."

"I know."

She glanced back. "Then why stop?"

I cracked my knuckles inside the gauntlets, metal grinding softly. "Because this is the fastest route. And we’re not cowards. and to give them all a chance." I gazed back, my feet bouncing to build momentum. "Tang Wei, can you deal with the newbies?"

"Hah! Of course I can leader."

She didn’t smile, but her nod was enough.

We spread out.

The supermarket was picked clean, but I found a few dusty crates of protein bars and a half-open case of bottled water behind a toppled shelf. I waved Liang Qiu over to help carry them.

"Give half to the villagers," I said. "Remind them they had a choice."

Her lips twitched. "And the other half?"

"For us. This journey isn’t ending anytime soon."

Qinglan returned with a tattered shopping basket full of energy drinks and ramen packs. She looked smug.

"See? Even crazy bitches can be useful."

I gave her a look.

She just winked and walked off, humming to herself.

However, the twitch of her lips let me know I would pay for that comment later...

We regrouped at the depot’s edge.

The closer we got, the worse it smelled. Rot, mildew, stagnant water. Corpses, long-dead and recent, lay in slumped piles beneath the train cars. The shadows moved.

We had a long way to go.

But this was the first step.

And if it meant crushing a few skulls and clearing a path through the dead, I’d gladly break a few more bones to make it happen.

"Go," I ordered. "Tang Wei, take the new ones. Deng Hua, Chen Xun—Roulan will handle you. Stay sharp."

I cracked my neck, activated my gauntlets, and felt the rumble of Earth Qi roll down my arms.

"Liang Mei, Liang Qiu, Zhou Xue—you’re with me. Shoot the bastards without worry, I’ll protect you."

"R-Right!"

"Leader, protect me well."

Liang Mei’s cheeks turned red, while Zhou Xue and Liang Qiu looked overjoyed. It seemed these girls truly loved shooting thier bows.

"Thank you."

The moment we crossed the crumbling fence, the first groan echoed like a warning bell. The zombies stirred, their heads snapping toward us as if drawn by the warmth of human flesh.

They weren’t fast. But there were too many.

Dozens poured from between the trains, tumbling out from broken cargo cars and rotting ticket booths. Their skin sagged. Eyes burned white. Teeth snapped as they picked up speed.

Tang Wei didn’t flinch.

"Form up!" she barked. "Watch the flanks. Aim for the head or crush their legs!"

What surprised me was that she gave them all makeshift spears, or longer weapons, and the ones with a little more confidence held the old rifles.

The recruits hesitated—wide eyes, shaking hands. Their fingers twitched on their triggers, sweat dripping down their brows.

Too slow.

Too green.

Roulan’s group split right. Her voice was firm, sharp. "Deng, circle wide. Chen, stay with Yifei—she covers you. Don’t run ahead. Don’t lag behind."

From the rooftop of a maintenance shed, I heard it—arrows singing.

Thup. Thup. Thup.

Zhou Xue’s shot pinned one to the wall. Liang Qiu nailed another through the mouth. Liang Mei barely missed, but I stepped in.

My gauntlet crashed into the staggering corpse’s temple.

The zombie’s head exploded, before I pulled the trigger and a blast of buckshot ripped apart four other zombies following.

’This is it!’

I grabbed the next one by the throat and crushed it like paper, tossing it into the crowd before slamming my fist into the earth.

The blast flung five zombies into the air like dolls, their limbs snapping mid-flight.

Liang Mei’s eyes widened. "H-How are you—?!"

"Focus," I growled. "Kill first, gawk later."

They listened.

The girls found rhythm, stepping with me as I cleared the front. More arrows flew, sharper now. More confident.

Tang Wei’s recruits screamed as one of the zombies got too close, but her shotgun blast it away with a single burst.

’She loves that shotgun...’

No second scream followed.

Off to the left, I caught a glimpse of a black shadow weaving between train cars, a trail of blood and frost in her wake.

Mu Qinglan.

Gone again, like a ghost with a sword.

She was terrifying.

Good.

I wanted to say that my hands were full, but... it wasn’t hard anymore. Only the danger of a bite lingered in the back of my mind.

Another wave poured from a derailed passenger car.

I met them head-on.

My fist went through one skull. My knee shattered another’s spine. With each blow, various elements of Qi thickened my skin, hardened my bones. They couldn’t hurt me.

But they could still reach the girls.

So I didn’t let them.

"Keep firing!"

"Yes, John!" Zhou Xue shouted.

Liang Qiu dropped one mid-sprint. Liang Mei finally pierced one clean through the eye. I let myself grin.

They were learning.

The recruits behind Tang Wei weren’t doing as well, but they hadn’t run either. That counted for something.

This was the first real test, and their ZKP and EXP seeped into my system.

’Hahaha! Let’s go!’