Apocalypse: I Built the Infinite Train

"Savior? Me?" Lin Xian was caught off guard.

"Don't misunderstand," Jian Xuwei exhaled softly and said, "This is just a psychological framework. You don't have to…"

"I know," Lin Xian interrupted her, smiling slightly. "I agree to your proposal. In fact, even if you hadn't brought it up, I was already thinking the same thing."

Lin Xian said to Jian Xuwei, "We've worked together before, so you should know me a bit. I'm not a savior, and I've never had any desire for power or command. Honestly, I formed the alliance just to survive, and that's really what everyone wants. So logically speaking, I'm not interested in being some kind of leader."

"But."

His gaze sharpened as he looked seriously at Jian Xuwei. "From a rational standpoint, I have to take control of this Sky-class. I'm also the only one who can build it. Silent City needs to dock at Eternal City Port, and to finish building this train, my mechanical abilities are the only option. There's no other way."

Jian Xuwei frowned slightly. "You can already construct starships now?"

"As long as I have the blueprints, I can do it. It's just a matter of efficiency," Lin Xian answered plainly.

"Alright then. It's not like I was trying to challenge you or anything, I just…"

"It's fine. You're still Chairwoman Jian. In the future, with tens of thousands of people, there's no way I can manage them all anyway. What I care about most is the construction of our doomsday starship fortress and making sure we survive. When it comes to management, you're definitely more capable and experienced than I am."

Lin Xian smiled. "But let's drop this board-of-directors model. We'll just divide responsibilities by region. In the apocalypse, no need to overcomplicate things."

Jian Xuwei was visibly taken aback, then her lips curved into a smile. She looked at Lin Xian and let out a breath of relief. "Alright. Then from today on, you're my Captain."

As she spoke, she extended her hand toward him. "Pleasure to work with you."

"Pleasure to work with you."

Now that the tension between them had eased, Lin Xian asked, "What's the situation with Jiang Yun's group?"

"They were originally planning to come to Silent City first to negotiate with you and Mochizuki Shingi and sync up information. But something unexpected happened in Dawn City. His last message was three hours ago—the city's on lockdown, and they won't be able to get out before daylight."

Lin Xian nodded. "With that many people trying to escape Dawn City, the Federation's going to freak out."

"Definitely."

Jian Xuwei said, "What you did was just the spark. Dawn City was already a powder keg. The tension between convoys and survivors had been building due to population and resource issues. There's even a saying—'people underground, ghosts aboveground;
slave labor inside the wall, monsters outside'—that pretty much sums it up. A lot of people have been fed up with Zhou Mingyuan for a while. Add the Redmen threat making everyone paranoid, and now this incident breaks out. Plus, the Star Abyss mutation... a lot of big convoys getting ready to bail is totally expected. Honestly, it's a miracle no one's started shooting yet."

"So Dawn City's got internal and external issues," Lin Xian said, "But why haven't we heard anything from Chu Zhaonan?"

Jian Xuwei answered in a low voice, "Chu Zhaonan rarely appears in public. A lot of people in the city actually think Zhou Mingyuan is both the Federation Chairman and the mayor of Dawn City. After all, he's the one managing everything. From what I know, Chu Zhaonan and Zhou Mingyuan belong to opposing factions."

"Except for the Defense Forces?"

"Exactly. The Defense Forces are 130,000 strong, expanded from an initial 40,000. Lots of Evolvers and ability users. They're well-equipped and pretty formidable."

"What about the rest?"

Jian Xuwei said, "There's also a few thousand in the city guard, and a night patrol unit with over 20,000 members, all established by Zhou Mingyuan. Then you've got the population control bureau, finance, and construction departments—not much to say there. Based on my intel, Zhou's been trying to recruit and absorb Lu Guanye, but Lu Guanye's a tough one. Before the Federation collapsed, he was a deputy commander in the Marine Corps, a real fighter. He personally led the battle against the Grey Mist creatures. He's not into bureaucracy—just wants to fight monsters on the front lines. People respect him. A true soldier."

"So the real power in Dawn City is still with Chu Zhaonan and Lu Tianye?" Lin Xian asked.

Jian Xuwei nodded. "Yes."

Lin Xian frowned slightly. "So the withdrawal from Jin Hai and the full retreat—this was all Chu Zhaonan's call? Zhou Mingyuan had nothing to do with it?"

"That's right."

"Got it." Lin Xian gave a cold laugh. "Chu Zhaonan's working with the Crimson World too. The question is—besides targeting Star Abyss No. 5, what else are they planning?"

"Whatever it is, the disturbances from Abyss No. 5 are threatening survivors all over the world. Phoenix Society has already stepped in. And now, with the Crimson World getting exposed again, Dawn City and the Phoenix Society will definitely take action." Lin Xian's eyes were intense. "We need to move fast. If a conflict breaks out, with the Crimson World acting as a wildcard, this entire region could spiral out of control."

"I think the same," Jian Xuwei said. "Those convoys that left already sensed something was wrong. Seven million people in Dawn City, and they're surrounded by Star Abysses 5, 7, and 8. If they can't make it underground, those high walls won't save them. Now they're in bed with the Descent Faction too—early evacuation was the smart move."

Lin Xian nodded. "Then let's hurry. Build standard ship compartments, repair the train, stock up on ammo. I have a feeling by the time the sun rises, things in Dawn City will be on fire. If push comes to shove, we might need to reroute through Zhanguan."

"Alright," Jian Xuwei looked at Lin Xian. "So, Captain, do you want to start transferring people from the Infinity?"

"No rush," Lin Xian looked around the surrounding compartments and said, "First, I'll connect the entire interstellar train to my mechanical ability and get full control. Then I'll start the transfers."

Jian Xuwei responded softly with an "Okay," then turned to leave.

Lin Xian stepped out into the corridor, eyes gleaming as he looked around the wide train passageway. While the Sky Interstellar Train was a bit more slender than other ships—since it was designed for Earth-Moon orbital transport—it was still several times the size of a regular train.

But aside from its unusual exterior, the interior was full-on starship standard. In fact, it was even more advanced in defense and propulsion. As a transport vessel, it needed extreme durability and frequent atmospheric re-entry. Its hull used a super-carbon carbide alloy and composite heat shield armor capable of withstanding 2000°C of continuous ablation. There was even a gel-based self-repair layer for airtight sealing in space, followed by various structural layers.

Of course, that brought its own issues. The train was tough, but not tough enough. The composite heat shield wasn't designed to withstand attacks from supernatural entities. So Mochizuki Shingi suggested adding high-strength external armor purely for defense. It would be a massive project, but Lin Xian had dozens of manufacturing drones, and with Silent City still docked, he planned to prioritize the armor. If this train got damaged, repairs would be a nightmare.

Passing through the corridor, Lin Xian entered the main bridge. According to Federation starship protocols, this was the command center—Captain, First Officer, Helmsman, Tactical Officer (who managed weapon systems), Shield Manager, Security Chief, Engineering Team, Data Officer, Comms Officer, etc. These people handled navigation, attack, and defense for the ship.

There were also personnel for living quarters management—Science Officer, Chief Engineer, Medical Officer, Internal Security, and so on.

Gazing at the spacious bridge, big enough for more than ten people, Lin Xian took a deep breath and sat down, initiating his mechanical probing. Once completed, his Mechanical Heart could link with the entire Sky Train—every corner, pipe, and weapon under his control. He could repair remotely, even fly the ship through levitation tech.

The Sky Train was at least 3–5 times larger than the Infinity in terms of size. Just the four main compartments were over 2 kilometers long. According to Jian Xuwei's engineers, even in its unfinished state, the Sky Train already weighed more than 820,000 tons. It came equipped with an ionized air sheath—generated by a microwave emitter array on the bow—that ionized air into a 0.5-meter plasma layer to reduce friction during atmospheric travel.

Combined with its 8 stardrive engines, this behemoth could cruise at over Mach 4.2 inside the atmosphere—faster than Silent City. In space, it used electrostatic field generators to shield against charged particle streams, heavy ions, and secondary radiation.

Lin Xian's Mechanical Heart unfolded like a domain, rapidly linking the bridge systems. Data devices and core structure stretched out in his awareness like a web. From work tunnels to Ship 2, the interstellar navigation system emerged, and soon he reached the cryosleep area.

Then, he entered the core power layer. A 5,000 MW "Stardrive" nuclear core flared in his consciousness like a blue supernova. The nitrogen-3 fusion storm was tamed by a beryllium alloy containment ring. Power surged through superconducting conduits, leading him to the precision-built maglev track bows—resembling horizon gate structures, these were the "landing gear" for the ship's track-running mode.

As he progressed further, Lin Xian reached the living quarters. Honeycomb cabin modules flashed past—standard starship designs, some big, some small—all in pristine condition and built for safety.

Finally, his consciousness reached the engine bay. The massive stardrive engines unfolded like nebulas, and Lin Xian was met with a grand mechanical display.

"What a beast," he muttered. "Just probing it nearly drained me. Luckily, Jian Xuwei had the full blueprints—I don't need to scan from scratch."

With his eyes closed, Lin Xian suddenly felt a surge. The stardrive engines roared to life, and the superstring phase ring behind him seemed to resonate with the "Stardrive" reactor. For a brief moment, Lin Xian felt as if all the energy of the Sky Train had gathered in his hands. One thought—and this 800,000-ton super starship would launch straight into the sky!

At that moment, everyone in Factory One felt the tremor and turned to look at the massive vessel.

"What happened? Is the interstellar train launching?!"

"Must be Captain Lin!"

"Should we start calling him Captain Lin now?"

"Wasn't he the Alliance Leader?"

"Alliance Leader? You read too many web novels."

"I meant the leader of the actual alliance…"

Back on the Sky Train's bridge, Lin Xian was riding the rush of power, already reorganizing roles.

Aside from himself as top leader making key decisions, all the starship's personnel management was left to Jian Xuwei—fine by him. As for his core team from the Infinity—Monica, Qian Dele, Shi Diyuan, Ning Jing—they'd continue operating as a strategic unit. No need for a complex command structure, since most weren't trained starship crew anyway. No point forcing roles.

Take the helmsman, for example. It's just train control. No one in the current team could do it yet, but with some training, people like Luo Yang might get the hang of it quickly. Still, Lin Xian had Grace. From now on, he and Grace would control the whole ship together.

As for the Chief Engineer position, Lao Mo and Jian Xuwei have plenty of mechanical engineers on their side who are more than capable. On the logistics front, with Li Yi, Xiao Yuan, and Miao Lu working under Lin Xian, there's really nothing to worry about.

After all, Shi Diyuan, Qian Dele, Monica, Shu Qin, Daluo, Liang Lei, Fire Bro, KIKI, Xiao Qing, A Bai, plus Hu Lushou and Sun Chang—strictly speaking, these are all battle-hardened survivors of the apocalypse.

What they'll be facing in the future are survival-level threats. Compared to that, internal affairs are minor. Lin Xian didn't want to overcomplicate things.

"Huh? Why does this feel kinda like Silent City?"

That thought made Lin Xian snap to attention. Silent City, after all, didn't really have that many management personnel either. Senju Shun, Amano Ran—these people were basically just handling simple divisions of labor. The entire Silent City ran almost entirely on drones, whether it was operations or maintenance. In fact, it was all under the control of the AI Wamuzuki Shinji. So unlike Dawn City, it had no elaborate administrative departments. And now that Lin Xian had the same capabilities as Wamuzuki Shinji, even if the number of people increased, he'd only need to coordinate with the core team. The entire Skytrain would remain under his absolute control.

Whrrr.

As he retracted his scan from the Heart of Machinery, Lin Xian let out a deep breath. He opened the holographic screen to check his current status.

[Current Heart of Machinery Level: LV.5 (17640/20000)] Machine Devour: 5 (2065/3000) – Increased devouring efficiency

"A whole Long-Class Freighter gave me this much mechanical energy? This is the luxury of power."

He looked at the panel—just a little over two thousand mechanical source points away from his second mechanical awakening. Now that he had the Skytrain, it was time to redeploy its weapon systems. That also meant he could fully devour the United Train and his Infinity to level up quickly!

"Oh right, the train doesn't have a weapons system yet. Once the fourth standard hull and second-layer armor are done, I'll have Wamuzuki Shinji build me a Rail Starquake Cannon and a Heberon Directional Constriction Cannon. I'll build the rest on the road—save me a ton of time."

At that moment, under the coordination of Jian Xuwei and the original convoy leaders, a large quantity of supplies was being moved into the Skytrain's storage compartments. Meanwhile, the kids from Car No. 10 and other trains were being directed by Li Yi and Sun Yuzhen into the standard hulls. Excited voices echoed through the connection bay of the floating dock.

"Wow! A spaceship!!" Xiao Le's eyes sparkled.

"Are we going to space?"

"So cool!"

"It's huge! Will it have a theme park?"

"Shhh, quiet now!"

...

At the same time, core team members were boarding the No. 3 Main Ship. Moving thousands of people was a massive task. Even though the four standard living hulls could accommodate 4,000 residents, Lin Xian figured there was no need to rush. Without weapons systems installed, moving everyone onboard at once would just waste the weapons still on the United Train.

So on the Infinity, Lin Xian left behind Shu Qin, Daluo, and Li Yi. At Dragon Mountain One, Shi Diyuan stayed stationed for the time being. For better coordination, Ning Jing, Xiao Qing, and A Bai boarded the Skytrain first. Qian Dele charged ahead—he handed his train directly over to Lin Xian, then moved his 100+ team into a standard carriage. He and Xiaomeng were on the No. 3 Main Ship.

Monica was even more carefree. She left all her male subordinates on the Queen Monica, waiting for Lin Xian and Jian Xuwei's future orders, and handed over the trained female squad to Lin Xian. Then she moved into the Main Ship herself. In her words: "Finally, I don't have to worry about everything anymore…"

"Devouring Qian Dele and Monica's trains should be enough…"

Lin Xian examined the different compartments on the holo-display, mentally calculating. Just then, Chen Sixuan walked onto the main bridge and said, "Lin Xian, Silent City's construction is progressing rapidly. Senju Shun said that unfinished section should be done in 24 hours."

"That fast?" Lin Xian was surprised.

"It was already 60% complete. Wamuzuki Shinji deployed six thousand robots—it's pretty fast, right…"

KIKI walked in from behind. The two women looked at Lin Xian with different expressions. Chen Sixuan sighed a bit and said, "After we left the Abyss, our progress has been crazy fast. We probably don't need to worry about orbital launches anymore, right?"

"Yeah." Lin Xian nodded. "I'd been thinking about refitting things, but once Lao Mo told me, I realized the Infinity could only be modified for all-terrain travel. If we wanted to fly, we'd have to build something entirely new. This beast really is a gift from the heavens. It gave us—thousands of people—a chance to survive."

"And like Silent City, it can also travel on the ground." KIKI said proudly. "Way safer than a starship. Eventually, we'll break through into space too."

Chen Sixuan smiled at the two of them. "I remember when we first left Jiang City, KIKI had all kinds of ideas. Looks like most of them are coming true, right Lin Xian?"

"Not yet." Lin Xian shook his head and took a deep breath. "We just have a bigger vehicle now—one that can fly. But the armor and weapons still need reconfiguring. With more people, we haven't scaled up the living zones, science labs, agriculture, or livestock areas. I want to turn this into a fortress where we can live safely and escape danger when necessary. That'll really raise our survival odds."

"But we can't get too optimistic," he added. "Even with a starship, we're still not safe. A three-million-ton Dreadnought-Class Aerospace Battleship crashed, and Qingluan Sky City, home to 400,000 people, sank into the Pacific. On Doomsday, the Federation tried to flee Blue Planet with many starships—and failed. We're still fragile in the face of darkness."

"I need to fully arm this beast. Get it to Silent City's level in firepower. Priority one: survival against S-Class threats. Even if we can't win, we should at least be able to retreat intact."

KIKI grinned at him. "Geez, you sound like a worried grandma. We've gotten through everything with a bit of luck and guts. Quit overthinking and go check out your Captain's quarters—it's right across from mine~"

"You guys already moved in?"

Chen Sixuan nodded. "It's really spacious here. The deck has four levels. I modeled the living layout after the Infinity. Everyone's on the first floor—not far from each other. This main ship doesn't house a ton of people, just like you said. It's mainly core members. The rest are in the standard living hulls."

Lin Xian perked up and followed Chen Sixuan and KIKI to the core living zone. Dozens of cabins—every one of them luxurious. Opening a door revealed a vast space, clean and futuristic like a proper interstellar vessel.

"Look at that bed~" KIKI said.

"Y'know, technically, this thing belongs to your family too," Lin Xian told her.

KIKI rolled her eyes. "I don't care. What's yours is mine~ Look at that bathroom—it's huge!"

Chen Sixuan turned to Lin Xian. "Every room in the core area has a private bathroom. There's also a kitchen, dining room, even a gym and swimming pool."

"Can't believe we're living the good life during the apocalypse," Lin Xian said with a laugh.

"You've always taken good care of us," Chen Sixuan replied. "Before Shu Qin and the others boarded the Infinity, they were eating dried rat meat. That train protected us well and gave us lots of space."

Lin Xian nodded, a bit reluctant. "Yeah. If it weren't for the orbital issue, I wouldn't have given it up so easily."

"Don't be sentimental. This biggest room is yours."

KIKI walked ahead and opened a sliding door. A spacious Captain's quarters appeared before Lin Xian's eyes—the closest room to the main bridge. There were only four such rooms. Besides Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan, the others belonged to KIKI and Shasha, Jian Xuwei, and Monica…

Other than Lin Xian, they were all women...

KIKI sprawled out on the big bed with satisfaction. "Zombies screaming outside, monsters in the streets… and we're here in a luxury starship room. So comfy. I hope days like this last."

"By the way, where's Director Ding?"

"Still on the Infinity doing research. She said she made a discovery and hasn't slept yet." said Chen Sixuan.

"Alright, I'll go check on her." Lin Xian glanced at the time. He had planned to sleep, but given the current situation, after finding Ding Junyi, he also wanted to talk to Wamuzuki Shinji about the giant colony suit. Looks like sleep would have to wait.

On the multiple skybridges between the interstellar trains, crew from the United Train were still busy moving supplies. Lin Xian hurried back to the Infinity. As he entered Car No. 3, he saw Ding Junyi wearing goggles, dripping some kind of chemical solution onto a black piece of biological tissue inside a glass container.

"Done yet?"

"Not yet. Teacher Chen said you had a discovery?"

"Remember the Corrosion Cell sample we brought back from the Abyss?" Ding Junyi said.

She removed her goggles and looked at Lin Xian.

"It's alive."