Pei Yongxin was startled by his own thought. How could his superior be interested in him?
He had showered before being confined last night, and his clothes were kept by the staff. Perhaps the note had been slipped in then.
But he wasn't familiar with the staff here!
Pei Yongxin's head throbbed faintly. After a moment's hesitation, he opened the military's online shopping software and bought a pot of yellow chrysanthemum.
Regardless, he really wanted to meet this admirer. If it was a nice girl, perhaps his marriage prospects could be resolved. Pei Yongxin remembered the train chief of car No. 18. His wife was someone he met at the market while buying fish. They both liked a certain hard-to-find, slow-moving fish, and they exchanged contact information to notify each other when they encountered it. The train chief of car No. 22's wife was a decorator. After she finished renovating his house, they got married and she moved in. The train chief of car No. 40's wife was the female boss of an intern company. After getting married, he didn't want to be seen as a kept man, so he left the company to enlist. The train chief of car No. 68 encountered someone falling into water while taking a walk in a park in another city on a business trip. He bravely jumped in to save them, and within a few months of the rescue, they became husband and wife.
Who could explain fate?
Pei Yongxin quickly finished breakfast and stood before the control console.
The screen displayed a satellite image. The sides of the tracks were littered with corpses, with only a few stragglers still lurking. After days of continuous gunfire, over a hundred thousand狱虎 (yù hǔ) had died on this plain, and their main fighting force was essentially annihilated. The wind blowing from outside the window carried a foul stench.
He could hear the occasional cannon fire from the carriages behind, clearing out stray beasts along the way.
Pei Yongxin pulled the image forward. A hundred kilometers away, a small cluster of dark masses that were 狱虎 (yù hǔ) were wandering near the tracks.
"Attention all personnel, the next wave of the 狱虎 (yù hǔ) beast tide is approximately twenty minutes away," Pei Yongxin announced over the broadcast. "Breakfast time is over. I will now conduct a hygiene inspection."
Pei Yongxin put on his military cap and walked towards the carriages behind.
The soldiers had already collected the used meal boxes. There wasn't even the smell of food in the air. Every soldier sat by their weapon, ready to fire at a moment's notice. The entire carriage was clean and poised for action, like a well-maintained war machine.
As Pei Yongxin inspected the soldiers, he occasionally glanced out the window.
Suddenly, he stopped, his brow furrowed, and looked in a particular direction.
"Third light on the front of the train, target the area near that tree to the southeast, maximum power," Pei Yongxin ordered the onboard AI via the intercom.
A brilliant white beam of light shot out, illuminating a spot half a kilometer away.
Everyone could see clearly. A blue whirlwind was roaring towards them. Some kind of blue creature was leaping and falling in groups, the scene resembling schools of flying fish on the sea, but this was on land!
"Turn on all lights!" Pei Yongxin shouted.
The intense light instantly covered the entire wasteland. The grassland under the night sky seemed to switch to daytime, with every blade of grass clearly visible. This train was equipped with one hundred 100,000-lumen high-intensity lights and over twenty high-power laser lights. The concentrated brightness could even ignite dry grass!
As soon as the lights were on, the grassland dozens of meters away began to move.
A vast expanse of blue leaped up like a suddenly surging tsunami, making a rumbling sound. After advancing a few meters, they landed and then leaped up again. The blue area was frighteningly large. The grasslands in front, behind, left, and right, as far as the eye could see, were filled with these things.
Without Pei Yongxin's order, all carriages opened fire in unison. Cannonballs rumbled into the blue tide, and countless bullets swept out like a sandstorm. Many blue objects could be seen being hit, exploding like balloons and falling to the ground.
The fronts of most of the leaping blue creatures were bleached white by the light. Pei Yongxin adjusted the light intensity and could finally see what they were... Toads!
Blue toads the size of human heads, as fat as pufferfish, their bodies covered in poison bubbles, were charging towards the tracks at an astonishing speed. Each leap carried them more than three meters forward. Their numbers were incalculable; there might be a hundred thousand, or perhaps a million... How could one estimate the number of splashes in the Qiantang River tide?
"Close the firing ports! Seal the windows!" Pei Yongxin roared over the broadcast. "Do not leave any gaps!"
The firing instantly ceased, and all soldiers jumped up to pull down the firing port covers.
Almost simultaneously, a blue flood crashed into the train with a deafening roar, the entire vehicle shaking violently as if hit by heavy artillery.
Pei Yongxin had already rushed back to the front of the train. A pile of abnormal warnings popped up on the control screen.
The underside of the vehicle was instantly covered, countless blue toads becoming a bloody pulp in a second, engulfing the tracks like a mudslide. More blue toads continued to leap onto the vehicle, and the vehicle's load kept increasing. The train was like it had driven into the sea, the sea composed of alien toads the size of human heads.
Pei Yongxin used facial recognition to activate "Poison War" mode.
The vehicle's internal and external ventilation systems were instantly shut down, and the onboard oxygen generation system began to work, emitting a humming noise. This system could control the vehicle's internal air pressure and oxygen content, ensuring a year's worth of breathing for everyone onboard under normal operation.
At the same time, the poison detectors at various parts of the vehicle operated at high power, analyzing toxic substances in the external environment.
Several sets of gas masks also popped out in each carriage, a precaution in case the vehicle's airtightness was compromised, allowing soldiers to continue breathing with masks. In addition, the hidden medical kits on the carriage walls lit up, and with a press of a button, they would pop out, containing a collection of first-aid medications in bottles and jars.
"Poison War" mode was designed for biochemical warfare. Once in a dangerous environment with chemical shells, spore powder, radioactive dust, or acid rain, activating it would isolate the vehicle from the outside. Every train on Meteorite Star was equipped with this function. Although Meteorite Star's environment was excellent and there were no biochemical weapons, Jiang Ye, out of almost neurotic caution, speculated that some animals might evolve poisonous spitting abilities and thus paid to install the poison war equipment.
As soon as Poison War mode was activated, Pei Yongxin received a call from the First City forces and immediately answered.
"Pei Yongxin, report your situation," came the commander's cold voice.
"We are under attack by unidentified alien toads. We haven't seen anything like them; they're the size of human heads and blue," Pei Yongxin said immediately. "We are currently unharmed, but the tracks are blocked, and countless toads are blocking the train with their bodies on the tracks. We estimate we will stop soon. Requesting support."
"I'm sending a rescue team with flamethrower equipment. Is the insulation layer on your train still intact?" the commander asked.
"Intact."
"Pei Yongxin, your train is trapped. What do you have to say about this?"
"The train AI gave no prior warning, and satellites couldn't detect them. These toads were hidden in the grass. From discovery to impact with our train, it was less than thirty seconds," Pei Yongxin said. "I have already taken the most prudent course of action."
The commander fell silent. The train AI's lack of prior warning was indeed not Pei Yongxin's responsibility.
"Show me the situation in your carriage," the commander ordered.