Chapter 388: The Train

Chapter 388: Chapter 388: The Train

’So those two were from the Relief Society?’

"If that’s the case, then what happened to the people who went out before..."

Genevieve clenched her fists.

It turned out the Relief Society periodically recruited Superpower Users to lead normal people out on supply runs for food and water.

For over a month now, not a single one of the normal people who went out had ever returned alive.

"No wonder it’s always the Superpower Users who come back,"

"They’re in cahoots with the Relief Society."

Malcolm Holden muttered.

"Be careful."

Nina Jacobs said simply.

She had heard from Silas Crowley and the others that the Relief Society at Lornwood Base wasn’t as simple as it appeared on the surface.

She was telling them this to warn them.

"We understand. We won’t breathe a word of this to them."

Genevieve had been suspicious before; after all, coincidences couldn’t happen every single time.

But hearing it confirmed now still filled her with uncontrollable rage.

After bidding them farewell, Nina Jacobs planned to go somewhere else.

’Since I’m going to sell water, I need a more efficient method.’

She had seen a fully automatic juice vending machine at Gralem Prison. All you had to do was connect a water pipe and set the output volume for automated sales.

She had already written down the address of the factory that made them, which was about a two-hour drive away.

She planned to go there and collect some vending machines to take back to the base.

Along the way, the system popped up a new Freebie Mission.

She originally thought that Lornwood Base had already collected most of the supplies in Keldorn.

’Looks like a few things slipped through the cracks.’

Nina Jacobs accepted the Four-Star task on a whim.

The mission location was, surprisingly, on a train.

’Train K9832?’

Nina Jacobs pulled up the system map and discovered that the location was on the way to her destination.

Along the journey, every time she passed a key intersection or a conspicuous spot, she would get out of her car and put up a flyer for Tomorrow Base.

’No people, no Crystal Cores. No Crystal Cores, no System Experience...’

Nina Jacobs sighed to herself.

She already had over a million Crystal Cores in her storage. ’Will these Crystal Cores really be useful in the future?’

[Host detected questioning a critical issue.]

The system suddenly spoke.

Nina Jacobs was a little surprised. She asked, "System, I don’t know what your purpose is,"

"but can you tell me what the point of collecting all these Zombie Crystal Cores is?"

Nina Jacobs could sense that the system seemed to be thinking, or perhaps searching for something.

A moment later, the system’s voice sounded again:

[Host, please continue collecting with peace of mind. Crystal Cores are extremely important, though perhaps not right now.]

"Then... will I live to see that day?"

Nina Jacobs asked.

She had asked the system about its reason for existing before, but it couldn’t tell her.

She had also wondered what the system would do with the items in her storage if she died one day.

She had even suspected that she might be nothing more than a tool.

But now, it seemed the things she was collecting weren’t useless after all.

The car bounced along the barren, uneven road.

[You will.]

Hearing the system’s reply, Nina Jacobs, who was driving, broke into a smile.

"Good."

She said.

...

Two hours later, Nina Jacobs arrived in front of a factory with tightly shut gates.

Keldorn was vast, so many large-scale factories had invested and set up plants here.

The Cognito Tech building before her covered a large area, and there were very few zombies around.

’Looks like they were drawn away by something.’

Nina Jacobs remarked, looking at the messy footprints on the ground.

But this was good, too. After sending out a Little Zombie Rat to confirm there were no other people or dangers, she collected all the usable vending machines in the factory.

’Train K9832 isn’t at the station?’

Looking at the upcoming route, Nina Jacobs was a bit confused.

Freebie Mission 53 was located on a remote railway track.

She guessed the train must have broken down there during the early days of the apocalypse.

That section of track wasn’t too far from her current position.

However, when she got close, she found a massive horde of zombies gathered there.

’This train has moved recently?’

Nina Jacobs brought out her sheet-metal house and observed the scene from its window.

Hordes of zombies were about 500 meters away from her.

When she used her Speed Element Superpower to duck into the safe house, she briefly caused a commotion among the zombie horde.

According to the Little Zombie Rat’s observations, the train was completely surrounded by zombies.

There were thousands of them.

Some of the zombies were still wearing work uniforms, with the "Cognito Tech" company name faintly printed on the back.

’So that’s why there were no zombies back there. They all came here.’

Nina Jacobs grew more and more curious.

These zombies were either lured here by someone...

Or, the other possibility was the train up ahead.

If the train made noise while moving, it could easily attract all the nearby zombies.

Nina Jacobs decided to use the Little Zombie Rats to lure away one batch of zombies and then kill the rest.

A few Little Zombie Rats, blaring the song "Good Luck Comes," ran off in different directions.

On the sun-scorched rails, a horde of ragged zombies was instantly drawn to the sound.

The rotting flesh on the soles of their feet sizzled on the hot tracks as they shambled off in those directions with sticky steps.

A moment later, a barrage of Fireballs accompanied by several Fire Serpents suddenly descended upon the remaining zombies.

Several Mutated Zombies were killed instantly.

Only then did Nina Jacobs retract her sheet-metal house.

Seeing the horde of zombies roaring and charging at her, she attacked with her Fire Element and defended with her Earth Element. In just over twenty minutes, she had slaughtered all the remaining zombies!

But when she used her Gold Element Superpower to pry open the sealed train door and climb aboard, she discovered that the cars were indeed packed full of supplies.

The supplies were stacked with incredible neatness, and the train cars were spotless.

’It’s as if the transport only started a few days ago.’

Nina Jacobs collected the supplies in the cars while observing her surroundings.

Most of the supplies were food, and some of the boxes were printed with supermarket names.

Nina Jacobs could still find those supermarkets on the map; they all seemed to be stores from Keldorn.

She checked the train’s power supply and found it was a steam train, powered by burning coal.

’It really did pass through just a couple of days ago.’

Nina Jacobs found a transport log in the engine room dated just two days prior.

’Could there be other human strongholds in Keldorn?’

’If so, they must be further along this railway track.’

Just as Nina Jacobs was debating whether to investigate further, one of the Little Zombie Rats that had run off into the distance detected something unusual.

Someone was coming.

Nina Jacobs immediately leaped out of the train window, casually placed a Little Zombie Rat under the car, and then hid in a nearby abandoned power supply room.

She wasn’t too worried about being discovered.

Even if they found this place, she could use an Invisibility Potion to hide for a while.

In the distance, several vehicles drove straight toward the train on the tracks.

There were many of them, and every one exuded a murderous aura.

"This is bad!"

A man in camouflage clothing rushed frantically toward the train cars. "Someone must have beat us to the supplies!"

The ground, littered with zombie corpses, was proof that someone had been here.