Even though he was already standing on the shore.
Those hundreds of mantis-like creatures didnât glance back at him even once, continuing to work on their tasks in the darkness.
Biaoziâs body was trembling slightly, and his breathing was becoming uncontrollably rapid. He forced himself to calm down before gripping the train ticket in his hand, ready to escape at any moment. His impression of that giant worm was extremely vivid.
It was covered entirely in thick, foul-smelling liquid, and its head had no mouth or nose, just a giant maw with hundreds of fangs embedded around it. Inside its mouth, resembling a birthing canal, were countless folds.
It was the worm monster he had encountered in the Mechanical City!
It appeared to be in a state of slumber.
"Phew..."
Biaozi looked at the hundreds of busy mantis-like creatures and called out to President Ai in the cluster thinking. After receiving no response, he slowly moved to the other side. Below was a massive cave, several dozen meters high, like a huge secret space.
Those mantis-like creatures continuously and neatly sliced the flesh on the ground into chunks and then assembled them onto the worm monster, just as one would construct armor.
The horrifying worm was actually crafted rather than being naturally formed!
On the other side.
He saw another worm monster surrounded by hundreds of mantis-like creatures. However... it seemed as though this worm was only just starting to be crafted. Those mantis-like creatures were filling flesh into a skeleton akin to a train.
Wait, a train?
Biaozi suddenly realized, wasnât that a flesh and blood train? When he aimed his flashlight at the trainâs locomotive, he discovered there was even a person seated on the train cabinâs seat.
To be precise, only a head remained, fastened to the chair.
The next momentâ
A voice suddenly boomed from outside the flesh and blood train, its volume akin to that from an external sound system. However, there was no electric noise, but rather a wailing roar reminiscent of a monsterâs lament.
"Run...run...run fast..."
The enunciation was extremely unclear, but it was evidently a human voice.
"Damn it."
Biaoziâs expression changed slightly. No kidding; didnât he know it was dangerous here, and didnât he know he should run? With a voice that loud warning him, itâs no wonder those creatures were all alerted.
But soon, he noticed the mantis-like creatures completely ignored him, not even glancing back.
He looked around again.
Deciding to prepare for his return, the information had been nearly fully explored. As for what to do next, itâd be up to Master Mang to decide.
Without further hesitation.
He immediately crushed the train ticket in his hand, and in the next moment, his body vanished in a flash of white light.
...
"That worm monster is constructed using the flesh and blood train as a skeleton?"
Inside the train cabin.
Having received the intelligence Biaozi brought back, Chen Mang leaned against the chair, frowning in thought.
When the train upgraded to Level 3, there were two career paths available: one was "Mechanical Train," and the other "Flesh and Blood Train."
Now it seems.
The "Flesh and Blood Train," although having a simpler and more straightforward development process, and generally lower task difficulty than the mechanical train, might be a trap?
Have a look.
Chen Mang did not hesitate anymore and immediately operated the Constant Star Train, extending the high-speed rotating drill. At once, he plunged into the mountain, descending rapidly with his target pointed directly at the valleyâs depths. With his speed underground, even if he encountered danger, he could still run in time.
"Buzz buzz buzz..."
All along, the drill had been extremely smooth, but when the Constant Star Train traveled to the deep valley bottom, it was stopped by a wall made of flesh, blocking its path.
Sparks flew, and even a scorched smell emanated from the flesh wallâs surface.
But after drilling for a full minute, not even a hole had been pierced through.
Chen Mang glanced at the train control panelâs screen, which displayed no information as if the flesh wall in front of him didnât exist at all.
"Upgrade!"
He directly consumed 125,000 units of iron ore, upgrading the drill to Level 50.
Although the changes brought by upgrading white-grade components each time werenât as drastic as those of high-grade components â for example, the power difference between the Earth-Burst Missile at Level 6 and Level 1 is very obvious â the growth from upgrading the white-grade "Continuous Bed Crossbow" to Level 6 was much lower compared to when it was at Level 1.
Butââ
It couldnât resist being upgraded many times.
When the "Drill" as a common white-grade component was upgraded to Level 50, the drill turned crimson throughout, and its threads became denser, its rotation speed faster, and it even harder.
The effect was significant.
The seemingly indestructible flesh wall was gradually drilled into a large hole by the drill, and the train began once again to slowly advance forward. The flesh wall was thicker than he had imagined, a full two meters thick.
"Boom!"
Finally, three minutes later, the Constant Star Train broke through this flesh wall, officially entering the internal space of the valley bottomâs cave.
As the train headlight turned on, the whole interior of the cave was instantly lit up, and Chen Mang also saw the two "worm monsters" in the process of being constructed that Biaozi had described.
He glanced at the Target Detection Radar; there wasnât a single red dot on it.
The screen only displayed one line of text.
-
"This place is the exclusive Adventure Map for the Flesh and Blood Train, âWeapons Factory.â"
-
"..."
Chen Mang looked towards the two unfinished worm monsters not far ahead. His train made quite a bit of commotion, yet those mantis-like creatures surrounding the flesh and blood train didnât glance his way even once.
He thought of something, experimentally raising the Continuous Bed Crossbow and firing a volley at those creatures.
"Whizz whizz..."
The piercing sound of the arrows cutting through the air echoed within the cave.
Sure enough, the crossbow arrows passed straight through those mantis-like creatures with no sign of hitting anything. The scene before him was not real; it resembled the "real animation" seen in the Mechanical City.
Just at this momentââ
"Clatter clatter..."
The sound of gears turning echoed again, and the mechanism at the top of the cave opened once more before quickly closing again, as if... mechanical malfunctions were occurring.
"Run...run...run fast..."
The harsh voice once again came from the worm monster with the flesh and blood train skeleton.
"..."
Chen Mang looked at the scene ahead, his mouth twitching slightly. Among the almost finished worm monster, he even saw a line of bright red characters.
"Constant Star Third Generation Worm."
The full name of the mecha in the Mechanical City was "Fixed Star Third Generation Mecha."
So it seems...
Is this Fixed Star indeed a sort of rank designation?
And he finally understood what happened here; this place is a special adventure map, the "Weapons Factory," which belongs to the matching storyline maps with the "Heaven-Reaching Tower." However, one is an exclusive adventure map for the mechanical train, and the other is for the flesh and blood train.
This adventure map was hidden at the valleyâs bottom.
The original entrance was disrupted by his missile perfectly hitting ten rings, causing internal gear structures to malfunction, leading to the entrance intermittently opening and rapidly closing.
Biaozi happened to fall into it under such circumstances.
This adventure map remained extremely hidden. Even with a "Drill" attempting to enter from deep underground, it would be blocked by the flesh wall; normally, a "Drill" could only be upgraded to Level 3, and it would never pierce that leather wall in a lifetime.
But... it couldnât withstand a hard-headed approach.
He wasnât particularly concerned about any anomaly at the valley bottom initially, but seeing how sturdy that flesh wall was, he couldnât resist forcing entry to take a look.
It did make sense.
He had already discovered fragments of the flesh and blood train atop the valley, presumably belonging to the "Purple Cloud," so how could they possibly find the Purple Cloudâs flesh train at the valley bottom again? That flesh and blood train was illusory and not real.