Apocalypse: I Built the Infinite Train-Chapter 1: The Infinite Train Project

Apocalypse: I Built the Infinite Train

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Synopsis:

When natural disasters ran rampant, with extreme cold and storms spreading endlessly…

When the world mutated, zombies surged like tides, and eerie horrors emerged…

When the apocalypse descended, massive Devouring Abysses hundreds of kilometers in diameter began appearing around the globe...

When people looked up at the atmospheric cloud layers and saw the slowly emerging corpse of a colossal evil god…

From that day, people began to notice that daylight was arriving later and later, until the sun no longer rose, plunging the world into an unending polar night.

For survival, on that day, the Apocalypse Radio made its final broadcast to the world:

"Everyone, flee eastward—escape to dawn!"

…

Lin Xian awakened the [Mechanical Heart] ability. He could devour machinery to gain various mysterious skills, scan machines to obtain blueprints for manufacturing, and even use his thoughts to achieve unified control of different machines.

Thus, he found a 200-ton heavy gas-powered locomotive, towing specially modified storage, planting, production, medical, and living carriages, and embarked on a 320,000-kilometer journey along the planetary orbital rail—charging eastward toward the dawn!

Chapter 1: The Infinite Train Project

In Jiang City, the afternoon sun shone softly, accompanied by a gentle breeze.

On the balcony of a high-rise apartment, a faint glimmer flickered briefly. A man raised his head to glance toward the sun, then checked the time on his watch before closing the sunshade of his astronomical telescope.

In the far distance, beneath the clouds, the city lay eerily silent. Above the skyline, a massive cluster of clouds loomed like a mountain, towering and unmoving.

Beep, beep. The sound of an alert came from his watch.

5:00 PM—there was still an hour and a half until nightfall.

The man pulled on an iron chain, causing a specially designed alloy shutter to rise outside what was originally a floor-to-ceiling window. The room darkened as the sunlight filtered through the gaps between the alloy panels, casting linear streaks of light over a living room packed with supplies.

Buzz... buzz...

A strange sound echoed, and the man paused what he was doing, tilting his head to listen.

In an instant, his expression changed.

He grabbed a short dagger for self-defense, fastening it to his waist, and carefully stepped out of the apartment, climbing the stairs to the rooftop.

A helicopter flew low from the distance, the roar of its massive rotor blades growing increasingly deafening.

Whoosh!

The man retrieved a long water pipe from who-knows-where, tying an orange tattered cloth to one end and waving it rapidly at the helicopter.

Inside the helicopter, a girl wearing headphones noticed the flash of orange and silently traced her finger across the window.

“Mr. Wen?”

The pilot, seated in the front, also spotted the orange signal on the rooftop and turned to ask tentatively.

The man referred to as Mr. Wen was a middle-aged man in a sharp suit. Glancing out the window briefly, he shut his eyes with an indifferent expression and said coldly, “Dream on. Who cares about the lives of these paupers!”

The pilot fell silent.

Noticing the girl’s gaze, the middle-aged man raised his voice, “What’s wrong? Feeling sympathetic?”

“Remember this: they’re not the same as us. If tomorrow were the end of the world, we’d still be the last ones to die. Got it?”

“Tch.”

The girl’s expression turned icy, her gaze fixed on the scene outside. She clearly held no regard for the man’s words.

Whoosh~

The helicopter roared past the sky above.

The man on the distant rooftop, watching the scene unfold, slowly lowered his pole and gazed thoughtfully into the distance.

“D*** it, what a good aircraft… such a waste…”

...

Woooo!

A few minutes later, an urgent alarm blared inside the helicopter.

“Stall warning—stall warning!”

“What’s going on!?”

“We’ve suddenly lost lift! It might be an unknown air vortex!” The young co-pilot’s expression changed drastically as he scrambled to stabilize the flight.

The sudden crisis threw everyone into chaos.

“We’re in the air! In broad daylight! Could we have encountered some kind of ghost?!” shouted the once-calm middle-aged man in the back.

The pilot glanced at the onboard radar but found nothing unusual. Suddenly, the light inside the cockpit shifted, as if covered by a shadow. Alarmed, he craned his neck to look upward through the windshield.

What he saw made his pupils contract, his face turning deathly pale in an instant.

Above them, hidden within the massive cloud formation, a grotesque black shadow flickered faintly, blotting out the sky and sun!

The clouds churned violently, and the wind surged with ferocity.

The helicopter was caught in a tremendous suction force, rising uncontrollably higher into the sky.

“Warning! Warning!”

“D*** it! Captain, what do we do?!”

Panicked, the young co-pilot turned to look at the pilot, only to find him transfixed. Following his gaze, the co-pilot looked up as well.

The thin layers of clouds dispersed as their altitude increased. Finally, the two men in the cockpit saw the black shadow within the clouds clearly.

It was… a massive humanoid corpse!

The colossal humanoid corpse floated face-down within the cloud layers, its shadow blocking out the sky and sun. The portion of its torso visible beyond the clouds spanned at least ten kilometers in length!

The giant corpse hung motionless, resembling a floating continent at first glance. Its body was entirely gray-black, with withered, canyon-like wrinkles etched into its dried skin. Its pitch-black, hollow eyes exuded no trace of life but carried an eerie sense of dread as it floated high above the city.

“Ahhh!”

Terrified screams erupted within the now-helpless helicopter.

In the back, the girl’s face turned ghostly pale, her pupils consumed by an encroaching darkness.

The hurricane winds tore mercilessly at the helicopter’s fuselage. The industrial machine, weighing several tons, was reduced to nothing more than a speck of dust in the air.

The invisible suction force instantly dragged it upward, swallowing it into the clouds. Moments later, it disappeared without a trace.

Back on the rooftop, Lin Xian watched the entire scene unfold, his expression dark.

Buzz!

At that moment, a flicker of light flashed across the horizon. Realizing something, Lin Xian cursed under his breath, “Sh*t!” and quickly headed back to his apartment.

He shut the window shutters, sprayed deodorizer in the stairwell, and locked the iron doors.

All he could do now was wait for night to fall.

Beep, beep.

6:45 PM. For the second time, the horizon flickered with light. The sun had set, and the city was swallowed by darkness.

In the pitch-black city, sinister whispers echoed through the alleys, while piercing howls reverberated in the shadows.

Terror loomed. The eerie had arrived.

Inside the room…

The record player spun softly, filling the dim room with the gentle rhythm of jazz. Lin Xian, donning an apron, stood calmly in the kitchen, leisurely opening a can of beans. On the electric stove, a pot of tomato and beef brisket soup simmered, releasing a tantalizing aroma.

On the cutting board lay a sprig of vibrant green cilantro, a rare harvest from the rooftop garden. In times like these, even a touch of green could bring a fleeting sense of joy.

He chopped the cilantro finely, sprinkling it into the pot with care. Not a single piece escaped his attention, even the tiny fragment sticking to the knife was added.

Outside, the night loomed, deep and hollow with despair. From below the floorboards, faint, deliberate footsteps echoed. Somewhere in the pitch-black corridors, an eerie, raspy breathing could be heard...

But Lin Xian remained unbothered. As if accustomed to the unnatural surroundings, he set the table with practiced ease, eating his dinner in the glow of a flickering candle.

“The sunrise now lasts until noon. The next polar night is less than five days away,” he murmured.

At the table, while eating, Lin Xian jotted notes into a small journal.

The batteries and generator in his storage room were primarily used to keep the refrigerator running and power the alarm system. Lighting, however, was avoided entirely—it would turn his shelter into a glowing beacon in a city drenched in darkness.

After finishing his meal, he began sorting through the day’s haul.

“Two cans, two bottles of water… oh, and a pack of expired chips.”

Strangely, the large backpack wasn’t filled with food and water but instead held a collection of miscellaneous junk: a few broken phones, an old speaker, a busted shaver, and a hairdryer.

To Lin Xian, these “useless” items were treasures.

With a faint smile, he placed his hand on the old speaker. In an instant, a faint phosphorescent glow appeared around his hand and in his pupils. His hair fluttered gently, even though there was no wind, as an unusual force seemed to awaken.

Moments later, the glow disappeared, and the speaker he had touched suddenly decayed into a small pile of brownish ash that scattered onto the floor.

【Devouring successful: +1 Mechanical Source Point, +1 Mechanical Devour skill proficiency. Bonus: Strength +1】

【Current Mechanical Heart Level: LV.1 176/500】

【Note: Upgrading the Mechanical Heart grants special skill rewards. At LV3, LV6, and LV9, mysterious awakenings will be unlocked.】

Attributes:

Current Skills:

The familiar system interface lit up before him. Lin Xian’s eyes brightened—who would have thought that dismantling an old speaker would boost his strength by 1 point?

Do not underestimate 1 point in strength.

Ever since his strength leveled up from LV.0 to LV.1, Lin Xian had experienced a transformation.

He used to be a scrawny college student who struggled to carry a bucket of water. But now, he could easily perform a hundred one-armed push-ups in a single go. The change was astonishing.

At first, he thought his ability was weak, but over time, he realized its vast potential. If he could continue upgrading his strength and speed, his combat abilities might one day rival those of the mutated ability users with enhanced physiques.

【Devouring successful: +1 Mechanical Source Point】

【Devouring successful: +1 Mechanical Source Point】

The next few broken phones didn’t provide any attribute boosts, much to his disappointment.

“It seems larger, more powerful devices yield better results…” he muttered, recalling a past attempt to devour a car engine. That single effort had boosted his Mechanical Source Points by 20 and granted 5 attribute points.

However, the reason he now chose smaller objects and insisted on bringing them back to his apartment was simple: larger mechanical structures took significantly more time and energy to devour.

When he devoured the car engine, it had taken him over an hour and left him completely drained, as though he’d been through a horrifying ordeal. He was lucky to have escaped that situation without being attacked by zombies or ghouls—his survival was nothing short of miraculous.

Since then, Lin Xian had learned his lesson: patience was key. Rushing only led to danger. He adhered strictly to the principle of survival first.

But what he didn’t expect was that when he devoured the hairdryer, the interface in front of him suddenly flashed gold.

【Devouring successful: +1 Mechanical Source Point, +1 Mechanical Devour skill proficiency. Bonus: You’ve acquired the Wind Cannon skill!】

Wind Cannon LV.1: Focus air at your fingertips and release it instantly to cause destructive force.

“A skill?!”

Lin Xian’s pupils contracted. This was the first time he had gained a skill from his Mechanical Devour ability.

“Who would’ve thought that consuming ordinary items could unlock skills?”

A hairdryer… and now a Wind Cannon?

What kind of logic was this?

Suppressing his excitement, Lin Xian focused his thoughts. He raised his finger and pointed toward the sofa in the distance.

Whoosh!

A faint sound of air slicing through the room followed. The cushion on the sofa suddenly burst as if struck by something invisible. The cotton stuffing inside scattered like snowflakes.

“Holy s***!”

Lin Xian’s heartbeat accelerated. He had deliberately restrained the power of the Wind Cannon to avoid making too much noise, but even this small test demonstrated its destructive potential. If he unleashed it at full strength, it could undoubtedly become a deadly weapon.

In the year 2069, Apocalypse Day arrived. Across the globe, 13 massive “Devouring Zones,” each with a diameter of hundreds of kilometers, emerged. Officially named the "Abysses," these zones behaved like mysterious living entities, radiating waves of darkness that spread outward.

These waves of darkness, known as the Dark Tides, engulfed new areas every two days, expanding by several hundred kilometers at a time. Daylight grew shorter, and once a certain cycle was reached, the affected areas would enter a polar night.

During the polar night, extreme weather events, biological infections, zombie hordes, and unspeakable horrors from the abyss descended upon the world.

Humanity was forced to embark on a mass migration to escape the advancing darkness.

After the apocalypse began, a small portion of the population mutated under the radiation from the Abyss, gaining various supernatural abilities. This gave them a significant edge in the struggle for survival. Lin Xian was one such individual.

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Soon, survival groups led by ability users began to emerge like sparks in the dark.

“Jiang City Emergency Report: All six monitoring teams from the northwest and southwest sectors have gone missing. Attention survivors: Flee eastward!”

“Founded by the ability-user Liu Wei, the [Oasis] Convoy will depart tomorrow at 4:00 PM from the Walmart in White District. Only individuals aged 16-50 in good physical condition will be accepted. The elderly, children, and women will not be taken, but if you have firearms, weapons, or large amounts of supplies, you may bring one additional family member…”

“[Jiang City Bunker] welcomes all ability-users and beautiful women. We are based in a military-grade nuclear shelter in Jiang City, with over 300 members, clear division of labor, and the capacity to withstand the polar night…”

“I’m at Block A, Apartment 1304 in Mingwang Community. I have plenty of supplies and a house specially modified for survival. I only accept women aged 16-30, no ugly ones…”

“Ananda is a messenger sent by the Creator to cleanse the evil thoughts of humanity. As long as you feel sincere remorse, you can join our Paradise Faith. Free yourself from calamity by devoutly offering water, food, and pure young maidens. The Savior will spare the innocent. For those seeking redemption in hardship, contact 139…”

“I am Professor Wang from the Jiang City Research Institute. According to my calculations, Jiang City will be swallowed by the polar night again in five days. This time, there will be no sunrise… Hahaha, it’s over. Physics… how ridiculous. There’s no escape. No one can escape… Hahahahaha!”

In the darkness, Lin Xian slowly adjusted the radio dial, tuning through one extreme message after another. It seemed that after experiencing the first polar night, most of the survivors in Jiang City had already fled.

The last polar night, which lasted for a full 21 days, had turned the once-million-strong Jiang City into a hellscape. And who knew how long the next polar night would last? Would his supplies hold out until dawn finally returned?

"Infinite Train Recruitment Project—Assemble a fully armed heavy train to race along the 320,000-kilometer planetary orbital rail!"

Lin Xian unlocked his phone and opened a post he had made on a local forum before the last polar night began. The responses were sparse, and most of them were dripping with sarcasm:

“You’ve watched too much Snowpiercer, haven’t you?”

“Bro, the global power grid has collapsed. How are you gonna run it without electricity?”

“Even with a gas-powered locomotive, it burns at least 50 liters of fuel an hour. If I had that much fuel, I’d just drive an off-road truck instead!”

“Post-apocalyptic clown. Wait till you hit a broken track and get a reality check…”

“Sounds great in theory: a mobile fortress made of steel. Not even a zombie horde could break through. But dreams are dreams. It’s just not realistic.”

“Idiot.”

In the post, Lin Xian had outlined his plan to build a fortress train equipped with various functional carriages: living quarters, supply storage, medical facilities, planting areas, energy generation, and production units. He was actively recruiting members, but the requirements were strict—each member had to either possess supernatural abilities or specialized skills relevant to the train’s operations.

A fully armed, unstoppable heavy train racing eastward along the planetary rail to escape the polar night. Even if it had to stop along the way, its fortress-like armored carriages would be able to withstand zombie hordes and the assaults of eerie anomalies lurking in the dark.

It was both wildly romantic and utterly insane.

But after the polar night, most of the internet and power infrastructure had collapsed. The post hadn’t received any new responses in a long time.

Now, aside from the scattered voices of survivors broadcasting over the radio, the entire Jiang City was eerily silent.