53: Chapter 53 Refugee Camp: The Former Arrogant Senior

The wind on the wasteland was always mixed with nauseating dust and the stench of decay.

Switched to heavy all-terrain track mode, Black Iron was like an unbridled steel behemoth, crushing two deep ruts into the uneven Gobi desert.

The dull roar of its nuclear engine was even more soul-shaking than thunder.

More than half a day had passed since the regional barrier was lifted.

Lin Xiao sat in a wide leather chair in the command room, enjoying a highly professional head massage from Shen Man while checking the radar map.

"Class Monitor, three kilometers ahead, we've detected a large number of life-form heat signatures."

Luo Yao, at the console, turned her head and pushed up her tactical glasses to report.

"Judging by the density and energy levels of the heat sources, it should be a temporary refugee camp made up of survivors who have lost their trains."

"Should we bypass it?"

In the apocalypse, survivors without a train were basically sentenced to death, left to scrape by in the wild like stray dogs.

Lin Xiao opened his eyes slightly, his deep gaze looking through the panoramic bulletproof glass toward the distant horizon.

"Don't bypass it; drive straight through."

"We just went through an insect tide. Someone needs to clean the acid-corroded insect innards and charred carapaces off the outside of the train."

"Our girls are for fighting and... enjoyment, not for doing this kind of dirty and exhausting work."

Lin Xiao's voice carried the coldness of a superior.

In this world, social classes had become completely solidified.

His Black Iron was a divine temple high above the clouds.

As for those powerless survivors, being able to wash Black Iron in exchange for a mouthful of moldy biscuits was already a heavenly blessing for them.

...

A few minutes later.

A temporary shelter built from discarded car wrecks, tattered tents, and a few charred wooden carriages appeared in Black Iron's field of vision.

About four or five hundred survivors were gathered here.

They were dressed in rags, gaunt and sallow, with sunken eyes like the walking dead.

They were fighting over a foul-smelling insect leg on the ground, left over by some unknown mutant beast.

A dozen men were biting and scuffling with each other like mad dogs; someone even used a stone to smash a companion's head.

However, when the massive silhouette of Black Iron, like a mobile fortress, roared into view,

the entire refugee camp instantly fell into a deathly silence.

Everyone stopped what they were doing.

They stared blankly at this twenty-car-long train, its armor shimmering with dark gold light, and a terrifying electromagnetic cannon mounted on its roof.

What level of monster was this?!

Compared to their scrap-metal carriages that were easily torn apart by insects, this was practically a legendary alien warship!

What made them even more desperate was the side of the locomotive, where a huge number, "9527," was spray-painted in arrogant, blood-red paint.

Any survivor with a bit of common sense already knew what that number represented from the global rankings.

That was the god who sat at the top of the global power rankings with a massive lead!

"Thud!"

Not knowing who started it, a skin-and-bones old man's knees buckled, and he knelt directly on the gravel-strewn ground.

Then,

like falling dominoes,

hundreds of survivors—whether they were thugs who had just been killing or shivering women—

all knelt down in unison toward Black Iron.

"Officer! Please, give us a bite to eat!"

"I'm willing to be your slave! Just don't let me starve to death!"

"Great Emperor Lin! I have a few Level 1 energy cores, please let me trade them for a bottle of water!"

Wails, pleas for help, and the sound of kowtowing merged into a wave of tragic noise outside the train.

Lin Xiao stood on the high platform at the front of the train, looking down at these survivors who were like ants.

There was not a trace of pity on his face.

Having experienced the beatings of the apocalypse, his heart had long been tempered to be harder than titanium alloy.

"Ruyan."

Lin Xiao blew out a thick cloud of cigar smoke and called out without turning his head.

"I'm here, Lord Class Monitor."

Wearing a burgundy tight-fitting leather outfit, Liu Ruyan swayed her incredibly enchanting waist as she walked to Lin Xiao's side.

After being strengthened by the genetic fluid, her already charming fox-like eyes were now even more soul-stirring.

"Take the Mobile Unit down and pick a few dozen obedient laborers with sound limbs."

"The task is to clean the exterior armor of the train and dispose of the insect waste."

"The reward is one meal of synthetic rations and half a liter of purified water per day."

"Remember, only take temporary workers for the dirty work. They are not allowed to step foot into the carriages. Anyone who dares to disobey orders or harbor ill intentions is to be shot on sight."

Lin Xiao's instructions were simple and crude, yet they were the only hope for these refugees to survive.

"Understood, leave it to me."

Liu Ruyan licked her red lips, a flash of excitement in her eyes.

She loved this feeling of holding borrowed authority and controlling the life and death of others.

As the door opened,

Liu Ruyan led over twenty fully armed girls carrying assault rifles off the train.

Looking at these healthy-looking, hot-bodied female soldiers whose combat uniforms were even washed clean,

the men in the refugee camp's eyes turned green with envy, and the sound of frantic swallowing came from their throats.

But when they saw the dark muzzles of the guns and felt the terrifying aura of Level 1 strengthened humans emanating from the girls, all their wicked thoughts were instantly suppressed by fear.

"Everyone, line up! Anyone who dares to cut in line will get a bullet!"

Liu Ruyan, wearing high-top military boots and playing with a large-caliber revolver, barked orders with a full queen-like demeanor.

The crowd immediately became restless. To secure a hard-won spot as a "train washer," people began pushing and shoving again.

In a corner on the outskirts of the crowd,

a woman wrapped in a tattered military overcoat, her face covered in black soot so her original features couldn't be seen, was clutching half a dried-up tree root.

Several wretched men with lecherous glints in their eyes were cornering her against a discarded car.

"Great School Beauty Chu, President Chu!"

"At a time like this, stop putting on your high and mighty act!"

A man with a scar on his face smiled lecherously, reaching out to tear at the woman's ragged clothes.

"That scrap train of yours has been eaten clean by insects, and those lickspittles of yours are all dead."

"Be a good girl and play with us. Later, when we get hired as train washers by that officer, we'll share a bite of biscuit with you. How about it?"

"Get away! Don't touch me!"

The woman struggled desperately, her voice hoarse and despairing, but due to extreme hunger, her strength was less than that of a chick.

"Slap!"

The scarred man slapped the woman's face, knocking her directly to the ground.

"Bitch! Still think you're the 'Unattainable Flower' of Shencheng University?"

This slap also knocked off a patch of the black soot covering the woman's face, revealing a small area of skin that, though pale, was still undeniably beautiful.

Lin Xiao, who was smoking at the front of the train, had originally just been watching the show.

But his terrifyingly enhanced vision inadvertently swept over the woman on the ground.

With just one look,

Lin Xiao's eyebrows twitched slightly.

Life really is full of unexpected encounters.

He knew that woman.

Not just knew her—at Shencheng University, there was almost no male student who didn't know her.

Chu Yuxun.

The President of the Shencheng University Student Council, the "Unattainable Flower" who had been ranked at the top of the school beauty list for three consecutive years.

In the past, she had a superior family background and top-tier grades; she was the center of attention wherever she went.

She was like a proud white Swan, always dismissive of the ordinary boys at school.

Lin Xiao still remembered that in his sophomore year, he had gone to the student council as the Arts Department class monitor to apply for activity funding.

At that time, this Great President Chu just sat behind her wide desk, and without even lifting an eyelid, she coldly dismissed him with the phrase: "Funds are tight, and the Arts Department's activities have no practical significance."

That high and mighty look, as if she were looking at a lower life form, was something Lin Xiao remembered vividly to this day.

And now.

This once-arrogant white Swan was like a stray dog, being pinned to the mud and slapped by several bottom-tier thugs.

She was even facing the tragic fate of being gang-raped for half a mouthful of moldy food.

"How the world changes..."

Lin Xiao sneered and flicked away his cigar.

He didn't immediately step in to stop it; he wanted to see what choice this once-arrogant senior would make when faced with dignity versus survival.

Just as those men's filthy hands were about to tear away Chu Yuxun's last shred of modesty,

Liu Ruyan happened to lead the female soldiers on patrol nearby.

"What are you doing! Everyone, put your hands behind your heads and squat down!"

Seeing the commotion, Liu Ruyan raised her revolver and fired a shot into the air with a "Bang!"

The deafening gunshot instantly terrified the thugs.

They quickly let go of Chu Yuxun and scrambled to squat on the ground, hands behind their heads, shivering.

"Ruyan... Liu Ruyan?"

Lying on the ground, Chu Yuxun saw the valiant female commander in the burgundy leather outfit during the gap in the noise.

She was stunned.

In school, as the beauty of the Dance Department, Liu Ruyan was also very pretty, but she had always been overshadowed by Chu Yuxun, the Student Council President.

But now.

The other party was glamorous and held the power of life and death.

While she herself was like a beggar, her life hanging by a thread.

This intense psychological gap dealt an unprecedented blow to Chu Yuxun's self-esteem.

She stood up tremblingly, trying to use her tattered clothes to cover her wretched body.

"You... you are from Shencheng University?"

Chu Yuxun's voice carried a trace of extremely complex hope.

Hearing the voice, Liu Ruyan turned to look.

When she recognized that face—which had once made her jealous countless times but was now covered in mud—an extremely satisfied, mocking smile instantly curled onto her lips.

"Oh, I was wondering who it was. It turns out it's our high and mighty Chu Yuxun, the Great President Chu."

Liu Ruyan stepped forward and, using a finger clad in a black tactical glove, gently tilted up Chu Yuxun's dust-covered chin.

"What's the matter? Where are your fanatical pursuers? Where is your luxurious 'Swan' train?"

"How did you end up worse than a stray dog?"

Facing Liu Ruyan's merciless mockery, Chu Yuxun's tears instantly burst forth.

She bit her lip, lowered her head in humiliation, and couldn't say a word.

Her train had been completely destroyed in yesterday's insect tide. Those boys who had sworn to protect her ran faster than anyone when facing death; they had even pushed her toward the swarm to seize a chance to escape.

She had survived entirely because she had awakened a very useless C-rank talent, "Strategic Management," and had scraped by until today by helping people distribute scraps in the refugee camp.

"Liu Ruyan, I beg you... for the sake of being classmates..."

"Give me something to eat... I'm starving to death..."

The once Unattainable Flower now completely abandoned all dignity, begging her former rival like a beggar.

"Give you food? On what grounds?"

Liu Ruyan snorted coldly.

"My food was won by our Class Monitor leading us to risk our lives."

"You want to eat? Fine, go beg our Class Monitor."

As Liu Ruyan spoke, she turned and pointed toward Black Iron, which was parked nearby like a steel behemoth.

Following Liu Ruyan's finger,

Chu Yuxun looked up, her eyes full of despair and tears, toward the high platform at the front of the train.

There,

stood a tall, sturdy man wearing a black tactical trench coat, looking like a wasteland demon god.

The man had his hands on the railing, looking down at her with an extremely cold gaze, as if he were looking at a piece of cheap merchandise.

"Lin... Lin Xiao?!"

When Chu Yuxun recognized that face, her pupils contracted sharply, and her brain went completely blank with a "buzz."

That ordinary Arts Department class monitor she had once looked down on and wouldn't even give a second glance to...

Was actually the one who sat at the top of the global double rankings, possessed a LV.5 mobile fortress, and was worshipped as a god by countless survivors... the Conductor of Black Iron?!

How was this possible!

The surrealism and cruelty of reality turned into a heavy hammer at this moment, crushing the last shred of pride remaining in Chu Yuxun's heart.

Not even a fragment was left.

She looked at those once delicate underclasswomen, now all well-equipped and healthy-looking, gathered under Lin Xiao's command.

She finally understood who the true king was in this broken world.

"Lin Xiao... Class Monitor Lin!"

Not knowing where the strength came from,

Chu Yuxun suddenly pushed aside Liu Ruyan who was blocking her way.

Like a madwoman, she stumbled toward Black Iron's massive tracks.

A few meters away from the train, she knelt down heavily with a "thud."

The gravel scraped her knees, and blood seeped out, but she seemed unable to feel the pain.

"Officer Lin! Great Emperor Lin!"

"Please save me!"

"I was wrong! I was blind before, I shouldn't have looked down on you!"

Chu Yuxun raised her tear-stained, filth-covered face, crying out and kowtowing frantically to the man she had once despised.

"As long as you are willing to take me in and give me a bite to eat,"

"I'm willing to do anything!"

"I'm willing to wash your feet! I'm willing to be your most lowly female slave!"

"Please, for the sake of me still being a virgin, take me on the train!"

Listening to the hysterical pleading of the former Unattainable Flower below,

and seeing her lowly state, even willing to sell her body,

Lin Xiao's eyes showed no fluctuation, let alone so-called pity.

In the apocalypse, compassion was the cheapest and most fatal poison.

He slowly turned around and picked up another cigar from the table next to him.

"My train does not support useless people."

Lin Xiao's cold, emotionless voice spread clearly through the loudspeaker across the entire refugee camp.

"You want to get on the train?"

"Show me your value."