Chapter 26:

Time always passes quickly. In the blink of an eye, it was already dark. Chen Mang spent most of the day inside the train researching his "Newcomer’s Guide," including the current accessories of the train. Since he possesses the "Unlimited Upgrade" plugin, the white-grade vehicle accessories are certainly inferior to the higher-grade ones, as his high-grade accessories can also be upgraded infinitely. He currently owns only two high-grade vehicle accessories, both of which are red. They are... Level 2 "Earth Core Melting Furnace" and Level 1 "Wheel Changer". Both of these accessories are of the auxiliary type. The former is mainly used to devour abandoned trains and decompose them into iron ore resources, while the latter can replace the wheels during travel to adapt to different driving environments. However— The "Earth Core Melting Furnace" only requires 100 units of iron ore to upgrade from Level 1 to Level 2, but it needs 10,000 units of iron ore to upgrade from Level 2 to Level 3. Each upgrade allows for the decomposition of abandoned trains of the corresponding level. The "Wheel Changer" requires as much as 10,000 units of iron ore to upgrade to Level 2, and each upgrade provides an additional "wheel" slot. According to the information in the "Newcomer’s Guide", the higher the grade of the vehicle accessories, the more resources are required for each upgrade. Therefore, he planned a clear path for himself—prioritize upgrading the white-grade "vehicle accessories" in the early stages when resources are limited. There’s no need to upgrade too high; as long as he upgrades to get the Supermodel Effect, like the Level 5 "Car Edge," he can achieve the first quality transformation. This way, he can get the most improvement with the least resources. Then, using the enhanced effects, he can plunder or extract more resources to continuously upgrade the train’s level, thus upgrading those higher-grade "vehicle accessories" to a sufficient level. By that time— His train will experience a true transformation! "The plan is beautiful." Inside the train compartment. Chen Mang let out a long sigh, rubbed his somewhat dry eyes, and thought the plan was flawless; the process was long and challenging. After all, this wasn’t like playing a game where he could have as much time as needed to develop; unexpected events could always interfere with his development plan. All he could do was avoid some accidents as much as possible and develop peacefully when he could. And at this moment! The last slave also crawled out of the mine. This mining time had already far exceeded 10 hours, with most taking around 12 hours, and the longest one mining for 14 hours. Far beyond his expectations. He chuckled, immediately got up, left the train compartment, and waved at Old Pig, who was guarding the train entrance: "Gather all the slaves." "Understood." Old Pig nodded respectfully and handed over a prepared list: "Master Mang, this is the mining ranking of all slaves today." ... Under the night sky. Chen Mang stood alone on top of the train, while a group of ragged slaves eagerly gathered below. Though it seemed like a big crowd, it still brought a strong sense of loneliness on the vast wasteland. The thugs were armed and stood around, guarding against possible dangers. In the wasteland, slaves wouldn’t escape; being together offered some sense of security. Once alone, relying on their legs, they could never escape the wasteland in their lifetime. The impending sense of death would show them what true despair was. Humans are social creatures no matter where they are. Even being slaves, it’s better to be a group of slaves together than alone, wandering the wasteland. "..." Chen Mang glanced over each person, feeling the slightly cool night breeze. After looking at the list in his hand for a moment, he couldn’t help but laugh: "Everyone performed very well today, the least amount mined by one person was 11 units of iron ore." "Very good!" "What pleases me the most is that none of you slacked off because you thought you couldn’t compete for first place. Everyone worked hard, and a team’s limits are often determined by its weakest member. I hope you all maintain this mining speed and aim higher in the future." "Everyone will get two extra slices of bread for a snack tonight." "Besides that—" "First place, Zhang Haoping, mined 20 units of iron ore today." "Step forward, let me see you." As soon as he finished speaking, a dark-skinned middle-aged man stepped out from the crowd and looked up at Chen Mang with a slightly silly voice: "Master Mang, it’s me." "Nice." Chen Mang glanced up and down at the man, could vaguely see in the night this man’s legs trembling, clearly exhausted from the day, and smiled while waving his hand: "As agreed beforehand, you can rest and relax tonight." This rather honest-looking man grinned excitedly. A low chuckle immediately rose from the crowd. However, no one dared to say anything. Seeing this, Chen Mang chuckled, said nothing more, and just looked back at the list in his hand and continued. "Second place, Li Kui, mined 16 units of iron ore today." "You can also rest and relax tonight." "And—" "If in the next five days, everyone still maintains a minimum daily mining of 11, everyone will continue to receive five slices of bread per day when there’s no more mining to be done. If everyone can maintain a minimum daily mining of 12, another carriage will be added on this basis." As soon as he finished speaking, the crowd burst into another wave of excited cheers, as it directly impacted each person’s interest. Every additional carriage meant more space; no longer would they have to curl up into a ball at night, nor worry about slaves stepping over them to go to the bathroom. After accomplishing all this, Chen Mang came down from the top of the train. As Biaozi waved and distributed dinner for the day, each slave received two extra slices of bread, while the top three got hot buns and pickles separately. "Master Mang." Old Pig, who was waiting below, sighed with a bit of admiration: "I must say, Master Mang, you’re truly generous."