MDT Chapter 283 Part 1

Chapter 283 Part 1: The Gear Matrix and the Dead Faces

Chen Mang watched the scene before him, the corner of his mouth twitching. A spatial fragmentation trap... even his Level 18 Armor wouldn't hold up against that, let alone Level 30. This one needed decryption.

One of the trains moved. Six carriages. The unpainted door swung open and a middle-aged man jumped down, muttering loud enough to carry across the quiet plaza. "What the hell is this situation?"

As if someone had hit play, the other Train Captains jumped down from their trains, gathering together in hushed discussion.

"Let's go." Chen Mang led Li Shiji and the others toward the group. Time to see what these high-level Train Captains were made of.

He walked up and spoke first. "The cliff on the other side isn't the end. I propose we share what we've found, then rely on our own abilities to get across."

He paused. "My judgment so far—those tens of thousands of glass pods on the ceiling are a misdirection. No information hidden inside."

The group kept talking amongst themselves as if he hadn't spoken.

"How are we supposed to get across?"

"No idea. You see that train get torn apart by the space?"

"Only option now is solving the puzzle here. I say we give those glass pods a salvo."

"Hey!" Biaozi roared. "Boss Mang's talking to you!"

Throughout their entire journey, no one had dared ignore Boss Mang like this. The disrespect stung.

"It's fine." Chen Mang raised his hand, stopping Biaozi. He studied the group. "You all know each other?"

Still nothing. Not even a glance.

"The hell!" Biaozi couldn't hold back. He rolled up his sleeves and shoved the nearest bodyguard aside, reaching for a Train Captain's collar.

His body froze.

He stared at his hand. Why had that push felt so... empty?

He looked at the cold-faced guard and pushed again.

His hand passed straight through the man's body.

Biaozi stumbled back, pushing at the nearest Train Captains. Same result—his hand went right through them.

"I..." He sucked in a cold breath and retreated to Boss Mang's side, voice shaking. "B-Boss Mang, they don't seem to be... human..."

Chen Mang didn't speak. He just extended his cane and stabbed at them one by one. It passed right through their bodies. He walked over to a train and stabbed it—just as unobstructed.

Confirmed.

In this entire plaza, only The Stellar and his group were real. The other trains were holographic projections.

No wonder this group had remained motionless at first. Only when he sent a train into the cliff to be destroyed did these "people" get off their trains.

"Back to the train."

…

Inside the train car, Chen Mang sat in his chair and glanced at the countdown on the control console. "It's basically confirmed. The 20 trains should be in different plazas."

"A solo challenge."

"That conversation mentioned a train trying to fly over and getting torn apart by the space. The 'train' they're referring to probably isn't that Level 1 train—it's the '20th' train."

"It's like a scenario reenactment."

"At some point, 20 trains arrived here. The 20th train attempted to fly over and was torn to pieces. The Stellar has now taken that ecological niche."

"If I'm not mistaken, it's only when one train is shattered that these people get off their trains to talk."

"Xiao Ai, play back the footage you just recorded. See if there are any clues."

"Yes!"

The screen displayed the scene of those Train Captains gathered and discussing, their voices coming through the train car's speakers. The conversation lasted about two or three minutes.

"Gears." After the video finished, Li Shiji paced back and forth. "They mentioned the word 'gear' six times. And one of them even complained, 'It's this find the main gear game again.'"

"Boss Mang, you saw it. That 'bridge' spinning like a metal storm isn't rotating as a single entity. Countless steel blades are all spinning at their own frequencies."

"Some spin faster, others extremely slowly."

"And the power source for all the steel blades is the gear at the end. These gears are all connected, forming a huge gear matrix. All gear matrices have a 'main gear'—the source of all power."

"As the main gear turns, all the gears turn with it. But due to factors like gear teeth size, each gear's rotation speed is different."

"So—we just need to find the main gear, then adjust its rotation speed to make all the steel blades on that bridge maintain the same speed. At that point, the bridge should return to normal."

"The problem now is, where is the main gear?"

"Reasonable." Biaozi nodded seriously. "Could it be on the bridges of the other trains?"

"Since the other 19 trains are holographic projections," Lao Zhu frowned, "there should be corresponding clues in their exclusive bridges, right?"

"Possible," Biaozi said thoughtfully.

"No..." Chen Mang sat calmly, looking up through the skylight toward the tens of thousands of glass pods on the ceiling. "The biggest piece of information in that video was a Train Captain who kept his head down, playing a game console. The game was Lianliankan."

"If I'm not mistaken, the main gear's location should be on the ceiling."

"Those tens of thousands of glass pods filled with mechanical organs—hearts, lungs, livers—aren't a misdirection."

"They are the puzzle."

"Once these tens of thousands of glass pods are eliminated, we'll be able to see the answer."

"As for how to eliminate the puzzle... don't you all feel it looks a bit like Lianliankan?"

"That's right!" Biaozi slapped his forehead. "It really does!"

"Let's try it."

A Doomsday Autocannon locked onto one of the glass pods and opened fire. A Level 1 machine gun round shot out, successfully hitting the glass pod containing a "mechanical heart."

No damage whatsoever. The glass pod showed no signs of shattering.

He then hit two more glass pods containing "mechanical hearts" in the same row.

Suddenly, the three originally dim glass pods all flashed with a faint white light, then went dark.

"Use Level 10 shells. Try again."

Chen Mang had an idea. He hadn't dared to use Level 10 shells at first, worried his judgment was wrong. Now that he saw the three glass pods flash with white light, it meant his judgment was correct.

"Not enough. Level 15."

"Level 16."

"Level 17."

"..."

"Level 20!"

When the shells reached Level 20, following three consecutive Level 20 shells accurately hitting the three glass pods containing the same mechanical organs, something magical happened.

The three glass pods hanging from the ceiling suddenly flashed red, then shattered, turning to powder and disappearing into the air.

The glass pods hanging from the ceiling began to move rapidly, filling the gap in the blink of an eye.

Only then did they see an extremely hidden groove at the far left end of the ceiling. New glass pods were moving out from there, one pushing the next, filling the space.

"Confirmed. It's Lianliankan." Chen Mang smiled. Since he'd found the problem, the answer was simple. He turned to look at Li Shiji and Xiao Ai. "You two join the Hive Mind and go play this game. I've never liked Lianliankan, especially with this many. It makes my eyes hurt just looking at it."

At first, they had looked at it for ten minutes and hadn't thought of Lianliankan at all. Mainly... Lianliankan usually gave the impression of being cute. Those bloody, wasteland-style mechanical organs made it hard to think in that direction.

Plus, there were too many of them. When the quantity was too large, a person's divergent thinking abilities would be restricted. No one looks up at the starry sky and thinks of playing Lianliankan with the stars.

"Leave it to me!" Li Shiji patted his chest confidently. "Chief Ai, let's do this together. There are quite a few, let's be as fast as possible."

"No need." Xiao Ai said with a serious face. "With my computing power, this level of Lianliankan is an insult to me. I'm enough by myself. You rest for a while, no need to waste brainpower."

"I'm a game desig—"

Before he could finish, the Doomsday Autocannon on the Stellar train began to fire in short, rapid bursts. One Level 20 shell after another shot toward the glass pods hanging from the ceiling.

There was almost no pause. One glass pod after another turned to powder in mid-air.

With Xiao Ai's computing power, this Lianliankan was indeed an insult.

…

Half an hour later, the entire ceiling, which had been densely packed with glass pods, now only had the last three left. These three glass pods all contained mechanical hearts.

Chen Mang raised his hand to stop Xiao Ai's movements.

He looked at the data on the control console. It showed that 99,997 glass pods had been successfully shattered. These were the last three.

In other words, there were a full 100,000 glass pods here. They had only been able to see twenty or thirty thousand at first. More were hidden elsewhere. Only when they discovered this game and started playing did the remaining glass pods begin to replenish.

In other words, it required consuming 100,000 Level 20 shells.

The price of a Level 18 shell was 5,000 units of Copper Ore.. Level 19 was 6,000 units. Level 20 was 7,000 units per shot.

The price was extremely high.

The price of 100,000 Level 20 shells required consuming 700 million units of Copper Ore to build. Even if his Doomsday Autocannon was Level 20 and had the advanced effect of three consecutive consumption reductions, it still consumed 87.5 million units of Copper Ore.

Just one encounter map nearly emptied his savings. He only had a little over 100 million units of Copper Ore in total.

But for most high-level trains, the Doomsday Autocannon was at most Level 10. They wouldn't have enough Mofei Stones to upgrade it to Level 20. That meant they only had two consumption reduction effects—requiring 175 million units of Copper Ore.

But a Level 10 Doomsday Autocannon wasn't enough. If they used other firepower accessories upgraded to Level 20, the Copper Ore consumed would only be much, much more.

If the train didn't have this much Copper Ore, there was no way to pass this first level.

Chen Mang let out a light breath. He didn't immediately destroy the remaining three glass pods. Instead, he lit a cigarette to calm his nerves, preparing to face the answer behind the puzzle.

Mainly, the sunk cost was too great. This encounter map could be exited at any time if you failed, with no penalty... When he had shattered seventy or eighty thousand glass pods and there were still endless glass pods pouring out from the side, he had felt desperate.

He had already smashed tens of millions of Copper Ore into it, but he still couldn't see the bottom.

Give up at that point? Then this encounter map would have been for nothing, and he would have lost tens of millions of Copper Ore for nothing.

He had actually made up his mind at the time. He would endure. If he ran out of Copper Ore in the end, he would immediately open Neon City and adjust the exchange rate between Copper Ore and Stellar Vouchers to 1:3, to exchange for as much Copper Ore as possible to get through this.

But in the end, he had endured. He didn't even need 100 million units of Copper Ore. 87.5 million units of Copper Ore was enough.

This was a precise number.

Chen Mang looked at the Level 50 Doomsday Autocannon on the control console. After firing a few hundred shells and feeling something was wrong, he had upgraded one Doomsday Autocannon to Level 50, hoping the fourth advanced effect would also be ammunition consumption reduction.

Unfortunately, it wasn't. It just increased the power.

This level not only tested one's judgment and observation of information, but also the train's foundation. The train had to have at least a Level 10 "Doomsday Autocannon," 175 million units of Copper Ore, and one Train Token.

Or, like him, a Level 20 Doomsday Autocannon and 87.5 million units of Copper Ore.

Only then was it possible to pass this level. Missing any one of these made it impossible to pass.

Without a Doomsday Autocannon, other firepower accessories would also work, as long as they had Level 20 attack strength. It was just that the "Doomsday Autocannon" was the most cost-effective. Using other firepower accessories would require a terrifying, astronomical figure.

He didn't linger any longer and chose to destroy the last three glass pods.

The next moment, the clean ceiling suddenly developed countless spiderweb-like cracks. Strong light penetrated through the cracks, and the cracks grew more and more numerous.

A few seconds later, the shattered ceiling turned to dust and dissipated in the air.

In its place was a huge gear. At this time, the entire gear was slowly turning. Countless smaller gears were connected to the huge gear by transmission rods, covering the entire ceiling.

The whole scene was filled with a sense of desolation, post-apocalyptic ruin.

"Found it. This is the main gear." Chen Mang looked up at the huge gear on the ceiling. Next to this huge gear, there were two buttons.

"Fast."

"Slow."

Obviously, it still required consuming Copper Ore. He was really worried he wouldn't have enough.

He was no longer worried about others getting ahead of him. Unless those high-level trains had mined one or two Level 5 copper mines before entering this encounter map, they definitely wouldn't have this much Copper Ore.

One shell hit the "Slow" button. If he could stop the gear completely, he could also pass smoothly.

But one shell hit it with no reaction. Obviously, this was already the fastest speed.

He fired another shell at the "Fast" button.

That big gear only sped up a tiny bit, so little that it was hard to tell with the naked eye. But the smaller gears connected by the transmission rods clearly sped up. The different steel blades on the bridge also changed their rotation speed accordingly.

Next was to try slowly.

When the twenty-third shell was fired, a crisp sound echoed through the entire plaza. Immediately after came the sound of countless gears turning rapidly.

The rotation speed of the steel blades on the bridge was now completely unified. At a glance, it looked as if it were a single entity rotating.

The rotation speed became slower and slower, and gradually, these steel blades stopped rotating, forming a steel bridge.

Chen Mang let out a light breath and slowly pushed the control lever, driving toward the steel bridge.

It was a bit difficult. This level mainly tested the train's foundation and information-capturing ability. You could pass without a Train Token, but without one, you wouldn't get the hint.

As long as you could figure out that the things on the ceiling were Lianliankan, you could pass without a Train Token.

The Stellar drove onto the hundred-meter-long steel bridge, successfully reaching the other side of the cliff.

This was also a plaza. When they arrived, the white mist here gradually dissipated, like a girl shedding her skirt, revealing the splendid scene before them.

Chen Mang glanced around. There was only one train in this plaza. There were no other paths leading here.

He didn't know if the 19 trains that were breaking through levels with him had arrived here. He didn't know the progress of the other trains.

The plaza was surrounded by walls dozens of meters high, pressing against the ceiling, like a cage surrounding The Stellar.

And on the walls were covered with faces. About hundreds of thousands of faces, all staring grimly at the Stellar train, emitting piercing sounds in unison.

The scene was horrifying.

Three lines of text were written on a whiteboard in front of the plaza.

[These are the mechanical clansmen who died unjustly in the past.]

[You must use the 'Vehicle Sound System' to play the correct sound frequency to appease them before you can pass.]

[You only have three chances.]

"Xiao Ai, what fruits are good for the brain?"

"Blueberries and cherries are both good for the brain."

"Have Xiao Fang send some over."

"Okay."

Chen Mang let out a light sigh, leaned back in his chair, lit a cigarette, turned his head to look at Li Shiji, and waved his hand. "Come on, see if you have any ideas. My head hurts a bit."

"Let me see..." Li Shiji nervously scanned every face embedded in the wall.

…

30 minutes later.

Still no clue.

Lao Zhu and Biaozi had already gotten off the train and were standing in front of the wall, observing the faces at close range. They looked lifelike, as if they were alive. Their eyes would stare straight at them, and their facial expressions were vivid.

"It's soft." Biaozi tentatively poked a face with his hand. "Doesn't feel like a corpse. More like it's alive."

He then picked up the huge fire tongs in his hand, and like a mouth spreader, pried the face's mouth open to its maximum, carefully looking down its throat. After confirming there were no strips of paper or information inside, he took out the fire tongs and continued to investigate the next face.

"Vice-Captain Zhu, I feel like we're doing useless work. The answer definitely isn't a strip of paper hidden in one of the faces. How long would that take to find?"

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