Train Survival: You're really trying to survive!

Su Li grabbed the slime that Sun Lili was holding in her arms and threw it at the volcanic ash.

The slime fell silent instantly, like a stone dropped into water.

Su Li listened quietly for a while, only hearing the bouncing of the slime Puni Puni. "I didn't sense any killing intent, nor did I hear any footsteps, so there shouldn't be any monsters inside."

Sun Lili tilted her head. "Harmless? That's unlikely."

Su Li agreed, "They're really harmless. Why would those monsters bother hiding in caves?"

Moreover, Zurich's intuition warned him not to go near the volcanic ash.

[It must be that some of my senses detected something amiss, but since I didn't observe any harm, that's why I had this feeling.]

The two of them stood a hundred meters away from the volcanic ash, watching it from afar and observing its movements.

Su Li noticed that the volcanic ash was still slowly flowing into the cave, but the flow was getting slower and slower. At the current rate, Su Li did some mental calculations and figured that the volcanic ash would stop flowing after another 30 meters.

"Let's go back to the train and wait for Mingyu's research report."

The two drove back to the train.

Song Mingyu and his men maintained their battle formation and had been waiting for them.

Su Li got out of the car and told everyone what had just happened, "The volcanic ash won't come here. Let's go further in and wait until this exploration is over."

The reason for going inwards was, of course, because of the beast tide.

If they stay here, when the beast tide starts, these silver-level monsters around them will be conscripted by the system to hunt them down.

That's when things will get complicated.

Three years have passed, and the Blue Star civilization has figured out the pattern of the beast tides. The beast tides summon monsters in four phases. First, monsters within a 5-kilometer radius are summoned. If no suitable monsters are found within this range, monsters will be created out of thin air to attack.

"Then I'll summon the slime back first. Let's study what the volcanic ash is all about."

Song Mingyu slowly cast the spell, beginning to summon the slime. She didn't intend to pursue the summoning route; she had only learned this beast-taming technique to manage experimental animals, so her proficiency was not high.

After a while, a magic circle appeared in front of Song Mingyu, and then a red slime jumped out.

"Changes have occurred so quickly?!" Su Li exclaimed in surprise.

Slimes are monsters with extremely high environmental adaptability; the purer the environment, the faster they adapt. Depending on the environment, they can evolve into different types of slimes.

This is why so many pharmacists cultivate pure slimes. In their hands, slimes act as effect amplifiers, amplifying the effects of their drugs so that researchers can quickly see the drug's effects.

However, this speed is only relative. Ordinary transformation takes years, while pure slime takes only a few days.

The fact that it has changed to this extent in just a few minutes can only mean that the volcanic ash itself has the ability to transform other organisms.

Su Li felt a pang of anxiety. Luckily, she had been cautious and hadn't recklessly come into contact with the volcanic ash.

Song Mingyu's eyes shone brightly, indicating that her mental power was being fully activated. Her tone was full of curiosity as she said, "It's actually resisting our contract! The strength is incredible!"

Zuli used her greatsword to pin the slime down, then carefully observed the changes in the slime.

Numerous metal pipes appeared inside the slime's body, connecting to the slime's core—a sphere emitting a red glow.

"Is it mechanized?" Su Li poked the slime's skin with her sword; it felt much harder than its original gel-like texture. The sword tip even made a metallic scraping sound when rubbing against it. "Liquid metal? Good material."

Ivan also came over, took out his forging hammer, and hammered the slime a few times. Then he looked puzzled and said, "The properties of this material are too strange. It's metal, but it doesn't feel like metal. It feels like a good material, but I have no clue how to forge it."

Perhaps annoyed by Ivan's poking, the slime suddenly let out a shriek.

At this shriek, the surrounding monsters all stood up as if in response.

Su Li quickly raised her sword to defend herself, only to find that all the monsters, even the silver-rank ones, wore expressions of fear. Their gazes were fixed on the slimes that Su Li and her companions had made.

Su Li's brain started working at lightning speed in an instant.

The Slime's Scream—even Silver-rank monsters tremble in fear—Silver-rank monsters aren't afraid of slimes at all; they could crush them with one hand. What they fear is what the slime's scream represents—the scream is some kind of symbol, or a signal—the big one is coming! —Warriors must prioritize survival! Kill the slime and quickly replenish your strength!

Su Li thrust her greatsword downwards with force, killing the slime instantly.

"Let's go, something's not right!"

Before his teammates could react, they ran straight toward the train, trusting the conductor.

"Wait, what about this dead slime?" Song Mingyu said, pointing at the slime.

Su Li hesitated for a moment, then said, "Take it with me and study it quickly."

We've already stirred up a hornet's nest, so at least we should get some useful information.

Zuli and the others carried the dead slime into the train. Supplies were plentiful, and the train's boiler had never been turned off.

The monsters over there also became restless, and several silver-level monsters led their tribes and ran inside.

The train started moving and began to accelerate.

One of the silver-level monsters, which resembled a horse, saw the train start moving, its eyes lit up, and it leaped onto the train to hitch a ride.

The remaining silver-level individuals were also somewhat tempted, but were intimidated by the horse's intimidation and ultimately gave up, running underground with their own tribe.

Su Li and the others inside the train naturally heard the sound coming from the roof.

"You guys keep an eye on the train, Sofia and I will go up and check the situation."

Zuli and Sofia walked to the boiler, pressed a button on the roof of the vehicle, and a staircase came down.

Climb out the stairs, and the roof of the vehicle becomes a combat platform.

Zuli and Sophia steadied themselves and looked across to the other side. In the second carriage, a horse-shaped monster with its mane ablaze was resting.

Upon seeing Su Li and Sophia, the horse stood up again, looking at them with some wariness.

Zurich noticed that the horse wasn't facing them directly, but rather with its side turned towards them. This meant that the horse was also on guard against enemies from another direction.

Just as Su Li was still pondering what it was, a rustling crawling sound mixed with the sound of mechanical friction came from the entrance of the tunnel.

This unique sound, so distinctive among the many running sounds, immediately caught Su Li's attention.

Then, in the deep darkness behind, a large number of red lights appeared.

"They're here!" Sofia crouched down and raised her gun. "So many enemies!"

Indeed, the dense red light reminded Su Li of many horror movies.

"Could it be a rat or a bat?"

Su Li took out a glass bottle, pressed the switch on the bottle opening, and the iron nail inside shattered the glass, causing the various materials inside to fuse together.

Su Li threw the glass bottle into the distance. The bottle exploded in mid-air and turned into a ball of light that floated in the center of the cave.

Then, Zuli saw the approaching enemy.

Those were hundreds of monsters with mechanical bodies!