Hearing the clanging footsteps behind him, Xiaozhao turned his head to see Yu Jing quickly approaching with the combat group.

He was wearing a compact "exoskeleton" suit, standing about 1.9 meters tall, slightly taller than the original form. The armor’s coverage was even higher than that of the Black Kite Special Service exoskeletons, reaching 100%, and appeared more robust and heavier.

Perhaps due to time constraints, these exoskeletons did not have a uniform coat of paint, with incompatible and mottled metallic hues still lingering, carrying a unique mechanical roughness and an iron rust scent.

"Lao San was called away by He Jie, and there’s still a set of power armor without a user. Have them get someone here,"

Yu Jing said.

"Power armor?" Xiaozhao looked thoughtfully at the power armor on the group. "Would I do?"

Yu Jing frowned, "You’re part of the crew team."

Xiaozhao calmly stated, "As the research team’s crew chief, I also have the responsibility to test the latest products."

Seeing Xiaozhao’s calm and determined gaze, Yu Jing did not hesitate, decisively saying, "Get him suited up!"

The two people carrying the power armor walked up behind him, the helmet snapped open, revealing Tan Yunxi’s gray-black big ears and delicate face.

Tan Yunxi, without the usual arrogance, seriously introduced while helping Xiaozhao don the power armor.

"Even though height and build adaptation devices have been made, there might still be some differences. Squeeze inside and see if you can feel something like a handle on the left and right?"

Xiaozhao instinctively raised his palm; it wasn’t a delicate mechanical piece you could wear but was twice the size of a normal person’s palm. Through feedback from inside and some technology he didn’t understand, he could control his fingers, feeling several slight depressions just right for his fingers. Upon careful sensation, it seemed to be made of soft silicone material, likely with some kind of pressure-triggered function.

"Looks like you’ve found it. Don’t press it; insurance hasn’t been done yet in this tight schedule. It’s a mechanical device for operating dual heavy machine guns with enough power to sweep the whole command platform..."

Tan Yunxi quickly said.

Xiaozhao, who was about to try, was so startled his fingers stiffened.

"Don’t worry; the other side isn’t heavy machine guns,"

Xiaozhao breathed a sigh of relief, curiously asked, "What’s on the other side?"

Tan Yunxi patted and locked the various mechanical structures on him, sealing the armor, "The other side can blow the entire cockpit to the sky!"

Xiaozhao: "..."

"Tan Yunxi,"

Yu Jing’s gentle urging voice came from behind.

Tan Yunxi didn’t dare tease Xiaozhao anymore, tense all over, quickly introducing, "The power armor has a total of three attack modes. On the left are high-explosive grenades with a maximum throw distance of 400 meters, a straight-line distance of 80 meters, and a kill radius of 5-7 meters, with six grenades in total. On the right are two calibers of heavy machine guns, with 7.62×51mm conventional bullets having a total of 8 units or 1920 rounds, and 12.7×99mm with only 3 units or 720 rounds. If the bullets turn into tracer rounds, it means you’re down to the last 100 rounds, pay close attention..."

"The rest are basic functions like power enhancement, backup power activation, communication, quick release, all operated by one-key activation. You can try it out once outside."

"Lastly, there’s the newly developed pan-energy shield, which can withstand about thirty close-range shots of 12.7mm bullets and three attacks from a Tier Two zombie, but this thing is precious. The attack from ordinary Tier One zombies you can fully rely on the armor to withstand, except for the Butcher. This concludes the functionality outline of Power Armor [Guardian]."

Soon, Xiaozhao saw what Tan Yunxi meant by "precious." Tan Yunxi opened a small slot in the front chest of his power armor, then slotted in a plate with secured Tier One Pan-energy Crystals, a total of fifteen.

"I understand everything else. What’s different about the Butcher?"

"The current power armor has poor shock absorption, which would turn your internal organs into mush unless you become a Tier One Evolver, but then you wouldn’t need this thing," Yu Jing said as she walked over, followed by a mechanical puppet taller than the power armor.

"Ready? It’s our turn!"

... 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The fixed firepower on the rooftops ultimately had its limitations, especially against leap attackers who descended from above.

With the addition of firepower from thirty sets of power armor, the people on the train suppressing the high-tier zombies at least did not have to worry about being ambushed from behind.

The originally vast number of Tier Two zombies, along with some evolvers transformed into Tier Two Slaughterers, surged to over six hundred, even more than the soldiers of the Armed Corps. A defense line of 1.5 kilometers couldn’t be held by just a few hundred soldiers.

Fortunately, the train had artillery firepower as an advantage. Even though those Tier Two zombies were armored in impenetrable corpse armor and could easily destroy reinforced concrete structures, appearing arrogant in the face of small-caliber bullets, they were not much sturdier than eggshells against the absolute justice of 155mm caliber rounds.

With one shell, a torrent of blood erupted.

Artillery roared, the barrage incessant.

But the most dazzling was still the battlefield of the train captain and the Tier Three Queen.

The two of them completely exceeded the limits of carbon-based life forms, like fighting with magic blasts. Initially, an electromagnetic railgun aimed at the Queen in hopes of reducing pressure. But despite the Queen’s massive size, her agility was astonishing. Nine out of ten shots missed, and even those that hit were inexplicably absorbed by an energy shield.

Rebounding in an even more terrifying posture, it forcefully blasted a one-meter diameter hole in the armored train.

Finally, everyone understood the gap between Tier Two and Tier Three that the train captain emphasized.

So they wisely focused fire directly on clearing the Tier Two zombies, leaving the Tier Three to run and block. Against the weapon of mass destruction that is an electromagnetic railgun, each shot could take out a string of them, and for large-sized zombies like the Butcher and Slaughterer, there was nowhere to hide.