Apocalypse: I Built the Infinite Train-Chapter 223: Target cannot be monitored

As soon as Lin Xian stepped into the teaching building, a strong scent of dust from the old structure rushed into his nose. The surroundings were pitch black. He turned on his flashlight, scanning the area. The light he had seen earlier was on the second floor, so he needed to find the stairs leading up.

"Over here."

He quickly located the staircase and, without hesitation, prepared to rush up.

But after just a few steps, an inexplicable sense of unease crept over him.

"KIKI?"

Lin Xian turned around abruptly—KIKI was gone!

"Where is she?!"

He sprinted back, rushing out through the entrance of the teaching building, only to find that the outside world was shrouded in utter darkness. The playground, the plaza, the corridor, even the motorcycles they had ridden—all of it had vanished!

A chill ran down his spine. He quickly turned back toward the entrance, but the doorway was now engulfed in an ink-like blackness.

"D*mn it, this trick again?!"

Lin Xian immediately recalled the eerie 1542 Dark Radio. Back then, he had also suddenly disappeared from his original location, only to find himself trapped in a strange frequency space.

He pressed down on his communicator.

Crackle—

"Lin Xian, Lin Xian."

KIKI’s voice came through.

"Where are you?"

"I’m right at the entrance of the teaching building."

"I can’t see you. Just now, the wall in front of me seemed to shift."

Lin Xian frowned at her words. "It has to be the work of this test site. Hold on."

He looked up at the ominous dark sky, his heart sinking. If this place was controlled by a mechanical system, then it wouldn’t be a problem for him to crack it.

Huff… Huff…

For a moment, the only sounds he could hear were his own heartbeat and breathing. He shone his flashlight into the pitch-black doorway, its white beam cutting through the darkness, bringing with it a lonely, terrifying sense of isolation.

Gripping his Electric Blade tightly, Lin Xian activated his Collision Volume Perception System on his Power Armor to enhance his defenses.

【Collision Volume Perception System Activated】

The outside world remained in absolute darkness, an eerie chill creeping up his spine. He aimed his flashlight further into the distance but saw nothing beyond the endless void. Within that void, however, there seemed to be countless unknown entities slowly approaching the teaching building.

Lin Xian reached out and pressed his hand against the ground, but beneath him was solid concrete. His Mechanical Heart was unable to extend its influence through it. His expression darkened. With no other choice, he retreated into the only building available, searching for clues.

Surrounded by more buildings, his only lead was the light he had seen earlier upstairs—that had to be the control terminal for the system.

As his flashlight swept across the deep corridors, the passageways appeared endless. The doors to the nearby classrooms were all open, desks overturned and scattered in disarray. Every scene looked identical—except for one thing.

There were no bodies.

No zombies.

Thud, thud, thud—

Lin Xian quickly ascended to the second floor, following the direction of the light he had seen earlier.

Reaching the second-floor hallway, he found that the illuminated room was the very first one beside the stairs. The dim light filtering through the window gave the illusion that the world had turned black and white.

The door was slightly ajar. Lin Xian shone his flashlight inside and realized—it was a storage room, not a classroom. The floor was strangely clean, entirely different from the chaos of the other rooms.

His heart tightened as he cautiously stepped inside, sweeping his flashlight around.

If there’s light, there must be wiring...

Knowing that this place was a massive test site, there had to be professional equipment controlling the experiments. His plan was simple—use his Mechanical Ability to analyze the system, then forcibly crack it.

Walking to the wall, he activated his Mechanical Heart’s Scan, searching for any mechanical structures.

Just then, the light inside the room flickered.

And then—

It went out.

The entire storage room was instantly swallowed by darkness, leaving only Lin Xian’s single beam of light from his flashlight.

The sudden change put him on high alert.

Click… Click…

A faint sound echoed in the darkness.

It sounded like… joints twisting unnaturally.

Lin Xian immediately aimed his flashlight at the pile of mannequins in the center of the room. The white beam landed on them—nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

But when he widened the beam and aimed toward the corner of the room, he froze.

The door he had entered through was now shut.

A bad feeling rose in his chest. He strode toward it and twisted the handle—locked.

"Playing this game, huh?"

Click!

His Mechanical Heart activated, forcing the door open!

The instant the door swung open, a white mannequin of a child stood right in the doorway.

Lin Xian’s eyes sharpened as he instinctively raised his Electric Blade.

The white mannequin remained motionless. Aside from its unsettling appearance, it looked no different from the standard mannequins found in stores.

Click… Click…

That eerie joint-cracking sound came again.

Lin Xian spun around, flashlight in hand.

And in that instant—

A cold chill rushed down his spine. His scalp tingled.

The mannequins that had originally been piled in the center of the storage room—

Were now all standing right behind him.

For a moment, even the air seemed to freeze.

Lin Xian’s flashlight shone over the motionless white mannequins, their eerie aura filling the room. His expression darkened as he instantly fired a Wind Cannon at the nearest one.

Boom!

The mannequin’s plastic head exploded, revealing a metallic framework beneath its shattered face. But it didn’t move.

"What the hell are these things? Zombies? Eerie Entities?"

Lin Xian’s gaze flicked between them. He knew something was off, but he couldn’t pinpoint what.

So, without hesitation, he unleashed a volley of Wind Cannons.

Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!

The mannequins were obliterated, torn into pieces.

Clatter—

The storage room echoed with the deafening crash of shattered mannequins. These silent figures, all frozen with unnerving smiles, were now nothing but wreckage.

Just as Lin Xian finished them off—

From the unlit corner, where his flashlight hadn’t reached—

A small mannequin suddenly twisted its limbs, crawling up the wall.

【Warning: Moving Object Approaching】

His Power Armor issued an alert just as—

A ghastly pale face emerged from the darkness.

The mannequin’s mouth suddenly opened wide, revealing a grotesque maw filled with razor-sharp teeth!

Swish!

Lin Xian’s instincts kicked in. He reflexively thrust his Black Rifle forward, its muzzle slamming into the mannequin’s chest, stopping it from biting his throat. The force pushed him back several steps.

"What the f*ck?!"

Gritting his teeth, he jammed the gun’s butt against the ground to hold his stance. Then, his right hand crackled with electricity—

Bzzzt—!

A surge of electric current shot into the mannequin’s open mouth. Sparks burst forth, the stench of burning plastic filling the air.

The mannequin suddenly froze, then collapsed to the floor, motionless.

Lin Xian exhaled sharply, regaining his composure. He quickly grabbed his flashlight and inspected the fallen mannequin's mouth—

Inside, he found a complex mechanical structure.

These things…

They weren’t ordinary mannequins.

"A robot?"

Lin Xian was full of question marks. He immediately placed his hand on it, activating a Mechanical Scan. As expected, it was a magnetically controlled passive robot—it had no power source of its own and was instead part of a networked mechanical puppet system.

"Using robots against me? Not bad..."

Click, click…

Suddenly, faint footsteps echoed from the hallway outside.

The sound was intermittent, slowly approaching through the darkness.

"Ghost knocking on the door, huh?"

Without hesitation, Lin Xian constructed a high-power floodlight, instantly illuminating the eerie room as brightly as daylight.

Then, he grabbed the doorframe, his Power Armor amplifying his strength—

BANG!

The entire door was ripped off its hinges.

Raising both hands, he summoned a brilliant glow—

Clank! Clank! Clank!

Chunks of tank-grade forged metal flew into the air, and in just a few breaths, a 40cm-thick steel door, resembling a bank vault, materialized, completely sealing off the room.

And this door—

Had no handle. No lock.

To top it off, Lin Xian wired a high-voltage discharge device to it, running electricity through the metal surface.

"Alright. This door is officially open for ghost-knocking trials. Feel free to test it out."

Satisfied with his setup, Lin Xian turned his attention to the room’s wiring. He began tracing the light’s circuit path, planning to scan the building’s electrical structure and locate its control mechanisms.

Inside the Research Facility’s Monitoring Hall...

In the monitoring hall, the technician in charge of the F-Zone experimental subjects stared at the screen, hands frozen above the keyboard, eyes widening.

"Hey!"

His colleague nudged him urgently.

"Experiment Subject 072 is supposed to appear. Hurry up, don’t waste time!"

"There’s… there's a problem."

"What? It didn’t knock on the door?"

The technician pointed at the screen in horror.

A monstrous creature was furiously scratching at the door—but the suddenly materialized steel vault door didn’t even budge.

And, most importantly—

There was no handle to grab onto.

"It… It can’t even touch the door!"

"What the hell?! Why hasn’t the 'Crying Classroom' experiment started yet?"

Security Chief Feng Chun glanced at his watch, frowning. He pressed his earpiece and asked impatiently:

"What’s going on?!"

A researcher scrambled to respond:

"Sir, the experimental Eerie Entity failed to enter the area."

"What?!"

Feng Chun stormed over, glaring at the monitoring screen.

"Switch to the storage room’s surveillance feed—NOW!"

A different technician hesitated, his face looking pale. Turning around, he stammered:

"S-Sir… We… we’ve lost control of the indoor surveillance."

Feng Chun’s expression darkened.

"What did you just say?"

"I said… we have lost all internal surveillance."

The entire monitoring hall fell into an eerie silence.

"Switch to the hallway cameras, then!"

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Feng Chun barked:

"Headquarters requires us to collect precise data on mechanical abilities. We need to monitor the target's condition at all times—nothing can go wrong!"

"Understood!"

"Hallway cameras are operational—no lifeforms detected so far."

"Then the target must still be in the storage room…"

Back in the Storage Room

To eliminate future risks, Lin Xian devoured all of the destroyed robotic mannequins, converting them into raw materials. Only shattered plastic fragments remained.

Now, the room was spacious and clear.

Standing on a makeshift ladder, Lin Xian activated Mechanical Heart, connecting to the wiring and scanning the building’s mechanical framework.

"Kiki, how’s your situation?"

Crackle…

The communicator’s signal suddenly weakened.

"Lin Xian… I can’t find you. Where are you?"

"I’m inside the teaching building, second floor."

"I… I don’t see any teaching building."

Kiki’s voice trembled slightly, filled with unease.

Then—silence.

The signal was completely cut off.

Lin Xian frowned. Not good.

Given their relative positions, they shouldn’t be too far apart. But something in this research facility was interfering.

His gaze shifted toward the thumping noises coming from outside his steel vault door.

Could it be that the Eerie Entities were generating dark energy to jam their communications?

"This research facility… they’ve brought in some serious monstrosities."

Narrowing his eyes, Mechanical Heart finally locked onto something.

He descended the ladder and moved to one of the walls.

Placing his hand on the surface, he took control of the hidden power system behind it.

Then—

Hiss—

A rectangular doorframe slowly emerged from the wall, then retracted, revealing a dark passageway beyond.

Inside the Monitoring Hall...

"Target confirmed entering the passageway."

"Collect biometric data. Life signs normal, no injuries, heart rate stable."

The monitoring hall erupted in activity. The research team finally spotted Lin Xian on their screens.

Feng Chun exhaled, then pressed his earpiece.

"Close the passage. Release the Frenzied Zombie Horde. Gather combat data."

"Understood. Releasing the Frenzied Zombie Horde into the passageway."

Inside the Passageway

Bright lights suddenly flooded the corridor.

Lin Xian shielded his eyes, then looked ahead—

A long, endless white corridor stretched into the distance.

"Grrraaah!!!"

Before he could move, a low, distorted shriek echoed from afar.

Simultaneously, the floor began to tremble faintly.

Lin Xian turned sharply.

The door behind him—the one he had forced open—

Was now sealed shut again.

No way back.

His gaze shifted upward—

Directly at the hidden surveillance cameras.

Inside the Monitoring Hall...

"Control the zombie density. Don’t apply too much pressure at once—we need the target alive."

"Understood. Density set to Level 1."

Feng Chun monitored the screen—

Suddenly, Lin Xian looked straight at the camera, as if he could see them watching.

Feng Chun’s expression froze.

"Does… does he know we’re watching?"

Before anyone could answer—

The screen went black.

"What happened?!"

Feng Chun shouted.

"Checking now—power systems are stable."

One technician was sweating as he frantically worked the console.

Then—

Dakka-dakka-dakka!

Gunfire erupted from the speakers, growing fiercer by the second.

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"Target is engaging! Restore the lights!"

The screens flickered back on—

And everyone stared in shock.

The corridor was covered in blood and zombie remains.

Standing amid the carnage—

Was Lin Xian.

And beside him—

A fully-mounted Roarer K23 Electric Gatling Gun on a pushcart, steam still rising from its red-hot barrel.

"Where the hell did he pull THAT from?!"

"How is there even a cart?!"

"That thing’s huge! Did he summon it from a pocket dimension?!"

Feng Chun clenched his jaw.

"I don’t care if he pulled it from his d*mn pants—watch his left hand or right hand, figure out how he did it!

"Release the Frenzied Zombie Horde—at MAX LEVEL!"

"ROAAAARRR!!!!"

From the far end of the corridor, countless mutated zombies burst forth—

"Wrrrrr—!!!!"

The Gatling Gun roared to life—

Lin Xian charged forward, gun blazing, slicing through the horde like a storm of bullets and steel.