Chapter 1475: Chapter 1473: Iron Monster: Mark Three
Passing through many stone buildings, across various areas, reaching the end of the city, there was unexpectedly a vertical stone wall.
Philip was somewhat surprised, unsure whether the city was originally built tightly against this stone wall, or if before construction, a mountain was half enclosed and then carved to this shape.
What surprised him even more was the huge arched hole in the stone wall, pitch-black and leading who knows where. Dense "凹" shaped metal pipes extended from the hole onto the ground, their purpose unknown.
Later, he heard from others that these "凹" shaped metal pipes were called tracks, and as for the round hole, it was called a tunnel.
Philip, with his son and the others, was hurried onto a dam-like platform adjacent to the tunnel by the officer named Norton Wanwa, and told to wait quietly.
After waiting for about ten minutes, suddenly everyone simultaneously looked towards the tunnel, having heard a strange sound.
"Crunch, crunch..."
The ground around them trembled slightly, as if some terrifying beast was about to charge out from the tunnel, causing the crowd to stir uneasily.
"Crunch, crunch, crunch..."
The sound echoing from within the tunnel grew louder, severely tormenting everyone’s eardrums, with white steam beginning to spread.
The crowd’s unrest intensified, beginning to show fear.
"Crunch, crunch, crunch! Woo woo!"
Finally, the sound suddenly transformed into a piercing whistle, stabbing into everyone’s ears like an awl, causing them to cover their ears. Then, in their widened eyes, they saw a steel monster burst through the dense white steam, roaring out of the tunnel.
This steel monster’s body was extremely long, spanning several hundred meters, composed of several sections. The front section was nearly cylindrical, with numerous iron wheels embedding into the tracks, black iron rods moving up and down repeatedly, pushing it forward. Billowing white steam spewed from several short thick "horns" on top, raising the surrounding air temperature, exuding an intimidating aura.
Philip watched the approaching steel monster, his body rigid, feeling both eerie and shocked.
"Woo woo! Crunch... crunch... crunch... crunch!"
Amidst the continuous whistle, the steel monster began to decelerate, eventually stopping bit by bit, with a middle gray segment halted in front of Philip’s group.
With a "clatter," this segment slid open from the middle like a door. A man appeared at the opening, tall and slim, wearing an officer’s uniform similar to Norton’s, and beckoned them, saying: "Stop standing there, get on."
Philip’s group: "..." They exchanged glances, with no one daring to move.
What was this for? Were they to be directly fed to this strange steel monster?
They wouldn’t fall for that!
Officer Norton shouted at this moment: "Stop wasting my time, hurry up and get in, what are you afraid of, I’ll go in with you, come on! Come on!"
Under the stern urging, someone hesitated but eventually took action.
It was Little Jimmy.
Little Jimmy took a couple of running steps, leaping lightly, landing directly inside the opening on the steel monster, curiously looking around.
Philip couldn’t help but panic, rushing forward without much thought, prepared to protect his son at all costs if there was danger.
Encouraged by this move, the others, urged by Norton, began jumping into the "belly" of the steel monster one by one.
Officer Norton was the last, truly not lying, following them into the steel monster’s body. Once inside, he showed no hint of fear but rather casually began chatting with the tall, slim officer who had beckoned them earlier.
"Sam, didn’t expect it to be you receiving the train this time."
"Norton, I didn’t expect it would be you sending it. Wasn’t it said you were transferred to City 11?"
"Yeah, but I don’t report until next month, going to City 11 to be a supervisor of some small department."
"Not bad! Congratulations then!"
"Congratulate what." Norton shook his head, "They say it’s a promotion, but it’s actually almost like a demotion. City 11, as you know, doesn’t get much attention from above, probably has the worst conditions of all the cities. Not to mention other things, just the Magic Steam Locomotive there is the most primitive Mark One, with a tri-cold quad-hot design, slow as hell, poor shock absorption, and the magic engine often explodes. I’m really afraid one day it’ll blow me up."
"Actually, the difference isn’t that big now. The Mark Three we’re on now is an old model too. The six-cold eight-hot design doesn’t fundamentally change from tri-cold quad-hot, just a bit faster and better shock absorption, slightly safer magic engine. But if something goes wrong, it’s a big deal, nowhere near the new Mark Four." The officer named Sam said.
After a pause, Sam continued, "Oh, I heard from others that there’s a completely new Magic Locomotive, the Cruiser Type, under development, with significant improvements. It’s fast, powerful, and safe, just not sure if we’ll get to see it."
"Anyway, you’ll definitely have a better chance of seeing it than I will." Norton responded.
"Hard to say." Sam disagreed, "If you do well in City 11, make some achievements, earn a ’Richard Gold Leaf Third Class Medal,’ get transferred to Shalin, then what wouldn’t you see? Maybe even the ’Storm Bird’ or ’Iron Winged Bird’."
"You’re really dreaming, it’s hard enough to get a ’Richard Gold Leaf Third Class Medal,’ let alone a ’Richard Silver Leaf First-Class Medal’."
"Have a bit of confidence, where there’s a will, there’s a way."
"..."
...
Following this, Officer Norton and Sam continued their conversation on various topics, most of which Philip didn’t understand.
Even if he did understand, he had no heart to think deeply, still under the impact of fear, shock, curiosity, and confusion about the steel monster.
He wasn’t inherently courageous, charging in only because he had to protect his son. Initially, he thought inside would be very frightening, very bloody, perhaps with lots of remains digested by the steel monster, but there was none of that.
Inside the steel monster’s body, not overly clean but definitely not dirty either.
Inside, it felt like a simple iron-shelled room, with strip lights projecting beams from the ceiling—just like a room in the stone building used for accommodation.
Beyond that, there were many crisscrossed iron rods with handles, purpose unknown.
The steel walls had a row of transparent windows, edged with brown rust spots possibly due to leakage, with clusters of black stains on the floor.
Other than that, there was nothing else, and frankly, this place was much better than his house in Bright Town.
Is this really inside the steel monster’s belly?
If the steel monster’s belly was like this, how did it run?
Just as he thought this, Philip felt the steel monster, now silent, shudder and begin to roar again.
"Crunch, crunch, crunch... woo woo!"
The steel monster began moving from a still state, not forward, but backward.
Initially slow, it gradually accelerated, then accelerated again. Driven by some unknown force, the steel monster, just as it came, rushed back into the tunnel, speeding towards the other end of the tunnel.
...
