Apocalypse: I Built the Infinite Train-Chapter 341: Shinji Mochizuki

“Crimson Skeletal Horror?”

“No! They're human!”

The short-haired woman flipped mid-air, activating micro-thrusters embedded in her Power Armor arms and legs. With a sharp pivot, she shot straight toward Grace, who was on the verge of being buried in debris.

“I’ll handle this. Ryunosuke, stop them!” she shouted.

“Got it,” the hooded man responded in a deep voice. As he turned mid-air, he raised both hands. Instantly, bricks, metal, cars, and lampposts on the surrounding streets began to float en masse, spinning in the air into various sharp-edged forms that hovered defensively before him—a menacing display of power.

“Don’t let your guard down. I’m sensing a strong spike in Soul Wave Value!” said the girl named Shiori, standing in the center. She extended both arms, sending out two soft green waves of energy that linked to Takahashi Ryunosuke and Amano Ran, boosting their aura. It even seemed to push back the Dark Invasion itself.

Zzzip zzzip.

Ryunosuke suddenly felt an intense, unfamiliar energy speeding in from a distant street. His eyes sharpened, and the red katana at his waist flew from its sheath, hovering at his side.

Suddenly, from high above, a bright red flash flared into existence. What started as a pinpoint grew into a colossal fireball over 100 meters wide, illuminating the sky above and barreling toward Ryunosuke like a meteor.

“Fire Fist!”

“A Fire Ability?” Ryunosuke thrust his arms forward, launching all the sharp projectiles he controlled, and simultaneously summoned an invisible shockwave upward.

BOOM!

The flames collided with the shockwave mid-air, exploding in a blinding flare. Heat waves roared across the plaza below.

Ryunosuke frowned as he felt the immense impact—this fire was stronger than expected. Still, his projectiles, shielded by his control force, didn’t melt. They burst through the fireball and shot toward the airborne attacker.

Before he could confirm a hit, Ryunosuke sensed he’d been locked on by something.

A muffled sniper shot cracked out. The steel and stone slabs shielding Ryunosuke’s front combined into a wall—but the 12.7mm armor-piercing round blasted through instantly, inches from his face.

Ryunosuke’s eyes glowed with Ability Energy as he used immense force to halt the now-deformed bullet mere centimeters from his forehead.

Meanwhile, behind him, two female figures appeared—one charging at Ryunosuke, the other toward the girl named Shiori. ƒrēenovelkiss.com

Ning Jing and Xiao Qing!

“Shun, support Shiori!” Ran barked coldly as she spun to face the incoming Ning Jing. Her punch met Ning Jing’s head-on.

BOOM! A shockwave erupted. The ground under Ran’s feet collapsed, spraying chunks of debris. Shocked by the sheer power of her opponent, she realized she would’ve been knocked back if not for her special Power Armor—especially the electromagnetically charged joints. Meanwhile, Ning Jing’s punch had shattered the armor on her own gauntlet—it was pure brute strength. Ran hadn’t expected anyone to overpower her.

On the other side, Xiao Qing swung in on a grappling hook toward Shiori, only for a silver-black Heavy Mecha to burst from the ground, swinging a High-Frequency Electric Axe straight at her.

The mecha stood over two meters tall, clad in thick armor, its whole frame radiating power.

Xiao Qing parried with her blade. Her Gunblade fired twice, forcing the mecha to back off, but as it charged again to grab her, a dark red laser beam shot from Xiao Qing’s side, hitting the mecha square in the chest. It generated a low-frequency shockwave, stalling the machine briefly. It twisted aside, narrowly avoiding the searing red beam that scorched across its arm.

Elsewhere, Amano Ran, having broken free from Ryunosuke’s field control, prepared to strike Hu Lushou. But before she could move, her radar picked up an anomaly in the shadows ahead.

WHAM!

Another Heavy Mecha exploded from the darkness, seizing her head and ramming her into a building wall, dragging her along and spraying sparks.

But Ryuu Ai wasn’t harmed at all. In mid-crash, she twisted at the waist, locking her legs around the mecha’s arm, gripping tight—and CRACK!—snapped the joint bearing in its left arm.

The mecha reacted instantly, activating a Low-Voltage Electric Hammer from its shoulder.

ZAP!

Blue sparks exploded as Ryuu Ai was blasted away.

Nearby, under a balcony, a lanky young man in a Holo-Control Rig operated two Heavy Mechs. A third, bulkier mecha stood idle beside him.

“D*mn… they’re good,” he muttered, eyes sharp. “Definitely Crimson World level.”

Back at the battlefield, Amano Ran realized the tide was turning. She disengaged from Ning Jing, spun around, and aimed to eliminate Grace with the heavy mecha and retreat immediately.

“Shun, protect Shiori. I’ll deal with that AI first!”

Oddly, everyone—including Ran—had targeted Grace as their main objective. She dodged Ning Jing’s punch and burst forward alongside the Heavy Mech, executing a pincer attack.

But just then—WHAM!—a golden blur slammed in.

Qian Dele!

He had waited for an opening to strike decisively—but the masked woman reacted fast, raising an arm mid-air to block his kick. She flipped back and immediately flung a short blade at his face.

Qian Dele stood still, calmly watching the slow-motion trajectory of the blade with intrigue.

The woman had excellent reflexes and physique. To block his kick with one hand showed incredible strength and high-grade Power Armor.

Qian Dele tilted his head slightly, watching the blade glide past his face.

“A tanto?”

Also called a Kodachi, a weapon from Nihon Continent—and Silent City and the Moonlight Consortium originated from there.

“These people… might be from Silent City!”

Qian Dele immediately broadcasted the observation.

At that moment, the short-haired woman dashed toward him in a blur.

Qian Dele tried to retreat, but the ground beneath him twisted like a living thing—Psychic Ability—grabbing his feet.

Their teamwork was flawless. In seconds, he was caught in a kill zone.

As her punch neared his face, her pupils suddenly contracted—she forcibly recoiled backward.

WHISH!

An invisible sonic blade tore past Qian Dele’s face, slicing a clean groove through a row of cars behind him.

Ran instantly looked up—and spotted a woman in magenta Power Armor standing on a distant rooftop. The stealthy blade attack made her tense up. She locked onto Monica.

Back to Ryunosuke—seeing there was a sniper, he raised a wall of concrete and metal. But when he spotted Monica and Chen Sixuan, his eyes narrowed.

He raised both hands and unleashed a massive shockwave, aiming to blow them and the battlefield away.

BOOM!

The blast spread like a radiation wave across the plaza—but just as it was about to hit surrounding buildings, it stalled.

KIKI hovered mid-air above him, eyes glowing. She clenched her fists—and the giant shockwave was forcibly compressed and sent back!

Lu Xingchen flew up beside her, a fireball in one hand, but didn’t attack—he was waiting.

“So many Ability Users...” muttered the young man from earlier on a balcony, still operating his mechs.

“Even Ryunosuke is being suppressed. Shinji, something’s wrong.”

“You’re being targeted,” said a small mecha beside him.

“Hmm?”

ALERT: Unknown target approaching

The youth—Shun—saw his Guardian Mech blaring warnings. But the mech stood frozen.

ALERT: Motion module offline. Weapon systems offline...

Shun’s face changed. He hit a button on his chest, and a Nano-Light Power Armor wrapped around him instantly.

But before he could warn his team—WHIRRR—dozens of spherical drones descended from the sky. Their eye-like Pulse Emitters locked onto him.

“Oh, sh*t…” he muttered.

High above, Lin Xian stood on a rooftop in Black Hawk Armor, one hand controlling the mech's power core, the other commanding a Thunder Falcon Drone, eyes razor-sharp.

Shun raised his hands slowly. “You’re not shooting me… let me guess—”

“No need to guess, Shun.”

A voice came from the mecha Lin Xian was controlling—clear and youthful, but with calm maturity.

“They’re not from Crimson World. Didn’t you notice your ACS Core is still online, but your systems are being overridden? Wow, the person behind you must be Lin Xian. Hello, Lin Xian. This is probably a misunderstanding. Nobody’s hurt, right? Maybe we could talk—have some tea. Or coffee. Though I don’t really like black coffee…”

Lin Xian looked at the broadcasting mecha.

“Moonlight Shinji?”

“Yes, that’s me. Nice to meet you~ I’ve heard about you—fascinating abilities. Mechanical Ability, amazing! A few hours ago, we noticed that Crimson AI Robot. My guys didn’t know it was yours. So... sorry for the mess.”

“Honestly, I didn’t expect to meet you like this. Oh, by the way, your merchant buddy Hu told me a lot about you… though I don’t care much for liars.”

Lin Xian’s brows furrowed. Shinji was clearly speaking remotely via data transmission. What surprised him more—Hu Lushou had been rescued by Moonlight Shinji.

“All units, stand down.”

Lin Xian gave the order through comms.

At once, both sides halted. The battle zone quieted. Xiao Qing, Grace, Qian Dele, Ning Jing all backed off. Amano Ran and two Heavy Mechs guarded Shiori, wary.

The shockwave over the plaza dispersed. Ryunosuke slowly landed, eyes sharp as he stared at KIKI and Lu Xingchen—tension crackling in the air between them.

Monica, Chen Sixuan, and A Bai walked out from the sidelines.

“KIKI… doesn’t this guy’s power seem like yours?” Chen Sixuan asked softly.

“Kinda…” KIKI frowned. His remote manipulation felt eerily similar to hers.

Ran’s gaze flickered. Shiori looked awestruck—she hadn’t expected the other side to match Ryunosuke’s strength.

Then, both Heavy Mechs broadcasted Shinji’s voice.

“Hmm~ not quite. Ryunosuke’s power is inorganic control within a field. Miss KIKI’s is telekinetic. Similar, but not the same. Anyway, it’s irrelevant now. That noise probably alerted the Crimson Skeletal Horrors. I suggest you all return. Oh, and Shiori—you weren’t marked by the Dark Invasion, were you?”

“N-No...” Shiori glanced at the powerful strangers and answered quietly.

“Good. Bring them back. We probably have bigger problems in common,” Shinji added, “assuming they’re willing.”

Lin Xian landed via drone, and Shun approached the plaza with his mecha.

“Captain Lin,” Ning Jing said through comms, “They’re from Silent City. The guy controlling the mechs is Senju Shun. We met him during the Longshan No.1 upgrade—he’s the head of tech research there.”

Not just Ning Jing—others were still processing what happened. After the hive vanished, Grace had been attacked, and when her scans showed the attackers were human, Lin Xian had led a team to respond.

Given their strength, the recon team had assumed they were another Crimson World faction.

“Lin Xian,” Chen Sixuan looked at him, seeking his thoughts.

Lin Xian took a deep breath. Seeing Silent City's people made him rethink their plan.

“Let’s go. Boss Hu was saved by them.”

“Silent City?”

“No... somewhere else.”

In Silent City, Senju Shun led the squad. Lin Xian noticed the city had relay systems and surveillance gear—clearly Moonlight Shinji’s work.

Shun glanced at everyone. “Time’s short. I suggest we move before the Crimson Skeletal Horrors catch wind of us.”

Then he turned to Shiori. “Shiori, give them a sweep.”

Shiori nodded and stepped forward. “My... my Ability can purge some of the Dark Invasion from you. It’ll restore some stamina. Don’t misunderstand.”

The timid girl finished speaking and reached out her hand. A soft green glow extended from her like a tendril, sweeping across Lin Xian and the others in an instant.

In that moment, a familiar sensation surged through them. The chilling, twisted fear that had been clinging to Lin Xian’s body vanished instantly, leaving his spirit reinvigorated. He immediately recognized it—wasn’t this the effect of the Eerie Cube?

It even seemed to carry a hint of Hell’s Black Chrysanthemum’s energy restoration. It was basically a divine support skill!

No wonder the girl had been able to simultaneously sustain Amano Kin and Ryunosuke during their clash with KIKI and the others. Turned out she was a powerful support in the dark.

In the Abyss Zone, everyone—KIKI, Fire Bro, Qian Dele, Monica—had their abilities partially suppressed. It was mainly due to the mental effort needed to resist the dark invasion, to keep their minds intact.

At that moment, everyone on Lin Xian’s team looked visibly stunned.

“An ability that dispels dark invasion…?” Ning Jing couldn’t help but comment.

“Can it remove a Dark Mark too?” someone asked.

“That… I can’t,” Shiori said quietly.

At that point, Chisoku Jun led his squad away.

Soon, Lin Xian and his group followed Jun, swiftly heading toward the southern district of the city. They passed through a residential area and entered an underground parking structure.

“You’re hiding in a basement?” KIKI asked, frowning at the odd route they were taking.

“Not exactly,” Jun replied calmly. “It’s a bit… bigger than that.”

Just then, the group turned sharply off the parking level into a passage leading toward a mountain tunnel. They dashed forward at full speed, and when they glanced back again, they had already exited Baicheng, sprinting down a winding mountain road cloaked in mist. Thanks to their powered suits, they moved swiftly, reaching the base of a mountain in no time.

There, an old and massive underground nuclear bunker door stood before them.

Lin Xian raised his eyebrows at the sight. Silent City had shut down in the eastern mountain range—but Shinji Mochizuki was hiding in a nuclear facility beneath the western hills? What kind of setup was this?

“Old Baicheng Nuclear Engineering Site…”

“You’re all holed up here?” KIKI asked in surprise. “Then what about Silent City?”

“Temporarily,” Amano Kin replied. “You’ll understand everything soon.”

Lin Xian didn’t respond. Judging by the distance, the place was close enough to Baicheng to drive to. It looked like Hu Lushou, Lu Zhao, and the rest had escaped here by vehicle.

At that moment, Chisoku Jun commanded two heavy mechs to pry open the corroded, decaying bunker doors. As their floodlights pierced through the darkness, the interior appeared damp and ruined—eerie, even. Then Jun tapped a sequence into the forearm computer on his power armor. What happened next was surreal.

A holographic veil shimmered and vanished. The filthy cave and piled-up debris disappeared with it, revealing a pristine, steel-gray blast door beneath.

The door split open from the middle, revealing a brightly lit corridor within.

“Time’s short,” Jun said, stepping inside.

As Lin Xian and the others followed him through, they saw that the corridor had multiple levels of protection. Beyond the decaying entrance, there were at least three additional isolation zones of varying types. After the final gate, a deep tunnel stretched several hundred meters into the mountain. The lighting was bright, the walls clean—clearly a newly renovated passage.

Past the tunnel was a sloping main shaft. After entering the underground fortress, Jun removed his helmet and let out a breath.

“This place was originally a large underground nuclear facility. It’s over 80 years old. We’ve done a bit of modification. It’s now our temporary shelter.”

“A bit of modification?” Lin Xian asked skeptically.

As they stepped into the chamber beyond the tunnel, they were stunned. A towering hall greeted them, with a silver-white alloy dome dozens of meters high. Blue-tinged holograms above simulated blue skies and white clouds.

Hundreds of drones hovered in the air—construction bots, transport drones, 3D-printing fabricators, and maintenance units—all operating with seamless coordination.

Some drones were repairing the underground fortress’s infrastructure. Others were maintaining the life-support systems. The mountain’s core had been hollowed out into a massive vertical complex, with multiple levels descending down. Construction drones were printing racks on-the-fly, spraying molten metal that hardened in seconds—no sparks, no noise, just a soft mechanical hum of “growing” steel.

Below the first level, temporary living zones had been built. Looking over the railing, Lin Xian could see many people moving about.

“You can’t possibly block dark invasion even in a place like this,” Monica said, arms crossed behind Lin Xian. “Especially in the Abyss. Building this shelter, even with drones, must have taken considerable time.”

Indeed, Lin Xian’s group could tell most of the facility was freshly modified. Yet such a massive project could only be possible thanks to the sheer number and precision of the drones.

Still, Lin Xian was impressed. The conditions here were clearly better than outside. Not quite on par with the Infinite Train’s Cube-protected camp, but they definitely had some technology that mitigated the dark invasion’s effects.

Thinking of this, Lin Xian opened the faceplate of his Black Hawk Armor and asked Jun:

“Your tens of thousands of people from Silent City are all here?”

Jun disengaged his nano-flex armor, revealing a youthful face framed by slightly messy black curls. He shrugged at Lin Xian.

“Right now, just a few hundred. Add the newcomers from yesterday and it’s a little over a thousand.”

“What?!” Ning Jing exclaimed. “Only a few hundred out of tens of thousands?”

“Not exactly,” Jun said, a little helpless. “Before we got pulled in, Shinji launched Escape Protocol No. 2. Most of Silent City’s residents evacuated and are now somewhere around Luling. But our main city… got stuck here for certain reasons.”

He turned to Lin Xian. “You guys ended up here because of the lionfish colossus too, right?”

Lin Xian nodded. “Time’s tight. Can we exchange intel quickly?”

“Captain Lin!?”

A familiar voice rang out. Lin Xian turned and spotted Hu Lushou walking toward them with a group. His eyes widened in disbelief, then he rubbed his face, as if confirming it wasn’t a dream, and rushed over excitedly.

“I wasn’t seeing things—it's really you! Damn, I thought you all had escaped. Can’t believe you got pulled in too!”

Behind him, Lu Zhao, Xie Guan, and Sun followed close.

“Old Hu, weren’t you just cursing yesterday, blaming the train crew for running too fast? And now this?” Lu Zhao teased.

Hu Lushou’s face paled. He shot Lu Zhao a glare and stammered, “Aiyo, how could I have meant it like that? I was praying you all made it out—really!”

Then he turned back to Lin Xian, eyes pleading. “Captain Lin, it’s so good to see you. With you here, I know we can all work together and find a way out of this hellhole.”

Lin Xian scanned their group. They didn’t seem any better off than his own—filthy, blood-stained, many missing. From the Windrunners Convoy they rescued back in Luobu, only a few remained. The father-daughter pair was gone.

Jun looked back and shrugged. “Guess now I know how you all got pulled in—must’ve been the Abyss Anchor Surge triggered by the lionfish colossus, right?”

“Right,” Lin Xian replied.

“How long have you been here?” he asked.

Jun caught the underlying question and responded, “Not long. About two months. Probably doesn’t match your sense of time.”

“We had escape chances too,” he added. “But they came with a huge cost.”

“Silent City?” Lin Xian guessed.

“Smart.” Jun nodded. “We’re not ready to abandon our city. And there are... other reasons.”

Just then, Jun paused, listening to something in his earpiece, then smiled wryly.

“I’ll take you straight to Shinji. He’ll explain everything. He’s quite interested in you.”

“Captain Lin, I’ll be waiting for your good news,” Hu Lushou said with a hopeful look. “We’re still brothers in this mess.”

Lin Xian nodded. “We all want the same thing—escape.”

“Aiyo, yes!” Hu Lushou nodded furiously.

Jun led Lin Xian’s group into an elevator, taking them to the lowest level. There, aside from the drones, the area was empty.

At the end of a well-lit corridor stood a large cooling chamber door. As they approached, the door opened automatically.

Inside was a spacious, self-contained room that looked like a command center. Three walls were covered in holographic displays. Dozens of thick black cables snaked toward a central cylindrical machine.

Standing in front of the device was a young-looking man with a smile on his face, hands clasped behind his back.

Several elegant female humanoid robots stood nearby, offering trays with steaming hot tea.

Lin Xian stared in disbelief. The man looked only sixteen or seventeen—fair-skinned, dressed in a simple deep-blue robe resembling a Taoist uniform, hair tied in a small bun.

Mochizuki Shinji squinted at him with a friendly smile.

“Ah, you must be Lin Xian. In my thought index, your name ranks ninth in search relevance. Sorry, I couldn’t help being curious.”

“There’s a saying, isn’t there? ‘Fellow exiles on the edge of the world—why must we have met before to share the same fate?’ I didn’t expect we’d meet like this. Quite the coincidence. Or perhaps, mathematically, there are... other variables involved.”

“You’re Mochizuki Shinji?!” KIKI exclaimed. “Weren’t you… over fifty?!”

Though few had seen this former prodigy in person, his name had made waves long before KIKI was born. There was no way he could be that young now.

“He’s not human,” Lin Xian murmured.

Looking into Shinji’s eyes, he noticed the faint glint of nano-optics adjusting focus. His Mechanical Heart scanned the figure and confirmed: just like Grace, this was an android.

“A robot?” the group gasped.

Qian Dele chimed in. “They always said Shinji led the Digital Consciousness Project. Looks like he really uploaded himself.”

“Not entirely correct,” Shinji said, gesturing to the massive cylinder behind him. “Strictly speaking, this is my brain—or part of it.”

He pointed at Grace behind Lin Xian.

“The difference between me and the Crimson AI is that I possess a fully independent personality. She’s still not quite there. If we wanted to elevate Crimson No. 3 to true human-level consciousness, we’d need a full integration with a digitized mind.”

“Alright~” Shinji smiled and gestured. “Have some tea. Out of courtesy, I’ll let Jun explain the earlier misunderstanding. Jun?”

Jun looked to Lin Xian. “We’ve been monitoring the lionfish colossus and the Crimson Skeletal Horror in Baicheng. A few hours ago, we detected your robot. We dispatched a team to observe. Then she reappeared after the Internal Tide, so we acted. We thought she was a Crimson World unit. A misunderstanding.”

Shinji added, “But the fact that you managed to capture a Crimson AI—that’s incredible. These machines are high-level assets. Quantum processors of that caliber are rare in today’s world.”

“Internal Tide? What does that mean?” Lin Xian asked, catching onto a key term.

“It’s the phenomenon you witnessed,” Shinji said. “Here, the Internal Tide rises every 30 minutes, recedes after 60. After the tide rises, you’ll see the Eerie Entities. If you don’t carry a Dark Mark, you’ll have a 60-minute safety window post-tide.”

Ning Jing frowned. “Wait, aren’t those monsters only active in darkness?”

“Excellent question,” Shinji nodded. “It comes down to two things: one, what darkness means to the monsters. Two, what it means to us.”

He raised his hand and summoned a massive holographic projection in midair.

Shinji’s youthful voice carried a rapid, almost overly talkative rhythm as he explained, “For humans, darkness is about sight, about temperature. But to these creatures—it’s not the same. That’s where a lot of people misunderstand Eerie Entities. They think these things only come out when it’s dark. But clearly, they don’t just vanish when you shine a flashlight at them.”

The holographic projection displayed a simulation of the Abyss Zone—a vast vortex structure overlaid atop Blue Planet. Under Shinji’s guiding fingers, the swirling model expanded and distorted.

“Most people take the term dark tide too literally. But tides aren’t waves. Think of it more like a sheet of elastic fabric. Or the surface of a balloon. When the tide rises, that fabric stretches—its area increases. When it falls, it shrinks. That ‘fabric’ is the zone in which these entities can exist—or at least, overlap with our world.”

“That zone,” he added, “well, to put it more academically: it’s a dimension.”

He folded his hands back into his wide sleeves. The image of a Taoist acolyte lecturing about dimensional theory was both surreal and oddly fitting.

“You must’ve noticed the time dilation here, right?” he went on. “That’s because when you’re standing on that stretched ‘fabric,’ time slows down.”

Lin Xian’s eyes narrowed. Thirty minutes of tidal rise... it suddenly clicked. If what Shinji said was correct, then back when the Silver Dragon Tenfold Thorn exploded, not only did it clear the Dark Mark, but it also just happened to occur during tidal fall. That timing created a tiny window of safety—an accidental moment of balance in the chaos.

“So,” Lin Xian asked directly, “you’re hiding down here because you’re trying to find a way to move Silent City, right?”

Shinji smiled, casting him a meaningful glance. “I have direct control over Silent City. I could move it at any time—if it weren’t for a few… complications.”

“What kind of complications?” Lin Xian pressed.

“First issue: the city’s nuclear power core has been targeted by an Abyssal Behemoth. If we attempt activation, there's a 99% chance it’ll be destroyed instantly. However, some time ago, that creature shifted toward Xilan City. From our current observations, the danger may have lessened.”

That comment sent a chill through everyone present.

They immediately thought of the Battle of Xilan City—when the Black Thorn in the Clouds, a scout-class monster, had attempted to lure a far more terrifying entity to that location. Now, with Shinji’s intel, it all started to make sense.

“An Abyssal Behemoth… S-class?” someone asked nervously.

“No,” Jun said quietly. “From what we’ve seen, this is undoubtedly the apex predator of Abyss Zone No. 5. Shinji has named creatures like this…”

“Abyss Fiends,” Shinji finished for him.

“What’s the second problem?” KIKI jumped in.

Shinji’s gaze swept over the group, narrowing slightly.

“That… brings us to the real reason we’re all standing here together,” he said. “Because, based on my calculations, there is something out there—something real—”

He paused.

“—that does not want us to leave.”

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