Chapter 333 - 232: Hunt at the Train Station
Chapter 333: Chapter 232: Hunt at the Train Station
She had originally only wanted to get an easy gig as a streamer with Li Xiang. If she could become his lover, she would have been perfectly content. Who would have thought she would end up on the front lines of a battle.
However, since Zhao Xueqing hadn’t backed down, she certainly wouldn’t either. She had to bite the bullet and face it!
Xu Xuan and Zhang Youyou arrived as well, bringing eight walkie-talkies—one for each person—so they could easily stay in contact and exchange information.
Even though Zhang Youyou had told him beforehand, Xu Xuan couldn’t help but show his astonishment when he saw Luo Feifei in person, just like the other four before him.
Luo Feifei performed another Divination, confirming that the Exotic Beast was likely still hiding in this district. So, the group discussed their strategy and split up again.
However, the district was enormous, spanning over thirty kilometers in length and width. It was packed with high-rises, a dense network of pipes and conduits, and a large population. The creature was fast and small, like a little mouse, and Luo Feifei’s Insight Superpower could only cover a radius of a few dozen meters. Finding it was going to be extremely difficult.
As dusk fell, the team had found nothing.
Xu Xuan reported that the higher-ups were starting to have doubts, wondering if this was just fearmongering. Luckily, his grandfather had suppressed their concerns; otherwise, the special police would have been ordered to pull out.
Li Xiang pondered for a moment before asking, "Have there been any murders in this district, or even in all of Rongcheng, today?"
"None." Xu Xuan shook his head. A murder was a major event; it was impossible he wouldn’t know if one had occurred. The community grid monitors checked in on their respective group chats almost every two hours.
Although many dangerous animals had escaped from the Wildlife World park, with the help of special police and radar, plus assistance from civilian boar-hunting teams, most of them had been captured over the course of the day. There might still be a few stragglers, but rounding them all up was just a matter of time.
"Any power anomalies?" Li Xiang asked.
"None of those either," Xu Xuan replied.
Li Xiang said, "That Exotic Beast is smart, but it just hatched not long ago and desperately needs a large amount of energy. It definitely won’t be able to resist feeding again. How about this: can we cut the power tonight? A large-scale blackout, leaving the lights on in only one location. That little thing will certainly head straight for it."
"Alright, I’ll go report this. But it probably can’t be for too long. Any longer and we’ll have a public outcry on our hands."
Li Xiang nodded. The blackout couldn’t last too long, of course. In weather this cold, a city-wide power outage would cause people to riot.
Fortunately, since it was late at night, most people could just hide under their covers and sleep. Enduring it for one night shouldn’t be a huge problem.
Li Xiang was actually under a lot of pressure. If they still couldn’t find it, they would have no choice but to give up for now. They would have to ignore it, wait for it to cause some trouble and reveal its location, and then make their move. But by then, it would likely have cost more than just one life.
Xu Xuan left and returned about an hour later. He reported that after some discussion, the higher-ups had decided to adopt Li Xiang’s suggestion. They would cut power to the entirety of Rongcheng, leaving only a single train station in the Southeast City District brightly lit.
However, certain essential facilities, like major hospitals, would use backup power in specific wards. The lights in other areas would be turned off so as not to be conspicuous.
It couldn’t be helped. A place like a hospital couldn’t go completely without power. Otherwise, many patients would likely die before they even caught the Exotic Beast.
The train station had already been evacuated. Many high-speed trains sat silently on the tracks, their services suspended due to the heavy snow.
Only a few of the old, green-skinned trains still roared back and forth on the tracks.
The more primitive something is, the more adaptable it tends to be.
The heavy snowfall, extreme low temperatures, frozen railway switches, and snow-covered tracks did affect the green-skinned trains to some extent. However, because they traveled at slower speeds, and thanks to the railway crews’ round-the-clock repair work, these issues had a minimal impact on their operation.
Additionally, these green-skinned trains used various types of power sources. Some, like the high-speed trains, were purely electric. Others ran on internal combustion engines, and some of the much older ones were steam-powered.
The most severe problem for high-speed trains, however, was "contact wire icing."
This is because high-speed trains are powered by electricity, not traditional diesel, drawn from the high-voltage lines above the cars. This network of high-voltage lines is called the "contact network" or "overhead contact system."
The train connects to these high-voltage lines to draw power via a structure called a "pantograph." The pantograph draws the high-voltage electricity into the train, where it is stepped down to power the motors.
If the "contact network ices over," the high-speed train’s ability to draw power is affected, forcing it to slow down or even suspend service entirely.
Although some automated de-icing devices have been developed for this kind of problem, such as using drones, they aren’t very effective. At present, the fastest and most direct method for dealing with large-scale contact wire icing is still manual removal. To put it simply: they hit it with poles.
The de-icing poles weigh about three kilograms and are roughly seven meters long. A single de-icing operation requires swinging the pole at least a hundred times.
Some veteran workers have become quite experienced and efficient at de-icing, but the work is extremely physically demanding.
For the "green-skinned trains" running on internal combustion or steam engines, the icing of the high-voltage grid had almost no effect.
Furthermore, the high-voltage power grid at the train station was one of the densest in the entire city. This was another reason the higher-ups chose the station as the hunting ground.
In addition, the train station was a wide, open space, giving them plenty of room to use their abilities. There were also relatively few residential areas nearby, which would minimize potential civilian casualties. It would also be easier to control the flow of information.
It had to be said that the railway staff, after receiving their orders, had arranged things very "thoughtfully." A high-speed train was parked at a platform, its pantograph—the "bow-shaped head" on top of the car—resting on the high-voltage line, where it was unceasingly "releasing lightning."