The next day, after resting through the night and having a simple meal in Anka Village's cafeteria, the group continued on their journey. As the carriages started moving, Anka Village gradually faded from view.
The farmland and plantations slowly came to an abrupt end, replaced once more by a desolate savanna. The straight gravel road laid across the wilderness looked particularly abrupt against the surrounding wasteland. It felt like building a subway station in the middle of farmland—lonely and isolated.
No one knew how long they had traveled when a long, narrow object suddenly appeared south of the road. From afar, it resembled a river lying along the horizon, stretching east to west. Yet it rose above the ground and was remarkably orderly, clearly some sort of man-made construction.
As the carriages continued forward, the group increasingly sensed that the object was anything but ordinary. It gradually drew closer to the road, coming nearer and nearer, and seemed to have no end.
When the structure finally ran parallel to the road, everyone could clearly see its full appearance. Two tracks of ballast, laid from broken stones on the ground, ran side by side, roughly a dozen meters wide. Thick, carefully shaped wooden beams lay across the stones, and on top of them were thick iron bars that appeared red with rust.
The group began discussing it. "What is that?"
Aryan explained, "That is a railway."
"A railway?"
"Yes, a form of transportation track. Like a road, it can transport people and goods, but what runs on it is not horse-drawn carriages—it is steam-spewing locomotives. The locomotives pull freight cars behind them. You only need to know that it is a kind of road."
"Mr. Aryan! Those iron bars on that thing called a railway—are they where its name comes from?