[Current Mechanical Heart Level: LV.1 210/500] [Tip: upgrading the Mechanical Heart grants Special Skills rewards. Reaching LV3, LV6, and LV9 grants Mysterious Awakening.] [Base Attributes] [Strength: LV1 27/50] [Speed: LV1 8/50] [Defense: LV0 18/30] [Current Basic Skills] [Mechanical Devour LV.1 278/300] [Mechanical Manufacturing LV.1 112/300] [Mechanical Scan (Passive)] [Mechanical Repair (Passive)] [Mechanical Operation (Passive)] [Special Skills] [Wind Cannon LV.1 12/100]
"Wait. I used Wind Cannon on that white monster twice. How did it go up so much?"
Lin Xian stared at Wind Cannon's proficiency, now at 12, and began to question everything.
He had thought each use would add one point. He hadn't expected such a sudden leap.
Could a life-or-death situation make me master a skill much faster?
The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
Meanwhile, devouring a small truck had brought him enormous gains: 30 Mechanical Origin Points, 10 points of devouring proficiency, and even 12 attribute points!
He had made a killing.
Damn. Give me a parking lot, and I'll work myself to the bone without stopping for a breath...
Lin Xian seethed inwardly.
But he knew it was only wishful thinking.
After what had happened, he could think of no reason he had survived except sheer luck.
That monster must have stood beside him for a while. He had heard something before he saw it.
Perhaps it hadn't attacked immediately because he had stayed focused and made no noise.
Otherwise, he would already have been skewered.
High risk, high reward, indeed.
It took Lin Xian at least an hour and a half to devour one vehicle. He had to stay focused and expend a great deal of energy, while the Dark Tide left Jiang City with less than four hours of daylight each day.
He didn't have the time or the opportunities to devour vehicles at his leisure. Once night fell, who knew what horrors might emerge?
What if I hauled a freight carriage along and devoured it slowly at night...? The idea struck him.
But he dismissed it almost at once.
No... Damn it, that won't work!
An empty freight carriage is just an iron frame. It wouldn't give me much, unless I hauled a locomotive or something...
But devouring a locomotive weighing hundreds of tons would take forever. Would I even have the stamina?
Lin Xian had come up with plenty of ideas over the past few months. Only when he tried to put them into practice did he realize things weren't so simple.
15:00
The sky suddenly brightened, bringing Jiang City a brief dawn.
The whole city lay silent. From the intercity line, Lin Xian looked northwest. The sky there remained gray-black, as though a vast storm had swallowed it.
He knew that way lay Lu City and Dingzhou, the first areas to go silent on Apocalypse Day.
They were near the center of Star Abyss No. 3!
Compared with the people there, even those in ruined Jiang City could be considered lucky. At least its residents had been given time to flee, and many survivors still clung to life.
Lin Xian remembered visiting Lu City. Its rice noodles and barbecue had been so distinctive that he had wanted to stay longer.
Yet those traces of human culture had turned to ash in an instant when the apocalypse came.
Light slipped through a gap in the window armor and fell across Chen Sixuan's face. She slowly opened her eyes, saw Lin Xian welding a bed frame, and sat up with a start. Guilt filled her face as she apologized.
"I'm sorry, Lin Xian... Did I oversleep?"
"It's fine," Lin Xian said without looking back. "You weren't doing well, and last night was unusual. That thing might come back, so I didn't wake you."
Even in daylight, the thought still chilled him.
His Steel Fortress might not withstand that White Giant Monster. Waking Chen Sixuan to keep watch would have done no good.
What mattered now was strengthening Infinite's defenses and improving his own abilities as quickly as possible.
"You... stayed up all night?"
Lin Xian finished welding the steel bed frame, stood, and handed Chen Sixuan a bottle of water. "We'll pass Jiang City's freight loading yard today. Things could get difficult there, so be prepared."
"Okay." Still full of guilt, Chen Sixuan nodded quickly. "I'll stay with you all day."
"No. There's something else I need your help with."
Lin Xian took her to the Cockpit. He had already started Infinite, and it was moving forward slowly. As they traveled, he said, "This main line should join the Jiangyu Line without needing to change tracks. If we get the chance, I plan to tow an electric locomotive today. I'll have to get off ahead of time to operate the track switch. When we couple the carriages, I'll need you to handle the coupling controls."
He pointed to several buttons and patiently walked Chen Sixuan through them.
"This releases the coupling. This aligns and couples the cars. This connects the passageway. And this tests the connections..."
The terminology wasn't entirely unfamiliar to Chen Sixuan. Her father had taught her about railways since childhood, so she knew the procedure for connecting train carriages. But hearing about it and doing it herself were two different things.
She listened intently, afraid of missing even the smallest detail.
Coupling carriages was complicated for Lin Xian too. The main problem was that he couldn't use the Mechanical Heart to drive two carriages at once, and he had to get off to operate the track switch himself.
But once he got off, Infinite would lose its power source. His only option was to "push" it forward from outside, while the other locomotive's passageway connection and buffer coupler remained released.
With no power available, he would have to run back and forth between them...
There was another complication. If he found a suitable electric locomotive, he would have to place it behind the gas-turbine locomotive and ahead of Carriage 1.
The front of Juying 03E already had a layer of armor, and the heavy gas-turbine locomotive was sturdier than an electric one. The electric locomotive could only go in second position.
All told, the job was complicated. Alone, Lin Xian would need at least a full day. With Chen Sixuan's help, he could save most of that time.
Clack-clack, clack-clack.
The train slowly left the city center and headed toward Jiang City Station.
As they emerged from the built-up area, the view opened up. Several main roads leading out of the city appeared before them.
In an instant, both Lin Xian's and Chen Sixuan's expressions changed.
Tens of thousands of cars stretched along those roads, blocking them completely. Blood, severed limbs, burning wrecks, and luggage and clothes scattered everywhere told the same story: the routes out of the city had become a living hell.
The darkness had passed, but not one living person remained in sight. Zombies wandered across the hills as far as the eye could see.
"Anyone who could run already has. The rest can't get out."
The roads out of the city were completely blocked. Unless someone had a tank or knew an obscure back road, their only way out was on foot.
But the Polar Night was drawing closer. With barely more than three hours of daylight left, how far could anyone walk?
And even if they made it out of the city, what would they do after dark?
Even Lin Xian, an Esper, had felt helpless against the monsters in the Black Night. Ordinary people had even less chance.
Chen Sixuan's eyes trembled as she took in the carnage on the roads. Then she looked at the clear railway ahead, more grateful than ever that she had met Lin Xian and boarded this train.
The slow-moving train also caught the attention of survivors hiding in homes beside the tracks. Eyes watched from the shadows, and whispers began to spread.
"A train? How is that possible?"
"Where did it come from...?"
"Stop! Stop!" someone shouted from a building.
"Take me with you! I have supplies...!"
"Keep your voice down! You'll draw the zombies here!"
"Shut the window, quick!"
Clang!
Someone even threw a stone at the train and screamed wildly.
"Stop! Let me on!"
"Will they... try to steal our things?" Chen Sixuan asked nervously when she heard the stone strike.
"They're not here to do us favors," Lin Xian replied evenly.
People fighting to the death over supplies was nothing unusual in an apocalypse.
Rule three of survival: better them than me.
"Student Lin, look..." Chen Sixuan had a lovely voice. Every time she spoke, Lin Xian felt more certain he had been right to save her. Having her with him on this flight for their lives lifted his spirits. She reminded him of school, of the way she had frowned behind her black-rimmed glasses while earnestly explaining vocabulary to him.
Hearing her, Lin Xian looked up. His pupils contracted.
It was snowing.
Beyond the train, snowflakes swirled down and struck the windows, melting into tiny drops of water.
"Is it winter already?" Chen Sixuan murmured, staring wide-eyed at the falling snow.
By the calendar, winter was still months away.
But Jiang City had grown colder over the past few days. Now, as snowflakes drifted down, Lin Xian felt a chill. His fears had not been unfounded.
Besides darkness, zombies, and uncanny horrors, another disaster was arriving with the changing climate.
A natural catastrophe!
If bitter cold and ice set in, the trouble would go far beyond discomfort. People would need more food to maintain their body heat, and the train would need more energy to run.
If temperatures plunged far enough, they would even need to install a heating system on board.
Damn it... Lin Xian cursed inwardly. He had planned to find a refrigerator to preserve their food. At this rate, it seemed he wouldn't need one...
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