Unexpected Gains

In the darkness, Infinite sat quietly on the tracks in the valley like a mechanical behemoth.

Inside Carriage 3, Lin Xian's eyes glimmered as he activated Mechanical Repair to fix the rear panel and side armor. Chen Sixuan was not idle either, using a medical kit found from the Oasis convoy to disinfect the wounds on Lin Xian's hands and face.

"Hmm?"

At that moment, Lin Xian stared at the screen before him, his pupils filled with shock.

He had discovered that both his attributes and skill proficiency had risen dramatically!

Current Mechanical Heart Level: LV.1 310/500

Notice: Upgrading Mechanical Heart grants Special Skills rewards. Reaching Mechanical Heart Levels LV3, LV6, and LV9 grants a mysterious awakening.

Basic Attributes

Strength: LV1 47/50

Speed: LV1 16/50

Defense: LV0 28/30

Current Basic Skills

Mechanical Devour LV.2 8/500

Mechanical Manufacturing LV.1 112/300

Mechanical Scan (Passive)

Mechanical Repair (Passive)

Mechanical Operation (Passive)

Special Skills

Wind Cannon LV.1 66/100

Ice Shield LV1 18/100

"I didn't devour any machinery, so why did my attributes increase too?"

After the great battle, Wind Cannon had risen directly from 25 to 66. Ice Shield had gained 5 points during his previous fight with Liu Wei, but this time it had gained 12 points outright!

If those increases could be explained by fighting a powerful enemy and thus gaining more proficiency, then the changes to his basic attributes left Lin Xian completely baffled.

In the past, his attributes had always increased through the additional rewards from Mechanical Devour.

But this time, his Strength had risen by 14 points, his Speed by 7, and even his Defense by 8. It was practically equivalent to devouring four large freezers.

"What's going on?"

Lin Xian was both startled and delighted. He had never known attributes could increase this way.

"Then why didn't killing all those zombies raise them at all?"

For a moment, he sank into deep confusion.

"Could killing aberrations improve my abilities?"

After thinking it over, this seemed like the most plausible explanation. Lin Xian recalled the black centipede on Old Man Li, as well as the white humanoid giant monster at the furniture mall. He had not killed either of them. Only the Giant Insect from tonight, which had appeared three times in a row as far as he remembered, had finally been dealt with.

He let out a soft sigh. Whatever. Gains were better than none.

Judging by his current attributes, both his Strength and Defense were close to leveling up. That was the real good news.

Every increase in attribute level meant a tremendous boost in strength for him.

At this moment, Jiang City, hundreds of kilometers away, had entered Polar Night!

The city's streets and corners were filled with zombies and aberrations, and the radio broadcasts had long since fallen completely silent.

Above the High Altitude, within the enormous clouds, the Sky-Shading Floating Giant Corpse suddenly trembled. The clouds scattered around it as it blocked out the stars like a mountain range.

The zombies throughout the city suddenly became frantic. Monsters lurking in countless corners began to howl, while black blood mist was forcibly drawn from their bodies. A strange gravitational force gradually pulled at them, as though heaven and earth had been overturned. The zombies collapsed and died in unison like wheat felled by a tide, and the entire city was instantly shrouded in the aura of death!

Then, the continent-like Floating Giant Corpse slowly turned and began moving eastward!

After a night of rest and repairs, Lin Xian had restored most of the damage to Carriage 3. He had also patched the damaged areas with steel plating, so it was more or less repaired overall.

He was truly exhausted, and by the time he opened his eyes again, Chen Sixuan was waking him.

"Lin Xian, Lin Xian."

When he opened his eyes, Teacher Chen's beautiful eyes were brimming with excitement. "It's daylight!" She took Lin Xian's hand and pointed at his watch.

"Look."

Lin Xian's gaze focused as he felt the sunlight outside the window. The time on his watch read 16:26!

It was an hour and a half earlier than expected!

Lin Xian's eyes widened, and all drowsiness vanished at once. He asked Chen Sixuan, "How far did we travel last night?"

"At least 400 kilometers. If the mileage display isn't wrong, we're only about 50 kilometers from North Bay Town."

His gaze swept toward the sofa, where he saw that Kiki had already woken up. She was sitting there, smiling with narrowed eyes as she waved at him.

"You're better?" Lin Xian asked.

"Yep!" Kiki looked full of energy. "I slept, and I feel much better!"

Lin Xian frowned and suddenly looked at her. "I think I forgot to tie you up."

At Lin Xian's words, Kiki's little face immediately darkened. She said nervously, "Hey, I saved you yesterday! You still want to tie me up?!"

"Not tying you up is fine." Lin Xian said seriously, "Given what you did last night, I can let the food-stealing issue slide. But if you don't answer my questions truthfully now, I'll still throw you off."

Kiki frowned, looking at him with some fear as she stammered, "W-what questions?"

"You said your father is the boss of Linglong Group and a second-tier investor in the Dawn Project. Is that true?"

Kiki asked in confusion, "Didn't you say you weren't interested in that?"

"Answer my question!" Lin Xian said bluntly. He could tell this girl had a flighty personality, and there was no telling how much truth was in her words. On top of that, she now knew how to use her ability. If he didn't make her clarify her stance, he simply couldn't keep her around.

Seeing Lin Xian being so stern, Chen Sixuan beside them couldn't help growing nervous as well.

She thought to herself, How had I never noticed that Lin Xian was so calculating and decisive before? When he got stern, it felt like I wasn't the teacher—he was, and I was his student.

"It's true!" Kiki glared at Lin Xian irritably, thinking that this man was really far too fierce.

"Where were you going in the helicopter?"

"I'm not too sure about that. I only know we were heading toward Mount Daluo..." Kiki said.

Lin Xian felt that she didn't sound like she was lying, so he continued asking, "Then do you know why the helicopter crashed?"

Kiki's expression changed at those words. She shook her head. "I don't remember much. The helicopter suddenly lost control, and there was... something in the sky."

Lin Xian frowned.

Sure enough, there had to be something terrifying inside that enormous mass of clouds above Jiang City—something that made one's heart tremble.

That sense of oppression was even greater than the coming of night!

"Alright, one last question."

Lin Xian let out a long breath and studied Kiki. "You're young, yet you seem to know a great deal about technological equipment. Why is that?"

The moment Kiki heard him say it was the last question, her whole body tensed. But when she heard what he was asking, she relaxed instead. Her eyes lit up, and she answered with great confidence, "Then you've really underestimated me. I know every kind of cutting-edge information system you can think of. There's nowhere online I can't get into. Before all this, I could even get you the specs for the Star Army's most advanced ultra-heavy integrated armor. Ever heard of compound multi-aperture array wave-optical radar? Ever heard of the I-17 multi-petal Plasma Cannon, classified top secret and supposedly still in testing?... I know tons of fun stuff like that."

"Your Juying 03E heavy-duty gas turbine locomotive was built in 2028 and has been retired for nearly ten years. It can barely handle the turbulent surges and high-salinity gas storms on transoceanic rail lines anymore. Of course, you've only traveled less than a thousand kilometers, so you're still far from the ocean rail section. Food, water, air, information, defense, medical care—you could say that aside from the temporary lack of energy, everything else is still a blank slate. Am I wrong?"

Hearing this, Chen Sixuan was stunned. She could hardly imagine that this girl knew so much.

Please keep reading the new book!