Lin Xian looked at the girl arguing her case before him with great interest, then smiled faintly. "Listening to you, it sounds like you have a better idea?"
"Of course." Kiki looked brimming with confidence. "We're all in the same boat now. Even if I don't care about a bad guy like you, I still have to care about my own safety. Given the current situation, how are we supposed to get to Brocade Sea?"
"Let's hear it."
Kiki looked at him. "Your ability lets you control machinery, right?"
Lin Xian nodded. "That's right."
"Perfect." Kiki snapped her fingers and said confidently, "I know of a nearby military outpost close to North Bay City. There should be plenty of military supplies there. If we're lucky, you might even get a radar system or a sentry system. At the very least, we can find some weapons. That has to be better than you fighting bugs with a knife like last night, right?"
Chen Sixuan, standing beside them, looked utterly incredulous. "A military outpost? How do you know about something like that?"
"I know a lot more than that." Kiki looked smugly pleased with herself, then turned her eyes to Lin Xian. "So? Are we working together?"
Lin Xian looked at her and smiled faintly, coldness glinting in his eyes.
"I refuse."
"Huh?!" Kiki froze. Lin Xian had clearly seemed interested just moments ago, so why had his expression suddenly turned cold?
"Y-you... what do you mean?"
Lin Xian's cold Light Type settled on her as he spoke slowly.
"I don't like being controlled by others. If you think awakening an ability means you can stand against me, then we might as well decide life and death right now. That'll save us from suspecting each other all the way."
Kiki spoke with a guilty conscience. "Wh-who said I wanted to stand against you?"
Lin Xian smiled faintly. "I can take you to Brocade Sea. It's just a city along the Orbital Ring, after all. But I don't want any kind of deal with you, much less make a special trip for your sake. Right now, we survive one day at a time. If I let you come with us, it will be because I can trust you on the road and because you can bring value to this team. No one here is going to wait on you. Food is limited, and everyone needs to divide the work and cooperate. As for whether going to Brocade Sea will bring me any benefits, I couldn't care less. Do you understand?"
Others might have thought Lin Xian's thinking was terribly shortsighted, but in the apocalypse, the situation before one's eyes always mattered more than prospects for the future. He had to consider survival every day. He had to find a way out of the Polar Night. As for future benefits and promises, he had no intention of dwelling on them.
Thinking too much would only become a burden. Kiki had tried to negotiate with him using that idea, hoping to gain special status aboard the train and order him around. She had completely miscalculated.
Such expectations might make other survivors desperate to give everything they had, but Lin Xian was not that kind of person.
If someone was not sincere, then no matter how capable she was, she had no value to him.
Most importantly, he had to make Kiki feel a sense of danger. Otherwise, if he compromised with her, she would assume Lin Xian feared her ability.
Since that was the case, it was better to make things clear—enemy or friend.
Kiki watched Lin Xian smile at her. For some reason, that smile did not feel warm at all. On the contrary, it felt as if the moment she turned around, the smile would become a terrifying evil ghost, opening its fangs and swallowing her whole.
Faced with Lin Xian's forceful words, Kiki's Light Type began to flicker. Their eyes met, and after what seemed like a long silence, Kiki finally looked away. She hugged her legs on the sofa, resting her chin between her knees. Her smug manner was gone as she stared at him with big, kitten-like eyes and gave a soft, "Oh~."
"What do you mean, 'oh'?" Lin Xian's Light Type burned.
"Then I'll listen to you." Kiki poked her two index fingers together. Though she was still somewhat unconvinced, her tone was no longer so sharp. "Just don't let me go hungry..."
Lin Xian stood, took a can of fruit and a bag of snacks from the storage rack, and tossed them to her. His voice was icy. "I don't care what your identity was before, but now that you're on this train, you'd better not have any other ideas. Everyone only has one life. If you can't put me at ease, then no matter how useful you are, I'll throw you off."
Hearing that, Kiki's eyes shifted as she secretly looked at him, seemingly lost in thought. She opened the can and took a bite, remained quiet for a while, then spoke to break the silence.
"My name is Wen Qi."
"Is that name fake too?"
Kiki blushed. "Of course not. I've always been called Kiki. Wen Qi is my real name."
Lin Xian nodded. He understood the goodwill in her words, and his tone softened somewhat.
"I can take that as a way of showing your sincerity."
"Then can I make one request?" Kiki asked.
"Go ahead."
"Let me have Carriage 2."
Kiki did not want to spend every day sleeping in the same carriage as Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan. Although she was carefree by nature, she was still a sixteen-year-old girl and somewhat sensitive about matters between men and women.
"No problem." Lin Xian nodded. "But Carriage 2 is pretty empty. It'll need some preparation before anyone can live in it."
"I can figure that out myself."
"Hm?!" Lin Xian's Light Type narrowed, his tone turning unfriendly.
Kiki quickly changed her words and said obediently, "I mean, I'll do it with your permission. And of course, I'll need your help too~"
"That's more like it." Lin Xian was much more satisfied with Kiki's attitude now.
After a "friendly" negotiation, Lin Xian temporarily accepted the girl with the somewhat complicated background. After last night's battle, he had also recognized Kiki's value.
"Hey~"
Seeing Lin Xian about to leave, Kiki pouted and called after him. "Bad guy, do you still want to go to that military outpost?"
Lin Xian frowned. "There isn't a trap, is there?"
Kiki rolled her eyes at him, but her tone was unexpectedly gentle. "If you don't believe me, I can go with you."
Lin Xian's expression darkened slightly. He could tell that Kiki was being fairly sincere this time. At the same time, he reassessed his Infinite Train plan and felt there were still many shortcomings.
With his ability, he could only say that energy was no longer an immediate concern. But ever since setting off, every problem they had encountered had been more deadly than the energy issue.
So when Kiki told him there was a military outpost in North Bay City, Lin Xian had immediately become interested.
He urgently needed to upgrade the Infinite's armor and replenish its weapons. Such a massive mobile fortress also needed a sharper reconnaissance system. And he himself urgently needed to raise the level of the Mechanical Heart or gain more useful skills.
Lin Xian had once imagined that an ordinary hair dryer could grant him a powerful Wind Cannon skill. If he devoured military weapons, perhaps he would receive even more surprises!
So no matter how he considered it, he decided he could no longer recklessly charge into the darkness. He had to possess sufficient means of self-preservation.
Thinking that, Lin Xian nodded. "I do want to upgrade the train's armor and weapons. We can go take a look at the military outpost you mentioned. We can also replenish some supplies in North Bay Town while we're there."
"Alright, alright, alright!" Kiki's eyes lit up as she pointed toward Carriage 3. "Then shall we ride that?"
Lin Xian frowned and glanced at her. "Do you know how to ride it?"
"Tch, who are you looking down on?" Kiki turned sideways, revealing a small tattoo on her slender waist. It was a black cat head wearing sunglasses. Combined with her smooth, long legs beneath her short shorts, their Light Type sheen gave her an inexplicable punk-girl vibe.
"Do you know what I used to be famous as?"
"A delinquent girl?"
"Pah! Huiyue Black Rider!"
"A black motorcycle courier?"
"Pah! What a country bumpkin!"
New author here—please keep reading and recommend!
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