Female Biker

Lin Xian looked at the girl arguing her case before him with great interest and said with a faint smile, "From the sound of it, you seem to have a better idea?"

"Of course." Kiki radiated confidence. "We're all in the same boat now. Even if I don't consider things for a bad guy like you, I still have to think about my own safety, right? 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 the nearest military outpost. It's near North Bay City, and there should be plenty of military supplies there. If we're lucky, you might be able to get a radar system or a sentry system. At worst, we can pick up some weapons. That has to be better than you fighting bugs with a knife last night, right?"

Chen Sixuan, who stood nearby, looked utterly incredulous. "A military outpost? How do you know about something like that?"

"I know a lot more than that." Kiki looked smug as she turned her eyes toward Lin Xian. "So? Are we working together?"

Lin Xian looked at her and smiled faintly, though a chill gleamed in his eyes.

"I refuse."

"Huh?!" Kiki froze. Lin Xian had clearly looked interested just moments ago, so why had his face suddenly turned cold?

"W-What do you mean?"

Lin Xian's icy gaze settled on her as he spoke slowly.

"I don't like being manipulated. If you think that awakening an ability means you can oppose me, then we might as well settle who lives and who dies right now, so we won't have to keep suspecting each other along the way."

Kiki replied somewhat guiltily, "Who... who said I wanted to oppose you?"

Lin Xian smiled faintly. "I can take you to Brocade Sea. It's just a city along the Orbital Ring route, after all. But I don't want to make any deal with you, or go there specifically for your sake. Right now, we live one day at a time. If I bring you along, 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, and food is limited. Everyone needs to divide the work and cooperate. As for whether going to Brocade Sea will bring me any benefits, I don't care in the slightest. Do you understand?"

Others might have considered Lin Xian's thinking terribly shortsighted, but in the apocalypse, the situation right 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 to escape 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 mindset, hoping to gain special status on the train and order him around. She had miscalculated completely.

That kind of promise might drive other survivors to give everything they had, but Lin Xian was not that kind of person.

No matter how capable someone was, if their heart was not sincere, they had no value to him.

Most importantly, he had to make Kiki feel a sense of danger. Otherwise, if he gave in to her, she would assume Lin Xian feared her ability.

Since that was the case, it was better to make it clear whether they were enemies or allies.

Kiki watched Lin Xian smile at her. For some reason, that smile did not feel warm at all. On the contrary, it felt as though the moment she turned around, the smile would become a terrifying evil ghost, baring its fangs and swallowing her whole.

Faced with Lin Xian's forceful words, Kiki's gaze began to waver. Their eyes met, and after what seemed like a long silence, Kiki finally looked away. She hugged her legs on the sofa and rested her chin between her knees. Her smug manner was gone. Like a kitten, she looked at him with her big eyes and let out an "Oh~."

"What do you mean, 'oh'?" Lin Xian's gaze 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 got up, took a can of fruit and a bag of snacks from the storage rack, and tossed them to her. His voice was cold as he said, "I don't care who you used to be, 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, I'll throw you off, no matter how useful you are."

Hearing this, Kiki's eyes shifted as she secretly looked at him, seemingly lost in thought. She opened the can and took a bite. After sitting quietly for a while, she spoke and broke the silence.

"My name is Wen Qi."

"That name's fake too?"

Kiki blushed. "Of course not. I've always been called Kiki. Wen Qi is my real name."

Lin Xian nodded. He could hear the goodwill in her words, and his tone softened somewhat.

"I can take that as a gesture of sincerity from you."

"Then can I make a 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. Though she was easygoing by nature, she was still a young 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'll figure something out myself."

"Hm?!" Lin Xian's gaze narrowed, and his tone turned hostile.

Kiki hurriedly changed her words and said meekly, "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. And after last night's battle, he had also acknowledged Kiki's value.

"Hey~"

Seeing Lin Xian about to leave, Kiki pouted and called after him. "Bad guy, do you still want to visit that military outpost?"

Lin Xian frowned. "There isn't a trap, is there?"

Kiki rolled her eyes at him, her tone unexpectedly gentle. "If you don't trust 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 reevaluated his Infinite Train plan and felt that it still had many shortcomings.

With his ability, he could only say that he was temporarily free from concerns over energy. But ever since setting out, the troubles he had encountered had each been more fatal than the energy problem.

So when Kiki told him there was a military outpost in North Bay City, Lin Xian was immediately interested.

He urgently needed to upgrade the Infinite's armor and replenish its weapons. A mobile fortress this large also required a sharper reconnaissance system. And he himself desperately needed to raise the level of Mechanical Heart as soon as possible, or acquire 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, there might be even more pleasant surprises!

So, no matter how he looked at it, he decided that he could no longer recklessly charge into the night. He had to possess enough means to protect himself.

At that thought, Lin Xian nodded. "I do want to upgrade the train's armor and weapons. We can check out that military outpost you mentioned, and replenish some supplies in North Bay Town while we're at it."

"Great, great, great!" Kiki's eyes lit up as she pointed toward Carriage 3. "Then shall we ride that?"

Lin Xian frowned at her. "Can you even 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's head wearing sunglasses, and paired with her bare, long legs beneath her shorts, it gave her an inexplicable punk-girl vibe.

"Do you know what this young lady used to be called?"

"Some delinquent girl?"

"Pah! Huiyue Black Rider!"

"A black motorcycle taxi?"

"Pah! What a country bumpkin!"

New author here—please keep reading and recommend!