Passengers and Ticket Collectors

You should know that the man in front of you, Qing Zhun, can be considered the king of the entire extraordinary world.

Those who truly know this person understand how terrifying he is.

He woke up to be an S-rank.

He simultaneously masters the laws of time and space, possessing the power to decide the life and death of all people.

If this person hadn't been dying, it would probably have instilled fear in everyone.

Or rather, the very existence of such people is unfair to everyone else.

The world is fair.

Yang Yang observed for a while and, seeing that Qing Zhun wasn't angry, breathed a sigh of relief.

She quickly took out two tangerines from her backpack, peeled them, and handed them to Qing Zhun: "Here, have some."

Qing Zhun glanced at her and said, "Thank you."

A short while later, the Steam Train disappeared back into nothingness.

Qing Zhun asked in the darkness, "Are we approaching the next stop?"

Qing Chen chuckled and said, "In the winter timetable for Steam Train, some stations are closer together. It's different in spring, summer, and autumn. In autumn, there are sometimes only two stations in a row."

As the Steam Train burst out of the void once more, Qing Chen immediately rushed to the window, peering outside to see if there were any other passengers.

Unfortunately, no.

He muttered to himself, "I was thinking of charging admission, but there's no one here."

Qing Zhun's eye twitched. He had just been praising Qing Chen in his heart for ignoring money and fame, but it was all for nothing.

This is hardly the act of being indifferent to fame and fortune! They're even trying to fleece people from Forbidden Item!

Slightly disappointed, Qing Chen took out a deck of cards, a large bag of sunflower seeds and peanuts, and even four bottles of soda from his hiking bag.

Qing Zhun getting angry. "Is this all you made me memorize? I should have just thrown it away!"

Qing Chen calmly said, "Calm down, calm down. When you travel by train, you should play cards and eat sunflower seeds with your friends, otherwise the trip is incomplete!"

Qing Zhun is from the Inner World, so of course he doesn't know about the aspirations some people in the Outer World have for trains.

When Qing Chen was a child, what he wanted to ride most was Green Train, and then chat, brag and play cards with a bunch of friends on the train, traveling for several days, from the east to the west, from the south to the north.

Unfortunately, he couldn't afford a train ticket and didn't have many friends.

In the wilderness, four young people, each carrying a backpack, stood waiting.

Two men and two women.

One of them whispered, "Since we're going to the school Kunlun established this time, let's start an exploration club. We can take the younger students to explore the Inner World together. I've heard that many rich kids want to hire Inner World guides, so we can charge membership fees."

Another young man frowned. "I don't like starting an organization. You have to be responsible for a lot of people, and it's easy to have bad teammates on the journey. We currently resell items from the Inner World and exchange them for gold bars to bring into the Inner World for travel expenses. This self-sufficient closed loop is quite good. I don't want to bring in newcomers."

"Yi Wenbo, one day things from the Inner World will become worthless," a girl said. "The Hu Group has recently started researching cosmetics and health supplements from the Inner World, and they've reportedly made a breakthrough. When that happens, everything we can bring back will gradually lose its value."

The reason why things in the Inner World are valuable is precisely because they are so rare in the Outer World.

But once the Outer World can also produce those "import and export trade" goods, the Time Walker are currently enjoying life will have to find another way out.

Yi Wenbo stopped objecting after hearing this. "Let's find out more about the situation first. We've only been at school for less than a day; who knows what level the Time Walker? I bought the rules for the Forbidden Zone this time to see if I could get anything valuable from there. By the way, next time we return, I'd like to explore that island on foot. Xiao Yu, Ma Jingjing, Li Mengyun, would you like to come along?"

"Let's go together!" Ma Jingjing laughed. "It sounds interesting! I heard there's a large area south of the island, and some mysterious areas hidden in the forest that Kunlun forbids access to. By the way, we didn't know the school was on an island before. Next time we go home, we'll have to bring back a set of diving equipment. I saw that the island has shallow waters, so we can go swimming and catch lobsters to eat."

Among the Time Walker, not everyone is like Qing Chen, living each day against the clock and racing against time.

People have all sorts of lifestyles. Just like some people enjoy exploring maps in single-player games while others play the same hero thousands of times in MOBA games, success doesn't necessarily mean happiness.

"By the way, I heard that before this time travel, Bai Zhou also came to the school to report, as did Jiu Ran from Hongye, Nangong Yuanyu from the Freemasons, and Sun Chuci from Zhengda. There were also many other organizations," Ma Jingjing said. "Of course, there are also many 'free agents' like us who don't belong to any organization. It's interesting to think about."

Yi Wenbo shook his head. "What they're doing is too big; we'd better not get involved."

Just then, a steam whistle sounded across the wilderness, and Steam Train emerged from nothingness.

"Here it is! We finally managed to buy information about this Forbidden Item. We can finally experience what it's like to travel in a Forbidden Item," Yi Wenbo's eyes lit up. "Take out all the gold coins."

However, after the Steam Train came to a stop, the four Time Walker stood there dumbfounded, watching a young man standing at the carriage door, smiling at them, "Take out all the gold coins."

Yi Wenbo: "???"

What puzzled them was that there were four or five strips of white paper stuck to the boy's forehead, making it look as strange as the tongues of the Black and White Impermanence.

This strange attire has an intimidating effect.

Ma Jingjing looked at the boy and asked hesitantly, "Who are you?"

Boy: "I'm the ticket seller for the Forbidden Item ace-012 Steam Train. Everyone can get on the train by giving me their gold coins."

Ma Jingjing asked doubtfully, "Wenbo, did the intelligence you bought from the black market mention anything about ticket sellers on Steam Train?"

"No, no," Yi Wenbo said, puzzled.

The boy said with a smile, "Hurry up and give me the gold coins. The Steam Train will only stop for ten minutes. If you don't get on now, it will be too late."

Yi Wenbo and the others handed over the gold coins with some skepticism, and then boarded the vehicle one after another.

Just then, a little boy in the back of the carriage shouted, "Boss, what are you busy with? It's your turn to play your card!"

The boy gave the four young men an embarrassed smile, "Sorry, I have to go now. Please make yourselves at home!"

With that, the boy sat back in the last carriage and tossed a gold coin into it.

Collect four coins and throw one away; this is to prevent the Steam Train from stopping in the future.

You can't go to extremes.

After finishing that task, the boy returned to continue playing cards, "A pair of twos! Nobody wants them, right? You guys don't have any bombs anymore, straights, full houses!"

Qing Zhun: "Manage it, hehe, we're just waiting for the plane you have."

Two card-counting masters, both masters of their craft, are fiercely battling it out on the card table, using all their mental strength.

Qing Chen's mind is indeed a bit sharper than Qing Zhun's, but the variety of playing cards is too limited, which restricts Qing Chen's performance.

If there are 540 cards, then Qing Chen will probably be the one to win in the end.

But if there are 54 cards, and the two players are evenly matched in terms of calculation ability, it ultimately comes down to luck.

Yi Wenbo and Ma Jingjing looked at each other in bewilderment.

So the note stuck to the other person's forehead was because they lost the game!

What the hell are ticket sellers? Aren't they passengers just like them?!

Of the four tickets, only one was given to the Steam Train. How can there be a middleman making a profit?!

"Could it be a member of the legendary gang? When that guy on the black market sold you the information, didn't he say that gang members often use Steam Train to transport goods?"

"It doesn't seem like a gang," Yi Wenbo, gripping the pistol at his waist.

At that moment, the little boy who was playing a card turned around and smiled at them, looking completely harmless.

The four people looked at the group of teenagers: a little boy, a teenager, a girl, and a young man. They didn't look fierce; they seemed to be travelers like themselves.

Yi Wenbo cautiously walked over and interrupted the card game, "Hello, are you also passengers? Why are you taking our coins? If we don't put our coins in the last carriage, we won't be able to get off the train."

Qing Chen laughed and said, "Don't worry, just call me when you get to your stop, and I'll open the door for you. Go find a place to sit and rest for a bit. By the way, where are you going?"

Yi Wenbo was immediately flustered. After thinking for a moment, he said, "We'll just look around casually, we don't have a destination."

Actually, they went to explore Forbidden Zone. This time, they acquired not only information about the Steam Train, but also the rules of two Forbidden Zone.

However, he certainly couldn't tell Qing Chen this secret.

Ma Jingjing tugged at Yi Wenbo's sleeve and whispered, "Anyway, we still have a long time before we reach our destination. Let's observe them first. The Inner World is full of hidden talents. If they are really powerful, losing four gold coins in the wilderness is better than losing four lives."

Yi Wenbo nodded and silently retreated to another carriage.

Qing Chen chuckled as he shuffled the cards, whispering, "They're four Time Walker. Interesting."

Yang Yang glanced at them and asked, "Could they be classmates from the new school?"

"Judging from their age, it's possible, but they're at least in university, probably upperclassmen or upperclasswomen," Qing Chen said.

Yang Yang muttered, "I can't go to school yet. There are still things to take care of in Haicheng. The Time Walker in the Wilderness People live."

"Did Kunlun approve your leave request?" Qing Chen asked curiously.

"Anyway, they can't catch me."