"Whoooo-!"
The whistle blew.
The train raced through the forest, which had become a vast swamp. Trees submerged in the surging floodwaters waved ceaselessly in the gale, like the claws of monsters.
An ordinary train would have been helpless in such a situation, with nothing ahead of it but certain death.
Fortunately, this was no ordinary train.
At least, not anymore.
An icy chill mingled with thick mist spread outward, coating every tree it touched in a thin layer of white frost. The train sped through the water, its headlamp as cold as moonlight. Incredibly, anyone watching from outside would have seen that the train did not seem to be running on rails at all. It looked more like a ship floating on the water.
The enormous locomotive cut through the water like a ship's bow, forging ahead.
Fortunately, however, no one had the leisure to look outside the train at a time like this.
Because inside, panic had already taken hold.
"Go bring all the passengers from the second- and third-class carriages into the lounge car!"
Li Wei shouted orders to the conductor and the staff, who hurried off to carry them out. The first-class passengers were also growing uneasy, unsure what had happened.
"What on earth is going on?"
"A flash flood."
"A flash flood?"
Naturally, Li Wei could not tell them there was something wrong with the forest. Fortunately, it was the middle of the night, and no one could see outside. So he put the skills he had inherited from Approaching Science to work and started spinning his story.
"The continuous rain has triggered landslides in the nearby mountains. A mudslide is coming down the slope toward us right now. We have to get out of here as quickly as possible, or we'll be buried alive!"