Platform Mission

Hiss-

The train stopped, and Ye Qiyan looked out the window.

Unlike the worlds at the previous two stops, this one was not dark. Instead, the sun hung high in the sky, illuminating the entire land.

This place was completely different from the previous two stops.

The streets outside were covered in dark red stains, and wrecked cars were jammed together.

Doomsday Town.

It lived up to its name.

"Hey, WALL-E, get up. Time to work."

[WALL-E, activating.]

With a pang of reluctance, Ye Qiyan dropped a Train Coin into WALL-E's coin slot.

Watching WALL-E wobble away outside through the recycling device, Ye Qiyan seriously wondered whether some monster would pop out and carry WALL-E off as a toy.

"Right, what's the mission at this mission platform?"

His question was soon answered.

Looking through the window, Ye Qiyan spotted a corpse clutching a backpack. Inside the backpack, he could see a sheet of parchment fluttering in the wind.

There was clearly something written on the parchment, but it was too far away to read.

Standing before the train door, Ye Qiyan checked his equipment one last time.

Food, water, the fine rifle on his back, the Blacklight pistol and sharp dagger at his waist, and finally, the advanced ceramic-plate bulletproof vest he had obtained from the chest at the previous stop.

He had also subjected this bulletproof vest to Ascension, turning it from something so bulky it was like wearing a bucket into something that truly resembled a vest, without reducing the protection it provided.

Fully armed, he pressed the button.

The train door opened. He stepped off and reached back to close it.

Only the conductor himself could open the train, so he was not worried about anything sneaking inside.

Waves of heat hit him head-on. A strange smell filled the air, like rotten salted fish mixed with bread that had been rotting for a long time.

Walking over to the corpse, Ye Qiyan used his gun barrel to pry open the backpack, revealing the full sheet of parchment inside.

[As you can see, I am a great courier.]

Ye Qiyan silently looked at the corpse lying on the ground. Great? A courier? I can't see it at all.

[As a courier for the RUN Company, I shoulder the vital responsibility of delivering supplies in this apocalyptic world. We're the only ones who can travel freely through it, but, well, I think I'm about to die.]

It was not hard to imagine that this courier had been quite humorous in life.

[But I cannot abandon my duty as a courier! Whoever you are, once you see my message, please deliver the contents of my backpack to the silverware shop in the southeast corner of this Small Town!]

[As long as you deliver the item and show my RUN Medal, the reward for this delivery will be yours.]

[Of course, you can choose not to deliver it. Whatever. I'm dying anyway...]

[Are you really not going to deliver it? The reward is really good~ Our RUN Company is the best company in the entire wasteland~]

A courier?

So this is the mission at the mission platform?

"What's in the backpack?"

Curious, Ye Qiyan opened the backpack all the way.

Apart from the parchment, what he saw was a very well-preserved cake in a sealed, transparent box.

A four-character message had been written on it in jam.

Happy birthday.

A birthday?

Ye Qiyan silently picked up the backpack.

Judging by the state of decomposition, this courier had been dead for a long time.

"It's too late to celebrate the birthday, but the cake is still edible."

He found a distinctly mechanical-looking medal in the backpack. Gears and metal formed the image of a running courier on its face.

On the back of the medal was a large RUN symbol.

There was also a map of the Small Town. The red dot marked on it was probably the destination.

Putting away the cake and medal, Ye Qiyan consulted the map and headed toward his destination.

Corpses reduced to skeletons lay everywhere along the way, and dark red bloodstains told of the terrible events that had once occurred.

"What's that?"

He saw a hyena feeding on a human corpse.

Come to think of it, this was the first time he had seen a living creature other than himself in this survival world.

Wait, is it really alive?

The hyena seemed to hear him and turned its head toward Ye Qiyan. Only then did he see that this was no living dog. Its head was rotting, and its heart was exposed. This was clearly a Zombie Dog!

"Roar!"

The Zombie Dog let out a strange roar, then charged straight at Ye Qiyan.

"Stay calm! Stay calm!"

Forcing down his fear, he raised his pistol and pulled the trigger.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang-!

He was no sharpshooter. Although only one of his five bullets hit the Zombie Dog, its tremendous power was enough to blast the creature into pulp.

"No, I need to get out of here fast."

The gunshots were loud enough that the entire Small Town had probably heard them. Monsters like this Zombie Dog might already be closing in on him.

Fortunately, none of the monsters he encountered were particularly smart. With a slight detour, Ye Qiyan successfully reached his destination, the silverware shop. To his surprise, he saw no signs of monsters anywhere nearby.

It was a little strange.

"Is there really someone here?"

Looking at the shop's tightly shut entrance, it was hard not to suspect that its occupants had long since fallen prey to the monsters outside.

Just as he was considering whether to pry the door open, the roller shutter before him suddenly lifted a crack.

Ye Qiyan immediately raised his rifle and aimed at the gap.

"Don't, don't shoot! I'm human, not a zombie!"

Faced with the dark muzzle, the person inside hurriedly answered in a hoarse voice.

"...Are you the owner of this shop?"

Unable to make out the person inside, Ye Qiyan simply took out the medal.

"I'm a courier for the RUN Company. The previous courier died on the way, so I'm delivering this in his place."

Out in the world, you gave yourself your own identity. In this unfamiliar apocalyptic wasteland, a courier seemed more likely to earn other people's respect.

The roller shutter rose a little farther, revealing the scruffy, bearded face of a man in his forties.

"Heh, I know, I know you're a courier. These days, aside from couriers, only madmen and monsters dare to be out there. Hehe, come on in."

Ye Qiyan did not move. Keeping his gun aimed at the man's head, he took the securely sealed cake out of the backpack.

"I'll pass on coming in. Here's your item. Where's my payment?"

The man stared at the cake for a moment.

"What a shame. If only it had come a little earlier. Hehe... Payment, right, payment. I'll go get it for you."

He turned and left. Before long, he held a box out beneath the roller shutter and opened it, revealing its contents.

Ye Qiyan was very familiar with what was inside.

Train Coins?

Three Train Coins lay quietly in the box.

Could Train Coins be the common currency across all the platform worlds? Otherwise, it's hard to explain why a native of this world would have them too.

Just as Ye Qiyan was about to put away the Train Coins, the man behind the roller shutter suddenly reached out and grabbed his gun barrel!