The Fourth Stop

"So it actually gave me the abilities of a sharpshooter."

With this ability, Ye Qiyan felt that if he encountered those zombie monsters from last time again, he would not necessarily have to keep hiding and running.

After taking stock of all his rewards, Ye Qiyan had nothing to do, so he opened the chat room's private messages while eating fruit.

He did have a little reputation among this group of survivors, after all. Someone might approach him for a trade. It would be a shame to miss out if they had blueprints or Train Coins.

"Hmm? Li Xiaosheng? Isn't he that three-stop guy?"

"Inviting me to join an alliance? An alliance? What was that again?"

Ye Qiyan thought back carefully before finally remembering what Li Xiaosheng meant by an alliance.

"An alliance... it just feels so unreliable."

After hesitating for a moment, Ye Qiyan accepted Li Xiaosheng's friend request.

Although this guy was not on the same path as him, he should have some Train Coins.

Trading with him was fine, as long as he did not get too deeply involved.

Elsewhere, Li Xiaosheng was competing with others for fishing rod sales when he saw the notification that his friend request had been accepted.

He remembered sending a friend request to only one person.

"So you've finally decided to contact me."

Ye Qiyan: ["Have you made the fishing rods yet?"]

"Huh?"

Li Xiaosheng frowned when he saw Ye Qiyan's message.

["Brother Ye, long time no see. Have you completed your first train upgrade?"]

["Are you selling fishing rods? How many supplies for one?"]

Ye Qiyan could not be bothered to answer his question and continued stating what he wanted.

["Haha, of course I am, but I can also give you one for free."]

There was no such thing as a free lunch. Ye Qiyan was already waiting for the "but" that would follow.

["All you need to do is join my alliance. Any member of my alliance only needs to contribute five kilograms of wood or one Train Coin, and I'll give them a day's rations and a fishing rod. You should have seen it before-after reaching level 2, I can make survival rations."]

["I know you've stockpiled plenty of food and water by selling guns, and you even took more than a hundred kilograms of metal from me, presumably to manufacture firearms. But food always runs out, and there will be times when guns are hard to sell. Join my alliance and work with me. Arm our members with guns, and once we can meet in the future, we'll immediately become the largest faction!"]

Ye Qiyan calmly read through the long string of messages, chewing on a Whiteforest Fruit as he typed his reply.

["So, are you selling fishing rods? If not, forget it."]

Li Xiaosheng was not the only person selling fishing rods.

Someone else had obtained a Mechanical Fishing Rod blueprint back at the very first stop. That person was still alive and was also selling fishing rods, though very few people were willing to buy them.

Seeing that Li Xiaosheng had not replied, Ye Qiyan could not be bothered to keep watching.

He searched the chat room for the keywords "fishing rod" and soon found that person.

["Are you selling fishing rods?"]

["Yes!"]

See, this was the kind of seller people liked.

Ye Qiyan traded twenty Mechanical Parts and a biscuit for a Mechanical Fishing Rod.

"Hey, it's even automatic. This is much better than a wooden fishing rod."

Ye Qiyan nodded in satisfaction and immediately began Ascension.

[Low-Level Mechanical Fishing Rod → Low-Level Tempting Mechanical Fishing Rod]

[Requires no bait. Attracts fish more easily once cast into the water.]

Ye Qiyan set the fishing rod aside and happened to notice a new friend request.

It was from the person who had sold him the fishing rod, named Zhao Lin.

He accepted it.

Boom!

Time [12:30:00]

A tremendous boom rang out in the gloomy sky.

Inside the temperature-controlled carriage, Ye Qiyan looked up at the sky through the window.

The dark clouds were so oppressive that it was hard to breathe. A raindrop fell from the sky, and soon it became an endless downpour.

["Ding-dong!"]

The broadcast sounded.

["Today is a thunderstorm day."]

["Attention, all conductors: your next stop has a high probability of being a thunderstorm platform."]

["Rain gear is recommended."]

"That's a thing too? So the weather in the wilderness world affects the platforms? They clearly don't even seem like the same world."

Ye Qiyan looked at the Fork in Destiny for his next stop.

[Fork in Destiny triggered. Please choose one of the following two platforms to stop at.]

[Platform 1: Lightning Goblin Tribe (Level 3 hunting platform)]

[Platform 2: Phantom Rain Manor (Level 3 mission platform)]

"Sure enough, the platform level went up again. When the train upgrades, the platforms upgrade too. And why is it goblins again?"

Ye Qiyan kept feeling as though he had quite a connection with goblins. He was only about to reach his fourth stop, yet goblin-related platforms had appeared three times.

At this rate, it felt like there would eventually be a time when he had no choice but to pick a goblin platform.

Even so, he had no intention of choosing this one.

People needed to know their limits. At least for now, he had no intention of entering somewhere that sounded as dangerous as a hunting platform.

As for the second option, he could not tell much from its name, but that did not mean it was free of danger.

He could not forget that Doomsday Town, the previous mission platform, had also held considerable danger. Without his excellent equipment and warning device, anyone else would have had absolutely no chance of clearing it, let alone completing the hidden mission.

"Select platform two."

[Platform selection complete.]

[Please sit down and hold on. The fourth stop ahead is...]

[Phantom Rain Manor]

The train accelerated.

The space ahead dissolved into nothingness.

The falling raindrops formed a thin membrane that enveloped the front of the train.

Accompanied by thunder and a stretch of darkness.

The surrounding space abruptly underwent a massive change.

[Current platform: Phantom Rain Mountain Villa]

[Departure countdown: 4:59:59]

[Good luck.]

[This stop: dangerous]

Through the window, Ye Qiyan saw the scene outside.

He had stopped on a broken stretch of winding mountain road.

In the darkness, all he could hear was the rain falling endlessly outside.

Only when lightning flashed and thunder rumbled did Ye Qiyan see a police car giving off wisps of smoke nearby, along with several corpses in police uniforms.

"...Don't tell me there are zombies again, just like last time?"

"Forget it. I'll wake WALL-E up first."

[WALL-E, activate!]

He inserted one of his last two Train Coins into WALL-E.

Only after watching the little robot wobble off the train did Ye Qiyan begin his final preparations to go outside.

First were the three special storage units. Besides the Whiteforest Fruit and bullets, he placed the three doses of virus serum he had obtained at the previous stop and enhanced through Ascension into the last unit.

[Blessed Virus Serum]

[Can treat zombie viruses/vampire transformation/ghost corrosion/disease infections. Can heal injuries when damage is sustained.]

After Ascension, the serum that could originally only treat the zombie virus had transformed into an unconventional health potion.

Next came his pistol, rifle, dagger, bulletproof vest, and mithril cross.

Fully armed and wearing a raincoat he had obtained through trading, Ye Qiyan pressed the button to open the door.