[Binding successful] [Can be opened] [Opened. The Safety Box currently contains] [Slot 1: Flame Stone: 1] [Slot 2: Gold: 10 kilograms] [Slot 3: Mithril: 10 kilograms] [Slot 4: Healing Lollipops ×3]
"So they're level 4 upgrade materials, and... candy?"
The Safety Box was much like the Storage Unit. Items placed inside were counted by type rather than quantity.
Looking at its contents, Ye Qiyan couldn't really call himself disappointed. After all, as an essential item for upgrading to a level 4 train, the Flame Stone still had no known means of acquisition. For him, who had only recently leveled up, this would undoubtedly have been extremely important at present if he hadn't had the Ascension talent.
Shaya didn't know what his talent was, so choosing these materials as a gift made sense.
But the candy in the last slot?
[Sha'ya's Healing Lollipop] (Level 8) [After consumption, forms a protective barrier against external damage. Stamina recovery and injury treatment will continue uninterrupted within the barrier] [Note: A certain dark nun's masterpiece. As long as you aren't dead, eating it will keep you alive] [Ding-dong, ding-dong!] [(Wicked Woman) Big Golden Retriever has sent a message] ["Opened it? What do you think? Haven't I treated you well? Going from level 3 to level 4 is a small hurdle. You only really make it out of the beginner stage once you clear it."] ["It's a real hassle for newcomers like you to get a Flame Stone. Only after the tenth station is there a tiny chance of encountering a platform with one. You're level 3 now, so even with the best luck, Miling Town should only be around your eighth station. This will save you detours through a whole bunch of stations."] ["As for those three candies, eat them when you're hurt. Don't get greedy."] ["Make sure you thank me in your heart. Find the rest yourself, upgrade soon, and stay alive. Also, remember to tell me when you complete that card."]
Her messages arrived before he had changed her contact name back.
Looking at that long string of text,
Ye Qiyan didn't know what to say. His complicated feelings could only come together in a single sentence.
"Thank you."
Though I won't need it.
He kept the latter words to himself. There was no need to say them.
His gratitude contained no insincerity. Although Shaya certainly had her own purpose in giving him that third of the Blasphemy Card, he had also learned a great deal from her. Besides, even if Shaya hadn't given it to him, would he really not have collected it himself?
Impossible.
If he encountered the next third, he would definitely find a way to obtain it.
"The Blasphemy Card..."
"What will happen if I really complete it?"
"It's been a while."
The Black Night Angel traveled through the wilderness. Shaya stood before the prayer altar, eating the Blessed Whiteforest Fruit she had snatched from Tina, gazing beyond the horizon as she murmured to herself.
"Nothing's changed at all. This world really is dull."
Ding-dong-
A message notification sounded in her ears.
["You're back."] ["Aren't you surprised?"] ["No. This world is infinite. Since it's infinite, there must be an accident within that infinity that frees you from your seal. Still, it's only been fifteen years, considerably faster than I imagined. So, is the person who opened the world the other third?"] ["Two-thirds now."] ["..."] ["What? Find that strange? I was sealed for fifteen years over that card, which means it really shouldn't belong to me. Yet the person who helped me open the world obtained in just a few days what I nearly lost my life getting. Don't you think he deserves that card more?"] ["Such is fate. That possibility naturally exists within infinity. It's not strange. So, what do you intend to do next?"]
Shaya's gaze was cold as she typed a line onto the light screen.
["Repay vengeance with vengeance, and grievances with grievances."]
The person on the other side of the chat remained silent for a long time.
Shaya gradually regained her composure, then suddenly remembered what Ye Qiyan had asked her not long ago.
["By the way, what the hell is RUN Company? How has a faction managed to reach into beginner platforms below level 4? Where are the Heavenly Realm Organization's inspectors? Why haven't they acted?"] ["..."] ["Hey, you there? Dead? Why aren't you talking?"] ["It's merely an unimportant courier company. Pay it no mind. As for the Heavenly Realm Organization... those pitiful good people are already gone."]
Docking Countdown: [00:22:48]
Through his efforts dismantling the town's houses that had been converted from train cars, Ye Qiyan had indeed gathered quite a few resources.
Most of these cars were damaged. Recycling them yielded, at most, a tenth of their original construction materials.
What was more, dismantling these things required him to transport them. The one thing worth celebrating was that Shaya seemed to have anticipated this: the Safety Box she had given Ye Qiyan could actually hold an entire train car.
Compared with the Storage Unit, this level 9 Safety Box had much looser storage requirements. Unfortunately, these cars couldn't be counted as identical items and stored in the same slot. Otherwise, Ye Qiyan really would have wanted to take every train-car house in town.
Another pity was that recycling at the processing bench took time. In nearly four hours, he had only recycled nine cars.
With the Docking Countdown nearing its end, he could only abandon those remaining in town.
After putting the resources into the Storage Unit, Ye Qiyan took stock of the materials he currently owned.
[Wood: 645 kilograms] [Metal: 770 kilograms] [Mechanical Parts: 505] [Glass: 180 kilograms] [Rubber: 35 kilograms] [Fiber: 60 kilograms] [Gold: 10 kilograms] [Mithril: 10 kilograms] [Flame Stone: 1]
These resources were already enough to upgrade his train to level 4, but with his Ascension talent, Ye Qiyan wasn't going to do that.
Clatter, clatter-
The sound of treads crossing the ground made Ye Qiyan raise his eyelids as he lounged half-reclined in his chair, waiting for the recycling and doing nothing.
WALL-E, whom he had nearly forgotten, was wobbling toward him.
"I nearly forgot about you, little guy. Still, there probably aren't any treasure chests at this station. After all, Shaya built this town herself. She wouldn't have any reason to put treasure chests here."
Only after tapping WALL-E's metal head a few times did Ye Qiyan notice the lump of metal clutched in his mechanical arm.
"What's this?"
Ye Qiyan took the metal cube and examined it, but couldn't see anything special about it.
"It doesn't look like ordinary iron either. What is it?"
Curiosity overcame laziness. Ye Qiyan returned to the train and used the control system to identify the lump of metal in his hand.
[Level 4 Treasure Chest] (Can be opened)
"Huh? A treasure chest? Wait, didn't Shaya make everything on this platform? Does that mean she put this chest here?"
"Was it deliberate? That doesn't make sense either. Didn't she tell me to burn this place down...?"
Ye Qiyan stroked the treasure chest's casing, with no intention of asking.
She didn't want it anyway, and hadn't mentioned it. Since it was left here, he might as well open it.
"Should I wait?"
A level 4 treasure chest meant that a single Ascension could bring it to level 5.
But the same question remained: could he really subject this level 4 treasure chest to Ascension?
At full recovery, his stamina and spirit currently totaled 210 points. Ascending a level 3 treasure chest to level 4 required 55 points. Would going from level 4 to level 5 cost several times as much?
Ye Qiyan casually took out a Whiteforest Fruit and bit into it, then suddenly noticed something wrong.
"Strange. Why do I keep getting this feeling that I can't ascend it to level 5?"
This wasn't the first time he'd felt this.
Before, he might have thought that the points required to go from level 4 to level 5 were too high for his stamina and spirit to support, and left it at that.
But ascending a level 3 treasure chest to level 4 only-
Yet now he had learned from Shaya that treasure chests went up to level 12.
If he couldn't subject a level 4 treasure chest to Ascension now, what about later? Wouldn't the required points become astronomical?
Something wasn't right.
"Should I give it a try?"
Ye Qiyan's heartbeat quickened.
"How will I know whether it works if I don't try?"
A feeling was only a feeling, after all. Humans were the animals best at deceiving themselves.
Having made his decision, Ye Qiyan didn't begin immediately.
He had to fulfill his promise to someone else.
He bought that barrel of diesel from the trading platform with a few biscuits. Earlier, he had already connected several places in town with wood.
The icy air mingled with the smell of diesel.
The Docking Countdown entered its final ten minutes.
Standing in the train's doorway,
Ye Qiyan took out the Windproof Lighter he had obtained earlier.
Click-
Whoosh-
Flames traveled toward the town along the path paved with wooden planks.
The breeze carried snow, and the fire rode the wind. In an instant, starting from this plain platform, it burned through everything in Miling Town.
Ahead of the train, the distorted void leading out of the station appeared.
Ye Qiyan stood before the control console and pressed the start button.
[Privilege activated] [Early departure]
In an instant, the world changed.
Ye Qiyan instinctively shielded his eyes. The surrounding temperature's sudden surge reminded him that the wilderness's tropical weather was still continuing.
"After all this time, the temperature hasn't dropped at all?"
Back inside the climate-controlled car, the surrounding temperature returned to a comfortable range for humans.
He placed the Safety Box in a corner of the car. Three of its slots held train cars from Miling Town.
The remaining slot was, of course, reserved for the Blasphemy Card.
The Safety Box's original contents had been tossed into the Storage Unit.
"Another station finished. No announcement this time?"
Throwing himself onto the bed, Ye Qiyan looked up at the ceiling, raised the level 4 treasure chest into the air, and smiled for no particular reason.
"To think the first level 4 treasure chest I got without Ascension wasn't even my biggest gain at this station. If anyone knew, they'd probably die of envy."
At this station, Ye Qiyan had learned many things about this world. Though it wasn't much, he at least wouldn't blunder around like a headless chicken when he encountered certain things in the future.
And there was the Blasphemy Card.
Even at the end, Shaya hadn't told him exactly what the card was. Still, Ye Qiyan could roughly guess that her being sealed in Miling Town probably had something to do with the Blasphemy Card.
The more he knew, the more he wanted to know.
He was a little tired.
In truth, from his initial decision to flee until now, even though Shaya had shown him goodwill, the tension deep within Ye Qiyan had never dissipated.
Only now, back on his own train, had that tension finally disappeared.
With his body and mind relaxing together, Ye Qiyan really wanted to be a complete layabout, never worry about the next station again, and just give up trying.
Unfortunately, he couldn't.
Ascension had to continue.
The platforms wouldn't stop and wait for him either.
Tossing the level 4 treasure chest back and forth in his hands, Ye Qiyan stared at the box, even as an inexplicable feeling inside his body told him his Ascension wouldn't succeed.
But he wanted to try anyway.
[Stamina: 89] [Spirit: 110]
His stamina wasn't full, but that was fine.
Ye Qiyan took out a Healing Lollipop Shaya had given him and put it in his mouth.
A sweet scent filled his nose, and his stamina kept recovering at an incredible speed.
In just one second, it rose from 89 points to 100.
At this rate, it could restore at least ten stamina points per second.
Without wasting any time, Ye Qiyan pressed his hand against the level 4 treasure chest.
Ascension-
In an instant, his stamina and spirit poured away wildly, like water through opened floodgates.
The Healing Lollipop's power continually replenished him.
But it was still only a drop in the bucket.
It was as though the Ascension talent was never supposed to reach level 5.
At that moment, Ye Qiyan finally understood what he had been sensing all along.
It was not that his stamina and mental energy were insufficient, but that above level 4, whether treasure chests, buildings, or anything else-
They were all resisting Ascension.
In that case, should he give up?
There was still time to give up now.
Otherwise, his stamina and mental energy might very well be drained completely dry.
But conversely, if he really gave up, wouldn't that mean his Ascension talent could go no further?
Shaya had said that once someone possessed a talent, it absolutely could not be changed.
If he stopped here, Ascension would also remain stuck at the level 4 threshold.
He could not accept that, nor was he willing to.
"Can't be changed, huh?"
Ye Qiyan was smiling, his other hand pressed against his chest, right over his heart.
"Then I'll just have to give it a try."
"I'm going to use Ascension on my own Ascension talent!"
This insane act seemed to flip some kind of switch.
Countless dazzling red Light Screens kept appearing. Viewed from outside, his train was already shrouded in red.
Everyone throughout Train World felt an indescribable wave of fear at that moment.
And the one who had caused all this fell unconscious amid the red Light Screens.
"Ugh..."
[Arriving shortly at the Sixth Station] [Fork in Destiny triggered. Please choose between the following two platforms for your stop] [Platform one: ...] [Platform two: ...], [An error has occurred. Correcting.] [Correction failed.]
"What's that sound?"
[Fork in Destiny is triggering. Please select a platform within five seconds, or the platforms will automatically refresh]
"I can't wake up..."
[Selection countdown: 5...4...3...2...1] [Time limit exceeded. Module: Fork in Destiny is randomizing platforms again] [Platform selection complete] [Please remain seated and hold on. The Sixth Station the train will arrive at is...] [Hope Valley (level 4 Slaughter Platform)]
The train was accelerating.
The surroundings were changing.
Passing through the void, the wilderness outside the windows became a forest.
[Departure countdown: ∞] [Error!!] [Removing interference!] [Revision complete. Correct!] [Departure countdown: ...] [Forced system revision! Eliminating the interferer!] [Elimination successful!!!] [Departure countdown: 09:59:59!] [This stop: extremely dangerous!] [Please be careful. May you survive.] [Special notice: there will be a special reward after this stop ends. Please do your best to survive until departure]
Inside the quiet train, Ye Qiyan gradually regained consciousness.
Before you continue