So He Was a Lunatic

As expected, some people began getting ideas after learning that they could remain at the station indefinitely.

Shangguan Yingxue emerged from the Shopping Hall and scoffed at the conversation in the chatroom. Taking her haul with her, she boarded her train and left.

Unlike her, Li Xiaosheng did not leave.

Although he had no intention of staying here either, the Alliance he had founded had already agreed to meet here.

Besides, Li Xiaosheng had a plan to rake in resources.

Since we can remain at the platform indefinitely, as long as my Alliance members block these twenty tracks, everyone else will have to wait outside. If they don't pay the toll, they can forget about entering the station.

As time passed, more and more people entered the platform.

Among them, thanks to the basic resources Li Xiaosheng had provided, his Alliance members arrived faster than the others and occupied most of the twenty tracks.

Those who arrived at the Trading Platform later could only stop outside, where monsters kept appearing and attacking them.

They could only band together for protection and hurl abuse at Li Xiaosheng in the chatroom.

["Li Xiaosheng, I XX your XX! What the hell are you blocking the entrance for? Hurry up and let me in!"]

["Do you own this station? What gives you the right to demand resources from us? Fuck, one Train Coin to let us through? Who the hell do you think you are?"]

["Fucking idiot. I'll kill him once I get inside."]

["Heh, whose fault is it that you arrived late? If you'd entered the station first, you could've done the same thing. You're just incompetent. Brother Li did nothing wrong!"]

The Alliance members who had benefited joined in, trading insults with the others.

But one thing they said was right: they had arrived too late, and control had never been in their hands.

With more and more monsters gathering outside, some people chose to compromise and paid Li Xiaosheng's Alliance a toll to enter the station.

Li Xiaosheng tasted power as he never had before.

"Just as I thought, I came to this world to be the protagonist!"

He could hardly wait to show off his success to someone. He brought up the light screen and entered the number etched in his memory.

"Ye Qiyan, heh. You're the one person I'll never let in!"

He fetched water and watered the tree.

Ye Qiyan deftly plucked a fruit from the tree and took a bite.

"This still tastes better. I'm getting a little tired of all that meat and fish."

Anyone else who heard that would probably be furious.

The light screen floated beside him, displaying the private chat interface.

A message appeared before Ye Qiyan just then.

"Li Xiaosheng? Why is he contacting me again?"

He thought for a moment. Since he had nothing to do right now anyway, he might as well see what the man had to say.

["Ye Qiyan, I'm giving you one last chance. Hand over that rifle blueprint, and I'll consider letting you onto the platform. Otherwise, you can just wait outside to die!"]

Enter the station?

He had left the station ages ago.

And what's with that tone? Had I done something to offend this guy?

Another message arrived.

["What? Too scared to speak? Hahaha, I'll tell you the truth. Even if you hand over that blueprint, I'll still make sure you die outside! Do you really think a low-grade rifle blueprint is that valuable? I'll repay your humiliation twice over!"]

"No wonder I always thought there was something strange about him. So he was a lunatic. Deleting him before was definitely the right call."

Ye Qiyan could not be bothered with this lunatic. He tapped the light screen and replied with one word.

["Oh."]

Then he blocked and muted him in one go, completely cutting off contact with Li Xiaosheng.

Inside the station, Li Xiaosheng, who had been waiting for Ye Qiyan's reply, saw the word "Oh." Veins immediately bulged on his forehead. He hammered furiously at the light screen and typed out a long string of messages, only to discover that the send button had turned gray.

"Blocked me?! He dared to block me!"

Li Xiaosheng's face flushed scarlet, as ugly as a big-headed clown about to burst.

Time passed.

Even without paying a toll to Li Xiaosheng's Alliance, more people were entering the station.

Because Li Xiaosheng's plan had one enormous, obvious flaw.

There were twenty tracks. To keep the people outside from entering, they had to occupy all twenty.

When someone outside paid, they had to get someone occupying a track to drive their train out of the station first, then tell the payer to follow immediately.

But that meant the Alliance members occupying the tracks kept leaving, while the outsiders who entered would not listen to Li Xiaosheng at all. They stayed or left as they pleased.

If not for some people who wanted to try staying after learning that they could remain at this station indefinitely, they would long since have been unable to keep all twenty tracks occupied.

Quite a few of those people were members of Li Xiaosheng's Alliance, and they had no intention of leaving at all.

The Alliance had gained very little.

This made Li Xiaosheng, who had spent a great deal of materials upgrading other Alliance members' wheels to increase their speed, look increasingly grim.

The so-called Alliance had never been a solid organization to begin with. Everyone had joined for free materials. When it actually came time to do something, pretending to comply while disobeying behind his back already counted as upstanding conduct.

Besides, if he could form an Alliance, others could secretly plot to snatch resources from him.

After all, he showed off his supplies all day long. Everyone knew how wealthy he was.

At this rate, he would become the most conspicuous fat sheep of all.

Even the Alliance members were gradually beginning to look at him differently. With no other choice, he could only slink out of the station. This garbage plan had not even earned back the resources he had given the other Alliance members.

Time continued to pass.

Li Xiaosheng's departure did not mean everyone could freely enter the station.

The twenty tracks remained firmly occupied. Even when the train conductors still outside offered resources to enter, no one paid them any attention.

Because those who remained there had no intention of leaving at all.

They figured that regardless of how long they could stay here or whether they had food, drink, and supplies, as long as they did not board their trains or encounter new stations, they could live a few more days no matter what.

Zhao Lin, who was still plagued by bad luck, was among those unable to enter the station.

Looking miserable, she clutched the gun she had bought from Ye Qiyan. Only this gave her the slightest sense of security.

"I didn't die inside a station, so now I'm going to die outside one? Boohoo... why am I so unlucky..."

Outside the train, the sounds of monsters could faintly be heard in the dark wilderness.

Zhao Lin curled up in a corner and covered her ears, burying her head in the sand.

As long as she could not hear them, she would pretend the monsters did not exist.

[24:00:00]

An eerie bell suddenly rang out.

All the monsters gathered outside the station scattered and fled, as though they had sensed something terrifying.

Zhao Lin raised her head in confusion and looked out the window. The enormous station looming ahead was being enveloped by a mass of black sludge. In the moonlight, it seemed as though it was alive.

Inside the station.

Having removed his mask, Smiley was nibbling away at the Whiteforest Fruit Ye Qiyan had given him.

He stood high in the air, gazing coldly down at the twenty people who had stayed behind and gathered together below.

"Foolish, pitiful... heh. The weak don't even deserve to be cursed."

"Stay? Indefinitely? In this world, stopping isn't an option."

Swirling pools of black sludge appeared beneath their feet.

They tried to flee in terror.

But within that sludge, even their trains were being steadily swallowed.

"H-help!"

Piercing screams echoed beneath the night sky.

Smiley continued nibbling at the Whiteforest Fruit.

"So delicious..."