Curio: Never-Ending Steam Train, No. 15

Where the locomotive was heading, there were... exposed boulders.

What was this thing doing?

Charging straight into the mountainside?

There wasn't even a tunnel there!

Yang Yong's gaze swept across the carriages, meeting pair after pair of eyes.

People sat beside almost every window in those carriages, all looking toward the Survival Convoy.

Their eyes were filled with the emptiness wrought by the apocalypse.

Boom.

A white light appeared at the front of the train without warning.

Then... the train plunged into the mountainside.

"It actually... went straight through the mountain. What kind of monster is that?" Yang Yong murmured.

The world was vast, full of all kinds of wonders.

This train could burrow underground, pass through mountains, and even travel across water. It seemed capable of anything.

"That should be a Curio."

At that moment, Cao Xianming was tapping continuously on the Data Model before him.

He was probably converting everything he had just seen into data and entering it.

Yang Yong glanced at what Old Cao was entering. It was like an ordinary person watching a master programmer code: he recognized every individual character, but once they were put together, he couldn't understand a thing.

One look at it nearly triggered Yang Yong's trypophobia, so he walked away, utterly speechless.

Meanwhile, the people in the convoy were still in shock, unable to recover for a long time.

"What was that just now? A steam train that can pass through mountains? Have I gone crazy, or has the world gone crazy?"

Something that shattered their understanding of the world had happened, and none of them could accept it for a moment.

Yet it also seemed perfectly reasonable.

They were already living through an Eerie apocalypse. What was so surprising about a few strange things appearing?

Almost everyone slowly convinced themselves inwardly: the world was vast, full of all kinds of wonders.

Gradually, their shock at this strange encounter faded.

When Yang Yong saw that Cao Xianming had stopped entering information, he went over to look.

He watched the Data Model constantly rotating, rearranging and combining itself like a Rubik's Cube, until it finally produced a result:

[Curio: Never-Ending Steam Train, No. 15]

Sure enough, that steam train was a Curio, and one ranked as high as fifteenth.

No wonder it could pull so many carriages on its migration.

He had no idea what the situation was with the people aboard.

The Never-Ending Steam Train-how did they normally gather supplies?

Did the train never stop?

Perhaps the apocalypse had forced them into this too.

With the apocalypse underway and everyone migrating to survive, wouldn't having a vehicle that could pass through mountains and burrow underground mean they wouldn't have to worry about encountering strange Eerie beings?

Yang Yong immediately thought of that giant snake.

If they had possessed a Curio like this when they encountered that giant snake, they could have simply burrowed underground and left. Wouldn't they have been able to lead it around for fun however they liked?

As Yang Yong lay there, looking up and letting his imagination run wild, Cao Xianming brought him back to reality with a remark:

"Don't bother imagining it. There's no saying which method of migration is best or worst. There are Eerie beings everywhere-in the sky, underground, and in the water. Traveling like that certainly has its advantages, but of course it has its drawbacks too. Their means of migration is simply different from ours. Fundamentally, there's not much difference. For all we know, the people aboard that train might be thinking about getting off it."

Cao Xianming suddenly made that leisurely remark.

That left Yang Yong at a complete loss.

What was going on?

They had such an incredible vehicle, yet they wanted to leave it?

Who would be that stupid?

Very soon, however, he was about to be proven wrong.

The whistle that had already faded into the distance suddenly grew louder and louder again. Clearly, the train was heading back toward them.

"What's going on?" Yang Yong looked at Cao Xianming.

Cao Xianming looked equally puzzled. He immediately began running a prediction and soon reached a conclusion. "No fighting will break out during this encounter."

Cao Xianming adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and spoke to Wang Ying behind him.

"Put down the blade. If my calculations are correct, they're coming to trade with us."

Soon, the steam train emerged from the mountain again and headed straight toward the Survival Convoy. They were its destination.

Cao Xianming was a little curious now too: that steam train was called the Never-Ending Steam Train, so how did the people aboard get on and off?

Just as that question occurred to him, he saw the answer.

When the steam train drew close to them, someone jumped off.

This person was quite impressive too. The steam train was moving so fast, yet he jumped straight off it.

"He must have Sequence Transcendence. If an ordinary person tried that, they'd be crippled if they didn't die."

Yet he jumped down and landed steadily, as casually as if he were taking a leisurely stroll.

Then he slowly walked toward them along the highway.

Cao Xianming hid behind his off-road vehicle and watched him. Although he knew this man probably wouldn't fight the convoy and was likely here to trade supplies, the crafty fellow still quietly moved his vehicle beside Wang Ying's off-road vehicle.

Everyone watched as the person slowly approached.

He was a man.

He looked about thirty and wore a tailcoat.

It was the sort of tailcoat magicians had worn before the apocalypse. He was polished and immaculate from head to toe, as though he were about to go onstage to perform.

He seemed to be walking slowly, but he was actually moving very quickly. Within a few minutes, he reached the front of the convoy.

"Hello, everyone. My name is Zou Wei, and my Sequence is called 'Magician.' May I ask which convoy you belong to, and who your captain is?"

The man gave an elegant salute, then swept his gaze across everyone's faces before finally settling on Yang Yong's.

Seeing him look over, Yang Yong shook his head. "I'm not the captain. He is."

He pointed at Cao Xianming, who was hiding behind the off-road vehicle.

Only then did Old Cao adjust his gold-rimmed glasses and stand up. "Hello, hello. Cao Xianming, captain of the Survival Convoy. Data Analyst Sequence."

Old Cao stepped forward and shook hands with Zou Wei.

The two began chatting intermittently.

As it turned out, the main reason Zou Wei had gotten off the train to approach them was that, from aboard the train, he had seen the densely packed sacks tied to their bus and off-road vehicles, and especially those in the bed of Yang Yong's farm truck. They were clearly all rice.

They wanted to trade for those supplies.

After all, only Transcendents could get off the steam train while it was moving at high speed.

They hardly ever gathered supplies. The steam train could pass through mountains and burrow underground, frequently encountering all sorts of strange materials, which they would trade with other convoys.

This time, Zou Wei had also brought several kinds of materials to trade.

Cao Xianming and Zou Wei went back and forth, discussing who knew what, looking very much as though they were ready to come to blows at the slightest disagreement.