"The train is about to depart, may you all live forever."
"Where am I?"
Thump, thump...
Ye Qiyan woke up in a train carriage, pressing his somewhat sore head as he opened his eyes.
"A carriage?"
Ye Qiyan couldn't recall what happened yesterday. His last memory was staying up late watching anime, and then everything suddenly went black, as if a part of his memory was missing.
"Did I die from staying up late and end up in hell?"
At this moment, the voice that had just appeared sounded again.
"All survivors have awakened."
"The Basic Train Rules are being distributed."
"1. Do not abandon your train!"
"2. Every 24 hours after departure, all trains will arrive at a new platform."
"3. After arriving at a platform, you can stop for three hours and choose whether to disembark."
"4. Please collect supplies. Supplies can enhance the train level, and each level upgrade will trigger an upgrade module option."
"5. Do not leave the train before arriving at a platform."
"6. Survive."
"The rules are as above."
"Please, be sure to follow them!"
"The train will arrive at the first station in one hour, please prepare."
This long broadcast made Ye Qiyan instinctively pinch his own face.
"Hiss, this really isn't a dream?"
The soreness in his brain gradually dissipated. He struggled to stand up from the cold floor and began to observe his surroundings. Just as he saw upon waking, he was in a train carriage, with the endless wasteland outside the windows retreating continuously.
The only thing noteworthy in the carriage was an elliptical device at the front, with a floating light screen above it, clearly displaying "Train Control System."
Without hesitation, Ye Qiyan stepped forward to touch it.
"The Train System at your service."
"Current options available: Train Conductor Information, Train Details, Chat Room, Trading Platform."
"Chat Room?"
"Current number of people: 10000/10000"
"'Who are you people? Let me go! I have money! My godfather is very rich! Let me go back!'"
"'Medicine, where's my medicine!'"
"'Husband, husband, where are you, it's Xiaowen.'"
"'What the hell is going on, have I transmigrated?'"
"'Hahaha! Transmigration is great! I finally don't have to go to work and deal with my boss tomorrow!'"
A flood of dialogue scrolled by, and one line suddenly caught Ye Qiyan's attention.
"'Heh, what a bunch of idiots, acting so well. Do you think I'm a fool? This must be your show trying to film a variety program, right? I've seen documentaries before, it used to be about going to space, now it's about trains, how unoriginal. I'm getting off now, I don't believe you'll let me get hurt!'"
"'Calm down, man! What kind of variety show can kidnap ten thousand people!'"
"'Let him try, maybe it's real.'"
"'The guy above is idiot number two.'"
In less than a minute, that person never appeared again, and the number of people in the chat room changed from 10000 to 9999.
Did he die?
Ye Qiyan shook his head and stopped thinking about it.
He closed the chat room and scrolled the light screen to the train details.
"Level 1 Train"
"Carriage: None"
"Speed: 20 kilometers per hour"
"Workbench: Level 1 (can recycle and decompose resource items)"
"Chassis: Level 1"
"Wheels: Level 1"
"Base: Level 1"
"Upgrade requirements: 100 kilograms of wood, 150 kilograms of metal, 50 mechanical parts"
Speed?
If, as stated in the train rules, the time to reach the platform is fixed at 24 hours, then what is the significance of the train's speed?
However, what puzzled him more was, if they all arrived at the same time, ten thousand people meant ten thousand trains. How massive must the platform be to accommodate them all?
Ye Qiyan sensed something strange and instinctively looked out the window at the seemingly endless wasteland.
"Could it be that if the speed is too slow, something will catch up?"
Continuing to scroll, he opened the personal information interface.
"Train Conductor Name: Ye Qiyan"
"ID Number: E-3-1102"
"Owned Train: Level 1 Train"
"Mental: 100 (When mental drops below 80, you will enter a state of mental fatigue. Below 50, you will enter self-doubt. Below 20, you will enter a sanity dissipation state. Below 10, you will enter a state of mental madness. Below 1, you will???)"
"Stamina: 100 (Can naturally recover through eating or resting. Below 0, you will enter an extreme lethargy state.)"
"Ability: None"
"Talent: Sublimation"
"Train Module: None"
"Talent, what is this?"
"Sublimation: Can consume stamina or mental energy to sublimate and evolve any existence, without category, level, or condition limitations."
He quickly opened the chat room and searched for the keyword "talent," finding no one discussing it.
If most people had similar talents, there would definitely be someone who couldn't keep their mouth shut and would reveal it in the chat room. Since there wasn't, it indicated that talent holders were a minority, perhaps even a very small minority.
Ye Qiyan fell into thought. Why did he have this? Was it his cheat?
Come to think of it, he was indeed somewhat different from others in the past world. Like how a nearly scrapped computer could suddenly play large AAA games after he touched it, or how an ordinary car could be driven at sports car speeds.
Friends joked that he could delight the machine spirits, but Ye Qiyan always chalked it up to coincidence.
But this talent on his personal information seemed to be telling him it wasn't a coincidence.
"Sublimate everything? How do I do it?"
Ye Qiyan pondered as he walked to the workbench in the carriage, where a bottle of water, a piece of bread, and a small knife were placed.
These were items everyone had, probably considered as beginner's benefits?
"Crude Knife" Level 1
"Sublimate."
Ye Qiyan silently chanted in his heart.
In the next instant, an invisible force swept over the crude knife.
His stamina on the personal information dropped from 100 to 90.
"Sharpness-Enchanted Dagger" Level 2
"It worked!"
Looking at the dagger in his hand, gleaming with a cold light, Ye Qiyan's eyes were full of excitement.
"This talent can actually do such a thing, and the stamina consumption isn't too much, it's acceptable."
Swinging the dagger, the sharp blade whistled through the air, clearly showing that after one sublimation, the quality of this dagger far surpassed its former state.
It was hard to imagine what a piece of junk this dagger used to be.
"Wait, if that's the case!"
Ye Qiyan suddenly lifted his head to look around.
More precisely, he was looking at the front of the train carriage.
"The train should be able to undergo sublimation too, right?"
The talent description said that all existences could undergo sublimation, so the train should be included.
Ye Qiyan took a deep breath, his eyes filled with curiosity and excitement for the unknown.
He walked to the control panel, as if a voice inside him was guiding him on what to do, and placed his hand on the elliptical device.
"Sublimate."