“Brother Andersen, are you interested in joining the Illuminati?” ID Hope to Survive sent An Bai an invitation.
“Is it also the Survival Alliance?”
“Yes. You seem like a good person, so I thought I’d invite you to join as well.”
“Have you already joined?” An Bai asked.
“Yes. As it happens, the president is actually a childhood friend of mine.”
“What do you think, Brother Andersen? My childhood friend is a decent person. You only need to occasionally give him some common materials, and he’ll compensate you with food and water.”
Seeing that An Bai remained silent for a long time, he continued asking.
“No, thanks. I don’t want to join any alliance for now.” An Bai repeated the concerns of several people from the chat channel.
“I see. It’s fine. If you need anything later, just let me know.” He expressed his understanding of An Bai’s thoughts.
“Okay!”
An Bai stared at the screen in silence for a long time. He really wanted to persuade him not to join this so-called Survival Alliance.
However, his finger lingered above the manual for a long while, and in the end, all the words he wanted to say became a sigh.
“I hope he can truly survive to the end.” An Bai could only offer his silent blessing.
Afterward, several more people privately messaged him to ask whether An Bai wanted to join, but An Bai rejected them all.
His gaze remained fixed on the materials section of the Bronze Shop. According to his estimate, it would not be long before this section unlocked.
Sure enough, before long, the previously dim materials section began to glow again.
An Bai clicked into it without hesitation, and a stream of information immediately burrowed into his mind.
【Materials required for train 1567’s upgrade: 10 iron blocks, 5 glass, 0.5 lubricating oil】
“Why aren’t the units listed? And what the heck is lubricating oil?”
Although An Bai was somewhat puzzled, his hands did not stop. He rapidly exchanged the items he had collected for goods in the System Shop.
Among nearly three billion people, quite a few were also watching the shop.
An Bai was considered very fast on an individual level, but against such a vast population, he did not seem particularly quick.
Even so, he exchanged 50 jin of solid pine resin, more than 40 Salt Peaches, and 10 jin of wild fruit for 5 glass, 0.5 lubricating oil, and 7 iron blocks.
It was a fairly good haul.
Another factor behind this result was that the other three sections had already sold out during the daytime.
At present, many people were experiencing some “resource shortages.”
【Survival Manual reminder: survivors need not worry. As long as sufficient raw materials for the train upgrade are provided, the train can be upgraded】
“I only need 3 more iron blocks!”
He was eagerly anticipating the upgraded train.
After obtaining the iron blocks and glass, the space inside the train became even more cramped, making it somewhat difficult even to walk.
An Bai lay on the bed, unable to fully stretch out his limbs.
Outside, everything was still pitch-black. However, after Mist Mode was activated, there were far fewer flickering figures in the night than the previous evening.
The exhaustion from the daytime’s labor soon sent An Bai into dreamland.
.....
The sound of dripping water appeared in An Bai’s dream.
Following the stream flowing across the concrete floor, he saw a filthy boy curled up in a corner.
“You little bastard!” An elderly man in his fifties lashed the boy’s back viciously with a whip.
The boy squeezed his eyes shut from the pain, but tears still forced their way through the slits.
He did not dare resist, because resisting would bring even more severe consequences.
To that old bastard, he and the other children in this institution were merely tools for satisfying his perverse sadistic urges.
In an instant, torrential rain began to pour, and the elderly man left when he saw it.
The Little Boy leaned against the wall like that, allowing the heavy rain to batter his frail body. His expression was numb, and his eyes were unfocused.
His body temperature began to drop, and his hands grew icy cold.
“I’ll be able to see Daddy and Mommy once I reach heaven.” Those were his last words before losing consciousness.
“Daddy! Mommy!” An Bai bolted upright in bed.
When he remembered that he was in the Rail-Track World, he hurriedly lay back down. His instinctive reaction had startled him into a cold sweat.
Of course, the nightmare was also part of the reason.
“Old Fan! I really want to have a few drinks with you.” For some reason, An Bai felt rather EMO.
If not for Old Fan, he would probably have been killed by that perverted old man long ago.
It had only been two days since he came to this world, yet An Bai had already somewhat forgotten Old Fan’s exact appearance, remembering only an outline.
“How strange!” An Bai shook his head and tried hard to recall it, but he simply could not remember Old Fan’s exact appearance.
【Polar Night has arrived. The train is departing】
This was the first time An Bai had heard the Polar Night alert. The Mechanical Voice pulled him back from his memories.
The train began to move slowly. As usual, it stopped accelerating once it reached the painfully slow speed of 5 m/s.
He desperately hoped that daytime would arrive immediately, allowing the Bronze Shop to refresh so he could exchange for the remaining iron blocks and upgrade his train.
Yet the more he anticipated it, the more slowly time seemed to pass.
Bored, he opened the Survival Manual again and began scrolling through people’s chat logs.
Unexpectedly, Dawn Wind and Waning Moon accepted his friend request.
An Bai smiled smugly. Seeing that she had only accepted it without saying anything, he ignored her and continued observing the latest developments.
“I’ve already upgraded my train!” someone said excitedly.
“Really?”
“Of course. There’s an abandoned mine near where my train stopped, and there are plenty of good things inside!”
“You really stepped in dog shit. How can your luck be so good?”
“Hahaha, you flatter me, you flatter me.”
“Did you exchange the upgrade materials through the System Shop?”
“No. I opened a treasure chest, and it contained iron blocks, glass, and other things needed for the train upgrade.”
“What a coincidence?”
“Yes!”
【Due to the excessive number of deaths, some novice chests will be distributed as compensation. Their locations are random】
“Nearly one hundred million people have died in just two days. Looks like the behind-the-scenes operator is getting anxious.” An Bai let out a cold laugh.
Before An Bai could continue laughing, the Survival Manual began beeping again.
The fourth page had actually opened. Previously, the manual could only open its first three pages.
An Bai hurriedly opened the fourth page, only to find it completely blank. There was nothing on it.
Just as he was about to close the manual, a yellow light point appeared on the blank page.
The light point slowly flickered on the page, leaving An Bai completely baffled.
Immediately afterward, another blue light point appeared below it, on the lower half of the page.
The two light points flickered at roughly the same frequency, but the blue light point appeared slightly brighter.
He switched to the chat channel and found that everyone’s Survival Manual was the same, though none of them could figure out what it was.
An Bai turned back to the fourth page and this time stared closely at the two light points.
He always felt that the blue light point gave off a profound sensation. It was clearly only a light point, yet it evoked the same aberration as a mass grave beneath a downpour.
And approximately 200 kilometers from An Bai, above the railway track that appeared only during the night and Polar Night.
The mist there was denser than elsewhere. In that place wrapped in heavy darkness and mist, blue light occasionally flashed.
“It was train conductor 1567 who killed you all!”
“No, it was train conductor 1567 who killed me, not you all. Hee hee hee hee hee hee.”
The voice sounded strange, with various tones mixed together: the voice of a little girl, the shrill voice of a woman, the voice of a middle-aged man, and others.
As the Aberrant words faded, the train radiating a dim blue light also began to move, slowly heading into the distance.
“Train conductor 1567, I’m coming for you!”
✦✦✦