This night, no one slept more soundly than Ethan Ye.
Countless others had been kept awake by the relentless roar of their engines and the biting wind of the wasteland. For them, Stamina and Spirit had not recovered; instead, they had plummeted further.
[10:27]
Ethan awoke from his slumber.
Stretching his stiff limbs, he glanced at the time and ran a quick calculation.
"Yesterday, I pulled into the first station at 1:00 PM. Does that mean it's 1:00 PM for everyone today? But how does that work for me?"
He had departed an hour later than the rest. Would his arrival be delayed accordingly?
Leaving the first carriage and returning to the engine, he felt the temperature drop significantly. His private message inbox was already overflowing. With the arrival at the second station looming—and the warning that safety was no longer guaranteed—the value of firearms was skyrocketing.
"Hm?"
Lu Zhou: ["Can I trade using a blueprint?"]
The importance of blueprints was indisputable. Owning one was equivalent to owning an automated lathe that could churn out infinite products as long as materials were supplied. No one was a fool; up until now, even though the guns were tempting, no one had been willing to part with a blueprint. This Lu Zhou was the first.
"What kind of blueprint could it be?"
Driven by curiosity, Ethan sent a reply.
["Hello. What blueprint are you offering for trade?"]
ID: E-3-9802
Lu Zhou sat slumped on the floor of his train. Hearing the chime of the system notification, he scrambled to his feet and ran to the console. Seeing the message, he typed back frantically:
["I'll send you a screenshot right now!"]
An information window soon appeared before Ethan.
[Level 1 Train Seat Blueprint] [Required: 5kg Metal, 3kg Wood, 3kg Plastic, 1kg Fiber]
A chair?
Ethan was a bit surprised. It was hard to say if this was valuable or not; certainly, few would waste resources on furniture right now. But a blueprint was a blueprint—it was a reusable asset.
In the old world, a gun and ammo were worth far more, but here, the value gap between a depreciating low-level firearm and a permanent manufacturing schematic was shrinking fast. At least in Ethan's eyes.
He decided the prices. If he could sell a gun to Li Xiaosheng for 150kg of metal, he could certainly sell one to Lu Zhou for a chair blueprint. To him, the "price" was never fixed; it depended entirely on his immediate needs.
He was tempted. With a chair, he'd finally have somewhere to sit other than the cold floor.
["Deal. However, I can only offer 10 rounds of ammunition with the gun. This blueprint isn't exactly high-tier. If you need more ammo, you'll have to buy it with other resources."]
The moment the reply hit his screen, Lu Zhou's sweat-drenched face erupted in joy.
["Ten rounds is fine! Thank you! Thank you so much! I'm sending it now!"] ["You don't know how much this gun means to me! Without it, I'll definitely die at the next station! Definitely!"]
Hm?
Ethan caught a strange vibe from Lu Zhou's words. Definitely die?
Even if the second station wasn't guaranteed to be safe, "certain death" seemed like an extreme prediction. Why was he so sure? A Talent?
Ethan didn't decline the trade. Just like before, he didn't care what secrets others held. Everyone had them.
Once the trade was finalized, Ethan took the blueprint to the Processing Table and crafted it immediately. A black chair appeared before him. Sitting in it gave Ethan a sudden, jarring sense of being back in civilized society.
"I never realized how much a simple chair mattered."
He shook his head and returned to his arms dealing. By the time the one-hour countdown to the second station began, he had successfully sold another fifteen rifles and 300 rounds. He kept the rest; the second station was an unknown variable.
[Stamina: 98][Spirit: 100]
Seeing his stats nearly maxed out, Ethan picked up one of the remaining low-level rifles.
"Sublimation."
The familiar drain hit him, but compared to the Colt, the rifle didn't tax him nearly as much.
[Stamina: 85]
"Only thirteen points? And its potential is exhausted; it can't be sublimated further."
Ethan wasn't disappointed. He looked at the rifle, now etched with a shimmering golden hue, and opened the system description.
[Exquisite Marksman Rifle] (Level 2)
"Low-level" had become "Exquisite." The power of its shots had more than doubled. Of course, compared to his Level 3 Blacklight Enchanted Pistol, it was still a tier below.
"This should be enough."
The countdown for the second station ticked away. The atmosphere in the chat room grew increasingly oppressive, the number of active speakers dwindling. Ethan organized his gear and waited in silence.
Thirty minutes before arrival, the familiar light screen flickered into view.
[Crossroads of Fate triggered. Please select a platform for docking.]
[Platform 1: Goblin Camp (Level 2 Hunting Station)] [Platform 2: White Forest (Level 3 Collection Station)]
"It's changed?"
Compared to the first time, his exclusive module now provided more information: station levels and specific suffixes.
"Hunting and Collection? Level 2 and Level 3... it seems because I upgraded the train, higher-level stations are appearing. And it looks like the options are always tiered. Was the Armory Level 2?"
"No, it was likely Level 1, given the loot."
Ethan pondered for a moment before selecting [White Forest]. A "Collection" station sounded inherently less dangerous than a "Hunting" one.
[Selection Complete.] [Please hold on tight. The train is arriving at the second station...] [White Forest]
Five minutes passed in a flash. The spatial ripple swallowed the train once more. A pale, ashen light bathed the world. Looking out the window, a forest of ghostly white trees filled his vision.
[Current Platform: White Forest] [Docking Countdown: 3:59:59] [Good luck.] [This station: Low Danger.]
"Arrival time is consistent. Low Danger..."
Taking a deep breath, Ethan holstered his pistol, slung the rifle over his back, and shouldered a pack filled with food and water. Standing before the door, he pressed the release.
The moment he stepped off the train, the world fell into a deathly silence.
Ethan surveyed his surroundings. Every tree in this realm possessed an ashen-white trunk and matching leaves. A faint-hearted person would have lost their nerve immediately; it was so quiet he could hear his own heartbeat.
The "Low Danger" tag confirmed this wouldn't be a simple "take what you want" trip like the Armory. But Ethan didn't regret his choice. In fact, he had prepared for this the moment he made the selection.
He noted that no one in the chat room had ever mentioned these danger ratings or suffixes. It seemed this was another benefit of his "Crossroads of Fate."
Ethan focused his mind and looked toward the depths of the hauntingly white woods.
"It said 'Collection Station,' but I can't see anything worth collecting yet. Is it just timber? That wouldn't make it different from any other forest."
"Wait... is that a path?"