Chapter 25
Chapter 25: Zhao Lin’s Talent and
[ “So hot, so hot, so hot, so hot, so hot! ! ! I’m about to bake to death! Just how high is the temperature outside right now! ?” ]
[ “At least forty degrees. The hottest times in the place I used to live were about the same as this.” ]
[ “Water… Who can sell me a little water? I can’t take it anymore.” ]
[ “Didn’t you guys collect water during yesterday’s thunderstorm? Even if it isn’t very clean, at least you can drink it after boiling it, right?” ]
[ “Of course I collected it, but what good does that do? With this kind of heat, the water I just drank is sweated right back out a moment later. What’s more, this Train is just an iron box. With the sun beating down outside, how is this place any different from an oven?” ]
[ “Just bear with it for a few more hours and we’ll reach the next stop. The broadcast didn’t say the next stop would also have this kind of damn weather.” ]
[ “Bear with it? Hehe, take a look at your own Mental Power. Haven’t you guys noticed? Ever since this temperature started, both our Mental Power and Stamina stats have been steadily dropping. I can only slow the rate down a tiny bit when I splash some cold water on myself… If this keeps on, even if I don’t bake to death, I’m afraid I’ll go crazy.” ]
Wiping the sweat from his brow, Ye Qiyan chugged down a bottle of mineral water and opened his personal interface to check his information.
[Stamina: 98] [Mental Power: 110]
His Stamina was indeed decreasing, but his Mental Power hadn’t changed the way others described.
“My Mental Power seems a bit different from other people’s? Could it be because I ate too much White Forest Fruit?”
Bang!
A gunshot interrupted his thoughts.
Looking toward the sound,
it was the alert device firing.
Outside the Train, a group of emaciated jackals had gathered at some unknown point, chasing in the direction of the Train.
Their speed wasn’t fast compared to the Level 3 Train. What was truly concerning was that these monsters didn’t come with a Train broadcast prompt like nighttime survival; instead, they suddenly appeared outside and pursued the Train.
And this kind of thing might just become the norm in the future.
“They don’t appear together? This is really completely random.”
No one had mentioned this in the Chat Room, which meant the pack of jackals Ye Qiyan ran into was purely his own bad luck.
[You have a new message]
The private chat interface flickered slightly.
Someone had sent him a message.
Zhao Lin: [Brother Ye, are there any monsters outside your Train?]
It was Zhao Lin, the person who made the automatic fishing rod and also a trader who gave him peace of mind.
Did she run into monsters?
Ye Qiyan glanced at the jackals outside that were gradually falling behind.
[ “Did you run into them too?” ]
[ “Yeah. If I hadn’t barely managed to raise my Train speed to 35 kilometers after the fourth stop, I’m afraid I would have been caught. Those birds are really terrifying; many of them crashed right into the glass as they flew by. If it weren’t for the gun you sold me, Brother Ye, I’d be dead for sure.” ]
Birds, huh? They weren’t the same type of monsters as the jackals he encountered.
[ “Oh, so what are you buying this time?” ]
[ “…I want to buy materials for upgrading, but I don’t have any Train Coins right now. Can I pay with fish meat instead?” ]
ID E-3-7741
Dressed very coolly, Zhao Lin nervously looked at the messages in the private chat interface.
Sweat streamed down her wheat-colored skin.
She was very afraid that Ye Qiyan would refuse her purchase.
But she truly couldn’t think of anyone else to buy upgrade materials from.
After all, Train speed equaled life, and there were only two days left until the next nighttime survival session. Right now, all surviving survivors were striving hard to upgrade their Train, and virtually no one was willing to sell upgrade materials.
“If even Brother Ye refuses to sell to me, what am I going to do… Sigh, my Talent is really screwing me over so much.”
Zhao Lin was also a Talent holder.
[Conservation of Luck]
[After good luck comes bad luck, and after bad luck comes good luck]
At the third stop, her luck was abysmal, landing her in a pitch-black, damp bat cave. She didn’t dare leave the Train at all, stubbornly holding out inside the Train for three hours.
Her fourth stop was a fish pond. Using the fishing rod she had been crafting since the very beginning, she actually managed to catch over a hundred fish and a Level 1 treasure chest within a mere three hours.
You have to know she didn’t have any bait at all; those fish just blindly slammed into her fishhook as if they were blind.
Without a doubt, that was a stroke of good luck.
But what about next time?
Next time was destined to be bad luck, and there was a high probability she still wouldn’t be able to upgrade her Train. That would leave her with only one stop’s chance before the subsequent nighttime survival.
Zhao Lin didn’t dare gamble on being able to obtain upgradeable resources within a single stop.
She could only pray in her heart that she could buy them from Ye Qiyan, the only bigshot who might possibly sell resources to her.
Seeing Zhao Lin’s message, Ye Qiyan chose to refuse without even thinking.
He wasn’t lacking food right now. Selling a hundred bullets to Zhao Lin earlier was just because he happened to feel like it and low-level bullets weren’t of much use to him anymore.
[ “Sorry, not interested.” ]
Zhao Lin panicked, as if her last straw of hope was about to snap.
[ “Don’t, don’t do that, Brother Ye! Just consider it… consider it saving me. I beg you to sell me some resources! Right now, the only person I can think of who can pull out upgrade resources is you! If I don’t upgrade again, I definitely won’t survive the next nighttime survival.” ]
[ “There are still two stops’ time, it’s not completely impossible to reach Level 2.” ]
[ “Others might be able to, but I can’t… Brother Ye, I have a Talent…” ]
Gritting her teeth, Zhao Lin revealed the secret of her Talent entirely.
Looking at the screenshot sent by the other party, this was the first time Ye Qiyan had seen someone else’s Talent besides his own.
“Good luck and bad luck alternate. Uh, what an abstract Talent. My Sublimation is still better. But it’s no wonder she’s in a rush; if the next stop is bad luck, even if the one after that is good luck, it’s not certain she’ll be able to finish upgrading.”
Ye Qiyan thought for a moment.
[ “How much are you still missing?” ]
[ “38 kilograms of wood, 22 kilograms of metal, and 14 mechanical parts.” ]
[ “You should have opened a treasure chest before this, right? Give me the items from the chest, plus ten fish. Also, after you finish upgrading, I want to see your upgrade options. Oh, forget about that fishing rod blueprint; I want the treasure chest you opened at the previous stop, don’t get it wrong.” ]
He indeed had the items. After all, he was the very first Train Captain among all to use firearms to trade for materials. If it were now, even if he took out those guns again, it would be hard to trade for basic materials that could affect Train upgrades like this.
However, Ye Qiyan wasn’t a philanthropist. Helping her out was just because the other party possessed a Talent, and perhaps she could conduct better trades with him in the future.
[ “Okay! Thank you, you really are a good person! I’ll repay you!” ]
The trade was completed. Amidst a circle of light, several items and ten freshwater fish appeared in front of him.
