Train Survival: I Can Evolve Everything!

When the radiance faded.

Only one thing remained in the sky.

"Hmm?"

Zhao Xi frowned as she looked at the war machine before her, which, though utterly battered, still maintained its shape.

"It is a Level 12 weapon after all, so it's indeed not that fragile. The people inside are all dead, and the intelligence has gone silent. Well, destroying it doesn't serve much purpose..."

The gap between Level 13 and Level 12 was indeed significant, but this war machine was truly powerful.

As one of the Inspectorate's trump cards, its ability to engage in combat with the Hunt-Patrol Mech-Dragon in Transcend Mode was enough to demonstrate its strength.

Even if it was being completely overwhelmed.

She pulled up her personal interface. Her physical stamina was manageable, but the mental stamina bar had already dropped below the 30 mark.

"Sigh..."

"But, it's about done anyway."

All those experts from the City of Eternal Night had been eliminated by the power of the black hole.

Three seconds.

Zhao Xi had maintained the warhead's power for three seconds.

She rubbed her slightly sore temples, glanced around, returned to the ground, and took out several mental recovery potions to drink.

"...Tch, can't recover anymore? The upper limit is temporarily locked... This happens every time I use the Transcend Mode warhead. Sigh.. then there's only the final..."

Tap—tap—

Zhao Xi heard it—the familiar sound of boots stepping on the ground approaching from not far away.

"Mayor..."

Sizzle—

Zhao Xi's hair turned silver-white once again.

Her gaze shifted toward the direction of the sound.

"Well done, as expected of you, little Xi."

Clap—clap—

The elderly-faced woman stood atop the ruins, applauding her.

The Mayor of Suoluo City, Solomon Grace.

She wore a benevolent smile as she looked upward.

Her eyes fixed on that Hunt-Patrol Mech-Dragon.

Then her gaze shifted, her eyes narrowing slightly as she spotted Ye Qiyan sitting high up as a spectator, along with his still-summoned but significantly shrunken Hunt-Patrol Mech-Dragon beside him, and in another direction, also watching as a spectator, Zhu Xingshu smiling cheerfully at the scene.

"Level 13, hehe. The first appearance of an item at this level was sixty-six years ago. Back then, everyone thought items of this level would change this world. Who would have thought that after so many years, nothing has changed, hehe... Little Xi, you're quite lucky. Although this isn't a standard Level 13 item, it is very powerful."

Her voice wasn't loud, but Ye Qiyan up above heard it clearly.

Was this old woman doing it on purpose?

Did she want everyone to hear?

Ye Qiyan frowned and snapped his fingers, summoning Red Tears and the Raven.

A standard Level 13 item? He actually had one.

Due to the increase in his physical stamina limit, his eyesight had long surpassed ordinary people's; even from far away, he could clearly see everything happening below.

Grace spread open her palm, and thousands of Train Coins, large quantities of Mechanical Parts, metals, and various materials flew upward from around her.

The war machine suspended in mid-air, on the verge of collapse, was gradually being restored.

"Hmm~ It took about ten thousand Train Coins to repair it. This really caused quite a lot of damage. It seems I'll need to find a way to extract more money from those Guilds. But, it will be from the next batch of Train Conductors, hehe~."

"Mayor, why?"

Zhao Xi didn't care that the war machine in the sky was being repaired.

Even without activating the Hunt-Patrol Mech-Dragon's Transcend Mode, she had plenty of ways to destroy that machine.

Grace still wore that benevolent expression.

She spread her arms open and said with a smile:

"Little Xi, don't be angry. This kind of thing isn't happening for the first time."

"What do you mean by that?"

Grace walked straight forward, and Zhao Xi directly pulled out a long spear aimed at her.

"Don't come any closer!"

"Alright~ I won't come closer. Since you want to know, there's no harm in telling you. We are simply reducing the number of Train Conductors, that's all. Just like ten years ago."

"???"

Grace's words made Zhao Xi's expression turn extremely ugly.

"M-mayor, wh-what do you mean?"

"Literal meaning. I made a deal with the City Lord of the City of Eternal Night. Both sides lead Train Conductors from each other's cities into battle, and then~ we mutually deplete each other."

A light screen appeared.

Images from the first three floors of Suoluo City floated high in the air.

"Look, they are slaughtering each other, taking each other's lives for mere scraps of benefit."

"Look how foolish they are. They could have traveled forever in the wasteland, but they chose to join cities instead, enjoying temporary stability, only to be used by us in the end."

"Look~ how excellent. In this world, is there any existence more enviable, painful, free, powerful, and insane than those called Train Conductors?"

"The answer is, no. Even Gods can be made to fall by Train Conductors."

Grace's words stirred a thread of fear in Zhao Xi's heart.

"Wh-what are you saying? What do you mean by mutual depletion? Why? Why are you doing this?"

Her mind flashed back to ten years ago in this Suoluo City, when Grace invited her to join and establish the Tribunal.

That year, she was a Train Conductor who operated independently outside the city, disdaining to join Guilds, traveling through the wasteland.

That day, Grace told her that many weak people needed protection from the strong.

So, Zhao Xi stayed here.

Other Tribunal members could freely go to the wasteland.

Only she, in this large yet small Suoluo City, remained stagnant for ten years.

And now... Grace's words dealt an unprecedented blow to Zhao Xi's heart.

Her spirit was waning, the silver-white lightning also gradually fading away.

"Why?"

Grace looked up at the sky, as if recalling something very beautiful.

"We just want to go home."

She said thus:

"Not this wasteland, not this Station World, but our real home."

"As long as we continuously reduce the number of Train Conductors, helping the so-called Gods weaken the detestable train system's weight, the Gods will send us home~"

"So, I built this city. No, or rather, the reason the initial twelve cities were built was for this purpose~"

"Little Xi, don't you want to go back? Return to your original world? And... you two friends up there~ Don't you want to go home?"

Suddenly being addressed, Ye Qiyan's expression remained unchanged.

Go home?

Return to the original world?

So that's how it is. So, the City of a Thousand Stars is like this too?

City...

City?

Ye Qiyan's mind recalled the Forward Station where the Smiling Mask had been.

In a sense, wasn't that Forward Station also a small city?

So, according to this old woman's explanation, the initial twelve cities in the wasteland were just like that Forward Station?!

"Going home?"

"I'm not really interested, but..."

Although he said that, after hearing Grace's revelations, Ye Qiyan could completely understand these people's desires.

The wasteland isn't home. The city isn't home.

Forcibly brought to this endless world, compelled to enter countless stations, what many people yearn for most in their hearts is to return to their former homes.

Just as Zhu Xingshu had said before.

Many people want to find Dream Eaters, to immerse themselves in the beautiful dreams they weave, unwilling to extricate themselves.

That beautiful dream is the past.

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