Ye Qiyan walked deeper into the forest along the path.
He remained vigilant against potential dangers the entire way.
Fortunately, nothing happened.
At the end of the path, deep within the gray-white forest, trees bearing white fruits came into view.
Could these fruits be the collection items for the platform station?
Approaching a fruit tree, he used his dagger to cut the stem and picked a fruit, bringing it close to his nose to smell.
A sweet yet slightly bitter aroma wafted over - unlike any fruit he'd encountered in his previous world.
Gulp.
Ye Qiyan swallowed hard as he stared at the fruit.
An inexplicable craving to devour the fruit surged through him.
Just as he was about to take a bite, a sudden sense of danger snapped him back to reality, making him throw the fruit away instantly.
"!!"
"Pant... pant... what the hell?"
[Stamina: 93] [Spirit: 72]
Cold sweat drenched Ye Qiyan's body.
His spirit had been full just moments ago, yet it had dropped so drastically in mere seconds after holding the fruit.
He wasn't lacking food or water - why had he been so desperate to eat this potentially poisonous fruit?
Moreover, the rate of spirit depletion was terrifyingly fast - even faster than during sublimation.
These fruits were dangerous!
Ye Qiyan took several steps back, frowning at the pale fruits before him.
It was inconvenient that the train system's appraisal function could only be used onboard.
But these fruits were clearly the collection items for this station - in fact, Ye Qiyan suspected the danger of this station lay in the fruits themselves.
"Was it the fruit's scent that caused that hallucination? Maybe if I don't smell it..."
After some hesitation, he decided to take the fruits back anyway - at least to use the train's appraisal function before making any decisions.
Rip—
He cut a piece of cloth from his clothes with the dagger and tied it over his nose and mouth as makeshift protection.
His backpack had plenty of space besides the water and food supplies.
The old saying proved true - men die for wealth as birds die for food. Even facing potentially lethal hallucinogenic fruits, Ye Qiyan couldn't bring himself to abandon them.
The forest remained eerily quiet, now with only one diligent "farmer" harvesting his unusual crop.
With his backpack full, Ye Qiyan wiped sweat from his brow.
"Good thing I have this dagger - this would've been much harder otherwise."
Returning to the train, he immediately took out a fruit for appraisal at the control system.
[White Forest Fruit] (Level 3)
[A unique fruit from White Forest. Releases hallucinogenic aroma when unprocessed, reducing spirit. Consumption permanently decreases maximum spirit.]
[When processed, rapidly restores spirit and slightly increases hallucination resistance.]
[Processing method: Soak in cold water for five minutes]
"So that's why... No wonder I wanted to eat it so badly. It really was the scent. Good thing I realized in time."
Ye Qiyan patted his chest in relief, as if having narrowly escaped disaster.
This served as a wake-up call - he'd thought himself cautious enough, but clearly not.
He eagerly dumped all the collected fruits into water. After five minutes of waiting, watching them transform from gray-white to pure white, he couldn't resist taking a bite. The explosion of incredibly sweet juice filled his mouth.
"Delicious! I've never tasted fruit this good before!"
Ye Qiyan's eyes sparkled with joy. Compared to these White Forest fruits, the bread and biscuits tasted like cardboard.
It was hard to imagine such delicious fruit grew in such a gloomy environment.
Emptying his backpack of other items, Ye Qiyan grabbed his two guns and dagger to set out again.
Each round trip took about twenty minutes, but filling the backpack completely required roughly thirty.
With only four hours of stopover time, he could make just four trips - no time to waste.
As he exited the train, a thought struck him, making him glance back at the carriage.
The trash recycling device he'd installed was operating.
"So this is what trash recycling means."
A small, cube-shaped robot, only half the height of a calf, shuttled between the white forest and the train.
Occasionally it brought back leaves and other materials to deposit in the recycling station.
"Seems pretty useless..."
Ye Qiyan sighed. Well, it was already built - might as well leave it be.
In the White Forest orchard, Ye Qiyan's dagger flashed continuously as he harvested fruits from tree after tree.
After several trips, the train's stopover time was nearing its end.
[0:32:16]
"Such a shame. Who knows if I'll ever find fruits this delicious again."
In nearly three and a half hours, he'd gathered over a hundred pounds of White Forest fruits.
Ignoring spoilage, this was enough to last him quite a while.
He decided against making another trip - with departure imminent, he didn't want to risk missing the train due to greed.
Ye Qiyan organized his current supplies:
Besides the White Forest fruits, he had seventy-nine compressed biscuits and twenty-one bottles of purified water.
These provisions would keep him from worrying about survival for some time.
Leaning back in his seat while munching on fruit, Ye Qiyan opened the chat room.
By now, everyone else should have left the second platform.
The moment the chat opened, a set of numbers immediately caught his eye.
[8721/10000]
Over a thousand people had permanently disappeared.
And this was only the second station.
Moreover, the number was still decreasing.
Why?
["Does anyone have medicine? I only drank a little lake water - why does my stomach hurt so much?!"]
["Serves you right. Drinking unboiled water - did you think you were superhuman?"]
["Damn wild bulls punctured my lung. Bros, I probably won't last long. If anyone sees my wife, tell her her husband took down a bull."]
["Rest in peace, upstairs. As for your wife... well, I'll take good care of her."]
["Wahh... my wound hurts so much... Does any big shot have medicine? Someone got golden trauma medicine before, right? Please save me..."]
["So hungry... The starter pack's bread and water weren't nearly enough."]
In modern society, injuries received proper treatment - no matter how severe, there was always hope if treated promptly.
But now was different.
Even those brave enough to explore risked encountering danger at every turn.
Even if they survived, injuries might prove fatal without treatment.
Not to mention many still lacked basic food and water, crushed under the weight of survival pressure.
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