Jiang City had already been swallowed by the Extreme Night, and it had lost its long-wave signals more than twenty days ago. To obtain the latest information about the world and escape the strange invasions of the Extreme Night, he had to do everything he could to flee eastward.
His Mechanical Heart had enormous potential, but at the start, its functionality far outweighed its combat power. Take that giant bug as an example—if Lin Xian had been driving a car, he’d already be dead in some remote corner of the wilderness.
"Hey, you’re more capable than I expected."
KIKI suddenly commented.
Lin Xian gave a bitter laugh, "Go rest for now. You’ll need to take over the night watch in the second half."
KIKI smiled, took two steps away, then abruptly turned back.
"By the way, aside from the train, can you also operate other machinery?"
"I think I can. What specifically do you mean?"
"Like a mecha, for instance. I mean an intact mecha—those light assault types from the Guardian 2 and Guardian 3 series or even the Destroyer Heavy Military Assault Type. If we could snag one of those beasts, wouldn’t battling those big bugs be a breeze?"
Lin Xian’s eyes flickered slightly, "I’d like that too, if the opportunity ever arises..."
How could he not have dreamed about it? If given the option, who would want to wield a knife against bugs?
Who wouldn’t want to pilot a Gundam?
Forget those heavy-duty machines—he’d be happy with just some advanced mechanical combat components. But those things were exceedingly rare; he’d hardly even seen them, let alone gotten hold of blueprints.
Just then, the silence of the wilderness was shattered by the roar of a motorcycle engine. Lin Xian and KIKI’s expressions changed as they both turned to look.
In the distance, a bright and shaky beam of light pierced through the darkness, accompanied by an increasingly loud sound. Hearing the commotion, Teacher Chen and the other three ran over from the train cars in the distance.
"A motorcycle? What are they up to?" KIKI stepped behind the armored vehicle.
Lin Xian’s eyes narrowed. Seeing only one vehicle approaching, he didn’t immediately halt his devouring actions.
With the building and KIKI here, he felt somewhat more at ease.
The motorcycle light flickered twice, paused momentarily, then flickered again.
Two short, one long—someone was using light signals. Lin Xian furrowed his brows and immediately said, "They seem to be signaling friendliness, but let’s not drop our guard."
He gestured toward Teacher Chen and the others near Car 5, signaling them not to poke their heads out.
From a few hundred meters away, someone on the motorcycle started shouting. Moments later, the motorcycle tore across the snowy plains, entering the light cast by the train.
With a graceful tail spin, the motorcycle came to a stop below the slope of the railway tracks. Two people were on the motorcycle: a man and a woman.
The man parked the motorcycle and removed his helmet. He appeared to be in his early thirties with faint stubble and fairly handsome features. The woman wore leather pants and a leather jacket, with two pistols holstered on her thigh, her expression icy.
Lin Xian eyed the pair warily, "Who are you?"
The man raised his hands and smiled,
"Relax, no hostility here. Let me introduce myself. I’m Jiang Yun, the leader of the Wind Chasing Team, and this is my deputy, Ren Huixian. After you left North Bay and entered the mountains, I’ve been keeping an eye on you."
Jiang Yun’s gaze swept over Lin Xian and KIKI, then shifted to the distant Car 5 entrance where the building stood. With a look of mild amazement, he said,
"Looks like I guessed correctly. There’s more than one superpower user here."
Upon hearing this, Lin Xian and the others’ expressions shifted. They wondered who this man was to so easily identify superpower users.
"What do you want with us?"
KIKI squinted as she evaluated the pair, speaking loudly.
"Of course we have business to discuss." Jiang Yun raised his hand and pointed ahead on the track, "About thirty kilometers from here is Qu Guan City. There are over a dozen teams stationed there, all gathered through Channel 7 signals. I’ve organized a mutual aid bonfire there—you’re welcome to join."
"Mutual aid bonfire? What’s that supposed to mean?"
Jiang Yun chuckled, "It’s survivors from nearby areas coming together to exchange resources, information, and whatnot. In times like these, who hasn’t run into trouble?"
"Oh~ You’re lighting bonfires to gather people? Aren’t you afraid of attracting monsters?" KIKI said, her face full of curiosity.
"Sorry, I’m not interested." Lin Xian rejected outright without hesitation.
"No need to be so uptight, friend." Jiang Yun studied Lin Xian with a scrutinizing gaze, his demeanor composed. "Judging by your setup, you’ve had your fair share of trouble. Armored train—huh? The Federation Phoenix Association keeps the main track sections open for tactical maneuvers, so they’re relatively safe. If you’ve got superpowers tied to the electrical or biological coexistence systems, this could be a great opportunity."
"Oh, one more thing." Jiang Yun reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small item, holding it in his palm. It was a dark red glass bead. "The Phoenix Association calls this the Mysterious Blood Essence. We wanderers generally refer to it as a red bean. If I’m not mistaken, your radio likely isn’t picking up any signals, right? Otherwise, you’d have caught Channel 7 and the Phoenix Association’s long-wave frequencies. Use this—wrap some copper wire around it and attach it to your radio’s antenna. This thing resonates with the strange energies of the darkness, letting you pick up ionized signal waves."
"But... be careful." Jiang Yun weighed the bead with his fingers, his expression complicated. "Using this doesn’t just let you hear human transmissions."
"What?! You can actually pick up long-wave frequencies?" KIKI’s face lit up with surprise. "Where do you get these red beads?"
The cold-faced woman on the motorcycle finally spoke.
"Every time you kill an Abnormal Body lurking in the dark."
"Exactly." Jiang Yun nodded, his eyes flashing. "It seems you truly didn’t know. The Phoenix Association broadcasts plenty of critical information via LW01 long-wave frequencies. We wanderers now mainly operate on AM07 and AM09 frequencies. These tend to be less hostile, but still, be cautious. In a world , plenty of people harbor bad intentions."
He placed his helmet back on and glanced at Lin Xian, "Don’t stress, friend. This is just an invitation. Whether you come or not is entirely up to you. But if you’re searching for something, attending could be worthwhile. You could get insight into local info, trade for food, water, weapons, rare supplies, devices—whatever you can imagine. There might even be exchanges on superpower evolution or dark artifacts. Usually, we also conduct Spirit Swinging Value tests during these bonfires. Encounters with Abnormal Bodies and other eerie incidents are minimized, though zombies could still be stirred up. If you decide to come, just don’t bring trouble."
With that, the man wasted no time. He revved the engine and sped off into the darkness.
"Wow, survivors can actually gather like that. Seems like some people already have the equipment to detect Spirit Swinging Values." KIKI looked at Lin Xian with astonishment. "What do you think?"
Lin Xian’s expression steadied. Jiang Yun had spoken the truth—he was certainly tense.
Leaving Jiang City had been nothing short of chaos; they hadn’t stopped running into trouble. That’s why Lin Xian had immediately declined Jiang Yun’s offer without much thought.
Now, hearing everything he mentioned, Lin Xian realized the mutual aid bonfire was worth attending.
"It’s such a shame we didn’t check for any of those red beads when we dealt with the giant bug or the big spider earlier." KIKI scowled in regret.
Lin Xian glanced at her, "Your intel didn’t cover this?"
KIKI pouted, "Didn’t I already tell you it’s from the early initial reports? The situation evolves every day. There’s lots that we discover but the authorities don’t have yet, like that special mist we encountered in North Bay—it wasn’t in the official data."
Lin Xian nodded slowly. "We definitely need to come by one of those red beads. I’m also very interested in what he mentioned about Spirit Swinging Value detection and superpower evolution."
Food and water weren’t his top priority at the moment; the real issue was navigating blindly through the chaos without enough information.
Lin Xian called out to Chen Sixuan, "Start up the electrical engine. Let’s head to Qu Guan Station. KIKI, the building, Sha Sha—stay alert."
"Got it." Chen Sixuan nodded and got to work immediately.
"Alright!" KIKI cheered, rushing to her information center.
Brother Lou and his sibling grabbed their guns, standing on guard.
In the midst of the dark night, the Infinity train rumbled to life and began to move steadily forward.