Chapter One: The Infinite Train Project
Jiang City, afternoon, a gentle breeze warmed the air.
On the balcony of a high-rise apartment, a faint glint shimmered briefly. A man looked up toward the sun’s position, then checked the time on his watch before closing the shade of his astronomical telescope.
In the distant horizon, beneath the clouds, the city lay in complete silence. Above, a massive, mountain-like cluster of clouds stood immobile.
Beep, beep—the watch alarm sounded.
It was 5:00 p.m., an hour and a half before dusk.
The man pulled up an iron chain, and outside the floor-to-ceiling window, a specially made alloy iron shutter rose, gradually swallowing the light inside the room.
Sunlight filtered through the gaps between the alloy panels, casting narrow beams that illuminated the living room piled high with supplies.
A strange humming noise arose. The man paused his movements and tilted his head to listen.
His expression changed suddenly.
He grabbed a short knife from his waist for self-defense and cautiously stepped outside, climbing the stairs to the rooftop terrace.
A helicopter approached low from the distance, its huge rotors roaring louder and louder until deafening.
Whoosh!
The man suddenly produced a long hose with a tattered orange cloth tied to its end and waved it vigorously at the helicopter.
Inside the helicopter, a girl wearing headphones noticed the splash of orange and silently traced a circle on the window with her finger.
“Mr. Wen?”
The pilot in the front seat also saw the orange on the rooftop and tentatively asked.
The man known as Mr. Wen, dressed in a sharp suit, glanced indifferently out the window and closed his eyes with disdain. “Such fanciful nonsense. Who cares about these poor wretches’ lives?”
The pilot fell silent.
Noticing the girl’s gaze, the middle-aged man spoke loudly, “What, are you feeling sympathetic now?”
“Remember, they’re different from us. If tomorrow is the end of the world, we’ll be the last to die, got it?!”
The girl’s eyes grew cold as she stared out the window, clearly scorning his words.
Whoosh—
The helicopter roared past the skyline.
The man on the rooftop watched this scene and leisurely lowered the pole.
“Damn, such a fine helicopter… what a waste…”
…
Minutes later, an urgent alarm blared inside the helicopter.
“STALL WARNING! STALL WARNING!”
“What’s happening?!”
“The lift suddenly dropped. We might have encountered an unknown cyclone,” the young co-pilot said, panic overtaking his voice as he struggled to maintain control.
The sudden crisis sent everyone into a frenzy.
“We’re in midair, broad daylight—what the hell is this?” The middle-aged man, who had been calm moments ago, shouted first.
The pilot checked the onboard radar but found nothing unusual. Suddenly, the lighting in the cockpit shifted abruptly, as if shadows had engulfed the cabin. His senses sharpened, and he quickly glanced upward.
His pupils contracted; his face turned deathly pale.
Above them, within the immense cloud bank, a bizarre dark silhouette flickered—blocking out the sky!
The clouds roiled violently; the wind surged fiercely!
The helicopter was caught in a massive suction force, uncontrollably rising.
“Warning! Warning!”
“This is bad! Captain! What should we do?”
The confused co-pilot looked anxiously at the captain, only to find him fixated on the sky. Following his gaze, he saw it too.
As the thin mist dispersed with increasing altitude, they finally made out the dark shape within the clouds.
A colossal humanoid corpse!
The giant, mummified figure floated face-down amid the clouds, blocking the sun. Its torso alone, visible above the clouds, stretched over ten kilometers in length.
Motionless, the floating giant resembled a drifting continent, coated in gray-black, its skin cracked and creased like deep valleys. Its hollow, pitch-black eyes radiated an eerie oppression, hovering high above the city.
“Ahhh!”
Screams erupted inside the out-of-control helicopter!
---
The girl in the back row turned pale, her pupils swallowed by darkness.
The hurricane-force winds tore at the helicopter’s fuselage. This multi-ton industrial machine now felt like a speck of dust in the sky.
The invisible suction force instantly engulfed it, and soon it vanished into the clouds.
On a distant rooftop, Lin Xian’s face darkened as he watched.
Buzz—
A flash of mysterious light streaked across the horizon. Lin Xian cursed under his breath, “Damn,” and hurried back inside.
He pulled down the window shutters, sprayed deodorizer in the hallway, and locked the iron door.
Waiting silently for nightfall.
Beep, beep.
At exactly 6:45 p.m., the mysterious light flashed again outside the shutters. The sun set, and darkness swallowed the entire city.
Within the black veil, eerie whispers echoed through the alleys; piercing screams resounded in the darkness. Terror approached, and the strange descended.
Inside the apartment.
A record player spun soft jazz. Lin Xian, wearing an apron, leisurely opened a can of beans in the kitchen. On the electric stove, tomato beef brisket soup emitted a tempting aroma.
On the cutting board lay a sprig of vibrant cilantro—a gift from today’s rooftop garden. On days like this, a touch of green brought comfort.
He sprinkled the chopped cilantro into the pot, not missing even the tiniest fragment clinging to the knife.
Outside the window stretched a hollow, hopeless night. Footsteps echoed from beneath the floorboards, and strange breathing whispered from the depths of the dark corridor...
As if accustomed to such sights and sounds, Lin Xian calmly prepared his dinner and ate quietly by candlelight.
“The sunrise time has been extended to noon. The next polar night should arrive in less than five days.”
At the table, Lin Xian recorded notes in his journal while eating.
The batteries and generator in the storage room mainly powered the refrigerator and alarm system.
Lighting was a liability—after all, in a pitch-black city, any light would turn his shelter into a beacon.
After dinner, Lin Xian began sorting through his day’s loot.
“Two cans of food, two bottles of water, oh, and a bag of expired chips…”
Oddly, the food and water barely filled his large backpack. The rest was an assortment of strange items.
Several broken phones, a speaker, a battered razor, and a hairdryer.
To Lin Xian, these “junk” items were treasures.
A faint smile crossed his lips as he placed his hand on the speaker. A weak glow appeared on his palm and in his eyes. His hair stirred as if moved by an invisible force. Moments later, the glow vanished, and the speaker crumbled into a small pile of brown ash on the floor.
[Devour Success: Mechanical Core +1, Mechanical Devour Skill Proficiency +1, Bonus: Strength +1]
[Current Mechanical Heart Level LV.1 176/500]
[Notice: Leveling up Mechanical Heart unlocks special skill rewards. At levels 3, 6, and 9, mysterious awakenings occur.]
[Base Attributes]
[Strength: LV1 22/50]
[Speed: LV0 28/30]
[Defense: LV0 15/30]
[Current Basic Skills]
[Mechanical Devour LV.1 265/300]
[Mechanical Manufacture LV.1 112/300]
[Mechanical Scan (Passive)]
[Mechanical Repair (Passive)]
[Mechanical Operation (Passive)]
The familiar glowing interface lit up before his eyes. Lin Xian’s face brightened—he hadn’t expected a broken speaker to increase his strength by one point.
Don’t underestimate that single point.
Since upgrading from LV.0 to LV.1 in strength, he had undergone a tremendous transformation.
Once a skinny, weak university nerd who struggled even to carry a bucket of water, he could now easily do a hundred single-arm push-ups in one go. The change was astounding.
At first, Lin Xian thought his ability was useless, but now he sensed vast potential. If strength and speed continued to improve, his combat power alone might rival those mutated superhumans.
[Devour Success: Mechanical Core +1]
[Devour Success: Mechanical Core +1]
The next few broken phones yielded no attribute increases.
“Seems like bigger, more powerful stuff works better…”
He sighed. Previously, he had tried devouring a car engine but succeeded only once. That time, his mechanical core rose by 20 points, and he gained 5 attribute points.
But he chose to start with smaller items and bring them back to the apartment for a simple reason.
The larger the mechanical structure, the longer and more draining the devouring process.
That car engine devour had felt like a terrifying ghost trap, taking over an hour and nearly exhausting him. Lin Xian was lucky not to have been bitten by zombies or ghouls during that time—truly a blessing.
Since then, he had learned the value of patience and prioritized safety above all, embracing survival by any means.
Unexpectedly, after devouring the hairdryer, the glowing interface flashed gold.
[Devour Success: Mechanical Core +1, Mechanical Devour Skill Proficiency +1, Bonus: Acquired Skill: Wind Cannon!]
[Wind Cannon LV.1: Condenses air at the fingertip and releases it instantly, causing moderate destruction.]
“A skill?!!”
Lin Xian’s eyes widened. This was the first time he had gained a skill from mechanical devouring.
“Who would’ve thought devouring ordinary stuff could grant a skill?”
Hairdryer… Wind Cannon??
What kind of logic was that?
Suppressing his excitement, Lin Xian focused his thoughts, raised his fingertip, and aimed at a distant sofa. With a gentle point—
Crack!
A faint slicing sound rang out. The sofa’s cushion seemed hit by an invisible force and suddenly burst open, scattering cotton stuffing like snowflakes.
“Holy crap!”
His heart raced. He had deliberately held back the power to avoid making too much noise. Now that he tested it lightly, he knew that unleashing the full force would surely be lethal.
…
The year 2069 AD, the Day of Apocalypse arrived. Thirteen “Devouring Zones,” each hundreds of kilometers wide, appeared globally and were officially named the “Star Abyss.”
From that day forward, the Star Abyss spread an expanding blackness, like an unknown lifeform radiating outward. The world called it the “Dark Tide.” Every other day, the engulfed area grew by hundreds of kilometers. Daylight shortened, and eventually, these zones plunged into polar night.
Under the polar night came climate disasters, mutations, zombie outbreaks, and strange horrors from the abyss.
Humanity was forced into a massive exodus from the Dark Tide.
After the apocalypse, a small fraction exposed to radiation from the Star Abyss developed various supernatural abilities, giving them great survival advantages. Lin Xian was among them.
Soon, survival groups led by such powered individuals sprang up like sparks.
“Jiang City report: All six monitoring teams in the northwest and southwest are missing. All survivors are advised to flee east!”
“The ‘Oasis’ convoy founded by the empowered Liu Wei will depart tomorrow at 4 p.m. from Walmart in White City. Only healthy individuals aged 16-50 admitted. No elderly, children, or women. Those carrying weapons or large supplies may bring one family member.”
“The Jiang City Bunker welcomes all powered individuals and beauties. Rooted in the military nuclear facility bunker, with over three hundred people, organized and able to withstand polar night.”
“I’m at Prestige Complex, Building A, Apartment 1304. Supplies are ample, the house specially modified. Only accepting beautiful women aged 16-30; no ugly ones.”
“Ananda is the emissary sent by the Creator God to cleanse the world’s wicked souls. Those who repent may join the Pure Land Church and avoid disaster. Offer water, food, and pure maidens to be spared. Contact 139 for salvation.”
“I’m Professor Wang from Jiang City Research Institute. Calculations show Jiang City will be engulfed by polar night again in five days. This time, there will be no sunrise... Ha ha ha ha, physics is laughable. No one can escape... Ha ha ha ha!”
In the darkness, Lin Xian slowly adjusted the radio. Radical messages increased. After the first polar night, most survivors had fled Jiang City.
Twenty-one days of continuous polar night had turned a city of over a million into hell on earth. Who knew how long the next polar night would last? Would his supplies last until dawn?
“Infinite Train Recruitment Plan—assemble a fully armed heavy train to race along the 320,000-kilometer orbital track!”
Lin Xian opened his phone and looked at a post he had made on the local forum before the last polar night. The few replies were mostly sarcastic.
“You watch too much Snowpiercer…”
“Brother, the global power grid is basically down. How do you run a train with no electricity?”
“Even a gas turbine engine burns at least 50 liters of fuel per hour. With all that fuel, I’d rather drive a 4x4.”
“End-of-the-world clowns. Lose the track, and they’re done for.”
“Nice fantasy—mobile metal fortress. Zombies attack, no problem. But it’s just a fantasy. Too unrealistic.”
“Idiot.”
The post described his plan to build a fortress train integrating living quarters, supplies, medical, agriculture, energy, and manufacturing cars. He was recruiting members strictly—either powered individuals or specialists qualified to operate the cars.
A heavily armed heavy-duty train would dash eastward along the 320,000-kilometer orbital track, escaping the polar night. Even if it stopped, its fortress-like armor could fend off zombies and strange creatures during the darkness.
Romantic and crazy enough.
But after the polar night, most networks and power supplies had collapsed. The post had long since gone unanswered.
Aside from a few survivors holding out in shelters reachable by radio, Jiang City was utterly silent.