Chapter 47 Endless Flow

"No wonder that Tang Hai could act so arrogantly in the mist and pitch-black night for so long. It turns out those monsters wouldn't harm him at all..."

Lin Xian's mind cleared. His doubts back then were not without reason. It seemed that because Tang Hai was injured at the time and exuded the scent of blood, he was attacked and bitten by zombies, yet this paradoxically allowed him to complete his evolution.

Thinking of this, he felt a twinge of regret. He should have simply blown that old bastard's head off in advance; instead, he had left a hidden danger behind.

However, he also felt fortunate at that moment that his choice to repair that close-in weapon system to save his life had been entirely correct.

Kiki had been unconscious at the time, and he alone certainly wouldn't have been able to handle both the fog spider and Feng Yuming, let alone the overwhelming tide of corpses. Fortunately, neither Tang Hai nor Feng Yuming could make heads or tails of that complex close-in weapon system, nor did they dismantle any crucial equipment. Otherwise, tonight would have truly been a dead end for Lin Xian and Kiki.

Returning to the matter at hand, Lin Xian looked at Kiki. "So, do you also know how your own ability upgrades?"

To his surprise, Kiki gave a faint smile and shook her head. "I roughly know that I probably belong to the mental or telekinetic category. These are relatively rare in the records, but I still have no idea how to upgrade, or how to complete that 'ritual'."

"As for you..." Kiki looked at Lin Xian now, her gaze peculiar. "To be honest, I have no idea which type you belong to. You can drive machinery, which should be a functional ability. Although the spirit-wave evaluation value of such abilities isn't necessarily very high, the 'Angel Project' calls it a capability of 'immense strategic value'. I think yours resembles Type 27, inorganic matter control, but how can you also use elemental abilities?"

At this point, Kiki looked at Lin Xian, her brow furrowing deeper and deeper. "Could you possess more than one ability?"

"Guess..."

Lin Xian said expressionlessly. A slight chill ran through his heart at that moment, accompanied by an inexplicable and strong premonition that perhaps his... wasn't an ability at all.

What kind of ability would come with a progress bar?

"There's one more thing," Kiki said. "It is said that a very small number of ability users have experienced the complete loss of their powers, and among them, there were even Diamond-tier individuals."

"Complete loss? What do you mean?"

"How would I know? The records don't say," Kiki pounced her lips and said. "I only know that it happened without any external interference—the ability users suddenly lost their powers. The Research Bureau's evaluation suggests it might be related to their own mindset, mental state, and so on, but they haven't been able to figure out the true cause."

Kiki's information gave Lin Xian a nearly revolutionary understanding of the current world. Yet, under the collapse of the apocalyptic order, although it had only been a few months, ability users had already become a massive group, and this group was actively influencing the survival trajectory of humankind.

After tossing and turning for the entire night, everyone was somewhat exhausted. To be cautious, Lin Xian kept the train running at a low speed of about 50 kilometers per hour, with Chen Sixuan on duty in the cab, while he also stayed in the cab to take a short nap and rest.

"Kiki seems to have a lot of secrets," Chen Sixuan said, looking at the resting Lin Xian.

"Everyone has secrets. As long as they are helpful to us, we don't need to dig into them too deeply."

"What did she... say to you just now?" Chen Sixuan's gaze flickered slightly. She knew it wasn't appropriate to ask Lin Xian this question, but she simply couldn't suppress her inner curiosity.

Lin Xian closed his eyes and let out a scoff. "What else could it be? She made me promise not to engage in intimate relations with her without her consent."

Hearing this, Chen Sixuan let out a complex-sounding murmur.

Strictly speaking, she didn't even know whether her relationship with Lin Xian could be counted as one of consent or not. She only knew that she was immensely grateful to have been rescued by Lin Xian, and by now, Lin Xian had undoubtedly become her only reliance.

Moreover, he was quite alright; his personality seemed to be the type she liked, so she didn't seem all that resistant to that kind of thing happening.

Could this be the legendary suspension bridge effect?

Oh my, what on earth was she thinking...

"Yesterday's dawn was at 16:26, and we drove about 50 kilometers forward before reaching Beiwant Station. Based on calculations, to make it before tomorrow's 16:00 point, we need to cover at least 370 kilometers of road."

Chen Sixuan held the train logbook and continuously calculated. "But this section of JY3365 will bypass Quguan and Yuchi. Calculating Abyss No. 3 Lucheng, and comparing Dingzhou's position to our straight-line direction coming out of Jiang City..."

"Teacher Chen."

Lin Xian interrupted her calculations, his eyes slightly closed as he said, "Do you think it's possible that Abyss No. 3 is not the source of the dark tide?"

At these words, Chen Sixuan instantly fell silent for a moment.

"I... don't know."

From a geometric perspective, assuming every abyss was undergoing a dark tide, it was equivalent to these abysses expanding at the same speed across the Blue Star, meaning their radii grew linearly with time.

"If the range affected by the abysses is fixed, it might still leave some wedge-shaped spaces for humanity to survive. But if the first endless night isn't the end, and the range of the second tide continues to expand, then it's only a matter of time before the endless night covers the entire Blue Star."

After the endless night, the internet and communications collapsed. As ordinary people, they couldn't peer into what was happening across the whole world and could only gather clues through radio broadcasts.

If not for Kiki, they wouldn't even have known that the federal government had already classified ability users and even established a set of standards.

Lin Xian nodded, his expression somewhat uneasy. If this were true, it meant everyone had nowhere to run, and humanity could only grope in the dark to figure out how to survive.

Chen Sixuan looked at Lin Xian's worried face and suddenly said, "Classmate Lin, do you remember Jiang University's motto?"

Lin Xian looked at her, and the two spoke in unison:

"The endeavor of striving is one that continues uninterrupted day after day since the dawn of humankind!"

For a long time, the two looked at each other and smiled.

Once the wheels were in motion, everyone was fleeing the dark night toward the dawn. Even if they were ultimately plunged into eternal darkness, as long as the final spark of survival remained, they must never give up the fight.

Lin Xian's heart steadened slightly. If his own abilities grew stronger, he would be able to survive even in an environment where the long night was hard to pierce. This only reinforced his conviction to build an ultimate fortress!

Woo—

The mist ahead gradually thinned, and the field of vision under the headlights grew broader. Lin Xian stood up, looked at the distant outlines of the mountains and fields, relaxed his expression, and slowly parked the train inside a tunnel.

"Why did we stop?" Chen Sixuan asked Lin Xian, puzzled.

Before she knew it, she turned around only to be swept up into a bridal carry by Lin Xian. With a faint smile playing on his lips, the young man said in a resonant voice, "Teacher Chen, there is another thing that is 'endless' since the dawn of humankind."

"..."

Chen Sixuan was caught off guard by his embrace, her face instantly turning fiery red. She hurriedly averted her gaze from Lin Xian, her initially crystal-clear and fair earlobes and neck now glowing as alluringly as peach blossoms in March.

"Aren't you very tired..."

Carrying her to the bed in Car 1, Lin Xian looked full of vigor and vitality as he said, "Suddenly rejuvenated."

The gates of each car had been closed. By now, Car 1 had become Lin Xian's exclusive living area.

With a flushed face, Chen Sixuan said in a voice as soft as a mosquito's hum, "Oh, um..."

"Inconvenient?"

"N—no."

Chen Sixuan's skin was as smooth and delicate as mutton-fat jade. When Lin Xian pressed his lips against it, even though they were in the midst of the apocalypse, he could still catch that alluring scent of a woman—faint and heart-stirring.

At that moment, Chen Sixuan felt a tingling sensation running down her spine. Lin Xian's breath brushed against her skin with a refreshing coolness, carrying a trace of warmth that drilled into her pores, bringing a sense of unbearable shyness.

Covering her small face with the quilt, she murmured softly, "...Could you... could you get my bag? That thing is inside."

"Alright."

"Mmm-ah... lighter, mmm..."

The heavy train sat quietly under the dark night. Outside the thick armored steel plating was the deep and terrifying nocturnal tunnel, while inside was the warm, yellow glow of the goose-down soft mattress, brimming with a sense of security.

The two intertwined, shattering the taboos between the souls of a man and a woman. One body was tall, straight, and slender; the other was curvaceous and tender. Their blended figures rose and fell in motion, resembling a charging chariot, or perhaps a giant vessel cleaving through the waves...

The night was as ink. At that moment, in Car 2, Luo Shasha on the upper bunk was already fast asleep, while Kiki on the lower bunk, her head smothered by a pillow, had a crimson face. Listening to the bizarre rhythmic sounds of slapping coming from next door, she gritted her teeth in silent, low curses, endlessly drawing circles in her mind to curse a certain bad guy.

She decided that tomorrow she would install the soundproofing panels for Car 2 ahead of schedule and weld an extra layer of steel plate on top!