Chapter 531

The advance of the Infinite Train went smoother than Lin Xian expected; after the first night’s encounter with a Hunter, they only faced minor harassments from Crimson Zombies or Energy-Draining Insects, and despite the train having over a dozen cars, its layered defenses and dense drone deployment kept these monsters from posing any real threat.

Yet the more things went smoothly, the more suspicious Lin Xian became. As the Crimson deepened, the Infinite Train now rolled across the mountainous plains east of the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico. The track was far from smooth—this north-south artery was not a main star-orbit line but an old route nearly forty years old, neglected since the Collapse, with frequent track breaks, rust, and ground collapses.

The dim yellow daylight could not pierce the thick Crimson clouds, rendering the space hazy as if submerged in dense fog. By the third afternoon after departing Haco, Lin Xian and Kiki’s Infinite Train neared the vicinity of León City in central Mexico.

Scrape! Scrape! Scrape!

Countless steel girders and rails flew through the air, descending with magnetic precision to assemble into a small steel-truss bridge spanning a shattered river gorge.

Dressed in his modified power armor, Lin Xian pulsed with dark energy resonance frequencies; as each component settled into place, he reached out and seized them—metal joints instantly welded and locked. He completed the construction and laying of this fifty-meter rail bridge in under three minutes, without a single drone’s aid, his efficiency astonishing.

“From the North American side, there are mainly three routes: besides the one we’re on, there’s the western route from Guaymas to Mexico City, near the Pacific, and another western route from Monterrey. All three can be traversed, but given the state of this road, no convoy has evacuated this way.”

Kiki descended from the air, surveyed the road ahead, and spoke over the comms: “Do you think we’ve missed the main group?”

“That’d be a good thing,” Lin Xian said, walking toward the gorge’s edge on frost-coated cold sand, frowning at the Spirit-Drain concentration displayed on his HUD: “But it’s unlikely to be that coincidental.”

Kiki landed beside him, gazing forward. Beneath the thick Crimson mist, the entire gorge lay utterly silent—the river long dried, exposing a gravelly riverbed. The decayed vegetation and trees looked as if scorched by fire, blackened and desiccated, resembling rotting wood from some sinister place, utterly lifeless.

“It feels like we’re no longer on Blue Star—dead and silent,” Kiki said, tossing a small stone downward. It landed on the riverbed without a sound, rolling softly with a gurgle. “You said the Tower People’s civilization had clear mountains and green waters, with Tower Skies—so why, besides those ugly ‘Angels,’ is there none of that?”

“The Civilization Game only shows us what we can comprehend—but it’s not the truth.”

Hollow!

Lin Xian activated his Mechanical Heart. He walked ahead, and the Infinite Train behind him, under his control, followed slowly forward. As they crossed the gorge, no sooner had they traveled a hundred meters than another damaged section of track appeared—broken, twisted rails scattered and half-buried in sand and stone, as if torn apart by a single forceful direction.

Kiki yanked the broken rail fragments from the sand and gravel, and Lin Xian immediately reforged them with his mechanical alchemy, swiftly reattaching them to their original positions.

The two worked in perfect sync, repairing as they went. Along the way, Lin Xian devoured every metal object within sight, leaving nothing behind. Seven manufacturing sequences in his Black Star Forge ran nonstop, producing rails and components—this track was vital for their future evacuation; he had to restore it.

“Lin Xian.”

Kiki descended from the air, using psychic waves to clear the crimson dust ahead. They looked forward—under the dim light, the outlines of collapsed walls and ruins flickered in and out. Soon, a once-dense urban cluster appeared before them.

Skyscrapers and streets vanished beneath the Crimson. The Infinite Train crept forward, nearing a station within the city. Lin Xian and Kiki returned to the train, watching through the cockpit window as the building exteriors were entirely coated in a black, blood-plasma-like fungal web, like veins wrapping each floor. The city was utterly silent; in the gloom, humanoid dried corpses stood motionless—some were Zombies, others were dead Human Gui —grouped in twos and threes.

“The Crimson is intensifying—thicker than the Mist Array we encountered in Beiwan,” Kiki whispered, gazing outside. “Shouldn’t we speed up and push through? The buildings are too dense—there must be countless Crimson Gui entities here.”

Lin Xian shook his head: “Speed won’t help. Nothing’s chasing us—and besides… is there any safe place?”

The heavy train rolled slowly through the ruined, gray city, maintaining low speed. Kiki cleared roadblocks while Lin Xian repaired the rails, minimizing noise. Along the route, the city showed no color whatsoever—the billboards beside the tracks were entirely coated in crimson frost, as if the world’s hues had been erased, the entire city buried under a thick layer of sand.

But they knew it wasn’t sand—it was Crimson mist mixed with ice shards, yet no water could be extracted from it. There was no food, no water, no air. Even without breathing, one would rapidly mutate and die under the intense distortion of dark energy radiation.

Soon, an open rail station appeared ahead—but Lin Xian had no intention of stopping. The train continued straight out of the station, toward the city’s edge. As the Infinite Train crossed an elevated highway within the city, an odd vibration made both alert.

“Did you feel that?”

“Yes.”

Hummmmm~

The vibration was strange—quiet, as if the elevated track beneath was subtly twisting. Lin Xian slowly brought the train to a halt, staring ahead. With a thought, all onboard fire-control radars activated instantly; the 1130 and electromagnetic railguns rose silently. Simultaneously, the drone array surrounding the train expanded its formation, widening its perimeter into an invisible aerial net that fully encircled the Infinite Train.