Chapter 431: The Journey Begins

——

Without exposing the middle-aged man before her, Yun Mu took a fountain pen from her bosom and signed her name under the brim of his hat.

"Thank you, thank you!" The man looked at the signature under the hat brim, the expression on his face blooming like a chrysanthemum.

This was the hero who saved the Federation, the first prominent figure since the Federation's founding to receive the Robert Medal and the highest-grade Disaster Hero Commemorative Medal.

Once his shift ended today, he would certainly have plenty to brag about to his drinking buddies.

Bidding farewell to the station master, Yun Mu and Lucy and the others walked into the station interior—though calling it an interior, there wasn't even a ceiling overhead.

There was only a temporarily constructed platform, an endless stretch of railway, and a steel beast lying prone on the tracks.

"Phew, this is the place."

Inside the carriage at the very front of the train, Yun Mu sat on the soft sofa seat at the edge, her gaze looking outside through the train window.

Even during the midday break, there were still many busy workers laboring outside.

Holding cold sandwiches, bread, or canned luncheon meat sold at the station, they would deal with a quick bite before continuing to throw themselves into their busy work.

Normally, the vast majority of workers would absolutely not get up to work during this time of day.

However, with the city currently being rebuilt, the Federal Parliament had introduced quite a few decrees related to pay raises to boost the workers' enthusiasm and efficiency.

Of course, the prerequisite for a raise was working diligently, which was why one could see workers laboring even during the midday break.

Damn, the grind is real.

"Thump, thump, thump."

A rhythmic knocking suddenly came from outside the carriage door, drawing Yun Mu's attention.

"Please come in," she said.

"Hello, I am here to notify you that we are about to depart."

The person who entered was a train staff member; he looked to be in his twenties or thirties, wearing a somewhat dusty dark blue uniform.

He looked rather serious, keeping a straight face as he spoke, looking like someone who rarely smiled.

Of course, it was also possible he was just nervous.

After all, sitting before him was the savior of the Federation, ahem.

Everyone could just understand that kind of thing implicitly; there was no need to repeat it so many times.

"I understand," Yun Mu nodded in response.

"Very well, if you have any needs, please pull the lever on the right-hand side of the carriage door, and we will come as soon as possible."

"Mm," Yun Mu nodded to indicate she understood.

"Hum—"

Not long after the staff member left, accompanied by the low starting sound of the Magic Engine, the train began to gradually accelerate, then sped off into the distance.

Yun Mu sat on the carriage's sofa seat, eyes closed, arms folded across her chest, leisurely enjoying this journey.

In her past life, she hadn't taken trains or subways very often.

When she was little, she had her parents with her, her curious gaze always wandering outside the window, to the point that after the train arrived at the station, if not for someone next to her reminding her, she wouldn't have noticed that after the train stopped, her parents had already gotten off—come to think of it, she was only six or seven back then, and they actually forgot their own child; what truly irresponsible parents.

As expected, parents are the true love, and she was just an accident?

Too bad there were no mobile phones... wait, although there was no phone, she had that!

Yun Mu suddenly thought of something and took a bracelet out from the space within the Divine Blood Pendant.

"Huh, what is this?"

Brenna noticed the item Yun Mu had taken out and was somewhat surprised: "An Old Days Front bracelet?"

"That's right!"

Yun Mu nodded with some excitement, then skillfully activated the bracelet.

She had almost forgotten about this thing; she didn't know if this bracelet would still work after so much time had passed.

"It started, it started!"

"Let me see... it can actually still match with people!"

"Really? Let me see?"

Noticing the commotion on Yun Mu's side, Brenna, Lucy, Lita, and Iliyasi all crowded over, the four of them squeezed together, watching the animation playing on the bracelet.

【Chocolate-Coated Berry: Huh, is this ID Ms. Yun Mu?】

After entering the game, this line of text suddenly popped up in the public chat box.

Seeing this, Yun Mu also temporarily stopped her operations and began chatting with the other person.

【Yun: That's right, it's me. Are there many people playing Old Days Front now?】

【Chocolate-Coated Berry: Ah! It's actually the real person!】

【Chocolate-Coated Berry: There are quite a lot of people playing, I'm a new player too... Joy Company is selling game bracelets.】

Are there many people playing?

Yun Mu was somewhat surprised.

Clearly, that kind of thing had just happened, and furthermore, the units controlled in the game were the Old Legion! And after learning of Yun Mu's thoughts, the player on the other side replied to her:

【Chocolate-Coated Berry: It's just a game, who would take it that seriously?】

Just a game? Indeed, it was just a game.

Yun Mu smiled silently.

A game is a game, and reality is reality; as long as one is an adult, one can distinguish between the two.

【Yun: Alright, let's not chat so much, let's continue playing the game.】

【Chocolate-Coated Berry: Mm.】

【Yun: glhf】

【Chocolate-Coated Berry:?】 With no intention of explaining to the other party, Yun Mu manipulated the units on the field with lightning-fast hand speed.

Even though she held back, the battle still ended after eight minutes.

Although her opponent was a newbie, she carried the name of a hero and would absolutely not lose!

*Cough cough*, Old Days Front newbie -1, I am truly sinful.

Yun Mu was happily playing the game, as she hadn't played for a while, and the Old Days Front had just updated a system similar to ranked matches.

So, the people she matched with were basically all rookies.

Thus, in the low-rank tiers, the weak newbies were one after another devastated by Yun Mu to the point of being unable to take care of themselves.

Not being careful, by the time she came to her senses, she discovered it was already night.

Because there were many stops along the way, the return train was much slower than the journey there.

At this moment, it would still take about eight or nine hours to reach Falanaka.

Probably tomorrow morning.

Hmm. Stopping her "fish-frying," Yun Mu turned off her bracelet, then came to the carriage door and reached out to pull the lever on the right.

After a short while, the staff member who had come by once before pushed open the carriage door.

"Is there something you need?" the other party asked Yun Mu politely.

"Hmm, do you sell food here?" Yun Mu asked.

She wanted to try the food on the Magic Train; after all, since she was already here, how could she not experience it before leaving?

"This..." Hearing Yun Mu's words, a look of slight hesitation appeared on the staff member's face. He said: "We do sell it, but it's all semi-finished pre-made meals, or cold food, canned goods, and the like; it might not suit the guest's palate."

Normally, he would absolutely not say such things to passengers, but considering the identity of the person in front of him, he decided to tell the truth.

This was the great hero who saved the Federation, the Robert Medal... *cough cough*.

"It's fine, is there a menu? Let me see."

Yun Mu just wanted to experience it; whether it was good or not, she would decide after eating it.

She wasn't a picky eater.

"Very well, please wait a moment." The staff member turned and left, returning shortly with a green-covered menu.

After looking at it for a while, Yun Mu ordered a hot fried pork cutlet sandwich, canned peas, cookies with grape jam filling, and a glass of wine.

As for Lucy and the others, Yun Mu asked, and except for Iliyasi, no one wanted to eat anything.

"If you're not eating, then you're not eating, Iliyasi, let's eat together!"

Yun Mu pulled Iliyasi over, and after the latter frowned and looked at the menu for a long time, she finally chose to order a vegetable salad and a glass of water.

Well, facts proved that Iliyasi only wanted to eat because she was hungry.

Not like Yun Mu, who simply wanted to experience it once.

After eating dinner, everyone rested early.

Although they were Transcendental, there was nothing to do while staying on the train.

Better to just honestly sleep and rest.

After turning off the lights, under the faint swaying of the train, Yun Mu and the others soon entered dreamland.

The next morning, the train successfully arrived at the Falanaka station.

Although this place had also suffered the ravages of the Old Legion, compared to the Federal Capital Feiluoka, it was still much better.

After all, that Beastkin god had not appeared here, so Falanaka had not suffered an attack from the Old Legion's superweapon.

And after the reconstruction during this recent period, it was clear that things here had recovered quite a bit.

At least, in Yun Mu's eyes, the changes to the city were not too many.

"Ah, it's Miss Yun!"

A familiar call came from afar. Yun Mu looked closely and discovered that the one calling her name was Sister Meiyin, who had come with her on the Xiangyang! The complexion on her face looked alright, and her long golden hair was braided behind her, looking a bit like some kind of two-dimensional village girl.

On her arm, she carried a basket, looking as if she had come out to buy groceries.

And on Meiyin's chest, the pendant of the Dark Night Church swayed slightly; inside her white robe, which was convenient for movement, one could vaguely see hard chainmail, and at her waist, that hammer that looked quite intimidating was emitting a cold, chilling gleam.

"Good morning, Meiyin!" After walking closer, Yun Mu greeted her.

"Right, this thing is for you." After finishing her sentence, Yun Mu took a cross out from her bosom.

"This is?" Meiyin took the cross with some confusion; there was no Jesus in this world, nor were there those religions from Earth.

But the shape of a cross did indeed have the effect of warding off evil in the Supernatural Realm.

Some Scholars believed that this was because criminals and Evil were usually hung on crosses for punishment, causing the cross to become a special symbol within the Ether, thus allowing it to ward off evil.

And another group of Scholars believed that, just like special languages such as Elf script or Dragon Language, patterns like the cross simply had the effect of warding off evil in the Ether World.

Besides this, there were all sorts of messy theories.

Theories about divine images, rumor spreading, public impression, and even human collective unconsciousness—almost every possibility that humans could think of had been researched and published in papers by Scholars.

One could only say that these Scholars would come up with anything just to get a paper published.

As for this cross, it was something Yun Mu had refined herself using Alchemy.

The materials used were mainly some useless trash obtained inside a Dungeon, and damaged Supernatural items she had stripped from those four guys when they had attempted a Touxixi on her earlier.

"This is a birthday present~" Yun Mu said with a smile: "Your birthday is on January 5th, right? Although it's a bit late, I still wish you a happy birthday~"

"So it was a birthday present?" Hardly any girl would be unhappy about receiving a birthday gift from someone they cared about. After hearing Yun Mu's words, a happy smile immediately appeared on Meiyin's face.

She held the cross up, observed it for a moment under the sunlight, and then very satisfied, she put it away and hung it around her neck along with the Dark Night Church pendant.

"Thank you, Miss Yun, I like it very much!" she said.

(End of chapter)