When Pei Ran returned underground, she saw faint figures in the smoke near the train’s front.
It was Engineer Jiang and Ai Xia, who had come out of the cab. Engineer Jiang had crawled under the front of the train.
The old lady was still vigorously repairing the train.
Next to them was a small cart filled with various tools and parts. Ai Xia pointed at the cart, then at the door on the platform that Pei Ran had forcefully dismantled earlier: these were found inside.
Engineer Jiang soon crawled out, sitting on the tracks amidst the thick smoke, coughing a few times, and lowering her head in deep thought, as if unable to make up her mind.
Ai Xia squatted down and had a serious exchange of gestures with her grandmother, tapping on different parts of her hands. Engineer Jiang responded in the same manner.
Pei Ran stared at their hands, analyzing, “They’re using so many fingers, tapping on different positions. It feels like letters.”
W was also analyzing: “It should be.”
If each segment of the ten fingers represents a letter, tapping them one by one could spell out sounds, forming a sentence when connected.
This method of communication was feasible but too slow. Saying one sentence would require tapping on the hands for a long time.
Engineer Jiang turned her head, pointed at her own head, shook it, and showed a look of helplessness.
Her expression was clear: the renovation project was decades ago, and she seemed to have forgotten something, unable to recall it.
Pei Ran immediately asked in her mind, “W, do you have the blueprints for the Yehai No. 7 train’s front?”
W replied, “Of course, I do. Wait a moment.”
Pei Ran knew he needed to remove all the text from the blueprints.
W’s “wait a moment” was just an instant, and Pei Ran’s wristband received a whole set of images.
Pei Ran quickly opened the virtual screen on her wristband, maximized it, and moved it in front of Engineer Jiang.
It was the structural blueprint of the Yehai No. 7 train’s front, sheet by sheet, extremely detailed.
Engineer Jiang, seeing what was on Pei Ran’s virtual screen, was stunned in astonishment.
Her face was full of expressions saying: How is this possible??
She flipped through the sheets one by one, growing more and more amazed.
The blueprints were very comprehensive, even more complete than the portion she had during the renovation project decades ago. Every part of the train’s front, related or unrelated to the control system circuits, all the information could be found.
Just when the repair was giving her a headache, suddenly having the blueprints was like a treasure falling from the sky.
Engineer Jiang glanced at Pei Ran again, puzzled about the girl’s background. How could she have found such materials?
Ai Xia’s eyes also widened considerably. This time, without any gestures, Pei Ran knew she wanted to say: This is amazing, where did you get something like this?
Pei Ran thought to herself, not just the blueprints for the Yehai No. 7 train’s front, but even the blueprints for your home’s toilet drainage pipes, W might have them all.
Engineer Jiang carefully flipped through the sheets one by one until her finger stopped at the last one.
The last sheet was not a two-dimensional blueprint like the previous ones but a three-dimensional structural diagram of the train’s front.
It meticulously reproduced the internal structure of the train’s front. Every part could be penetrated and enlarged, as delicately as if a virtual model of the train’s front had been recreated.
To find any component, one only needed to rotate the view and zoom in directly, making it very clear and extremely convenient.
Engineer Jiang had participated in the entire renovation project of the Yehai No. 7 back then, and they had nothing as good as this at that time.
Engineer Jiang looked at Pei Ran, her astonishment completely unconcealed.
This girl hadn’t simply “found” the old materials; what she had in her hands was even better than what was available back then.
Seeing Engineer Jiang’s expression, Pei Ran immediately knew what had happened.
“W, did you make a three-dimensional model yourself?”
“Hmm,” W responded indifferently, “Since I don’t need to devise a repair plan myself, I just referenced their blueprints and casually built a model.”
It took less than a second.
He didn’t need to repair the train, so out of boredom, he casually showed off his skills.
With the blueprints, the problems Engineer Jiang faced were easily solved.
She took her tools and crawled back under the train’s front.
Engineer Jiang soon emerged again, relaxed and happy, gesturing to Pei Ran and Ai Xia to follow her back into the cab.
Inside the cab, the burnt circuits on the control panel had all been sorted out and reconnected.
Engineer Jiang took the driver’s seat and flipped a row of switches on the panel one by one.
A light buzzing sound came from the floor beneath their feet, accompanied by fine vibrations.
Pei Ran and Ai Xia both looked at Engineer Jiang, who smiled and gave a thumbs up.
The train was fixed.
Unable to vocalize her excitement, Ai Xia hugged her grandmother with her left arm and Pei Ran with her right, stomping her feet on the spot in joy.
Engineer Jiang only let her hug for a moment before gently pulling her arms away and gesturing forward to Pei Ran.
The smoke was too thick, and the fire was growing stronger. There was no time to waste; they needed to leave quickly.
The train had a whistle, but no one knew if sounding it recklessly would count as making noise. Although the whistle was similar to a fire alarm and likely wouldn’t count, there was no need to take such an unnecessary risk.
The smoke below the train had thickened to the point where the rear carriages were no longer visible. It was unclear if anyone remained on the platform. Pei Ran grabbed a wrench from the toolbox, extended it outside the train door, and forcefully struck the metal wall of the carriage.
“Clang—”
“Clang—”
“Clang—”
The sound of metal striking metal pierced through the thick smoke, echoing throughout the station.
She hoped that if anyone was still stranded on the platform, they would understand her message. The train was about to depart.
Engineer Jiang waited a moment before pulling down a lever and slightly pushing another lever forward.
The Yehai No. 7 slowly started moving.
The train moved silently, gradually accelerating, and finally left the starting station, entering the tunnel.
With the city-wide power outage, the tunnel was pitch black, but at regular intervals, small emergency yellow lights were still lit. The dim yellow dots, one after another, reassured those in the cab that there was still a path ahead, not an endless abyss of darkness.
Once the train was moving, Engineer Jiang rested her elbows on the control panel, closed her eyes, and rubbed her temples. After all, she was getting older, and after working for so long, she must have been exhausted.
Pei Ran patted Ai Xia and pointed to the rear carriages, signaling her to take her grandmother to rest.
Ai Xia quickly understood and helped her grandmother up.
Engineer Jiang stood up and pointed at the levers on the control panel, silently asking Pei Ran: Do you know how to drive this?
For anyone else, Engineer Jiang was confident that 99% of people wouldn’t know how to operate this antique train and would need instruction. But with Pei Ran, it was hard to say.
She had produced such detailed blueprints; anything was possible.
Pei Ran nodded affirmatively.
Engineer Jiang immediately felt reassured and left with Ai Xia through the door connecting to the rear carriages.
Pei Ran set down her backpack, placed the metal ball on the control panel, and sat down in the driver’s seat.
Even without W’s guidance, she had already understood how to operate the Yehai No. 7 by watching Engineer Jiang’s actions earlier.
She touched the lever and said to W, “Driving a train seems pretty easy. There’s not even a steering wheel. I guess this lever is for starting, and this one is for stopping. If you keep the speed constant, there’s not much else to do.”
W disagreed, speaking on behalf of train drivers: “Driving isn’t too hard, but the driver has other responsibilities. They need to fix train malfunctions on the go, handle emergencies, read signal lights, and remember all sorts of operating regulations. It’s not as easy as you think.”
Pei Ran gazed into the seemingly endless dark tunnel ahead. “In a situation like this, there are no signal lights or operating regulations anymore.”
The person and the sphere fell silent simultaneously.
This was the collapse of everything, the end of days. There were no more signal lights, no operating regulations, only this solitary antique train, traversing the underground tunnels of this burning city, moving forward.
After traveling a bit further, a small, bright white light appeared ahead, growing larger and larger.
The tunnel’s exit was approaching.
Once out of the tunnel, it would mean leaving the city limits of Yehai.
However, the smoke followed closely. Even though the carriage doors were closed, the external smoke continuously seeped in through the cracks.
The light ahead grew larger, gradually revealing the arched outline of the tunnel exit.
The Yehai No. 7 raced forward, whooshing out of the tunnel.
The surroundings instantly brightened, but everything was shrouded in a gray haze, with distant buildings reduced to blurry silhouettes. The fire in Yehai’s city center was so massive that even in the suburbs, the smoke remained dense. The two tracks ahead stretched straight into a hazy void.
A cold wind blew, slightly dispersing the smoke.
Suddenly, W exclaimed, “Pei Ran! Brake!!”
Pei Ran also saw it—a massive piece of machinery, resembling an excavator, squarely blocking the tracks not far ahead.
Pei Ran swiftly pulled the brake lever.
The train screeched to a sudden halt, the wheels grinding against the rails, emitting a piercing noise.
It was too close. It seemed like there wasn’t enough time.
Whoever placed the excavator on the tracks had malicious intent, choosing a spot right after the tunnel exit where the light suddenly brightened and the smoke was thick. At such a moment, seeing it abruptly would make braking nearly impossible.
If they collided, the train would undoubtedly derail, with the front carriage taking the brunt of the impact.
The faint green light inside her, which had been dozing, seemed to sense the danger and suddenly awoke, appearing in Pei Ran’s mind, trembling slightly, ready to act at once.
Before the green light could move, someone appeared beside Pei Ran.
It was Ai Xia.
She had come to the cab and also saw the danger on the tracks ahead. She immediately stood beside Pei Ran, her gaze fixed forward, her expression serious. She quickly raised both hands to her chest.
Her ring fingers and pinkies intertwined like braids, her middle fingers extended and pressed together, her index fingers wrapping around the middle fingers, and her thumbs pressing on top, pointing forward.
She formed a hand seal.
A speck of green light condensed at the tips of her middle fingers, and her hand seal shifted slightly.
With a loud boom, Pei Ran saw the excavator blocking the tracks ahead being flipped over by a tremendous force, sent flying away.
Pei Ran couldn’t help but turn to look at Ai Xia.
W spoke up: “A fusion entity.”
Ai Xia was also a fusion entity.
The tracks ahead were now clear.
At that moment, a strange, clawing thing emerged from the smoke not far away, charging toward them along the rails.
It looked like an excavator, but not entirely.
This monstrosity seemed to be cobbled together from various excavator parts. Its central body was the excavator’s control console, with several buckets attached below as legs and several more raised above as arms. It moved chaotically, its limbs flailing like a crab, occasionally raising its arms and waving them as it charged toward the Yehai No. 7.
W said, “It’s CT122.”
Pei Ran also saw clearly now. This mechanical monster wasn’t some deranged fusion entity—it showed no signs of fused biological tissue. Its core was a dark blue sphere—a patrol robot from the Public Security Bureau. The serial number on the sphere had been scratched off, and there were holes from being shot through. The lower half was wide open, connected to various excavator components.
It was that indestructible “Ball of Resilience,” W’s relative, the haunting artificial intelligence—CT122.
Yesterday, it had been shot by W in the woods, yet not only had it survived, it had stubbornly come back to life, quietly followed them to Yehai, and even upgraded itself into this grotesque form. It had also devised a clever plan to block the Yehai No. 7.
It was indeed getting smarter.
Its goal remained unchanged:
It was single-mindedly determined to kill her, the L16-level extreme threat, with unwavering persistence.
Its persistence was strange, completely disregarding the safety of the ordinary passengers in the train behind it when attempting to derail the train.
W continued scanning and quickly said, “Look at the transparent material in front of it. There’s a Public Security Bureau logo in one corner. My weapon can’t penetrate it.”
The sphere had been shot by W twice before, and this time it had added a shield for itself. The shield was sizable, providing comprehensive protection, but the only problem was that, while blocking the front, it also prevented the sphere from firing. No wonder it had chosen to block the tracks.
Ai Xia also saw the mechanical monster charging toward them. This time, she hesitated slightly but still formed another hand seal.
Unfortunately, the effect of her hand seal was greatly diminished, only causing the mechanical monster to stumble a couple of steps as it kicked up flying gravel and debris from the rail bed.
Ai Xia’s green light had already been used once and couldn’t be sustained.
The green light in Pei Ran’s mind had long been ready.
Writing is dangerous, but fortunately, it was only writing in her mind. At this moment, there was no other way but to take the risk.
Pei Ran stared at the charging CT122, focused her thoughts, and activated the green light, writing two words in her mind:
[Blast away.]
It had to be blasted off the tracks to allow the Yehai No. 7 to move forward smoothly.
In the air, an invisible force seemed to condense. CT122’s movement faltered, and in the next second, it was sent flying into the sky, along with its seven arms and eight legs.
It tumbled through the air, and not just that—all the excavator parts attached to its body were torn apart by a tremendous force, scattering in different directions.
“Blast” and “away” were both perfectly executed.
The fact proved that writing in her mind was safe. Pei Ran herself remained unharmed.
This time, while using her ability, Pei Ran also discovered something.
Like Ai Xia’s ability, whether it was flipping the excavator or blasting away the mechanical monster, this ability could lock onto distant targets without affecting her surroundings.
Moreover, it could bypass obstacles like the train’s windshield.
The dark blue sphere of CT122 was also sent soaring into the sky, flying high and disappearing to who-knows-where. Pei Ran didn’t bother with it anymore and pushed the lever forward.
The Yehai No. 7 instantly accelerated, leaving the shattered mechanical monster far behind.
Ai Xia, her face filled with shock, turned to look at Pei Ran, forgetting to use her self-created sign language. Her eyes were brimming with delight.
It was as if she had found a kindred spirit.
Although Pei Ran hadn’t released the green light, there was no one else here. The mechanical monster had charged straight at the front of the train along the tracks, so those in the rear carriages couldn’t have seen it.
The only one who could have blasted the mechanical monster away was Pei Ran.
The view ahead quickly cleared as the smoke dissipated. The train had reached the outskirts of the city.
The burning Yehai was left behind. On either side of the tracks, only scattered factories remained. The rails stretched straight ahead, leading into the distance.
Ai Xia let out a sigh of relief and began frantically tapping her fingers. After a while, it seemed the sentence was too complex, so she simply opened the virtual screen on her wristband.
She pulled up a drawing app and carefully sketched a small stick figure.
The little figure had a circle for a head, dots for eyes, and limbs sticking out like unruly tree branches.
W, who was observing alongside Pei Ran, commented objectively, “I’ve found that the saying ‘birds of a feather flock together’ holds quite a bit of truth.”
Ai Xia’s drawing skills were indeed on par with Pei Ran’s—equally unimpressive, a true match.
Ai Xia then drew two vertical lines on either side of the stick figure, stacking blocks next to them, interspersed with mound-like shapes resembling graves.
W was puzzled: “What is this now?”
Pei Ran analyzed rationally: “This is clearly a road, with collapsed buildings on either side. She’s saying she was walking on the road, and it happened in the last couple of days because some buildings had collapsed. Your comprehension skills aren’t great.”
W: “…”
Just as the best person to explain a problem to a struggling student isn’t the top student but another struggling student who has figured it out—because their thought processes are the same.
A doodler also understands another doodler best.
Ai Xia’s stick figure walked among the grave-like mounds, and suddenly a green dot floated down from the sky, landing inside the little figure. Then the figure twisted its branch-like arms together, and the stones on the road flew away.
Pei Ran understood—this was how Ai Xia had acquired her hand-seal ability.
Her ability was quite violent, seemingly belonging to what W had referred to as the “Collapse System.”
But not necessarily. Pei Ran’s own “Order” ability could also manifest in a purely violent form, appearing like “Collapse” but actually not.
Ai Xia stopped drawing and raised her hands again, demonstrating for Pei Ran.
Her fingers flew nimbly, twisting and turning, quickly forming one strange hand seal after another. (TL: Now she’s from Konoha?)
Although her green light had only been acquired in the last couple of days during the Quieting, such complex hand seals couldn’t have been learned just recently. Her proficiency suggested she had been practicing this for a while.
Pei Ran silently held Ai Xia’s arm and turned her around, directing her hand seals toward the front of the train—
When handling firearms, it’s best not to point the muzzle at people.