Players, Please Board the Train

Seeing the grim look on his face, Yan Jiayu also turned serious, following him all the way to Carriage Four before lowering her voice to ask, ”Is it really that bad?”

”It might not be an ordinary violent storm.” Xu Huo estimated the distance ahead and behind, then stopped in the corridor between Carriage Three and Carriage Four. ”If it’s a dimensional storm, the locomotive would take the brunt of it first, but if the storm’s thickness isn’t enough, the middle carriages might be able to push through.”

He didn’t sound certain, since this was only his judgment based on video footage he’d seen. In the recordings, trains caught in dimensional storms had both their front and rear cars obliterated, with only the two middle carriages barely managing to stay intact.

Yan Jiayu had clearly heard of dimensional storms before, and she immediately said, ”I’ll go ahead and find the train staff!”

In fact, the train staff knew it was a dimensional storm even earlier than they did. The train had specialized detection instruments that could determine the storm’s grade before it was even visible to the naked eye in the clouds.

Before Yan Jiayu could leave, the train’s broadcast crackled to life: ”Welcome aboard this train, dear passengers. I am your onboard operations director. Unfortunately, I have some bad news to share with you all—an E3-grade dimensional storm lies ahead.”

”As we all know, dimensional storms are the most damaging space-time phenomena to tracks and trains. This train’s grade cannot fully withstand an E3-grade dimensional storm. However, the good news is that E3 is the lowest severity tier of dimensional storms, and according to monitoring data, the storm’s reach will shrink to two-thirds of its original size when it meets our train.”

”So please, all passengers gather in Carriages Three, Four, and Five to best protect your lives and property. The train will now proceed at maximum speed. Please do not panic.”

”Finally, I wish all passengers good luck.”

As the broadcast ended, players in the front and rear carriages stirred into motion, converging as fast as possible into Carriages Three, Four, and Five—including the train staff, the operations director, and the head chef.There were quite a few people on board, and squeezing everyone into three carriages made things a bit cramped. The train continued at full speed without making much noise, and in that tense atmosphere, the operations director smiled and turned on some music. ”Don’t be so pessimistic, everyone. After we ride out this storm, we’ll just wait by the tracks for rescue—if the tracks are still there, that is.”

His words offered no comfort whatsoever. Not just the players—even the staff were getting restless.

The train sped forward in a straight line. Because the front and rear carriages blocked the view, it was hard to see the full scope of the storm ahead from the windows; everyone could only gauge its position from the edges.

But this agonizing wait didn’t last long. With a tremor in the tracks, the storm slammed into the train in less than half a second—and it wasn’t nearly as violent or chaotic as everyone had imagined. The front carriages were crushed back like tin cans. Whether it was the metal floor panels below or the glass walls around them, everything seemed to change material form in an instant—fractured, weightless, absorbed and carried along by that grayish, sluggish-looking air that passed through the carriages and swept past the windows in a blur!

Like a solid wall sweeping through the train, the front smashed a huge hole into it and charged wildly forward, while the slightly slower backflow of air merged back from all directions a moment later, slamming into the train’s surroundings again... It was this brief window, seemingly less than half a second, that gave two carriages a chance to survive!

Holding onto ”Three Seconds of a Life,” Xu Huo turned back and watched the receding ”gray wall,” his heart shaking: who would have thought that a dreaded dimensional storm would last a total of just two or three seconds!

The train came to a halt on the original track position. Carriage Three had only a third left, Carriage Five barely half, with both ends sheared off as if cut by a blade. All the other carriages and the people inside them had gone with the ”gray wall.” There wasn’t a single drop of blood at the scene or within the ”gray wall,” and none of the imagined carnage either. The storm came gently and left gently. Apart from two enormous pits gouged out near the tracks, everything else remained in a calm and sunny state.

”Those people... turned into fragments in the storm?” A player murmured.

Most players had no knowledge of this kind of phenomenon. The danger had come and gone too quickly—many hadn’t even recovered their senses, let alone pondered the mechanics of the storm.

Because no matter how it worked, this was like an ordinary person facing a natural disaster—once you encountered it, escape was nearly impossible.

”Looks like we all got pretty lucky.” The operations director turned off the music and said cheerfully to the crowd, ”Now let’s just stay put and wait together!”

At that moment, several players who had narrowly survived in Carriage Three burst through the door and tumbled into the corridor, gasping for air, and managed to say, ”The air outside... is thin...”

Everyone’s faces darkened—this was not good news!

Xu Huo lightly tapped Yan Jiayu, signaling for them to go check it out.

The two put on their protective suits and stepped outside. Yan Jiayu said, ”At least the air pressure is normal.”

Xu Huo tried the train ticket. ”Can’t teleport to a nearby station.”

The elderly man followed them out. ”Player tickets don’t always work on the tracks, and especially not right after a dimensional storm.”

”Looks like all we can do is wait.” Yan Jiayu said. ”I wonder how fast the Track Supply Department gets moving.”

The elderly man, wearing a transparent breathing apparatus, smiled. ”The tracks are destroyed. It’ll probably take some time, no matter how you look at it.”

Yan Jiayu glanced at the two huge pits on either side, then added, ”Is the space near the tracks dangerous? Can we walk farther away?”

”Better not.” The female player knitting yarn walked over. ”There could be traps in the sky, underground, and in the air itself.”

”That’s not a big problem.” The elderly man disagreed. ”Look—although the tracks are destroyed, the area along the tracks isn’t as deeply damaged as the two sides. That’s because the tracks were built with a special method. The space and time near here are very stable. As long as the dimensional storm doesn’t reach a certain intensity, we’ll be fine. Besides, didn’t we all make it out?”

”Then we really are lucky.” Yan Jiayu said with a smile.

”Standing around here counts as good luck?” The middle-aged woman’s face was dark and grim. ”Even if we wait, how many days can we last? If no one comes, we’ll all die!”

That was also what the other players were worried about, so someone asked the operations director if there was any way to leave.

”If we could leave, we’d have been gone long ago.” The operations director said with a relaxed expression. ”Don’t worry—a signal was sent out before we went to full speed. The Track Supply Department will definitely arrive within three days.”

Hearing this, everyone calmed down a bit. No one dared to wander far. They all sat down along the tracks to rest, clustering with people they knew while keeping their distance from the others.