Chapter Nine: Devouring Cars in the Night

The Oscar Furniture City is located on the outskirts of Jiang City. It is usually sparsely populated, and since no other survivors have been idling about or hiding in the furniture mall, it gave Lin Xian the perfect opportunity to let loose.

Lin Xian checked the time: 16:30. There were still over two hours until nightfall.

Without hesitation, he first selected an expensive yet understated modular leather sofa and transported it to his truck using a forklift. Following that, he found a foldable steel-frame bed.

Although the door to Carriage No. 3 was relatively large, it was clearly impractical to shove a full-sized wooden bed frame inside. Lin Xian planned to weld the steel-frame bed directly into the carriage; as long as he laid out a foldable Simmons mattress and a latex mattress, it would be quite comfortable.

Right, pillows and quilts were essential too.

The more Lin Xian moved, the happier he became. He then spotted a 60-inch screen mounted on the wall of a branded store and his eyes lit up.

"Hmm, if I have an entertainment area, it wouldn't be bad to play games or watch movies when I'm bored."

"Take it!"

Without a second thought, Lin Xian dismantled whatever he could. Soon, the flatbed truck was packed to the brim. If not for the limited space in the bathroom of Carriage No. 1, he would have even taken a toilet and bathtub set from the sanitary ware section.

*Hum~*

In the small truck, Lin Xian’s eyes glowed with a faint fluorescent light. Driven by his Heart of Machinery, the engine roared to life once more. He drove his fully-loaded haul around the main road of the parking lot and into the green belt beside the railway tracks. With a heavy press on the accelerator, he smashed through the isolated wire fence and drove the truck bumping and jolting onto the gravel slope of the tracks.

Chen Sixuan had been waiting on the train for over an hour, and she was stunned when she saw Lin Xian charging toward her in a truck.

When she looked closer and saw nothing but sofas, mattresses, and even a television on the truck, she was even more bewildered.

Does this even count as supplies?

In the apocalypse, wasn't the most important thing to find water, food, or perhaps weapons? Chen Sixuan felt a bit confused, but seeing Lin Xian drive the truck behind Carriage No. 3, she hurried over to help.

*Clang~ Whoosh~*

The tail lift of Carriage No. 3 slowly lowered. Lin Xian jumped on, carrying his short blade. They first moved the motorcycle and the hoist out of the way, then began moving the sofa, bed frame, mattresses, pillows, quilts, rugs, and the television into Carriage No. 1.

By the time they finished, the sun was setting. Both were drenched in sweat from the exertion.

*Beep, beep~*

The alarm on his watch began to sound. Lin Xian’s expression turned serious as he spoke to Chen Sixuan, "Go over there, get some food and tidy up. I need to take care of this truck."

He had a bold idea. Since it was already right in front of him, why not take this opportunity to devour the truck?

Even if he encountered danger, he could immediately raise the protective tailboard of the carriage. It sounded risky—after all, the dangers in the dark were not mere ordinary zombies—but Lin Xian did not want to waste this rare upgrade opportunity and decided to gamble.

"Oh, okay."

Chen Sixuan was like an obedient and well-behaved wife; she followed his instructions without question.

After Chen Sixuan left Carriage No. 3, Lin Xian took the custom-made towing hook he kept behind the door and fastened it around his waist. Before the night fell, he stepped off the train, placed his hand on the small truck, and activated his "Mechanical Devouring" ability without hesitation.

[Devouring Progress: 1%]

The familiar sensation from devouring previous vehicles washed over him. Lin Xian felt his energy draining rapidly, and at the same time, the progress bar on the light screen in his vision was moving much slower than it had for the smaller appliances.

He kept one hand pressed against the truck while the other gripped the metal hook tightly. The reason Lin Xian wore the towing hook and cable was primarily to maintain control over the "Infinity" at all times. His ability could only control machinery he was touching; if connected by a metal wire, the control would fail if the distance became too great.

[Devouring Progress: 2%]

[Devouring Progress: 3%]

Time ticked by second by second. The surroundings were silent. Because there were no lights, as the sun dipped below the horizon, the view began to grow increasingly dark, and Lin Xian’s expression grew grave.

In a trance, he even felt as if the earth itself were breathing...

Is this the Dark Tide?

18:45.

The sky suddenly turned pitch black. The darkness arrived without any transition, appearing incredibly eerie.

Over the past two months, survivors had seemingly grown accustomed to this change. They could only pray for the night to pass quickly. Only when dawn broke would some survivors dare to emerge from their shelters to scavenge for supplies to survive.

In truth, everyone knew that after the polar night, food and water would eventually run out, and whether dawn would ever truly arrive again, no one could say.

Hiding in a shelter was no different from a slow death, but migrating and fleeing was an even greater gamble. Reinforced concrete and iron doors weren't necessarily enough to stop the horrors of the night. If one went out into the wild or hid in a vehicle, how much of a chance of survival was there?

Regardless of the choice, there was no absolute safety.

Thus, ability users had become the leaders of survivor teams. They possessed extraordinary powers and could provide a sense of security that reinforced concrete could not.

Before the internet had completely collapsed before the polar night, Lin Xian had seen many ability users with strange powers online. They quickly became trending topics, sought-after apocalyptic leaders, and were primary targets for official research and cooperation.

When Lin Xian first posted the "Infinity Train" recruitment plan on the forums, he had considered whether he should reveal his ability to recruit a large group of followers.

However, he quickly abandoned that thought.

He felt he lacked the ability to manage hundreds or thousands of survivors in an apocalyptic environment. Although his ability was miraculous, he was struggling even to protect himself at the moment. If he became a leader, the most value he could provide was driving the train and repairing machinery. If he failed as a leader and ended up being treated as a human battery by others, that would be a truly miserable fate.

The facts proved his concerns were entirely justified. Only two months into the apocalypse, tragic incidents regarding resources and brutal infighting among thugs were common. Those ability users possessed incomprehensible power, while in contrast, Lin Xian's ability seemed rather mediocre in the early stages.

[Devouring Progress: 63%]

An hour into the night, the devouring progress had finally passed the halfway mark. Lin Xian maintained absolute focus, alert to the pitch-black environment around him.

He had turned off all the lights on the train, merging his presence with the night. He even slowed his breathing, simply keeping his hand on the truck and devouring it in silence.

To avoid being exposed by the faint mysterious glow in his eyes, Lin Xian even closed them, carefully using his ears to guard against the surroundings. The railway tracks were lined with wire fences; if there was any movement, he should be able to hear it, and if anything approached on the tracks, it should also make some sound.

[Devouring Progress: 77%]

Almost there, almost successful...

*Click~*

Just then, the faint sound of gravel shifting suddenly echoed.