Morning of Day 1
Late at night, the minivan was packed to the brim, not a crack left.
Heavy bags of rice were stacked neatly, fresh beef and lamb packed in preservation boxes. Greens, tomatoes, potatoes, and cucumbers were piled in boxes, with golden corn cobs wedged into every gap.
If some unsuspecting passerby saw this, they'd surely think a produce store was restocking overnight.
The car stopped steadily outside the apartment building. Lin Mo turned off the headlights, letting the black body blend into the thick night.
She waited a moment, confirming no one was around, then turned gently, raising her arm to reach into the car.
In the darkness, Lin Mo concentrated, holding her breath. In an instant, slender fingertips released faint stardust specks as she willed.
The shimmering silver particles flowed along her intent, precisely wrapping around the tomatoes, greens, beef, and lamb. Where the particles covered, the outlines of objects dissolved like snowflakes. In the blink of an eye, the once-full car was empty, not a trace left.
Yet Lin Mo could clearly sense that the supplies had been securely sent into the train's safe room.
This ability was a Train Conductor skill she had awakened just two days ago.
Looking back, the day the ability manifested should have been a perfectly ordinary weekend.
"Finally finished the PPT. Overtime's over!"
Lin Mo's finger struck the Enter key heavily, with a sense of relief.
She checked the time—only five in the afternoon, but the sky was already dark as spilled ink. Outside, the cold wind howled, whipping dead leaves against the glass.
She leaned back in her chair, relaxed, and picked up her phone from the desk.
The weather app's warning alert was flashing: "Strong cold front incoming! Nationwide temperature drop starting tomorrow, heavy snow in the north!"
Rubbing her cold hands, Lin Mo couldn't help sighing, "The weather's really abnormal. I'll just stay home tomorrow..."
Around this time last year, she and her friends had been wearing thin sweaters and jackets, picking autumn leaves in the park, basking in the warm noon sun. This year, S City's sky seemed covered in a gray veil, and even the wind carried a bone-chilling cold.
Too bad one friend had returned to the Northeast, and another was always traveling for work, flying all over the country. They hadn't gathered in a long time. Alone anyway, Lin Mo preferred to stay home and rest. Just turn on the AC, lie on the sofa, drink some milk tea—a solo life was pretty nice.
In her social feeds, eight out of ten posts were clips about global climate anomalies, and the comments were flooded with doomsday theories. She mindlessly scrolled through videos—two Douyin experts were heatedly debating: Little Ice Age theory vs. geomagnetic reversal hypothesis.
The comment section was full of people eagerly joining in, not caring if they understood or not, spamming doomsday countdown check-ins. Some even dug up old news about the Yellowstone supervolcano, confidently predicting its imminent eruption, even posting "data" claiming the global average temperature would drop 10 degrees Celsius after an eruption, sparking panic in the comments.
Lin Mo's verdict: "People sure have a lot of free time."
"Isn't Yellowstone's eruption cycle supposed to be 600,000 years away? Believing that is like trusting 'Approaching Science' to solve mysteries."
Just then, the familiar doorbell rang. Lin Mo's eyes lit up; she tossed her phone aside, ignoring the doomsday talk. Taking the steaming food bag, she walked briskly back to the living room and sank into the soft fabric sofa.
She turned on a light-hearted drama on her tablet, casually tied her hair into a bun, sipped hot milk tea, and nibbled on spiced salt-and-pepper duck frame. Saturday's relaxation washed over her like warm water, making her comfortable and lazy.
But that comfort didn't last until late night. In her sleep, Lin Mo suddenly shivered. The blanket wrapped around her seemed to lose its warmth instantly, and a piercing cold spread from her limbs to her chest.
It felt like she had fallen into a chaotic snowstorm. A blizzard was savagely tearing through the city. The remaining half of the Oriental Pearl Tower trembled in the chaos, like a leftover rib between a giant beast's teeth.
Countless fleeing figures, tiny as ants, were swallowed by the wind and snow in an instant.
"Ah!" Her consciousness snapped back. She sat up abruptly, her back soaked in cold sweat.
Gasping, still shaken, she got out of bed barefoot and yanked open the curtains.
The metal track screeched. Under the streetlight, the asphalt road in the neighborhood glistened with normal moisture. No blizzard, no screams. Everything that had felt so real seemed just an illusion.
She fumbled for her phone. The cold screen showed 4:04 AM.
Her feet felt icy. "So it was a dream..."
But that overwhelming disaster was too terrifying.
She let out a long breath, turned around, and flopped back onto the soft bed. Tossing and turning for a while, she eventually drifted back into a hazy sleep.
Early Sunday morning, the crisp alarm tore through the silence.
Lin Mo opened her eyes to reach for her phone, but a pale blue translucent screen abruptly appeared before her. Then, an unfamiliar electronic voice rang directly in her mind like a thunderclap:
[Doomsday Train Safe-House System bound]
[Bound Train Conductor: Lin Mo]
[Bound Vehicle: Train Carriage (Deployed, Pending Activation)]
[Talent: Not Awakened]
Before Lin Mo could recover from the shock, the electronic voice continued coldly:
[Welcome, Train Conductor Lin Mo]
[Warning: The global extreme low-temperature disaster 'Snow Erosion' will fully erupt in 160 hours. The train is your only safe house. Please continuously upgrade. Establishing a human shelter is your ultimate mission.]
[Please actively build the train.]
[Beginner Mission: Stockpile 100kg of basic survival supplies (food and water).]
Lin Mo's fingers froze mid-air, her pupils trembling reflected in the pale blue light screen.
Three seconds later, she came to her senses and tried swiping left and right on the screen. But when her fingers passed through the blue light, the interface remained motionless like a frozen lake.
The "Activate Train" button was embedded in the center of the screen, its silvery metallic texture seeming to flow with a faint stardust glow.
No matter how she tapped, the button stubbornly remained dark. The surrounding function modules were covered in a frosted gray mist, even the text blurry.