Doomsday: I Build an Infinite Train.

Chapter 497 The Darkest Moment
Lin Xian, who was originally planning to head north to explore the Harko rail line, was caught by a reconnaissance drone that detected a violent explosion. Analysis showed that it was clearly caused by a human weapon.

So he immediately changed his route to investigate, and sure enough, he saw the commotion of Raymond's team fighting. Upon discovering that there were living people, Lin Xian's first reaction was to try to contact them in order to obtain some necessary information.

However, as his reconnaissance drone approached the battlefield, he immediately recognized the Nightcrawler cloaks on Raymond's team. He had seen this type of cloak on Zhou Wuer and Peng Peng before. Then, he detected KIKI's psychic fluctuations. Without hesitation, he took action. After blocking Gao Liren's detection last night, he thought that this dark energy frequency might be able to resist the crimson wall. So he used it directly on the group, while also avoiding accidental injury.

Rumble!
Lin, clad in black Night Star power armor, strode across a battlefield shrouded in blood and smoke. 6000 "Iron Man" and "Dragon Girl" combat mechs stood motionless in various corners of the battlefield. The ground was littered with charred limbs or neatly severed by VK electric blades. After these monsters were hunted down, they released even more crimson blood mist, further reducing visibility.

This was the first time Lin had deployed his mech army, but he had no time to focus on evaluating the combat data. He quickly stepped across a patch of scorched earth and headed towards the central protective window.

swoosh~
Before he even got close, a streak of light suddenly tore through the crimson mist, hurtling towards Lin Xian with astonishing speed. The immense impact caused Lin Xian, encased in his power armor, to stagger back several steps. The figure, through his cold armor, held him tightly with all its might, and a familiar voice, trembling with excitement, rang in his ear:

"I knew it was you! I knew you wouldn't die!"

Hearing that familiar voice, Lin Xian's heart skipped a beat. Without hesitation, he stretched out his arms and hugged her tightly through his power armor. The two embraced passionately, and time seemed to stand still for a moment. The warmth of her embrace stirred complex emotions within Lin Xian, and all the words he wanted to say ultimately condensed into a low, apologetic murmur:

"Sorry……"

He didn't know how to explain, and could only offer an apology. He had evolved from the crystal lattice but then saw that strange planetary head after going into hibernation. He was inexplicably captured by the black star celestial body, spent three months completing the celestial resonance, and then woke up to this unrecognizable, scarlet world. Everything felt like a distant memory, leaving him feeling very heavy-hearted.

Upon hearing the "I'm sorry," KIKI, nestled in his arms, instantly erupted in a torrent of suppressed emotions. She burst into tears, pounding her fists on Lin Xian's breastplate as she sobbed incoherently, "You damned bad man! I thought you were going to never wake up! I thought you were dead! Waaah..."

At this moment, Raymond and his team members barely recovered from their shock and cautiously gathered around. The brief calm on the battlefield did not bring peace. The crimson mist around them churned violently, and from the depths came a far greater number of rustling sounds and growls than before, clearly indicating that an even bigger commotion was brewing.

Raymond suppressed the turmoil in his heart, forced himself to calm down, and looked sharply at Lin Xian: "You... are the Swordholder Lin Xian?"

"It's me." Lin Xian's voice came through the mask, steady and certain.

Upon hearing the response, Lister and Song Wei, who were still in shock behind Raymond, all gasped.
"Holy crap, you're really still alive?!" Aaron exclaimed in surprise.

“No wonder a safe house suddenly appeared out of nowhere underground. Damn it, I thought we had been captured by something…” Lister also said.

Song Wei looked at Lin Xian and sized him up, saying, "Just like the information from headquarters, he can create large-scale industrial weapons out of thin air. Mechanical superpowers are indeed amazing!"

Raymond took a deep breath, glancing with a complex expression at KIKI's retreating figure as she erupted in emotion. As the team leader, he immediately calmed down and said, "It seems the result is better than we expected, but now is not the time for reminiscing. The Crimson Tide may be about to erupt! Being targeted by too many hunters would be a real problem! Our mission is to rescue you. We can't stay here any longer. Come back to the safe house with us!" He spoke quickly, with an undeniable sense of urgency.

Lin Xian immediately agreed: "Okay!"

He looked down to ask about KIKI in his arms, but found that the little girl was completely unreserved, like a wronged child who had found someone to lean on. She was hugging his waist, burying her face in his breastplate, and sobbing uncontrollably, her shoulders shaking. Lin Xian's heart softened. He knew that she must have gone through unimaginable fear and hardship during this time, enduring everything alone. He gently patted her back and said nothing more.

Immediately, everyone set off. Several ruggedly designed flying motorcycles roared with deep power, tearing through the thick, crimson mist as they flew at high speed close to the ground. KIKI pulled Lin Xian along, using her telekinesis to fly and follow. They sped along the ground at low altitude, heading east. Soon, in their blurry vision, they arrived at a small town called Parita near the Harko coastline. This was originally a place Lin Xian planned to detour through, because the crimson color in this area was terrifyingly dense on the map. He originally thought there were no living people there, but unexpectedly, the Phoenix Society had a base here.

Lin Xian followed along, his gaze sweeping over the seaside town covered in crimson. The town was eerily silent, as if all colors had turned gray and stagnant. The houses looked as if they had been rotting for twenty years, devoid of any life. The corners of the streets were littered with the remains of various corpses, now charred like charcoal, all shrouded in a thick crimson fog. Standing on such a street, he wouldn't be surprised if any terrifying thing emerged from the crimson.

The flying motorcycle skillfully navigated the winding streets, finally crashing into an inconspicuous abandoned garage. The garage was empty, covered in dust and scarlet moss. After the team stopped, Lister closed the garage's roller shutter door, made some adjustments to the mobile computer, and then said to Lin Xian, "Watch your step."

Empty!

At this moment, Lin Xian subconsciously pushed open the door, and a dull metallic scraping sound came from the ground. A thick armor plate slowly slid open, revealing a spacious elevator. Lin Xian was somewhat surprised to see that there was actually a bunker underground in this godforsaken place.
Moreover, the bunker appears to be quite new.

Soon, everyone entered, the elevator doors closed, and it descended smoothly and quickly.

After a considerable descent, the elevator doors opened again.

Suddenly, the view opened up before Lin Xian, who then realized that the bunker was actually quite large. After the elevator came to a stop, the group entered a spacious disinfection room. KIKI gave Lin Xian a look, and the group stood apart. Soon, countless automatic spray nozzles appeared on the walls, spraying out a torrential downpour of water mist that cleaned the bloodstains off their power armor.

Lin Xian noticed that in addition to the dark energy frequency, there was also an isolation net composed of at least three other energies in the bunker's isolation chamber. KIKI sensed Lin Xian's curiosity and immediately whispered to him over the communication frequency.

“Scarlet, radiation, corrosion, and some dangerous substances that the Phoenix will discover all need to be cleaned and isolated.”

Lin Xian breathed a sigh of relief and comforted himself, "It's better than having no way out."

Soon, after emerging from the isolation room, everyone began to remove their power armor. Outside, cold metal walls reflected the neatly arranged white fluorescent lights overhead, emitting a steady glow. The air was filled with a mixture of disinfectant, engine oil, and the distinctive smell of human settlements. As far as Lin Xian could see, pipes meandered overhead and along the walls, and emergency indicator lights flashed a faint green light. In the spacious main hall, there were many figures, roughly seventy or eighty people, some maintaining weapons, others handling some strange instruments.

As Raymond walked through the passage, he pointed to the busy and vigilant underground world and introduced it to Lin Xian: "This is the Phoenix Society's Scarlet Outpost, a temporary stronghold built after the Scarlet Outbreak. We all call it the 'Safe House'."

"A safe house?" Lin Xian looked at KIKI curiously, then at Raymond: "What's it for?"

"Experimentation, reconnaissance, and outpost support." Song Wei, a short-haired, capable woman who looked to be in her early thirties, said after removing her power armor, "The Crimson is expanding too quickly. We still have a lot of supplies to salvage. At the same time, we Nightwalkers must understand this disaster as quickly as possible so that headquarters can provide timely response plans!"

Chi~
At this moment, the automatic door at the end of the passage opened first, and a group of people walked out with a brisk pace towards the group. Leading them was a middle-aged man, tall and thin, looking travel-worn as if he had been drained of blood ten times by the crimson wall. Despite this, he possessed a pair of deep, sharp, and piercing eyes. Raymond and his companions stepped aside, and as the group approached, Raymond immediately introduced them to Lin Xian.

"Let me introduce you, Team Leader Shi Weidong, the person in charge of the Hake 374 Safe House!"

Shi Weidong spotted the young man from afar and hurried over with an incredulous expression. He stopped in front of Lin Xian, his eyes scanning Lin Xian repeatedly. After a long while, he looked at Lin Xian's face and exclaimed in a slightly dialectal tone...
"My God, this is unbelievable! The commander ordered me to find your body no matter what, but I can't believe you, this god, are still alive?!"

“We were surprised too,” Raymond said, looking at Lin Xian with a sigh. “He seems completely unaffected.”

Lin Xian reached out and shook hands with Shi Weidong, then said, "I woke up from the hibernation pod yesterday and didn't know that so much time had passed outside and so many things had happened."

"Yesterday?" Shi Weidong looked at Raymond and then at Lin Xian with surprise. "Didn't Scarlet affect you?"

"I found and replicated the dark energy frequency potential device on the Cheng Ying ship," Lin Xian explained.

Shi Weidong paused, as if to say something, then smiled helplessly and said, "Although I've done a lot of research on you, they were right. It's not surprising that anything happens to you..."

"Let's not waste any more time and give you a full body check-up first."

After saying that, he immediately turned to the side and called over a person wearing a white coat next to him.

"Not for now." Lin Xian declined the offer, his voice tinged with urgency. "To be honest, I want to understand what exactly happened in the past three months, and there are many other questions..."

He looked at KIKI as he spoke: "For example, Sky Dome, Director Ding, Teacher Chen, and the others."

“I understand how you feel, but the life mutation caused by the crimson is already very serious. It’s not just about corruption, but also about the loss of life force and consciousness.” Shi Weidong said solemnly to Lin Xian at this moment. “You said you just used the dark energy frequency device yesterday, but the problem is that you’ve been lying in a completely unprotected hibernation pod on the Harko coast for more than a month. That’s practically a miracle. For your safety, it would be best if we could examine you.”

"In addition, whatever you want to know, I and the people here, including your companion, can tell you at any time."

Upon hearing this, Lin Xian realized the seriousness of the situation. In fact, he had considered this problem before. He had been lying in that yellow sand for so long. Logically speaking, if that crimson wall had been swept every day, he should have long since turned into a dried-up corpse with blood mist drained away...

Inside a special room, Lin Xian, having removed his outer clothing, was conducting an inspection inside a sophisticated device. Outside the isolation window, four or five experts were intently watching the various data generated by the instrument.

Shi Weidong and KIKI were also standing behind. Watching this scene, Shi Weidong also expressed his surprise.

"It's unbelievable that he's still alive and well in the area most severely affected by the giant sweeping attacks from the sky over the Harco coast..."

“I told you, he definitely won’t die.” KIKI looked at Lin Xian inside, her eyes filled with pride.

Shi Weidong looked at KIKI with surprise in his eyes: "It's a miracle that you survived. You were unconscious for so long and only recovered a little before you went in and out of Harko more than ten times. You're really risking your life!"

KIKI didn't speak, her gaze fixed on Lin Xian inside.

At this moment, the experts in front suddenly began to stir, and shouts of surprise rang out, immediately attracting Shi Weidong's attention.

"Oh my god, what's wrong with him? His mental energy fluctuations are intermittent and completely undetectable!"

"Yes, his Spirit Dispersion Value is also strange. The initial detection shows it's less than 15,000, but according to the data records, he once reached 18,000 Spirit Dispersion Value back in Dawn City..."

"And how could his body exhibit a reaction to cosmic radiation?"

"What's wrong?" Shi Weidong stepped forward and asked the group, "Is there a problem?"

"Judging from his physical signs, Lin Xian is extremely healthy, one could even say his condition is unparalleled!" A bespectacled expert stammered, "But in other aspects..."

Upon hearing this, Shi Weidong breathed a sigh of relief: "It's alright. He is the Swordholder and a mechanical ability user. As long as he is confirmed to be healthy, there is nothing else to worry about."

Soon, after completing the check-up, Lin Xian followed Shi Weidong to a small conference room. KIKI accompanied him, along with Raymond, the captain of the rescue team, and scout Song Wei, who had also changed out of their power armor and arrived. As soon as Lin Xian sat down, Shi Weidong activated the holographic projection. The screen unfolded, and a blueprint of a planet shrouded in crimson appeared before Lin Xian.

On that hologram, the Asia-Pacific, Oceania, North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Arctic, Eastern Continent, Republic, and the Pacific, Black Ocean, Arctic Ocean, and Atlantic Ocean—a total of nine continents and four oceans—were almost entirely covered in scarlet. The blue planet had almost turned into a 'red star,' with only the polar ice cap area and a small area on the stormy coast of Ushuaia in South America remaining blue.

Lin Xian's eyes immediately narrowed. From his perspective, the world seemed to have been swallowed by crimson. That gigantic maw had now completely surrounded the polar regions. Because of the polar day, this place had become the last sanctuary for humanity in the face of its doomsday...

"In the commander's words..." Shi Weidong's hoarse voice rang out as he looked at Lin Xian and slowly spoke.
"Human civilization has reached its darkest hour!"

(End of this chapter)