The "Survival on the Train" game has bugs, it's really laggy!

Su Yuan took three steps toward the Emperor's Path Devouring Wasteland.

The first step caused ripples of dark gold to spread across the deck beneath my feet. The ripples were warm and pulsed, as if I were stepping on the back of a living creature.

In the second step, the dark gold ripples suddenly exploded into a ghastly white, and the plant armor on the deck surface withered rapidly under the pure white erosion, only to be reborn wildly with the next heartbeat.

Wither, rebirth, wither, rebirth.

Two forces were repeatedly tug-of-war beneath the soles of his feet, each alternation accompanied by a subtle crackling sound.

third step.

Su Yuan's right eye was bright white.

He paused for a second.

The world before my eyes suddenly blurred.

It's not that my eyesight is failing. It's that the screen is changing.

The cockpit of the Emperor's Path Devourer had vanished. In its place was a rented room of less than ten square meters. The walls were moldy, the windows were drafty, and a bowl of soggy instant noodles sat on the table.

Memories of being sixteen.

Every detail of that dilapidated house was vividly clear. The shape of the crack in the corner, the missing piece on the rim of the instant noodle bowl, the warm yellow light from the streetlamp outside the window, and the angle at which the light shone onto the left side of the pillow.

Su Yuan remembered lying on that pillow, staring at the ceiling, not thinking about anything.

It's not that I don't want to think about it.

I can't figure it out.

Sixteen-year-old Su Yuan didn't know what he would eat tomorrow, nor where he would get the money for next month's rent. All he could do was lie there and wait for dawn.

This memory should have been sealed away in a very, very deep place.

But now it has been unearthed and is flooding into Su Yuan's senses.

The smell of instant noodles, the smell of moldy walls, and the smell of cheap laundry detergent residue on the sheets.

That's so true.

It was so real that Su Yuan's steps became visibly unsteady.

"Owner!"

A small fire rushed up, and he reached out to help it.

His fingers had just touched Su Yuan's right arm.

"laugh--"

A section of the boy's sleeve evaporated instantly.

It wasn't burned, it wasn't torn.

It has been "erased".

It was spotless, without even a break in the fiber, as if that piece of fabric had never existed.

Xiao Huo was so frightened that he jumped back three meters, looking down at his sleeve, which was now only half intact, his golden pupils filled with horror.

Su Yuan's right eye shone brightly for a moment, pure white light overflowing from its socket, illuminating half of his face ashen.

He froze for a second.

Then he flew into a rage.

"Back off!"

These two words weren't spoken, but squeezed out from deep in his throat, with a low, beast-like growl.

Xiao Huo had never seen Su Yuan with this expression before.

That wasn't anger.

It is a ferocious beast battling parasites inside its body, using its last shred of sanity to warn its companions to stay away.

"Everyone, retreat to the back of the carriage." Su Yuan's voice was hoarse beyond recognition, and the white light in his right eye flickered intermittently, as if he might lose control at any moment. "No one is allowed to come over without my order."

Xiao Huo bit her lip, forcing back the tears welling up in her eyes, and turned to run deeper into the carriage.

Wang Hu had already knelt at the end of the carriage.

His massive mechanical arm, forged from scrap metal, trembled uncontrollably. Not from the cold, but from fear.

He saw it.

Su Yuan walked to the center of the cockpit and reached into a storage space with his left hand.

What was pulled out made everyone hold their breath.

That was a crown.

A dark gold, broken crown, its edges still emanating a faint divine glow.

Relics of the Terran Emperor.

The final product of 3,700 years of ruling authority.

Su Yuan looked down at the crown in his palm, and his lips twitched.

Even on his deathbed, he wouldn't stop.

Then he pressed the crown to his chest.

It's not about wearing it.

It's pressed in.

The dark gold metal began to melt and penetrate the skin of Su Yuan's chest cavity the moment it touched it, like water being absorbed by a sponge.

Su Yuan's body suddenly arched.

He opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of dark golden blood mist.

But he didn't loosen his grip.

He pressed his five fingers firmly against the crown, grinding the last section of the crown horn, which had not yet sunk into his chest, inch by inch.

Wang Hu lay on the ground, trembling all over.

His mechanical eye was frantically popping up warnings.

"Abnormal energy readings - Danger - Extreme danger -"

The white light in Su Yuan's right eye surged to its peak.

In my mind, the image of that rented room began to shatter.

The moment the crown sank into his chest, a lingering will originating from the Emperor's divine nature pierced Su Yuan's mental world like an anchor, forcefully pulling him back to his sense of self.

The scene of the rented house shattered into countless fragments.

Reality has returned.

Su Yuan straightened up, the dark gold crown-shaped mark on his chest still pulsating slightly.

He took a few deep breaths and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

The white light in my right eye finally returned to a controllable range.

"OK."

He uttered a single word, his voice still hoarse, but his emotions had stabilized.

Su Yuan looked up at the holographic panel in the cockpit.

On the panel, the countdown for "Self-awareness stripping" is still ticking.

01:12:37.

01:12:36.

It's falling, second by second.

"There's no time to play slowly."

Su Yuan turned his attention to another set of data.

Resource reserves.

Flesh and Blood Energy: 507,882.

This number is ridiculously large, so large that the display frame on the panel can hardly contain it.

Su Yuan stared at the string of numbers and remained silent for two seconds.

Then he made a decision.

"Small fire."

The boy poked his head out from deep inside the carriage, his eyes still red: "Master!"

"Let's eat."

"what?"

"Pour in all 500,000 units of flesh and blood energy. Level up 5 levels in one go."

Xiao Huo was stunned for a full three seconds.

The money-guarding spirit exploded first, the treasure chest lid popping open with a bang: "Five, five, five hundred thousand?! All spent?! Sir, are you going to empty your coffers?!"

Su Yuan ignored it.

His fingers moved rapidly across the control panel, opening all the valves in the energy channels.

"Terra City has only one last power source left. Drag it in, and don't leave any scraps."

"Target coordinates: the Void Black Market in the One-Eyed Dragon's memories."

"Upon arrival at the destination, a direct spatial jump occurs."

The moment the words fell.

The Emperor's Path Devourer let out a long howl that shook the entire void.

The sound wasn't a steam whistle, nor was it the roar of machinery.

It is the roar of a dragon.

A roar, imbued with biological attributes and filled with the oppressive aura of a predator, erupted from the depths of the train's core.

On the exterior of the vehicle, all the obsidian plant armor grew in reverse at the same time, and countless dark golden vines shot out from under the vehicle, like the outstretched claws of a giant beast, rushing towards the last ruins of Sky City.

Those ruins—broken load-bearing beams, shattered energy pipelines, scattered alloy fragments—were entangled, dragged, and stuffed into the spatial interlayers surrounding the train by vines.

They didn't even leave out the last screw.

at the same time.

Five hundred thousand units of flesh and blood energy transformed into a dark golden torrent, pouring out of the storage compartment and washing into every skeleton, every blood vessel, and every cell of the train.

Level 5 evolution has officially begun.

The entire train began to shake violently.

The obsidian armor began to peel off in large areas, only to grow back ten times thicker.

The original five carriages exploded at the rear, and a sixth carriage grew wildly from the flesh and blood, with bones forming, tendons attaching, and armor covering it. The whole process took no more than thirty seconds.

But the strangest change occurred inside the carriage.

The exotic flowers and plants scattered on the walls and ceiling, under the infusion of divine energy, began to undergo an unprecedented mutation.

The petals changed color from dark gold to translucent milky white, and tiny golden orbs of light condensed deep within the flower's stamen.

The entire carriage was filled with an indescribable fragrance.

The smell was very faint, but the moment Su Yuan smelled it, the noise in his mind caused by "cognitive stripping" instantly quieted down by a third.

A prompt appears on the system panel.

[New feature added at Level 5 Evolution: Divine Greenhouse.]

[The fragrance released by divine plants can repair soul-level damage; within the greenhouse area, the rate of concept erosion is reduced by 60%.]

Su Yuan glanced at the line of text.

"Yes, for self-defense."

He spoke casually, but the curve of his lips betrayed him. Anyone would be happy to have their life extended.

Just as the evolution was progressing for four minutes...

The treasure-guarding spirit suddenly jumped out of the treasure chest, clutching a stone pillar about half a meter long tightly in its arms, and swayed as it ran.

"My patron! My patron!" Its voice was so shrill it could shatter glass. "We found something good in the ruins!"

Su Yuan turned his head and glanced at it.

The stone pillar was entirely gray-black, its surface covered with extremely fine spatial cracks, each crack emanating a faint blue light.

Dimensional pillars.

Su Yuan had seen this thing in the one-eyed dragon's memories.

The core fuel for space jumps.

Without this, trains can only run on the tracks. With it, they can tear through the void and make short-distance jumps at the interstellar level.

"How much?" Su Yuan reached out and took the stone pillar.

"Just this one! But it'll be enough!" The miser's short legs kicked rapidly on the floor. "It was hidden under the foundation of that old man Emperor's court, probably for escaping! We're lucky!"

Su Yuan weighed the stone pillar in his hand.

Then, without hesitation, he turned around and stuffed it into the pitcher plant's engine.

The stone pillars dissolved rapidly in the digestive fluid, and the dark blue spatial energy flowed into the core of the train through the pipelines.

Little Fire shuddered: "Ugh! So cold! The spatial coordinates are locked, Master, you can jump anytime!"

"Wait until the upgrade is complete before jumping."

Su Yuan sat back in the driver's seat.

On the holographic panel, the evolution progress bar is being pushed forward rapidly.

87%.

92%.

96%.

"bite--"

All data on the panel is refreshed simultaneously.

[The Emperor's Path: Devourer has been upgraded to level 5.]

[Gained Trait: Unique Territory – The interior of the train is the owner's absolute domain; no external laws can apply within the carriage.]

Su Yuan stared at the words "sole territory" for two seconds.

Absolute territory.

In other words, as long as he stands on the vehicle, everyone's abilities—whether divine, conceptual, or higher-dimensional—are rendered ineffective.

This is his territory.

He's the one who calls the shots.

"Now this is what a train should be like." Su Yuan leaned back in his chair, a genuinely satisfied smile finally appearing on his lips.

But he didn't have time to enjoy it.

In the upper right corner of the panel, the dark red countdown timer is still ticking.

00:00:12.

00:00:11.

"Cognitive stripping" will immediately be reduced to zero.

Su Yuan closed his eyes.

The One that unifies all things operates at full power.

His consciousness delved into the deepest part of his brain and found those fragments of memories from when he was sixteen, which were spreading wildly.

Rental room, instant noodles, moldy walls, warm yellow light from streetlights.

They were like a pack of wild beasts that had broken free of their cages, devouring Su Yuan's understanding of reality.

Su Yuan did not attempt to eliminate them.

He did something more precise.

Encapsulation.

He constructed a container deep within his consciousness, stuffed all the fragments of his sixteen-year-old memories into it, and then branded the surface of the container.

The character "兵" (soldier) is stamped on the steel seal.

It has the same chess piece pattern as the one in your palm.

Fight poison with poison.

Since the imprint left by the chess player could "nail" his soul, he would use the same power to "nail" those out-of-control memories.

The moment the encapsulation is completed.

The countdown has reached zero.

00:00:00.

There was no unusual change in Su Yuan's mind.

Those memories were locked away beneath the steel stamp of the character "兵" (soldier), as quiet as if they had never existed.

Su Yuan opened his eyes.

The left eye is dark gold, and the right eye is pure white.

"Jump."

There is only one word.

Xiao Huo pulled the control lever for spatial jump.

The engine of the Emperor's Path Devourer tore through the void.

On a route outside the normal dimension, several space pirate ships with messy paint schemes are patrolling aimlessly.

The helmsman yawned.

The deputy was gnawing on a piece of jerky of unknown origin.

The captain stood with his legs crossed, staring blankly at the empty screen on the detector.

This void passage hasn't seen any easy prey for three months.

They're so poor they're practically starving.

"Boss, how about we take another route—"

The deputy dropped the jerky he was eating halfway through his sentence.

The detector's screen exploded.

It's not a malfunction.

It's a data overflow.

All the energy readings surged to the meter's limit within the same second, and then half of the dial burned out, sparks crackling and popping out.

The captain fell off his chair.

"What's going on?!"

Looking out the observation window.

A rift was torn open in the pitch-black void.

What flowed out of the mouth was not light.

It is a train.

Its entire body is dark gold, covered with obsidian scales, and its body is wrapped with countless huge tentacles that emit a divine glow.

The drill bit at the front of the car, made of twisted metal vines, was still slowly rotating, covered with the remains of some unfortunate soul.

Milky white and dark gold aurora flowed along the car body, leaving a trail hundreds of meters long in the void.

That's not a train.

It was an ancient ferocious beast with a steel shell that crawled out of the abyss.

The captains of the three pirate ships made the same decision at the same time.

run.

Run as fast as you can.

The Emperor's Path Devourer ignored those few small fry.

It glides forward due to the inertia of spatial jump, and its speed gradually decreases.

In the void ahead, a massive space station, radiating colorful neon lights, slowly emerged.

The Void Black Market.

"Supply Station".

Su Yuan stood up and walked to the car door.

The moment the car door opened, a chilling and chaotic aura from the void rushed out.

He stood at the doorway, his left eye flashing a dark gold light across the distant neon-lit jungle, while his right eye's pure white glow erased all superfluous information from his field of vision, leaving only the most crucial intelligence.

Seventeen defensive gun emplacements.

Patrol ships, four in total.

Energy shield, three layers.

The population density is extremely high.

Su Yuan put his hands into his pockets.

"I'm not buying anything."

He tilted his head, a cold smile curving his lips.

"I'm here to buy goods."

The voice just fell.

Three blood-red laser sights simultaneously locked onto his head from three different directions.

Temples, between the eyebrows, back of the head.

Three-point positioning, leaving no blind spots.

The public broadcast channel of the Void Black Market exploded at the same second, a cold, synthesized voice devoid of any emotion: "Paradox-level virus detected, threat rating: S+. Initiate purification protocol, kill without mercy."

Su Yuan narrowed his eyes.

at the same time.

The pure white "soldier" brand on the palm of his right hand began to tremble violently without warning.

It's not a slight tremor.

It's the kind of tremor that feels like it's breaking free from the skin and flesh.

Su Yuan looked down at his palm.

New characters are emerging stroke by stroke on the white chess pieces.

The handwriting was slow and elegant, with a kind of composure that made you want to swear.

[Second stage.]