Death Train: SSS-level talent right from the start!

Carriage number three.

Lu Qingchuan leaned back in his seat, his gaze falling on the pale blue light screen that was floating in mid-air in front of him.

The text on the screen was concise and clear. He had already read it twice to confirm the reward mechanism and the conditions for achieving it before turning his head to look at Wang Zekai next to him.

Wang Zekai was reclining in his chair, staring intently at his control panel.

After a while, he finally looked away from the light screen and turned to Lu Qingchuan: "Brother Chuan, I triggered it too. I achieved an S-level survival rating in ten trials. That's not easy to do. If it weren't for the extra 3000 points at the end, we wouldn't have reached 10,000 points."

Lu Qingchuan turned off the system light screen and leaned back in his seat: "It's not easy to survive ten survival trials, let alone get an S-level rating in every one. If it weren't for Chen Ye having a special item, we would have all been wiped out this time."

Gulina, sitting in the back, straightened up and leaned forward: "Captain, will S-rank talent soon be too weak?"

Lu Qingchuan glanced at her sideways: "That's not necessarily true. If you have enough trump cards, you can still fight an S-rank opponent. It's not impossible for the weak to defeat the strong." He paused for a moment and then continued: "Zheng Xiao was stronger than Chen Ye, but in the end, he was still tricked and killed by Chen Ye."

Wang Zekai clicked his tongue beside him: "That's true. A trump card is always more useful than rank. Who would have thought that Chen Ye had a mirror that could deflect all attacks? Zheng Xiao probably never understood how he lost."

Shen Nanxing sat in the side seat, not joining the conversation until Wang Zekai finished speaking, at which point she said, "The next survival trial will be four-star difficulty. I just hope it won't be a train battle again; we have no advantage there."

Lu Qingchuan didn't respond immediately. He remained silent for a moment before saying, "Let's take it one step at a time. Chen Ye is already level 32. We'll have to see how he performs in the next trial."

"Captain, you've only known Chen Ye for three trials, why do you trust him so much? In the maze trial, you went whenever he asked you to."

Gulina's voice carried a hint of curiosity.

Lu Qingchuan's lips curved slightly: "Trust isn't about how long you've known someone, it's about how they act in crucial moments. In the Mechanical City, the Ice Abyss, and the Maze Trial, every choice he made never betrayed his teammates, and of course, he never betrayed me either. In a death game, there aren't many people who can do that."

During the death guessing game, he witnessed Zheng Xiao kill two teammates in order to avoid participating in the guessing game. Chen Ye could have conceded once when facing Zheng Xiao, letting them wear down Zheng Xiao, but Chen Ye did not do so.

Gulina nodded thoughtfully and pulled her head back: "That's true... If it were someone else, they wouldn't necessarily be a liability, but at least they wouldn't keep bringing along teammates with poor talent and low levels."

Wang Zekai leaned back in his seat, putting his hands behind his head: "That's true. It's one thing for him to be strong, but it's another to be willing to take those burdens in the team. If it were someone like He Yunfeng, he would have kicked Qin Zhaoyang out as cannon fodder long ago."

Lu Qingchuan closed his eyes and didn't say anything more. The carriage fell silent again.

Carriage number seven.

In the last row by the window, Yang Minghui was leaning back in his seat.

He pushed his glasses up above his forehead, revealing the bridge of his nose with two shallow marks pressed into it by the frames.

He held a bottle of energy potion in his hand, flipping the glass bottle idly, his gaze fixed on the system screen floating in mid-air in front of him.

On the leaderboard, he is ranked third, at level 30.

Chen Ye and Gu Qinghuan were ahead of them in the rankings, one at level 32 and the other at level 31.

Next up is Lu Qingchuan, level 29, followed by a string of names at levels 28 and 27.

Liang Jing sat down next to him, glanced at him sideways, and then at the glass tube he was spinning in his hand: "Alright, stop spinning it. After Infinite City, we'll be participating in the Four-Star Trial. What are your plans?"

Yang Minghui stopped his finger movements and put the energy potion back into his storage space.

He pulled his glasses off his forehead, put them back on, pushed the frames on the bridge of his nose with his fingertips, and then turned to look at Liang Jing: "I plan to get on good terms with Chen Ye. On this train, he's the only one who can truly help us survive the next trial."

Liang Jing frowned slightly, her tone carrying a hint of something that was hard to define—either resistance or instinctive wariness: "You're quite open-minded. He Yunfeng's only been dead a short time, and you're already trying to get close to Chen Ye?"

Yang Minghui pushed up his glasses, his tone still calm: "You need to understand, it was never Chen Ye who killed He Yunfeng, it was the rules of the death guessing game. I even suspect that He Yunfeng made a stupid mistake and killed himself."

Liang Jing was silent for a moment, then turned her head to look at the grayish-white mist outside the car window: "Then I'll listen to you."

Yang Minghui nodded and looked at the ranking leaderboard again: "There are only two of us now, let's strengthen the team first."

His finger slid down the passenger names in Class 28, past Zhao Hai, Wen Ning (Chen Ye's people), past Wang Zekai, Shen Nanxing, Gu Lina (he knew these were Lu Qingchuan's teammates).

His finger continued to slide down, past Zhou Tian and Li Rui, two people with whom they already had a grudge. In the end, only one of the Class 28 passengers they could invite was Jiang Ning.

Yang Minghui's gaze lingered on Jiang Ning's name: "We can invite Jiang Ning."

Liang Jing turned her head, her gaze falling on the light screen in front of him: "Jiang Ning?"

Yang Minghui nodded slightly, his finger pausing on Jiang Ning's name: "He levels up very quickly. I remember he was only level 24 when the trains were merged, and now he's level 28. I leveled up four times in the maze trial because I participated in the death guessing contest and guessed the points of the opposite passenger. But Jiang Ningbin didn't participate in the death guessing contest."

As he spoke, he had already edited a message and sent it to Jiang Ning.

Liang Jing's gaze fell on the message that had already been sent: "Do you think he'll agree?"

Yang Minghui leaned back in his chair and put his hands on his knees: "Let's give it a try. He probably doesn't have a team. The next survival trial is four-star difficulty. I'm level 30, so joining us wouldn't be an insult to him."

The seventh carriage fell silent.

The white noise of wheels rubbing against the rails echoed continuously in the empty carriage.

The grayish-white fog outside the window remained thick as a wall, slowly creeping along the glass without showing any change.

About ten minutes have passed.

Just as Yang Minghui was about to close the system panel, Jiang Ning's reply popped up.

Jiang Ning: Okay.