Inside the command carriage, in a separated space behind the control room, stood Lin Xian's temporary bed while the proper rooms in the first passenger carriage were still unfinished.
Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan lay comfortably together beneath thick warm blankets on the high-quality mattress, quietly enjoying each other's warmth and presence in the freezing darkness.
After two nights without proper sleep, Lin Xian felt genuine reluctance to wake up.
Still, thanks to the motivation resting in his arms, he eventually forced himself awake.
He picked up his watch to check the time.
14:00.
Yet outside the train, there was still no sign of daylight.
Chen Sixuan, who had already been awake for a long time, hurriedly got dressed, her face completely red from embarrassment as memories of last night surfaced in her mind.
"I-it looks like they blocked the tracks… I remember hearing them mention it before they left," she said softly while looking downward, trying to overcome her embarrassment.
Without hesitation, Lin Xian pulled her back into his arms and lightly kissed her perfumed lips.
"I know," he said calmly. "But there's nothing we can do until daylight returns. Going outside during the night would be too reckless."
Chen Sixuan shook her head and gently slipped out of his embrace before grabbing the logbook she had placed on the small table beside the bed.
"Counting the distance from Yushan Station, we traveled a total of fifty-four kilometers yesterday. According to the information shared through the survivor broadcasts, daylight should return around 17:00 today… assuming the information was accurate."
As she spoke, she occasionally glanced toward Lin Xian before quickly looking away again, still overwhelmed by what had happened the previous night.
"We'll see," Lin Xian replied thoughtfully. "We still don't know how accurate that information really is. The difference could be insignificant… or it could be massive. We'll only know once the sun rises."
"Mhm…"
Chen Sixuan nodded quietly.
Right then, her stomach growled from hunger.
The two kept their voices low due to the endless darkness outside while they grabbed some emergency food and bottled water stored inside the command carriage.
"This is exactly why it's important to keep supplies inside the train instead of leaving everything with Drakkon," Lin Xian said with a helpless sigh. "When that guy sleeps, he sleeps for real. You could start a storm beside him and he still wouldn't wake up easily."
"Shouldn't we wake him up?" Chen Sixuan asked while accepting the water bottle and packaged food Lin Xian handed her. "Or at least go check if he's already awake?"
"Don't worry about him," Lin Xian replied while eating. "Knowing him, he's probably sleeping like a corpse right now. If he were awake, he'd already be banging on the door just to annoy us."
—
Meanwhile, inside the first passenger carriage, Drakkon truly was sleeping like a log.
Completely unconscious to the world around him, he was unknowingly hugging the girl beside him like a body pillow while she lay there with a bright red face.
—
Back in the command carriage, Lin Xian placed his hand against the metallic wall of the train, checking the train's condition while simultaneously sensing the presence inside the nearby carriage.
He could clearly feel both Drakkon and the girl motionless on the bed.
Sleeping like rocks.
Since there was nothing else to do, Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan simply sat together wearing long-sleeved clothes while waiting for time to pass.
15:00 — Still complete darkness. No signs of sunrise.
Lin Xian used the time to replace the cracked armored windshield with a spare identical panel.
16:00 — Still no sunlight.
A growing sense of urgency slowly formed inside Lin Xian's chest.
The later the sun rose, the farther they would need to travel during daytime to maintain distance from the Polar Night.
And if daylight hours continued shrinking…
Things would become truly desperate.
—
Inside the passenger carriage, Drakkon finally woke up.
Still exhausted from just waking up, he didn't even notice he had been holding the girl beside him moments earlier, nor the fact that her face was completely flushed red.
"Damn… it's cold as hell," he muttered while shivering.
He immediately pulled a thick jacket out of his system storage and put it on before forcing himself to stand up.
Just as he prepared to leave, he suddenly remembered the girl.
Looking back, he noticed she wasn't wearing thick clothes anymore, and he had unconsciously pulled most of the blankets away while sleeping.
Clicking his tongue, he walked back over and covered her properly again before heading toward the command carriage.
"Morning," he greeted casually after entering.
Then he immediately pulled out a sandwich and a bottle of water from his system before taking out two more.
"You guys want some?"
"No," Lin Xian replied. "We already ate. And it's not morning."
Drakkon shrugged before storing the extras away and continued eating.
"There are rocks blocking the tracks," Lin Xian said after a moment. "Once daylight comes, we'll clear them and head back to Yushan Station to check the situation."
After finishing his last bite, Drakkon casually answered,
"Already handled the rocks before I came back inside. They weren't a big deal anyway. Only one was kinda large, but it barely covered the rails. Honestly, their work was pretty mediocre."
As he spoke casually, neither he nor Lin Xian noticed the strange expression on Chen Sixuan's face.
The temperature had already fallen to 0°C due to the increasingly longer Polar Nights.
In the future, it wouldn't be surprising if it dropped even further.
Fortunately, stopping earlier to collect proper beds, warm blankets, and memory foam mattresses had proven extremely valuable against the cold.
As the three sat inside the command carriage, time slowly passed.
Finally—
At exactly 16:48.
A ray of light pierced across the horizon.
The setting sun finally appeared.
"It's daytime already!" Chen Sixuan exclaimed before immediately opening her notebook and writing rapidly.
"Day 2. Sunrise at 16:48. Twelve minutes earlier than predicted."
She quickly looked toward Lin Xian.
"That's a promising sign, right? It means we really can escape the Polar Night by following the tracks?"
"Yes," Lin Xian answered immediately. "It's very promising. If this pattern continues, we'll gradually gain more daylight hours. That's definitely good news."
Even so, he still sighed afterward.
"But it's not enough. We need to advance farther every single day. We can't rely only on marginal gains forever."
Chen Sixuan quickly calculated using her notebook.
"Yesterday we traveled fifty-four kilometers, and today sunrise came twelve minutes earlier than expected. That means if we want sunrise to eventually return to 16:00… we really do need to travel around two hundred fifty to two hundred seventy kilometers daily like the broadcasts said."
"More or less," Lin Xian agreed. "That matches the transmission data. But to travel two hundred seventy kilometers in roughly three hours, we'd need to maintain around ninety kilometers per hour consistently if we want to play it safe."
Chen Sixuan's expression darkened.
"I'd rather not go above ninety kilometers per hour," Lin Xian continued seriously. "There's no guarantee the tracks ahead will stay clear."
"Yeah, he's right," Drakkon added while leaning back casually. "If we go too fast, the train will need more distance to stop. That means less reaction time if something unexpected appears—like broken rails or rocks on the tracks."
Chen Sixuan knew they were right.
Still, she couldn't suppress the fear growing inside her heart.
In only two days, they had already experienced one crisis after another.
The train's ten-cylinder gas engine roared to life before the massive machine slowly began moving backward along the tracks.
The three grabbed onto nearby supports while observing the outside surroundings.
Unable to stay quiet any longer, Drakkon suddenly smirked.
"Hey, Lin Xian… do you have some kind of teacher-student taboo fetish or something? You still keep calling her 'Miss Chen,' after all."
Lin Xian immediately shot him an annoyed glare.
Meanwhile, Chen Sixuan's face instantly turned red as she lowered her head, trying to make her presence as small as possible.
"Without their leader around, that group probably spent the whole night in chaos," Lin Xian said coldly, completely ignoring Drakkon's teasing. "We'll use this chance to gather supplies and make sure there are no remaining threats."
Clang… clang… clang…
The sound of the train echoed continuously as it reversed along the tracks.
It didn't take long before they reached Yushan Station again.
And the moment the station came into view—
Everyone's expressions changed drastically.
For entirely different reasons.
The entire place was chaos.
The platform had become complete ruins.
Bullet holes covered nearly every surface while blood stained the ground everywhere.
Several vehicles had been overturned or twisted into scrap metal.
Every single one was drenched in blood.
Some intact jeeps and off-road vehicles still remained parked nearby, yet even those were splattered with dried crimson stains.
Spent shell casings littered the ground.
In several areas, clear burn marks could be seen.
Molotov cocktails.
Zombies wandered throughout the station.
Not in massive numbers—but enough.
One of them was the refined-looking middle-aged man who had arrived with the "family" the night before.
Now he staggered around mindlessly as a zombie.
Which meant the others nearby likely belonged to the Oasis Convoy as well.
Yet neither Drakkon nor Lin Xian focused on the zombies.
Their attention remained fixed on the station entrance hall.
Even though the hall itself was small, countless insects crowded inside.
And among the shadows—
Gigantic insect legs could clearly be seen.
"That's from the giant insect we saw at the warehouse…" Lin Xian muttered while staring intensely.
"You're focusing on the wrong thing," Drakkon suddenly replied grimly. "We traveled over fifty-four kilometers… and somehow that thing still caught up to us."
Lin Xian's expression changed slightly.
"But we never saw it following us."
"There's still too much we don't understand about those creatures," Drakkon said quietly while staring toward the station. "Why do they only appear during the night? Where do they go during daytime? Do they just disappear or what?"
Neither of them noticed Chen Sixuan's increasingly worried expression.
Seeing her face, Lin Xian immediately comforted her.
"Don't worry, Miss Chen. They don't appear during daytime. There's nothing to be afraid of."
But internally, Lin Xian clenched his teeth.
Earlier, he had briefly considered traveling during the night to gain more distance and extra time.
Now?
That idea was completely impossible.
Moving during the night might attract even more terrifying things.
"Drakkon and I will go down first," Lin Xian said seriously. "After that, you can come out and keep watch while we gather useful supplies."
Then he turned toward Drakkon.
"Let's finish this quickly. Once we're done, I'm increasing the train's speed. I want to see if that thing can still keep up when we move even farther and faster."
He had chosen what he believed was the lesser evil.
Chen Sixuan nodded silently.
Before leaving, however, Lin Xian added quietly,
"We do this silently. I don't want to alert anything nearby. Who knows where that creature might be hiding."
"Understood," Drakkon answered.
The moment they stepped outside, several kunai instantly appeared in his hand.
Swish. Swish. Swish.
One after another, the blades pierced through zombie skulls with deadly precision.
No experience gained.
Just weak ordinary zombies.
Meanwhile, Lin Xian silently used his Wind Cannon ability to eliminate nearby zombies without making noise.
Drakkon frowned slightly as the overwhelming stench of blood filled the air.
Still, compared to what he had already experienced…
This was nothing.
The two continued clearing the surrounding zombies while searching through the vehicles for supplies.
No matter where Drakkon looked—
There was blood.
Bullet casings.
Severed limbs.
Destroyed vehicles.
Signs of desperate resistance.
But this clearly hadn't been a battle.
It had been a massacre.
Most likely, their bullets had barely affected the creature at all.
Which explained the fire marks PF the Molotov cocktails scattered around the station.
A final desperate attempt against something they couldn't stop.