Chapter 812: Orbital Storm
The atmosphere on the daytime train was fairly pleasant. After Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu returned from eating, the middle-aged woman who had been actively promoting her goods also came back into the carriage, though there was a fresh bruise at the corner of her mouth, clearly having run into trouble in another carriage.
Minor injuries from player encounters were trivial matters. The middle-aged woman didn't care what others thought of her, cheerfully squeezing over to Yan Jiayu's side to share some food.
Yan Jiayu wasn't stingy and even took the initiative to chat with her. "Do you only do business on the train?"
"Sometimes I do it in instances too," the middle-aged woman said. "Can't help it. I was a salesperson before becoming a player. That's all I know how to do. I earn just enough for some potions, or else I find players who seem easy to talk to and ask them to carry me. Otherwise, I'd have died in the game long ago."
"Then you've met some good people," Yan Jiayu said with a smile.
The middle-aged woman nodded. "Exactly. That's why I say there are still more good people in this world. You're not bad either, little sister. If it weren't for you, I might have gone hungry today."
"Can't even afford a bowl of rice?" The curly-haired female player ahead turned back. "You sold quite a bit earlier, didn't you?"
The middle-aged woman sighed. "Small profits but quick turnover. Besides, I have a family to support. Going hungry for a meal or two is nothing."
The other players in the carriage didn't show much sympathy, though some could relate. Only Yan Jiayu looked at her with pity. "You're really pitiful."
The middle-aged woman offered a smile in return.
But Yan Jiayu's pity only went so far. After finishing the snacks, she prepared to rest, and the middle-aged woman had to change seats.
Yan Jiayu laid out a sleeping bag on her seat and began to sleep.
Most players chose to rest in the afternoon, so the carriage soon fell silent. Apart from the woman frantically knitting wool, everyone else closed their eyes to rest. The middle-aged woman was particularly unpretentious, grabbing a random bag, tossing it on the floor, and lying down in the aisle to sleep.
Nothing eventful happened until dinner time. Xu Huo was woken by a flash of light. Opening his eyes, he saw the train passing through a stretch of crystal-clear water. The mirror-smooth surface reflected shimmering, multicolored light, yet the sky above showed no color at all, as if the light wasn't projected from above but grew out of the water itself.
Yan Jiayu was already awake, leaning against the window to look. She turned back to ask Xu Huo, "What kind of light is this?"
Xu Huo shook his head.
"This is called Fish Light," said the old man with the cane, also moving to the window with an expression of awe. "It looks like a projection of the aurora, but it's actually light emitted by a strange fish that thrives in wasteland zones."
"When this fish is still, its body is transparent, with only the spine connected to its head showing gray. Once it starts moving, the gray matter in its spine is immediately transported throughout its body, reacting to form all kinds of brilliant colors."
"Because they only grow in some unstable spaces, they're rarely seen. I didn't expect to encounter them today."
"So what's this fish called?" Yan Jiayu asked. "Someone must have studied it, or even caught one, right?"
The old man chuckled. "It's called Gray Fish."
"Why give such a beautiful fish such a name?" the curly-haired female player asked.
"Because anyone who encounters this fish, once they learn its habits, will pray it stays asleep," the old man said, tilting his head slightly. "Look ahead."
The people in the carriage crowded to the window, seeing a patch of gray clouds appearing in the sky ahead.
Many recognized the Gray Fish, but several players recognized the gray clouds as well, their faces darkening. "Is a violent storm coming?"
Xu Huo had encountered a thunderstorm before.
"What terrible luck," the middle-aged woman said with a grim face. "Usually, there's very little danger near train tracks."
Because the train had to traverse multiple spaces, many of which were chaotic zones, the tracks were laid in places with the lowest probability of incidents, and the travel times were chosen accordingly. As a result, the spaces near the tracks often looked exceptionally beautiful most of the time.
If they were unlucky enough to encounter special weather, delays would be the least of their worries; the train could easily be destroyed, killing everyone aboard.
"Old sir, what should we do in this situation?" Yan Jiayu asked the old man.
The old man remained unfazed. "Sit down, eat and drink well, and then leave it to fate."
The others couldn't help but glance at him, but the old man calmly explained, "If the space nearby is relatively stable, even if the train overturns, we can still wait nearby. But we just encountered Gray Fish. Gray Fish only move when they sense weather changes. As I said earlier, their living environment is extremely harsh. Not to mention whether the outside space can remain stable for long, whether people can even breathe out there is another question. So aside from waiting for the storm to pass, there's no other choice."
Xu Huo estimated the distance of the clouds ahead, then said to Yan Jiayu, "Let's go to the front carriage."
Yan Jiayu followed without a second thought. The other players exchanged glances. The middle-aged woman said in confusion, "They don't think going to the front will be safer, do they? This freak wind is nothing like an ordinary storm. If it really comes to that, the front will be the first to flip!"
But Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu had already left.
The other players waited for a moment. The old man and the injured player were the first to leave. Once they left, the others gradually followed. Players from the rear carriages saw them leaving and also tagged along.
Xu Huo wasn't heading for the front. The middle-aged woman was right—storms near the tracks were different from ordinary storms. In a typical storm, the center bears the brunt of the impact, while the edges are less severe. But storms on the tracks are uniform. No matter where the storm comes from, once it hits, the impact is the same everywhere.
The clouds ahead completely covered the track's range. There was no avoiding it. Based on the speed of movement and appearance, it closely resembled the greatest natural disaster possible on the tracks—a Dimensional Storm.
A Dimensional Storm, simply put, occurs when the connection between spaces is unstable, or when the train crosses dimensions, causing a temporal-spatial rift that leads to a small-scale collapse of time and space. Just as stars are born and destroyed in the universe, these spaces are also active. When they collapse or reorganize cannot be fully predicted. In the Game Government's description, this falls under travel accidents.
Xu Huo had seen related records in the maintenance logs from District 011 and had also watched storm videos. Regardless of the size of a Dimensional Storm, once it covers the track range, both the tracks and the train are almost always damaged beyond immediate repair. However, since the game had laid tracks here, it proved the area was relatively safe. As long as the spaces on both sides of the tracks weren't completely destroyed, staying inside the train could still save their lives!
(Chapter End)