Chapter 77: Chapter 77: Too Many Supplies to Fit

[Congratulations on completing Pioneer Trial I!]

[Rewards have been issued. Please connect the new carriage immediately!]

Under normal circumstances, Bai Cheng should have been overjoyed by the rewards, but after learning about the rewards from the survival missions, she couldn’t help but feel a little sour.

"Why do they get such good rewards, huh?!"

Currently, Bai Cheng and Chi Yan had already returned to the train. Since this station didn’t have a strict departure time, she wasn’t in a rush.

Of course, the main reason was that Bai Cheng had gained way too much this time. She needed to properly sort through everything while waiting for Zi Yuan to return.

The screen automatically switched to[My Train], displaying a layout of the entire train.

She could choose to connect the newly acquired carriage either between the locomotive and the first carriage or at the very end of the train.

But since there were only two options, there wasn’t much to deliberate over.

In the end, Bai Cheng connected the new carriage to the rear of her train.

She refreshed the screen. Both carriages were identical in size, dimensions, and even materials required for upgrades.

"Now there’s plenty of space!"

Bai Cheng was in high spirits. Finally, she wouldn’t have to live in cramped conditions anymore.

And soon, she would have another legendary employee.

She didn’t immediately upgrade the employee card. Instead, she took out the trophy dropped from killing the Evil Ancient Tree.

She had checked the logs. This tree monster was named ’Evil Ancient Tree’, and its drops were identical to the previous Giant Stone Golem.

It was a completely ordinary blue employee card.

But Bai Cheng was more interested in what would happen once she completed the trophy mission.

This time, the trophy was an irregular black lump of wood, with nothing special about it.

It fit perfectly into the last empty slot on the Altar of Spoils. The moment Bai Cheng placed it down, the altar’s surface began rotating rapidly before emitting a strange energy.

The energy condensed into a thin beam of light, shooting upward and piercing through the carriage, the station, and seemingly connecting with the sky itself.

When Bai Cheng looked down again, she noticed several new messages appearing on the altar.

[Name: Altar of Spoils]

[Current Trophies: 2/2 (Conditions Met)]

[Prerequisite: Train Conductor must reach Common Rank 9]

[Prerequisite not met! Promotion mission cannot be initiated!]

[Summary: Upon starting the promotion mission, your train will enter a special multiplayer station. Defeat the Boss to obtain a limited number of promotion slots, which can be used to step into Transcendence!]

[Hint: The Boss in the promotion mission is extremely powerful. It is recommended to team up with other survivors who have completed their trophy missions!]

"Just as I expected." Bai Cheng murmured before clicking on [Personal Information].

[Train Conductor: Bai Cheng]

[Rank: Common Rank 8]

[EXP: 89%]

[Strength: 22]

[Constitution: 22]

[Spirit: 27]

[Talent: Book of Cheng]

"Tch, still a bit short." She rubbed her chin, scrutinizing the information.

"But once I reach Rank 9, my EXP will reset. To meet the mission requirements, I’ll probably have to grind it to 100%, right?"

Still, Bai Cheng wasn’t too concerned. She was still inside the station, so she didn’t need to worry about it just yet.

Turning around, she picked up the pass she had brought back. She had a feeling that this thing was anything but ordinary.

But just as she was about to check its details, the screen suddenly spawned a flood of employee cards, along with a barrage of messages.

[You have killed Train Conductor Thunderbolt Old Wang. You will obtain all resources from his train!]

[You have killed Train Conductor Li Haiwen. You will obtain...]

[...]×14

[Fixed reward for killing Train Conductors: Train Core ×16!]

You think I’d just let them go after they tried to kill me?

Do you think This Lady is a fool?

She had sent Zi Yuan to handle it simply because she didn’t want to see the messy aftermath.

But the moment Bai Cheng saw the screen, her pupils shrank, and she nearly shrieked.

"Holy—Train Cores! This many?!"

Then, she immediately came to a realization. Her expression darkened as she faced a brutal truth.

Originally, the only way to obtain Train Cores was by killing Infinite Raiders.

But those guys traveled in groups, each with their own employees. Even if you risked your life to kill one, you’d only get a single fragment of a Train Core.

Now that everyone was past the beginner phase, this item was undoubtedly a key resource for any survivor’s development.

Until now, Bai Cheng had never discovered a second method to obtain them.

But here it was, a glaring reality laid bare before her.

Killing other survivors was the easiest way to get a complete Train Core.

"This system..." Bai Cheng’s voice turned icy. "It’s practically encouraging us to kill each other."

But then she sighed as she saw the numbers on the screen.

"Tch, what a shame. Three of them died from accidents... Otherwise, I could get a few more Train Cores."

As soon as she finished speaking, another message popped up.

[All survivors in Special Station #00 Treewood Town Station has been wiped out. Every loot will be awarded to the Pioneer!]

[You have obtained: Train Core ×3!]

[Calculating spoils...]

Bai Cheng’s eyes lit up again. "There’s more?!"

The loot calculation took several minutes to finish. Just like with Infinite Raiders, she could choose to discard unimportant items, however...

They’re survivors.

Every single item they had was valuable to her. Nothing was useless!

And with nineteen people’s worth of supplies, her train couldn’t even hold it all.

[Spoils Calculation: You have obtained Wood ×1120, Fine Wood ×452, Charcoal ×7840, Coal ×654, Iron Ore ×849, ... , Infinite Coin ×8, ...]

Equipment crafted from blueprints, such as furnaces, wasn’t included in the spoils.

But aside from that, every last scrap of resources was listed.

When she saw that the 19 survivors had only yielded 8 Infinite Coins, Bai Cheng’s lips twitched.

"You guys really went all out, huh..."

Now, she was faced with an overwhelming amount of loot, so much that she didn’t even know what to do with it all.

"All that time spent grinding, and in the end, they just delivered everything to me."

Bai Cheng raised her eyebrows. She found out that killing and looting was way faster than slow development.

"The strong prey on the weak. Tsk." She clicked her tongue before turning her gaze to her train.

In that case... Let’s give the train a complete upgrade!