A Top Scholar in Everything-Chapter 916 - 902: Malfunction

Loloya has always been somewhat impulsive in her style of doing things, and when it comes to handling matters, she never delays.

She deals with things one by one.

In an orderly manner.

So in the evening, Baiyu boarded an iron train.

This time he had a breakthrough in his strength, and Loloya entrusted him with the task of delivering something, which was urgent.

This is an iron train with five iron carriages linked together, traveling from the Great City to the Rhine State of the Free Federation.

Each carriage is over ten meters long.

A single trip can accommodate hundreds of passengers on board. And for such a long journey, ensuring the safety of travel requires tremendous strength. In the desert, the name of the Great City doesn’t carry weight everywhere.

Many ruthless desert hunters, for the sake of survival resources, will do anything.

Only a major force like the Great City can ensure the safe navigation of such cross-country trains. According to Loloya, this kind of train always has at least one Tier One Meteor, or two Tier Two Meteor experts overseeing it.

Tickets for this kind of train are, of course, extremely expensive.

However, Baiyu’s expenses this time are all covered, as it’s a work-related trip, which might be the only advantage.

Baiyu sat in his seat on the train, examining the card Loloya gave him before departure.

An Identity ID Card.

It bears Baiyu’s name, and he has a new title: Special Action Officer of the Great City.

Simply put.

He’s a task officer.

The train is powered by the steam cylinders of the Machine Cult, and the bottom doesn’t have wheels but mechanical limbs that support the train’s movement. The train is very quiet, and those who can board it are not ordinary martial artists.

For instance, next to Baiyu sat an old man over fifty. But he seemed full of vitality, with rhythmic breathing, his strength definitely not underestimated.

Soon.

The train clanged as it moved, being driven by mechanical limbs, so it swayed a lot while moving, but for this group of martial artists, they barely felt the shaking.

This trip has numerous stations.

Land is the transportation route humans still somewhat control today, the ocean has been almost entirely occupied by polluted fierce beasts, and many exotic beasts breed there, their generations unknown.

It’s a paradise of exotic beasts.

Going to sea is extremely dangerous, and each venture is a desperate gamble, yet the ocean holds many rare treasures not found on land. Upon return, they usually make a fortune.

So despite the enormous danger, there are those who take the risk.

However, there are basically no passenger or cargo ships because no single force can guarantee the safety of passenger ships.

Even those specializing in sea business can’t ensure it.

And as for the sky.

Due to those flying exotic beasts, it’s equally difficult to navigate. Apart from the flying airships, floating airships, and Legendary Ships of the Machine Cult, other planes find it hard to maintain safe navigation in the sky. Land transit is currently the safest and most cost-effective choice.

Baiyu sat in his seat and picked up a copy of the train’s travel guide to read. Each seat had one, detailing the specifics of this journey, including where to stop and what rest points to visit.

Although the train doesn’t require rails.

Its travel is still on roads opened by man to avoid many dangers. Roads once opened generally aren’t disrupted by exotic beasts, each beast has strong territorial instincts and doesn’t easily leave its domain.

Once a new exotic beast appears, the Great City, along with several companies managing road transportation in the desert, would dispatch personnel for regular clean-up and maintenance to ensure the route isn’t occupied by exotic beasts.

"It seems maintaining this road is very costly. No wonder a single ticket costs two hundred thousand Cyan Blue Coins. And that’s not even counting the cost of cargo shipment.

Those small caravans can’t afford such high expenses and can only rely on themselves to take risky adventures in the desert."

Baiyu thought to himself.

There are many living off the desert, and on this journey, Baiyu already saw several caravans.

Soon.

The sky darkened.

The air filled with more beast roars, while in the wilderness hills filled with meadow and shrubs, the train clanged and moved, its lights shining like a ribbon, constantly weaving through the pitch-black hills.

Occasionally, flocks of birds would fly up from the woods.

In this primal wilderness, humans feel so solitary. Outside cities, places are already turned into territories of plants and animals.

"The revival of spiritual qi led to animals mutating into exotic beasts, along with various pollution and aberrations occurring in these plants and animals, making the wild evidently a difficult place for humans to set foot. Plus, some exotic beasts from the Spirit Realm come to the continent through unstable rifts..."

Baiyu could roughly guess why the wilds turned into such a state. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Without human interference.

Infrastructure in the wild is worn down by time in just a few decades, with plants and animals reclaiming these places, and now, these areas probably haven’t been touched by humans for over a hundred years for living, dwelling...

Places cities can’t cover become deserts.

While Baiyu was carefully reading the travel guide, suddenly with a clang, the train stopped moving, and passengers on board let out surprised cries, with some people even becoming uneasily restless.

"Don’t worry, everyone, there’s a minor malfunction in the train’s operation. It’ll be fixed soon,"

a sweet female voice came through the train’s broadcast.

The speaker was obviously a Power User, able to calm people’s minds with her voice, preventing them from being affected by anxiety and panic.

However.

If operations aren’t restored soon, people will feel something’s amiss. So after half an hour, many gradually realized this issue might not be minor.

"Hey, what’s going on, give us an explanation!"

"Stopping here suddenly for dozens of minutes, even a malfunction should be fixed by now, right? Machines of the Steam Train from the Machine Cult shouldn’t break down so easily!"

Some began to shout.

Yet inside the train, apart from a few attendants reassuring the passengers, there were no other staff responding, not even the broadcast had sound.

"Contact your superiors, find out what’s happening!"

Several attendants were cornered by the crowd.

Helplessly.

They had to follow the crowd’s demands and use walkie-talkies to contact the train’s leadership. This train journey was overseen by two Tier Two Meteor experts, one from the Great City and the other from Wanyou Transportation Company.

This Wanyou Transportation Company isn’t a small force.

In the desert, the entire transport industry, whether it’s ferrying passengers or shipping goods, is monopolized by three giant companies, and Wanyou is one of them.