No one responded.
It was as if the "family mbers" too were weeping for the master's poverty.
The door opened behind him, and under the soft lighting, there were no luxurious compartnts or attentive services to be seen—only the lifted ceiling, with cables dangling down, sparking.
Above the compartnt's floorboards, behind the broken iron plates, were parts marked with rust. And beneath the floorboards that hadn't been covered up, a maze of structures lay interwoven.
It was like walking into a gigantic workshop of a shipyard where everything in sight was either a problem or a hassle.
"Tricky," Ji Jue sighed, casually hanging his bag on a protruding screw on the wall, and sat on the tattered pilot seat, looking at the scene in front of him.
No matter how many tis he saw it, it always made his scalp tingle.
As the wristwatch ticked away, pop-up windows erged, followed by a long string of innurable damage alerts—"[Central Dispatch Center Unresponsive]," "[Reserve Spirit Fuel Critical]," "[Forward Transmission chanism Unresponsive]," "[Stars Navigation System Unresponsive]," "[Cargo Hold Damage Alert]," "[Ergency Maintenance Overdue Alert]"...
Alert, alert, alert; it was all goddamn alerts.
On the entire Doomsday Special Train, the only thing with an integrity grade passing the line was the core Wanxiang Engine, which turned out to be a stroke of luck amidst the misfortune.
But the reminder from the wristwatch imdiately followed—Hey, the engine hasn't been maintained for over two hundred years, honey. The overloading operation mode has been restricted and locked. For now, it can only maintain a low power state. Oh, don't worry... because you don't have any fuel, hahaha.
The fuel tank, empty!
Although the report looked serious, Ji Jue felt that it mocked the poverty-stricken second-hand vehicle owner between the lines.
The final summary display on the wristwatch's panel was: The Doomsday Special Train's integrity at 41 percent.
Originally at 40 percent, the increase of one percent was the result of Ji Jue's tireless round-the-clock patching up in recent days.
At best, it was nothing more than tapping, hamring, welding a few cracks, and fixing a couple of patches—a superficial effort.
He was afraid that once it started moving, if he wasn't careful, it might slip back to its previous state.
Or even worse.
There was no helping it. To have 41 percent was all thanks to the president's cost-indifferent supply opening and ergency repairs back in Spring City, combined with Ji Jue's chanical Descent and All-Domain Circulation Control authority. He sohow cobbled together a frawork from an assortnt of different model parts.
With the support of Sky Rail's spiritual energy, authority, and various supplies, success was assured.
But ever since the president peeled this Doomsday Special Train out of Sky Rail and handed it over for Ji Jue's private use, the hard tis began.
Without unlimited spiritual energy, omnipotent authority, and many precious instrunts, Ji Jue had to start dealing with the many complications that ca with the hasty ergency maintenance and restructuring previously done.
The internal spiritual circuit was as complicated as a labyrinth, and he had just managed to clarify the most peripheral situation, not even daring to handle it.
This was a pile of crap code he'd created himself, hacking the system to do as he pleased. The only advantage was that it worked. The only disadvantage was...
Apart from working, there were no other advantages.
Who knew, after fixing one bug, whether a hundred thousand more would sprout up?
He didn't have the level, nor the guts to attempt it.
If the Spirit of the Special Train were a little more temperantal, it'd probably start cursing: You are the worst train conductor I've had in all my years!
Too bad Brother Engine was too kind. Even in such a broken state, he never complained nor regretted.
Conductor, good, a hug?
It doesn't matter that you're living in a small compartnt; you're already very impressive. Don't listen to what others say. No rush, take it slow. I'll cook noodles for you. As long as you let follow you, I'm willing to do anything...
During a brief activation earlier, it not only had turned off most of its functions due to insufficient spiritual fuel and the absence of a void track but had also degraded itself to the most energy-saving train status.
Before the fuel tank was completely depleted, it had switched itself to mooring mode.
This greatly alleviated Ji Jue's worries.
In mooring mode, the train would hibernate with almost no consumption. anwhile, the engine power had lastly curled up and shaped a Boundary mbrane, bringing the entire train into a man-made, ultra-microscopic Crack Realm, completely sealed to avoid external interference and snooping.
With Ji Jue's current spiritual energy, after saving for a long ti, he barely managed to keep the mooring area fixed under this workshop in the underground area.
It was like creating a separate space in one's own basent, and the wristwatch, Non-attack, and his soul itself, a triple verification, were the keys.
It really was Sky Rail Group's treasure; even parking had such flair, nearly sucking Ji Jue dry.
From then on, the Doomsday Special Train was detached from the Central Dispatch Center and no longer responded to any commands, entering an offline cruising state. The only owner, user, and manager was Ji Jue, who had been hastily promoted to train conductor by the president in Spring City not long ago.
This was the gift from the president to Ji Jue.
Even though it was separated from the whole Sky Rail system, the Doomsday Train conductor still maintained authority—perhaps even more so.
Including the Reserve Spiritual Storage he always relied on, the hidden blue bar.
Well, after Ji Jue's thorough inspection, serious analysis, and solemn research... the Reserve Spiritual Storage connected directly to the wristwatch, it turned out to be the train's fuel tank!
In other words, when Ji Jue previously utilized the Reserve Spiritual Energy, it was as if he took a rubber hose, stuck it into the fuel tank, and crouched outside, vigorously sucking it.
It was quite a sneaky move.
Now, because he could directly suck from inside the carriage.
At least it looked a lot more decent.
Except for having nothing to suck, there were simply no drawbacks.
But this was actually the easiest to solve, slowly saving up, little by little every day. After Ji Jue's calculations, he found that as long as he did not expend extra spiritual materials and did not squander his reserves, relying on his own spiritual recovery efficiency, he could save up for about a year, and that would be enough to run the Doomsday Special Train at its lowest consumption rate for about... one minute, give or take.
Here at Sky Rail, even pauper players, relying on welfare and hard work, can still play!
But if you're in a hurry, that's okay too, our engine isn't picky, in necessary situations, besides pure spiritual materials, it also supports Fuel Elents.
The recipe is in Ji Jue's hands.
All you need is several portions of Superior Essence, several materials that make your heart tremble just by looking at their prices, and to mix in Purified Fuel Elents as a carrier. After transformation and processing, you can make it into fuel!
Ignoring Master Ji's labor cost and the acquisition of Superior Essence, the total cost of a liter of fuel cos down to just under 800,000 federal coins, truly a bargain!
Unfortunately, the Doomsday Train isn't a small ox or horse that can go by just eating chicken legs.
To truly run, the consumption of fuel is asured in tons...
Just thinking about it, Ji Jue felt bouts of blackness before his eyes.
What is this extre poverty return plan?!
Burning money like this, you might as well burn my blood!
Yet not burning it isn't an option...
Having gone from a lackey to a private owner, he now had to be self-sufficient.
The once omnipotent Mutated Extraction was essentially the most inconsequential part of the access granted by Non-attack to the massive All-Domain Circulation Control.
Even without this access now, it wouldn't matter, it was only a necessary procedure for external matters, while the train conductor's control over the Special Train was absolute and inevitable.
Ji Jue, as the train conductor, naturally also fell within the domain of the Special Train, but to use it, he had to start the engine.
Including Ji Jue's favorite ergency survival protocol, which essentially was a privilege exclusive to the train conductor—in necessary situations, the Wanxiang Engine would overload and run, forcibly elevating one's own Rank, causing a qualitative change in capabilities.
That also costs money, and not just a little. He didn't have the courage to calculate the fuel costs of forcibly overloading the engine, let alone the damage it would inflict.
The only silver lining, perhaps, was no longer having to slit his own throat...
Besides that, his wristwatch still had a whole bunch of functions and access that were currently either unusable or lacked the necessary support to start.
Among them, the most useful and easiest to start for the current Ji Jue was the first one—[Return Command].
In necessary situations, the engine starts, activating the transfer program, warping the Boundary mbrane, opening the vacuum, and helping the user instantly return to the inside of the train.
One-click return to city.
The fuel costs for this consud only about a dozen liters, amounting to around ten million federal coins.
When Ji Jue realized he was dealing with an eight-figure sum, the first thought that popped into his head was a relieved "Wow, that's cheap!"—at that mont, he knew he had no hope of getting rich in this lifeti.
Not living in abject poverty was considered a victory.
Even if he tied up Tong Zhiwu and Tong Hanhan, the siblings, and went to extort several billion from the Tong family, it wouldn't fill such a large hole!
These days, he had poured almost all the money he'd earned in Spring City into this bottomless pit, barely managing to finish the repairs on the inner cabin.
To others, Master Ji seed to have a fortune at his disposal, splurging unblinkingly, buy-buy-buying until his Tianping Comrce VIP card was about to upgrade to diamond—but who would have thought that in a few more days, he may have squeezed every last penny from friends and family, risked it all with online loans, and beco a defaulter?
Just to scrape together fuel, he was nearly going insane.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be rushing to the Northern Mountain District to do odd jobs even before his sick leave had ended.
Earning more or less didn't matter, the main thing was to bounce back from the brink, and while at it, kill a few more criminals, extracting Superior Essence through the Dissociation Technique.
Today's big deal had indeed solved his dire needs. Not only had he earned quite a bit of dirty money, but he also snagged so Shoushan Copper that could be used to fix the engine's defects.
The ill-gotten gains Yue Ting left behind followed the principle that everyone should be full for it to be truly satisfying. Ji Jue didn't monopolize it, he handed it over to Zhiwu's sister Hanhan, and his thirty percent share was transferred to his account before even making it ho.
In Cliff City, having the Tong family to launder money was just too convenient—simple, quick, and without any commission, so honest and upfront that there was even no tax to pay!
Also transferred in was the antique sale proceeds that Tong Hua, using the Tong family's channels, consigned for auction at Tianping Comrce. There are too many rich folks these days; a dozen vases, paintings, and clocks from the Eternal Empire era were auctioned for tens of millions each.
Ji Jue looked at the pile of junk in his warehouse that he couldn't turn into cash, piling up like a mountain, and his eyes turned green with envy.
Unfortunately, releasing too much at once would only depress the market, and those heavier items like Emperor's Guard Ceremony Armor would need to be sold slowly to the right buyer.
The rest could only be released in batches, a trickle of inco.
Ji Jue had never thought that one day, after such a huge sum of money hit his account, the feeling in his heart would actually be relief that he wouldn't starve for a while!
It hadn't even ward up for a few minutes before it all turned into materials at Tianping Comrce, filling the last gap.
Checking his stock of Superior Essence, there should be enough to produce about ninety liters of fuel first.
Literally, his wealth had scattered to the winds.
The engine had been kind and loyal to him; he couldn't just abandon it after beginning together.
Even if for the ti being, the Doomsday Special Train couldn't start and could only exist as a warehouse and return point.
Not to ntion its future restoration and whether it would regain its ability to interconnect the real world and travel between realms. Ji Jue estimated that once he broke through the Transformation Rank and reached Rebirth, his soul would be strong enough to bear the load that mooring the train brought. At that ti, he could carry it with him.
At that point, for him, it would no longer be just a warehouse and an exorbitantly expensive train.
It would be a portable workshop!
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