4: Lihe Village

Luo Chen glanced at it and found another line of text at the bottom.

"! Current number of items: 329"

"! Note: Currently only open to this region. Two months later, this region will be open to all regions."

Looking at the number below, Luo Chen fell into deep thought.

329. With 9665 currently online, that's not quite 10,000, meaning 6 people haven't become puppets.

It seems that in some situations, death is truly death.

In addition to the Puppet Shop, there was also a Supplies Shop.

It contained a variety of supplies, food, daily necessities, etc., all at varying prices.

1L of water for 5 star coins, 1 pack of instant noodles for 2 star coins, 2.5 kg of metal for 1 star coin, 5kg of wood for 1 star coin.

1L of water for 5 star coins?

He just didn't know how easy it would be to acquire these star coins.

However, an old man was only worth 20 bottles of water, so it must be very difficult to acquire them!

Luo Chen then clicked on the Train module.

Clicking on Train Upgrade, there was a material input button next to it, allowing for designated area input.

Luo Chen set it at the rear of the carriage.

Current materials required for upgrade:

"Metal: 0 / 500kg"

"Wood: 0 / 500kg"

"Sandstone: 0 / 150kg"

Luo Chen recalled survival novels he had read before; for survivors to live, besides collecting water and food, the most important thing was to upgrade their shelter.

Currently, the shelter was the Train.

Seeing this, Luo Chen returned to the chat room and posted an exchange message:

"One bottle of lemonade for 10kg of metal. Interested parties can click on my avatar to exchange directly."

After sending it, Luo Chen listed all five bottles of lemonade, specifying 10kg of metal as the exchange item.

One advantage of the Train system was that as long as the materials were inside the carriage, the Train system would automatically record them. During transactions, one only needed to drag them into the trade slot to complete the exchange.

Once the transaction was successful, the materials would be automatically transferred to the trading partner.

It saved a lot of trouble.

Luo Chen waited for a while but saw no one trading.

He then got up to tidy the carriage.

Before, he had only focused on how to move as many materials onto the Train as possible within the given time.

After moving things onto the Train, he had just thrown them on the ground, making the carriage look messy now.

He started by tidying the large items, neatly arranging several massage chairs in three rows by the window, with two in the first row and three in each subsequent row.

Then he took out the drinks from the trash can and arranged them neatly along the wall.

The trash can was emptied and placed next to the Train door, to be used for collecting materials next time.

Huh? A few bottles were missing!

Luo Chen looked at the neatly arranged drinks along the inner wall of the Train, feeling a bit confused.

Oh, right! The lemonade.

Luo Chen remembered the trade he had listed earlier; it seemed to have been successful.

Returning to the driver's seat, a trade successful notification indeed popped up on the screen.

"Trade successful! Items are in the system warehouse. Please select a placement location to retrieve items. If left in the system warehouse for an extended period, exceeding one day will incur a storage fee of 1 star coin / day / item."

How ruthless!

Looking at the price of the storage fee, Luo Chen couldn't help but grumble!

It's better to take them out quickly, otherwise, if he forgot, he might even end up owing money.

He clicked retrieve.

Then he pointed to an empty space not far away, and with a flash of white light, five neat steel rails appeared on the ground.

Looking at the steel rails on the ground, Luo Chen slapped his forehead:

"I forgot I could dismantle steel rails!"

Never mind! Even if he knew, he didn't have the tools to dismantle them.

Luo Chen sighed and threw the steel rails into the input area.

Current materials required for upgrade:

"Metal: 50 / 500kg"

"Wood: 0 / 500kg"

"Sandstone: 0 / 150kg"

After finishing everything, with nothing else to do, Luo Chen munched on instant noodles, sipping his soda, and sat in front of the screen, browsing chat logs to pass the time.

Since it was the first day, everyone seemed to have no sense of crisis. After one world stop, everyone had more common topics and began sharing their exploration journeys.

The chat room was buzzing with activity. Luo Chen also benefited greatly.

For example, he learned that the person he traded steel rails with was a Train maintenance worker. After disembarking, he quickly found the Train repair depot and used tools to remove two 12m long steel rails. He advised everyone to make good use of tools to improve collection efficiency.

Just as Luo Chen was dozing off, the Train broadcast suddenly sounded.

"Congratulations, Train Conductors, on successfully passing the starting station. You must have a certain understanding of this game. Next! You will begin your true journey. Unknown dangers will appear in the world fragments simultaneously, so please pay attention to safety. We hope everyone can survive to the end. First-launch gift packs have been distributed successively; please check for them."

...The next day!

Luo Chen threw off the clothes covering his stomach and stood up from the massage chair.

Stretching, he felt he was in excellent spirits today.

It was just that the massage chair had no power, so he couldn't lie flat, nor did it have a massage function, otherwise, sleeping would have been even more comfortable.

He checked the time on the screen; it was just past 7 o'clock.

In the past, he might still be dreaming at this hour.

No choice! Yesterday was too tiring and too boring, so Luo Chen went to bed early.

After a brief warm-up, he sat in the driver's seat and browsed yesterday's chat logs.

After two days, many people were out of supplies, and there were many requests in the group for trading water and food.

Luo Chen found a trade for beef jerky in exchange for cola.

He clicked trade.

Trade successful.

Soon, a pack of beef jerky appeared in Luo Chen's hand.

It was a large pack, containing 6 small packets, each 30g, which should last him a few days.

After finishing the beef, the time finally reached eight o'clock.

Luo Chen looked at the new world fragment information that appeared on the screen.

"Train is connecting to the fragment world"

"Lihe Village, (has treasure chest)"

"Note: This world is a single-Train world; only one Train will stop."

"Train stop time: 3 hours. Train Conductor, please board the Train in time."

"Train connection countdown: 10"

There's a treasure chest?

He wondered what would be inside?

Blueprints? Or daily necessities?

Curious, Luo Chen placed the screwdriver set from yesterday's first-launch gift pack into the trash can, while holding an engineer's shovel in his other hand.

After preparing all his tools, he opened the Train door.

As soon as he opened the door, a wave of heat hit him.

The sun outside was terrifyingly bright, making him involuntarily close his eyes.

It took him half a minute to slowly open his eyes and adapt to the sunlight outside.

Turning around, he grabbed a bottle of mineral water, then closed the Train door and walked towards the village, pulling the trash can behind him.

The village had about twenty households, and there was also a vegetable patch outside the village.

One side of the field was full of vegetables. White-green cucumbers, purple round eggplants, long green beans, and red peppers.

On the other side, several round watermelons were scattered among the grass on the ground.

Looking at so many ingredients, Luo Chen couldn't help but swallow.

However, his primary goal now was to find the treasure chest. Suppressing his inner desire, he walked towards the houses in the village with his tools.

The first building was a single-story house.

He broke open the lock and entered. The house only had three rooms and a living room.

The living room only had a wooden sofa and an old television.

Of the two bedrooms, one contained two bags of rice and several farm tools, while the other had a wooden bed and a wardrobe. Inside were several torn clothes, seemingly belonging to an old person.

He found no trace of a treasure chest.

Luo Chen then turned to another house nearby; it also had no treasure chest.

Moreover, compared to the previous house, this one looked more like it had been ransacked, with all sorts of junk scattered on the floor, and no useful items inside the rooms.

Luo Chen then searched six more houses, and the situation was similar. However, he still found 7 iron pots, 3 gas stoves with 3 gas tanks, and dozens of clothes.

Things like beds, wardrobes, and furniture, he didn't touch. There wasn't enough time now; he'd note them down and consider them later if he found the treasure chest and had ample time.

For some unknown reason, Luo Chen didn't find any more rice or other food.

It seemed that before he arrived, the village had already been abandoned, leaving only things that couldn't be moved or were no longer wanted.

Besides the above, he also found 10 pairs of chopsticks, 20 bowls, an old phone that still had power, and 8 old smart phones with passwords.

Arriving at the eighth house, as soon as he opened the door, Luo Chen felt a faint, subtle pull.

Following the sensation, he saw a treasure chest emitting a faint glow beneath the stairs leading to the second floor.

The treasure chest glowed with a silvery luster, emitting a dazzling white light in the darkness, making its presence immediately obvious.

Luo Chen slowly walked forward and gently opened the treasure chest.

The moment the treasure chest opened, the faint glow on it vanished brilliantly.

Looking inside the treasure chest, a pistol and 5 bullets lay at the bottom.

He picked up the pistol and opened the magazine; it was already loaded with bullets.

Luo Chen was overjoyed. With this, he felt his safety was instantly guaranteed.

On the other side, there was also a roasted chicken packaged in a transparent box.

Picking up the box, Luo Chen saw a line of text written on it:

"Insulated and fresh-keeping treated, invalid once opened."

Which meant that as long as it wasn't opened, this thing could be preserved indefinitely?