Chapter 76: Mechanic Class
What surprised Cheng Qisheng wasn’t just that.
It was also the newly “modified” train Toya had built. Behind the driver’s seat in the locomotive cab, several familiar lines of text had appeared.
[Facility Name: Mechanic-Modified Crude Train (Unranked)
Speed: 60 km/h
Trait: Functions normally even at temperatures as low as -80°C (derived from the traits of a certain type of exotic beast)
Recommended Load Capacity: 30 tons
Maximum Load Capacity: 60 tons (the train cannot start if this limit is exceeded)
Operating Duration: 480 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds (the operating time is paused whenever there are no passengers on board)
Mechanical Creation Evaluation: A Gu Insect Ability User converted the life of an exotic beast into the train’s operating time, while a Mechanic permanently stabilized and enhanced that duration. Together, they created a usable mechanical train with minimal resources. Though it remains unranked, it’s still fully functional. What an excellent partnership~]
Cheng Qisheng took another bite of her ice cream.
A Mechanic.
So their newest believer belonged to the legendary Mechanic class.
No wonder everyone coveted Mechanics—they could manufacture equipment directly!
Judging from the “Unranked” designation, the train Toya had built wasn’t of the same quality as the items obtained from Item Cards.
But it didn’t cost any crystals!
Besides, Cheng Qisheng had been on Dazzling Star for quite some time now, and she’d never seen an Item Card that could produce an entire train.
You had to kill snow beasts just to obtain Item Cards, and even then, whether you got something useful depended entirely on luck.
Yet Toya…
With nothing more than a single steel door, he’d built a modern train!
They’d struck gold this time!
Cheng Qisheng had long admired Song Xi’s snowfield train. It was incredibly fast and required almost no operating cost—because the snow beasts paid nearly all of it themselves. It was practically tailor-made for the apocalypse.
Even if it were taken to another world, it would probably still serve as an excellent means of transportation.
She had even considered capturing large numbers of snow beasts and bringing them to other worlds to use as locomotive engines.
The snow beasts were incredibly hardy. In theory, they could survive for a very long time by feeding on nothing but snow.
The problem was that snow beasts simply weren’t creatures that could be domesticated.
The people of Little Blue Sea had already tested it. Whenever they captured a snow beast alive and locked it in a pen, it would do nothing but hurl itself against the enclosure without stopping for even a moment.
The good news was that their exceptionally tough bodies kept them from killing themselves too quickly.
At that rate of nonstop ramming, a snow beast would usually take about a month to die.
As a result, every station along the snowfield railway now had soldiers stationed there, raising and guarding groups of reserve snow beasts while waiting for Song Xi to arrive and turn them into “locomotives.”
Now, however, Toya’s existence had completely freed Song Xi from that responsibility, meaning she no longer had to travel from place to place.
Song Xi couldn’t have been happier.
It wasn’t that she minded constantly being on the move. The difference was that choosing to travel and being forced to travel were two completely different things.
She jumped off the train, grabbed Toya, and spun him around in a circle. Then a torrent of questions poured out of her, one after another, like the endless line of Blue Sea residents waiting to challenge the Skywing Dragons.
“How did you do it? You’re an ability user, aren’t you? Or did our God grant you this ability? Wow! This train is so much better than the last one! It blocks the wind and rain, it’s fully enclosed, and it even has windows! Are you tired? Are you hungry? I know some ability users get ravenously hungry after using their powers!”
“It’s good that you’re not hungry. Can you modify more trains? Can you turn snow beasts into machines? If I caught a few dozen snow beasts right now and gave you a few dozen steel doors, could you convert all of them into machines too?”
“My God! If that’s possible, wouldn’t we become filthy rich if we captured every snow beast on Dazzling Star?!”
Cheng Qisheng had a few questions she wanted to ask Toya herself, but seeing Song Xi’s mouth firing nonstop like a machine gun…
Forget it. This worked just as well and saved her the trouble.
Toya, on the other hand, didn’t find Song Xi’s barrage of questions bothersome at all.
Because of his physical condition, he had spent most of his life confined to his home, which had given him a gentle, unhurried personality. Someone as enthusiastic and proactive as Song Xi talking to him so warmly actually made him feel comfortable.
He was even a little flattered.
In truth, after seeing Song Xi and the others’ reactions, Toya had realized that things weren’t as he’d imagined.
Even in the Divine Kingdom, there didn’t seem to be anyone else with abilities like his.
In the past, that realization would have thrown him into another panic.
But now, deep within his heart, there was an indescribable yet undeniable connection to the Great Creator God. That bond instinctively filled him with a sense of security.
Comforted by that feeling, Toya answered honestly.
“I don’t think I can directly turn snow beasts into machines. The reason I was able to convert the snow beast in this train is because, in my perception, it was already part of the train.”
Song Xi immediately understood.
If this had been before, her first instinct would have been to bring him back to Blue Sea, where the specialists could analyze Toya’s abilities.
But they were far from home now.
As the highest-ranking leader of Little Blue Sea, Song Xi turned to the soldiers and gave an order.
“Bring me a few snow beasts.”
To Toya, snow beasts were terrifyingly powerful creatures.
Yet the way Song Xi said it made it sound as effortless as, “Bring me a few basins of snow.”
For a moment, Toya instinctively felt a surge of admiration.
Then he remembered that he and Song Xi belonged to the same “family.”
That admiration immediately transformed into happiness.
Now he finally understood why his parents had been so joyful after becoming believers.
It felt as though he had joined a powerful yet warm and welcoming family.
It was an incredible feeling.
With the entire planet currently engulfed in a beast tide, finding a few snow beasts was hardly difficult.
Within moments, dozens of soldiers returned, dragging several snow beasts that had been caught with heavy lassos.
As they avoided the beasts’ snapping jaws, they forcibly hauled them forward with practiced ease. It was obvious that, after spending so much time with Song Xi and the others, they’d become quite experienced at capturing snow beasts.
With the “test subjects” in place, Song Xi looked at Toya expectantly.
“Come on! Let’s give it a try!”
Cheng Qisheng watched the entire experiment with great interest.
Everything she knew about Mechanic-class ability users had come from Gu Gaga.
There were many different branches within the Mechanic-class ability users.
The Mechanic-class ability users Gu Gaga had encountered specialized in enhancing themselves. Most of the information in its records described how they could strengthen specific parts of their bodies or even mechanize themselves.
As long as they had sufficient materials, a Tier 1 Mechanic Ability User could enhance themselves to the combat strength of a Tier 3 or even Tier 4 ability user.
As for the Mechanic branch that Toya belonged to, the records contained very little information. They only mentioned that Mechanics couldn’t strengthen their own bodies and instead possessed abilities more suited to support roles.
Gu Gaga had tried to investigate further, but aside from learning that Mechanics were exceedingly rare, it hadn’t uncovered anything else.
It had added a note at the end of the report:
Ordinarily, even if detailed information about a Safe City couldn’t be obtained, at least a few vague rumors would leak out.
But when absolutely no information could be found, there was only one likely explanation—
If word ever got out that a certain Safe City possessed a Mechanic, it might attract the covetous attention of every other Safe City.
For example, there was once a Safe City that discovered a flower capable of extending one’s lifespan in another world. The flower grew on a tree known as the Tree of Longevity. It bloomed once every ten years, and a single blossom could extend a person’s life by 300 years.
After news of it spread, that Safe City was wiped out in less than five days.
Although City Lords themselves became long-lived beings, and Tier-4 Transcendents could already live for three hundred years, who would ever complain about having too much time to live?
Besides, even if they didn’t need it themselves, everyone had family members, friends… or at the very least, beloved cats and dogs.
Not everyone important to a City Lord could become a Transcendent and qualify for an extended lifespan.
Some City Lords lived alone with only a pet for company. If given the choice, they would naturally want that companion to live forever by their side.
The Safe City marketplace did sell life-extending items.
But they were outrageously expensive.
Unlike the Tree of Longevity…
…which you could simply seize by force.
How convenient.
Back then, the Safe Cities descended into a period of bloody conflict.
Every Safe City wanted to seize the Longevity Flower.
Yet every city that managed to obtain it would soon be defeated by another.
The cycle repeated itself over and over. Each new victor would become the next target, besieged by every other Safe City.
Dozens of Safe Cities were destroyed in succession.
Even if the current owner fled to another world, the others would simply follow. If they failed to catch them in one world, there was always the next one… or the one after that.
Everyone believed they were destiny’s chosen.
Everyone believed they would be the final victor.
The struggle over the Tree of Longevity lasted for more than fifty years. Although many Safe Cities chose to stay out of the conflict, there were always new City Lords eager to join the war.
In the end, the decades-long conflict came to an unexpectedly simple conclusion.
The final City Lord to obtain the Tree of Longevity was exceptionally powerful. Equipped with concealment items, they successfully evaded pursuit by the other Safe Cities.
More importantly…
They managed to cultivate seeds from the Tree of Longevity.
That City Lord immediately began selling the seeds wholesale, offering them in every world they visited.
Even the wholesale price was expensive.
But it was still a hundred times cheaper than buying lifespan-extending items from the Safe City marketplace.
And once you had the seeds, you had a renewable source of Longevity Flowers.
Although each person could only benefit from a Longevity Flower once, the flowers you grew could be sold to others.
If you cultivated the trees long enough, you could even sell the seeds themselves.
By the present day, among high-tier City Lords, Longevity Flowers had become one of the most common high-value trade commodities.
Of course, for lower-tier City Lords, they were still prohibitively expensive.
Cheng Qisheng had seen Gu Gaga’s recorded market price.
A single Longevity Flower sold for ten million crystals.
Just one glance was enough to know it was completely beyond her means.
And that was after several centuries, once the market had become saturated and prices had finally fallen.
She’d heard that hundreds of years earlier, when competition had been at its fiercest, a single flower could fetch as much as 300 million crystals.
And plenty of high-tier City Lords had actually bought them.
After all, an item in the Safe City marketplace that extended one’s lifespan by three hundred years cost 800 million crystals.
Ever since the Tree of Longevity incident, every City Lord had learned their lesson.
Whenever they found something truly valuable, if they could use it themselves, they guarded it with their lives.
If it was something that could be sold, they’d rather spend a fortune on an Anonymous Card and list it anonymously than reveal their identity.
After all, if you thought something was valuable, everyone else would think so too.
Revealing it was practically an invitation to be robbed.
Gu Gaga suspected that Mechanics fell into exactly that category.
According to all of its information channels, even after making indirect inquiries through high-tier City Lords, not a single one admitted to having a Mechanic in their Safe City.
The most likely explanation is that a Mechanic’s value is comparable to that of the Tree of Longevity. If a Safe City were to reveal that it had a Mechanic among its residents, it would likely attract the attention of other Safe Cities and trigger a war.
Fortunately, Gu Gaga thoughtfully added one final remark:
Safe Cities below Tier 5 don’t need to worry about this. Lower-tier City Lords probably aren’t lucky enough to possess such an extraordinary treasure in the first place.
In short—
Mechanics were a premium asset.
Competition over them would only occur among high-tier Safe Cities.
As for weak little Tier 3 cities like theirs…
There was nothing to worry about~
Cheng Qisheng, a Tier 3 City Lord who had just acquired a Mechanic:
“…”
She had now watched Toya’s entire ability test from beginning to end.
There was no doubt about it.
Toya really could manufacture equipment.
The only limitation was that everything he created had to be machine-related.
That said, Cheng Qisheng couldn’t help feeling that his ability was rather… metaphysical.
Take Song Xi’s version of the snowfield train, for example.
Because her Gu worms had completely overridden the snow beast’s will, turning it into the locomotive, Toya perceived that snow beast as part of the machine.
And because of that…
He was able to modify it.
Moreover, Toya revealed that a single modification wasn’t the limit.
As long as he was supplied with enough materials, he could continue upgrading the train, making it better and better.
Song Xi immediately opened all the Item Cards she’d accumulated along the journey. She piled everything onto the train—steel plates, power sources, and all sorts of miscellaneous materials—then used her Gu worms to control several snow beasts and harnessed them to the train.
“Come on, come on! Merge all these snow beasts into it and see if we can keep increasing its operating time!”
She finished excitedly, only to find Toya crouching in front of the small pile of “junk” she’d tossed aside, carefully sorting through it.
She blinked.
“…You can use this stuff too?”
The contents of twenty-five Item Cards were a complete hodgepodge. Wang Moning had even opened a yoga mat. Among the “trash” tossed to one side was a flattened plastic bottle.
That was simply the reality of Item Cards on Dazzling Star.
Two people could both open Food Item Cards. If one was lucky, they might get an entire case of self-heating hot pots.
If they weren’t…
They might end up with a single expired can of surströmming.
And that was still edible, at least.
Some Item Cards yielded even stranger things—rocks, rotten leaves, beast bones, broken glass, fish bones, tattered cloth, and all kinds of other bizarre odds and ends.
Whether they were people from Blue Sea or natives of Dazzling Star, everyone threw those useless items away without a second thought.
Clearly, though, Toya had never seen them that way.
He answered seriously,
“Some of these can be useful too.”
What everyone else regarded as trash…
Toya saw as materials with their own unique purpose.
He carefully sifted through the items from the Item Cards, selecting quite a few to place on the train.
(He even added a palm-sized rock.)
Shen Jinyang asked curiously how he knew what to pick.
After pondering for a few seconds, Toya replied,
“I just… go by instinct. I’ve been like this since I was little.”
Shen Jinyang silently closed her mouth.
All right.
That’s probably just how the world of ability users works.
Once every usable item from the Item Cards had been loaded onto the train, Toya placed his hand against its metal body once again.
The train began transforming once again—
The snow beasts were absorbed into the locomotive one after another.
If the previous upgrade had merely altered its appearance—like covering wood with a layer of silver—then this time, the transformation was complete.
Its overall length shrank slightly to around twenty-five meters, but its width expanded dramatically from two and a half meters to four meters. Its height also increased, now standing at five and a half meters.
The body had become visibly thicker, the undercarriage sat much higher off the ground, and the wheels had been replaced by wide caterpillar tracks.
The entire vehicle was now short, broad, and imposing, resembling a mobile fortress.
The interior had also undergone major changes.
The three torches obtained from the Item Cards had somehow taken effect. A thermometer had appeared inside the cabin, currently reading 21°C. Compared to the frozen wasteland outside, the warmth inside the train was nothing short of luxurious.
The materials had apparently been insufficient, however, as there still weren’t any passenger seats.
The engineer’s seat in the locomotive cab, on the other hand, had become noticeably more luxurious. The formerly stiff, hard chair had been replaced with a proper leather seat.
But the changes to the train’s appearance and facilities weren’t the most important part.
Before Toya’s modifications, the snowfield train had been powered by a Tier 2 snow beast.
Theoretically, its operating time should have been 240 hours.
After Toya’s first modification, that duration had doubled to 480 hours.
For the second modification, Song Xi had harnessed seven second-tier snow beasts and four first-tier snow beasts to the train.
In the end, six second-tier snow beasts and one first-tier snow beast were encased in metal and melted into the train itself.
Surprisingly, Toya didn’t look exhausted at all.
He merely shook his head slightly at Song Xi.
“I can tell this train has reached its limit. It can only take these few additional snow beasts. Any more won’t fit.”
The moment Cheng Qisheng heard that, she immediately checked the facility’s information.
Sure enough…
It was still classified as Unranked.
Just how incredible would a train have to be before the system finally recognized it as a ranked facility?
Yet even without reaching the ranked tier, the train’s operating time had increased to 1,500 hours.
One thousand five hundred hours!
Even if the train ran without stopping for a single moment, it could keep going for a full 62.5 days.
In an apocalyptic world, that kind of endurance was invaluable.
And Cheng Qisheng’s imagination immediately began running wild.
Toya had managed to transform a wooden train into its current form using nothing more than a steel door and a collection of miscellaneous materials.
So once this train was eventually retired…
Couldn’t he recycle its materials to build or upgrade something else?
Everyone knew that ability users could advance in rank.
If Toya eventually reached a higher tier, would he be able to build even more advanced trains—or perhaps entirely different kinds of machinery?
For example…
An airborne train?
They already had floating farms, floating roads, and even floating Safe Cities.
If those could exist, why couldn’t there be trains that ran through the sky?
For the first time, Cheng Qisheng completely understood why City Lords who possessed a Mechanic kept their existence an absolute secret.
This wasn’t just a Mechanic.
He was practically an equipment craftsman.
Not only could he create equipment—
He could upgrade it as well.
Having a Mechanic was practically the same as possessing an endless source of crystals.
If news ever leaked that a Safe City had a Mechanic, then given how valuable such an ability was, even Safe Cities that didn’t dare start an outright war might send undercover agents to lure the Mechanic away instead.
It was said that infiltration between high-tier Safe Cities was commonplace.
After all, once City Lords reached the higher tiers, they all cherished their lives.
Unless there was an overwhelming reason—such as fighting over the Tree of Longevity—few were willing to risk a full-scale Safe City war.
Although she herself was still only a low-tier City Lord, the Great Creator God was absolutely certain of one thing.
No one would ever be able to poach a citizen of Blue Sea.
Grinning from ear to ear, Cheng Qisheng reached out and gently patted Toya on the head.
Toya, who had been staring intently at the train while wondering what else he could improve, suddenly shivered.
So warm…
He didn’t even need to think about it.
His instincts had already told him—
This was a blessing from God.
What kind of feeling was this?
His frail body seemed to grow warm, as if he had returned to his mother’s embrace as a child.
It also felt as though an unshakable strength now stood behind him.
Toya felt overwhelming encouragement and praise.
It was a feeling unlike anything he had ever experienced before. The deep affection and reverence for the God in the depths of his heart made his entire body tremble with excitement.
“My God, I will serve You with all my heart!”
…
That night, the beast tide had only just receded.
After fighting nonstop for an entire day and night, the City Lords were utterly exhausted.
Just then, a notification from their Intelligent Terminal popped up.
[World Mission: A group of flying snow beasts has evolved. Their numbers are estimated at approximately 40 million. These flying snow beasts possess summoning abilities. All City Lords are requested to eliminate them. Warning: Act according to your own capabilities.]
Before the City Lords even had a chance to complain…
Another notification appeared.
Mission completed by Blue Sea Safe City.
