Hm?
What was going on?
Why was the Treasure Hunter System acting this excited?
Just now, EVAN's ears had been assaulted by at least a dozen rapid-fire beep-beep-beep alerts—
so fast it felt like someone had strapped a time bomb onto the train.
It was exhilarating.
Way too exhilarating.
Wait—
The Astral Express!
That's right—of course!
What was his identity again? A Treasure Hunter.
And right now, the biggest treasure chest in the entire universe was sitting right in front of him!
The Astral Express was a relic left behind by Akivili, the Aeon of Trailblaze.
Sure, no one remembered anymore whether the "chicken" came first or the "egg."
But across the cosmos, every major faction acknowledged one thing—
This train represented the legacy of the Trailblaze itself.
"Welcome back, everyone,"
A familiar voice greeted them.
"How did this Trailblazing journey go?"
While EVAN was still spacing out, the sound reached his ears.
He lifted his head—
No. He lowered it.
A fluffy little creature stood right in front of him.
Pom-Pom.
The Astral Express's number-one mascot.
The absolute authority aboard the train.
Someone you absolutely must not bully.
Also—
A crybaby.
When it came to Pom-Pom, the thing EVAN remembered most was the rumor that Pom-Pom's tail could cure Firefly.
Miss Ci-yu herself had said it.
Whether it was true or not… who knew?
But one thing was certain—
Pom-Pom was the most mysterious existence on the entire train.
It had appeared back in the age of the Aeons,
witnessed countless Nameless depart,
and welcomed countless new ones aboard.
Akivili had fallen.
Aha had even blown up the train once.
Yet Pom-Pom still existed.
This train had once reached the end of the Trailblazing journey,
crashing onto a living planet.
Later, a red-haired girl who dreamed of the sea of stars found it—
and spent enormous effort repairing it.
Only after the repairs were complete did Pom-Pom appear.
As for who that red-haired girl was—
Obviously Himeko.
And from that point on, Himeko became the new navigator of the Astral Express.
"Honestly, this Trailblazing run was way too easy. Super boring~"
March 7th complained,
roughly揉揉 Pom-Pom's head before flopping down onto the sofa.
"Passenger March 7th! I told you not to touch my head!"
"Ugh—!"
"Yeah, yeah, got it. I'll be careful next time."
"Oh right—new Trailblazer. Dan Heng, I'll leave him to you."
With that, March 7th went limp, scrolling on her phone.
As for Stelle—
She'd just obtained the power of Preservation and still hadn't fully mastered the Stellaron inside her.
Naturally, she was extremely curious about this new strength.
So she happily trotted over to the sofa as well, pulling out her Flaming Lance.
"Whoa! Stelle! You actually brought back an antique from the Architects?!"
"It's not like that. Bronya gave it to me."
"And when we left, EVAN made an identical copy and left it in their museum."
Stelle spoke while gently stroking the lance.
As for introducing EVAN—
That responsibility naturally fell to Dan Heng.
It took him a long time to give a barely passable summary of EVAN's identity.
Not an easy task.
"Then,"
"welcome aboard."
"Nameless—EVAN."
...
Beep-beep-beep!
Beep-beep-beep!
Beep-beep-beep!
That familiar sound rang out again.
EVAN's gaze shifted across the carriage.
In the next instant—
Three treasure chests appeared before his eyes.
[Ding! Detected three treasure chests in this area. Retrieve them?]
"Retrieve."
EVAN maintained his polite, professional smile—
chatting with Welt Yang, Himeko, and the others about the train's history.
After all, his knowledge mostly came from the game—
walls of text he'd skimmed once and promptly forgotten.
So not remembering the train's full past was completely normal.
Meanwhile—
He calmly looted all three chests.
[Received! Retrieval successful!]
[Golden Chest ×1]
[Golden Chest ×1]
[Golden Chest ×1]
[Congratulations! You have obtained three Golden Chests aboard the Astral Express. Open them now?]
[Items will be stored in inventory upon opening.]
Three golden chests?
Was the train really this rich?
In that instant—
EVAN's eyes lit up.
Back in its prime, the Astral Express had run countless routes across the universe.
Nameless from everywhere flocked to it.
You know Baiheng, right?
Yes—the fallen girl of the High-Cloud Quintet from the Xianzhou Luofu.
Yingxing and Dan Feng's white moonlight.
Before her death, she had only one wish—
To board the Astral Express.
Unfortunately, that was during the Nameless's decline.
No one knew that, on the Xianzhou, a Nameless had been waiting for the train's arrival.
The Astral Express roamed the cosmos, laying silver rails,
leaving behind countless legends.
So even now—
Even if its reputation had faded—
The Nameless were still a massive force in the universe.
Even the Interastral Peace Corporation had to give them face.
To read advanced Chapters, head over to p@treon:
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