After waiting for about an hour, Leo still noticed that no one had come to his shop.
After watching the woman through the window for a while, he discovered why.
There wasn't just a train station in the entire station area. It was basically a small town arranged in a circular shape — a tiny city where twelve streets met in the center.
Leo's market was a two-story building standing across from the real train station building at the city center.
"If this woman raids the whole town, it'll take all day. It would be better if we set up something for the shop. I've got an idea."
[There is a time limit for how much time she can stay there, master. If you like, I can check how much time she has left]
"Hmm, sensible. After all, this place is kind of a safe zone. Probably everyone would want to live here forever. Go check how much time she has left. If necessary, do something so she notices the shop."
In the next moment, the small dragon slipped through the walls and vanished in the woman's direction.
Meanwhile, the woman kicked open the door of an abandoned house, was turning the furniture into planks, and loading all the wood onto her little wagon.
For a moment, a system screen blinked in front of her and then disappeared. This system was what everyone in this world carried; it handled the basic survival-game functions.
Because the woman was already tired from carrying the wood, she didn't notice the brief flicker of the screen in front of her.
Then the little dragon reappeared at the shop.
[She still has a little more than two hours to spend at the station. It looks like this woman was the first person to reach the station on the ten-thousand-player server, so she has an extra half hour compared to normal players.]
Leo noticed the small dragon used the word "players" for people, but he said nothing. Apparently, everyone in this world had become a "player."
"Anyway, let her loot. I suppose she'll use what she gathers to turn her wagon into a real train. In the meantime, let's set up the shop in a more mysterious way."
[As you command, sir.]
...
(Author's note: I'm switching to the viewpoint of the woman Leo saw a moment ago.)
After carrying another pile of boards and catching her breath, Alice spoke to her system.
[Channel99] - 10.000/7.962 (daily number of speeches: 9/10)
Alice saw the number of survivors drop again. If there were that many deaths even among the people of the Great Dragon Kingdom, the world's population had probably already halved.
She took a breath and moved her gaze to the system options she was searching for.
[Trade]
[Mail]
[My Train]
[Personal information]
Without staring at the options for long, Alice selected [My Train].
[Dilapidated Human-Powered Railcar]
[Armor: invincibility shield (remaining time: 4 days)]
[Crew: Zero]
[Advancement conditions: 0/50 Leather, 92/100 wood, 10/100 iron ingots, 0/1 level 1 steam engine]
Because she had encountered leather and iron materials a lot in the houses she had already entered, the hardest thing for her was gathering wood.
Although the system had a recycling function, wooden furniture was usually very large, so Alice would have to break the furniture down and bring the pieces back to her train for recycling.
Even though Alice looked very tired, a constant smile remained on her pretty face.
Because she was the first person among the ten thousand in Channel 99 to reach a station, she got 20 Ice Train currency and 5 assignable stat points. For Alice, that was inevitable—she had a secret everyone else didn't know.
While everyone else was still in shock at waking up in the frozen world and crying on the channel or searching for their parents, Alice had already covered ten of the hundred kilometers to the first station.
The main reason she adapted so quickly wasn't that she was special — it was because this wasn't her first supernatural migration.
Alice had actually been Bai Chen, a Chinese university student, ten days ago. He had died from overwork while trying to be useful to the Great Dragon Kingdom.
Luckily, the Yellow Emperor saw his determination and sent his soul into the body of a pretty girl who had died eating junk food in another world.
At first, Bai Chen complained, but after looking in the mirror at the cute, anime-like face and naturally pink hair, she swallowed her complaints. When she discovered the +18 lesbian memories in the girl's brain, Bai Chen gritted her teeth and accepted the reality.
A few days later the unexpected happened and the whole world migrated into an ice apocalypse.
Now calling herself Alice, Bai Chen thought she'd been given a second chance. Yet her body belonged to a cute girl, and however fast she was, she couldn't reach the first station faster than all the muscle men in the world. That meant she missed out on the early-arrival rewards broadcast worldwide.
She felt truly cheated.
[Train Conductor: Alice (Bai Chen)]
[Level: 1]
[Strength: 3]
[Speed: 5]
[Physique: 3]
[Soul: 10]
[Assignable stat points: 5]
[Special Talent: Multiple anything (SS)]
Alice's talent allowed her to double anything for one time.
The first thing that came to mind was doubling her assignable stat points.
At first, she planned to save the stat points for emergencies, but after seeing how tired she got carrying items, she decided to use them. Of course, before using them she doubled the number of stat points to be assigned.
Half an hour later, trusting her increased muscle power, she broke open a wooden door and found a white treasure chest in the house she had entered.
She immediately used her talent to duplicate the chest and opened it. Because they were low-level chests, nothing extremely valuable came out, but ten pieces of leather came from the combined loot.
Alice doubled the number of leathers and checked her personal wagon. She now had everything needed for an upgrade—only a steam engine was missing. Then she noticed a shop with smoke coming out of its chimney.
At first, she wondered why there would be a working shop in an abandoned station town, and the word "NPC" came to her mind.
She stuffed forty Ice Train coins into her pocket and ran to the shop. After all, she only had twenty minutes left in the town.
...
(Editor's note: Saka-chan (the writer) wrote the last eight hundred words hoping the Chinese government would notice and give him Chinese citizenship—please disregard. Fortunately, I discovered his plans early on. I assure you he won't sign up for such nonsense again.
Running away to China to escape me... that's so amateurish. Even the Chinese government can't stop me from keeping an eye on Saka-chan until this book is finished.)