Doomsday Train, I went crazy by hoarding billions of items.

Chapter 24, First Stop Ends

The golden ant gave a graceful bow: "Thank you for your hospitality. You are very kind. I look forward to meeting you again on Paro Island."

After saying that, it flew away.

After the golden ants disappeared, the fire ants returned the way they came and even helped Jiang Ran fill in the hole.

Jiang Ran stared in the direction where the golden ants had disappeared, remained silent for a long while, and then went to retrieve the diamond treasure chest.

What is Paro Island, as described by the golden ants? What is the connection between their existence and these doomsday trains...?

Jiang Ran didn't know, but she couldn't help but wonder if this so-called "Palo Island" was the train's final stop.

If the golden ants say "the humans of Earth are too weak", then are these extreme environment dungeons meant to raise venomous insects or to filter out those they deem qualified to enter Paro Island?
No one could tell her the answer.

But whatever the truth is, Jiang Ran is determined to go to Paro Island.

Because of too many doubts, even the diamond treasure chest couldn't excite Jiang Ran too much.

She used her long sword to pry open the box, and the instant flash of light indicated that what was inside was extraordinary.

[Congratulations! You have obtained 20 Crafting Table Fragments, 1 Building Specialization Skill Card, and 1 Universal Bullet Crafting Blueprint!]

This bountiful harvest greatly lifted Jiang Ran's previously gloomy mood.

It's clear that this is a special treasure chest for Golden Ants. In the past, it was already quite good to get a skill card or blueprint from a Diamond Treasure Chest.

She now has 38 crafting table fragments. If Whirlwind Slash can return 10 to her as promised, then collecting all the crafting tables will be just around the corner!
With the manufacturing station, even if she doesn't join any organization or gang, as long as she can continuously produce weapons or other devices, she can still move freely among various forces without any worries.

In his previous life, Xu Yunxuan barely managed to collect enough crafting tables by the time he was almost finished with the third dungeon.

The main issue is that the game's resource allocation seems to have some bias.

Players like Little Spinning Top, who have incredible luck opening boxes, still have pitifully few survival supplies.

Some people with plenty of survival supplies are still unable to obtain skill cards or items.

For players who need to develop in the early stages, a crafting table that requires 66 fragments and doesn't guarantee they'll collect them before they die, and even if they do, they might not have the blueprints and materials, makes it somewhat of a waste.

Even though everyone understands that once they have this thing, they will never lack supplies again.

Whether clinging to these fragments will allow us to survive until "later" is uncertain.

Compared to the uncertain future, most people prefer the present, which is tangible and real.

But for Jiang Ran, none of that mattered.

For the next four days, Jiang Ran stayed in the safe house, living a regular life and exercising on time.

When the second volcanic eruption occurred, everyone was somewhat prepared and had their own coping strategies.

Of course, some people who were in despair wrote their wills in advance and sent them to the chat room before they died.

However, neither the earth-shaking tremors nor the farewell letters filled with resentment would affect the players' chatting and trading.

Even if someone is trading one second and their profile picture goes black the next, most people will just sigh for a couple of seconds and then move on to the next trading target.

In just a few days, everyone has realized that in this kind of dungeon, survival is the most important thing.

Whether it was the golden ants or the insect repellent, in her previous life, after the second volcanic eruption, fire ants would occasionally spawn where Jiang Ran was hiding due to their infestation.

But this time, she didn't see a single one. So Jiang Ran quietly waited until the seventh day of the dungeon ended.

Because the Flaming Mountain is extremely large, the train projects many station coordinates for players to board, one of which spawns on the mountaintop where Jiang Ran is located.

This is also the final death challenge in the Flaming Mountain dungeon—it depends on whether the player is caught by the fire ants first or steps into the light circle on the platform first.

Just like in her previous life, Jiang Ran followed the coordinates given by the train and dug upwards along the mountainside.

In her previous life, she was just a little unlucky. When she was still 200 meters away from the coordinates, she dug through the mountain path and encountered five or six fire ants foraging for food.

Having been hungry for several days, she dared not gamble on whether she could cleanly and efficiently kill so many fire ants in one go, so she could only choose to run quickly toward the station.

It turned out that this choice was correct, because the fire ant army was just around the corner not far away. If Jiang Ran had hesitated for even two more seconds, she would have lost more than just a leg.

As Jiang Ran calmly stepped onto the platform, she glanced back at her surroundings.

The same light shone on many towering mountain peaks in the distance, standing out against the land covered in volcanic ash.

But this glimmer of light paled in comparison to the countless, endless swarms of bright red fire ants crawling on the ground.

In places both visible and invisible, the fire ants chased after their targets, surging towards the fleeing players like a tide, leaving only fresh white bones scattered in the waves.

The surviving players were teleported directly from the aperture to the familiar green train. Their faces were pale, and they were still shaken.

There are many players who, like Jiang Ran before them, have paid the price of losing an arm or a leg in exchange for a chance to survive.

They need to spend enough health points to heal their wounds before boarding the vehicle.

Some were too badly injured, or had insufficient health points, so they were reduced to only 1 health point and then entered the last-class carriage with their unrepaired and incomplete bodies.

And most of these players... don't survive until the start of the second dungeon.

Only a few people, like Jiang Ran, stepped onto the platform with ease, thus attracting many people's secret glances.

But Jiang Ran was completely covered up, so her face was not visible at all.

[Friendly reminder: The train will depart in five minutes. Passengers who have arrived at the platform, please undergo physical repair at the platform and purchase your tickets in order. (If your carriage class remains the same, your seat number will be retained. If your carriage class has changed, your belongings left on the train will be transferred to the new carriage with you.)]

[Each stop increases your health by (500/300/100/50) points. Tickets are not required for the last-class carriages.]

Upon hearing the announcement, Jiang Ran did not stop and walked straight back to her previous carriage.

But someone had been watching her ever since she entered the platform.

There was no way around it; Jiang Ran just looked far too relaxed.

Even though she was wearing a sun-protective outfit that covered her from head to toe, you could still tell from her figure that she was a tall woman.

A man with a hideous scar on his face gave a wink to the person next to him and subtly moved closer to Jiang Ran.

Although Jiang Ran walked quickly toward the carriage, she remained constantly aware of her surroundings.

She couldn't help but chuckle as she watched the scarred man approach.

Isn't this a coincidence?

(End of this chapter)