After acquiring the Mechanical Source Point from the conversion of the Eerie Cube, Lin Xian felt a surge of pure energy flooding into him. This power, transformed from the Hell Black Chrysanthemum, frantically permeated the Infinite Train and even some of the nearby convoys. It subtly boosted many people's abilities and physical evolution, even restoring a good portion of their stamina. For survivors who had just endured a brutal battle, it was like a blessing from the heavens.

Looking at the Mechanical Heart interface, Lin Xian sighed in relief—finally, some good news. The war in the Abyss had helped him and everyone else improve their abilities. If he could also devour the remaining carriages of Ocean and Parrot, his Mechanical Devour would hit level 5, and the speed and efficiency would skyrocket.

“Wait a sec!”

A sudden thought jolted through Lin Xian’s mind: “Ocean's engineering-grade nuclear-powered locomotive has a thermal output of 170 megawatts, and Parrot's is 140. Together, that’s over 300 megawatts!!!”

Wouldn’t that meet the requirement for upgrading Surge?

He immediately opened his skill panel.

Surge (Rare) (Level 3 - Maxed): Can be upgraded to: [Superstring Reactor Phase Halo] Upgrade Condition: Devour nuclear-powered units totaling over 300MW of thermal output Upgrade Time: 24 hours

D*mn! Setting aside how many Mechanical Source Points he’d get from devouring two nuclear-powered locomotive sets, if this new skill could be unlocked, he'd have the potential to generate an AT Field Shield strong enough to tank an S-rank hit!

Back in Xilan City, he had inexplicably accessed this skill in advance, using it to channel Unit 01’s nuclear power to extend the AT Field Shield, which blocked an attack from the Black Thorn in the Clouds. He never figured out why it activated early, but Lin Xian had seen just how OP this skill could be.

To put it simply, Lin Xian’s Mechanical Heart used to channel energy outward to power the train, all derived from his personal stamina. But with this skill, it worked in reverse—he could draw in electrical power within range and store it within himself. As long as the Infinite Train was operational, it was like having a 290-megawatt nuclear reactor strapped to his back!

Now that was some seriously good news.

With his spirits lifted, Lin Xian returned to Carriage No. 1 and got to work.

At the moment, leftover members from the Ocean and Parrot trains were dismantling weapons and equipment from the carriages with help from other convoys. Lin Xian had already notified them ahead of time. They all knew Captain Lin needed the materials for Mechanical Ability Conversion, so nobody objected—in fact, everyone pitched in.

These carriages weren’t all that valuable to other convoys anyway. Right now, the Joint Convoy had more trains than people, and the core focus was on the Power Locomotive Units.

It wasn’t long before both trains had been emptied. Lin Xian stayed in Carriage 13, the Weapons Carriage, remotely devouring the carriages outside while simultaneously manufacturing ammunition from the converted materials.

Given the current state of things, he needed to supply all the convoys. Lin Xian had turned himself into a mechanical production hub, entering the same trance-like manufacturing state he’d experienced during that snowy night in Xilan City.

[Devour Progress: 65%] [Devour Complete: +50 Mechanical Source Points, +10 Mechanical Devour Proficiency] ... [Manufacturing Complete - Roarer K23 Electric Gatling Gun] [Manufacturing Proficiency +10] ...

The entire Joint Convoy Arc Line was now covered in a thin, glowing membrane from the Eerie Cube. Outside the membrane, the Dark Invasion seemed to be completely sealed off. Survivors could no longer feel the oppressive chill of that darkness. It was as if the haze and corruption had been separated.

To the north, the Dark Forest was cloaked in dense spatial fog. Even the trees and rocks seemed to warp visually. When you stared, they’d appear normal again, like some kind of visual hallucination.

Shasha was lying against the window, frowning as she whispered, “KIKI-jie... do you think we’ll escape this time?”

“If we made it out of that last nightmare, we’ve gotta be cursed with undying luck,” KIKI said seriously as she worked at the computer.

Shasha rolled over on the bed. “Sally’s outta ammo. If only Lin-ge could build one of those mini mechs like in Xilan City—we could all live in it. Even S-class monsters would get smacked down in one punch!”

KIKI’s eyes lit up slightly. “Your Lin-ge might just be thinking the same thing. Though, it won’t be easy~”

Shasha rubbed her tummy. “When we got sucked into the Abyss, I nearly puked my guts out. I swear I’m gonna have nightmares tonight.”

She glanced up at KIKI. “Jie, what are you working on?”

“That robot—its system parsing is nearly done. I’m just—” KIKI clicked her tongue, “You wouldn’t get it anyway.”

“What?! Of course I would!” Shasha shot upright, proudly declaring, “It’s just an AI butler robot, right? I heard those things can even fight! Then all the dangerous stuff can go to it, and Lin-ge can relax, right~?”

KIKI’s typing froze mid-air. She slowly turned to stare at Shasha.

“What... why’re you looking at me?” Shasha blinked. “Is there a ghost behind me or something?”

Suddenly, KIKI’s eyes sparkled. She darted over, pinched Shasha’s cheek, and grinned. “So smart! You get candy later!”

Before her sentence even finished, she bolted toward Carriage 13, where Lin Xian was still focused on weapon production and devouring the carriages.

Daluo and Shu Qin were sorting all kinds of bullets from the automatic cartridge stamper, prepping them for convoy resupply. Under Lin Xian’s hands, the Infinite Train was running like a massive autonomous supply ship, pumping out hope to every corner.

KIKI zipped in and patted Lin Xian’s shoulder urgently.

“Hey Lin Xian, I’ve got an idea. Want to hear it?”

Lin Xian glanced at her, raising an eyebrow. “Go ahead.”

KIKI pointed behind her. “That Grace rewrite program is almost done. What if we let this AI run the PX-05 Maintenance Robots and use the Longshan No. 1 Track Laying Machine to lay track all the way to Baicheng? You think it’ll work? Robots shouldn’t get marked by the Dark Invasion, right?”

Lin Xian’s gaze flickered. After thinking for a moment, he replied, “I’ve never considered that… but yeah, now that you mention it, I’ve never seen an Eerie Entity attack a non-living thing.”

KIKI nodded rapidly. “It’s a complex area—those bots can’t handle it alone. But this AI? Her quantum volume is 8192. That’s 2 to the power of 13 in compute power! You just build the tracks here in camp, let her go lay them. Once it’s done, we charge outta here!”

Lin Xian’s eyes sharpened. “It’s not that simple. Building tracks depends on terrain... but—yeah. It’s worth testing. After you finish overwriting Grace, I’ll send a drone outside to do a trial run.”

He didn’t want to cause a chain reaction in the Dark Forest, so testing with a drone felt safer. He could set it to fly autonomously—if nothing happened, maybe the plan would work.

He wasn’t overly hopeful, but in their situation, even a longshot was worth it. Even if it failed, Grace could still help with recon. Better than everyone rotting in here.

Besides, he’d had his eye on Grace for a while. As a Crimson AI, she could provide huge support. That robot’s materials were ridiculously durable—Ning Jing, the muscle queen herself, couldn’t even dent her alloy faceplate. That defense was no joke.

Even if the attack plan failed, Grace would ease his decision-making load.

“Mhm~” KIKI leaned on her palm, musing aloud, “Say, Lin Xian… you think those Descent Faction freaks who wanted digital life were trying to do something like this? Upload themselves into robots to avoid the darkness?”

“Maybe. Their motive might be different, but the result’s the same,” Lin Xian said.

A robot like Grace, even in offline mode, was rare worldwide. Full-on digital life required cloud computing, but the global net was down. Uploading just one person’s consciousness into a local AI wouldn’t accomplish much. Then again, who knows what insane ideas the Descent Faction might come up with…

“But there’s one more problem,” Lin Xian said, recalling what Ning Jing had told him. “Baicheng got swallowed by the Abyss on Apocalypse Day. No idea what the terrain’s like now. If there are complications, even Grace might not be able to handle it.”

Grace was powerful, but she didn’t have Psychic Power or mechanical manufacturing skills. Her processing power meant nothing without the means to act.

KIKI nodded. “Then let’s send her to scout first. Once we understand what we’re dealing with, we move.”

“Sounds good.” Lin Xian looked at her. “How long till you’re done?”

“I’ve cracked it already. Not much usable data in here—Crimson World was super cautious. This AI was built specifically to guard the Zero Element Center. I’ll extract her movement and logic modules, wipe the rest, then overwrite the system. Should take two hours.”

“Great,” Lin Xian replied. “Let’s make the most of it.”

KIKI ran off, back to work.

Meanwhile, Lin Xian kept devouring and producing non-stop. Ocean and Parrot had 32 carriages total. Aside from two nuclear-powered units and two electric traction units, the other 28 were regular armored carriages—prime for devouring.

Each carriage yielded more Mechanical Source Points than a flatbed, thanks to built-in systems. One would give him about 50 points and a hefty batch of metal.

[Devour Complete: +50 Mechanical Source Points, +10 Mechanical Devour Proficiency] [Congratulations! Mechanical Devour leveled up to Level 5. Efficiency Boosted!]

After devouring four carriages, Lin Xian finally hit 2,000 proficiency and leveled up. Instantly, he felt the difference—devour time per carriage dropped from 20 minutes to 13.

[Devour Complete: +30 Mechanical Source Points, +5 Mechanical Devour Proficiency]

With the new level came diminishing returns from low-complexity devours and bulk processes—but Lin Xian had long gotten used to the rhythm of this evolution.

It was as if the mechanical source point was this Mechanical Heart’s way of learning technology. The higher the level, the greater the demand for advanced tech. It was clearly impossible to infinitely upgrade using mass-produced industrial products. Now, even when Lin Xian devoured an entire car, it barely gave him a few source points. Aside from materials, they were barely useful for upgrading the Ten Thousand Faces Armor.

After a while, KIKI's voice came through the communicator.

"Lin Xian, it's done."

Lin Xian immediately stopped what he was doing and sprinted toward Carriage No. 21. This weapon station only had one 1130 Close-In Weapon System;

the rest was just an empty area scattered with random tools and equipment. The AI unit Grace that Lin Xian had sealed inside a metal cabinet was also stored here.

By the time he arrived, KIKI had already opened the cabinet and was sitting on the floor with a laptop in her hands. Several Infinite Train data cables were plugged into the back of Grace’s head.

“I’ve set it all up. Just waiting on you.”

“Where’s Luo Yang?”

“He took a team to lay down isolation grids and sensor monitors along the front line.”

“Alright.” Lin Xian nodded. “Go ahead and execute. I’ve already locked down her mechanical units.”

To ensure everything went smoothly, Lin Xian hadn’t fully trusted this un-overwritten Crimson AI. Although his mechanical ability couldn’t handle her quantum processor for now, he could at least control her movement units. That way, he could prevent the robot from suddenly turning hostile.

Tap tap tap~

KIKI typed rapidly on her keyboard. “Okay, overwrite initiated. It’ll take around 20 minutes. I’ve completely erased her original logic protocols and replaced them with a single one.”

“What kind of protocol?” Lin Xian asked.

KIKI looked back at him seriously. “Basic protocol: absolute obedience to all of Lin Xian’s commands.”

“Anything else you want to add?”

Bai Xing smiled, “That one alone is good enough. As for the rest... nothing else comes to mind for now.”

“That works.”

Beep~

At that moment, under KIKI’s input, Grace’s full system overwrite completed. Bai Xingyi’s secondary power unit shut down, the quantum processor halted, and the superconducting quantum bit array in her neck lit up with faint diagnostic red lights the moment the overwrite command hit. The eight million synaptic weights of her bionic neurons shattered and reassembled. A faint computational signal began to emerge.

Chu Yan watched the scene, her expression subtly tense. She understood that an AI of Bai Xingyi’s level was no ordinary machine. Even organizations like the Phoenix Society or Xinghua Heavy Industries had no more than ten of them. They were typically used to manage small space stations, spacecraft, or compact bases.

Chu Yan speculated that within the Phoenix Society, lower-level AIs like Grace were used as central decision-making units for global strategic coordination. Yet in Crimson World, the Descent Faction had assigned her to manage a surface base offline. When combined with Bai Xing’s team's regression probe on Julius Litt’s consciousness in the Zero Element Center, Chu Yan concluded that this place was far more important than she had originally imagined.

“Lin Xian!”

Just as Lin Xian and KIKI were waiting for the overwrite to complete, Grace’s facial hologram began flickering. Chu Yan’s face appeared again. This sudden event instantly alarmed both of them.

“What’s going on!?” Lin Xian shouted.

“There’s a hidden program! It halted the OS overwrite!” KIKI gasped. “I’m erasing it now!”

Just then, Grace, still bearing Chu Yan’s face, slowly opened her eyes. Her holographic image flickered, and her broken audio system crackled to life.

“Lin Xian... in the realm beyond dimensions... no... don’t interpret it through your own dimension. The power of the Dark World must have resonance. Perhaps... it can communicate through the same matter...”

“Who are you!?” Lin Xian shouted.

Buzz-buzz-buzz—the hologram flickered and disappeared. The message ended. At that moment, Grace’s full overwrite completed.

KIKI looked stunned. “Did she just... talk to you?”

Lin Xian turned to her immediately. “KIKI, can you retrieve the program that just triggered that message?”

KIKI shook her head, frowning. “Nope. It’s completely overwritten. That background system must’ve been deliberately designed—it hijacked the OS just before deletion. But…”

“It’s like it knew we were going to do this in advance?” Lin Xian’s face darkened. He stared at the now-booting Grace, his mind a whirlwind.

Who had just spoken to him? What did that message mean?

A warning? A reminder?

How did Grace know what situation he was in?

How could she know they were about to overwrite her?

The swirling questions stuck to his mind like tar. Ever since encountering Chu Yan and the Crimson World, Lin Xian had felt like something uncanny was watching him. Yet the Zero Element Center’s message—at least in its outcome—seemed… well-meaning. That only made the whole thing even more confusing.

If it wasn’t Chu Yan, then why would the Crimson World help him?

Inside Carriage No. 21, Lin Xian and KIKI both fell silent, still reeling from what they’d witnessed. Even KIKI had been caught off guard.

“Beyond dimensions... resonance effect... was she trying to tell us something?” KIKI muttered.

Lin Xian shook his head. “I’m not sure what she meant. But my gut tells me—it was crucial.”

“So... should we tell the others?” KIKI asked.

Lin Xian’s expression grew grim as he softly repeated Grace’s words: “In the realm beyond dimensions... don’t use your own dimension to understand... the Dark World’s power must resonate...”

“What does it mean?”

“Maybe it means... the Dark World can only be influenced by entities of its own dimension,” KIKI quickly reasoned. “Like how Hell’s Black Chrysanthemum can sense S-class entities, how the Eerie Cube blocks dark invasions, and how the Silver Dragon Tenfold Thorn purges layered dark space!”

Chu Yan narrowed her eyes. “The Blood Scourge Flora and Forbidden Items all exist on the white-dark dimensional scale. Right now, both the Federation and Phoenix Society are researching white-dark entities to fight against the disasters. The logic tracks.”

Counting up her current white-dark dimension assets, Chu Yan had two Blood Scourge specimens and two Forbidden Items on her. Fire Bro had that gold bracelet. She remembered Hu Lushou had given her a silver bullet casing. The problem was, she knew far too little about Forbidden Items.

Why didn’t Fire Bro’s necklace or this silver bullet cause any disaster-level effects?

But in the Akesai Dead Zone, that lionfish colossus had dragged everyone into the Abyss...

“These are questions we’ll need Director Ding to help with,” Chu Yan exhaled, turning to KIKI. “Back to the point. Can we be sure this AI is clean now?”

KIKI frowned. “Logically, yes. The OS has been fully overwritten. You didn’t find any other AI cores via mechanical scan either, so by theory, it’s clean... but I can’t be 100% sure.”

She glanced at Chu Yan. “There could be powers at play beyond mechanical reach.”

Grace’s sudden anomaly had clearly shaken KIKI’s usual confidence. After so many strange encounters, she was starting to question even her own faith in machines.

“This happened last time too. Grace’s self-check code was embedded. Since we’ve already overwritten everything, let’s just power her on.”

If someone really could directly control a Crimson AI, that ability would surpass even Lin Xian’s Mechanical Heart by several levels. After all the time and effort to recover this AI, Lin Xian decided to proceed.

Besides, Grace’s earlier message seemed... kind.

For now, he needed her help. The strange incident would have to wait.

“Alright,” KIKI nodded. “I’m starting her up now.”

Lin Xian looked at the AI’s elegant face, then suddenly reached out and removed the beautiful mask she wore. It had already been cracked by Ning Jing anyway. Might as well devour it for research on the new material.

[Devour Successful – Mechanical Source Point +20, Mechanical Devour Proficiency +5]

[Obtained: Hypercarbon Condensed Alloy x2]

New material acquired. Lin Xian had guessed correctly. This one was Level 5—higher than Unit 01’s Super Carbon-Carbide Alloy. A rare treasure. His first Level 5 material ever.

If he could use this to make battle armor or train armor, it might be enough to tank a Snow Wraith or Fiend swarm head-on. Then again, that was just a dream—materials this rare wouldn’t even yield a single carriage even if he devoured the whole Infinite Train.

Currently, Infinite Train’s latest armor plates were just Level 3 Tungsten-Titanium Alloy with inner lining—based on Unit 01’s armor layering. Already better than the materials used on Starfleet tanks and gunships.

After removing the mask, Grace’s face revealed a smooth metallic sheen, matching the rest of her body. Oddly enough, it actually felt... more natural this way. The creepy vibe was gone.

“Wow, she looks way better like this~” KIKI remarked.

Lin Xian weighed the mask in his hand. “Let’s keep it like this. Disable the holographic face.”

“Got it.” KIKI pressed the reboot key. At that moment, Grace’s chest core lit up. Her entire body began to resonate and move fluidly. Under KIKI’s control, Grace—with her featureless face—looked directly at Lin Xian. A light screen scanned across him.

[System booting. Current Version: Crimson AI No. 3 (Offline)] [Scanning directive authority...] [Vitals and iris scan complete. Hello, Lin Xian. Please issue your first command and help me capture your voiceprint.]

Grace stepped out of the cabinet with hands behind her back, walking with graceful elegance like a haughty ballerina butler. She looked at Lin Xian.

Lin Xian studied her and spoke: “From today on, your name is Grace. Don’t call yourself Crimson No. 3 anymore.”

[Voiceprint confirmed.] [Understood. My name is now Grace.]

KIKI tapped away on her keyboard. “I’ve also entered the other team members’ info. She’ll recognize them all as allies. Now she just needs a bit of time to deep-learn everything.”

“Learn what?” Lin Xian asked.

“Infinite Train. Apocalypse Day. The Eastern Escape. The Orbital Rail Project. Everyone’s abilities. The powers. Your current situation…” KIKI listed it all. “Only then will she fully understand the context of your orders.”

“How long will that take?”

KIKI grinned. “Well, if it were a normal computer or mecha AI, it’d take 30 days to train up. But with her…”

She glanced proudly at Grace, who stood there silently.

“Just one second.”