[Top-Grade! An Easily Overlooked Hat!]

[You have obtained 1 distributable attribute point!]

As a golden light flashed through Bai Cheng’s hands, the previously ordinary sun hat transformed into a black baseball cap.

However, unlike other clothes that had been upgraded to top-grade—

This hat actually has a special trait?

Curious, Bai Cheng inspected it.

[Name: Forgotten Baseball Cap]

[Quality: Legendary]

[Description: When there are two or more people present, you might be overlooked. The effect becomes more pronounced as the number of people increases.]

[Evaluation: A Thief’s Hat?]

"Huh, this might actually be useful." Bai Cheng shook the hat before casually plopping it onto her head.

Then, shifting her attention, she took out the door lock she had purchased at Station One and set it as her next upgrade target.

"The system mentioned that Swamp Mine Station is a single-person station, which means that there must be multi-person stations too."

"While the train can’t be destroyed inside a station, it’s still necessary to guard against thieves."

Bai Cheng examined the iron lock in her hand. It seemed to be meant for installation on a door.

She tapped on its info panel, and sure enough, an installation prompt appeared.

But there was only one lock... and three doors.

In the end, Bai Cheng installed it on the carriage door.

[Carriage Door Lock: 0/10]

Insert the key, twist to unlock, then lock again. Bai Cheng stood in the passageway connecting the locomotive and the carriage, repeating the process over and over.

The wind blowing from all directions sent her hair fluttering wildly, while the swamp beneath the wheels and the desolate scenery on either side flashed by like a revolving lantern.

Before long, a golden light flashed, signaling that the lock had finally reached its final upgrade.

[Top-Grade! Indestructible Smart Lock!]

[You have obtained 1 distributable attribute point!]

Earlier in the upgrade process, the lock had already stopped requiring a key, relying on fingerprint and iris authentication instead.

And now, the final upgrade had granted it a special trait.

[Name: Indestructible Smart Lock]

[Quality: Legendary (Bound)]

[Description: The lock cannot be destroyed and can only be opened by the authorized user!]

[Evaluation: Indestructible!]

"Another conceptual-tier item, huh." Bai Cheng stared at the lock, although her expression wasn’t particularly joyful.

The lock might be indestructible, but the carriage door is still made of wood!

Sure, the train couldn’t be destroyed inside a station, but did that include the carriage?

Bai Cheng’s verdict was: Useful, but not by much.

She continued upgrading other items while Chi Yan remained on high alert inside the carriage.

The swamp wasn’t teeming with creatures, and most of them were just wild beasts. Killing them during the day yielded no EXP.

Since the train was constantly moving, there was no way to collect the dropped beast meat.

Still, whenever any beast wandered into Chi Yan’s attack range, he didn’t hesitate to eliminate them with a flick of his finger.

First, to ensure Bai Cheng’s safety.

Second, even if they couldn’t collect the meat, they could still harvest leather. Might as well take what they could get.

Bai Cheng clearly remembered that it had already been past noon when she left the station.

Today is the fifth day, and based on the usual time for nightfall, it should be dark by 2 PM.

She glanced at her watch. 1:30 PM.

"Silent Night is probably coming soon. Traveling at night will be rough." Bai Cheng frowned as she surveyed the barren swamp.

The sky was so uniformly gloomy that she couldn’t even tell whether nightfall was imminent in the next half an hour.

In fact, Bai Cheng had the distinct feeling that... the sky looked exactly the same as before?

Silently, she quickened her pace with the upgrades.

Half an hour later, the wall lamp Bai Cheng had bought from the vending machine was upgraded into an infinite chandelier, granting her 1 attribute point.

Another half an hour later, the mirror she had obtained from a treasure chest upgraded into a small vanity mirror that was capable of revealing things invisible to the naked eye, earning her another attribute point.

Yet another half an hour later, the towel in her hands reached top-grade, becoming self-cleaning, durable, and perpetually spotless. She obtained another attribute point.

Another half an hour after that, the water bottle she had purchased evolved into a spatial water bottle, capable of storing up to 30L of fresh water, along with yet another attribute point.

And another half hour later, Bai Cheng chose to upgrade the final item she had bought. It was a survival dagger, similar to the one she had been given at the start but slightly more refined.

However, this time, she didn’t complete the upgrade.

[Survival Dagger: 0/200]

The condition for progress was to cut through any object with the dagger.

Perhaps because she had already upgraded a similar item before, the difficulty this time was noticeably higher.

Bai Cheng looked around but realized that she had nothing suitable to cut.

Wood? No way—this is a dagger, not an axe!

Just as she was racking her brain, a cool breeze slipped through the window, lifting a few strands of her silver-white hair, and her pupils shrank in realization.

"Right, I can cut my hair!"

Snipping a single strand was effortless. Reaching two hundred cuts would only require a few strands.

Bai Cheng immediately plucked one of her hairs and laid it on the table, ready to slice it.

But the train’s movement made it difficult to maintain precision for multiple cuts on such a short length.

Besides, Bai Cheng was worried about losing the strand and forcing her to pluck another. She was genuinely afraid that she would go bald at this rate.

And this was just for upgrading a green survival dagger!

In the end, Bai Cheng only managed to cut each strand less than forty times within thirty minutes, barely upgrading the dagger to blue.

[Sharp Dagger: 0/500]

"Ugh, just say you want to make me bald!" Bai Cheng pouted angrily.

The upgrade requirement had skyrocketed, making it impossible to finish anytime soon.

Just as she was about to resume her upgrades, Bai Cheng caught sight of the time on her wrist and froze.

"It’s already 4 PM?!"

Unbeknownst to her, two and a half hours had passed while she was upgrading these items.

She quickly looked out the window, but the sky remained as gloomy as ever.

Silent Night hadn’t arrived!

"Did nighttime revert to normal?"

She hurried to the locomotive, brushed aside the scattered leather on the floor, and immediately checked the odometer.

[Distance to Next Station: 1,810 km]

Before departure, Bai Cheng had already checked the odometer. The distance from Station One to the next station was a full 2,000 km.

Although the system hadn’t labeled it as Station Two, Bai Cheng had mentally assigned it that number.

"Chi Yan, have you sensed any danger?" she asked, turning to him.

"None for now," Chi Yan confirmed. "Young Lady, daytime is relatively safe. Only the creatures that emerge during Silent Night actively attack the train."

Bai Cheng’s gaze sharpened. She checked the time again and said, "Stop killing the beasts around us. Use the remaining time to rest."

"Understood." Chi Yan responded respectfully before picking up a piece of raw beast meat and biting into it, although his eyes remained sharp.

The meat had been scavenged earlier and would serve as today’s meal.

"There’s water too. Help yourself if you’re thirsty or hungry." After saying this, Bai Cheng turned her attention to the screen. "First, let’s allocate the attribute points."

Over the course of the day, she had earned 6 distributable attribute points from upgrading items with the Book of Cheng.

She distributed them evenly.

[Train Conductor: Bai Cheng]

[Level: Common Rank 2]

[EXP: 20.1%]

[Strength: 15]

[Constitution: 15]

[Spirit: 9]

[Talent: Book of Cheng]

Of course, while upgrading items, Bai Cheng had also kept the furnace running continuously.

Over three hours, she had smelted 60 iron ingots, all of which had been submitted to the locomotive.

And now, the sky outside was finally beginning to darken, and a thick fog gradually enveloped the swamp...