Hearing this, Chi Yan froze for a moment.

He raised his eyes to look at Bai Cheng, a flicker of surprise flashing in his gaze.

Chi Yan might have a deep understanding of this world, but he wasn’t entirely clear on the specific rules of the train, let alone how to recruit new employees.

Listening to the young lady’s words, if another helper of his caliber were to appear...

Then the Silent Night wouldn’t pose any danger to them.

Operating the train in Silent Night still carried risks, and who knew if even more dangerous magical beasts lay ahead?

All things considered, recruiting a second employee was the optimal solution.

Of course, Bai Cheng definitely wasn’t doing this for something as trivial as experience points.

After nodding, Chi Yan said nothing more and continued to patrol around the train. Meanwhile, Bai Cheng summoned the Book of Cheng and once again set the employee card as her upgrade target.

[White Employee Card: 20/20]

The upgrade path hadn’t changed, still requiring card synthesis. However, the quantity needed had increased significantly.

But Bai Cheng wasn’t too worried. After all, white employee cards were practically cheap commodities now.

A flash of green light later, the stack of employee cards in her hand vanished, leaving only one behind.

[Green Employee Card: 28/30]

Bai Cheng raised an eyebrow. "At least it didn’t double outright."

The wraith employee card she had obtained earlier had also been absorbed, though there were no surprises. One green employee card was still equivalent to two white employee cards.

She had initially thought that the nearly fifty employee cards in her possession would be enough to easily synthesize a gold employee card, but now it seemed that she was still far from her goal.

With no other options, Bai Cheng could only continue trading the supplies she had stockpiled.

"Good thing I have plenty of resources," she sighed in relief.

Employees would have to be recruited sooner or later, and these supplies weren’t urgently needed anyway.

Fuel like coal and charcoal couldn’t be traded, so iron ingots and scrap metal became her only options.

As for tools, Bai Cheng still needed them for upgrades, so selling them was out of the question.

Turning toward the carriage, she looked at the layer of leather spread across the floor, which was originally meant to serve as bedding for the night.

"Right, I almost forgot about these!" She smacked her forehead.

These leather pieces were practically useless to her now, as neither the train nor the carriage upgrades required them.

Besides, even if she traded them away, she could always replenish them by hunting beasts later.

"Let’s see how many I have."

Bai Cheng immediately synthesized all the leather on the ground into refined leather.

Since it was still early, she quickly listed all of them in the Exchange.

[Trader: Pioneer Bai Cheng]

[Item: Refined Leather ×2 (Remaining: 100)]

[Request: Any White Employee Card ×1]

There was no helping it. This stuff wasn’t just useless to Bai Cheng, it was also non-essential for most survivors.

Since refined leather wasn’t a necessity, she had to slightly decrease the price to ensure faster sales.

If she was selling scrap metal, she could have easily traded one-for-one.

"After trading, I should get fifty white employee cards," Bai Cheng muttered. "That should be enough, right?"

This way, she wouldn’t have to sell her other important supplies.

The survivors who had lasted this long weren’t fools. Most of them instantly guessed that her mass purchase of employee cards was related to her Talent.

And as a Pioneer, she was already a figure of great interest among the survivors.

The moment her offers were listed, they immediately became a hot topic among the crowd.

However, contrary to Bai Cheng’s expectations, sales weren’t as brisk as she had hoped.

Only every few minutes would a survivor occasionally trade for her refined leather.

Bai Cheng ignored the channel’s rampant speculation about her Talent, her eyes fixed solely on the trades.

"This is way too slow! It’s practically delaying my EXP grinding!"

But she also didn’t want to decrease the price further. If she ran short on employee cards, she’d have to sell her crucial supplies.

A glance to the side revealed that Yu Nian had listed a few more... unique offers.

However, they were even more outrageous this time. But when Bai Cheng saw what Yu Nian was asking for in return, her pupils shrank.

[Trader: Pioneer Yu Nian]

[Trading Items: Worn White Stockings ×1 / Strawberry Panties ×1]

[Request: Any White Employee Card ×3 / Any White Employee Card ×5]

"This..." Bai Cheng was at a loss for words.

She could roughly guess why Yu Nian was trading for employee cards. It was probably for her sake.

"But can this stuff really sell—"

Before she could finish her sentence, the trade offer in front of her vanished instantly.

Her jaw dropped in shock as the second half of her sentence slowly escaped her lips.

"—that fast?!"

"Seriously, dude!" Bai Cheng could hardly believe it. "Who the hell is buying this stuff?!"

Then, she suddenly remembered that she had once bought a pair of Yu Nian’s socks herself.

With stiff fingers, she clicked to list them for sale.

The next second, two white employee cards materialized and gently floated down before her.

"Ha..."

Now, Bai Cheng was completely and utterly convinced.

Just then, a message from Yu Nian popped up.

"Wahhhh~ Little Cheng, I went all out for you! I even wore a skirt, and now it’s so breezy down there! (Crying)"

Reading this, Bai Cheng felt a pang of guilt, until the next message revealed Yu Nian’s true colors.

"So, calling me ’Mommy’ isn’t too much to ask, right? (Playful)"

"..." Bai Cheng was speechless. However, considering that Yu Nian had done this for her, she sighed.

"Mommy."

"Hehe, mwah! I’ll be using that tonight!"

"???"

Yu Nian didn’t reply after that, actually going silent. Meanwhile, Bai Cheng received an email notification.

She clicked[Accept], and ten employee cards appeared.

"This girl..." A trace of surprise flickered in Bai Cheng’s eyes. "She didn’t even ask why I’m collecting these."

"I’ll make it up to her later," she murmured, silently upgrading the card in her hand.

[Blue Employee Card: 15/40]

"An increase of ten each time?" Bai Cheng’s gaze sharpened as she roughly discerned the pattern, but it also gave her a headache.

"Which means I still need about 80 more?!"

Gritting her teeth, Bai Cheng swore that she would recruit her second employee tonight, no matter what.

"Subtracting the remaining refined leather trades, I’m still short by thirty-two."

She glanced at the remaining iron ore in the iron chest. There were 33 pieces left.

"It’s enough!"

Without hesitation, Bai Cheng listed them all for sale.

As expected, iron ore sold far faster than refined leather. In less than a minute, they were all snatched up.

Now, all Bai Cheng had to do was to wait for the remaining refined leather to sell.

Finally, after an hour, all her trade offers were sold out.

Bai Cheng, who had been nodding off, immediately perked up and jumped down from the table.

"Second legendary employee—upgrade!"