Apocalypse Star House Hoarding

Chapter 305

The glass treehouse terrace door was open. Since the space was small, no one used chairs; instead, they sat on the floor inside and outside the terrace, taking turns checking the golden team ticket and other messages on Yu Xi’s phone.

Awakening Level: 4

Gamified Duration: 180 seconds

Game Results:

Devoured Black Holes (7)

Devoured Snakes (8)

Devoured Dinosaurs (8)

Devoured UFOs (6)

Devoured Spheres (5)

Devoured Insects (9)…

Redemption:

Golden Reward (Unavailable)

Silver Reward (Unavailable)

Colorless Reward (Unavailable)

…

Golden Team Ticket: Can be used to board through the “VIP Train Entrance” (Use? Yes/No)

…

When Yu Xi clicked “Yes,” a pop-up appeared, stating that no hidden station had been detected yet and that the ticket could only be used after confirming the hidden station.

This was the second day of the Devourer species battle. Ya Tong, Lin Wu, and Yu Zhenzhen had rushed over as soon as they saw the vast area covered in blue-purple light from a distance.

The three of them were among the luckier travelers, as they were outside the battle zone. However, this was both an advantage and a disadvantage—they had avoided the chaos but also missed out on the opportunity to level up and earn substantial game rewards.

This game had significantly boosted Yu Xi’s stats, doubling both her Awakening Level and gamified duration.

The hidden reward had disappeared from the redemption list after being redeemed, indicating it was a one-time opportunity.

Similarly, Xing Min, who had also experienced the 30-minute regional alliance upgrade game, saw a substantial increase in his stats. However, unlike Yu Xi, his hidden reward was marked as “Activated” but “Unavailable for Redemption,” for reasons unknown.

“It might be because I redeemed other rewards midway,” Xing Min speculated. Fearing he wouldn’t survive the remaining time, he had used up all his available redemptions. After the light curtain disappeared, his other three rewards became redeemable again, but the hidden reward remained unavailable, unlike Yu Xi’s.

“This golden ticket is a team ticket, so technically, one is enough. If the golden train’s destination is the final stop, does that mean we can finally get out this time?”

Yu Zhenzhen remained optimistic. Having previously witnessed the luxurious golden train, she felt more joy than concern.

“Can we really leave so easily?” Yu Xi’s gaze fell on her personal information. “I’m still missing one Easter Egg fragment. Can I leave without piecing my memory together?”

Ya Tong had a different perspective. “The memory fragments are probably just hints. After all, when we first woke up at the stations or on the train, our minds were completely blank, with no idea of the situation. Without these memory fragments, we might have mistaken the stations along the Endless Train’s route for the real post-apocalyptic world. Now, at least, we have a goal—we know this is a mission world within a mission world. If we want to leave, we have to escape from the Endless Train world first.”

Lin Wu agreed with this reasoning.

Although their squad had six people, Yu Xi was the only one who fully understood that the true System Tower mission holders were only Ya Tong and Lin Wu.

Yu Zhenzhen and Xi Yuan had unique constitutions and had entered this world specifically to find her, while Xing Min had infiltrated through her, coming from another “system” entirely.

So when it came to mission-related insights, Yu Xi was willing to trust Ya Tong and Lin Wu’s judgment.

Thinking back, it made sense—if she hadn’t activated the Easter Egg fragments and regained lost memories, she wouldn’t have realized she was trapped in a nested world.

If she kept wandering between different stations of the Endless Train, she might never complete the true main world mission, meaning she would be stuck in this world forever, unable to return to her original one.

Yu Xi nodded. “Alright. The station has now reverted to A-level, but that doesn’t mean it won’t upgrade again or exceed the threshold under certain conditions. So our priority now isn’t entering the blue-light area for rewards or leveling up—it’s confirming the hidden station as soon as possible.”

Yu Zhenzhen spoke up. “I’ve already sent pictures related to the hidden station to the team chat. It’s already past 1 PM—anyone hungry? Let’s eat while we go over them. We can have the food we stocked up from Fairy Tale Park today!”

Yu Zhenzhen had been sitting close to the bar. As she spoke, she stood up and quickly laid out an array of food on the counter: jungle barbecue, layered peach blossom cake, bamboo-leaf chicken, nectar wine, thousand-fruit sweet tea, and spiritual vegetables from Flower-Fruit Mountain…

Then, she turned to Yu Xi and playfully asked for crispy blue-bone fish, magic spicy wings, and cloud-sweet pastries.

Xi Yuan: …

He seriously suspected she was doing this on purpose—just to watch him sit there, unable to eat anything.

The bar was small, but since Xi Yuan couldn’t eat, the five others could squeeze in just fine.

During lunch, Lin Wu asked about the situation in Center 350. They had actually arrived at Center 300 the night before, but both zones had remained in chaos until now. To prevent further rioters from storming Center 350, several shuttle stations had been locked down under strict security.

Lin Wu’s group had been stuck in Center 300, unable to proceed.

It wasn’t until the next morning, when the chaos subsided and the military in Center 350 began treating the wounded, assessing the damage to their mechanical forces, and preparing for citywide rescue operations, that Yu Xi used her internal military connections to secure permission for them to board a shuttle to Center 350.

Yu Xi’s treehouse was located in a botanical garden not far from the shuttle station.

Center 350 had many large-scale landscape parks. Even though the Devourers had destroyed a significant portion, the remaining areas were still vast enough to conceal her treehouse.

With all military personnel focused on rescue operations in residential and commercial areas, searching landscape parks wasn’t a priority.

Since Lin Wu’s group had arrived late, they didn’t fully understand the situation here—how severe the destruction was, whether the zones where political figures resided were heavily guarded, whether there were seven separate districts in Center 350, whether barriers existed between them, or if crossing districts required special permits.

As they were discussing their action plan, Xi Yuan, who had been analyzing the hidden station images instead of eating, suddenly let out a surprised “Huh?”

“What is it?” Yu Xi turned to him.

“I just overlaid the images and got this shape!” He rotated his tablet to show the others the result.

Xi Yuan had used transparency to layer the images on top of one another, aligning the original lines from each picture. It was just an experiment—but unexpectedly, it had worked.

“This is—” Yu Xi stared at the shape on the screen. It looked familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere before.

“Do you remember where we saw this?” Xi Yuan clearly knew but was prompting her to recall.

Yu Xi suddenly remembered. “Beehive Shopping Center!”

“Yes! The upper part of this marking belongs to Beehive Shopping Center, and the lower part—” Xi Yuan pointed to the screen. “Outsiders might not recognize it, but I do. My current native identity in this world is a truck driver for Beehive Shopping Center. This symbol represents the manufacturing mark of where this body was created.”

Yu Zhenzhen rested her chin on her hand and smiled at him. “Looks like your native identity this time wasn’t entirely useless after all!”

Ya Tong raised an objection. “But another clue about the hidden station pointed to the highest point of the city-state. This place is already the highest. How could a mechanical driver manufacturing site be located in the sky city?”

“This isn’t the highest point of the city-state,” Yu Xi suddenly interjected, gesturing toward several faintly visible buildings in the distance beyond the glass window. “Besides this mid-air zone, this station has several towering buildings that exceed the height of the sky city. We overlooked them at first because they aren’t residential areas.”

As soon as Yu Xi finished speaking, Xing Min used the projection function of his “Life Assistance Device” to display a 3D hologram of the tallest buildings in the city-state.

Comparing the structures in the 3D model, they identified three buildings of identical height—each reaching 450 meters, making them the tallest structures in the city-state.

These three buildings belonged to different companies. By matching the architectural markings with the symbols in their clues, they could determine which building housed the hidden station.

Xing Min zoomed in on the building with the corresponding symbol. “This is the factory building of the Beehive Shopping Center’s parent company. Because of the unique nature of this mid-air station, factories aren’t allowed in the floating zones. Many companies consolidate all their production facilities into a single building.”

“These factory towers are located at the city-state’s edge, built from the ground up to provide employment for the poorest residents living in the ground-level districts. Of course, many of them are fully automated. When the blue light first appeared, it engulfed two buildings with large human workforces, and those structures were later destroyed by the grown Devourer creatures, causing massive casualties.”

“After that, nearly all human-operated factories shut down. Because these buildings were in remote locations, the blue light never covered them again. As a result, the remaining factory towers remain intact. These buildings usually have between 70 and 90 floors, so even if we know which one contains the hidden station, it will take time to find it without guidance…”

“But now—” Xi Yuan took over before Xing Min could finish. The mechanical being, who had been sitting cross-legged, shifted positions, lazily propping his heavy mechanical head up with one arm. His two red electronic eyes blinked in succession.

Even though his robotic face couldn’t express emotions, the others could all clearly see a look that practically screamed, “Praise me, compliment me, worship me.”

Yu Zhenzhen couldn’t hold back. She tossed a bottle of machine oil into his lap. “Alright, just spill it already!”

Xi Yuan: …

He turned to Yu Xi. “Xiao Xi, she’s bullying me again…”

Yu Xi: …

A robot acting spoiled? She couldn’t deal with this.

**

Thanks to Xi Yuan’s identity as a native factory worker within the company, they pinpointed the exact floor of the Beehive Shopping Center’s robotic driver manufacturing workshop.

Not everyone needed to enter the building to confirm the station’s location. Xi Yuan posed as a returning repair unit while Yu Xi disguised herself as a shopping center employee. After passing inspection, they successfully entered the building and reached the robot manufacturing floor.

The entire workshop spanned the 43rd to 45th floors of the factory tower. Since the hidden station’s scan could detect within a 50-meter radius, they only needed to verify it from the 43rd floor.

Moments later, a message appeared on Yu Xi’s phone:

“Hidden departure station detected. Location recorded. Please arrive at the station within one hour before the countdown ends. Follow the phone’s prompts to enter.”

With the hidden station confirmed and the golden team ticket secured, the weight on everyone’s shoulders suddenly felt lighter.

For the remaining time, they no longer had to gather in crowded areas every night, hoping for the blue light to cover them so they could enter the game.

After experiencing the chaotic 30-minute battle against the Devourers, no one could predict whether the next densely populated zone would trigger a standard 10-minute game, a 30-minute upgraded challenge, or something even more terrifying.

After discussing their options, they decided to stay near the Beehive factory tower in the ground-level area.

This district had become a lawless zone—aside from occasional military supply deliveries, it was in complete disorder.

Hospitals had shut down, schools were closed, and the police no longer maintained order. In some cases, they even used weapons to seize more resources for themselves. Day or night, gunfire and small explosions could be heard, even without the presence of the blue light.

For safety, the team decided to deploy their treehouse and squeeze inside for shelter.

To accommodate all six of them comfortably, Yu Xi retracted the two single beds, one double bed, and several scattered bedside tables. Instead, she laid out the tent’s built-in ground mats and moisture-resistant pads, creating three sleeping areas separated by fabric dividers.

She then took out five sleeping bags, distributing them to everyone except Xi Yuan. Each night, aside from the one on watch duty, the others could choose their own rest area—after all, they were all using their own sleeping bags, so any of the three ground mats would do.

Once the new treehouse setup was complete, Yu Xi tested retracting and redeploying it. Since this was her first time modifying the interior furniture, she wanted to ensure it wouldn’t affect its normal function.

The test was successful. Any items inside the treehouse were recognized as part of it and would shrink along with it when it reverted into a compact pendant.

During the following days, the team occasionally split up—some ventured to the mid-air areas to scavenge for supplies, while others remained behind to guard the treehouse. When a populated zone was detected nearby, they discussed who would go to that area to wait for the blue light and continue collecting rewards.

However, the massive 30-minute purple-blue light curtain they had seen before never appeared again.

Yu Xi told her teammates about Meng Sha, and they all had a feeling that the station upgrade and the large-scale light curtain might be linked to her. But what was her goal?

As for Luo An, who had now appeared at three different stations, Yu Zhenzhen and Ya Tong speculated that he might just be an NPC. If the station natives were NPCs, it wasn’t unusual for them to look similar.

Just like in the games Yu Zhenzhen used to play in her original world, where NPCs were often mass-produced from the same template.

However, Yu Xi couldn’t shake an odd feeling. Something about it didn’t sit right with her—but without enough information to piece it together, she couldn’t put it into words yet.

As the countdown entered its final hour, the six of them followed the screen’s instructions and successfully entered the station.

The moment they stepped into the departure hall, Xi Yuan’s body underwent a transformation. His mechanical exterior faded away, revealing his true form.

He looked down at his hands, let out a long sigh of relief, and muttered, “After all this time jumping between stations, this has got to be the most ridiculous native identity I’ve had.”

Yu Xi pulled out her phone and clicked “Use Golden Team Ticket.”

At the same moment, an identical notification popped up on all six of their screens:

“Welcome to the Golden Team Ticket. Morning Squad members, please proceed to the second floor of the departure hall to enter the Golden Train waiting area. Note: All fighting is strictly prohibited in the Golden Train waiting area and platform! Violators will have their Golden Team Ticket revoked.”

The six of them turned their heads toward the staircase leading to the second floor of the departure hall.