C71: Lunch Under Steel Clang! Clang... Metal screamed in the dark. Yushan Station’s platform was lit up like a crime scene, harsh floodlights cutting through the night, throwing long shadows across the rails. The train sat there like a sleeping beast, and Seven was on top of it, welding armor plates into place as sparks rained down like orange snow. Every time the torch bit into steel, the whole world flashed. Every time the weld cooled, the air stank of burnt iron. Seven wiped sweat off his brow with the back of his glove, then stepped back to judge his work. Another plate sealed. Another weak point erased. He did not feel proud. Pride was for people who thought tomorrow was guaranteed. He just felt tired. And annoyed. Three more days. That was all they had before the extreme night swallowed the region. Once they left Yuchi and crossed Daluo Mountain, they would be skimming the border of Yu Bei, which meant one thing: things would get worse. That was how apocalypse geograp

C73: Steel Teeth, Silent City Clank. The substation gate groaned as Seven shoved it open, and the sound echoed inside the dead building like a warning bell in a graveyard. The air smelled like cold metal and old dust, the kind of place that had been abandoned so long even rats would not bother living here. A row of massive silver-gray machines stood neatly inside, lined up like obedient soldiers that never got the memo that the world ended. Capacitors. Big ones. The kind that used to keep cities alive. Now they were just sitting here, waiting for someone desperate enough to steal them. Seven’s eyes narrowed slightly as he walked deeper into the substation, boots crunching over frozen grit. Capacitors at a substation were meant to stabilize three-phase voltage, reduce imbalance, stop line loss, stop equipment damage, and generally keep the power grid from tearing itself apart. Which was exactly why Seven needed them. The Infinity was not some cozy shelter with a fireplace