Black Coin

[Chapter 3: The Blueprint of Insanity]

[Chapter 3: The Blueprint of Insanity]

Krr-chk... Zzzzt.

Seven sat in the dark, his fingers slowly turning the dial of an old battery-operated radio. The red indicator light was the only star in his personal universe.

The static cleared, replaced by voices. Desperate, terrified, human voices.

"Jiang City Command: All western monitoring stations are offline. The darkness is spreading. Flee East! I repeat, abandon the city!"

Click.

Seven tuned to the next frequency.

"This is the [Oasis] Convoy. Boss Liu is moving out at 16:00. We want strong men. No kids. No elderly. Women? Only if you’re useful. If you have guns, you get a seat. If you’re a leech, rot here."

Click.

"Mingwang Block A. I have food. I have water. I’m looking for a roommate. Female only. Must be under 30 and pretty. Send a photo to..."

Click.

"Repent! The Savior God Ananda is here! The darkness is a cleansing fire! Bring us your food and your virgin daughters, and the Jile Sect will grant you salvation!"

Seven’s expression didn't change. He listened to the collapse of civilization with the detachment of a coroner examining a corpse.

"Warlords, perverts, and cults," Seven whispered. "The trifecta of the apocalypse."

Click.

"It’s over! Hahaha! I calculated it! The physics... it doesn't make sense! The next Extreme Night isn't ending! Five days! We have five days before the sun turns off forever! Hahaha!"

Snap.

Seven turned the radio off. The maniacal laughter of the scientist cut out instantly.

Silence rushed back into the room, heavy and suffocating.

"Twenty-one days," Seven mused, tapping his finger on the table. Tap. Tap.

According to Lin Xian’s memories, the first "Extreme Night" had lasted three weeks. It turned a city of millions into a graveyard. Now, the next one was coming. And this time, the sun might not come back.

"My supplies won't last forever. And this apartment is just a coffin with a view."

He pulled out his smartphone. The battery was at 12%, but the local offline cache still worked. He opened a forum thread Lin Xian had posted days before the internet died.

[ TOPIC: UNLIMITED TRAIN RECRUITMENT PLAN ]

[ GOAL: BUILD A HEAVY ARMORED FORTRESS TRAIN. ]

[ ROUTE: 320,000 KM STAR ORBITAL TRACK. ]

Seven scrolled down. The replies were a wall of mockery.

User88: "Lay off the sci-fi movies, bro. Snowpiercer isn't a documentary."

Mechanic_Joe: "No power grid = no electric trains. And if you use diesel? A heavy train drinks 50 liters an hour. You got a gas station in your pocket?"

Realist: "One broken track and you're dead. Stick to an SUV, idiot."

Doomsday_Prepper: "Dreams are nice, kid. A moving iron fortress sounds cool, but physics is a bitch. You can't just wish a train into existence."

Seven read the comments, a cold smirk touching his lips.

"They're right," he thought. "For a normal human, this plan is insanity. Without electricity, without resources, it's just a fantasy."

But Lin Xian hadn't known about the Mechanical Heart.

Seven looked down at his chest. He could feel the black coin humming against his ribs.

Lin Xian had the vision, but he lacked the power. Seven had the power.

He closed his eyes, visualizing the blueprint.

Living carriages. Hydroponic farms. Armories. Factories. A nuclear reactor engine.

A steel leviathan charging through the eternal night, crushing the undead beneath wheels of reinforced alloy.

"It's not a fantasy," Seven whispered to the empty room. "It's the only way out."

He refreshed the page one last time.

No new messages.

The network was dead. The power grid was shattered. The trolls who mocked this plan were likely already dead, eaten by the things that crawled in the dark.

Seven tossed the phone onto the couch. Thud.

Outside the alloy shutters, the wind howled through the skyscrapers. There were no more voices on the radio. No more signals from the outside world.

Except for the low, guttural breathing of the monsters hunting in the streets, the entire city of Jiang City had fallen into a deathly, absolute silence.