Apocalypse Star House Hoarding-Chapter 254

The moment Yu Xi saw the girl, her mind froze for an instant. Then, without thinking, she stood up and left the compartment, heading toward Car 9.
She recognized that face.
But she couldn’t be sure.
After all, when she left that world, the girl had still been an ordinary person living in a fragment world.
And fragment worlds—like bugged dimensions—existed outside the System Tower’s detection range. The probability of a Tasker appearing there was extremely low.
Given all that, the odds of this girl becoming a Tasker were even slimmer.
So while Yu Xi instinctively moved to Car 9’s door, she didn’t fully believe it yet.
Until the pursuers screamed, “Yu Meixi!”
Same surname. Same character for “Xi.”
The girl looked just as she had when Yu Xi first saw her: eighteen or nineteen, with a youthful face and features uncannily similar to her own.
In the
Seven Layers of Hell
world, Yu Xi had once wondered if Yin Yin’s body might contain the soul of that little girl who once clung to her side, eyes filled with love and trust as she said, “Mommy protects the world, and I’ll protect Mommy.”
Yu Xi had known, deep down, that if the girl ever crossed into the Tower’s world, they might meet again.
But she’d never wanted that for her.
The missions were harsh, the survival odds low.
Yet that fragment world had been even worse—a tiny, crumbling world with no land, just endless sea. Living there forever? Alone? That wasn’t right either.
So what was better? Safety in isolation or freedom through peril?
Before she left, Yu Xi had repeatedly warned the girl to stay away from the boundary line, hoping she wouldn’t be trapped in that endless time loop.
Maybe she’d found a way out. Maybe she was here by choice.
If so… perhaps this was a good thing.
But it was all just guesswork.
Was this really her?
Yu Xi couldn’t be sure. And here, surrounded by the wary eyes of other passengers, was no place to ask.
Yet this girl wasn’t in a sleeper compartment. They might be separated at the next station, making another reunion almost impossible.
So when Yu Meixi staggered through the door, clutching the rocket launcher, Yu Xi didn’t hesitate.
“Want to team up?” she asked.
**
Yu Meixi had once been part of a team.
Her teammates? The same couple that had been chasing her just now.
They’d met upon arriving in the
Cretaceous Period
, a B-level zone swarming with predatory creatures. The man and woman had seen her shield ability and invited her into their team.
She’d needed help. Her weapons were weak, her shield’s energy finite. Alone, she was vulnerable.
So she accepted.
To stay safe, she’d lied—told them her shield was a one-time-use item that was almost depleted.
At first, they seemed convinced. They even offered to trade weapons for her “disposable shield.”
But Meixi knew better.
Her shield wasn’t a consumable. It was a bound weapon, stored in her “space” skill because its attack capabilities were too low to qualify as a proper weapon.
So she played the frightened rookie.
She stalled. She hesitated. She acted unsure.
Then, once they found the hidden station and the countdown to departure began, she slipped away in the dead of night, leaving the team and severing their connection.
She hadn’t expected them to take it so personally.
Ambushing her on the platform over a low-tier shield?
Of course, she knew the real reason.
They hadn’t just wanted her shield. They’d enjoyed the chase. The fear. The power.
In the end, they became tickets themselves.
As for the stranger who’d saved her…
Meixi didn’t know why she’d done it. A rocket launcher was an expensive favor to grant a stranger.
But here on the train, there was no combat between passengers. And once a team was formed, they couldn’t hurt each other.
So… why not?
She could always run later if things went south.
Blinking twice, she looked up with wide, grateful eyes. “Thank you for saving me. You really want to team up? But… I’m injured, and my gear’s ruined. Aren’t you worried I’ll slow you down?”
Her expression softened into one of vulnerability—a natural talent she’d learned to weaponize.
Yu Xi almost laughed.
The face. The tone. The act.
So familiar.
It took all her self-control not to pinch the girl’s cheeks right then and there.
Instead, she kept her expression cold. “Yeah. Let’s team up.”
Seconds later, Meixi’s phone buzzed with a notification.
New Team Member Added.
The next line made her freeze.
Previous Station: Cretaceous Period.
Destination: Not Yet Selected
Teammate Detected. Please Select Destination.
…
Unable to locate next station due to teammate’s station not yet refreshed. Please do not leave the train until the station refreshes.
Please go to Cars 10–12 and use your phone to bind a sleeper compartment.
Yu Meixi: ???
What… the hell?
Did she just board a pirate ship by mistake?
**
The compartment was spacious and sleek. The moment the door slid open, a wave of pungent, spicy aroma hit her in the face—Sichuan hot pot.
Near the window sat a man and a woman across from each other at a card table. Both were good-looking, their features sharp and refined.
The man’s face was clean and calm, his eyes reserved and steady. The woman had a cold, elegant aura, with bold, confident features.
When the woman saw Yu Meixi, her curiosity turned to open shock.
“Holy crap! No wonder you bolted out of here earlier!” she said—though it was directed at the short-haired woman beside her. Her tone made Meixi certain of one thing: this stranger recognized her.
Lin Wu, sitting across from the woman, didn’t know her. But Ya Tong had spent four years with her. Even if her face now looked like it had a permanent beauty filter, Ya Tong would’ve recognized her anywhere.
Yu Meixi hesitated. “You… know me?”
The short-haired woman didn’t answer. Instead, she pulled out a small bottle that looked like liquid foundation.
“For your wounds,” she said flatly.
Foundation… for wounds?
If they weren’t teammates now, Meixi might’ve bolted.
But when the blades were pulled from her flesh and the “foundation” was applied, the injuries sealed themselves at visible speed.
The woman put the bottle away, her expression as cool as ever, and gestured toward the black display panel by the door.
“Bind your bunk.”
Yu Meixi stared at her. The face was unfamiliar, but something about her presence didn’t feel foreign at all.
The thought that crossed her mind was so impossible she didn’t dare believe it.
She’d prepared herself to search endlessly—she’d been told that the
Endless Train
universe was vast, with countless worlds.
She’d thought it would take years.
But this was only her second station.
She was so distracted she barely remembered scanning her phone. Only when the black panel displayed her name did she snap back to reality.
Behind her, the woman’s voice sounded soft yet careful:
“Why did you choose the name ‘Yu Meixi’?”
Meixi’s gaze fixed on the glowing characters on the screen. She didn’t turn around.
“Because my mom was beautiful. Her name had the character ‘Xi’ too. I thought… if I used that name… maybe one day, in some corner of some world, if she heard it, she’d stop and turn around.”
The woman behind her sighed softly.
Then she spoke again, her voice breaking with emotion:
“…Zhenzhen. Come here and give me a hug.”
Yu Zhenzhen whipped around, eyes wide.
She didn’t trust easily. The train was full of trickery and traps.
What if someone was just pretending to be her?
But the moment she saw that familiar warmth in the woman’s eyes, she broke.
Who cared if it was a trick?
She’d searched so long.
Even if it was fake, she needed this hug.
She ran forward and threw herself into the woman’s arms.
Lin Wu, watching the emotional reunion, blinked in confusion. “Who is she?” he asked Ya Tong.
“Oh, that’s Xiao Xi’s daughter.”
Lin Wu: …??
**
For Yu Zhenzhen, her mother’s death had always been an open wound.
It had happened just after she married. The world wasn’t perfect, but under her mother’s guidance, they’d established a ship-based community and even built vessels that could weather the worst storms.
She’d thought those achievements meant her mother could finally slow down.
Instead, death had struck without warning.
Her mother’s body was found near the boundary line after a massive lightning storm. No one could explain how she died.
But Zhenzhen had never accepted it.
The answers were out there.
And they were tied to the boundary line—just like her mother had warned her about.
Ignoring those warnings, Zhenzhen left a letter to Chen Shengxin and prepared for the worst.
Even if she got trapped in that endless time loop…
She had to know the truth.
When she stepped across the boundary line, a massive lightning storm struck her. She thought she was going to die.
But when she woke up, she found herself on a sandy beach.
It wasn’t her world. It was a vast, complete world—one she had never seen before. Her shattered fragment world was gone. She’d made it out.
But there was no way back.
She lived in that world for several years. Then the apocalypse came. Strange black holes of varying sizes appeared in the air. During an escape, she was pulled into one of the holes.
When she woke up again, she was in a different world.
It’s hard to describe what kind of world it was—there was only one endless garden. At its center stood a silver-white tower. The person who lived in that tower saved her.
She still remembered the way that woman looked at her—gentle, like she was gazing through her face at a pleasant memory.
“You look just like an old friend of mine.”
Later, she learned that the “friend” that woman spoke of was Yu Xi.
“She said my situation was unusual,” Yu Meixi explained. “That my body had the ability to cross temporal boundaries on its own. That’s why I could even enter the ‘Inner Tower.'”
“You went to the Inner Tower?!”
Yu Xi wasn’t the only one shocked. Even Ya Tong and Lin Wu froze mid-bite.
“Yeah. That’s what she told me.”
“She?” Yu Xi already knew the answer. “Leng Mian?”
“Yeah—Aunt Mianmian. She said you’d guess it was her right away. She told me that the real you never died. The version of you that died in the fragment world was just a… projection of you. Like a duplicate. The core part of you left before the accident happened.”
Yu Meixi hesitated for a moment.
“She also said… you don’t have to worry about me. I’m not a Tasker. I never died. She just takes me along sometimes when she travels to mission worlds—taught me some survival skills, helped me get some basic gear.”
She gave a nervous shrug.
“This time… this train world is different. She didn’t want me to come in here. But I saw her messaging someone about you. And then…”
Her brows knitted.
“I don’t know exactly how I ended up here. After activating the Egg Fragment function, I recovered some memory. I remembered the name and the way I look now… but that’s all. I
think
this world might be a game, but… I don’t have enough information yet to be sure.”
The information left the group in stunned silence.
Before they could even begin to digest it, their phones vibrated simultaneously.
[Station Refreshed. Teammate Detected. Please Select Destination.]
Yu Xi:
Flann City (A-Level), Fairyland Park (S-Level), Whitebird Lake (B-Level).
Lin Wu:
Whitebird Lake (B-Level), Flann City (A-Level).
Ya Tong:
Fairyland Park (S-Level), Whitebird Lake (B-Level), Flann City (A-Level).
Yu Meixi:
Whitebird Lake (B-Level), Paradise Island (C-Level), Flann City (A-Level).
Yu Xi’s memory was sharp. She remembered seeing Whitebird Lake listed at the last station, but it had been an A-Level station then. Now it had dropped to B-Level.
More puzzling was that Yu Meixi had “Paradise Island” listed—except it was now a C-Level station. Just days ago, it had been obliterated.
“So the island’s already been reset,” Yu Xi murmured. “Like… after a system reboot.”
“Where to this time?” she asked aloud.
For the first time, all four of them had two identical stations listed.
“Obviously Whitebird Lake,” Ya Tong said with a laugh. “After dealing with that S-level nightmare, I’ll take the easier option.”
“Agreed,” Yu Xi said.
**
24 hours later.
This time, their phones didn’t display the usual puzzle hints. The station likely tested stamina.
The train slowed as it approached the platform. All twelve carriages opened their left-side doors simultaneously.
The number of disembarking passengers was relatively small. In Car 10, only Yu Xi’s four-person team and the ten-person squad from the neighboring compartments got up to leave.
Yu Xi recognized the leader of that group—Lu Yong. The so-called “Steelhead” from before had been part of his team. Lu Yong, however, had a clear, practical mind and clearly disapproved of his teammate’s previous antics.
[Reminder: Please leave the platform within 20 minutes.]
The notification made everyone pause.
Why so much extra time?
The doors slid open.
And then they saw it.
No dim lights. No cracked tiles.
The platform opened into an immense, deep-green maze of towering plant walls.