Sitting opposite Qingchen, Xiaomengqian's eyes were bright, full of anticipation.
At this moment, Kyung-jun also laughed: "That sounds quite interesting. A life without desires is something everyone pursues, but not everyone can achieve it."
Qing Chen suddenly asked, "Qing Zhun, have you heard of Whale Island? There's only one sentence about it in Hu's intelligence agency, nothing else."
“The forbidden item ACE-013 Whale Island?” Kyung Jun pondered. “Within the Kyung family, there is only one short story recorded about Whale Island.”
"Even the Qing Clan doesn't have any information about the conditions for containment? What stories are recorded within the Qing Clan?" Qing Chen was taken aback.
"When it was discovered, the Forbidden Sea wasn't yet a Forbidden Sea; there was trade at sea," Qingzhun said. "The crew that first discovered Whale Island had been sailing that route for decades. One day, while they were at sea, there was nothing in front of the ship, and the view was extremely vast. Suddenly, a huge mountain range appeared in the sea, blocking the ship's path. Caught off guard, the ship crashed into the mountain and was destroyed. All 127 people on board escaped to Whale Island."
Qing Chen pondered, "An island that sailors who have traveled this route for decades have never seen before..."
Kyung-jun continued, "Later, the crew lived on Whale Island for a while. They said that the island was incredibly rich and fertile. If a grape seed fell to the ground, it would grow into a vine the next day and grapes in seven days. Crabs would swarm up the edge of the island and gnaw on the moss on the rocks, so it would be hard for the crew to starve. There were springs on the island, and the water that flowed from them was extremely sweet."
Kyung-jun: "At that time, the Federation also had satellites, but the search and rescue team still couldn't find the ship. The crew's communication equipment fell into the water and they couldn't call for help. Later, the crew got tired of the island's rich but unentertaining life, so they cut down trees to build a raft, but the raft suddenly turned into dust as soon as it left the island. It wasn't until a year later that they saw the coastline on the island, so they jumped into the sea and swam to shore."
Kyung-jun: "A crew member recounted that the island was so large that they walked for ten days and ten nights without reaching the end. Interestingly, shortly after they discovered the island, the Federation encountered the skeleton of a giant whale on the seabed... which is the origin of the Forbidden Sea. Therefore, some within the Federation suspect that the island may very well be the forbidden substance excreted by the giant whale."
"Wait, can non-human creatures also release forbidden substances?" Qing Chen asked.
“Of course,” Qingzhun laughed. “For example, the forbidden item ACE-021 ‘Bull-patterned Horn’ was extracted from a divine bull near the fire pit. It is currently in the hands of the Fire Pit Elder and is said to be able to stimulate the adrenaline of the entire population. The containment conditions are rather strange; you have to drink two ounces of liquor every day, any kind of liquor will do.”
"Didn't the Federation search for the forbidden ACE-013 Whale Island later?" Qing Chen asked.
He was very curious as to why the Bystander Organization, led by Zheng Yuandong, had no presence in the Federation, yet possessed forbidden items such as the ACE-004 Eye of True Sight and the ACE-013 Whale Island.
How many members are there in the Bystanders, and what kind of power do they wield?
Among the bystanders, are there any wizards, or perhaps Zheng Yuandong possesses even more formidable abilities besides his unparalleled swordsmanship?
"We searched for it; we even deployed a fleet," Qingzhun laughed. "But no one could find it. Whale Island seemed to have vanished into thin air; it kept moving. Later, others tried to find it, but the Forbidden Sea appeared, and the sea routes were cut off. By the way, why did you suddenly ask about it, boss?"
"It's nothing," Qingchen shook his head. "Don't ask questions you shouldn't ask."
Kyung Joon: "..."
Yangyang felt a deep respect for Qingchen.
Chapter 597, Passengers and Ticket Sellers
Yangyang observed for a while and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that Qingzhun was not angry.
She quickly took out two tangerines from her backpack, peeled them, and handed them to Qingzhun: "Here, have some."
Kyung Joon glanced at her and said, "Thank you."
A short while later, the steam train disappeared back into nothingness.
Kyung-jun asked in the darkness, "Are we approaching the next stop?"
Qing Chen chuckled and said, "In the winter timetable of the steam train, some stations are closer together. It's different in spring, summer and autumn. In autumn, there is sometimes only one station every two days."
As the steam train burst out of the void once more, Qingchen immediately rushed to the window, peering outside to see if any other passengers were on board.
Unfortunately, no.
He muttered to himself, "I was thinking of collecting admission fees, but there's no one here."
Kyung-joon's eye twitched. He'd even managed to fleece something forbidden!
Slightly disappointed, Qingchen took out a deck of cards, a large bag of sunflower seeds and peanuts, and even four bottles of soda from his hiking bag.
Kyung-jun was a little angry: "Is this all you made me memorize? I should have just thrown it away!"
Qing Chen calmly said, "Take it easy, take it easy. When you travel by train, you should play cards and eat sunflower seeds with your friends. Otherwise, the trip is just not complete!"
Kyung-jun is from the Otherworld; he is unaware of the aspirations some people in the Outer World have for trains.
When Qingchen was a child, what he wanted to ride most was a green train, and then chat, brag and play cards with a bunch of friends on the train, traveling for several days, from the east to the west, from the south to the north.
Unfortunately, he couldn't afford a train ticket and didn't have many friends.
...
...
In the wilderness, four young people, each carrying a backpack, stood waiting.
Two men and two women.
One of them whispered, "When we go to the school established by Kunlun this time, let's start an adventure club. I heard that many rich kids want to find guides for the Otherworld. We can charge membership fees."
Another young man frowned: "I don't like starting an organization. You have to be responsible for a lot of people, and it's easy to have bad teammates on the journey. We resell items from the Otherworld now and exchange them for gold bars to bring into the Otherworld for travel expenses. This self-sufficient closed loop is good. I don't want to bring in new people."
“Yi Wenbo, one day things from the Otherworld will become worthless,” a girl said. “The Hu Group has recently started researching cosmetics and health products from the Otherworld, and they’ve reportedly made a breakthrough. When that happens, everything we can bring back will gradually become worthless.”
The reason why things in the inner world are valuable is precisely because they are so rare in the outer world.
But once the surface world can also produce those "import and export trade" goods, the time travelers who are currently enjoying life will have to find another way out.
Yi Wenbo stopped objecting after hearing this: "Let's find out more about the situation first. We've only been at school for less than a day... By the way, next time we come back, I'd like to explore that island on foot. Xiaoyu, Ma Jingjing, Li Mengyun, would you like to come along?"
“Let’s go together!” Ma Jingjing laughed. “It’s so interesting to think about. I heard there’s a large area on the south side of the island, and some mysterious areas hidden in the forest that Kunlun doesn’t allow passage to. By the way, we didn’t know the school was on an island before. Next time we go home, we’ll have to bring back a set of diving equipment. I saw that there are shallows on the island, so we can go swimming and catch some lobsters to eat.”
Among the Time Travelers, not everyone lives each day as frantically as Qing Chen.
Just as some people enjoy exploring maps in single-player games, while others play the same hero thousands of times in MOBA games, success does not necessarily equate to happiness.
Just then, a steam whistle sounded across the wilderness, and a steam train emerged from nothingness.
“It’s here! We finally managed to get information about this forbidden object. We can finally experience what it’s like to travel on a forbidden object,” Yi Wenbo’s eyes lit up. “Take out all the gold coins.”
However, after the steam train came to a stop, the four time travelers stood there in a daze.
They saw a boy standing at the carriage door, smiling at them: "Take out all the gold coins."
Yi Wenbo: "???"
What puzzled them was that there were four or five strips of white paper stuck to the boy's forehead, making it look as strange as the tongues of the Black and White Impermanence.
This strange attire has an intimidating effect.
Ma Jingjing looked at the boy and asked hesitantly, "Who are you?"
The boy said, "I am the ticket seller of the forbidden ACE-012 steam train. Everyone can get on the train by giving me their gold coins."
Ma Jingjing asked doubtfully, "Wenbo, did the intelligence you bought from the black market mention anything about ticket sellers on steam trains?"
“No…no,” Yi Wenbo said, puzzled.
The boy said with a smile, "Hurry up and give me the gold coins. The steam train will only stop for ten minutes. If you don't get on now, it will be too late."
Yi Wenbo and the others handed over the gold coins with some skepticism, and then boarded the vehicle one after another.
Just then, a little boy in the back of the carriage shouted, "Boss, what are you busy with? It's your turn to play your card!"
The boy smiled apologetically at the four young men: "Sorry, I'll be going now. Please make yourselves at home!"
With that, the boy sat back in the last carriage and tossed a gold coin into it.
Collect four coins and throw one away; this is to prevent the steam train from stopping in the future.
You can't go to extremes.
After finishing this task, the boy returned to continue playing cards: "A pair of twos! Nobody wants them, right? You guys don't have any bombs left, straights, full houses!"
Kyung-joon: "Keep it in mind, hehe, we're just waiting for the plane you have."
Two card-counting masters, both masters of their craft, are fiercely battling it out on the card table, putting all their mental energy into it.
Qing Chen's mind is indeed a bit sharper than Qing Zhun's, but the variety of playing cards is too limited, which restricts Qing Chen's performance.
If there are 540 cards, then Qingchen will probably be the one to win in the end.
But if there are 54 cards, and the two players are evenly matched in terms of calculation ability, it ultimately comes down to luck.
Yi Wenbo and Ma Jingjing looked at each other in bewilderment.
So the note stuck to the other person's forehead was because they lost the game!
What the hell are ticket sellers? Aren't they passengers just like them?!
Of the four tickets, only one was given to the steam train. How can there be a middleman making a profit?!
Yi Wenbo cautiously walked over and interrupted the card game: "Hello, excuse me... you are also passengers, right? Why are you taking our coins? If we don't put our coins in the last carriage, we won't be able to get off the train, will we?"
Qingchen laughed and said, "Don't worry, just call me when you get to your stop and I'll open the door for you. Go find a place to sit and rest for a bit. By the way... where are you headed?"
Yi Wenbo was immediately flustered. After thinking for a moment, he said, "We'll just take a look around, we don't have a destination."
Actually, they went to explore forbidden lands. This time, they acquired not only information about the steam train, but also the rules of two forbidden lands.
However, he certainly couldn't tell Qingchen this secret.
Ma Jingjing tugged at Yi Wenbo's sleeve and whispered, "Anyway, we still have a long time before we reach our destination. Let's observe them first. The Inner World is full of hidden talents. If they are really powerful, losing four gold coins in the wilderness is better than losing four lives."
Yi Wenbo nodded and silently retreated to another carriage.
Qing Chen chuckled as he shuffled the cards, whispering, "They're four Time Travelers. Interesting."
Yangyang glanced at them and asked, "Could they be classmates from the new school?"
"Judging from their age, they could be upperclassmen or upperclasswomen," Qingchen said.
Yangyang muttered, "I can't go to school yet. There are still things to take care of in Haicheng. The travelers spend a lot of time in the wilderness where the people live."
"Did Kunlun approve your leave request?" Qingchen asked curiously.
"Anyway, they can't catch me."
Chapter 598, The Lost Century
"In this world, there are four levels of efficiency in making money."
“The slowest way to make money is by relying on your own unique skills,” Kyung-jun said while dealing cards. “Whether you’re collecting tickets on a steam train, have superb gambling skills, make particularly delicious steamed buns, or write excellent novels, the speed at which you make money is only third-rate. This is called making money by relying on yourself.”
Qing Chen asked, "Then what is second-rate?"
Kyung Joon said, "A business model is a way to make money by creating a scalable business model and then selling it to others, such as through franchising or collecting dividends. That's called making money by relying on others."