The moment she opened the staff room door and stepped out, Aria's silhouette appeared behind the transparent ticket counter.
Her appearance immediately drew the attention of the three strangers at the far end of the waiting area.
Their eyes, long closed, snapped open with a predatory sharpness, watching as if the prey had finally come within reach.
Interesting, Aria thought. A smile curving her lips and her golden eyes twinkling, as she appeared before them, tipping her hat and bowing nearly ninety degrees, like a perfect clown in a circus.
"Welcome to the Heavenly Train Station, my dear passengers. Are you here for a casual ride, or perhaps for a marvelous journey with us?"
The three men, already on guard, were too stunned to speak.
Their jaws hung slightly open, each thinking the same thing—what a strange person!
Dressed in pink and greeting them like this in a reality torn by apocalypse.
Isn't it a bit ridiculous?
The three men, searching for a place to stay for the night away from the mutant monsters while waiting for their Captain, stumbled upon a building bathed in light, something truly unbelievable.
Who would still have the luxury of full electricity in this world?
Driven by curiosity and cautious hearts, they stepped into the building, and were shocked to see a fully working escalator, with no one in sight to operate it.
Lights glowed everywhere, as if the three men had stepped back into a peaceful era.
The entire station looked like a normally functioning metropolitan train hub.
Yet, aside from the absence of train activity, it was completely free of any trace of human presence.
They even wondered if they were dead or merely hallucinating, but to their surprise, hours passed and they were still in the same place.
In the end, wanting to understand what was happening to this place, they decided to wait until morning.
Then it jolted them awake with the train-opening announcement, delivered by a female operator's voice that sounded distinctly artificial.
From that moment, their guard heightened, and they dared not relax.
They even caught a glimpse of someone inside the ticket booth and realized there were people here.
At first, they considered forcing their way in, but then decided to stay low-key, the person inside would come out on their own.
However, their expectations were shattered, for before them stood a young woman who seemed almost otherworldly.
Who could appear so spotless, her colorful clothes pristine and fragrant? Moreover, a young woman this breathtakingly beautiful in these doomsday years could hardly be ordinary. She must be under the protection of an incredibly powerful man.
Later, when they looked around and saw no one accompanying her, their shock only deepened.
"Hello, Miss. I'm Gilbert Santolan, vice captain of Base 10's Squad C Ability User Team. These are my friends, Vincent and Jimmy. May I ask who you are, Miss? And perhaps… what is this place?" The tallest of the three men stepped forward, speaking with casual friendliness as he introduced himself, his eyes scanning the surroundings.
"I am Aria, the stationmaster. I am the owner of this train station." "Aria simply replied politely, offering another smile, without hesitation or any hint of hostility upon learning their identities as ability users.
She have noticed the three men were probably in their mid-twenties.
They were bruised, with bloody cuts and bandages. Their clothes were worn-out from five years ago, kept only half-decent by their efforts to clean and maintain them.
A vice captain from Base 10, Squad C. That rang a bell in her head, and she remembered that in this story she had written that many bases were able to survive the apocalypse.
One of the target male leads in the novel had originally come from Base 10 as well before moving to the main base where the heroine was.
Speaking of the novel's main characters in this world, Aria hadn't had a chance to recall them since yesterday, so she had decided to check on them later.
"May we ask then, Miss Aria… is this place your ability?" Vincent asked, eyeing her as though she were the cause of their ruined world.
"I am the stationmaster. As for an ability like yours, I don't have one, but you could say I am the owner of this place."
"Stationmaster?" Vincent repeated, still not understanding what that meant. "I don't remember there being a train station in this city before. We've searched this place for supplies, Vice Captain."
Gilbert could understand his teammates' doubts. He, too, didn't remember any train station near the beach, despite having grown up in this city before the apocalypse.
But looking at the young woman in front of them, surely this Miss Aria wasn't ordinary, standing unscathed like this.
They would have to investigate first, and then report back to their captain later.
"We would like to know more about this place, Miss Aria." Gilbert began, nodding toward the others, who silently conveyed the same thought through their eyes.
"Absolutely. No problem. Let me guide you, come here to the ticket attendant." Aria led them forward, they soon found themselves in front of the ticket booth.
Samantha was already sitting in front of the computer system, straining to understand how to use it.
"Here is my ticket attendant, Samantha will collect your payments for the train ticket."
"Really? Does the train here even work?" Vincent commented casually, unwilling to believe such a ridiculous idea.
"Yes, we have trains that are working, and they're on the other side of the platform." Aria answered. She then went inside the cashier booth to teach Samantha how to process payments and generate tickets.
"Miss Aria, we don't have paper money anymore to buy a ticket, and what's the station for the train? I don't see the station map you have available aside from this… Wishing Stop Station?" Gilbert asked, his eyes fixed on the small board showing the station map, which displayed only a single train stop.
"For your payment to buy a ticket card, anything you deem valuable can be used. You may exchange it with my ticket attendant here using the equivalent exchange identifier. Simply hand over the valuable items, and the attendant will determine their value and issue your card based on that amount." Aria explained, taking out her own train card marked with the pink logo of the Heavenly Train Station, showing it as an example of the train card ticket.
Fluff Ball had already explained to her inwardly that people without specialized premium ticket cards could still buy their own tickets, depending on the valuable items they offered and what the system would accept.
This was also how the train station would earn and continue to upgrade.
"But don't train stations have destinations? We're only seeing this Wishing stop, and nothing else." Vincent said in confusion.
Beside him, Gilbert had already handed Samantha a gold necklace he had been wearing since his high school days.
Samantha received the item and placed it on a square-shaped metal plate with a digital feature. Instantly, the number on the screen jumped from 0 to 3000 silver credits.