
by Raven_Aelwood
Lin Rui spent more time exploring virtual worlds than the city outside his cybercafé. He always intended to travel eventually. Then the world ended, and “eventually” went with it. After surviving the first outbreak, Rui awakens Modification, an ability that can rebuild machinery around one permanently chosen keystone. Most sensible people would choose a truck. Rui walks across a monster-infested Harbin, finds a diesel locomotive, and bonds with that instead. The choice evolves his power into Waywright. His train can level. It can absorb new carriages, convert salvaged machinery into armour, and grow into a mobile fortress. It still needs fuel, materials, intact rails, and someone who actually knows how to drive it. Rui’s plan is simple: cross Eurasia and see the Atlantic before the apocalypse kills him. Nadezhda Volskaya has a different destination. The pampered daughter of a European billionaire, Nadia wants passage to her father’s private bunker in Switzerland. Her combat Calling makes her the deadliest person aboard, while Rui’s apparent laziness, terrible clothes, and complete absence of ambition make him almost intolerable. Almost. As Elsewhere travels west, they are made to face the realities of their new existence and come to understand that the journey might not be as straightforward as they had initially expected. Mobile-base progression Looting, salvage, fuel, water, and supply pressure Train and carriage upgrades Creative non-offensive powers used dangerously Competent direct-combat female lead Natural slow-burn romance Majority single male POV No harem No chosen bloodline Planned standalone conclusion Cool Trains
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 4 Oct 2026, 03:48 UTC
Entry forecast updated 4 Oct 2026, 03:48 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Not enough recent follower history to estimate a shadow rank yet.
beats 97% of similar stories
not enough data yet
beats 24% of similar stories
Hidden gem — exposure is the bottleneck
Readers who find this story follow it at a high rate; there just aren't enough of them. In our cohort data, near-daily posting lifted the odds of reaching 25 followers from ~0% to 17% — more chapters, shoutout swaps and ads buy the eyeballs this conversion deserves.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 5–9 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views lifetime.
Promoted by