Leo stared in shock at the open topped hand powered pump wagon approaching from ahead.
If Leo was not seeing things wrong, the person on the wagon was a small boy around seven or eight years old.
The moment the child's wagon entered the station city, he began to look around with eyes full of fear.
He looked like he still did not fully understand the rules the system had mentioned.
At that moment, Leo saw a golden thread with a radius of five centimeters rising into the sky from above the child's head, but he ignored it because his mind was occupied with something else.
Leo's brows furrowed as he considered a terrifying possibility. After staring at the child for a few more seconds, he put on one of the system's latest technology coats and stepped outside without being affected by the cold.
When the child saw Leo, just like an ordinary child, he looked at him with a mix of hope and fear and did not move from his spot.
In order to avoid causing any misunderstanding, Leo kept his walking speed steady as he approached the child.
When Leo got close enough, he became certain that the boy really was a child. Until now, he had secretly been hoping that the boy had some kind of dwarf syndrome.
Leo realized a truth that was usually not mentioned in the survival apocalypse novels he had read.
The unknown being had included everyone in the apocalypse game without making any distinctions.
When Leo thought about the billions of starving children who would freeze to death within a few hours, he felt the urge to vomit for a moment.
After shaking his head and clearing those thoughts away, he turned his gaze back to the child who was still looking at him in fear.
"Hello. My name is Leo. I am a merchant stationed here."
There was no need for the child to explain what had happened to him. Leo looked at the child's sunken eyes and saw how he was clutching his stomach with one hand. The child was probably on the verge of starving to death.
Considering that a child's body burns more energy than an adult's, the child must truly have been at his limit.
The reason he was not crying despite his suffering was probably because his body could no longer produce tears.
"Alright then, it seems you're not going to talk huh? How about making a trade instead? You tell me your name, and I will give you food and warm tea." Without waiting, Leo slightly turned around and pointed toward his grocery store. "I have some really nice herbal teas inside, and it is warm too."
No matter how mature the child was, and even if he suspected that Leo might be a malicious organ trafficker, he could not actually refuse Leo's offer.
On top of that, Leo's striking and unusual appearance forced the child to assume that he was a good person.
Leo heard the child open his mouth and accept the offer in a whisper like voice. The child's whispering tone was probably not due to shyness, but because his throat was swollen from eating ice.
Trying not to show any expression, Leo told the child to follow him and turned around to walk away.
However, the child no longer had the energy even for that. After taking a few steps, he lost consciousness and fell face down onto the snow covered ground.
Even though snow had not fallen in the city all day, the ground was constantly covered in snow. The likely reason was to prevent players who arrived later from looting empty houses by following the footprints of earlier players.
Leo took off the coat he was wearing and, ignoring the cold air, wrapped it around the child before carrying him back to his grocery store.
Leo tried to wake the child for a while, but there were truly no signs of life in him. Only a slowly beating heart.
Leo already knew that all players could stay at the station for at most two hours, and since no one had ever tried to stay longer than that, he did not know what would happen to a player if the rule was broken.
For the first hour, Leo did everything he could to wake the child, but there were no signs of awakening at all.
After buying a syringe, instant soup, and protein powder from the system, he made a life saving mixture.
After feeding the child the "suspicious soup" using the syringe, Leo tried to wake him for another forty five minutes.
When the child still showed no signs of waking up, Leo sighed and began buying a large number of items from the system.
By the time 1200 system points were spent, Leo had enough raw materials to turn the beginner wagon into a level one mini steam train.
Leo could not use another player's system, so he struggled greatly while trying to load all the materials into the child's wagon.
Leo placed the unconscious child, wrapped in thick clothing, on top of the wagon that was filled with food and raw materials.
After looking at his work, Leo suddenly frowned.
"This was too kind even for me. At the very least, I should leave a note next to the kid so that after he wakes up, he praises me a bit every day in the channel 99 chat. Little bastard, I hope you earn me more than what I spent on you."
After finishing the short note, Leo looked at it and smiled, then used his physical strength to start pushing the child's wagon along the train tracks.
The moment the wagon left the city, a terrifying wave of cold air struck Leo's face.
When the smile on Leo's face was instantly wiped away by the cold slap hitting him, he pulled his head into his coat like a turtle retreating into its shell.
After returning to the grocery store, warming himself up, and asking the little dragon to praise him for a while, Leo smiled in satisfaction.
One second later, a grocery store silently vanished from the frozen train station that showed no signs of life.
Hours later, driven by survival instinct, the small boy who had been driving the wagon nonstop for twenty four hours opened his eyes. The lingering taste in his mouth made him instinctively swallow.
After sitting up and looking around, his attention was drawn to an energy bar that looked like chocolate beside him. After stuffing his stomach like a starving wolf for a while, he noticed the note Leo had left.
[From now on you are my bitch, brat! Every morning as soon as you wake up, enter the system chat tab and talk about me with praise. Also, I left you some tips to survive. Work hard, do not be lazy, and in the future surpass all stations and become an elite human. After becoming an elite human, come back and pay me the 80k Ice Train coins you owe me. This is the price of the things I gave you, do not forget!!! Do not worry, since you are a child I gave you a discount. Signed: the kind hearted merchant Leo. If you don't pay your debt :( ＾◡＾)っ✂╰⋃╯]