Tod visited I-3 in his humanoid avatar. It’s a large, medium density mixed residential and industrial district. The city, conveniently divided into 100 ‘blocks or sectors’ (A - J x 1 - 10) are each home to at least 50,000, the largest of them home to about 300,000.

I-3, is home to about 110,000, and the yellow line’s ridership of 5,000 in this sector represented a 1-3% takeup among the population, depending on the assumptions of whether a passenger makes return trips, or more than that. It's a very low ridership, evidenced by the fact that the yellow line is only connected to two other sectors. I-3, on local maps, is referred to Falltown, thanks to the overwhelming presence of trees that change color every fall.

A small stall shouted. "Ice cream, ice cream! We have flavored ice cream!"

Tod's tummy grumbled. He bought one. Vanilla, because he's vanilla like that. There was an area next to the stall with chairs. He sat and slowly enjoyed his ice cream.

He smiled, licking the ice cream slowly. This world was so much like his own world so many other reincarnations ago. Tod was originally human, and then was a god's plaything where he, through multiple lives, became dungeon cores in different fantasy worlds, constantly killing, fighting, defending his core. And finally, after about... a hundred or so years, that god was finally done abusing him, and let him go free, that he can go do whatever he wanted.

But, he will still be a dungeon core. “Treat it like a holiday, a vacation!” Tod still remembered the words of that stupid god, yet he agreed that he needed a vacation.

He’s tired. Tired of all the fighting and killing, so Tod chose this world. One very much like his own home, earth, but not. One where he... could avoid having to fight and kill monsters.

"Vanilla." Tasty. So very tasty. Even simple stuff like takeout or pizza delivery was just so good. "Oh man I sure missed how good vanilla ice cream tasted."

There was a small bus stop at the corner. He looked at it and noticed a set of data appeared.

[Small bus stop. Daily patronage : 1,400. Bus services available : 4]

“Huh. Even a bus stop has a quarter of my daily ridership.” Tod nodded. He asked for his original world’s memories to be returned to him after one of the dungeon-core worlds, as a reward. He asked that god to ‘preserve’ that memory, so that he would never forget where he came from.

Tod was once a middle-aged office worker, and his daily life involved struggling with commutes. That meant unreliable bus services, trains that broke down, unpleasant public transit passengers. Traffic. Stupid politics.

A girl sat on the next bench. She had an ice cream too. Strawberry. She noticed Tod’s eyes. “What are you looking at? Can’t I eat my ice cream?”

Tod shook his head. “Oh nothing.”

Here? In this world of Metropolis, he’s a transit-dungeon core, a transportation company in the form of one. This body, is just his ‘avatar’ so to speak, after all, there must be ‘free roam’ or ‘camera view’ options in such types of game.

He ate his ice cream. A few kids went on a bus that stopped. He could faintly make out a beep as they pass the driver. A touchcard of some kind?

“Anyone tried out the new Yellow line service?” There was a queue at the air cream stall, and the mention of Tod’s trains instantly made him turn. He’s got a knack for eavesdropping.

“I did. Wasn’t convenient though, there’s only 3 stations, and the trains were way too empty. It felt overbuilt.”

“Sounds like somebody’s pockets got greased again. Hopefully no taxpayer money was lost.”

“Heh.” The two men sniggered at some kind of political joke that Tod didn’t quite get.

But that was valuable information. The services he had was too big? Or did he put too many trains in service?

6 trains for 3 stations, that meant, there’s always one train per station, per direction. Was that too many for such a short trip?