The carriage went quiet for several seconds.
Thirty-odd girls all turned to look at the card in Meng Wanqing's hand. Rainbow light flickered faintly in the dim carriage.
Zhou Wei walked over.
She took the card from Meng Wanqing, turned it over to glance at the back, then flipped it front again and rubbed a finger across the texture on the surface.
It felt strange, neither paper nor plastic, with a faint warmth to it.
"Awakening Card - use it to activate the holder's talent. Grade is random," Zhou Wei read aloud, then lifted her head and swept her gaze around the carriage.
More than thirty naked girls were staring at her, some tense, some curious.
"There's only one in the whole carriage," Meng Wanqing added in a low voice.
"One? Just one??" Lin Shiyu was squatting on the floor, both arms wrapped around her knees, her round face full of disbelief. "Thirty-plus people and only one card? Who's it supposed to go to?"
The question hung there, and the atmosphere in the carriage turned subtle and tense.
The girls looked at one another, but no one spoke first.
Zhou Wei lowered her eyes to the card in her hand, then looked across everyone again.
At last, her gaze settled on Lu Yuan.
"My idea is to let Lu Yuan use this card."
As soon as she said it, the carriage did not immediately explode into noise. Instead, it fell silent for a beat.
"The reason is simple," Zhou Wei said evenly.
"First, we'll be at the station in an hour and a half. We don't have any equipment, not even clothes. Once we arrive, we may face danger. Lu Yuan is the only boy here, and his physical condition is stronger than all of ours. Giving the Awakening Card to him will bring the greatest benefit."
She paused.
"Second, you all heard the breeding protocol just now."
That line made several girls blush again.
"No matter what everyone thinks, one fact is right in front of us: if that protocol is real, then Lu Yuan getting stronger will benefit everyone."
When Zhou Wei finished, she raised the card a little. "Anyone object?"
No one in the carriage made a sound.
A few girls lowered their heads, their ears red, and no one knew whether it was because of the Awakening Card or the breeding protocol.
Lin Shiyu opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end she closed it again and only stole a glance at Lu Yuan.
Gu Siyu stood in the middle of the carriage with her arms crossed. She wasn't wearing anything either, but she still had a kind of presence about her.
"I don't have any objections."
Su Yao said nothing. She kept her head down, long hair falling forward to cover most of her face.
No one objected.
Zhou Wei nodded, turned, and walked over to Lu Yuan, handing him the card.
"Take it."
Lu Yuan accepted it. The instant it touched his hand, the warmth spread from his fingertips into his palm, and then he felt a faint vibration travel up his arm and straight into his brain.
Very light, but very clear.
He looked down at the card and asked, "How do I use it?"
The second he said it, the card moved on its own.
Rainbow light suddenly flared. Starting from the edges, the whole card shattered into countless tiny fragments of light that sank into his palm.
Lu Yuan's body tightened for a moment.
A wave of heat spread from his hand through his entire body, moving so fast that in less than two seconds it had raced through every limb and bone. It didn't hurt, but he could clearly feel something inside him opening.
Then a semi-transparent panel popped into existence in midair and hovered before his eyes.
[Awakening successful]
[Talent Name: Absolute Critical Hit]
[Talent Grade: SSS (rainbow)]
[Effect: Any reasonable judgment will trigger a critical hit check. This includes, but is not limited to, experience gain, attribute increases, item drops, skill proficiency, special protocol rewards, and more. Critical hit multiplier: 1 to 100 times, triggers randomly. Critical hit rate is affected by Luck.]
[Passive Effect: After every minimum critical hit, the minimum and maximum multiplier of the next critical hit increase by 1. Can stack. Upper limit unknown.]
Lu Yuan stared at the panel for three seconds.
SSS.
One to one hundred times critical hits.
Every numeric reward could crit.
Including the breeding protocol.
He said nothing, but the corner of his mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.
"How is it?" Zhou Wei asked.
Lu Yuan lifted a hand and tapped the panel. It flipped around to face everyone in the carriage.
More than thirty girls all looked over at once.
"Fuck!!"
Lin Shiyu was the first to shout. She almost tipped backward in her squat. "SSS grade?? Rainbow-colored??"
"Critical hit? What does that mean?" another girl asked, leaning over to look.
"It means monster drops double! Experience doubles!" Lin Shiyu's voice shot up several notches. "One to one hundred times!!"
The carriage instantly erupted.
"One hundred times??"
"That's way too insane!"
"So does that mean the rewards from the breeding protocol can crit too?"
That last line came from a girl who usually didn't say much. The instant she said it, she blushed first and shrank to the back of the crowd.
But everyone heard it.
The carriage fell quiet again for two seconds, then a rustling wave ran through it as quite a few girls secretly looked at Lu Yuan, then quickly looked away.
Shen Nian leaned against the carriage wall, one hand covering her chest, the other scratching at the rust on the metal handrail with her nails. Her expression gave nothing away, but the tips of her ears were burning red.
Su Yao drew her eyes back from the panel and lowered her lids, her lashes trembling slightly.
Zhou Wei took a deep breath and dragged the discussion back on track.
"All right, the talent is confirmed. Now for the important part."
She turned to look at the countdown on the display at the front of the carriage. The numbers had already jumped to 01:12:43.
"Meng Wanqing, what else did you see on the panel just now?"
Meng Wanqing adjusted her glasses, turned, and looked at the display. "Station name: Abandoned Town. Danger level: F. Stop time: seven hours. Recommended participants: everyone."
"F is the lowest level," Gu Siyu said. "And they gave us seven hours. Plenty of time."
Zhou Wei nodded, then turned to everyone. "My suggestion is that once we arrive, everyone gets off the train and gathers supplies."
"Teacher!" one girl raised her hand, her voice a little shaky. "Will there be monsters outside? Didn't the broadcast say we'd run into monsters?"
"Even if there are monsters, we still have to get off," Shen Nian said. Her voice wasn't loud, but it was crisp.
She straightened up from the carriage wall, lowered the hand she had been using to cover her chest, and didn't bother hiding anymore. Under the lights, her wheat-colored body lines were sharp and clear.
"How long are you planning to stay naked if you don't go down and find clothes?"
Crude as it was, she wasn't wrong. A few girls who were still wavering glanced at each other and stopped talking.
Gu Siyu stepped forward. "I agree with the teacher's arrangement. Everyone gets off the train to gather supplies, but we should move in groups. No running around randomly."
Zhou Wei glanced at her and nodded. "We'll sort out the grouping before we arrive."
Lu Yuan had not said much the whole time, but now he spoke.
"When we arrive, I'll go down first."
The carriage's eyes turned to him again.
"I'll take a look around first and make sure it's safe. Then you can get off."
"If I don't come back, then you can judge the situation and decide what to do."
Zhou Wei looked at him and was silent for two seconds.
Her gaze slid down Lu Yuan's face, then quickly came back up.
The thing that had been rigid just now had finally softened somewhat, but it was still hanging there, swaying lazily, and it still looked huge enough to scare people.
She looked away, frowning. "I don't feel comfortable letting you go down alone. What if you run into something--"
"I'll go with him."
Shen Nian's voice cut in from the side.
Zhou Wei turned to look at her. Shen Nian stood there with her arms folded, chin slightly lifted, looking roguish and unbothered.
"I'm the class sports rep. I'm faster than him. If I can't beat it, I can still run faster than it, right?"
Zhou Wei didn't answer right away. Her gaze lingered on Shen Nian for a moment, sweeping her from head to toe.
Shen Nian really was the strongest girl in the class, bar none.
Her sprint times normally beat half the boys in the sports classes; she could run the hundred meters in just over twelve seconds.
Looking at her body now, she was indeed different from the other girls. Her shoulders had width, her waist and abdomen were defined, and the muscles in her legs were clearly visible.
"Fine," Zhou Wei said with a nod. "When we arrive, you two go scout ahead first. Everyone else stays in the carriage. No one moves around recklessly."
"No problem," Shen Nian said.
Lu Yuan glanced at her. Shen Nian happened to be looking at him too.
They held each other's gaze for less than a second before Shen Nian looked away first. She clicked her tongue and muttered something under her breath, but Lu Yuan didn't catch it.
The atmosphere in the carriage eased a little.
Although everyone was still naked, some squatting and some sitting, at least there was now a basic plan, so it wasn't chaos like before.
Right then, the cold mechanical female voice rang out again.
"One hour remains until arrival. Please prepare to disembark."
"Wishing all passengers good luck."
The girls in the carriage fell quiet. One by one, they sat or squatted in silence and waited.
Some were trembling, and no one could tell whether it was from the cold or from fear.
Some were whispering to each other, holding hands.
Lin Shiyu moved over beside Su Yao, and the two sat shoulder to shoulder. Lu Yuan leaned against the carriage wall and closed his eyes for a moment.
The countdown on the panel ticked down one digit at a time.