Zhou Wei’s words left the carriage quiet for a few seconds.
But only a few seconds.
"Teacher, I think I just heard something about trying to survive? What does that mean?"
"Is this some kind of prank show? Are there cameras?"
"Cameras? We’re naked and you still want us on TV??"
"That’s not what I meant!"
The girls’ chatter burst back up again. In class, there had always been only one boy, Lu Yuan, so they’d long since gotten used to speaking without much restraint.
Zhou Wei took a deep breath. Before she could say anything to settle them down, the overhead light tube flickered twice more.
The cold mechanical female voice rang out again.
"The train will arrive at the first station at 7:00 p.m. today."
"Station name: Abandoned Town."
"Station danger level: F."
"Dwell time: seven hours."
"Anyone who fails to return on time will be permanently stranded."
"All passengers, please prepare accordingly."
A panel embedded in the iron shell at the very front of the carriage lit up. It displayed a countdown and a few short lines of information.
Time remaining until arrival: 01:42:17
Station level: F
Danger level: 1
Recommended participants: Everyone
The entire carriage fell silent.
Not the kind of silence forced down by pressure, but the kind that came from everyone seeing the words permanently stranded and feeling a chill crawl up from their throats.
"What does permanently stranded mean..." one girl whispered, her voice trembling.
No one answered her.
Zhou Wei stared at the panel for a few seconds, then turned and swept her gaze across the more than thirty naked girls in the carriage, before glancing at Lu Yuan facing the wall.
"Everyone, don’t panic yet--"
Before she could finish, the panel flashed again, and a voice entirely different from the one before sounded through the carriage.
Not the mechanical female voice. Deeper, heavier, carrying a strange sense of ritual.
"A severe imbalance in gender ratio has been detected in this carriage."
"Special protocol triggered -- the Breeding Protocol."
"Protocol details are as follows: if a man and a woman in the carriage complete mating behavior entirely of their own free will, and a successful conception judgment is triggered, both parties will receive one attribute surge, with all attributes permanently increased."
"The first coupling receives the highest reward; subsequent couplings with the same partner will yield diminishing returns."
"After conception, the fetus will not develop and will instead be converted into life factors absorbed by both parties."
"The system will detect both parties’ brain waves and willingness. If either party shows resistance, the protocol is invalid."
"Please make reasonable use of every survival resource."
The voice fell silent.
The air in the carriage froze solid.
The brains of more than thirty girls seemed to short out at the same time for about three seconds.
Then--
"What the fuck???"
"What the hell is this??? Mating???"
"Who the fuck designed this broken system!!"
"Wait, wait, it said with Lu Yuan???"
All eyes once again snapped onto Lu Yuan’s back as he faced the wall.
Lu Yuan didn’t turn around, but he heard every word clearly.
Breeding Protocol. All-attribute increase. Must be voluntary.
His mind was already beginning to process the information.
"Pervert! This system is a pervert, right!"
"I don’t care, I want to go home!!"
"Stop crying, what good is crying--"
"So what you’re saying is, we have to do that... with Lu Yuan... to get stronger?"
That last sentence came from Lin Shiyu.
She was crouched on the floor, arms wrapped around her knees, her round face caught somewhere between shock and an indescribably subtle expression.
Su Yao was beside her. Her long hair hung down, covering most of her body. There was not much expression on her face, but the roots of her ears were red.
Shen Nian swore outright: "What bullshit system, I’d rather die than--"
She cut herself off halfway through.
Because she remembered. This wasn’t the same society anymore. Death might be a very normal thing here.
"Everyone, quiet down." Zhou Wei’s voice pressed down over them.
Her face was also red, but she kept her expression under control. Only the fingers she had clenched tight betrayed her.
"We can discuss this protocol later. Right now, the most important thing is that in an hour and a half we’ll be at the station, and we have no equipment and know nothing."
She paused, then turned toward Lu Yuan.
"Lu Yuan, turn around."
A wave of gasps broke out in the carriage.
"Teacher!!"
"What do we do if he turns around?!"
Zhou Wei frowned. "Stop covering yourselves."
That only made the carriage explode further.
"Teacher, what are you saying!"
"How can we not cover up!"
"You want a man to look at more than thirty naked girls--"
"Then tell me," Zhou Wei’s voice rose sharply, "in an hour and a half when we get to the station, with not even a single needle on us, what are you going to use to cover yourselves? Your hair?"
No one said anything.
"Right now every one of our lives is hanging by a thread. Does covering up matter that much?" Zhou Wei took a deep breath and softened her tone. "Besides, you’ve all seen it already. There’s only one boy, Lu Yuan. Whether he looks or not is only a matter of time. First think about how to survive."
A few girls were still clutching their chests and refusing to let go, but more and more of them slowly lowered their hands.
Gu Siyu was the first to straighten up. Though her expression was not good either, her hands hung at her sides, unobstructed.
"The teacher’s right. Let’s solve the survival problem first."
Meng Wanqing stood up after her. Her ample body swayed once as she pushed up the round-framed glasses that had slipped askew and said softly, "Don’t be scared, everyone. Let’s sort out the situation first."
Lu Yuan turned around.
More than thirty naked female bodies appeared all at once in his field of vision. Some were fair, some had a slight wheat tone, and their heights, builds, and figures varied.
He didn’t deliberately avoid looking, nor did he deliberately linger, but when his gaze passed over Zhou Wei, he still looked a little longer.
A body completely different from the students’.
Her hips were wider, her butt more pronounced, and the lines of muscle on the insides of her thighs weren’t the soft curves of a girl, but the tautness only a mature woman had.
The weight of her chest was clearly heavier than most of the girls in class. Without a bra to support it, it spread slightly outward, yet the shape remained full.
Her lower abdomen was flat, but not the flatness of an undeveloped girl. It was the firm flatness of someone who had trained.
The thing that had already gone half-soft in him sprang hard again the instant he turned and saw that sight, giving two jerking pulses.
Zhou Wei noticed first.
Her gaze flicked uncontrollably in that direction for a split second, then snapped back, her brows knitting together.
"Lu Yuan."
"Yeah."
"Control yourself."
"...Can’t." Lu Yuan’s tone was flat, but it really was beyond his control.
A burst of laughter erupted behind him.
"Hahahahaha--"
Lin Shiyu laughed the loudest, crouched on the floor and shaking all over. "He said he can’t control it hahahahaha--"
"Shut up!" Shen Nian kicked her.
But Shen Nian’s own ears were also red, her eyes darting away and then back again.
Even the corners of Su Yao’s mouth lifted slightly, though she quickly pressed them back down.
Zhou Wei’s face was already burning, but she forced herself not to show it. She only cleared her throat. "Forget that for now. Everyone stay quiet for a moment. Let’s discuss how to handle things after we arrive at the station--"
"Teacher!!"
A voice from the very front of the carriage cut off Zhou Wei’s words.
It was Meng Wanqing.
No one knew when she had moved up to the panel at the front of the train. She had turned around and was holding a palm-sized card in her hand.
The edges of the card glimmered with a faint rainbow light, especially eye-catching in the dim carriage.
"There’s a slot under this panel," Meng Wanqing said, her voice tight. "This card was inside it."
She flipped the card over. A line of small print was written on the back.
"Awakening Card -- activate the holder’s talent upon use. Grade random."
"There’s only one in the whole carriage..."