6: Chapter 6 The Cold Platform

The pink mist inside Xia Wanqiu's body gradually dissipated, and her peach blossom eyes regained their clarity.

However, at this moment, those eyes were filled with panic, shame, disbelief, and an indescribable, complex emotion.

She looked at Lin Feng, who was inches away, and saw her limbs tightly wrapped around him. The flush that had just receded from her face resurfaced, this time out of shame.

"You... I..." She opened her mouth but didn't know what to say.

Lin Feng calmly released his hand from the back of her head, stepped off her body without emotion, and stood by the bed to tidy his slightly disheveled clothes.

His expression was calm, as if the passionate and ambiguous charging process just now had been nothing more than a professional transaction.

"Charging complete." Lin Feng looked at her coldly. "You owe me your life. Your A-Rank Frost Control will be at my disposal from now on."

Xia Wanqiu sat on the bed in a daze, pulling the animal hide over herself to tightly wrap her tattered school uniform.

She lowered her head, not daring to look into Lin Feng's eyes.

She knew Lin Feng was telling the truth; if not for him, she would be a corpse by now.

Just then, a surge of violent energy suddenly exploded inside Lin Feng's body!

[System Notification: Congratulations, Train Master, on completing the initial link! Achievement 'First Blood' unlocked.]

[Special Privilege Activated: Extraction.]

[Randomly extracting a talent skill from the linked target, Xia Wanqiu...]

[Extraction complete. Congratulations, Train Master, you have successfully extracted and copied the [A-Rank Talent Skill: Frost Control]!]

Lin Feng felt an incredibly violent power of ice and snow pour into his body through every pore.

This power was countless times stronger than the initial physical fitness allocated by the system.

The blood that was originally calm in his body felt like it was about to boil, only to be frozen by extreme ice the moment it did.

He held out his right hand and focused his mind.

"Crack, crack, crack..."

The moisture in the air instantly desublimated, and a sharp, crystalline icicle formed out of thin air in his palm, emitting a bone-chilling frost. This feeling of controlling the elements as easily as a fish in water gave him the illusion of controlling life and death.

Compared to his helplessness when Zhao Qiang was smashing the window, he now truly possessed the confidence to thrive in the apocalypse.

"A-Rank Frost Control..." A slight curve appeared at the corner of Lin Feng's mouth. With a casual wave, the icicle dissipated into water vapor.

This talent was now his.

Moreover, it was a complete copy; Xia Wanqiu's talent had not disappeared.

Lin Feng turned around and said to the still-dazed Xia Wanqiu on the bed, "Tidy your clothes and get ready to go out."

Xia Wanqiu bit her lower lip and silently picked up the fragments of her school uniform, trying to cover her exposed skin.

The pair of small bat wings and the demon tail slowly retracted into her body under her mental control.

Just then.

Boom!

A violent vibration, even more terrifying than the impact of the Mutant Bull Monster, suddenly erupted on the train!

The entire train felt as if it had slammed into a mountain. Lin Feng and Xia Wanqiu were thrown against the metal wall by the massive force.

Xia Wanqiu let out a scream and tightly grabbed Lin Feng's arm.

Screech— Screech—

The ear-piercing sound of brakes rang out as metal ground together, creating brilliant sparks.

The crazily speeding train ground to a halt.

Immediately after, that emotionless mechanical voice exploded in everyone's minds once again.

[Train-wide Announcement.]

[Identification: Train No. 99 has docked.]

[Arrived at the first platform: Crimson Ruins.]

[Danger Level: Low.]

[Docking Time: 2 hours.]

[All players are requested to disembark within the specified time to gather resources (food, pure water, upgrade materials). Those who have not boarded by the deadline will be obliterated.]

[Countdown starts now: 1:59:59.]

Lin Feng steadied himself, pushed open the narrow door of the lounge, and walked out.

In the carriage, the lights were dim. The massive ice sculpture of the Mutant Bull Monster still stood in the center, looking exceptionally eerie.

The thirty girls were sprawled across the floor; the violent braking just now had given them quite a scare.

When they saw Lin Feng and a ruddy-faced Xia Wanqiu, whose clothes were tattered but who was otherwise unharmed, emerge from the exclusive lounge, their expressions became quite a sight.

There was shock, jealousy, envy, and even more so, a sense of awe toward the unknown power.

Su Ya watched this scene, pushed up her glasses, and looked at Lin Feng with a complex gaze. She knew that Xia Wanqiu had been completely branded by Lin Feng.

"Lin Feng... Wan Qiu, she's okay, right?" a junior with twin tails asked boldly.

Lin Feng ignored them and strode to the carriage door.

In his perception, the door that had been locked tight was now unlocked.

He took a deep breath, grabbed the door handle, and pulled it hard.

"Click."

Lin Feng pressed down hard on the rusty metal handle, and with a tooth-aching grinding sound, the heavy iron door of Carriage 99 slowly slid open to both sides.

Outside, there were no overwhelming mutant monsters as everyone had imagined, nor were there abyss beasts with gaping maws.

What met their eyes was a silent, abandoned, giant train platform.

The platform's ceiling was in ruins, with massive reinforced concrete structures broken and collapsed, revealing a hazy, starless sky outside.

The ground was covered with a thick layer of dust and cold white frost. Abandoned tracks stretched infinitely into the depths of the mist, and several rusty iron barrels lay scattered along the edge of the platform.

Cold.

Bone-chillingly cold.

The moment the door opened, a cold wind carrying a strong smell of rust and decay rushed into the carriage.

The temperature in the air plummeted, as if they had instantly fallen from early autumn into the depths of winter.

"No monsters... there are no monsters outside!"

In the carriage, the girls who had been huddled together and shivering poked their heads out. Seeing the empty platform, their tense nerves instantly relaxed.

A few bold girls even let out cheers of survival.

"Great! We're safe!"

"This must be a newbie protection zone! Quick, let's get off the train and find a supermarket. I'm starving!"

Blind optimism spread through the carriage like a plague. With the strange power brought by the earlier awakening of the Succubus Bloodline, their original fear had been significantly diluted.

A heavily made-up girl who had awakened D-Rank Water Manipulation ran excitedly to the door, a clear splash of water dancing on her fingertips.

She showed off proudly to those around her, "Look, once we're off the train, I'll use my ability to wash away those dirty things, and we can set up camp here. With Senior Su Ya's fire and Wan Qiu's ice, we have nothing to fear..."

Slap!

Before she could finish, Lin Feng backhanded her, heavily slapping away the water on her fingertips.

The crisp sound of the slap was exceptionally loud at the open carriage door.

The heavily made-up girl was stunned. Covering her bright red hand, her eyes instantly filled with tears. "Lin Feng, what are you doing! What right do you have to hit me?"

"The right to make you live a little longer."