First Class Through the Apocalypse

Chapter 002

A delicate, awkward cough broke the suffocating silence inside the rusted carriage. Sylvia Hale cleared her throat, cheeks burning as she struggled to maintain her authority. Keeping her eyes fixed on the young man's face, she refused to look elsewhere.

"Caleb Mercer, do you have any idea what's going on here?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly.

Her suspicion was reasonable. He was the only male in the confined carriage, surrounded by unclad women. To an outsider, the bizarre scene looked like a twisted magical fantasy created for his benefit. Naturally, Sylvia assumed he might know something about their predicament.

Caleb only shook his head in bewilderment. Crossing his arms over his chest, he shivered as a biting draft swept across the cold metal floor.

"I honestly have no idea, Ms. Hale. I was asleep in my dorm room. The next thing I knew, I opened my eyes and found myself lying on this freezing floor."

His explanation opened the floodgates, prompting the surrounding girls to chime in with their own equally confusing experiences.

"He's right, I was sleeping in my bed too," one girl muttered, wrapping her arms around her knees.

"I was literally sitting on the toilet," another complained with a deep frown.

"I was right in the middle of a hot shower," a third girl grumbled, rubbing her goosebump-covered arms.

"I was just watching a movie," a fourth added sheepishly.

The female students babbled nervously, exchanging their mundane final memories before waking up in this metallic prison. Seeing that she was not going to extract any useful information from the panicked chatter, Sylvia let out a heavy sigh of resignation. She turned her head, scanning the stark, empty interior of the carriage for anything that could be of use.

"Everyone, I need you to pluck a few strands of your hair and weave them together into a makeshift string," she instructed with a tone of serious determination.

Jenna Cole, the usually confident Class Wellness Representative, blinked in sheer confusion. She echoed the sentiments of every other girl in the room. "Why do we need to weave a string out of our hair?"

Sylvia turned her head slightly to shoot a deeply embarrassed glance at Caleb, her face turning an even darker shade of crimson. "The string is for him to tie that massive thing down to his waist. Having it just hanging out in the open like that is going to be incredibly distracting for all of us."

Her blunt explanation caused a wave of profound embarrassment to crash over the female students. Their pale faces instantly flushed a brilliant, burning red, but they silently nodded in agreement and began pulling loose strands of hair from their scalps. A few of the bolder girls in the crowd, despite their flushed cheeks, kept their gazes completely fixed on him, occasionally licking their dry lips in undeniable appreciation.

Caleb could only shrug helplessly under their intense scrutiny. He silently grumbled to himself, acknowledging that he could not help being blessed with such extraordinary natural talent.

Just as the group began meticulously weaving their hair together, a harsh, crackling burst of electrical static echoed violently through the rusted carriage. The sudden noise made several girls jump in fright.

[Welcome to the Train survival game!]

A cold, mechanical voice boomed from unseen speakers, completely devoid of any human emotion.

[This survival event involves six billion people. You have all been assigned to individual trains scattered across another world continent. These trains will operate on parallel tracks and will never intersect or collide with one another.]

[Attention: Your train will make randomized stops at various abandoned cities throughout the Wildlands. During these stops, you must disembark to scavenge for vital supplies and survival equipment.]

[Within these desolate cities, you may cross paths with other survivors. You will also encounter dangerous threats, including but not limited to zombies, goblins, gnomes, dwarves, and orcs.]

[Your primary objective is to survive. You must also work diligently to multiply and expand your tribe to overcome the severe challenges that lie ahead.]

[The train will officially depart at seven o'clock tomorrow morning. If you fail to board the carriage before the designated time limit expires, you will be permanently left behind to face this harsh world alone.]

[Face the challenge, Chosen!]

As the chilling, robotic voice faded into silence, a sleek, futuristic computer terminal materialized completely out of thin air, embedding itself seamlessly into the rusted metal wall at the corner of the carriage.

The carriage fell into a state of absolute, pin-drop silence. Every single girl stared with wide, terrified eyes, struggling to process the sheer magnitude of the information they had just received. The reality of their terrifying situation was slowly beginning to settle over them like a suffocating blanket.

After a long, tense moment, a petite girl with an unexpectedly curvy figure slowly raised her small hand. She looked around the circle of stunned faces and spoke in a tiny, fragile whisper. "Does... does this mean we can never go back home?"

Instead of breaking down into hysterical tears, a bizarre wave of optimism suddenly swept through the group.

"Well, we are already stuck here, so we might as well make the best of it," one girl rationalized, waving her hand dismissively. "It sounds exactly like one of those wilderness survival shows, right?"

"That works out perfectly, because I can provide healing for your wounds," another girl announced proudly, Puffing out her chest. "I can take care of treating all your wounds when we fight those monsters."

"And I am studying culinary arts," a third chimed in with a bright smile. "I can cook delicious meals for everyone with whatever we find."

"I am studying midwifery," a fourth girl added with complete seriousness. "If anyone accidentally gets pregnant while we are trying to 'multiply our tribe,' I can safely deliver your babies."

The moment those words left her mouth, a profound silence slammed back into the carriage. Every single pair of eyes slowly drifted away from the aspiring midwife and locked directly onto Caleb.

Caleb immediately raised his hands defensively, shaking his head to make it clear he wanted no part in their wild fantasies. He realized the girls had clearly spent too much time reading online novels and dreaming of becoming unstoppable protagonists in a magical world. Now that their impossible dreams seemed to have come true, they were more excited than afraid. Their collective mental resilience was almost frightening.

After exchanging a few more eager looks, however, the girls gradually realized the problem. They had skills, but none possessed supernatural abilities capable of fighting hordes of terrifying creatures.

Caleb hesitantly raised his hand. "I think I might have awakened something."

Over thirty curious eyes immediately turned toward him. Even with his usual confidence, being scrutinized by so many naked women while equally exposed was overwhelming, like standing naked beneath bright stage lights.

Realizing he was at a disadvantage, Caleb refused to back down. If they intended to inspect him so openly, he decided he would stare right back.

"You pervert!" Jenna Cole scolded sharply. Despite her anger, she was acutely aware that she had already been thoroughly inspected by him. She glared at him with a mixture of annoyance and embarrassment. "Hurry up and tell us! What kind of power did you awaken?"

"Yeah, tell us!" the other girls chorused in a chaotic flurry of eager voices. "Did you awaken some kind of heaven-defying ability that can instantly obliterate enemies?"

Several of the girls were so overwhelmed by the sheer excitement of the moment that they began hopping up and down in place.

Caleb felt his eyes widen in absolute disbelief. The incredible bouncing motion happening all around him was completely mesmerizing, causing his brain to temporarily short-circuit.

He forcefully tore his gaze away and looked toward the English teacher.

"Caleb Mercer, stop staring at them!" Sylvia instantly noticed where his attention had drifted. She clenched her bare hands into tight fists, glaring at him with stern disapproval.

Caleb frantically shifted his eyes away, but it was a completely futile effort. He was trapped directly in the center of a tight circle of beautiful, unclad women. No matter where he looked, his vision was filled with flawless skin and stunning curves. He felt a throbbing ache building behind his eyes, silently praying that he would not suffer a massive nosebleed from the overwhelming visual stimulation. If he stayed trapped in this circle much longer, he was entirely convinced he would be drained of all his life force.

Taking a deep breath to steady his racing heart, he finally focused his attention inward to examine the strange presence lingering in his mind.

[Ding. Conductor System bound successfully!]

[Ding. system storage generated. You may infinitely duplicate one specific item every seven days.]

[Passive Ability Activated: You can now perceive detailed information that remains entirely hidden from others.]

He mentally processed the incredible revelations. He could duplicate any item once a week, and he possessed the ability to see hidden details?

Caleb furrowed his brow in deep concentration. Driven by sheer curiosity, his gaze naturally drifted back toward Sylvia. The moment he focused on her, a glowing string of holographic text materialized in the air directly above her head.

[Name: Sylvia Hale. Age: 23. Measurements: 35-27-37. Charge Count: 0.]

He nearly choked on his own saliva, his eyes bulging as he stared at the glowing numbers. She was the absolute definition of a hidden treasure.

"You creep! You are staring again! Tell us what you awakened right this second!" Sylvia demanded, her voice rising in pitch. Her beautiful face flushed a brilliant, angry red. She had lived her entire life without ever being so thoroughly exposed to another person, let alone one of her own male students. It felt incredibly unfair that this frustrating young man was getting such an unbelievable show at her expense.

"Right, sorry," Caleb muttered, awkwardly rubbing the bridge of his nose to hide his embarrassment. "It is honestly nothing too crazy. I think I just gained the ability to see certain pieces of hidden information about people."

He intentionally kept the incredibly overpowered duplication ability to himself. In a dangerous, unknown world, he knew he needed to keep a hidden trump card close to his chest.

"What? You can see information about us?" one girl asked, tilting her head.

"What kind of information?" another demanded defensively.

"Are you all stupid?" a third girl scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "It obviously means he got a magical peeping ability."

"Absolute pervert!" Jenna spat, shooting daggers at him. She desperately wanted to scream that he had done more than just look at her in the past, but she swallowed the embarrassing truth.

The other girls cast disdainful glares at Caleb. If they weren't trapped inside a metal box surrounded by a deadly wasteland, they would have gladly kicked him onto the tracks.

"But why is he the only one who got a special power?" a girl complained.

"Exactly!" another snapped. "Is it because he's the only guy? That's sexist!"

"Without powers, how are we supposed to fight those terrifying monsters?"

The girls quickly fell into panicked bickering over their lack of combat abilities. Ignoring them, Sylvia turned away from Caleb and headed toward the back of the carriage, her brow furrowed as she examined a strange, futuristic terminal embedded in the rusted wall.

"What exactly is this thing?" she murmured, cautiously reaching toward its glowing screen.