Chapter 71

“Top Student, please take care of me from here on out!”

By the time Ji Qing walked into the train compartment, the transfer student's bright, eager voice rang out behind him once again. Ji Qing rubbed between his brows in annoyance. Even before the self-introduction session, he should have known that anyone who could get along with Zhou Que was bound to be a troublemaker.

Ji Qing said coldly, “You’ve already said that all the way here.”

He had said it so many times Ji Qing’s ears were about to grow calluses.

Following behind the two of them, Xie Chang’an asked somewhat awkwardly, “Can I sit across from you?”

Ji Qing replied indifferently, “Whatever.”

Ji Qing sat down first on the inner side of the compartment by the window, then took off the baseball cap he had been using to hide his appearance. His smooth white hair gleamed under the sunlight passing through the glass, as if it had been draped in a warm yellow veil of light.

The moment Xie Chang’an sat across from him, he had no idea where to put his gaze.

This subtle feeling... Xie Chang’an thought uneasily to himself: this was really making things difficult for him.

Xie Chang’an had never expected the draw-based team assignment to put him, the top student, and the transfer student on the same team. Any one of the three of them would have been a topic of conversation on their own, but he had never imagined they would coincidentally end up grouped together like this.

Xie Chang’an’s impression of Ji Qing was complicated.

Fundamentally, it was because he and Ji Qing were not very familiar with each other. Yet despite that lack of familiarity, Ji Qing had still helped him. Xie Chang’an had first met Ji Qing on the freshman registration train, when Ji Qing had helped them escape. Then, when Zhou Que targeted him at the beginning of the term, Ji Qing had helped him a second time...

Ji Qing was practically his lifesaver.

The current Xie Chang’an felt even more ashamed of the person he had been back then.

He hadn’t considered other people’s circumstances. He had been too immature at the time, though to be honest, he still was now. But in truth, this was the first time Xie Chang’an had ever sat down face-to-face with Ji Qing. Before this, he had never had the chance, or perhaps more accurately: he had never been qualified.

Just as Xie Chang’an was struggling inwardly, the transfer student in the seat beside them had already scooted up to Ji Qing and asked eagerly, “Top Student! Since I’m a transfer student, could you tell me a little about the internal situation of Class S?”

“I’m weak, pitiful, and helpless. I urgently need your support!”

Ji Qing shoved away the other party, who was pushing his luck, and said coldly, “Keep your social distance from me first.”

“Okay~” Jiang Cuo promptly straightened up his attitude.

For a moment, Ji Qing gave him a somewhat surprised look.

Jiang Cuo was obviously outgoing, but unlike Feng Youyou’s outgoing nature, he came with a certain restlessness and sense of overfamiliarity. That was probably related to Jiang Cuo’s status as an S-class ability user. After all, wasteland society did tend to favor S-class ability users.

By contrast, Xie Chang’an appeared dull and taciturn.

At this moment, the three of them were on a train headed for Snow City.

Because of Li Xuehua’s suggestion to form teams by drawing lots, they had been passively thrown together as one group. Ji Qing absentmindedly toyed with a strand of his hair and thought, this team arrangement probably also had Yuexia Cao’s hand in it.

The artist of 《Ability Hunter Academy》, Yuexia Cao, was capable of influencing the course of the manga world’s plot. The reason he wanted Ji Qing, Jiang Cuo, and Xie Chang’an grouped together was nothing more than this: compared with the others in Class S, the two of them were more likely to stand on Xie Chang’an’s side.

Yuexia Cao understood very clearly that what was lacking between Ji Qing and Xie Chang’an was only a reason to become close. Once they had that reason, their growing friendship would naturally follow.

As for the transfer student...

Jiang Cuo knew nothing about the old grudges of the Third Ability Academy, and Ji Qing, traveling alongside him, naturally wasn’t the sort to gossip.

The three-man team was quite reasonable.

It was just that Ji Qing couldn’t help being in a bad mood. In the past, he had always been the one arranging others. And now it was his turn to be arranged by that old thief Yuexia Cao. Ji Qing’s attitude toward Xie Chang’an worsened along with it.

Just as Ji Qing was sulking, Jiang Cuo suddenly asked, “Huh, Top Student, are you a commoner?”

“Yes,” Ji Qing replied in a foul tone. “Got a problem with that?”

“Super surprising.” Jiang Cuo rubbed his chin with one hand and speculated to himself, “You’re probably the most gifted commoner I’ve seen so far. I’m kind of tempted to learn about your family background.”

But this time, Jiang Cuo at least had enough self-awareness.

He didn’t deliberately keep pressing Ji Qing on the subject. Instead, he revealed his own background first. “Strictly speaking, I’m the illegitimate son of a great aristocratic family. So being lucky enough to get this level of aptitude is normal too.”

He looked at Ji Qing and asked, “Are you the same?”

After hearing that, Ji Qing lifted his eyes in surprise and looked at Jiang Cuo. In Jiang Cuo’s iron-gray eyes was an unmistakable seriousness.

“...” Ji Qing fell silent for a moment.

He found it hard to deal with people who mixed the truth into a heap of lies every now and then. Even so, Ji Qing still replied coldly, “No.”

“Wow, then you’re amazing, Top Student.” Jiang Cuo immediately started clapping.

Jiang Cuo’s tone was extremely sincere, but considering the current situation, Ji Qing subtly sensed a trace of irony. It did not seem to be directed at him, though. Rather, it felt like Jiang Cuo was mocking himself.

At that, Ji Qing gave Jiang Cuo a strange look.

What an especially peculiar personality.

But overall, he was quite close to Ji Qing’s expectations for the transfer student.

Jiang Cuo had transferred here because there was something he absolutely had to do. Although his words were exaggerated, and he seemed to be deliberately making himself out to be some kind of clown, Jiang Cuo truly was moving steadily toward a certain goal.

“All right, if we’re going to talk, talk about something else,” Ji Qing said helplessly.

Class S had been split into three teams for this trip.

Aside from their own three-man squad, the other two teams each had four people. All of Ji Qing’s acquaintances were in the other groups. Because of this utterly unexpected turn of events, Ji Qing thoroughly hated Yuexia Cao from the bottom of his heart.

If he had the guts, he should have at least given him one familiar face!

“Tch...” Ji Qing clicked his tongue in disgust.

He himself was not very good at starting conversations. Most of the time, he played the role of an observer. And now his teammates were: one flamboyant transfer student he had known for less than a day, and one taciturn manga protagonist with whom he was not close on the surface.

How was he supposed to work with that? How was he supposed to get familiar with them?

Compared with the current Xie Chang’an, even Liu Mu counted as a cheerful, outgoing high school boy. Just thinking about it made Ji Qing’s vision go dark. Yet despite all the frantic complaints in his heart, his face still maintained its usual cold expression.

The white-haired, green-eyed boy rested his chin on one hand and gazed quietly out the train window, creating an atmosphere of peaceful stillness.

For some reason, Xie Chang’an’s uneasy heart gradually calmed.

He might not have had any topics to talk about, but at least he had learned the silence one should maintain when sharing a space with others. Seeing this, Jiang Cuo looked back and forth between the two with a heart full of curiosity. He could tell that something about the atmosphere was off, but he couldn’t quite describe what it was.

Could it be because he was the newcomer?

Jiang Cuo resentfully withdrew his restless hands and sighed inwardly: It looked like things inside the Third Ability Academy were pretty complicated too...

And so, the three of them passed the train journey in silence.

As the train advanced, the scenery outside the window gradually began to change as well. The rolling hills they had long since grown used to were replaced by plains, and there were also many mutant species along the way that they had never seen before. Ji Qing spotted wandering mutated mountain goats.

Compared with ordinary goats, the horns of these mutant goats were enormous and razor-sharp, while their skin was a sickly bluish-purple.

Ji Qing found the sight quite novel.

He was a little curious about what they would taste like, but for humans, these goats were probably like terrifying plague-ridden monsters, neither edible nor tamable. It was a rather lamentable thought.

The elevated train continued racing across the wasteland.

By the time the sky began to darken, the train was also about to enter Ning City, the transfer station, for inspection and servicing.

Snow City was very far from Yancheng, where the school was located.

Even with the train running at full speed, the journey still took nearly a full day. However, trains in the wasteland usually did not travel at night. The mutant species that came out to hunt after dark were far greater in both number and danger than those active during the day.

So the three of them could only choose to stay the night in Ning City.

At this moment, Ji Qing’s mood had improved quite a bit. He had also received intelligence from Liu Mu in another team, including the approximate crash zones of the three accident trains and a map of the danger zones where the trains had fallen...

To be fair, Liu Mu was really reliable. Ji Qing sighed inwardly.

Before boarding the train, all eleven members of Class S had already discussed their respective responsibilities: three teams, three black boxes, with each team responsible for one black box. As for which black box each team got... naturally, that too had been decided by drawing lots.

Ji Qing specifically glanced over the locations where the three trains had crashed: two had met with disaster near Snow City, and one had crashed near Ding’an City.

For the sake of efficiency, one team had to get off at Ding’an City.

On top of that, the team members also needed time to prepare, so everyone in Class S had gone their separate ways after class. Ji Qing’s three-man squad had been the first to set out. Ji Qing himself was the sort who left as soon as he decided to go, and naturally, the other two had no objections.

“Hey, Top Student.” Jiang Cuo grinned and said, “Any plans to go out and have some fun tonight?”

“No,” Ji Qing replied coldly.

He reached up and put on his baseball cap, then lowered the brim a little, deliberately avoiding the inquisitive gazes of his teammates.

Ji Qing opened his terminal and scanned the information on the accident train his group was responsible for: derailed fifty-nine days ago, all passengers deceased, relatively close to Snow City, crash site located in a C-rank danger zone... Ji Qing swiftly extracted several key points worth noting.

Even so, a faint chill crept through his heart.

Should he be grateful that that old thief Yuexia Cao hadn’t assigned him the train that had crashed seventeen days ago? But the manga’s protagonist was on his team again...

Ji Qing had an inexplicable feeling that something unexpected was going to happen later.

“Beep, beep—”

The whistle announcing the train’s arrival suddenly sounded.

Ji Qing immediately stood up, but after thinking of something, he turned and asked the other two, “Do either of you need to buy some winter clothes in Ning City?”

“No need. I just came from the north. I’ve got cotton coats and down jackets all over the place,” Jiang Cuo said breezily, patting his chest.

“I... might need to?” Xie Chang’an said hesitantly.

“No, brother—” Jiang Cuo immediately turned back toward Xie Chang’an in shock. “Why didn’t you say so back in Yancheng? Who knows what prices are like out here?”

Xie Chang’an awkwardly scratched his head.

Just as Jiang Cuo was about to complain a little more, Ji Qing calmly raised a hand to interrupt him. “That works out. I was planning to go take a look too. If you’re short on money, I can lend you some first.”

Xie Chang’an froze, then quickly nodded in flattered surprise. “Okay.”

Jiang Cuo was shocked all over again.

So the top student was planning to buy some on the spot too? Jiang Cuo immediately changed his tune and confidently patted his chest. “Then I’m going too! Brothers, you two can’t leave me behind!”

Xie Chang’an instinctively asked, “Don’t you already have some?”

“What’s wrong with having one extra set?” Jiang Cuo said righteously. “It’ll help me fit in, won’t it? I still don’t know much about Class S!”

“That’s up to you,” Ji Qing said flatly as he picked up his luggage. “But even if you don’t fit in, it doesn’t really matter. That won’t affect our teamwork.”

Ji Qing would never deliberately delay support just because one of his teammates failed to fit in.

But just as Ji Qing pulled open the compartment door, he suddenly noticed that Xie Chang’an had been staring blankly at his face the whole time, as though lost in thought over something. The feeling was extremely strange...

Ji Qing raised a brow. “Why do you keep staring at me?”

The moment Xie Chang’an heard that, he became completely flustered. He hurriedly explained, “Sorry, it’s just... you reminded me a little of someone I know.”

Hm? Who? Ji Qing frowned inwardly.

So Xie Chang’an actually knew someone he didn’t know about?