Alien Abduction Plan, Ghost Train (Bonus Chapter—Please Vote)

After getting off the school bus, Ke Mingqing headed straight for the classroom. He set his backpack in the drawer, pulled over a chair, and sat down.

With the holiday approaching, final exams were also just around the corner. The classroom remained steeped in a gloomy atmosphere.

Ke Mingqing was clearly the most distracted student in the room. He rested his chin on one hand while spinning a ballpoint pen with the other.

Staring at the rotating pen tip, he absentmindedly thought:

What if I take a shortcut and find a chance to negotiate with Mom alone... If the alien is willing to protect me, then I'll be invincible in this family ecosystem. No matter what the Crow Man, Second Sister, and Big Brother want to do to me, I'll most likely survive.

Ke Mingqing lowered his gaze slightly toward the tracking sunglasses in his drawer. But the question is, what kind of approach can convince Mom? How do I negotiate with her without stepping on a land mine?

With that in mind, he tilted his head slightly and looked through the window at the playground baking beneath the sun.

The students from Class Two next door were doing high-jump training, while Jiang Qingzi had taken sick leave on account of physical discomfort.

He sat beneath the shade of a tree, quietly watching the others hop around in the sandpit, occasionally giving a light clap.

Ke Mingqing thought the scene looked like a towering giant watching the citizens of Lilliput show off their height, nodding repeatedly in approval.

Just as he was thinking that, Jiang Qingzi raised his head from beneath the tree and looked toward the teaching building, meeting Ke Mingqing's gaze from far away.

Jiang Qingzi froze for a moment, then smiled and waved at Ke Mingqing.

Ke Mingqing sighed helplessly. Big Brother, you're not even pretending anymore. You noticed me watching you from this far away?

He waved out the window, made a shooing gesture, and stopped staring at Jiang Qingzi.

"First, Big Brother is a mutant, Little Sister is a magical girl, and Third Sister is a mythological vessel—these examples basically confirm that Mom is collecting samples of Earth's Super-species, which is why she has cultivated so many different types of Super-species."

Ke Mingqing murmured soundlessly as he flipped through his textbook, looking at the plant crossbreeding diagrams in his biology book.

"But to her, 'players' should still be something very mysterious... After all, they're a new kind of superhuman that only appeared in the past couple of days. If I reveal to her at a time like this that I'm a 'player,' how she might react ultimately depends on whether she has any feelings for this family."

He closed the biology textbook. "If she only sees her children and husband as research specimens, then I might be able to reach an agreement with her;

"But if Mom doesn't simply see this family as lab rats and actually has feelings for them, then I'll die horribly—so horribly that I may not even need to wait for Big Brother and Second Sister to make a move."

"Anyway, while Big Brother and Second Sister still aren't home, I should have White Jack test Mom's true feelings toward the family first. That would be safer." Just as he thought this, the teacher called on him to go up and solve a math problem.

Being caught flipping through his biology textbook during math class was an obvious outcome.

Standing at the podium, he had just picked up a piece of chalk when he received a message from his friend list. A red dot appeared in the upper-right corner of his vision.

As he wrote out the solution with the chalk, Ke Mingqing read the words on the panel.

[Hitomi Kuroki: My family's maid wants your contact information.]

Ke Mingqing paused, and the chalk snapped with a crack. He switched to a new piece and typed a reply on the panel with his mind.

[Ke Mingqing: ?]

[Hitomi Kuroki: She said you're her classmate's older brother. What a coincidence.]

[Ke Mingqing: Fine, send her my WeChat.]

[Hitomi Kuroki: Okay. She said she'll add you later.]

[Hitomi Kuroki: Oh, and there's one more thing.]

[Ke Mingqing: What is it?]

[Hitomi Kuroki: I've been wanting to ask you. Do you remember the orphanage?]

The orphanage?

Ke Mingqing looked away from the chat panel, put the chalk back on the podium, and glanced at the girl with the tear mole in the distance. Her face was veiled by sunlight, making her expression hard to see for the moment.

Seeing this young couple so unrestrainedly showing off their affection even at the podium, the classmates began jeering and cheering.

Ke Mingqing returned to his seat and spun his ballpoint pen.

[Ke Mingqing: The orphanage? The orphanage from this life, or the orphanage from my previous life?]

For some reason, after typing those words, Ke Mingqing felt as though he had made a dark joke.

To be honest, he had not felt much during the first few days after arriving here. But starting these past two days, he could feel the symptoms of memory erosion growing increasingly severe, even subtly affecting his sense of self.

Sometimes, when he lay in bed recalling things from the orphanage, he could no longer tell whether they were experiences from this life or his previous one.

[Hitomi Kuroki: If you don't remember, then forget it.]

Ke Mingqing did not think much of it and slowly withdrew his gaze from her face.

After school that day, Ke Mingqing took the school bus to Old Jingmai District. But instead of going home right away, he headed toward the deserted restricted zone, slipped through a gap in the wire fence, and walked over the wildly growing weeds until he arrived before the long-abandoned train station.

He took a deep breath, looked up at the pitch-black station entrance, and stepped inside.

Drip...

Drip...

The hollow sound of dripping water came from deep within the tunnel. With his backpack on and both hands tucked into his pockets, he walked straight down the tunnel. Before long, he saw light.

The sign above was covered in marks eroded by time. The words "Platform 7" had become a blur of white, like chalk dust.

Ke Mingqing had come here many times before with Xia Zili, so he was familiar with the layout.

He entered the empty Platform Seven and stopped in front of the dust-covered lockers. The surface of Locker No. 7 was unusually clean, as if someone had deliberately wiped it down.

Ke Mingqing reached out and opened Locker No. 7. Inside, he saw a folded blue combat suit and a helmet shaped like a blue pigeon.

"Tonight, I make my debut and give Dad a huge surprise." The corner of his mouth curled up.

At that moment, he suddenly heard the roar of a train. That would have been normal at an ordinary train station, but this station had been abandoned for nearly ten years. How could there possibly be a train here?

"A train, in a place like this?"

Ke Mingqing froze and turned his head. In that instant, the train's headlights tore through the darkness and illuminated his face.

He raised an arm to shield his cheek and narrowed his eyes. He saw an old red train emerging from the tunnel, and at the same time, a system panel appeared in his vision.

[Weekly Dawn Capital dungeon discovered—"Legend of the Ghost Train Conductor."]

[Recommended player level: Lv.4]

[Dungeon completion rewards:
1. Ghost Train Boarding Pass (once per week, you may use the boarding pass to ride the Ghost Train to any abandoned train station in the world);

2. Superhuman Coins, experience points, dungeon items, and more...]

[Note: This dungeon will disappear at 12:00 a.m. on Sunday. Please complete it before the deadline.]