Lin Yulan's mind went completely blank as she listened to the countdown.
She was stuck in a tough spot. In her stunned state, she couldn't even remember the names of her friends, let alone their daughters.
"Teacher Lin, why do you have to stress yourself out like this?"
"In this era where the strong are respected, human lives are no different from chickens"
Yang Chen spoke in the tone of someone whose fate was already sealed.
"Haha, you know what, Teacher Lin? If I had a girlfriend as gorgeous and caring as you, I might actually consider living in this cursed world." After saying that, he silently added in his heart,
'Of course, this only applies to milfs, mature women, and oyakodon situations.'
Hearing Yang Chen joke in such a regretful tone, Lin Yulan, who had been struggling to decide what to do, suddenly showed an expression like she had just solved a difficult riddle.
Moreover, she noticed a hidden desire deep in Yang Chen's eyes every time he looked at her.
Lin Yulan was not a naive woman. She could clearly tell that Yang Chen was talking about her. In normal times, she would have rejected him straight away, just like she had done countless times before.
But right now, she couldn't bring herself to do it.
With a deep breath, Lin Yulan looked at Yang Chen and said,
"Yang Chen, if you can come back alive and well from the Abyssal Trials, I promise to be your girlfriend."
Lin Yulan's face turned bright red, and even the tips of her ears became flushed. After speaking, she quickly looked away, not wanting to meet his eyes.
Seeing this reaction, Yang Chen sneered inwardly.
How could a woman respected by the higher-ups of the college be so simple?
He knew Lin Yulan was most likely lying to him. And even if the promise was real, Yang Chen understood that the world was not kind, especially in this apocalyptic place where people backstab each other for their own benefit.
Without some kind of solid guarantee, Yang Chen would never trust anyone except himself. But he had already gotten what he wanted.
From this short encounter, he could sense that Lin Yulan's affection toward him had grown. By making her give him that promise, he had planted a clear image of himself in her heart.
He didn't know exactly how deep it went, but Lin Yulan was bound to remember him whenever she thought about finding a boyfriend.
Having figured that out, Yang Chen looked at her with a mix of surprise and delight on his face and said,
"Teacher Lin, even if there's no guarantee that you'll actually keep your promise, I can't help but feel hope and anticipation now."
"And it seems like living a little longer might not be so bad after all."
As he muttered those words, his ruby-red eyes shone brightly like stars in the night sky. Before she could reply, in the next second, a dark blue light enveloped Yang Chen along with one million other teenagers who had just turned eighteen this year.
Whoosh* Whoosh* Whoosh*
Pillars of light shot up all over the world. After the light faded, the participants vanished from their spots, and a heavy, gloomy atmosphere settled over the hearts of parents, relatives, and friends left behind.
Countless system interfaces appeared in the sky. People stared at them while praying silently, hoping that the participants in the Abyssal Trials would return safely without any accidents.
[Batch No-0001
Dungeon name: XXX
Difficulty: F-rank dungeon
Participants: 100]
...
[Batch No-0069
Dungeon name: XXX
Difficulty: F-rank dungeon
Participants: 100]
...
[Batch No-0690
Dungeon name: XXX
Difficulty: F-rank dungeon
Participants: 100]
Looking at the data that appeared after the interfaces loaded, people all over the world let out sighs of relief. But that wasn't the case for everyone.
In the city of Golden Leaf, inside Sunrise College, everyone's faces turned horrified. Sweat drenched their backs.
Most of them collapsed to the floor and started crying. Lin Yulan, staring at the interface, also fell to the ground. Her face had gone pale with terror.
[Batch No-6969
Dungeon name: Hidden Crust Village
Difficulty: C-rank dungeon
Participants: 100]
"W-what? Hidden Crust Village?" a male teacher shouted in an exaggerated voice.
"And it's a C-rank dungeon," a nerdy student added in a trembling, frightened tone.
"It's over... it's all over... they're all going to die."
"This is impossible!!!"
"Nooo! Brother Wu, how could you leave me like this? In this world, you're the only one who ever understood my pure love!"
Ye Bing, a male student, shed tears of blood and slammed his head against the floor.
Hearing his words, people looked at him with disgust. Some even spat on the ground.
Unexpectedly, a girl standing next to Ye Bing suddenly collapsed as if she had heard the worst nightmare.
"No... no!!!!"
"It can't be... how... how can he be gay!!!!"
After muttering those words with her last bit of strength, the girl fainted on the floor. Everyone looked at her with pity.
All the students and teachers of Sunrise College began mourning for their friends and students who were now gone.
...
Spectral cultivation had one major unsolved problem: humans could only absorb spectral energy after clearing at least one dungeon.
Even after years of research, scientists and experts still couldn't find a way around it.
But they could at least reduce the number of deaths because most people got F-rank dungeons for their first Abyssal Trial.
Those were relatively easy if participants had proper training and the right knowledge.
In an F-rank dungeon, the ghosts were only at the level of Specter Novice.
Because of that, the casualty rate for F-rank dungeons usually reached up to 30%, and if participants were lucky, it could drop as low as 10%.
That was why everyone panicked when they saw C-rank difficulty. They knew it would be a complete massacre. No one would come back alive.
...
Lin Yulan had a lifeless expression after seeing the interface.
When she remembered the innocent smile Yang Chen gave her right before he vanished, guilt swallowed her heart whole. She already felt guilty for deceiving him with a fake promise.
Lin Yulan realized she never should have gotten involved with him at all. She had given false hope to someone who seemed ready to die and pushed him to keep living.
But in a C-rank dungeon, one that even she had struggled to clear, how could someone with no cultivation base possibly survive?
In desperation, she prayed silently in her heart, begging for him to return alive.
'Yang Chen, if you can survive this, I will really become your girlfriend. And if you want... even your wife.'
...
Yang Chen, who was traveling through endless space toward the C-rank dungeon, suddenly heard a melodious voice inside his mind.
It was a female voice that carried both a motherly warmth and a seductive charm.
[Fu~Fu~ Host has awakened the Primordial Pervert System because of rizzing up a busty milf in just 15 minutes]