48: Chapter 48 First Place on Three Lists. Bai Nian's Question. Contracted Beast Mo Lingxue!

The moment Lin Qing heard the announcement, his scalp went numb.

"System, you fucking know how to show off!"

Now it's great, I'm practically being roasted over an open fire!

Three huge golden leaderboards slowly unfolded across everyone's retinas.

[Personal Level Leaderboard]

First Place: District 91, Building 0, Dormitory 9001 - Lin Qing (Junior Elite)

Second Place: District 91, Building 0, Dormitory 9001 - Bai Nian (Intermediate Good)

Third Place: District 91, Building 6002 - Ruan Ruoruo (Junior Good)

Fourth Place: District 91, Building 0, Dormitory 9001 - Su Mengmeng (Junior Good)

Fifth Place: District 91, Building 0, Dormitory 9001 - Su Xixi (Junior Good)

Sixth Place: District 91, Building 0, Dormitory 9001 - An Mumu (Junior Good)

...

[Dormitory Comprehensive Leaderboard]

First Place: Dormitory 9001, Building 0, District 91 (Dormitory Head: Lin Qing)

...

[Life Profession Potential Leaderboard]

First Place: Lin Qing (SSS-Rank)

...

Sweeping the leaderboards! A blatant leaderboard sweep!

The entire survival world fell completely silent at this moment.

Following the dead silence was a frantic eruption on the World Channel!

"What the fuck?! What's a life profession? The point is that guy named Lin Qing is first on all three leaderboards! It's him again! Is this asshole the system's biological son?!"

"Building 0? Isn't that hell difficulty? You call this a hellish start? Whoever says being assigned to Building 0 means certain death, I'll fight them!"

"I'm crying, we're still beating our brains out over a bottle of water, and that guy has already started pushing game version updates!"

"Dormitory 9001... occupying five of the top six spots... How the fuck is anyone supposed to play?!"

...

Meanwhile, in District 91, Dormitory 6002.

Inside a room decorated as luxuriously as a palace, a girl wearing a gothic lolita dress was trimming her nails with a diamond-inlaid dagger.

Upon hearing the two words "Lin Qing", Ruan Ruoruo's eyes, which always carried a hint of world-weariness, suddenly burst with a huge wave of pleasant surprise.

"Older brother... It's older brother! He really is in Building 0!!!"

But when her gaze moved down the leaderboard and saw that dazzling string of names—"Bai Nian", "Su Mengmeng", "Su Xixi", "An Mumu"... that trace of light instantly grew cold again.

She curled her lips, "Humph..."

Ruan Ruoruo stood up, her icy gaze sweeping over the girls around her who were still exclaiming in shock.

"A bunch of good-for-nothings, I can't even carry you."

"Until now, the strongest among you has only just reached ordinary high-tier. What do you have to compare with Bai Nian and the others? Are you going to compare with your heads?"

"If you keep slacking off like this, forget about meat, you won't even get to drink soup!"

She needed to grow stronger, and she had to bring this group of good-for-nothings along to grow stronger too.

She had to go find older brother.

Otherwise, she probably wouldn't even qualify to fight those women for him!

...

Inside Dormitory 9001.

Lin Qing felt somewhat uncomfortable under the girls' burning gazes, which were mixed with adoration and reliance.

Looking at their worn weapons, their exhausted yet good-tier auras, and this dormitory that had been thoroughly transformed into a miniature fortress, a surge of immense emotion and guilt welled up in his heart.

He took a deep breath, raised his hand to wipe away the tear stains on Su Xixi's face, patted Su Mengmeng's head, and promised word by word:

"You've worked hard. From now on, things like this will never happen again."

Right at this tender moment.

Bai Nian's cold and detached voice shattered the atmosphere.

"Lin Qing, regarding the development of the dormitory, I want to talk to you alone."

She stepped back from Lin Qing's embrace, recovering the composure and rationality of a monitor, though her slightly red eye sockets exposed her uncalm inner thoughts.

Her gaze swept between him, Su Mengmeng, and An Mumu, her eyes turning somewhat complex.

Lin Qing was stunned, then smiled: "There are fifteen of us in total now, not a single one more or less. Whatever you have to say, just say it right here. There's nothing that can't be heard."

"Are you sure?"

"Mhm." Lin Qing nodded.

Bai Nian seemed to have made up her mind as she looked straight into his eyes and asked word by word: "You and Mengmeng, is there something... you're hiding from us?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire room fell silent.

Su Mengmeng's face instantly turned pale, and she subconsciously gripped Lin Qing's arm, her fingertips trembling.

An Mumu's heart also skipped a beat, and her gaze drifted away for a second.

Lin Qing's heart skipped a beat.

This woman noticed something abnormal so quickly?

Seeing Lin Qing remain silent, Bai Nian thought she had put him in a difficult position and was about to brush the matter aside.

But Lin Qing spoke up first.

He thought about it and felt that things had reached this point; further concealment was pointless.

The ones left in Dormitory 9001 were all partners who could entrust their backs to one another.

He patted Su Mengmeng's hand in comfort and, meeting all the girls' probing gazes, said calmly:

"That's right, Mengmeng's talent indeed has a hidden trait."

"It's called Generous Propagation."

Lin Qing paused and dropped the real bombshell.

"Seven days after Mengmeng completed her first 'procedure', the Offspring Kindling would randomly 'propagate' to a person of the same sex in Dormitory 9001."

"Then, the next one, seven days later, it will continue."

"And as for An Mumu," he turned his gaze to An Mumu, "she happened to inhale too much of the aura drifting through the door crack, accidentally catalyzing and binding the Offspring Kindling ahead of time."

Dead silence.

In the entire hall, you could hear a pin drop.

Talent... can it even be transmitted?

And in this kind of way?!

A few seconds later, everyone's gazes snapped all at once to focus on An Mumu.

An Mumu's face had already turned red enough to drip blood.

"Good one, An Mumu!"

Su Xixi was the first to react, pointing at her through gritted teeth, "I was wondering why you were acting all sneaky; turns out you really stole a bite!"

"What do you mean stealing a bite! This is called being near the water gets the moonlight first!" An Mumu retorted with a stiff neck, though her voice was as soft as a mosquito's hum.

Girls with pure minds like Shen Zhiyi had crimson cheeks, subconsciously twisting the corners of their clothes, their brains tangled in a complete mess.

In other words... in the future...

Any single one of them might possibly...

"Ahem." Lin Qing gave two dry coughs, pulling everyone's attention back.

"It's just a talent trait; it doesn't mean those who are bound have to do anything."

"All choices are built on a voluntary basis. I respect every single one of you."

Looking at Lin Qing's open and calm gaze, the panic and shame in the girls' hearts gradually subsided.

At this moment.

Suddenly, a playful voice came over: "Good one, Mengmeng, with such a good thing, why did you still want to hide it from your sisters? That's so uncool!"

The dormitory atmosphere suddenly became even more subtle and ambiguous.

"Ahem!! Alright, let's talk about serious business." Lin Qing hurriedly changed the subject, afraid they would ask any more wild and inappropriate things, "I brought back some 'local specialties' from the dungeon."

With a thought, he dumped out all the supplies crammed into his twenty-slot backpack in one go.

Clatter—!

Three small casting furnaces, a mountain of down jackets and thermal underwear.

Countless canned foods, cigarettes, chocolate... instantly piled up into a colorful little mountain in the dormitory hall.

"..."

Looking at these supplies that were comparable to gold during the Cold Disaster, the girls were completely dumbfounded.

The next second.

"Ah—! Down jackets! It's canned beef!"

The earth-shattering cheers almost blew the roof off!

They pounced forward like crazy, hugging the thick down jackets, so excited that they wanted to strip off their old clothes and change into them immediately.

Lin Qing just wanted to consciously turn around.

"Brother Qing, we're all your people from now on, some things... have already been seen, what are you pretending to be proper for?"

An Mumu had already stripped off her shabby coat in a few moves, wearing only her form-fitting undergarments, and cast a charming wink at him with a smile.

For a moment, the spring scenery leaked inside the hall, dazzling Lin Qing's eyes.

He simply stopped pretending, folded his arms, and leaned against the doorframe to enjoy the view calmly.

A moment later, everyone happily changed into brand-new clothes.

"Brother Qing, quickly tell us what that [Spirit Controlling God] is?" Su Mengmeng put on a pink down jacket, looking like a cute glutinous rice dumpling, her eyes filled with adoration.

"A life profession that can contract spirit bodies." Lin Qing explained concisely. With a thought, a black contract space entrance materialized beside him.

Inside the space, a stunningly cold and glamorous woman wearing black tight-fitting beast-hide clothes, a pair of furry beast ears, and a long tail was sitting cross-legged on the ground, glaring angrily at Lin Qing.

"Wow! A beast-ear girl!" The girls let out a gasp of amazement.

Seeing this chick who almost took his life still daring to look at him like that, Lin Qing couldn't help but feel a burst of anger.

"What are you glaring at? Unconvinced? Since you've become a contracted beast, you'll be a contracted beast for the rest of your life."

"Banlan? So tacky. Your true form is a mass of black fog without even a single white dot, so from now on you'll be called 'Mo Lingxue'. Hear me?"

The contracted beast named Banlan, now renamed Mo Lingxue, shuddered all over, biting her lips in humiliation without daring to retort.

"Wow, Mo Lingxue, what a nice name!" An Mumu praised, "Brother Qing really knows how to name things! In the future, the children..."

"...Right, Lin Qing," seeing the topic drifting off-course again, Bai Nian quickly changed the subject.

She asked seriously, "The karma you owe that person in... 9014, have you paid it off?"

Hearing this question, the hall instantly fell quiet.

Lin Qing's expression turned somewhat inexplicable.

He raised his eyes to look in the direction of that vermilion large door, his gaze filled with a complexity Bai Nian had never seen before.

"I suppose it's paid off!"

He thought about it and said, "She is... a teacher!"