A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

Rain Crow stiffened.

He looked up at the roaring sea of fire. The woman tied to the chair wailed in agony, flames searing every inch of her skin.

She struggled, rocking the chair violently as the fire blistered its white paint to black.

The woman was unmistakably his wife, Xia Wenna.

Yet Rain Crow kept his distance. Only a faint tremor in his gaze betrayed his emotions; he wasn’t stupid enough to believe the person in front of him was actually his wife.

What truly chilled him was what this scene implied. This ”White Jack” knew his true identity perfectly; otherwise, how could he have taken his wife’s exact appearance?

The fire continued to rage, spreading to every corner of the warehouse as it crept up rusted equipment and peeling pillars.

As Rain Crow stood in grim silence, Xia Wenna’s flame-bathed face warped.

It morphed into the face of his daughter, Xia Zili.

”Dad, why aren’t you saving me? Are you really going to watch me burn to death?” Xia Zili pleaded indignantly, her nose wrinkling. Blistering red and charred black marks scarred her face.

But the moment those words left her mouth, her tone shifted. Her features twisted into the likeness of Ke Mingqing, who spoke in a listless drawl:

”You’re so cruel, Dad... Just going to watch your wife, daughter, and son burn to death?”

He dragged out the words. Half of his face was burned down to gruesome flesh and bone, while the other half remained completely untouched.

The fire grew fiercer. Rain Crow lowered his head and took a deep breath. The moment Ke Mingqing’s face appeared in the flames, he could no longer remain indifferent.

A flock of crows erupted from behind him with a cacophony of caws, sweeping toward the blaze with a torrential sheet of rain. In moments, the flock extinguished the warehouse fire.

Rain Crow stepped across the scorched ground, walking toward the chair.

His hand shot out, gripping Ke Mingqing’s throat and hoisting him high into the air.

Rain Crow stared straight into Ke Mingqing’s eyes, glaring like a ravenous beast. He demanded, biting off every word:

”Tell me... how do you know them?”

”Who knows...” Ke Mingqing said, raising a right hand that had been burned down to the bone and waving it at him. ”I just know you’d rather watch your own son burn alive like this than come save me.”

”Do you even call yourself a father?” he asked softly.

”Tell me!” Rain Crow roared. ”How do you know them—!”

Violent light flared in his eyes beneath the helmet. His hoarse, low voice echoed through the warehouse, wrapped in an uncontrollable fury that poured into Ke Mingqing’s ears like a tidal wave.

Yet Ke Mingqing remained silent. He just looked up, the eyeball in the charred half of his face bulging as he stared unblinkingly at Rain Crow.

Rain Crow fell silent.

He lowered his face, narrowing his eyes as he met Ke Mingqing’s gaze.

The boy’s expression was calm—an eerie sort of calm. A mocking sneer danced in his eyes.

A moment later, Rain Crow loosened his grip, dropping Ke Mingqing to the floor. Then, without warning, he threw a vicious punch.

Slash—!

The blade on his wrist slashed across Ke Mingqing’s throat, leaving a bloody trail, just as Rain Crow’s fist smashed brutally into the untouched half of his face.

The blow caved Ke Mingqing’s face inward with a sickening crunch of shattering bone.

His head knocked aside, Ke Mingqing spat out a mouthful of blood with a blank look in his eyes. After a long moment, he stiffly turned his head back. ”Oh my god... Bro Crow, is this how you usually beat your kids at home?”

His expression didn’t change. He simply watched Rain Crow quietly with that bulging, bloodshot eye.

”It feels great, but my idol filter of you is shattering. Could you not be so vio—” Before he could finish, Rain Crow delivered another heavy punch, sending his frail body flying over ten meters away.

Crash—!

Ke Mingqing’s body smashed into the warehouse wall, kicking up a cloud of dust.

A moment later, he pulled himself out of the crater and slid down the fractured wall.

He slumped onto the ground, his head and arms hanging limp.

”Get up. Let’s continue...”

Rain Crow muttered in a hoarse, gloomy tone, stepping toward him.

The warehouse was dead silent; his footsteps rang out crisp and clear.

Above, the murder of crows fluttered their wings, cawing in restless agitation.

As he drew near, the dying Ke Mingqing lifted his head and coughed.

”Don’t you have a strict no-killing rule? Why are you hitting so hard... Come on, I almost became the first criminal to die by your hands. But that’d be fine too, since you’d remember me for the rest of your life—”

Before he could finish, Rain Crow launched another heavy punch at that sickening, mutilated face. But this time, his fist struck empty air, smashing into the wall and leaving a deep crater.

Cracks spiderwebbed outward from the point of impact.

Breathing heavily, Rain Crow raised his head.

White Jack’s body had dissolved into wisps of dissipating smoke. Yet his mocking, low voice still echoed through the air:

”Good, very good. I’ll remember the choice you made this time, Mr. Rain Crow... Just because I’m a criminal, not only do you refuse to save me, you also beat me to a pulp...

”Remember what I told you before? The person I kidnapped was an admirer of yours.

”But in reality, the poor bastard I chose was a damn drug dealer. That’s right... The world really is this absurd. A drug dealer actually idolized a superhero, when he should have hated you to the core.”

White Jack sighed softly.

”Of course, this just highlights your hypocrisy... But let me ask you: if the next person I kidnap is your son, will you make the same choice? Will you still be able to guarantee you’ll be this ’righteous’ and ’selfless’?”

At that, Rain Crow narrowed his eyes beneath the helmet.

White Jack paused and lowered his voice. ”Oh, let me think. You have two sons. One is away at college, and the other is attending a local high school. Which one should I pick?”

He laughed. ”How about I pick the younger one... After all, your reaction was massive when I turned into him. You can’t fake that.”

”You should be happy. It was your sheer fury that made me decide on my target. Now I know who you care about most among your family.

”And consider this a preview. I didn’t broadcast this one live, so you should thank me for not exposing your identity to the public... But next time, I won’t just kidnap your son. I’ll broadcast this little game of ours to the whole world.

”I’ll ruin you. I’ll make sure the entire world remembers your hypocritical face.”

With those haunting last words, White Jack’s voice vanished completely.

It’s Raining.

The torrential downpour instantly engulfed the world. Fat raindrops hammered against the shattered windows. Rain Crow stood alone in the abandoned warehouse, silent for a long time.

It had been over twenty years since Ke Mingwei first put on the mask.

Since his debut, he had strictly kept his life as a hero and his family separate, never allowing the two to cross paths. He had fought countless criminals and made enemies of countless more, but no one had ever learned his true identity.

Much less dragged his family into it.

This was the first time in his life that something like this had happened.

”White Jack...”

He lowered his head, softly murmuring the name.

A moment later, Rain Crow’s silhouette dissolved into a cawing tide of crows. They poured out of the warehouse, disappearing without a trace.