A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

Dusk, chirping cicadas, a dimming sky.

Nightfall steadily swallowed the graffiti on the red-brick exterior.

Inside the old apartment building, warm orange light spilled through the living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows.

The news anchor reported two breaking stories. Immediately afterward, Ke Mingwei, Xia Zili, and Xia Ningzhi all found excuses to slip away at the exact same moment.

The three of them stared at one another.

From Ke Mingqing’s perspective, they looked like robots whose core directives had just been triggered. He wanted to laugh but had to force it down.

Could your excuses be any lamer? he thought. Do you think everyone else in this house is a muggle with a sub-80 IQ?

Ke Mingwei turned his head, shooting the two sisters a surprised look.

A cigarette dangled from his lips. ”You’re heading out now?” he asked, his voice muffled. ”Wenna is almost done cooking.”

”Yeah, Dad. I’ve got the college entrance exam tomorrow, and a lot of crucial notes are in my workbook. I have to hurry back to school and grab it.”

Xia Ningzhi forced a smile, unhurriedly plucking the hairpin from her head as she spoke. Her small bun unraveled, letting a waterfall of smooth black hair cascade down.

She snatched her backpack off the sofa and headed for the door.

”I stood a friend up this afternoon. If I bail on her again tonight, she’ll hold a grudge against me for the rest of her life,” Xia Zili said, her face expressionless. ”If you two hadn’t lost your minds and reminded me, I would’ve completely forgotten.”

With that, she made a clean exit. She moved swiftly, bringing nothing with her, still wearing a loose T-shirt and shorts.

[D Rank item ”Tracking Sunglasses” has locked onto the location of the super-human species ”Red Lotus”.]

Ke Mingqing glanced at the system notification panel, then silently returned the sunglasses to his inventory so Rain Crow wouldn’t notice anything suspicious.

Taking a sip of his ice-cold cola, he looked up and changed the channel with the remote.

By now, the two sisters were already out the door. Xia Zili had slipped on her sandals by the shoe cabinet and left quietly.

Xia Ningzhi, meanwhile, held a hair tie in her teeth as she pulled her hair into a high ponytail, awkwardly jamming her feet into her sneakers and stomping loudly against the entryway floor.

She hadn’t eaten dinner yet and was feeling hungry, so she clamped a slice of bread in her mouth and plunged into the night.

The two girls dashed off in opposite directions.

As for why—Xia Zili could transform into a magical girl anywhere, anytime. She could summon her combat attire and weaponry in a flash, no matter her location.

Xia Ningzhi was a different story. She had to hide her combat suit in a secret location no one knew about. The house obviously wasn’t a suitable option; if Xia Wenna ever dug it up during a deep clean, it would make for quite the entertaining spectacle.

Ke Mingwei stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, then glanced down at Ke Mingqing on the sofa.

Ke Mingqing was staring down at his phone, looking completely oblivious to the world around him.

”Do your sisters usually go out this often at night?” Ke Mingwei asked in a low voice, standing with one hand on his hip as he replied to a text on his own phone.

Ke Mingqing shot him a brief look. He knew that if the terrifying Rain Crow discovered the girls’ true identities, he would strictly restrict their movements—or worse, ground them for a solid ten days to half a month.

Then what would happen to my upcoming main quests? he thought.

He couldn’t exactly summon the Theater Puppet into the house and wage an intense battle against them right under his alien mother’s nose.

So, Ke Mingqing decided to cover for them. ”They normally don’t go out much at night. Maybe they went to an underground screening club?”

”An underground screening club...”

Ke Mingwei pondered this, raising a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.

He was well aware that venues known as ”Crime Scene Underground Screening Clubs” had recently become wildly popular among the student population.

Whenever a crime occurred, bootleggers would find an inconspicuous corner at the scene and record the action, broadcasting the real-time footage onto large screens at these clubs for paying members to watch.

This profit model had emerged because any online livestream of a crime scene would inevitably be cut off and banned within minutes, and uploads of related video recordings were strictly restricted.

In such a restrictive environment, these screening venues quietly surfaced to satisfy public demand.

Bootleggers would hide in the corners of incident scenes, capturing complete footage of heroes battling criminals, and then screen it on their own massive displays to rake in a profit.

Whenever a crime occurred, if they had the time, some students would rush to these theater-like venues set up by the screening clubs. There, they would sit in front of a massive screen and watch live broadcasts of super-human species battles.

If they couldn’t make the live broadcast, they would watch the full, recorded footage instead.

Naturally, there was no shortage of bloody, brutal, and grim scenes among the footage, which happened to be the biggest draw for the audience...

While some people wanted to see the proud, triumphant figures of their heroes, others wanted to see those same heroes battered, bloodied, and stripped bare, even taking perverse pleasure in it. Among all the content, videos of magical girls being brutally tortured and killed boasted the highest view counts.

These underground screening clubs were illegal venues, a fact the students were well aware of. But to them, it was no different from visiting a porn site; no one shied away from it.

They simply harbored a desperate urge to witness the exploits of their favorite superheroes—and even the villains—with their own eyes. This was especially true for the fanatic worshippers of the super-human species.

Because of this, the annual net profit of an underground screening club could even exceed that of a small movie theater.

Ke Mingwei sighed. ”I’ll give them a good talking-to when they get back.”

”Sure thing, Dad. I’ll help you convince them to stop going to those screening clubs. Make sure to call me over when you lecture them,” Ke Mingqing said in a lazy drawl.

”They haven’t even been convicted yet, and you’re already eager to pile on.”

Ke Mingwei spoke with exasperation. He reached out to ruffle the boy’s hair, then turned and headed out the door.

”Dinner is ready.” A moment later, Xia Wenna turned around in her apron, a rare, faint smile curving her lips.

However, the alien mother looked around in bewilderment, finding only Ke Mingqing sitting on the sofa.

”A-Qing, where did everyone go?” she asked, tilting her head in confusion.

Ke Mingqing clicked off the TV with the remote and said nonchalantly, ”My little sister said she’s eating out with a friend, my third sister said she left her workbook at school, and Dad said he was going downstairs to buy cigarettes... Uh, you know how Dad is. Every time he goes out for a smoke, he won’t come back until he’s burned through two or three packs. Don’t expect him back for dinner.”

”Why did they have to leave at this hour?” Xia Wenna took off her apron. ”Mom worked so hard cooking this.”

”Maybe it’s because they think your cooking tastes terrible, Mom?”

Ke Mingqing fanned the flames, wanting to see how this alien would react.

The moment the words left his mouth, the living room lights flickered and dimmed, as if a breaker had tripped. In the sudden darkness, Xia Wenna’s eyes gave off an eerie blue glow.

No way... you seriously didn’t know your cooking was awful? I thought an alien who’s lived on Earth this long would have a shred of self-awareness by now! Ke Mingqing thought in shock.

A second later, the lights blazed back to life. Xia Wenna’s face still bore that perpetually drowsy expression, her eyes clouded as if covered by a layer of mist.

”A-Qing, do you also think my cooking tastes terrible?” Xia Wenna asked softly.

”How could I, Mom? Let’s just ignore those jerks and let them starve,” Ke Mingqing said quietly. ”I’ve been eating your food for years, how could I not like it? Ah... did the power just trip? Scared me for a second.”

”It trips occasionally.”

”Love you, Mom... Oh, my stomach hurts. Let me hit the bathroom upstairs, then I’ll come down to eat.”

With that, Ke Mingqing immediately slipped away. He took the stairs two at a time to the second floor, darted into his bedroom, and locked the door.

Too lazy to even flick on the lights, he sank into his leather desk chair and closed his eyes.

In the pitch-black room, he silently chanted, ”Theater Puppet.”

In an instant, a stark-white puppet wearing a top hat and clutching a cane appeared on the rooftop of the neighboring apartment building. It crouched atop the railing as usual, gazing out into the distant night sky.

White Jack donned the D Rank item ”Tracking Sunglasses,” and a map flickered to life, displaying Xia Ningzhi’s exact location.

She was rapidly approaching Highway Overpass Zero—the exact location where the vampire Stroh had struck, just as the news had reported earlier.