A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

The night deepened, and the chirping of cicadas across the Old Jingmai District grew faint. Inside an abandoned train station on the empty Platform 7, a solitary teenage boy stood before a row of lockers.

Ke Mingqing pulled off his Bird Beak Helmet and tilted his head back, exhaling a long, heavy breath. ’Next time, I’m just letting the puppet play the part,’ he thought. It was better to save himself the trouble, and safer that way, too.

Not that he had much choice. He spent most of his time cooped up in his room, sending his puppets out to do the work. It was like watching someone else play a video game all day—eventually, you wanted to grab the controller and get in on the action yourself.

Ke Mingqing peeled off his combat suit, stashing it inside locker number seven alongside the helmet. Changing back into his blue-and-white school uniform, he grabbed his backpack from the locker and headed out of the station.

He slung the bag over his shoulder and walked into the quiet night, the faint moonlight illuminating his path.

A soft ping came from his pocket—a WeChat notification. He pulled out his phone and checked the screen.

[Xia Zili: You went out to eat with your girlfriend?]

[Ke Mingqing: Yeah, didn’t Mom tell you? I just finished eating and am heading back.]

[Xia Zili: I asked An Youlu. She said you weren’t at that Japanese heiress’s place. It was just the two of them for dinner.]

[Xia Zili: Out with it. Where did you actually go?]

Ke Mingqing shrugged. ’Aren’t you a little too controlling, sis?’ he thought. ’Any boyfriend you get in the future is going to be tortured to death.’

[Ke Mingqing: I went to hang out at the abandoned train station. Remember? We used to play hide-and-seek there all the time when we were kids.]

After sending the text, he flipped his phone to silent mode and tucked it away.

The abandoned station wasn’t far from home. After a short walk, he stopped at his front door. He was just about to slide his key into the lock when the door swung open from the inside.

It was Ke Linye. He looked at Ke Mingqing, a smile in his clear eyes.

”Mom said you went out to dinner with your girlfriend. I figured you wouldn’t be back until late. Don’t tell me... you got dumped?”

”It was just dinner. How do you come up with this stuff?” Ke Mingqing shrugged.

”Come on in.”

Ke Mingqing ignored him and changed into a pair of indoor slippers.

He passed through the dark hallway and stepped into the brightly lit living room. His siblings were gathered around the sofa watching TV, while Xia Wenna sat in the kitchen reading the Animal Encyclopedia.

”Hey, hey, hey, look who’s back. Isn’t it the little toy boy being kept by his girlfriend?” Xia Ningzhi teased, not even turning her head.

”So what if I am?”

He grabbed a bottle of cola from the fridge, dropped his backpack, and sank tiredly into the sofa.

He was just about to twist the cap off when he noticed a girl in a flax-colored nightgown staring quietly at him. He met her gaze.

Xia Zili’s eyes practically screamed the question: Where did you actually go?

It seemed she hadn’t blown his cover in front of the others.

If they found out he hadn’t gone to his girlfriend’s place for dinner, they would gossip relentlessly, interrogating him to the bitter end and accusing him of learning bad habits—like two-timing—at such a young age.

For now, both Xia Ningzhi and Ke Linye had their attention fixed on the TV.

The Leijing News Channel was broadcasting breaking news. The anchor read slowly from a script:

”The superhero Top Hero and an unofficial hero calling himself Blue Pigeon worked together to apprehend the wanted criminal Cyan Bat. Following the incident, White Jack made a public appearance on Old Leijing Commercial Street, issuing a death threat to the rookie hero Blue Pigeon, claiming that his costume might attract the supervillain...”

The anchor abruptly cut himself off, as if bound by an official regulation forbidding that specific name from being spoken on air.

”Isn’t that just a death wish?” Ke Linye tilted his head, resting his cheek against his hand as he yawned. ”The last superhero who debuted by mimicking Rain Crow got sliced into pieces. Admirable courage, though.”

Xia Ningzhi pondered this. ”Is Clock Maker really that strong? Rain Crow hasn’t been able to catch him all these years.”

”Clock Maker is a time-system ability user, after all,” Ke Linye said plainly. ”Among super-human species of the same tier, that’s easily the most difficult type to deal with.”

Ke Mingqing took a sip of his cola and asked, ”How do you know so much, bro? Don’t tell me you’re one of those power-scaling nerds who spends all day scrolling forums and arguing with people about who’s stronger.”

Ke Linye flipped a page in his book and smiled. ”Of course not. Just things I’ve heard online.”

Seeing that Ke Mingqing was ignoring her, Xia Zili turned her face away, visibly sulking. She lowered her eyes, abandoning the WeChat screen on her phone—there was no point when he wasn’t replying anyway.

”By the way, where’s Dad?” Ke Mingqing asked casually.

”Same as always. Went out to buy cigarettes after dinner,” Ke Linye replied.

...

...

At the same time, in the city center, inside the twenty-fifth-floor lounge of the Super Hero Company’s Leijing branch.

Draped in a pitch-black cloak, Ke Mingwei stood quietly in front of a full-length mirror. He stared at his reflection, feeling as though he were looking at a complete stranger.

The TV next to him was still playing the latest Leijing news broadcast, currently showing a clip of surveillance footage from the scene. Blue Pigeon’s voice sounded incredibly young. Even through a voice changer, that tone couldn’t be faked.

Ke Mingwei closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Once again, his mind drifted back to that dreary, rainy day, and to the horrific sight he had witnessed through the downpour.

A massive screen had sat atop a skyscraper. In the video, the superhero Grey Owl had been bound to a pillar, with a white-clothed table set up beside him bearing all sorts of torture devices.

The young man had been covered in blood. Pale-faced, he had tilted his head to the sky and howled in despair:

”Save me, Rain Crow! Hurry, save me—! Get me away from this madman!”

His hoarse, desperate pleas had blasted through the screen, echoing across the entire plaza, deafening even over the heavy rain.

But Ke Mingwei hadn’t been able to save him.

The next morning brought another gloomy, rainy day. At the entrance of the Super Hero Company, he had found dismembered human organs scattered in pieces. Suspended in the center of the carnage was a head, mutilated entirely beyond recognition.

After a long while, Ke Mingwei opened his eyes, shaking himself free from the memory.

He looked into the mirror, catching the reflection of the TV screen and the figure in the blue combat suit.

A cold, sharp light flickered in Ke Mingwei’s eyes. He knew he had to stop this young man.

Yet, at the same time, a wildly dangerous and utterly unthinkable idea crept into his mind.

Perhaps he could use Blue Pigeon to lure out the long-hidden Clock Maker. Perhaps this feud between them, which had raged for twenty long years, could finally be put to an end.

’Will I regret this?’

Using a total stranger—a young man with a promising future—was not something the old him would have ever done, Ke Mingwei thought.

Ke Mingwei took a deep breath and put on the pitch-black helmet symbolizing Rain Crow. The black beak stretched forward like a razor-sharp blade.

Tonight, acting as the representative of the Leijing Super Hero Branch, he was scheduled to meet with an S Rank Executive from the Hero Control Bureau: ”Zero”.

Zero had claimed there were classified matters that had to be communicated to Rain Crow in person. And Rain Crow had vaguely heard that this highly confidential matter revolved around a certain term:

—”player.”