A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

Stepping into the train station and entering the dim tunnel, Ke Mingqing walked forward along the rusted tracks.

He looked around. Before him lay only thorns, moss, and wildly growing wildflowers.

The yellowed wall lamps in the tunnel no longer worked. The surroundings were pitch-black and dead silent.

It had been years since any maintenance crew had come here. Rainwater and moonlight leaked through a few gaps in the tunnel roof. The wildflowers along the tracks swayed in that isolated patch of moonlight and rain, a beautiful sight.

”Brother... did you come looking for me?” Suddenly, a childish yet eerie voice echoed from afar, carrying through the entire tunnel.

For some reason, she always drew out the word ”Brother” when she said it.

She sounded as if she were acting spoiled, or perhaps hoping the moment would last just a little bit longer.

Ke Mingqing remained silent.

He felt incredibly irritated. The situation with his mother still wasn’t resolved, and he just wanted to end this farce as quickly as possible.

But when he spoke, he still tried his best to put on a gentle tone, acting exactly how an older brother should when dealing with his young sister.”Yeah... I came looking for you,” Ke Mingqing said. ”You have to take her and hide well, wait for me to find you, and don’t bully your older sister. Understand?”

”I don’t understand. She’s not my sister.”

The witch’s voice drifted from the depths of the tunnel, washing over him like a dark, deep tide.

”Then who is she?” Ke Mingqing asked casually.

”An enemy. A thief. A burglar...” the witch mumbled after a moment of silence.

”Why would you think that?” Ke Mingqing scratched his head and sighed. ”What did she ever do to you?”

”The train station is supposed to be our secret base. Only we know about it... but if I didn’t bring her along, you wouldn’t play hide-and-seek with me. Brother... you’re so mean. Why are you always glued to her every day?”

”You didn’t do anything to her, did you?”

Ke Mingqing gazed into the distance, asking cautiously.

The witch suddenly giggled softly. ”You’ll know when you find her,” she said. ”Brother... you have to follow the rules. You can’t start looking until you count to thirty. I’ll hide really well.”

Following the voice, Ke Mingqing looked into the darkness deep within the tunnel. A stick-figure girl’s face seemed to hover there.

The girl clasped her hands behind her back and hummed ”Departures” in a childish voice before turning and walking back into the gloom.

Ke Mingqing watched her leave, staying where he was. He looked up at the ”Exterminate Superhumans” countdown panel floating above his head.

After the thirty-second countdown ended, he walked on and on down the tunnel, listening to the rustle of the rain.

A while later, only after the wind and rain had died down a bit, did he finally reach the exit.

He knew he couldn’t cheat, otherwise the witch would get angry, so he hadn’t used any player skills. Turning his head now, he saw an empty, deserted platform.

”Where are you? I’m coming to find you.”

Ke Mingqing spoke as he stepped onto the tracks, leaped upward, and landed on the platform.

The witch hadn’t planned on hiding at all, or rather, she couldn’t hide. He could see the trails of blue flame lingering in the air.

Following the trail, he walked forward until he stopped in front of one of the platform pillars.

He thought for a moment, circled around to the back of the pillar, and saw a young girl covering her face with both hands.

She turned her head and threw her hands open with a ”Wah!” revealing her face. That swirling vortex was gone; the corners of the girl’s stick-figure mouth were curving upward in a smile.

”Found you,” Ke Mingqing said, watching her quietly.

The witch lowered her head as if shy, and that messy vortex suddenly sprang up over her face once more.

”Yes, Brother... you found me,” the witch said softly. ”This is for you.”

Ke Mingqing looked down at the soggy yellow flower she had picked from the tunnel, then looked back up at her.

The stick-figure girl’s mouth stayed curved upward. Even through the vortex of scribbled lines, he could tell she was smiling—the kind of smile that was eagerly anticipating something.

”Brother... pat my head.”

The witch suddenly drew out her words, acting spoiled. Clasping her hands behind her back, she leaned her body toward Ke Mingqing and dropped her head.

Ke Mingqing didn’t rest his hand on her hair.

”Brother... pat my head,” the witch repeated, tilting her head. But this time, a trace of confusion crept into her tone.

Ke Mingqing still didn’t do as she asked. Instead, he silently took the yellow flower and placed it on top of her head.

He knew this game of hide-and-seek wasn’t over yet, because he still hadn’t found Kuroki Hitomi. Ke Mingqing looked around the empty platform and soon figured it out.

He turned and walked over to the storage lockers. Hesitating for a second, he reached out and opened one.

The sight inside made him freeze.

Normally, these storage lockers were divided into many small cubbies for different passengers to store their belongings. But right now, all those dividers were gone, leaving only one large, empty space, much like a wardrobe.

And standing inside that locker was a blue figure.

That was right. The Blue Pigeon Battle Suit wasn’t folded up. It was propped open as if someone were hiding inside it, standing silently in the locker.

He didn’t even have to think to know who was inside; in fact, there was only one possibility.

He expertly peeled the Blue Pigeon Battle Suit away, and Kuroki Hitomi, wearing only a nightgown and tank top, slipped out from within.

She slumped into his arms, and Ke Mingqing gently picked her up.

Remaining silent, he looked down to check her body. Only after confirming she had no injuries did he turn back to look at the stick-figure girl.

The witch touched the top of her head, took down the flower, and stared at it quietly in her palm.

”Brother, do you not like my gift?” the witch asked softly, looking at his back. She wasn’t acting spoiled this time, as if she had subtly picked up on his mood.

”You can’t do this again,” Ke Mingqing suddenly said, turning around with Kuroki Hitomi in his arms.

The witch looked up, staring into his eyes unblinkingly as if trying to confirm something. Ke Mingqing sighed wordlessly, his expression cold.

”From now on, you’re not allowed to bring anyone else along to play, and you can’t let them find out. Our game is only for us.” Ke Mingqing paused, then added coldly, ”Otherwise, I’ll hate you. Do you understand?”

The witch froze.

A moment later, the vortex of lines on her face suddenly twisted into a tight knot, jumping and twitching in a chaotic mess.

Behind the vortex, her dot-like stick-figure eyes widened, tearing up as if she were crying.

She really just has the mind of a child. If I talk to her nicely, she’ll probably listen, right? One time is enough; I won’t be able to handle a second time, Ke Mingqing thought.

”But... Brother...” the witch finally spoke up after a moment of silence.

”But what?” Ke Mingqing said coldly. ”If you don’t listen to me, I’m not your brother anymore.”

”Brother...”

”Do you not understand me?” Ke Mingqing lowered his voice.

The stick-figure girl lowered her head and muttered, ”If I didn’t bring her along to play, she would have been caught by Mom. If that happened, Brother... you would be sad.”

Ke Mingqing was stunned.

He suddenly recalled Xia Wenna appearing in the last room of the hallway. Indeed, if there was anyone in that house who could sense Xia Wenna’s movements, it would probably be this witch, whose true depths were equally unknown.

After a while, he looked up at this bizarre girl.

Her eyes were just like the vortex on her face—every line was spinning, like the swirls on a lollipop.

Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve, he thought.

”Does Brother... hate me now?” the stick-figure girl asked suddenly. Her voice was very soft, devoid of any real emotion.

”I misjudged you.” Ke Mingqing hesitated for a moment. ”Next time, you have to tell me first, okay?” Saying that, he reached out and patted the top of her head.

He figured that once the witch swallowed more and more memories, she would never be this innocent again. He had to cherish this time, because heaven knew what she would turn into later.

The stick-figure girl still seemed unhappy. She held the yellow flower up high and said, ”Brother... eat it. Or else I’ll get angry.”

Ke Mingqing gave her a silent look, took the soggy yellow flower, and popped it into his mouth. He swallowed it without even chewing, then asked in exasperation, ”Are you satisfied now?”

The witch tilted her head in surprise at first, then laughed. She giggled, the vortex on her face no longer spinning wildly, the tears vanishing from her eyes. In the next instant, the swirling lines covering the girl’s face disappeared entirely.

Xia Zili was back. Her eyes closed, she slumped toward the ground in exhaustion. Ke Mingqing quickly stepped forward and caught her.

The platform was completely silent.

Besides Ke Mingqing, not a single person here was awake. He let out a long breath, his legs turning to jelly as he sat down on a public bench, staring blankly out at the curtain of rain.

Pea-sized raindrops fell from the sky in crisp parabolas. The rusted tracks were soaked through, giving off a musty smell.

After resting for a moment, Ke Mingqing scooped Kuroki Hitomi up in his arms, hoisted Xia Zili onto his back, and turned back into the tunnel.

Just like that, he walked outward step by step until he reached the tunnel entrance. Taking advantage of the fact that the sky was still dark and the rain hadn’t stopped, Ke Mingqing transformed into a streak of deep blue lightning and sped off toward the Xia-Ke residence.

Before long, he landed on the deck outside his bedroom and slipped in through the French windows.

Ke Mingqing pondered for a moment before letting go of Kuroki Hitomi and laying her on his bed.

Then, carrying Xia Zili on his back, he walked out of the bedroom and strode down the pitch-black hallway, making his way to her room step by step.

Then the only thing left is dealing with Mom, Ke Mingqing thought, glancing toward the stairs leading to the third floor. I might as well just dispel the puppet. And with Kuroki Hitomi in my room, Mom probably wouldn’t dare try something like that a second time.

...

...

Meanwhile, inside a black-and-white world blanketed in static.

Another ”Kuroki Hitomi” opened her eyes. She was currently being suspended in midair by mechanical tentacles, completely immobilized, as noises like a glitching television sputtered around her.

At this very moment, Xia Wenna stood quietly in front of her, murmuring:

”No, ???... then who is ???”

Watching his alien mother unleash her scientific curiosity on a puppet, Ke Mingqing couldn’t help but want to laugh. He thought to himself: Research all you want, if you can actually figure something out from that, I’ll admit defeat.

”White Jack...” Xia Wenna suddenly uttered the name and tilted her head. ”Are you... my son’s girlfriend?”

Ke Mingqing blanked for a second before clicking his tongue inwardly. You have some bizarre tastes, Mom. I don’t swing that way for myself, and even if I did, I wouldn’t go for a guy...

Since Xia Wenna had already seen through it, Ke Mingqing couldn’t be bothered to pretend anymore. He controlled the Theater Puppet to slowly strip away its disguise, reverting to that hollow, terrifying, bone-white humanoid figure.

At that moment, White Jack was still wearing the women’s tank top and short skirt duplicated by the Mirror Clothing. He looked up at Xia Wenna and said in a ghostly tone, ”We meet again, Miss Alien. Why have we been so intimate these past two days? Having secret trysts every single day... Crow Man is going to get mad at me.”

Xia Wenna stared at him silently, her voice low and cold when she spoke.

”Question. What is your relationship with Kuroki Hitomi?”

”Is there any possibility, Miss Xia Wenna, that a kidnapping just took place in your home?” White Jack said.

”I kidnapped you?”

White Jack shook his head. ”No, I mean that I kidnapped your son’s girlfriend... Kuroki Hitomi, and disguised myself as her, lying in bed waiting for another tryst with you.”

He paused. ”Are you touched? I prepared this surprise for you so meticulously.”

Xia Wenna pondered for a moment before raising her static-clouded eyes.

”She’s a player, right?”

”Oh, oh, oh, of course not. She is merely a frail, pitiful Japanese girl,” White Jack said. ”Though I am curious—where did your suspicion of her stem from?”

Xia Wenna didn’t answer. It seemed she also knew White Jack was trying to bait information out of her.

”Alright, since you don’t want to talk, it doesn’t matter,” White Jack said. ”It’s quite late, and I’ve already had someone take Miss Kuroki Hitomi back...”

He tilted his head. ”But I am a gentleman. For her safety, I had her dropped off in her boyfriend’s room.”

”A’Qing...”

”Exactly.” White Jack looked away, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. ”If you are still so stubbornly misguided, Miss Alien, feel free to pull Miss Kuroki Hitomi in here and test her all over again.”

He paused. ”But I don’t think that’s a wise decision. After all, it’s almost dawn, and little A’Qing is still awake. Let me think, how does that phrase go again... you wouldn’t want your other children to see you looking like this, would you, Miss Xia Wenna?”

Xia Wenna fell silent for a moment.

Through the puppet’s perspective, Ke Mingqing looked at Xia Wenna’s static-shrouded face, admiring it playfully for a moment before commanding the Theater Puppet to dissipate into a wisp of smoke.

In the black-and-white world of static, White Jack vanished, but his voice still echoed through the air:

”Farewell, Miss Alien... I still think you should carefully consider the proposal I made last time. We players can help your Fangongta Alien race conquer this planet at the absolute lowest cost.”

White Jack continued, ”If you’re hesitating because you don’t understand the ’player’ group well enough, I can leak some intel to you. This shows the value of cooperation.”

Then, his tone suddenly shifted. ”Or perhaps you still harbor affection for your family. If so, I really don’t think it’s necessary.”

Xia Wenna looked up, silently watching that wisp of lingering smoke.

”Logically speaking, aliens have very long lifespans. You will meet countless families throughout your life,” White Jack murmured. ”And those new families will be worth bearing your true heart to, rather than constantly hiding your identity and playing house with your enemies.”

He sighed. ”Wake up. Your current family is entirely fake. Feeling even the slightest sliver of affection for them is utterly foolish... now is the time to make a sacrifice for your planet and your people.”

As his voice faded, that wisp of snow-white smoke ceased making any sound. Xia Wenna was the only one left in the noisy space.

...

...

Back in reality.

Ke Mingqing turned the doorknob, pushed the door open, and entered Xia Zili’s room. As soon as he turned his head, he saw An Youlu dressed in her pajamas.

He froze slightly. The girl was sleeping in a completely chaotic jumble. The lower half of her body was on the bed, while her upper half was splayed across the floor. It was a remarkably bizarre sleeping posture.

Hearing Ke Mingqing’s movements, An Youlu suddenly propped her eyelids open, rubbed her eyes, and mumbled, ”Ah, isn’t it Mr. Blue Pigeon? What did you do to Senior?”

She thought for a second. ”So Mr. Blue Pigeon is the type to lay his hands on his own younger sister? That really shocks a country girl like me who grew up eating garbage for a whole year...”

As she spoke, the girl actually yawned, tilted her head, and drifted right back to sleep.

Ke Mingqing rolled his eyes at her. He then placed Xia Zili on the bed and dragged his utterly exhausted body into the bathroom.

He turned on the showerhead, rinsed his body off again, changed into a clean set of pajamas, and returned to his room.

He locked the door, stumbled over to his bed, and collapsed onto it. Taking one glance at Kuroki Hitomi’s profile, he slowly let his eyes slide shut.

The rain pattered continuously, and a pale fish-belly white was already slowly creeping over the edges of the sky.

The rest of the night passed in silence.

[Good morning to the venerable yet not-so-venerable Red Name Player, ’Ke Mingqing’.]

[The current time is 09:00 on Sunday, August 6th. The time limit for the ’Exterminate Superhumans’ task has—144 days, 15 hours, and 0 minutes remaining.]

At exactly nine in the morning, governed by his internal body clock, Ke Mingqing opened his eyes.

The chirping of cicadas closed in like an invisible wall. The ordinary, uneventful summer carried on. The clear sky was completely cloudless, and piercing sunlight shone through the French windows onto his cheek.

Ke Mingqing turned his head on the pillow and stared out the window in a daze for a while. It looked like last night’s rain had stopped a long time ago. A high-speed train roared past on the elevated tracks above.

He couldn’t fathom that so much had actually happened in a single night.

A moment later, Ke Mingqing groaned and sat up in bed, feeling his muscles ache all over.

He turned his head and saw that Kuroki Hitomi still hadn’t woken up. It seemed the witch had struck far too hard back then, placing a heavy burden on her mind.

Ke Mingqing reached out and poked the girl’s cheek with his index finger. Seeing that she still didn’t stir, he slowly looked away.

He let out a teary-eyed yawn and fished his backup phone out from under his pillow.

Turning it on, he saw a text sitting in his message inbox. The sender’s name was quite a rare sight.

[Xia Ningzhi: Are you free?]

Ke Mingqing raised an eyebrow, typed in the chat box, and hit send.

[White Jack: Long time no see. I’ve missed you terribly, Miss Red Lotus.]

[Xia Ningzhi: Let’s meet up, you white-white-white-white-white ass.]

[White Jack: Why are you emphasizing ”white” so many times?]

[Xia Ningzhi: Don’t tell me it could be red, green, or purple?]

[White Jack: That’s a bit offensive, Miss Red Lotus. I’m going to take a screenshot of this and sue you in court for sexual harassment.]

[Xia Ningzhi: Down to business. I have something I want to talk to you about. Don’t let me down.]

[White Jack: About what?]

[Xia Ningzhi: About the Comet Fragments incident from a few days ago, of course. And... the fire from ten years ago. I have quite a few questions, but if you don’t want to see me, forget it.]

Ke Mingqing’s fingers paused slightly. He turned his head to look at the case file for the ”Anhe District Fire Incident” sitting on his bookshelf.

[White Jack: Oh, speaking of that fire, I just so happen to have a clue I can offer you... though it’s only a clue. I’ll see you this afternoon on the Zero Overpass.]