A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

After cooperating with the Hero Company to conclude the incident investigation, Ke Mingqing headed home.

On his way home, he suddenly changed his mind. He decided that on the day he used the puppet to kidnap Blue Pigeon, he would personally reveal Blue Pigeon’s true identity to Rain Crow.

He wanted to see the expression on that self-righteous man’s face when he finally learned the most crucial truth, only to realize it was already too late to turn back...

”Just how many people has your self-righteousness killed?”

Ke Mingqing murmured softly, watching a red maple leaf drift to the ground. He didn’t know who he was talking to—perhaps himself, or perhaps the man who dressed up like a crow.

It was nearly dusk by the time he arrived home.

Bathed in the evening glow spilling through the window, Ke Mingqing sat down on the sofa. Xia Wenna came over and set a plate of sliced fruit on the table: watermelon, cantaloupe, and oranges.

”Thanks, Mom.”

Ke Mingqing spoke casually. He picked up a piece of watermelon, lowered his eyes, and carefully picked out all the black seeds before taking a bite. He had been like this since he was a child; he had to remove every single seed before eating watermelon.

”A’Qing, is something bothering you lately?”Xia Wenna took off her apron and stood behind him.

Ke Mingqing looked up, glancing out of the corner of his eye at the woman behind the sofa. You alien, you’re really asking when you already know the answer, he thought. Or do you truly not realize that I am Blue Pigeon?

”Yeah,” he said.

She asked, ”What kind of trouble?”

”The other night, Dad dragged me out for a heart-to-heart in the middle of the night. Guess whose fault that was?”

”It couldn’t be Mom’s fault, could it?”

Xia Wenna rested a finger against her chin, her mist-veiled eyes staring at the ceiling.

Playing dumb again, Ke Mingqing thought.

He sighed. ”Why did you show Dad the blueprints you found in my room?”

Fortunately, what he had left in his room was just an alternate design. It depicted a character in a yellow combat suit dressed like a bee. He had scrapped it later for being too tacky and switched to his second plan.

If he had actually made a combat suit based on that design, his nickname right now might be something like ”Bumblebee” or ”Golden Flash.”

Xia Wenna said slowly, ”Mom is just worried you’re doing something dangerous.”

”I’m not playing superhero, so don’t overthink it. Also, could you respect my privacy next time? It’s really embarrassing.”

Ke Mingqing grumbled.

Xia Wenna nodded. ”Okay, but remember to tell Mom if anything is bothering you. Mom will always be your backup.”

Before Ke Mingqing had time to speak, Xia Wenna suddenly opened her arms and gently hugged his shoulders from behind the sofa.

He froze for a moment. He wanted to break free, but instead, he lowered his head, staring blankly into space.

But a moment later, when he slowly raised his head, he saw that Xia Wenna had leaned in close to him.

Half of Xia Wenna’s face was illuminated by the sunset, while the other half was shrouded in shadow. Inside her shadowed eye, a swirl of black and white static shifted and flowed.

She smiled softly.

Cold sweat instantly broke out on Ke Mingqing’s forehead. He quickly looked away and said, ”I’m too old for this, can you not hug me? Aren’t you embarrassed?”

”Mom used to hug you just like this when you were little,” Xia Wenna said softly. ”What is there to be shy about? So, what exactly happened to put our A’Qing in such a terrible mood?”

Ke Mingqing avoided her gaze and turned his head away. ”I just got into a fight with my girlfriend, that’s all.”

”Really?”

”Yeah.”

”I used to fight with your dad a lot too. That sort of thing is very common.”

”Right, it’s very common, so stop hugging me! If my two older sisters see this, they’ll make fun of me for a whole year.” Ke Mingqing gently pushed Xia Wenna away.

A trace of a smile touched Xia Wenna’s lips as she let him go. ”Then Mom will get back to her chores.”

”Go ahead.”

Ke Mingqing waved his hand dismissively and called up the Quest Panel with a glance.

He had already finished this week’s Weekly Quest 1. The roulette draw had yielded an inconsequential 3,000 experience points.

But he hadn’t done Weekly Quest 2 yet. The reason was simple: he hadn’t killed anyone.

”More like, I haven’t had the time to kill anyone.”

Ke Mingqing muttered to himself, slumping down on the sofa.

”Killing people is so much work...” Ke Mingqing rested his head against the armrest.

”I don’t want to kill anyone...” Ke Mingqing collapsed completely onto the sofa and closed his eyes.

”Killing people is so exhausting...” Ke Mingqing’s body slowly slid off the sofa, half on the cushions, half dangling onto the floor.

”Let’s kill some people.” Ke Mingqing opened his eyes.

”Time to slaughter.”

The boy grumbled as he sat up. He ate a piece of cantaloupe and used the remote to turn the TV to a news channel. A moment later, the anchor’s voice drifted out, delivering a live broadcast:

”Breaking News: A school of mutated sea beasts has appeared in Leijing harbor. It is suspected to be the work of espers. They have hijacked a yacht, and the lives of the passengers are currently in grave danger.”

Ke Mingqing watched the TV silently as he snacked on potato chips, his face expressionless.

A moment later, he abruptly headed upstairs, entered his room, locked the door, opened the player Chat Panel, and sent a message to Kuroki Hitomi.

[Ke Mingqing: Leijing is truly a city of simple folks. Every day, just like in a game, a batch of small fry spawns at fixed times.]

[Kuroki Hitomi: What’s wrong?]

[Ke Mingqing: Nothing. A friend of mine died, so I just felt like talking to you.]

[Kuroki Hitomi: Which friend?]

[Ke Mingqing: A friend you don’t know.]

[Kuroki Hitomi: Do you want to come over to my place? I can chat with you in person, or give you a hug?]

[Ke Mingqing: No, I’m going out to kill some people. It’s a better way to relieve stress.]

After sending the last message, Ke Mingqing closed his eyes and conjured a Theater Puppet beside him.

He took the magician’s top hat and cane from the puppet, placing the hat on his own head.

A moment later, his skin turned stark white. The corners of his mouth gradually split open, and his eyes grew hollow and bottomless, while his other facial features vanished beneath the pale skin. Just like that, he leaped out the window, cleared the sill, and shot high into the sky.

In his place, the Theater Puppet gradually took on Ke Mingqing’s likeness.

It put on a T-shirt and shorts, then shuffled out of the room.

...

...

The setting sun hung in the sky, casting a golden hue over the Leijing beaches. The azure sea stretched out into the distance.

A yacht bobbed on the ocean. A wealthy man and his woman lay on the deck. Their eyes were vacant, blood seeping across their cheeks. Next to them, two young men in raincoats were conversing unhurriedly.

”Once we hijack this yacht and sell it off, we can pretty much call it quits,” the first youth in a raincoat said.

”Yeah, brother,” the other young man in a raincoat said. ”But let’s not say things like that. It always feels like bad luck.”

A moment later, a ghastly white figure wearing a top hat and gripping a cane descended from the sky, landing right in front of them.

Ke Mingqing looked up at them. His hollow eyes reflected their data.

[super-human species codename: Phantom Thief A (Type: esper) (Danger Rating: D Rank)]

[super-human species codename: Phantom Thief B (Type: esper) (Danger Rating: D Rank)]

”Could you two D Ranks not wander around making a mess? Even the worst students know to hide their bad test scores. How can anyone be this stupid? Ah, you’re twins. No wonder you share the exact same flavor of idiocy...”

Ke Mingqing spoke softly as he stepped forward, pace by pace.

A B Rank’s speed against D Ranks was an absolute slaughter—a total suppression from a higher dimension. Neither of the men could even track his movements. He reduced what should have been an esper clash into a scene of pure, physical butchery.

Ke Mingqing grabbed the raincoat-wearing youth on the left by the collar, twirled his cane, and shattered the man’s neck, cleanly decapitating him. He then hoisted the severed head high into the air with the tip of his cane.

The head flipped through the air, spraying massive amounts of blood like a moving fountain, spattering across Ke Mingqing’s face.

He watched the scene expressionlessly. Finally, in the split second before the head hit the deck, he kicked it, shattering it to pieces.

Amidst the splashing gore, Ke Mingqing snapped his head to the right and stared at the other youth. He flicked his cane up, pulverizing the man’s shoulder, ripped off his right arm, and then lifted it, plunging the severed limb straight through the youth’s chest.

The youth stared blankly down at the severed arm impaling his heart before he began to howl uncontrollably.

But in the next instant, Ke Mingqing ripped off his other arm and shoved it deep into his mouth. Blood poured down the youth’s throat. His teeth all cracked and splintered under the sheer force, spraying outward along the skin of the arm before pattering onto the deck one by one.

The two youths collapsed neatly on the deck. One was missing a head, and the other was missing both arms.

When the deed was done, Ke Mingqing took a deep breath, turned his head slightly, and glanced at the sea around the yacht.

A school of mutated sea beasts was closing in, riding the snow-white waves slapping against the hull. But a short while later, they gradually dispersed, sinking back into the depths of the sea.

”Controlling marine life, mutating their forms... What difference is there between an esper who doesn’t have time to unleash their powers and an ordinary person?”

Ke Mingqing looked down at the corpses on the deck and shrugged. ”Wouldn’t you agree? Little brats, hurry up and reincarnate into hulking, brainless meat-shields in your next life, so you don’t just get instantly wiped out by a few bullets.”

Seemingly bored of the sight, he let the tip of his cane flare with a sheet of blue fire, incinerating the two corpses until nothing remained.

In the next moment, Ke Mingqing looked up at the pop-up panel before him.

[Weekly Quest 2 Completed: Kill two super-human species (Quest Reward: 1 Attribute Point)]

[Allocate the Attribute Point immediately?]

Ke Mingqing tapped ”Yes,” opened his character panel, and quickly allocated the attribute.

[Prompt: The player’s ”Spirit” attribute has upgraded from ”C+” to ”C++” rank.]

Just then, Ke Mingqing noticed a sudden commotion from the corner of the yacht.

He raised an eyebrow and turned his head, spotting a young girl in a floral dress. She was huddled in the dark, blinking as she stared at him in sheer terror.

Ke Mingqing fell silent for a moment before stepping into the shadows. He took off his white top hat, crouched down, and pulled a yellow flower from the brim. After blowing the blood off it, he offered it to her.

The girl stared blankly at his hideous face. After a long while, she finally accepted the flower.

”Is that your dad?” he asked, pointing at the dead wealthy man.

”Yeah, he’s dead,” the girl whispered. At her age, it seemed she still didn’t know what kind of emotion she was supposed to express. ”What should I do?”

”Smiling is enough at times like this,” Ke Mingqing said, quoting Shinji Ikari’s classic line to Rei Ayanami from Evangelion.

He suddenly felt like he was being a bad influence on a child, so he quickly added, ”It’s fine. I’ll smile when I take out my own dad in the future, too. You aren’t alone.”

The girl was stunned for a moment, then squeezed out a small smile. ”Really?”

”That’s right, good girl.”

With that, Ke Mingqing patted her hair with a clean hand and stood up.

He was just about to leave when a crisp, clear voice suddenly rang out from behind him:

”White Jack, I finally found you.”

Ke Mingqing raised his eyebrow slightly. Twisting his head around, he saw a figure clad in a metallic red-and-black trench coat.

Red Lotus wore a metallic mask and hovered motionless in mid-air atop her Wind and Fire Wheels.

”I’m not thrilled to see you, Miss Red Lotus. Your stalking is starting to get a little too intrusive.” Ke Mingqing placed a hand on his hip.

Red Lotus retorted, ”Who’s stalking you? I just happened to come here to save people and bumped into you. I just didn’t expect you to be faster than me. Seriously, am I the vigilante here, or are you?”

”Fun fact: White Jack isn’t just one person.”

As Ke Mingqing spoke, a small doll suddenly popped out onto his shoulder. Raising both of its tiny arms, the doll chirped, ”So White Jack isn’t a vigilante, he’s a doll vigilante!”

”Indeed, thank you for the explanation, Miss Mio.” With that, Ke Mingqing tucked Mio back into his inventory.

He lifted his head to meet Red Lotus’s gaze. ”So, what can I do for you?”

Cradling her Fire-Tipped Spear, Red Lotus furrowed her brows and said, ”How long have you been hiding from me? I sent you so many messages and you didn’t reply to a single one.”

”Regarding that matter, I already spelled it out clearly. You just need to go to a certain family member’s room, have a look around, and you’ll uncover the truth behind that fire incident.”

”Which family member is it exactly? Why won’t you just tell me?”

”You already know exactly which family member it is.”

Saying that, Ke Mingqing turned and walked over to the railing, crossing his arms over it and gazing out at the sea. ”You just don’t have the guts, so you keep bothering me, lying to yourself.”

Red Lotus fell silent for a long while before suddenly asking, ”Why do I feel like you’re acting a bit differently today?”

”How so?” Ke Mingqing paused, turning his head to ask.

”How should I put it... Usually, you give off the feeling of someone devoid of gender characteristics,” Red Lotus pondered, staring at him suspiciously. ”But right now, you act just like a little boy. I just have this gut feeling.”

Ke Mingqing lowered his top hat, peering at her face from beneath the brim. ”Do you possess the Fiery Golden Eyes or something? Miss, it looks to me like your Mythological Sequence isn’t Nezha at all; it’s Sun Wukong.”

”So you admit it?”

Red Lotus suddenly flew closer on her Wind and Fire Wheels, examining his face intently.

A bead of cold sweat slid down Ke Mingqing’s forehead. He stretched his cracked lips into a bizarre smile, while she just frowned in suspicion.

The brother and sister stared at each other in silence.

”Could it be... this is actually your true body?” Red Lotus suddenly asked after a moment.

Ke Mingqing broke into a sweat.

He tried to redirect her attention, giving his cane a sharp flick to clear away the blood as he asked, ”Miss Red Lotus, if I were to do something that you might not be able to forgive for the rest of your life, would you forgive me?”

”What do you mean, ’not be able to forgive for the rest of your life’ but ’would you forgive me’? Did you always talk like this... with your left and right brain fighting each other?”

Red Lotus asked curiously, crossing her arms and tilting her head.

Ke Mingqing turned his back to her, leaning on the railing and muttering, ”Hypothetically speaking, what if I hurt someone who is very important to you? A family member?”

”I would kill you,” Red Lotus stated without the slightest hesitation.

Ke Mingqing was silent for a moment. ”What if I just kidnapped them, temporarily taking them away from you?”

”Don’t even think about messing with my family... or else we aren’t friends anymore.”

”Alright, I understand.”

Ke Mingqing lowered his eyes, murmuring, ”I should probably get going now, Miss Red Lotus. If you need anything else, just reach out on the phone... provided I haven’t blocked you, of course.”

Red Lotus thought for a second. ”Aren’t you going to do that trick today?”

”Which one?”

Red Lotus rested her chin on her hand. ”You know... the one where you turn your body into smoke and then, like Grey Wolf, say a line like ’I’ll be back’?”

Ke Mingqing felt a bit awkward, so he started spouting nonsense.

”No, I think each of our lives is a movie... and as long as it’s a movie, the budget is limited. So, the budget has to be spent in the right places.”

He paused and held up a finger.

”And a flashy exit like the last time costs budget. When there are no funds, I prefer just swimming back through the sea. Do you understand?”

With that, Ke Mingqing let out a yawn, picked up his burner phone, and shot off a message to his dad’s phone.

[White Jack: Commander Lin Yin is the real mole. He’s been brainwashed by Clock Maker, and Invisible Giant is just the scapegoat. Comrade Crow, it’s time you open your eyes. How many more people have to die before you’re satisfied?]

”Well then, let’s part ways here.”

As Ke Mingqing spoke, he looked up from his phone, and the white top hat on his head began to slowly rotate.

”Wait a minute. Since you’re out of budget and can’t turn your body into smoke, that must mean...” Red Lotus’s lips curled into a smirk. ”I can just try kidnapping you right now?”

Ke Mingqing’s face froze.

The next second, his body was wrapped in layer after layer of the Huntian Ling, making him look like a giant red rice dumpling.

Red Lotus snatched the top hat off his head and placed it on her own, forcing it to stop spinning.

”So, what are you gonna do now?” she asked, flashing a sly smile.