A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

Absolute silence filled the cafe.

A young woman in a pitch-black bodysuit leaned against the wall, locking eyes with White Jack, who stood by the window.

Jingle... jingle...

White Jack tipped his top hat slightly. Cane in hand, he walked slowly toward the table directly across from Zero amid the soft chiming of the wind chimes. "It's been a while, Miss Xia Lingxue," he said as he walked. "Oh, wait... I should call you Miss Zero now. But the word 'Zero' is a bit ambiguous, so never mind."

Zero watched this theatrical weirdo in silence.

After a moment, White Jack pulled out a chair and sat down. He gazed at the girl leaning against the wall and teased, "Why don't you guess what good thing will happen tomorrow?"

"First of all, you don't have the right to play guessing games with me," Zero said expressionlessly. "Because the moment I lose my patience, this conversation ends."

White Jack took off his top hat, placed his cane on the table, and clutched his chest.

"Oh, my lovely Miss Zero, you're as cold and domineering as ever! If we swapped genders, you could step right into an overbearing CEO drama. And me? I'd be Leijing's legendary white perky butt, specializing in curing overbearing CEOs!"

Zero had no interest in indulging his banter and cut him off.

"Alright, then I'll cut to the chase." White Jack's tone suddenly turned serious.

"Speak."

"Your dear sister has been swept up in a dangerous incident. You have two sisters—I'm referring to the demon-child one."

With that, White Jack used his cane to hook a pack of cookies from the counter and flipped it into his hand. "Hmm... I imagine that, given your status and position, you must have heard at least a little about the Comet Fragments."

"And?"

"The people from Death Crow have their eyes on the Comet Fragments. They're making their move tomorrow... and your sister, being a vigilante overflowing with a strong sense of justice, is absolutely not going to just sit back and watch."

Zero considered this for a moment before speaking at a measured pace.

"It's not that she won't sit back and watch... it's that you fed her this information. And then, foolishly falling for your trick, she decided to wade into this mess."

"You could say that," White Jack said, his expression solemn. "Miss Zero, I am a man of profound justice. Naturally, I refuse to sit by and watch the members of Death Crow run amok!"

He shifted his gaze slightly, thinking to himself that he was, of course, also a member of Death Crow.

"Don't think I don't know what you're after," Zero said flatly. "You suck up to everyone and fan the flames between multiple factions solely because you are a player."

She lifted her head, meeting White Jack's hollow gaze, and her voice dropped.

"And what players want to see most is the super-human species tearing each other apart—especially infighting among the world's elite super-human species." White Jack shrugged, steepled his fingers, and struck Gendo Ikari's classic pose.

"I already told you... a champion of justice like myself has never cared about slander. As they say, a straight body fears not a crooked shadow."

He tilted his head and tapped his skull with a stark white finger.

"I'm actually rather curious: since you know Red Lotus is being used by me, why don't you just reveal your identity to her... and tell her, 'My dear sister, don't let yourself be fooled'?"

Zero crossed her arms. After a moment of silence, she countered, "I'm the curious one... You could easily reveal my identity to her and use it as leverage to blackmail her. Why haven't you?" She paused, her tone turning icy. "Or perhaps—you already have."

"No, no, no, my lips are sealed," White Jack shook his head. "Your prejudice against me runs a bit too deep, Miss Zero." "A mythic vessel is destined to lose control," Zero stated with absolute certainty. "You want to use my sister so that, once she loses control, she'll kill more of the super-human species. That way, you get one step closer to your goal to Exterminate Superhumans."

Then she's not the only sister of yours I can use... Oh, dear sister, just try to guess what kind of monsters our family is made of. Ke Mingqing rolled his eyes inwardly.

"Another baseless assumption." White Jack tilted his head, framing his face with his hands. "Am I really such a big, bad White Jack in your eyes?"

However, Zero seemed to anticipate that whatever came next would be utterly disgusting. Before he could fully cup his face, she used her esper ability to freeze his right hand.

With one hand frozen stiff and hovering in midair, White Jack remained completely unbothered. He propped his chin on his other hand and popped a cookie into his mouth.

"You are a mythic vessel."

Zero's expression shifted slightly.

"Don't tell me you thought I didn't know?" White Jack raised his eyes, savoring the look that flashed across her face. "Or do you plan to bury your head in the sand and keep up the disguise?"

Zero thought for a moment. "Can a player see this kind of information too?"

"No, I am the only one who knows," White Jack said. "And you should have already tested this. All you have to do is find a player and interrogate them about what your super-human species panel looks like to them, and you'd have your answer."

Zero fell silent. White Jack was right. She had conducted interrogations before, and the players she caught had only seen her identity as an esper; none had seen that she was a mythic vessel.

Yet White Jack knew.

For a moment, her mind raced with speculations.

Why was that?

Was White Jack different from ordinary players? Or perhaps, was he not a player at all?

White Jack looked up, quietly studying the girl who was as cold as ice, a flicker of amusement suddenly crossing his eyes.

It was true. Currently, he was the only one among the players who knew: the super-human species panel Xia Lingxue displayed while wearing her human-face mask was worlds apart from the one she showed without it.

One was the panel for "Executive Zero," and the other was Xia Lingxue's true panel. Ordinary players had only ever encountered Executive Zero, so naturally, they could only see Zero's data.

Absolute silence lingered in the cafe. Outside, the blazing sun beat down. A customer noticed the "Closed" sign on the door and muttered, "Why aren't they open today?" while peering through the window.

White Jack crossed his legs. Humming the tune to "London Bridge Is Falling Down," he stroked the top of his cane. After a long moment, he slowly spoke.

"I'm actually quite curious. Now that you know your sister is also a mythic vessel, is the reason you stubbornly remain in the Control Bureau to find a way to revert a mythic vessel to normal?"

Zero stayed silent for a while before letting out a soft chuckle, her tone tinged with sarcasm.

"If such a method actually existed in this world... that would be nice."

"Exactly. You hope there's a way, which is why you pay so much attention to players," White Jack said with conviction.

"Don't flatter yourself."

"No, no, no," White Jack shook his head. "To you, players represent an entirely new form of existence, boundless possibilities—a chance to save both you and your sister. Otherwise... you will inevitably march toward self-destruction."

He sighed and spoke in a narcissistic tone.

"At the same time, this is also the reason you've been so patient with a 'grandstanding clown' like me. Just like how the overbearing CEO is always captivated by the quirky, independent little woman—I am that unique little woman."

Zero seized on his words. Tilting her head up slightly, she asked calmly, "In other words, you finally admit you're a player?"

"How boring. Can't you play along with the joke?" White Jack narrowed his eyes.

"Answer my question."

"Fine, I can be whatever you want, and you can call me whatever you like!"

White Jack paused. "But I need you to understand one thing: since I'm the only one who knows your double identity within the Control Bureau, I can expose you at any time. Think about it. If an organization dedicated to eradicating all mythic vessels found out that one of its S-class executives is a mythic vessel herself, and that she's hiding another one in her family, what do you think they'd do to you?"

Suddenly, he shifted the topic.

"Oh, wait, maybe I'm thinking too simply. Perhaps you aren't trying to find a way to turn you and your sister back to normal at all. Maybe your plan is to wipe out the Control Bureau's senior members in one fell swoop so that you and your sister will be safe!"

"Well, if that's your plan, I can help you out." White Jack glanced sideways, gazing at the girl's profile.

"You are an absolute megalomaniac," Zero said coldly. "Instead of putting on a show for me, you'd be better off finding a psychiatric clinic to cure your hysteria."

"Like I said, say whatever you want."

White Jack treated his top hat like a storage jar. He lifted the open pack of cookies, turned it upside down, and poured them all into the hat. Finally, he dropped one last leisurely remark:

"Anyway... I'll see you tomorrow, Miss One."

"In such a hurry to leave?" Zero crossed her arms, speaking casually. "I wouldn't mind sending you off."

"Oh, no, actually, there is one more thing I've been quite curious about..." White Jack placed the cookie-filled top hat back onto his head and suddenly raised a finger.

Zero remained silent, waiting for him to speak.

"On that day ten years ago, your sister awakened, and she lost her mind at the time."

White Jack paused. "And on that exact same day... a fire broke out in Leijing's Anhe District."

He touched his chin with his stark white, bony fingers, a profound gleam flashing in his eyes. "I'm very curious if there is any connection between the two."

Zero froze slightly.

It was the first time White Jack had ever seen her gaze waver. She hadn't even shown this kind of reaction when he exposed her as a mythic vessel.

But a split second later, Zero reverted to an austere ice sculpture, her eyes freezing over once more.

"Whatever connection there might be, I have no obligation to answer you," she said.

"So there is one," White Jack cut in.

Zero was quiet for a moment. "Take it however you like."

White Jack shifted his gaze from her face and chuckled faintly, talking as if to himself.

"Who would have thought that Miss Nezha unknowingly caused that fire ten years ago—the very fire where your, and her, brother 'Ke Mingqing' lost his biological parents. Oh, what a pitiful boy. He certainly has no idea that the girl who killed his parents and altered the course of his life would inexplicably become his most beloved sister."

He paused, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling, murmuring idly.

"But then again, our Miss Nezha is currently investigating this incident. Even if I say nothing, she'll uncover the truth sooner or later... and what will she do then? Suffer a total breakdown from the guilt, accelerating her self-destruction? Or will she copy the myth of Nezha and slit her own throat?" At that moment, Zero abruptly raised her eyes, glaring at his face. She spoke in a low voice, stressing almost every syllable:

"If you dare tell her about this... no matter if you flee to the ends of the earth, I will find you and butcher you."

White Jack, however, brushed it off. "Which is why I said... you think far too poorly of me, Miss One—oh, wait, Miss Zero." He spread his hands. "Regardless, a mythic vessel is bound to lose control. Just like how everyone dies, it's merely a matter of time..." He paused. "Therefore... I have no need, nor am I malicious enough, to tell Miss Ningzhi about this. Yes, she's a good girl." Honestly, I really don't care, okay? So what if a biological mom and dad I barely knew died? That's the original owner of this body's problem anyway.

Wealth and danger go hand in hand.

Well, actually, I should be thanking Third Sister for giving me the chance to join this insane family of superhumans. Otherwise, I never would have picked up so many main quests and grown so far beyond the other players.

Ke Mingqing grumbled inwardly, but how could Xia Lingxue possibly know his inner thoughts?

And so, in the very next moment, the air turned instantly frigid. A gust of cold wind swept through, and even the wind chimes tied to the door stopped swaying. The sheer chill seemed to overpower the heat of the sun.

White Jack's entire body was encased in frost, freezing him in place like a sculpted ice statue, and even the chair beneath him was caught up in the unprovoked disaster.

He shivered, and then shattered. He broke apart completely, like a sheet of glass that had long been webbed with cracks. Yet his voice still echoed through the air, clinging like maggots to bone, refusing to fade away.

"Alright, I still don't understand why you won't come clean to your sister about your identity, or why you won't warn her to stay away from Death Crow, nor do I know if you have some unspeakable secret behind it all.

"But tomorrow, at a certain port in Leijing, if you don't go save her, no one else can.

"Rain Crow, the Owl Judge, and the Magical Girl Three Giants are all away from Leijing. The only one capable of matching those monsters in Death Crow is you. Good luck, Miss Xia Lingxue."

As his voice faded, the cafe gradually returned to absolute silence, and the wind chimes began to sway once more.

Zero hugged her shoulders and stood in silence for a long time. Raising her eyes, she finally took a step and walked out of the cafe.

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