A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

By the time Ke Mingqing returned home from the cinema, the sky had turned completely black.

The desolate street was entirely empty, leaving only the flickering neon lights on the billboards.

The shadows of the telephone poles stretched endlessly under the moonlight, slanting lonely across the ground.

He checked his phone; it was already the early hours of August 16.

The two of them walked out from the moonlight and stopped in front of the old building.

Ke Mingqing unlocked the front door, pocketed his keys, slipped off his shoes at the entryway rack, and shuffled toward the living room.

Glancing up from his phone, he spotted a tall, slender figure lying on the sofa.

The person had covered his face with a novel titled "The Stranger," lying as still as a corpse without making a single sound for a long time.

It was a genuinely startling sight, but after staring for a moment, Ke Mingqing determined that it had to be Ke Linye.

"Wow... this is the first time I've seen a lonely soul die of depression," Ke Mingqing gaped in mock awe, opening his phone's camera.

He quickly snapped a photo.

Xia Zili kicked off her sandals and padded in barefoot from the entryway.

She looked at Ke Linye, then glanced up at the living room clock, muttering, "It's already past midnight... does it still count as his birthday?"

"That's a good thing," Ke Mingqing said lightly. "People shouldn't be chained to ceremonies. As long as you're happy, every day is a birthday."

Xia Zili pulled her gaze away from the wall and gave him a look of utter disdain.

"That's not what you said when you were complaining about Dad not coming to your birthday party."

"It wasn't you who skipped it. That stubborn old mule can do whatever he wants."

Xia Zili opened the voice recorder on her phone. "Evidence secured. I'm playing this for Dad tomorrow."

She paused, shifting her focus to the first half of Ke Mingqing's sentence. Her lively eyes darted as she probed, "What would you do if I didn't celebrate your birthday?"

"Then, for your birthday, I'd give everyone in the family a bootleg autographed photo of the magical girl Ember," Ke Mingqing snorted.

I don't have another birthday left for you to celebrate anyway, he thought to himself.

Xia Zili's face darkened, and she flipped him off. He returned the gesture.

Before long, Xia Ningzhi and Xia Lingxue also returned.

The two sisters had only just learned that it was their eldest brother's birthday, so they had split up to scour the area for a bakery that was still open.

In the end, they had actually bumped into each other inside an open bakery. After some deliberation, they bought a matcha-flavored birthday cake, symbolizing that their eldest brother was an eccentric man with masterful "green tea" skills.

A small fluorescent sign was stuck into the dark green cake, bearing a little demon emoji and the words "Happy Birthday, Bro!"

Ke Mingqing turned on the standing fan in the living room, enjoying the breeze as he said, "The manager of this bakery must be a lazy dog just like me. They probably want as few customers as possible, which is why they stay open at such an ungodly hour."

Xia Ningzhi rapped him on the head, saying in exasperation, "A'Qing, you're too mean. If they hadn't stayed open, we wouldn't have been able to buy a cake at all. Stop badmouthing them!"

"Just telling the truth," Ke Mingqing replied. "Besides, I'm really curious, Third Sister. What were you up to all night?"

Xia Ningzhi suddenly narrowed one eye playfully, striking the pose of a seasoned cowboy, and pressed her right hand against his forehead like a gun.

"Little brat, knowing too much will get you killed—"

With that, she lightly tapped his forehead with her index finger.

Rubbing the red mark on his forehead, Ke Mingqing opened a leaked-footage site on his phone. Sure enough, he saw a video titled "Red Lotus Subdues A Rank Criminal 'General Crab' on Leijing Bridge."

"You aren't secretly dating someone behind our backs, are you?" he asked, looking up at Xia Ningzhi just to pick a fight.

"Dating a crab?"

Leaving behind that cryptic remark, Xia Ningzhi headed into the kitchen to prep the cake.

A moment later, Ke Linye removed the book from his face and woke up on the sofa.

Leaning against the armrest, he opened his clear eyes and looked curiously at the figures standing behind the sofa.

At that exact moment, Ke Mingqing, Xia Zili, and Xia Ningzhi were looming over him, staring down in absolute silence. Their faces were completely expressionless, their gazes hollow and dead.

The scene was as eerie as the first episode of "Attack on Titan," when the Colossal Titan peeked over the wall to stare at humanity—their eyes held nothing but a deathly, scrutinizing chill.

Ke Linye was briefly taken aback. There were very few things in this world that could make him freeze up, but this situation definitely qualified as one of them.

However, he figured it out the very next second. It had to be a few White Jacks standing behind the sofa messing with him.

Ke Linye remained deadpan, but his eyes darkened slightly. A sudden urge welled up within him to slice off all their heads with a streak of Black Moonlight.

But just then, he noticed Ke Mingqing's faintly twitching eyebrow. Snapping back to reality, he asked in amusement, "Uh... what are you guys doing?"

The trio still gave no reaction, staring at him motionless and uncanny, like statues.

This was actually Ke Mingqing's idea to give his eldest brother a jump scare when he woke up. In the next instant, he took a deep breath and shouted, shattering the silence hanging over the living room:

"Happy Birthday, Bro!"

Xia Zili raised her hands from behind the sofa and popped a party popper. With a loud crack, colorful confetti exploded, showering over Ke Linye's head and scattering across the cushions.

Ke Linye stared down at the confetti. He sat in a daze for a good while before the corners of his lips finally ticked up, muttering, "You guys really got me... That startled me."

At that moment, Xia Lingxue walked in from the kitchen, carrying the cake dotted with a few lit candles. Her expression was ice-cold, and an Alpenliebe lollipop was perched in the corner of her mouth.

She said, "Getting scared like this by your younger siblings, aren't you embarrassed?"

"Humiliated beyond belief," Ke Linye shrugged. "Satisfied?"

Xia Lingxue demanded, "Make a wish."

Ke Linye turned his head and stared at her in silence.

After a long pause, he suddenly smiled faintly, reached out, and plucked the lollipop from her mouth. Under her freezing glare, he said, "My wish is for my good sister to quit eating candy on my birthday. Otherwise, how will you have any appetite for cake?"

Ke Linye knew that Xia Lingxue always kept this specific flavor of lollipop in her mouth merely to commemorate a certain someone, a friend who had already passed away.

"People forget things far too easily. Sometimes, you need a method to force yourself to remember things that shouldn't be forgotten," she had told him back then.

He tilted his head slightly, casting his eyes down at the candy. Truthfully, Ke Linye was incredibly curious. After all these years, shouldn't the sweetness of the exact same flavor of candy have turned bitter by now?

"Fun fact, your birthday ended five minutes ago. Even if it were your birthday, you still wouldn't have the right to boss me around, so don't push your luck."

Though Xia Lingxue said this, she didn't put the lollipop back in her mouth.

The expressionless girl placed the cake on the living room table and flicked off the lights. In the darkness, the faint flicker of the candle flames illuminated everyone's faces.

It was a warm night.

..........

..........

After this belated birthday party wrapped up, Ke Mingqing lay in bed and fell asleep.

He had learned his lesson. To prevent a witch from raiding his room at night, he not only locked the door but also shoved his bookshelf behind it as a barricade, creating a defense as solid as a fortress.

Yet, in the dead of night, he woke up once more.

Ke Mingqing opened his eyes in the dark, stared blankly at the ceiling for a moment, then turned his head against his pillow to peer out the window.

What met his eyes this time wasn't the overpass of Leijing.

He saw the brightly lit Tokyo Tower, the towering red structure radiating a snow-white glow into the distance.

It was 3:00 AM on August 16, inside the Roppongi Grand Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.

[Loaded the perspective of Theater Puppet No. 01 — "Giovanni".]

Ke Mingqing yawned and closed the notification panel that had popped up in front of him.

He turned to glance at the white-haired girl sleeping in the other bed.

Bai Ziling quickly noticed his gaze. She blearily opened her eyes, lifting her crimson irises to look at him.

"Giovanni, you can't sleep?" she asked in a low voice.

Ke Mingqing shook his head. He thought to himself that a vampire's senses really were sharp, especially at night, since it was their time to hunt. He could see Bai Ziling's pupils narrowed into thin slits.

There was a reason he had been woken up at this hour. The culprit was the phone vibrating under his pillow.

Even now, he could hear a burst of electronic squeaking coming from the device.

Ke Mingqing squinted and fished out the phone.

Unlocking the screen, he saw a pixelated girl in a black hoodie holding a mallet and forcefully smashing it against the inside of the glass.

"AIs can have mental breakdowns too?" Ke Mingqing asked, using his usual icy Giovanni tone.

"Giovanni, I found something out!" The AI version of Heimeng slung the mallet over her shoulder and hummed.

"What is it?" Ke Mingqing stifled a yawn. "This had better be worth waking me up in the middle of the night."

"Stroh didn't die. Instead, she was locked away in the Siberian Northern Prison."

Ke Mingqing blanked for a moment, his eyes widening slightly.

The Siberian Superhuman Species Prison? Isn't that number one on the must-visit list for players? he thought.

"Stroh... the vampire woman who adopted Bai Ziling?"

"Yeah. After Rain Crow captured her, he leaked false intel to the public, making us believe she was already dead."

At this, the pixelated girl took a sharp breath before continuing in a tone that sounded like she was reading straight off an encyclopedia page. "But for the super-human species criminals locked in that prison, being alive is no different from being dead. This place is hailed as the most heavily guarded prison in the world. Anyone who enters it says it isn't a prison at all, but an impenetrable fortress!"

Ke Mingqing fell silent for a moment, turning his head to look at the dozing Bai Ziling.

He asked, "So what does Lorenzo have to say about this?"

The pixelated girl sighed, pressing her left index finger against her right. "The boss plans to infiltrate the Northern Prison and break her out. This is a monumental task. If anything goes wrong in the prison, the people from the Superhero Roundtable Council will cross half the globe to provide backup immediately."

She paused. "If the prison break plan fails, all of us will die in there."

As soon as she finished speaking, a blood-red panel suddenly popped up in front of Ke Mingqing's eyes.

[Notice: The final phase of Main Quest 3 — "Temporarily infiltrate Death Crow and wait for an opportunity to assassinate all members of Death Crow, including Black Magic Hand" — has been delayed.]

"Delayed... what does that mean?"

Just as Ke Mingqing pondered this, a new prompt box appeared, answering his question.

[Phase 4 of Main Quest 3 has been updated: Infiltrate the Siberian Northern Prison alongside the members of Death Crow, rescue the super-human species criminal "Stroh", and free all inmates within the prison to become the "Savior of Villains".]

"I get it now," Ke Mingqing said, pausing in surprise. Then he thought, Lorenzo is undeniably strong, practically unmatched among the A Rank, but he isn't at the level where he can take on the Roundtable yet... So when the time comes, I can throw some other players into the mix to fan the flames and make this prison break a little livelier.

Having made up his mind, Ke Mingqing shoved his phone back under the pillow, switching it to silent mode.

He warned, "I'm going to sleep. If you wake me up again, I'll go complain to the real Heimeng and have her discipline a little AI like you."

"Yes, sir!" Heimeng's AI shivered, raising her hand in a salute.

However, not long after Ke Mingqing closed his eyes, the phone under his pillow violently buzzed once more. Anyone out of the loop would have thought an earthquake had hit Tokyo.

"Are you done yet..."

He opened his eyes, impatiently retrieved the phone, and looked down.

On the screen, the pixelated AI created by Heimeng was frantically smashing the glass.

Unlike before, her movements were incredibly desperate this time. Every app icon was trembling, and the AI girl had even simulated shattered cracks spreading across the screen.

Because Ke Mingqing had set it to silent, he couldn't hear the AI's voice. However, large, bolded, blood-red words kept popping up in a speech bubble above her head.

[Heimeng AI: Run! Run! Run!]

Ke Mingqing froze for a second. The text in the bubble changed again.

[Heimeng AI: Stop spacing out, Giovanni!]

[Heimeng AI: I checked the hotel's back-end security footage! Someone is coming, and they're after you! They've already taken the elevator and are approaching your floor right now!]

Ke Mingqing sucked in a sharp breath. Pushing himself off the bed, he asked in a low voice, "Who? Don't tell me it's the players you mentioned before who are targeting Bai Ziling?"

"They look more like vampire hunters. Their clothes have the mark of a hunter organization!" Heimeng's AI said frantically. "There's a high chance they are coming for you. You need to get out of here, fast."

"Didn't you say the last vampire hunter organization in the world had already been destroyed?" Ke Mingqing was bewildered.

"Maybe they're remnants, or maybe they're players disguised as hunters," Heimeng said. "Regardless, you have to leave now! Otherwise, it'll be too late!"

The very next moment, the image of Heimeng's AI on the phone screen, as well as the blank TV screen across the room, began to blur and jump.

Black-and-white static swallowed every electronic display in the hotel room, big and small.

"Signal jamming?" Ke Mingqing blanked.

Right before the phone screen completely died, Heimeng's AI stuttered out, "Hurry... run, run, run... zzzt, zzzzt, zzzzt..." By the end, it sounded almost like the screech of a mouse.

The static vanished. The entire screen pitched black.

The world grew quiet. An absolute silence descended over the room.

Watching this unfold, a cold sweat faintly beaded across Ke Mingqing's forehead.

To be completely honest, he wasn't afraid of some vampire hunters. He was afraid of this inexplicable static, which subconsciously reminded him of his terrifying alien mother.

Ke Mingqing hopped out of bed, strode over to the other mattress, and hoisted Bai Ziling onto his back.

"What's wrong? Giovanni..." she asked softly, resting against his shoulder, her ears lightly brushing against his neck.

"Ziling, from this moment on, don't make a sound, you understand?" Ke Mingqing whispered.

"Mhm."

Though Bai Ziling didn't know what was happening, she nodded.

The next second, Ke Mingqing carried her toward the room's exit. He opened the door and peeked out through the crack.

The hallway was pitch-black; the only light came from the faint glow of each room's number plate.

Since Heimeng's AI had already stated the enemy was taking the elevator, Ke Mingqing wouldn't be stupid enough to use it. After stepping out of the room, he headed straight for the emergency stairwell without hesitation.

Yet, at that very instant, the elevator doors at the end of the dim corridor suddenly slid open. A beam of light spilled out, tearing through the darkness.

Bai Ziling's eyes suddenly flew wide. Like a startled feline, her blood-red pupils dilated slightly as she stared unblinkingly toward the elevator.

Just as Ke Mingqing reached the emergency exit, he turned his head slightly to look back.

He saw two silhouettes step out of the elevator and stand in the curtain of light, coming fully into view. One was a girl wearing a jacket, her body heavily wrapped in bandages; the other was a young man wielding a massive scythe.

In the next moment, they slowly turned their heads, their gazes meeting Ke Mingqing's.

At the same time, two super-human species panels slowly reflected in Ke Mingqing's eyes.

[Super-human species codename: Vampire Hunter — Scythe Demon (Threat Rating: B+ Rank)]

[Super-human species codename: Vampire Hunter — Fist Girl (Threat Rating: B+ Rank)]

"...Two B+ Ranks?" Ke Mingqing raised an eyebrow. "This is going to be fun."

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