A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

Ke Mingqing sat down, leaning against the bedroom's floor-to-ceiling window.

Outside the window, streetlights flickered in the night, and a brightly lit high-speed train sped across a distant overpass.

The teenager's head drooped as his left hand steadied a sketchbook. In his right, a ballpoint pen scribbled out a design for a superhero suit.

First, in solemn tribute to the terrifying Crowman, he designed an avian helmet with a matching beak mask. 'A family has to be neat and uniform, after all,' he thought.

Next, he chose blue as the suit's primary color, since it was his favorite... And the final, most crucial step:

—open the chat list, tap Kuroki Hitomi's name, and send a message.

[Ke Mingqing: Right, since your family is so rich and powerful, can you get someone to make me a superhero suit? There are so many superheroes in this world, there have to be plenty of freelancers who specialize in making them, right?]

'It doesn't matter if it's a bit crude,' he added in his head. 'As long as it roughly resembles a human shape, that's enough. Once I get into a hero company, someone will help me upgrade it anyway.'

[Kuroki Hitomi: I can, but what do you need it for?]

[Ke Mingqing: Don't ask for now. I'll tell you later.]

[Kuroki Hitomi: Then come to my house tomorrow and give me the design blueprints?]

[Ke Mingqing: Deal.]

[Kuroki Hitomi: By the way, Little Red Riding Hood just told me that a classmate of hers is also coming over to hang out tomorrow.]

[Ke Mingqing: Not a big problem. We can just talk away from them.]

...

...

A few minutes earlier, in another corner of the Old Jingmai District.

The magical girl Ember closed her umbrella and slowly descended, her feet landing lightly on the railing of an abandoned school building.

She hopped down from the railing into the empty corridor. Moonlight spilled through the windows, washing over her pale face as she walked forward.

By the time she reached their previous classroom, the candles were still flickering, but Xi Ziyue was already gone.

In her place, another figure leaned against the wall, waiting.

Ember glanced up, her eyes meeting a blonde, blue-eyed girl in a Christmas gown, her hair tied up with an ornament shaped like a red holiday present.

"Magical Girl Little Red Riding Hood." She was Xia Zili's teammate, though the two hadn't gone on a mission together in a while, and their relationship had grown somewhat distant lately.

Little Red Riding Hood turned her head, watching her quietly before speaking in a low voice.

"Senior, Teacher Xi Ziyue has already left. She said you should get some good rest. She won't assign you any missions for the next few days, and she told you to watch yourself and stop causing trouble."

She paused. "What you did at Lijing Square just now has already spread all over the internet."

"Got it," the girl in the gothic dress said casually.

A hazy cocoon of light suddenly enveloped her. When the light shattered, she had transformed back into a regular girl with only slightly above-average looks, and the umbrella in her hand had vanished.

Xia Zili hesitated before looking up at Little Red Riding Hood. "By the way... how about I come visit your place in a couple of days?"

Little Red Riding Hood thought it over. "It's best if you don't come over, Senior."

"Why not?"

"People are divided by status and worth. A girl like you, Senior, who grew up with a silver spoon in her mouth, comes from a very different background than a girl like me, who grew up eating garbage." Little Red Riding Hood lowered her head, speaking rapidly. "I'll feel inferior."

Her face was expressionless as she said this, her tone entirely flat.

"Didn't you say you were working as a maid for a rich family?" Xia Zili stared out at the night sky. "I just wanted to know if they were treating you well."

"Thank you for caring, Senior." Little Red Riding Hood looked up. "But for a country girl like me who grew up eating garbage, just having a bite of food is enough to leave me fully satisfied."

She quickly returned to her blank expression, her gloomy demeanor fading. "Besides, I haven't been abused. Eldest Miss Kuroki treats me very well."

Xia Zili crossed her arms, thinking it over for a long moment before speaking.

"Then can't I just come over to hang out for a bit as a friend? Don't see me as a magical girl, and don't see me as your senior. Just a regular friend."

Little Red Riding Hood fell silent for a long moment before she finally nodded.

"Alright then... But I was just chatting with Eldest Miss Kuroki on my phone, and she told me we might have a guest tomorrow. She wants me to prepare thoroughly after school."

"Who?"

"A classmate of Eldest Miss Kuroki. He's our age and goes to the same school." Little Red Riding Hood's tone suddenly turned icy. "I heard a rumor at school that he might be her boyfriend."

She lowered her voice. "For Eldest Miss Kuroki's safety, I have to observe him closely."

Xia Zili stared blankly for a second. "What a mess. I really don't get you Japanese girls... Anyway, I'm just coming over to check out your place. The rest has nothing to do with me."

"Fair enough." Little Red Riding Hood nodded.

At that moment, a light snow began to fall from the sky behind her. A crisp, ethereal ringing echoed as two reindeer adorned with bells galloped through the snow, pulling a blood-red sleigh through the night sky.

"Christmas Sleigh." That was the name of Little Red Riding Hood's magical weapon.

Usually, a magical girl's weapon was a "magic wand"—the same cookie-cutter design, just swapped to a different color at best.

But Little Red Riding Hood's "Christmas Sleigh" and Xia Zili's "Cinderella" were different. Both were categorized as "mutant-type magical weapons," which was a mark of extraordinary talent.

Hugging her knees, Little Red Riding Hood gave a light leap, soaring through the broken window to land inside the hovering sleigh. She turned back to glance at Xia Zili.

"I'm heading home first, Senior."

"Go on."

Xia Zili hugged her arms and gave a faint nod. The air in the classroom felt a little cold.

"Hyah!"

At Little Red Riding Hood's command, the two reindeer immediately pulled the crimson sleigh off into the distance. As the jingling bells faded away, the bizarre summer snowfall vanished with them, and the surrounding temperature instantly rose.

Xia Zili didn't linger either. She slowly walked out of the teaching building alone, leaving the abandoned elementary school behind.

The bus stop was deserted. She boarded the final bus of the night.

Inside the cabin, she turned her head, silently staring at her own face reflected in the window pane.

Ever since she killed someone for the first time, she would often see a black shadow smiling at her in the reflection.

The shadow had red eyes and a red mouth.

It looked like a stick-figure sketch of a little girl.

Xia Zili hadn't told anyone about this.

Because this could be a sign of "witchification." Becoming a witch meant losing her fundamental nature and turning into an absolute lunatic... which was why witches were reviled. The moment she turned into one, everyone would have the right to execute her. Every magical girl in the company—including Little Red Riding Hood and Xi Ziyue—would hunt her down.

She didn't want to die.

And she especially didn't want to die all alone.

The bus arrived at its stop. Xia Zili was the only passenger on board, and the last one to leave.

She stepped off the bus, but she didn't head home right away. Instead, she wandered around the brightly lit night market for a while and bought a stick of candied hawthorn.

After paying, she tucked the candied hawthorn into a paper bag and finally made her way home.

Xia Zili wanted to get home quickly, yet she also wanted to walk a little slower.

But no matter how much she dragged her feet, she eventually arrived. Unlocking the door, Xia Zili slipped off her sandals and climbed barefoot to the second floor, stopping in front of Ke Mingqing's door.

She stood in silence for a moment. Just as she raised a finger to knock, someone pulled the door open from the other side.

Xia Zili froze, then lifted her head to look at Ke Mingqing.

"What's up?" he asked.

Under the moonlight, Xia Zili quietly stared at Ke Mingqing.

He looked perfectly fine, his expression calm—not resembling the strange, frenzied puppet on the Lijing Iron Tower in the slightest. 'That makes sense,' she thought. 'How could it be him? Is my brain broken?'

"Why are you just standing there like an idiot?" Ke Mingqing asked. "Did you take the wrong meds tonight?"

"This... is for you," Xia Zili said. With a motion like throwing a punch, she shoved the paper bag containing the candied hawthorn against Ke Mingqing's chest. "Bought it outside."

Ke Mingqing caught the bag. "Did you really need to push that hard?"

"Oh, right, let me ask you something," Xia Zili suddenly said.

"What?"

"If one day I went crazy and turned into a different person, someone you didn't recognize at all..." Xia Zili paused, glancing out of the corner of her eye at the mirror in the hallway.

The black shadow in the mirror stretched its mouth wide, flashing her a mocking smile.

Staring at the shadow, she remained silent for a long time before whispering, "When that happens, would you still treat me as family?"

Ke Mingqing looked up, staring into her eyes with a weirded-out expression, while she silently kept her gaze on the distant mirror.

"For the sake of this candied hawthorn, I'll reluctantly consider you family," he said casually. "When the time comes, I won't send you to a mental asylum. I'll just keep you at home and feed you, and when you finally get better one day, you'll find out you've turned into a giant fatty."

He reached out and patted the top of her head. Her soft hair flowed through his fingers like water.

"Why are you patting my head?" she asked in a low voice after a moment.

"I got sugar crust from the hawthorn stuck on my hand, and you haven't showered yet anyway," Ke Mingqing said evenly.

Xia Zili slowly raised her head and flipped him the middle finger. Ke Mingqing just casually pushed her finger back down while chewing on a hawthorn, and then he closed the door.

Before shutting the door, he made a point to slap a sticky note on the outside.

The note read: "Pigs and Xia Zili are not allowed inside." Judging from the indentations on the paper, he had originally wanted to write "Dogs," but must have felt that was too mean, so he crossed it out and swapped it for "Pigs."

Xia Zili didn't even have the energy to frown. Feeling a mix of annoyance and amusement as she looked at the little pig drawn on the door, she decided not to argue with him over it.

The hallway was dead silent. The girl leaned her back against the wall, standing all alone, her figure cutting a solitary shadow in the moonlight.

She raised her hand and gently touched the hair that Ke Mingqing had patted just moments ago.

'There isn't any sugar crust on it, is there?' she thought.

After washing up and changing into her nightgown, she lay down on her bed and stared blankly at the ceiling.

Just then, a ding rang out as a WeChat notification popped up on her phone. Xia Zili picked it up to take a look.

[Ke Mingqing: Oh right, did you check Weibo tonight? Our idol's public image has totally turned around.]

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