A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

The afternoon passed peacefully. Ke Mingqing and Xia Zili sat on the sofa, quietly watching TV, and before they knew it, dusk had arrived.

A vast swath of the sky burned red. Telephone poles stood solitary against the blood-colored canopy. The wind picked up, rustling the maple leaves before they swirled down onto the windowsill of the old building.

Down in the alley, someone rode a bicycle through the blanket of golden leaves scattered across the ground.

Ke Mingqing grabbed a pineapple-flavored popsicle from the fridge, snapped it in half, and handed one piece to Xia Zili.

Xia Zili hesitated before taking the popsicle. "Why do you keep spacing out? It feels like you aren't even watching the movie."

Ke Mingqing closed his skill panel and answered without a second thought, "I was actually thinking about Magical Girl Little Red Riding Hood."

"...Huh?"

"Yeah." Ke Mingqing stretched, resting the back of his head against the sofa with his hands folded over his stomach. "I've become a fan of hers over the last couple of days."

He turned to look at Xia Zili's profile.

"You've always hated it when I supported Ember, right? I couldn't even wear her fan T-shirt without you nagging me for hours. You even said you didn't want me defending her on Weibo. So, I figured I'd just support someone else."

Xia Zili lowered her head, staring at the remote in her hand in a daze for a moment.

"Do whatever you want. I don't care," she said without looking up, taking a bite of her popsicle.

Ke Mingqing licked his popsicle.

Dusk gradually faded, and the veil of night enveloped the brightly lit metropolis. Neon signs flickered to life one after another like toppling dominoes, quickly blanketing the entire city in color.

After dinner, the Theater Puppet's six-hour cooldown finally ended.

Ke Mingqing had been waiting for this moment. Leaning against his bedroom windowsill, he summoned the Theater Puppet once more.

His goal for tonight was crystal clear: he was going to try to kill a superhuman.

'I need to find a lower-level target... Keeping an eye on the Sneak-Shot Society should be the quickest way. The moment an incident breaks out, those paparazzi scattered across the city swarm to it like sharks smelling blood. They're even faster than the cops.'

With that thought, Ke Mingqing pulled the window shut. Looking down at his phone, he opened an illegal website and navigated to the live-stream section.

...

...

Half an hour later, Lijing City Third Bank.

It was late into the night. The glass facades of the high-rises reflected a kaleidoscope of neon lights. Inside the bank, smoke billowed through the air as cash rained down like a heavy, swirling blizzard.

Bank employees cowered on the floor, clutching their heads. But in the next second, a sudden curtain of flames swept over them. Their bodies were instantly reduced to drifting ash before they could even utter a single scream.

Hurried footsteps echoed through the bank as masked thugs sprinted across the scorching, red-hot floor.

Outside the bank, White Jack stood atop the roof of a nearby high-rise.

He perched on the railing. Like a puppet with its strings cut, his shoulders slumped and his head hung low as his hollow eyes silently observed the bank entrance.

From his vantage point, his line of sight was as crystal-clear as a surveillance camera.

A few moments later, the masked thugs came charging out of the bank, clutching large duffel bags.

A group of them piled into a large truck and went barreling down the street, rampaging forward so recklessly that they smashed through several telephone poles.

Ke Mingqing could easily tell that the truck was a decoy meant to distract the police; otherwise, they wouldn't have made such a loud scene.

The bags those thugs had been carrying were likely either empty or stuffed with rocks. They certainly weren't filled with cash. More importantly, there were no superhuman panels floating above their heads, which meant they weren't his targets.

With that in mind, he ordered White Jack to remain on standby.

White Jack sat on the rooftop railing, popping chocolate candies into his mouth. He swung his legs idly and raised his palm.

"Gate of Truth."

As the eerie whisper faded, three tiny paper figures, no larger than a fingertip, materialized on his palm.

White Jack lowered his head to look at them.

One of the paper figures was pumping its fists and shouting, "God is dead!" The other two hung their heads, sluggish and limp, sitting motionless in his hand.

[C-Rank Skill Activated: Gate of Truth. The philosopher loaded into your Number One Paper Figure is: Nietzsche. (Available Skills: 1. Superhuman Philosophy; 2. Eternal Recurrence.)]

A moment later, just as Ke Mingqing had predicted, two bizarre figures strolled out of the bank.

One of them wore a fiery-red metallic bodysuit. He had spiked red hair, and a small cluster of actual flames hovered just above his head.

The other was half-human, half-snake. Thick, overlapping scales covered his body, and his massive serpentine tail coiled against the pavement as he hissed, flicking his forked tongue.

At the same time, two superhuman panels slowly materialized above their heads.

[Superhuman Codename: Flame Wing (Type: Esper) (Danger Rating: D-Rank)]

[Superhuman Codename: Water Snake (Type: Mutant) (Danger Rating: D-Rank)]

Water Snake casually raised a hand, conjuring a stream of water to levitate the heavy bags of cash into the air. He then popped the trunk and opened the back door of a black sedan, lazily tossing the money bags inside.

They had already destroyed the street cameras, and every paparazzo in the area was busy chasing after the decoy truck.

White Jack dropped straight down from the sky. His top hat stopped spinning in the air as he landed. Raising his hollow eyes, he silently stared at the red and blue figures.

Flame Wing and Water Snake exchanged a glance.

"Are you guys cosplaying Fireboy and Watergirl?" White Jack tilted his head. "Did you escape from a 4399 flash game? Since when do elementary school kids playing on 4399 rob banks?"

Before they could react, he activated his D-Rank Skill: I Am Lightning. A deep blue flash violently sparked within his hollow eyes, and crackling arcs of electricity instantly engulfed his body.

Flame Wing threw up his right hand, blasting a scorching pillar of fire from his palm.

Water Snake dropped the bags of cash and commanded a surging torrent of water to crash toward White Jack, flooding the marble-paved street.

"What are you, Pokémon? All you know is Flamethrower and Aqua Jet."

White Jack burst into motion. Transforming into a streak of deep blue lightning, he tore across the pitch-black street, narrowly brushing past the incoming pillar of flames.

Stomping against the ground, he vaulted into the air like a falcon, landing perfectly atop a telephone pole.

Boom—! The crashing torrent of water snapped the telephone pole in half, but White Jack had already launched himself higher, aiming for the glass facade of an adjacent building.

Twisting his body in mid-air, he stomped his feet into the glass wall, shattering it completely. Using the recoil, he blasted himself forward alongside thousands of falling glass shards, leaving a violent curtain of lightning in his wake.

And he was flying directly toward Flame Wing and Water Snake.

"Fool..." Water Snake hissed, narrowing his eyes. Throwing both hands high into the air, he forced the rushing waters to spiral upward, transforming the torrent into a massive water dragon that roared straight at White Jack.

Suspended in mid-air, White Jack had nowhere to dodge. But he didn't even try. Cloaked in lightning, he hurled himself head-on into the gaping maw of the water dragon.

The corners of his mouth curled into a grin.

His gaze pierced the rushing water, locking onto Flame Wing, and he silently commanded:

'Phantom Shift.'

[E-Rank Skill: Phantom Shift (Swap positions with a living target within a 20-meter radius.)]

As the cold system prompt echoed, a flash of blue light sparked in the corner of White Jack's eyes. His figure instantly vanished, blowing away like a formless gust of wind.

In his place, Flame Wing abruptly materialized in mid-air.

Now, he was the one hurtling head-on into the water dragon.

"What?!" Flame Wing's pupils shrank in horror.

Bang—!!!

With a deafening boom, the ferocious water dragon swallowed him whole. Only by wrapping himself in a roaring blaze at the very last second did he manage to cushion the devastating impact.

Even so, he was sent flying over ten meters, smashing so hard into the side of a building that his body became deeply embedded in the concrete.

Plumes of scorching steam hissed and rose, entirely obscuring Flame Wing's figure.

Meanwhile, thanks to the position swap, White Jack had instantly appeared right next to Water Snake.

"What... what the hell just happened..."

Looking pale and deeply rattled, Water Snake turned to stare at White Jack in horror. White Jack met his gaze, a fleeting arc of electricity illuminating his eerie, hollow face.

Reacting on instinct, Water Snake moved his hands in a Tai Chi motion, instantly summoning a swirling whirlpool of water to shield himself.

But White Jack just swung his right arm, plunging a lightning-wreathed punch straight into the whirlpool.

In an instant, the electricity arced through the raging currents, perfectly conducting the energy until the entire whirlpool morphed into a nest of violent, crackling lightning.

Suffering the consequences of his own element, Water Snake convulsed violently under the deep blue electricity. Even the tough scales covering his lower half were scorched and peeled away.

Water Snake's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he collapsed limply to the ground. His body continued to twitch faintly, looking exactly like a dying fish on a chopping board.

"Oh... Roco Kingdom had it right. Electric-type beats Water-type, and Water-type beats Fire-type," White Jack muttered, covering his mouth.

The next moment, he felt a wave of blistering heat radiating from his side. Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he saw a furious curtain of fire roaring straight toward him.

Yet White Jack still didn't try to dodge. Instead, he took a step forward. At the exact same moment, the tiny paper figure on his palm—the one cheering "God is dead"—whispered in a low voice:

"Superhuman Philosophy."

[Activated Philosopher 'Nietzsche' Skill: Superhuman Philosophy. (Grants you or a nearby target an "Immune to Damage and Control" state for 1.2 seconds.)]

Instantly, a faint golden light enveloped White Jack's body.

Tipping down the brim of his hat, he casually walked through the roaring wall of fire completely unscathed. Like a sturdy reef standing against a raging tide, he was utterly unaffected.

A moment later, the sea of flames sweeping the street slowly dissipated.

White Jack still stood tall. His body bore no traces of burns, and even his magic top hat and cane were completely intact.

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