A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

The sky gradually darkened, hazy twilight undulating along the horizon. Platform 7 was completely empty. A boy and a girl stood silently, one behind the other. Violent lightning danced at the fingertips of one of them.

The wind blew past, carrying a faint yet calm voice:

"Are you going to kill me?"

Ke Mingqing lowered his head, his bangs obscuring his eyes.

After a moment, his lips parted slightly. "Yes."

"And the reason?" Kuroki Hitomi asked softly.

Ke Mingqing didn't answer.

"At least give me a reason," Kuroki Hitomi continued.

Ke Mingqing stayed silent for a moment before letting out a long breath. He spoke at a slow, measured pace.

"From what you've described, there's an uncontrollable person among the players in Leijing. It's highly likely he'll be caught by people from the Magical Girl Company soon, and then you'll be implicated. You'll be captured, and they'll force you to give me up."

He paused. "But if I kill you now, that chain of connection is broken."

Kuroki Hitomi thought it over. "But we're dating. Even if I die, they'll still suspect you, won't they?"

"Right, but if you die, at least they won't find direct evidence that I'm a player. The other players don't know I exist; only you do. If I take care of you now, I can still save myself."

Kuroki Hitomi stood quietly, still not turning her head.

"When did you decide to do this?" she asked in a low voice.

"The night before last, when you told me that player went to apply for a job at the Magical Girl Company."

Kuroki Hitomi stayed silent for a long time. "Alright."

"Let me first say I'm sorry. You did nothing wrong—you just trusted the wrong person."

Ke Mingqing spoke softly. By now, the pitch-black lightning dancing across his right hand was showing signs of going out of control. Stray electrical arcs flared outward, even tearing a corner of Kuroki Hitomi's school uniform.

"But before that, I hope you'll listen to something I have to say," Kuroki Hitomi murmured, her eyes cast downward.

"Are you planning to use the interface to communicate with the other players and have them come save you?" Ke Mingqing said quietly. "There's no need. I won't give you the time."

Kuroki Hitomi shook her head. "No."

"Two minutes." Ke Mingqing's face was expressionless. "I'll only give you two minutes."

'That way, even if you call the other players for help, I can still make sure to kill you and leave before anyone else finds out,' he thought.

"Okay, two minutes is enough." Kuroki Hitomi nodded.

In a rare display, the girl with the teardrop mole curled the corners of her lips and softly said,

"Thank you."

...

...

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

A girl in a school uniform with a high ponytail, carrying a backpack, came to a halt in front of a restricted area.

Xia Zili looked at the "No Entry" sign. She lingered for a moment before slowly stepping forward, bending down slightly to slip through a gap in the chain-link fence and stepping into the deserted restricted zone.

She kept her eyes lowered as her sneakers crunched against the sandy ground, leaving behind a trail of footprints.

Xia Zili's thoughts were a tangled mess.

She recalled the wound Ke Mingqing had deliberately tried to hide the night before, and remembered him claiming he hadn't gone to his girlfriend's house, but had instead been hanging out at this abandoned train station.

And so, after getting off the school bus today with these messy thoughts swirling in her head, she had walked until she ended up here.

It had been a long time since she last visited this place.

After a short walk, Xia Zili spotted the familiar yet foreign abandoned train station. Following a brief hesitation, she hopped over the tall railing and went in through the station entrance.

With her backpack on, the girl strolled into a pitch-black tunnel so dark she couldn't even see her hand in front of her face.

It was dead silent all around; the only sound was the dripping of water.

She glanced down at the ground. Moss and weeds overgrew the edges of the tracks, and occasionally she spotted one or two brightly colored flowers. She couldn't name them, but she found them quite beautiful.

Looking up at the walls, she saw that the old notice boards had been so eroded by time that their words were entirely illegible.

Xia Zili walked slowly with her head bowed, her thoughts drifting like the wind.

When they were young, she and Ke Mingqing would often sneak over here to play. This was a secret base that belonged exclusively to the two of them. Back then, their relationship was still great; they would stick together after school, utterly inseparable.

The two kids used to weave through the dim tunnels, chasing one another, as if they had carved out their own little sliver of space within the cracks of the world.

How free she was back then! It felt like she had thrown all her worries behind her, her body as weightless as the wind.

Xia Zili still remembered when she was ten years old, playing hide-and-seek with him in this very tunnel.

Ke Mingqing had hidden in the shadows of a corner, completely silent. Unable to find him, Xia Zili rubbed her eyes and called out, "Brother, where are you?" as she stumbled through the pitch-black tunnel.

After a while, Ke Mingqing suddenly leapt out from behind her with a loud "Boo!" and pulled a funny face. Terrified, Xia Zili squatted on the ground and clutched her head, too scared to make a sound.

Ke Mingqing froze for a second. Then he crouched down as well, resting his hands on his knees as he quietly stared into her eyes.

Darkness shrouded the tunnel as the boy and girl gazed silently at each other, the faint sliver of light from outside illuminating the boy's eyes.

"Scaredy-cat, don't cry. Your brother is right here," he said softly.

"I hate you," she replied, hugging her knees.

"But you were the one who said you wanted to play hide-and-seek?"

The girl turned her face away and said nothing, burying her head against her knees.

"Alright, then how can I get you to forgive me?" the boy asked, troubled.

"Just... do what they do on TV," the girl said suddenly after a moment of silence.

"On TV?"

"Yeah, like..."

"But we're siblings."

"We're not blood-related. Mom won't find out."

"Okay, then this is our secret."

At that moment, Ke Mingqing had gently leaned in toward her face. Both the boy's and the girl's faces were flushed red. The boy closed his eyes, but the girl kept hers open, quietly watching as their cheeks overlapped. His eyelashes had been so close.

As she remembered this, Xia Zili's ears suddenly turned a faint shade of red.

She gently shook her head. Raising her eyes to look at the bottomless tunnel ahead, she finally realized that she had unknowingly walked a very, very long way.

"What am I even doing..." Xia Zili sighed. "Forget it, I should just go home."

But just as she was about to turn around and leave, her acute hearing as a member of the super-human species suddenly picked up the sound of voices drifting over from one of the distant platforms.

Xia Zili froze for a moment.

Then, crouching down and muffling her footsteps, she slowly approached the platform. She strained her ears, but the voices from the platform reached her only in broken fragments. She couldn't hear them clearly.

"But before that, I hope you'll listen to something I have to say," one of them said.

"Are you planning to use the interface to communicate with the other players and have them come save you? There's no need. I won't give you the time," the other person replied.

"No."

"Two minutes. I'll only give you two minutes."

"Okay, thank you."

The exit overhead was bright. Xia Zili stepped onto the stairs, ascending silently as she listened to the faint voices.

'Players? What are they talking about? A game?'

Contemplating this, Xia Zili stepped onto Platform 7. A blood-red sunset glow poured down from above, illuminating the stairs and reflecting in her eyes.

Xia Zili saw a girl in a school uniform with a teardrop mole.

At that moment, Kuroki Hitomi was standing in front, with Ke Mingqing behind her. Her body perfectly shielded Ke Mingqing from view, as well as the pitch-black lightning dancing at his fingertips.

The instant Ke Mingqing saw Xia Zili, he was slightly stunned. The black lightning in his hand slowly faded away.

Kuroki Hitomi also froze slightly.

The dusk wind blew past, gently swaying the loose strands of hair by Xia Zili's forehead. She recognized her—this was Ke Mingqing's girlfriend. They had met at the villa the other day.

She paused for a moment before furrowing her brows. Looking at Kuroki Hitomi, she asked in confusion, "What are you doing here?"

'Wait, she shouldn't be the only one here. I just heard voices,' Xia Zili thought, her expression suddenly changing.

Kuroki Hitomi raised her eyes, staring quietly into Xia Zili's vigilant gaze.

A second later, she suddenly shifted half her body aside, allowing Xia Zili to see Ke Mingqing standing behind her.

Xia Zili froze on the spot.

She opened her mouth but couldn't make a sound.

'Crap... Why is she here? Did she hear what we were saying? Damn it, I knew I shouldn't have hesitated,' Ke Mingqing thought, staring blankly at Xia Zili as his mind whirled like a tempest.

The brother and sister stared at each other in silence.

Ke Mingqing quickly hid his right hand behind his back. Stray electrical arcs were still dancing across his fingers. It was uncontrollable. If Xia Zili noticed those arcs and the stance he had just been in, it would be extremely hard for him to explain.

For a moment, all three people on the platform fell completely silent, the atmosphere grinding to a tense halt.

But right then, Kuroki Hitomi suddenly spun her head around and leaned her body slightly forward toward Ke Mingqing. Closing her eyes, she softly kissed him on the lips.

Slowly, Xia Zili's eyes widened.

The platform was dead silent.

Rainwater left on the eaves from the night before traced a beautiful parabola, falling onto the rusted tunnel with a rhythmic drip, drop.

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