A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

At dusk, the fading light bathed the empty train station. A dead silence hung over the platform.

Xia Zili stood at the entrance to the platform, staring motionless at Kuroki Hitomi.

The girl with the tear mole stood on her tiptoes, leaning in close to Ke Mingqing's face like a cat. Kuroki Hitomi's back obscured Ke Mingqing's body and half of his face.

To Xia Zili, their two silhouettes almost perfectly overlapped.

She froze for a long time. Her pupils shrank, the evening glow shadowing her eyes.

After a moment, she lowered her head and spoke with feigned calm, though her voice was hoarse.

"You two certainly know how to pick a spot."

With that, she turned around. Like a puppet with cut strings, she trudged down the stairs, vanishing into the pitch-black tunnel until the darkness swallowed her completely.

Ke Mingqing watched her leave, not speaking until her back was out of sight.

"That's enough," he said.

Kuroki Hitomi opened her eyes and looked at him quietly.

Their faces had been inches apart, but they hadn't actually touched. Xia Zili couldn't see that from her angle because Kuroki Hitomi had her back to her.

Given the urgency of the situation, that was the only way Kuroki Hitomi could think of to hide what they were actually doing.

To be honest, Ke Mingqing hadn't expected the Japanese girl to be so full of surprises.

He had fully expected her to expose his identity to Xia Zili to buy herself a chance at survival. But she hadn't.

Kuroki Hitomi raised a finger and opened the chat interface.

[Kuroki Hitomi: What do we do?]

[Ke Mingqing: What else can we do? She might have heard what we just said. But she still doesn't know what players are, so let's see if we can brush it off.]

Ke Mingqing knew she was worried about being overheard, so he replied through the chat, slung his bag over his shoulder, and led the way toward the exit.

Kuroki Hitomi kept her head down, following silently without even mentioning what had just happened.

Ke Mingqing was quiet for a moment, then spoke without looking back.

"I'm sorry."

He paused. "And I don't really remember what happened at the orphanage. We were only eight back then, right? Even if I did help you, it was probably just something I did in passing. Don't read too much into it."

Kuroki Hitomi said nothing.

"Covering for someone who's ready to sell you out—isn't that stupid?" Ke Mingqing muttered. "You're going to get used."

Kuroki Hitomi lowered her gaze, then looked back up at him.

"I don't think it's stupid," she said softly.

"Forget it. There's no reasoning with a weirdo like you." Ke Mingqing sighed.

Kuroki Hitomi lowered her head and fell silent once again.

Ke Mingqing shrugged, a sudden, inexplicable irritation welling up inside him. He decided to just leave before the guilt could consume him.

"Don't follow me," he said.

Kuroki Hitomi clutched her backpack straps, stopped for a moment, and then quietly followed him anyway.

Heads down, the two of them descended the stairs and walked through the dim tunnel, one behind the other.

"Didn't I tell you? Don't follow me," he repeated.

Kuroki Hitomi didn't say a word, just quietly trailing him.

"Why are you following someone who wants to kill you?"

She still didn't answer. Ke Mingqing quickened his pace, drifting further into the darkness.

She came to a halt, standing alone in the shadows to watch him walk away.

She lowered her head, her lips moving slightly.

"Kill me when I'm no longer useful to you, okay?"

Ke Mingqing froze.

After a long moment, he stopped and turned, catching a glimpse of the tear-moled girl from the corner of his eye.

"Listen..." he said, breaking the long silence. "You have leverage on me now."

He took a deep breath. "I'll teach you what to do. First, tell another player about my situation. Tell them that if you ever disappear, they should reveal my player identity to my old man. Then, use that to threaten me."

"I won't," Kuroki Hitomi shook her head, her voice soft.

They fell silent again. For a long time, no one spoke, and the tunnel remained perfectly still.

"Forget it. I don't care anymore," he said suddenly.

"What?"

"If I'm exposed, I'm exposed. If my family kills me, then they kill me. If the players betray me, then they betray me. It's just one worthless life; if I die, I die," Ke Mingqing muttered. "Exterminate Superhumans... how many people can actually pull that off anyway?"

Kuroki Hitomi was taken aback. "But... I don't want you to die."

"You... you should worry about yourself first."

With that, Ke Mingqing scratched his head vigorously and left the train station ahead of her.

[It isn't just players who want to drive the super-human species to extinction in this world. On the contrary, 'anti-super-human terrorist organizations' are densely scattered across the globe, and most of them are made up of ordinary humans. We can establish contact with them and use their strength to achieve our goals. After all, we share the same stance.

—Poster: Fanquan]

Ke Mingqing scrolled through the player forum to pass the time on his way back, arriving at his front door before he knew it.

He unlocked the door, kicked off his shoes, and headed straight for the second floor. He shut himself in the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and stood under a cold shower.

It had rained the night before, so his other clothes hadn't dried yet. Wrapped in a towel, he walked into his bedroom, opened the closet, and decided to just throw on the Magical Girl Ember fan T-shirt he had kept hidden away.

After his shower, Ke Mingqing headed downstairs.

His eldest brother wasn't home, leaving only Xia Ningzhi sitting alone on the sofa.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Xia Ningzhi held up a game cartridge. "Your big sis bought a new console game online last night: Superheroes vs. Magical Girls. Wanna play?"

Ke Mingqing glanced at the title screen on the TV. It was a massive IP crossover officially licensed by the Superhero Company and the Magical Girl Company. The roster featured superheroes and magical girls from all over the country.

"Come play, come play! Where is everyone?" Xia Ningzhi said while practicing the controls.

"Is Magical Girl Ember in it?" Ke Mingqing asked casually.

Xia Ningzhi paused for a second and shook her head. "No. But maybe they'll add her in a future update?"

She turned her head then, suddenly noticing the T-shirt Ke Mingqing was wearing. Her expression instantly grew complicated.

"How about you wear a Rain Crow T-shirt instead? That way, Dad will be happy too," Xia Ningzhi coaxed, blinking at him.

"No."

Just as Ke Mingqing spoke, a figure walked into the entryway.

Xia Zili lifted her head, shot him an expressionless look, and quickly brushed past him.

"Little Pear, come play a game!" Xia Ningzhi held up a red-and-blue Switch controller and called out cheerfully. "I bought a super popular new game, and I've just been waiting for you to get back."

Xia Zili didn't respond, heading upstairs without looking back.

Xia Ningzhi blanked for a moment, then tilted her head, staring suspiciously at Ke Mingqing.

"Did you two get into a fight?" she asked curiously.

"No. Hasn't she always been weird like this?"

Ke Mingqing spoke absentmindedly, grabbing a popsicle from the fridge and heading upstairs with it hanging out of his mouth.

For the next few days after that, he didn't say a single word to Xia Zili.

....

....

Sunday, July 8th. Early morning.

It was the last day of final exams. Once this test was over, the first-year high school students would officially begin their summer vacation.

I still have an exam today.

After washing up, Ke Mingqing stopped in the hallway and knocked on Xia Zili's door. He rested his hand on the handle, only to find it unlocked.

When he pushed the door open, the room was empty. She had likely gone out on her own.

So he put on his backpack and headed out alone, waited at the bus stop alone, and got onto the bright yellow school bus alone.

With a sputtering hiss of air brakes, the bus doors slid shut.

Ke Mingqing sat in the back row by the window, resting his chin on his hand as he looked outside.

A light drizzle was falling. His gaze pierced the veil of rain, accidentally catching sight of a figure inside a McDonald's. It was a white-haired girl in a little white dress.

She sat on a chair with her knees pulled to her chest, her red eyes lowered.

Albinism? Ke Mingqing wondered.

But what drew Ke Mingqing's attention wasn't her appearance—it was the super-human species interface that slowly materialized above her head.

[Danger Rating: D Rank]

[Superhuman Profile: A vampire girl of the same clan adopted by Death Crow member Stroh. She possesses exceptional racial talents.]

Stroh... the vampire my old man took away on the overpass earlier. I heard she already committed suicide by poison, Ke Mingqing thought. When I used White Jack to tail Jiang Qingzi a few days ago, weren't the people from Death Crow discussing whether to keep this girl? Why is she here alone?

He mulled it over. Looks like she was either abandoned by Death Crow, or she ran away from home.

Ke Mingqing recalled the original owner's memories and shook his head, thinking that was impossible.

Jiang Qingzi was a bandit, sure, but with his personality, there was no way he would sit back and do nothing if he saw an abandoned child.

Then she must have run away...

If that's the case, the people from Death Crow will probably come looking for her later. I can use this opportunity to approach them with a new identity and try to join them.

At that thought, Ke Mingqing closed his eyes. Before the school bus could pull away from the station, he deployed the Theater Puppet into a nearby alleyway.

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