A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

It was an ordinary summer afternoon. The coastal highway lay empty, with barely a soul in sight.

To the sound of an occasional horn, a bright yellow bus cruised leisurely down the road. An ocean breeze swept over the coastal railing, lifting the hair and clothes of the boy and girl.

”When did this start?” Xia Zili asked after a moment of silence.

Ke Mingqing said nothing. Resting his arms on the railing, he turned to gaze out at the distant horizon.

”Just a few days ago. Didn’t she and I take down that Termite Monster together on the school bus?” He thought for a moment. ”I remember thinking I couldn’t have pulled it off without her...” He scratched his cheek, looking slightly embarrassed. ”Then it turned out she liked me, so we just naturally ended up together.”

Xia Zili kept her head down. The light in her eyes wavered, betraying a deep exhaustion. The breeze brushed her cheeks, carrying the faint scent of salt and rust.

She thought for a long time. Finally, she said dryly, ”Didn’t Dad tell us it’s best not to date at our age?”

”Are you living in the last century?” Ke Mingqing stopped staring at the horizon and turned to look at her, exasperated. ”Do you have to be so old-fashioned?”

”Right, I’m living in the last century,” Xia Zili said softly, looking away. ”I’m telling on you. I’ll tell Mom and Dad the minute we get home. Happy now?”

”Do you really have to be so petty?” Ke Mingqing snapped.

”This is who I am. Is today your first day knowing me?” Xia Zili said without looking up. ”We’re family, but you’ve never tried to understand me. Whenever I’m hurting, I’m always alone. Sometimes I get so tired, and I don’t even know who to talk to...” She lowered her gaze. ”When you messed with my phone and sent all that stuff, did you think I’d be happy when I saw it? Even if I were, what’s the point? You were just going to toss me aside anyway. Better if you’d just left me alone from the start...”

It was rare for her to speak at such length. She didn’t even pause for breath, as if she had kept the words buried for a very long time. All that repressed emotion poured out like a flood.

Ke Mingqing stood there, stunned. Xia Zili’s reaction was entirely outside his expectations.

Leaning against the railing, he watched her quietly. The girl’s face was bathed in a faint halo of light; a second later, the seaside sunlight dimmed, blanketing the railing and the figures leaning against it in dark blue.

Seagulls drifted across the sky. In the silent world, the only sound was the crash of the waves.

Is it because she’s been a magical girl for too long, and with no one at home who knows her identity to offer a word of comfort, the pressure has become too much? Ke Mingqing thought. And then, because I happened to show her so much attention these past few days, she developed a dependency on me? But would family members normally have such a strong desire for control? I really don’t get it.

A deathly stillness settled over the coastal highway. After a moment, a bus drove past, honking its horn and shattering the silence between them.

Seeing that he wasn’t going to say anything, Xia Zili let out a soft sigh.

She turned and walked slowly away without looking back. Instead of heading into the villa, she continued down the edge of the coastal highway.

The daylight faded. Her shadow and the railing were cast onto the road, stretched impossibly long by the dimming sky as she grew further and further away from Ke Mingqing.

”Is having family really this baffling?” Ke Mingqing tilted his head, watching Xia Zili’s back vanish at the end of the road.

He had been an orphan in his previous life, and the original owner of this body hadn’t been adopted by the Xia–Ke family until he was nine. He had only spent seven years with these people. Even fumbling through those memories, Ke Mingqing didn’t really understand how to interact with family.

Having two people’s worth of memories didn’t mean he had two people’s worth of life experience. He was still just walking alone.

After a moment, Ke Mingqing slung his backpack over his shoulder and entered the villa. As soon as he stepped into the hall, An Youlu, who was cleaning, walked over and asked in a low voice, ”Where is she?”

”In a bad mood. She went back first,” Ke Mingqing said, shrugging.

An Youlu froze. She lowered her eyes to the mop on the floor and muttered dejectedly, ”As expected, little girls like us who grew up eating garbage and mud only deserve to be stood up. It’s fine, I’m already used to it... This world always harbors deep malice toward the poor.”

With that, she picked up her mop, lifted her bucket, and turned toward the second floor.

Ke Mingqing ignored the eccentric girl and sat straight down on the living room sofa.

Kuroki Hitomi’s family usually wasn’t in Leijing, so he casually leaned his head against the back of the sofa, staring up at the resplendent chandelier.

Kuroki Hitomi soon came downstairs. Ke Mingqing pulled a sketchbook from his bag and flipped to a page showing the combat suit design he had spent all night drawing.

”I already figured out a codename. It’s going to be ’Blue Pigeon’.” He handed her the sketchbook.

She asked curiously, ”Do you really like superheroes that much?”

”Please, who would want to be a superhero if not for the main quest rewards?” Ke Mingqing shook his head. ”Isn’t it embarrassing to wander around outside in tights all day?”

”Aren’t you worried about being hunted by other players like this?” Kuroki Hitomi asked thoughtfully. ”They can’t see your player marker. What if they mistake you for a super-human species?”

”I don’t think there’s a single player who can beat me right now,” Ke Mingqing said casually. ”When we get to the later stages, I’ll just lay my cards on the table and tell them I was only doing the main quest. It’s not like they’d keep chasing me down to hack me to pieces, right? We’re all on the same side. We can talk it out.”

Kuroki Hitomi pondered for a moment, taking the sketchbook and lowering her eyes to the drawing.

She nodded. ”I can use my family’s connections to help you build a combat suit, but I can’t guarantee this won’t leak.”

”It’s fine. I’ll probably go public with this superhero identity later anyway, so it doesn’t matter if it gets exposed early,” Ke Mingqing said dismissively.

He added in his mind: If anything, I can’t wait for it to be exposed. That way my dad and my sister will come protect me, and there might even be a magical girl flying right behind my ass keeping an eye on me.

”Mm, I understand.” Kuroki Hitomi nodded.

”I’ll be heading home, then?”

Kuroki Hitomi looked up from the sketchbook. ”Aren’t you going to stay a bit longer?”

”I just had a spat with my sister.” Ke Mingqing zipped up his backpack, slung it over his shoulder, and stood up from the sofa. ”Even though I’m only a fake family member, I still have to keep up appearances.”

”To make it easier to use them, right?” Kuroki Hitomi asked without looking up, as if giving him an out.

Ke Mingqing paused. ”Yeah, exactly. Fostering a relationship with them now makes it easier to use them later.”

”I understand you. You can go ahead, then,” Kuroki Hitomi said, closing the sketchbook.

Ke Mingqing glanced at her, nodded, and walked out of the villa without looking back.