A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

It was a scorching summer day in the bustling downtown plaza.

Ke Mingqing looked in the direction Dark Crocodile had gone and released the Theater Puppet from behind a billboard.

White Jack disguised himself as a tanned, thoroughly ordinary young man. He changed into casual clothes replicated by the Mirror Clothing, and finally put on the Tracking Sunglasses from his inventory.

Stepping out from behind a bus stop sign, he glanced up at the electronic map displayed on the lenses.

At that moment, the red dot representing Dark Crocodile’s location was moving rapidly.

Since Dark Crocodile was an insider the Clock Maker had planted in the Hero Company, tracking him would likely lead to the Clock Maker’s stronghold in Leijing, or perhaps to the other children he had adopted.

Either way, following him was the right move.

The map on the sunglasses showed that shortly after leaving the Hero Company, Dark Crocodile had turned down a deserted, secluded alley.

Before long, White Jack reached the alley. He leaned against the outer wall and peeked inside.

The alley was completely empty. It was also a dead end with no visible hidden passages—yet strangely enough, Dark Crocodile’s position on the map was still moving.Ke Mingqing hesitated for a moment before steering White Jack into the alley. He looked around, his gaze finally settling on a narrow pipe in the corner that led into the sewers.

He paused in mild surprise; the sunglasses showed Dark Crocodile’s position heading underground.

The next moment, a theory sprang to White Jack’s mind: a member of the Clock Maker’s alliance had used an esper ability to shrink them down, allowing them to slip through this cramped pipe and into the sewers.

That would explain why the red dot’s position on the map was so bizarre.

”This is troublesome,” White Jack muttered under his breath, scratching his chin.

Ke Mingqing’s innate talent, Disguiser, could alter a player’s height and build, but it couldn’t shrink someone to the size of an ant; that defied logic.

Looking at the pipe, he figured only a creature about the width of a palm could pass through.

White Jack pondered for a moment before choosing to release the Cursed Doll, Mio, from his inventory.

The small ragdoll dropped from the sky, landing squarely on his shoulder. She covered her nose with her stubby limbs. ”What do you want me to do, White Jack? Why did you call Mio out in such a messy and smelly place? This counts as a workplace injury!”

”It’s like this, Miss Mio. I need you to carry my top hat and the Dragon Egg and infiltrate the enemy camp. It sounds like a truly thrilling mission, one that only an outstanding lady such as yourself is equipped to handle.”

White Jack spoke at a leisurely pace. A palm-sized egg covered in blue markings appeared in his right hand—his C Rank item, the Dragon Egg.

If it so desired, this Dragon Egg could rapidly hatch within sixty seconds and become a blue dragon.

White Jack was only having Mio carry the Dragon Egg as a precaution.

”Why bring an egg?” Mio asked, shocked. ”White Jack, you can lay eggs?” She reached out a stubby little hand and patted it.

”And here is my hat. Please be sure to bring it along.” White Jack took the white top hat off his head.

The top hat was far too large for the pipe, so, like performing a magic trick, he folded it down into a single layer of white cloth, wrapped it around the Dragon Egg, and handed them both into Mio’s arms.

”Mio doesn’t want to go into the sewer! It’s dirty and smelly!” Mio turned her head away, refusing to take the Dragon Egg.

”I need you, Miss Mio. Furthermore, you must keep quiet.” White Jack raised a finger to his lips. ”It would be bad if the enemy discovered you.”

”Mio wants pudding.” Mio puffed out her cheeks.

”Of course. That won’t be a problem, as long as you complete the mission,” White Jack said, shrugging. ”Otherwise, you’ll just have to dine on the shit and piss of the sewer.”

”White Jack, you bad guy! Mio will remember this for the rest of her life!”

Grumbling, Mio hugged the folded top hat and the incubating Dragon Egg, then dove headfirst into the cramped pipe.

She slid down the length of the pipe like she was on a playground slide, nearly screaming out loud. But she held it in. The small ragdoll hugged the cracking Dragon Egg and White Jack’s top hat tightly, spiraling down several large loops before dropping through an opening in the sewer wall.

Mio sat stunned for a long while before lifting her button eyes to look around.

Before her lay a putrid river composed of excrement and all sorts of indescribable garbage. A walkway ran along each side of the river, and she was currently sitting on the left one.

This walkway was still quite cramped. Though the width was manageable, the ceiling was bizarrely low, only allowing someone as short as Mio to walk through it.

White Jack had originally planned to use the top hat’s function to teleport himself into the sewer, but after seeing the conditions of the walkway, he had no choice but to let Mio carry the hat forward.

”Keep moving forward, Miss Mio,” the white top hat suddenly said.

”White Jack, you aren’t setting Mio up just to kick her into the river of piss and shit, are you?”

Mio muttered as she stood up and tiptoed forward along the walkway.

”Of course not,” the top hat whispered. ”Shh—stop talking for now. If you’re heard, someone else might kick you into that river of shit, and you wouldn’t want to bathe in there, Miss Mio.”

Mio immediately held her breath and walked forward quietly. The walkway was pitch black, but a faint glimmer of light came from the distance.

She walked for a very, very long time. The shit and piss floating in the sewage beside her drifted past more times than she could count before she finally saw the exit to the walkway.

The exit was another palm-sized pipe, and the scattered light was spilling out from within.

Meanwhile, in White Jack’s field of vision, the red dot on the map had stopped moving. Judging by its position, Dark Crocodile was very likely right in front of her.

”Knock on that egg with your hand, Miss Mio,” the top hat suddenly instructed.

Mio didn’t understand what he meant, but she still used her stubby right hand to pat the Dragon Egg in her arms. A moment later, the Dragon Egg suddenly began to vibrate, and tiny cracks slowly spread across its surface.

[Notice: After a 60-second countdown, the blue dragon will be born.]

”White Jack, you’re giving birth!” Mio gasped silently.

”Calm down, Miss Mio. You are about to become a mother,” White Jack said seriously.

Mio covered her cheeks with her stubby hands. ”I’m going to be a mother?”

”That’s right. Now you should enter that pipe. The finish line is very close; those bad guys’ secret base is just up ahead,” White Jack’s voice continued from the top hat.

Mio froze for a moment, then hugged the Dragon Egg tight and plunged into the pipe. After walking for a short while, she unexpectedly found herself inside a house.

Indeed, it was a miniature house nestled in the sewer. Looking around, there was a sofa, an air conditioner, and even a refrigerator, a dining table, and a television. Perhaps only legendary thumb-sized folk could live here.

A miniature house hidden in the sewer... These brats trained by the Clock Maker really have quite the imagination to come up with something like this, Ke Mingqing thought. If I use the top hat’s ability to teleport White Jack over right now, what would happen? Would it instantly burst the house, or would White Jack be squashed flat? Forget it. Just in case, I should play it safe.

The living room inside was brightly lit; the firewood burning in the fireplace illuminated the surroundings.

At this very moment, three figures with an eerie presence were sitting on the miniature sofa, watching the miniature television.

Dark Crocodile was among them. His body had shrunk countless times over; he was now only the height of an index finger, just like the people beside him.

Or rather, in their eyes, Mio was basically a chubby little giant, while the Dragon Egg cradled in her arms was the only thing around their size.

Through the top hat’s perspective, Ke Mingqing observed these three figures, looking at the super-human species panels floating above their heads.

First was a teenage girl with pinkish-blue hair, wearing a jacket and jeans. Her hair was tied up into twin tails on top of her head.

[Code Name: Mini Girl (Type: esper) (Danger Rating: B Rank)]

[Super-human species description: One of the children adopted by the Clock Maker. Her esper ability is to create a curtain; anything enveloped by this curtain will shrink to a tenth of its size.]

Ke Mingqing raised an eyebrow. Things were exactly as he’d expected: So she’s the one who used her ability to shrink them. Could that narrow sewer space from earlier also have been created with her esper power?

Next to catch his eye was a teenage boy wearing a kasaya. The contours of his face were as soft and feminine as a woman’s, making him look perfectly androgynous, yet his head was shaved completely bald like a monk’s.

[Code Name: Dream Monk (Type: esper) (Danger Rating: B+ Rank)]

[Super-human species description: An orphan adopted by the Clock Maker from a Buddhist temple. Dream Monk excels at killing people in their sleep. His esper ability is to enter another’s dreams or create a dreamscape.]

Excellent. Ragdolls don’t dream, Ke Mingqing thought. With everyone’s bodies shrunken down like this, I feel like Mio can wipe them all out the moment she opens her mouth to sing.

It wasn’t long after Mio entered this miniature house that someone spotted this massive ragdoll crawling out of the pipe. Massive, of course, only in their eyes.

Mini Girl turned her head, staring blankly at the ragdoll. ”Hey, what the hell is that fat thing?”

Dream Monk frowned. He looked at Mio, then turned his head, staring at Dark Crocodile with a solemn expression:

”You’ve only been inside the Hero Company for one day, and you’ve already been discovered?”

Dark Crocodile stared expressionlessly at the chubby ragdoll, his voice cold. ”I don’t know what she is.”

”Mio isn’t fat, you guys are just too tiny!” Mio shouted.

”Stop wasting breath on them. I suggest you show off your singing voice right away,” White Jack’s voice called from the top hat.

The little ragdoll took a deep breath and abruptly opened her mouth wide. ”Guwawawawa—”

[Black Melody: Temporarily boosts the attributes of a targeted ally, or temporarily inflicts mental disruption on a surrounding enemy.]

At that moment, the entire house trembled beneath the demonic voice, shaking as though struck by an earthquake.

In a split second, Dark Crocodile transformed into a black-and-red miniature crocodile, lunging at the other two with astonishing speed and carrying them toward another pipe at the back of the house.

The fireplace was extinguished in an instant. Firewood went flying outward, and the room plunged into darkness.

Mio clamped her mouth shut. She felt as if this miniature house was on the verge of collapsing; everything in all directions was quaking.

She raised a stubby hand, pointing toward the hidden pipe:

”Ah, White Jack, the bad guys who called Mio fat are running away!”

”It’s fine, Miss Mio, your mission is already complete. Now you just need to throw the top hat and the Dragon Egg into that pipe,” White Jack said faintly, watching the Dragon Egg’s incubation countdown.

Hugging the Dragon Egg, Mio gave chase. Just before the house collapsed, she threw the folded white cloth of the top hat and the Dragon Egg together into the pipe leading to who-knew-where.

”I did it, White Jack!” Mio declared, but she could no longer hear White Jack’s voice, as the top hat and the Dragon Egg were already sliding down the pipe.

Right before the miniature house’s ceiling collapsed, Mio’s figure vanished; Ke Mingqing had recalled her to his inventory. The very next second, the ceiling crashed down, kicking up dust that filled the cramped space.

At the same time, the folded top hat and the Dragon Egg slid out of the pipe, landing in a spacious, massive sewer tunnel.

White Jack looked through the top hat’s perspective. The tunnel was about thirty meters high and twenty meters wide. A roaring river meant for discharging sewage and excrement was currently flowing through it, the color of the water beyond description.

Having reached this relatively vast space, White Jack was finally able to reveal his true form. He used the top hat’s ability to teleport right next to it, then picked it up and placed it on his head.

Afterward, he slowly raised his hollow eyes, gazing at the three thumb-sized figures standing at the tunnel’s corner.

Mini Girl threw up a rainbow-colored curtain, enveloping their bodies. Instantly, their size expanded over tenfold, restoring them to their original size.

Dark Crocodile, Mini Girl, and Dream Monk were all glaring right back at him.

”Who is this?” Dream Monk asked, frowning, his tone solemn.

He had originally assumed the newcomer was someone from the Hero Company who had tracked Dark Crocodile, but one look at White Jack’s appearance made him reconsider; the man certainly didn’t look like an upstanding hero.

”’White Jack...’ Father told us to watch out for this guy, because even he doesn’t know where he came from,” Mini Girl reminded them. ”To think he could actually sniff out our stronghold. Just who is this guy?”

Dark Crocodile remained silent.

He knew full well that this figure had very likely followed him here. He had only lowered his guard because he never imagined anyone could bypass the maze-like miniature sewer by traversing that extremely cramped pipe.

In truth, there were very few people in the entire world who could pull off such a feat, but White Jack had done it.

Just what was the deal with that ragdoll that entered the ’Miniature House’ earlier? How did White Jack know they were here?

The three of them had no answers. They could only maintain a high state of vigilance against this stranger.

”A pleasure to meet you, the Clock Maker’s dolls... Have you ever seen a dragon? If you haven’t, then I’ve decided to let you take a look at the dragon I keep... a genuine dragon.”

As his voice faded, White Jack raised his eyes to meet their gazes while lifting the fracturing Dragon Egg from the ground and tossing it straight ahead.

In that instant, a deep blue notification panel slowly emerged before his eyes.

[Warning: Countdown at final 1 second. The blue dragon is about to hatch.]

The Dragon Egg shattered completely. Immediately following that, a vicious, enraged beast let out a deafening roar as it burst from its shell. A sky-blotting shadow instantly engulfed the entire tunnel, completely swallowing the figures of the three people opposite him.