A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

August 26, a corner of the Old Jingmai District.

Ke Mingqing stood before the lockers on the empty Platform 7, lowering his head as he pulled off his Bird Beak Helmet.

Cradling the helmet against his chest, he tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and let out a long sigh in the sunlight.

His sweat-drenched bangs clung to his forehead in thick strands, stirring slightly in the hot wind.

After resting his eyes for a moment, Ke Mingqing turned his head to survey the familiar train station.

A lot of terrifying things had happened this summer. The criminal organization Death Crow had stolen the once-in-a-millennium Comet Fragments. A nuclear bomb had exploded in the sky over the city center. And that villain—the one always fiddling with a pocket watch in his tailored suit—had finally died.

None of that, however, had anything to do with this forgotten, abandoned train station.

The summer sunlight spilled evenly across the rust-mottled tracks.

Weeds and wildflowers swayed slowly in the warm breeze along the rails, while the sign for Old Jingmai Station creaked softly.

Two hours had passed since the press conference ended.Ke Mingqing was willing to bet that he wouldn’t be wearing this blue combat suit again for a very long time.

He sat down on a public bench on the platform and looked up at the Quest Panel hovering in front of him.

[Today is August 26. This week’s weekly quests have been refreshed.]

[Weekly Quest 1: Kill one super-human species (Reward: One permanent extra Skill Bar slot)]

[Weekly Quest 2: Do one hundred push-ups (Reward: One chance to use the reward wheel)]

”Wait... Did I read that wrong? The quest reward is actually a Skill Bar slot?” Ke Mingqing raised an eyebrow.

A moment later, realization dawned on him. ”This is way more practical than Attribute Points. Well, at least for now.”

A player started with five Skill Bar slots. After that, unlocking a new one required gaining ten player levels, meaning all ten slots would only be unlocked at Rank 50.

If the weekly quests also handed out extra Skill Bar slots, a player’s upper limit would be drastically raised.

But Ke Mingqing had recently scrolled through the forums, and he hadn’t seen any other player mention this happening with their weekly quests.

A player with the ID ’Fanquan’ had meticulously mapped out the rules for weekly quests, yet never mentioned anything about a Skill Bar reward.

”Huh. Could this be a reward for indirectly killing an S-rank super-human species?”

Ke Mingqing guessed as he closed the Quest Panel.

He decided to test whether this was a hidden system mechanic the next time he scored an assist on an S-rank super-human species.

”This Fanquan guy really is dedicated, though... It’s only been two months, and the word count of his guides is already higher than some of those web novel authors who are always delaying their updates.”

Ke Mingqing muttered to himself, suddenly feeling a twinge of guilt for previously considering framing Fanquan for the murder of a player. If he had done that, he would have lost a precious, albeit unwitting, strategist.

Right, I’ve got twenty thousand superhuman coins now, and I happen to have an empty Skill Bar slot. I’ll just wait for the Skill Shop to refresh an A Rank skill, Ke Mingqing suddenly thought a moment later.

He pushed himself up from the bench and opened the Skill Shop in the upper right corner of his vision.

A series of crystal-blue panels materialized before his eyes.

[Today’s Skill Shop offerings are as follows.]

[Skill 1: Mario’s Hat (D Rank Skill) (3,000 superhuman coins): By wearing this red Mario hat, your jumping, headbutting, and stomping power will be greatly enhanced for a short time. Furthermore, stomping a super-human species to death has a chance to drop superhuman coins.]

”Boss, are we really not going to get sued by Nintendo for this?” Ke Mingqing muttered.

[Skill 2: Snap Pistol (D Rank Skill) (3,000 superhuman coins)]

”Big bro Li Wei, please stop haunting me. I really am on my knees begging here.” Ke Mingqing mockingly bumped his head against the wooden bench.

[Skill 3: Punisher Form (B Rank Skill) (10,000 superhuman coins): While this state is active, the damage you deal to any individual considered a ”villain” or ”evildoer” in the secular sense will be significantly increased.]

”Then how do I deal with a massive secular hero like Zeus?” Ke Mingqing decisively passed on this vaguely defined skill.

[Skill 4: Drowsy Cake (D Rank Skill) (3,000 superhuman coins): Within 30 seconds of activating this skill, you can overdraw your physical stamina to create a ”Drowsy Cake” (only one can be created at a time).]

[Note 1: Anyone hit by or consuming the Drowsy Cake will rapidly enter a ”Drowsy State” (struggling to focus, lethargic, with a minor reduction in stats).]

[Note 2: The effectiveness of the Drowsy Cake depends on the player’s mental attribute.]

Ke Mingqing raised an eyebrow. This isn’t bad, he thought. It’s time to give White Jack some new tricks.

[Skill 5: Don’t Swear (E Rank Skill) (1,000 superhuman coins): Unleash a ”Civilized Domain.” Anyone within this domain who swears will have their stats forcibly lowered.]

”So useful. My own stats would absolutely be the first to drop below zero. This isn’t just a double-edged sword; it’s practically suicide.” Ke Mingqing’s eye twitched slightly.

He scrolled back up the panel and held his finger down on the icon for the Drowsy Cake.

A moment later, the icon lit up, and a line of text appeared in his vision.

[Congratulations, you have successfully purchased the D Rank Skill—”Drowsy Cake.” Your current superhuman coin balance is: 21,000 coins.]

[Prompt: The D Rank Skill ”Drowsy Cake” has been automatically equipped to your 7th Skill Bar slot.]

”I can use this cake skill for now. It’s cheap anyway. I’ll just wait patiently for an A Rank skill with the remaining twenty thousand. Perfect timing, too, since the weekly quest gave me an empty Skill Bar slot.”

With that thought, Ke Mingqing closed the Skill Shop.

He yawned and looked up, checking the telephone poles and wire fences for any perched crows. After confirming the coast was clear, he released a Theater Puppet beside him.

The next moment, a snow-white Theater Puppet gradually formed. It stood tall, stretching its cracked mouth into a wide grin, and lifted its hollow, abyssal eyes to stare straight ahead.

White Jack donned his tall white top hat. As the hat began to spin, he rapidly ascended into the sky like a small white helicopter.

Ke Mingqing lounged on the wooden bench, scrolling through the dark web. Whenever he spotted a tip, he immediately dispatched White Jack to the location.

After all, every one of Ke Mingqing’s attributes had reached B Rank. Even if those small-fry thugs piled up into a mountain of flesh, wiping them out was nothing more than a slap of his hand.

What happened next was simple—so simple it was like a turn-based Pokémon battle, specifically a level one hundred Charizard going up against a level ten Bulbasaur.

The breakdown went like this: The super-human species criminal Pea Killer was committing a crime. Lord White Jack made his entrance. Lord White Jack started dancing. Lord White Jack used Splash. Lord White Jack subdued the opponent with a single karate chop. Lord White Jack raised his cane. Lord White Jack smashed his head in.

Squeliich—

Amidst a spray of blood, the massive cluster of peas on Pea Killer’s head was knocked flying by the cane, and his body slowly collapsed onto the overpass pavement.

White Jack tilted his head as a bright red Pop-up slowly appeared in his vision.

[Detected that the player has killed a D Rank super-human species. 200 experience points awarded.]

[Weekly Quest 1 Completed: Kill one super-human species of any rank.]

[Quest Reward Acquired: One extra Skill Bar slot (Slot 11).]

Just then, he heard the sudden rustle of fluttering feathers behind him. He slowly turned his head to look back.

A flurry of crow feathers gradually stacked together into a human shape. Rain Crow slowly lifted his head, his pitch-black bird beak jutting straight forward like a blade.

Atop the dead-silent overpass, White Jack and Rain Crow stared at each other in silence.

”Yo... If it isn’t Mr. Rain Crow. You’re way too dedicated to your job. The corpse of your old flame isn’t even cold yet, and here you are working again. Don’t you want to consider taking a long vacation?” White Jack said, humming the tune to Poker Face as he spoke.

He hid his cane behind his back and quietly shimmied two steps to the right, blocking Pea Killer’s corpse from view.

However, at that exact moment, the giant pod on Pea Killer’s head convulsed, shooting out a bullet-like green pea that nailed White Jack right in the ass.

White Jack howled in pain, clutching his rear and jumping into the air. Rain Crow narrowed his eyes at the corpse on the ground.

”Okay, me killing someone is one thing, but me doing you a favor is another...” White Jack, still rubbing his ass, raised a finger with his other hand. ”You can’t catch me anyway, so it doesn’t matter, right?”

He threw his hands up. ”You can’t kill people, so I did the dirty work for you. Wasn’t it the same with Clock Maker?”

Rain Crow stared at him coldly.

Resting one hand on his hip, White Jack used the tip of his cane to draw a giant heart on the overpass pavement. He met Rain Crow’s gaze and asked curiously, ”So... do you really not have anything to say to me?”

Rain Crow remained silent for a long time before finally opening his beak.

”Just this once.”

With those words, his body slowly dispersed into a murder of fluttering crows, taking the corpse on the ground along with them.

”Sigh. Is there really a need to act so difficult?”

Annoyed, White Jack used his cane to draw an X through the heart on the ground. He then tossed the cane aside and dropped down to do a hundred push-ups.

A short while later, he climbed to his feet as a Pop-up appeared before his eyes.

[Weekly Quest 2 Completed: Do one hundred push-ups.]

[Reward Acquired: One chance to use the item wheel.]

White Jack leapt up from the ground. As he pulled the cloth doll Mio out of his inventory, he opened the reward wheel in the upper right corner of his vision.

Mio lifted her head, resting a hand on her chin. ”White Jack, what are you doing?”

White Jack hoisted Mio into the air. ”I sacrifice ten years of Mio’s lifespan! Drop a legendary!”

”Nooo—! Mio doesn’t want to die!!” Mio shrieked in horror.

White Jack pinched the cloth doll’s tiny hand and forced her stubby palm to press the start button on the wheel.

The needle spun rapidly before the eyes of the man and the doll. Mio grew dizzy, and soon a Pop-up materialized in front of them.

[Congratulations, the needle landed on Sector 3. You have received 8,000 experience points from the reward wheel.]

[Current level experience cap reached. Congratulations, the player’s level has increased by 1.]

[Current Level Progress: Lv. 22 (1,400 / 11,000 experience points)]

”Tsk, why is it just experience points? Looks like Mio doesn’t have ten years of lifespan left for me to sacrifice.”

White Jack curled his lip and stuffed Mio back into his inventory.

After a moment, the puppet looked up at the brightly lit metropolis beneath the Clear Sky. His body dissolved into a wisp of residual smoke and slowly faded away.

...

...

In another corner of the world, inside the abandoned train station.

Ke Mingqing opened his eyes on the public wooden bench, greeted by the sight of the platform’s awning. Rainwater pooled from the night before had formed into bean-sized drops, dripping one by one onto the rust-mottled tracks.

”It’s about time I headed home...”

Ke Mingqing muttered softly, letting out a yawn.

Just then, a blast of hot wind blew in from behind him. Startled, he turned around and saw a young girl in a pitch-black gothic dress soaring toward him from the distance, holding an open umbrella.

The magical girl, Ember, dropped from the air. The moment her feet tapped the ground, a light breeze rippled out, rustling Ke Mingqing’s bangs.

He could see faint ripples of magical power carried on the wind.

The hue of grayish-blue within those ripples had grown even deeper.

The girl in the gothic dress smoothly closed her umbrella, tapping the tip against the ground. Opening her eyes—which were as brilliant as the Icelandic aurora—she walked toward Ke Mingqing step by step.

”What were you doing?” she asked.

”You first.”

Ke Mingqing looked away from her face.

”At a meeting.” Ember hesitated for a moment. ”My master said... a few witches might be coming to Leijing soon. She told us to be prepared, and she said she’d be calling in outside help.”

”Witches?” Ke Mingqing arched an eyebrow.

”Yeah, the witch cult, the ’Tower of Finality.’ You’ve probably heard of them.”

How could Ke Mingqing not have heard the name? They were the only witch organization in the world.

Most witches were lone wolves, and even then, their destructive power was devastating enough to be considered walking natural disasters. There was no telling how terrifying a unified coven of witches would be.

During Ke Mingqing and Xia Zili’s battle against Death Crow at the port, the Magical Girl Three Giants had failed to arrive as backup simply because the witch cult ”Tower of Finality” had been wreaking havoc overseas, keeping the three giants swamped.

”What are they coming to Leijing for?” he asked after a moment of thought.

Ember fell silent for a beat. ”Master said they’ve got their eye on someone. They want to assimilate that person into their ranks, but she didn’t say who it was.”

Ke Mingqing answered without missing a beat. ”Who... It couldn’t be you, right? They’d have terrible taste if it was.”

Ember rolled her eyes at him, then shook her head. ”If it was me, why wouldn’t Master just say so directly? She has no reason to hide it.”

”Haha...” Ke Mingqing forced out a deadpan laugh before sighing. ”If I were her, I’d hide it from you too. You’re too reckless.”

He paused, pulling a blue packet of chocolate beans out of his jacket pocket. ”Don’t go packing yourself up with your umbrella and delivering yourself right to their doorstep before the coven even makes it to Leijing.”

The girl in the gothic dress furrowed her brow and lifted her umbrella, poking the tip into his shoulder.

”See?”

Ke Mingqing rolled his eyes.

Ember took a deep breath. Only after a good while did she lower the umbrella. She gently nudged him with her shoulder and asked, ”Your turn. What were you up to today?”

”You really don’t care about me at all.” Ke Mingqing slouched and tore open the chocolate bean packaging, deliberately speaking in the resentful tone of a neglected wife.

Ember shot him a sideways glance. ”I was in a meeting. I wasn’t even allowed to look at my phone.”

”That’s still no excuse for not caring about me. Just open your phone now and you’ll know exactly what I was doing.”

Ke Mingqing said, popping a chocolate bean into his mouth.

”When did I have the time to care...” Before Ember could finish, Ke Mingqing licked his finger and pressed another chocolate bean to her lips, cutting off her words.

He said, ”Then don’t complain about me not caring about you in the future. I clearly remember what you told me by the ocean.”

The girl in the gothic dress threw him a sour look, but ate the chocolate bean anyway.

”So what did you do?”

”I went to a funeral. Shadow Girl and Invisible Giant’s funeral... You’ve met them a few times before, though Commander Lin and I were the only two people there.”

”Why?”

”The Hero Company decided their deaths needed to be kept a secret from the public, otherwise it would incite further uproar.” Ke Mingqing spoke evenly. ”So I crashed the press conference and gave the Hero Company a piece of my mind.”

He paused, shrugged, and added, ”I don’t know if they’re going to discipline me for it later. But whatever. Rain Crow’s got my back, and he’s part of the Roundtable.”

Ember lowered her eyes in silence for a moment before asking softly, ”Are you... sad?”

”Yeah, a little, I guess.”

Ke Mingqing gazed out at the distant golden wheat fields, casually eating his chocolate beans as he spoke. ”How should I put it? It just felt relaxing being around them. Like I could be myself.”

”Then with me...” Ember caught herself and changed her tune. ”No, wait. Are you saying you don’t feel relaxed around your own family?”

”You’d have to ask our older brother and second sister about that.”

The two exchanged a glance, stifling their laughter as they looked away.

For a long time after that, neither of them spoke another word.

The brother and sister sat on the bench of the deserted platform, looking up at the cloudless sky. The wind blew quietly through the weeds along the tracks, teasing their hair.

”If the witches really have their eye on you, I’ll protect you. Don’t worry about it, little sis,” Ke Mingqing said suddenly after a while.

”How are you going to protect me?” The girl in the gothic dress tilted her head, idly playing with her umbrella as she scoffed. ”By getting yourself covered in injuries again, or getting tied up in some bar?”

”Come on, I’m the guy who took out Clock Maker. No matter how tough those witches are, could they really be worse than him?” Ke Mingqing shrugged. ”He was a time-type ability user. I bet Clock Maker alone could’ve wiped out that entire coven.”

Ember thought about it. ”They might actually be stronger than Clock Maker... Master said this coven has a very powerful device in their possession. It’s a stage, a tower. Everyone calls it the ’Night of Finality’.”

”Then I’ll just get stronger than them. Happy?”

Ke Mingqing said nonchalantly, pulling another chocolate bean from the bag and pressing it to the girl’s lips.

”Is it really that hard to trust your big brother?” he asked, exasperated.

Ember looked down at the chocolate bean pressed against her lips. She stayed silent for a moment before suddenly turning her head toward him.

Staring at Ke Mingqing’s profile, she darted in like a cat, closing the distance to his cheek in a flash, and passed the chocolate bean from her lips into his mouth.

Feeling the sudden touch against his lips, Ke Mingqing froze slightly.

He lifted his head, staring blankly at her face, which was now inches from his own.

Separated only by a single chocolate bean, their lips were almost touching.

But the girl in the gothic dress quickly pulled away. Her expression remained cold, though the tips of her ears were flushed pink. ”Here, have it back. And don’t feed me next time. It tastes awful.”

With that, she rose from the wooden bench and pushed open her pitch-black umbrella.

As a ripple of magic washed out from under her feet, the girl’s figure instantly fluttered upward, ascending toward the sky.

Ke Mingqing watched Ember disappear into the distance, sitting there in a daze for a moment before his cheeks belatedly burned red.

”She’s the real genuine witch here...”

He lamented with a soft sigh, slanting his body to lie down on the public bench and pillowing his arms behind his head.

The chirping of cicadas rang in his ears, ushered in by rolling white clouds that stretched for miles. The young man stared quietly up at the sky for a while before finally closing his eyes.

...

...

For the following week, Ke Mingqing fully committed to the concept of work-life balance, deciding to give himself a long vacation after defeating Clock Maker.

So he spent seven idle days holed up at home, eating chocolate beans and playing mobile games. During that time, two things worth mentioning had happened.

First, following a review by the Super Hero Company, and in light of his stellar performance in the ”Clock Maker Battle,” Blue Pigeon was officially promoted to an A Rank superhero.

This meant that Blue Pigeon’s rank within the company was now second only to the Roundtable Heroes.

Second, and this was incredibly good news for Ke Mingqing:

Lijing No. 3 High School had started its new term.

On September 1st, the sky was still hazy with early morning light.

The moment the alarm went off, Ke Mingqing and Xia Zili got out of bed early and changed into their school uniforms.

Out of pure habit, Xia Ningzhi also reached into her wardrobe, only to remember that she had already taken the college entrance exams and would be heading to university in a few days. So, she bid a tearful farewell to the two miserable high schoolers at the door, though her wide, toothy grin completely betrayed her true mood.

The brother and sister went to school to register. They were both in their second year of high school this year.

It was worth noting that Lijing No. 3 High School had received three transfer students: one from Japan, one from Denmark, and the last one from Iceland.

Ke Mingqing had heard from Xia Zili earlier that morning that these three arrivals were reinforcements sent by Magical Girl Companies from around the world.

As for the reason behind this, it was naturally to fend off the witch cult—the ”Tower of Finality”—that could arrive at any moment.

And the transfer student from Japan was a major celebrity.

She was one of the few magical girls in the world whose true identity was public knowledge: Kiyono Sakura of the Kiyono Clan, operating under the codename ”Magical Girl Sakurahime.”

But Ke Mingqing had a very poor impression of her.

Because during the battle for the Comet Fragments, this peerless prodigy had suffered a crushing defeat. Rumor had it she lay sprawled at the port for an entire night.

For Japan’s most famous magical girl, her actual strength hardly matched her reputation. As such, Ke Mingqing had already secretly slapped the ”internet celebrity” label on her in his mind.

Furthermore, Kiyono Sakura just so happened to be assigned to the same class as Ke Mingqing.

Right now, she was standing at the podium, introducing herself in fluent Chinese while the morning light spilled over her shoulder-length black hair.

She was either wearing a skin mask over her face or had altered her appearance using her magical girl abilities. Combined with the plain blue-and-white No. 3 High School uniform, Ke Mingqing hadn’t even recognized her at first.

But the super-human species panel hovering above her head gave her away.

[Super-human Species Codename: Magical Girl Sakurahime (Threat Level: B++ Rank)]

Following her self-introduction and a round of applause, Kiyono Sakura slowly stepped down from the podium in her blue-and-white uniform.

As she brushed past Ke Mingqing’s desk, the corner of her lips suddenly curled up, and she whispered, ”I look forward to working with you, Mr. Blue Pigeon.”

Ke Mingqing froze. Propping his chin in his hand, he fell silent for a few seconds as a sentence Xia Zili had once said to Kiyono Sakura at Kuroki Hitomi’s house suddenly flashed through his mind:

”By the way, my older brother is also going to act as a guard for the Comet Fragments, but it’s not convenient for me to tell you who he is.”

Without a doubt, Kiyono Sakura had pieced together Ke Mingqing’s identity through that very remark.

Ke Mingqing turned his head, watching Kiyono Sakura’s back from the corner of his eye, and rolled his eyes.

Makes sense... he thought. I was the only superhero to survive the battle for the comet. It’d be harder for her not to guess it.

Resting his cheek on his palm, the young man turned his head to look out the window at the schoolyard.

Cicadas chirped away in the trees, and the bright sun outlined the students running across the track with a faint golden halo.

Summer was almost over.