Chapter 8: Ke Mingqing and the Message

July 1st, 9:30 PM. Inside an old building in the Old Jingmai District.

The night was deep. Outside the window, not a single cicada could be heard; instead, a sudden shower of rain began to fall with a gentle RUSTLE.

Ke Mingqing's eyelids fluttered slightly. He slowly "woke up" in the swivel chair in the corner of the bedroom, the back of his head still resting against the chair's backrest.

He looked up at the ceiling, then turned his head to glance out the window.

On the distant elevated highway, a silvery-white train tore through the fine drizzle, roaring as it shuttled through the night.

Ke Mingqing blinked. A moment ago, he had been in a harbor warehouse, locked in a fierce confrontation with the Horror Crowman and taking a brutal beating. Now, he opened his eyes to the sight of this bedroom—simultaneously familiar and foreign.

It truly felt like a lifetime had passed.

"That Crowman is absolutely ruthless... It was just a joke, but he instantly resorted to violence. Zero sense of humor," Ke Mingqing muttered silently, raising a hand to rub his slightly throbbing forehead. "Still, it was pretty funny seeing him get so worked up. That's what he gets for trying to lecture me."

He thought, "Next time, I'll just use the Theater Puppet to tie up my real body and make the Crowman choose between two options again. If he guesses wrong, I'll let myself 'burn to death' right in front of him. Faking my death will be the perfect excuse to leave this boss's house."

Ke Mingqing stretched lazily, spinning the chair beneath him a few times.

He thought, "But if the Crowman guesses right and sacrifices the others to save his son, he might just become the next Magic Girl Embers. Now that would be a case of the father taking after the daughter."

Just as Ke Mingqing was happily lost in his visions of the future, a series of system settlement panels suddenly covered his vision.

[Congratulations, you have successfully completed Main Quest 1 (Phase One) — Create a secondary identity to approach the Superhero "Rain Crow" and establish contact!]

[Quest Rewards obtained: 1,000 Experience Points, 1,000 Superman Coins, 1 attribute point, and 1 spin on the Item Wheel.]

[System Prompt: Experience Points have reached the current cap. Your player level has increased by 1.

(For every 5 levels gained, you will receive 1 attribute point. For every 10 levels gained, you will unlock a new Skill Bar.)]

[Current Level: Lv. 02 (500/1,000 Experience Points)]

[Main Quest 1 (Phase Two) updated: Forge a Superhero identity, infiltrate the Superhero Company, and become an official Superhero.]

"Not only do I have to play the villain, but now I have to play a Superhero too?" Ke Mingqing raised an eyebrow. "That begs the question: where am I supposed to get a combat suit? Oh, right, Heimu Tong comes from a wealthy family. Maybe I can ask her to get one custom-made for me."

He opened the Skill Store. Since it wasn't midnight yet, the remaining four Skills were still in stock. Ke Mingqing skimmed through the options, his gaze settling on the icon of an E-Class Skill.

[Shifting Form and Shadow (E-Class Skill) — Instantly swap positions with any living target within a twenty-meter radius.]

[Note: The radius of effect depends on your "Spirit" attribute.]

The price for an E-Class Skill was exactly 1,000 Superman Coins. Having just completed a phase of the main quest, Ke Mingqing had exactly that amount on hand. He purchased it without hesitation.

[E-Class Skill "Shifting Form and Shadow" purchased. This Skill has been equipped to your secondary Skill Bar.]

He thought, "This Skill is actually pretty useful. It's good for both offense and defense. Grabbing this as an E-Class Skill is a real steal. I still have three empty Skill Bars left, so I should probably prioritize picking up some combat Skills next."

As he weighed his options, he opened his Personal Attribute Panel.

[Player Ke Mingqing's attributes are as follows — Power: E; Agility: E; Spirit: E]

[You currently have one unassigned attribute point. Would you like to use it now?]

Following the age-old martial arts principle that "speed is the ultimate weapon," Ke Mingqing pondered for a moment before pressing the plus sign next to his Agility attribute.

Immediately after, a notification box with a crimson and black background popped up in his vision.

[Congratulations, your Agility attribute has officially been upgraded from E-Class to E+-Class.]

He thought, "The Horror Crowman is an A++-Class Superhuman Species, so all his attributes must be close to S-Class. Yeah, the gap between us is still pretty massive. I need to keep grinding."

He got out of bed, slipped his feet into his slippers, and walked out of the bedroom. Upon entering the bathroom, he suddenly noticed Xia Zili's phone resting on the edge of the sink. The screen was still lit up.

Ke Mingqing glanced down at the image displayed on the screen.

It was a picture of the Gothic Dress Girl, but her face had been defaced with fascist symbols. The umbrella in her hands had been photoshopped into a bloodstained chainsaw, and glaring blood-red text hovered above her head: "MURDERER," "SADISTIC GIRL," and "LUNATIC."

He picked up the phone and backed out of the current page.

The photo was attached to a Weibo post with very few likes. Naturally, the post didn't have many views either, but the hundred or so comments beneath it were unanimously abusive, filled with vile and unbearable language.

It seemed that the less attention a corner of the internet received, the more unhinged and unrestrained people's malice became.

Ke Mingqing fell silent for a moment. He casually closed the bathroom door and locked it. Sitting on the toilet lid, he quietly fiddled with Xia Zili's phone.

In one of the bedrooms on the second floor, the lights were off.

Xia Zili lay on her side, hugging her Backkom Bear pillow, staring blankly at the curtain of rain outside the window. The drizzle drifted past the dim yellow streetlights, soaking the billboards plastered against the opposite wall.

Suddenly, she remembered something and stiffened.

She scrambled out of bed, hurried over to the bathroom, and knocked forcefully.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

"Open the door," she demanded urgently.

"I'm about to take a shower," Ke Mingqing's voice drifted from inside. "What's wrong? Do you want to join me?"

"I left my phone in there. Just hand it out to me first, then take your shower. It won't kill you," Xia Zili said, frowning.

In truth, her real concern was that Ke Mingqing might see her WeChat contact list, which contained the numbers of quite a few Magical Girls.

A moment later, Ke Mingqing opened the door and gently placed the phone into her palm.

"You're welcome." He waved a hand and gave her a slight smirk.

Xia Zili looked at her phone, then glanced up at him in confusion before turning on her heel and heading back to her room. Ke Mingqing quietly watched her retreating back.

At that very moment, a text panel suddenly popped up in his vision.

[Main Quest 2 (Phase One) triggered: Use any secondary identity to approach Magic Girl Embers, capture her attention, and establish contact with her.]

After stepping into her bedroom, Xia Zili leaned against the door, pressing backward to click it shut.

Just before the door closed completely, she turned her head slightly and cast a weary glance at Ke Mingqing's profile through the narrowing crack.

The door clicked shut, swallowing the sliver of light from the hallway.

The sound of the rain grew louder, as if threatening to drown out the entire world.

Xia Zili stood quietly against the door for a moment before unlocking her phone. The room was pitch black, and the glowing screen reflected in her pupils.

She swiped her thumb across the screen, her eyes taking in row after row of vile comments beneath that Weibo post.

But as she scrolled down to one particular comment, she suddenly froze.

[ZDKyy: If you ask me, all these Magical Girls should be banned. It's not like this is the first time something like this has happened. These little brats just want attention and have zero sense of boundaries.]

Someone named "Cha Li the Ninth" had replied to this user.

"Cha Li the Ninth" was Xia Zili's own Weibo account, but this was a reply she had never seen before.

[Cha Li the Ninth: Low-IQ take. So it's fine when bad guys kill people, but when a good person uses slightly radical methods to kill a bad guy, they're suddenly in the wrong? If I were Embers, I'd dig up your mother's grave first and then blast her with a Magic Missile.]

Xia Zili stared blankly for a moment before slowly sitting down on the edge of her bed. She continued scrolling down.

[Kskbl: It'd be great if the Magical Girl Company just doxxed Embers's real identity. I wonder how her clueless friends would react to hanging out with a homicidal maniac. What a shame, her life is basically over at such a young age.]

Underneath this comment was another reply she had never posted.

[Cha Li the Ninth: Brain-dead take. If Magical Girls don't kill criminals, are you going to be happy when a criminal murders your mom? Oh, wait, you probably don't have a mom. You're an entire family portrait all by yourself.]

Xia Zili felt a twinge of anger at the hacker, but at the same time, she couldn't help but want to laugh.

She remained silent for a moment before reading further.

[Watt: I really wonder what she'll do after getting fired by the Magical Girl Company. She doesn't look like the type who can sit still in a classroom. Think she'll end up working the streets?]

[Cha Li the Ninth: You seem pretty experienced with that. Is that how your dad met your mom while she was working the streets?]

Further down was a standalone reply directed at the original post, mercilessly dragging the blogger who had photoshopped her into a monster.

[Cha Li the Ninth: Do you have moms to spare or something? You'll photoshop just about anything, even slapping fascist symbols on people. The day a criminal slaughters your whole family, you could kowtow to a Magical Girl ten thousand times and no one would lift a finger to save you.]

Xia Zili stared at this comment, sitting in absolute silence for a very, very long time.

Suddenly, she lowered her head, a faint smile tugging at the corners of her lips as her hanging bangs veiled her eyes.

She kept scrolling.

Beneath every single hateful comment on the post, there was a reply from "her." She obviously knew exactly who had posted them. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, she wasn't angry in the slightest.

[Cha Li the Ninth: Blocked. You're just as stupid as the guy above you.]

[Cha Li the Ninth: The greatest tragedy of the 21st century is that intellectually defective things like you are allowed to use the internet.]

[Cha Li the Ninth: What have any of you contributed in all your years of living? You're all experts at passing judgment from the moral high ground. You keep your mouths shut when she's out there doing good deeds, but the second she does one thing wrong, you blow it completely out of proportion.]

[Cha Li the Ninth: Besides, she didn't even do anything wrong, okay?]

There were many, many more replies after that. So many that she couldn't even read them all...

Xia Zili curled one leg up, sitting huddled on her bed. She rested her chin on her knee, her eyes downcast as she quietly read through the replies on her phone, occasionally letting out a soft, low chuckle.

After a long while, she suddenly tugged at the corner of her lips and murmured softly, "Are you an idiot or what..." Even as she said it, her eyes grew slightly red.

Ke Mingqing walked slowly into the bathroom, closed the door, stripped, and twisted the shower handle, turning the water pressure to the maximum as freezing cold water cascaded over his head.

In his past life, the conditions at the orphanage had been mediocre. Most of the time, the children had to take cold showers. In their eyes, taking a hot shower was an incredible luxury.

Yet, the children hadn't liked taking hot showers, because going back to cold water afterward made it painfully difficult to adapt. Ke Mingqing was the same. He had taken cold showers since he was a little kid, and over time, he had slowly grown used to it.

Right now, the young man's bangs were soaked by the freezing water, plastering against his forehead and obscuring his eyes.

He pondered, "I'm genuinely curious... what will they think the day they find out I'm just a fake?"

A moment later, he turned his head, his gaze shifting to the fogged-up bathroom window.

The curtain of rain blanketed the brightly lit city of Li Jing. Pea-sized raindrops gently battered against the glass before sliding down the edges.

He thought, "Having a family is a pretty novel experience, though. I'll just play along with them a little longer before I seriously consider faking my death..."