Chapter 1: Ke Mingqing

He reached into the bag, pulled out three flashlights, and handed them to Heimu Tong. He then grabbed another one and gripped it in his left hand.

"What... what are these for?" she asked.

"He's afraid of light. It's written on the Superhuman Species Panel," Ke Mingqing said, pulling a craft knife from his school bag next to him. "It should be because his termite epidermis is thin and photophobic. Intense light will cause him to dehydrate and die. Outside the school bus just now, he covered his body with a bug nest to avoid the sunlight. That red patch on his back is his weak point."

"Are... are you crazy?" Heimu Tong stared blankly at the knife.

Ke Mingqing lowered his voice. "I'll crawl over in the dark and get close to him first. Then, when I'm close enough, we shine the flashlights on him at the same time. Understood?"

"Hontō ni daijōbu desu ka?" Heimu Tong's voice trembled slightly, inadvertently slipping into her mother tongue. It meant, "Is it really okay?"

Ke Mingqing didn't answer. He hunched over and crawled forward in the darkness.

The other students were either crouching on the floor with their hands over their heads in fear or curled up in their seats, so they didn't impede his progress at all.

He muffled his footsteps and hid the flashlight and craft knife behind his back, approaching the Ant-Man, whose back was turned to him, one step at a time.

THUMP...

THUMP THUMP...

Ke Mingqing's heart was beating rapidly, as if ten thousand little people were violently stomping inside his chest.

Meanwhile, sitting in the last row, Heimu Tong held her breath and silently stared at Ke Mingqing's back.

A moment later, just as Ke Mingqing whipped out the craft knife, Heimu Tong acted with lightning speed. CLICK! She turned on all three flashlights.

She held a flashlight in each hand, aiming them squarely at the Ant-Man's body, while a third one was tucked under her arm, serendipitously shining right at his head.

In that instant, blindingly white beams of light shot straight out from the flashlights, tearing through the darkness like sharp swords. The three pillars of light struck the Ant-Man on the back of his head, his back, and his thigh!

He froze for a second before violently whipping his head around. Under the intense glare, his skin, encased in a white exoskeleton, began to burn fiercely. The shell quickly melted away for the most part, revealing the charred skin beneath.

"AGHHHHH!"

The Ant-Man's agonizing roar echoed throughout the entire bus, drowning out the screams of the other students.

Ke Mingqing raised an eyebrow, surprised that Heimu Tong had actually managed to pull it off. He hurriedly dropped the flashlight in his left hand and lunged forward. Gripping the craft knife with both hands, he took aim at the bewitchingly red crystal embedded in the Ant-Man's back and stabbed down with all his might!

But right at that moment, an anomaly occurred above Ke Mingqing's head. The white slime covering the roof of the bus was suddenly ripped apart! A dense flock of crows crashed down like a tide of black water, piling together to form a human silhouette.

It was a tall figure draped in a pitch-black cloak, looking exactly like a giant, upright crow.

He wore a pitch-black helmet that only exposed his eyes and lips. A sharp beak protruded from just above his lips, resembling a black sword.

[Superhuman Species Code: "Rain Crow"]

[Type: Superpower User]

[Danger Rating: A++]

[Superhuman Introduction: No. 7 of the Superhero Roundtable. His strength ranks among the very best of the Superheroes, and Rain Crow is the most experienced among the Round Table Heroes. He currently works at the Superhero Company in China Li Jing.]

The moment they saw Rain Crow, the students inside the school bus immediately quieted down.

Who wouldn't recognize Li Jing's most prominent hero? His arrival meant the situation was finally under control.

However, someone in the bus began screaming even louder. The hero's outfit was dark and menacing, and in their extreme panic, they mistook him for another villainous thug.

Rain Crow raised his right hand from beneath his cloak and struck the Ant-Man's neck at a speed so fast it left behind afterimages, effortlessly knocking him to the ground.

He then tilted his head slightly, shooting a cold, sidelong glance at the craft knife in Ke Mingqing's hand. After a long moment, he spoke.

"Don't do that again next time... You could have gotten an entire bus full of people killed." Rain Crow's voice, altered by a voice changer, was hoarse, gloomy, and slightly magnetic.

Ke Mingqing remained silent. He simply looked down at the Ant-Man on the floor, then raised his head to look at Rain Crow.

"Why don't you say I bought us time? Maybe if I had been a second later, he would have killed the rest of the hostages," he said calmly. "You don't get mad at the criminal, so why are you getting mad at me, a victim? As expected of a hero who loves to flaunt his no-kill rule... You're harsh on ordinary people, but endlessly tolerant toward criminals."

Hearing this, Rain Crow's eyes narrowed slightly beneath his helmet. He turned his body and stared at Ke Mingqing for two seconds. Soon after, his figure, along with the criminal's, dissolved into a flurry of crow feathers, dispersing as if they had never existed.

The interior of the bus fell into a dead silence. The glow of the setting sun spilled through the windows once more, illuminating every corner of the school bus. All the students stared blankly at Ke Mingqing.

Amidst the silence, Ke Mingqing sat back down in his seat in the last row. He thought for a moment, then turned to look at Heimu Tong and said in a low voice,

"Add me."

Frankly speaking, he hadn't expected this pampered international student from Japan to calmly follow his instructions. That was why he had brought a flashlight for himself, just in case.

Heimu Tong nodded.