August 11, 11:40 AM Japan Standard Time. Tokyo, Shinjuku Ward, inside a deserted alleyway.
Several Shadow Warrior corpses lay quietly on the ground. In the pouring rain, they slowly dissolved into pools of black liquid, flowing toward the sewer drains.
In another corner of the alley, Kamishiro Kawa and Kamishiro Ruri raised their heads, staring at the player ID floating above Ke Mingqing.
What entered the two brothers' sight was, shockingly, a Red Name ID.
[Player ID: Jin Chengwu]
Both brothers held their breath.
A second ago, they had felt like farmers rejoicing at a sudden downpour after a long drought, deeply thankful for the timely rescue. Now, they realized that while this rain had arrived just in time, it wasn't necessarily a blessing... It was very likely a torrential rain, a storm of overwhelming force that would tear their crops out by the roots.
A Red Name Player. Kamishiro Kawa's heart skipped a beat, and he subconsciously put his guard up.
He stared at Ke Mingqing's face. No wonder his strength is so exaggerated, he thought. What other player at this stage could possibly be this powerful, able to single-handedly sever the attacks of over a dozen C Rank super-human species...
Given what had just happened, it wasn't hard for him to figure out the situation, so he remained entirely unruffled.
"Miss Kuroki mentioned she would be bringing another player to meet us, but I never imagined it would be someone like this..." he teased. "It's truly eye-opening. I don't know whether to call it a pleasant surprise or a fright."
With a flick of his wrist, Kamishiro Ruri swung his katana through the empty air. The water droplets clinging to the blade scattered, merging seamlessly with the falling rain.
Ke Mingqing turned his head, meeting their gazes.
A cold wind swept past, kicking up the fine drizzle, scattered scraps of paper, a banana peel, and a couple of retro posters featuring Japanese superstar Kimura Takuya.
The dampness of the rain couldn't mask the thick stench of blood hanging in the air.
Kamishiro Kawa shuddered, whispering, "Brother, be careful. Since he's a Red Name Player, he might attack us too."
"There's no need to panic, Kawa," Kamishiro Ruri comforted him. "If he came here to kill us, why would he save us from the Shadow Warriors? Wouldn't it have been better to just stand by and watch us die?"
He paused, the corner of his mouth lifting. "Since he saved our lives, regardless of whether he's a man or a monster, he is our benefactor. We might as well listen to how Mr. Jin Chengwu explains himself."
Kamishiro Kawa hesitated for a moment before nodding.
Ke Mingqing shoved his hands into his pockets and spoke at a leisurely pace.
"Uh, you're definitely thinking right now, 'Holy crap, this guy is a Red Name Player. Did he save us just to give us hope before making us despair, slaughtering us all like a total psycho?'"
He spread his hands. "But actually... the player I killed was the genuine Red Name Player. Do you get what I mean?"
Kamishiro Ruri thought for a moment, immediately grasping the implication.
"You mean to say, the player you killed, Li Wei, was up to something?"
"Right." Ke Mingqing shrugged and pointed at Kuroki Hitomi. "She can testify."
Kuroki Hitomi fell silent for a moment, seemingly organizing her thoughts. After a while, she spoke unhurriedly.
"I was there. That player, Li Wei, tried to kill us."
"Where's the proof?" Kamishiro Kawa asked.
"His actions were strange from the very beginning," Kuroki Hitomi said. "Even though he was in Leijing, he never contacted us on the forums. He insisted on acting like a lone wolf."
She let out a soft sigh. "We only found out later that he had been 'assimilated' by the memories implanted in his brain."
Ke Mingqing stood beside her, calmly watching the Shadow Warriors' corpses melt into pus and drain into the sewer.
He noted inwardly that Kuroki Hitomi could lie to other players without batting an eye or skipping a beat—a far cry from her usual obedient rich-girl persona.
"Assimilated?" Kamishiro Kawa asked, confused.
Kuroki Hitomi nodded. "It means he abandoned his identity as a transmigrator."
Kamishiro Kawa and Kamishiro Ruri both fell silent, exchanging a glance.
Ignoring their suspicious looks, Kuroki Hitomi continued.
"He chose another identity—his identity in this world. Then, for the sake of the super-human species around him, he decided to turn against the players. When Jin Chengwu and I tried to contact him, we walked straight into his ambush. We nearly died by his hands."
She lowered her eyes. "If we hadn't gotten lucky, you probably wouldn't be seeing us right now... To be honest, since we are all players, I thought our fates were tied together. I never expected one of our own to attack us."
"Absurd," Kamishiro Kawa said coldly. "A player defying the system is like a moth flying into a flame to seek its own doom. What kind of person would do that?"
Kamishiro Ruri sheathed his katana and raised an eyebrow.
"We've only been in this world for a month. Could someone really change that much in such a short time? Abandoning one's past self isn't exactly a simple matter."
Kuroki Hitomi answered without hesitation, "Of course."
"And the reason?"
"I believe that if a player had a terrible life before transmigrating, then after obtaining a new identity and having a new set of memories implanted in this world, their self-identity would naturally gravitate toward this new 'self.'"
Hearing this, Kamishiro Kawa immediately frowned.
He turned to look at Kamishiro Ruri, waiting for his older brother's response.
Kamishiro Ruri looked thoughtful. After a long moment, he smiled faintly. "I see. I have a rough understanding of the situation now. So, while fighting back, you accidentally killed him, and in the end, the system broadcasted Mr. Jin Chengwu as the villain?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm the unlucky bastard. Are you satisfied now?" Ke Mingqing sighed.
"I understand." Kamishiro Ruri nodded. "Rather than standing here in the rain, why don't you two come back to Kabukicho with me and rest for a bit? I happen to have a performance this afternoon—think of it as a small entertainment for you both."
"No problem," Ke Mingqing said.
"That shouldn't be your real ID. It's too half-hearted. I refuse to believe you just happen to share a name with a celebrity," Kamishiro Kawa said to him.
"Right, I used an item to fake this ID," Ke Mingqing said. "After all, I ended up as a Red Name Player by sheer coincidence. It would be a huge hassle if others found out my real ID."
He paused, pointing a finger at the space above his head. "Though I suppose it doesn't matter now. My real name is Ke Zili. Nice to meet you."
As soon as he finished speaking, he used his Disguiser Talent to briefly alter the player ID floating above his head. The blood-red text shifted from 'Jin Chengwu' to 'Ke Zili.'
Players never had to worry about language barriers. The system came with a built-in translation function, allowing them to speak fluently even if they had never encountered a language before.
When communicating with people from different countries, their brains would automatically comprehend the meaning behind the words. Therefore, both Kamishiro Ruri and Kamishiro Kawa could easily read the Chinese characters.
They silently committed Ke Mingqing's 'true name' to memory. A second later, the ID above Ke Mingqing's head flickered back to the fake name, Jin Chengwu.
Kuroki Hitomi fell silent. She hadn't expected Ke Mingqing to be this lazy, actually taking his sister's name and changing nothing but the surname to use as his own.
[Ke Mingqing: Don't expose me.]
[Kuroki Hitomi: Understood, Teacher Ke Zili. Once our player identities are exposed, I definitely won't tell your sister that you used her name to do something like this.]
[Ke Mingqing: By then, my sister will be on the verge of death anyway. It won't matter if she finds out what I did.]
[Kuroki Hitomi: Oh.]
"Ke Zili... truly an unpredictable figure," Kamishiro Kawa murmured.
"Mr. Li's name is quite elegant," Kamishiro Ruri chuckled.
Kuroki Hitomi coughed. "Mr. Li, can we stop standing in the rain now?"
Kamishiro Ruri opened his blue floral umbrella and leaned toward the two of them, shielding them from the rain. "Time waits for no one. Let's go, Li-kun, Miss Kuroki."
...
...
Half an hour later, Kabukicho.
Through the rain, Kabukicho was brightly lit, its neon billboards flashing with a hazy glow. Even though it was broad daylight on a weekday, the crowds in Kabukicho were still packed tightly.
Unlike Ginza, Kabukicho in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward didn't actually host traditional kabuki performances. The entertainment in this area revolved primarily around its rich nightlife, featuring restaurants, izakayas, bars, cinemas, and adult entertainment clubs.
"But in this parallel world, the Kabukicho in Shinjuku made an exception for one person and established a kabuki theater," Kamishiro Kawa said expressionlessly.
"'One person' referring to?" Ke Mingqing asked casually.
"Do you even need to ask?" Kamishiro Kawa said lightly, raising his eyes to gaze at his older brother's back.
Kuroki Hitomi glanced at Kamishiro Ruri. Before coming here, she had looked up his background online. He was known as a once-in-a-millennium kabuki genius.
And it wasn't just Kamishiro Ruri; Kamishiro Kawa was also a local celebrity in Japan.
In Shinjuku's largest and most famous host club, Kamishiro Kawa served as the number one host. Every night, countless women would pour unimaginable sums of money into his club.
For players, however, this wasn't a good starting point. Drawing too much attention was a liability; it only increased the risk of their identities being exposed.
Up to this point, though, Kamishiro Ruri seemed to be doing quite well in Shinjuku.
Pedestrians on the street, and even the staff working in Kabukicho, treated him with immense respect. Whenever they saw him, they would bow and greet him with a "Mr. Ruri."
Soon, Kamishiro Ruri stopped in front of the kabuki theater. He closed his umbrella, lifted the red curtain, and stepped inside first on his wet wooden clogs.
"Let's go," Kamishiro Kawa said.
Ke Mingqing and Kuroki Hitomi exchanged a glance and followed closely behind.
They walked down the outermost aisle. A massive space opened up before their eyes. The layout was similar to a movie theater, except that instead of a giant screen at the front of the auditorium, there was a stage.
Right now, the lighting inside the theater was dim, and the stage was hidden behind heavy red curtains that draped down to the floor.
In the gloom, murmurs drifted from the audience seats. The guests were conversing in hushed tones, mostly discussing topics related to Kamishiro Ruri.
"It seems our guests today are a bit dangerous," Kamishiro Ruri suddenly said from the front.
Following his gaze, Kamishiro Kawa looked toward the seating area and instantly froze.
Seeing Kamishiro Kawa's dramatic reaction, Ke Mingqing couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "Are they really that dangerous? Let me take a look."
With that, he and Kuroki Hitomi turned their heads to look.
The seats below the kabuki stage were packed with all sorts of patrons, but the vast majority were ordinary people. Thus, in the eyes of a player, the two super-human species hidden among them stood out glaringly.
At that moment, super-human species panels slowly materialized above their heads.
[super-human species Codename: Guchen (Danger Level: B++)]
[super-human species Codename: Black Magic Hand (Danger Level: A+)]
Ke Mingqing froze. Why the hell is it you two? he thought.
...
...
In one corner of the audience.
Jiang Qingzi sat in a red chair with his legs crossed, yawning as he checked his watch. "Has it still not started? This kabuki performance is dragging its feet. I knew I shouldn't have listened to the internet and come here to join the fun. We should have just found a random izakaya and grabbed a bite to eat."
Sitting beside him, Guchen remained silent, simply drinking steadily from his thermos.
Black curls obscured his eyes. The surrounding patrons, catching a whiff of the alcohol, cast disgusted looks his way.
Following the battle over the Comet Fragments, this scruffy, cowboy-like middle-aged man had become far less talkative. Jiang Qingzi even felt a bit unused to it; in the past, Guchen talked more trash than anyone else, and Death Crow always relied on him to lighten the mood.
"It'd be nice if little sister Sorakagehime were here too," Guchen suddenly said after a while. "I still remember when we first brought her out of Yingfan Mountain. When that little girl visited Kabukicho for the first time and saw the kabuki performance, she was so excited. Her face was expressionless, but her eyes kept blinking, shining so bright."
He paused, then abruptly grinned. "That brat Bill wasn't interested in any of this artsy stuff. If you made him sit here for half an hour, he'd probably strangle every guest and performer with his bandages and just walk away, right?"
Jiang Qingzi lowered his eyes and said nothing.
He knew full well that it had only been two weeks. Guchen still hadn't moved on from the deaths of Sorakagehime and the Bandage Man.
...
...
At that exact moment, on the very edge of the auditorium, just above the aisle leading to the theater's backstage area.
"Members of Death Crow..." Kamishiro Kawa blinked in surprise. "These super-villains actually have the leisure and elegance to watch our performance?"
Ke Mingqing stared at the figures of Jiang Qingzi and Guchen. Oh... so this is why they invited me out early this morning, he thought.
In the early hours of the morning, Jiang Qingzi had told Heimeng to contact Giovanni, asking him to bring Bai Ziling along to hang out in Shinjuku today. However, Giovanni had politely declined.
Ke Mingqing had already planned to come to Japan with Kuroki Hitomi today; he didn't have the spare energy to manage Giovanni's side of things.
Multitasking was no longer a difficult feat for him, but if he could minimize his mental drain on unnecessary matters, he would save his energy wherever possible.
A moment later, the four of them walked into the backstage area of the kabuki theater, looking at the stage shrouded in darkness. The heavy red curtains blocked the view from the audience.
At that exact moment, a massive, crimson-red dungeon panel slowly rose from the stage, reflecting in the eyes of the four players.
[Weekly Dungeon Name: The Evil Spirit of Kabukicho]
[Recommended Players: 4]
[Dungeon Description: Rumor has it that a vengeful spirit resides in Kabukicho. In the dead of night, guests will often hear the bizarre strumming of a biwa—that is its invitation... Every patron who has walked into that room and witnessed its performance has never come back out.]
[Dungeon Completion Rewards: Low-level Skill Card, superhuman coins, EXP.]
"This is what I wanted to show you," Kamishiro Ruri smiled faintly. "Since you're already here, I hope you all can show us a few more tricks before leaving."
He turned to look at Ke Mingqing, his gaze deep. "I am particularly curious about Mr. Ke Zili. The strength you displayed in the alleyway just now left me in awe. With just a single move, you repelled so many of those Shadow Warriors that gave us such a headache. I wonder just how astonishing it would be if you went all out."
"Is that so?" Ke Mingqing didn't seem to care. "But I feel like with a dungeon like this, she could pretty much clear the whole thing by herself."
As he spoke, he reached out and patted Kuroki Hitomi's head, flashing a smirk at her. "Right?"
Kuroki Hitomi blinked in surprise. Then, like an obedient little kitten, she gave a gentle nod.