[Warning: Purchase failed. Your balance is insufficient to cover the price of the D-Rank skill.]
"Damn it, back to square one overnight..." Ke Mingqing sighed. "But I can use my system Clearance to keep this skill for a day, and find a way to buy it tomorrow."
[Notice: You have locked the D-Rank skill 'Erupt in Silence or Perish in Silence'. It will be retained in the Skill Shop for one day.]
"The only ways to get superhuman coins are roulette draws, weekly tasks, and running dungeons. Honestly... when I don't need them, I have plenty, but when I do, scraping together even this little bit of money is pretty annoying..."
Ke Mingqing closed the Skill Shop panel and headed for his second-year classroom, Class 3. Students brushed past his shoulders, chatting and laughing.
The midday sun spilled through the wire mesh onto the corridor of the academic building. Potted plants glimmered in the light, their leaves dripping with dew. Ke Mingqing was checking his phone to see how far the online rumors about the 'Death of Kiyono Sakura' had spread when he suddenly collided head-on with a tall, slender figure in a school uniform.
He tried stepping left and right, but seeing that the other party refused to make way, he finally looked up with an unfriendly glare. The person standing before him was a handsome young man.
"Young Master, what can I do for you?" Ke Mingqing rolled his eyes.
Jiang Qingzi slung an arm over his shoulder, tilting his head curiously. "I should be asking you that. Why aren't you replying to my messages? Have we grown apart just because we haven't seen each other all summer?"
"It was alright. We can go together next time."
"Okay, okay, hit me up next summer. See ya."
"Is that really necessary?" Jiang Qingzi sighed. "Just because I went to Japan without telling you, and caught your girlfriend watching kabuki with her bodyguard?" He chuckled, keeping his arm around Ke Mingqing's shoulders as he probed, "Oh, right, have you heard? Blue Pigeon is in our school. It's been the hottest news these past couple days."
Ke Mingqing glanced at him from the corner of his eye. Don't you already know my identity? he thought. Can we stop competing over who's the better actor?
A moment later, without even lifting his head, he replied, "And I heard Rain Crow is actually an ageless loli who goes to our school, too."
"Alright, whatever. When are we hanging out? Feels like we haven't spent much time together lately."
"We'll see. Class is about to start. I'll message you later." Dropping those words, Ke Mingqing turned and walked away.
Jiang Qingzi shrugged, quietly watching his receding back. Ke Mingqing did not turn around, merely waving a hand over his shoulder.
After entering the classroom, Ke Mingqing looked up and glanced at the extra battery icon that had appeared in the upper right corner of his vision. Right now, the green liquid representing its charge filled half the battery.
[Current total battery power for the 'Thunder God' skill: 50%...]
Why is the factory charge only at half? Is it too late to ask for a refund? Ke Mingqing wondered as he sat down at his desk and casually flipped open a textbook to keep up appearances. After a while, he pulled out his phone from his desk drawer, opened WeChat, and sent a message to Xia Zili.
[Ke Mingqing: Sis, how are you feeling today?]
Ke Mingqing rested his head on the desk, staring blankly at the faintly glowing screen in his drawer.
Xia Zili did not reply. Just as he was about to mute his phone and slip it into his book, a soft chime rang out. He raised an eyebrow, picked up the phone, and took a look.
[Chali Jiushi: Bro, ther, are you asking about Little Gray, or asking about Little Li?]
Staring at the text in the dark drawer, Ke Mingqing felt a slight jolt in his heart. A moment later, he quickly tapped away in the input box and replied.
[Ke Mingqing: Little Gray, didn't I tell you not to come out so casually?]
[Chali Jiushi: S-she is sleeping, c-can't reply to brother's m-m-messages.]
Ke Mingqing stared at the screen in silence for a while, the hair at his temples damp with cold sweat. In his mind, he pictured a stick-figure girl clumsily fumbling with an unfamiliar electronic device to type those words.
I don't recall you stammering this much when you used the phone to scare me the night before last... he thought to himself, quickly typing and sending another message.
[Ke Mingqing: Little Gray, do you know how to delete the chat history? Long-press the texts you and I sent, then tap 'Delete.' After that, put the phone back where it was and lie back down in bed to rest.]
[Chali Jiushi: Oh, Lit, tle, Gray, un, der, stands.]
Stay calm... She listens to me well, so everything should be fine.
Ke Mingqing let out a long breath. Just then, the class bell rang.
Lunch break was over. A middle-aged man wearing rimless glasses walked in. Judging by his attire, he had a scholarly air about him, and his posture exuded a gentle, refined elegance. The students in the classroom quickly quieted down, though some girls whispered among themselves about how handsome the new teacher was.
Rumor had it that this was the new teacher for the super-human species history course this semester, but Ke Mingqing had no time to study the man's face. He casually flipped through his textbook, confirming that today's lesson focused primarily on the birth and evolution of superheroes.
That way, if he was called on to answer a question later, he could at least spout some nonsense to prove he wasn't completely ignoring the lecture.
Throughout all this, Ke Mingqing kept his head lowered. Seeing that the witch hadn't replied for a long time, he hesitated for a moment before putting his phone away.
Yet the moment he slipped it back into the drawer, the screen suddenly lit up again. He immediately tapped into the message. What caught his eye was a photo taken from a low upward angle.
In the picture, the witch's lips were curved in a smile, revealing a chin that looked quite round due to the angle. Her chubby, pencil-drawn eyes stared directly at the screen.
Ke Mingqing squinted. To him, the photo looked no different from a fat-faced cat resting its round chin right against the camera lens.
[Chali Jiushi: Bro, ther, do I look pretty?]
[Ke Mingqing: Very pretty. Remember to delete the photo from the chat history, and remember to delete it from the photo album too. Some phones automatically save WeChat photos to the album, so make sure you don't forget.]
[Chali Jiushi: Oh, okay.]
It took Ke Mingqing a long moment to put his phone away. When he finally looked up, he felt as if a lifetime had passed. The gentle breeze blowing in from the window cooled his forehead. He wiped away a sheen of cold sweat, and only then did the voice coming from the podium register in his ears.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am your new teacher, Che Zhengchen. I will be in charge of your super-human species history class this semester..."
Ke Mingqing suddenly froze. The voice drifting into his ears was incredibly familiar—or rather, it sounded exactly like someone he knew.
"Take a good look and get familiar with me. If you can't remember my face, you can remember my glasses. Ever since I was young, people have told me my glasses are more recognizable than I am."
At that, the man on the podium took off his glasses amidst a chorus of laughter, his eyes crinkling into a warm, genial smile.
...Commander Lin Yin? The next moment, Ke Mingqing slowly lifted his head to look at the gentle, refined man, utterly dumbfounded. His eyes went wide as saucers.
Right now, Commander Lin Yin had taken off the facial disguise he usually wore in front of the general public and the staff of the Super Hero Company. Ke Mingqing had only ever seen Lin Yin's true face once or twice.
At this moment, dressed in a teacher's uniform, Lin Yin lifted his head slightly from the textbook and cast a sidelong glance at Ke Mingqing through his lenses. Then, deliberately looking down at the names on the student roster, he smiled and murmured, "Student Ke Mingqing, do you have some sort of problem with your teacher?"
The entire classroom erupted into laughter. Ke Mingqing's cheek twitched slightly.
He stared speechlessly at Lin Yin. You old bastard, he thought. Is this how you enjoy your retirement? If you can't stand being idle, couldn't you have found a more relaxing job?
A moment later, Ke Mingqing stopped glaring contemptuously at Lin Yin and instead cupped his chin, gazing out the window.
Sunlight, carried by a gentle breeze, washed over the young man's pale cheeks. His collar fluttered in the wind. For some unknown reason, the faces of Shadow Girl, Top Hero, and Invisible Giant suddenly flashed through his mind. The corners of his lips quirked up slightly as he muttered, "It would be so much fun if you guys went to school here too. Then you could roast this shameless old man with me..."
Thanks to the witch's messages and Lin Yin's sudden appearance, Ke Mingqing had zero focus for the entire class. The moment the bell rang, Lin Yin briefly assigned some homework.
Then, exactly as expected, he called Ke Mingqing by name and told him to stop by the office.
Ke Mingqing rolled his eyes. He waited until Lin Yin left before slowly standing up and walking out of the classroom. Before long, he crossed the corridor and stepped into the empty office. His gaze landed on Lin Yin, who was sitting in a swivel chair flipping through the student roster. Shoving both hands into his pockets, Ke Mingqing walked up to him and said sarcastically, "I'm here for my punishment, Teacher Lin. Could you go a little easy when you smack my hands with the ruler?"
"Didn't you say you were going to harass me every day once I retired?" Lin Yin turned around as he spoke, lightly smacking Ke Mingqing's shoulder with the history textbook. He offered a faint smile. "Now look who's harassing who."
"You've really outdone yourself..." Ke Mingqing scratched his head and chuckled. "As it happens, history is my worst subject. You'd better give me some private tutoring, Old Lin. You can't just turn your back on me the moment you leave the Hero Company, right?"
He was telling the truth. He had already mastered the content of the other high school subjects in his past life; he could get a decent score with his eyes closed.
Only history was different. Because of the existence of super-human species like 'superheroes' and 'magical girls,' the history of this world was vastly different from his previous life. For example, a history exam might feature questions asking what type of super-human species 'Napoleon' was, what his abilities were, and what role those abilities played in the French Revolution.
Or, in a country dominated by magical girls, what was the name of the male spiritual leader who first began promoting gender equality and sparked the men's rights movement? What efforts did he make to fight back against a society where women were superior and men were inferior?
Faced with historical questions that left him utterly baffled, relying on the history knowledge from his past life would only result in complete nonsense—it was about as effective as trying to feed an elephant a packet of freeze-dried cat treats.
Moreover, Ke Mingqing was simply too busy to cram the history of this world into his head, so he had strategically chosen to give up on the subject. His test scores constantly hovered around sixty points, making it hard to even snag a passing grade.
"How is it that your grades in all other subjects are so good, but you completely fall apart in history?" Lin Yin pushed up his glasses, smiling as he looked at Ke Mingqing's report card from the previous semester's final exams. "With your scores in the other subjects, if your history grades weren't so abysmal, you would definitely rank among the top ten in your grade."
He paused. "The outside world says that superheroes are just a bunch of vocational school grads or dropouts who never finished high school. If Blue Pigeon's identity is ever exposed one day, and people find out he's a top-performing high school student, our company can use that to spin a good story. We can show them that not every superhero is illiterate."
"Can you drop the commander routine and stop trying to coax me?" Ke Mingqing rolled his eyes. "My ears are getting calluses, Officer."
"I can't help it. Occupational hazard."
Ke Mingqing suddenly realized something. He turned his head and glared at Lin Yin, asking, "Wait, you old coot, did you know I'm bad at history and specifically become a history teacher just to torture me?"
"It's called specialized training. I'm here to give you extra tutoring—aren't you satisfied?" Lin Yin chuckled.
"Could you please not ruin our class's history grades? I might not be innocent, but the other students are. If they find out the new history teacher is just abusing his authority to sneak into the school for his retirement, wouldn't they roll their eyes right into the back of their heads?"
"Watch what you say. Before I became a commander, my grades were close to perfect in every subject."
"Forget it, do whatever you want. Who knows, maybe you'll pack it in after two weeks of teaching..." Ke Mingqing shrugged, shoved his hands into his pockets, and shuffled out of the office. "I'm leaving, Teacher Lin. Class is about to start."
Lin Yin smiled and waved at his retreating back.
This afternoon stretched on like a century for Ke Mingqing. For the first time, he understood what it meant for a day to feel like a year. The moment the four o'clock dismissal bell rang, the students grabbed their backpacks and bolted outside.
Ke Mingqing was the first to leave the classroom, but he hadn't even made it far past the school gates when he spotted a girl with wispy bangs wearing a school uniform. An Youlu, dragging a suitcase, walked toward him through a blanket of fiery red maple leaves.
"Good lord, sister, can you not act like we're about to elope?" Ke Mingqing froze, lowering his voice. "We're outside the school right now. Outside the school... Have you ever thought about what would happen if someone saw us?"
"It's fine. Your identity will be exposed soon anyway. This is the perfect chance to spread a scandal about how 'Mr. Blue Pigeon has a foot in two boats'... Oh, wait, no, 'jumping three ships.'"
At that, An Youlu pulled her suitcase with one hand and freed up the other, pinching her fingers together as if calculating a prophecy.
"Ke Mingqing has a scandal with Kuroki Hitomi and this fragile maiden, while Blue Pigeon has a scandal with Miss Ember. Doesn't that mean you've got your feet in three different boats?"
"Please spare me." Ke Mingqing pressed his palms together, looking one second away from falling to his knees before her.
"No matter. You may rise, my dear minister..." An Youlu said plainly. "The Young Miss has come to pick us up. We won't be seen."
Just as her voice fell, a pitch-black Maybach pulled up at the end of the alley. The driver stepped out and opened the rear door. Kuroki Hitomi, wearing a school uniform, was sitting deep in the backseat playing with her phone. She didn't even turn her head.
"Doesn't this just make us stand out even more?"
Ke Mingqing sweat-dropped in silence. Before the other students could spot them, he hurriedly climbed into the car alongside An Youlu. The driver closed the door, returned to the driver's seat, and turned the key.
With a roar of the engine, the pitch-black luxury car slowly drove off into the distance.
The three of them sat in the car in silence. An Youlu, sitting right between the other two, opened a small English vocabulary book and muttered, "Abandon, abandon, abandon."
"That's enough. You're just memorizing the first word on the first page, aren't you?" Ke Mingqing said, resting his chin on his hand as he stared out the window.
"One of these days, when you're squeezed between a couple, you'll finally understand what it feels like to be a third wheel from the countryside like me." An Youlu symbolically flipped a page in her vocabulary book.
Kuroki Hitomi hadn't said a word from the very beginning. She just quietly played with her phone.
Ke Mingqing pulled up the Chat Panel and sent her a message.
[Ke Mingqing: I'm short on cash. Have you found any dungeons over the last couple of days? I need to scrape together 3,000 superhuman coins before dawn tomorrow, but right now I can't make any progress on my main quests.]
[Kuroki Hitomi: There is one. But this dungeon requires players to be level 23, and it's best to have an average of at least four players. With just the two of us, it'll be a bit difficult right now.]
[Ke Mingqing: How difficult could it be? Let's just charge right in.]
[Kuroki Hitomi: Then we'll talk about it tomorrow. I have something to do tonight, so I can't go with you.]
[Ke Mingqing: What is it? Why the rush? You aren't doing this on purpose just because of our cold war earlier, are you?]
[Kuroki Hitomi: No. Just take a look at the player forum and you'll see. A group of players from other cities has arrived in Leijing. I need to get ready to meet with them.]
Ke Mingqing slightly raised an eyebrow. He shifted his gaze away from the Chat Panel and glanced at Kuroki Hitomi's lukewarm expression. She didn't look like she was lying.
So he opened the player forum in the upper right corner of his vision. He swept a glance over the posts, his eyes suddenly freezing on a specific title.
[Paid Help Request: Looking for a low-level super-human species currently in Leijing, China. The super-human species type is a vampire, characterized by white hair and red eyes, looking somewhat like an albino. If any local friends in Leijing are willing to provide information, we are willing to exchange rare items for clues. If you can capture her alive and hand her over to us, we will provide an even greater reward. — Posted by: Lanfeng]
Kuroki Hitomi covered her mouth and yawned. An Youlu was still softly reciting her English vocabulary words. The driver's fingers tapped lightly against the steering wheel to the rhythm of the English song playing in the car, "Hotel California."
Ke Mingqing fell silent for a moment. He tapped into the post and looked at the photo attached to it.
The picture showed a girl with snow-white hair. She was sitting alone inside McDonald's, huddled on a chair with her arms wrapped around her knees. Her red eyes were turned sideways as she quietly gazed at the sky outside the window.
It was unmistakably... Bai Ziling.
Ke Mingqing stared blankly at the forum, his pupils illuminated by the faint fluorescent glow. A moment later, he slightly lowered his head, allowing his pitch-black bangs to shadow his eyes.
The car was dead silent. The traffic light at the intersection turned green, and the Maybach roared as it sped away.