July 1st, 21:30, inside an old building in the Old Jingmai District. The night was already deep. No cicadas could be heard outside; instead, the sudden rustling of rain filled the silence.
Ke Mingqing's eyelids twitched. He slowly "woke up" in the swivel chair in the corner of the bedroom, the back of his head still resting against the headrest.
He looked up at the ceiling, then glanced out the window.
On the distant elevated highway, a silver train pierced the fine drizzle, roaring through the night like a steel dragon.
Ke Mingqing blinked. A moment ago, he had been squaring off against the Terror Crowman in a port warehouse and taking a savage beating; a moment later, he opened his eyes to this familiar yet unfamiliar bedroom.
It truly felt like a lifetime had passed.
That Crowman is ruthless... he thought, raising a hand to rub his throbbing forehead. It was just a joke, but he instantly got physical. Absolutely no sense of humor. Still, it was pretty fun seeing him get so worked up after trying to lecture me.
Ke Mingqing stretched lazily, spinning his chair a few times.
But if Crowman guesses right and abandons the others to save his son's life, he might turn into the next Magical Girl Ember. Then the father really would take after the daughter.
Just as Ke Mingqing was reveling in his visions of the future, a series of settlement screens covered his vision.
[Congratulations! You have successfully completed Main Quest 1 (Phase 1) — Create a secondary identity to approach the superhero "Rain Crow" and establish contact!]
[Quest Rewards Received: 1,000 EXP, 1,000 superhuman coins, 1 Attribute Point, 1 chance to use the Item Roulette.]
[Notice: Experience points have reached the cap. Your player level has increased by 1.
(Every 5 levels grants 1 Attribute Point; every 10 levels unlocks a new Skill Slot.)]
[Current Level: Lv.02 (500/1,000 EXP)]
[Main Quest 1 "Phase 2" Updated: Forge a "superhero" identity, use it to enter the Super Hero Company, become a C Rank superhero, and gain Rain Crow's acknowledgment.]
"Not only do I have to play a villain, but now I have to play a superhero too?" Ke Mingqing raised an eyebrow. "The question is, where am I going to get a combat suit... Oh, right. Kuroki Hitomi's family is filthy rich. Maybe I can ask her to get one made for me."
He opened the Skill Store. Since it wasn't midnight yet, the remaining four skills were still available. Ke Mingqing scanned the selection, his gaze pausing on the icon for an E Rank skill.
[Phantom Shift (E Rank Skill) — Instantly swap positions with a living target within a twenty-meter radius.]
[Note: The radius of effect depends on your "Spirit" attribute.]
The price of an E Rank skill was 1,000 superhuman coins. Having just completed a main quest, Ke Mingqing had exactly that amount on hand. He bought it without hesitation.
[E Rank Skill "Phantom Shift" purchased. The skill has been equipped to your second skill slot.]
This skill is pretty practical... Ke Mingqing mused. I can use it to advance or retreat. Getting this as an E Rank skill is a steal. I still have three skill slots left, so I'll fill them with some combat skills later.
As he planned, he opened his player attribute panel.
[Player "Ke Mingqing" Attributes — Strength: E | Agility: E | Spirit: E]
[You currently have 1 free Attribute Point. Would you like to use it now?]
Following the principle that "speed defines all martial arts," Ke Mingqing thought for a moment before pressing the plus sign next to his Agility attribute.
Immediately, a red-and-black notification box popped up in front of him.
[Congratulations! Your Agility attribute has officially increased from E Rank to E+ Rank.]
Terror Crowman is an A++ Rank super-human species, so all his attributes should be close to S Rank, right? Ke Mingqing thought. Yeah, the gap is pretty huge. Gotta keep working hard.
He got out of bed, slipped on his slippers, and walked into the bathroom. He noticed Xia Zili's phone resting on the edge of the sink. The screen was still on.
Ke Mingqing looked down at the photo on the screen.
A fascist symbol had been scrawled over the face of a girl in a gothic dress. The umbrella in her hand had been photoshopped into a bloodstained chainsaw, and giant, blood-red words were plastered over her head: "MURDERER," "SADISTIC GIRL," "LUNATIC."
He picked up the phone and backed out of the page.
The photo came from a Weibo post with very few likes. Naturally, the post didn't have many views either, but the hundred or so comments underneath were, without exception, pure verbal abuse. The remarks were utterly vile.
It was exactly in these obscure, unmonitored corners of the internet that people let themselves run totally wild.
Ke Mingqing fell silent for a moment. He casually closed and locked the bathroom door. Sitting on the toilet, he silently toyed with Xia Zili's phone.
...
...
In one of the bedrooms on the second floor, the lights were out.
Xia Zili lay on her side, hugging her Bernard Bear body pillow and staring blankly out the window at the rain. The fine drizzle drifted past the dim streetlights, soaking the billboards pasted on the walls.
She suddenly remembered something and stiffened.
She rolled out of bed, hurried to the bathroom, and knocked hard on the door.
"Open up," she said urgently.
"I'm taking a shower," Ke Mingqing's voice drifted from inside. "What's wrong? You want to join me?"
"I left my phone in there. Give it back first, then you can shower. It won't kill you," Xia Zili said, frowning.
In truth, she was worried Ke Mingqing might see her WeChat contact list. She had quite a few magical girls' numbers in there.
A moment later, Ke Mingqing opened the door and gently placed the phone into her palm.
"You're welcome," he said, waving a hand with a smirk.
Xia Zili glanced at her phone, then looked up at him in confusion. Without another word, she turned and headed back to her room. Ke Mingqing watched her go in silence.
At that moment, a text panel popped up in his vision.
[Main Quest 2 (Phase 1) Triggered: Use any secondary identity to make contact with "Magical Girl Ember." Catch her attention and establish a connection with her.]
After stepping into her bedroom, Xia Zili leaned against the door, pressing her weight backward to click it shut.
Just before it closed, she turned her head, casting a tired glance at Ke Mingqing's profile through the crack.
The door shut tight, swallowing the light from the hallway.
The sound of the rain grew louder, as if trying to drown out the entire world.
Xia Zili leaned against the door, standing quietly for a moment before unlocking her phone. The room was pitch black, the screen's fluorescent glow reflecting in her pupils.
She swiped across the screen. Line after line of disgusting comments under that Weibo post entered her sight.
But when she scrolled to one particular comment, she froze.
[ZDKyy: If you ask me, all these magical girls should be banned. This isn't the first time they've done something like this. Little brats just want attention and have zero sense of boundaries.]
Beneath it, someone named "Chali the Ninth" had replied.
"Chali the Ninth" was Xia Zili's own Weibo handle, yet this was a comment she had never seen before.
[Chali the Ninth: Brain-dead take. So it's fine when bad guys kill people, but when a good person uses slightly extreme methods to kill a bad guy, they're suddenly in the wrong? If I were Ember, I'd dig up your mom's grave first and blast her with a Magic Missile.]
Xia Zili stared blankly for a moment. She slowly sat down on the edge of her bed, her finger continuing to scroll.
[Kskbl: I wish the Magical Girl Company would just leak Ember's real identity. Let's see if her clueless friends can still stomach hanging out with a homicidal maniac. What a shame. So young, but her life is already completely over.]
Beneath this comment was another reply she hadn't posted.
[Chali the Ninth: Retarded take. If magical girls don't kill criminals, are you going to be happy when a criminal kills your mom? Oh wait, you probably don't have a mom. You're a whole family portrait all by yourself.]
Xia Zili felt a flare of indignation, but she also couldn't suppress the urge to laugh.
She fell silent for a moment before reading on.
[Watt: I really wonder what she's gonna do now that she's been fired by the Magical Girl Company. Looking at her, she doesn't seem like the type to last in school either. Is she going to end up turning tricks on the street?]
[Chali the Ninth: Wow, you sure sound experienced. Is that how your dad met your mom while she was working the corner?]
Further down, there was a reply directed at the original post itself, ripping into the blogger who had photoshopped her picture beyond recognition.
[Chali the Ninth: Did you buy your mom wholesale? You just photoshop whatever garbage you want, even slapping fascist labels on people. The day criminals slaughter your entire family, you can kowtow ten thousand times to a magical girl and no one will save you.]
Xia Zili stared at the comment, remaining silent for a very, very long time.
She lowered her head, a faint smile touching the corners of her lips as her bangs fell to shadow her eyes.
She kept scrolling.
Beneath every hateful comment was a reply from "herself." She knew exactly who had sent them, but for some reason, she didn't feel angry at all.
[Chali the Ninth: Blocked. You're just as stupid as the guy above you.]
[Chali the Ninth: The biggest flaw of the 21st century is letting mentally defective trash like you access the internet.]
[Chali the Ninth: What have any of you contributed in your miserable lives? You're all so quick to judge people from the moral high ground. You don't say a word when she's doing good, but the second she makes one mistake, you crucify her.]
[Chali the Ninth: And for the record, she did absolutely nothing wrong, okay?]
There were many, many more comments further down, so many she couldn't even finish reading them...
Xia Zili drew one knee to her chest, sitting huddled on the bed. Resting her chin on her knee, she lowered her eyes, quietly reading the comments on her screen and letting out a soft chuckle every now and then.
After a long while, her lips twitched upward into a small smile. "Are you an idiot or what..." she murmured softly, even as the rims of her eyes turned red.
...
...
Ke Mingqing stepped slowly into the bathroom. He closed the door, stripped off his clothes, twisted the shower handle to full blast, and let the cold water pour over his head.
The orphanage in his past life hadn't had the best conditions. Most of the time, the kids had to take cold showers. In their eyes, a hot shower was an incredible luxury.
But among all those kids, Ke Mingqing was the only one who disliked hot showers.
Going back to cold water after experiencing a hot shower was far too difficult to adjust to. So, from the time he was young, he had always taken cold showers. As time passed, he simply grew used to it.
His hair was plastered to his forehead by the cold water, shadowing his eyes.
I'm really curious, he mused. What will they think the day they find out I'm just a fake?
A moment later, Ke Mingqing turned his head, his gaze falling on the fogged-up window.
A curtain of rain veiled the brightly lit city of Lijing. Bean-sized raindrops battered lightly against the glass before sliding down the edges.
Still, having a family is a pretty novel experience, he thought. I'll just play along with them for a while longer before I start thinking about faking my death...