Superman Termination Manual

[Congratulations, you have completed the first node objective of the main quest "Destroy the Superhero Round Table" — approach the superhero "Qing Ya" in disguise.]

[This main quest has split into two paths. If you wish to pursue both paths simultaneously, you will need to play two roles: "superhero" and "supervillain".]

As a red and black panel popped up in front of him, Ke Mingye came back to his senses on the couch, his hand empty from the cola he had just finished drinking, and he casually tossed the can into the trash can.

"Damn, is that the terrifying Crow Man?" he thought. "Why do I feel like facing him is even more stressful than facing my brother? Our first encounter and he hits me with a combo without explanation, sending me straight to heaven. He doesn't make any sense at all."

Just in case, the moment Qing Ya caught him, he dismantled the web shooter and the train conductor uniform from the puppet. These items were far more precious than the puppet itself.

"Two paths?"

Ke Mingye focused on the red and black panel in front of him, which was still refreshing with new text.

[The following are the two target path contents for the main quest "Destroy the Superhero Round Table".]

[The first path's node objective is: "Not a superhero, but a justice-driven supervillain" — disguise yourself as a superhero through another false identity, infiltrate the inside of the Superhero Association, and raise your superhero rating within the association to D rank (the lowest rank of superheroes is E rank).]

[The second path's node objective is: "The Day of the Tyrant's Demise" — raise your wanted level on the official Superhero Association website to B rank (currently a C rank fugitive).]

[Note: The two target paths can be pursued concurrently and interchangeably.]

"Please, can the difficulty get any higher?" Ke Mingye thought. "Acting as a villain on one hand and pretending to be a superhero on the other, isn't that going to cause a mental split?"

What he was more curious about was how to infiltrate the Superhero Association. To accomplish this, wouldn't he need a world-class hacker to fabricate a flawless identity for him?

But he didn't have such a person by his side.

[You have received the node reward: 2000 experience points, 8 attribute points, and 2000 mall coins.]

[Your level has been raised to Lv.8 (1500/4500 points), and you have received 1 attribute point as a level-up reward.]

[You currently have a total of 9 idle attribute points, please allocate them promptly.]

Ke Mingye opened his personal panel, and without much thought, directly added all 9 attribute points to the "Physical Fitness" category.

His approach was to stack one outstanding attribute first, then use skills and equipment to compensate for the weaknesses from other attributes, and start to distribute attributes evenly in the mid-game.

"A person can have flaws, but cannot be mediocre. You must have one strength to truly stand out in society."

In memory, Ke Youqing had taught this lesson to the seven children at home.

Every time he remembered this, Ke Mingye couldn't help but scoff in his heart: "That's all well and good, but Dad, you sure have too many flaws, right? Look at what people say about you online and then reflect on yourself, okay?"

Especially the other six sisters at home, like Magical Girl Ash and Black Judge, their extreme and dualistic personalities were probably largely thanks to Ke Youqing's genes and upbringing.

However, Ke Youqing was indeed as prolific in his strengths as he claimed, otherwise how could he have lasted so many years against a full-on internet backlash without being toppled.

Ke Mingye found this approach to life very convincing and decided to apply this life formula to his attribute allocation: to fight the dragon with the way of the dragon, and the day to trample Qing Ya underfoot is not far off.

[Physical Fitness attribute change: 51 points→60 points.]

[Congratulations, your "Physical Fitness" attribute has successfully broken through the "E rank superhuman minimum standard" (60 points).]

"This is so easy, thankfully the player leaderboard doesn't rank player strength, but rather the number of superhumans killed, otherwise I'd be permanently at the top of the leaderboard."

Ke Mingye thought to himself and opened his friends list, clicking on Fan Quan's Mario avatar.

[Failed Man: Hey, you there?]

[Fan Quan: What's up?]

[Failed Man: I got caught by Qing Ya, looks like I won't be able to meet up with you.]

[Fan Quan: Fine, I just watched the live stream, you really got beaten up pretty bad by your dad, let's do it tomorrow afternoon then.]

Ke Mingye's eye twitched a bit as he thought to himself, why does this guy's words subtly give off the vibe of "a primary school student sneaking out to an internet cafe at midnight getting caught and beaten on the buttocks with a stick by his father"?

For heaven's sake, it was supposed to be the destined battle between the superhero "Qing Ya" and the super villain "strange thing," can't he show a little respect?

So, Ke Mingye's rebellious spirit was stirred up right then and there.

Just because he got caught by his father, he thought, he'd fire back with a retaliatory shot—it wasn't possible to get caught a second time, was it?

With that thought, he clicked on the skill cooldown icon at the top left of his vision, and a panel popped up: [Since you voluntarily destroyed the "Deception Puppet," it can be cast again after ten minutes].

Then he typed his reply on the panel.

[Failed Man: Why don't you wait at the arcade for a bit longer, I'll be there in ten minutes.]

[Fan Quan: Oh, I'm planning to stay here until ten o'clock tonight anyway, do as you please, just don't let your dad catch you again.]

[Failed Man: Screw off.]

Ke Mingye closed the panel, and the world suddenly became peaceful.

He was sprawled on the sofa like Ge You, turning his head to look at Bai Ziling and Bai Zini next to him. They were both tired of playing video games and were leaning back on the sofa, each playing with their phones.

At that moment, Bai Zini's expression became a bit strange, her complexion unusually cold. Her eyes were fixed on the phone screen, which was showing a trending video from Weibo.

Ke Mingye leaned over to take a look.

In the video, the superhero Qing Ya was talking to a grey humanoid figure dressed in a flight attendant's uniform, perched atop a traffic light. In the next instant, the grey figure shot a thread towards an electronic screen on a high-rise building, then leaped up, grabbing onto the thread, about to take flight.

Suddenly, Qing Ya used some method to blink in front of it, stretching out a hand to tightly grasp its neck.

"Damn, what the heck is this drab thing, a new super villain?" Ke Mingye commented.

"Don't know, first time seeing it," Bai Zini said calmly.

She paused for a moment, put away her phone, "I'm going for a walk, been playing games for too long, my eyes are sore."

"It's the middle of the night, I'll go with you."

"No, I like walking alone."

"You were just saying this morning that you wanted me to go running with you next time."

"Bro, when did you become so clingy?"

After speaking, Bai Zini gave him a sidelong glance, silently rose from the sofa, walked over to the entrance, put on her shoes and headed out.

Ke Yongzhu watched this for a while and finally could take over Bai Zini's position and pick up the game controller, but Bai Ziling was already tired of playing and they ended up resting their heads together to watch TV.

"Little Shadow."

Ke Yongzhu watched the television with her eyes, but her mouth issued a comment directed at Ke Mingye.

"Exactly."

Though Bai Ziling didn't know what was going on, she followed with a faint echo of agreement.

"What's it to either of you?"

Ke Mingye glanced at them dismissively, wondering since when they had become so chummy. His attention was quickly diverted by something else.

Just as Bai Zini had walked out the door, she returned, lowering her head to Ke Mingye and said, "Forget it, let's go for a walk together."

"Didn't you have something to do?"

Ke Mingye looked at her with a strange expression, thinking to himself how she seemed to be in and out constantly.

He knew that Bai Zini had most likely intended to seek out Qing Ya to inquire about the "strange thing". But what was the point... He had already extricated himself from Qing Ya's grasp by self-destructing, and there was no finding him now.

"Not going anymore, I'd rather go for a walk with you."

Bai Zini remained silent for a while, then said softly.

"Then let's go. We can also check the nearby café for our eldest and second brothers on the way."

Ke Mingye hesitated for a moment, thinking about going upstairs for his phone to find an excuse, then releasing a Deception Puppet. But after a second thought, he decided against it and opened his friends' panel, sending a message to Fan Quan.

[Failed Man: Something suddenly came up, won't make it tonight.]

[Fan Quan: Did your dad catch you again?]

[Failed Man: No, can't say more, see you tomorrow.]

After sending the message, he closed the panel and moved to join Bai Zini at the door, squatting to put on his sneakers.

"Why so preoccupied lately?" he asked as he tied his shoelaces.

"Am I?"

"It's written all over your face, you're terrible at hiding worries. Anyone at home can tell."

"Oh."

"So what happened?"

Ke Mingye uttered as he entered the elevator, pressing the open door button on the panel, and quietly waited for Bai Zini to step into the cabin.

Bai Zini stood outside the elevator with her hands behind her back, her head bowed, and strands of loose hair obscuring her eyes.

"Can you just not ask, okay?" she said.

"Alright, if you don't want to talk about it, then never mind." Ke Mingye tilted his head, his finger continuously pressing the 'Open' button on the panel, "My hand is getting sore, what exactly do you want to do?"

Bai Zini stayed silent for a while, weariness in her eyes. Slowly, she looked up from beneath her hair, opened her mouth as if to say something but then slowly stepped back.

"What if I told you, I am a magi..."

Ke Mingye was taken aback, swallowing nervously, thinking to himself he hoped she's not about to blow up on him.

"Um, you are what?" he probed.

Bai Zini was silent, one of them standing in the brightly lit elevator cabin, the other in the dimly lit corridor.

After a long pause, the person in the corridor said softly, "Do you remember when I was little, I said I wanted to be a Magic Girl, so I could protect you in the future?"

"I remember."

Ke Mingye quietly lowered his head, recalling the event in his mind.

Back in primary school, he frequently got picked on for being adopted, with classmates calling him a parasite and cursed, leading him to fight every day and come home with a bruised face. Once, while still in preschool, a sympathetic Bai Zini hugged him while her eyes turned red from crying.

Amidst her tears, she loudly declared that she would become a Magic Girl when she grew up, so no one could bully her brother.

The rest of the children in the house laughed at her then.

Especially Bai Qiuwu, who even though she tried to contain herself by pressing a fist against her lips, eventually couldn't help shaking with laughter.

Only Ke Mingye had been stunned for a long while before he ended up patting her back.

As Ke Mingye thought about it, he suddenly paused, looking up at Bai Zini, wondering if the reason she had become a Magic Girl was really because of that incident.

"You were so silly back then." He scratched his nose, saying softly, "Everyone was laughing at you, dad even made a video of it. It used to be played every year on your birthday and eventually, everyone forgot about it."

"That's so mean."

Bai Zini got angry, her face turning red as she retorted, "Back then, I just didn't want to see you hurt."

"Haven't I always been fine? I haven't been bullied since then, maybe I owe it to your lucky charm."

With that, Ke Mingye released the open door button on the elevator panel, stepped out of the elevator, took her hand, and while the elevator doors hadn't closed yet, he pulled her into the cabin.

Their figures passed through the narrowing gap, as if crossing into another world.

The elevator doors closed, and with a humming sound, the cabin began to descend.

Ke Mingye let go of her hand and instead picked up his phone, checking the time.

"Let's get home before 9:30, or dad will nag us again. But we could stop by the café to find our eldest brother, get him to cover for us. We'll say he dragged us out to play," he said with a crooked smile.

"Okay."

"Don't be upset anymore."

"I'm not upset now."

"That's good then."

"I feel like you've changed a lot lately, you never used to care about me this much."

"Was I really that heartless before?"

"No, it's just that you never said it out loud, but I knew."

"Well, that's settled then."