Summer Vacation

July 10, 2020. From this day onward, the high school students' summer vacation had begun.

The concept of summer vacation was practically nonexistent for Ji Minghuan, but the Game Character he had created—Gu Wenyu—could enjoy a long two-month break.

After catching up on some sleep, Ji Minghuan suddenly opened his eyes in bed and looked up at the clock.

The local time in Li Capital was three thirty in the afternoon.

He pulled out the phone beside his pillow. There were two WeChat messages on the lock screen: one from his best friend, Li Qingping, and the other from his older brother, Gu Qiye. The former asked him out for drinks at a quiet bar, while the latter told him and his younger sister not to go out because he would be home later to cook.

After weighing the two options for a while, Ji Minghuan ultimately declined Li Qingping's invitation. Ever since creating this Game Character, he had yet to meet his other "family member" in person. Staying home a little longer might let him figure her out.

Ji Minghuan lay in bed with his eyes lowered, looking at the Restraint Band wrapped around his fingers while recalling the past twenty-four hours of "Character Memory."

The game system had once explained that while he was not controlling the character, it would act independently according to a Code of Conduct deduced from his "role-playing logic." In other words:

If he had been a deranged madman who committed every evil imaginable while role-playing, then during the time he was not controlling the character's body, it would automatically carry out acts like arson, murder, looting, and plunder;

Conversely, if he had been a law-abiding honest man while role-playing, then his character would maintain a restrained pattern of behavior as well.

Ji Minghuan was an utterly honest man. Aside from twisting off people's heads and using them as balls to smack around, he had not done anything particularly out of line during role-playing.

So his character had been quite well-behaved too. In the memories, Gu Wenyu had slept straight through until two in the afternoon, perhaps because overusing his ability the night before had drained too much energy from his body.

But it was already summer vacation. No one was going to care.

Then, an hour after waking up, he had heated the meal Gu Qiye left behind in the microwave and eaten it before sitting in his room to complete his daily ability training.

He trained for an hour like that. Finally, at three thirty in the afternoon, Ji Minghuan fell asleep in the Imprisonment Room and took over Gu Wenyu's body.

This lack of control really sucks... I remember there being an option in the system settings to enable "24-hour Game Character control," but it also said that doing so would place too much strain on the mind. It would be like controlling both the Main Body and the character's body at once, keeping consciousness in a high-pressure state of multitasking. It could very easily lead to "Mental Split."

Ji Minghuan yawned as he thought, sleepy tears welling in his eyes. He smacked his lips unconsciously. "If I really split, then so be it... At least I'll have company in the Imprisonment Room."

Clearly, he was unwilling to leave even an hour of freedom to the character. Controlling it himself felt safer.

He put on his school uniform jacket, left his room, and went downstairs.

Pausing at the foot of the stairs, he glanced sideways and spotted a tall figure in the Living Room. That was Gu Wenyu's younger sister, Su Zimai. She had spent the night at a classmate's house, so Ji Minghuan had not seen her in person last night. He only had some understanding of her through Gu Wenyu's memories.

Su Zimai wore medium-short hair that reached past her ears and a green tracksuit for tennis. Her bright features resembled her mother's, while her sharp contours were like her father's, giving her rather androgynous Looks. If he had to put it plainly... she was probably the type to attract plenty of lesbian girls.

In the memories, Su Zimai was currently sixteen and in her first year of high school. Gu Wenyu was seventeen and in his second year, soon to enter his final year after school resumed. Their older brother was nineteen and a first-year university student.

Of the three, however, Gu Wenyu looked the youngest. Perhaps it was because of his drooping eyes and his usual sickly appearance. Though his temperament was lacking, the good genes were right there. His Looks were delicate enough, and with a little effort put into dressing up, getting asked for his contact information when he went out would not be a problem.

The reason his younger sister was surnamed Su instead of Gu was because Su Zimai's Parents had stipulated that sons would take their father's surname, while daughters would take their mother's surname.

Su Zimai was a daughter, so she naturally took her mother Su Ying's surname. The other two brothers took their father Gu Zhuoan's surname.

At that moment, she was leaning sideways against the back of the sofa, silently watching television.

Ji Minghuan sat down on the other side of the sofa and casually switched on the electric fan beside him. With a click, its blades began to spin.

He looked out the window. The city's overpass was shrouded in rising heat, and the rails seemed faintly warped, looking like a mirage from afar.

"You're really something. Getting up at three in the afternoon," Su Zimai said without even glancing at him.

She lowered her head to fiddle with her phone, occasionally looking up at the television. A host on Giant Elephant News Channel was reporting yesterday's national news.

"Big brother said he's coming home to cook tonight and told us not to go out," Ji Minghuan said.

"Oh."

Ji Minghuan rested the back of his head against the sofa and looked up at the television, all while studying Su Zimai from the corner of his eye.

Just two seconds later, a Prompt Box popped up before him.

Main Quest 3: Investigate what your "younger sister," Su Zimai, is hiding.

Quest Reward: 1 Split Point, 1 Attribute Point, 1 Skill Point

So... what secret is this younger sister hiding? Could she be an ability user like our older brother? Ji Minghuan wondered.

"It's already three in the afternoon. Aren't you going to find something to eat?" Su Zimai asked without raising her head.

"I already got up and ate earlier. I just went back to sleep afterward."

"Pig."

"It's summer vacation and you're still nagging. Am I your older brother or your younger brother?"

"Why are you wearing a jacket?"

"What, I can't be afraid of the cold?"

"In this weather? Afraid of the cold?"

"What do you know? High school boys like being different. What's wrong with wearing a jacket in summer?" Ji Minghuan leaned forward and picked up a piece of gum from the table. He unwrapped it and popped it into his mouth, chewing twice before casually brushing her off. "Gets you plenty of looks on the street."

"Childish."

Just then, a news report on the television caught his attention.

"This is Li Jing Daily News," said the elegant-looking female host.

The studio backdrop showed a frozen surveillance image from Li Jing Square: a black Restraint Band coiled around a streetlamp.

Looking straight into the camera, the host reported last night's news in an even tone. "At 10:20 last night, an unknown ability user appeared in the city center plaza and intervened in a hostage-taking incident involving the Green Wing Organization. The ability user used black ribbon-like objects to kill five criminals and successfully rescued five hostages. No civilian casualties occurred during the incident."

She lowered her head and flipped through her script. "According to eyewitnesses, the ability user was wrapped head to toe in black binding material and resembled an insect cocoon, hanging upside down beneath a billboard. The Esper Association has sealed off the scene and is conducting sampling and analysis of the residual material."

The host raised her head. "Next, the vice president of the Li Capital Esper Association branch will tell us more about the matter."

The screen switched to the Association's distinctive announcement backdrop, blue in color.

Then a long-haired man in Sunglasses and a suit appeared on screen.

With his hands clasped behind his back, he spoke in an official tone. "Following an emergency meeting of the Esper Association expert panel, and based on the characteristics and appearance of this individual's ability, we have officially designated this ability user as 'Black Cocoon.' Black Cocoon has also been temporarily classified as a B-Level Observation Target."

Hm, so this is what it feels like to be famous... Ji Minghuan teased inwardly.

He stared at the enlarged full-body photo on the television. It showed a bizarre figure hanging upside down beneath a billboard.

At that moment, Su Zimai happened to look up and saw the man slowly emerging from the massive black cocoon on the television. He wore a trench coat and a metal mask resembling that of Kamen Rider.

She raised an eyebrow and could not help mocking him. "That getup is hideous... What is he, some Big Moth?"

Ji Minghuan propped his elbow on the armrest and rested his chin on his hand, firing back with the words he had just used. "Just tell me whether it gets attention or not."

Though he thought it was ugly too, he only had the outfit Gu Wenyu had made for now. He could change it later when he had the means.

"Your taste is terrible enough already. Don't tell me this Black whatever is also a high school boy like you?" his younger sister asked.

"Could be."