Father

In the file, the United Nations' classification for Black Cocoon was also plain to see:

—Chief Grade (provisional).

"Only two ranks above Quasi Grade and Harmless Grade. Put another way, it's trash that's slightly less trashy—but still trash. My real body is Restricted Class... and yet my Game Character is only Chief Grade?" Ji Minghuan shrugged.

Still, he was not particularly displeased.

After all, according to the system settings, every Game Character had an obviously high potential ceiling. Black Cocoon had only just been created, so its strength had not had time to rise yet.

Once he completed this Game Character's Main Quest, thoroughly claimed every Attribute Point the development system could provide, and unlocked the entire Character Skill Tree... it would not be strange at all if Black Cocoon's classification shot straight from "Chief Grade" to "Calamity Grade." Coupled with a fully developed skill set, perhaps this character alone could take down several Rainbow Wing members of the same Calamity Grade.

More importantly, Ji Minghuan could have more than one Game Character like this.

—As long as he obtained enough Split Points, he could continue creating new characters.

Besides, the low initial stats of the character he had created were not only because his superpower had awakened less than two days ago. They were also because the people at the laboratory had injected him with a Superpower Inhibitor, preventing him from using one hundred percent of his abilities.

Otherwise, Ji Minghuan did not even dare imagine how terrifying the Game Character he created would be if he had never been injected with an inhibitor... Perhaps every attribute would have been question-mark tier, beyond even the maximum limit.

Having checked everything he needed to, Ji Minghuan closed the Superpowered Association's official website and let his gaze wander around the living room. Su Zimai sat quietly on the sofa watching TV, while Gu Qiye worked alone in the kitchen. The electric fan's blades turned slowly, casting shifting patches of light and shadow across the floor.

Then, a voice suddenly broke the brief silence.

"By the way, Big Brother, you and Dad aren't going to argue again tonight, are you?" Su Zimai paused, then said softly, "Even though it's been two years since you last saw him."

"Who knows..."

Gu Qiye put the groceries into the refrigerator and spoke casually, with no expression on his face.

After a moment of silence, he suddenly asked Ji Minghuan, "By the way, Xiao Yu, did you stay home all night yesterday?"

What was this? Was he suspecting me?

Ji Minghuan thought so, but his reply came without hesitation. "Where else would I have gone? I ate takeout and went to sleep last night."

"Then did you hear any strange noises in the middle of the night?" Gu Qiye continued.

"No. Did a thief break into the house last night?" Ji Minghuan asked without thinking.

"No, that didn't happen." Gu Qiye shook his head with a smile. "Forget it. Pretend I didn't say anything."

Ji Minghuan lowered his eyelids, wondering which part of his act had gone wrong to make Gu Qiye suspicious of him, when Su Zimai suddenly said, "Come to think of it, you seem kind of strange today."

"Why?" Ji Minghuan turned to look at her, thinking, Younger Sister, could you not make things worse?

Gu Qiye, washing vegetables in the kitchen, pricked up his ears to listen.

Su Zimai said expressionlessly, "I don't know. Maybe you've been talking more. Usually, I barely hear you say anything. You're always cooped up in your room, doing who knows what."

"Oh, then should I leave?"

"That's not what I meant." Su Zimai shook her head.

"It's a good thing to come out and talk more." Gu Qiye chopped meat on the cutting board as he spoke. "Don't take after Old Man. Don't ignore even your own family. Think more about how Mom treated us before, about how good the atmosphere at home was back then."

Ji Minghuan shrugged and stopped talking to them. He did not understand how real family members were supposed to get along.

Though during his years at the Welfare Home, he had indeed come to think of Kong Youling as family, the way they got along was less like family and more like close friends.

Back at the Welfare Home, he had always wished he could have a family, since his Parents had abandoned him when he was young.

Yet now that he had a pair of false relatives by his side, he felt faintly surprised. It seemed that people with families were more likely to feel disgust and estrangement upon seeing their own relatives, even wishing to keep their distance from one another.

At least Gu Wenyu himself was like that. Or rather, that was how his character setting was—he deeply disliked spending time with his family. Though perhaps it was also because of the influence of his father and mother. His mother had died in an accident, while his father had abandoned them.

"People are strange things. You can't get too close to them, or you'll end up sick of the sight of each other."

Ji Minghuan thought this carelessly, suddenly feeling a little fortunate that he had grown up in a Welfare Home.

The three of them went about their own business as time quietly passed amid the cicadas' chirping. Before they knew it, the clock on the wall had reached six in the evening, and the streets outside were already shrouded in twilight.

Just then, the doorbell suddenly rang through the house.

"You two answer it and see who it is." Gu Qiye's voice came from the kitchen, devoid of emotion.

At that, Su Zimai and Ji Minghuan silently looked at each other from the sofa. They clenched their fists, chanting "rock, paper, scissors" as they threw their hands forward.

A second later, Ji Minghuan's paper covered Su Zimai's rock. He had played often at the Welfare Home, and from the movement of his Younger Sister's hand muscles at the instant she threw, he could tell what she would pick.

Su Zimai was silent for half a second, then raised the middle finger of her rock-shaped fist. Amid Ji Minghuan's mocking "Can't handle losing?", she expressionlessly rose from the sofa, put on her slippers, and headed for the door.

When she opened it, a tall, muscular figure filled her view.

The man was roughly one meter eighty-five tall, wearing a white shirt and dress pants, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His unshaven face was expressionless, his eyes dark and dull, with a reddish scratch beneath the corner of one eye.

He lowered his head, his back to the ink-dark twilight. When he looked up and saw Su Zimai's face, he froze for a moment, then a faint glimmer appeared in his hollow eyes.

Gu Zhuoan slowly withdrew his gaze from his daughter's face. His lips moved slightly as he let out a hoarse voice.

"I..."

Su Zimai looked at him twice. As her gaze passed over his somewhat dejected face and untrimmed stubble, a faint flicker crossed her indifferent eyes—whether pity or mockery, it was impossible to say. She opened her mouth toward the man, but no words came out. In the end, she merely took a deep breath, turned around, and walked back into the living room.

To Gu Qiye, who was bent over the stove cooking in the kitchen, she said, "Brother... Dad's back."

Gu Qiye did not respond. He merely continued cooking with his head lowered, leaving behind a silent silhouette.

Meanwhile, Ji Minghuan, seated on the sofa, had already prepared to use the same trick again.

If Gu Zhuoan was some influential figure, then as long as he could use Restraint Belt Detection to detect Gu Zhuoan's abilities, he would immediately be able to infer the hidden identity of this father who had been missing for two years.

And once he learned Father Gu Zhuoan's potential identity... Ji Minghuan would truly have the confidence to put on a mask and deal fairly with Gu Qiye as Black Cocoon.