Ke Mingqing and His Mythic Vessel Sister

The drizzling night rain had stopped without a sound, and the old building was silent.

Water pooled on the roof dripped onto the second-floor balcony railing, the pattering echoing through the quiet hallway.

At that moment, two figures stood in the corridor.

Ke Mingqing stood stiffly outside the bathroom like an elementary school student being punished, while Xia Wenna stood in the shadows of a corner.

The two silently stared at each other.

Xia Wenna's bedroom was on the third floor, while the children's rooms were arranged on the second. There was a floor between them; logically, there should have been some sound when their mother came downstairs.

Yet Ke Mingqing had not even heard her footsteps before she suddenly appeared in the hallway.

Even now, Xia Wenna's gaze remained hollow.

In the shadows, she looked like a wandering ghost that had lost its soul, making him afraid to meet her eyes.

Ke Mingqing was thoroughly shaken. The alien has been lurking on Earth and observing this family for so long. Could she have discovered that her son was replaced by me?

Is she planning to erase me in the middle of the night?

Should I scream now? If I do, will Dad and my little sister come save me?

Only after a long while did he speak, cautiously asking, "Mom, what's wrong? Why do you look so bad in the middle of the night? When I first saw you, I thought you were a ghost."

But Xia Wenna did not answer right away. She only gazed at him in silence.

The next moment, her expression suddenly darkened, and she muttered softly:

"Aqing... I..."

"You?"

"I dreamed your dad was cheating on me."

The moment she finished speaking, silence swallowed the hallway. Then someone made a confused sound:

"...Huh? Oh? Oh."

Ke Mingqing froze slightly, then slowly grasped the situation.

Xia Wenna was silent for a moment. "He didn't come home to sleep again tonight. He went out in the middle of the night, and he won't even reply to my messages."

Ke Mingqing glanced at her helplessly, and the heart hanging in his throat finally settled.

Whether Xia Wenna has noticed something off about me or not, if she's talking like this, then she doesn't intend to confront me right now. I'm safe for the moment.

"Mom, don't overthink it, okay?" Ke Mingqing shrugged. "Dad might just be stressed and unable to sleep lately. He probably went out to clear his head and will be back soon."

"Really?"

"Really, really... I'll call and ask him later. Go back and get some sleep first." Ke Mingqing brushed past Xia Wenna, cold sweat seeping down his back.

With his head slightly lowered, he thought, We're both spies. You want to invade Earth, while I have to wipe out the superhuman race on Earth... We came from the same roots, so why must we torment each other?

Though that was what he thought, when he entered his bedroom, Ke Mingqing's right hand honestly shut the door behind him.

He peered through the crack in the door at the alien. Xia Wenna stood blankly in the hallway for a while, then, like a puppet with its strings cut, wandered absentmindedly toward the third floor.

Ke Mingqing watched her leave and closed the last sliver of the door.

"This family is way too terrifying. Forget those two violent maniacs in cosplay outfits—there's even a horror-movie jump scare at night..." Thinking this, he kicked off his slippers and sprawled flat on the bed.

After the rain stopped, the faint chirping of cicadas could be heard. Ke Mingqing closed his eyes and soon drifted off to sleep.

The night passed without incident.

The next morning, when the first ray of sunlight shone through the floor-to-ceiling window onto the room's floor, Ke Mingqing opened his eyes.

But what he saw was not the ceiling. It was a dense mass of text, like swarming migrating ants.

[Good morning, esteemed player "Ke Mingqing." Time remaining for the "Exterminate the Superhuman Race" mission: 178 days, 18 hours, 30 minutes, 45 seconds.]

Seeing a notification like that floating above his head first thing in the morning was no different from having a cup of scalding coffee poured over him. Even if he did not want to drink it, he would still choke on a few mouthfuls. No matter how sleepy he was, he would wake up at once.

Of course, it would not be strange if being too awake eventually turned into insanity...

Ke Mingqing yawned and stared blankly at the changing numbers on the countdown.

It was six in the morning on July 2. He recalled the number of days in each month, then calculated the approximate final deadline from the countdown.

The date that came to mind was:

—Midnight on December 28.

If the players had not completed the "Exterminate the Superhuman Race" mission before midnight that day, only death awaited them.

Of course, some had already died. They did not even need to wait until that day.

[Surviving players: 98 (↓2)]

[Death Notice: Regretfully, players "Xu Yiyi" and "Liu Haitao" were killed by the A++-rank superhuman codenamed "Owl Judge." Location of death—Haian, China, Haian City University.]

"Good for them, good for them. Those two skipped more than half a year of detours... Wait, Haian City University? Isn't that where my big brother goes to college?" Ke Mingqing suddenly thought of something and sat upright in bed.

He stared at the codename "Owl Judge," then looked at the "A++-rank superhuman" behind it. "Could it really be such a coincidence?"

Ke Mingqing was silent for a moment, then scratched his messy hair and got out of bed.

"Whatever. I'll take it one step at a time."

Ke Mingqing had woken up last, so no one was using the second-floor bathroom. After quickly washing up, he changed into Lijing No. 3 High School's blue-and-white uniform and went downstairs for breakfast.

Xia Wenna had made fried eggs, along with century egg and lean pork congee and pepper soup.

The table looked fairly abundant at a glance, though the taste was another matter. Ke Mingqing took a bowl and chopsticks from the sterilizing cabinet, then sat down beside Xia Zili.

The brother and sister said nothing, simply eating in silence.

Warm morning sunlight streamed in through the window, bathing their profiles. Outside the floor-to-ceiling window, a row of maple trees rustled, their leaves spiraling down onto the windowsill.

The television in the living room was playing Lijing News Channel, which was reporting on the warehouse fire from the previous night.

"Police have currently confirmed through surveillance footage that this incident was not an accident, but was deliberately caused by a criminal. There was one victim in the incident, whose identity is still under investigation."

"According to the Superhero Company, the criminal responsible for this incident is named 'White Jack.'"

As the anchor spoke, the screen suddenly displayed an image captured by surveillance footage: a stark-white puppet crouched atop a streetlamp, its eyes lowered, its cane hanging straight down from its hand.

The news channel magnified the image. The puppet's hollow eyes and cracked smile sent chills down the spine.

Xia Zili looked up, frowned, and commented:

"So ugly."

"I think it looks better than Rain Crow." Ke Mingqing took a sip of pepper soup, unconcerned.

"That's true." Xia Zili did not deny it. "I really don't get it. Is someone who flies around every day wearing a crow head mentally ill?"

The two chatted absentmindedly when someone suddenly came downstairs.

But it was not Ke Mingwei, because their dad had not come home at all last night. He had probably spent the entire night at the Superhero Company, investigating the details of the White Jack incident.

Ke Mingqing turned his head and glanced over with the corner of his eye. The person coming down was his third sister, Xia Ningzhi.

Xia Ningzhi had long black hair as lustrous as lead powder, tied into a small bun atop her head. She wore a blue-and-white school uniform and had a pair of clear, bright eyes.

And just as Ke Mingqing expected, a teal-and-red superhuman panel slowly appeared above his third sister's head in his vision.

[Superhuman Codename: "Red Lotus"]

[Type: Mythic Vessel]

[Danger Rating: A+]

[Superhuman Description: Mythic Vessel—"Nezha"; she has inherited part of a god's power and is currently active in the shadows as an unregistered vigilante.]

[Known Weakness: After Mythic Vessels advance to their final stage—"Incarnate Form"—they gradually develop tendencies such as "loss of control" and "rampage," ultimately ending in self-destruction.]

"As expected?" Ke Mingqing raised an eyebrow, already unsurprised by the sight.