Crime-Scene Voyeur Club, Family Mobilization

Dusk, cicadas chirping, a dim sky.

The graffiti on the red-brick exterior was gradually swallowed by the night.

Inside the old building, warm orange lights illuminated the living room's floor-to-ceiling windows.

After the news anchor reported two breaking stories, Ke Mingwei, Xia Zili, and Xia Ningzhi all found excuses to slip away at the same time.

The three of them looked at one another.

From Ke Mingqing's perspective, they looked like robots that had suddenly triggered some underlying command. It made him want to laugh, yet he could only hold it in.

"Could your excuses be any more flimsy?" he thought. "What, did you take everyone in this family for idiots with an IQ below eighty?"

Ke Mingwei turned his head slightly and looked at the sisters in surprise.

With a cigarette dangling from his lips, he asked in a muffled voice, "You're heading out at this hour? Wenna's practically done cooking."

"Yeah, Dad. I've got my college entrance exam tomorrow, and that workbook has a lot of important material in it. I need to hurry back to school and get it."

Xia Ningzhi tugged at the corner of her lips and removed the hairpin from atop her head as she spoke unhurriedly. Her bun immediately came undone, and silky black hair cascaded down her back.

She grabbed the backpack off the sofa and headed outside.

"I stood my friend up this afternoon. If I ditch her again tonight, she'll hold it against me for the rest of her life." Xia Zili was expressionless. "If you two hadn't suddenly gone nuts and reminded me, I would've forgotten."

With that, she left cleanly and decisively, walking like the wind. She brought nothing with her and was still dressed in that loose T-shirt and shorts.

[D-rank item "Tracking Sunglasses" has locked onto the location of superhuman "Red Lotus".]

Ke Mingqing glanced at the system notification panel that had appeared, then silently returned the sunglasses to his inventory to keep Crow Man from noticing anything suspicious.

Then, sipping an iced cola, he looked up and changed the channel with the remote.

By then, the sisters had already left. Xia Zili put on her sandals by the shoe cabinet and quietly walked out.

Xia Ningzhi, meanwhile, bit down on a hair tie as she tied her hair into a high ponytail, using her feet to slip into her sneakers. The entryway floor rang with the clatter of her steps.

She had not eaten dinner and was a little hungry, so she bit into a slice of square bread and plunged headfirst into the night outside.

The two ran in opposite directions.

As for why, Xia Zili could transform into a magical girl anytime, anywhere. No matter where she was, she could instantly pull out her magical formalwear and magical weapons.

Xia Ningzhi was different. She needed to hide her combat suit somewhere no one knew about. Home was clearly unsuitable. Otherwise, if Xia Wenna found it during some future spring cleaning, that would make for quite a spectacle.

Ke Mingwei stubbed out his cigarette and dropped the butt into the ashtray. Then he lowered his head and looked at Ke Mingqing, who was sitting on the sofa.

Ke Mingqing was looking down at his phone, appearing utterly unconcerned with the world.

"Do your sister and your younger sister often go out at night?" Ke Mingwei asked softly, one hand on his hip as he replied to messages on his phone.

Ke Mingqing glanced at him. If the terrifying Crow Man discovered the identities of those two, Crow Man would definitely impose strict limits on their movements. In a more serious case, he might ground them for ten days or half a month.

Then what would happen to my main quest afterward?

I can't exactly put the Theater Puppet in the house and have it face them down right under my alien mom's nose, can I?

So Ke Mingqing covered for them. "They don't usually go out at night. Maybe they went to the Crime-Scene Voyeur Club?"

"The Crime-Scene Voyeur Club..."

Ke Mingwei pondered for a moment and raised a hand to rub his temple.

He also knew that a venue called the Crime-Scene Voyeur Club had recently become very popular among students.

Whenever a crime occurred, the voyeurs would find an inconspicuous corner at the scene and secretly film it, broadcasting the live footage onto the Voyeur Club's big screen for paying members to watch.

This business model had emerged because any online livestream of a crime scene would basically be cut off and banned within minutes, while recordings related to it were strictly restricted from being uploaded.

And so, in this environment, screening venues known as Crime-Scene Voyeur Clubs had quietly emerged to satisfy people's demand.

The voyeurs hid in corners at incident scenes and recorded heroes taking down criminals in their entirety, then screened the footage on large displays at their own venues for profit.

Whenever a crime occurred, some students would rush, if there was time, to cinema-like venues set up by the Voyeur Clubs. They would sit before giant screens and watch superhumans fighting through live feeds from the scene.

If there was no time, they watched the complete recordings captured by the Voyeur Clubs instead.

There was no shortage of bloody, brutal, and dark footage among them, and that was precisely the greatest source of their appeal...

For every person who wanted to see heroes standing tall and proud, there was another who wanted to see them battered and bloodied, their clothes in tatters, even taking pleasure in it. Among all such footage, videos of magical girls being tortured to death had the highest view counts.

The Voyeur Clubs were illegal venues, and the students all knew it. But to them, they were no different from porn sites. No one avoided the subject.

They simply desperately wanted to witness the movements of their favorite superheroes, even villains, with this being especially true for fanatical superhuman followers.

As a result, the annual net profits of the Voyeur Clubs even exceeded those of some small movie theaters.

Ke Mingwei sighed. "When they get back, I'll give them a proper talking-to."

"Sure, Dad. I'll help you persuade them not to go to the Crime-Scene Voyeur Club again. Remember to call me when you're scolding them." Ke Mingqing's tone was casual.

"They haven't even been convicted yet, and you're already this eager."

Ke Mingwei said irritably, reaching over to ruffle his hair before walking outside.

"Dinner's ready." After a while, Xia Wenna, wearing an apron, turned her head. A faint curve rarely appeared at the corner of her lips.

But when the alien looked around in confusion, she saw only Ke Mingqing sitting on the sofa.

"Qing, where did they all go?" She tilted her head and asked in puzzlement.

Ke Mingqing switched off the television with the remote and said flatly, "My little sister said she was going out to eat with a friend. Third Sis said she left her workbook at school. Dad said he was going downstairs to buy cigarettes... Uh, you know what Dad's like. Every time, he has to finish two or three packs outside before coming home. Don't count on him coming back for dinner."

"Why did they go out at this hour?" Xia Wenna removed her apron. "Mom worked so hard to cook."

"Maybe they think your cooking is too awful, Mom?"

Ke Mingqing fanned the flames, wanting to see how this alien would react.

The moment his words fell, the living room lights suddenly dimmed for an instant, as though the power had tripped. In the darkness, Xia Wenna's eyes glowed a deep blue.

No way, no way. You really don't know your cooking is awful? I thought an alien who'd lived on Earth this long would have at least a little self-awareness. Ke Mingqing was stunned.

But the next second, the lights came back on. Xia Wenna still wore that sleepy expression, her eyes seeming to be veiled in mist.

"Qing, do you think Mom's cooking is awful too?" Xia Wenna asked softly.

"How could that be, Mom? Let's not worry about those bad people. Let them starve to death." Ke Mingqing lowered his voice. "I've been eating it for so many years. How could I not like it? Ah... did the power just trip? That scared me."

"It trips occasionally."

"Love you, Mom... My stomach hurts. I'll go upstairs to use the bathroom first, then come down to eat."

With that, Ke Mingqing immediately slipped away. He strode up to the second floor, entered his bedroom, and locked the door.

Then, too lazy to even turn on the lights, he sat in the leather chair and closed his eyes.

In the pitch-black darkness, he silently recited, Theater Puppet.

In an instant, a puppet, pale white from head to toe, appeared on the rooftop of the neighboring building. Wearing a top hat and holding a cane, it remained crouched on the railing, gazing into the distant night sky.

White Jack put on the D-rank item Tracking Sunglasses. The map displayed Xia Ningzhi's location.

She was heading toward Zero Overpass, the site of the vampire Stro's crime that had just been reported on the news.