Fire, and the Cause of Their Parents' Deaths

[Good morning, dear player "Ke Mingqing." Today is Wednesday, July 4, 2026. Time remaining until the "Exterminate Superhumans" mission deadline: 177 days and 16 hours.]

Ke Mingqing opened his eyes and slowly looked up at the clock on the wall.

The hour hand had already reached eight in the morning. The warm summer breeze blew in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the sunlight leaving him drenched in sweat as cicadas screamed their hearts out in the trees.

He sat up, tugged at the collar of his T-shirt, and switched on the standing fan beside him with a click.

There was still one day left until the college entrance exams ended, so first-year high school students did not need to attend school today either. As he washed up, he opened the main quest panel for a look.

[Main Quest 3 (Phase One): Use your second identity to approach the supercriminal "Black Magic Hand," draw his attention, and thereby establish contact with the thief organization—"Deathbird."]

Ke Mingqing's gaze lingered on the quest as he mused to himself:

That vampire who beat my little sister half to death last night and traded blows with Third Sister... he's one of Deathbird's members. I wonder... Jiang Qingzi is A-rank, and that vampire is A-rank too. Are the rest of Deathbird's members all that strong?

With that thought, he opened WeChat on his phone and called Jiang Qingzi.

The call connected quickly, and Jiang Qingzi's voice came through the phone. "What's up? I'm still sleeping."

"Want to hang out today? I'll treat you to coffee and a movie."

"Sure. What time?" Jiang Qingzi asked.

"Let's head out after lunch. I sent you the café's address on WeChat."

Jiang Qingzi yawned. "How about I treat you instead?"

"Who are you looking down on? I may not be as rich as you, but it's not like I'm broke." Ke Mingqing hung up after saying that.

Time crawled onward until noon. After lunch, Ke Mingqing hailed a cab and headed out.

The bright yellow taxi stopped in the central district. The entire street lay baking beneath the sun, and the sign for Solomon Café seemed to warp in the heat as cicadas droned deafeningly.

When he pushed open the café door, the wind chime swayed and clattered.

Jiang Qingzi had not arrived yet, so Ke Mingqing pulled out a chair, picked a random seat, and sat down with his chin propped on his hand, looking out through the glass window at the sunlit street.

"Right, I still haven't used that roulette spin from the quest reward," he suddenly remembered. He tapped the icon in the upper-right corner of his vision and opened the roulette wheel.

[You currently have one chance to use the "Item Roulette" (PS: Players can generally obtain roulette chances by completing "Main Quests" or "Weekly Quests").]

Ke Mingqing glanced over the wheel's six sections.

The prizes were "1,000 Super Coins," "500 EXP," "Mutant Gene Suppressant," "Magic Card: Gale Rises," "Superhero Mask: Zero," and the accursed "Better Luck Next Time."

Ke Mingqing extended his index finger and tapped the center of the roulette wheel without hesitation.

The blood-red pointer spun rapidly around the wheel before gradually slowing to a stop, pointing at the prize in the first section.

[Congratulations, you have successfully drawn "1,000 Super Coins."]

[Player's current total Super Coins: 3,000 (↑1,000)]

"Fine. It's not too bad."

He sighed.

Not long after he had waited in the café, Jiang Qingzi arrived. He wore a clean denim jacket over a T-shirt and trousers.

They ordered two cups of coffee and chatted while watching the street outside. First, they commented on the 2026 college entrance exam essay prompt that had just been leaked online, then they talked about Magical Girl Ember breaking into an innocent male high school student's bedroom at night.

As the person involved, Ke Mingqing took a sip of coffee and said casually, "I was originally planning to go out wearing a fan T-shirt, but unfortunately, Magical Girl Ember warned me in my bedroom last night."

"Don't you already have a girlfriend?" Jiang Qingzi asked as he accepted the coffee handed over by the waiter.

"Yeah."

"Then wouldn't your girlfriend scold you for wearing that kind of shirt, you shameless flirt?"

Ke Mingqing rolled his eyes at him. "Come on, don't girls still fangirl over celebrities after getting boyfriends? What did I ever do to you? You have zero respect for men. I'm going to post on Moments and warn everyone about you."

"Please spare me." Jiang Qingzi gave a dry laugh.

"Come to think of it, I've never been to your house, have I?" Ke Mingqing suddenly said.

Jiang Qingzi fell silent for a moment. "There's no one at my house. My parents are always away."

"Your parents are that irresponsible? They just leave you here alone to go to school?" Ke Mingqing said absentmindedly.

"Can't be helped. I was adopted." Jiang Qingzi shrugged, not seeming to care.

Ke Mingqing froze. Don't you never talk about your family background? Are you about to tell me you were adopted by the leader of a criminal organization and then drag me into it too?

Jiang Qingzi took a sip of coffee and slowly said, "Before I turned six, I lived in Anhe District in Dawn Capital. Back then, both my biological parents were still alive. Later, they died in an accident. But they treated me badly and abused me all the time, so I don't really care."

"Wait, isn't that where this body's biological parents died?" Ke Mingqing was stunned for a moment before immediately realizing it.

Anhe District. The young Ke Mingqing had once lived there with his parents, leading a warm, ordinary life—until one day, a massive fire fell from the sky.

At the time, the original owner of this body had only been six. He had knelt in the sea of flames, wailing as he watched his parents burn into drifting ash beneath the towering blaze.

Even now, he seemed able to smell the rusty scent that had hung in the air that day.

The memories blazed through Ke Mingqing's mind like wildfire. He looked up into Jiang Qingzi's eyes and asked quietly, "Don't tell me your parents died in a fire caused by a superhuman?"

Jiang Qingzi was slightly taken aback, then nodded. "Was that incident really that famous?"

Ke Mingqing was silent for a long time before suddenly placing a hand on his shoulder.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Qingzi asked in confusion.

"My parents died that way too," Ke Mingqing said calmly.

Jiang Qingzi stared blankly for a moment, then asked, "Really?"

"Of course it's true." Ke Mingqing sighed. "We really are good brothers. Even our parents died the same way. We may not have been born on the same year, month, and day, but at least our parents died on the same year, month, and day, right?"

Jiang Qingzi let out a quiet chuckle.

Anyone else would definitely have gotten angry at such a joke, but he truly did not care about those scumbag parents who had abused him. Compared to them, he felt more attached to the people of Deathbird. Those thieves were his real family.

He was quiet for a long time. "If what you said is true, you don't care about your biological parents?"

"The past is the past." Ke Mingqing took a sip of coffee. That was the original owner's business. I'm just a transmigrator. What does it have to do with me whether they're dead or not?

Besides, he was in a far more dangerous family now. Max-level superhumans were everywhere. Who had time to care about this body's long-dead biological father and mother?

"Then... do you want to know?" Jiang Qingzi suddenly asked.

"Know what?"

Jiang Qingzi hesitated before continuing, "Who was responsible for that fire. The true culprit who caused your parents' deaths."

"I don't," Ke Mingqing said, shaking his head.

"Why?"

"Didn't I say so?" Ke Mingqing said calmly. "The past is the past. I'm embracing a new life now, and my new parents treat me very well too. If I kept clinging to the past, I'd only be letting them down."

"That's true..." Jiang Qingzi pondered for a moment, then looked at his watch. "I have something to do this afternoon. Shall we leave it here for today? Want me to call you a cab home?"

"No, no. I'm going to see a movie next. Get lost."

As Ke Mingqing waved him away, he took the tracking sunglasses from his pocket and lightly pressed the button on the frame.

[The location of the superhuman codenamed "Black Magic Hand" has been locked. For the next two hours, the tracking sunglasses' map will continuously display the target's location.]