White Jack's Hunting Time (Monthly Ticket Request)

The afternoon passed with unexpected calm. Ke Mingqing and Xia Zili sat quietly on the sofa watching television, and before they knew it, dusk had arrived.

The sky had turned a vast shade of red, while the utility poles still stood alone beneath the blood-red canopy. A breeze picked up, making the maple leaves rustle as they spiraled down onto the windowsills of the old building.

Someone rode a bicycle through the alley, passing through the golden leaves carpeting the ground.

Ke Mingqing took a pineapple-flavored popsicle from the refrigerator, broke it in half, and handed one piece to Xia Zili.

Xia Zili hesitated before accepting the popsicle. "Why have you been spacing out the whole time? It feels like you haven't been seriously watching the movie."

Ke Mingqing closed his skill panel and replied without thinking, "Actually, I was thinking about Magical Girl Little Red Riding Hood."

"...Huh?"

"Yes." Ke Mingqing stretched, leaning the back of his head against the sofa and folding his hands over his stomach. "I've started fangirling over her these past two days."

As he spoke, he turned to look at Xia Zili's profile.

"Haven't you always hated the idea of me liking Ember? You nagged me forever just because I wore one of her fan T-shirts, and you said you didn't want me speaking up for her on Weibo. So I'll just like someone else from now on."

Xia Zili lowered her head and stared at the remote in her hand for a moment.

"Do whatever you want. I can't be bothered to care," she said without looking up, sucking on her popsicle.

Ke Mingqing licked his popsicle.

As dusk faded, night draped itself over the brightly lit city. Neon signs lit up one after another like falling dominoes, gradually spreading across the entire metropolis.

After dinner at home, the Theater Puppet's six-hour cooldown came to an end.

Ke Mingqing had been waiting impatiently for this. Leaning against the bedroom windowsill, he summoned the Theater Puppet once more.

His goal tonight was clear: to try killing a superhuman.

"I need to find a weaker target... Keeping an eye on the Voyeur Association should be the quickest way. Whenever something happens, those voyeurs scattered throughout the city rush over like sharks smelling blood. They're even faster than the police."

With that in mind, Ke Mingqing reached out to close the window, then lowered his head and used his phone to access an illegal website, navigating to its livestream section.

Half an hour later, at Lijing City Third Bank.

The night had grown deep. Colorful neon lights reflected off the surfaces of high-rises. Inside the bank, smoke and gunfire filled the air, while banknotes fluttered everywhere as if a heavy snowstorm had descended.

The bank staff were clutching their heads and lying prone on the ground when a sudden curtain of flames swept through them. Their bodies instantly turned to ash and scattered away before they could even scream.

Hurried footsteps echoed throughout the bank as masked criminals rushed across the scorched floor.

At that very moment, outside on the street, White Jack stood atop the roof of a high-rise.

His feet rested on the railing. Like a puppet with severed strings, his shoulders and head hung limply as his hollow eyes silently watched the bank entrance.

From his elevated position, his view was as clear as a surveillance camera's.

After a while, the masked criminals emerged from the bank carrying bags.

One group climbed into a large truck and tore toward the end of the street, smashing through several utility poles along the way.

Ke Mingqing could tell that the truck was a decoy meant to divert the police's attention. Otherwise, they would not have made such a spectacle of themselves.

The bags the criminals had been carrying earlier were either empty or filled with rocks. In any case, they were probably not carrying cash... More importantly, there were no superhuman panels above their heads, which meant they were not his targets.

With that in mind, he had White Jack remain on standby.

White Jack sat on the rooftop railing, eating chocolate candies. As he swung his lower legs, he raised his palm.

"Gate of Truth."

As his faint voice fell, three little paper figures, each as thick as a fingertip, suddenly appeared in his palm.

White Jack lowered his head to look at them.

One of the paper figures was waving its arms and shouting, "God Is Dead," while the other two hung their heads listlessly, sitting limply in his palm without moving.

[C-rank skill "Gate of Truth" activated. The philosopher loaded into your Paper Figure No. 1 is: "Nietzsche." (Available skills: 1. Superman Philosophy; 2. Eternal Recurrence)]

Sure enough, not long afterward, two strangely shaped figures emerged from the bank.

One wore a fiery-red metallic bodysuit and had crimson hair standing straight up, with a flickering flame floating above his head.

The other had a human upper body and a snake's lower body. Overlapping scales covered his body, his serpentine tail coiled across the street, and his tongue hissed from between his lips.

At the same time, two superhuman panels slowly appeared above their heads.

[Superhuman Codename: "Flame Wing" (Type: Esper) (Strength Rating: D-rank)]

[Superhuman Codename: "Water Snake" (Type: Mutant) (Strength Rating: D-rank)]

Water Snake slightly raised a hand, controlling a stream of water to lift bag after bag of cash into the air. He then opened the trunk and rear door of a black sedan, piling the cash-filled bags inside.

The street cameras had been destroyed in advance, and the nearby voyeurs had chased after the truck serving as a decoy.

So at that moment, White Jack dropped straight down from the sky. His top hat stopped spinning as he lifted his hollow eyes and silently stared at the red and blue figures.

Flame Wing and Water Snake exchanged a glance.

"Are you two Fireboy and Watergirl or something?" White Jack tilted his head. "Did you crawl out of 4399 Mini-Games? Kids who play 4399 can rob banks these days?"

The moment his words fell, he activated the D-rank skill—"I Am Lightning." A streak of deep-blue lightning flashed through his hollow pupils, and arcs of electricity instantly danced across his body.

Flame Wing raised his right hand, shooting a pillar of fire from his palm.

Water Snake released the bags of cash and controlled a surging waterfall that swept toward White Jack, flooding over the street's marble pavement.

"Are you Pokémon? Do you only know Flamethrower and Water Gun?"

White Jack moved. He transformed into a beam of deep-blue lightning, racing wildly through the dark street and brushing past the incoming pillar of flames.

Then, with a light stomp, he soared like a hawk to the top of a utility pole.

"Boom—!" The oncoming waterfall knocked the utility pole down, but White Jack had already leaped into the air and landed atop a glass curtain wall.

In an instant, he tilted his body and shattered the glass wall beneath his feet. Using the recoil, his body flew outward amid countless shards of glass, raising a raging curtain of lightning through the air.

And the direction White Jack was flying in happened to be where Flame Wing and Water Snake stood.

"Overestimating yourself..." Water Snake narrowed his eyes as his forked tongue flicked out. Raising both hands high, he sent a surging torrent curling upward like a water dragon toward White Jack.

White Jack was still suspended in midair, with no room left to dodge. Yet he neither dodged nor evaded, charging directly into the twisting water dragon wreathed in lightning.

Then, the corners of his mouth suddenly curled upward.

His gaze pierced through the curtain of water toward Flame Wing, and he silently recited four words in his heart.

"Shift and Swap."

[E-rank skill: Shift and Swap (Swap positions with a living target within a range of 20 meters)]

The cold system prompt sounded. Blue light flashed at the corner of White Jack's eye, and his body instantly vanished, swept away like a silent, colorless gust of wind.

In his place, Flame Wing appeared in midair.

Thus, the one facing the water dragon became him instead.

"How is this possible?" Flame Wing's pupils constricted sharply.

"Bang—!!!"

The roaring impact descended, and his body was swallowed by the surging water dragon. In that final second, he covered his entire body in raging flames, barely mitigating the massive force.

Even so, he was sent flying more than ten meters away and slammed into the wall of a high-rise, embedding himself deeply within it.

Scalding steam rose with a hiss, enveloping Flame Wing's body.

Meanwhile, having switched places with Flame Wing, White Jack appeared instantly beside Water Snake.

"What... what is this...?"

Water Snake turned his head toward White Jack in shock, his face darkening. White Jack turned as well, meeting Water Snake's gaze. A flash of lightning illuminated White Jack's eerie face.

Water Snake reacted swiftly, forming a tai chi-like stance with his hands. A vortex of water instantly materialized before him as a barrier.

But at that moment, White Jack swung his right arm, driving a lightning-wreathed fist into the vortex.

In an instant, electricity danced wildly through the vortex, conducting frantically and turning the swirling water into a nest of lightning.

Water Snake suffered the consequences of his own actions. His entire body convulsed violently amid deep-blue lightning, and even many of the scales covering his lower body fell away.

Before long, Water Snake's eyes rolled upward and he collapsed weakly onto the ground. His body still twitched faintly, like a fish flopping on a chopping board.

"Oh... Rock Kingdom was right. Electric beats Water, and Water beats Fire." White Jack covered his mouth and muttered.

The next moment, he suddenly felt scorching heat from beside him. Turning his head and glancing from the corner of his eye, he saw a raging curtain of flames howling toward him.

Yet White Jack still neither dodged nor evaded. This second, he stepped forward, while the little paper figure in his palm that had been waving its arms and shouting "God Is Dead" suddenly murmured:

"Superman Philosophy."

[Nietzsche's skill "Superman Philosophy" activated (For 1.2 seconds, grants you or one nearby target the status "Cannot Be Harmed and Cannot Be Controlled").]

In an instant, a faint golden glow enveloped White Jack's body.

He lowered the brim of his hat and passed through the oncoming curtain of flames unscathed, like a reef standing amid crashing tides, unaffected in the slightest.

Moments later, the curtain of flames sweeping across the street slowly receded.

Yet White Jack still stood firm. Not a trace of scorching marked his body; even his Magician's Top Hat and cane were completely intact.