I, Ke Mingqing, Am a Superhero

That night, Old Dawn Capital Commercial Street was at its busiest. Neon lights blazed across the city, and traffic streamed along the roads.

The advertising signs above the pedestrians were as densely packed as a deck of cards spread across a tabletop.

But just then, a bat-like figure suddenly dropped from the sky. A pair of black wings sprouted from his back, fangs jutted from the corners of his mouth, and a layer of fuzzy blue fur covered his body.

Blue Bat, an officially wanted D-rank mutant. As his name suggested, he had gained the traits of a bat during a genetic experiment.

Someone in the crowd recognized him.

Amid piercing screams, Blue Bat raised his claws and grabbed two women working the street. He beat his wings, about to fly off with them.

Just then, a figure in a red cape and red helmet dropped from the top of a high-rise.

Gyro Hero, a C-rank hero signed to Hero Corporation. Beneath his mask was a Black kid who hadn't been recognized by the company in the United States, but had made a name for himself in China.

He plummeted at high speed, the black dreadlocks behind his head swaying in the wind.

He raised both hands high. White strings suddenly dangled from between the index and middle fingers of each hand, each ending in a ghostly-looking spinning top.

Red flames burned around the tops. This was his power: generating spinning tops wreathed in fire.

"Hey, bro! Take this!"

As Gyro Hero spoke in clumsy Chinese, he hurled four blazing tops at Blue Bat, who was about to take flight.

They flew forward like four tiny, spinning fireballs. Blue Bat reacted quickly, raising his huge wings and folding them together in front of himself. The flames burst open in midair.

Blue Bat was engulfed in fire and roared.

"Play with fire and get burned." Gyro Hero clearly wasn't very well educated. He said the ill-fitting idiom and prepared to press his advantage.

But the next moment, Blue Bat suddenly turned the tables. He spread his wings, flung open his mouth, and let out a roar like a lion's.

An invisible sound wave shattered the glass storefronts along the entire street and swept toward Gyro Hero.

Gyro Hero's eyes widened slightly. He sprinted to the right while swinging the four tops. They spun rapidly at his side, forming a vortex of flames, but the sound wave shattered it.

He was blasted more than ten meters away and fell into a clothing store, landing amid a floor full of broken glass.

Blue Bat dropped the two women, roared, and beat his wings. Like a vast black curtain, he swooped down, sharp claws reaching for Gyro Hero's throat.

Just then, a bolt of blue lightning roared in from far away, and a figure in blue metal armor arrived in a flash. He intercepted Blue Bat and threw a punch, trailing blue electricity.

"Bam—!"

A thunderous crash rang out. Blue Bat flew sideways and slammed into the wall, spiderweb cracks spreading behind him.

"What the fuck?" Gyro Hero got to his feet and turned to look at the figure who had suddenly appeared.

In the sudden silence, Blue Dove came to a stop, deep-blue arcs of electricity still crackling around him.

He slowly lifted his head, and the beak over his upper lip extended forward along with it.

"Pinocchio?" Looking at his beak, Gyro Hero, the Black kid, immediately thought of the fairy-tale character whose nose grew longer.

"Rain Crow's Crownocchio, and I'm Pigeonocchio."

Blue Dove joked as he raised his eyes and saw Blue Bat about to open his mouth and use the same trick again.

So he raised his right hand, fingers together like a blade.

Black lightning burst from above his joined fingers, gathering into a crackling longsword. In an instant, it crossed ten meters, twisting and shrieking wildly as it pierced Blue Bat's mouth and pinned him to the wall.

"Pfft—!"

With a tearing sound, the lightning burned through Blue Bat's throat and snapped all his fangs.

He spat out a mouthful of blood, staining a large patch of ground red. Then he clutched his pierced throat with both claws and slowly slumped down, his wings drooping to the ground as well.

[Notice: You have killed one "D-rank Super-species." You have gained 200 experience points.]

[Current level progress: Lv.06 (2100/3000 experience points)]

Seeing that Blue Bat had stopped moving and showed no signs of life, Blue Dove froze.

"Oh, killing people as a superhero probably isn't illegal, right? It's not like I'm a magical girl." Blue Dove raised his arms. "I'm not going to get flamed online, right? I won't, will I, bro?"

As he spoke, he turned to look at Gyro Hero.

Gyro Hero stood frozen. He looked at Blue Bat, then turned back with a look of astonishment and met Blue Dove's gaze.

"I know I'm handsome. Want a selfie with me?"

As he spoke, Blue Dove shot out a hand like lightning and grabbed the phone clipped to Gyro Hero's belt.

He opened the selfie camera, raised a hand to flash a peace sign, and was about to snap a picture when his beak accidentally poked through the phone screen.

Crack. A fracture spread across the screen.

Seeing the spiderweb of cracks, Gyro Hero's face darkened. He yelled, "What are you doing, bro! Give me my phone back!" Perhaps it was a racial talent: even when Black people spoke Chinese, it sounded like rap.

Blue Dove touched the beak above his lip and gave an awkward laugh.

"Shit, I accidentally poked through the screen with my beak. It's my first time wearing this suit, so I'm not used to it yet. I'll look up how Rain Crow uses a phone while wearing a mask later."

He patted Gyro Hero on the shoulder and handed the broken phone back to him.

"What's your name?" Gyro Hero asked, shaking his head as he looked at the phone.

"Blue Dove."

The blue-clad figure said. A crowd had gathered outside the clothing store, most of them staff from the Voyeur Association. If they managed to capture footage of a new-generation superhero's debut, they would earn a huge reward.

A buzzing sound came from nearby as several police cars arrived at the scene.

Camera flashes flickered through the crowd, while the police cars' red and blue lights alternated. Standing beneath the spotlight for the first time, Blue Dove felt a little dizzy.

"I'm heading out, bro. Got a date tonight." With that, Blue Dove stepped out of the clothing store.

He leaned forward slightly, and arcs of electricity surged around him once again.

But the next moment, a snow-white top hat suddenly fell from the sky, landing right in front of Blue Dove. Then a figure, white from head to toe, appeared. He caught the hat, put it on, and landed atop a streetlamp.

"What's this?" Gyro Hero froze.

Blue Dove also paused. Then he slowly raised his head, looking up at the unexpected visitor alongside Gyro Hero.

White Jack crouched down on the streetlamp, his empty eyes lowered as he met Blue Dove's gaze.

As if their reunion had been fated, neither of them looked away from the other's face for a long time. Then screams rose from the crowd as people recognized White Jack.

"That's the White Perky Buttocks who got stuck in the Dawn Capital Iron Tower!"

"Ember's butt?"

"No, he's the guy whose ass Magical Girl Ember smashed!"