Chapter 28: The Fire, the Cause of Our Parents' Deaths

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

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

The hour hand sat at eight o'clock. Warm summer air blew in through the French windows, the blazing sunlight leaving him drenched in sweat while the cicadas outside screeched for dear life.

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

With one day left before the college entrance exams ended, the first-year high school students still had the day off. He opened his main quest panel to check his progress while washing his face and brushing his teeth.

[Main Quest 3 (Phase 1): Use your secondary identity to contact the supervillain "Black Magic Hand" and attract his attention, thereby crossing paths with the thief organization—the Death Crow.]

Ke Mingqing's gaze lingered on the prompt as he considered the implications:

'That vampire who beat my younger sister half to death last night, and even traded blows back and forth with my third sister, is a member of the Death Crow. I'm really curious... Jiang Qingzi is an A Rank, and that vampire is an A Rank too. Is every member of the Death Crow that strong?'

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

The call connected almost immediately, and Jiang Qingzi's voice came through the speaker. "What's up? I was still sleeping."

"Do you want to hang out today? My treat—coffee and a movie."

"Sure, what time?" Jiang Qingzi asked.

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

Jiang Qingzi let out a yawn. "How about I treat you instead?"

"Who are you looking down on? Your buddy might not be as loaded as you, but I'm not broke." Ke Mingqing hung up the phone.

.....

.....

Time ticked by. When noon arrived, Ke Mingqing finished his lunch and caught a cab out.

The bright yellow taxi pulled up to the central commercial district, the entire street baking under the midday sun. The sign for Solomon Cafe rippled in the sweltering heat, and the cicadas chirped deafeningly.

As he pushed open the cafe doors, the wind chimes swayed and clattered.

Jiang Qingzi hadn't arrived yet. Ke Mingqing pulled out a chair, found a random spot to sit, and propped his chin on his hand as he looked out the glass window at the sunlit street.

'Right, I haven't used the roulette chance from the quest rewards yet,' he 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 scanned the six sections on the wheel.

The prizes were "1000 Superhuman Coins", "500 Experience Points", "Mutant Gene Suppressant", "Magic Card: Sudden Gale", and "Superhero Mask: Zero", along with the universally dreaded "Better Luck Next Time".

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

The blood-red pointer spun rapidly across the board before coming to a halt, pointing at the first prize section.

[Congratulations, you have successfully drawn "1000 Superhuman Coins".]

[Player's current Superhuman Coin total: 3000 coins (↑1000 coins)]

"Whatever, not bad."

He let out a sigh.

He didn't wait long before Jiang Qingzi arrived, dressed in a crisp denim jacket over a T-shirt and long pants.

They ordered two coffees and chatted as they watched the streetscape outside. First, they criticized the 2026 college entrance exam essay prompts that had just leaked online, then gossiped about Magical Girl Ember breaking into an innocent high school boy's bedroom the night before.

As the party in question, Ke Mingqing took a sip of his coffee and said casually, "I originally wanted to wear a fan T-shirt out today, but unfortunately, Magical Girl Ember warned me against it in my bedroom last night."

"Don't you already have a girlfriend?" Jiang Qingzi asked as he took his coffee from the waiter.

"Yeah."

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

Ke Mingqing rolled his eyes at him. "Please, girls still fangirl over celebrities even when they have boyfriends. What did I ever do to you? You don't respect men at all. I'm going to post on Moments to warn everyone about you."

"Have mercy," Jiang Qingzi chuckled dryly.

"Speaking of which, I've never been to your place," Ke Mingqing said.

Jiang Qingzi stayed silent for a moment. "Nobody's home. My parents are always away."

"Your parents are that irresponsible? They just leave you here to go to school all by yourself?" Ke Mingqing asked absentmindedly.

"It can't be helped, seeing as I'm adopted." Jiang Qingzi shrugged, not taking it to heart.

Ke Mingqing blanked. 'Didn't you never talk about your family background?' he thought. 'Are you about to tell me you were adopted by the boss of a criminal syndicate and try to drag me into it?'

Jiang Qingzi took a sip of his coffee and spoke measuredly: "Before I turned six, I lived in Lijing's Anhe District. My biological parents were still around then, but they died in an accident later on. They didn't treat me well anyway—they used to beat me all the time—so I didn't really care."

'Wait, isn't that where my body's biological parents died?' Ke Mingqing froze before the realization hit him.

Anhe District. The young Ke Mingqing had once lived there with his parents, leading a warm and ordinary life until the day they met with a fire that fell from the sky.

The original owner of this body had been only six years old at the time. He had knelt howling in the sea of flames, watching with his own eyes as his parents were burned into wisps of ash by the monstrous fire.

Even today, he could seemingly still smell the metallic tang of rust that had pervaded the air that day.

Memories flared up like a wild blaze in Ke Mingqing's mind. He looked up into Jiang Qingzi's eyes and asked in a low voice, "Don't tell me... your parents got caught in that fire caused by the super-human species, and died?"

Jiang Qingzi paused slightly and nodded. "That incident really is famous, huh."

Ke Mingqing remained silent for a long time before resting a hand on his shoulder.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Qingzi asked, confused.

"My parents died the exact same way," Ke Mingqing said calmly.

Jiang Qingzi froze for a moment before asking, "Really?"

"Of course it's true," Ke Mingqing sighed. "We really are good brothers. Even our parents died the exact same way. We might 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 low chuckle.

Anyone else would have been furious at a joke like that, but he truly couldn't care less about the abusive scum that had been his parents. In comparison, he felt much more affection for the people in Death Crow; to him, that group of thieves was his real family.

He stayed silent for a long while. "If what you're saying is true, don't you care about your biological parents?"

"The past is in the past." Ke Mingqing took a sip of his coffee, thinking to himself that it was the original body owner's business; he was just a transmigrator, so what did it matter to him if they died or not?

Not to mention that he was currently living in an even more dangerous household where max-level superhumans ran around everywhere. Where would he find the time to care about the long-dead biological father and mother of this body?

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

"Know what?"

Jiang Qingzi hesitated before saying, "Know who caused that fire—the culprit who killed your parents."

"Not really." Ke Mingqing shook his head.

"Why?"

"Didn't I just say?" Ke Mingqing said calmly. "The past is in the past. I'm embracing my new life now, and my new parents treat me very well. Hanging onto the past would just be a disservice to them."

"I suppose that's true..." Jiang Qingzi mused, glancing at his watch. "I have things to do this afternoon, so let's call it a day here. Need me to call you a cab home?"

"No, no need. I still have a movie to catch, so get lost."

Ke Mingqing waved his hand dismissively to shoo him away while pulling the Tracking Sunglasses out of his pocket and pressing the button on the frame.

[Location of the super-human species codenamed "Black Magic Hand" locked. For the next two hours, the target's current location will be continuously displayed on the Tracking Sunglasses' map.]