Chapter 002: Extinction Plan
[The ultimate task for all players is now unified: Extinct the superhumans on Earth. (Time limit: 365 days)]
[Consequence of failure: All players will be exterminated together.]
The vivid, blood-red characters danced on the panel, flickering dimly and brightly like the fleeting flame of a candle.
Ke Mingye paused for a moment, but his expression quickly returned to calm. He glanced at his family around the dining table almost imperceptibly, relieved that no one had noticed his unusual demeanor just now.
[Current number of surviving players worldwide: (99/100)]
[Daily report: Today, the player whose spawn point was Kabukicho, Tokyo, Japan— "Amemiya Kazuko" was brutally murdered by a superpowered criminal, with not even their bones remaining. Players are advised to avoid revealing their identities to anyone until they become sufficiently powerful, especially those close to you.]
[End of today's report.]
After reading the continuous notifications, Ke Mingye took a light breath and brushed his hair back from his forehead with his hand.
"What's wrong, big bro?" Bai Zini, seeing his behavior, nudged his elbow and asked.
Ke Mingye didn't turn to look at her, and made an excuse on the fly, "I saw the 'function question bank' the teacher posted in the group chat, almost threw up. Want to help me with it?"
Bai Zini gave him a disdainful look: "Please, I am just a middle schooler."
Bai Wenna, who was eating, couldn't help but join their conversation, "Seriously, you, as the brother, want your sister to help with your homework? Have you no shame?"
"I'm just joking, can't you take a joke, mom? Isn't high school stressful enough as it is, are you trying to kill me?"
As Ke Mingye was talking tough, he was also worried that his alien mom might suddenly decide to pierce his skull with her laser eyes.
Ke Youqing chewed on a piece of fish and said softly, "If you can't handle it, ask your sister for help. She gets good grades; she can teach you. It would be good for next year when she's in senior year and you're in junior, to look out for each other."
Ke Mingye thought to himself that she was busy fighting crime and wouldn't have time to tutor him. Out loud he said, "My sis runs out as soon as school is over every day; don't even see her shadow, let alone asked her to help me."
"Why don't you mention how your sister is ranked in the top ten of your school, and you?" Bai Wenna said, glaring at him.
"Me, me, me, oh, about me? I might as well go to a community college," Ke Mingye responded in a sarcastic tone, thinking if superheroes weren't extinct by next year, then it would be my turn, still f***ing sitting here fretting about your college entrance exam scores and striving to be better than others.
"You..."
Bai Wenna was so angry at his words that she put down her chopsticks and reached out to pinch Ke Mingye's shoulder, but fortunately, Ke Youqing stopped her in time, helplessly persuading, "It's just a kid's joke, don't take it so seriously all the time. It's not good for the child's physical and mental development."
Bai Ziling and Bai Zini, the two younger sisters, didn't dare to speak, silently nibbling on their rice, occasionally glancing up at their parents' expressions.
"If you're not in the top fifty on the next monthly test, see if I don't teach you a lesson," Bai Wenna said, word by word.
Ke Mingye looked down at his bowl and sighed in frustration, thinking that's enough already, do you, an alien spy, really need to maintain such a fierce image on Earth? Can't we switch to a gentle and beautiful girl disguise, or even a deaf-mute one, least likely to slip up, is it really necessary to be so down-to-earth?
Even though he knew his mom was an alien, he didn't dare point it out. After all, Bai Wenna's combat power was a question mark; who knew if she might even surpass his A+ ranked dad.
The best way to deal with this affectionate mother would probably be to find evidence of her collusion with extraterrestrials and report her to the Superhero Association, then let the officials use the "Superhero Round Table" elites to deal with her.
It sounds easy, but gathering evidence is the hardest part.
Bai Wenna had been lurking on Earth for over a decade, and even Ke Youqing, her husband, hadn't noticed anything amiss, let alone Ke Mingye.
Moreover, Ke Youqing was a member of the "Superhero Round Table." It meant he was one of the world's strongest superheroes, and he hadn't detected Bai Wenna's alien identity, which only illustrated how terrifying her abilities must be.
His thoughts drifted to that inhuman task set by the system.
"Extinct the superhumans, what an easy thing to say." he mused, "With only one hundred players coming to this world, how is it possible to wipe them all out without missing a single one in a year?"
Thinking thus, Ke Mingye nibbled on shrimp while he opened his phone and searched for the Superhero Association's official data for the year.
The results showed that currently, the number of superhumans officially registered in the global population is fluctuating around 25,000.
Not to mention the unregistered wild superhumans, their numbers definitely aren't negligible. The Ke family was a case in point: every member had evaded the compulsory annual genetic test through various means, so none were officially registered as superhumans with the authorities.
And seriously, if one were to really extinguish the superhuman population, one would have to confront, even topple, numerous formidable powers, like the Superhero Association, Magical Girl Alliance, Anomaly Control Bureau, Super-Dimensional Supervision Bureau, Time Management Bureau...
And these are just the organizations known publicly; no one is in the dark about the number of organizations operating behind the scenes, nor how many nuclear-bomb level superhumans they hide.
If one cannot extinct the superhumans within a year, will all one hundred players who came to this world die? That's hilariously absurd, haha, see if I'm not laughing...
As he mused, Ke Mingye turned off his phone and died a little inside.
If not dead, he pretended he was already dead.
"Little sis, some people are alive, but in truth, they are already dead," he whispered to Bai Zini next to him.
"Have you gotten addicted to Lu Xun?" Bai Zini asked with her chopsticks in her mouth.
"Xun is truly a master of human nature, I really feel like I'm alive in appearance but already dead inside."
Ke Mingye said with a face full of despair, as he popped another piece of fish into his mouth.
"It's just the college entrance exam, is it worth all this?" Bai Zini glanced at him and slowly said, "Bro, didn't you just describe to Mom in vivid detail, how at worst you'd go to a university..."
As soon as Bai Wenna heard this, she erupted again, slamming the table as she shouted, "Who dares to bring up community college again!"
Bai Zini was at a loss for words, blinking and mumbling, "Mom, I was wrong. I promise I'll definitely get into a university, and I'll make sure big brother does too."
"Might as well be dead..."
Ke Mingye muttered, thinking that being born into this family was indeed the worst luck of his past eight generations.
The task assigned by the system was "exterminate the superhumans," yet he had transmigrated into a family where every member but him was a superhuman...
The more pressing issue was that each of these superhumans was a one-man army elite, not a single one could be considered weak. This was no different than forcing a little Peppa Pig into the set of The Lion King for undercover assassination missions, was it?
Ke Youqing rubbed his forehead and tried to educate these little rascals, "Can you just eat your meal? How do you manage to make such a fuss over a simple dinner?"
He paused, then turned to look at Bai Wenna, "And you complain every day that I'm not at home. If I was home every day, wouldn't you drive me into anxiety and depression?"
"Are you even human?" Bai Wenna started screaming in a high-pitched voice, "This is like widowhood parenting, widowhood parenting! Understand? I'm at home alone taking care of the kids, do you think it's not tiring? For so many years, if you're not working, you're working, and now recently when I asked you to wash the dishes, you managed to sneak off to smoke downstairs!"
"Okay, okay," said Ke Youqing with a woeful look, almost ready to kowtow at the dining table, "My bad, my fault. The kids are at that rebellious age, it's normal. Don't get so emotional..."
As he spoke, he turned to look at Ke Mingye, who was silently looking down, mumbling, "Look how scared the kids are, is this the family atmosphere we want?"
"Ke Youqing, will you ever stop?"
Just as Bai Wenna was about to erupt, Ke Youqing interrupted her, "I'm done, I'm done. Let's eat, let's just eat." He patted Bai Wenna's shoulder, murmuring comfortingly, no longer raising his voice.
Ke Mingye thought to himself that their power levels were quite fitting for the scene, realizing that the only one in the family to be feared was Mom, right?
As he was nursing his headache, a new panel with fresh text popped up before his eyes.
[In accordance with the newly added "ultimate task," a number of "main missions" have been devised for you, which can be viewed in the mission panel later.]
[1. Actions against alien visitors.]
[Mission details: "Approach your mother—'Bai Wenna' under a disguised identity, kill her, and destroy the 'Celestial Colonizer' spacecraft coming to Earth."]
[Difficulty of the main mission one: SSS level (Apocalyptic grade)]
[2. Actions against members of the Round Table Council, Justice Knight Azure Crow.]
[Mission details: "Approach your father—'Ke Youqing' under a disguised identity, gain his trust, infiltrate the international headquarters of the Superhero Association, become a member of the 'Round Table Council', and afterwards, find a way to kill Ke Youqing and all the superheroes in the council."]
[Difficulty of the main mission two: SS+ level (Dark Moon grade)]
Ke Mingye scanned the content of these two side missions emotionlessly.
He complained inwardly, "Great, just great, what a wonderful filial piety script, as if I can't even get rid of this dutiful son script."
No matter how uncomfortable he felt inside, or how many times he cursed the system as a beast among jet fighters, the mission panel kept mercilessly updating.
[3. Actions against Magical Girl Ash.]
[Mission details: Approach your younger sister—"Bai Zini" under a disguised identity, while also contacting other members of the Magical Girl Alliance, and find an opportunity to completely destroy the alliance.]
[Difficulty of the main mission three: A level]
Looking at this, Ke Mingye turned his head and emotionlessly stared at Bai Zini, who sat on his left, "Little sis, could you die for a moment?" he asked straightforwardly, dropping the pretense.
Bai Zini, with chopsticks in her mouth, turned her head to stare at him and said discontentedly, "Bro, Are you even human? I just defended you a moment ago, so why are you pouring all your anger at Mom onto me?"
"Never mind if you won't die, what do I care," Ke Mingye retorted as the mission panel kept refreshing. He shifted his gaze away from his sister, continued to chew on the fish, and read the text above.
[4. Approach your second younger sister—"Bai Ziling" under a disguised identity, make contact with the surviving Blood Clan through her, ensure the slaughter of all the Blood Clan, and ensure the Blood Oath is completely lost.]
[Difficulty of the main mission four: S level (Red Tide grade)]
Ke Mingye looked at the text and then turned his head to stare at Bai Ziling who sat on his right.
"So, second sis, can you die for me?" he asked earnestly.
Bai Ziling glanced at him and turned to look at their parents, about to suggest her brother might be mentally unstable, when a loud "thud" interrupted her as she attempted to speak.
Turning back, she saw that Ke Mingye had banged his forehead on the dining table, "Sorry." He put his hands together, apologizing with a defeated tone.