Chapter 023 Double-Sided Action

June 19, dusk, the rooftop of an abandoned teaching building at Huanjing Third High School.

The setting sun cast a bloated shadow from a corner's solar panel on the ground, the rusty metal frame seemed on the brink of collapse.

After a moment, a figure slowly emerged from the shadow, clearly a youth dressed in a white shirt and jeans.

Ke Xiaomo leaned against the railings, motionless as he oversaw the whole school. His gaze drifted from the playground to the school gates, from the infirmary to each academic building. Whether it was students chatting in the hallways or figures running on the field, he saw them all.

In just a few seconds, his gaze locked onto a figure on the second-floor corridor of a teaching building.

The figure, with a backpack and head down, was engrossed in a cellphone, walked slowly out from the restroom, hurried towards the stairwell, then descended the stairs as if in a rush.

Ke Xiaomo's gaze followed him without wavering for a moment.

Ke Mingye made his way out of the teaching building and headed towards the school gates before boarding a bus at a nearby station.

Ke Xiaomo memorized the appearance and license plate number of the bus, and then his form dissolved like ink "splashing" down into the shadows at his feet.

Soon, the rooftop of the abandoned teaching building returned to silence. As if no one had been there, under the sunset's glow, it resembled a slowly decaying piece of orange peel.

...

...

At this very moment, on bus number 07 route 09 in Huanjing.

Ke Mingye stood in an inconspicuous corner, holding onto a handrail while scratching his nose, the smell of mothballs and disinfectant mingling unpleasantly in the air.

It was rush hour, and the bus was crowded. It swayed violently from time to time, causing him to bump into the sweaty man next to him. The cacophony of short video sounds, the bus engine's buzzing, and a woman scolding her child piled up into a messy heap, almost suffocating.

He sighed softly, lowering his gaze to his phone.

On WeChat, Ke Youqing finally responded to his message, sending him five hundred yuan to buy Ke Xiaomo a cake, and told him to be frugal with the rest before stopping his replies.

"Quite stingy, considering the salary you draw from the Superhero Association every year could buy at least two houses in Huanjing," Ke Mingye grumbled to himself.

Though displeased, his fingers honestly tapped to receive the payment. In reality, Ke Mingye wasn't short of those few hundred yuan, especially since winning five thousand yuan on the dark web the previous night was quite a sum for a high schooler.

However, a sudden influx of money could arouse suspicion, so he should ask his parents for reimbursements like an ordinary high school student would.

Ke Mingye pocketed his phone, slipped his left hand into his jacket pocket, and gripped the handrail with his right, turning to look out the rumbling, vibrating window.

Although his pupils reflected the swiftly passing landscape outside the window, at that moment, his attention was entirely focused on another scene unfolding in his mind—Deception Puppet shared its vision and hearing with the player. Hence, everything it saw and heard was synchronously transmitted to Ke Mingye's brain.

The experience was starkly disorienting, akin to a schizophrenic playing Fps and Moba games in dual windows; it was normal to be overwhelmed, but he was trying his best to adapt to the tearing sensation of controlling two bodies simultaneously.

Over time, the irritation of being on the bus gradually eased.

After controlling the puppet to leave the school, Ke Mingye commanded it to walk toward Yandai Commercial Street on foot.

It was only now that he realized he had miscalculated, he should have at least stuffed a couple of coins into the uniform pocket of the puppet before they parted, so it could take the bus.

However, manipulating the puppet to walk did have the effect of getting used to it, so it wasn't too bad.

He put on headphones on the bus, closed his eyes to rest, while concentrating on controlling the puppet's movements.

First, he had the puppet look at its face in the glass showcase of a clothing store, making several expressions to check for smoothness. After becoming proficient, there was hardly any sense of incongruity, even to the extent of being able to precisely control the puppet's micro-expressions.

Ke Mingye also took this time to check other matters, finally confirming that the Deception Puppet could use Skills, props, and equipment, but couldn't use other functions of the panel.

The puppet's three attributes were entirely on par with a player's attributes; which is to say, though frustratingly, it inherited Ke Mingye's frail body.

Beyond this, the biggest difference between this puppet and the player themselves was probably "weight."

The weight of the puppet was far lighter than that of a normal person, so if not carefully controlled, a casual jump could send it three to four meters high, as light as a balloon.

If there was a chance of being exposed in front of other players, it would definitely be this issue.

But Ke Mingye had thought it through, he could explain to other players that the body was so light because of a "passive Skill" that reduces body weight learned from the skill specialty page, or perhaps the body itself was superhuman, inherently possessing a superpower that made it light...

Generally speaking, they wouldn't verify it that thoroughly.

However, looking at it from another angle, the puppet's lightweight also brought a benefit—that it could do something Ke Mingye currently could not: using a web shooter to fire webs and swing through the air, moving at high speeds above the city like Spider-Man.

Ke Mingye couldn't do it due to insufficient physical fitness, lacking the strength to support his weight; the puppet, on the other hand, was different. Although its strength was the same as Ke Mingye's, its weight was much lower, so it could potentially achieve this.

After preparing, all that was left was to control the puppet to head to Yandai Commercial Street. That place wasn't far from Huanjing Third High School, only a half-hour walk.

On the bus, Ke Mingye opened the system panel again, looked at some introductory items in the settings, and confirmed again those rules that were relatively important to him:

——Players cannot see each other's game panels, so there's no need to worry about being identified through the panel by others, as the Deception Puppet won't give away itself;

——Players can only read superhuman identities.

——If it's not a summon with its own consciousness but entirely controlled by the player, it can enter an instance as a unit representing the player, this is often used to probe the situation inside an instance.

——The same instance can only be challenged once a day; if a player dies inside an instance, they will not die but will be respawned outside of the instance.

——Some instances take place in real-world scenarios, while others whisk players into a separate dimensional space.

——After an instance ends, all players who participated in the instance will appear nearby in a "confirmed unmonitored" location.