Superman's End Manual

She paused for a moment, then said, "Alright, alright, go buy it. I'll keep an eye on your second brother and make sure he doesn't leave the house, or I'll break his legs."

Upon receiving the message, Ke Mingye breathed a sigh of relief. After all, Bai Zini was a magical girl; with her sight and hearing, keeping an eye on her second brother wouldn't be too difficult.

He happened to have a sum of money in his Alipay account, which he had won from betting on the Superhero Dark Web the night before, totaling 5000 yuan.

But Ke Mingye wouldn't use his own money to buy a cake; instead, he would open WeChat and ask his parents for reimbursement directly. This would also increase the credibility of his actions and prevent his second brother from becoming suspicious later.

After completing all these steps, it will be too late to order a birthday cake; you can just buy a ready-made one from a cake shop.

Just then, the bell rang, and Ke Mingye picked up his schoolbag and left. Before leaving, he didn't forget to take an unopened school uniform from a classmate's drawer, and then casually took a shoebox containing Nike sneakers from another classmate's drawer.

He wouldn't do it if it weren't necessary. After all, it's a matter of life and death; one should abandon that sense of morality when necessary.

He put the shoebox and the plastic bag containing his school uniform into his backpack, turned around and went into the school building's restroom. He found a stall, closed the door, sat on the toilet seat, and opened his contact list.

Type with your mind and post in the discussion group.

[The Failed Man: It's 5:30, right? Wait for me.]

[Anti-dog: Okay.]

Soon, a new face spoke up; it was "Good Orange Peel," who had never spoken before.

[Good Orange Peel: Me too! Just finished work. To think I'd be transported to another world and still have to be a corporate slave is just awful.]

[An inexplicable dream: We're waiting for you here, hurry up.]

Ke Mingye sat on the toilet and closed the control panel.

He tried to silently recite the name of the skill "Deceptive Puppet," and the moment the words left his mind, he summoned a puppet with an extremely strange appearance.

[Successfully activated the skill "Deceptive Puppet". Activating this skill consumes 20% of your stamina. Your stamina currently stands at 80%.]

[Skill Introduction: Create a puppet. The player shares vision and hearing with the puppet and can control the puppet, changing its voice and appearance at any time to deceive others.]

Furthermore, when the doll is destroyed, it emits a terrifying laugh and explodes in a small area, causing a fear-inducing effect on surrounding enemies for 2 seconds.

[Maximum duration of the doll: 3 hours.]

Ke Mingye glanced at the upper right corner of his field of vision, where a gray bar had appeared, representing his stamina, which was equivalent to mana in an online game. If it was empty, he couldn't use skills.

He then turned his gaze to the summoned puppet. It was about 1.8 meters tall, shrouded in a hazy gray, with only a sinister smile on its lips. To put it another way, it was like the little black figure used to demonstrate criminal methods in "Detective Conan."

Since that player wouldn't give him a chance to breathe, if the results of the experiment on this doll were satisfactory, Ke Mingye wouldn't need to use his real body to meet them.

Instead, they used dolls.

But before that, Ke Mingye had to test whether his idea was feasible. The degree of precision to which the puppet could be adjusted and controlled would directly determine the outcome.

"This thing looks really abstract, but according to the skill description, I can freely adjust its appearance. It shouldn't be too difficult to mold it into the shape of an ordinary high school student."

Thinking this, Ke Mingye first took apart the school uniform he had just taken from his classmate's drawer and put it on the naked body of the trickster doll.

Then, take the sneakers out of the box, place them on the ground, and stuff both of the doll's feet into the shoes, just like putting shoes on a child.

Immediately afterwards, Ke Mingye used his mind to control the puppet to squat on the ground, and then tried to manipulate its body shape.

The moment the thought crossed his mind, the doll's body began to change drastically. In just two seconds, it shrank from 1.8 meters to 1.7 meters, its size perfectly matching the school uniform, and its feet were just the right size for the sneakers. Overall, it looked much less awkward.

Ke Mingye glanced at him twice, then focused his attention and began to imagine the face of a normal high school student in his mind.

The next moment, the trickster doll's face began to change, gradually distorting into a slightly childlike, delicate face with a healthy wheat-colored complexion. Following the face's skin tone, the black covering its entire body also gradually changed to the same wheat-colored hue.

At this moment, the doll in the school uniform really looks like a beautiful high school student.

"This is so convenient. I thought it would take a lot of effort to make him look like a human being."

Ke Mingye was secretly startled, but he didn't stop there. He heard two high school boys chatting by the urinals outside the toilet, so he started to have the puppet try to imitate the tone and voice of one of the students, and then had it speak softly.

Just then, Bai Zini sent a message, and Ke Mingye stopped the test and lowered his eyes.

"Second brother has been in the toilet for a long time, he's probably constipated, so you can buy the cake without worry. Hmph, if it really comes down to it, I'll trap him in the toilet and not let him out." - Bai Zini

After reading the message, Ke Mingye's heart sank. Ke Xiaomo had been in the bathroom at home for a long time.

“Something’s not right. Second Brother has probably already disappeared into the shadows in the bathroom and left home. It’s just that Bai Zini doesn’t know he has this trick up his sleeve…” he thought. “Oh no, Second Brother may have come looking for me a few minutes ago. I need to act faster.”

As he thought about it, Ke Mingye quickly checked the voice of the trick puppet. The puppet opened its mouth and spoke in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz:

"That mock exam was really hard, especially the last big question..."

Ke Mingye breathed a sigh of relief. The imitation of the voice and tone was perfect. It was almost exactly like the boy who had spoken by the urinal earlier, so similar that it was somewhat creepy and triggered the uncanny valley effect.

He made the trickster squat down and hide in the corner of the stall, then walked out of the restroom first and closed the door behind him; then, while washing his hands in front of the mirror, he controlled the trickster to stand up, push open the door of the stall and walk out, and wash his hands with him at the sink.

Immediately afterwards, the two walked out of the restroom one after the other, separated back to back in the hallway, and went in different directions, disappearing into the shadows at the entrance of the hallway.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 23 Two-Sided Operation

June 19, at dusk, on the rooftop of an abandoned teaching building at Huanjing No. 6 Middle School.

As the sun sets, the solar panels on one corner of the rooftop cast a bulky shadow on the ground, their rusty metal supports teetering precariously.

After a while, a figure slowly emerged from the shadows, clearly a young man dressed in a white shirt and jeans.

Ke Xiaomo leaned against the railing, motionless, overlooking the entire school. His gaze wandered from the playground to the school gate, and from the infirmary to every teaching building. He took in every student, whether they were chatting and laughing in the corridors or running on the playground.

Within seconds, his gaze was fixed on a figure in the corridor on the second floor of the teaching building.

The figure, carrying a backpack and looking down at his phone, slowly walked out of the bathroom, quickly walked towards the stairwell, and then went down the stairs, seemingly in a hurry.

Ke Xiaomo's lowered gaze followed him without leaving his side for a moment.

Ke Mingye walked out of the teaching building and headed towards the school gate, then boarded a bus at a nearby bus stop.

Ke Xiaomo memorized the appearance and license plate number of the bus, and then her body seemed to melt away, turning into a pool of ink that splashed into the shadow at her feet.

Soon, the rooftop of the abandoned school building returned to silence. As if no one had ever been there, it resembled a slowly rotting orange peel in the glow of the setting sun.

At this very moment, on bus number 09 of route 07 around Beijing.

Ke Mingye stood in an inconspicuous corner, holding the rings. He scratched his nose with his finger; the smell of camphor balls and disinfectant mixed together was quite unpleasant.

It was rush hour, and the carriage was incredibly crowded, with occasional violent jolts that caused him to bump into the sweaty man next to him. The cacophony of short video chatter, the hum of the bus engine, and a woman scolding her child created a chaotic mix that made it hard to breathe.

He sighed softly and looked down at his phone.

On WeChat, Ke Youqing finally responded to his message, sent him 500 yuan to buy a cake for Ke Xiaomo, and told him to save the rest of the money. Then he didn't reply again.

"How stingy! Your annual salary from the Superhero Association could buy at least two houses around Beijing, right?" Ke Mingye thought to himself.

Despite his dissatisfaction, his fingers still honestly clicked to receive the payment. Actually, Ke Mingye didn't need those few hundred yuan; after all, the five thousand yuan he won on the dark web last night was a huge sum for a high school student.

However, suddenly having a large sum of money can easily arouse suspicion. It's better to have your parents reimburse you when necessary, which is what makes you a normal high school student.

Ke Mingye put away his phone, put his left hand into his coat pocket, gripped the handrail with his right hand, and turned to look at the rumbling, shaking car window.

Although his pupils reflected the fleeting scenery outside the window, at this moment, his attention was entirely focused on another image in his mind—the trickster doll could share vision and hearing with the player. Therefore, what it heard and saw was simultaneously transmitted to Ke Mingye's mind.

This experience is very disjointed, like a schizophrenic playing an FPS game and a MOBA game simultaneously in two windows. It's normal to be unable to manage both, but he still tries his best to adapt to the tearing feeling of controlling two bodies at the same time.

Over time, the anxiety of being on the bus actually subsided.

After controlling the puppet to leave the school, Ke Mingye ordered it to walk towards the tobacco pipe commercial street.

He only realized his mistake now; he should have at least put two coins in the doll's school uniform pocket before they parted so it could get on the bus.

However, manipulating the puppet to walk did help with adaptation to some extent, so it wasn't too bad.

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

First, he had the dummy look at its own face in front of a clothing store's glass display case, making a few expressions to check for smoothness. After becoming proficient, there was basically no sense of awkwardness, and he could even control the dummy's micro-expressions with precision.

During this time, Ke Mingye checked other matters and finally confirmed that the trickster doll could use skills, props, and equipment, but could not use other functions on the panel.

The doll's three attributes are completely equal to the player's attributes, which means that, unfortunately, it inherited Ke Mingye's sickly body.

Aside from that, the biggest difference between this doll and the player is probably its "weight".

The doll is much lighter than a normal person, so if you don't control your strength, you can jump up to a height of three or four meters. It's as light as a balloon.

If there's any possibility of being exposed to other players, then that's definitely where the problem lies.

However, Ke Mingye also considered explaining to other players that the reason his body was so light was because he had learned a "passive skill" that could reduce weight on the skill sales page, or that his body was actually superhuman and had the superpower of being light...

Generally speaking, they probably wouldn't confirm that much detail.

However, on the other hand, the doll's light weight also brings an advantage, which means it can do something that Ke Mingye cannot do yet: use the web shooter to shoot out spider silk, then grab the spider silk and swing in the air, moving at high speed over the city like Spider-Man.

Ke Mingye couldn't do it because his physical condition was insufficient and his strength was not enough to support his weight; but the puppet is different. Although its strength is the same as Ke Mingye's, its weight is much lower, so it is possible for it to do this.

Once you're ready, all you need to do is guide the mascot towards the tobacco pouch commercial street. It's not far from the Third Middle School of Beijing; it's about a half-hour walk.

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

— Players cannot see each other's game panels, so there's no need to worry about the trickster doll giving itself away when they try to verify each other's identities through the panels;

Players can only read the identity of the superhuman race.

—If a summon is not a self-aware creature, but a summon that is completely controlled by the player, it can be used as a unit to represent the player in the instance. This is often used to test the situation inside the instance.

—The same instance can only be challenged once per day; if a player dies in the instance, they will not die, but will respawn outside the instance.

—Some instances take place in real-world settings, while others will draw players into an alternate dimension.