July 10, 2020. Starting from this day, the sumr vacation began for high school students.
The concept of sumr vacation didn’t really apply to Ji Minghuan, but his ga character—Gu Wenyu—could enjoy a long two-month break.
After dozing off for a while, Ji Minghuan suddenly opened his eyes on the bed and looked up at the clock.
Local ti in Lijing was 3:30 in the afternoon.
He reached for his phone by the pillow and saw two WeChat ssages on the lock screen, one from his best friend Li Qingping, and the other from his brother Gu Qiye. The forr asked him out for drinks at a chill bar, the latter told him and their sister to stay ho because he’d be back later to cook.
After a bit of deliberation between the two, Ji Minghuan declined Li Qingping’s invitation. After all, ever since he created this ga character, he hadn’t seen his other “family mber” in person. Staying ho a little longer might give him a chance to figure her out.
Lying on the bed, Ji Minghuan lowered his gaze, watching the Binding Restraint wrapped around his fingertips as he recalled the past twenty-four hours of “character mory.”
The ga system had once explained that during the ti he didn’t take control of the character, the character would act on its own following a set of “behavioral protocols” extrapolated from his “role-playing logic.” In other words:
If he played as a violent lunatic, then during the periods he didn’t control the character, the character would automatically do things like arson, murder, and looting.
Conversely, if he played as a law-abiding, well-behaved person, then his character would maintain a similarly restrained behavioral pattern.
Ji Minghuan was a thoroughly well-behaved person. Apart from twisting people’s heads off to use as soccer balls during role-play, nothing too outrageous had occurred.
So his character was pretty ta too. According to the mory, Gu Wenyu had slept straight through until 2 PM that day—probably from overusing Esper abilities the night before and depleting too much energy.
But hey, it was sumr vacation. No one would care.
Then, an hour after waking up, he microwaved the food Gu Qiye left and ate it, then stayed in his room practicing his daily superhuman power training.
He trained for an hour, and at 3:30 PM, Ji Minghuan entered the dream state from the confinent room and took control of Gu Wenyu’s body.
“This lack of control sucks... I rember there’s a setting in the system for ‘24-hour control of the ga character,’ but it also said: doing so would put too much strain on the mind, equivalent to simultaneously controlling both the main body and the character’s body, keeping your consciousness in a high-stress, multitasking state, which could easily lead to ‘schizophrenia.’”
Yawning, Ji Minghuan blinked away the sleepiness with tears welling in his eyes and smacked his lips a few tis unconsciously. “If I go crazy, then so be it... at least I’ll have so company in the confinent room.”
Clearly, he wasn’t willing to give even an hour of free rein to the character. Manual control felt safer.
Throwing on his school uniform jacket, he left the room and went downstairs.
Stopping at the stairway, he glanced sideways. From there, he could see a tall figure in the living room. That was Gu Wenyu’s sister, Su Zimai. She’d stayed over at a classmate’s place last night, so Ji Minghuan hadn’t seen her in person—just had a general idea of her from Gu Wenyu’s mory.
Su Zimai had dium-length hair down to her ears and was dressed in a green tennis outfit. Her facial features took after their mother’s brightness, but her contours were sharp like their father’s, giving her a more androgynous look. Honestly... she probably had the kind of appearance that attracted a lot of lesbians.
From mory, Su Zimai was 16 and in her first year of high school. Gu Wenyu was 17, in his second year, and would be entering the third year after the new term. Their older brother was 19 and in his first year of college.
But among the three, Gu Wenyu looked the youngest. Probably because of his droopy eyes and his usual sickly appearance. His vibes might be weak, but with good genes, he looked quite delicate. With just a bit of grooming, he’d have no trouble getting asked for his number when he went out.
As for why Su Zimai’s surna was Su and not Gu, it was because their parents had agreed that “sons take the father’s surna, daughters take the mother’s.”
Su Zimai was a daughter, so she took her mother Su Ying’s surna. The two brothers followed their father Gu Zhuo’an’s surna.
At that mont, she was leaning sideways against the back of the sofa, quietly watching TV.
Ji Minghuan sat on the other side of the sofa and casually turned on the electric fan next to him. With a click, the blades started spinning.
He glanced out the window. The city’s overpass shimred in a wave of heat, the rail tracks distorted in the haze, looking like a mirage from afar.
“So lazy. Waking up at 3 PM,” Su Zimai said, not even glancing at him.
She was fiddling with her phone, occasionally looking up at the TV, which was currently tuned to Giant Elephant News.
“Brother said he’ll be ho to cook tonight. Told us not to go out,” Ji Minghuan said.
“Oh.”
Ji Minghuan leaned his head back against the sofa and looked up at the TV, stealing glances at Su Zimai out of the corner of his eye.
After just two seconds, a prompt window popped up in front of him.
[Main Quest 3: Investigate what your “sister” Su Zimai is hiding.]
[Quest Reward: 1 Split Point, 1 Attribute Point, 1 Skill Point]
So... this sister was hiding so secret too? Could she be an Esper, just like their brother? Ji Minghuan was curious.
“It’s already 3 PM. Aren’t you going to find sothing to eat?” Su Zimai asked without lifting her head.
“I already ate after I woke up earlier. Just went back for a nap.”
“Pig.”
“Give
a break, it’s sumr vacation. Why are you b*tching? Am I your older brother or your younger one?”
“Why are you wearing a jacket?”
“I’m cold, okay?”
“In this weather? Cold?”
“You don’t get it. High school guys like to stand out. What’s wrong with wearing a jacket in sumr?” Ji Minghuan leaned forward, grabbed a pack of gum from the table, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth. After two chews, he said casually, “Turns heads when I walk.”
“Childish.”
Just then, sothing on the news caught his attention.
“This is the Lijing Daily News live broadcast,” said a poised female anchor.
The studio background showed a freeze-fra from the city square’s surveillance: a black Binding Restraint coiled around a lamppost.
The anchor looked straight at the cara and calmly reported last night’s news: “At 10:20 PM last night, an unidentified Esper appeared in the city center square, intervening in a hostage situation orchestrated by the Green Wing organization. The Esper used black ribbon-like material to kill five criminals and successfully rescued five hostages, without any civilian casualties during the operation.”
She glanced down at her script. “According to eyewitnesses, the Esper was entirely wrapped in black restraints, resembling a cocoon hanging upside down beneath an advertising board. The Reality-altering Esper Association has sealed off the scene and is currently analyzing residual substances.”
The anchor looked back up. “Next, we’ll hear from the Vice Chairman of the Lijing Branch of the Reality-altering Esper Association.”
The screen switched to the Association’s signature blue announcent backdrop.
Then a long-haired man wearing sunglasses and a suit appeared on screen.
Hands clasped behind his back, he spoke in a stiff official tone: “After an ergency eting by the Association’s expert panel, based on the Esper’s ability traits and appearance, we officially na the Esper ‘Black Cocoon’, and temporarily designate ‘Black Cocoon’ as a Class B observation target.”
Ji Minghuan sneered inwardly: “Heh, guess I got to feel what it’s like to be famous...”
He stared at the enlarged full-body shot on the screen—it was a bizarre silhouette hanging upside down from a billboard.
Right then, Su Zimai happened to glance up and saw the man slowly erging from the black cocoon on TV. He wore a trench coat and a tallic mask that looked like a Kan Rider.
She raised an eyebrow and scoffed, “That getup is so ugly... what is that, a giant flapping moth?”
Ji Minghuan leaned his elbow on the armrest, chin in hand, and fired back with what he said earlier: “You tell , does it turn heads or not?”
Sure, he thought it looked ugly too, but all he had was the outfit Gu Wenyu had made. He’d change it later when he had the chance.
“Your taste is trash, but whatever. That Black-sothing Cocoon—he’s also a high school boy like you?” she asked.
“Who knows?”
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