Ke Mingye felt it strange, but precisely because of this point, Bai Wenna's attention on him should be much less than on the other children in the family.
Therefore, he was likely the only person in the family whom Bai Wenna did not know thoroughly.
Because Bai Wenna could not possibly guess: just three days ago, the one child who had been ordinary for sixteen whole years was suddenly replaced by a soul from a parallel world, thereby becoming a "player".
Heh, now we're looking at a case of spy meets spy...
Ke Mingye felt increasingly that the two of them were fated. Bai Wenna came from an extraterrestrial planet, and he was from a parallel world, both essentially spies lurking on Earth, with overlapping objectives; Bai Wenna aimed to help her mother planet invade Earth, while his goal was to exterminate superhumans.
If Bai Wenna's alien species was not counted as "superhuman", then Ke Mingye might have even considered revealing his identity to her once he had enough power, to see if they could join forces.
After all, compared to other players, his only advantage and biggest disadvantage was that "all around him were superhumans" from various forces, none of whom were unimportant within their respective forces:
—Bai Wenna was a spy from an alien planet, Ke Youqing was a member of the Superhero Round Table, Bai Zini was a main member of the Magical Girl Alliance, and Ke Xiaomo was the grand disciple of the Ninja Sect Master...
For that reason, Ke Mingye could plan to level up traditionally, boost his strength to a certain level, and then adopt a second identity, exploiting his knowledge of his family members to get closer to them.
If this process went smoothly, he would then try to get in touch with the powers behind them, then attempt to blend in, and bide his time.
But, sadly, the reality before him directly negated one of Ke Mingye's ideas.
Based on the main tasks listed by the system, Bai Wenna was also fated to be one of the hundred players Earth had to eliminate behind the scenes...
And there was likely a time limit to eliminate her before the alien attack on Earth; otherwise, once the alien spacecraft descended on Earth, their troubles would increase considerably.
So, collaborating with Bai Wenna was mostly unlikely.
Of course, all of this was not something he needed to consider at the moment, since judging from the player panel, his attributes were still not as good as an ordinary teenager's.
However, if the game system believed that the players could exterminate superhumans, it would definitely provide them with the conditions to match that belief.
As long as he increased his power step by step, he would eventually understand at what level Bai Wenna's power really was.
And before he grew strong, his primary task was to ensure that none of his family members noticed anything unusual about him.
At this moment, Ke Mingye leaned on the railing of the second floor, pretending to look at his phone, while secretly observing the panel above Ke Xiaomo's head.
Xiaomo, in the Ninja Sect, must also be among the elite, but his combat power still hadn't exceeded the A rank, stopping at A+.
So far, apart from Bai Wenna, no one else in the family had shown any S-level combat capabilities, which was doubtlessly good news for Ke Mingye.
He thought to himself, surely in this family, apart from his brother Ke Yongzhu's terrifying potential, it really was mom who was the undisputed final Boss—since everyone else's ratings fluctuated around A rank, only Bai Wenna's combat rating was three question marks, perhaps even far exceeding S rank.
"Mingye?"
Ke Xiaomo suddenly looked up, staring at him with a strange expression for a while, then called out his name.
Ke Mingye looked up from his phone, his face showing a surprised expression.
"So, second brother, why are you back?"
"I had some business here, came back early," Ke Xiaomo said.
"You didn't even give a heads-up, dad keeps asking me when you and big brother will be back, and so does big sister."
"Where are they?"
"They all went out, but they should be back soon," Ke Mingye said.
It made sense for him to say that, since Ke Youqing had already arrived, the combined forces of "Justice Knight Azure Crow", "Divine Communicator · Black Wukong", and "Magical Girl - Ash" should have more than enough power to handle a ghost tree with only A-rank combat power with no suspense.
The ghost tree was not very powerful to begin with, at best evenly matched with Bai Qiuwu. Adding Bai Zini was already pressing, barely scraping by, not to mention the immensely experienced Ke Youqing joining the battle, which directly tipped the scales.
......
......
At this moment, in a school located on Yandai Commercial Street.
A charming figure streaked through the deep night sky, descended from the heavens with the umbrella in hand, and landed on the rooftop of this abandoned elementary school.
This school, which had closed ten years earlier, served as the base for all the Magic Girls in Huanjing.
Many of China's Magic Girls had visited this school, gathering in the empty classrooms to discuss their adventures, occasionally complaining about how uncomfortable their dresses were to wear and how their magic weapons were clumsy to use;
Some of them, who fought relying on their Contracted Beasts, often publicly punished their beasts right in the classroom, passionately declaring how these creatures had tricked them from being ordinary young girls into Magic Girls endlessly busy with missions.
When they became emotional, they'd shed tears and murmur, "What's the difference between being tricked into becoming a Magic Girl and being duped into studying Civil Engineering?"
Since Magic Girls generally skewed younger in age, many of them absolutely detested the word "school".
They had strongly resisted using this school as their base at first, but, for convenience's sake, this historic base was still in use until now.
At such a late hour, the abandoned school was naturally empty, providing a convenient place to shed their magic dresses. Thus, Magical Girl Ash thought of this place immediately after detaching from her battle.
The instant her toes touched the rooftop, her clothes fell away like an invisible gauze to the ground, disappearing and replaced by her usual school uniform.
Meanwhile, the battle umbrella called "Cinderella" in her hand also transformed into a plain, folding black umbrella.
"Ah—choo!"
Bai Zini folded her umbrella while sneezing in the cold wind. She stretched out a finger to rub her nose and stamped her feet hard, mumbling incessantly.
"Damn it! It's so late, I haven't bathed yet, and I didn't catch that damn monkey! It's infuriating!"
"And that annoying Qing Ya, just a puppet for the officials, I feel sick just seeing him!"
She still remembered the last time she encountered Qing Ya, this bizarre "Crow Man" had followed her all across half of Huanjing, and she had exhausted every trick in the book to finally shake him off.
She actually knew why Qing Ya followed her; after all, being directly subordinate to the officials, they naturally tasked him with thoroughly investigating the backgrounds of these unknown vigilantes.
But every time she thought about it, Bai Zini first felt creeped out, followed by indignation, thinking: "Aren't we all fighting criminals? How does tagging along with the officials suddenly make one superior?"
"I'm done, I'm done; if I don't go home soon, my phone will be blown up by my mother."
Bai Zini hugged her shoulders with her left hand and took out her mobile phone from her school uniform pocket with her right. The sight of multiple missed call notifications from "Mother" made her shiver.
She put away her phone, lightly clicked her tongue, and entered the stairwell from the rooftop door, clomping noisily downwards.
Just then, a shaft of moonlight brushed through the window at the stairwell entrance, casting her face onto her phone screen.
"Oh, I almost forgot to change back my face."
Bai Zini got the shivers and hurriedly pulled out a vintage folding mirror from the pocket of her school jacket—this "Magic Mirror" was a gift from her mentor, "Magical Girl - Lilai."
As long as she concentrated, by imagining her desired appearance while looking into the Magic Mirror, her features would instantly shift.
Bai Zini never failed; she always imagined her face a few years older, pairing it with a gothic dress and a complimenting British-style makeup ensemble.
That way, no one would recognize her.
Bai Zini looked into the mirror until her face reverted to its original appearance, only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.
She put away the Magic Mirror, raised her head, and following the streak of moonlight overhead, looked out the window from the stairwell entrance.
"Mentor, are you doing okay over there in London?"
She murmured softly, her pupils reflecting the sky.
The moon played hide-and-seek in the clouds, on a mackerel sky night, with wave-like cloud patterns filling the deep blue night sky.