Because his second brother "Ke Xiaomo" had returned home and seemed to take an unusual interest in him, Ke Mingye didn't dare make any careless moves even when he was alone in his room, for fear of inadvertently revealing any information detrimental to himself.
After all, according to the intelligence provided by the system, his brother "Ke Xiaomo" was not only an A+ level superhuman but also happened to be a ninja—a profession skilled in gathering intelligence and scouting enemy situations, not to mention the extremely buggy ability of "phasing into shadows," which was nearly impossible to guard against.
Ke Mingye knew that as long as Ke Xiaomo was at home, in the dead of night, there might always be a pair of eyes observing him from some shadow in the room—under the wardrobe, the shadow cast on the desk by the lamp, or even in the silhouette his own back projected onto the bed behind him...
Just imagining the scene in his mind was enough to make Ke Mingye's scalp tingle, let alone experiencing it firsthand. So he secretly decided that he should try not to burn the midnight oil this summer vacation.
Having nothing pressing tonight, Ke Mingye washed up and went to bed early.
A silent night passed.
When Ke Mingye opened his eyes again, he yawned gently and, aided by the dim light coming through the window, glanced at the clock on the wall—it was already six in the morning.
He didn't know if anything had happened last night, but he had slept soundly anyway.
The ancients spoke of a "beheading meal," but at least he had had his "beheading sleep," which should be enough for now, regardless of how dire the situation might become later.
What caught his eye was a little different from yesterday; Ke Mingye could now see an "email icon" in the upper right corner of his field of vision.
Ke Mingye raised an eyebrow, took a sip of water from his cup, and picked up a book from beside his bed. Pretending to flip through it, he tried tapping the icon with his finger.
The moment his fingertip touched the icon, a "ding" sounded unexpectedly in his ear, and one email after another popped up.
[Notification Email 1: Functions such as "Daily Tasks," "Player Panel," "Player Mall," "Communication," and "Dungeon Atlas" are now open all day—every city in the world is scattered with randomly generated instances. The daily limit for instance challenge attempts is 1, please actively search for instances scattered throughout the city.]
[So far, the instance challenge progress in Huanjing City is: (0/100)—not a single instance has been conquered.]
"Does every city have a hundred instances? Would that mean players who spawn in smaller cities would find instances at a much higher efficiency than those in larger cities?"
"Or perhaps, there are more instances distributed in larger cities than in smaller ones..."
Ke Mingye pondered for a moment, his finger sliding over this email.
Meanwhile, six new icons appeared in the upper right corner of his vision, lined up in a vertical row beneath the "email icon."
He glanced at them, and next to the icons, a line of tiny text emerged, explaining the functions they represented, which were "Mall," "Knapsack," "Personal Panel," "Task Bar," "Dungeon Card Atlas/Dungeon Detector," and "Communication List."
As the icons materialized, the second email unfolded before his eyes.
[Notification Email 2: "Halloween Event Dungeon" advance notice. On October 31 of this year, traveling to Huanjing's "Huanjing Happy Valley" amusement park will open the dungeon.]
[Note: This email will only be received by players who are in Huanjing City, China.]
While Ke Mingye was reading the second email, a song with a spooky atmosphere suddenly sounded in his ear.
He raised an eyebrow, recalling that he had heard this song before—"Thriller," by "Michael Jackson," which indeed could be considered a symbolic song for "Halloween."
"A Halloween instance, huh? It must be designed with a festive atmosphere... sounds downright spooky," Ke Mingye thought. "But a dungeon that won't open until four months from now and you're starting the teasers already, afraid we'll forget and miss out on your surprises, huh?"
With that thought, he emotionlessly swiped away the email, only to be met with another of the same format.
[Notification Email 3: "Spring Festival Instance" advance teaser. On January 25th of next year, travel to "Winter City Avenue" in Huanjing City to activate the instance.]
"Great, great, you're previewing all the way into next year. I'd be lucky to survive this summer and might need to light incense and pray—by this time next year, the grass on my grave could be as tall as me."
Grumbling in his mind, Ke Mingye placed the cup on the bedside table and swiped past the email.
His expression slightly changed as he saw the content of the next email.
[Notification Email 4——Death Notice: Last night, players born in New York, United States—"Wilmer Hogue" and "Sean Cameron"—were captured by an Abnormal Regulation Bureau S-Level Enforcer "Ke Yinzhi" and tortured to death.
In their final moments, these two players committed some despicable acts: they confessed all known intelligence regarding "players."
The Anomaly Control Bureau has now transferred this intelligence to the organization "Super-Dimensional Supervision Bureau," in charge of matters related to transmigrators. The concept of "players" will gradually spread within superhuman forces, and they will learn that the mission of "players" is "to exterminate superhumans."
All surviving players must be extremely cautious of inspections by these two organizations and avoid arousing suspicion amongst the surrounding superhumans.]
[Current number of surviving players: 97/100]
Ke Mingye was stunned.
"But... you two Americans, just dying was not enough, had to screw over your teammates before you went, thinking our undercover work wasn't hard enough, huh?" he thought.
He had originally believed the script of this game was: if we're not strong enough, just lay low and endure, at worst endure a few days, then rely on the game system to grow stronger and suddenly rise up to overturn this world.
Reality, however, immediately slapped him hard, and this slap came with a critical hit, damage x2.
Yes, he never expected that, just on the fourth day, three players were already dead—including the two Americans, who not only died but had turned traitor just before.
Both of you gave up the word "players," so what's the point in playing anymore? Who knows what means the Super-Dimensional Supervision Bureau, specifically targeting "transmigrators," will use to single us out from the crowd...
"Damn it, I'm already starting in hell, and you guys want to fuel the fire of my hellish start, thinking it's not burning fiercely enough, wanting me to go straight to heaven, is that it..."
Ke Mingye struggled to keep his composure and took a deep breath.
On one hand, he was dismayed by how incredibly useless his teammates were. Despite the dire situation, he had managed to stay alive, but did these two Americans have no acting skills at all?
On the other hand, he was also taken aback by the high efficiency of the Anomaly Control Bureau. What had those two players done to get themselves targeted?
Thinking this, Ke Mingye took another look at the email and realized he had overlooked a name—the so-called "Abnormal Regulation Bureau S-Level Enforcer" who had captured the two players mentioned in the system email.
The enforcer's name was:
— "Ke Yinzhi."