"Truly, you leave me no wiggle room. Let me at least think about how to evade my family's surveillance before meeting with you."
Ke Mingye turned his head towards the playground and took a deep breath.
According to the player "Fan Quan" in the discussion group, only those who arrived at Yandai Commercial Street by five-thirty in the afternoon were qualified to collaborate with him.
Ke Mingye did want to meet them, but he couldn't even be sure of his second brother's whereabouts now, how could he dare to act rashly.
Maybe his second brother was lurking in some shadow in the classroom, secretly watching him.
If he rashly checked with other family members about Ke Xiaomo's whereabouts, it could lead to trouble, especially since his younger siblings, Bai Zini and Bai Ziling, were unaware of his situation:
—His message asking "Little sister, is the second brother at home?" could be seen by Ke Xiaomo, who might be sitting next to them, instantly confirming his suspicions.
Ke Mingye looked at the date on the classroom wall, pondering methods to break the situation. If nothing else worked, he thought of asking the player in the discussion group if they could postpone the meeting until tomorrow, although the chances of being rejected were quite high.
"Right, today seems to be, the second brother's birthday."
With this thought, Ke Mingye suddenly raised his eyebrows, having devised a way to break the impasse. He decisively picked up his phone and sent a message to Bai Zini.
"Little sister, is the second brother at home?" he asked.
"Yeah, he and Zi Ling are watching TV in the living room. What's up, big brother?"
Bai Zini's response came quickly; her middle school had let out at noon, and she had only gone in the morning to collect her final exam grades and certificates.
Like Bai Ziling, she was at home now.
Ke Mingye typed on his phone and sent: "Little sister, then please keep an eye on the second brother for me. If he disappears or goes out, tell me right away."
In other circumstances, he wouldn't dare send such a message. But today was Ke Xiaomo's birthday, so he had a reason to send the message without it seeming abrupt or strange.
Bai Zini paused for a moment before typing back: "Not to be weird, big brother, what are you up to?"
"Did you forget today is his birthday?"
Bai Zini got it immediately: "Oh, are you going to buy him a cake to surprise him?"
"Yeah," Ke Mingye replied by text, "so don't let the second brother get away even for a second and keep me posted constantly. Otherwise, if I bump into him face to face, wouldn't it be awkward?"
Bai Zini quickly sent a message: "Geez, I never saw you make such an effort when it was my birthday."
She paused again before adding: "Fine, go ahead. I'll keep an eye on the second brother for you, making sure he doesn't leave the house, or I'll break his dog legs."
Receiving the message, Ke Mingye breathed a sigh of relief. After all, Bai Zini was a Magic Girl, and with her vision and hearing, keeping watch on the second brother wouldn't be too difficult.
He had just received a sum of money in his Alipay account, earnings from last night's bet on the Superheroes dark web, totaling 5,000 yuan.
However, Ke Mingye couldn't possibly use this personal money to buy a cake. Instead, he opened WeChat to ask his parents for reimbursement. This also helped make the action seem more believable, preventing the second brother from becoming suspicious.
After completing these actions, it was definitely too late to order a birthday cake, so he would just buy a ready-made one from a cake shop later.
The bell for class dismissal rang just then. Ke Mingye grabbed his backpack and left, not forgetting to pilfer a set of new, unopened school uniforms from an unlucky classmate's drawer and a box of Nike sneakers from another.
If it weren't necessary, he wouldn't have done this. After all, his life was at stake, and he could discard a bit of moral sense if needed.
He placed the shoebox and the bag containing the school uniform into his backpack and turned his head toward the toilets in the teaching building. He chose a cubicle, closed the door, sat on the toilet lid, and opened his contact list.
Mentally typing, he spoke in the discussion group.
[Failed Man: Five-thirty, right? Wait for me.]
[Fan Quan: Okay.]
Soon, a new face spoke up, the never-before-heard-from "Ju Zipi".
"Good Ju Zipi: I'm also in, just got off work. Even after crossing over, I still have to slave away at my job—I'm literally sick of it."
"Unclear Dream: We're waiting here for you guys, hurry up."
Ke Mingye sat on the toilet, closing the panel.
He tried to chant the skill "Deception Puppet" in his mind. As soon as the words fell in his heart, he summoned an extremely bizarre-looking puppet.
"Successful release of the skill 'Deception Puppet.' Using this skill consumes 20% of your physical energy. Your current physical energy remains at 80%."
"Skill description: Create a puppet that shares the vision and hearing of the player, and can be controlled at will to change its voice and facial features in order to deceive others.
Moreover, when the puppet is destroyed, it emits a terrifying laugh and explodes within a small area, causing a fear effect that stuns surrounding enemies for 2 seconds."
"Maximum lifetime of the puppet: 3 hours."
Ke Mingye glanced at the upper right corner of his vision where a new grey bar appeared, symbolizing his physical energy, akin to mana in online games, with no energy left, no skills could be deployed.
He then turned his gaze toward the summoned puppet above him. It was about 1.8 meters tall, shrouded in a hazy gray all over, but its mouth was twisted into a sinister smile. To draw a comparison, it was like the little black figures used in "Detective Conan" to demonstrate crime methods.
Since that player wasn't giving him a chance to breathe, if the puppet's test results met his expectations, Ke Mingye shouldn't need to meet them in person.
Instead, he would use the puppet.
But before that, Ke Mingye had to test if his idea was viable, as the precision with which he could control the puppet directly determined the outcome.
"This thing looks pretty abstract, but according to the skill description, I can freely adjust its appearance. Molding it into the figure of an ordinary high school student shouldn't be hard."
Thinking this, Ke Mingye first unfolded the school uniform he had swiped from a classmate's drawer and draped it over the naked body of the Deception Puppet.
He then took out a pair of sneakers from the box, placed them on the floor, and like helping a child put on shoes, stuffed the puppet's feet into them.
Next, Ke Mingye mentally controlled the puppet to crouch down on the ground, and then tried to manipulate its physique.
The moment the thought was placed, the puppet's body began to violently transform, shrinking rapidly from 1.8 meters to 1.7 meters in just two seconds, fitting perfectly into the school uniform and matching the size of the sneakers, resulting in a less awkward overall appearance.
Ke Mingye examined it for a moment, then focused his attention, starting to imagine a face of a normal high school student in his mind.
The next moment, the Deception Puppet's face began to change as well, slowly distorting into a slightly juvenile and delicate face, with a healthy wheat-complexion continuing from its face throughout its body, turning the dark shade to the same wheat coloring.
At that moment, the puppet dressed in a school uniform truly looked like a handsome high school student.
"Quite convenient, I thought it'd take a lot more effort to make it look human."
Ke Mingye was quietly surprised internally, but wasn't idle. He heard the voices of two high school boys chatting by the urinal outside the restroom and began to try making the puppet mimic one of the students' talking manner and voice, then he had it speak softly.
However, just then, Bai Zini sent a message, Ke Mingye stopped testing and looked down.
"Big brother has been in the rest room for a while now, could be constipated, so just go ahead and buy the cake. Hmph, if it comes to it, I'll trap him in the restroom and won't let him out." Bai Zini.
After reading the message, Ke Mingye's heart suddenly sank. Ke Xiaomo had been in their home bathroom for a long time?
"Something's not right. Big brother might have already escaped into the shadows from the restroom and left home, but Bai Zini doesn't know he has this trick…" he thought, "Oh no, that means Big brother could have already been looking for me minutes ago. I need to hurry."
While thinking, Ke Mingye quickly double-checked the Deception Puppet's speaking voice, then saw the puppet opening its mouth, speaking in a mosquito-like voice:
"Those mock test questions are really tricky, especially that last big problem…"
Ke Mingye breathed a sigh of relief. Whether it was the timbre or the intonation, the imitation was nearly perfect. It sounded almost exactly like the boy who had been by the urinal just moments before, and the similarity was so uncanny it was a bit eerie, almost creating an uncanny valley effect.
He had the Deception Puppet crouch down, hiding in a corner of the stall, then he stepped out of the restroom first, casually closing the door; afterwards, while washing his hands at the mirror, he controlled the Deception Puppet to stand and walk out of the stall, joining him to wash its hands beside him.
Then, the two walked out of the restroom side by side, split back-to-back in the hallway, and headed in different directions, disappearing into the shadows by the hallway entrance.