Superman Termination Manual - Chapter 12

Chapter 12 – 008: Midnight Ravens

Chapter 12: Chapter 008: Midnight Ravens
Ke Mingye took a sip of plain water and set down the cup. His pupils reflected the fiery scenes on his phone, his ears inundated with the roaring of bursting air currents.

It was as if he were right there.

The quality of the video and audio from the livestream suggested that the filmmaker had used sophisticated equipment.

Such effects could only be captured by illegal filmmakers specializing in recording such scenes for profit, a far cry from random passersby whipping out their phones to take a video.

However, although the actions and dialogues of the three characters in the sky above Huanjing were mostly captured, Ke Mingye wasn’t entirely engrossed.

Compared to the three people in the frame, he was more concerned about where Ke Youqing had gone. Could he have been intercepted by other superhuman criminals?

After all, he had many enemies.

But then, another possibility occurred to Ke Mingye—Ke Youqing was most likely helping the police rescue the vehicles previously hung up on Huanjing Bridge by the ghost tree.

At this moment, the illegal filmmaker knocked the camera against the railing of the rooftop, drastically adjusting the lens to better capture the three figures darting between skyscrapers and dazzling neon lights.

Every frame was like glimpsing flowers through the fog, fleeting and elusive.

Amid the roars, glass curtain walls and LED giant screens on the surface of the steel buildings shattered consecutively. As the skirt of Magical Girl Ash fluttered, millions of glass shards poured down from mid-air like a furious snowstorm, lavishly sprinkling onto the streets congested with vehicles.

As the glass splattered down, hitting car after car, the piercing alarms of car security systems once again filled the streets.

Ke Mingye’s eyelid twitched.

He thought, why does it feel like you guys are going to have to renovate the entire city center if you keep fighting like this?

Can’t you pull out your big moves earlier instead of probing each other? Are you really going to escalate like in “Dragon Ball” from Super Saiyan one to Super Saiyan five?

Especially with “curfew time” fast approaching at home, Bai Zini and Bai Qiuwu, you two better not get locked out by mom.

Just as Ke Mingye was getting absorbed, suddenly, a hoarse and grim voice sounded almost within arm’s reach, casually asking:

“What are you doing?”

Ke Mingye was slightly startled then blurted out, “What the hell?”

Soon, he confirmed that the voice seemed to have come from… beside the filmmaker?

But wasn’t the filmmaker secretly filming from the rooftop of a nearby residential building? Then who could be speaking right beside his ear?

“You are committing a crime… Filming fights involving superhumans is strictly prohibited by law.”

The voice stated so. Sinister and hoarse, it echoed eerily on the silent rooftop.

Like a giant crow was cawing, chilling to the bone.

The filmmaker turned his head, only to see a profound shadow swaying in the moonlight at a corner of the rooftop, resembling a giant crow.

At that moment, the camera also reflected the corner of the rooftop, revealing the elongated silhouette hidden in the shadows.

His face was adorned with a sinister, finely arched mask. The eyes peering out from the eye sockets were bright and deep as torches in the darkness. A blue bird’s beak protruded from the mask, and his cloak, like a large robe, concealed his body as though melding him into the night.

Seconds before, eagle-eyed viewers had already recognized the source of the voice. Upon seeing this image, the upper part of the livestream was instantly filled with lines of commentary.

—”It’s Qing Ya, I told you this jerk would show up?”

—”He finally came, I bet thirty thousand on him, thought I was gonna go bankrupt!”

—”Holy shit! Qing Ya is here! This is the first time an illegal livestream has captured Qing Ya’s face up close!”

—”What are you waiting for, start recording!”

As Ke Mingye was tearing open the packaging of an instant bread roll, he caught sight of this scene and couldn’t help but pause.

“Old Daddy’s finally turned up.”

He was thinking while tearing open the bread’s packaging.

“You are way too slow, your two daughters have already fought the villain for two or three rounds up there…”

At this moment, dressed in a battle suit, the superhero “Qing Ya” was leaning against a corner of the rooftop, his deep eyes behind the mask staring straight at the surveillance stealer.

The sharp bird beak on his mask seemed like a blade poised to take a life, aiming directly at the camera.

The surveillance stealer saw him and, while aiming the camera at him, screamed incoherently, “Don’t come any closer! A lot of people are watching!”

The camera shook wildly, highlighting his fear.

Seeing the man’s ghostly reaction, Ke Mingye couldn’t help but laugh, thinking to himself: Big brother, you’re really funny. Is such a reaction necessary? The guy in front of you is dressed a bit terrifyingly and quite shabbily, but he is an officially recognized superhero after all, right? Do you need to be so startled?

Plus, you are live streaming, even if my dad has a bad temper, he shouldn’t really…

He shouldn’t really…

Ke Mingye was thinking this when, in the next instant, Qing Ya disappeared from the spot. At the same time, the camera lens suddenly darkened as if covered by a cloth.

What remained was only silence.

Death-like silence.

“…Huh?”

“Huh?”

Ke Mingye let out two questioning sounds one after another, his fingers tearing the packaging pausing, and his expression froze for a second.

“Wait, dad didn’t really get rid of him, did he?”

At this time, the entire live stream was dark, with only lines of pale barrage flying rapidly across the top.

After a brief silence of two seconds, he put down the bread, exited the live stream room, and opened the live stream list on Grey Pigeon website, only to discover a whole page of live streams about the “Ghost Tree.”

So he breathed a sigh of relief: “As long as there’s something else to watch.”

He was about to click into another stream when, in just that split second, all the thumbnails for the live streams turned black, one page after another.

Just like toppled dominoes.

In the end, what was left was the death-like darkness and stillness.

Seeing something was wrong, Ke Mingye’s expression changed: “We really won’t have anything to watch now, will we?” he said, then flipped through two more pages, only to find the next page’s ten live streams also turned black one by one.

As if someone had turned off the lights.

Without exception, the last scene in these surveillance thieves’ live streams was a huge crow swooping down from the sky or bursting out of the shadows.

After three seconds of silence, Ke Mingye, gripping the half-opened package of bread, sighed deeply.

He was feeling very mixed, as if someone had unplugged his internet connection. He had been curious to see what kind of chemical reaction would occur when his dad, sister, and younger sister got together.

Well, now no one will see it.

Thinking this, Ke Mingye flipped through Grey Pigeon website, randomly clicking into a few live streams. As he expected, the barrage in these streams was furiously cursing “Qing Ya.”

He finally understood why the superhero “Qing Ya” had such a bad reputation on the internet; some things really weren’t without reason.

“Dad, what on earth are you doing, dad?” he muttered, hanging his head and complaining softly.

“You show up at the scene, do nothing, and start by unplugging everyone’s internet, right? You’re really classy as hell…”