Superman Termination Manual - Chapter 228

Chapter 228 – 156: Acquiring a B-grade Skill at Half Price!_3
So he opened his bag and used the long-treasured fifty-percent-off shopping coupon.

[A fifty-percent-off shopping card has been used (applicable for purchasing props, equipment, and skills graded B or below). When buying eligible items, the final price will be adjusted accordingly.]

Immediately, he clicked into the skills for-sale page and locked onto Skill No. 4 “Rotary Arm Fist-Guessing Skill,” decisively pressing the purchase button.

[Current total Mall Coins held: 27,300]

[Under the effect of the fifty-percent-off shopping card, the price of B-grade skill “Rotary Arm Fist-Guessing Skill” has dropped, changing to 52,000 X 0.5 = 26,000 Mall Coins.]

[Thank you for your patronage, you have successfully purchased the B-grade skill– “Rotary Arm Fist-Guessing Skill”.]

[Total expenditure this time: “26,000” Mall Coins. Your current balance of Mall Coins is “1,300”.]

[Skill “Rotary Arm Fist-Guessing Skill” has been automatically loaded into your number 10 skill slot.]

[Important notice 1: There are now 0 empty skill slots left. If you wish to learn new skills, you must first overwrite an old skill!]

[Important notice 2: Overwritten skills will disappear and return to the skills for-sale page. If the player encounters the skill again, it can still be repurchased!]

“My skill slots are full already, huh? I always feel like it’s not quite real.”

Ke Mingye muttered as he glanced at his skill slots.

[1, Deception Puppet (B-grade); 2, Disaster Dice (D-grade); 3, Superhero-Style Landing (E-grade); 4, Personality Split (E-grade); 5, Day of the Chosen (D-grade); 6, Phase Transfer (E-grade); 7, Solar Energy Punch (D-grade); 8, Safety Restrictions Release (E-grade); 9, Animal Communication Skill (E-grade); 10, Rotary Arm Fist-Guessing Skill (B-grade)]

“If I’m going to swap out skills in the future, it looks like ‘Solar Energy Punch,’ ‘Safety Restrictions Release,’ and ‘Superhero-Style Landing’ are the ones to go. Their irreplaceability isn’t that strong.”

“Also, once Yuri sacrifices herself in the battle with Timekeeper, I can rightfully replace the ‘Animal Communication Skill’.”

“I hope this dead cat proves worth it, having spent the money on an E-grade skill and occupied a slot for so long.”

Ke Mingye closed the panel, murmuring to himself.

After purchasing the skill on the skills for-sale page, he didn’t rush to try it out.

After all, this was a B-grade skill, and stirring up a big commotion could attract the police’s attention, which would be a loss. This abandoned train station was his secret base.

So right now, he was concentrating on controlling the blue owl to rush to this abandoned train station.

To be honest, Ke Mingye was a bit worried that Qing Ya might track the blue owl. If Qing Ya were to see this, he would immediately realize that it was a puppet playing the part of the blue owl.

It would be hard to explain then; he couldn’t just say he had another superpower controlling puppets, that’d be too suspicious. With his father’s personality, it wouldn’t be like him if he didn’t fit Ke Mingye with a brain imaging helmet.

So to prevent such an indefensible situation from occurring, Ke Mingye had put in a lot of effort.

While controlling the blue owl on its way back, he specifically chose a shadowy area to activate his Night Walk belt’s ability and entered stealth mode.

Then he deliberately took several winding alleys and finally returned to Old Jingmai District through the most concealed route, swiftly entering the inside of the train station.

Despite all this, Ke Mingye was still worried that Qing Ya was following behind, so he released the Bluebird Scout Plane from his bag.

This little blue bird-shaped reconnaissance machine paused on the ground for a moment, leaning sideways towards the floor as if it was a newborn chick that had not yet learned to walk.

Ke Mingye scratched his chin and looked at it somewhat helplessly, feeling that it looked like a student’s mechanical innovation exhibit, crude in appearance.

“Can this thing really fly?”

As he pondered, the Bluebird Scout Plane suddenly straightened itself up, wobbling unsteadily but with determination, as the long feather on its head, resembling “wings,” stood erect.

“Fly up. Circle above the train station and see if there are any crows. If you see a crow, turn around and leave immediately.”

Ke Mingye’s orders settled in his mind.

As the wings atop the Bluebird Scout Plane began to rotate at high speed, it flapped its mechanical fledgling wings and soared into the sky, patrolling back and forth above the abandoned train station.

Shared with its vision, Ke Mingye controlled the Bluebird telepathically to patrol the sky, ensuring that no black birds were hiding under the eaves of the train station to secretly observe him.

If crows appeared in the vicinity, it would mean Qing Ya might already be nearby, and he would have to find a way to slip away.

Fortunately, after a circle in the air, the Bluebird Scout Plane indeed found no suspicious birds, so Ke Mingye retracted the clumsy reconnaissance bird into his bag.

“Lucky that the old man didn’t follow me over…”

Ke Mingye had a scare and covered his chest in relief, his backhand dripping with cold sweat.

He didn’t even dare to think what would happen if his old man actually followed the blue owl here and saw the two Ke Mingyes; the situation would become incredibly complicated.

That’s why, in the future, Ke Mingye would certainly have to go into battle himself, otherwise, if Qing Ya really did start tracking him one day to figure out his secrets.

Sooner or later, his use of a puppet in battle would be discovered, and by then it would be impossible to explain.

But now was different; currently lacking strength and confidence, and having not yet disclosed his identity to his family, nobody would be covering for him.

Going out to fight criminals under these conditions, if he encountered a tough one, he might just end up throwing away his life.

Watching the blue owl enter the abandoned train station and again sharing its vision, seeing himself seated on a public bench, Ke Mingye felt this scene almost made him seem schizophrenic.

He had the blue owl remove its battle suit, lay down a spare cell phone, uninstall all the player equipment, then hand over the “Commander of the Superhero Association” business card to himself.

Then he instructed the blue owl to face the wall in a corner, find a comparatively cramped and sound-proof corner, and self-destruct.

Ke Mingye breathed a sigh of relief, pocketed the spare cell phone, and then picked up the business card.

“As long as I dial the number on this card, then report to the Association, I’ll be a superhero…” he thought, “And then my old man will immediately know my identity, really curious what will happen then.”

As he was thinking, an information bubble suddenly appeared in the upper right corner of his vision.

[Cai Bing: Asleep?]

[Failed Man: Are you kidding me, bro? I was just fighting crime. Don’t you know a superhero’s nightlife is rich?]

[Cai Bing: Oh, I didn’t watch the news.]

[Failed Man: So, have you found Gastella’s real body yet?]

[Cai Bing: No, she’s very secretive. I guess she only operates through puppets since releasing the first insect, and she never shows herself.]

[Failed Man: Can you figure out who the first ordinary person controlled by the insects was, and at what location?]

[Cai Bing: I’ve got that. I pulled up the city’s surveillance and traced the timeline back to the start. Finally, I found out the first to spread those insects was a person named “Che Zhengchen,” the location was in the Hongdeng Commercial District.]

Che Zhengchen?

The moment Ke Mingye saw this name, he first felt it was somewhat familiar, then rested his chin in his hand and thought about where he had seen a similar name.

Suddenly he froze in place, slowly lowering his head, casting his eyes down to look at the business card he was clutching.

The contents of the card were very simple, yet they sent chills down Ke Mingye’s spine.

—-Commander of the Superhero Association: “Che Zhengchen,” Contact Number: XXXXXXXX.