Superman's End Manual

In the blink of an eye, the cracks disappeared, turning into specks of fluorescent light that fell to the ground.

“That thing looks like… a door, probably some kind of teleportation medium, so there’s no doubt, it’s very likely still nearby.”

Thinking this, Ke Xiaomo's figure once again splashed onto the ground like ink, turning into a thick, swirling shadow.

Rewind three seconds.

As the anti-dog entered the alley, it unleashed the D-level skill "Medusa's Eyes," which it had just purchased from the skill sales page.

Then, he read out one of the theoretical terms from the paper figures: "Sacred Space".

Using this ability he had previously used in the instance, he opened a portal behind Medusa's eyes, leading to a point 20 meters to the west, and quickly stepped inside.

Inside the sacred space, there were bizarre and fantastical scenes created by brushstrokes in "religious script." He sometimes saw Chinese purification rituals, sometimes Christian baptism ceremonies, and sometimes Midsummer Night's Eve activities in medieval Northern Europe.

It seemed that every scene before my eyes was related to the word "purification".

When Anti-Dog emerged from the Holy Space, he had already stepped into the interior of an ordinary residential house.

Turning my head and looking around, I saw a very Chinese-style living room with a mahjong table with an ashtray, an old-fashioned folding stool, an outdated television, Chinese knots and embroidered murals hanging on the walls, and a family photo of six people.

A noise came from the restroom. A woman, well past fifty, was applying a face mask in front of the mirror while shouting in a shrill voice, "Who is it?!"

The anti-dog made no sound, but silently took two steps back and moved closer to the wall, while looking down at the paper figure in its sleeve.

The first little figure had already vanished along with the "Holy Space" passage.

He still had two paper figures left in his sleeve.

One of them, clutching the vein on his wrist, muttered "The Allegory of the Cave," "Metaphysics," and "Rationalism."

Another person sat cross-legged on his wrist, chanting "the Doctrine of the Mean," "benevolence as the foundation," and "unity of knowledge and action."

The anti-dog blurted out: "The Cave Fable."

As soon as he finished speaking, the wall behind him seemed to transform into an ancient cave with a burning bonfire, pulling his figure into it.

Hearing the hushed conversation, the middle-aged woman with curly, bouncy hair quickly came out of the bathroom, put her hands on her hips, looked around the living room, and muttered something under her breath.

"What's the sound?"

She picked up a feather duster and circled the living room. After confirming that no one was around, she muttered "crazy" under her breath, then walked back to the bathroom with her hands on her hips and continued applying the face mask she hadn't finished in front of the mirror.

The next moment, a sinister figure slowly emerged from the shadows in the living room. He moved his gaze in the darkness, silently scrutinizing the seemingly ordinary living room.

"His presence disappeared right here. Did he use that teleportation skill to leave again? No, he might still be here, just hiding his presence through some means."

Ke Xiaomo's expression was indifferent as she observed for a full five seconds in the darkness.

His figure slowly disappeared into the shadows, and wandering shadows appeared one after another in the rooms of the house, as if a black owl had flown through every corner.

Finally, he had no choice but to go to the toilet where the old woman was, and hide in the shadows behind the door to observe her actions.

Did that strange man possess this woman using some kind of power? Ke Xiaomo wondered, then shook his head after a long while.

"Did he get away...?"

He sighed softly, and his body, like a wisp of ink, quietly sank into the lake at his feet, merging into one with it.

Hearing a faint sigh behind her, the middle-aged woman turned around shakily, her lips moving slightly. "What was that sound just now? It seems this house is definitely uninhabitable now. It's really haunted..."

Meanwhile, after entering the cave created by the "cave allegory," the anti-dog looked up and peered inside.

Deep inside the cave, in front of a roaring campfire, sat two primitive men with their hands and feet bound, their backs to the cave entrance.

They were ragged, their faces contorted and numb, muttering something to their shadows on the wall.

That shadow is their reflection.

Watching this scene, Fan Quan recalled Plato's "Republic," from which the story of "The Allegory of the Cave" originated.

“A group of prisoners lived in a cave, their hands and feet bound so they could not turn around and could only face away from the cave entrance. In front of them was a wall, and behind them was a burning fire. They saw their own and other objects' shadows on the wall and thought these shadows were real. Later, someone climbed out of the cave and discovered the real world.”

He silently repeated the story to himself.

[The skill effect of "The Cave Parable": Enter a primitive cave isolated from the outside world. Inside the cave, you can avoid all dangers, but the shadows on the walls will speak to you. Their words are deceptive and may trap you here forever, so please carefully consider how long you want to stay in the cave.]

[Note: You might try to persuade the two prisoners in the cave to leave. If you can, they will become your puppets and fight for you.]

After reading the skill description, Anti-Dog found a wall in the cave and sat down.

He slowly turned his head, glanced at the two prisoners whose faces were blank with disbelief at the shadows, and then looked down at his own shadow reflected on the ground.

The shadow slowly parted its lips and whispered something to him.

"Look, what's so good about the outside world? On those sleepless nights... you always try to put pills in your mouth, every nerve seems to be torn apart by anxiety and pain. You're always running away from the arrival of daylight... Isn't it better to hide in this cave? The outside world will never have anything to do with you, there will never be pain... there will never be fatigue, only this warm campfire and I will keep you company... Go to sleep, you don't have to worry about anything, just have a good sleep."

Suddenly feeling dizzy, Fanquan looked away from the shadow and towards the last paper figure in his sleeve.

The little man was sitting cross-legged on his wrist, chanting the three phrases "benevolence as the foundation," "unity of knowledge and action," and "the doctrine of the mean."

"Unity of knowledge and action."

The anti-dog picked out this word from it.

Then, he repeated a sentence to himself.

"No matter what happens, no matter what I hear, I will walk out of this cave in ten minutes... No matter what happens, no matter what I hear, I will walk out of this cave in ten minutes."

As soon as he finished speaking, his expression suddenly became blank, as if his soul had been taken away.

The skill effect of "unity of knowledge and action": You can give yourself a command, and your body will act in absolute accordance with the command.

At this very moment, the world outside.

Ke Xiaomo was like an arrow shot into the shadows, darting through every house within a 300-meter radius, searching almost every corner of the old Jingmai neighborhood.

But they couldn't find any trace of that man... not even a hint.

Finally, he gave up and returned to the street where he had started. He leaned against the vending machine, lowered his head, and stared at the ground, remaining silent for a long time.

"He actually got away... I thought tracking was my forte."

Ke Xiaomo let out a long sigh, slowly raised her head, gazed at the night sky, and muttered to herself with a hint of resentment in her voice.

"There are actually people in this city who managed to evade my tracking... It seems I'll have to have a serious talk with my older brother about this when I get back."

After a moment of hesitation, Ke Xiaomo got up from the vending machine she was leaning against, stretched out her finger, and pressed the corresponding beverage icon on the vending machine's panel.

"Xiao Ni wants Coke, Ming Ye wants Coke, Qiu Wu also wants Coke, Xiao Ling wants Sprite, and Yong Zhu wants Gatorade."

He murmured softly, his fingers flying across the corresponding icons, and the vending machine's glass reflected a blank face.

Soon, five bottles of beverages came crashing down from the spit.

Ke Xiaomo felt around in her pants pocket and found that the food bag hidden inside was gone. So she had no choice but to hug all five bottles of drinks to her chest and turn around to walk home.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. He picked it up with one free hand, turned on the screen, and saw that Ke Mingye had sent him a WeChat message.

[Ke Mingye: Where the hell are you? I'm dying of thirst, where's my Coke?]

[Ke Xiaomo: Don't worry, I'm here.]

Ke Xiaomo replied to the message using voice input, then walked into the pitch-black street, a slight smile playing at the corner of her eye.

"Well, let's go home."

On the other side, the anti-dog emerged from the cave and stepped into that familiar old Chinese-style living room once again.

Turning his head, he saw an older woman with a face mask on, holding a feather duster in her left hand and an exorcism talisman in her right, huddled in the corner of the living room, staring at him with a pale face, muttering incoherently: "Namo Amitabha Buddha, demons and monsters, leave quickly, demons and monsters, leave quickly, demons and monsters, leave quickly..."

"excuse me."

Fan Quan adjusted his glasses, uttered a lukewarm remark, and then walked expressionlessly to the entrance, turning the doorknob and leaving the house.

Soon after, he returned to his rented room.

I closed the door, turned on the computer, and logged into the website specifically for contacting Cai Bing.

[Anti-dog: You're still alive?]

[Cut Ice: Dead.]

[Anti-dog: Good riddance.]

[Cut Ice: I really want to die. Thanks to you, I was forced to destroy more than a dozen machines, and the local area networks I just set up are gone too. It's no different from being dead, okay?]

[Anti-dog: What are you planning to do next?]

[Cut Ice: Luckily, Green Raven and I aren't in the same city, so he can only contact the association to arrest me. Before I left, I checked the miniature surveillance camera I left in the house. I had just texted you when my house was surrounded by a heavily armed unit, including one or two B-level superheroes.]

[Anti-dog: So you escaped their pursuit?]

[Cai Bing: I guess you could say I've escaped. In any case, I can't stay in this city anymore.]

[Anti-dog: So where are you planning to go?]

[Cai Bing: Going against the grain, I've come to the area surrounding Beijing.]

[Anti-dog: That's good. Should I sing you "Welcome to Beijing"?]

[Cai Bing: You're insane! I really want to slap you to death. So, what happened to that spider man you mentioned?]

[Anti-Dog: Confirmed. His character background is that of the son of the Blue Raven, and besides him, at least seven members of his family of nine are superhumans.]

[Cai Bing: That's outrageous! So what do you plan to do? Sneak a fast one on him and make him expose his identity to his family?]

[Anti-Dog: No, his existence is definitely a trump card arranged for us by the system. If we really have the opportunity to exterminate superhumans, then his future role will be indispensable.]