July 10, 2020, from this day on, the summer vacation for high school students began.
The concept of summer vacation meant nothing to Ji Minghuan, but his game character, "Gu Wenyu," could enjoy a long two-month holiday.
After a brief nap, Ji Minghuan suddenly opened his eyes and looked at the clock.
The local time in Li Jing was 3:30 in the afternoon.
He pulled out his phone from under the pillow and received two WeChat messages on the lock screen, one from his best friend "Li Qingping," and the other from his brother "Gu Qiye." The former invited him out for drinks, while the latter advised him and his sister to stay home as he would come back later to cook.
After deliberating for a while, Ji Minghuan decided to decline Li Qingping's invitation. After all, since creating this game character, he hadn't yet met his other "family member" in person. Spending more time at home might provide some clues about her.
Lying in bed, Ji Minghuan lowered his gaze, glancing at the restraint belt wrapped around his fingers, while recalling the "character memory" of the past twenty-four hours.
The game system had explained that in the absence of character control, the character would act according to a set of "actions" based on his "role-play logic," meaning:
If he played as a maniac during the role-play, when he wasn't controlling the character's body, the character would automatically engage in activities like looting and arson;
Conversely, if he played as a law-abiding person, his character would also maintain a non-offensive behavior pattern.
Ji Minghuan was a quintessentially law-abiding person, who did not exhibit any excessive behavior while role-playing, except maybe twisting heads off people to use as a basketball.
Thus, his character was also very obedient. In memory, Gu Wenyu slept straight through until 2 PM, possibly due to the excessive use of superpowers last night, leading to severe energy depletion of the body.
But since it's already summer vacation, no one would care about him.
Then, an hour after waking up, he microwaved the food left by Gu Qiye and ate it before sitting in his room to practice daily superpower training.
He trained for an hour, and by 3:30 PM, Ji Minghuan sank into a dream from the confinement room and took over Gu Wenyu's body.
"This sense of lack of control is lousy... I remember there's a '24-hour Character Control' option in the system settings, but it also mentioned: doing so places a high mental burden, equivalent to controlling both the original body and character's body simultaneously, and maintaining consciousness in a high-pressure, multitasking state, potentially leading to 'split spirit'."
Ji Minghuan yawned while thinking, tears of tiredness brimming in his eyes, unconsciously smacking his lips a few times, "If it splits, then let it... at least there's company in the confinement room."
Apparently, he's unwilling to leave even an hour of free time for the character, feeling more secure with manual control.
Throwing on his school uniform jacket, he left the room and headed downstairs.
Standing at the stairwell, he glanced sideways to see a tall figure in the living room. That was Gu Wenyu's sister, Su Zimai. Last night she stayed over at a friend's house, so Ji Minghuan hadn't seen her in person, only having some understanding of her from Gu Wenyu's memory.
Su Zimai had medium-length hair just past her ears and wore a green sports outfit for tennis. Her features inherited her mother's radiance, yet her contours were sharp like her father's, giving her a somewhat neutral appearance, potentially attractive to many female lesbians.
In memory, Su Zimai was currently 16 and a first-year high school student, Gu Wenyu was 17 and a second-year student, about to enter the third year after the school opens, and the older brother was 19, attending university as a freshman.
However, among the three, Gu Wenyu looked the youngest, perhaps due to his droopy eyes giving him a sickly appearance. Although his temperament was lacking, his good genes were evident, and with a bit of grooming, he wouldn't have trouble getting asked for his contact information when out.
The reason why the sister's last name is Su instead of Gu is that Su Zimai's parents decided that "sons follow the father's surname, and daughters follow the mother's."
Su Zimai, being the daughter, naturally took her mother Su Ying's surname, while the two brothers followed their father's surname, Gu Zhuo Case.
At that moment, she was leaning against the back of the sofa, watching the TV silently.
Ji Minghuan sat on the other side of the sofa, casually turned on the fan beside him, and the blades started spinning with a "click."
He looked out the window, seeing the overpass of the city shrouded in rising heat, the railway tracks faintly distorted, looking like a mirage from a distance.
"Lazy, waking up at 3 PM," Su Zimai said, not even glancing at him.
She was fiddling with her phone, occasionally glancing up at the TV, where the host of the Giant Elephant News Channel was reporting yesterday's national news.
"Brother said he's coming home to cook tonight, so we shouldn't go out," Ji Minghuan said.
"Oh."
Ji Minghuan rested the back of his head against the sofa, glancing at the TV while observing Su Zimai with his peripheral vision.
Merely after two seconds, a prompt box appeared before him.
[Main Quest 3: Investigate what your "sister" Su Zimai is hiding.]
[Quest Reward: 1 Split Point, 1 Attribute Point, 1 Skill Point]
So... what unknown secret is this sister hiding, could she be a superpower user like her brother? Ji Minghuan wondered curiously.
"It's already 3 PM, aren't you going to find something to eat?" Su Zimai asked without looking up.
"I already ate after waking up, just went back to take another nap."
"Pig."
"Why are you nagging during summer vacation, am I your brother or your younger brother?"
"Why are you wearing a jacket?"
"Can't I be afraid of the cold?"
"In this weather? Afraid of the cold?"
"You understand nothing, high school boys like to be unique, what's wrong with wearing a jacket in summer?" Ji Minghuan leaned forward to pick up the chewing gum on the table, unwrapped and popped it into his mouth, chewing twice, dismissively saying, "High turn heads on the road."
"Childish."
At this moment, a news report on the TV caught his interest.
"This is the 'Li Jing Daily News' live broadcast," the elegant host said.
At that moment, the studio's backdrop was a frozen frame from the surveillance footage of Li Jing Square: a black restraint belt entwining a streetlight.
The host looked into the camera, calmly reporting last night's news: "At 10:20 PM last night, an unknown superpower user appeared at the city center square, intervening in the Green Wing Organization's hostage situation. This superpower user used a black band-like item to kill five bandits, successfully rescuing five hostages without causing civilian casualties in the process."
She looked down at the script, "According to eyewitnesses, the superpower user was entirely wrapped in black restraints, resembling a cocoon suspended upside-down beneath a billboard. The Mutant Association has sealed the site, collecting samples of the remaining substances for analysis."
The host raised her head, "Now, Mr. Vice President of the Li Jing Mutant Association Branch will share some related matters with us."
The screen switched to the association's distinctive blue-background notice.
Then, a long-haired man with sunglasses, dressed in a suit, appeared in the camera.
With his hands clasped behind his back and using an official tone, he said, "After an emergency meeting by the expert panel of the Mutant Association, based on the characteristics and appearance of the superpower, it has been officially named the 'Black Cocoon,' and temporarily classified as a Class B observation target."
Ji Minghuan inwardly mocked, "Hmm, finally got a taste of being a celebrity..."
He stared at the enlarged full-body shot on TV, a bizarre figure suspended upside-down beneath the billboard.
At this moment, Su Zimai glanced up, noticing the man gradually emerging from the black cocoon on TV. He wore a trench coat and a metal mask resembling a Masked Rider.
She raised her eyebrows and sarcastically commented, "What an ugly outfit... what kind of giant moth is that?"
With his elbow rested on the sofa armrest and cheek supported by his hand, Ji Minghuan echoed his earlier words to retaliate, "Just tell me if the head-turning rate is high or not?"
Though he also found it ugly, he only had the costume made by Gu Wenyu on hand; he could change it when he had the chance in the future.
"Your taste is terrible, this Black whatever cocoon is also a high school boy like you?" the sister asked.
"Perhaps?"