Superman Termination Manual

Chapter 257: Chapter 173: Intracranial Meeting: Strange Thing X Blue Owl X Xiaohongmao (Part 2)

Under the sunset, the strange thing was sitting on the railing, slightly lifting the corners of its mouth.

It hummed a tune while drawing Black Cat on the blackboard it held in its arms and said, “Those in favor of killing Bai Ke and his entire family, please mark a 1 on the blackboard; those against it, please draw a Koch Snowflake.”

The blue owl tilted its head, puzzled as it looked at it;

Xiaohongmao slowly lifted her eyes, expressionlessly scrutinizing the strange thing.

The strange thing looked up at the two, then lowered its head and raised a finger, saying, “Alright, I know the Koch Snowflake is too difficult for you, so let’s lower the difficulty, how about a Mobius Strip?”

The blue owl shook its head helplessly, “Are we going to play or not?”

Xiaohongmao said, “I feel like… draw your mom.”

The strange thing said, “Miss Xiaohongmao, can you be a bit more cultured, like the gentle and elegant Mr. Strange Thing? With such an excellent role model by your side, even if you’re a little girl who grew up with a rotten spoon in her mouth living in a trash heap selling matches and eating dirt, you must be influenced somewhat positively, right?”

“You might be mistaken here, drawing your mom is by far more complex than a Mobius Strip,” Xiaohongmao said.@@novelbin@@

“What do you mean by that?”

The strange thing tilted its head and raised a nonexistent eyebrow.

“Your mom’s an alien; who knows what she looks like.”

“Makes sense,” the strange thing had an epiphany and changed its tune, “then, draw my mom, alright?”

“Idiot.”

“There’s room to lower the standards,” the blue owl said.

Xiaohongmao glanced at him, “What do you expect from a trash heap girl in terms of quality?”

The blue owl shrugged, “That’s why I said there’s room to lower standards, not raise them. Especially when dealing with this strange thing, we should suppress it thoroughly to prevent the growth of unhealthy trends.”

The strange thing sighed, “Ah, you’re not cooperating at all, which really embarrasses me as the host, so I’ll just commit suicide. Being born a human, I’m truly sorry. I haven’t bothered anyone. It’s not me that’s wrong, it’s this world.”

After blurting out several classic brooding elementary student catchphrases in one breath, it tilted backward from the railing and fell towards the ground, holding the doodle blackboard.

“What’s for dinner tonight?”

The blue owl turned to look at Xiaohongmao.

“Trash,” Xiaohongmao said.

“Eating trash isn’t great, I think we could have pasta together instead.”

“What I mean is you’re pretty trashy, not that we should eat trash.” Xiaohongmao’s gaze was downturned as she flipped through a fairy tale picture book, “Also, we girls who grew up in trash heaps have never seen pasta.”

“Then isn’t that all the more reason to try it?”

Amidst their conversation, a mournful voice came from beneath the rooftop, “Don’t bow your head, the crown will fall; don’t cry, the villain will laugh.”

“Still going through a phase.”

“That’s what elementary students are like.”

As they spoke, the blue owl slowly rose from his seat, moved closer to the edge of the rooftop, and leaned his arms on the railing, looking down through his glasses.

There, the strange thing was using a strand of spider silk stuck to the railing, its left hand holding the silk, and its right hand clutching the blackboard, silently watching the sunset on the horizon.

Its hollow eyes reflected the huge sun, filled with sorrow.

The blue owl looked down at it, asking in confusion, “Uh, no offense, but how long are you going to hang there?”

“I thought if I jumped off, you’d care more about me,” the strange thing said with tears welling up, “but you don’t care at all. In such a world, it’s better not to stay.”

As its words ended, it released the spider silk, and as it fell towards the ground, its form started to crack and heat up, immediately transforming into a burst of wild fireworks that shot up into the sky, leaving a sinister laugh echoing through the lonely academy.

The blue owl sighed.

Just as he turned around, he saw a gray humanoid figure push open the rooftop’s iron door and walk in.

It stood with its hands on its hips, saying ethereally, “The strange thing is already dead. There was not a moment of mourning for the strange thing’s death, and now making an entrance is… Dice Monster.”

The blue owl crossed his arms, looking at it helplessly, “Can we stop with the cringeworthy act?”

“Could it be your cringe?” the Dice Monster said, “You know, I just remembered a setting about me.”

“What’s the setting?”

“Only those close to me have the right to call me strange thing, and you, you rude brats, can only call me…”

With that, it paused for a moment, slowly lowering its face, its hollow eyes shrouded in shadow, “Dice Monster.”

Xiaohongmao said, “Idiot.”

The blue owl said, “Moron.”

“Hey, you guys are no fun at all. You don’t get my sense of humor.”

The Dice Monster said this with a twist of its mouth, found a table to lean against, and sat down hugging its shoulders, “So back to the topic, vote 1 for killing the whole family, and 2 for not killing.”

As the voice faded, an empty drawing board and a pencil appeared in front of both Xiaohongmao and the blue owl.

After a moment of silence, the blue owl lifted the pencil and marked a number on the drawing board;

Xiaohongmao, without a second thought, quickly lifted the pencil and marked a number on the drawing board.

The Dice Monster hung its head low, and with a casual stroke of the pencil on the board, it tilted its head, its hollow eyes reflecting the faces of the two.

It said, “Looks like you both have reached your conclusions?”

As the voice faded, the three of them slowly turned their drawing boards around to show each other.

The blue owl’s board had a “2” written on it;

Xiaohongmao’s board had a “1” written on it;

The Dice Monster’s board had a “?” written on it.

Seeing this, the Dice Monster arched its nonexistent eyebrows, turned its head to gauge their expressions, “Oh… what to do now, looks like it’s going to be a tie.”

“Is there something to think about, what is more important than being alive?” Xiaohongmao asked.

The blue owl was silent for a while, then said, “I can’t accept surviving by killing my own family.”

“Those are false memories.”

“But they trusted me, protected me, helped me.”

“They trusted and protected you because they thought you were the original Ke Mingye,” Xiaohongmao said. “Don’t get your role confused; you’re just a murderer who took someone else’s life and family.”

“I don’t deny that,” the blue owl paused, “which is why I shouldn’t lay a hand on them, otherwise, wouldn’t that make me appear even more despicable?”

“It seems you’re not only an idiot but also a saint. It’s not like you wanted this situation,” Xiaohongmao said without expression. “Be realistic. All you need to consider is how to stay alive. In fact… don’t drag me down with your foolish sentiment.”

“What about you, don’t you have any feelings for them?”

She said, “Anyone who develops feelings from false memories is either too weak or too foolish.”

The Dice Monster gazed at the two somberly, “Oh, I like debates like this.”

Xiaohongmao turned to look at it, her tone cold, “In the end, the vote was inconclusive because someone wrote a question mark on their board, right?”

“Who might that person be?”

The Dice Monster crossed its fingers, smiling.

“It’s you,” Xiaohongmao said.

The blue owl lowered its head, silent for a moment, then slowly turned to look at the Dice Monster.

The Dice Monster said leisurely, “Isn’t my position simple? I go with whatever’s more interesting: whether betraying the player or betraying the family, both seem like fun to me.”

The blue owl asked, “So, whose side are you on?”

“Neither side,” the Dice Monster said. “But it’s simple; just reach a consensus between you. Two against one, even if I vote against, I’d still have to support you.”

“Don’t pass the buck to someone else,” Xiaohongmao said.

The Dice Monster grinned and then turned to the blue owl, “So, if I vote to kill the whole family, could you accept that?”

As it said this, it also turned its head to Xiaohongmao, “Or if I vote not to kill the whole family, Xiaohongmao, can you accept that?”

“Vote,” Xiaohongmao said. “The rules are set; there’s nothing unacceptable about them.”

The blue owl said, “The rules are the rules; I can accept them.”

“Well then, let’s roll a dice to decide,” said the Dice Monster.

As it spoke, a red and black dice appeared in the hand of the Dice Monster, “If the result of the dice is 1 to 3, then I’ll vote to kill the family; if it’s 4 to 6, then I’ll vote not to kill the family.”

As the voice faded, before the two could make out the numbers on all six sides of the dice, the Dice Monster had already thrown it, its hollow pupils reflecting the slow fall of the dice.

Clang.

The next moment, accompanied by a crisp buzzing sound, the dice landed.

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