Chapter 19

Chapter 19 "Is it because you don’t want to have too much interaction with the protagonist group?" The "Manga Awareness" asked worriedly. It feared that its guess was correct and that Su Bei really had thoughts of abandoning his allies once the crisis was over, intending to ignore the world afterward. According to the plot, the destruction of the world would take at least ten years. This means that as long as he sheds his cannon fodder identity, even if he doesn’t save the world, Su Bei could still live for another ten years, earning without any losses. Hearing the concern of the "Manga Awareness," Su Bei explained, "It's not that I don’t want to interact with the protagonist group; I just don’t want to be hated by the readers." He didn’t care about being liked by the readers, but he absolutely couldn’t afford to be hated by them. Su Bei himself also browsed forums, so he was well aware of the readers’ tendencies. For characters they like, they would scrutinize every move under a microscope to find deeper meanings. For characters they are indifferent to but relevant to the plot, they are willing to analyze objectively. But for characters they dislike... A mysterious character? Obviously pretentious! Helping the protagonist? The author is deliberately giving him screen time to ride the wave of popularity! Powerful abilities? Forced power-ups that are completely useless! In short, hated characters don’t need analysis—just curse them! This was completely opposite to Su Bei’s goal, so he would never let himself be hated by readers and fall into such a situation. "But wouldn’t joining the protagonist group give you more screen time and gain more popularity? How could that make you hated?" The "Manga Awareness" was very puzzled. "There aren’t many people who hate Jiang Tianming and the other two." After all, as protagonists, they naturally get plenty of highlight moments. Plus, being part of the righteous camp, even if they don’t hit the readers’ preferences, they usually won’t be hated. Hearing this, Su Bei chuckled lightly, "Do you really think joining the protagonist group would be accepted by everyone?" "Isn’t that the case?" Shaking his head, he said confidently, "How about this, let’s make a bet. In this Sun Ming incident, someone is sure to join the protagonist group. After the event is over, let’s see the forum’s reaction to these new members. If there are no negative comments, I’ll join the protagonist group in the next event. If there are negative comments, then you should stop giving me suggestions in the future." It was obvious that Su Bei was trying to bluff, but unfortunately, the "Manga Awareness" wasn’t a fool, and immediately caught on: "That’s not fair, you have too much of an advantage. Even Jiang Tianming has people who dislike him on the forum! If we count anyone who dislikes the new characters as your win, then there’s no point in betting; you’d win right away!" Su Bei wasn’t annoyed that his little scheme was exposed. He just rubbed his nose and said, "Let’s change it then. How many characters are planning to join the protagonist group this time? Two?" "How did you know?" The "Manga Awareness" asked in surprise. Su Bei didn’t answer the question and simply said confidently, "If these two characters combined are disliked by more than 10% of the forum, then I win." 10% is definitely not a small number. If that many people actually disliked them, the "Manga Awareness" would have to admit that it really didn’t understand the readers. So it agreed, "Okay, but you can’t start a thread yourself to influence opinions." With that settled, Su Bei walked casually back to class, continuing, "Besides, there’s another reason I can’t go with them to investigate the case." The "Manga Awareness" was puzzled again, "Why not? Are you bad at investigating? But based on what I’ve learned about your life, your father should have trained you." Su Bei sighed, "I’ve seen the murderer." Hearing this, the "Manga Awareness" finally connected the dots, "So that’s it! Then you really can’t go with them!" Even though it was just a glance through a mask, Su Bei had faced the murderer directly. If the murderer realized Su Bei was also looking for them, they might strike again. And Su Bei being killed by the murderer was originally a part of the predetermined fate. Even though that thread had been severed, if the murderer decided to kill again, the likelihood of Su Bei dying would be nearly 100%. After reaching a consensus on this matter, Su Bei asked another question, "By the way, I should have made some impression on the readers this time, so when will my abilities change?" Su Bei flipped his palm, and a simple gear appeared in his hand. It had been three days since the first chapter of the manga was released, yet his abilities hadn’t changed at all. If the ability change cycle was longer than he thought, or if it required other factors, he would have to reassess his plan. "You need to wait until the next manga update to finalize the overall data from the last update," the "Manga Awareness" replied. "In the real world, the manga updates weekly, but the timing isn’t fixed in the manga world." Su Bei thought for a moment and asked, "Are all the manga chapters about the same length?" "More or less." So, unless something unexpected happens, the next chapter of the manga will likely start after the Sun Ming incident concludes. Although the manga has only covered a single day's events, a lot has happened in that time. This includes, but is not limited to, the opening ceremony, a series of events upon entering the class, the running sequence, conversations in the infirmary with the school doctor, the conflict with Si Zhaohua and the other two, an exchange with Su Bei before dinner, and the discovery of a dead body in the cafeteria... It's clear that the author focuses on delivering a lot of content without padding the story. Therefore, Su Bei speculates that the chapter will end once the incident is resolved. This news isn’t particularly good or bad, but it certainly isn’t a bad thing. He hadn’t planned to participate in this plot anyway, so whether his abilities change or not wouldn’t have much impact. However, considering that he doesn’t know if the manga will further emphasize his abilities, it’s important for him to participate at least partially in Jiang Tianming and the others' process of finding the murderer. He must explain his previous prediction once the murderer appears to ensure that the readers understand the authenticity and effectiveness of his foresight. With a plan in mind, Su Bei settled into his class. Although he had been exposed to other ability users through his father, it was still limited, and he didn’t have a deep understanding of the world of ability users. New ability users attend the Ability Academy primarily to learn about this, so attending classes is very useful for him. Although it might not be obvious from his appearance, Su Bei is indeed a true academic achiever, ranking among the top students in his grade. Even though the subject matter is now entirely different, the methods of learning are still transferable. With his sharp mind and excellent physical condition, Su Bei left a strong impression on his classmates within just one short week—if it weren’t for his weak abilities, Su Bei certainly wouldn’t be a student in Class F. In fact, even with such weak abilities, Su Bei might still leave Class F due to his own skills. Moreover, it has to be a condition that the main protagonist group is likely to fulfill. Without even thinking too hard, it’s obvious that in the future manga plot, the protagonist group will definitely meet this condition and receive Feng Lan’s help. Could it be becoming friends with him? Or perhaps helping him in some way? Don’t think that Su Bei has already achieved the former. He’s clear about his own situation. Although they often walk together, he and Feng Lan aren’t really friends—at best, they’re just meal companions. As for making friends? The other person might not know, but Su Bei isn’t interested in forming friendships. His current connections with everyone at the Ability Academy, whether it’s Jiang Tianming, Lan Subing, Feng Lan...or anyone else, are all driven by interest. At the very least, people should have some principles—those with ulterior motives aren’t worthy of making friends. Time passed quickly when not involved in the main storyline. By the second week of school, Su Bei finally managed to make his way to the library. The Ability Academy had a library, and it was quite large, with an extensive collection of books. His goal was clear: to find books related to destiny. That’s right, [Destiny], not [Prophecy]. Su Bei had only learned in the past few days during his ability awareness class that [Destiny] abilities and [Prophecy] abilities are actually related, with [Destiny] encompassing a broader scope than [Prophecy]. However, a broader scope doesn’t necessarily mean greater strength. Just like [Summoning], which is a broad category of abilities, the strength can vary drastically depending on the summoned creatures. In the realm of destiny-related abilities, aside from the small category of prophecy, the remaining abilities are not only rare but also highly varied. In "The Little Thing About Abilities—Destiny", numerous known destiny abilities are listed. One example is [Falling]. As the name suggests, this ability causes someone to fall after it is used. This is an example of a destiny ability that adds a [Falling] destiny to the user. This illustrates the wide disparity among destiny-related abilities. Naturally, Su Bei wouldn’t arrange such an ability for himself. His goal is to have an ability within the same broad category as Feng Lan’s, which offers the highest potential. Therefore, increasing his knowledge through reading is essential. As an ordinary person who has lived for fifteen years, his understanding of abilities is quite limited. Since he had only recently become an ability user, his abilities were still superficial and easy to fabricate. But once everyone’s abilities were fully developed, sticking to basic knowledge would make it easy for him to be exposed. Thinking this, Su Bei sighed deeply as he looked at the book in his hands. He had originally planned to slack off at school, but he was forced into these troublesome matters. It’s all the fault of the author and that damned murderer! Since the author was temporarily out of reach, we can only find the murderer. The protagonist group had been searching for the murderer during this period. They had no evidence, so they could only look for students with useful abilities on school and ask them to use their powers to create clues. Their exploration progress had now reached the point where they had narrowed down the range of suspects to those in the cafeteria. This meant that the chefs, cleaners, and other personnel. "Brother Bei, we’re going to observe the cafeteria staff now! See you later!" Mo Xiaotian, with his puppy-like eyes sparkling, quickly said the last sentence to Su Bei and followed Jiang Tianming and the others, who were packing up and about to leave. For an ordinary 15-year-old boy, investigating cases was incredibly interesting! No wonder he was so enthusiastic. Previously, Su Bei had obtained information from him, and he wasn’t revealing their progress because he was a big mouth. After all, although Mo Xiaotian was a bit naive, he wasn’t foolish to that extent. The reason he told Su Bei everything was entirely Jiang Tianming’s suggestion. Su Bei was aware of Jiang Tianming’s reasons for this: first, it was to fulfill the obligation of letting Su Bei watch the show, and second, there was some hope that Su Bei might provide more clues. After they left, Su Bei calculated that they should have reached the cafeteria by now. He took out his phone and sent Jiang Tianming a message: “Don’t forget the hints I gave you earlier. If you don’t use them, I’ll be very disappointed.” The message was soon marked as read, but there was no reply. At the entrance of the cafeteria, Jiang Tianming turned off his phone. Seeing his action, Wu Mingbai asked in confusion, “Who sent you the message?” “Su Bei,” Jiang Tianming said, shaking his phone. His expression was more relaxed than before, and his brows had also eased. “He reminded us not to forget to use the hints he gave.” Upon hearing this, Wu Mingbai quickly understood the implication: “He means that the hint about the purple-red smoke can help us find the murderer?” Lan Subing, who had been listening, had a deeper guess: “Could it be that he has already interpreted his prophecy and knows who the murderer is?” —Otherwise, there would be no reason for him to send such a message. Jiang Tianming nodded, agreeing with this thought, which was also why he felt slightly more at ease. There was definitely a murderer in the cafeteria, but they were not only tasked with finding the culprit but might also face life-threatening dangers. Originally, this made him very nervous. But knowing there was a safety net made even someone as cautious as Jiang Tianming inevitably relax a bit. However, Jiang Tianming soon realized that this mindset was problematic. Relying on others for everything could lead to big trouble eventually. And this kind of thinking was not conducive to solving their problem. So he composed himself and asked Lan Subing, “How are things going outside?” Two days ago, they had successfully stolen the phones of Sun Ming’s parents and their bodyguards. The Lan family had also begun taking action, targeting the Sun family based on the information collected earlier. They hadn’t informed Mu Tieren and Mo Xiaotian about this, as the revenge plan had nothing to do with them. There was no need to involve them in this mess. Due to the previous threats made by Sun Ming’s parents to students, the school was already displeased with them and had not promptly provided new phones. Sun Ming’s parents clearly hadn’t grasped the seriousness of the situation. They only thought they had lost their phones and hadn’t considered other possibilities. So, although they were dissatisfied with the school’s attitude, they didn’t make a fuss. After all, they only needed to stay at the school for a week, and they could easily replace the phones afterward. Everything was proceeding as planned; success depended on external feedback. “The layout is complete. Dad said the chances of success are high,” Lan Subing said, her face showing a rare hint of excitement. She was very angry about how Wu Mingbai was treated before, and now that she could help avenge him and feel so relieved, she was naturally very pleased. Wu Mingbai, who was at the center of the storm, grinned broadly, looking very kind. But in the eyes of people who knew him, he seemed to have grown a pair of little devil horns: “Let’s give them a surprise when they leave the school.”