A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga
Chapter 146

Chapter 146

After announcing the results, Qi Huang immediately brought up the matter of the Class B student: “That Class B girl, I’ll just call her by name—Han Lu was really impressive. It was extremely difficult for us to fight against her. But fortunately, Jiang Tianming’s earlier words reminded me that no matter how she hid, she definitely had to still be on the field. So I directly covered the entire room with phoenix flames, and she had no choice but to surrender.”

Indeed, in the confined combat space, area-of-effect damage could similarly defeat this ability. They had previously thought Han Lu’s ability was nearly invincible, but now, upon reflection, they realized they had overestimated the situation. In actual combat, there were quite a few ways to deal with her.

“What about you, Class Monitor, and Zhaohua?” Mo Xiaotian asked curiously. Neither of them had area-of-effect abilities.

“She couldn’t replicate my ‘Holy Judgment’,” Si Zhaohua said concisely, explaining the reason. His ability was exceptionally powerful, and Han Lu’s ability couldn’t copy it.

Mu Tieren, on the other hand, showed an honest, hearty smile: “I noticed she probably couldn’t fully grasp the specifics of the replicated person. When both the replicated person and I appeared exhausted, she would believe it and show up to finish the job. That’s when I could counterattack.”

Though he made it sound easy, it was clear without thinking that the battle must have been thrilling. Mu Tieren could conceal his stamina, but the replicated person couldn’t. It must have truly run out of energy before stopping.

To counterattack Han Lu from Class B while completely exhausted was no simple feat, especially for someone like Mu Tieren, whose ability relied heavily on physical strength.

Su Bei was quite curious about how Mu Tieren managed to counterattack Han Lu without stamina and without relying on items. Earlier, Mu Tieren only said he “appeared exhausted,” meaning he wasn’t truly depleted. But the replicated person must have been.

Could it be a skill like Si Zhaohua’s “Holy Judgment” that couldn’t be replicated?

Su Bei then looked at Ling You: “What about you? Did you find a way to deal with Han Lu?” Unfortunately, Ling You hadn’t succeeded in defeating her opponent. She pursed her lips and shook her head: “My ability could be taken back by the version of me she replicated.”

Her ability was [Plague], which, in theory, could be spread across the entire arena like Qi Huang’s flames, forcing Han Lu’s real body to be infected with the virus.

But unlike flames, a virus couldn’t be easily retracted cleanly without affecting the original body.

After asking about the attack track, the conversation naturally shifted to the control track. Si Zhaohua glanced at Zhou Renjie: “How’s it going on your side? How many rounds are left?”

The control track had no dark horses, so it was essentially an internal battle within Class S.

“I’ve already finished competing with those two. Now it’s just Mo Xiaotian and Zhou Renjie’s match left,” Jiang Tianming replied, glancing at Zhou Renjie. Perhaps because of some information gained from previous matches, he didn’t seem as anxious anymore. But his expression still wasn’t great. Group after group of examinees went in, coming out either elated or dejected, with clear winners and losers. Soon, the examiner came out again: “Zhou Renjie, Mo Xiaotian!”

The two stood up simultaneously—one with lively steps, the other with heavy footsteps—and walked into the classroom together.

“Why do I feel like Zhou Renjie is acting so strange?” Zhao Xiaoyu mused, rubbing her chin as she watched Zhou Renjie’s retreating figure. “Why is he walking so stiffly?”

“He’s been stiff for a while,” Ai Baozhu said with a shrug. “He’s been like this since we saw him this afternoon.”

“Then it must be something he did after we parted at noon,” Jiang Tianming said meaningfully.

At this point, he suddenly turned to Feng Lan: “Feng Lan, do you have any prophecies about the final outcome?”

The reason he didn’t ask Su Bei was that he knew Su Bei would definitely not say anything even if asked. It was better to ask the relatively more forthcoming Feng Lan, who would likely share if he knew and if the prophecy was safe to reveal, instead of giving a frustrating “Guess” like Su Bei.

Feng Lan glanced at the classroom, then nodded silently. After a semester of training, his prophetic ability had improved significantly, and he could often see prophecy fragments.

But the more he saw, the more he understood why his family repeatedly warned him not to reveal too much about his prophecies. Prophecies weren’t fate; they were something easily altered.

Once a prophecy was spoken, the future would already shift.

This shift was essentially a subtle change in someone else’s fate, imposing causality on the prophet. For a prophet, causality was quite terrifying—mildly, it could shorten one’s life; severely, it could harm those around them.

So for a while, Feng Lan had been quite envious of Su Bei. Because Su Bei’s ability was [Destiny Gear], he was already on the line of fate, and the cost of altering fate was greatly reduced.

Returning to the exam, despite knowing the final outcome, Feng Lan still said nothing. If his words changed the result, the subsequent ripple effects could be massive.

For prophecies unrelated to him and unpredictable, he generally chose silence—unless the price was right.

If the price was suitable, he could prophesy most things. This was his responsibility as the head of the Feng Family; he wouldn’t act aloof.

Seeing him nod but not elaborate, Jiang Tianming understood his meaning. He sighed, his brows tightly knitted: “I hope nothing goes wrong…”

His words proved prophetic. They didn’t see the two emerge from the exam; instead, the examiner came out alone, his expression complex, informing them that both had been sent to the infirmary.

From his expression, they could tell that Zhou Renjie and Mo Xiaotian were likely seriously injured. They immediately changed course and headed to the infirmary together.

When they arrived at the infirmary, they could hear Ye Lin angrily scolding someone from a distance. Normally, Ye Lin was gentle and graceful, so it was rare to see her this furious.

As they got closer, they heard her berating Mo Xiaotian and Zhou Renjie: “I see you two think too highly of the academy’s medical technology, huh? Going all out like that? Do you really think the academy’s treatment means you won’t have any lingering effects? What if this exam leaves you with permanent damage—won’t you regret it for life? Don’t you know that fighting like this, even in the Tri-School Tournament, would get you disqualified for rule-breaking? It’s just an exam, and you disregard your bodies like this. Don’t you know the most important thing for an Ability User is their life? No matter how many honors or how much strength you have, it’s useless without your life!”

“Ahem, Teacher, we’re here to check on them.” Mu Tieren, ever the honest one, braved the doctor’s towering rage and, under the admiring gazes of the others, lightly knocked on the door twice, drawing Ye Lin’s attention.

Ye Lin withdrew her hand from pointing at Mo Xiaotian’s forehead and turned to look at him, her face still tinged with anger but softened considerably: “You’re here?”

“How are… the two of them?” Mu Tieren asked hesitantly, looking at the two wrapped up like mummies.

Ye Lin gave a cold laugh, and it must be said that her cold laugh had a bit of Meng Huai’s flair: “One had his stomach burst, nearly dying. The other looks like he was sliced a thousand times, not a single patch of skin intact.”

“Hiss!”

Hearing how severe their injuries were, even though the teacher had expected it, the group couldn’t help but be shocked. As Ye Lin had just said, the two had fought with deadly intent, showing no mercy.

If the teacher had reacted a bit slower or the academy’s medical capabilities were slightly inferior, both would have died on the spot.

No one knew what to say. First, it was obvious that Zhou Renjie must have been the one who initially intended to go all out. His anxious behavior recently was evident to all, showing how much he valued this competition slot.

But before this, no one had imagined he would go so far as to try to kill a classmate for a slot.

And Mo Xiaotian was equally stubborn. In this situation, he showed no intention of surrendering and instead fought Zhou Renjie with his life on the line.

However, it was also possible he hadn’t realized Zhou Renjie’s actions were against the rules, as the rules clearly stated no deliberate deadly attacks. If he had surrendered and reported the situation afterward, this match might have been voided. “I’m tired of talking. You guys chat for a bit. But only for a short while. When Xiao Huai…” She caught herself using the wrong name and coughed awkwardly, “Ahem, when Meng Huai comes, you’ll have to leave. The patients need plenty of rest.”

But before the teacher could leave, the two asked in unison: “Teacher, so did I win?”

Hearing this, Ye Lin was so exasperated she laughed: “Still thinking about winning or losing? Believe it or not, I’ll make sure neither of you goes!”

At that, both immediately went quiet like quails, not daring to say another word.

Ye Lin glared at them fiercely before turning to leave.

Once the teacher was gone, Si Zhaohua approached Zhou Renjie’s bed, his brows tightly furrowed, his expression complex: “Was it necessary?”

If he had previously thought they had just gotten carried away during the exam and fought too hard, their simultaneous question to Ye Lin about the outcome made it clear they had deliberately fought with deadly intent to secure the slot.

“It was necessary.” Zhou Renjie was likely in immense pain, his forehead dripping with cold sweat, his face pale as paper. But his eyes were unusually resolute.

Knowing he couldn’t be persuaded, Si Zhaohua fell silent. Ai Baozhu, who knew more about Zhou Renjie’s family situation, gave a mocking laugh: “Have you thought about what would happen if you died here? Your dad’s illegitimate son or your cousins would immediately take your place.”

She had hit Zhou Renjie’s sore spot. At her words, regret flashed in his eyes. But he still stubbornly lowered his head without speaking.

If he didn’t secure the slot this time, those side branches would still have a chance to rise. Better to take a gamble. After all, the medical technology at “Endless Ability Academy” was top-notch, and Zhou Renjie was confident he wouldn’t die.

The exam results didn’t come out the next day. The teachers claimed it was to avoid affecting their mood for the upcoming exams.

Hearing this, Su Bei couldn’t help but laugh. Having academic exams after the combat exams was already enough to affect everyone’s mood—how could it get worse?

The first-year students wailed. Except for those who had been informed in advance, no one had expected academic exams to follow. They had thought the full day of track exams marked the end of the monthly exam, only to learn there were more tests the next day.

The news hit like a bolt from the blue, leaving everyone stunned.

But one thing was favorable for Mo Xiaotian. Due to his severe injuries, which left him completely immobile, he could skip the academic exams. He’d have to make them up later, but this gave him more breathing room.

If they didn’t know he wasn’t that cunning, and considering he had nearly died from his injuries, others might have suspected he did this on purpose to avoid the exams.

Apart from Mo Xiaotian, the others weren’t too troubled by the academic exams. From the midterms last semester, it was clear that Class' academic performance was surprisingly good, with even the worst students maintaining average grades.

But this was also because the exam questions were simple enough, at least in Su Bei’s view. This was, after all, an ability academy, a place for learning abilities. While academic subjects were covered, they weren’t emphasized much. As long as students listened attentively in class or, at the very least, reviewed the materials provided by the teachers, they could achieve decent scores.

Though only a few main subjects were tested, the exams still took a full day. If Ability Users didn’t have significantly stronger Mental Energy than ordinary people, the hallways would likely be filled with walking corpses by now.

Even so, everyone was exhausted, too tired to even talk, and they all returned to their dorms to rest.

Lying in bed, Su Bei couldn’t fall asleep right away and took a moment to think about why the manga hadn’t updated yet. Normally, he didn’t care about manga updates, but since he had stirred things up this time, he was curious.

After some thought, Su Bei figured the manga might update once the final results were out.

His guess was correct. After resting for two days, on Monday, when he arrived at the teaching building and saw the large grade exam results posted at the entrance, a notification from “Manga Consciousness” sounded in his ear: “《King of Abilities》 has updated. Please check it.”

As expected, it updated. Su Bei’s expression shifted slightly. Instead of immediately checking his phone or his own scores, he went straight to the control track’s results board.

Finding Jiang Tianming and the others was easy—just look at the top. Unsurprisingly, the first place was Jiang Tianming, with a star mark next to his name, indicating he had secured a competition slot.

Looking down, the crucial second place was—Zhou Renjie!

Su Bei’s eyes widened, but then he noticed there was no star mark next to Zhou Renjie’s name. The star mark was next to the third-place name, Mo Xiaotian.

How to put it? Su Bei felt a sense of inevitability.

Comparing Mo Xiaotian and Zhou Renjie’s abilities, Zhou Renjie’s control was indeed more thorough. But Mo Xiaotian was undoubtedly better suited for the competition.

Zhou Renjie could completely neutralize one opponent, but his own body lacked offensive capabilities. If he was attacked from both inside and out, he could easily be taken down, releasing the enemy’s combat power.

Assigning someone to protect Zhou Renjie or placing him at the center of the defense was a viable strategy, but the issue was that the control, support, and even special positions all needed such protection. Protecting Zhou Renjie would leave the other two positions vulnerable, which wasn’t worth the trade-off.

But with Mo Xiaotian, it was entirely different. Though he was registered for the control position, his attack and defense were both strong. An ability like Air was inherently powerful, making him a much more cost-effective choice than Zhou Renjie.

However, purely in terms of control ability, Zhou Renjie was superior. Thus, Zhou Renjie ranked second in the exam, but the competition slot went to the third-ranked Mo Xiaotian.

Honestly, Su Bei thought this outcome was decent. Zhou Renjie hadn’t taken first but hadn’t lost face either. And Mo Xiaotian, having secured the slot, wouldn’t cause trouble later. Su Bei had no doubt that if Mo Xiaotian hadn’t gotten the slot, the “Black Flash” organization behind him might have done something to Zhou Renjie to let Mo Xiaotian take the spot.

Next, he glanced at the other tracks’ competition slots. As expected, the special track included him and Li Shu, with their exam times noted. The attack track had Si Zhaohua and Qi Huang, who took first and second place. The support track had Lan Subing and Wu Jin, and the defense track had Ai Baozhu and Wu Mingbai.

The main and reserve selections were clear, and Su Bei was fairly satisfied with the results.

But Zhou Renjie was clearly not satisfied. As soon as Su Bei entered the classroom, he saw Zhou Renjie sitting at his desk, his clothes showing signs of being wrapped in bandages around his stomach, his face grim and dark, as if a storm was about to break.

It had to be said that Ability Users’ physical resilience was remarkable. With injuries like his, an ordinary person would likely be bedridden for at least ten days to two weeks. Yet Zhou Renjie, in just three days, was already back at school.

Though his injuries were obviously not fully healed, his recovery speed was already astonishing.

Si Zhaohua and Ai Baozhu nearby didn’t speak, only occasionally glancing at him cautiously. It was rare to see these two so subdued, and if the situation weren’t so serious, Su Bei would have laughed out loud.

At that moment, Mo Xiaotian walked in cheerfully. He was also wrapped in bandages, even more than Zhou Renjie. But he, too, had recovered well, walking in slowly with a clear smile of joy on his face.

As soon as he entered, the classroom atmosphere instantly became tense. Of course, this tension was entirely from Zhou Renjie: “You must be pleased, huh? You’re only third, yet you got the competition slot.”

Mo Xiaotian looked at him in confusion, pointing to himself: “Me? I’m not pleased, just happy.”

It was clear he was earnestly explaining and genuinely held no grudges. Despite how Zhou Renjie had treated him before, he could still face him with a normal attitude.

Unfortunately, Zhou Renjie wouldn’t appreciate this goodwill. He stood up, wincing as he pulled at his wounds from the effort, then said defiantly: “I’m going to talk to the teacher. I’m clearly second—why did they give the slot to you?”

“Huh?” Mo Xiaotian blinked, bewildered, looking around the classroom. Jiang Tianming and Mu Tieren weren’t there, so he finally looked at Su Bei. “Do I need to go too?”

Whether he went or not, the result likely wouldn’t change. After thinking it over, Su Bei replied, “Go.”

This way, if something happened while Zhou Renjie was there, Su Bei could easily get details from Mo Xiaotian later. If Mo Xiaotian didn’t go, he’d have to ask the teacher for the full story.

So Mo Xiaotian nodded and left the classroom with Zhou Renjie. The classroom fell silent for a moment. Just as Su Bei was about to take out his phone to check the updated manga content, Jiang Tianming walked in.

He was a perceptive person. Even without Wu Jin’s ability to sense emotions, he immediately noticed the odd atmosphere in the classroom: “…What happened? Why’s everyone so quiet?”

“Zhou Renjie and Mo Xiaotian went to see the teacher,” Ai Baozhu replied listlessly. She had a bad feeling about this, and Zhou Renjie’s behavior felt off to her.

Hearing it was about those two, Jiang Tianming instantly understood.

The incident during the exam, where the two had fought so fiercely, was still shocking to the students. Even Jiang Tianming, who had witnessed and caused death multiple times, was shaken.

After all, the school was a pure sanctuary in his eyes, yet now someone had shown killing intent toward a classmate. This was quite unsettling for him.

“Would Zhou Renjie’s family really do something to him because he didn’t get the slot?” Jiang Tianming couldn’t help but ask. He wasn’t familiar with the internal struggles of large families.

Ai Baozhu nodded, then shook her head: “His family situation is complicated. It’ll definitely have an impact…”

At this, she looked at Si Zhaohua: “Should we help him?”

Though Ai Baozhu usually looked down on Zhou Renjie, they had known each other for years. Even a pet would inspire some attachment, let alone a living person. Though she wouldn’t admit it, she had come to see Zhou Renjie as a friend.

At home, Ai Baozhu was dearly loved by her parents and family. As long as her requests didn’t harm the family’s interests, her parents and brothers wouldn’t refuse to help with small favors, like showing some goodwill toward Zhou Renjie publicly.

And Si Zhaohua needed no mention. As the young master, he had even more authority than Ai Baozhu. Simply spending more time with Zhou Renjie would suffice.

Si Zhaohua nodded slightly: “Of course.”

He had already intended to help. This small favor was nothing to him but could bring great benefits to Zhou Renjie. And Zhou Renjie ascending to the family head position would also benefit Si Zhaohua, so his family wouldn’t object.

At this moment, a few other girls from the class arrived. After hearing about the situation, Lan Subing asked with concern, “Are they okay physically? They can come to school already?”

Qi Huang was also pondering this, marveling at their determination to attend school: “I thought they’d rest at home for a few days.”

Zhao Xiaoyu, the information hub, shook her head: “Mo Xiaotian is genuinely determined to come to school. I heard from the teacher that his family called to ask him to go home and recover, but he refused. As for Zhou Renjie…”

She gave a complicated expression, vividly recounting the scene: “His family called too, but it seemed to be a relative. Zhou Renjie was furious after the call and refused outright.”

Hearing her information, while others were still marveling at how complex Zhou Renjie’s family was, Su Bei couldn’t hold back, asking in shock, “How do you know all this?!”