A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

In the infirmary.

Leaning against the pillow on the hospital bed, Su Bei's school uniform hung loosely on his body as he quietly gazed out the window, looking very focused.

However, if someone were to look into his eyes, they would notice that his gaze was unfocused, clearly lost in thought.

Because he was thinking.

During the time since he woke up, he had already understood what had just happened.

A teacher had found him fainted in the restroom and urgently brought him to the infirmary. The infirmary teacher diagnosed him with hypoglycemia, and a little rest would be enough.

So now, Su Bei was resting in the infirmary, waiting until the opening speech was over before returning to class.

In the meantime, he needed to quickly sort out the large amount of information he had just obtained and plan his best course of action.

When he returned to class, it would be his official debut. The first impression he left on the public was very important, as it would largely determine his initial popularity.

But he needed to plan not just how to attract attention at first glance, but more importantly, he needed to create a persona for himself, one that would facilitate his actions later.

What kind of persona should that be?

This wasn’t difficult for Su Bei to imagine. He thought this persona should be a “mysterious person with powerful abilities.”

Powerful abilities would enhance his strength, and being mysterious would allow him to add more facets to his persona as needed.

The mysterious part was easy to handle. He had followed his father to see many criminals, many of whom loved to be mysterious, saying things that seemed profound but were actually incomprehensible.

Su Bei understood this well.

The other issue, however, was not so easy to solve, as he hadn't yet decided what kind of ability to give himself.

Powerful abilities were easy to think of, like summoning meteors, creating black holes, or stopping time… but clearly, these couldn’t be revealed at the first meeting.

If he went in and said to the protagonist, “Hey, did you know? My ability is to stop time,” he would probably be immediately ousted.

After all, the protagonist Jiang Tianming was clearly not a fool. How could someone with the ability to stop time be in class F? If the class teacher asked even slightly, his lie would be exposed immediately, leaving no room for maneuver.

Moreover, Su Bei was actually quite worried. He was just an ordinary civilian with little understanding of what the upper limits of an ability user's power were.

If the powerful abilities he could think of were actually quite ordinary to real ability users, then exposing his cards now would make him lose future opportunities.

So he still needed to be a mystery person...

Additionally, Su Bei just thought of something else: this ability must be related to gears. He couldn’t immediately make readers believe in his abilities, so his initial gear-related ability probably wouldn’t change much.

To avoid being exposed, the fabricated ability had to be related to gears, making it easier to mislead others.

What kind of gear-related ability could allow him to be a mysterious person with enough growth potential?

Suddenly, Su Bei’s eyes lit up!

“Gear of Destiny”—didn't this fit all his requirements? Being able to see the main plotline of this world’s protagonist was indeed inextricably linked to fate.

With a concrete idea, the next step was to think about his character positioning and how to leave a deep first impression on readers.

The “Comic Awareness” had already told Su Bei that although he had escaped the fate of being killed at the beginning, his cannon fodder identity was like the Sword of Damocles, always hanging over his head.

In other words, there was still a high probability he would die. In fact, if a scene required someone to die, it would most likely be him.

So he needed to quickly find his character positioning, ideally placing himself in an unkillable spot in the comic.

It was well known that becoming friends with the protagonist didn’t guarantee escape from plot-induced death. Didn't a righteous character who helped the protagonist a lot die within a few chapters in the first series? Not to mention that nowadays, shonen manga loved having the entire protagonist team meet a tragic end.

If righteousness didn’t work, then how about being a villain?

Villains always got defeated by the protagonist but wouldn’t die randomly due to the plot. As long as he could control the extent of his villainy, make readers care about him, and have redeemable traits, he had a high chance of surviving!

Thinking this through, Su Bei decisively pulled out the needle from his hand, ignoring the blood oozing out, jumped off the bed, and walked straight to the restroom.

Since he wanted to be a popular character, he had to make good use of his appearance.

“Su Bei, are you still here?”

Soon, a gentle female voice came from outside the door. It was the school nurse’s voice. She had gone out after explaining Su Bei’s fainting incident and was now returning.

“I’m here!” Su Bei quickly came out of the restroom, his face still dotted with water droplets. The wet bangs on his forehead were slicked back, revealing a smooth forehead, making him look fresh and handsome.

A drop of water slid down his high, straight nose and fell to the tip, quickly wiped away by the boy’s casual hand: “What’s the matter, teacher?”

The school nurse's gaze snapped back in response to his words, inwardly sighing that "Infinite Abilities Academy" never lacked handsome guys. She was annoyed with herself for being swayed by good looks even at thirty, failing to notice the fleeting cunning in the boy’s eyes.

“It's nothing serious, just saw the needle pulled out and was worried you might be in trouble,” the nurse said, her eyes falling on his still-bleeding hand. She exclaimed in a mix of shock and anger, “What happened here?”

Seeing her reaction, a flicker of surprise crossed Su Bei's eyes, but it was fleeting. He quickly covered it with an embarrassed smile and said, “I was in a hurry to go to the restroom just now, so…”

Hearing this, the nurse glared at him and told him to sit back on the bed. She then not-so-gently reinserted the needle.

Su Bei obediently let her do her work, lowering his eyes to stare at his hand, his long eyelashes concealing his thoughts.

The nurse's behavior had revealed some very interesting things to him.

“Infinite Abilities Academy” was known to be extremely safe, recognized by everyone. As the nation’s sole institution for nurturing the new generation of ability users, it housed numerous experts, making it arguably the safest place in the country.

So, faced with his recent disappearance and the injury on his hand, a normal reaction would be to assume he had done something himself.

But the nurse’s reaction twice seemed to suggest she thought he had encountered some danger, a subconscious reaction that was worth pondering.

Could it be that she knew of some hidden dangers within the school?

If so, the role of the school nurse was indeed worth noting.

Suddenly, Su Bei lifted his eyelids, his purple phoenix eyes tinted with a smile as he casually chatted with her, “Teacher, how long have you been at our school?”

“A bit over a year? Not quite two years,” the nurse replied, not looking up as she bandaged his hand to secure the needle.

“That’s quite a short time. You probably don’t know much about the school’s secrets then,” Su Bei sighed with feigned disappointment.

Hearing this, the nurse looked up, eyes narrowing as she watched him, “What school secrets do you want to know? Tell me.”

Su Bei gave a fawning smile, “I want to know what kind of person our homeroom teacher is, any peculiar habits or taboos?”

Amused, the nurse shook her head, “Is that all? Who is your homeroom teacher? Although I haven’t been here long, I do know a bit about such things.”

“I believe it’s Mr. Wang Jianguo, who should be teaching the first-year Class F, right?” Su Bei appeared uncertain.

But he actually remembered very clearly. The bulletin board at the school entrance stated that the teacher for Class F was named Meng Huai.

He intentionally gave the wrong name to reinforce the nurse’s impression of his class.

Sure enough, the nurse shook her head with a hint of helplessness, “You got it wrong. Class F is taught by Mr. Meng Huai. Don’t mix it up next time. Mr. Meng is very mild-tempered…”

Su Bei listened intently to the nurse’s description of Mr. Meng, “unintentionally” moving a bit towards the edge of the bed, causing his backpack to fall off.

He quickly and quietly caught it, letting it land softly on the ground without a sound.

Soon, the noise outside the window became louder. The nurse came over, helping him remove the bandage and needle, and handed him a cotton swab, “The speech is over, and it’s the perfect time for you to head back to class now.”

Su Bei nonchalantly pressed the cotton swab firmly on the needle mark, then casually tossed it into the trash can and waved goodbye, “Goodbye, teacher!”

The nurse smiled, “I hope we don’t meet again.”

After all, meeting her meant getting hurt.

“That’s not for sure,” the boy said casually before swiftly leaving.

The nurse shook her head with a smile, not taking it too seriously.

Leisurely walking to the corridor of the teaching building, Su Bei first peeked through the back door window of his classroom to observe the situation inside.

The back door window gave a view of almost everyone in the class, and in an instant, Su Bei’s gaze landed on a black-haired boy.

Jiang Tianming had black hair and black eyes, which were rare in a world where colorful hair was the norm. Moreover, he exuded a steady aura that set him apart from others. Even sitting in the fourth row by the door, a rather inconspicuous position, he stood out.

To his right was a girl with long blue hair, whose waist-length hair hinted at a graceful figure. It was clear she was very beautiful, as there was a distinct difference between the protagonist and ordinary characters, just as there was between a beauty and others. She must be Lan Su Bing from the protagonist’s group.

In the last plot of the previous chapter, this young lady had voluntarily joined Class F because of the protagonist’s placement there, citing her inability to speak despite having the word spirit ability.

Finding a suitable position, Su Bei’s eyes gleamed with determination. Adjusting his expression, he walked to the front door.

At the door, he theatrically surveyed the room, his gaze landing directly on Jiang Tianming. He then strode over, wearing a smile he had practiced dozens of times in front of the infirmary mirror. He pressed his fingers to his temple and made a flamboyant gesture, delivering his pre-prepared line.

From Jiang Tianming and others’ perspective, it was a stunning scene—

The sunlight outside was bright and intense, shining through the glass onto the boy’s golden hair, making it almost seem like he was glowing.

The boy smiled freely and confidently, with a hint of solemnity in his deep purple eyes. Though his words seemed playful, they carried a touch of sincerity—

“Saluting you on behalf of fate, the unluckiest of the unlucky in this generation~”