A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

If I’m not mistaken, judging from Feng Lan’s demeanor and the money on his meal card, he should be from a wealthy family. People like him have likely encountered plenty of scheming minds. Instead of beating around the bush and making others suspicious of one's intentions, it's better to ask directly.

Anyway, it's likely that everyone in Class F is curious about the ability of "prophecy" after hearing about it. Su Bei thought it wouldn't be a big deal if he asked.

As expected, Feng Lan didn’t intend to hide anything. After swallowing his mouthful of rice, he replied, “It’s ‘prophecy.’ It consumes mental energy to randomly predict some general things, like ‘something will happen on the first day of school.’ It can also predict specific things, but that consumes a lot more mental energy. Given my current state, I can only use the latter once a month.”

“Something will happen on the first day of school”?

If someone else heard this prophecy, they might just be confused. But for Su Bei, this made him deeply aware of the power of Feng Lan’s prophecy ability.

This was exactly the ability Su Bei originally wanted for himself.

After thinking for a moment, his eyes flashed: “Doesn’t that mean it doesn’t have any offensive or defensive capabilities and can’t be used in combat?”

Feng Lan nodded and then shook his head: “The ability itself indeed has no combat capability, but it can be used to fight.”

After saying this, he lowered his head and continued eating. Su Bei didn’t ask any more questions. He understood that their relationship was far from the level where they could fully confide in each other. It was already quite good that Feng Lan was willing to say this much.

The information Feng Lan had just revealed was enough to give Su Bei some new ideas. Since Feng Lan’s ability wasn’t offensive, Su Bei could use this point to adjust his own ability plan.

How should he adjust a ‘prophecy’ with offensive capabilities...

After finishing their meal, the two returned to the boys’ dormitory building together.

The “Infinity Ability Academy” was very generous in this aspect. Every student had their own room. Even the Class F students, who had little prospect, were provided with single rooms with a bathroom.

On the afternoon of the first day of school, there were no other classes. After bidding farewell to Feng Lan, Su Bei walked into his dorm room and started organizing the luggage he had hastily thrown around in the morning.

As he tidied up, he asked, “Are you there, ‘Manga Awareness’? Send me a copy of the previous manga, please. I want to study the earlier plots.”

The plot of the first volume would help him further analyze the personalities of the three main characters, and the beginning of the second volume also had much to explore.

“Sure, I’ve already put it on your phone along with the forum. You can check it anytime. To others, it will look like you’re reviewing study materials.”

Hearing this, Su Bei breathed a sigh of relief. This setup was good; if he ever lost his phone and someone else picked it up, he wouldn’t have to worry.

He felt touched by the rare thoughtfulness of the “Manga Awareness.” It’s worth noting that many students in the lower-level classes often self-studied ordinary cultural subjects during their time at the ability academy.

Without talent in the world of ability users, they would eventually return to the ordinary world where educational qualifications held significant value.

The ability academy was somewhat lenient about this. They would even allocate additional cultural courses to Class F students and help recommend schools upon graduation.

When Su Bei opened his phone, he found a new manga app with an icon featuring a close-up photo of Jiang Tianming, Lan Su Bing, and Wu Mingbai.

When he opened the app, a simple green interface appeared. There were two books: *The King of Superpower* volume 1 and volume 2.

At the top were two sections, one for manga and one for the forum.

After hesitating for a moment, Su Bei swiped right to enter the forum.

“Excited for the upcoming Academy Arc!!!”

“Please, let the Academy Arc have more handsome characters. There are too few hot characters in this series.”

“What did Jiang Jiang’s words at the end of the first part mean?”

The hot posts had a yellow tag, making them very conspicuous. The posts speculating about the foreshadowing in the manga immediately caught Su Bei’s attention. After reading the manga, he was also curious about what Jiang Tianming's words at the end meant.

However, he didn't click on that post. The second part of the manga hadn't started updating yet. If the foreshadowing could be guessed by the audience now, there would be no need to continue updating the manga.

Not finding anything particularly useful, he returned to the manga interface and clicked into the second part. The first part was longer and certainly had more hidden information. But the content of the second part was more urgent for him and needed to be studied quickly.

After finishing organizing his things, he sat on the bed. Just as he was about to open the second part, Su Bei suddenly asked a question: "The original storyline of the second part of the manga was triggered by my death. Now that I'm not dead, how will the manga handle this?"

"Manga Awareness" didn’t expect him to realize this point. After hesitating for a moment, it still gave an answer, knowing that this couldn't be hidden: "Another person will replace you and die."

The room fell into a terrifying silence, so quiet that even the sound of breathing couldn't be heard. "Manga Awareness," seemingly unable to bear the silence, spoke again: "So you..."

"What about me?" Su Bei suddenly interrupted it, chuckling lightly. "Huh, are you trying to say 'so you should work hard and not let that person's death be in vain'?"

If someone looked closely, they would notice that although he was smiling, there was no hint of joy in his eyes—only coldness.

His partially covered fringe concealed his eyes and brows. With his lightly blinking eyelids and the slight curve of his lips, a natural rebelliousness flowed from him.

"...Is there something wrong with saying that?" "Manga Awareness" indeed intended to say that.

Having seen many criminals with his father, Su Bei rarely fell into any logical traps. He remained clear-headed from beginning to end: "You have to understand, even for me, it wasn't due to negligence that I provoked the assassin."

He clearly remembered his mind was in a haze at that time. Before "Manga Awareness" brought him to his senses, his actions were almost out of his control.

In other words—"Whether it was my death or the substitute's death, it was all a plot kill!"

Su Bei said firmly.

He wouldn't punish himself for the substitute's death because it clearly wasn't his fault; he was a victim too.

"The real culprits who killed us are the assassin, the plot, and the manga! As a victim, why should I feel guilty and even use that as motivation to work harder?"

At this point, he raised his head, smiling with a hint of mockery: "No one would feel guilty because of this. Who are you trying to manipulate here?"

He had figured this out clearly after being revived and understanding the situation. Otherwise, he wouldn't have let someone else be a scapegoat, living with the burden of another's life.

This speech successfully rendered "Manga Awareness" silent once again. At this moment, it also realized that while it hadn't intended to manipulate Su Bei initially, as Su Bei said, it indeed got the direction wrong from the very start.

Whether it was Su Bei's death as initially planned or the substitute's death now, both were destinies set by the author to ensure the smooth progression of the manga.

But the manga author wouldn't feel guilty because, in his eyes, all the characters in the manga are creations of his pen. How could the author be wrong in arranging the fate of his own characters?

"My wording was inappropriate. I apologize; this indeed has nothing to do with you." Realizing its mistake directly and not possessing the human emotion of shame, "Manga Awareness" promptly apologized.

At this moment, Su Bei's usual smiling expression returned, as if the cold anger from before was just an illusion: "Since you know it was your mistake, shouldn't you offer me some compensation for almost branding me a murderer?"

"...What compensation do you want?"

"Let me simulate my original 'death'." Su Bei pointed to the last page of the second part of the manga, at the gears scattered on the ground next to his body in the bathroom, and said confidently, "I think 'I' must have discovered some clue about the murderer before dying."

Knowing himself well, Su Bei was certain he wasn't someone who would instinctively use his ability to protect himself.

After all, he considered that ability to be of no use except for reducing some costs if he ever opened a hardware store. To protect himself, his combat skills were far more reliable.

So why were there so many small gears next to his body in the scene?

There was only one possibility: he had deliberately placed the gears there to provide a crucial clue to the protagonist. The number of gears, their arrangement, size, and shape... might be hinting at the murderer's identity.

In other words, before dying, he must have seen the murderer's face, or at least some clue proving their identity.

And the current Su Bei very much needed this clue.

There were two reasons why he wanted to know this. First, he was worried the person might come after him again. Although he hadn't seen the person's face, given their decisive nature, they might not let him off.

The second reason was that understanding the subsequent plot in advance would help him take the initiative in planning and establishing his persona.

It’s worth mentioning that, in cases like this at the beginning of a manga, there are generally only two possibilities for the identity of the killer. Either they are found quickly, serving the purpose of getting the readers quickly into the plot while possibly introducing subsequent storylines, such as the organization or conspiracy behind the killer.

Or they are used as a foreshadowing that runs through the main storyline, with the identity of the killer potentially being revealed only at the end.

Su Bei hoped for the former. If it were the latter, it would be troublesome.

That would mean he couldn't immediately eliminate the danger he was in and might have provoked a powerful entity. This conflicted with the "three-no-touch" position Su Bei had set for himself.

Nevertheless, the clues "he" left before dying had to be analyzed. Gathering more clues could help him gradually build a persona of someone with foresight.

He knew that after this, he wouldn't be able to read the manga in advance anymore. This was the easiest and only opportunity for him to establish himself as a prophet.