A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga - Chapter 323 : Chapter 323

Translator: AkazaTL

Proofreader/Editor: JWyck

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Chapter 323

While Su Bei’s imagination was running wild, a loud bang suddenly came from above the room. Immediately after, Jiang Tianming and the other two burst in with a small, thin girl.

“Brother!” Seeing the young man lying on the operating table, disemboweled, the little girl’s tears streamed down instantly.

The familiar voice made the young man suddenly look up, ignoring the pain in his body, and asked in shock, “Sister? Why are you here?”

“If I didn’t come, you would have died!” the sister roared, then looked at the doctor with resentment. “My big brothers and sisters have already found out that the school you mentioned doesn’t exist at all, and the people who left the island don’t go to school here at all!”

As soon as these words came out, the brother’s expression instantly changed. He, of course, unconditionally believed his sister, “How could you do this? Where did all those people go? Wait? What is that?”

Suddenly, his gaze fell on the kidney that had already been removed next to him, “Is this my kidney? Didn’t you say you only needed to take one? Since it’s already been taken out, why isn’t the surgery over yet?”

At this moment, he completely lost his trust in the doctor and struggled to get up from the operating table. Jiang Tianming and the others had already taken the opportunity to control the buyers. Wu Mingbai dug a short tunnel from outside the operating room directly into it.

It was worth mentioning that throughout this entire process, Li Shu had no intention of stopping them. He just stood by and calmly watched the situation develop, and then silently left the secret room after they entered.

After they went in, Su Bei also followed them into the operating room, took the camera that had recorded enough evidence from the flowerpot, and returned to the outside of the operating room.

Jiang Tianming and the others didn’t waste any time. They quickly subdued the few doctors in the operating room, made them stitch up the young man’s wound, and then Lan Subing, who could control people, and the little girl stayed behind, while the remaining two went out to support Qi Huang and Mu Tieren.

Su Bei, of course, chose to follow them out to witness the upcoming conclusion of the event.

Outside, Qi Huang and Mu Tieren were on a rampage. Although the Li Family had ability users, it could be seen from the fact that their transaction partners were mostly ordinary families that they were still just an ordinary family, with very few powerful ability users in the clan.

As members of Class S at the “Endless Ability Academy,” and battle-hardened ones at that, Qi Huang and Mu Tieren were naturally not afraid of these ordinary people and weak ability users. They fought a hundred with just two of them and didn’t fall behind.

With the addition of Jiang Tianming and the rest, the situation almost became a one-sided slaughter.

The Li Family Head was furious. While directing the family members to deal with them, he also tried to interfere with them verbally, “Your academy’s teacher is coming soon. When he sees you fighting and killing here, he will definitely punish you.”

“Are you kidding me? You’ve already broken the law. The teacher will only arrest you, okay!” Qi Huang said with a sneer. However, she also knew in her heart that after the matter was over, they would definitely be punished. After all, the teacher had repeatedly told them not to come, but they still came.

But Qi Huang didn’t regret it. If they hadn’t taken the risk to come, how could they have discovered the Li Family’s secret?

“Do you have evidence?” the Family Head said with a triumphant smile. “So what if that little thing you brought with you and her brother identify us? Her brother signed a contract; we were conducting a legal transaction.”

“What if I identify you too?” Li Shu, who had been watching coldly from the sidelines, finally spoke, and his first words were a bombshell. “I contacted the academy a long time ago and told them about your illegal activities in private. As your fourth child, and having never participated in the transactions, my accusation should have some weight, right?”

Su Bei suddenly realized. No wonder Teacher Meng had tried every means to stop them from coming. It turned out that he already knew about the Li Family’s affairs and didn’t want them to get involved. If nothing unexpected happened, they should have been collecting evidence, waiting to wipe out the Li Family in one go. But unexpectedly, Jiang Tianming and the others suddenly got mixed in, disrupting the original plan.

He didn’t expect Li Shu to turn against them at such a critical moment, and it seemed to have been premeditated. The Family Head’s expression twisted for a moment, then turned to mockery, “Li Shu?! You… Heh, truly an ungrateful dog.”

Li Shu lowered his eyes and said nothing.

Jiang Tianming and Wu Mingbai, who obviously already knew the truth about his withdrawal from school, were not surprised. Qi Huang and Mu Tieren, who knew nothing, were truly surprised. They didn’t expect Li Shu to have reported his own family; they had misunderstood him.

After a sarcastic remark, although the Family Head’s face was gloomy, he acted as if he didn’t care about Li Shu’s betrayal, “Let’s just say I was bitten by a dog. But you should know that a dog can bite people, but it won’t cause serious injury. You should know that we have cooperated with so many people over the years, and there are many big shots among them. As long as my ability is still useful, they won’t let me stay in prison.”

He was right. The Family Head’s ability was most likely to allow people to have more children. This ability itself was very useful, especially for families with fertility difficulties. And the by-products it created, namely those organs, were a boon to many rich people.

Those who had benefited would not let the Family Head stay in prison forever. Firstly, they coveted his ability and didn’t want to waste such a talent. Secondly, the Family Head had a list of buyers. Once this kind of thing was made public, the buyers’ reputations would be ruined immediately. If they didn’t want the Family Head to resort to a desperate struggle, they would definitely have to save him.

The Family Head didn’t say this point. He couldn’t put the threat on the table, otherwise it would easily attract a fatal disaster. Anyway, those big shots were smart people and could definitely think of this point, so even though he knew the matter would be exposed soon, he was not panicked at all.

In the Family Head’s eyes, as long as the green hills remain, there will be no shortage of firewood. With his ability in hand, as long as he was given some time, he could always build a new Li Family.

He had to admit, these words indeed left everyone helpless. They were all smart people and could naturally think of the Family Head’s hidden thoughts. As he said, those big shots would definitely save him. Even if they locked him up, they could only hold him for a while.

After the Family Head got out, they could send someone to keep an eye on him secretly and lock him up again when he showed his true colors. But when would that be?! Sending ordinary people to watch him might get them dealt with by the big shots who saved him. Sending ability users to watch him would be a bit of a waste, as the main task of ability users was always to eliminate Nightmare Beasts.

Besides, there are a thousand days to be a thief, but how can one guard against a thief for a thousand days? Furthermore, with so many things happening in the ability world, how could they have the leisure to keep an eye on the Li Family Head?

Just when everyone’s face was dark, a familiar voice sounded, “Hmm, if those big shots can’t even protect themselves, will they still come to save you?”

Everyone looked up and saw Su Bei standing on the balcony of the villa next door, holding a blue-covered notebook in his hand.

With just one glance, the Family Head’s face turned pale with shock, finally losing his previous confident demeanor. Others might not know, but how could he not know what was in that notebook? That was his lifeline!

Su Bei deliberately covered his mouth, looking as if he had misspoken, and said cheekily, “Oh, my bad. If those big shots knew that their exposure was because of you, let alone saving you, I’m afraid they would use their last bit of strength to kill you, right?”

Seeing the Family Head’s reaction, Jiang Tianming immediately realized that the notebook in Su Bei’s hand was probably the key evidence. A flicker of joy appeared in his eyes, and he relaxed.

“Kill! Kill him for me! Destroy that ledger!” At this moment, the Family Head couldn’t care about anything else and roared hoarsely, “All Li family members, destroy that ledger at all costs!”

Seeing this, Mu Tieren anxiously helped to block the people, while shouting to Su Bei, “You run quickly, we’ll hold them off for you!”

The reason they could face these Li family members with ease before was that they were afraid. There was a gap in strength to begin with, and these people, not having received professional training, were afraid of death and pain and didn’t dare to go all out. Naturally, they would be beaten back by the top students of the “Endless Ability Academy.”

But now it was different. For this group of brainwashed people, the Family Head’s order was the highest command. Now that the Family Head had ordered them to destroy the ledger at all costs, they lost their weakness of being afraid of death and became fierce and fearless.

The crazy ones are afraid of the desperate ones. With so many people fighting to the death, even Mu Tieren, whose strength was much greater than theirs, couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed.

Although Li Shu wasn’t too worried about Su Bei, he cared about that ledger and also reminded him, “If you can’t handle it, put the ledger in a storage ring.”

“Don’t underestimate me.” Facing the few Li family members who had already rushed up from behind, Su Bei smiled and jumped directly from the second-floor balcony, brazenly holding up the ledger in his hand.

Seeing that he didn’t even intend to put the ledger in a storage space, Jiang Tianming subconsciously felt that Su Bei had some trump card. He exchanged a look with Wu Mingbai, who also showed no signs of worry, clearly also having great faith in Su Bei’s strength.

“Don’t worry about that guy, how could he possibly be at a disadvantage?” Qi Huang said grumpily, while releasing a fireball to help Mu Tieren deal with a sneak attacker. Although her attitude wasn’t great, her trust was evident.

And the facts were indeed so. Next, Su Bei let them witness what was called the destiny system.

He was seen strolling leisurely among the enemies. Whenever someone was about to reach for the ledger, he would even make a gesture of handing it over. But despite such outrageous behavior, not a single person managed to get the ledger. Let alone getting it, they didn’t even touch it. Whenever they were about to touch the ledger, all kinds of accidents would occur.

Accidentally slipping, bumping into their own people, being accidentally injured by other attacks, hands suddenly getting electrocuted, twitching, fracturing… all kinds of accidents emerged one after another, all leading to one result: the notebook in Su Bei’s hand remained intact.

And Su Bei himself, because they were all focused on getting the ledger and he often used the ledger for protection in time, he was also completely unscathed.

Qi Huang’s mouth twitched, “…This guy, is he using a cheat?”

“Is this the ability of an item?” Mu Tieren couldn’t help but ask curiously.

Hearing this, Su Bei glanced at him faintly, seemingly disdainful of this statement, but in fact, Su Bei’s heart was nodding wildly. A great question! As expected of his good classmate, bringing him a timely rain.

If no one asked, it would be awkward for him to bring it up himself. After all, Su Bei wasn’t usually one to proactively reveal his trump cards. But it was different if someone asked. He could logically say the lines he had long thought of.

“An item? Of course, it’s my ability.” Su Bei snapped his fingers. “My destiny today is—the ledger will not be snatched away by anyone.”

“In that case, couldn’t your destiny today also be ‘will definitely win,’ ‘will definitely be invincible,’ ‘will definitely get the truth’…” Jiang Tianming, being very smart, immediately drew inferences, his expression growing more and more shocked as he spoke. “That’s too invincible!”

Su Bei wished he could design it that way, but he felt that with the author already paying attention to him, he probably wouldn’t be allowed such a big upgrade. Most importantly, taking too big a step could lead to trouble. He was already portrayed as quite powerful in the manga; if he got another skill like that, he would easily become a “royal family member” in the readers’ minds, which was not a good sign.

So he shook his head and sneered, “I wish. Unfortunately, this skill can only be used for passive defense.”

What he needed from the beginning was a defensive skill; there was no need to be greedy and add more at the last minute. However, since Jiang Tianming had already brought it up, Su Bei still left a foreshadowing for himself, “But just because it’s not possible now doesn’t mean it won’t be in the future. Please look forward to it!”

Having finished his performance, Su Bei was in a great mood and didn’t plan to continue performing. Mainly because the time for the “Dodge Max Sticker” was almost up. This sticker couldn’t be used continuously in a short period, so he couldn’t keep showing off.

Looking listless, he waved his hand. Following a few points he had spotted earlier, from a chair to a flower wall to a windowsill, Su Bei easily returned to the second floor, leaned against the windowsill, and supported his chin with one hand, “I advise you not to waste your efforts, the teachers are about to… arrive.”

As his voice fell, a resounding dragon’s roar could be faintly heard in the distance. Everyone turned their heads in unison and saw a huge Western black dragon flying slowly from the distance amidst the clouds and mist.

Of course, they saw it moving slowly only because it was too far away, just like how a plane seems to fly slowly when viewed from the ground. In fact, the black dragon was flying extremely fast, almost as if shrinking the ground with each step as it rushed in this direction.

“Great! The teacher is here!” A joyful expression appeared on Mu Tieren’s face. He knew that the teacher’s arrival meant they were completely safe.

Don’t be fooled by what happened before into thinking it wasn’t too dangerous. The problem was that they couldn’t leave this island!

From the moment they were discovered, the moat outside the island had turned a deep purple. They didn’t need to touch it to know that the river was definitely poisonous. And the water was constantly emitting purple gas. As soon as flying birds came above the river, they would immediately cry out and fall down, apparently poisoned and unable to move.

It was unknown how the Li Family’s river had become so lethal; they must have spent a lot of money on it.

And in fact, even if they hadn’t created this poison mist, it would have been very difficult for everyone to fly away from the island. You have to know that Qi Huang was different from Si Zhaohua. The [Flame Phoenix] ability itself didn’t have wings; she could fly because she was carried by a phoenix transformed from flames.

Since it was a transformed wing, its carrying capacity was naturally not as good as a real wing. It was almost impossible to fly over that river with all four of them.

And if they were carried away one by one, the people left behind would be besieged by the people on the island. Five people could still manage, but three people would be purely seeking death.

The tunnel Wu Mingbai had dug earlier had been found, and several Li family members were at the entrance filling it in. The possibility of digging another one elsewhere was not high. Wu Mingbai needed quiet surroundings to dig a tunnel. In the current situation, they couldn’t even get out of others’ sight, let alone find a quiet enough place.

Several ways to leave the island were blocked. Unless they could incapacitate most of the people on the island, there was no way to leave. The Family Head shamelessly called out the underage children to join the battle, which made them hesitant and afraid to use heavy-handed tactics. If this continued, once their Mental Energy was depleted, they would face a crisis.

Meng Huai’s timely arrival resolved their dilemma. Everyone was very confident that with his strength, he would definitely not be deterred by a little poison water. For one thing, his black dragon flew higher than both Si Zhaohua and Qi Huang could.

The black dragon flapped its wings and landed on Li Family Island. Meng Huai got off the black dragon, first glared fiercely at Jiang Tianming and the others, then looked at Li Shu, who knew the inside story, “How’s the situation?”

Li Shu’s expression was complicated. After thinking for a moment, he answered truthfully, “…Although there were many accidents, the mission was completed successfully.”

If the ledger in Su Bei’s hand was correct, then the Li Family was definitely finished this time. Just as he said earlier, let alone the police, even those whose reputations were ruined because of their transactions with the Li Family would be eager to kill him.

The second he finished speaking, the “Manga Consciousness” prompt sounded in Su Bei’s ear: “《King of Abilities》 has been updated, please check.”

The manga update meant the event was over. For once, Su Bei was a little impatient. He wanted to see if his plan had succeeded. Now that he couldn’t use the Prophet account to build momentum for himself, it undoubtedly added a lot of uncertainty to the plan.

Although even without reader discussion, it wouldn’t affect their acceptance of what his manga self said and their belief that he did possess a cause-and-effect defensive ability. But it would certainly be more impressive with discussion, and it would be easier to help him successfully change his ability.

And when he had a forum account, he didn’t need to state his ability so clearly at all. As long as he analyzed it roughly based on the phenomena on the forum, readers would unconditionally believe him.

But now it was different. He had to say what he wanted, either through himself or through someone else, to ensure that the readers wouldn’t misunderstand, thus causing his plan to deviate and all his hard work to be in vain.

However, Su Bei was quite open-minded about this matter. You win some, you lose some. In order to keep an extra trump card for himself, it was worth it even if it was a little more troublesome. Besides, compared to the main character group, he hadn’t worked very hard. Happiness really comes from comparison.

After subduing everyone on the island, Meng Huai did not immediately take everyone away. He was the first to arrive here; there was still a large force behind him, so they had to wait for the main force to arrive before they could leave.

During the waiting period, Meng Huai learned about the course of events from Mu Tieren. In fact, he should have learned it from Li Shu, since the latter was his collaborator and a member of the Li Family himself.

But Li Shu clearly had no intention of saying more and decisively handed over the task of telling the story to Jiang Tianming and Mu Tieren. No matter what, the Li Family was his own family, and besides, Li Shu had indeed admired the Family Head very much before.

Now that the other party was going to be brought to justice, although he already had someone he cared about more, and this plan was orchestrated by him, it didn’t stop him from being unhappy. However, it wasn’t unhappiness about the other party being imprisoned or even dying, but because the father he once regarded as a god was so vulnerable.

Alright, actually, it wasn’t that bad. Li Shu replayed the incident in his mind and clearly realized that the reason they could render his father completely unable to fight back was entirely because Su Bei had found the ledger.

If he hadn’t found the ledger, or rather, if he hadn’t found the ledger at the very beginning of the incident, his father would have been invincible. Li Shu didn’t believe his father had no backup plan for that ledger. He was afraid that as soon as he was caught, the ledger would be quickly taken away or destroyed.

Thinking this way, Li Shu suddenly wasn’t so resentful anymore. His father was still very capable, it was just a pity that he had encountered someone who didn’t play by the rules. How could someone, upon encountering such a situation, immediately think of finding the ledger first?

Seeing Li Shu huddled in a corner by himself, Su Bei walked over. Of course, he didn’t come over to comfort the other party. Mainly, Su Bei had a question that needed Li Shu’s answer, “I heard that one of the reasons you came back was to treat the buyers who had undergone surgery? When did [Illusion] gain a healing function?”

“Where did you hear that?” Li Shu’s head was full of question marks. “Only a few people know about this, you…”

He paused for two seconds. Facing Su Bei’s calm expression, he decisively gave up on dwelling on the issue and instead sneered with a mocking smile,“Our dear classmate Su Bei knows so much—surely, it’d be easy for you to figure out where I got my healing ability. So why are you still asking?”

“Just wanted to verify it.” Su Bei shrugged, his face calm and composed, but in reality, he was not at all certain in his heart as he stated his guess, “After all, even I would be surprised that you could get in touch with Teacher Ye.”

Actually, Su Bei’s words were quite risky. If he had guessed wrong and Li Shu hadn’t collaborated with Ye Lin at all, it would easily arouse the other party’s suspicion.

However, this matter was also easy to explain. He didn’t know if Ye Lin had collaborated with Li Shu, but Ye Lin had definitely collaborated with Meng Huai. He could use this as an excuse later, saying that he only knew Ye Lin had collaborated with someone from the “Endless Ability Academy” but wasn’t sure who specifically, and he could easily pass it off.

Moreover, the current Su Bei was not the same as the old Su Bei. In the past, he had no room for error. Once he failed and lost the trust of his companions and readers, it would be very difficult to rebuild it. But now it was different. Even if he really made a mistake, others would proactively make excuses for him, rationalizing or even turning his mistake into a conspiracy through wild imagination.

The reason Su Bei set his persona as a riddle-maker from the beginning was because of this. A riddle-maker could increase his margin for error, and it would become more useful as he went on.

However, the result this time was good. Li Shu once again showed a shocked expression, even more shocked than the last time, “Where did you get your information from?! It couldn’t have been Ye Lin who told you, right?”