A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga - Chapter 325 : Chapter 325
Translator: AkazaTL
Proofreader/Editor: JWyck
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Chapter 325
Although some people in the post had some minor doubts about his ability, and everyone tacitly agreed that this ability would definitely consume a lot of Mental Energy.
But that was harmless.
The author would never really give him a powerful new ability without any drawbacks. Otherwise, Su Bei wouldn’t have taken the initiative to set some limitations for himself. The ones he set were always more beneficial to him than the ones the author set.
After a brief moment of thought, he quickly started a new post.
《Analysis of Li Shu’s “Healing Ability” [Prophet Post]》
[ProphetNo.0: I was quite puzzled by this part of the plot when I was reading the manga, so I analyzed it a bit. Li Shu’s ability is [Illusion], which is far from a healing ability. Although the Class S protagonist group does lack a healing support, the author probably wouldn’t be so deranged as to develop such a completely unsuitable person into a healing-type ability user.
Using [Illusion] to create the illusion that the buyer has been completely healed is also not advisable. He can fake it for a while, but can he fake it for a lifetime? It would take at least a few months for such a surgery to fully recover. Li Shu’s ability hasn’t reached that stage yet. Once discovered, the Li Family’s reputation would be ruined, which is not worth the loss.
If he doesn’t have a healing ability and doesn’t plan to fake it, then the only way to heal the buyer is to rely on external forces.
With the Li family’s side story, it’s impossible to introduce a new character, so it must be a character who has already appeared. And in the manga plot, the only two healing-type ability users who can be considered significant are Feng Manman and Ye Lin. It’s impossible to cooperate with the former, so the answer is obvious.]
After all, this matter had no proof and was almost entirely based on speculation. Although Su Bei knew it was true, the readers did not. Therefore, he analyzed it more carefully, striving to show that he had reached this conclusion through analysis.
After all, it was a good thing to make the readers suspect that he was an insider, but it was a bad thing if the readers were certain that he was an insider. If an insider really confirmed that he was also an insider and thus banned his account, he would suffer a great loss.
After reading the manga and the forum, posting the thread, finishing a day of classes, writing a thousand-word self-criticism during the period, and getting a scolding after school, Su Bei felt completely drained and just wanted to go back to the dormitory and have a good rest.
However, things were not over yet. There was a Student Council meeting in the afternoon. The third-year students had heavy academic burdens, and many students had quit the Student Council, so now the backbone of the Student Council was the second-year students. The meetings naturally couldn’t be skipped as they pleased like before.
The few who went to the Li family were very tired. Although they only stayed up for one night, with the energy of an ability user, it wouldn’t have much impact, except for the difficulty of getting up in the morning. Their spirits had almost recovered during a day of study. As long as they could get a good night’s sleep tonight, they could be fully revived the next day.
But the problem was that they had to write that damn thousand-word self-criticism while attending classes, and they were just fiercely scolded by Meng Huai, and also received a corporal punishment menu for tomorrow. Even if they hadn’t stayed up late before and had a good rest yesterday, they couldn’t stand this!
“I don’t want to go,” Lan Subing complained in a low voice with puffed cheeks.
Zhao Xiaoyu, who was full of spirit beside her, said with a laugh, “I say you should just let Li Shu take care of your self-criticisms. You guys went to the Li family because of his concealment!”
Having been in the class for a day, she certainly knew what Lan Subing and the others had been doing all day. They had even passed around those self-criticisms with great interest. At first glance, they seemed different, but a closer look would reveal that they were just old wine in a new bottle, with no difference in content at all.
Fortunately, Meng Huai did not really read these self-criticisms as Jiang Tianming had said. Otherwise, Zhao Xiaoyu couldn’t imagine how desperate they would be if Meng Huai punished them by making them rewrite them.
“…I’m still here,” Li Shu looked at her speechlessly.
Zhao Xiaoyu glanced at him with a smile and asked calmly, “Then do you have any opinions? The culprit who caused Tianming and the others to smuggle themselves to the Li family out of concern for you, and ended up being punished by Meng Huai.”
The phrase “out of concern for you” directly left Li Shu speechless. He showed his usual gentle smile and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, “No opinions.”
On the other side, Zhou Renjie touched his chin curiously, “So what kind of meeting is it this time? It’s only the second day of school.”
“It should be about the election for new positions in the Student Council,” Si Zhaohua replied. He had inquired before; the Student Council generally only had two things at the beginning of the school year. One was the position election, and the other was the recruitment event.
However, the latter generally had to wait until the first monthly exam, after the classes were re-divided. So if nothing unexpected happened, this time it should be the election notice.
Hearing this, Qi Huang’s gaze shot over. Unlike the others who had no particular thoughts on this, she genuinely wanted to compete for the position of secretary.
As a rival, Si Zhaohua naturally knew her thoughts. The two looked at each other, their eyes full of determination to persevere to the end.
When they arrived at the meeting room, many people were already there. When everyone was present, Feng Manman, who was sitting in the main seat, began to talk about the main content of this meeting. Si Zhaohua had guessed correctly; this meeting was indeed held for the election of positions.
To put it simply, the content was to notify everyone about this matter. There would be a formal election in a week, and everyone in the Student Council would need to vote. The required number of cadres for each position had to be elected.
At the same time, everyone was encouraged to actively sign up. If one could become a cadre, the rewards would be very generous.
The hidden benefits of joining the Student Council were already numerous. First of all, one could often get first-hand information from the academy. Secondly, they had priority in many things compared to ordinary students, such as participating in large-scale events, competitions, etc. And the Student Council also specially invited several powerful ability users to tutor students who were delayed by Student Council affairs, and participation was voluntary.
And the benefits of being a cadre were even more numerous. Not to mention power and the like, even the most basic cadres had benefits such as not having to do homework, being able to choose tasks, and getting a salary.
However, what Si Zhaohua and Qi Huang wanted were not these things. What they wanted was power and status.
Because the real election was to be held next Monday, Qi Huang and Si Zhaohua, the two most powerful contenders for the position of secretary-general, began a frantic campaign for votes this week.
Qi Huang treated all the members of the Student Council to dinner, bought them gifts, and gave them movie tickets. After finishing these initial preparations, she began to work hard on writing a speech, striving to make a stunning impression.
“Are those really just initial preparations?” Hearing her say this, Mu Tieren asked in surprise. He had thought those were Qi Huang’s main methods.
Qi Huang looked at him with a smile, “Of course, it’s not like I gave each of them a million. In an ordinary school, that little bit of money might be useful, but in the ‘Endless Ability Academy’ where everyone is an ability user, it really doesn’t have much effect.”
Hearing this, Mu Tieren suddenly realized. That’s right, they could earn a lot of money themselves, so of course they wouldn’t be grateful for a little bit of money.
Su Bei, who was bored beside him, lay on the table, “Si Zhaohua is using the excuse of a questionnaire to give benefits to the Student Council members. It feels much more tactful than you just giving money directly.”
“Why should I be tactful?” Qi Huang had her own logic. “At this time, who in the Student Council doesn’t know that we want to win them over to get the position of secretary-general? There’s no need to hide our purpose, so why be tactful? Being tactful also easily gives others a chance to escape.”
What she said was not wrong. Although her and Si Zhaohua’s methods were different, in the end, they were both prepared to decide the winner with their speeches.
“By the way, I’m very curious about one thing,” Wu Mingbai raised his hand while sitting backwards on his chair. “Why hasn’t anyone tried to win us over?”
“This is our tacit understanding,” Si Zhaohua walked in from outside the door and exchanged a look with Qi Huang. Outsiders could be won over at will, but the classmates in the class couldn’t possibly change their views on the two of them just because of a small benefit.
So the two of them very tacitly gave up on doing useless work. Although they were very curious and cared about who the classmates would vote for in the end, the members of Class S, with only about ten people, would definitely not be the main force in the voting.
Si Zhaohua and Qi Huang were very clear about what to do at what time. They could find out who the classmates voted for after the fact. What was more important now was to win the votes of the majority.
After answering Wu Mingbai’s question, Si Zhaohua looked at Qi Huang, “The president wants us to go over now.”
After the two of them left the class together, Ai Baozhu suddenly coughed and asked nonchalantly, “Who are you all planning to vote for?”
“I remember it’s an anonymous vote?” Su Bei said lazily. Anyway, no one would know who he voted for, and he certainly wouldn’t take the initiative to talk about this matter to cause trouble for himself.
The reason he was willing to remind the others was also because he was worried that they would all say it without thinking, making it impossible for him to keep it a secret.
Sure enough, when the others heard his words, they instantly had an answer in their hearts. They all shut their mouths, making it clear that they did not intend to answer Ai Baozhu’s question.
Ai Baozhu glared at Su Bei in frustration, “It’s fine if you don’t say it yourself, but why are you telling others not to say it? What are you feeling guilty about? You’re not planning to vote for someone from another class, are you?”
Of course, the two of them were not the only ones running for secretary-general. Although everyone knew that the two of them had the highest probability of being elected, people always have to have dreams. For such a high-return matter, what if they got lucky?
Su Bei did not accept this accusation. He spread his hands innocently, “I was just asking casually.”
On the second Monday, Si Zhaohua and Qi Huang each gave a speech on stage. Their speeches were very distinctive. The former rationally and logically pointed out some of the current drawbacks and omissions in the Student Council, then analyzed how to solve them one by one, and promised to start solving these problems after taking office.
The latter, on the other hand, from the perspective of development, talked about some projects that would be beneficial to the development of the Student Council and the “Endless Ability Academy,” such as attracting investment, exchanges with other schools, and recruitment reforms for underage ability users. Then she promised that if she took office, she would definitely make the “Endless Ability Academy” develop better and make the Student Council’s status in the “Endless Ability Academy” very high.
The two speeches had their own merits and completely outshone the other candidates. This was just their stage.
After both of them had finished their speeches, the several candidates stood in front of the podium, waiting for the members to vote. A hubbub of discussion arose in the venue, as everyone was asking each other who they were going to vote for.
Su Bei had no intention of being responsible for the future of the Student Council. Besides, no matter which of these two took office, the Student Council would develop well. So he made a very decisive choice. After choosing, he raised his hand and got up to leave.
“Hey! Wait, wait, don’t go yet!” Seeing that he was about to leave, Lan Subing, who was still struggling, quickly stopped him. “Who did you choose?”
She asked this not as a test like Ai Baozhu, but purely out of curiosity. After all, with her hearing, she couldn’t tell whose speech was better at all. When everyone was struggling, Su Bei was able to make a choice so quickly, which naturally aroused her curiosity.
Of course, she was not the only one who was curious. It wasn’t even just the members of Class S; the other Student Council members were also very curious. However, they were not curious about who Su Bei chose, but how he made his decision so quickly. It made the rest of them seem like they had choice paralysis.
But heaven and earth be my witness, they really didn’t! If it weren’t for both Qi Huang and Si Zhaohua performing so well, why would they be struggling so much?
“Naturally, I’ll vote for whoever showed more fun for the position of secretary-general,” Su Bei said nonchalantly. “After all, they put on a good show for me, so I have to give them a ticket fee.”
As soon as he mentioned the ticket fee, Lan Subing remembered the time when they first met. It was precisely because he wanted to pay the ticket fee that Su Bei told them the prophecy about the murderer.
The sudden memory made Lan Subing fall silent for a moment. Su Bei took the opportunity to slip away quickly.
Originally, he didn’t want to reveal his voting criteria, but thinking about it afterwards, Qi Huang and Si Zhaohua would definitely chase after him and ask. Instead of being pestered by them, it was better for him to just state the conditions openly. He thought they should be able to guess who he chose.
That’s right, Su Bei chose Qi Huang.
Of course, he certainly wasn’t saying that he chose her because he felt that Qi Huang needed this position more than Si Zhaohua, or because Qi Huang had done more for this position. To say so would be too much of a moral kidnapping.
However, the real reason he chose Qi Huang was not because Qi Huang was more fun, as he had just said. The real reason was that Su Bei saw that the speech manuscript Qi Huang had prepared had more words.
It was just such a hasty reason. If he really said it out loud, he would probably be ganged up on by both Qi Huang and Si Zhaohua. Su Bei himself felt it was very reasonable. He didn’t care about the affairs of the Student Council in the first place. It made no difference to him who became the president, so he naturally wasn’t willing to use his brain to compare whose speech manuscript was better.
Since he was unwilling to use his brain to compare, he chose the easiest place to compare. The number of words was the comparison item Su Bei chose.
The efficiency of the Student Council was very high. On the third day after all the positions were elected, the latest list of cadres was announced to all students on the bulletin board.
“It’s Qi Huang,” Mu Tieren said with some emotion. He was not too surprised by this result. If before that world competition, Si Zhaohua was almost a shoo-in for the next secretary-general. Then after the world competition, Qi Huang’s approval rating was about the same as Si Zhaohua’s.
Although her strength was indeed slightly inferior, her extremely high prestige could completely make up for this. Most ability users admired heroes, and Qi Huang, who had saved many people and was praised by various countries, naturally became the object of their admiration.
Coupled with her beautiful appearance, Qi Huang was very popular in the “Endless Ability Academy” and had many supporters in the Student Council.
It was only natural and expected that she could defeat Si Zhaohua to become the secretary-general.
Those of them who were, in a sense, just spectators could accept this news, but some people couldn’t. Ai Baozhu and Zhou Renjie looked as if the sky had fallen.
“How could Zhaohua lose? They are so blind. That was clearly a perfect speech! Xiao Huang, I’m not targeting you, I just feel that Zhaohua shouldn’t have lost…” Ai Baozhu muttered neurotically, clearly hit hard by this matter.
Zhou Renjie on the other side was no better, pacing back and forth neurotically, saying “impossible” on one hand, and thinking about how to comfort Si Zhaohua on the other.
However, Si Zhaohua didn’t need their comfort at all. He was the calmest of the three, “Congratulations.”
Si Zhaohua congratulated Qi Huang gracefully. Although he couldn’t quite smile, the expression in his eyes was still sincere.
Qi Huang, who was congratulated by him, did not feign modesty. She felt that she deserved it. In fact, from the moment she saw the position, Qi Huang had been smiling, one could say she was flaunting it to the extreme.
However, facing Si Zhaohua’s congratulations, Qi Huang still restrained her smile a little, “Are you congratulating me as a rival, or as a friend?”
“As a friend,” Si Zhaohua twitched his lips. Regarding his failure in the election, his heart was not as calm as he showed. “As a rival, I would never congratulate you.”
The others couldn’t help but laugh. They were originally worried that Si Zhaohua would hold a grudge. Now, after hearing their conversation, they were finally completely relieved.
Their laughter made Si Zhaohua misunderstand something. He suddenly became a little angry out of shame, “What are you laughing at? My business is over, it’s time for our class’ business!”
What business did Class S have? Of course, the elimination.
He had to say that this wave of killing a thousand enemies and losing eight hundred of his own. Not only the others, but Si Zhaohua himself also fell into silence after he finished speaking. Although he certainly had no risk of being eliminated, it was also a very difficult thing to accept that his long-time friends were eliminated. He would be sad no matter who was eliminated.
“I wonder what the assessment will be. I hope… it will give us some room to maneuver,” Mu Tieren said in a deep voice. If there was room to maneuver, he certainly hoped that no one would leave Class S.
As soon as he finished speaking, the “Manga Consciousness” prompt sounded. The next chapter of the manga was updated.
It seemed that this time it didn’t follow the plot, but a daily life line. The time for 《King of Abilities》 to follow a daily life line was relatively short. Su Bei briefly looked at the manga and confirmed that the main content this time was centered on Si Zhaohua and Qi Huang, talking about their election for the Student Council cadres. He immediately lost interest.
The only useful piece of information was the final punishment of the Li Family. The Family Head might be sentenced to death, because his ability was too useful, and if he lived, it would easily arouse others’ covetousness. In order not to let more innocent lives become bargaining chips for transactions as soon as they were born, killing this sinful person was the best choice.
Anyway, he should have been sentenced to death in the first place.
As for the other members of the Li Family, the minors were one thing, but those who were adults and had participated in the family’s affairs would all go to prison, just with different sentences.
It was worth mentioning that Li Shu received a huge reward, including the ownership of Li Family Island. After all, he couldn’t even be considered to have atoned for his crimes by meritorious service; he had never participated in the Li Family’s business in the first place.
The manga here briefly showed a flashback of Li Shu’s memories. He was one of the first batch of children born through forced birth. At that time, the Family Head was not too deranged. Although he disliked these children born through his ability, he did not treat them too harshly in their daily lives.
Even at that time, the Family Head had no intention of engaging in organ trading. Firstly, he really didn’t have such evil thoughts at the time. Secondly, to perform organ transplants, they had to wait for the children to grow up, which was too long for a family that was just starting out. They couldn’t afford to wait, nor could they raise so many children out of thin air.
At that time, the Family Head was thinking of sending the children out for adoption to earn some adoption fees.
The other children were sent out one by one, but Li Shu was the only one who stayed. This was of course not because he was unpopular. On the contrary, because he was too popular, the Family Head decided to keep him and sell him at a high price.
But keeping him was one thing, it didn’t mean the Family Head liked him. He just kept PUAing¹ Li Shu, hoping that he would bring greater benefits to the family.
Later, the Li Family embarked on the road of no return of selling organs, and Li Shu, who should have become one of them, successfully escaped because he awakened his ability and went directly to the “Endless Ability Academy” to study, without becoming a victim or a perpetrator.
Almost every manga character has a tragic childhood. Su Bei finally had a deep understanding of this sentence. Jiang Tianming, Wu Mingbai, Zhou Renjie, Li Shu, Mu Tieren, at most 1/3 of the people had unhappy childhoods. Su Bei expressed his serious contempt for the author’s imagination.
The manga was about daily life, so the forum naturally couldn’t discuss any plot-oriented content. So Su Bei just looked at the post he had made last time.
Most of the readers in the post expressed their shock, but no one doubted what he said. Instead, some people teased him for explaining so much this time, asking if he was afraid that his identity as an internal staff member would be discovered.
He had to say, this reader really hit the nail on the head.
As the end of the month approached, Meng Huai finally announced the rules for this monthly exam, which was also the elimination match for Class S.
An elimination match, of course, was a match to eliminate others. This time, it was a name tag ripping game. One had to complete a task first to get the qualification to have their name tag ripped, and then they could let others eliminate them.
He had to say it was very interesting. Su Bei had never played this kind of game before, and there was no such type in the previous various events.
However, what was special was that the last two people left in this elimination match were the ones who were really going to be eliminated. In other words, everyone had to try to get themselves eliminated first.
Compared to getting himself eliminated, he actually hoped to eliminate others more. With the skill of invisibility, it would be extremely easy to eliminate others. But unfortunately, the rules couldn’t be changed just because he was unwilling. He could only work hard to complete the task.
Don’t think this was an easy task. The rules specifically stated that you could not eliminate yourself. The name tags were also attached by the teacher, and the contestants could not touch their own name tags after entering the competition.
In a situation where everyone just wanted to get themselves eliminated and didn’t want to eliminate others, it was really hard to get eliminated.
—
Wyck-note¹: Manipulating him emotionally.
