A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga - Chapter 326 : Chapter 326

Translator: AkazaTL

Proofreader/Editor: JWyck

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Chapter 326

And to prevent them from slacking off, Meng Huai added another restriction: starting half an hour after the exam began, at least one person must be eliminated every half an hour. If the quota was not met, one person would be randomly eliminated.

And the elimination here meant elimination from Class S.

So if they didn’t want to test their luck, everyone had to work hard to eliminate people, at least to time it right. If they were eliminated for such an inexplicable reason, they would be disgusted to death.

Su Bei, who knew some inside information, could see that this monthly exam was quite a joke. Whether it was the name tag ripping method, the reversal where the winner was the loser, or the random elimination, it was all just playing with everyone.

But Su Bei only saw it this way because he knew the inside information; the others who didn’t know the inside story had no such thoughts at all. After all, it was an internal battle within Class S, with only 13 people participating, so it wasn’t a big deal. It was reasonable to solve the problem in the form of a game.

“Can we form alliances?” After listening to the teacher’s introduction of the rules, Zhao Xiaoyu immediately raised her hand and asked.

This question was crucial, and everyone pricked up their ears. If they could form alliances, then as long as they found a partner and ripped each other’s name tags, they could both escape danger.

Everyone originally thought it would not be allowed. After all, if that were the case, this competition would have changed its nature. It would no longer be about scheming to get oneself eliminated, but a competition of popularity.

However, to everyone’s surprise, Meng Huai actually nodded, “Of course, you can.”

But in the next second, he dispelled everyone’s thoughts, “But the name tags cannot be ripped at the same time.”

This meant that they couldn’t, through forming an alliance, have two people rip each other’s name tags at the same time to achieve the goal of both being eliminated. Only one person could be eliminated at a time, so forming an alliance was unnecessary.

So although they really wanted to find a partner before the competition started, since there was such a rule restriction, it was better to forget it and have everyone rely on their own abilities. In this situation, forming an alliance was very likely to be taken advantage of.

The elimination match soon began, and everyone was taken by Meng Huai to a shopping mall outside the school. The mall had been booked and was empty. However, booking it didn’t mean buying it, so Meng Huai’s request was that they couldn’t use skills that were too strong. It was best if they could avoid damaging public property, otherwise, they might be the ones to pay for the compensation in the end.

The purpose of this should be to prevent the students from harming each other, making it difficult to resolve things when the truth was revealed. However, his worries were superfluous. With this rule, who would use a powerful and destructive ability? To eliminate someone else and have themselves leave Class S in return? Besides, their class wasn’t the kind of scheming class, and no one would really use a killer move on other classmates just for an elimination match.

At the beginning, everyone was scattered on five floors. Su Bei was at the entrance of the elevator on the third floor, neither high nor low.

The first thing to do after entering the game was definitely to complete the task and get the qualification to be eliminated. The rules didn’t mention what the task was or where it was. According to Su Bei’s past experience with this kind of game, it was usually hidden in the corners of the map, such as in mirrors, books, and the like.

Mirrors… Su Bei first went to the bathroom. As he had guessed, there were indeed mirrors in the bathroom. After adjusting his luck, Su Bei began to experiment one by one. First, he wiped the mirror with his hand, with no effect. Then he splashed water, also with no effect.

After thinking about it, in the world of ability users, perhaps it had something to do with abilities. And among all of them, there was one person whose ability was also very suitable for testing. Su Bei took out a lighter from his storage ring and burned it on the mirror surface.

As expected, after not burning for long, a line of text gradually appeared—”Have a classmate use an ability on you to complete the task.”

It sounded like different people had different tasks. This was good news, otherwise, other people might deliberately not use their abilities on him, thus giving him no chance to be eliminated.

After all, Su Bei was quite confident in himself. Once he got the qualification to be eliminated, he could get himself eliminated in less than ten minutes. And the others probably understood this point as well, as he was indeed the strongest in Class S on the surface.

Su Bei estimated that his speed of getting the task should be quite fast, and not many people on the field had gotten their respective tasks yet. So he should hurry up and do the task while the others didn’t know.

Walking out of the bathroom, Su Bei unhesitatingly returned to his starting point, entered the elevator, thought for a moment, and pressed the button for the first floor.

Since he knew the task was related to other people, the first thing he needed to do now was to meet someone as soon as possible. And now, taking the elevator, the “ding-dong” sound of the elevator arriving would inevitably attract people over.

In fact, it wasn’t difficult to find others. Although the five-story shopping mall was large, with thirteen people here, there would always be two or three on each floor. As long as he shouted, or waited for others to shout, he would always find a teammate.

But neither of these two options fit his persona. Shouting proactively seemed a bit eager, and looking for someone after hearing others shout seemed very passive. What he wanted to do was to proactively make others proactively look for him.

As Su Bei had thought, when he took the elevator to the first floor, there was already someone standing at the door.

It was Si Zhaohua.

This was not a good choice for Su Bei’s task. Si Zhaohua had no reason to use his ability for no reason. After all, [Angel] was not the kind of ability that could be used easily.

“What are you doing taking the elevator down?” Seeing that it was him in the elevator, Si Zhaohua raised an eyebrow and suddenly became suspicious, “Is there a task on the first floor?”

He could only say that he had guessed half right. Su Bei answered very honestly, “No, I’ve already gotten the task.”

That was too fast. Si Zhaohua’s eyes widened slightly, “Where? What is it?”

“Do you think I’ll answer you?” Su Bei walked forward slowly. “How about you help me get eliminated in exchange for this information?”

Si Zhaohua decisively refused, “No, I can definitely find it myself.”

This exam was ultimately about how to get oneself eliminated. Completing the task was just an appetizer. The appetizer couldn’t possibly be richer than the main course, so he would be able to complete the task sooner or later, there was no need to rush.

Su Bei was not surprised by his refusal. He casually summoned a gear and shot it at Si Zhaohua, while asking, “With your ability, how do you get others to eliminate you?”

“Do I have to use my ability to get others to eliminate me?” Si Zhaohua subconsciously shot out a feather, clashing with his gear.

With the task completed, a smile appeared in Su Bei’s eyes, “No, but it’s obviously much simpler if you can use an ability.”

After saying this, he suddenly stopped and then adjusted the large pointer above his head to the “Go Out” point. Now he was completely motionless. If destiny wanted him to go out, it could only be by getting him eliminated.

Si Zhaohua did not notice that there was anything wrong with his sudden stop. After all, they were just walking around aimlessly, and it was normal to stop when they didn’t want to walk anymore.

Because Su Bei had attacked him for no reason just now, Si Zhaohua also took the initiative to shoot a feather at Su Bei, giving him a taste of his own medicine.

He originally thought that Su Bei would use the same method to avoid the attack, but surprisingly, Su Bei still stood there motionless, as if he was not afraid of being attacked at all.

However, he was not afraid, but Si Zhaohua was. He didn’t want to hurt his friend for no reason. So at the moment the feather was about to touch Su Bei, Si Zhaohua timely activated the feather to force a turn, and it slid past Su Bei’s side.

“Why didn’t you dodge?” Having defused the crisis, Si Zhaohua frowned and asked.

Su Bei shrugged, moved aside, and motioned for him to look at the ground.

When Si Zhaohua looked down, he saw that a name tag had fallen on the ground at some point, and the name on it was Su Bei.

His feather’s turn just now had slid past Su Bei, and it had unexpectedly scraped off his name tag!

It was only then that Si Zhaohua suddenly realized, “You did it on purpose?”

He looked at the time on his watch in some disbelief, “The exam has only been going on for seven minutes!”

To be able to find the task, complete the task, and get his name tag off in just seven minutes, wasn’t that too efficient?

This was the advantage of not being a plot character. Without a plot arranged by the author, he could leave whenever he wanted, without worrying about accidents happening halfway.

Su Bei waved with a smile, “Then I’ll be leaving first, good luck with the exam.”

The next second, Meng Huai’s voice suddenly came over the mall’s broadcast, “Su Bei has been successfully eliminated. Please leave the venue as soon as possible. The competition continues for the others.”

“What! Su Bei has been eliminated?” Lan Subing showed an incredulous expression. “That’s too fast, isn’t it?”

Jiang Tianming, who had already met up with her, thought for a moment and quickly came to a conclusion, “The person who went down the elevator just now should be him. Let’s go to the elevator to look for task clues.”

On the other side, Su Bei walked out of the mall and saw Lei Ze’en waiting outside. Meng Huai was monitoring the situation in the mall’s broadcasting room, and Lei Ze’en was responsible for receiving the successfully eliminated students outside.

Seeing Su Bei come out first, Lei Ze’en asked with some surprise, “I thought you would be the last one to come out?”

After all, Su Bei knew that they were only being falsely eliminated this time. Since there was no threat of leaving Class S, he thought that with Su Bei’s personality, he would have slacked off the whole time.

“Because it was too easy,” Su Bei said in an annoying way, although he did have the strength. “Anyway, it’s easy to get out, so there’s no need to waste time inside. Besides, their family probably still has a tear-jerking drama to perform, and I don’t like watching that kind of drama.”

This was his sincere thought. Because the title of this monthly exam was the Class S elimination match, they would definitely stage a “life and death separation” plot. Knowing that all of this was fake, Su Bei was afraid that he would laugh out loud on the spot.

Stretching, Su Bei asked lazily, “Can we go back after the competition is over?”

“Of course,” Lei Ze’en nodded. “You can rest for two days. After the other grades finish their monthly exams, it’s time to go back to class.”

Su Bei blinked, suddenly remembering something, “Are the first-years having a placement exam?”

Lei Ze’en nodded with a smile, imitating his blinking just now, “This is a great time to join in the fun.”

Su Bei was about to turn and leave to join in the first-years’ fun when he suddenly saw a fluffy red head in the grass in the distance.

At this time, “Black Flash” would actually come to interfere? Su Bei raised an eyebrow in surprise and walked over after taking a detour.

Mo Xiaotian, who had the [Air] ability, sensed him as he approached. As soon as their eyes met, he immediately broke into a big smile, “Su Bei, you’re here!”

“What the hell ‘you’re here’,” Su Bei rolled his eyes and complained. “You say it as if you let me find you on purpose.”

Mo Xiaotian scratched his head and chuckled, but soon put away his happy expression and asked with rare seriousness, “I heard that three people will be eliminated in your exam this time?”

Su Bei didn’t answer directly, but instead gauged his tone and asked curiously, “If so, what do you plan to do?”

“I plan to try to persuade you to join our organization,” Xiao Tian answered seriously. “Although the ‘Black Flash’ organization may not be good in your eyes, at least we won’t let friends be forced to separate. And grandpa likes you very much, he will definitely be willing to agree to your requests.”

“The ‘like’ you speak of refers to repeatedly letting you come and cause trouble?” Su Bei tilted his head and asked. “Don’t tell me you’re just here to watch the fun this time.”

This reminded Mo Xiaotian. He realized that he couldn’t continue chatting, otherwise the task the organization had given him would not be completed. But the problem was that now there was an unplanned person who knew of his arrival. Mo Xiaotian looked at Su Bei hesitantly, then at the mall, the meaning was obvious.

Su Bei walked past him and waved his hand behind him, “Hurry up and go, I won’t tell on you.”

Although he didn’t know what conspiracy the “Black Flash” organization was planning this time, it definitely wouldn’t succeed. Since it wouldn’t succeed, there was no need to tell on them. As for whether to participate in this event? Su Bei had no interest anyway.

It was no longer the beginning, where he couldn’t miss any main plot. At this point, the main plot was almost a decoration for Su Bei. He still paid some attention to things involving Nightmare Beasts, but when it came to the “Black Flash” organization, especially when the “Black Flash” organization appeared alone and had nothing to do with Nightmare Beasts, Su Bei had no interest at all.

Anyway, it wouldn’t affect his final goal, and he didn’t need to brush up his presence at every moment. If he could escape trouble, he naturally would.

Taking a taxi back to school, Su Bei went straight to the playground. Although the monthly exam format changed every year, one thing was certain: the monthly exam would definitely take place on the playground.

After all, they were first-years and hadn’t even mastered what their abilities were yet. If they were really let out and encountered danger, the school wouldn’t be able to protect them all. Although they could also encounter danger in the school, like the protagonist group’s year, it was much safer than outside the school.

Su Bei and the others’ exam was at eight in the morning. His exam time was so short that it was almost negligible. The round-trip taxi ride took an hour, so the first-years’ exam had only been going on for an hour.

It was the first-years’ monthly exam, but there were many familiar figures on the playground. He walked up to Luo Li, a regular member of the previous world competition, and asked curiously, “You came to join the fun too?”

Luo Li turned her head and saw that it was him. Her stern little face immediately relaxed, “It’s you. Yes, I come to watch every year. I watched your year too.”

For some reason, this sentence sounded strangely mature. Seeing her say such mature words with a child’s body, Su Bei found it inexplicably funny.

However, he did not laugh out loud, but just coughed and asked seriously, “What is the content of the first-years’ monthly exam this time?”

“The individual battle is 1V1, and the team battle is a triathlon,” Luo Li pointed to the playground and replied.

At this moment, the scene on the playground stirred up Su Bei’s long-lost memories. When they had their monthly exam, the playground was also filled with one huge arena after another, and the students on the arenas were competing.

Looking back at the competition now, Su Bei had to say, it was quite childish. There were very few people who could truly use their abilities. Most of them relied on their basic physical fitness.

He didn’t know if it was because the quality of the students in the same year as the protagonist group was automatically higher, but the opponents Su Bei encountered at that time were mostly quite normal. But after standing here for a while, he saw countless abnormal operations.

Mages missing their skills, warriors losing control of their strength and throwing themselves out after activating their abilities, supports buffing their opponents… It was a real eye-opener for Su Bei.

Fists are still the most reliable, Su Bei shook his head and sighed. He thought for a moment and looked at Luo Li next to him, “Was the quality of the students in our year like this at that time?”

“I don’t think so,” Luo Li also had a disgusted look on her face. She was still young and didn’t quite know how to hide her emotions. “This is too weak, are they serious? Even if they just awakened their abilities, they shouldn’t be unable to use them at all, as if they’re not their own abilities. If they’re this weak, won’t they overturn in this year’s world competition?”

While they were complaining, Feng Manman, who had finished her Student Council affairs, walked over, “You seem to have some misunderstanding about the strength of new ability users. This year’s performance is very normal. The current third-years had the same performance when they were in their first year, but Lili, you didn’t come at that time, so you don’t know.”

After saying that, she looked at Su Bei again, “As for your year, the quality was a bit better.”

“Sister Manman!” Luo Li called out in surprise. “You’re finally done!”

Feng Manman nodded at her, “It’s the annual monthly exam, so I came to join the fun.”

Then she suddenly remembered something and asked Su Bei with some surprise, “If I remember correctly, you should be taking an exam right now?”

The money for their class to book the mall was approved by the Student Council, so Feng Manman also knew some information about the exam.

“I’m done,” Su Bei answered lazily. “But only I’m done.”

“Then should I say congratulations?” Feng Manman thought for a moment, then hesitated, but added in a firm tone, “It seems I don’t need to congratulate you.”

After receiving the application to book the exam venue, Feng Manman had briefly learned about what Class S was going to do. Knowing that they were going to have a monthly exam, and it was a thirteen-into-ten elimination assessment, Feng Manman quickly noticed something was wrong.

As mentioned before, in the “Endless Ability Academy,” the Student Council had a lot of power. If this year’s second-year Class S was going to start “downsizing,” she would definitely have gotten the news in advance!

So Feng Manman deduced that Meng Huai had no intention of downsizing Class S at all. It might just be his wicked sense of humor to scare the Class S students, or perhaps he wanted to test their feelings, which was why he told them so.

And the reason she hesitated was that Feng Manman was not sure if Su Bei knew the truth.

Su Bei, who knew the truth, immediately understood her meaning and smiled, “Well, it doesn’t matter if I lose, there’s no punishment anyway.”

Continuing to watch the first-years’ monthly exam, it was a rare treat for Su Bei to watch with such relish. As the saying goes, the strong are strong in a thousand ways, while the weak are weak in a thousand different ways. It was really interesting to watch these novices win in various ways.

Unfortunately, before he had watched for long, Meng Huai called him, “Su Bei, where are you now?”

“At school, what’s wrong?” Su Bei asked knowingly, knowing very well in his heart that the reason Meng Huai could make this call was probably because the “Black Flash” organization’s operation had begun.

As expected, he could hear Meng Huai let out a slight sigh of relief, “It’s nothing, just stay in school and don’t come out. The ‘Black Flash’ organization has sealed off the mall… Wait? You didn’t leave early because you already predicted this, did you? Feng Lan also left early!”

When he said the last sentence, he was obviously already angry, “You two are something else, good for nothing, huh? First place in running away, is that it?”

Su Bei: “…”

Heaven and earth be my witness! He was wronged!

The reason he gave for leaving was real, purely because he didn’t want to watch the “true feelings revealed.” He only saw Mo Xiaotian after the exam was over and knew that the “Black Flash” organization had a conspiracy. He definitely didn’t know before.

Feng Lan had implicated him!

I beseech the heavens to distinguish the loyal from the treacherous!

“Teacher, I didn’t…”

Unfortunately, the teacher had no intention of listening to his explanation. He said fiercely, “You wait for me to come back!”

Su Bei: “…”

A river of sorrow flows backwards.

“What’s wrong?” Seeing his strange expression, Luo Li asked curiously.

Su Bei’s mouth twitched, “I was slandered… Ah, I see the culprit.”

After saying this, he strode towards the entrance of the playground and soon reached a certain white-haired boy, “You’ve implicated me, you know?”

“…Sorry?” Feng Lan tilted his head in confusion.

Su Bei was speechless and no longer dwelled on it. After all, he wasn’t completely innocent. Although he didn’t know the truth in the mall, it could be said that he saw Mo Xiaotian almost as soon as he left the mall.

So in a sense, Meng Huai was not wrong to be angry. Anyway, after he knew the truth, he had no intention of telling the other party.

After calming down, Su Bei asked curiously, “What did you predict?”

This topic was familiar to Feng Lan. He immediately straightened his head, “It’s very chaotic, it was Mo Xiaotian. I think it should be the ‘Black Flash’ organization that has come.”

Indeed, these two signals were enough to show that it was the “Black Flash” organization. Su Bei also said honestly, “I saw Mo Xiaotian when I went out, but I didn’t ask them what their plan was this time.”

The two of them tacitly did not ask each other why they didn’t report this matter to the teacher and began to watch the first-years’ monthly exam together.

However, while watching, they still couldn’t help but talk about this matter. Feng Lan looked at the sky, “I wonder when they will be back.”

He was a little worried that they would be trapped there and couldn’t have lunch.

“It should be soon,” Su Bei answered calmly. According to past experience, for a small map like this, and without being teleported, they could usually come back within a day.