A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga - Chapter 335 : Chapter 335
Chapter 335
After lying in bed for a full three days, on the fourth day, as soon as my body was free, I immediately drank water, went to the toilet, took a shower, and then went out for a big meal. Not eating or drinking for three days wouldn’t kill me, but the feeling of being unbearably uncomfortable, how could that not be considered death?
While eating, I turned on my phone, which had been turned off because the battery died on the day I came back.
“Beep beep beep beep beep—”
As soon as it was turned on, a string of message notification sounds immediately came from the phone. All the chat software messages were 99+. Without opening them, I knew who had sent the messages and what they were about.
After thinking for a moment, I didn’t reply to anyone else, but clicked into Meng Huai’s chat box. Meng Huai could be said to be the one who sent the fewest messages of all, a total of three.
【LetMeWorkGoDie: I heard you disappeared?】
【LetMeWorkGoDie: You didn’t really die, did you?】
【LetMeWorkGoDie: Send a message if you’re still alive】
【EastSouthWest: 1】
After ten minutes, when I had finished my meal, Meng Huai replied.
【LetMeWorkGoDie: 1 what 1? Where are you now?】
【EastSouthWest: I’ll be back at school tomorrow. I’m telling you in advance, Teacher. Don’t tell them, I want to give them a surprise.】
【LetMeWorkGoDie: Congratulations on not using the wrong word, this is indeed a surprise. So what exactly happened? From the looks of them, it seems they all think you’re already dead.】
【EastSouthWest: I was resurrected with an item.】
There was no reply from the other side for a long time, then he directly called me. “Su Bei? Do you mind a video call?”
“I don’t mind.” I shook my head and switched to a video call for him.
The video call connected. It seemed I could see Meng Huai on the other side heave a sigh of relief, then he asked at his leisure, “What’s the price of the resurrection item?”
“I can’t use my ability for half a year,” I answered honestly. I was going to use this as an excuse to ask for leave later, so naturally I couldn’t lie.
Hearing that it was only such a price, Meng Huai once again breathed a sigh of relief. “Then do you plan to continue going to school? You can’t use your ability for half a year, so you can’t participate in the school’s courses. And the ability world should be very dangerous next…”
“So I plan to ask for leave,” I interrupted him and said without hesitation.
I also knew that the ability world would be very dangerous next. Not to mention the “Black Flash” organization that was secretly causing trouble, just the Nightmare Beasts alone would not be able to rest easy.
You have to know that their foundation had just been destroyed. The destruction of the six Boundary Stones was a fatal blow to the Nightmare Beasts. The remaining small meteorite fragments could only maintain the living environment of the Nightmare Beasts. It was impossible for the Nightmare Beast world to continuously produce Nightmare Beasts anymore.
Under such circumstances, I believed that the Nightmare Beasts would definitely go crazy.
After all, if they continued to remain silent, what awaited them was a slow death. Don’t underestimate the speed at which humans cleared Nightmare Beasts. In the past, they could still achieve a balance of income and expenditure with humans, but now there was no income, only expenditure. They definitely wouldn’t be able to last long.
So they either did nothing and waited for a slow death, or they fought a desperate battle with the goal of completely eliminating humans while the number of Nightmare Beasts was still at its peak. It was obvious that the Nightmare Beasts would definitely choose the latter, and could only choose the latter.
This was one of the reasons why I was asking for leave. I didn’t want to be dragged into those battles as an ordinary person. Especially since I wasn’t an ordinary ability user, but one of the culprits who had made the Nightmare Beasts look like this.
Even at my peak, I wouldn’t dare to be 100% sure that I could face the Nightmare Beasts’ revenge, let alone now that I had become an ordinary person?
Temporarily staying away from the ability world and avoiding the Nightmare Beasts’ counterattack was my best choice.
With this in mind, I stated my plan, “I plan to fake my death to deceive the Nightmare Beasts after giving them a surprise this time. I’ll have to trouble you to help me then, Teacher.”
“You’ve thought it through, but since you’re going to fake your death, wouldn’t it be better not to go back to school at all?” Meng Huai asked doubtfully, then coughed, “Of course, I’m not saying you should hide it from me. Just let me know you’re alive, and I can help you tell the other students.”
“They need to maintain a good state of mind next, don’t they?” After thinking about it, since I didn’t need to maintain my persona anymore, and I had “sacrificed” myself to save people before, I exposed a little of my true nature and said this honestly.
After that, they would have to face the counterattack of the Nightmare Beasts and the “Black Flash” organization. It wouldn’t do if they were not in a good state. If they kept thinking about my death, I was worried that some people would do something irrational because of it.
After all, this was a manga world. If one was not careful, one could turn dark and fall into villainy. Although the author had control, it was obvious that he couldn’t completely grasp everyone’s thoughts. Otherwise, the author would probably have manipulated me to slowly fade out of the protagonist group long ago.
And I also needed to make an appearance to let the readers know that I was still alive. Although the author had no intention of messing with me anymore, the changes that the readers could cause to me were still there. If they all thought I was already dead, I was worried that some accident might happen.
The author had already decided to let me go, and everything was about to be settled. If I capsized in the gutter at the last step, I would really be pissed off. Besides, when you do something, you should see it through to the end. Since I was going to be offline for a long time, I had to make a final appearance to let the readers know that I was still alive.
“That’s true. They are very sad right now,” Meng Huai said with deep feeling, recalling the scene when he picked them up that day.
I was returning to the academy tomorrow, and with nothing to do now, I opened the manga and started reading after lunch. Although my mission was completely over, it didn’t matter if I didn’t read the plot. But it was my own fake death, after all, it wouldn’t be right not to take a look.
I quickly skipped the previous plot and went directly to the second half of the manga, the part where they were preparing to put the Boundary Stone into the machine.
When I saw the machine in the manga beeping, I felt a pang in my heart again. That feeling of failing when you were only one step away from success, only those who had experienced it would know.
Compared to me, the actual experiencer, the readers were far from having such genuine feelings. In fact, there were many trolls among the readers. Compared to completing the mission smoothly, they preferred such a tortuous plot.
“I knew it wouldn’t be that simple!”
“Oh ho, a little mishap.”
“Don’t tell me they can’t complete the mission this time and have to wait for the next time?”
“There’s no way around it, after all, they can’t experiment in advance.”
“The Nightmare Beasts are coming so fast.”
“Let me see which cute little kid is going to show off their power this time?”
Then, Wu Mingbai quickly came up with a countermeasure and cooperated with Si Zhaohua. After the two of them met, they went to where Lan Subing was. Then, not long after they took to the sky, they were targeted by several Nightmare Beasts.
Next was the perspective of those two Nightmare Beasts. Their abilities were very unsolvable. One had a tracking ability and could always track the enemy. The other could kill the opponent as long as it stared at them for long enough.
The two Nightmare Beasts cooperated and had killed countless powerful ability users.
Because time was tight, and they didn’t know what abilities these two Nightmare Beasts had, Si Zhaohua and Wu Mingbai only thought of shaking them off and had no intention of turning back to attack.
So that’s how it was. Seeing this, I had a sudden realization. I was wondering how these two people would die. It seemed that without my intervention, they would have been tracked by these two Nightmare Beasts all the way and finally “stared to death.”
But for the author to release this part was also quite surprising to me. After this part appeared, as long as one wasn’t a fool, they should be able to see who my later sacrifice was for.
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Next was the plot of my sacrifice. In the manga, I suddenly sensed something, my heart skipped a beat, and then a bitter yet relieved smile appeared on my face.
There were two lines of white text next to it, which were—
“Destiny…”
“I have to have a clear conscience.”
After these two lines of text, a dashing smile that even I myself would “ooh” at appeared on his face. The words he said seemed to be haggling, yet they were dashing enough: “Remember to apologize to me afterwards, for making me pay such a huge price to save your lives.”
The next scene was a full-body shot of him. Against a pure black background, he floated in mid-air with both feet off the ground. Under his feet was the Destiny Compass, and in between his hands was a rotating gear. The light from the compass shone on his face, and the contrast between shadow and light made him look extremely mysterious.
It was as if he was going through the transformation sequence that every magical girl must go through…
Alright, I could say that because the manga was drawing me. It was hard for me to have any feelings about this scene from the perspective of someone who was already safe. I was more like a bystander who knew the cause and effect.
In fact, from the reader’s perspective, this scene should look quite shocking. Whether it was before or after his hair turned white, the picture was very beautiful, a kind of withering beauty. From the soaring number of bullet comments, it could be seen that the readers really liked this kind of thing.
“Su Bei??? Su Bei?!”
“No? What is he going to do?”
“What a high-level array, I finally see Su Bei’s ability being related to destiny.”
“Ahhhh why did his hair turn all white!”
“Sorry but so beautiful…”
“Holy crap, is this a sacrifice? Is Su Bei going to sacrifice himself to save Zhaohua and Mingbai?”
“How could it be you, Su Bei, doing this kind of thing? I’m crying my eyes out!”
The breakdown of Jiang Tianming and the others afterwards was a bit surprising to me. I didn’t know if there was any exaggeration on the part of the author, everyone crying and all…
I could only say that feelings were indeed mutual. While I had developed feelings for my classmates in Class S, they had also developed strong feelings for me. This kind of feeling that could be called a two-way street made me feel a little complicated.
In the last scene of this plot, the camera landed on the place where he disappeared. On the ground, a doll that was seven or eight parts similar to him could be vaguely seen, mostly covered by a pile of stones.
Many readers saw it, and the bullet comments were once again in an uproar.
Seeing this, I raised an eyebrow, and finally had a real sense that the author no longer wanted me to die. If it were before, the other party would never have drawn this scene in the manga. He wished that I would be identified as dead by the readers.
But now, not only did the author proactively add this scene to prove that I was not dead, but the previous rescue part was also drawn very clearly, so that I was not misunderstood in the slightest.
It was indeed different. I realized that I had changed from an unwelcome accidental character to a special guest. A special guest in the author’s mind was a character who would generally not die and existed as an easter egg.
Good thing. I lowered my head and smiled.
The following plot had nothing to do with me, so I stopped reading. But even if I didn’t read the manga, I could still look at the forum.
Because of my role in the final plot, eight out of ten posts in the forum were discussing me.
《Su Bei is dead?!》
《Old thief I’ll kill you! The part where Su Bei died to save people, I’m really going to cry》
《Look at the doll at the end, Su Bei should have been resurrected by an item, not really dead》
《…》
After a brief look, I decisively clicked on the post analyzing that I was not dead.
《Look at the doll at the end, Su Bei should have been resurrected by an item, not really dead》
【SuBeiResurrectsThenChangesNameNo.0: Sigh, I still can’t help but sigh. The person most detached from the protagonist group dying to save the protagonist group is indeed very dramatic. But I still have to say, Su Bei is definitely not dead.
The last scene before the camera switched, in fact, already explained a lot. The doll that looks exactly like Su Bei should be Su Bei’s item, which has the effect of helping him resurrect once.
Actually, if you think about it, even if Su Bei has really been “reformed” by the protagonist group and has deep feelings for them, he doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would sacrifice himself for others. If the old thief really drew it like that, it would be out of character.
I think Su Bei probably knew long ago that he might sacrifice himself for the protagonist group, so he prepared a resurrection item in advance. But isn’t this also the advantage of the Destiny ability?】
【No.1: OP wrote a lot, I believe OP’s words】
【No.2: I support this, why are the people next door crying at a grave? Su Bei is 100% not dead!】
【No.3: The foreshadowing that the old thief left at the end was obviously to tell us that Su Bei is not dead. He was afraid that if he didn’t hint at it in advance, we would make a scene.】
【No.4: If you think about it, Su Bei is so cunning, how could he die so easily?】
【No.5: On the one hand, I feel like I cried for nothing, but on the other hand, I feel like it was worth crying over.】
【No.6 replied to No.5: The atmosphere was just so tear-jerking.】
【…】
【No.33: The resurrection item is so OP, I feel like there must be a big drawback if you want to use it. I remember that Si Zhaohua’s item before would cause him to lose his ability after resurrection, right? Su Bei’s one won’t be like that, will it!】
【No.34 replied to No.33: !!!!!!!!】
【No.35 replied to No.33: No! Su Bei can’t lose his ability, otherwise I’ll really cry my eyes out!】
【No.36 replied to No.33: What a devilish idea.】
【No.37: Resurrection definitely has a price, but I hope at least it’s not losing his ability. That kind of price would be too heavy, especially for Su Bei.】
【No.38: Old thief if you really design it like that I’ll send you blades (stare—)】
【…】
【No.72: By the way, don’t you guys think everyone’s reactions are great for shipping? I feel like I can write 10086 fanfics.】
【No.73 replied to No.72: Write! (hands over a pen)】
【No.74: Red-eyed Bingbing, Jiangjiang, Mingbai, little Huang, Zhaohua, I really want to see what the others will look like when they know this news. Can I see a red-eyed Feng Lan?】
【No.75 replied to No.74: Cough, although it’s immoral, I also want to see it.】
【No.76 replied to No.75: It would only be immoral if Su Bei really died, but we know Su Bei didn’t die!】
【No.77: Write an if-line where Su Bei really dies.】
【No.78 replied to No.77: Are you a devil? Send it to me after you write it.】
【No.79: Although death is the best cosmetic surgery for a character, it’s great that he didn’t die in the main story.】
【…】
【No.107: On the one hand, I hope Su Bei can appear soon to calm my heart, but on the other hand, I want him to appear later to give Jiangjiang and the others more time to be sad.】
【No.108 replied to No.107: You’re so bad, I love it.】
【No.109 replied to No.108: I’m a simple person, I just love to see this.】
【No.110: Su-all, all-Su have new material to write about again.】
【No.111: But I still hope Su Bei appears sooner. Only when he appears can it prove that he really survived, right? Besides, only when he appears can we know what the price of resurrection is…】
【No.112 replied to No.111: God bless the price is small, old thief my blades are always ready for you.】
“By the way, there’s one thing.” After reading the forum, I asked out loud in the empty room, “Can I still read the manga and use the forum in the future?”
It wasn’t that I wanted to do anything, it was mainly that without these things, the solo journey ahead might be a bit lonely.
The “Manga Consciousness” didn’t at all act like it said before that it might not be able to answer me at all times. It replied almost instantly, “You can, no restrictions.”
Getting this answer, I closed the manga with satisfaction.
Then I remembered something else. “So if the author didn’t want Wu Mingbai and the others to die, why did he design such a plot? It couldn’t just be to test me, right?”
“It’s not like that, but it really has something to do with you.” Anyway, everything was over, so the “Manga Consciousness” didn’t mind answering this question. “The cause was that he went to another author friend to talk about you, this uncontrollable character, and then that guy said that since it was the late stage of the story, a few characters should die, and told him to take the opportunity to kill you off.”
Hearing this, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Although I knew that from the other person’s perspective, this suggestion was not wrong, but the problem was that I was the one who was going to be killed off. No matter what, I couldn’t accept it.
“And then?” Knowing that the other party hadn’t finished, I pressed on, “Shouldn’t it have been just me who died? Why did Wu Mingbai and Si Zhaohua have to die too?”
The “Manga Consciousness” coughed humanly, “Cough, wasn’t that because you always managed to escape before? The author felt that it wouldn’t work on you. Then the two of them started to make a bet. After some farcical events, the final result was that the author would kill off a few more this time. If no one died, the author would win. As long as someone died, the friend would win.”
There was something wrong with this, right? I showed a puzzled expression. “It’s not that I don’t understand, but why would that friend think he could win the bet? The entire manga is under the author’s pen. Isn’t it that he can get whatever ending he wants? Even if an uncontrollable character like me appeared, it sounds like it’s just that the author’s skill is not enough, and he failed to grasp my character well, right? Does that friend really think that I am a character completely out of the author’s control and have the role of deciding the plot?”
“Ah, I don’t think I’ve told you yet.” Hearing him ask this, the “Manga Consciousness” had a sudden realization. “The writers in our world are different from the ones in your world.”
This made me a little curious. “How are they different?”
The “Manga Consciousness” patiently explained, “In the real world, whether it’s manga, novels, or TV series, independent works can generally derive a real small world. This is something that all authors know. When the small world is complete and stable enough, it can even be open to tourists for sightseeing.”
Hearing the word “tourists,” I frowned. If a group of strangers from a higher dimension suddenly appeared in my world and did whatever they wanted, I felt that this world might as well be destroyed.
Seeing that his expression was not right, the “Manga Consciousness” quickly explained, “Of course, tourists are generally soul-like beings that will not affect the plot. They can also spend more money to choose an identity to experience life at work. But they cannot affect any plot, otherwise they will be kicked out by me immediately. I said before that I would be very busy in the future, and that’s what I was talking about. I have to keep an eye on them at all times to prevent them from disrupting the manga world.”
Then that was no problem. The “Manga Consciousness” was reliable in major matters. I was very relieved with it watching.
Seeing his expression return to normal, the “Manga Consciousness” finally returned to the main topic. “It’s rare for a character beyond the author’s expectations to appear in a real world, but it’s not unheard of.”
Something unexpected happened, and I was greatly shocked. I had always thought that our manga world was generated by some kind of accident, but I didn’t expect it to be a common existence.
No wonder that when the author knew of my existence, although he hated me very much, he was not that scared or shocked. Putting myself in his shoes, if the character I wrote was completely out of control and didn’t follow what I wrote at all, I would be scared to death, okay?
Regarding this matter, the “Manga Consciousness”‘s previous explanation was that it had influenced the author’s subconscious, so that he would not feel too strange. But now that I thought about it, even if his subconscious was changed, he should have been very troubled, trying hard to get me offline, instead of being like the author who was hot and cold.
It was true that the reason the other party didn’t directly let me go offline was because he was afraid of a backlash from the readers, but in fact, the number of times the author really targeted me was not as many as I had initially expected. After failing twice, he didn’t cause much trouble.
The author’s control over the manga was not as great as I thought. After all, this was a real world!
In the real world, writing a plot with one person as the main line, and occasionally having some unexpected characters appear, was indeed an understandable thing.
In that case, it was normal for his friend to bet on me. It was reasonable for an uncontrollable character to cause any changes in the plot. This was also the reason why authors didn’t like to have such characters in their works.
