A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga - Chapter 336 : Chapter 336

Chapter 336

Taking advantage of the fact that the “Manga Consciousness” seemed to have a lot of free time, I decided to ask all the questions I was curious about at once: “So if I didn’t save them, what would the author have done next?”

Although I already had an answer in my heart, I was still a little curious.

“This answer isn’t very friendly…” The “Manga Consciousness” hesitated and didn’t answer immediately.

Hearing this, I sneered, “When has this world ever been friendly to me?”

Alright, that was a fair point. The “Manga Consciousness” stopped being pretentious. “He would have continued to find ways to kill you, and with greater intensity. The author didn’t want Si Zhaohua and Wu Mingbai to die. If you didn’t save them, not only would he have lost the bet, but he would have also lost two important characters. That would be losing the lady and the army. An author in a bad mood is not as easy to deal with as before.”

It was just as I had thought before. If I hadn’t been able to save them, then what awaited me would be a plot that went from difficult mode to hell mode. And the opposite was that once I saved them, I would be completely let go by the author.

“Then the next question is, what kind of bet would make the author gamble with the lives of Wu Mingbai and Si Zhaohua?”

Since he valued the lives of these two people so much, it stood to reason that he shouldn’t have used them as a bet. Besides, from the looks of that bet, the friend definitely had the advantage, right? There were three people in total, and only if one didn’t die would the author win. That meant the other party had a three-quarters chance of winning. What kind of bet could tempt the author to participate in such an unfair wager?

“It’s a world cornerstone.” The “Manga Consciousness” gave an unexpected answer. “A world cornerstone can make the world of work a reality, a place that people from the real world can visit and tour.”

Probably realizing that I didn’t understand the meaning of this, it continued to explain, “Although in the real world, all original works can generate a real world, very few can be used for sightseeing and making money. Putting aside issues like stability, the qualification for a world to be realized is a major problem in itself. This kind of world cornerstone, which can make the world of a work a reality and a tourist attraction, is controlled by a few capitalists. Even for extremely popular works, if they want to obtain this qualification, they have to pay a large profit to get the world cornerstone from them.”

Giving me some time to react, it continued after a short while, “The author of 《King of Abilities》 has offended those people, so it’s almost impossible for him to get a cornerstone. That’s why he didn’t really care if this world could continue to exist after the manga ended. It wouldn’t become a reality anyway.”

So that was it. This was indeed a very tempting bet. Even if it couldn’t be used in this work, it would be very valuable to use in the next work or to sell. But for that friend to be able to use a world cornerstone as a bet was also quite impressive.

I grasped a key question: “In that case, will our world be visited by people soon?”

“Yes, after this season ends, the author will integrate the world cornerstone and open the tour function.” The “Manga Consciousness” immediately replied, and then, as if presenting a treasure, told me, “Because you are not a complete manga character and have some connection with the real world, you can see those readers!”

This wasn’t particularly good news, but it wasn’t bad either. I also wanted to see what the readers from the real world looked like. “Then don’t forget to tell me when they come. I want to see for myself too.”

When this season of the manga ended, I should have already returned to the academy, just in time for the tourist visit.

The “Manga Consciousness” readily agreed and even offered an extra service: “No problem! If you’re willing, you can also interact with them! Anyway, they can hear you speak, and you can hear them speak.”

“That won’t be necessary,” I refused decisively.

Suddenly, as if realizing something, my eyes lit up. “Hey? Speaking of which, if they can come to our world and even have an identity to talk to us in the manga world, can I also go to the real world?”

Generally, a manga character wanting to go to the real world would definitely be because they were curious about what the real world was like. But I was obviously not that kind of person. I didn’t have that much curiosity.

The “Manga Consciousness,” which knew me fairly well, immediately became vigilant. “What are you planning to do?”

Getting the answer I wanted from its reaction, my eyes shone with a startling light. I curled my lips into a mischievous and wicked smile and answered loudly without hesitation, “Of course, I’m going to beat up the author!”

On Monday, Class S was lifeless, without any of its usual liveliness. Everyone had dark circles under their eyes, and their faces were as pale as ghosts. The swollen eyes of a few individuals could be vaguely seen, clearly from crying for a long time.

Si Zhaohua and Wu Mingbai were particularly bad. Not only were they in a bad state, but even their temperament felt more than a little gloomier than before.

They firmly believed that the people I said I was saving were them. In other words, I had died for them. The guilt in their hearts was greater than anyone else’s. They hadn’t slept much in the past few days, constantly searching for a way to bring people back from the dead.

There were many items that could revive a person at the moment of death, but there were almost no items that could revive a person after they had been dead for a while.

The former were called resurrection items, but they were actually more like a type of defensive item. The theoretical basis for their resurrection was mostly to perform various forms of defense at the moment of the user’s death, such as substitution, disguise, exchange…

In short, the essence was to save a person before they actually died, not true resurrection. This was completely different from resurrecting a person after they had been dead for some time.

The latter often required a great price. For example, the scheme of the old ancestor in Longevity Village was to sacrifice the entire village to extend his own life. It was precisely because of this that things that could resurrect people afterwards were generally called evil arts, which were not tolerated by the righteous path, and all related materials were destroyed.

But now, Wu Mingbai and Si Zhaohua couldn’t care less. If they did nothing, they would sooner or later be overwhelmed by guilt. If only they had been more careful at that time, or simply not so greedy and given up the mission directly, nothing would have happened to me.

Every time they thought of this, they were in agony. Si Zhaohua had even contacted Elvis to ask for a way to turn back time.

But unfortunately, even Elvis couldn’t turn back time for the entire world. He could only change time in a small area around himself. He was far from being able to do it on a larger scale with his current ability.

A familiar figure was missing from the class. Everyone didn’t even dare to look in that direction, afraid that one glance would bring tears to their eyes. A classmate who was alive and kicking just two days ago had turned to dust in the blink of an eye.

What was even more unacceptable was that this person was me! You have to know that I had almost never accepted their help, but instead often helped them intentionally or unintentionally. And I always acted frivolously, which made it impossible for everyone to judge my feelings.

Such a person, whom they all thought didn’t care much about them, had actually died to save them. Everything they had thought before was wrong! Every time they thought of this, everyone couldn’t stop the heartache. How could it be? How could the deviation between their perception and reality be so great?

Four days had passed since that day, and there was still no news of me. If I was still alive, why wouldn’t I contact them? Although everyone still refused to believe it verbally, they already had a bad premonition in their hearts.

I’m afraid I really am…

Among everyone, the only one who could be called calm was Feng Lan. His face was a little paler than usual, and his eyes were fixed on the door, as if waiting for something.

Just then, a refreshed-looking Meng Huai walked in. Looking at everyone’s listless appearance, he curled his lips, stood on the podium, clapped his hands, and deliberately put on a stern look. “Everyone, pull yourselves together. Who are you putting on this face for on a Monday? Are you even in the mood to study like this?”

“Teacher, we…” Mu Tieren, with swollen eyes, wanted to defend them, but he didn’t know where to start because he didn’t want to say that name. After a long silence, he could only lower his head and promise in a muffled voice, “We will adjust our state as soon as possible.”

He felt that the teacher was right. They should adjust their state and study hard as soon as possible. Otherwise, how could they become stronger and avenge me?

Although I had died for them, the essence of my death was the matter of eliminating the Nightmare Beasts. Therefore, Mu Tieren believed that completely eliminating the Nightmare Beasts would allow my spirit in heaven to rest in peace. And to achieve this, powerful strength was needed as support.

The others looked at Meng Huai with some confusion. They didn’t understand why Meng Huai could act as if nothing had happened. He wasn’t that kind of irresponsible teacher. How could he be so calm about a student in his class dying?

Could it be that because he was in the ability world, he had long been accustomed to the death of others, and had even lost his empathy? But that didn’t seem like the teacher they knew.

Qi Huang, who had been very sad these past few days, felt a little like standing up directly to refute him, to tell Meng Huai that they couldn’t possibly accept the… disappearance of a companion so quickly. But out of consideration for respecting the teacher, she still didn’t say anything in the end.

Ignoring their confusion and dissatisfaction, Meng Huai suppressed a laugh and coughed heavily. “Cough! A new week, a new atmosphere. Let’s welcome a new classmate.”

After saying this, he looked towards the door. An even greater doubt arose in the others’ hearts. Before they could think of anything, they subconsciously followed his gaze and looked towards the door.

At the door, a golden-haired teenager wearing sunglasses suddenly appeared. He strode onto the podium, took off his sunglasses, raised an eyebrow, and his deep purple eyes were full of smiles. “Hello, classmates. I am Su Bei. Please take care of me.”

“Su Bei?!” Everyone in the class almost couldn’t believe their eyes and cried out in unison with pleasant surprise.

I smiled and nodded leisurely. “I’m here.”

Almost the next second, the whole class surrounded me. Everyone didn’t care about personal space anymore and reached out to touch me, trying to confirm that the Su Bei standing on the podium was a real person.

Even though I was very generous, I couldn’t help but retreat repeatedly in the face of thirteen people’s groping hands. “Hey, hey! What are you doing? Touching my hands and arms is fine, but what are you trying to do by touching my chest and butt? Men can be shy too, okay?”

No one paid him any attention. Everyone was confirming in their own way. It wasn’t until two minutes later that everyone finally stood still. Si Zhaohua’s eyes had turned red again at some point. “So what exactly happened then? You…”

“Didn’t you see the doll I left on the ground?” Before he could finish, I asked with some confusion, “I used the ‘Life-Saving Puppet’.”

The “Life-Saving Puppet” was a very niche item. This kind of item that could resurrect people was generally very niche and rarely known to outsiders. But this obviously did not include Feng Lan, who had a long family history. As a family of prophets, the Feng family had far more life-saving items than other families, so they naturally knew a lot.

He immediately explained the function of the “Life-Saving Puppet” to everyone, but he only talked about its general abilities. Feng Lan was not clear about the drawbacks. It was impossible for him to memorize the information of every item. For him, a general understanding was enough.

After listening to his introduction, Jiang Tianming, who was at the scene, scratched his head in rare embarrassment. “Weren’t I too… too shocked at that time?”

At that time, his mind was full of my suddenly white hair and the figure that had turned to dust. He had no intention of observing his surroundings, so he didn’t notice that there was a doll on the ground at all.

If he had noticed at that time, with his intelligence, he would definitely have thought that I hadn’t really died.

After a brief moment of embarrassment, Jiang Tianming quickly laughed. “In any case, it’s really great that you’re still alive!”

Hearing this heartfelt remark, I couldn’t help but smile.

“Ah, Teacher, did you know long ago that Su Bei wasn’t dead?” Suddenly, Qi Huang seemed to remember something and turned to look at Meng Huai who was standing aside.

Meng Huai made an innocent expression. “I only found out yesterday. Su Bei couldn’t move before because of the drawback of the ‘Life-Saving Puppet’.”

Speaking of this, Si Zhaohua turned his head sharply to look at me. “That item can’t possibly only have the drawback of being unable to move for three days, right? What else is there? Tell us and we’ll see if we can help solve it.”

He himself carried a resurrection item, so he naturally knew very well that this kind of item could not possibly be beneficial without harm. Resurrection was a heaven-defying act. Even if it wasn’t a real resurrection, the price paid would not be small.

I didn’t intend to hide it from them. Anyway, that drawback was not permanent, only half a year. So what if I said it? Besides, I came here this time to talk about this matter, so as not to let the readers’ imaginations run wild and mistakenly think there was some excessive drawback.

“Besides being unable to move for three days, I can’t use my ability for the next half a year,” I said the drawback, and then talked about my plan. “So I plan to ask for leave for the next half a year and not come to school. I’ll announce my fake death to the public to prevent the Nightmare Beasts from coming after me for revenge. You guys better not expose me.”

I appeared outside Class S directly using an Invisibility Charm. Once the surveillance here was deleted, there would be no evidence that I was still alive. At that time, many Nightmare Beasts saw me die, and the “Life-Saving Puppet” would disappear after ten minutes, so no Nightmare Beast should suspect that I was only faking my death.

Next, I would have a full half a year of rest. To be honest, I was extremely happy. But in the class, I didn’t need to show my happiness. I was afraid that this group of unlucky classmates who would continue to work like cattle and horses for the ability world would have an unbalanced mentality.

Learning that the price I needed to pay was only having my ability sealed for half a year, Si Zhaohua let out a long sigh of relief. He didn’t think I was lying. After getting along for so long, how could he not know that when I didn’t want to answer a question, the most common practice was to be a riddle-maker, not to lie?

Although I had been creating a persona, everyone in the class could actually see through some of my essence, such as the fact that I didn’t like to lie.

Compared to the matter of coming back from the dead, half a year without an ability, taking half a year off, and faking death to the public were nothing. Everyone nodded indulgently and said that they would definitely help me keep it a secret.

Wu Mingbai, who was standing further back, pushed aside the people in front of him and walked up to me, saying very seriously, “You almost died to save me and Zhaohua, right? I’m sorry for making you pay such a big price. If you need me to do anything in the future, you can just say it. I will try my best to repay your life-saving grace.”

In the past few days, he had countless times asked Jiang Tianming to review what happened that day. He naturally knew what I said before I “died.” Although I might have just been joking and asking him to apologize, Wu Mingbai did not intend to take that sentence as a joke.

Si Zhaohua also came back to his senses from the joy of knowing that he was still alive and quickly followed suit. “Me too. It’s not just me, our Si family will remember this kindness. You can tell me if there’s anything you need me or the Si family to do. Within the scope of my duties as the head of the family, we can help you unconditionally.”

Of course, I wouldn’t refuse such a good offer. I was just leaving the manga, not leaving the world, so I naturally wouldn’t refuse to accept others’ help. Besides, this time I paid such a big price to save people, wasn’t it normal to get something back from them?

Not asking for anything in return was not my principle of doing things.

After thinking for a moment, I directly made a request without being polite, “Then the first thing I want you to help me with is to get the academy not to pursue my half-year leave. I refuse to make up the credits after I come back.”

Seeing him nod, Wu Mingbai and Si Zhaohua’s expressions both relaxed a little.

Then hearing these words, the two of them couldn’t help but laugh. They were really nervous for nothing just now. How could Su Bei be that kind of selfless person who didn’t ask for anything in return? But it had to be said that this kind of Su Bei was more familiar and more likable to them.

Ai Baozhu burst out laughing with a “pfft” and poked Si Zhaohua. “It’s your area of expertise.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll handle it.” Si Zhaohua nodded slightly. It didn’t matter if it was troublesome, he was just afraid that he couldn’t help.

However, Meng Huai, who was at the side, couldn’t sit still. “Hey, hey, I’m still here as a teacher! Isn’t it bad to openly discuss letting the academy open a back door in front of me?”

“It’s a reasonable request. I’ll handle it, Teacher,” Si Zhaohua said with a smile, quite officially.

Seeing him like this, Meng Huai shook his head with a mixture of anger and amusement, and finally stopped bothering him. As long as it didn’t trouble him, it was fine.

Completely accepting the news that I was fine, while I hadn’t left yet, everyone returned to their seats and began to ask some curious questions. The first to speak was Lan Subing, “Su Bei, did you know in advance that we would be in danger, so you specially prepared a resurrection item to use at that time?”

Just as they thought, I really didn’t like to lie. I shook my head and said honestly, “The resurrection item was prepared a long time ago. Your fate at that time… changed very suddenly.”

Speaking of which, I had forgotten to ask the “Manga Consciousness” what was going on. From the subsequent reactions, the author obviously didn’t want Wu Mingbai and Si Zhaohua to die, so why did he design such a plot? It couldn’t just be to test me, right? I didn’t think I had such a big influence on the author. Although the other party was targeting me, it didn’t really affect the plot.

Taking note of this question, I continued to answer, “After I found out that the mission could not be carried out smoothly and that the two of them would die, I could only resort to this. After all, even for me, my mental power was not enough at that time.”

“You can also run out of mental power,” Qi Huang said with emotion. She still thought my mental power was endless.

Jiang Tianming probably knew why my mental power was not enough. It might be because there were two Boundary Stones on their side, and there were four high-level Nightmare Beasts guarding the vicinity of the stone forest. Although he shared a part of it, it would definitely consume a lot of mental power to eliminate the remaining part.

Who knew what would happen later?

But what he didn’t know was that it was actually the protagonist group’s halo that caused it to consume more mental power to change their fate. He only thought that I had consumed a lot in front, and then had to kill the two Nightmare Beasts that were tracking Wu Mingbai and the others, and also had to change Wu Mingbai and Si Zhaohua’s fate, which led to insufficient mental power.

“So what are you going to do next?” The one who asked was Zhao Xiaoyu. She was very curious about what my plans were for the half a year I wasn’t in school.

The others also looked over curiously. The matter of not going to school had a great attraction for students.

Regarding this, I had actually thought about it seriously yesterday. “I plan to travel abroad. I originally wanted to go after graduation, but now is also a good time.”

The country where the protagonist group was located would definitely not be safe. The next half a year would be a period of frequent plot accidents. For him, who had lost his ability to protect himself, the best choice was to go abroad to take refuge and travel by the way.

Hearing that I was actually going to travel, a look of envy flashed in Zhao Xiaoyu’s eyes. She was not a fool. Of course, she could guess that the ability world would definitely not be peaceful next. If possible, she also wanted to go out to travel and avoid these dangers.

Unfortunately, that was impossible. Not to mention her identity as a student, just the fact that she had accepted the academy’s sponsorship was destined to make it impossible for her to leave freely at this time. She had to bear the corresponding responsibilities for the benefits she received. Zhao Xiaoyu was very clear about this and completely accepted it.

“When will you be back?” The one who asked was Feng Lan, with a faint reluctance in his eyes. This was already a huge emotional exposure for him. Although he knew that I would be back in half a year, he still couldn’t help but ask this question.

I didn’t find it strange either. I calculated the time. “Next semester, I should be almost recovered by then.”

“See you next semester then?” Jiang Tianming held out a fist to signal me. The others understood his meaning and also held out their fists.

A smile appeared in my purple eyes. I curled my lips and bumped fists with them one by one in a very coherent manner. “See you then!”

Author’s note:

Having completely resolved his own crisis, Su Bei’s main storyline has ended. Next is the afterword, which is the follow-up story of the manga’s main storyline with Su Bei as the main perspective. After that, it will enter the extra content.