Chapter 119 : Chapter 119
Chapter 119
【This volume’s plot is hard to predict.】
【hot】【I think Jiang Cuo and Xie Chang’an are totally shippable! What a partners-in-crime duo. Even though they keep disliking each other, what can they do? Life still has to go on, and trouble still has to be dealt with together.】
【That old thief Yuexia Cao really loves Ji Qing. Is he especially fond of Ji Qing’s looks?】
【Even though this volume has been emphasizing how quick-minded Jiang Cuo is, I think Ji Qing is super sharp too. He turned the tables on Jiang Cuo with a single line.】
【hot】【featured】【I feel like that old thief is probably going to focus on fleshing out Zhou Que’s character background in this volume. Even though Zhou Que has mostly been used as support in the current plot, everything that happens and everyone they meet is closely tied to him...】
【hot】【I really love this volume’s cover! There’s so much information in it, and it feels so different too! Old thief, you absolutely have to draw more covers in this style in the future!】
...
Ji Qing gave the thread titles on the Manga Forum a rough glance.
Because the manga readers’ perspective had been following Xie Chang’an the whole time, they still did not know that Dawn Society would be making a move in this volume. Ji Qing could not help curling his lips. “Just wait until Li Yuan shows up in a few days. Then you people will definitely have something to get excited about.”
Still... Ji Qing shifted his eyes and mentally reviewed the plot of Volume 8.
He murmured softly, “Looks like there isn’t much worth reading.”
After all, the current plot of Volume 8 had only reached the early stage of “the four of them successfully form a team and successfully negotiate with the client.” The important developments were probably all in the later chapters. Ji Qing thought: then I might as well just skim through it.
【Topic: I feel like that old thief is probably going to focus on fleshing out Zhou Que’s character background in this volume. Even though Zhou Que has mostly been used as support in the current plot, everything that happens and everyone they meet is closely tied to him...】
【1L OP:
Zhou Que appeared pretty early on, but I always feel like it’s only in this volume that we’ve really come into contact with Zhou Que himself, rather than Zhou Que with this title or that title attached to him. If Zhou Que’s real personality is truly like what this volume is showing, then I think I can understand why Class S gets along so harmoniously.
Zhou Que’s maturity is, at best, on the level of a little brat.】
【2L: Isn’t he just a little brat?】
【3L: Zhou Que’s only in his first year of high school this year. At most he’s sixteen. Isn’t it perfectly normal for a sixteen-year-old kid to be arrogant and overbearing?】
【4L: Ah...】
【5L: By that logic, isn’t everyone in Class S just a bunch of little brats?】
【6L: Hearing you all say that makes me feel guilty.
I’m actually out here writing smut fic about a bunch of kids who aren’t even adults yet. Not only am I Producing Content myself, I even dragged my close friends into Producing Content with me too. (in unbearable agony)】
【7L: Please don’t feel guilty, creator.】
【8L: A wasteland high school is basically the same thing as our college. (emphasis)
So even if you’re writing smut fic, you’re still writing smut fic about college students. Does thinking of it that way make your conscience feel any better?】
【9L: Then what does Li Yuan count as afterward?】
【10L: A street drifter in society. (not really)】
【11L: An underworld cadre who never went to college. (not really)】
【12L: ? Holy shit.】
【13L: The way you’re putting it makes Li Yuan feel extremely criminal to me.】
【14L: He’s definitely an underworld cadre.
Our country might not have gangs, but other countries do, don’t they? Besides, the wasteland is a fictional setting. Why are you forcing it to line up with reality?】
【15L: How did this thread derail?】
【16L OP: I think it’s because of 《Ability Hunter》’s worldbuilding. I get mixed up because of it all the time too. But hot-blooded shounen manga often has high schoolers saving the world, so I don’t think that part matters much. Everyone who wants to Produce Content should just keep Producing Content. (rubs hands)】
【17L: Also, I think you have to add the condition of “having someone to keep him in line,” right? Even though Zhou Que acts overbearingly, Shao Huayu is still there, isn’t he? Shao Huayu and Liu Mu have probably cleaned up after Zhou Que more than once already.
Xie Chang’an would cry from envy if he saw that.】
【18L: Hahahaha.】
【19L OP: ? Does that really count as overbearing?】
【20L OP: If we were only talking about the earlier volumes, I’d also agree that Zhou Que’s style was overbearing. But in this volume, Zhou Que is at most just impulsive and straightforward. I specifically went back through Zhou Que’s appearances in the earlier volumes and found that he started reining himself in after the Team Competition.
Maybe it’s because he finally started taking Xie Chang’an seriously after the Team Competition.】
【21L: Oh, right.】
【21L: So does Zhou Que change how he acts depending on who he’s dealing with?】
【23L OP: Not exactly, I think. (hesitant) I feel like he’s just a very straightforward person. People he acknowledges can say as many nasty things as they want and he won’t lose his temper, but if it’s someone he doesn’t acknowledge, simply standing there is enough to annoy him.】
【24L: Hearing it put that way, he feels a bit like the Valedictorian.
The Valedictorian also has two different attitudes toward the people around him. It’s just that I don’t know whether Chang’an has become the Valedictorian’s friend by now...】
【25L: We’d know if someone just asked.】
【26L: Don’t. I feel like Chang’an’s heart is going to break again. (facepalm)】
【27L: Hahahaha.】
【28L OP: Also, I think the most likely development is that they’ve run into a friend Zhou Que had when he was little. The later plot is definitely going to tell Zhou Que’s childhood story, and it’ll also let me study exactly how he grew into his current personality. Hehehehe.
A personality that blunt must have come from a very unusual childhood, right?】
...
At that point, Ji Qing’s hand suddenly stopped scrolling the mouse.
The focus of that hot thread’s discussion had almost entirely shifted toward the shaping of Zhou Que’s personality, but unfortunately: Ji Qing had no intention of learning how his classmates’ personalities had been formed.
【Topic: I really love this volume’s cover! There’s so much information in it, and it feels so different too! Old thief, you absolutely have to draw more covers in this style in the future!】
【1L OP: Wuwuwu, I’m so touched. That old thief Yuexia Cao has finally given up his front-facing portrait shots that were so casual they couldn’t possibly get any more casual, TAT. Because of his bizarre hobby, every time my close friend sees merchandise or promotions for 《Ability Hunter》, she says, “Look, your Xie Chang’an.”
When Volume 6 switched to Gu Lingxue as the cover, she even sent me, “Why did your Xie Chang’an get Genderbent?”
Aaaaah, my dear friend! That really wasn’t Xie Chang’an!!!】
【2L: Hahahahahaha.】
【3L: I’m dying of laughter.】
【4L: Xie Chang’an got Genderbent somewhere without ever knowing it. (dazed)】
【5L: What? You can actually get this kind of entertainment out of it?】
【6L: Gu Lingxue is about to crack apart if she hears this.】
【7L: Gu Lingxue probably never imagined she’d end up being rumored into some kind of Genderbend Xie Chang’an, hahaha.】
【8L: I ran into the same kind of thing with that volume too, though mine wasn’t as outrageous as the OP’s. (laughing and crying)
Because I like reading physical copies, every time a volume of 《Ability Hunter》 finishes, I ask my dad to buy me that volume. But with Volume 6, the one where Gu Lingxue was the protagonist, my dad specifically called me and said, “Daughter, your Xie Chang’an isn’t in this one.”
At the time I was completely baffled, but later I realized my dad had been identifying the manga entirely by Xie Chang’an’s front-facing portrait shot. And the name Xie Chang’an is super easy to remember too, so my parents privately call 《Ability Hunter》 “Xie Chang’an” as well.】
【9L: Hahahahaha, that really is true!】
【10L: Chang’an really is an easy name to remember, and there are probably plenty of people in real life called Xie Chang’an too, hhh.】
【11L: Doesn’t that just prove that 《Ability Hunter》 has already developed its own distinctive style? Inside our circle, we call it “Ability Hunter,” but I feel like uncles and aunties outside the manga fandom probably just call it “Xie Chang’an,” right?】
【12L: Xie Chang’an has been forcibly stripped of his name.】
...
【23L OP:
Aaaaah, everyone, stop laughing already.
Come praise that old thief with me so he’ll keep using this style, aaaaah. I don’t want to hear any more little Xie Chang’an stories from my close friend.】
“Xie Chang’an is sold out.”
“Xie Chang’an is gone.”
“That boy in Xie Chang’an, what’s-his-name, he’s pretty impressive.”
Every time I hear my friend say things like that, I feel like my heart’s been stabbed several times. (pale expression)】
【24L: ? I feel like I just thought of something dirty.】
【25L: +1】
【26L: OP, do you... do you ship Xie Chang’an with anyone? Are you one of those purity fans?】
【27L OP: I’m an all-cast Friendship-Only Fan. (pale expression)】
【28L: The OP is suffering so much.】
【29L: You must’ve offended heaven in your previous life to end up getting hit in the face like this by accident in this life. And the worst part is that your close friend doesn’t even mean it. I understand your pain now.】
【That’s right.】
【30L OP: Refuse to discuss it! Refuse to keep discussing this topic! Come praise that old thief with me already!】
【31L OP: So far, there have only been two volumes of 《Ability Hunter》 whose covers did not use Xie Chang’an as the cover’s central figure: Volume 6 and Volume 8. Since Volume 8’s plot still hasn’t finished yet, I’ll first talk about the special aspects of those two volumes.
The protagonist of Volume 6 is Gu Lingxue.
The entire volume is about Gu Lingxue’s family conflict and her growth.
Volume 8, which is still only at the beginning of its story, is also a super rare ensemble cover with no clear primary or secondary focus. But personally, I think the plot’s emphasis should be on Zhou Que and Ji Qing, for these reasons:
Zhou Que’s childhood friend appears.
Ji Qing notices the client first.】
【32L: I think so too.】
【33L: A lot of people are guessing Zhou Que, probably because his share of the plot is relatively large right now. But I genuinely still have no idea how that old thief plans to draw Ji Qing’s plotline.】
【34L OP: Come to think of it, this point is also very strange. The situation shown by the four people on Volume 8’s cover is far too different from the situation of the four people in the current plot.
Right now in the manga, everyone is making a commission together amid noise and chatter.
Although a few small suspicious points do appear in the middle, the bond between everyone feels very strong. It really has that hot-blooded shounen manga atmosphere.
But on the cover, everyone avoids communication, and each of them is harboring his own thoughts.
That atmosphere doesn’t feel at all like what the current plot is presenting. It feels more like some kind of spy thriller, where everyone is hiding secrets from each other.】
【35L: Wow.】
【36L: OP, you read this so carefully.】
【37L: I agree with that too.
And I think if the story really does go in that direction, it actually works. Because Xie Chang’an himself carries the secret that “I am Infected,” and he hasn’t told a single one of the people present.
And Jiang Cuo’s secret is obvious too...
Based on the content of Ji Qing’s questions, Jiang Cuo should have been investigating something before he met up with Xie Chang’an.
As for Ji Qing...
Ji Qing himself carries the secret that “he falls unconscious under unknown conditions,” and on top of that, this time he noticed the client’s name first. Even if that part really is exactly as he said, and he specifically went onto the Hunter Forum to investigate the client’s preferences, his reason for doing so is still unknown.
And then there’s Zhou Que.
So far, Zhou Que seems to have the fewest secrets. But I still feel like Zhou Que’s reaction was somewhat off. Why? Because Miao Miaonian’s first reaction upon seeing Zhou Que was fear and awkwardness, and only after Ji Qing guided the conversation did he gradually return to normal.
It feels like something must have happened between them.】
【38L: You people are all amazing.】
Ji Qing frowned and murmured, “A little useful, but not really.”
Even so, there was one thing Ji Qing could be certain of: once the identity of “Ji Qing” was exposed in the future, and manga readers went back through this volume, they would definitely discover many fresh new angles. For example, Ji Qing knew that Xie Chang’an was Infected. Ji Qing paid attention to the client’s name because of Dawn Society’s mission. And Ji Qing was the one among the four present who held the most secrets...
Perhaps only on the day the manga finally ended—would the readers realize that the situation displayed on the cover was the true situation of Class S all along.