A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga

Chapter 25

Reading the thread opened Su Bei’s eyes—spectators, team stans, arguers, and even CP shippers. Truly a chaotic fight thread, a mixed bag of fish and dragons.

Even more shocked was the inhuman Manga Consciousness: “You were right…”

It muttered to itself: “I really don’t understand you humans.”

Hearing this, Su Bei grinned and closed the thread: “After all, you’re not human. We humans are just such ‘emotionally rich’ creatures.”

Having achieved his goal, he went to wash up in a great mood. There was a good show tomorrow, so he needed to sleep early to stay sharp.

The next day was Saturday, no classes. Su Bei didn’t have a habit of sleeping in and got up early for a morning run.

For the past month, only first-year students were at the school, and few of them had a morning run habit. The field had only a handful of people.

As usual, Su Bei walked over to Feng Lan, ready to run with him. But unlike usual, Feng Lan spoke first: “Did you guys find the culprit?”

He was always this direct.

“What makes you say that?” Su Bei didn’t answer directly, instead countering with a question. Feng Lan hadn’t been involved in the culprit hunt at all, so how did he know they’d found them?

Feng Lan didn’t hide it: “The school asked me to make a Prophecy.”

“For the culprit?” Su Bei raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised. He wasn’t shocked that the school would study the culprit—after all, the Black Lightning tattoo on the back of their neck couldn’t be hidden. Once the school noticed, they’d immediately connect it to the organization behind them. Wanting to investigate was normal.

What truly surprised him was that the school would ask Feng Lan for a Prophecy.

He was now very curious about what Feng Lan’s Prophecy could reveal.

Back when he created his Ability, to avoid clashing popularity with Feng Lan, Su Bei deliberately chose a different direction.

When Feng Lan said, “Something will happen at the start of school,” Su Bei sensed he wasn’t predicting for a specific person but a broader scope.

So he tailored his Ability’s prophetic aspect to focus on individuals, effectively distinguishing himself from Feng Lan without seeming too overpowered. After all, his ambitions were grand, and he craved more than just prophetic abilities.

Feng Lan nodded: “The school only said it’s an on-campus murderer, but I think it’s probably the one you’ve been investigating.”

The school asking him to prophesy was likely to learn about the organization behind the culprit. Su Bei was equally curious about this organization, so he needed to know Feng Lan’s Prophecy.

Thinking it over, he jogged forward and casually asked: “Will the Prophecy’s results be shared with the victim’s parents?”

If they could tell the parents, the other participants might also find out.

Unfortunately, Feng Lan debunked this: “Hiring me isn’t cheap. I doubt the school would share my Prophecy with others.”

Hearing this, Su Bei didn’t say more and focused on running. Though a bit disappointed, he wasn’t discouraged. After all, a Prophecy about that organization might be shown in the manga.

If the manga didn’t reveal it, he could still try prying later.

After the run and breakfast, Su Bei headed to the library. With his Ability altered by the manga, he finally had a concrete research target—the compass.

The compass was a complex thing. Through yesterday’s experiment and his innate understanding of his Ability, he’d grasped some aspects of the Destiny Compass. But it was obvious that such a intricate compass held many more secrets. If he could uncover them, forget Class A—he might leap straight to the mysterious Class S.

The Endless Ability Academy’s library recorded countless Abilities. Since the academy’s founding, most Ability users in Dragon Country studied here, so the records of Ability types naturally piled up.

Su Bei had been researching destiny-related Abilities before, but the category was vast and complex, and he hadn’t found anything useful, only picking up some new scam ideas.

The compass, however, was different—a very standard artifact-type Ability. Though artifact Abilities were numerous, they were clearly categorized. Excluding weapon-type artifact Abilities, he quickly found compass Abilities.

In the 200 years since the academy’s founding, only ten compass Abilities had appeared. And only one was tied to destiny or Prophecy.

That Ability was called [Destiny Compass]!

Finding this Ability, Su Bei’s eyes lit up, and he read eagerly, as if he’d found a treasure.

[Destiny Compass] was a prophetic Ability, with its prophetic power manifesting through the pointer. The user channeled mental energy to ask what they wanted to know, and the pointer would give an answer.

In Dragon Country, compasses were used for feng shui, with heavenly stems and earthly branches forming countless hexagrams.

The [Destiny Compass] Ability worked similarly to divination, requiring a full understanding of the hexagrams to accurately interpret the Prophecy.

But that wasn’t something easily learned. At least the [Destiny Compass] user back then never mastered it. By graduation, he could only use the compass to help people find lost items.

Truly a waste of potential.

But Su Bei understood him. If he had [Destiny Compass], he’d probably waste it too. Feng shui metaphysics wasn’t easy to learn. Without a teacher or textbook, it was fine if you were interested, but if you weren’t, it was harder than climbing to the heavens.

Luckily, his Ability wasn’t [Destiny Compass] but [Destiny Gear]. Perhaps through the manga, it could evolve further into the ultimate [Destiny].

Back to [Destiny Compass], through careful reading, Su Bei gained useful insights. He keenly noticed differences between the Destiny Compass he saw and the [Destiny Compass] Ability user’s compass.

The [Destiny Compass]’s pointer pointed to the direction the user needed, while Su Bei’s compass pointer could only point to a fixed spot—the direction of a significant event in the person’s near future.

“Can I actively adjust the pointer’s direction?” Su Bei muttered. He’d been focused on rotating the compass itself, never considering adjusting the pointer.

If he could, he might be able to change someone’s destiny!

But the prerequisite was understanding the meaning of each direction on the compass. Only then could he alter it as he wished. Until then, it was best not to mess around.

With a plan in mind, Su Bei closed the book and left the library. Just as he stepped out, his phone pinged with the same notification as yesterday.

He froze, almost thinking the culprit had escaped. But the school couldn’t be that incompetent, so he quickly checked his phone.

As expected, it wasn’t some dramatic culprit escape. Meng Huai had notified him to come to his office at 5 PM to wrap up the case.

Thinking there might be an argument, Su Bei raised an eyebrow, planning to give the protagonist group a little gift.

He spent the afternoon browsing the forum, mainly checking posts about himself. The forum reflected readers’ true thoughts, and grasping their minds meant controlling his future.

He soon summarized that readers liked his mysterious and powerful traits, and a fair number thought he’d be a villain.

Mysterious and powerful were already his goals, perfectly aligning with readers’ tastes, making Su Bei feel his years of manga reading weren’t wasted.

As for their hope for a villain, forget it. He had no intention of being a lousy villain—exhausting, stressful, and doomed to fail. Most importantly, if he went the villain route, much of his actions wouldn’t be shown in the manga.

But Su Bei’s goal was more screen time, letting readers better understand his fabricated powerful Ability. No screen time was no different from working for free.

Still, since so many readers wanted him as a villain, a purely heroic role clearly didn’t suit him.

Fortunately, Su Bei’s initial setup wasn’t a pure good guy. Being a good person was tough these days. If he had to be something, he’d be the morally ambiguous, gray-area antihero!

Time flew, and as 5 PM approached, Su Bei grabbed his phone and headed to Meng Huai’s office.

When he arrived, the other students were already there. Compared to him, a bystander, the involved parties were naturally more anxious.

Seeing Su Bei enter, everyone nodded slightly, but in the heavy atmosphere, no one spoke. No matter how unreasonable Sun’s Father and Mother were, this was about a life lost.

Though they’d been thrilled catching the culprit, once the brief excitement faded, thinking of a classmate’s death and now handing the culprit to his parents, no one could smile.

Su Bei could smile, but it was a mocking one. In his mind, he said to Manga Consciousness: “Looks like my death was the best. After all, I have no family left. No one would grieve for me.”

Manga Consciousness stayed silent.

Soon, Meng Huai entered with Sun’s Father and Mother. Knowing the culprit was caught, their expressions were decent, only looking extremely haggard, otherwise normal.

Seeing them, Jiang Tianming and the others’ eyes flickered, softening slightly. These parents had lost their child, so was their approach a bit too harsh? Before they could think it through, the couple approached Wu Mingbai, their demeanor completely different from that day, now overly kind: “Oh, we’re so sorry. That day, we couldn’t control our emotions. Honestly, we were just joking, not really expecting you to find the culprit. Who knew you’d take it seriously?”

Hearing this hypocritical speech, the trio’s faint pity vanished instantly.

“Joking”? Only a fool would believe that. If they hadn’t found the culprit in time, this couple’s attitude wouldn’t be like this.

A cold mockery flashed in Wu Mingbai’s eyes, but he smiled brightly: “No worries. I actually love joking too.”

Since this couple’s “joke” was forcing an unrelated person to hunt a culprit, Wu Mingbai’s “joke” was ensuring that when they left campus, their company would be reduced to nothing.