A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga

Chapter 44

Based on previous observations, they all speculated that Su Bei had the ability to change fate, such as in the matches involving Wu Jin and Zhao Xiaoyu. However, this time, he lost—even though his opponent was temporarily ranked as the top first-year student—leaving everyone both surprised and puzzled.

Good question! Such a good question! Su Bei was stunned at first, but then a surge of joy filled his heart. With this question, his ability to change fate was now solidified.

What would you call this? Mutual assistance! They were helping him enhance his abilities, and in return, he would help them change their destinies. A perfect collaboration.

Though Su Bei was mentally celebrating, outwardly he intentionally put on a confused expression: "Huh? Why should I used my power before the match?"

Seeing this, Wu Mingbai teased with a smirk, "Come on, drop the act. Your performance is even worse than ours."

That line sounded oddly familiar. Su Bei thought for a moment and suddenly realized it was what he had once said to the protagonist group during his first fake prophecy.

Who would’ve thought it’d come back to him like a boomerang?

This guy sure holds a grudge, Su Bei thought, twitching his lips into a forced smile. "I don’t understand what you’re talking about."

Although he said that, his words were essentially an indirect admission that he indeed had the ability to change fate.

Lan Subing tugged on Wu Mingbai’s sleeve, and he understood, putting on an innocent face as he asked, “So, did you not want to win?”

“A clumsy attempt to provoke me,” Su Bei shook his head and remained silent for a while before replying with a half-smile, "Ever heard the phrase, 'a doctor cannot heal himself'?"

After saying this, he turned and left. The battle with Si Zhaohua had drained him, and he really needed some rest. To be honest, if the protagonist group hadn’t shown up to deliver him this gift, he wouldn’t have bothered interacting with them.

Watching him walk away, Lan Subing asked quietly, "Do you think when he said 'a doctor cannot heal himself,' he meant that he couldn’t or didn’t want to?"

"Didn’t want to," Jiang Tianming answered after a moment. "If he couldn’t use his power on himself, he could’ve easily used it on Si Zhaohua, right?"

Hearing his analysis, the others nodded in agreement. Wu Mingbai pondered aloud, “Then why didn’t he want to use his power in his own match? Could there be some side effects?”

“That’s unlikely,” Lan Subing shook her head. "Su Bei doesn’t seem like someone who would act recklessly. He’s used his ability on Zhao Xiaoyu and Wu Jin without hesitation, so there probably aren’t any significant side effects."

Indeed, while they weren’t entirely like-minded, they believed Su Bei didn’t have any ill intentions—at most, he just enjoyed watching the drama unfold.

Wu Mingbai’s eyes sparkled as he thoughtfully watched Su Bei resting under the tree: "Then maybe it’s some kind of psychological hurdle."

Meanwhile, Si Zhaohua had already entered the ring for the final match.

Those outside began debating their chances of winning, with both sides firmly believing their champion would prevail.

Not wanting to argue, Su Bei swiftly moved next to Feng Lan, crossed his arms, and watched the show unfold.

Without speaking, Feng Lan glanced at him. "Aren’t you going to ask me who I think will win?"

Almost everyone had asked Su Bei that question, likely because his ability was [Prophecy].

"No need," Su Bei responded nonchalantly. "I already know who will win."

This piqued Feng Lan’s interest. He knew Su Bei had a knack for accurately predicting the victor, but he didn’t ask him who would win. For someone able to foresee the future, the result wasn’t something he needed to know in advance.

Fifteen minutes later, Jiang Tianming emerged from the ring, carrying Si Zhaohua in his arms. Despite being covered in wounds, his face was beaming. "I won!"

Jiang Tianming looked more battered than anyone before him, with several cuts on his face, a tattered school uniform, and a few bleeding injuries.

The most gruesome wound was on his arm. It was clear that Si Zhaohua hadn’t held back in that attack; the gash was a full centimeter long, with flesh torn open and the bone faintly visible.

Si Zhaohua, in Jiang Tianming’s arms, was also in bad shape, with a few wounds on his body. Though fewer than Jiang Tianming’s, his face was pale, his eyes were closed, and he had clearly fainted.

Wu Mingbai was the first to react, laughing as he approached. “Well done! But is your friend okay?”

As he spoke, Ai Baozhu rushed over, angrily demanding, "What did you do to Zhaohua?"

She reached out, trying to take Si Zhaohua from Jiang Tianming, but underestimated his weight and almost stumbled, nearly dropping him.

Luckily, Jiang Tianming quickly reacted, catching Si Zhaohua in time and preventing further injury from a teammate.

To stop Ai Baozhu from lunging at him again, Jiang Tianming quickly explained, "He passed out from overusing his mental power."

Of course, he tactfully left out the fact that his final strike had been the one to push Si Zhaohua over the edge. If he admitted that, Ai Baozhu might have tried to fight him on the spot.

Lan Subing and Wu Mingbai stood guard on either side of Jiang Tianming, ready to intervene if Ai Baozhu tried anything else.

Just then, Mo Xiaotian arrived a bit late but chimed in excitedly, “Brother Jiang, you’re amazing! You’re number one in Class F! Why wasn’t I placed in Class F too?”

Mu Tieren placed his large hand on his head. "You can still apply to transfer after the midterm exams."

"By then, you’ll all be in Class A, and I’ll be in Class F. Won’t I miss being with you guys again?" Mo Xiaotian, for once, made a solid argument, then cheerfully added, "I’ll be waiting for you all in Class A!"

At that moment, the referee approached with the school nurse. After spending some time together, they all knew each other. The nurse was named Ye Lin, and her ability was [Fountain of Life], which allowed her to create a spring with healing properties.

Ye Lin handed a cup of light green water to everyone present. She had created this water with her ability, but the amount varied depending on the severity of each person's injuries.

After distributing the water, Ye Lin warned, “The water I gave you will only heal your physical injuries. You’ll need to recover your mental power on your own. There are still two days before the team competition begins, so take this time to rest.”

Once she finished speaking, the referee sternly added, "The results of today’s match cannot be disclosed to anyone. Violators will be disqualified. Relevant information will be posted on the official site the day before the midterm exam—don’t forget to check it."

After thinking it over and considering these students were the future pillars of the school, he added, “The team competition will include battles against nightmare beasts. You haven’t learned about them yet, have you? Be sure to look them up.”

“Thank you, sir!” Grateful for this inside information, everyone expressed their thanks.

The referee nodded and left with Ye Lin.

At that moment, Si Zhaohua, who was still in Jiang Tianming’s arms, suddenly fluttered his eyelids and opened his eyes, revealing his golden pupils. He looked around in confusion, and when he realized he was in the arms of his nemesis, his pupils widened in shock, and he began struggling furiously.

Fearing he might fall, Jiang Tianming reluctantly set him down. “Can’t you calm down for a moment?”

Si Zhaohua laughed in disbelief. Although he hadn’t fully grasped the situation, he instinctively retorted, “Who asked you to hold me?”

“If I hadn’t, would you have preferred to stay alone on the stage?” Jiang Tianming quipped, suddenly remembering that Su Bei had pulled similar stunts before. Clearing his throat, he added, “It’s the final, after all—I thought I’d show some humanitarian spirit.”

Hearing this, Si Zhaohua scoffed as he tidied his clothes, though he didn’t say anything further. His previous disdain for Jiang Tianming wasn’t just due to their clashing personalities but also because he had underestimated Jiang Tianming’s strength.

Through the earlier match, Si Zhaohua realized that he had misjudged him.

Although Si Zhaohua believed his defeat was because he had used his strongest skill in the previous battle against Su Bei, the fact that Jiang Tianming had forced him to use it in the first place was impressive.

Still, prejudices don’t fade easily, especially when he and Jiang Tianming genuinely clashed in temperament. Having lost the final, Si Zhaohua’s attitude remained cold.

Truth be told, despite being fully awake now, Si Zhaohua still couldn’t quite believe he had lost. Throughout his life, Si Zhaohua had never experienced failure. He had always excelled in every aspect, and this was the first time he had tasted defeat.

Ai Baozhu, who knew him well, was worried about him and shot a hostile glare at Jiang Tianming and the others.

Si Zhaohua shook his head, downed the healing water in one gulp, and after his complexion improved, he issued a new challenge to Jiang Tianming: "I lost the individual match, but we’ll definitely win the team competition."

He was a proud person. While he would be frustrated by his failure, he wouldn’t deny it. Those who couldn’t accept defeat were the true weaklings in his eyes.

However, acknowledging this defeat didn’t mean he thought Jiang Tianming was superior. He intended to prove his strength in the team battle and reclaim his title as the top freshman of the Superpower Academy!

"If I can win first place in the individual match, I can win first place in the team competition too." Jiang Tianming met his challenge head-on, unafraid.

The next second, Su Bei heard the notification from "Manga Awareness": "The latest chapter of [The King Of Superpower] has been updated. Please watch."

Updated? It seemed the author had decided to divide the midterm exam into three parts. That was undoubtedly good news. Su Bei could already sense certain changes within himself.

It seemed like his superpower had been altered again.

This strange sensation made Su Bei's eyes flicker slightly, and he took the initiative to say, "Now that the match is over, I’ll take my leave."

“Huh?” Mo Xiaotian widened his eyes. “Aren’t we supposed to be celebrating? We had a complete victory!”

That was true. Everyone in their group was ranked in the top ten, which was a huge victory.

Celebrate? Achieving current results with such useless abilities seems to be something that should be celebrated. But Su Bei had no desire to celebrate right now; he only wanted to go back and study his new ability.

If his guess was right, the only thing that could have changed at this point was the foreshadowing he had left earlier.

Maybe this time, he would unlock the chance to change destiny.

Noticing his reluctance, Mu Tieren kindly suggested, “Let’s celebrate later. I want to go home and take a bath first.”

“We still need to recover our mental power,” Jiang Tianming agreed. “No rush to celebrate. We’ve still got the team battle ahead. Popping champagne too early would be backfire.”

In the end, they all agreed to wait until after the midterm exams to celebrate.

Back at the dormitory, Su Bei didn’t even look at the manga. Instead, he immediately began to explore the new changes in his ability.

In front of the mirror, Su Bei noticed that the Fate Compass above his head had changed slightly. First, there was a new pointer alongside the original one, making it two: one large and one small.

The larger one had always been there, representing significant events in the owner's life. Ever since Su Bei first noticed this pointer, its position had barely changed, only shifting slightly whenever he successfully altered his ability through the forum.

The smaller pointer was new, and Su Bei reasonably speculated that it represented smaller events in the owner's life, such as winning a competition.

This matched what he had observed in the manga. After all, the larger pointer wouldn't display such minor events in detail, so logically, an additional pointer was necessary.

In addition, there is an extra circle of things similar to gears around the large and small pointers.

Or rather, it seemed that this space was specifically designed to hold a gear.

Following his instincts, Su Bei manifested a gear that had never appeared before. The patterns on the gear was spiral, and just looking at it made people feel dizzy.

This gear... seemed to fit perfectly, right?

Thinking this, Su Bei carefully placed the gear around the small pointer—and it worked! As he turned the gear, the needle above his head began to move.

Su Bei’s eyes widened. Afraid to make any rash moves, he cautiously returned the needle to its original direction.

He knew that the pointer represented the direction of fate. Now that he could rotate it using the gear, didn’t that mean he could truly change his own and others’ destinies?

However, it was clear that altering fate consumed a significant amount of mental power. Even with just a small movement, without fully implementing the change, Su Bei felt like half of his power had been drained. He figured that making an actual change would deplete most of his mental power.

And as for the larger pointer? Without even trying, Su Bei could sense that altering its direction would require all of his mental power, and even that might not be enough.

Keep in mind, he was a high-level mental power user!

Su Bei couldn’t help but sigh. That wasn’t even the worst part—the worst part was that he had no idea which direction to turn the gear. He had been too preoccupied with preparing for the midterm exams and hadn’t had time to properly study the Gear of Destiny.

But come to think of it, he still had another ability to explore.

Su Bei removed the gear from the compass above his head and rotated it, causing the needle to move once again!

In other words, as long as the gear had been placed once, he could always control the pointer, even if the gear was removed.

This ability, combined with his high-level mental power, was practically a godsend! He could discreetly use his mental power to attach the gear to someone else’s Fate Compass and retrieve it, secretly changing their fate afterward.

Hmm? Why did that sound like he was stealing someone’s birthdate to curse them with voodoo dolls?

The direction in which to turn the pointer wasn’t something that could be figured out immediately, and since he still had over a day to spare, Su Bei opened the manga to read the latest update.

The new chapter started from the third day of the individual competition, with the first match between Mu Tieren and Wu Jin.

The manga faithfully depicted the pre-match conversations of Jiang Tianming’s and Wu Mingbai’s teams. One side was full of mutual encouragement and positive power, while the other was filled with ridicule and belittlement, making for a stark contrast.

“Jiang Jiang really knows how to comfort people! With just a few words, the class president stopped feeling nervous right away.”

“Hahaha, Mo Xiaotian is such a joy-bringer!”

“This fatty is so annoying! What’s his problem with Class F?”

“This team is so cold.”

“Zhao Xiaoyu actually stood up for Wu Jin? My impression of her is improving a bit.”

“Maybe Zhao Xiaoyu doesn’t want to give up either?”

“The contrast between the two teams is so clear. Even though Jiang Jiang’s team looks weaker, I’d still want to join such a fun group.”

Probably because Wu Jin was going to lose in the next round, the author gave him a little more screen time to highlight his character.

Wu Jin walked onto the stage with his head down. His opponent was a superpower user from Class C. Being placed in Class C generally meant that one’s ability had some combat potential. Thanks to Zhao Xiaoyu sharing information earlier, Wu Jin knew that this opponent’s ability was [Corrosive Poison].

As expected, the boy immediately pulled out a bottle of purple liquid, taunting, “I don’t know how someone from Class F made it this far, but if you don’t want to endure the pain of disfigurement, I suggest you back off!”

He had made it this far purely by relying on this poison. Although he could only create one bottle at a time, he would mercilessly throw it at anyone who dared approach him. Once his opponent was in agony, he’d easily send them off the stage.

In a ring match, unless the opponent had invisibility, it was almost impossible not to get hit with something that size.

After winning six matches so easily, the boy was brimming with confidence. He now believed that being placed in Class C was beneath him—he was sure that even some of Class A wouldn’t be able to beat him.

As such, he naturally looked down on his opponent from Class F, assuming they were just here to hand him the win.

Wu Jin didn’t respond. Instead, he whispered softly to avoid activating his ability, while steadily walking toward his opponent.

Seeing that Wu Jin dared to approach, his opponent didn’t hold back, immediately hurling the purple liquid at him.

“Hissss!”

The pungent smell filled the air, accompanied by the sound of flesh being corroded. Although Wu Jin tried his best to dodge and lowered his presence while approaching, some of the liquid still splashed onto him. Fortunately, he used his arm to shield his face, so the corrosive liquid only hit his arm.

However, even that was enough to inflict excruciating pain. The poison had already eaten away the flesh on his arm, exposing the stark white bones beneath.

Sweat quickly formed on Wu Jin’s forehead as he clutched his arm in agony, barely able to stand as he collapsed to the ground.

His opponent, showing no sympathy, laughed with satisfaction. “You actually thought you could fight me? This is what happens!”

He moved closer, ready to toss what he believed to be a defeated foe off the stage. But as he approached, Wu Jin’s unharmed hand suddenly grabbed his wrist with a firm grip.

His opponent’s expression turned to shock. “How did you…”

Before he could finish speaking, Wu Jin used the momentum to pull himself back up.

“You dared to hurt my flawless skin? I’m angry now. I’ll take this victory as compensation.”

As he spoke, Wu Jin grabbed the remaining poison from his opponent and poured it onto his opponent’s right hand.

“Hiss!”

Even though only a little poison was left, it was enough to make his opponent scream in pain. Without hesitation, Wu Jin dragged his opponent to the edge of the stage and shoved him off.

Standing on the stage, Wu Jin looked down at the misty scene below. Then, with a calm expression, he gazed at the ground, his rarely-seen light gray eyes shining brightly. “Don’t make me get hurt again next time.”

When the story reached this point, the chat exploded.

“What the heck??? What did I just see???”

“Wu Jin is no joke...”

“That opponent was way too much. How can he treat his classmates like that?”

“Why didn’t the opponent fight back?”

“I feel like Wu Jin is hiding something.”

“‘Flawless skin’???”

“Is Wu Jin acting OOC(out of character)?”

“Look at those eyes! I bet if Wu Jin brushed his hair back, he’d be a total heartthrob!”

Even Su Bei was shocked by this development. Was this really the Wu Jin he knew?

It was clear from the manga that Wu Jin’s transformation happened after he collapsed in pain. From this point on, his body was surrounded by a pale gray light with a metallic sheen.

Su Bei guessed that this light was used in the manga to signify Wu Jin’s transformation rather than as a manifestation of his ability. After all, when Wu Jin used his power before, the light was gray but lacked the metallic luster.

And Wu Jin’s behavior was indeed different after the change—he seemed almost... narcissistic?

When Su Bei read the line “flawless skin,” he nearly spat out his drink, realizing just how much Wu Jin had changed. The old Wu Jin would never have said something like that.

Moreover, the manga zoomed in on Wu Jin’s eyes at the end. His pale gray eyes, usually dull, suddenly shone brightly for the first time.

It wasn’t just his personality that had changed—his ability seemed to have evolved as well.

Su Bei noticed something odd: after Wu Jin grabbed his opponent’s wrist, the opponent didn’t struggle at all. It could be explained as shock at first, but when Wu Jin poured the corrosive poison on him, the opponent still didn’t resist, which was strange.

And—

Su Bei zoomed in on the manga to see the opponent’s pupils more closely. Although the image was small, he could vaguely make out that the opponent’s pupils were... heart-shaped?!

Note: I'm really sorry if today's update translation isn't satisfying. I've been racking my brain trying to make the logic connect. I'll try to improve it later. Love you guys!