Chapter 219

Unlike others who were happy for the audience’s safety, Su Bei felt increasingly disheartened the more he listened. The direction was completely wrong; putting all the defenses in the hotel was quite something.

But whatever, this was standard comic book operation. If it weren’t arranged this way, how could the students naturally fall into danger while the teachers were still around?

Although the Exhibition Match wasn’t a formal Tri-School Competition, and its outcome didn’t count towards the total score, it was actually the most popular event in all previous Tri-School Competitions. This was normal; the Exhibition Match was inherently interesting, and the participants were all popular contestants chosen by popular vote. The combination naturally made it highly anticipated.

Zhao Xiaoyu eloquently explained the rules on stage. Simply put, this Exhibition Match was hide-and-seek. Without the use of props, contestants could use any method to hide.

The seeker and the map for each round were randomly drawn. A single game lasted half an hour, with a total of ten rounds, ensuring every participant got to be “it” once.

The final score was determined by a comprehensive assessment of the number of people caught when being “it” and the total hiding time when being a “hider.” A score would then be given based on a unified standard. The highest score would crown the “Hide-and-Seek King” of the current competition.

Zhao Xiaoyu even specially brought out the Exhibition Match trophy for everyone to see. It was a golden cat paw, about the size of a human head. From her movements, the cat paw felt quite weighty, and it was likely solid.

For the first round of hide-and-seek, Lan Subing was drawn as “it.” Her luck had always been good; in this game, the earlier you were “it,” the better. The earlier you played as the seeker, the more you could experience their perspective beforehand, allowing you to avoid many places a seeker would definitely check when it was your turn to hide.

The map for the first round of hide-and-seek was a two-story Western-style house, created by an Illusion Master using their ability. On the outside, the audience could directly see through the building to observe what was happening inside, but the contestants on the stage could not see through the structure.

Excluding Lan Subing, there were nine people in total, with five minutes to hide. Su Bei wasn’t in a hurry to hide; instead, he leisurely watched where others were going. Some hid in washing machines; some directly chiseled a hole in the wall behind a painting and hid inside; some simply used their flight ability to hang from the ceiling…

It was worth noting that because Zu Zong’s ability was quite unique and overpowered for this game, the method to catch him was also special. As long as the “seeker” could identify the room where he was using [Arena Ability], he would be considered caught, and there were three chances to guess the room.

This meant that if anyone wanted to hide with Zu Zong using [Arena Ability], they would have to bear the risk of being guessed along with him.

Due to Su Bei’s previous friendly gestures, Zu Zong, being mindful of his reputation, specifically asked Su Bei if he wanted to hide with him in the [Arena Ability]. However, Su Bei refused; he had his own hiding strategy.

When there was less than a minute left in the game, after everyone else had hidden, Su Bei leisurely adjusted his Minor Destiny Pointer and then hid behind a flowerpot next to the staircase.

It was fortunate that it was a large flower vase, tall enough for a person, otherwise, Su Bei’s physique wouldn’t have fit. However, even though the vase could conceal his figure, Su Bei’s hiding spot was still the most perfunctory of all. He didn’t even hide inside the vase, but directly behind it.

The audience in the stands also began to discuss. They weren’t just passively watching this segment; the Exhibition Match heavily emphasized audience interaction. In each round, they could guess who would win. If they selected the number representing the “seeker,” it meant they believed the seeker could catch everyone in that round.

Because both “seekers” and “hiders” could use abilities, the voting display on the big screen showed that almost 90% of people had chosen Lan Subing. They believed that with her [Word Spirit] ability, she could easily find anyone, making this a competition with no suspense whatsoever.

Indeed, that was the case. After the match officially began, as soon as Lan Subing entered the first floor, she immediately used [Word Spirit] in the center of the floor.

The range of her [Word Spirit] was not determined by the distance sound traveled, but by a combination of her Mental Energy and voice. Simply put, if Lan Subing wanted to control one person, she would use all her Mental Energy on that one person, and as long as the opponent’s Mental Energy didn’t exceed hers, she would definitely succeed.

However, if she used a loudspeaker to utter a [Word Spirit] command to all the teachers and students in the school, her Mental Energy would be split into many portions, offering only weak control, and it wouldn’t necessarily control many people.

It was worth noting that “split into many portions” here didn’t mean an equal division; in other words, the difficulty for Lan Subing to control three people simultaneously was less than controlling three people individually.

Back to the match, Lan Subing, using her ability in the center of the first floor, could only call out people on the first floor. However, if someone’s Mental Energy was particularly high, they might not be called out even with her ability dispersed.

To be frank, those chosen to participate in the Tri-School Competition all had high Mental Energy. If Lan Subing used [Word Spirit] in a 1-on-1 situation, there would be no problem. But in this dispersed situation, she couldn’t even fully call out a single person.

But this was enough; sounds came from three places: a cabinet, a chandelier, and a picture frame. Lan Subing immediately smiled and walked towards those three spots.

The three who knew they were exposed no longer hid. As soon as Lan Subing approached, they honestly walked out. They were Wu Mingbai, Si Zhaohua, and Huangfu Mingzhe.

After a cursory check of the first floor, Lan Subing proceeded to the second floor. As soon as she had passed the staircase, Su Bei quietly emerged from behind the flowerpot and leisurely made his way to the first floor.

Facing a cheat-like player like Lan Subing, sticking to one hiding spot would eventually bring you within her ability’s range, making it hard to avoid detection. So, a mobile hiding strategy like his was safer. With the boost from his luck, he didn’t have to worry about Lan Subing suddenly turning around and spotting him.

Seeing him slowly walk back to the first floor from Lan Subing’s blind spot at the staircase corner, the three already eliminated contestants were stunned.

“I knew there was something fishy about him not being in a hurry,” Wu Mingbai said with a forced smile. “I wonder what Ah Bing will feel when she sees this scene in the replay later.”

“It all depends on whether she can find Su Bei,” Si Zhaohua said logically. “If she does, then watching this footage later will just be a funny little interlude. But if she can’t…”

Wu Mingbai and Si Zhaohua exchanged glances, then tacitly looked away. If she couldn’t find him, and thus missed out on victory, Lan Subing would probably be furious.

Arriving on the second floor, a similar sequence of operations led to the discovery of Jiang Tianming and Wu Jin, who were hiding there.

At this point, only Su Bei, Shadow Girl Qiao Mu, and the duo from Houde Ability Academy, Zu Zong and Li Bowen, remained on the field.

Shadow Girl Qiao Mu was undoubtedly hiding in the shadows. Logically, this would be difficult to find, but Lan Subing was a cheat-like [Word Spirit] Ability user. Because the time taken to find the other few people was short, she still had plenty of time to find the remaining individuals.

So Lan Subing, without tiring, used [Word Spirit] on every shadowy spot. If there was no one inside, it wouldn’t consume her Mental Energy, so there was no need to worry about running out.

Under this carpet-bombing search, Shadow Girl Qiao Mu was quickly found.

By then, Su Bei had quietly returned to his original hiding spot at the second-floor staircase, while Lan Subing had begun to search for the Houde Ability Academy duo.

They were certainly hiding within the [Arena Ability] now. Finding them relied entirely on pure guesswork, so logically, they should be searched for last.

Having been classmates for so long, Lan Subing truly understood Su Bei. She knew he was skilled at everything, but his strongest point was pre-emptively avoiding risks, so she didn’t even hope to find Su Bei herself.

Finding him would be luck; not finding him was also reasonable. To avoid wasting time, it was better to first see where those two were hiding.

Throughout the entire King of Abilities comic, Lan Subing had the best luck; one of her initial character settings was “good luck.” Thus, even without any clues, Lan Subing successfully found Zu Zong and his partner on her third guess.

When the time finally ran out, Su Bei won.

When Lan Subing returned to the first floor, utterly bewildered, she saw Su Bei standing perfectly fine on the first floor, her face full of confusion. “I searched the entire first floor clean, where on earth were you hiding?”

One should know that she didn’t just search simply; she used [Word Spirit] while searching. Even if Su Bei’s Mental Energy was much higher than hers, it would be difficult for him not to reveal himself, especially since Lan Subing’s Mental Energy had increased significantly after the evolution of her Mind’s Voice a few days ago.

Jiang Tianming, who had watched enough of Su Bei’s maneuvers from outside, tried hard to suppress the corners of his mouth, narrating as calmly as possible: “He was always hiding behind the vase at the corner between the first and second floor staircases. Every time you went to one floor, he would take advantage of your inattention to go to the next.”

It was Wu Mingbai, being mischievous, who decisively pulled out the video he had just recorded from outside and showed it to Lan Subing.

Lan Subing: “…”

A little girl gently shattered.

A total of four rounds were held that morning, and Su Bei was only caught once. That time, Qiao Mu was “it.” Her ability was also overpowered for this game; as long as other contestants passed through shadows, she could sense them. And if they walked in large open areas without shadows, they were even easier to spot, making it practically impossible to hide. That round also ended with Qiao Mu catching everyone and achieving a complete victory.

All the morning matches concluded without anything special happening. Clearly, the Black Flash Organization’s actions would take place in the afternoon. While eating in the cafeteria, Su Bei didn’t know what to say. The author was quite kind, letting them eat their fill before facing real danger.

The afternoon matches quickly began. Since there had been no disturbances all morning, the staff had relaxed somewhat, with many believing they had successfully disrupted the enemy’s plans, causing them to abandon their attack.

Just as most people lowered their guard, the Black Flash Organization finally made its move. The platforms beneath the surrounding audience stands were suddenly breached, and black-clad figures surged out, heading straight for the arena.

What was astonishing was that these people were all completely ordinary. As they jumped from the high platforms onto the arena, blood splattered everywhere, and each one fell into an unconscious state, their lives unknown.

Such a bloody scene startled everyone present. Jiang Tianming and a few others from Endless Ability Academy were relatively fine; although they hadn’t witnessed such gore before, they had experienced more things and had a higher tolerance for blood.

The others were less composed. Zu Zong screamed and recoiled, almost instantly shrinking into a corner of the arena. Li Bowen fell to the ground in fright, then immediately scrambled up, cautiously looking around. Qiao Mu covered her mouth, suppressing the urge to vomit. Huangfu Mingzhe’s face also turned pale, but seeing Si Zhaohua and the others standing their ground, he forced himself not to retreat.

The positions where the black-clad figures fell were clearly intentional. As each one landed, the flowing blood emitted a faint red glow, then gathered to form a blood-red magic array. The array emitted a dazzling red light, and subsequently, two more people appeared on the arena.

One of the two was an acquaintance, Cyril, who had appeared at Alpha Ability Academy. The other was unfamiliar: black hair, red eyes, a face as pale as paper, sunken cheeks, looking so weak he seemed on the verge of death.

“Yo~ Long time no see!” Seeing Jiang Tianming and a few other acquaintances, Cyril grinned and greeted them. At first glance, he seemed like a cheerful older brother.

However, the moment they saw him, Jiang Tianming and others who knew his identity felt their hearts sink. This guy was a member of the Black Flash Organization and possessed the extremely powerful [Cellular Erosion] ability. His appearance here was unsettling, no matter how they looked at it.

“Stop wasting time, let’s get on with it,” the black-haired man said, glancing at him weakly, a hint of impatience in his voice.

Hearing this, Cyril pouted: “Li Xiang, you’re just too rigid. We finally meet acquaintances, and you’re rushing me to say hello, it’s really annoying.”

After speaking, he didn’t delay further, snapping his fingers: “‘Cellular Erosion!’”

The next second, everyone, including Su Bei, felt a subtle change in their bodies. But he couldn’t pinpoint what the change was, only that he had a very bad feeling.

Using his ability to check everyone’s Destiny Compass, Su Bei saw that all their Major Destiny Pointers were on the “sick” position. Clearly, Cyril’s ability had taken effect.

Cyril got straight to the point: “Your cells have been altered by me. In less than twenty minutes, all of you will die. If you are willing to submit to our Black Flash Organization, I can give you the antidote. But if not—”

He chuckled softly: “Those people outside won’t be able to get in to save you within twenty minutes.”

As soon as these words were uttered, everyone’s expressions darkened. Their previous physical sensations told them Cyril’s words were likely true; their bodies were indeed experiencing problems.

Su Bei’s surprise was hard to conceal. This time, the Black Flash Organization was so blunt and brutal, directly attacking them with a “submit or die” ultimatum. It seemed the organization’s leader was impatient, no longer wanting them to escape repeatedly, so they had directly deployed a killing move.

No wonder Mo Xiaotian reacted that way yesterday; he clearly knew that Jiang Tianming and the others would never choose to submit. After being kidnapped and threatened so many times, if they could still join the Black Flash Organization, they wouldn’t be called the protagonist group.

“What, what does that mean?” Zu Zong, unaware of the backstory, shivered in the corner. “Submit to whom? Who exactly are you people?!”

“Perhaps you’ve heard of the Black Flash Organization?” Cyril smiled elegantly.

Zu Zong had clearly heard of it. Not just him, but other students not from Endless Ability Academy also changed their expressions upon hearing the name. As the country’s largest villain organization, as Ability users, they would periodically hear bits of related news.

Moreover, the Black Flash Organization didn’t only target Ability users from Endless Ability Academy; other academies had also been troubled by them. In fact, precisely because they lacked a protagonist group, other academies had, to varying degrees, lost some students or even teachers due to their actions.

Everyone deeply detested such an organization with a history of accumulated evil deeds.

“I will absolutely never join you,” Huangfu Mingzhe declared first. Even though he knew his life was threatened, he remained arrogant. “No matter what happens to me in the end, prepare to face the wrath of the Huangfu family! The Huangfu family will absolutely not let you off!”

Cyril wasn’t angered by his words. He simply patiently persuaded them with a good-natured demeanor: “Then you can only wait here to die. Unless I lift my ability, you will inevitably die within twenty minutes. I warmly welcome anyone present who is willing to join our Black Flash Organization. Even if you don’t care about your own lives, you should think about your families, shouldn’t you? How heartbroken would they be to know you threw away your lives just for a moment of pride?”

“They would be heartbroken if they knew we joined the Black Flash Organization!” Si Zhaohua retorted without hesitation. Then, with a spread of his wings, he took directly to the air. He intended to escape from here first!

Leaving alone wasn’t because Si Zhaohua intended to abandon his teammates. Instead, he knew that the most important thing right now was for someone to get out and let the doctors outside study their physical condition.

Even if the others remained there, Cyril and his companion wouldn’t attack them. After all, they had already deployed their killing move, so there was no need for further action, and thus no need to worry about the safety of the others.

However, just by looking at Cyril’s calm expression, everyone knew Si Zhaohua wouldn’t escape. Sure enough, he hadn’t flown far before he directly slammed into a transparent barrier, forced to descend. The entire arena was enveloped by the barrier, leaving him no chance of escape.

Now there was nothing they could do. Everyone’s gaze simultaneously turned towards outside the arena, hoping the teachers would hurry to rescue them. Although Cyril said they couldn’t get in within twenty minutes, what if?

Su Bei, however, wasn’t anxious. He knew that with the protagonist group present, things definitely wouldn’t spiral out of control. But honestly, at the moment, he didn’t know how to save himself. Unless Cyril changed his mind and let them go within twenty minutes, they were utterly helpless against the cellular changes.

As for relying on Meng Huai and the others to break in and rescue them within the allotted time, if they really did, it wouldn’t be a shounen manga anymore. Shounen manga was about a group of youths saving the world, something Su Bei had long grown accustomed to.

The others, unaware they were living in a comic world, naturally still held hope for the teachers. To stall for time until the teachers arrived, Jiang Tianming began to play the emotional card with Cyril. After all, they knew Cyril’s story: since he joined the Black Flash Organization to avenge a friend, he should at least respect his friend’s wish to save lives and heal the injured, right? His slaughter here completely went against his friend’s intentions.

Unfortunately, Cyril was unmoved. He had indeed joined “Black Flash” initially to avenge his friend. But later, he truly believed the leader’s idea was correct: sacrificing some individuals to make the entire world better was worthwhile. If he wanted to go back, he would have done so much earlier, back at Alpha Ability Academy. Why wait until now?

While they talked, Su Bei was contemplating what Li Xiang, the black-haired man, ’s ability was. He must have been brought here for an important purpose, but so far, it had only been Cyril acting and speaking. Li Xiang couldn’t simply be here to supervise his companion, could he?

What exactly was his ability?

Just as most people were at their wits’ end, Huangfu Mingzhe finally couldn’t sit still. He activated his ability: “Even if I’m going to die, I’ll drag you down with me! Dream on if you want me to submit!”

With that, he directly launched an attack on Cyril.

He did have a point. They were going to die anyway, so instead of passively waiting for death here and wasting their abilities, it was better to fight one last time before dying and see if they could drag the culprits down with them.

Thinking this, the eyes of the previously somewhat desperate crowd ignited with fierce flames, and they collectively launched an attack on Cyril and Li Xiang.

Of course, Su Bei was not among them. He was observing where the turning point might be. He didn’t believe that just a few of them could truly defeat Cyril and Li Xiang. Those two were probably elites of the Black Flash Organization, just like Meng Huai. A few students alone were likely far from enough.

If this were the final decisive battle, they might have a chance to perform beyond their usual limits and defeat the main villains. But the problem was, it certainly wasn’t that time yet, so the turning point lay elsewhere.

While he was thinking, the fight on Jiang Tianming’s side was growing more intense. Cyril likely didn’t want to damage the cellular structures he had already altered, so he didn’t use his ability throughout. Nevertheless, his strength was still not to be underestimated. His absolute suppression in speed and power, combined with extremely high physical defense, left everyone helpless against him.

Su Bei finally gained some understanding of Li Xiang’s ability: he could likely control corpses. One corpse after another was summoned by him, and without him needing to act directly, they fought back and forth with Jiang Tianming and the others purely on instinct.

The reason these “people” could be identified as corpses was because of the faint stench of decay emanating from them, their cold bodies, their mindless expressions, and the absence of any discernible breathing…

But this wasn’t the most terrifying part; the most terrifying thing was that these corpses could actually use abilities. The abilities they possessed weren’t very strong, but the mere fact that they had abilities was already terrifying.

Only then did Su Bei understand why the Black Flash Organization had suddenly decided to take their lives. Originally, they had always tried to kidnap the group to take them back for research, but now with Li Xiang, even if they died, their corpses could still be used for research.

Although this was certainly less valuable for research than when they were alive, given how many times they had failed to capture them alive, the Black Flash Organization probably didn’t care about that slight difference in research value. As long as they could be used, that was good enough.