Chapter 252

“Don’t be so tense. Actually, our goal is the same as yours—we all hope the Nightmare Beasts can be completely eliminated. Now that the war has broken out, as fellow humans, of course we have to do our part.” As he said this, his expression remained as playful as before, making his words sound completely unbelievable, filled with a sense of nonsense.

How could the Black Flash Organization be so kind? They had hardly ever heard of them eliminating any Nightmare Beasts, but their persecution of Ability users was ‘renowned.’

However, Su Bei believed him. Since he himself was playing a similar role, he was naturally better at distinguishing what was a joke and what was the truth hidden beneath a joke. On the surface, Cyril was joking sarcastically, but the words he spoke were serious. Coupled with the fact that the Black Flash Organization’s goal was indeed to completely eliminate Nightmare Beasts, Su Bei chose to believe him.

However, he was in the minority. Like most people, the commander naturally didn’t believe what Cyril said. But she didn’t dare to openly turn against them. After all, judging from the strength Cyril and the other man had just displayed, dealing with their entire group would likely be as simple as lifting a finger.

She moved her lips and finally softened her tone, saying, “Thank you so much, but since the Nightmare Beasts here have been more or less eliminated by you, maybe you could move on to another city…”

She didn’t finish her sentence, but her meaning was perfectly clear.

“Ah~ You’ve got a point. We really should be leaving.” Cyril nodded as if in agreement. However, before she could even breathe a sigh of relief, the blond man’s tone changed. “But I don’t want to leave yet. We plan to stay in the city until the war ends.”

That pause almost made the commander choke. Her expression shifted from joy to anger, but she still had to suppress her temper. “The accommodations in the city aren’t very good. And this poisonous gas… we don’t know when it will completely dissipate.”

At this, she suddenly realized she’d forgotten something and whipped her head around to look at the city. Her words also reminded the others, and they remembered they still had a major problem to deal with!

In the short time they had been delayed, the cyan smoke was already about to drift into their faces!

Cyril and Li Xiang had, of course, noticed the smoke long ago. But seeing that no one seemed to be doing anything about it, they had assumed it was some natural phenomenon of Moyun City. Now, seeing their reactions, they realized it was likely a Nightmare Beast at work.

“What kind of Nightmare Beast is this?” Cyril asked curiously.

Li Xiang, who stood beside him, was more knowledgeable and blurted out a few answers: “The Mist Nightmare Beast, the Sleep Nightmare Beast, and the Poisonous Miasma Nightmare Beast all have related abilities. As for this one…”

He looked at the group. “You should already know what kind of Nightmare Beast this is, right?”

Although they seemed panicked, they weren’t worried, which clearly meant they were already prepared. Thus, Li Xiang made his judgment.

Sure enough, Jiang Tianming answered, “It’s the Sleep Nightmare Beast.”

At the same time, Li Xiang noticed that many people instinctively looked towards Su Bei. It was obvious that Su Bei had been the first to identify it. He immediately looked at Su Bei with great interest and gave a weak cough. “Cough, cough, how did you determine which specific type of Nightmare Beast it is? As far as I know, the three types I just mentioned have no significant differences in their abilities or appearance, do they?”

The Mist Nightmare Beast was a rather special Intermediate Nightmare Beast. It had no significant offensive capabilities but could create an extremely dense fog that caused some neurological confusion in those within it, though its effects weren’t potent.

The Poisonous Miasma Nightmare Beast, as its name implied, released a toxic miasma. Its ability was the most similar to the Sleep Nightmare Beast’s; even the reaction of humans exposed to the mist was the same—they would appear to fall into a deep sleep.

However, unlike the Sleep Nightmare Beast, which traded offense for defense, the Poisonous Miasma Nightmare Beast’s offensive power was maxed out, even though its range was smaller and its ability was easier to counter. The ‘Destiny’ organization’s records even had clear documentation of its weaknesses.

The poisonous miasma could kill anyone who came into contact with it within three hours. Even moving the person away from the miasma was useless; only by killing the Poisonous Miasma Nightmare Beast or finding an antidote could one save those affected. If they were to mistake the two types of Nightmare Beasts, Moyun City would become a city of the dead in no time.

This was also why Li Xiang had specifically asked the extra question. He had no desire to travel a great distance to save people only for them to die anyway, even if all the Nightmare Beasts were killed.

Moreover, the fact that Li Xiang could immediately deduce the likely identity of the Nightmare Beast from the smoke alone showed that he was indeed a knowledgeable person, naturally very interested in knowledge he didn’t possess.

“The Sleep Nightmare Beast only operates at night.” Su Bei sat on a rock, appearing nonchalant but secretly struggling to regulate his breathing so his voice would sound more robust. He didn’t hesitate to share the knowledge he had obtained. “Whereas the Poisonous Miasma Nightmare Beast generally prefers to use its ability at dusk.”

Before their abilities took full effect, this was the only difference between the two types of Nightmare Beasts. Although the Poisonous Miasma Nightmare Beast could use its ability at other times, it was at its strongest during dusk, with its power greatly diminished at any other time.

If it weren’t for a major intelligence organization like ‘Destiny’ backing him, there was no way Su Bei would have known such a secret piece of information.

As for the other difference, the Sleep Nightmare Beast’s mist only induced slumber upon inhalation, while the Poisonous Miasma Nightmare Beast’s mist was toxic upon mere physical contact. However, this detail was irrelevant to the current situation, so to conserve his energy, he didn’t bother to say more.

After stating this succinctly, he felt as if he was about to faint. Although he had recovered a little Mental Energy in that short time, recovering from complete exhaustion wasn’t so simple. He truly needed a long period of rest to completely replenish his depleted reserves.

“I see.” Li Xiang showed a rare expression of novelty. “I really didn’t know that.”

Because they were not familiar with each other, and were even on opposing sides, he didn’t ask how Su Bei knew this information, despite his curiosity. He wouldn’t get an answer anyway, and now was not the time to turn hostile. With a great enemy before them, it was not the time for internal strife.

Just as Cyril had said earlier, they had really come to help. The Black Flash Organization’s goal was to completely eliminate the Nightmare Beasts, and everything they did, good or bad, served this objective.

Therefore, everyone in the organization, even though they knew their actions weren’t always good, firmly believed they were on the side of justice. Some things just had to be done, and the long-term safety and peace of human society always required a ‘black glove.’ And they were responsible for playing the role of that ‘black glove.’

However, when a war like this broke out and the lives of a large number of civilians were at risk, they would also step up to join the ranks of those protecting the people. If everyone died, what would be the point of them eliminating Nightmare Beasts?

Although this wasn’t their only reason for coming here, eliminating Nightmare Beasts was indeed one of their objectives, and it was something they truly wanted to do.

“Um, can we deal with the Sleep Nightmare Beast first?” Seeing the cyan smoke getting closer and closer, the commander couldn’t help but speak up. She was terrified that they would all fall asleep; if that happened, it wouldn’t matter that most of the Nightmare Beasts had already been eliminated.

Jiang Tianming looked down at the ‘Targeting Gear’ in his hand. He had seen Su Bei use this ability before, so he asked with some familiarity, “Do I just throw it into the smoke?”

“Mhm, then just judge how to deal with the Sleep Nightmare Beast based on what it does.” After giving the concise instructions, Su Bei stood up and began walking into the dense fog. His back was ramrod straight, and if one ignored his slightly unsteady footsteps, he looked no different from an ordinary person.

Seeing him heading in the wrong direction, Wu Mingbai quickly called out to him, “Hey, what are you doing walking into the fog?”

Su Bei turned back and pointed to the mask on his face. “You should pay more attention to the academy’s point shop. The ‘Isolation Mask,’ which provides 100% gas protection, can be yours for just 299 points. You’re worth it.”

The S-Class was assigned missions frequently, so points naturally accumulated quickly. Su Bei was never the type to save up; he would usually spend his points as soon as he got them. After all, the things couldn’t earn interest just by sitting there; their maximum value was only realized when spent.

Besides exchanging for a large number of Invisibility Talismans in the point shop, he had pretty much redeemed one of everything he could. He didn’t care if it was useful or not; points were meant to be spent anyway. Buying all the items in advance was a way to prepare for a rainy day. What if he needed them in the future?

See? It actually came in handy.

After speaking, he gave a light chuckle and turned back towards the mist. “Good night.”

Protected by the mask, Su Bei walked through the mist unimpeded back to his lodging. He had been holding on by a thread the entire way, relying solely on willpower to make it back to the hotel. Sitting on the bed, he hesitated for a moment, then prepared to take off the mask and let himself inhale the mist.

Setting aside the dangers of the Sleep Nightmare Beast for a moment, it did have one very real benefit: it could truly induce a deep sleep. Disregarding the danger, this kind of sleep was very beneficial to people. Especially for an Ability user, deep sleep allowed Mental Energy to recover much faster.

Su Bei was the type who fell asleep quickly but was a very light sleeper; any slight disturbance could wake him, which was not conducive to recovering Mental Energy. In order to return to his peak state as quickly as possible, he planned to use the Sleep Nightmare Beast to enjoy a deep sleep.

However, before he could take off the mask, the ‘Manga Consciousness’ suddenly spoke up: “I suggest you take a look at the ‘Destiny’ organization’s notebook.”

Because it knew it had wronged Su Bei, the ‘Manga Consciousness’ would voluntarily give him small reminders on matters that didn’t affect the plot, occasionally acting as his assistant. Such reminders were necessary, as Su Bei wasn’t truly omniscient, and there were many small details he might not notice right away. And sometimes, foresight was all about a time advantage; noticing these details in advance would undoubtedly be a great help to his future actions.

Hearing this, Su Bei frowned and, fighting his fatigue, opened the notebook. He then saw a message from Wu Di— “Is that information about the method to completely eliminate Nightmare Beasts true?”

That one sentence snapped him awake. Why would Wu Di suddenly search for this question?

This information, which he had classified as top secret, required a considerable amount of points to access.

The process for exchanging points for information in the ‘Destiny’ organization was to first spend a certain number of points to search for a question. If an answer to that question existed, one would then need to spend more points based on the question’s level to obtain the information. If there was no relevant information, members could directly use points to post a mission.

But regardless of whether the ‘Destiny’ intelligence database had the information or not, the points spent on searching were non-refundable, and the amount was not small. So, ordinary people wouldn’t just search for things randomly. Wu Di must have learned something to specifically come to ‘Destiny’ to look up this question.

After a moment’s thought, he first gave an affirmative answer. As expected, the next chapter of the manga would be updated soon. At that point, the plot point he had planted would be set in stone, and the method to completely eliminate Nightmare Beasts would become reality. Therefore, there was no harm in confirming it.

After replying, he then asked in a seemingly casual manner, “Why the sudden question?”

Wu Di from the other side appeared quickly. Knowing that his identity was no secret to the organization’s leader, he had no intention of hiding anything. “A student happened to learn about the method to completely eliminate Nightmare Beasts. It was something I hadn’t heard of before, so I decided to check.”

Was it Jiang Tianming? Su Bei thought uncertainly, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead with a tissue. If it was him, the guy was certainly cautious, to have secretly reported the matter to the principal.

Looking at the sweat-soaked tissue, Su Bei gave a wry smile, a wave of fear washing over him. If he hadn’t played it safe back then and pre-filed this information in the ‘Destiny’ organization’s database, Wu Di would have likely used other means to verify it. Once it was verified as false, Su Bei would have been in big trouble.

Setting aside whether Wu Di could trace everything back to him, the author already wanted to write him off. He was originally supposed to be focused on dealing with the internal threat (the author’s meddling) after resolving the external threat (‘saving the world’). But if the external threat wasn’t resolved smoothly, the internal one would become even harder to handle.

Fortunately, he hadn’t revealed any flaws. Soon, everything would be settled, and then it wouldn’t be a problem if Wu Di investigated further.

Waking up, Su Bei felt a comfort he hadn’t experienced in a long time. Normally, sleeping too long would leave one’s body feeling weak, but because this was the effect of the Sleep Nightmare Beast’s ability, such a problem didn’t occur.

From this perspective, the Sleep Nightmare Beast was truly a treasure.

Walking out of his room, the outside had become lively again. Of course, to Su Bei, it made no difference. It was nighttime when he fell asleep, so it was supposed to be quiet. It was daytime when he woke up, so it was normal for it to be lively.

Although he was well aware that a full day had passed in between, that day was outside his perception. To Su Bei, he had simply fallen asleep and woken up again, experiencing two very comfortable nights.

And after these two nights of rest, his Mental Energy had mostly recovered. Logically, this much time should have been enough to fully restore his Mental Energy, but complete depletion was not the same as simple consumption. For example, if it took one hour to recover 50% of used Mental Energy, it would take far more than two hours to recover from using 90-99%.

Stretching his back, Su Bei heard the ‘Manga Consciousness’ announcement in his ear. As he had expected, the next chapter of the manga had been updated while he was asleep.

But that wasn’t the main point. The main point was: “Has the method to completely eliminate Nightmare Beasts been confirmed?”

“It has!” The voice of the ‘Manga Consciousness’ was filled with obvious joy. “The author will now actively design related storylines. You basically don’t have to worry about this aspect anymore, just focus on protecting yourself.”

Speaking of this, Su Bei’s expression inevitably turned grim again. He still had to figure out how to avoid dying, which sounded rather ridiculous.

However, he had been thinking about how to deal with it these past few days. Besides reacting to whatever came his way, there was another, more permanent solution: “If I drop out of school right now and don’t appear again until the main storyline is completely over, isn’t that another way of being ‘written off’? Would the author let me go then?”

For him, this choice wasn’t a compromise, but actually a better option. The only reason Su Bei had enrolled in the Endless Ability Academy in the first place was to get an ability license.

Now, he could probably get a license just by asking for it, and his ability had been strengthened countless times over. He could completely leave the academy and attend a normal school. Since he wasn’t even 16 yet, going to a normal school would mean he was only a year behind, which wouldn’t be a delay at all.

Just as Su Bei was getting more and more excited, on the verge of dropping out immediately, the ‘Manga Consciousness’ ruthlessly shattered his fantasy: “Have you forgotten your cannon fodder passerby status?”

At these words, a distant memory resurfaced in Su Bei’s mind. Right, when he first found out he was a cannon fodder character in the comic ‘King of Abilities,’ he had proposed the idea of leaving the academy immediately to avoid the plot and thus avoid death.

At that time, the ‘Manga Consciousness’ had told him that because he was a cannon fodder passerby, he would carry a ‘death debuff’ until the comic was completely finished.

This was one of the reasons he had worked so hard to stay at the academy and participate in the plot. Since he couldn’t run, he could only stay.

But that was the optimal solution, and Su Bei still wanted to struggle: “But I have decent popularity now, and you said before that the author has to pay attention to logic. He probably won’t kill me off so easily, right?”

“Then do you think you suddenly being written out would be logical?” The ‘Manga Consciousness’ offered an irrefutable explanation. “If you actively leave the main storyline, what happens next in the plot will be entirely up to the author.”

Simply put, if he stayed here, Su Bei could react to whatever the author wanted to do. But once he left, he would have no say in what the author drew.

Su Bei immediately dismissed the idea of dropping out and sighed, “Forget it then, I’ll just stay here. Anyway, from now on, I just need to look out for myself.”

Just as he had thought before passing out, if both internal and external threats existed, neither problem would be easy to solve. But if one of them was already resolved, dealing with just the other one wouldn’t be as troublesome.

He had to remember that he still had a powerful tool for self-preservation: the forums. As long as the plot was reasonable and the readers didn’t want him to die, the author wouldn’t forcibly arrange his death.

Given his high popularity, this wasn’t actually that difficult to achieve. Aside from a few extreme fans who were keen on their favorite characters becoming a tragic figure who dies young, the rest of the normal fans hoped their faves would get a perfect, happy ending.

If the author wanted to reasonably write him off, there were only two possibilities: either turn him into a complete villain, making his death deserved, or, as mentioned earlier, make him into a tragic figure who dies young.

So, what Su Bei needed to do was, first, maintain his high popularity, and second, not give the author the opportunity to create either of these possibilities. This meant he couldn’t always stay on the side of the protagonists; he had to at least spend some time on the antagonists’ side. When he was highly suspected of being a villain, the author wouldn’t kill him off immediately, as that would be an unresolved plot hole. But he couldn’t actually become a villain either, because then the author could justifiably have him killed.

“Su Bei, you’re awake!” After taking just a few steps, Su Bei ran into Lan Subing, who was returning to replenish her Mental Energy.

Seeing her approach, Su Bei raised an eyebrow. He had originally planned to head straight back to his room to read the comic, but since she was here, he could get information from her about what happened after he passed out. “What happened after I fell asleep?”

Hearing this question, Lan Subing walked into the room with him, a cheerful smile on her face as she said, “We used the gear you gave us and, just as expected, figured out a way to deal with the Sleep Nightmare Beast.”

Since there were no outsiders in the room, she naturally became more talkative. “After Ah Jiang launched that gear, it didn’t come back for a long time. Just when we were about to give up, it suddenly fell from high up in the sky, and we could clearly see the cyan smoke in its trajectory disappear. Ah Jiang picked up the gear and found some cyan liquid on it, and the gear was incredibly cold, no idea where it got that from. In the end, it was me who remembered my middle school science—that gas liquefies at low temperatures—and that’s how I figured out how to eliminate the smoke!”

She seemed a little proud at the end. After all, anyone would be happy to have outsmarted their two companions when it came to brainwork.

After hearing her out, Su Bei understood as well. The Sleep Nightmare Beast was likely very afraid of low temperatures. The extreme cold could liquefy the cyan smoke it produced, and it probably couldn’t do its main body any good either.

With his curiosity satisfied, Su Bei asked another, more crucial question: “What about Cyril and the others? Are they staying here?”

At the mention of this, Lan Subing pouted and nodded. “They really seem to be planning to stay here. They’ve already been here for a day. Since the Nightmare Beasts had already been completely wiped out once, yesterday was pretty relaxed for everyone. So we started dealing with those two. I’ve already contacted the outside, and it seems the Black Flash Organization really is here to help. It’s not just them; members of the Black Flash Organization have also come to support other disaster-stricken cities. The policy from the higher-ups is to unite all forces that can be united, to treat them well as guests, and to only be cautious with them when the war is about to end.”

So, unity during the war, and back to being opponents after. Su Bei could understand that approach. What he cared about was something else: “Since they’re really here to help, then logically, the crisis in Moyun City is over. Even if Cyril and Li Xiang are being stubborn, they wouldn’t stay, right?”