Chapter 253

Forget Cyril; he genuinely seemed like the type of person who would defy the organization’s orders and stay behind just to annoy them. But Li Xiang was clearly not that kind of person! He obviously hadn’t been angered by the commander’s attitude earlier, and even if he had been, he would have remained rational. If the organization had other arrangements, he would have certainly left.

And considering the current tense situation, the Black Flash Organization would not possibly let two powerful Ability users slack off here. After the Moyun City issue was resolved, they would surely be assigned new missions.

So, there was only one possibility that could make them stay here—the next mission the Black Flash Organization gave them was also in Moyun City.

Evidently, Lan Subing had also thought of this from his words, her brow furrowing tightly. “They insist on staying here, could they be plotting something? Speaking of which, our class has a full four people here. They might actually be tempted.”

Having been targeted by the Black Flash Organization countless times, it was hard for Lan Subing to have any positive feelings toward them. Even though they were currently helping humanity fight against the Nightmare Beasts, this world shouldn’t be a place where one can simply drop the butcher’s knife and become a saint. The evil deeds they committed in the past were real, and what’s more, the Black Flash Organization had no intention of changing its ways in the future. A temporary alignment of interests was not enough for her to let down her guard.

Su Bei shared this concern, which was why he gave the advance warning. However, he felt there was another possibility. “Does the Black Flash Organization have any Prophecy-type Ability users? Could it be that they knew in advance that the situation in Moyun City wasn’t over?”

That was indeed a real possibility. After all, the Sleep Nightmare Beast was quite rare; otherwise, most Ability users wouldn’t be clueless about how to deal with it. For the Nightmare Beasts to dispatch such a rare and powerful creature to coordinate the attack on Moyun City, it was highly likely that there was something in Moyun City that they wanted.

“What are you guys talking about?” As they were speaking, Jiang Tianming and Wu Mingbai pushed the door open and entered. Since they had worked all day yesterday, they had ample rest time today. They came back to rest immediately after their shift ended.

Lan Subing quickly recounted what they had just discussed, then asked with some worry, “I have a feeling Moyun City is very unsafe. Should we tell the teachers in advance and ask them to send more reinforcements?”

Whether Cyril and Li Xiang’s decision to stay was due to a plot by the Black Flash Organization or the Nightmare Beasts, it was enough to indicate that Moyun City would not be peaceful. The Ability users currently in the city might not be enough to weather the crisis. It would be better to seek support in advance to get through it.

“That’s not likely to work. Our reasons are insufficient.” Jiang Tianming shook his head in refusal. “The Ability World is already short-staffed as it is. They probably won’t agree.”

Without any evidence, anything they reported would just be their own speculation. If there were enough personnel, the higher-ups might send people to stand guard out of caution.

But right now, manpower was already stretched thin. Unless there was concrete evidence, the government wouldn’t possibly dispatch people over a mere guess.

Lan Subing sighed. “Then what should we do?”

“We’ll face whatever comes our way.” Wu Mingbai shrugged, sitting down beside her. “We’ve survived every crisis that’s come our way. Are we supposed to be afraid this time?”

Jiang Tianming had the same thought. Kids of this age, boys and girls alike, always had a surprising amount of self-confidence, believing they were special. Not to mention, these few had indeed gone through countless hardships and were the true protagonists of the world.

But before he could speak, Jiang Tianming noticed Su Bei’s strange expression. He asked with amusement, “What’s with that face?”

“Have you guys never thought about running away?” Su Bei asked, at a loss for words. “When the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up. We’re still just students.”

One could only say that these three were protagonists through and through, only thinking about how to deal with the impending crisis. Su Bei, on the other hand, was thinking about immediately applying for a transfer out of Moyun City. Getting the government to send reinforcements would be difficult, but getting himself transferred out wouldn’t be.

Honestly, if it weren’t for the mess the manga author had created, Su Bei, having practically completed his world-saving mission, would have applied for a transfer out of Moyun City immediately. As he had just said, he was only in his first year of high school; he shouldn’t be required to face every danger.

But now, that was out of the question. It was a rare opportunity to be assigned with the protagonist group, and Su Bei needed to see if there was a chance to boost his own popularity or lay some groundwork for the future.

Hearing his words, the three of them looked at each other, speechless. They really hadn’t thought about running away. Jiang Tianming seemed to radiate a golden light born of righteousness. “Being an Ability user is a life lived on the edge. From the day I became one, I never planned on being afraid of trouble.”

He was lying. He wasn’t afraid of trouble even before he became an Ability user. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have persisted in investigating the cause of his academy director mother’s death despite repeated life threats from the first season’s main villain.

Wu Mingbai said with some displeasure, “We don’t think our abilities are weaker than those of adult Ability users. Why can they do it but we can’t?”

The two of them had spoken Lan Subing’s mind. She nodded vigorously, and just as she was about to voice her agreement, she seemed to remember something and looked at Su Bei suspiciously. “You’re not planning to slip away, are you?”

At this, the other two also turned their gazes to Su Bei in unison. Although it was human nature to choose to flee in the face of danger, and they didn’t expect everyone to be like them—otherwise, why would the three of them, of all people, become best friends?

But if this person was Su Bei, then it was a different matter. With his strength, he wouldn’t encounter any danger at all. His desire to leave was purely out of laziness.

If it were a powerful but unfamiliar Ability user doing this, Jiang Tianming and the others wouldn’t say anything. Everyone has their own way of living. Although they demanded of themselves to face danger head-on, they would never demand the same of others, even if it might not be dangerous at all for that person.

But who could Su Bei blame but himself for being their friend? What were friends for if not to be ‘used’ at times like this?

“It’s not like we’re only meeting here. We still have two more years together at the academy,” Jiang Tianming threatened calmly.

Wu Mingbai smiled brightly. “How could Su Bei possibly leave? We’re here watching, aren’t we?”

Su Bei: “…”

He hadn’t said a single word, yet these three were already playing their trump cards. What else could he say? He could only roll his eyes helplessly. “Fine, I won’t go. Happy now?”

No matter how unreliable he usually was, he had never broken a promise he had made. The three of them nodded in satisfaction, then promptly ignored Su Bei and went back to discussing the previous matter.

Having been abandoned after he’d served his purpose, Su Bei shook his head, returned to his bed, and took out his phone to catch up on the manga updates from while he was unconscious.

The manga started from when they arrived in Moyun City, with a heavy focus on depicting the terrifying scene of the Nightmare Beast siege.

Just as Su Bei had thought when he saw it in person, the manga author had indeed composed the scene based on a zombie siege, making it look quite terrifying.

After showcasing Lan Subing’s highlight moment of controlling all the low-tier Nightmare Beasts by herself, the camera shifted to other cities, telling the stories of the other two squads.

Su Bei generally had little interest in plots that didn’t involve the main storyline on his first read-through, so he quickly flipped through the pages. Soon, the plot returned to them. After all, with all three protagonists present, their storyline was the most extensive.

And Su Bei was happily riding the coattails of the protagonist group’s popularity.

The time jumped to the second night, the day the Sleep Nightmare Beast made its move. To Su Bei’s surprise, his act of going out at night had actually sparked a discussion among Jiang Tianming’s trio.

The bullet comments were filled with laughter.

“Hahahahaha, the content of their discussion is killing me!”

“That’s so Su Bei.”

“As expected of Su Bei, not only can he leave a stereotype for the readers, he can leave one for the manga characters too!”

“Help, I’m literally going to die laughing!”

“Seeing that you guys, Jiang Jiang and crew, are so aware, I can rest assured.”

“Su Bei disappears = something’s about to go down.”

“So what exactly did Su Bei go out to do?”

The author didn’t keep the readers in suspense and quickly answered their questions. The first big panel after turning the page was of Su Bei sitting atop a clock tower, with the dark purple, almost lightless night behind him.

Thankfully, the author still had some integrity. Although he wanted to write Su Bei’s character off, he didn’t let the art quality drop when drawing scenes related to him.

This panel was incredibly beautiful. The silent, dark city, the solitary clock tower, the starless and moonless yet still magnificent night sky, the youth’s dashing and romantic silhouette… all these elements combined to form a mysterious and lonely image, the kind of picture you could save as a phone wallpaper.

In the next scene, the silence was broken. The youth in the frame seemed to sense something and leaped down from the clock tower, quickly arriving at a well.

The author drew the scene of the cyan smoke rising from the well very eerily. In reality, the smoke and the well weren’t glowing, but in the manga, they both faintly emitted a ghostly green light.

If this was just to highlight the terror of the Sleep Nightmare Beast or to create some tension for the readers, Su Bei could understand. But why draw the scene of him standing in front of the well as if he were a wizard brewing poison?

Seeing the green light casting shadows on his face in the manga, Su Bei almost laughed out of anger. The author was practically begging the readers to suspect him, piling on the creepy filters for dear life.

And the bullet comments did indeed react as the author wished. They found the scene somewhat bizarre and guessed that the author might be trying to hint at something. Su Bei’s character design already had a villainous vibe, and combined with some previous forum speculations, many people who saw the author’s hint were now suspecting that Su Bei had orchestrated this Nightmare Beast attack on Moyun City.

However, Su Bei wasn’t worried at all. Given his subsequent actions of nearly wiping out all the Nightmare Beasts, if any reader could still suspect him of colluding with them this time, he would really have to question their intelligence.

Next, after seeing the people who came to investigate faint, Su Bei finally revealed the smoke’s effect. The bullet comments went wild with laughter, all of them “condemning” him for his belated warning.

Su Bei felt very innocent about this. If a few people didn’t pass out, how would the others completely believe that what he said was true? After all, information coming from a kid not yet sixteen years old was hardly credible in the eyes of adults. They would only choose to believe when there was concrete evidence.

The real climax of the bullet comments began when Su Bei proposed that deal— “A method to eliminate the Sleep Nightmare Beast, plus all these Nightmare Beasts below, in exchange for me being free of responsibilities from now on. Deal or no deal?”

From the moment he finished speaking until all the Nightmare Beasts were eliminated by him, the bullet comments kept refreshing at an extremely high speed, too fast to read.

“What does that mean! Does it mean what I think it means?”

“Su Bei is getting ready to slack off!”

“I feel like Big Bro Bei is about to unleash a huge move!”

“The silver gear’s ability is so awesome. If only I had one to deal with my exam papers ()”

“!!!!!!!!!!”

“So cool, so cool, so cool! I declare you, Su Bei, the King of the Snap!”

“How did he do it? All the Nightmare Beasts died in an instant!”

“Does anyone still have an issue with Bei being number one in strength?”

“Brooo!”

“I’m really curious how Destiny made these Nightmare Beasts die this time.”

“Where are the people who said Su Bei was colluding with the Nightmare Beasts? Try saying that again after watching this plotline!”

As Su Bei had expected, once this part of the story was over, no one in the bullet comments suspected him of colluding with the Nightmare Beasts anymore. Hilarious. He had practically slaughtered them all. Anyone who could still suspect him after this would be insane. Even a self-inflicted wound to gain trust has its limits, right?

After the Nightmare Beasts were eliminated, a pelican flew out of the darkness. In reality, this scene was a bit strange, but in the manga, it was exceptionally funny.

Cyril and Li Xiang’s return sparked heated discussion among the readers. The author fully utilized their good looks and high popularity to generate hype for this and the next storyline.

But for now, they seemed more like comic relief. Before they could even show off how cool they were, Su Bei had already made them lose their composure. The author didn’t forget to draw a panel of Su Bei’s fantasy—Cyril and Li Xiang drenched in saliva—to explain the cause and effect to the readers.

Seeing this panel, even Su Bei couldn’t help but laugh out loud. The drawing was too good. His only regret was that he couldn’t pull it out and unleash it right in their faces.

On the next page, the commander and others refused to believe they were from the Black Flash Organization and even mocked the organization right to their faces, providing yet another source of laughter for the readers.

Since he had already laughed about it at the time, Su Bei’s focus wasn’t there now. He was observing the parts of the manga featuring himself, checking if the author was trying to express something through him again.

Fortunately, there was nothing unusual, and the author didn’t draw his weakness. After all, Su Bei was wearing a mask at the time, so it would have been difficult to show any weakness even if he wanted to.

Next was the plot after he fell asleep, which was no different from what Lan Subing had said. After using the Targeting Gear, Lan Subing quickly deduced the Sleep Nightmare Beast’s weakness to low temperatures. Jiang Tianming used his [Frost Mage] ability to lower the surrounding temperature to its minimum, which indeed liquefied the cyan smoke directly.

In the end, Cyril and Li Xiang did stay. The commander reluctantly found them a double room to stay in, and then the camera shifted to the other two groups.

The performance of those two groups was standard. Besides the protagonist group, the only one who truly shone was Ling You, who had been missing for a long time.

This kind of wartime situation was her home turf. The moment she appeared, she was completely dominant. With the help of two powerful escape-type Ability users, she entered an interdimensional space alone and used her [Plague] ability to directly wipe out most of the Nightmare Beasts inside, leaving only a few advanced ones struggling to survive.

The two powerful Ability users took this opportunity to quickly find the ‘Closing Point’ of that interdimensional space and successfully closed it, saving a city with zero losses. And it was the city with the largest interdimensional gate entrance.

Through the manga, Su Bei finally understood why she had been missing all this time. Firstly, the government was intentionally protecting her, not letting her take action easily to prevent her from being quickly targeted by the Nightmare Beasts.

After all, Nightmare Beast abilities didn’t necessarily need to be used face-to-face; some could kill from a distance, like a voodoo doll. So, in the early stages, Ling You stayed in a special ability-isolation room prepared by the government to prevent any danger.

Secondly, not long after the first three Interdimensional Gates appeared, the Ability Government realized that the Nightmare Beasts had other schemes. Therefore, they hid Ling You away early on, precisely to deal a heavy blow to the Nightmare Beasts during their second offensive.

And clearly, the government’s strategy was a success. The interdimensional space that was supposed to be the main battlefield was directly cleared out by Ling You, causing the Nightmare Beasts’ plan to completely collapse and forcing them to find another way.

Seeing this, Su Bei raised an eyebrow. His thinking was always a bit unconventional, and at this moment, he thought of something else. If the largest interdimensional space was closed, where would the Nightmare Beasts originally intended to reinforce it go?

They could only go to other interdimensional spaces.

It seemed they wouldn’t have any peace for the time being. Sighing, he continued to scroll down. The rest of the content was meaningless to Su Bei, until he reached the end and finally got another piece of information—Cyril and Li Xiang’s staying behind was indeed an order from their organization!

At the very end of the manga, Li Xiang was on the phone in their room. “We’ve stayed behind… Haven’t found it yet. Yes, as soon as possible. Hanging up.”

A few concise words, yet they revealed a significant amount of information. They had indeed stayed behind deliberately for a mission from the Black Flash Organization. For now, this so-called mission was likely to find something in Moyun City, and Su Bei seriously suspected that the Nightmare Beasts’ sudden attack might also be for this same thing.

But what on earth was it that made them all so desperate to have it?

It seemed that to find out, he would have to keep an eye on them from now on. Su Bei closed his eyes, thinking about how he could tail Cyril and Li Xiang. Using Mental Energy was definitely out. At least one of these two possessed advanced mental energy; if he rashly used his own, he would absolutely be discovered.

Following them with an Invisibility Talisman was barely half a good idea. The reason it was only half was that although an Invisibility Talisman enhanced by ‘Manga Consciousness’ could not be detected by any ability or item, Su Bei’s gaze could not be hidden. Ability users are very sensitive to being watched, especially those with advanced mental energy. As long as Su Bei looked at them, they would likely sense something was off.

At that point, even if he was invisible, there would be no guarantee he wouldn’t be discovered. After all, even if they couldn’t find him at that moment, they could easily review the situation afterward and ask who had disappeared during that time, which would easily lead them to him.

No, wait. Su Bei’s eyes suddenly flew open. Perhaps there was another way. He immediately took out his phone and sent a message to Feng Lan: “Can you use Prophecy right now?”

Normally, he could use Prophecy himself, but he had just used the ability not long ago, and it was currently on cooldown. Moreover, perhaps because it was linked to destiny, his prophecy results were always very abstract. If Feng Lan could prophesize, Su Bei was sure he could get a very precise answer.

Unfortunately, Feng Lan didn’t give him the answer he wanted. “Just used it. What do you want to know? I can see if anyone in the family can help you.”

“Two people from the Black Flash Organization came to our location. I want to know what they are looking for by staying in Moyun City,” Su Bei typed back honestly.

Feng Lan’s Feng Family was a family of prophets, with many Prophecy-type Ability users. Although none were as powerful as Feng Lan, it was possible one of them could be of use to Su Bei.

“You know they’re looking for something, but you don’t know what they’re looking for?” Feng Lan was a bit confused. Logically, these two pieces of information should be obtainable together by phrasing the question correctly. Su Bei wasn’t a newly awakened Destiny-type Ability user, so how could he make such a mistake?

Su Bei was at a loss for words. Was he supposed to tell him that he didn’t get this information from a prophecy, but from reading the manga?

He had no choice but to make an excuse. “I overheard their conversation and that’s how I knew they were staying here to find something.”

“One moment.” The two-word reply was exceptionally reassuring. As the head of the clan, Feng Lan was certainly very familiar with the Prophecy-type Ability users in his family. His reply couldn’t mean he was going to look through the family registry to see who could help Su Bei; rather, he already had someone in mind and was going to find them.

Sure enough, not long after, he returned with good news: “He said the thing they’re looking for is in a small iron box.”

As if feeling his answer might be confusing, the next message explained: “My aunt’s ability is [Environment Adjudicator]. She can determine the environment a person or object is in.”

This ability was excellent for finding things, but it clearly wasn’t very precise. It could only determine the environment where the object was located but couldn’t pinpoint its exact location. The description ‘iron box’ was too broad; Su Bei had no way of immediately finding out where the item was.

After all, an electricity meter box is an iron box, a set-top box is an iron box, and a cabinet can also be an iron box. Moreover, his aunt couldn’t determine if the item was always kept in an iron box or if it could be taken out at any time. If the item was in a delivery box made of iron and had already been taken out, trying to find it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Still, at least it was a clue. It was certain that the thing Cyril and the others were looking for was an object, not a person. And this object was relatively small, not something large.

Could it be some kind of treasure?

Although he couldn’t get specific information about the treasure, it was still a small gain. Su Bei committed the useful information to memory and then opened the forum.