Chapter 257

Luck is never on your side where the main character is. It was said that Endless Ability Academy rarely had any Nightmare Beast invasions, but in the few days they’d been serving as security, the number of Nightmare Beasts had multiplied.

“Is the school doctor lying to us, or is there something wrong with you three?” Su Bei finally asked, unable to hold back any longer after eliminating the third Intermediate Nightmare Beast of the day.

They were promised that there would be almost no Nightmare Beasts secretly attacking the academy, yet the moment they took the job, they encountered so many. This was definitely targeted at them, right?

Wu Mingbai also felt like cursing. What happened to the promised cushy job? However, he didn’t accept Su Bei’s accusation at all. “Why don’t you say it’s your problem? Your luck isn’t any better than ours, is it?”

Su Bei only wished he could just say it outright: because they were the main character’s group, they were naturally more trouble-prone than he was. He could only remain speechless with frustration. “…”

Rolling his eyes, Su Bei was about to say he was taking a break when he suddenly heard the Manga Consciousness notification: “‘King of Abilities’ has been updated. Please check for details.”

The manga was updated? It seemed the crises for the other two groups had also been resolved. Su Bei couldn’t be bothered to say more and waved his hand. “I’m heading back. Don’t call me today unless it’s an emergency. Oh, even if it is an emergency, don’t call me.”

Back in his dorm, he opened his phone and tapped on the manga. As expected, two chapters had been updated. The first was mainly about the events in Moyun City, which was what Su Bei was most concerned about.

He wanted to know where the author was going to slander him and if it was only the one place he already knew about.

The beginning of the manga was unremarkable. Mu Yunfan and the others reported the abnormal situation in the interdimensional space. The entire city entered a state of high alert and quickly descended into chaos.

After a brief depiction of the chaos, the main event finally arrived. The manga truthfully depicted him arriving at the girl’s house, first helping her deal with the harassing scumbags, and then taking the Nightmare Egg from her home in return.

Even though this part was depicted truthfully, the effect produced by the manga’s art made it seem like he had specifically come to the girl’s house to help her just so he could smoothly obtain the Nightmare Egg.

One had to admit, the author’s artistic skill was impressive. Although the story itself hadn’t changed, the shadows and special effects he drew completely altered the tone, transforming him from a kind-hearted young man eager to help into a profit-driven schemer.

But this didn’t break his character persona; Su Bei’s persona in the manga was pretty much like that anyway. It was clear the author wanted him to collude with the villains and write him off, but for the time being, he didn’t plan to forcibly collapse his established character. Otherwise, the readers would target the author first, not Su Bei, a manga character without his own consciousness.

This was undoubtedly good news for Su Bei. After all, if the author really wanted to force a character break, it would be incredibly easy. For example, he could have implied here that Su Bei had sent those two scumbags to harass the girl, just to create a difficult situation for her so he could then make a heroic entrance.

He wasn’t sure if his persona would collapse then, but Su Bei knew for sure that he would gain a legion of haters. In the minds of the general public, even villains needed to have a moral bottom line.

You could be bad, but you couldn’t be low.

When the readers saw this part, they didn’t think much of it, since they didn’t know what a Nightmare Egg was. But the subsequent plot answered their questions.

In the manga, after obtaining the Nightmare Egg, Su Bei very naturally walked out of the residential building and conducted a transaction with Cyril and his partner, who were waiting outside as prearranged. After Su Bei tossed the Nightmare Egg to them, the two even shared a familiar little joke with him.

At this point, the bullet comments finally exploded.

“Holy crap! Su Bei, you really are part of Black Flash!”

“My whole family is shocked!”

“What part of the plot did I miss? How did they start making a deal?”

“Could this be the thing the Black Flash Organization was looking for at the end of the last chapter?”

“Why such a huge reveal all of a sudden?”

“Is that you, undercover agent?”

The readers’ reactions were not unexpected; it was clear they all suspected his identity. Bullet comments were the first reaction to reading the manga, and people usually didn’t think too deeply at that stage, just saying whatever came to mind. Therefore, even though their immediate assumption was that Su Bei was a member of the Black Flash Organization without considering other possibilities, Su Bei wasn’t too worried.

He would check the direction of the forums later; that was what mattered most.

After this segment concluded, the rest of the plot was rather uneventful. Su Bei disappeared, and Jiang Tianming’s group of three fought against Cyril’s duo. With a special item restricting everyone’s strength to the same tier, the two sides were actually evenly matched.

Jiang Tianming’s multiple abilities were already invincible among peers. The seamless switching between countless abilities could catch any opponent off guard. Even if one knew what abilities he possessed, dealing with him was no easy task.

This was also why Wu Di, the principal of Endless Ability Academy, was recognized as the strongest in the Ability World. The Bloodline ability was also one that could grant multiple abilities, and its acquisition method was easier than Jiang Tianming’s, with the quality of most bloodline abilities being guaranteed. However, the training difficulty was greatly increased; after acquiring a new ability through contact, one had to rely entirely on self-training to improve it.

Getting back on topic, Jiang Tianming’s abilities were already extremely powerful, not to mention Lan Subing’s cheat-like Word Spirit. The two of them were indeed capable of handling Cyril and Li Xiang.

With the two of them being sufficient, Wu Mingbai was sent to find Su Bei. He already knew the following plot and was planning to skip through it quickly, but unexpectedly, after he helped resolve the Lost Nightmare Beast issue, the tone of the bullet comments took a reverse turn.

“I have to say, Su Bei is truly knowledgeable.”

“What an ugly Nightmare Beast.”

“Brother Bei always manages to be cool when I least expect it.”

“Where does he get so much information? From Black Flash?”

“As long as Su Bei is definitely not on the side of the Nightmare Beasts, I’m relieved. It doesn’t matter even if he’s part of the Black Flash Organization.”

“Mingbai is so fast at finding people.”

“Possessing so much information… he seems more like someone from the Destiny organization, doesn’t he?”

As expected, helping the main character’s group in the manga was a positive, point-scoring action. Moreover, since his character persona in the eyes of most readers was the type who could “drop the butcher’s knife and become a Buddha,” he could be forgiven even if he often did terrible things, as long as he offered a small kindness from time to time.

A smile tugged at the corner of Su Bei’s lips. If he could manage this balance well, it would be nothing but beneficial for his future actions.

Continuing to read, the plot had reached two-thirds of the way through the chapter. The next part was about Mo Xiaotian’s side of the story.

The plot on their end also involved the Black Flash Organization coming to provide support. After they had more or less resolved the Nightmare Beast crisis, they turned on them.

This sequence of actions did indeed reduce some of the animosity towards the Black Flash Organization. At the very least, it showed everyone that they were on humanity’s side when it came to major issues. Coupled with the fact that their ultimate goal was also to benefit humanity, Su Bei was surprised to see quite a few comments speaking well of them.

After all, this was a manga world, so Su Bei could understand the readers’ thoughts. In fact, if such a villainous organization appeared even in the real world, there would surely be people who admired it. How much more so in a manga world?

Even Su Bei himself didn’t feel much animosity towards the Black Flash Organization, even though he was well aware that with his original ability, he would most likely have been a test subject for their research, not a target for recruitment.

After finishing this chapter, he moved on to the next, which began with the events in Mo Xiaotian’s city. After the Black Flash Organization started causing trouble, Mo Xiaotian’s identity as a mole was becoming harder to conceal.

He secretly helped them several times, revealing the government’s arrangements and deployments to the Black Flash Organization, and even dropped the ball at a critical moment, nearly allowing them to complete their mission. If it weren’t for Mu Tieren turning the tide with the mechanical body modified by Doctor Mu, this could have turned into a major disaster.

Such a serious blunder not only aroused the suspicion of the readers but also led even Qi Huang in the story to start doubting Mo Xiaotian.

Qi Huang was quite sharp in this regard. Although Mo Xiaotian usually acted naive and sweet, he rarely ever truly messed up. His powerful ability and wild instincts in battle always allowed him to complete tasks assigned by his teammates perfectly. But this time, he made mistake after mistake.

Combined with several intelligence leaks that had already made everyone suspect a mole in the team, Qi Huang naturally zeroed in on the one person she was most reluctant to believe was the traitor.

In the S-Class, Qi Huang and Mo Xiaotian’s relationship was actually very good. Both were originally members of the A-Class and later entered the S-Class together. Their personalities were both outgoing and cheerful. So their usual interactions had a “partners in crime” vibe, often with an arm slung over the other’s shoulder.

However, it was precisely because of this familiarity that Qi Huang could better sense that something was wrong with Mo Xiaotian. It wasn’t just her; Mu Tieren felt it too. Such a mistake was simply not something Mo Xiaotian would make. A minor error would be one thing, but on such a crucial matter, he had never failed like this before.

But unlike Mu Tieren’s simple concern, girls are always more perceptive in these situations. Connecting the dots to the mole incident, Qi Huang began to test Mo Xiaotian. Unfortunately, Mo Xiaotian was uncharacteristically tight-lipped on this matter and didn’t reveal any flaws under her probing.

This flawless act made many readers who had started to suspect him dismiss their doubts. After all, based on Mo Xiaotian’s previous behavior, they found it hard to believe he could not show a single crack if he were truly a mole.

At Qi Huang’s request, Wu Jin even performed a lie detection on Mo Xiaotian using his ability but found nothing amiss. This led everyone to dismiss their suspicions about Mo Xiaotian, as Wu Jin could sense when someone was lying.

However, at the very end of this plot segment, Mu Tieren suddenly noticed the band-aid on the back of Mo Xiaotian’s neck.

Others might not know, but Su Bei knew perfectly well. Under that band-aid was the black lightning symbol of the Black Flash Organization. As long as Mu Tieren could find a way to remove his band-aid, Mo Xiaotian’s identity would be exposed.

His cover was already hanging by a thread.

The story about Mo Xiaotian ended abruptly here, leaving readers with endless speculation.

“Damn it, you old scoundrel, don’t leave us hanging here!”

“So is Mo Xiaotian a mole or not? I feel like he isn’t…”

“Isn’t Su Bei next door the mole?”

“With how goofy Xiaotian is, if he were a mole, he would have been exposed long ago.”

“Nooo! Please don’t let Mo Xiaotian be the mole!”

“A naive and sweet character as a mole is actually quite interesting.”

“What’s the meaning of this last panel? A band-aid?”

It seemed there would be no shortage of forum posts this time, Su Bei sighed faintly. There would definitely be posts discussing his own situation, Mo Xiaotian’s case deserved at least two or three threads, and on another front, the return of the old player Zhou Renjie would certainly generate new posts as well.

Thinking about the workload of reading the forums later, Su Bei rubbed his brow and continued reading.

After showing Mu Tieren discovering the band-aid, the scene shifted to the city where Si Zhaohua’s group was located. Initially, Zhou Renjie did not appear; everyone was just cooperating with the Black Flash Organization to eliminate Nightmare Beasts.

When it came to jointly fighting Nightmare Beasts, the Black Flash Organization truly contributed both manpower and resources. They sent people to help in every disaster-stricken city, including many familiar faces like Ye Lin and Qing Qing…

But helping was helping; helping to eliminate Nightmare Beasts didn’t stop them from stirring up trouble. Besides the cities where the main characters were, they also had schemes in other cities to varying degrees. In short, they never rested, and after dealing with the Nightmare Beasts, people still had to deal with them.

For a moment, Su Bei couldn’t tell whether the Black Flash Organization’s help was a good thing or a bad thing.

Zhou Renjie finally made his appearance only when the Black Flash Organization’s conspiracy was exposed. In this city, there was an Ability Government laboratory containing a lot of useful data, and they wanted to occupy the lab and seize this information.

Si Zhaohua’s ability was very strong, especially since he had a well-known ultimate move. At his current strength, once he used his skill, even the strongest member sent by the Black Flash Organization would have difficulty dealing with it.

At that point, they would lose one of their strongest members, while the righteous side would only lose one student. The scales of victory would immediately tip in favor of the righteous side.

Just as the situation reached a stalemate, Zhou Renjie suddenly appeared. He immediately used his ability, Prime Minister’s Gut, to trap their own side’s trump card, Si Zhaohua, along with two other powerful Ability users, putting the rest of their team at a major disadvantage.

That’s right, during his time with the Black Flash Organization, Zhou Renjie’s ability had also been greatly enhanced. Not only could he now swallow three Ability users in one go, but the defensive capability inside his stomach was also much higher than before.

Of the three Ability users trapped in his stomach, aside from one powerful support type, the other two were strong offensive types, yet they were unable to break through the dark space and get themselves out.

During the time they were trapped, the city’s defenses, having suddenly lost three key combatants, immediately became severely inadequate. Fortunately, Ai Baozhu and Li Shu developed a combination skill at the critical moment: anyone who came into contact with the Glorious Domain would fall into an Illusion. They successfully protected the laboratory, preventing it from falling directly into the hands of the Black Flash Organization.

But this was certainly not a long-term solution. Even with the support of Mental Energy Crystals, their mental energy would eventually be depleted. If the Ability Government didn’t hurry and send reinforcements, not only the laboratory but they themselves might fall into Black Flash’s hands.

However, the Ability Government couldn’t send support right away. This city wasn’t sealed by an item; the main issue was that the Black Flash Organization had sent people to intercept the Ability Government, preventing their reinforcements from arriving.

With Ai Baozhu and Li Shu’s capabilities, they could hold out for a day at most. One day was not nearly enough time for the government to break through Black Flash’s defenses.

Just as the situation looked great for the Black Flash Organization, and they were about to occupy the city and take over the crucial laboratory, Zhou Renjie suddenly turned on them.

He first released Si Zhaohua and the others, then turned around and swallowed several of Black Flash’s strongest members. Because of his betrayal, the situation was instantly reversed. A well-prepared Si Zhaohua, leading members of the Si and Zhou families who had arrived at some point, took control of the city with lightning speed, rounding up all the Black Flash Organization members inside.

At this point, the manga finally began a flashback sequence, explaining the cause and effect to everyone. It turned out he had never betrayed them in the first place; it was all just an act they had orchestrated together.

From the very beginning, after encountering Qing Qing with the Cupid’s Arrow ability during his first trip to the interdimensional space, he had asked his family for an item that could alert him to and defend against mental control abilities.

Su Bei had previously judged that a major reason for Zhou Renjie’s increasing extremism in the later stages was likely that the Black Flash Organization had been using items like the red wine that appeared at the Feng Family’s place to subtly change his personality, which ultimately led to his corruption.

This judgment was correct; the Black Flash Organization had indeed done so. But because Zhou Renjie had the protective item on him, he noticed it during their first attempt and simultaneously realized that the Black Flash Organization wanted to turn him to their side.

At the same time, the situation with the Zhou family was also true. Zhou Renjie was indeed facing internal and external troubles at home: internally, an illegitimate son was vying for the family inheritance, and externally, Mo Xiaotian was competing for a spot in the competition. And based on their strength at the time, the likelihood of Zhou Renjie securing the competition spot and thus solidifying his own position was very small.

But he didn’t just do nothing as it appeared on the surface, or even frame Mo Xiaotian, and then, after failing to frame him, break down and join the Black Flash Organization after the monthly exams were settled.

That was all just an act. His real plan was to put himself in danger, playing along and pretending to defect to the Black Flash Organization. This way, as long as he could successfully go undercover, he could turn the tables at a critical moment and achieve great merit. Upon his return, he could rely on the support of the Ability Government to become the rightful next heir of the Zhou family.

The manga dedicated a significant amount of space to depicting the various trials and tortures he endured within the Black Flash Organization, hardships that could not be described to outsiders.

But it was clear that he had now succeeded. During his time undercover, he repeatedly passed information to the government, helping to solve many problems. This time, not only did he foil the Black Flash Organization’s plan and save a host of Ability users in the city, but he also captured many Black Flash members, causing them heavy losses.

With these achievements, the Ability Government would definitely be willing to support Zhou Renjie’s rise. And with a powerful backer, not even his unreliable father and those ambitious peers could pull him down from the position of young family head.

It is worth mentioning that Si Zhaohua and Ai Baozhu also knew about Zhou Renjie’s plan. He had contacted them both after his defection, and that was how they learned the full story.

Zhou Renjie needed a medium to contact the Zhou family after his “defection.” This medium certainly couldn’t be the Ability Government; if he sought their help before achieving any merit, it would be easy for them to control him even after he inherited the Zhou family’s assets.

But contacting Si Zhaohua and Ai Baozhu was different. As friends, he knew their character well. Although they also prioritized their families, they wouldn’t mind doing him this favor for free. And with their personalities, they wouldn’t use it to threaten him in the future. Most importantly, it was perfectly reasonable for them to contact the Zhou family, so it wouldn’t arouse the suspicion of the secretly watching Black Flash Organization. Thus, Si Zhaohua and Ai Baozhu were the most suitable candidates to help.

Seeing this, Su Bei finally had a moment of epiphany. He had wondered why Si Zhaohua and Ai Baozhu were only sad for a day or two before quickly accepting the matter. It turned out that Zhou Renjie had secretly contacted them and given them reassurance.

Actually, he had suspected something like this at the time, and seeing it confirmed in the manga gave him a feeling of “I knew it.”

However, Si Zhaohua and Ai Baozhu were really tight-lipped, not revealing a single thing. Especially during the period right after Zhou Renjie’s defection, the students at the academy were cursing him fiercely, and even their S-Class occasionally faced scorn and ridicule.

It was truly impressive that they could endure without showing any signs of abnormality. If they had acted even slightly off at that time, and Mo Xiaotian reported it, Zhou Renjie might have faced mortal danger.

At the very end of this chapter, Zhou Renjie told the Ability Government another important reason for choosing to reveal his identity and return to the righteous side at this time.

[“I obtained a reliable piece of information within the Black Flash Organization—their Saint is studying in the first-year S-Class at Endless Ability Academy.” Zhou Renjie, looking much thinner than before, said with a serious expression to the official across the table.

After learning that there was indeed a mole in their class, he wished he could immediately return and tell his classmates to be on guard. But it would not be worth blowing his cover just for this matter.

Fortunately, it wasn’t long before the battle broke out, and the Black Flash Organization, which had been planning to lay low for a while for their leader’s research, was forced to re-emerge. They initially just wanted to help eliminate the Nightmare Beasts, but later felt they couldn’t waste such a good opportunity to enter the cities legitimately, so they formulated a series of plans.

When Zhou Renjie saw that he was chosen to be a part of it and was to play a major role, he knew his chance to return had arrived.

The word “Saint” sounded very impressive, like a big fish. The official immediately pressed, “What is the significance of the position of Saint in the Black Flash Organization?”

Zhou Renjie wasn’t too clear on this either. He only knew one thing: “The Saint is likely the only relative of the Black Flash leader. If we can capture him, perhaps we can use him to threaten the organization in return.”

This was a good idea. The official had no idea that the leader of the Black Flash Organization had any living relatives. To hide someone so deeply could only mean he cared a great deal about them. Since he cared, things would be easy. As long as they captured the person, there would be no shortage of ways to make the Black Flash Organization suffer a great loss.

Thinking of this, a look of determination appeared in the official’s eyes. “Rest assured, I will conduct a thorough investigation. But do you know any other information about this Saint? For example, physical characteristics or the like?”

“He’s a boy,” Zhou Renjie replied. “Besides what I just said, that’s the only thing I know.”]