Chapter 260

“Yes.” Feng Lan nodded. “Once.”

During the battle, he had made one other prophecy. After delivering it to the government, he was placed under the protection of the Feng Family, which was why he hadn’t appeared before.

This made everyone curious. As expected, Zhao Xiaoyu asked the question on everyone’s mind: “What was the prophecy? Can we know?”

“‘Stop the Black Flash Organization’s research.’” Feng Lan said only this one sentence.

Yet, this single sentence sparked different thoughts in the minds of those who heard it.

Most people, like Jiang Tianming, pondered conventional questions: What kind of prophecy is this? Why stop the Black Flash Organization’s research? What new thing is the Black Flash Organization researching?

Mo Xiaotian, on the other hand, thought about quickly reporting this to the organization. Since Feng Lan had said this in front of the government, and his prophecies had never been wrong, the Ability Government would surely take his prophecy very seriously and actually try to stop the organization’s research.

The Black Flash Organization’s research was at a critical stage; it absolutely could not be stopped. Whatever the reason, he had to inform the Black Flash Organization in advance so they could be on their guard.

Finally, there was Su Bei. Unlike everyone else, as an Ability user who also possessed prophetic abilities, Su Bei considered the matter from the perspective of a prophet.

Normally, a prophecy’s result is an affirmative statement, like ‘what will happen in the future’. Or it might be a fragmented piece of information, like ‘death’ or ‘a dry well’. But it was rare for a strange imperative-like sentence like Feng Lan’s to appear.

“‘Stop the Black Flash Organization’s research’—what kind of prophecy is that?”

Su Bei’s eyes met Feng Lan’s, and he blinked. A different emotion flickered in Feng Lan’s golden eyes. He gave Su Bei a subtle glance towards the door, and Su Bei immediately stood up and walked out of the classroom.

A moment later, Feng Lan came out and met up with Su Bei. The two went to the same spot where Su Bei and Mo Xiaotian had talked privately the other day.

“So, tell me,” Su Bei got straight to the point, his expression curious. “How did you arrive at that prophecy?”

If Feng Lan hadn’t signaled him, he actually wouldn’t have asked this question. After all, Feng Lan’s prophecies were never false. As long as it wasn’t fake, Su Bei didn’t care that much how he obtained it; at most, he was just a little curious.

But since Feng Lan wanted to explain, he was naturally all ears. Their abilities had similarities, and perhaps he could get some inspiration from Feng Lan’s ability to improve his own.

“It was information sent to me by my future self,” Feng Lan explained concisely.

Information from his future self. Su Bei’s eyes widened slightly. “Did you see it in a future fragment?”

Feng Lan had used a similar ability during one of their previous missions. His future self had told him the weakness of a Nightmare Beast in advance, allowing them to defeat it smoothly.

Seeing him nod, Su Bei felt the same wave of envy he had the first time he learned about this ability. If he had a power like that, allowing his future self to warn his present self, he probably would have known the author was going to target him back when he first successfully changed his ability.

If he had known in advance, he wouldn’t be in such a passive position now. He could have just discussed it with the “Manga Consciousness” beforehand, and it probably would have had a solution. But trying to change the author’s mind after the fact was much harder; he could only rely on himself to solve the problem.

Sighing, Su Bei returned the favor, revealing a piece of information with a smile: “Something’s about to happen in our class. Want to make a prophecy about it?”

“Is it the mole?” Feng Lan seemed to have anticipated it. The fact that there was a mole in S-Class wasn’t much of a secret; high-level government officials and many teachers at the academy were aware of it. Feng Lan knew even before Zhou Renjie announced it in class.

Su Bei nodded. “He’s going to retaliate against Zhou Renjie.”

Hearing this, Feng Lan was taken aback. He hadn’t expected that, or rather, he hadn’t really thought about it. Now that Su Bei mentioned it, he realized that the Black Flash Organization’s mole would indeed be very likely to target Zhou Renjie.

“Did you warn him?” Feng Lan asked. Warning someone about something like this wouldn’t have any major impact, and out of the little camaraderie they had as classmates, he usually would offer a heads-up if he knew.

Su Bei shrugged. “Of course not.”

Feng Lan wasn’t surprised. Seeing that Su Bei had no intention of warning him, he didn’t press the matter. If Su Bei wasn’t going to warn Zhou Renjie, he certainly wouldn’t overstep his bounds. The two returned to their original topic.

“Didn’t your future self say why we need to stop the Black Flash Organization’s research?” Su Bei asked curiously, though he already had a guess in mind. The Black Flash Organization was using the underground people for their research, and the underground people were inextricably linked to the Nightmare Beasts.

Once they discovered through their research on the underground people that Nightmare Beasts couldn’t be turned back into humans, Su Bei didn’t know how others would react, but he knew the leader of the Black Flash Organization would definitely go insane. After all, his entire purpose for this research was to resurrect his lover. Completely eradicating the Nightmare Beasts and saving humanity were just secondary goals used to lure more people into the organization.

And once the primary goal was found to be unattainable, Su Bei didn’t expect the leader to remain rational and continue to see the eradication of Nightmare Beasts as his duty. Therefore, the message from the future to stop the research was likely because the Black Flash Organization of that time would become extremely crazy under its leader’s direction.

However, this was all just speculation, which was why he asked.

However, Feng Lan didn’t know the answer either. “The more important the message, the shorter the time you have to transmit it to the past. So I only heard that one sentence.”

What he didn’t say was that just receiving that single sentence had completely drained his mental energy, causing him to pass out immediately. One could only imagine how important that sentence was. They had to stop the Black Flash Organization’s research; otherwise, heaven knows what they would do once the results were out.

Su Bei lightly tapped his fingers on his knee, lost in thought. Could he use the forum to create an ability similar to Feng Lan’s and ask his future self what would happen? With his amount of mental energy, it would be much easier for his future self to send information than it was for Feng Lan.

However, after a brief moment of thought, he abandoned the idea. His ability couldn’t overlap too much with Feng Lan’s. People with very similar abilities were easily compared, just like they had been at the very beginning.

But back then, the readers’ comparisons were just simple comparisons because they were new characters with hardly any fans. Now, both he and Feng Lan had a considerable number of fans. If such comparisons were to happen again, it could easily turn into fan wars, leading to a poor relationship between their fanbases.

Especially since Su Bei was now a popular character, he knew all too well how a popular character could become universally disliked. All it took was some young fans and a few inflammatory posts to achieve it.

Su Bei was certain he had many young fans, so he had to avoid situations that could lead to fan wars as much as possible, lest his fans mindlessly attack others, ultimately leading to his demise.

Both in the past and now, he couldn’t afford to be disliked by too many people. Otherwise, whenever his plotlines were discussed, these readers who hated him would likely be biased.

In the past, this bias would only have made it more difficult for him to change his ability. Now, however, this bias could endanger his life.

With the return of Feng Lan and Ling You, the battle finally came to a complete end, and they resumed their classes. Attending class was something students universally disliked. After class, Su Bei would occasionally hear first-year students reminiscing about the battle period, only to be harshly reprimanded by an upperclassman who overheard them.

The first-years hadn’t needed to participate in the battle, but the upperclassmen had all been sent out. Compared to risking their lives against tens of thousands of Nightmare Beasts, those upperclassmen certainly knew to cherish the peaceful time in class.

Speaking of which, many third-year students who didn’t plan to return to the ordinary world for university and wanted to work right away had actually benefited from this battle. Those who performed well were naturally recruited directly by Ability user teams or even guilds. And those who didn’t perform as well, like the ordinary Ability users from F-Class and E-Class, didn’t have to worry about finding jobs either.

After all, so many cities had just gone through a battle. It was a time of reconstruction, and the Ability World was in desperate need of manpower. This batch of graduating third-years had no trouble finding work. As long as they weren’t afraid of hard work, high-paying jobs were everywhere.

Su Bei still remembered the time before the battle started, when many third-years had been wearing long faces. But now, almost everyone had a smile on their face, giving off a sense that their futures were set.

Seeing everything seemingly return to peace, Su Bei knew that things weren’t over so simply, at least not in their class.

The other students in the class might not notice, but someone like Su Bei, who knew the whole story, could easily see that something was off. First, Zhou Renjie was often seen walking alone in various remote corners of the campus. It was obvious he was trying to lure the mole into making a move on him.

It was a good thing the mole was the brainless Mo Xiaotian. Any normal person would have seen how deliberate his actions were.

Well, actually, only Su Bei had noticed. Everyone else, unaware of the situation, just thought that he was a bit unaccustomed to being close with everyone since he had been away from class for so long.

Then there was Mo Xiaotian, whose mood had clearly been down for the past few days. This made Su Bei recall the request he had seen on the Destiny organization’s site: to cooperate with Mo Xiaotian in killing Zhou Renjie.

But based on Su Bei’s observations over the past few days, Mo Xiaotian’s mission probably wasn’t to kill him. After all, he clearly still had some camaraderie for Zhou Renjie as a classmate. If the mission were to kill him, he wouldn’t just be feeling down.

It seemed the Black Flash Organization had deceived him again. A flicker of amusement crossed Su Bei’s eyes. If Mo Xiaotian found out, how would he feel?

Amidst the peace, the Ability Government finally decided to stop waiting for the snake to come out of its hole. They probably realized that while this period was an opportunity for them, it was also an opportunity for the mole. The mole could use this time to make more thorough preparations, and then Zhou Renjie might not be the only one affected.

Therefore, they decided to take the initiative to find the mole.

So on this day, the few people in the class suspected of being the mole were called out for a talk one by one. Of course, before being called out, they didn’t know what it was for, simply assuming a teacher needed to see them about something.

Su Bei, who was not a strong suspect, was the first to be called out. He arrived at an empty classroom where Meng Huai and a strange man were standing on the platform.

The man wore glasses, but they couldn’t hide his sharp eyes. He pushed up his glasses and introduced himself, “Student Su Bei, is that right? You can call me Teacher Zhou. I was sent by the Ability Government to investigate the Black Flash Organization’s mole.”

“Hello, Teacher Zhou.” Hearing that the man was from the Ability Government, Su Bei was startled.

Even though he wasn’t the Black Flash Organization’s mole, he had quite a few secrets of his own. Being questioned so suddenly without any preparation could easily lead to him slipping up.

Though worried on the inside, Su Bei politely greeted, “Teacher Zhou,” without letting any emotion show on his face.

Teacher Zhou gestured for him to sit down and then asked the first question: “What kind of organization do you think the Black Flash Organization is?”

“…A miraculous one,” Su Bei said after a moment of thought.

This answer was clearly unexpected. Teacher Zhou, who had been stern-faced, asked with great interest, “Why do you say that?”

“Don’t you think they could join the good guys’ camp with just a slight change?” Su Bei said meaningfully.

This wasn’t something he said lightly; he truly felt this way. First, the goals and research of the Black Flash Organization could absolutely be used by the side of good. They also had many powerful Ability users. If the Ability Government could recruit them, their overall strength would increase.

Moreover, during the previous battle, the Black Flash Organization’s widespread support had indeed earned them a lot of goodwill. In the face of such altruism, many people would overlook some minor flaws.

Although the Black Flash Organization’s “flaws” were by no means small, the saving grace was that despite all the bad things they did, there weren’t many living victims.

Although it sounded a bit like a dark joke, it was the truth. The Black Flash Organization was extremely ruthless. People they targeted either joined the organization and were brainwashed, or they were killed outright. Cases like Su Bei’s group were rare.

Thus, there was a survivorship bias. Most people who were still alive knew that the Black Flash Organization had committed numerous crimes, but they themselves had not been persecuted by them. Compared to suffering they hadn’t personally experienced, visible achievements were naturally more likely to resonate with bystanders.

It could be said that with just a little bit of repackaging, the Black Flash Organization could completely join the side of good.

The reason he could think of this was that he had lamented more than once how the Black Flash Organization often acted like a righteous organization. Seriously, if the author actually made them a righteous faction in the end, it would be a killer twist.

Getting back to the topic, after hearing his answer, Teacher Zhou raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise. “A very curious idea. You may go back. Please call the next student, Mo Xiaotian, to come in.”

He was dismissed after just one question, but Su Bei wasn’t surprised. Teacher Zhou’s attitude had changed significantly after his answer, and he guessed at that moment that his suspicion had been cleared.

As he reached the door, he suddenly turned back and asked, “May I ask what your ability is, teacher?”

“[Detective].” Teacher Zhou gave his answer, then offered Su Bei a faint smile. “Don’t tell anyone else, okay?”

This was clearly to prevent those who hadn’t been called yet from being on their guard after learning about his ability. Su Bei readily agreed, “Of course. I’m the best at keeping secrets.”

Back in the classroom, Su Bei told Mo Xiaotian that the teacher wanted to see him, as requested. Mo Xiaotian asked with a curious look, “What’s it about?”

The two of them had already laid their cards on the table, so there was no need to pretend. Su Bei said with a half-smile, “You’ll know when you get there.”

Because there wasn’t much time, Mo Xiaotian was forced to leave. But the others didn’t need to go yet and crowded around to ask about the situation. Zhao Xiaoyu was full of curiosity, “Su Bei, what did the teacher want with you guys?”

“A good thing,” Su Bei replied affirmatively after a moment’s thought.

After all, finding the mole was a good thing for everyone except the mole, so there was nothing wrong with his answer.

Not understanding his meaning, Zhao Xiaoyu became expectant. “Then I hope I get called soon.”

This ‘good thing’ probably wouldn’t fall to her. Su Bei smiled but didn’t say anything. He didn’t think they would question every single person in S-Class; that would be too time-consuming. They probably had already screened most people during the background checks. Zhao Xiaoyu was a girl, so she didn’t fit the profile to begin with. Moreover, both her parents were alive, and she had a happy family.

After a while, Mo Xiaotian returned. He had clearly been gone much longer than Su Bei, and he had no expression on his face when he came back. For someone with his sunny personality, having no expression was proof enough that what had happened was not a good thing.

His eyes met Su Bei’s, and for once, there was a hint of resentment in them. He pouted, “You didn’t even warn me!”

Su Bei said righteously, “The teacher told me not to say anything. I’m an obedient, good student.”

As soon as he said this, everyone in the classroom looked at him with indescribable expressions. Wu Mingbai scoffed without hesitation, “You can even say such nonsense? ‘Obedient’? ‘Good student’? Which of those words has anything to do with you?”

“Maybe he’s speaking in opposites,” Li Shu said with a gentle, yet venomous smile.

For once, Zhou Renjie was on the same side as the two of them. “Scared me to death. I thought I’d come back after a few months to find Su Bei had turned into a good little boy.”

This made Ai Baozhu burst out laughing. “Anyone could change, but not him, okay?”

Su Bei turned a deaf ear to their mockery, and Mo Xiaotian ignored it completely, directly believing Su Bei’s nonsense. His expression immediately changed from cloudy to clear, and he said happily, “Well, if the teacher said not to tell, then there’s nothing to be done. But I knew you wouldn’t fail to warn me, Brother Bei!”

This time, the others’ indescribable gazes shifted to Mo Xiaotian.

To prevent the group from continuing their teasing, Su Bei decisively changed the subject. “The teacher asked you to get the next person, right?”

Reminded by him, Mo Xiaotian finally remembered he had returned with a task. He immediately looked at Jiang Tianming. “Teacher wants you to go over, Brother Jiang.”

Jiang Tianming nodded. Just as he was about to leave, he remembered something and turned back to ask, “So, what does the teacher want with us?”

It was obvious this wasn’t the “good thing” Su Bei had mentioned to Zhao Xiaoyu; otherwise, Mo Xiaotian wouldn’t have reacted this way.

“Didn’t he say we can’t talk about it?” Mo Xiaotian asked innocently.

“…” Jiang Tianming was speechless. He turned to look at Su Bei. “Really can’t say?”

“No need,” Su Bei shook his head.

For a mission to find a mole, the only person who needs to be warned in advance is the real mole, Jiang Tianming. The others really didn’t need a warning. After all, they weren’t the mole, so under normal circumstances, an investigation wouldn’t turn up anything. And in abnormal circumstances, what good would a warning do? Could they really evade the Black Flash Organization’s methods?

Hearing this, Jiang Tianming stopped asking. He trusted that Su Bei wouldn’t lie to him about something like this; there probably really was no need for a warning. So he stood up and left the classroom.

Meanwhile, Mo Xiaotian walked over to the seat next to Wu Mingbai and sat down, resting his head on his desk. “Who do you guys think will be called next?”

While speaking, he suddenly dropped his pen. He bent down to pick it up, but then lost his footing and stumbled into Wu Mingbai. After a two-second pause, he stood up again and apologized in a fluster, “Mingbai, are you okay?! I wasn’t steady just now. Are you alright? I didn’t crush you, did I?”

“I suggest you go see a doctor.” Wu Mingbai gave a sunny smile, but it felt like he was grinding his teeth. “I suspect your cerebellum is underdeveloped.”

Unfortunately, this taunt was completely lost on him. Mo Xiaotian didn’t understand at all and even asked in amazement, “Wow! Mingbai, you know a lot about medicine too? Thanks for the tip, I’ll definitely go to the hospital to get it checked when I have time.”

Wu Mingbai: “…”

If they didn’t know him well enough, everyone would have thought he was being sarcastic. As expected, natural innocence triumphs over all. Seeing Wu Mingbai’s frustrated expression, the others couldn’t hold back their laughter.

Watching this scene, the corners of Su Bei’s mouth also curled up as if he were smiling. But if anyone were to look closely, they would see that there was no hint of laughter in his deep violet eyes.

Wu Mingbai was in for some bad luck. Su Bei was keenly aware of this.

It was important to know that while Mo Xiaotian was naive and sweet, he wasn’t the kind from a Mary Sue novel who would trip and fall every two steps. In fact, it was quite the opposite. His athletic abilities were excellent, and he possessed a wild intuition.

Su Bei would have to be a fool to believe that he would randomly lose his balance and fall like that.

The others didn’t know his identity, so they naturally wouldn’t suspect him over such a small, funny incident. But Su Bei knew Mo Xiaotian was the mole, and his every move was under Su Bei’s watch.

Just after Mo Xiaotian touched Wu Mingbai, Wu Mingbai’s Minor Destiny Pointer, which had been leaning left, suddenly swung far to the right. Without a doubt, Mo Xiaotian had done something to him, likely for the purpose of dealing with the Ability Government’s investigation.

Su Bei estimated that Wu Mingbai would definitely be suspected of being the Black Flash Organization’s mole next, allowing Mo Xiaotian to escape suspicion.

And the framed Wu Mingbai was an orphan, with no way to prove his innocence. With just a little cooperation from the Black Flash Organization, he could be firmly labeled as the mole.

If it had been anyone else, the slander might have actually succeeded. Su Bei shook his head almost imperceptibly. Unfortunately for them, this was Wu Mingbai, one of the protagonists of ‘King of Abilities’. Mo Xiaotian’s—or rather, the Black Flash Organization’s—scheme was doomed to fail.