Chapter 281

It was a reckless act, but it was surprisingly within Su Bei’s expectations. If the protagonist’s group didn’t stir up trouble, they wouldn’t be the protagonist’s group. Wu Mingbai wanting to secretly stay behind was completely unexpected yet entirely predictable.

But just because it was expected didn’t mean it was acceptable. Mu Tieren immediately refused, saying very seriously, “No way. Staying here behind the teachers’ backs means your safety isn’t even guaranteed. I will watch you and take you back.”

As soon as he spoke, Wu Mingbai realized he had miscalculated. He had forgotten that he should have avoided this topic with Mu Tieren. Saying it in front of him was bound to fail—the class president valued rules above all else.

Unfortunately, it was too late for regrets. Mu Tieren was clearly determined to keep a tight leash on Wu Mingbai, and even if others wanted to help, there was nothing they could do. The group gave him a helpless look and decisively gave up on helping.

But a protagonist is a protagonist, after all. Seeing that the unorthodox approach wouldn’t work, Wu Mingbai pestered Wu Jin until he got in touch with the principal. Then, he obtained the principal’s permission and was able to stay openly.

No one knew how he managed to persuade the principal, but everyone was shocked when they learned he could stay. Many of them regretted not making a fuss along with him; otherwise, they might have been able to stay as well.

But regardless of what they thought, those who had to leave still had to leave. Endless Ability Academy was highly efficient; within a mere twenty minutes, all the students had been evacuated.

Back in the classroom, Meng Huai was already waiting. With a friend who was a team supervisor, he received news faster than the other teachers and already knew what had happened in the Nightmare Beast World.

Seeing the students walk into the classroom dejectedly, he didn’t offer any comfort but got straight to the point. “With the exception of Qi Huang, everyone else will have to retake the final exam. The questions will be announced in three days, so be mentally prepared.”

This topic successfully captured a portion of their attention. Their faces fell, and Ai Baozhu couldn’t help but say, “But we’ve already finished half of it.”

She wasn’t exaggerating. Because the five of them had coordinated so harmoniously, their task progress was flying. They had already bled more than two hundred Nightmare Beasts, which was no small amount of work. So, upon hearing they had to retake the exam, Ai Baozhu’s reaction was particularly strong.

“If it’s not fully completed, it doesn’t count.” Faced with Ai Baozhu’s protest, Meng Huai was unmoved. “Didn’t Wu Mingbai also have to retake it even though he finished his exam?”

Speaking of which, the students were a bit curious. “That’s right, teacher. Why does he have to retake it too?”

Qi Huang didn’t have to, so logically, Wu Mingbai shouldn’t have to either.

Meng Huai replied, “Because not all the Earth Element examinees finished the exam. For the convenience of scoring and ranking, everyone in the Earth Element department has to retake it.”

Poor Wu Mingbai. The others instantly had no more complaints. If even someone like Wu Mingbai, who had already finished his exam, had to retake it, what did they have to complain about?

“Alright, you all must be tired. You can leave now. You have tomorrow off.” With a wave of his hand, Meng Huai dismissed them from the classroom.

The students looked at each other, and Su Bei was the first to slip away. This time, no one called him back; everyone was preoccupied with their own thoughts.

After heading straight to the cafeteria to eat, Su Bei returned to his dorm and opened his phone. He had originally planned to wait until two chapters of the comic were updated before reading, but since he now had plenty of time, there was no harm in reading it now.

The comic began, as usual, from when they received the news about the final exam. The written portion of the exam didn’t take up much space. After all, it was a comic centered on abilities. In fact, Su Bei was already pleasantly surprised that the academy even had written exams. It had a logical beauty that didn’t quite fit the comic’s tone.

However, this time the author didn’t post their report cards directly but hinted at their general rankings through the dialogue of a few characters later on.

“So the exam results this time are Si Zhaohua, Qi Huang, Su Bei, Lan Subing?”

“Hahahahaha, how the tables have turned!”

“Young Master Si is number one in everything, as expected!”

“Every time I see Su Bei’s grades being so good, I feel conflicted. I thought he was a delinquent.”

“Mo Xiaotian isn’t at the bottom this time, sigh.”

Next was the ability exam. Su Bei had thought the only point of interest would be the section on Wu Mingbai’s Earth Element exam, but unexpectedly, the author included another piece of useful information in the comic.

【“Principal, isn’t this too dangerous?” The dean of students’ glasses glinted coldly. “If you don’t give me a reasonable explanation, I will not agree to let the students go to the Nightmare Beast World to complete their final exam.”

Wu Di sat in his chair, not angered by her refusal. He was just hesitating, hesitating whether to reveal the real reason.

The dean of students had been his partner for several years and easily saw his hesitation, immediately pressing her advantage. “Don’t you dare tell me that they’re about to graduate and should experience danger in advance. This isn’t just any experience; that’s the Nightmare Beasts’ territory! No matter how well we prepare, there’s still a high chance that the Nightmare Beasts could find a loophole. If a student really has an accident in the Nightmare Beast World, who will bear the loss and the blame?”

A student dying during a final exam just before graduation. Even signing a life-and-death waiver beforehand wouldn’t be enough to quell the parents’ anger. Besides, even without considering the academy’s reputation, she didn’t think it was necessary to have these students take their final exam in the Nightmare Beast World.

Seeing her determined gaze, it was clear she wouldn’t back down without an answer. Wu Di sighed helplessly and had no choice but to tell the truth. “Alright, I wanted to use them, without alerting the Nightmare Beasts, to test which method is most likely to clear the meteorite fragments in the Nightmare Beast World.”】

Just as Su Bei had thought. Endless Ability Academy went to great lengths to put them in the Nightmare Beast World for the exam, and this was indeed the reason.

If they had sent adult Ability users to conduct the test, the Advanced Nightmare Beasts would have noticed and become suspicious. After all, in Su Bei’s setting, the Advanced Nightmare Beasts knew this secret.

But going in under the guise of testing students for a final exam was much more reasonable. Although it would attract the Nightmare Beasts’ greed, it wouldn’t arouse their suspicion. It was equivalent to trading student safety for a chance to completely eliminate the Nightmare Beasts.

At this point, the bullet comments were in a frenzy.

“So that’s why they suddenly had to go to the Nightmare Beast World for the final exam!”

“This testing method is quite clever.”

“What if a student really dies? You can’t just disregard students’ lives for the sake of completely eradicating the Nightmare Beasts!”

“Are these life-and-death waivers legally binding?”

“Actually, I think it’s quite worth it…”

The readers’ discussion didn’t affect the comic’s progress. The examinees soon entered the Nightmare Beast World. To be fair and to pad the content, the author depicted the exams at several test sites. Su Bei wasn’t interested in the other locations and flipped directly to Wu Mingbai’s exam.

As the location of a main plot foreshadowing, this section had the most pages. The author not only drew Wu Mingbai’s exam process but also specifically included some background characters’.

Wu Mingbai did exactly as he had demonstrated at the time, using [Earth Element] to condense the surrounding rock fragments and dust, forming large clumps before tossing them aside. This method truly tested one’s ability to multitask, requiring a small stream of ability to be constantly dedicated to this task while simultaneously fighting Nightmare Beasts.

The other students’ methods were also varied and strange. Some used earth-type abilities to create armor around themselves for protection, naturally preventing any dust from getting close. This method was fine for passing the exam, but it offered no help to the academy’s true objective.

Among the few methods shown in the comic, there were a total of three that were genuinely useful for clearing the meteorite fragments, including Wu Mingbai’s.

The other two were increasing the ground’s adhesion to those meteorites, making them stick directly to the surface, which would naturally prevent them from getting on the Ability users.

On the surface, this method seemed useless for clearing the meteorites, as making them fall to the ground wasn’t the same as making them disappear. But if the earth could be given a stronger ability to attract meteorites, couldn’t other objects be given a stronger adhesive ability as well?

If it were possible to completely clear the meteorites by traveling throughout the Nightmare Beast World, although troublesome and time-consuming, it wasn’t entirely unfeasible.

It was worth mentioning that this point was very similar to a method used by a student from the special department. That student’s method of bleeding the Nightmare Beasts was to directly suck their blood dry with a [Black Hole] ability. If that person could travel throughout the Nightmare Beast World with their ability constantly active, they could also completely clear the meteorites. However, the Nightmare Beasts would hardly let them have their way.

The third method was to transform the dust and rock fragments into something else, changing their internal structure to turn them into another substance. The exam rules stated that rock fragments and dust couldn’t get close, but it didn’t say that glass couldn’t.

The girl’s problem-solving approach in the comic was indeed novel; even Su Bei couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow while reading. If the meteorite fragments were transformed into other minerals, would that also count as clearing them?

The biggest advantage of this method was that, with proper execution, they could completely replace all the meteorites with other substances without arousing the Nightmare Beasts’ suspicion. The Nightmare Beasts would likely not discover the trick for a very long time.

Most importantly, Wu Mingbai could use all three methods. As someone possessing the most fundamental elemental ability, [Earth Element], he was a jack-of-all-trades when it came to earth-related matters, able to have a hand in any method.

Seeing that the author was seriously laying the groundwork to completely eliminate the Nightmare Beasts, Su Bei’s heart was finally at ease. As long as the author was committed, completing this task would definitely not be difficult.

Now that the main storyline of eliminating the Nightmare Beasts was on track, Su Bei had to consider his own problem. His main hesitation now was whether he should take the initiative to join this main storyline.

There was a good way to judge whether he should do this: by judging the author’s attitude. Knowing that the author didn’t want him to have an easy time, he just had to do whatever the author didn’t want him to do.

But on this matter, Su Bei couldn’t discern the author’s attitude. If the author didn’t want him to participate, then the exam question for the special department was clearly a bit special, feeling related to the main plot. If the author did want him to participate, then the disappearance of Jiang Tianming and the others had absolutely nothing to do with him.

I’ll decide after reading the next chapter update, Su Bei wasn’t in a hurry, not even feeling the urge to open the forums. It was impossible for the readers to have any special discoveries in this chapter’s plot, and it had nothing to do with him, so there was naturally no need to look.

At 11 PM, just as Su Bei was getting ready for bed, the notification sound from the “Manga Consciousness” rang out again. The second chapter had finally been updated.

Su Bei, who had been feeling a bit sleepy, was instantly wide awake. He leaned against his pillow, took out his phone, and began to read the comic.

The author didn’t waste any time, starting directly from Jiang Tianming and the others being abducted.

Su Bei had been curious about how they had managed to create an escape opportunity while being watched by Advanced Nightmare Beasts outside. After reading the comic, he understood that it was Wu Jin’s [Succubus] ability that played a major role.

He reacted extremely quickly, activating his ability the moment he was forced out of the protective shield. Without a mental defense activated beforehand, even those with high Mental Energy would definitely be charmed by the [Succubus] ability; only the duration of the charm would differ.

The instant after charming all the Nightmare Beasts, Wu Jin immediately used a small escape combo. He used a group skill to lower their presence and led everyone to escape under the cover of the opportunity.

Of course, returning directly to the protective shield was not an option. The Nightmare Beasts had already planned for this. The moment they were driven out, an Advanced Nightmare Beast had used a counter-spell on the shield, making it impossible to get back in for a short period.

With no other choice, the group could only rely on Wu Jin’s low presence to slip away right under the Nightmare Beasts’ noses.

But those Nightmare Beasts were not fools. Knowing that the group couldn’t return, they soon discovered their tracks outside and sent a few Advanced Nightmare Beasts to capture them.

Fortunately, they didn’t think too highly of Jiang Tianming and the others, only sending a few Nightmare Beasts. If all the Advanced Nightmare Beasts had swarmed out, Jiang Tianming’s group would have been utterly annihilated, no matter how skilled they were.

After they had escaped some distance, the camera cut to Su Bei. The moment Su Bei took out his phone and directly called Jiang Tianming and the others, not just Ai Baozhu and her group, but even the readers were stunned.

“You can make phone calls in the Nightmare Beast World? That’s a bit ridiculous.”

“Bad review, not comic-like at all!”

“Hahahahahaha, sorry, that’s a bit funny.”

“I’m relieved to see that Baozhu and the others were also shocked.”

“What a convenient phone! Can I have one too? This child really needs it.”

After a brief appearance for them, the plot returned to Jiang Tianming. They fought a retreating battle, dodging and running all the way, and managed to hold on for a long time.

But this was definitely not sustainable. Their Mental Energy would eventually run out, while in the Nightmare Beast World, the Nightmare Beasts’ energy was practically inexhaustible. In a battle of attrition, even Low-tier Nightmare Beasts could hold their own against them, let alone Advanced ones.

So they had to find a place to rest quickly and have the teachers come pick them up.

This required teamwork. Zhou Renjie first swallowed Jiang Tianming, Lan Subing, and Li Shu using his ability. Inside his stomach, Jiang Tianming used his nullification ability, causing any Nightmare Beast’s lock-on on Zhou Renjie to lose effect.

Li Shu created an illusion in advance, using fake figures inside it to attract the Nightmare Beasts’ attention and help everyone escape. Relying on Wu Jin’s low presence, Zhou Renjie was hidden to the greatest extent possible. In the end, they really managed to slip out of the Nightmare Beasts’ sight and find a place free of them.

Then, the comic’s focus shifted to Wu Mingbai, starting from his decision to stay behind and wait for Jiang Tianming and the others. Through this plotline, Su Bei finally learned what he had used to convince Principal Wu Di.

Wu Mingbai’s persuasion method was very direct. He stated that he was definitely the person who understood Jiang Tianming and Lan Subing the best. If something unexpected happened and they left a secret message, he would be the only one who could understand it. If the academy missed their hints because he wasn’t there, resulting in the loss of the best rescue opportunity, wouldn’t that be a huge loss?

“Hahahahahaha, not a bad excuse.”

“You can tell Mingbai wracked his brains for a reason.”

“Insisting on staying even though he could have returned to the academy, the friendship of the trio is the best!”

“I have a feeling Mingbai is about to jinx it…”

“Is something really going to happen on the other side?”

“Just agree, Principal! Our protagonist group needs to be together!”

To be honest, Su Bei also felt that Wu Mingbai was about to jinx it. It would have been fine if he hadn’t mentioned it, but now that he had, something was very likely to happen. If nothing happened to Jiang Tianming and the others, wouldn’t it make his staying behind seem to have no real purpose?

Fast-forwarding through the scenes of others evacuating, Jiang Tianming and the others’ call came an hour after their retreat. When they heard that they had found a safe location and could be picked up, Lei Ze’en and the others were elated. Heaven knows how agonizing that period had been for them, terrified that the call would never come and that they would receive news of the students’ deaths instead.

Following the coordinates displayed on Jiang Tianming’s phone, Lei Ze’en set up a Teleportation Array at top speed. Under the watchful eyes of a host of Advanced Nightmare Beasts, he swiftly retracted the protective shield and, at the same time, teleported away through the array.

Although this step looked easy, in Su Bei’s expert opinion, it was extremely perilous. Those Nightmare Beasts were no pushovers. If Lei Ze’en’s ability wasn’t stable enough and his hands weren’t fast enough, they would have been intercepted the moment the shield was dropped and forced into a major battle.

Fortunately, they managed to escape smoothly in the end, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. However, to their surprise, when they arrived at the location, Jiang Tianming’s group was nowhere to be found, leaving only a phone lying on the ground.

“What’s going on?” Lei Ze’en’s brow furrowed, a trace of worry flashing in his eyes. He picked up the phone from the ground and asked as he tried to open it, “Where are they?”

The phone had a screen lock password and couldn’t be opened. Lei Ze’en looked at Wu Mingbai, suddenly feeling that the principal had been incredibly wise to let him come along. “Mingbai, do you know the password for this phone?”

“I know, this is Jiang Tianming’s phone.” Wu Mingbai recognized it at a glance, took the phone, and unlocked it in a few quick moves. The first thing that popped up was the memo app, where a few words were written.

—“Nightmare Beasts arrive, 23, 26”

Seeing the contents of the phone from the side, Lei Ze’en looked puzzled. “‘Nightmare Beasts arrive’ I understand, it means the Nightmare Beasts came, which should also be the reason they left. But what do the two numbers at the end mean?”

“They’re coordinates,” Wu Mingbai answered confidently.

The three of them were good friends, so Lei Ze’en naturally trusted his judgment. But then another question arose. He looked around at the vast, disorienting Nightmare Beast World, where there were no landmarks and no sense of direction, and asked with a strange expression, “But how do we tell which way is which here?”

To find Jiang Tianming and the others using coordinates, the first thing they needed to do was determine north, south, east, and west.

Before Wu Mingbai in the comic could give the answer, Su Bei and the readers outside the comic had already come up with it in their minds—“The direction the top of the phone is pointing is the ‘North’ they agreed on.”

Back in the first season of King of Abilities, when they had unexpectedly lost contact, they had used this method to find each other. Now, seeing the same coordinate method again, all the readers, including Su Bei, couldn’t help but smile, feeling as if they too were part of this adventure.

“Here we are in the second season, and it’s still the phone coordinate method for finding people.”

“I knew it was this, hahahahaha.”

“To think so much time has passed in a flash.”

“So nostalgic, I’m going to re-watch the first season.”

“Our Mingbai was so useful for staying behind!”

Unlike the readers who had seen the comic, the teachers didn’t know the inside story. One of them asked skeptically, “Are you sure? Why wouldn’t they point the top of the phone in the direction they fled?”

Wu Mingbai explained logically, “Because we figured the enemy would think that. We don’t want our clues to be usable by the enemy if they pick it up.”

“Alright, you have a point.” The teacher expressed that he really couldn’t understand the youth of today; their way of thinking was truly unconventional.

The rest of the plot was quite ordinary. They walked straight ahead and finally found Jiang Tianming and the others, helping them deal with the Nightmare Beasts that were chasing them. A flashback sequence replayed Jiang Tianming’s group’s second escape, and the chapter ended with some lighthearted banter from the trio.

Hmm?

There was no part related to the main plot? Su Bei was a bit surprised. He had thought the author would definitely use this plotline to smoothly introduce more foreshadowing about eliminating the Nightmare Beasts. Could it be that it was just a simple side story?

No, Su Bei felt something was wrong. He flipped back to the first page and carefully reread the plot once more. Since he already knew the direction of the comic’s plot this time, he only needed to focus on the details, and he really did discover some interesting points.

The author seemed to have portrayed those Nightmare Beasts in excessive detail.

Usually, in this type of plot, the Nightmare Beasts chasing the protagonists would only be given a few simple, uniform panels to show the hardship of the escape. The author had always done this before.

But this time, they had specifically given several Nightmare Beasts a lot of screen time. Was it just padding, or was there a hidden meaning?