Chapter 282

With this suspicion in mind, Su Bei carefully reread the parts of the plot where the Nightmare Beasts appeared. Without a doubt, the author had indeed put effort into depicting those particular Nightmare Beasts.

Their abilities were all very interesting. Overall, they shared one common trait: they were all Earth Element Nightmare Beasts.

Nightmare Beasts and Ability users had many similarities. Their abilities were like abilities, so their classifications were naturally similar as well.

Among Nightmare Beasts, low-tier ones generally had physical enhancements—increased strength, speed, and defense. The other two tiers of Nightmare Beasts, however, possessed a wider variety of abilities.

Just like with human Ability users, elemental types were the majority. And among the elemental types, the five elements were generally balanced in proportion. For so many Earth Element types to appear in succession this time, there were only two possibilities.

Either the Advanced Nightmare Beasts intentionally brought these Earth Element Nightmare Beasts over for some unknown purpose. Or, the proportion of Earth Element Nightmare Beasts in the Nightmare Beast World had indeed far surpassed that of other elements.

Regardless of which possibility it was, it indicated that this matter was unusual and was indeed a foreshadowing planted by the author.

If it was the former, why would the Advanced Nightmare Beasts bring a group of Earth Element Nightmare Beasts to hunt down humans? The Earth Element was a very sensitive ability type in this plotline. The real reason the human side insisted on holding the final exam in the Nightmare Beast World despite the danger was that their true intentions lay elsewhere; their actual goal was to find a way to clear out the meteorites and completely eliminate the Nightmare Beasts.

In that case, the purpose of the Advanced Nightmare Beasts bringing a group of Earth Element Nightmare Beasts became clear. They had likely guessed Endless Ability Academy’s objective in advance, or at least had their suspicions. That’s why they specifically sent this group of Nightmare Beasts to probe.

Once Endless Ability Academy started to tamper with the meteorite fragments in the air during the final exam, with so many Earth Element Nightmare Beasts present, the Nightmare Beast side would instantly detect the problem.

Thinking of this, Su Bei couldn’t help but feel a wave of relief. Fortunately, Endless Ability Academy was cautious enough. Although they had tampered with the exam questions, they didn’t try anything funny in the Nightmare Beast World during the final exam. Otherwise, once the Nightmare Beasts discovered their true intentions, they would have attacked relentlessly, and whether the students could have returned safely would have been a serious question.

As for the other possibility… if the balance of the five elements was broken, what did that mean? Was this related to the meteorites? Had the Nightmare Beasts and the Ability Government discovered this situation?

At this thought, Su Bei suddenly realized he much preferred the first scenario. Although the first scenario was also a bit troublesome, it was the best possible outcome compared to the second.

He checked the forum. This incident didn’t involve him, and the forum readers, unlike him with his god’s-eye view of a god’s-eye view, had hardly noticed the issue with the Nightmare Beasts. Su Bei only found one useful post.

《Aren’t there too many Earth Element Nightmare Beasts in this chapter?》

【Leeuwenhoek Here No.0: I counted. Of the six Nightmare Beasts chasing Jiang Tianming and the others in this chapter, a full four of them were Earth Element. If the old scoundrel author isn’t just padding for word count because he’s run out of ideas, then there must be a hidden story. This Leeuwenhoek only has eyes for discovery, not a brain for thinking. I’m putting my discovery here and waiting for an Analysis God to show up.】

【No.1: Sis Leeuwenhoek, it’s you again. I’ve seen you on the forums so many times.】

【No.2: Seriously, I checked the OP’s post history. She really does have a sharp pair of eyes.】

【Leeuwenhoek Here No.3 (OP) replied to No.2: And a brain untouched by knowledge.】

【No.4: Hahahahahahaha】

【No.5: I didn’t even notice these details. Leeuwenhoek indeed.】

【…】

【No.22: Went back and reread it. OP is right. Earth Element Nightmare Beasts are appearing way too frequently.】

【No.23: Is the old scoundrel foreshadowing something? Though I can’t see what this foreshadowing is for.】

【No.24: Earth Element, huh… could it be related to Mingbai?】

【No.25: Where’s the Analysis God?】

【No.26: Could it be that the Nightmare Beasts intentionally sent a lot of Earth Element Nightmare Beasts to hunt Jiang Jiang and the others? After all, the Earth Element is relatively convenient for ground searches.】

【No.27 replied to No.26: Shouldn’t there be plenty of specialized search-type Nightmare Beasts? Based on the characteristic in ‘King of Abilities’ where a Nightmare Beast’s ability and appearance are relatively consistent, many canine-type Nightmare Beasts should have such abilities. Why send so many Earth Element types? Let the specialists do their job.】

【No.28 replied to No.26: Not very likely. If it was just for searching, wouldn’t one or two be enough? Why send so many?】

【No.29: I know, I know! It’s because the old scoundrel is an earth sign, so he likes the Earth Element the most!】

【No.30 replied to No.29: ?】

【No.31 replied to No.29: I can testify, the old scoundrel really is an earth sign.】

【No.32 replied to No.29: When I type this question mark…】

【…】

【No.77: I feel like it’s related to the Fallen Meteorite. Maybe the Nightmare Beasts brought so many Earth Element Nightmare Beasts to prevent Endless Ability Academy from clearing the meteorites. With them around, they’d definitely be the first to sense any changes to the meteorites. If Endless Ability Academy dares to make a move, they’ll be detected immediately.】

【No.78: The user above makes sense, at least the most sense in this thread. The abstract abilities you guys came up with earlier are beyond me.】

【No.79 replied to No.77: I remember it was written before that Endless Ability Academy knowing the method to completely eliminate the Nightmare Beasts was a secret the Nightmare Beasts didn’t know about, right? If they don’t know, why would they send Earth Element Nightmare Beasts over?】

【No.80 replied to No.79: Preparing for a rainy day. This is a matter of their race’s survival, they have to be on guard. Even if the other side doesn’t know, they have to be constantly vigilant.】

【…】

【No.115 replied to No.77: That’s not right. If it was really to constantly monitor whether Endless Ability Academy was up to something, then why would these Earth Element Nightmare Beasts be sent out to hunt Jiang Jiang and the others? They should have all stayed outside the protective barrier!】

【No.116 replied to No.115: ! I really didn’t think of that!】

【No.117: Floor 115’s concern is valid. If that point can’t be explained, then Floor 77’s guess is most likely wrong. After all, when the Nightmare Beasts sent people to hunt Jiang Tianming, the people from Endless Ability Academy hadn’t left yet.】

【No.118: So all the previous guesses were wrong? Then what’s the truth?】

【…】

Just like the forum readers, Su Bei was also jolted awake by the words of Floor 115. That user was right. If the reason for so many Earth Element Nightmare Beasts was the first possibility, they should have stayed outside the protective barrier instead of charging out to kill.

Whether it was killing or chasing people, other Nightmare Beasts could have been sent. Why was it necessary to send these useful Nightmare Beasts? It could only be because the role of Earth Element Nightmare Beasts outside the barrier was the same as any other Nightmare Beast, so they could be casually assigned.

If a few randomly assigned Nightmare Beasts had more than half of them being Earth Element, then the answer pointed directly to the second possibility—the proportion of the five elements among elemental Nightmare Beasts was out of balance.

Thinking of this, Su Bei couldn’t help but sigh and rub his temples in despair. This damned luck. Whatever he didn’t want to happen, happened. Sometimes he really suspected the author was doing it on purpose.

What did an imbalance in the five elements mean?

The birth of Nightmare Beasts originated from the grievances of humans after death. Most of their abilities were randomly generated, while a small portion was generated based on the deceased’s resentment.

Elemental abilities were generally randomly generated. After all, very few people’s dying grievances would be linked to metal, wood, water, fire, and earth… Metal was a possibility, but earth was unlikely.

So, the increase in Earth Element Nightmare Beasts was a choice of the Nightmare Beast World, or even the comic world itself. Its increase must represent something.

Su Bei found it hard not to connect this matter with the Fallen Meteorite. This incident was already linked to the relevant main storyline, which was how he discovered the other things in the first place. If nothing unexpected happened, the increase in Earth Element Nightmare Beasts was definitely bad news for humanity, bad news that could be linked to the Fallen Meteorite.

This was the limit of Su Bei’s thinking for now. With too few clues, this was all he could come up with at the moment.

But Su Bei had never been one to get hung up on a single point. If this line of thought was blocked, he would just switch to another. Since the increase in Earth Element Nightmare Beasts was a bad thing, then trying to find a way to change it couldn’t be wrong.

Su Bei planned to go to the library after the final exams to look for information on elemental Nightmare Beasts and see if there was any way to change the current situation. No matter what foreshadowing or conspiracy the author was arranging, he would just pull the rug out from under them.

After finishing the comic and the forum, Su Bei finally felt at ease and fell asleep peacefully. The next day was a holiday, and Wu Mingbai and the others returned safely. When everyone heard the news, they all sent private messages asking about what had happened.

Su Bei had already learned everything from the comic in advance. Seeing that Jiang Tianming and the others clearly hadn’t noticed the problem of the increased number of Earth Element Nightmare Beasts, he immediately lost interest in their discussion.

After another day of rest, on the third day, everyone finally learned the content of the make-up final exam.

This time, there was no need to go to the Nightmare Beast World; the test would be held directly at the academy. The content was a choice of one of three options: eliminate one hundred low-tier Nightmare Beasts against the clock, participate in an external mission involving an intermediate Nightmare Beast, or eliminate one advanced Nightmare Beast.

From the difficulty, it was obvious that the scores for the three options were different. If there were no surprises, the score cap for the first option was 70, the second option was 90, and the third option could potentially reach a full 100 points.

From S-Class, Su Bei, Jiang Tianming, Lan Subing, Wu Mingbai, Si Zhaohua, and Qi Huang chose to eliminate an advanced Nightmare Beast. The rest all chose to go out on a mission involving an intermediate Nightmare Beast.

It was worth mentioning that in the upcoming Ability Academy World Tournament during the summer vacation, only those from their first-year S-Class who chose the highest-level exam would be eligible to be candidates.

This was also why Su Bei chose this option. He didn’t have to take action in the upcoming events, but he couldn’t be absent. Only by being in the game could he react at the first opportunity.

Dealing with a single advanced Nightmare Beast was not difficult for the current Su Bei. As the saying goes, in all of martial arts, only speed is unbeatable. As long as he could alter the Nightmare Beast’s destiny first, its fate of death would be sealed.

Don’t be fooled by how this sounds. Su Bei’s defensive capabilities were too weak. If his hand speed wasn’t fast enough, his own safety would be in jeopardy. But he wasn’t worried. If he couldn’t change others’ destinies in time, couldn’t he change his own?

Although the Minor Destiny Pointer was ever-changing, the Major Destiny Pointer was stable. As long as he checked his own Destiny Compass in time before each move, retreating or changing his destiny upon encountering danger, he wouldn’t face a situation where his hand speed wasn’t fast enough or he was one-shotted by a sneak attack. At worst, a sudden turn of luck might just leave him seriously injured.

The final exam arrived quickly. As one of the only three ability academies in the country, Endless Ability Academy might not be the best at everything, but getting some Nightmare Beasts or missions was easy. Besides, this was one of the backup plans anyway, so not much time was wasted before the make-up final exam officially began.

The exam involving the advanced Nightmare Beasts was the first to start. Few people signed up for it. Not counting the few first-years, there were only about thirty people in total. This was already a testament to the high teaching quality of Endless Ability Academy. If it were any other academy, they would have struggled to even gather thirty people.

Seeing Su Bei and the others also participating, the third-year students were surprised but not overly shocked. When they had participated in the final exam in the Nightmare Beast World together before, these third-year students had already secretly learned about their identities.

In any grade, S-Class had always been a cut above the rest. For this final exam, the entire third-year S-Class was absent; they had a more dangerous exam.

Having been crushed by their own year’s S-Class for three years, they were already used to it. Now that the first-year S-Class could also keep pace with them, although they felt ashamed, they weren’t particularly surprised.

Geniuses appeared every year. The protagonist group just had the status of protagonists, which gave them richer experiences.

Si Zhaohua was the first to take the exam. The combat of an assault-type was all about violent aesthetics. Si Zhaohua’s fighting style was just that. His [Angel] ability was a combination of beauty and power, and since the guy prided himself on elegance, his fights were exceptionally good-looking, even against strong enemies.

For the sake of fairness, all the advanced Nightmare Beasts prepared by the academy were assault-types. The clash of power against power was a thrilling sight for everyone.

The next few people took their exams in turn. Those willing to take this level of test generally had strong attack power, and each of their battles was exhilarating.

Except for Su Bei.

Su Bei’s battle was just baffling.

It felt like he did almost nothing. He just threw out a gear, and then the Nightmare Beast was eliminated.

Except for the members of S-Class, the other upperclassmen watching were all bewildered. The exam was over? What happened? How was the advanced Nightmare Beast defeated? That easily? Was the Destiny-type ability really that strong?

Su Bei couldn’t say whether the Destiny-type ability was strong or not, but it was definitely mysterious enough. The attack that seemed so effortless to them had actually consumed a lot of Su Bei’s Mental Energy.

The moment he entered the arena, he pretended to be in a standoff with the Nightmare Beast while secretly moving its Major Destiny Pointer to the bottom. Then, he adjusted his own Minor Destiny Pointer to the far left, used the most effective of all his attack methods, “Targeting Gear,” against his opponent, and finally executed an instant-cast skill.

Only with this combination of moves could he one-shot an advanced Nightmare Beast without revealing his hand.

Although he knew exactly what he had done, seeing the final effect, Su Bei couldn’t help but feel a little proud. His efforts had not been in vain. His progress from the beginning until now was definitely the greatest among everyone.

“Junior Su Bei, you’re amazing. Have you thought about joining a guild or a team? I know a lot of people, I can introduce you in advance,” a blue-haired girl said enthusiastically, approaching Su Bei while he was waiting for the other S-Class members to finish their exams, seeing that he was alone.

From her words, it was clear she had misunderstood, thinking he had no friends in his class. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have approached him.

After all, generally speaking, classmates were very likely to team up after graduation. They knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses and had a good understanding of one another. There was no reason to waste the resources around them to team up with strangers. The Nightmare Beast World was still very dangerous. Without a reliable teammate, one could easily be dragged down and killed.

Even she herself had decided to join a guild with her friends, not alone.

However, this senior had indeed misunderstood. Su Bei was standing alone not because others were isolating him, but because he was actively standing far away to “isolate” others. Otherwise, he wasn’t the first one to finish the exam, so why didn’t he proactively walk over to the S-Class group?

The reason Su Bei stood alone was mainly because his Mental Energy consumption was a bit high. The students knew each other well, and without any concealment, if he got close, they would probably easily notice his weakened state. This would somewhat shatter the persona Su Bei had created, so he deliberately stood outside.

And Si Zhaohua and the others knew him well. Seeing him standing alone, they knew he probably had a reason for not wanting to come over, so they tactfully didn’t approach.

Unexpectedly, their mutual understanding had caused a misunderstanding in others. Su Bei shook his head with a wry smile and politely refused, “Thank you for your kind offer, Senior, but there’s no need.”

Unfortunately, the other party obviously didn’t catch his refusal. She thought he was just being shy and continued to persuade him enthusiastically, “You should have heard of our guild, it’s the ‘Long River Guild’. It might not be number one, but it’s at least one of the top three guilds in the country. The benefits of joining are great. If you join in your first year, you’ll have more time to build rapport with other members, and you can get a job smoothly right after graduation. What a perfect arrangement!”

After looking at her for a moment, Su Bei quickly realized that without proving himself, it would be difficult to make this senior understand he was seriously refusing her while remaining polite. But she clearly had no ill intentions, and he couldn’t bring himself to be rude to a stranger.

So, Su Bei waved to Si Zhaohua, Wu Mingbai, and Qi Huang, who had already finished their exams, and asked loudly, “Any plans for the summer vacation?”

Seeing him call, the three of them walked over. Qi Huang shrugged her shoulders with a bored expression, “What plans could there be? Become a candidate, go see the world tournament, and then train at home. Hmph, when the second year starts, I’ll definitely surpass you all!”

“That sounds a bit familiar…” Si Zhaohua couldn’t help but chuckle. “Didn’t someone say the same thing before the last semester’s break?”

Hearing the obvious hint, Qi Huang’s face flushed, and she coughed, “Last time was last time, this time is this time. The me of today is not the me of yesterday!”

Si Zhaohua didn’t bicker with her and turned to Su Bei, “I might take some time off to travel. If you guys are interested, we can…”

Before he could finish, Wu Mingbai interrupted, “Hey, don’t forget my previous invitation! I’m going back to Afei Nation for the summer vacation and I’m inviting you all to travel with me.”

Hearing this, Si Zhaohua felt a little annoyed. There had been too many things happening recently, and he had actually forgotten about this. He didn’t let it show on his face, smiling and nodding, “Of course I didn’t forget. I’ll be waiting for your news. I’m really looking forward to this trip.”

He was genuinely looking forward to it. Although Si Zhaohua had often traveled abroad before, he had never been to Afei Nation. Before he became an Ability user, the Si family wouldn’t let him get too involved in ability-related matters.

Afei Nation, huh. Su Bei suddenly thought of something. The guardian deity of Afei Nation possessed the miraculous ability to move mountains and fill seas, and since the abilities of the Afei royal family were mostly related to the Earth Element, this guardian deity must have a strong connection to the Earth Element. Perhaps he could learn the reason for the imbalance of the five elements among the Nightmare Beasts from it.

With the protagonist group around, he wouldn’t have to worry about not meeting it. As for whether he could ask his questions and get answers, that would depend on his own skills.

At this thought, his eyes lit up, and he also made an “OK” gesture, “Anytime.”

After he finished speaking, he glanced over, and the senior who had been next to him had quietly left at some point.

“Hey, weren’t you going to invite that junior? How come you came back after just a few words? I thought you two were getting along well, even introducing friends to each other,” a red-haired girl asked doubtfully. She was the other senior who was going to join the ‘Long River Guild’ with the blue-haired girl.

The blue-haired senior shook her head helplessly, “I was mistaken. That junior isn’t unpopular. On the contrary, he’s very popular! If he weren’t, he wouldn’t have been able to summon all his companions with a single call.”

And what made her most helpless was the atmosphere between them, the kind that only exists between close friends and companions. She had good friends herself, how could she not understand?

It was a pity. She had been thinking that if she could invite a young genius to join the guild, it would surely bring higher returns for her and her partner. After all, although the ‘Long River Guild’ was a major guild, it was still a bit difficult to attract students from Endless Ability Academy’s S-Class.

Unfortunately, she didn’t succeed. The moment she saw Su Bei’s classmates come over, she understood his intention.

“It’s fine, the two of us are enough!” The blue-haired girl wasn’t disappointed, but rather said with full confidence, “Inviting the junior was just icing on the cake. The real main course is the two of us.”

If the two of them weren’t capable, they wouldn’t have both chosen the most difficult final exam, nor would they have been invited to join a major guild before even graduating.

Hearing her say this, the red-haired girl couldn’t help but laugh out loud and nod in agreement, “You’re right.”

Su Bei was certainly strong, but the two of them were not bad either.