Chapter 287

You should know that a post-match inspection isn’t something that can be requested lightly. If it was found that Su Bei had done nothing wrong, their match against Endless Ability Academy would be ruled an immediate loss for them.

Although the price was steep, the members of Wilder Ability School had thought it through clearly. In any case, their school was just the country’s secondary team; there was no way they could beat the team from Endless Ability Academy, a top contender for the World Competition championship. They might as well take a gamble; you never knew when a bicycle might turn into a motorcycle.

Corresponding to the cost of a failed inspection request, if Su Bei was indeed found to have cheated, Endless Ability Academy would be immediately disqualified from this World Competition and barred from participating in the next. And Wilder Ability School would be declared the winner.

In a way, it was a no-risk, high-reward proposition for them. Failure meant no real loss, while success would be a massive gain.

This was one of the reasons they were willing to offend Endless Ability Academy to “seek justice” for Mavis.

Before participating in the World Competition, Su Bei had been briefed on these common rules. Thus, he was well aware of what the Wilder Ability School students had done and had even guessed their motives.

Su Bei didn’t believe that Wilder Ability School would report him so quickly if they merely suspected him of cheating. Normally, if they had suspicions, they would conduct a detailed investigation first to avoid making a mistake before deciding whether to report him.

But they went to the organizers to report him almost immediately. If it wasn’t because the entire Wilder Ability School team was brainless, Su Bei could only think of one reason: reporting him was more beneficial to them than not, regardless of the outcome.

With this realization, it was easy to figure out their objective.

However, Su Bei didn’t care what they thought. After all, he hadn’t cheated and had a clear conscience.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Just as Su Bei was contemplating whether striking back would count as self-defense if they didn’t get out of his way, Teacher Li hurried over.

She immediately stood in front of Su Bei, facing the opposing students with a calm yet intimidating gaze. “Since you have already requested a post-match inspection, please wait patiently for the results instead of harassing my student here.”

“We just wanted to ask,” the leading boy explained meekly, his eyes clearing up considerably after being calmly reprimanded by Teacher Li. Without their own teacher present, students always felt a little timid when facing a teacher from another school, especially when they already had a guilty conscience.

Ignoring his explanation, Teacher Li turned and asked Su Bei softly, “Are you alright?”

Su Bei shook his head. If there had been a real problem, he would have acted long ago. He had insta-killed Mavis on the stage; would these people be any exception?

Seeing that he truly wasn’t putting on a brave face, Teacher Li relaxed a little, a hint of a smile touching her eyes. “Well done, you secured a great opening victory.”

It was more than just an opening victory; in a sense, Su Bei had single-handedly swept all five of them.

Of course, she believed Su Bei hadn’t cheated. She had been present during his final exams, and the scene was still vivid in her mind. Su Bei’s ability was just that subtle and imperceptible. To her, Mavis’s reaction seemed perfectly logical.

“Are we going back now?” Su Bei asked, completely unfazed.

Teacher Li shook her head. “Because they requested a post-match inspection, you need to be temporarily isolated. I’ll lead the way.”

No one stopped them, and the two smoothly arrived at a private room. Inside was a man in a security guard’s uniform, responsible for watching over Su Bei. Seeing him enter, he immediately asked Teacher Li to leave, then closed the door and waited patiently.

Sessbia was very efficient. An answer was reached in just ten minutes, during which Su Bei wasn’t even troubled to prove his innocence.

The organizer’s official in charge of the incident also invited the members of Wilder Ability School into the room and then began to state their investigation’s findings: “Student Mavis’s loss of ability control was due to a significant amount of pesticide in the fruit he ate yesterday, which was unexpectedly triggered when he released his Mental Energy today. The swarm of insects smelled the scent of death, which is why they went out of control.”

After explaining Mavis’s blunder, the official clearly addressed Su Bei’s situation: “Student Su Bei only used his ability on the stage that day and was not carrying any ability-enhancing items.”

At this point, the verdict was clear: “Therefore, after our investigation, the post-match inspection initiated by Wilder Ability School has failed to find any irregularities! Does either side have any further objections?”

Hearing this, every member of Wilder Ability School had a look of deep disappointment. But just as Su Bei had thought, they weren’t particularly angry, apparently having anticipated this outcome.

The opposing team’s supervising teacher hesitated for a moment, first motioning for his students to apologize to Su Bei. After they had reluctantly done so, he asked as amiably as possible, “May I ask how you caused Mavis’s ability to go out of control?”

He found the official’s explanation incredible. How could a mistake from yesterday have coincidentally caused an issue right when Mavis was on stage today? Thinking of Su Bei’s [Destiny Gear] ability, it had to be his doing.

But even with the power to control destiny, it shouldn’t be possible to change yesterday’s fate today, right?

“With my ability,” Su Bei answered earnestly, giving a deadpan, perfunctory reply.

But in fact, he was telling the truth. It was just his ability. The pesticide in Mavis’s body was likely in a Schrödinger-like state of possibly triggering or not. Because the amount was small, an Ability user’s strong body would normally have been able to slowly digest it.

But once he changed the other’s destiny, the pesticide was naturally triggered by a certain movement or the action of a certain organ, leading to Mavis’s sudden loss of control.

The opposing teacher was taken aback by this answer but could see that Su Bei wouldn’t elaborate. He sighed, “We have no further questions.”

Seeing that they had no objections, the host outside received the message and immediately announced the result on the spot: “After verification, no issues were found in this match. Wilder Ability School is eliminated from this World Competition. Endless Ability Academy is victorious!”

The audience gasped once again.

One match had caused the audience to gasp three times. Who could say this wasn’t an exciting match? Although the actual fight lasted less than a minute, the plot was full of twists and turns, making it quite a spectacle.

Returning to the stands from the room, Su Bei finally got a taste of what it was like to be the center of attention. The audience was one thing, but even Mu Yunfan and the others were staring at him with curiosity, looking him up and down as if he were a monkey.

Finally, Wei Yuexi was the first to speak, her eyes shining, “Can I ask, Su Bei, how did you do that? You made your opponent fall into disarray and pass out just like that.”

“The effect of my ability,” Su Bei answered concisely.

As the vice-captain, Feng Manman knew a fair bit about his ability. She followed up, also curious, “I’ve seen all your match videos and data. You should have the ability to change people’s destiny, right? But how can a skill like that be resisted? Is one just forced to have their destiny changed by you?”

Of course not. As his understanding of his own ability deepened and his Mental Energy increased, Su Bei felt that with a high enough Mental Energy, one might be able to keenly sense subtle changes within themselves. Changing one’s destiny would naturally bring about changes in bodily sensations.

By promptly and generously using Mental Energy to regulate oneself, there was a chance to break free from the altered destiny.

But this was just Su Bei’s speculation; he hadn’t tested it in a real battle. While “Dream Foam” was useful for experiments, it couldn’t simulate such subtle reactions. After all, even Su Bei himself could barely feel the changes when he altered destiny.

However, he couldn’t possibly tell this to others. Su Bei said nonchalantly, “Of course. Destiny is just that powerful.”

If this scene could be drawn in the comic, making readers truly believe that this ability’s only weakness, besides high Mental Energy consumption, had disappeared, Su Bei would really hit the jackpot.

But although he said that, he knew it was impossible. Readers were indeed unguarded around comic characters and would believe much of what they revealed. But regarding Feng Manman’s question about an ability’s weakness, no sane person would make that public. So his answer actually looked more like he was just brushing her off.

“That’s really impressive.” Feng Manman knew her question had been a bit abrupt. Although she was sure he probably wasn’t telling the truth, she didn’t intend to press the issue. Instead, she proactively changed the subject, “Did anything happen just now? Did anyone give you a hard time?”

She was asking about the post-match inspection. The others were also concerned about this; heaven knew how panicked they were when they heard the host’s announcement.

Aside from the few members of the S-Class, the others didn’t know Su Bei very well. Plus, he had been forced to compete in the first place, so it was conceivable that he might cheat to get back at the academy out of spite.

Therefore, at that moment, all of them were silently praying that Su Bei hadn’t caused any trouble. Fortunately, the outcome was fine; he had indeed won on his own merits.

“I’m fine. Sessbia was very efficient and cleared it up right away. As for Wilder Ability School, you could say they got what they asked for.”

They wanted a quick resolution, and in the end, they got a quick elimination. How was that not getting what they asked for?

He stretched his arms. “Then I’ll head back to the hotel. I should be done for now, right?”

He had already fought once and had indirectly saved them five rounds of fighting time. If these people still wouldn’t let him off the hook, they couldn’t blame him for really stirring up trouble.

“Go back to the stands and let the others know you’re safe first. I think they’re probably very worried about you,” Feng Manman suggested reliably. “Also, if you don’t want to compete again, you should tell Teacher Li. She’s in the stands now too.”

Letting Jiang Tianming and the others know he was safe wasn’t necessary for Su Bei, but reporting to Teacher Li was essential. So, he readily accepted the new president’s suggestion and walked back to the contestants’ area with everyone.

“Are you okay?” The moment he saw Su Bei, Jiang Tianming asked bluntly, his expression clearly worried. Logically, since Su Bei had returned safely, he shouldn’t still look so concerned.

But because problems always arose whenever they went abroad, Jiang Tianming had a deep distrust of foreign governments. He was worried Su Bei might have been mistreated during the time he was taken away.

Su Bei shook his head, saying half-jokingly and half-seriously, “They were just suspicious. How would Sessbia dare to do anything to me? If they had really tortured me, I’d be dragging Teacher Li to sue this place right now. Who knows, thanks to me, you all might have gotten to stage a cool and stylish walkout!”

What he didn’t say was, if they had actually laid a hand on him, it would be uncertain whether it would be the teachers from Endless Ability Academy or Wilder Ability School complaining to the organizers.

Dealing with a few students who had no way to counter him was a piece of cake for Su Bei.

Everyone was amused by his words. But Su Bei was right; he wasn’t the type to suffer in silence. If he was truly wronged, he would definitely get his own back. Everyone’s worries were put to rest.

Having successfully competed once and more than completed his mission, Teacher Li was very satisfied with him and decided to grant his wish: he wouldn’t have to compete in the upcoming matches.

Although she truly felt Su Bei was the most suitable choice to compete. An ability that left opponents completely clueless as to how it worked was undoubtedly the best option to avoid revealing the others’ abilities.

But any ability, if used too often, could eventually be studied and figured out. As a teacher, she had also studied Su Bei’s ability and was well aware that he was vulnerable to instant-kill type abilities.

Normally, such abilities were rare—who could just insta-kill someone? But this was the World Competition for Ability users, and the contestants were all powerful new Ability users from around the globe. While instant-kill abilities were rare, there was certainly no shortage of them here.

Generally, possessing such an ability was a bit of a double-edged sword, because a powerful instant-kill ability came with an extremely long cooldown period. After killing an opponent, the user would either faint or be unable to use their ability for a long time, much like Si Zhaohua’s “Divine Judgment.”

If an opponent were to trade a skill like that one-for-one to take out a major threat like Su Bei, it would definitely be a net gain for them.

Since he didn’t have to compete, Su Bei went straight back to the hotel. In his room, he took out an item he had redeemed from the ‘Destiny’ organization—the “Nightmare World Gate.” As the name suggested, it was an item that allowed him to travel to the Nightmare Beast World.

He knew from the comic that Nightmare Beasts were gathering in the part of the Nightmare Beast World that corresponded to the competition venue. If he went in now, he might be able to find out about their plans.

One advantage of the “Nightmare World Gate” was that it wasn’t visible when used. Despite having “Gate” in its name, its actual function was to instantly transform the magnetic field, turning the environment into the Nightmare Beast World. It wasn’t the kind of item that opened a door you had to walk through to enter the Nightmare Beast World.

If Su Bei had to say it, a more fitting name for the “Nightmare World Gate” would be “Nightmare World Converter.”

The advantage of this method of entry was that he could appear in the Nightmare Beast World out of thin air. Paired with an Invisibility Talisman, the Nightmare Beasts wouldn’t be able to detect his arrival at all.

If there were a physical gate, even with an Invisibility Talisman, he’d be the target of focused attacks the moment he entered. Since he didn’t have to compete in the individual matches for the next two days, it was the perfect time to gather intelligence.

The “Nightmare World Gate” had a cooldown period, so Su Bei couldn’t return at any moment. Therefore, he reported to Teacher Li in advance with a very simple and unadorned reason: he wanted to do some sightseeing in Sessbia for a few days.

Many contestants did this. Main team members who were eliminated would stay a few extra days, and the reserve members were even more audacious, touring around during the competition. So Teacher Li didn’t find it strange. She was even a little touched that Su Bei would report his plans in advance.

Heaven knew how frantic she got looking for missing students every time she led a team, only to be infuriated upon finding out they had just gone out to have fun. It was rare to find a student who would report in advance, especially one who looked so mischievous.

It was like seeing a student who always handed in blank test papers suddenly get a passing grade; she felt touched, but also a little strange.

Was the sun rising in the west?

Although she didn’t know Su Bei as well as Meng Huai did, as a teacher who had long held the position of Dean of Students, Teacher Li knew students very well, especially the troublemakers.

As the saying goes, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Sudden good behavior definitely meant the student had either just made a mistake or was about to.

But since Su Bei had already reported his plans, Teacher Li didn’t say much. She approved his leave and even answered for him when others asked about him later.

She wasn’t worried about Su Bei encountering any danger while sightseeing. Firstly, Sessbia was under nationwide martial law because of the World Competition, so it was hard to run into trouble. Secondly, before leading the team to the competition, she had specifically asked Meng Huai about the character of these students.

Meng Huai’s comment about Su Bei had left a deep impression on her—“That guy Su Bei, you don’t need to worry about him. He knows what he’s doing better than anyone. And a Destiny-type… heh, even if we all ran into danger, he’d be fine.”

Teacher Li trusted Meng Huai’s judgment of his student. So, although her intuition told her he wasn’t really going sightseeing, she didn’t interfere. The boy might still be a minor, but possessing such an ability meant he was destined for a life of turmoil.

Meanwhile, after receiving Teacher Li’s reply, Su Bei took a deep breath, first adjusting his luck to its peak, then used his Mental Energy to activate the “Nightmare World Gate.” The Gate emitted a faint black light, and the surrounding environment instantly transformed, changing from colorful to a dull monochrome of black, white, and gray.

Su Bei leaped back a step, dodging an oncoming Nightmare Beast, and suddenly felt he had been too careless. There were simply too many Nightmare Beasts here, so densely packed that there was no place to even step.

It was a good thing he had been cautious enough to adjust his luck just now. Otherwise, upon entering the Nightmare Beast World with this density of beasts, he might have spawned directly on top of one.

He had to remember that he was only invisible, not intangible. The moment a Nightmare Beast touched him, he would be discovered.

Constant dodging wasn’t a sustainable solution. Su Bei found the right moment and leaped onto a large boulder, temporarily free from the constant worry of being touched. But he knew this couldn’t last; he wasn’t here to be a statue, but to gather intelligence! How could he do that without getting close to the enemy’s main camp?

He first observed his surroundings. Not far away was a tent, which had to be the main camp where the Nightmare Beasts held their meetings. Unfortunately, the tent seemed to be soundproof; he couldn’t hear anything from the outside.

Squatting on the rock, Su Bei thought for a moment and quickly came up with a plan.

He controlled his gears to kill a Nightmare Beast in the distance. A single stone stirred a thousand waves. The sudden death of one Nightmare Beast caused a panic among the others. Although Low-tier Nightmare Beasts had little intelligence, they knew their comrades wouldn’t just drop dead for no reason.

Soon, Intermediate and Advanced Nightmare Beasts came out to check the situation and take control of the scene. While they were clearing the area, Su Bei nonchalantly walked from the open space into the nearby tent.

The tactic of creating a diversion in the east to attack in the west was old but never outdated. The Advanced Nightmare Beasts might notice something was amiss, but they wouldn’t be able to find him.

The Su Bei of today was not the Su Bei of the past. The old Su Bei, even while invisible, could be sensed by the leader of the Black Flash Organization. But now, he could skillfully use his Mental Energy to shield himself, a method they had recently found in the Destiny organization’s database. By enveloping himself in a reverse layer of Mental Energy, he could prevent his aura from leaking.

Paired with the perfect Invisibility Talisman provided by the Manga Consciousness, as long as he didn’t get too close to an enemy, no one could detect his presence. Even enemies with Advanced Mental Energy would have a hard time finding him. Although Su Bei didn’t know the method of merging his Mental Energy with others, he could still remain undetected as long as he wasn’t actively probing outwards.

He had possessed Advanced Mental Energy for almost a year, and so much had happened in that time. If he still hadn’t done any research on it, he would be letting down the Manga Consciousness for choosing him in the first place.

Inside the tent were many bizarrely shaped Nightmare Beasts. Their appearances alone told him they were all Advanced Nightmare Beasts. Most of them were gathered in front of a large screen, which was broadcasting a live feed of the competition venue.

It was worth noting that this large black screen was also a Nightmare Beast. If he hadn’t seen the Destiny Compass above its head, Su Bei would have thought the Nightmare Beasts had started developing high technology.

“Have all the hidden defense lines been found yet?” a mermaid-like Nightmare Beast suddenly asked.

The brain-like Nightmare Beast sitting in the main seat impatiently denied it: “How could it be that fast? We can’t sense the humans’ Mental Energy fluctuations from here.”

After it spoke, the screen Nightmare Beast also chimed in: “What do you mean? If you have a problem with me, then don’t use me. Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to avoid the surveillance of so many Ability users to broadcast the situation at the venue to you in real-time?”

Seeing that they were about to start arguing again, another humanoid Nightmare Beast stepped forward to mediate: “What are you arguing about? Let’s not have an internal conflict before we even fight the humans.”

“Exactly!” The mermaid Nightmare Beast flicked its tail, and although there was no water around, a few splashes appeared out of thin air. “Actually, it doesn’t matter even if we can’t find the defense lines. Our plan this time is practically foolproof.”

The brain Nightmare Beast lived up to its name. While the other Nightmare Beasts were feeling smug because of the mermaid’s words, it questioned coolly, “The method is indeed a good one, but when have we not said that before? And when has it not gone wrong?”