Chapter 298:

[Su Bei:]

Seeing his reply, Jiang Tianming, who was keeping a constant eye on his watch, immediately answered.

[Jiang Tianming: I’ll make it quick. We’ve learned that the clowns’ initial programming wasn’t like this. They were only supposed to teach lying students a lesson by deducting half of their Fixed Points. But somehow, that setting was changed right at the start, turning them into what they are now. We were hoping you could change the clowns’ destiny.]

Of course not. He knew his own ability. He could change present or future destinies, but changing the past was definitely impossible. However, Su Bei did know someone who could help.

[Su Bei: Find Elvis.]

Elvis’s ability was plain to see. If anyone could change past events, it had to be him. Besides, with an old character making a comeback, there was bound to be some plot development. Su Bei figured the author’s original plan was probably for the kids to get Elvis’s help to solve the problem. It was just that Jiang Tianming and the others were more familiar with him, so they subconsciously asked him for help first.

After a simple “Okay” from the other side, there was silence. They must have gone to find Elvis.

However, even though his suggestion was successful, Su Bei still had a bad feeling. He suspected he would have to step in himself in the end.

The incident at Wesi Sanctuary had made it clear that the comic author didn’t actually mind him having moments in the spotlight. Sometimes, the author would even proactively give him some plotlines.

Su Bei later mulled over the author’s behavior and concluded that after becoming aware of his character’s existence, the author, in the spirit of making full use of everything, didn’t mind letting him do a few things.

After all, in the comic, anyone—be it heroes, villains, unrequited loves, cannon fodder, or passersby—could die. As the author, they had that absolute confidence. Could giving Su Bei a few plotlines really allow him to escape their control?

Therefore, in this storyline, he might also have a chance to appear. Su Bei thought about it carefully and quickly pinpointed the problem.

Perhaps for Elvis, changing a single clown’s timeline wasn’t difficult; he would just need to specifically rewind that clown’s timeline by a few hours. But with so many clowns in the amusement park, changing all of them would consume a great deal of Mental Energy.

Time-based abilities already consumed a lot of Mental Energy. To use it on so many targets and for such a long duration, even if Elvis had a special method for conserving Mental Energy, it would definitely not be enough.

Coincidentally, Su Bei had a solution. He had encountered this problem a long time ago. Possessing the comic forum, he naturally wouldn’t overlook this loophole and had specifically researched a method for casting group-wide abilities early on.

With that in mind, Su Bei pushed open the lid of the treasure chest, stood up, dusted himself off, and walked out. He needed to find the clowns here first and see if he could link their destinies beforehand. If he could, it would be a happy outcome for everyone. If not, he would have to come up with a reason to refuse Jiang Tianming’s request without revealing his limitations.

Following the sounds, he found a clown chasing someone. Su Bei activated his ability and used his gears to record the clown’s Destiny Compass. He then found another clown and observed its Destiny Compass as well.

Upon seeing this, he immediately let out a sigh of relief. The two clowns’ Destiny Compasses were nearly identical, which would make it much easier for him to link their destinies.

Earlier, when he was on the city-looping mini-train, he had looked down and seen many clowns on the ground, definitely more than two hundred. With so many of them, if their pointers were drastically different, adjusting them one by one would consume a lot of his Mental Energy.

Although he could forcibly link their destinies, that would still consume a fair amount of Mental Energy, though it was still much less than adjusting each destiny individually.

If Su Bei’s Mental Energy was considered 100, naturally linking Destiny Compasses with similar pointers would only cost about 20.

But if he wanted to forcibly link the destinies of a group with completely different pointers, the cost would be at least 50, and it would also depend on the number of individuals.

While this was still far less draining than changing destinies one by one, Su Bei wasn’t satisfied. The primary goal of everything he did was to save his own life. The outside world was still unsafe; if he didn’t reserve enough Mental Energy, how would he protect himself after getting out?

Having two clowns as proof was enough. Su Bei now had a good grasp of the situation. He returned to the city-looping mini-train and patiently waited for Jiang Tianming and the others to message him again. Of course, if they didn’t, that was fine too. If they could solve the problem themselves, Su Bei would be happy to see it happen.

However, his judgment was, as always, correct. About an hour later, his watch rang again. But this time, it wasn’t Jiang Tianming speaking; it was Wu Mingbai. He guessed Jiang Tianming was probably too embarrassed.

[Wu Mingbai: Su Bei, do you have a way to link the clowns’ destinies? That way, when Elvis changes one, he can change the others at the same time. Otherwise, if he does it one by one, his Mental Energy probably won’t be enough…]

[Su Bei: I can.]

Having already anticipated this, Su Bei wasn’t surprised at all. After giving an affirmative reply, Jiang Tianming’s side directly sent Si Zhaohua to pick him up. After all, their location was hard to find, but Su Bei’s was quite easy. There was only one mini-train and one track. By flying along the track, they could easily find him.

Si Zhaohua arrived quickly. After picking up Su Bei and flying with him in mid-air, he said with a relaxed smile, “The clowns said that as long as we adjust their destinies, they’ll send us away.”

It’s almost over? Su Bei’s eyes lit up. Although the danger outside might not be over, judging from the last comic panel he saw, the author probably intended for Qi Huang to have her moment. If so, by the time they got out, Qi Huang would have surely solved most of the problems, leaving at most a small aftermath for the main characters to deal with.

And for him, it could be said that as long as he left the illusion, the danger was basically over. Any remaining potential danger from the outside could likely be easily handled with the Mental Energy he had reserved.

“That’s really—” Before he could finish, Su Bei, who had subconsciously activated his ability to take a look, changed his tune. “—wishful thinking.”

With their luck having hit rock bottom, if they could smoothly leave the illusion after dealing with the clowns, he would swallow their Destiny Compasses whole.

Si Zhaohua: “…”

“What do you mean?” His previously relaxed expression instantly tensed up. He had thought they would be able to leave safely soon, but from Su Bei’s words, it seemed things wouldn’t end so easily.

Su Bei didn’t know the specifics either. He only knew one thing: “Let nature take its course. In any case, your destinies can’t be changed.”

The plotline designed by the author naturally couldn’t be altered. Even if this wasn’t the comic world, Su Bei wouldn’t be able to help everyone change their destinies. There were too many people, and their pointers were all over the place, definitely not in the same position like the clowns’. Moreover, these were all Ability users with Mental Energy, making it even harder to change their destinies.

If he were to adjust their destinies, he would have to ensure he had enough Mental Energy left to save himself, which meant he couldn’t help with the clowns. Faced with a choice between the two, he chose to follow the author’s plot.

Knowing Su Bei wouldn’t speak without reason, Si Zhaohua frowned and fell silent.

When they arrived at their destination, the crowd was about to welcome them happily, but they quickly suppressed their smiles upon noticing Si Zhaohua’s expression. Jiang Tianming asked in confusion, “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Su Bei said…” Si Zhaohua glanced at Su Bei, and seeing no objection, he continued, “Things might not end as easily as we thought.”

Everyone knew what that meant. Su Bei’s ability didn’t lie. Elvis immediately cast a questioning gaze at the clown. “Is he lying to us?”

Before the clown could say anything, Jiang Tianming spoke up to refute it. “Clowns don’t lie. I’m sure of that.”

Su Bei agreed with him. The clowns most likely wouldn’t lie; otherwise, wouldn’t their reason for killing be ridiculous?

But not lying didn’t mean they couldn’t mislead. Jiang Tianming was clearly aware of this and began to reconsider the clown’s earlier words. “‘We can find a way to send you out of the illusion.’ If that promise wasn’t a lie, then the problem lies in… where do we go after leaving the illusion?”

Having figured out the key to the problem, he immediately looked at the clown, his gaze fixed on the garishly painted face. “You said you’d send us out of the illusion. Where will we end up after we leave?”

“I’ve never been to the outside world, so who knows where that is?” The clown still wore its trademark smile, seemingly unfazed by their suspicion.

His answer was flawless. Jiang Tianming thought for a moment and asked again, “After we get out, will the place we’re in be the same as the place we were in when we came in?”

The clown’s answer was similar to the last one. “I’ve never been outside, so I don’t know what it was like when you came in or what it will be like when you go out.”

“Then, one last question,” Jiang Tianming asked calmly. “Please don’t beat around the bush. Is the place we go out to the same as the place we came in from?”

The clown’s previous answer was fine on the surface, but upon careful thought, it became clear that the clown hadn’t actually answered Jiang Tianming’s last question at all.

Jiang Tianming’s question only required a “yes” or “no” answer, but the clown’s response was clearly neither. It was trying to change the subject, and Jiang Tianming knew exactly what that meant.

The question was now unavoidable. The clown finally stopped concealing the truth. “…No.”

After answering, the smile vanished from the clown’s face, its blood-red sausage lips sealing shut, clearly indicating it wouldn’t say another word.

And Jiang Tianming had no interest in asking further. The clown had already said it didn’t know where they would be teleported to, so there was no point in pressing the issue.

“So what do we do now?” one of Elvis’s teammates asked with a dejected expression. “This is definitely a conspiracy! The moment we get out, we’ll fall right into someone’s trap!”

He wasn’t the only one; the others were also disheartened. They thought they were on the verge of success, only to find another pitfall waiting for them. If leaving meant they were destined to fall into another trap, what was the point of leaving now? It might be better to just stay in the illusion and wait for the teachers to rescue them.

“Who made you do this? The Nightmare Beasts? The Black Flash Organization? Or some other power?” Elvis demanded angrily. He hoped to learn the culprit’s identity in advance to better deduce their motives.

After all, being captured by Nightmare Beasts versus being captured by the Black Flash Organization would have drastically different consequences.

However, the clown remained silent.

Wu Mingbai also wanted to know the answer to this question, so he followed up with a question of his own. “Aren’t clowns supposed to bring people joy? Do we look happy to you?”

“You are bad children. Clowns don’t bring joy to bad children,” the clown answered with its head down, its tone rhythmic and deliberate. It deliberately turned its mouth down, forming the shape of a parenthesis.

Honestly, if the situation weren’t so inappropriate, Su Bei would have definitely tried to learn how to make such a perfectly rounded frown.

Naturally, Wu Mingbai was not convinced by this answer. Mimicking its tone, he said sarcastically, “Wow, so all of us lied to you? Otherwise, how could we all be condemned at once? Mr. Clown is so kind, you surely wouldn’t wrong a single good person, right?”

He was present when the clowns initiated their purge mode and knew that only ten people had lied to them at the time. After the clowns went on their killing spree, no one else would have had the chance to lie, so there had to be many innocent people still here.

“It was you liars who harmed them.” The clown felt no internal conflict and decisively shifted the blame.

Seeing that it had its own unassailable internal logic, Jiang Tianming couldn’t be bothered to argue further and proposed the plan he had just decided on. “We’ll just help you change your programming. We don’t need you to send us out.”

As long as the clowns stopped attacking them, they could just eliminate the Nightmare Beasts and wait for rescue. He had great faith in the teachers outside, especially those from his own academy, and believed they would come to save them.

The clown closed its mouth and fell silent again, making it impossible to tell whether it thought Jiang Tianming’s plan was good or bad.

The others didn’t know, but Su Bei knew perfectly well. He had no choice but to shatter their beautiful fantasy. “I told you, destiny won’t change.”

As he said this, his expression appeared somewhat weary and detached due to his helplessness and annoyance with the trouble. To others, it looked as if he had already foreseen that their fate would not be a good one.

And that was indeed the case. The fact that their luck didn’t change after Jiang Tianming spoke was proof that they couldn’t escape the author’s set plot no matter what. It made sense; the Nightmare Beasts believed their plan was foolproof, so how could they have left such a loophole?

Jiang Tianming and the others couldn’t just let the clowns run rampant. The students’ stamina was limited, but the clowns’ was infinite. Without knowing when the teachers would arrive, if they just kept this up, they would eventually be wiped out. Therefore, stopping the clowns was a must.

But given their luck, it was clear that nothing good would happen even if the clowns were stopped. Combining this with the clown’s earlier words, Su Bei made a bold deduction: as long as the clowns’ programming was altered, everyone in the illusion would inevitably be transported to another space.

The only way to avoid being transported was to leave the illusion through other means: either by killing everyone until only their team remained, forcefully breaking the illusion, or leaving by destroying its core.

With that in mind, Su Bei began to slowly back away. If his previous deduction was correct, the outside should be more or less safe by now. Once Jiang Tianming and the others were teleported away and completely beyond immediate rescue, the crisis outside could also be smoothly resolved.

One option was a place that was already safe; the other was an unknown location, possibly even a dangerous area in the Nightmare Beast World. Su Bei, of course, chose the former.

Meanwhile, the main characters began to act. Lan Subing used [Word Spirit], coordinating with a senior student whose ability could project her voice throughout the entire amusement park. The two of them worked together to summon the clowns. Once the clowns arrived, Su Bei immediately used his skill to link their Destiny Compasses.

Then, while everyone else was busy, Su Bei seized the opportunity to move away. But this time, without the help of an Invisibility Talisman, he was quickly spotted.

Noticing that he had left the crowd, Lan Subing, who had also successfully completed her task, turned her head and asked in confusion, “Su Bei, where are you going?”

Despite being caught, Su Bei showed no trace of panic. “We’re about to leave, shouldn’t I play a little more one last time?”

With the clowns present, he wasn’t even lying. He was indeed about to leave the illusion. It was just that his departure was different from everyone else’s. They were being teleported to another place, while he was returning directly to the venue where he was before entering the illusion.

Many people knew that Su Bei had been playing in the amusement park for a long time. Jiang Tianming and the others had also heard him mention his excuse during their chat. Therefore, when they heard him say this, no one found it strange.

But only Jiang Tianming and the few others who were familiar with Su Bei knew something was wrong. For this guy to suddenly leave at a time like this was not a good omen, no matter how you looked at it. Besides, if his conscience was truly clear, he should have told them before leaving instead of sneaking away.

But without sufficient proof, they couldn’t just stop him. Unless they had some leverage, he definitely wouldn’t listen even if they called out to him.

Furthermore, they still had to control the clowns and prevent them from exploding. They had no choice but to watch helplessly as Su Bei swaggered away.

The moment Su Bei left, he broke into a sprint straight for the haunted house. He had to act quickly and leave the amusement park before the clowns were rewound. Otherwise, he might be swept away with them, with no chance to escape.

An Ability user with a strong physique could run incredibly fast. In just five minutes, Su Bei covered a distance that would normally take an hour to walk.

Arriving at the center of the haunted house, with no time for second thoughts, Su Bei quickly adjusted his Minor Destiny Pointer to the far left and stepped into the purple vortex.

Exiting from the core was like a mini-teleportation. His mind went dizzy for a second, and just as he recovered, he heard Qi Huang’s surprised and delighted voice, “Su Bei! You’re out of the illusion?”

Opening his eyes, Su Bei turned to look at Qi Huang, nodded, and said concisely, “Take me to the teachers. The others can’t come back for now.”

Hearing this, Qi Huang immediately realized the gravity of the situation. The delight on her face vanished, replaced by a serious expression as she led him to find Teacher Li.

Before he had taken more than a few steps, the notification from the Manga Consciousness sounded in his ear: “‘King of Abilities’ has been updated. Please check.”

As expected, they should have left the illusion by now. He wondered where they had been teleported. Hopefully, the comic would offer some clues.

On the way, Qi Huang recounted what had happened after they entered the illusion. “Not long after you went in, a tide of Nightmare Beasts erupted outside. Thinking the illusion was relatively safer than the outside, the teachers didn’t let you out. Of course, there wasn’t time to let you out then anyway… By the time we realized something was wrong, Jilam had already disappeared.”

She didn’t dwell on that point and continued, “The teachers are amazing; they held back most of the Nightmare Beasts. But there were just too many of them this time. To prevent them from harming ordinary people, a spatial-type Ability user sent most of the Ability users and the Nightmare Beasts to a new battlefield. I wanted to go, but Teacher Li said it was a fight for the adults and told me to stay behind.”

As she said this, her face showed no trace of resentment, but rather, one of relief. Su Bei immediately understood and asked, “There were still some Nightmare Beasts left outside?”

If that weren’t the case, and she simply couldn’t participate in the battle, Qi Huang would have been disappointed, not relieved. This was especially true since she had stayed behind precisely to fight Nightmare Beasts and build her reputation. If her wish hadn’t come true, she definitely wouldn’t be acting like this now.

“That’s right!” As expected, Qi Huang snapped her fingers. “Not long after they and the Nightmare Beasts disappeared, another small group of Nightmare Beasts came out of the hotel, including an Advanced Nightmare Beast. At that time, only I, a few staff members with lifestyle-type abilities, and the unconscious senior students were left outside. In the end, I protected everyone and wiped out those Nightmare Beasts!”

Although she spoke in a light and cheerful tone, Su Bei knew it couldn’t have been that easy to resolve. Seeing Qi Huang’s spirited demeanor, Su Bei knew she must have performed a great service this time. Perhaps she really could, as she had said, defeat Si Zhaohua with her reputation and become the new secretary-general.

But speaking of which, the Advanced Nightmare Beast Qi Huang mentioned should be the Gourd Nightmare Beast. That thing had clearly said it had no offensive capabilities, and it had acted that way too. How could it suddenly attack?

It seemed there was some change he wasn’t aware of, likely part of the Nightmare Beasts’ plan. Su Bei couldn’t help but feel relieved. It was a good thing he wasn’t outside at the time; otherwise, he might have been badly tricked by the very information he possessed.

Although he was very curious about what exactly had happened during this time, Su Bei knew he could just use his phone to read the comic and catch up on the plot once he was back in his hotel room. So he wasn’t in a hurry now. He went with Qi Huang to the second floor of the hotel and found Teacher Li, who was helping to manage the aftermath.

As soon as she saw Teacher Li, Qi Huang shouted happily, “Teacher, look who’s back!”

Hearing the voice, Teacher Li subconsciously turned her head and then revealed the exact same surprised expression as Qi Huang. “Su Bei! How did you get out? Where are the others? Did they get out too?”