Chapter 301

Even Su Bei couldn’t help but sigh. “Why didn’t the author make it so Nightmare Beasts can turn back into humans?”

If the author had made that setting, everything would have been much easier to resolve. Whether it was completely eradicating the Nightmare Beasts or redeeming the Black Flash Organization, it could have been done with ease. The comic could have concluded naturally, and the manga world could have continued to function even after the plot ended.

Although, in that case, Su Bei wouldn’t have his current chance at resurrection. But to be honest, he wasn’t that eager to be revived anyway. As the saying goes, when a person dies, their path ends. Once you’re dead, you close your eyes and are buried deep underground. Who would worry about so much after that?

But the author just had to abandon this direct path and take a long, winding detour. Oh, wait, Su Bei was the one who found the detour; it had nothing to do with the author. The author’s approach was to abandon the direct path and just sit down to rest on the spot.

“Because, based on the logic of how Nightmare Beasts are born, they simply cannot turn back into humans. And if you wanted to allow them to become human, you would have to change the fundamental lore of Nightmare Beasts.” The voice of the Manga Consciousness echoed in Su Bei’s ear. “That would be too troublesome for the author.”

Hearing this, he suddenly understood. That was true. As creatures born of grievances, not even from a single complete consciousness, it was indeed logically impossible for them to revert to being human. He had agreed with that logic back then.

Su Bei stopped dwelling on this meaningless issue and swiped his phone screen to continue browsing the forum. Another post related to him had also piqued his interest.

《Did Su Bei really just go to have fun in his final moments?》

【Brother Bei’s Little Fangirl No.0: From what I know of Su Bei, he’s not the type of person who would face danger calmly. ‘A gentleman does not stand under a collapsing wall’ is the perfect description of him, though Brother Bei isn’t exactly a gentleman.

After knowing they would be teleported to a more dangerous place, Su Bei’s reaction wasn’t to find a way to save himself, but to just give up and slack off. I suspect something’s up with him.】

【No.1: Hahahahahaha, for a second there I couldn’t tell if the OP is a fan or a hater.】

【Brother Bei’s Little Fangirl No.2 (OP) replied to No.1:

A true fan (serious face).】

【No.3: I also feel like Su Bei is either involved in this conspiracy, maybe even personally participating with the Black Flash Organization, or he has already prepared an escape plan.】

【No.4: Our boy Bei’s image is really ingrained in everyone’s minds.】

【No.5: That’s Su Bei for you (lol).】

【No.6: That’s Su Bei for you (lol).】

【No.7: That’s Su Bei for you (lol).】

【…】

【No.47: Look at this last overhead view of the amusement park. Su Bei is nowhere in the picture. But besides him, not just the main group, even characters like Elvis and Huangfu Mingzhe are represented by a little figure. Only Su Bei is missing. I seriously suspect he really did run for it!

AmusementParkOverheadView.jpg】

【No.48 replied to No.47:

Hahahahahaha everyone’s little chibi versions are so cute, you can only tell who’s who by their hair color.】

【No.49 replied to No.47:

He’s really not there. Maybe he went to a place that can’t be seen from an overhead view? Like a haunted house, or inside that little train he was on earlier…】

【No.50 replied to No.49:

From a realistic perspective, what you said is possible. But from a manga perspective, if the author wanted to show everyone one last time, they could have easily designed him to be on a path or on another outdoor ride.】

【No.60: I support the post above, Su Bei definitely escaped.】

【No.61 replied to No.60:

We call that a tactical retreat.】

【No.62 replied to No.61:

Hahahahahahahaha that sounds like something Su Bei would say.】

【No.63 replied to No.61:

Su Bei, log into your main account and talk.】

【…】

Reading this comment, Su Bei nodded in approval. Was he such a coward? How could a tactical retreat be called escaping?

The rest of the replies were mostly discussing whether he had been teleported along with everyone else. There was nothing new, so Su Bei closed the forum.

He then took out the notebook from the ‘Destiny’ organization and searched for the latest intelligence on the Black Flash Organization. As an organization with members infiltrated everywhere, its sources of information were always rich.

After paying a considerable amount of points, the first piece of news Su Bei saw was that the Black Flash Organization had resumed its activities.

The provider of the information was naturally anonymous, but he could spend a certain number of points to enter a chat with the person. The chat window wouldn’t reveal any of the other party’s identity information; it would merely allow them to receive the message, and they weren’t guaranteed to reply.

This was enough. Su Bei, using an equally anonymous account, first sent a small number of points to the other party, then sent a message asking, “Did the research succeed?”

This was the unwritten rule for a follow-up question. If the other party accepted the small sum of points, they would answer the question.

Perhaps they were short on points. The other party quickly accepted the points and, without asking a single question, gave a direct answer: “It might have succeeded. My rank is low.”

Su Bei: “…”

What a way to say his rank was low. It was equivalent to refusing to take responsibility for his answer. Fortunately, Su Bei knew for a fact that their research had not been successful. But from the other party’s response, it seemed the upper echelons of the Black Flash Organization had hidden the news of the research’s failure.

What Su Bei really wanted to know now was whether they were the oriole stalking the mantis, taking over the mess left by the Nightmare Beasts, or if they were cooperating with the Nightmare Beasts, providing them with ideas and manpower.

But regardless of the possibility, the news that the Black Flash Organization was active again confirmed one thing for Su Bei: the crisis at the World Competition was definitely related to the Black Flash Organization.

Thinking of this, he didn’t ask any more questions. He directly drafted a new piece of intelligence and sent it out—“The teleportation of the World Competition contestants is related to the ‘Black Flash’ organization.”

This message included the keyword “World Competition,” hoping that interested parties would find it quickly. Su Bei also wanted to increase his own organization’s presence in the manga; it might be useful later on.

Most importantly, he needed to use this method to proactively warn the good guys that the Black Flash Organization might have cooperated with the Nightmare Beasts.

It was known that the final teleportation in the illusion was related to the Black Flash Organization. If they were indeed teleported to Black Flash’s territory, then there was nothing more to say. But if they were still teleported to the Nightmare Beast World, then it would be interesting in the eyes of those who already knew this information.

Only in a situation where the Nightmare Beasts held absolute dominance would Jiang Tianming and the others be teleported to the Nightmare Beast World. So where did the Black Flash Organization fit in? If they weren’t the mantis stalking the cicada, then what were they?

If the truth really was that the Black Flash Organization had already partnered with the Nightmare Beasts, then as long as this suspicion existed, the righteous side would surely discover the truth sooner than the author had planned.

As for the benefit of discovering the truth earlier, well, it would probably be that fewer people would die.

Although Su Bei wasn’t some great saint, he certainly wasn’t a bad person either. As long as it was within his power and didn’t harm his own interests, he didn’t mind saving a few others.

The ‘Destiny’ organization still had some influence. Su Bei took a short two-hour nap, and when he woke up, an anonymous account had sent him a question: “How reliable is this information? Does ‘participating’ mean the ‘Black Flash’ organization took the contestants away?”

Asking so urgently, and with such a large red packet of points for the second question, it seemed this was someone involved in the incident. Su Bei used his leader’s authority to check the other party’s backend and, as expected, saw their nationality was Sessbian.

Because of the ‘Destiny’ organization’s recruitment method—aside from the initial invitations from the Manga Consciousness—it mostly relied on referrals from acquaintances. Each person had only one chance to recommend someone, and this opportunity was only granted when they had enough points.

Under these circumstances, members’ information was more or less recorded, and the only person in the entire ‘Destiny’ organization who could see these records was Su Bei, the leader.

This was the benefit of letting the Manga Consciousness handle things. The maintenance and operation of the ‘Destiny’ organization relied almost entirely on the notebook’s built-in system. It was like a precision computer, or rather, a well-debugged program. It didn’t need a dedicated person to maintain its operation and could categorize every piece of information, allowing everyone to smoothly exchange information for points.

The absence of other leaders or managers guaranteed the confidentiality of information to the greatest extent.

Faced with these two questions, he only answered the first: “One hundred percent reliable.”

Su Bei trusted his judgment.

As for the second question, he really couldn’t be sure. If the Black Flash Organization was just using the Nightmare Beasts’ plan for their own gain, then the people were definitely taken by them. But if they were cooperating with the Nightmare Beasts, then the people were absolutely taken by the Nightmare Beasts; the Nightmare Beasts would never hand over these contestants to them.

Seeing that he only answered one question, the other party understood his meaning.

With that conversation over, Su Bei left his room to get something to eat. It was chaotic outside. The teachers and parents, having learned of the students’ disappearance and death, were surrounding the hotel, demanding an explanation from the Sessbian government.

A loss of this magnitude hadn’t been seen since a competition a century ago. If those missing students couldn’t return safely, this loss would be tantamount to a complete wipeout.

Such major news couldn’t be concealed. People weren’t fools. If something had happened outside the competition, how could things inside possibly proceed safely? Even if the contestants in the illusion were truly unharmed, once the external crisis was resolved, the competition should have been immediately terminated and the students recalled.

So, the fact that the other contestants hadn’t appeared by now meant something had happened to them.

Knowing they couldn’t possibly fool everyone, the Sessbian government could only try to appear as sincere as possible in hopes of appeasing the anger of others.

But they had clearly failed. Looking at the furious crowd outside, Su Bei could only offer them a moment of silent prayer. Although they deserved to be besieged like this—after all, as the event organizers, they had failed to implement proper security measures, allowing the Nightmare Beasts’ plot to succeed.

However, what Su Bei didn’t expect was that this matter would backfire on him. One of the people outside saw him and shouted, “That blond kid seems to be the only survivor!”

Su Bei: “…”

Wait, how did this get out? Had the organizers’ internal security been compromised into a sieve? Even the fact that he was the only survivor was leaked. Don’t they know anything about protecting a victim’s privacy?

What if the Nightmare Beasts came back for revenge, or if the other victims’ families redirected their anger at him because their children died while he came back alive?

This wasn’t impossible. Su Bei could already hear people outside shouting questions like, “What right do you have to come back alive?” and “Why didn’t you save the others?” The resentful way they stared at him made it seem as if he had killed them himself.

Sometimes, victims’ families are irrational. Su Bei had learned this lesson deeply from the Sun family’s parents after the incident at the beginning of the school year.

And now, the target of that redirected anger had shifted from Wu Mingbai to him. Su Bei just wanted to give the organizers who leaked this information a sound beating.

Turning his back to the people outside with a helpless expression, Su Bei decisively turned and went back to his room, sending a message to Qi Huang to ask her to bring him some food.

Qi Huang sent a question mark, followed immediately by a phone call. Looking at the caller ID, Su Bei genuinely found it amazing that she and Lan Subing could be friends. Lan Subing was definitely the type to be terrified of answering the phone, while Qi Huang clearly preferred to communicate by call.

Answering the phone, Qi Huang’s voice immediately came from the other end: “Why do you want me to bring you food? You do remember the cafeteria is just downstairs, right?”

“There’s a zombie siege downstairs,” Su Bei answered concisely. “Your light of justice will make them keep their distance.”

Qi Huang: “…”

After a moment of speechlessness, she finally waved her hand dismissively. “Alright, alright, I’ll get it for you.”

She hung up, and not long after, there was a knock on Su Bei’s door. Su Bei opened it to find Qi Huang in a surprisingly good mood, holding a plate piled high with beef and potato over rice, looking radiant.

He raised an eyebrow, quickly figuring out what had happened. “Did the ‘zombies’ praise you into a good mood?”

Unlike him, Qi Huang was someone who had protected others. If it weren’t for her, the others wouldn’t have even been able to deal with the Gourd Nightmare Beast, let alone the swarm of low and intermediate-tier Nightmare Beasts.

Since the Sessbian government could leak the fact that he was a survivor, they certainly wouldn’t hide the fact that Qi Huang had saved everyone. As a great hero who had protected the staff and the backup students from all the academies, she would have undoubtedly received a warm welcome when she went downstairs.

“How can you call them zombies?” Qi Huang rolled her eyes, saying with dissatisfaction. Although, the sight of the crowd gathered outside did make her strangely understand Su Bei’s earlier comment about a “zombie siege.”

But they had been praising her!

Handing him the food, Qi Huang didn’t leave right away. She sat down on a chair in the room and asked curiously, “So why are you really not eating downstairs? It can’t be just because you don’t like so many people staring, can it?”

She said this because they had gone through a long period of being the center of attention at Endless Ability Academy, especially when the first-year S-Class was first formed. Eating in the cafeteria felt like having spikes on their backs.

Eventually, even the most socially anxious Lan Subing had become desensitized and could barely tolerate the stares within the academy.

Su Bei shrugged. “I’m the only one who survived.”

Hearing this, Qi Huang paused for a moment, then understood. The smile on her face immediately turned to anger. “How could they do that? You managed to escape beforehand, that’s your skill. Do they expect you to stay with them and get taken away when you could have left? Without you coming out to report, they wouldn’t even know anything about the situation of those people right now.”

“Don’t mind them. Anyway, we should be able to go back in a few days.” Although the teacher hadn’t said anything yet, given the current situation, the academy wouldn’t let them stay here and wait for Jiang Tianming and the others to return.

Setting aside the fact that it was unknown when or if they would return, just the fact that they were the only ones left meant they had to be returned to a suitable environment for their growth as soon as possible. Besides, the situation outside was no longer suitable for Su Bei to remain here. They couldn’t bet on that large group of people all being reasonable and not losing their minds.

Actually, Qi Huang didn’t want to leave; she wanted to stay and wait for the others. But she also knew that this was not her decision to make, so she sighed and changed the subject. “I wonder if Mu… Senior and the others will leave with us.”

“They probably won’t. The matter isn’t resolved yet, is it?” Su Bei shook his head. Normally, the seniors should have been sent back to the academy immediately after falling into a coma. But since their conditions were stable and they didn’t need immediate treatment, the academy chose to leave them here.

Only by keeping them in the public eye would it be most convincing when the culprit was finally caught. After all, they all knew in their hearts who the culprit was, and that party was known for turning the tables and making false accusations.

“What do you think happened to them? I…”

Knock, knock, knock!

Before Qi Huang could finish her sentence, there was a knock on the door. Opening it, they saw Teacher Li outside. Teacher Li walked in with a complicated expression. “First, about your arrangements. The academy has already sent people to pick you up. You’ll be leaving shortly. As for Jiang Tianming and the others, the latest news is that the ‘Black Flash’ organization was also involved. If they were taken by the ‘Black Flash’ organization, then they should not be in life-threatening danger for the time being.”

Just like the readers on the forum, the first thing they thought upon receiving this news from the ‘Destiny’ organization was that the Black Flash Organization had played the oriole to the Nightmare Beasts’ mantis, hijacking their prize. They hadn’t considered the possibility that they might have cooperated with the Nightmare Beasts.

However, Su Bei couldn’t be certain about the other hypothesis either, so he didn’t say anything more.

Qi Huang, on the other hand, widened her eyes in surprise. “The ‘Black Flash’ organization? How did they manage that?”

The Nightmare Beasts’ plot at the World Competition must have been meticulously planned. For the Black Flash Organization to still be able to interfere under such circumstances was indeed impressive. But if they had been cooperating with the Nightmare Beasts from the beginning, that was another story.

“It’s not clear, but we’ve already decided to go to the ‘Black Flash’ organization’s territory to look for clues.” Teacher Li had no answer to this question. She sighed. “You two just go back and rest easy. I’ll notify you as soon as I have any news.”

Although it was hard to rest easy in this situation, it was the only thing that could be said now.

After saying that, she looked at Su Bei with a worried expression, clearly having seen the attitude of the crowd downstairs toward him, the sole survivor. “You don’t need to care what others think. It’s very impressive that you were able to protect yourself and return safely under those circumstances. No one can demand that you save others, or share their fate.”

“I know, Teacher.” Su Bei smiled obediently. “It’s just that they’re a bit annoying. Can I teach them a lesson?”

Changing the destinies of so many people was a bit difficult for him, but making them a little unlucky was something he could do. Su Bei was no saint. Expecting him to swallow his anger after being insulted to his face was simply impossible.

Although some of the people who spoke against him might be powerful Ability users, the Destiny Gear was silent and subtle. Especially when he wasn’t changing their destiny, just their luck, it was almost impossible to defend against.

“This…” This unexpected response made the corner of Teacher Li’s mouth twitch. She was about to tell Su Bei not to mess around, but then she remembered his ability and realized he might not be joking.

After a moment of thought, she asked hesitantly, “What do you plan to do? They are, after all… victims. Their friends and family are missing and their fate is unknown. If you go too far, you’ll lose the moral high ground even if you were in the right.”

Teacher Li didn’t forbid Su Bei from retaliating. Some people did indeed need to be taught a lesson. And most importantly, they were about to return to the academy. They could leave immediately after retaliating, without having to worry about what the other party might do after they figured it out.

But retaliation had to be measured. She was worried that Su Bei, being young, might do something wrong.

Su Bei, of course, knew this. For now, the other party had only been running their mouths. He wasn’t about to go on a killing spree. He nodded. “I just want them to have a bit of minor bad luck recently.”

“Will this bad luck affect the missing students?” Hearing this answer, Teacher Li was about to breathe a sigh of relief when she suddenly thought of something and asked sternly.

Su Bei couldn’t help but laugh. What kind of person did she think he was? “Of course not.”

Only then did Teacher Li completely relax. “Then do as you please. But again, be mindful of your limits.”

With her approval, Su Bei slowly put down his chopsticks and stood up to walk outside.

Teacher Li naturally followed him to prevent any accidents. Out of a desire to watch the show, Qi Huang also tagged along.

Downstairs, Su Bei calmly sat on a sofa for a moment, quickly locking onto the few people who resented him for being the sole survivor.

After a simple adjustment of their minor destiny pointers, Su Bei stood up again, a polite smile on his face. “I hear that unreasonable people tend to have bad luck, you know.”

The second he finished speaking, the faces of those few people suddenly changed, and they all clutched their stomachs in unison.

Poot poot poot poot poot—

A series of loud farts erupted like a string of firecrackers. Instantly, everyone else’s face turned green. They hurriedly covered their noses and scattered in all directions, fleeing the foul-smelling area as if their lives depended on it.

The few who were letting out the loud farts didn’t even have time to question Su Bei about what was happening. With twisted, red faces, they bent over and ran away. If they didn’t run, they were afraid they’d shit themselves right there, and that would be a truly massive loss of face.

In a matter of moments, the once-crowded doorway was completely empty.

Su Bei blinked in surprise. He hadn’t expected the bad luck to have this effect. But then he smiled and clapped his hands. “Two birds with one stone.”

Qi Huang gave him a thumbs-up, genuinely impressed. “Awesome.”