Chapter 325

Although some people in the thread slightly questioned his ability, everyone tacitly assumed that this ability must consume a significant amount of Mental Energy.

But that was of no great consequence.

The author was never going to give him a powerful new ability without any drawbacks. Otherwise, Su Bei wouldn’t have proactively set some limits for himself; the limits he set were always more beneficial to him than the ones the author would have imposed.

After a moment of thought, he quickly started a new thread.

《Analysis of Li Shu’s “Healing Ability” [Oracle Post]》

【Oracle No.0: I was a bit confused by this part of the plot when reading the comic, so I did some analysis. Li Shu’s ability is [Illusion], which is a far cry from a healing ability. Although the S-Class main cast is indeed lacking a healer, the author shouldn’t be insane enough to develop someone so completely unsuited into a healing-type Ability user.

Using [Illusion] to create the illusion for the buyers that they have been completely cured is also not feasible. He might be able to fake it for a while, but can he fake it forever? An operation like this would take at least a few months to fully recover from, and Li Shu’s ability isn’t at that stage yet. Once discovered, the Li Family’s reputation would be ruined. The loss would outweigh the gain.

If he doesn’t have a healing ability and doesn’t plan to use deception, then he must rely on external help to treat the buyers.

Given the Li family’s side-story plot, it’s unlikely a new character would be introduced for this, so it must be a character who has already appeared. In the comic’s plot, the only two notable healing-type Ability users are Feng Manman and Ye Lin. The former would never cooperate with the latter, so the answer is obvious.】

After all, this matter had no proof and was almost entirely based on speculation. Although Su Bei knew it was true, the readers did not. Therefore, he analyzed it in more detail, striving to show that he had reached this conclusion through analysis.

After all, having readers suspect he was an insider was a good thing, but having them be certain he was an insider would be a bad thing. If an actual insider confirmed he was also one and got his account banned, it would be a huge loss for him.

After reading the comic, browsing the forums, posting his thread, finishing a day of classes, writing a thousand-word self-criticism essay, and then getting a harsh scolding after school, Su Bei felt completely drained. All he wanted now was to go back to the dormitory and get a good night’s sleep.

However, things weren’t over yet; there was a student council meeting in the afternoon. The third-year students had heavy academic workloads, and many had withdrawn from the student council. As a result, the second-year students were now its backbone, and he could no longer slack off at meetings like before.

Several of the people who had gone to the Li Family’s home were exhausted. Although it was only one all-nighter, an Ability user’s stamina meant it didn’t have much of an effect, aside from being a little difficult to wake up in the morning. Their minds had mostly recovered during the day’s classes. As long as they could get a good night’s sleep tonight, they would be back to full health the next day.

But the problem was that while attending classes, they also had to write that damned thousand-word self-criticism. They had just been viciously scolded by Meng Huai and also received a punishment menu for tomorrow. Even if they hadn’t pulled an all-nighter and had slept well yesterday, this was still unbearable!

“I don’t want to go,” Lan Subing puffed out her cheeks and complained in a small voice.

Beside her, a vibrant Zhao Xiaoyu said with a laugh, “I’d say you all should have just made Li Shu write your self-criticisms for you. You went to the Li Family’s home because he was hiding things, after all!”

Having spent the day in class, she was, of course, well aware of what Lan Subing and the others had been up to. They had even passed around the self-criticisms with great interest. At first glance, they all seemed different, but a closer look revealed it was the same content just rephrased; there was no fundamental difference.

Fortunately, Meng Huai, just as Jiang Tianming had said, didn’t actually read these self-criticisms. Otherwise, Zhao Xiaoyu couldn’t imagine how desperate they would be if Meng Huai punished them by making them rewrite it.

“…I’m still here,” Li Shu said, looking at her speechlessly.

Zhao Xiaoyu glanced at him with a smile and asked leisurely, “Well, do you have any objections? You, the main culprit who caused Tianming and the others to sneak into the Li Family’s home out of worry for you, only to be punished by Meng Huai.”

The phrase “out of worry for you” immediately left Li Shu speechless. A familiar, gentle smile appeared on his face as he raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “No objections.”

On the other side, Zhou Renjie rubbed his chin with some curiosity. “So, what’s this meeting about? It’s only the second day of school.”

“It should be about the election for new student council positions,” Si Zhaohua replied. He had looked into it before; the student council generally only had two major events at the beginning of the school year. One was the position election, and the other was the recruitment drive.

However, the latter usually didn’t happen until after the first monthly exam when classes were reassigned. So, if nothing unexpected happened, this should be the election announcement.

Hearing this, Qi Huang’s gaze shot over instantly. Unlike the others who had no strong feelings about it, she genuinely wanted to compete for the position of secretary.

As rivals, Si Zhaohua naturally knew her intentions. The two exchanged a look, their eyes filled with the determination to see it through to the end.

When they arrived at the meeting room, many people were already there. Once everyone was present, Feng Manman, who was sitting in the main seat, began to announce the main agenda. Si Zhaohua had guessed correctly; the meeting was indeed for the position election.

In simple terms, the content was just an announcement. There would be a formal vote in a week, and all student council members were required to vote. The required number of officers for each position had to be elected.

At the same time, everyone was encouraged to sign up enthusiastically. The rewards for becoming an officer would be very generous.

The hidden benefits of joining the student council were already numerous. Firstly, members often received first-hand news from the academy. Secondly, they had priority over regular students in many matters, such as participating in large-scale events and competitions. Additionally, the student council had specifically invited several powerful Ability users to tutor students whose studies were delayed by student council affairs, and participation was voluntary.

The benefits for officers were even greater. Setting aside power and authority, even the most basic officers enjoyed perks like being exempt from homework, being able to choose their missions, and receiving a salary.

However, Si Zhaohua and Qi Huang were not after these things; what they wanted were power and status.

Since the real election would take place next Monday, Qi Huang and Si Zhaohua, the two strongest contenders for Secretary-General, began a frantic campaign to win votes this week.

Qi Huang treated all student council members to meals, bought them gifts, and gave them movie tickets. After these initial preparations, she started working hard on her speech, aiming to make a stunning impression.

“Those were just the initial preparations?” Mu Tieren asked in surprise upon hearing this. He thought those were Qi Huang’s main tactics.

Qi Huang gave him an amused look. “Of course. It’s not like I gave each of them a million. In a regular school, that small amount of money might be useful, but at Endless Ability Academy, where everyone is an Ability user, it really doesn’t have much of an effect.”

Upon hearing this, Mu Tieren had a sudden realization. That was right; they could earn a lot of money on their own and certainly wouldn’t be grateful for a small sum.

Beside them, Su Bei was lying bored on the table. “Si Zhaohua is giving out benefits to student council members under the guise of a survey. It feels much more subtle than you just giving out money.”

“Why should I be subtle?” Qi Huang had her own logic. “At this point, everyone in the student council knows we’re trying to win them over for the Secretary-General position. There’s no need to hide our intentions, so why be subtle? Being subtle might even give others a chance to avoid the issue.”

There was truth to what she said. Although her methods and Si Zhaohua’s were different, both ultimately planned to rely on their speeches to decide the winner.

“By the way, there’s one thing I’m curious about,” Wu Mingbai raised his hand while sitting backwards in his chair. “Why hasn’t anyone tried to win us over?”

“It’s our tacit understanding,” Si Zhaohua said as he walked in from the door, exchanging a glance with Qi Huang. Outsiders could be lobbied freely, but it was impossible for their classmates to truly change their opinions of the two of them over some minor benefits.

So, the two of them had a very tacit agreement to give up on this pointless effort. Although they were curious and cared a lot about who their classmates would vote for, the dozen or so members of S-Class would certainly not be the main voting bloc.

Si Zhaohua and Qi Huang were very clear about what to do and when. They could deal with who their classmates voted for later; what was more important now was to win the majority of votes.

After answering Wu Mingbai’s question, Si Zhaohua looked at Qi Huang. “The president wants to see us now.”

After the two of them left the classroom together, Ai Baozhu suddenly coughed and asked with feigned indifference, “Who are you all planning to vote for?”

“I remember it’s an anonymous vote,” Su Bei said lazily. Since no one would know who he voted for, he certainly wasn’t going to volunteer the information and cause trouble for himself.

The reason he was willing to remind the others was also out of concern that if they all blurted it out, he wouldn’t be able to keep his own vote a secret either.

Sure enough, upon hearing his words, the others immediately had their answer. They all clamped their mouths shut, clearly indicating they had no intention of answering Ai Baozhu’s question.

Ai Baozhu glared at Su Bei in frustration. “It’s one thing if you don’t say it yourself, but why are you stopping others from speaking? What are you so guilty about? You’re not planning to vote for someone from another class, are you?”

Of course, the two of them weren’t the only ones running for Secretary-General. Although everyone knew they had the highest chance of winning, a person has to have dreams. For something with such a high return, what if they got lucky?

Su Bei did not accept this accusation. He spread his hands innocently. “I was just asking casually.”

On the Monday of the second week, Si Zhaohua and Qi Huang each went on stage to give their speeches. Their speeches were very distinctive. The former rationally pointed out some of the existing drawbacks and oversights in the student council, then analyzed how to solve them one by one, promising to tackle these issues if he were elected.

The latter, on the other hand, spoke from a developmental perspective, proposing some projects beneficial to the development of the student council and Endless Ability Academy, such as attracting investment, exchanges with other schools, and reforms to the admission of underage Ability users. She then promised that if she were elected, she would definitely make Endless Ability Academy develop even better and elevate the status of the student council within the academy.

Both speeches had their own merits, completely overshadowing the other candidates. This was truly a stage for just the two of them.

After both had finished their speeches, the candidates stood in front of the podium, waiting for the members to vote. A clamor of discussion filled the hall as everyone asked each other who they were going to vote for.

Su Bei had no intention of being responsible for the future of the student council. Besides, no matter which of these two was elected, the student council would develop well. So he made his choice decisively, and after voting, he raised his hand and got up to leave.

“Hey! Wait, wait, don’t go yet!” Seeing him about to leave, Lan Subing, who was still hesitating, quickly called out to him. “Who did you vote for?”

She wasn’t probing like Ai Baozhu; she was purely curious. After all, with her hearing, she couldn’t tell whose speech was better. When everyone else was struggling, Su Bei was able to make a choice so quickly, which naturally piqued her curiosity.

Of course, she wasn’t the only one who was curious. It wasn’t just the S-Class members; other student council members were also very curious. However, they weren’t curious about who Su Bei voted for, but how he made his decision so quickly. It made the rest of them look like they had decision paralysis.

But heaven was their witness, they really didn’t! If it weren’t for the fact that both Qi Huang and Si Zhaohua performed so excellently, why would they be so conflicted?

“Naturally, whoever provided more entertainment in their bid for this Secretary-General position gets my vote,” Su Bei said nonchalantly. “After all, they put on a good show for me, so I have to pay for the ticket.”

The moment he mentioned a ticket, Lan Subing was reminded of when they first met. It was precisely because he wanted to be paid a ticket fee that Su Bei had told them the prophecy about the murderer.

The sudden memory sent Lan Subing into a momentary silence. Su Bei took the opportunity to slip away quickly.

He hadn’t wanted to reveal his voting criteria, but he figured that afterwards, Qi Huang and Si Zhaohua would definitely pester him about it. Rather than get entangled with them, it was better to state his conditions openly. He presumed they would be able to guess who he chose.

That’s right, Su Bei voted for Qi Huang.

Of course, he certainly wasn’t saying he chose her because he felt Qi Huang needed the position more than Si Zhaohua, or because she did more for the position. That would be too much of a moral high ground.

However, the real reason he chose Qi Huang wasn’t because she was more entertaining, as he had just said. The real reason was that Su Bei saw that Qi Huang’s prepared speech had a higher word count.

It was just that simple of a reason. If he were to actually say it out loud, he would probably be ganged up on and beaten by both Qi Huang and Si Zhaohua. But Su Bei himself found it perfectly reasonable. He didn’t care about student council affairs anyway, and it made no difference to him who became president, so naturally, he wasn’t willing to use his brain to compare whose speech was better.

Since he wasn’t willing to use his brain for comparison, he just chose the easiest thing to compare. The word count was the criterion Su Bei chose.

The student council was highly efficient. Three days after all the positions were elected, the list of new officers was posted on the bulletin board for all students to see.

“It’s Qi Huang,” Mu Tieren said with considerable emotion. He wasn’t too surprised by this result. If this had been before the World Competition, Si Zhaohua would have been the almost certain choice for the next Secretary-General. But after the World Competition, Qi Huang’s approval rating was about the same as Si Zhaohua’s.

Although her strength was indeed slightly inferior, her extremely high reputation could completely make up for it. Most Ability users admired heroes, and Qi Huang, who had saved many people and was publicly praised by various countries, naturally became an object of their admiration.

Combined with her beautiful appearance, Qi Huang was extremely popular at Endless Ability Academy and had many supporters within the student council.

It was reasonable and expected that she could defeat Si Zhaohua to become the Secretary-General.

While onlookers like them could accept this news, some people couldn’t. Ai Baozhu and Zhou Renjie looked as if their world had collapsed.

“How could Zhaohua lose? They have such poor judgment! That was clearly a perfect speech! Xiao Huang, this isn’t directed at you, I just feel that Zhaohua shouldn’t have lost…” Ai Baozhu muttered neurotically, clearly hit hard by this.

Zhou Renjie on the other side was no better, pacing back and forth neurotically, muttering “impossible” while thinking about how to comfort Si Zhaohua.

However, Si Zhaohua didn’t need their comfort at all. He was, in fact, the calmest of the three. “Congratulations.”

Si Zhaohua congratulated Qi Huang gracefully. Although he couldn’t quite manage a smile, the look in his eyes was reasonably sincere.

Qi Huang, the one being congratulated, didn’t feign modesty. She felt she had earned it. In fact, ever since seeing her name for the position, Qi Huang had been beaming with joy, one could say she was being as flamboyant as possible.

However, facing Si Zhaohua’s congratulations, Qi Huang reined in her smile slightly. “Are you congratulating me as a rival, or as a friend?”

“As a friend.” Si Zhaohua twitched the corner of his mouth. Regarding his failure in the election, his heart was not as calm as he appeared. “As a rival, I would never congratulate you.”

The others couldn’t help but laugh. They had been worried that Si Zhaohua might hold a grudge, but after hearing their conversation, they could finally relax completely.

Their laughter made Si Zhaohua misunderstand something. He suddenly became a bit angry out of embarrassment. “What are you laughing at? My business is over, but now it’s our class’s turn!”

What business did S-Class have? The elimination, of course.

It had to be said that this was a case of ‘injuring the enemy by one thousand while losing eight hundred of your own’. Not just the others, but even Si Zhaohua himself fell silent after saying it. Although he was definitely not at risk of being eliminated, it was still very difficult to accept that his long-time friends would be eliminated. He would be sad no matter who was eliminated.

“I wonder what the assessment will be. I hope… it gives us some room to maneuver,” Mu Tieren said in a deep voice. If there was room to maneuver, he would, of course, prefer that no one left S-Class.

As soon as he finished speaking, the notification sound from the “Manga Consciousness” rang out. The next chapter of the comic was updated.

It seemed there was no plot progression this time; it was a slice-of-life chapter. ‘King of Abilities’ had relatively few slice-of-life chapters. Su Bei briefly glanced at the comic and, confirming that the content was mainly about Si Zhaohua and Qi Huang’s campaign for student council positions, he immediately lost interest.

The only somewhat useful piece of information was the final punishment for the Li Family. The family head would likely face the death penalty. Because his ability was too useful, keeping him alive would easily attract the covetous eyes of others. To prevent more innocent lives from becoming bargaining chips at birth, killing this deeply sinful man was the best choice.

He deserved the death penalty anyway.

As for the other members of the Li Family, the minors were let off, but the adults who had participated in the family’s affairs were all sent to prison, though their sentences varied.

It was worth mentioning that Li Shu received a very large reward, which included ownership of Li Family Island. After all, he couldn’t even be considered to have redeemed himself through meritorious service; he had never participated in the Li Family’s business in the first place.

The comic briefly showed a flashback of Li Shu’s memories. He was among the first batch of children born through induced labor. At that time, the family head was not yet so insane. Although he disliked these children created by his ability, he did not treat them too harshly in their daily lives.

In fact, at that time, the family head had no intention of trading organs. Firstly, he truly hadn’t had such an evil idea yet, and secondly, organ transplantation would require waiting until the children were older. That was too long for a fledgling family; they couldn’t afford to wait, nor could they support so many children for nothing.

At that time, the family head’s idea was to have the children adopted out to earn an adoption fee.

The other children were sent away one by one, but Li Shu alone remained. This was not because he was unpopular; on the contrary, because he was too popular, the family head decided to keep him and wait for a better price.

But keeping him did not mean the family head liked him. He just continuously emotionally manipulated Li Shu, hoping he would bring greater benefits to the family.

Later, the Li Family started down the irreversible path of selling organs. Li Shu, who should have been a part of it, managed to escape this fate because he awakened his ability and went directly to study at Endless Ability Academy, becoming neither a victim nor a perpetrator.

Almost every comic character has a tragic childhood. Su Bei finally had a deep understanding of this statement. Jiang Tianming, Wu Mingbai, Zhou Renjie, Li Shu, Mu Tieren—at most, one-third of them had unhappy childhoods. Su Bei expressed his strong contempt for the author’s imagination.

Since the comic was slice-of-life, the forum naturally wouldn’t be discussing anything plot-related. So, Su Bei just took a look at the thread he had started last time.

Most of the readers in the thread expressed shock, but few doubted what he said. Instead, some even joked about how he explained so much this time, asking if he was afraid of his identity as an internal employee being discovered.

It had to be said, that reader was really onto the truth.

As the end of the month approached, Meng Huai finally announced the rules for this monthly exam, which was also the S-Class elimination trial.

An elimination trial, naturally, was a competition to eliminate others. This time, it followed a ‘rip the name tag’ format. One had to first complete a mission to qualify to have their name tag ripped, and only then could they be eliminated by others.

It was quite interesting, he had to admit. Su Bei had never played this kind of game before, and none of the previous events had been of this type.

What was special, however, was that the last two people remaining in this elimination trial would be the ones who were actually eliminated. In other words, everyone had to try to get themselves eliminated first.

Compared to getting himself eliminated, he would actually prefer to eliminate others. With his invisibility skill, eliminating others would be incredibly easy. But unfortunately, the rules wouldn’t change just because he didn’t like them. He could only try his best to complete the mission.

Don’t think this was an easy task. The rules specifically stated that you could not eliminate yourself. The name tags were also attached by the teachers, and contestants could not touch their own name tags after the competition started.

In a situation where everyone only wants to be eliminated and doesn’t want to eliminate others, getting eliminated is actually quite difficult.