Chapter 327

And it was just as he said. That evening, Jiang Tianming and the others returned, looking thoroughly defeated. At the same time, the manga updated, and Su Bei went straight back to his room to read it.

To put it simply, the manga’s plot this time was mainly about providing intelligence and resources to the protagonists. On the surface, they were besieged by Mo Xiaotian and Ye Lin leading members of the Black Flash Organization. But in reality, Su Bei could tell from the manga that Ye Lin was secretly going easy on them.

Su Bei had been wondering why Meng Huai, who was clearly in the shopping mall, would let the Black Flash Organization succeed. It was only when he saw Ye Lin appear that he had a flash of insight. Ye Lin had likely secretly defected a second time. On the premise that nothing would likely go wrong, it was understandable for Meng Huai to take this opportunity to use the Black Flash Organization to train his students.

As for Mo Xiaotian, it was a different story. He wasn’t going easy on them; he just preferred that everyone join the Black Flash Organization voluntarily rather than being kidnapped. So he was constantly rambling on, which gave the protagonist team a chance to break through.

As the saying goes, villains die from talking too much, and this held true in the manga as well.

Between one person’s intentional actions and the other’s unintentional slip-ups, Jiang Tianming obtained several pieces of information.

First was the news that the Black Flash Organization was cooperating with the Nightmare Beasts. This was revealed by Ye Lin; although it was only a hint, it was enough for Jiang Tianming to understand her meaning.

Second was a coordinate in the Nightmare Beast World. Ye Lin didn’t say what this coordinate was for, only that she “accidentally” let the protagonist team overhear it while she was on the phone with someone else.

The third piece of information and resource came from Mo Xiaotian. He said that the Black Flash Organization had developed a new item, a tool that could cause an ability to erupt with immense power in a short period.

However, this item could only be used once in a person’s lifetime, as the body couldn’t withstand a second use. In fact, the item caused significant damage to the body; even the first use would result in extreme harm. But the damage from a single use could be healed over time, whereas a second use was irreparable.

At the sight of this item, alarm bells immediately went off in Su Bei’s head.

He had previously been contemplating how to destroy all the meteorites in the Nightmare Beast World. The role of an Earth Element ability user was indispensable. The only one in the protagonist team with that ability was Wu Mingbai, who possessed the [Earth Element] ability. But he was only a second-year high school student. Even with his exceptional talent, constant opportunities, and the gift from the Guardian Deity, it would still take him at least five or ten years to reach that level of power.

But the ‘Manga Consciousness’ had stated before that the manga world couldn’t wait that long. So, if the author wanted to solve this problem, he would definitely find a way for Wu Mingbai to suddenly gain a massive power boost.

In Su Bei’s view, the enhancement item from Mo Xiaotian was meant for precisely this purpose. This also meant that the author was continuously laying the groundwork for this season’s finale. In other words, the end was fast approaching.

As for why Mo Xiaotian would hand this item over to the protagonist team, besides his stated reason of apology, Su Bei secretly suspected he wanted to sabotage the leader’s plan.

The leader’s goal was surely to ensure the continued existence of the Nightmare Beasts, which would sooner or later lead to the downfall of humanity. By handing over this key item, he might just make it possible to completely eradicate the Nightmare Beasts. For Mo Xiaotian, this was a win-win situation.

Of course, he might not have thought that deeply; perhaps he was just acting on instinct.

Closing the manga, Su Bei began to study his new ability.

That’s right, with this manga update, his previous lie had become a reality. The moment the manga updated, he sensed that he had gained a certain ability. He had been in a hurry to read the manga earlier and hadn’t checked it, so now was the perfect time.

Following the new ability he sensed within his body, Su Bei summoned a gear. This gear was different from any other he had summoned before; it was colorful. Not the kind of color painted on, but rather, an iridescent color refracted like a soap bubble.

The gear itself was black, but the light refraction was so intense that its base color was almost invisible. All one could see was a colorful gear. It looked quite dreamy, with a strong fairytale-like quality.

After getting a feel for the gear’s ability, Su Bei named it the “Wish Gear.” As the name implied, it was a gear that could grant wishes. Make a wish to the gear, and upon its disappearance, the wish would be fulfilled.

The author had adopted the explanation he gave in the manga: this wish could only be used for passive, auxiliary defense.

And besides this known drawback, the author had added a few more. First was the expected skill cooldown (CD): one gear could be created per day, and one could be used for five minutes. This CD wasn’t long, and Su Bei found it very acceptable.

Next was the skill consumption. The forum readers’ guesses had also been adopted. The cost of the “Wish Gear” was enormous. Even with his current Mental Energy, it consumed a full one-third just to create one.

This consumption, even greater than changing a person’s Major Destiny Pointer, made Su Bei sigh. It practically meant this ability was incompatible with his others. Unless he was willing to forgo leaving any Mental Energy for self-preservation, after using this ability, he could at most use a few luck-changing skills or the “Targeting Gear.” Changing someone else’s destiny would be out of the question.

But it was still acceptable. The skill itself was very powerful and was his only invincibility-type defensive ability, so even with the high cost, Su Bei could dote on it.

Finally, there was a new drawback that no one had mentioned. Just as the “Wish Gear’s” base color was black beneath its colorful exterior, the wishes it granted were not as wonderful as they appeared on the surface.

The gifts granted by destiny have long been secretly marked with a price. A wish fulfilled by the “Wish Gear” would have a feedback effect one hour later.

Su Bei didn’t quite understand this restriction. Since it was safe now, he directly used the gear he had just created and made a wish— “For the next five minutes, I will not be touched by anything other than the ground.”

The wish was reasonable. The gear disappeared, and Su Bei tried to touch the things around him. Sure enough, by some strange coincidence, he didn’t touch anything. However, he stopped after only two attempts. Because although this skill seemed like a defensive one, it was actually a bit indiscriminate.

Ways to prevent Su Bei from touching other things included not only moving those things away from him but also injuring him so that he couldn’t touch them.

After a sudden sharp pain in his left hand, Su Bei decisively stopped his movements. He stood still for five minutes before sitting down again. Even after sitting, he didn’t move. The skill’s description said that after the wish was fulfilled, he would soon receive destiny’s feedback. Therefore, sitting still was the best option to accept the feedback.

An hour later, the chandelier above his head suddenly fell. He dodged just in time, crashing right into his desk. The desk, along with the adjacent bookshelf, and then the curtains, flowerpot… everything came crashing down, burying him completely underneath.

Su Bei lay prone on the ground in silence for a moment, then remarked with a sigh, “…So that’s how it is.”

Simply put, it was the opposite of the wish he made. He wished not to be touched by anything, and the feedback was to be smothered by many things. Moreover, since he was on the bed, he hadn’t touched the ground, which also went against the condition of his earlier wish.

It was a rather interesting limitation. If used well, this restriction could even become an asset to him. But in most situations, it wouldn’t work, as he couldn’t be entirely sure what form the feedback would take. A wrong guess could lead to huge problems.

Therefore, only in very special circumstances could he use the “Wish Gear” in reverse by timing it perfectly.

And under normal circumstances, after using the “Wish Gear,” he would need to quickly find a safe place to endure the feedback. In this regard, the author was quite decent, giving him a full hour of preparation time.

Because only one “Wish Gear” could be produced per day—and it was one per day in destiny’s time—even “Dream Foam” couldn’t replicate this skill. To continue testing, he would have to wait until tomorrow.

Overall, it was pretty good. At least it was indeed a powerful protective skill. Although it only lasted for five minutes, given the situations he would encounter, with the Invisibility Talisman in hand, adding these five minutes was more than enough.

The next month was filled with ordinary daily life. Normally, Su Bei should have been very happy, but the problem was that he already knew this season of the manga was about to end, so naturally, he hoped for events to pass as quickly as possible.

A short burst of intensity leading to long-term stability was worth it, in Su Bei’s opinion. He had been waiting for the next event, but it hadn’t started.

It wasn’t until the beginning of the month that Meng Huai gave their class a new mission: “Our academy’s base in the Nightmare Beast World, along with those of other academies, is a bit short-staffed right now. After you graduate, you’ll probably be frequenting that place, so I plan to let you get acclimatized in advance. For the next month, you will go to the base for a research study. Your performance in this study will determine how much winter homework you’ll have.”

The threat concerning winter homework immediately made everyone take this research study seriously. Mu Tieren raised his hand and asked, “Teacher, what will we be doing there? And are you coming with us?”

“I won’t be going with you. I… well, it’s fine to tell you. The Black Flash Organization has already teamed up with the Nightmare Beasts. From now on, we will be focusing all our efforts on hunting them down.”

If not for this reason, he wouldn’t have arranged for the students to be stationed at the Nightmare Beast World base so soon. Even for the S-Class, this mission should have been assigned next semester; it was still too early now.

Regarding this matter, everyone had their suspicions after Ye Lin’s hint during the last incident. Now that it was confirmed, they weren’t surprised, just filled with a heavy sense of gravity.

After so many previous confrontations, they were well aware of how powerful the Black Flash Organization was. Originally, their goal was just to research ways to counter abilities, but now they were cooperating with Nightmare Beasts. The blow to humanity would surely be immense.

“But I don’t understand. Weren’t they staunchly against Nightmare Beasts before? Why the sudden change?” Qi Huang asked, confused.

Before the teacher could answer, Su Bei, who was slumped over his desk, provided the answer, “When one dream is shattered, you have to pick up a new one to keep going.”

Qi Huang sometimes really wondered how Su Bei got all his information. Even the ‘Destiny’ organization couldn’t be a roundworm that crawled into the Black Flash leader’s heart to eavesdrop on his thoughts, could it?

It wasn’t just her; Meng Huai was curious too. The intelligence he had received was that the organization’s leader decided to cooperate with the Nightmare Beasts because his wife had turned into one, and he wanted to turn all humans into Nightmare Beasts.

But from Su Bei’s words, it seemed there was more to the story.

With that thought, he asked directly, “Stop with the cryptic words. What dream of his was shattered?”

“The dream of turning Nightmare Beasts back into humans, of course.” After saying this, Su Bei changed the subject. “Teacher, you haven’t answered the class president’s question yet. What is the base used for? What will we be doing after we get there?”

Meng Huai pondered the immense amount of information in those words as he replied, “The main purpose of this base is to provide an anchor point, a fixed coordinate, for ability users who come to the Nightmare Beast World. As for the tasks, there are many: patrolling, infrastructure development, clearing nearby Nightmare Beasts, exploring marked locations… When you get there, just listen to your research study teacher. She will assign you tasks. She’s a teacher who graduated from our academy and was my classmate back in the day. She should take good care of you.”

The students nodded obediently and began to discuss the matter in low voices. Ultimately, hunting down the Black Flash Organization was the teachers’ mission; their main task was the research study at the base.

Su Bei also fell silent, thinking about it. The research study was in the Nightmare Beast World, for a full month, and in the last incident, Ye Lin had just given them a coordinate in the Nightmare Beast World.

With the buffs fully stacked, he felt that this was the time to resolve the Nightmare Beast problem.

In that case, he had to go on this trip. Su Bei didn’t know what the author had planned for him in this storyline, but he was worried that something might go wrong if he didn’t go. Specifically, that something might go wrong for him.

If he was absent from the plot for too long, who knew what the author might do. It was safer to go in person. Besides, the mission he had been working on for over a year was finally coming to a close. He had to be there to see it himself.

The time for the research study quickly arrived. Everyone gathered in an empty classroom. Lei Ze’en set up the Teleportation Array and then warned them, “You’ve all been to the Nightmare Beast World several times, so I won’t nag. However, the ability users over there won’t be as easy to talk to as the academy teachers. You’d better behave and not get sent back directly. Your Teacher Meng won’t let you off if that happens.”

“Ahem, ahem, ahem!” At these words, the students coughed, a little guilt-ridden. It was impossible for them to behave. If something really happened, they would definitely be the first to rush out.

Lei Ze’en was clearly aware of this group of students’ nature. He shook his head helplessly. “Alright, stand on the array. A teacher named Jiang Yan will meet you on the other side. She’s also the teacher in charge of your research study.”

As the light of the array flared, the group was transported to the Nightmare Beast World.

“You’re here.” Just as they got their bearings, a pleasant female voice sounded in their ears. Turning their heads, they saw that the speaker was a brown-haired woman in a blue form-fitting suit.

Faced with their bewildered expressions, the woman introduced herself with a somewhat serious look, “I am Jiang Yan. You can just call me Teacher Jiang. Follow me for now. There are no missions today; I’ll show you around the base.”

The place they had been teleported to was a room. At first glance, it looked identical to a room in the normal world. If not for the fact that the entire room had no color, only shades of black, white, and gray, they might have thought the teleportation had failed.

Outside the room was a long corridor. The walls on both sides of the corridor appeared to be made of some special metal, which undoubtedly possessed durable properties. Paired with the surrounding colors, it gave off a cold, inorganic feeling.

Noticing Mu Tieren placing his hand on the wall to feel it with a curious look, Jiang Yan introduced expressionlessly, “This is Sunflare Alloy, an extremely hard metal, impervious to fire and water. Attacks from ordinary people and Nightmare Beasts cannot break through it. If you’re curious, you can wait until you’re back in your own rooms to try, but be careful not to damage the other items in the room.”

Su Bei noticed that although this teacher seemed somewhat stone-faced, she was actually quite nice and very attentive. This was good news. After all, they were going to be here for a month. If the teacher was strict and rigid, Su Bei would have a breakdown.

At the end of the corridor, they turned left, and after a few steps, they saw a door. Teacher Jiang took out a key and opened it. Outside was surprisingly a bridge, a bridge connecting two rooftops.

It wasn’t until they were standing on the bridge that the group finally got a full view of the fortress.

That’s right, the Endless Ability Academy’s base in the Nightmare Beast World was a fortress. Its overall appearance resembled a small, black, twin-peaked mountain. Although they could only get a bird’s-eye view of the fortress from the bridge, they could still roughly imagine its general appearance.

“The side you were just on is the residential area; the other side is the functional area,” Jiang Yan gave a timely, brief introduction, using a new key to open another door.

Inside the door was a whole new world, a scene completely different from before.

There were no more rows of residential rooms here. The area around the stairs had no walls, it was an open-style staircase. Standing on the stairs, one could clearly see the layout of each floor through the gaps.

The bottom floor was the main hall, bustling with people coming and going. Some were in groups of two or three, while others were lone wolves. Many injured people were being carried in and sent into the only elevator. The elevator went up, and with his excellent eyesight, Su Bei saw that the display showed they were going to the 8th floor.

“They are being sent to the eighth floor, which is the only floor up there with solid walls. That floor is our hospital here. If you get injured, you’ll have to go there too.”

After speaking, Jiang Yan casually took out a booklet from her storage space, flipped through it, and then looked at the group. “Who are Ling You, Zhao Xiaoyu, and Lan Subing?”

The three she called out raised their hands together.

After identifying them, Jiang Yan nodded. “You three can go help out here when you have time. The hospital is always short-staffed. [Happiness] goes without saying. [Plague] should be able to help absorb certain viruses from patients’ bodies, right? As for [Word Spirit], using this ability for healing is indeed a great waste, but it’s still good to train your healing abilities when you have a moment. After all, this ability needs constant practice to be fully developed.”

“Is this our mission?” Zhao Xiaoyu asked, which was her main concern.

Jiang Yan nodded and then shook her head. “No. Although missions differ for different people, your class doesn’t have a hospital mission because you don’t have any healing-type ability users. If you go, you can earn points based on the time you spend there. It’s also fine if you don’t go.”

After saying that, she continued to lead everyone down the stairs, giving them a tour of each floor. The top eighth floor was the hospital. Below that, the seventh floor was the intelligence processing center, which was also the office area. The offices of many staff members, including Jiang Yan, were here. Mission assignments were also issued from here. It was worth mentioning that the entrance to the residential area was also here, but only staff members had keys for free access.

The sixth floor was a high-level item trading area. This place required certain credentials to enter, and it sold things like ability items. There was even a small auction hall.

The fifth floor was an ability user arena, complete with a betting function. The entire floor was filled with blood and violence. The cheers of the spectating ability users next to it could sometimes even drown out the noise from the most crowded first and second floors. It looked incredibly wild.

In addition, there were some entertainment activities: a small movie theater, various arcade machines, and even a dance floor, where many people were dancing gracefully to the music.

The fourth floor was a Nightmare Beast butchery. There were specialized butchers responsible for cutting up Nightmare Beast meat and removing useful parts. If ability users wished, they could sell the Nightmare Beast meat and parts directly to the officials here, though the prices wouldn’t be very high.

The second and third floors were both general item trading areas, but they sold different things. The second floor sold simple items like talisman scrolls, supplies, and Nightmare Beast parts.

The third floor, however, was the service industry, with places like restaurants, clothing stores, and barbershops. After all, most people would be staying here for a long time. Even if they brought supplies initially, they would definitely run out after a while. So, these shops were essential.

The first floor was a team-up hall. Many people were shouting, trying to find suitable teammates. Missions were also accepted here. Completing a mission would earn a handsome reward and points.

The points here had only two uses: one was for lodging, and the other was for leaving the Nightmare Beast World.

Lodging goes without saying. To have a room in the safe area next door required spending points. All rooms had the same configuration and the same price. It cost 10 points to stay for one day. If you paid for a month at once, you could get a 5% discount, and paying for a year’s worth would get you a 20% discount.

As for leaving here, it cost 500 points to leave through the base’s main gate. If an ability user had their own means to leave the Nightmare Beast World, that was also fine.

The place was rich with content, and everyone’s eyes darted around. Qi Huang’s gaze was primarily on the fifth floor. She asked, completely puzzled, “Teacher, why is there an arena on the fifth floor? Isn’t fighting Nightmare Beasts tiring enough? Why are they fighting people here?”

”The arena was set up for them to vent their emotions, and it’s also an opportunity to earn points,” Jiang Yan replied concisely. “500 points isn’t that easy to accumulate. Living here for a long time is very depressing. The fifth floor was established to let everyone blow off steam.”

So that was it. Everyone had a sudden realization. Jiang Tianming immediately became interested in the missions on the first floor, or rather, the points those missions provided. “Can we go see the missions?”