Chapter 364

When he opened his eyes, he saw a man dressed in black, wearing a baseball cap. The man shot Su Bei a half-smiling glance, showing little interest in talking to him. He turned to the people at the entrance and instructed, “Keep a close eye on them. Don’t let me catch you slacking off.”

As he finished speaking, two other men in black walked in. Already familiar with their mission, they took over from the man in the cap and sat down on chairs inside the tent. One picked up a book to read, while the other closed his eyes to catch up on sleep.

Su Bei didn’t act rashly, waiting patiently for a while longer. He knew he only had one chance to make a move. If he failed, the price could very well be his life, so he had to be extremely cautious.

While waiting, he first looked down to assess his and Feng Lan’s situation.

Both of them were enveloped in a blue light shield, which was likely one of Feng Lan’s items. They were also tied up, but Feng Lan was bound with special ropes clearly made from an ability, whereas Su Bei was only in iron chains.

Presumably, this group knew about his ability beforehand and figured that iron chains were enough to restrain him. Feng Lan, on the other hand, might have various items on him, so it was better to bind him more securely.

His [Gear] ability wasn’t particularly strong, but in Su Bei’s hands, it was a pretty functional tool.

On the surface, Su Bei pretended to struggle, making the iron chains clatter. In reality, he was using the noise to cover his true actions: using a spinning gear to cut through the chains.

Spinning it by hand certainly wouldn’t be enough, but he had used his shoelaces to create a simple pull-and-release device. Paired with a sufficiently sharp gear, he had fashioned a hand-cranked chainsaw.

Although the cutting was a bit slow, by targeting the weakest points, it didn’t take long.

His waiting had been worthwhile. After about ten minutes, two more people came in to relieve the previous pair.

Evidently, these people were extremely wary of Feng Lan. To prevent any chance of escape, the guard was very tight. Changing guards every ten minutes was an effective way to prevent them from being caught off guard.

Therefore, Su Bei had to complete his move within ten minutes—that meant taking out two guards and escaping the tent in that timeframe. If it took any longer, the next shift would come in and likely discover the problem immediately.

Seeing that the two new guards weren’t focused on them, Su Bei nudged Feng Lan beside him, using his eyes to ask if he wanted to leave.

In truth, Su Bei knew that his leaving wouldn’t affect Feng Lan, and there was a high probability that Feng Lan would choose to stay. But he had to ask, otherwise, it would show a lack of camaraderie.

As expected, Feng Lan shook his head and even gave him a questioning look, as if asking why he would want to leave.

Indeed, with Feng Lan’s protective item, those people couldn’t harm them even if they stayed here. It was actually safer than being outside.

But the problem was, Su Bei didn’t want to pin his hopes on others, nor did he want to remain in a dangerous place when he had a chance to leave. He believed he should take a calculated risk and preferred to fight his own way out.

Of course, that was on the premise that the risk wasn’t too great. Su Bei just didn’t want his freedom restricted; he wasn’t looking for a death wish. In his view, the current situation was low-risk. The truly dangerous parts of this plan were taking out the two guards and leaving this area. If he failed at the former, he could always retreat to Feng Lan’s side and seek shelter again.

As for the latter, before the competition started, Su Bei had bet heavily on Jiang Tianming to win and had accumulated a large sum of points, which he used to redeem several Invisibility Talismans. He had thought they’d be useless in this pocket dimension, but he had just discovered that all his items were now unlocked. With an Invisibility Talisman, leaving this place shouldn’t be difficult.

“My stomach hurts!” Seeing that Feng Lan had no intention of leaving, Su Bei said no more. He deliberately bent over, feigning a pained expression.

If it had been Feng Lan who said this, the two guards might have been on alert. But the one speaking was Su Bei, who in their eyes had a useless ability. Even if he had performed remarkably well in the individual battles of the monthly exam, they didn’t take him seriously.

However, the two didn’t let down their basic guard. One guard walked over to check on the situation, while the other remained in his spot.

Little did they know, this played right into Su Bei’s hands. As one of them came over to check on him, a strange sound of metal clashing suddenly came from outside the tent.

The other guard, standing watch nearby, naturally went out to investigate. Seizing the opportunity, Su Bei lunged forward, swiftly swinging a fist to slash the enemy’s throat with the sharp edge of a gear hidden between his fingers. At the same time, his other hand clamped over the man’s mouth, preventing him from making a sound.

He gently laid the man on the ground and crept to the tent’s entrance. He dealt with the other guard returning from his investigation in the same manner.

Of course, he had been the one to create the noise outside. Making a sound in the east to strike in the west—a classic tactic.

“I’m off.” With little time remaining, Su Bei gave Feng Lan a cool wave, used an Invisibility Talisman, and left the tent.

Once outside the tent, the signal jammer was no longer in effect. Su Bei finally saw the new message on his watch: “…Bombs? Nice!”

Seeing what he wanted, Su Bei felt the academy was truly considerate. The smile on his lips widened, his eyes gleaming with determination. “Kidnap me? It’s only fair to make you pay a small price for that, right?”

Deep in enemy territory, with bombs in hand—it was obvious what needed to be done.

To avoid any complications from the enemy discovering his disappearance and heightening their alert, Su Bei acted immediately. He redeemed several bombs, familiarized himself with how to use them, and leisurely strolled around the perimeter of the enemy’s encampment, planting them as he went.

He didn’t dare wander around the core area. What if they had an item that could detect Invisibility Talismans? Besides, the place where Feng Lan was being held was also quite central. Although Feng Lan had a defensive item, blowing him up wouldn’t be good.

Blowing up the perimeter would work just as well. They had painstakingly built a ring of defensive measures. Destroying them would not only render their hard work useless but also give them a taste of what it feels like when your outer defenses fall.

Boom—

Boom boom boom boom boom!

The one-minute countdown ended, and Su Bei walked away without a backward glance. Behind him, flames shot into the sky, accompanied by an endless chorus of screams and curses.

Su Bei’s lips curled into a faint smile as he quietly listened to the sounds of his enemies breaking down.

Su Bei didn’t participate in what happened next. He knew he’d be hunted after blowing up the enemy’s base, so he didn’t show his face at all. It was all too easy to hide in a dense forest. He simply stayed in a tree for a day and smoothly finished the exam.

With the monthly exam completely over, Su Bei, who had blown up half of the Black Flash Organization’s encampment, undoubtedly received a huge number of points in the team competition as well. Combined with his points from the individual competition, it was more than enough to secure a spot in the top five of his grade.

He had thought the incident was over. At most, he would enjoy a period of admiration from his classmates, and once his physical skills could no longer compensate for the gap created by abilities, he could quietly fade into obscurity.

Although Su Bei had always maintained a high profile at Endless Ability Academy, that was just his personality; it didn’t mean he actually wanted to stay in the Ability World.

Staying in the Ability World with an ability like [Gear] was just asking for trouble, wasn’t it? He could occasionally eliminate a couple of low-tier Nightmare Beasts to earn some extra cash, but to truly stay here would be madness.

Su Bei’s dream was to open a hardware store after graduation, which would be a fitting tribute to his ability. If he became wealthy enough, he could travel and see the beautiful landscapes of his country.

But these thoughts were shattered after he was selected for S-Class. According to the Dean of Students, S-Class members would inevitably be targeted by the Black Flash Organization and Nightmare Beasts. If they didn’t strive to become stronger, they would easily run into trouble.

“Then I refuse to join S-Class,” Su Bei replied without hesitation. He didn’t think S-Class could offer him, with his useless ability, much improvement—at least not enough to justify the risks.

S-Class, which others coveted, was just a burden in his eyes, so his refusal was very direct.

Qi Huang, whom he had fought before, looked at him with a face full of surprise, clearly not expecting him to reject such a great opportunity to become a powerful Ability user. It wasn’t just her; the others were just as stunned, as if they had never considered that someone would refuse to enter S-Class.

But before they could try to persuade him, Meng Huai’s next words made Su Bei change his mind. “If I remember correctly, you’ve already offended the Black Flash Organization quite badly, haven’t you?”

Hearing this, Su Bei’s expression stiffened. That’s right, he had just sabotaged the Black Flash Organization’s plan. Although Su Bei didn’t believe he was the core reason for the sabotage, he was still a target for retaliation. Could he really expect them to rank their targets and take revenge in an orderly fashion?

Facing reality, Su Bei sighed helplessly. “Fine, I’ll join.”

“That’s great!” Mo Xiaotian cheered, running two laps around Su Bei like a happy puppy frantically wagging its tail. “Su Bei, let’s be deskmates!”

Anyone who saw those pleading, sparkling red puppy-dog eyes would be moved. Unfortunately, Su Bei, who knew his identity, remained completely unfazed and didn’t fall for it. “A polite no from me.”

“I’ll treat everyone to a meal, let’s all go together,” Si Zhaohua said with his arms crossed. Although he looked somewhat arrogant, there was genuine sincerity in his blue eyes. “To celebrate that we’re about to become classmates.”

They weren’t just ordinary classmates. They had just competed fiercely and had gone through a life-and-death crisis together, which they resolved successfully. Even with his proud nature, he wanted to be friends with such a group of classmates.

Su Bei looked over. Next to Si Zhaohua were two others, Ai Baozhu and Zhou Renjie. He hadn’t faced either of them during the monthly exam, so he wasn’t very familiar with them. However, Su Bei could tell at a glance that both of them likely had their own personality issues.

Speaking of which, Jiang Tianming’s group of three was the same. Was this a prerequisite for being in a trio?

“What are you thinking about?” Feng Lan slowly caught up.

Su Bei slowed his pace to walk alongside him. Looking at the backs of his classmates ahead, a rare hint of hesitation entered his voice. “I don’t know why, but I have this feeling that the dust has finally settled.”

Logically, he should be reluctant to join S-Class, but now he inexplicably felt that this might not be so bad after all.

His three years of high school in this class were bound to be very exciting.

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I’ve finally finished the last chapter! This ‘if’ timeline was probably meant to demonstrate that even without being forced, Su Bei was destined to cross paths with everyone in S-Class. Once they were all assigned to S-Class again, this point became indisputable, so I stopped here. [Go for it]

Next up will be a bonus ‘viewing party’ style extra, where characters from the main timeline, the ‘Su Bei dies at the start’ if timeline, and the ‘pure passerby’ if timeline watch the main story together. However, the matter of the ‘Manga Consciousness’ will not be revealed. I don’t know when it will be updated, but those who are interested can look forward to it.

Thank you to all my lovely readers for your support. This marks the complete end of ‘Manga Passerby’s Self-Help Guide’! Although the ending might not be perfect, I hope you will be lenient with me, given that I’ve maintained a stable update schedule without any breaks. [Palms together][Palms together][Palms together]

Last but not least, I’d like to plug my upcoming work. My next book will be ‘Building Strange Tale Instances [Unlimited Flow]’. Please give it lots of support, my lovelies! [Red Heart]