A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga - Chapter 23

Chapter 23

After posting, he didn’t refresh the page immediately. Instead, he decided to let things settle for a while and went to study his ability.

Su Bei used his ability [Gear] again, summoning an ordinary gear. However, this time, the summoned gear was noticeably different from every previous instance—it was “empty.”

Here, “empty” doesn’t mean hollow; rather, it means that something could be added to this gear.

Suddenly realizing something, Su Bei opened the dormitory door and walked out. It was evening, and there were quite a few students in the hallway.

As soon as he saw them, Su Bei instinctively closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, he confirmed the situation—he could now see the fate compasses above everyone’s heads!

He immediately returned to his room, put on a pair of sunglasses, and then went back out to the hallway, pretending to look at the scenery while secretly observing the compasses on other people’s heads.

These compasses appeared very complex, containing many symbols both inside and out. They looked somewhat like feng shui compasses but were not entirely Chinese in style. Instead, they were a blend of Eastern and Western styles, resembling a mechanical compass.

In the center of the compass was a pointer. Su Bei could vaguely sense that the direction the pointer indicated was the direction in which this person’s fate would soon change.

A sudden image flashed through his mind, and Su Bei almost couldn’t control his expression. Was he going to turn into a fortune teller?

Being a street-side fortune teller was definitely not part of his career plan!

He pushed aside these distracting thoughts and continued his observation. It was clear that the outer part of the compass was tightly wrapped in a kind of “aura,” which was likely the “fate aura” he had casually made up earlier.

A gear that absorbed this aura could be used for prophecy, while a gear without this aura was “empty,” no different from a regular gear.

However, Su Bei could faintly sense that he wasn’t entirely unable to control the direction of the prophecy. The compass was divided into many sections, and the prophecy that could be obtained depended on which section the gear touched.

To maximize the effectiveness of the prophecy, it was best to choose sections where the pointer was pointing.

But Su Bei had a new thought—if he adjusted the direction of the pointer or the compass, could he directly change someone’s fate?

To find out the answer to this question, he would definitely need to experiment. Moreover, he would have to find someone who knew about his ability; otherwise, it would be difficult to come up with a reasonable explanation.

He could experiment with the compass on his own head, but that could backfire on him.

It would be better to experiment with the protagonist group. Their fates wouldn’t have major issues, and if something went wrong in his experiment, the “manga awareness” wouldn’t just stand by.

Also, experimenting on them had an additional benefit—it might allow the readers to see and better “understand” his ability.

With this in mind, Su Bei removed his sunglasses, put them in his pocket, and knocked on Jiang Tianming’s door.

Choosing Jiang Tianming for the experiment wasn’t a random decision. Although any member of the protagonist group could be used, Jiang Tianming was undoubtedly the best choice.

He had previously mentioned that Jiang Tianming was the unluckiest person, so testing Jiang Tianming’s fate could be reasonably explained by “curiosity.” Even if the manga included this scene, readers could infer that Su Bei might have other intentions.

Because the celebration banquet was rescheduled for tomorrow, Jiang Tianming had already returned to his room. When he heard the knock, he initially thought it was Wu Mingbai. But when he opened the door, he was surprised: “Su Bei? What brings you here?”

As he spoke, he invited Su Bei into the room.

If it had been any other classmate, Jiang Tianming would have only talked with them at the door. Although there were no secrets in his room, a sense of territoriality made it difficult for him to let unfamiliar people into his space.

But since it was Su Bei, despite not being true friends, they had worked together before, and Su Bei had provided him with significant help. Moreover, Jiang Tianming subconsciously felt that if Su Bei was coming to him, it must be for something important.

Sure enough, once inside, Su Bei got straight to the point: “I want to study my ability a bit. Would you be willing to help? The reward is a chance for a prophecy.”

Hearing this request, Jiang Tianming paused, then turned to meet Su Bei’s deep purple eyes. He couldn’t discern any emotion from those mysterious eyes. After thinking for a moment, he smiled tentatively and asked, “You still need to study your own ability? I thought you already understood it pretty well.”

Su Bei understood that Jiang Tianming was probably concerned that his research might negatively affect him. However, Su Bei was confident that he wouldn’t be able to change Jiang Tianming’s fate, which was why he approached him.

But he couldn’t say this directly, so Su Bei came up with an excuse, subtly reassuring him: “I’m worried that using my ability on myself might have a different effect than using it on someone else.”

This statement revealed two things: first, that he had always been experimenting on himself, and second, that he wasn’t the kind of person who would recklessly experiment on others without concern for their well-being; otherwise, he wouldn’t have only experimented on himself.

Although he spoke subtly, Su Bei believed that Jiang Tianming would understand.

As expected, after hearing his explanation, Jiang Tianming quickly agreed: “Sure, when do you want to do the research?”

“Let’s do it now,” Su Bei said, not wanting to waste any time.

As he spoke, he looked up intently at the top of Jiang Tianming’s head.

The fate compass didn’t appear above people’s heads all the time; it only showed up when he wanted to see it and when his gaze fell on their heads.

The color of the compass matched the color of their mental energy, and Jiang Tianming’s black compass had an ominous vibe. If Su Bei didn’t know the details, he might have really thought that Jiang Tianming was destined to be a major antagonist.

He walked closer, intending to touch the compass with his hand, but he found that he couldn’t touch it at all—it was as if the compass was just an illusion.

It seemed that he couldn’t touch it with his bare hands, so Su Bei took out the gear he had just conjured up. With the gear, he successfully touched the fate compass.

As soon as the gear touched a section of the compass, he felt something slowly draining his mental energy, and the gear began to change. The amount of mental energy being drained was about a quarter of what he currently had.

Through his ability, Su Bei could faintly sense that once the gear completed its prophecy, he would need to expend a considerable amount of additional mental energy.

In other words, considering everything, it seemed that the manga had set a limit on his current ability based on his previous performance—he could only predict the fates of up to three people at the same time. And after making predictions for three people, he would be nearly drained of energy.

This made Su Bei a bit frustrated. If he had known, he wouldn’t have acted so weak last time. If he had acted more confidently, perhaps the limit could have been set higher.

Sighing, Su Bei switched to another section of the compass. As expected, the gear changed its pattern again.

This time, it didn’t absorb his mental energy, but it still maintained some sort of connection with his mind. Su Bei could clearly feel that if he severed this connection, the gear would fully form, becoming a fate-bearing gear.

And as long as he didn’t sever this connection, he could continue using it to absorb the aura from other people’s compasses, merging them into a prophecy related to those people.

This was a mysterious feeling. The school would start introducing the basics of mental energy next week, and Su Bei didn’t know much about it yet.

But one thing to note was that, from his perception, he should only be able to gather information from one section of a single compass. If he touched two sections of the same compass in sequence, the prophecy would only reflect the information from the latter section.

Su Bei removed the gear, which had already absorbed the fate aura, from Jiang Tianming’s head and sensed it again. The gear was clearly in an unstable state, ready to activate at any moment. It was only because of the remaining trace of his mental energy that it hadn’t immediately activated the prophecy.

However, his mental energy wouldn’t hold for long. If the gear stayed in his hand, it could maintain its form for about ten minutes without activating. But if it left his hand, it would likely activate immediately.

This wasn’t a major issue, but it did point Su Bei toward an area for improvement. He needed to train in using his mental energy with greater precision.

For gears that had absorbed the fate aura, the stronger his mental energy, the longer the gear could remain stable. And if he could successfully separate his mental energy from himself, leaving some in the gear, then even if the gear left his hand, it could remain stable for a period of time.

Jiang Tianming looked curiously at the intricately patterned gear in Su Bei’s hand. The last time a prophecy was made, the gear had activated too quickly for him to observe it closely.

Now that he had a chance to look at it, Jiang Tianming felt that there was an indescribable aura about it, as if it was closely connected to him.

After hesitating for a moment, he asked, “Can this gear already make a prophecy about me?”

Su Bei nodded. “As soon as I let go, the ability will activate. If you want to see it now, it will cancel out the prophecy I promised you earlier. Do you want to see it?”

Hearing this, Jiang Tianming immediately shook his head. Nothing was happening right now, and it was clear that the upcoming monthly exam in two weeks was the most important event. He still hoped to use the exam to leave Class F, so it would be best to use the prophecy at that time.

“No, let’s wait until it’s really needed. But if this gear doesn’t activate, will you have to destroy it?” he asked uncertainly.

Upon hearing this, Su Bei gave a hearty laugh. “Of course not, that would be such a waste! If you don’t want to see it, I’ll just sneak a look at it myself.”

Jiang Tianming: “…”

He almost couldn’t hold it in and wanted to ask out loud, “If you’re going to look at it anyway, why not include me?”

As if he had read Jiang Tianming’s unspoken frustration, Su Bei smiled and patted him on the head. “Knowing your own fate isn’t necessarily a good thing.”

Without waiting for a response, he walked straight to the door. Just as he was about to leave, Su Bei suddenly turned back and said, “Oh, by the way, please don’t tell anyone about our experiment today.”

“Not even Wu Mingbai and Lan Subing?” Jiang Tianming asked in surprise. Compared to others, these two were much closer to him.

Su Bei nodded, offering no further explanation, and this time he really left. He wasn’t worried that Jiang Tianming would spill the beans; after all, Jiang Tianming was the protagonist, and the protagonist always had all the good qualities.

As soon as he returned to his dorm, the “manga awareness” curiously asked, “Why didn’t you let him tell anyone about this?”

Lying on his bed, Su Bei looked up at the night sky outside the window and said with deep meaning, “The fewer people who know about this, the better. After all, Mo Xiaotian has already infiltrated the protagonist group.”