A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga - Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Seeing that no one had any new questions, Meng Huai brought up the second competition: “Next, let’s talk about the team battle. The team battle allows groups of three to six people to form freely, but the team must include students from at least two different classes. One important thing to note is that at least one student from Class A must team up with one student from Class F. You can’t exploit the rules by having two Class A students team up with just one Class F student.”

Everyone burst into laughter. When they heard the first part, some quick thinkers had already come up with ways to get around the rule by teaming up Class A and Class F students just for show. But to their surprise, the school had anticipated this and banned it, which was good news for the students in Class F.

“The final score for the team battle will be calculated by dividing the total team score by the number of members to get an individual average score, which will then be compared. So, a team of three won’t be at a disadvantage compared to a team of six.”

“That’s not right,” a student immediately questioned, “no matter how you look at it, having more members is clearly an advantage.”

Upon hearing this, Meng Huai sneered, “Speaking without raising your hand? Go stand in the back!”

After the unfortunate student dejectedly moved to the back, Meng Huai explained the issue: “There are advantages to having more members, but there are also advantages to having fewer members. If you have more people on your team, there’s a good chance one or two of them will drag the rest down. When the scores are calculated, the average score per person might end up being lower than that of a three-person team.”

After finishing, Meng Huai seemed a bit irritated and casually sat on a chair next to the lecture desk: “The specific details of the competition should be posted on the school website tonight. You can check it yourselves. I only have one requirement—”

He deliberately paused for two seconds to capture everyone’s attention before continuing, “I’ll allow you to fail in the individual battles, even if it’s in the first round. But if any of you end up in the bottom five teams in the team battle, after the monthly exam, you’ll receive my personal attention in training.”

“How touching, isn’t it?”

No one dared to move or speak.

Seeing the crowd’s silence, Meng Huai smiled in satisfaction: “Alright, you have a week to form your teams. On Friday, the team captains need to submit the list to the grade director. If you haven’t formed a team by then, you’ll be randomly assigned to a team with others who haven’t. Meeting adjourned!”

Just as he finished speaking, the “Manga Awareness” voice sounded: ” ‘King of Superpower’ has been updated. Please check it out.”

Upon hearing the update, a flash of joy appeared in Su Bei’s eyes. He was worried that the manga would update only after the competition started, which would delay his plans. If that happened, his mental power wouldn’t improve until the team battle, and his character would risk collapsing in the individual battle.

Fortunately, the author updated the manga early enough. Now, the only concern was whether the author included the scene he wanted.

As Su Bei worried, Jiang Tianming approached him: “As we discussed earlier, let’s team up for the monthly exam. I’m planning to form a six-person team with you, me, Lan Subing, Wu Mingbai, Mu Tieren, and the last one, I’ll ask if Mo Xiaotian wants to join. What do you think?”

“Sure, just let me know when you’ve finalized the team,” Su Bei nodded on the surface but was secretly asking “Manga Awareness,” “If I wasn’t part of the team, who would have been the sixth member?”

Honestly, he was worried about taking someone else’s place. He didn’t feel right about depriving another character of an important appearance opportunity, which could even prevent them from appearing in future episodes.

If there really was a character whose place he had taken, Su Bei might consider teaming up with the protagonist’s group. He was clear-headed about this—teaming up with them wouldn’t be a big deal; he could always team up with Feng Lan.

As expected, Feng Lan would likely join Si Zhaohua’s team. He could then join a villain’s team, which wasn’t a bad option either.

Unaware that Su Bei was considering giving up teaming up with the protagonist’s group, “Manga Awareness” replied honestly, “Originally, the manga’s setting for this monthly exam was a team of 3 to 5 people, but because you were added, it became a team of 3 to 6 people.”

“Huh?!” This was an unexpected answer for Su Bei. “Did I change the manga’s setting?”

“Not really,” “Manga Awareness” denied this notion. “The original setting for this part was that those who participated in the previous ‘Find the Culprit’ event would team up, which involved five people. So the team size was set to 3 to 5 people. Now, since it’s six people, the setting has changed to 3 to 6 people.”

I see, Su Bei suddenly understood. If that’s the case, he could relax. Although joining the villain’s team was appealing, it wouldn’t get as much screen time as being part of the protagonist’s team.

After clarifying, he wasted no time and quickly returned to the dormitory.

He opened the app and skimmed through the earlier parts of the plot. It wasn’t until he saw Jiang Tianming waking up early and heading to class that he finally breathed a sigh of relief, his violet eyes filled with a smile: “Looks like I made the right bet.”

“Manga Awareness” also acknowledged, “Congratulations.”

Satisfied that the content he wanted was included, Su Bei relaxed completely and lazily continued scrolling.

[Jiang Tianming, as usual, woke up early and headed to class. Just as he reached the classroom door, he suddenly heard someone inside say, “Time to test the distance.” The next second, he saw a piece of chalk fly straight from the podium to the back of the classroom.

Startled, Jiang Tianming froze in place, then heard the voice inside continue, “As expected, just reaching the advanced level still makes this a bit challenging.”

The manga displayed his inner thoughts next to his head—”That voice is Su Bei’s?”

Next, Su Bei sternly questioned, “Who’s there?” Jiang Tianming quickly tiptoed back to the corner and hid. He waited for a long time before sneaking into the classroom with the next student who arrived.]

The bullet comments were buzzing with excitement.

“I can’t believe this! What kind of skill is this? It doesn’t seem related to fate!”

“Su Bei was hiding this ability?”

“What does ‘just becoming advanced’ mean? An advanced ability user?”

“Jiang Tianming didn’t even move outside, so how did Su Bei sense he was there?”

[The story continued as Jiang Tianming shared this incident with Lan Subing, and the two of them secretly observed Su Bei. Several frames showed that Su Bei was out of sorts the entire day, feeling drowsy.

When Lan Subing saw him ask the teacher from the Mental Power Enhancement class questions after the lesson, Lan Subing quietly asked, “Could his ability to do that be related to mental power?”

The two of them immediately hit it off and, after school, they went to the library together with Wu Mingbai. Soon, they found a book introducing advanced mental power. From it, they learned about two key features of advanced mental power users: the ability to manipulate objects remotely and heightened sensory perception.

Jiang Tianming immediately confirmed their guess: “Su Bei has just become an advanced mental power user!”]

Upon reading this, Su Bei decided not to waste any more time and immediately opened the forum. Sure enough, there were already several posts about him.

“Su Bei is actually an advanced mental power user—what other secrets is he hiding?”

“Wow, Su Bei is amazing! Totally admiring him now!”

“The team battle is secure now!”

Seeing that the entire forum believed he was an advanced mental power user, Su Bei excitedly snapped his fingers and said, “It’s settled! ‘Manga Awareness,’ do you know when the next update of the manga will be? Telling me this shouldn’t break any rules, right?”

“Manga Awareness” hesitated for a moment and then replied, “…Alright, the next update should be on the second day of your individual battles. The third and fourth days will release the team battles together.”

Although Su Bei had hoped that the manga would update before the individual battles, he knew that would have been asking too much. While this result wasn’t the best, as long as he performed well for the first two days, it wouldn’t have much of an impact.

He casually clicked into the post about the team battle.

[The team battle is secure!]

Flying Cockroach no.0: “One has the ‘Death Summon’ ability, another has ‘Word Spirit,’ Wu Mingbai’s ‘Earth Element’ and Mo Xiaotian’s air block are both great for surprise attacks, and now, with Su Bei’s mysterious high mental power, the team battle is locked in!

I feel like this monthly exam might be hinting at revealing some secrets about Mu Tieren. From what we’ve seen, his physical enhancement ability doesn’t seem to fit well with the rest of the team. (No hate towards him.)”

no.1:

“Hahaha, love the username!”

no.2: “I didn’t even notice until you pointed it out, hahaha!”

no.3: “The main characters will definitely win the team battle. I think the main purpose is for us to learn more about the team members’ abilities. Not just Mu Tieren—we still don’t even know what Su Bei and Mo Xiaotian’s abilities are called!”

no.4 replies to no.3: “Right, I completely forgot!”

no.5: “I thought they were going to team up with Feng Lan. Sigh, no chance to see that handsome white-haired guy.”

no.6: “Those three from Class A (Si Zhaohua, Ai Baozhu, and Zhou Kaixuan) will definitely go up against Jiang Tianming and the others. They’re all from Class A, so they still need to pair with three from Class F. I’m betting Feng Lan will join their team.”

no.7 replies to no.6: “!!!!!!!!!”

no.8 replies to no.6: “Wow, I hadn’t even thought of that. Feng Lan will definitely join that team.”

no.9: “I wonder which other two from Class F will team up with them.”

no.10: “Looking at it this way, it’s likely that Jiang Tianming will go up against Si Zhaohua, Lan Subing against Ai Baozhu, Wu Mingbai against Zhou Kaixuan, Su Bei against Feng Lan, and the other two will face unknown opponents. Sounds exciting!”

no.11 replies to no.10: “Already looking forward to it!”

(…)

After reading the post, especially the part on the sixth floor, Su Bei raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t thought about this before. But now, after the reminder, he began to think.

Yes, the post was right. According to the rules, three from Class A must team up with three from Class F to keep things fair. So, aside from Feng Lan, who were the other two people from Class F likely to join Si Zhaohua’s team?

Suddenly, two names popped into his mind—Zhao Xiaoyu and Wu Jin.

It wasn’t surprising that he thought of them, as they were highly likely candidates to join Si Zhaohua’s team.

Si Zhaohua and his group were proud individuals. Though they were forced by the rules to accept three members from Class F, besides the familiar Feng Lan, they wouldn’t care much for the others from Class F.

Given that, it wouldn’t matter who joined them.

Zhao Xiaoyu was a smart person. If she noticed Si Zhaohua recruiting Feng Lan, she might take the initiative to bring someone along and recommend themselves. Naturally, she would bring someone to make things easier for Si Zhaohua’s group by completing the roster in one go.

In this case, the choice of companion would also be crucial. Zhao Xiaoyu wasn’t someone content with merely following others; she would choose someone who wouldn’t steal her spotlight.