A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga

Chapter 45

Heart-shaped pupils in manga are a subtle detail, often used for content that wouldn’t be allowed on certain platforms. Simply put, they frequently represent “affection” in manga.

If this wasn’t a mistake by the author drawing the pupils that way, Su Bei could only assume it was due to Wu Jin’s Ability.

Could his Ability make others fall in love with him? This realization made Su Bei’s brow furrow. If that were true, it would require caution.

If he accidentally said something he shouldn’t because of this Ability, it would be a devastating blow.

Noting this mentally, Su Bei continued reading. Mu Tieren’s match wasn’t as shocking as Wu Jin’s but revealed significant information.

In the match, facing Wang Lei’s [Ten Thousand Arrows], Mu Tieren displayed exceptional physical prowess.

In Su Bei’s view, that attack wasn’t far off from Si Zhaohua’s feather attacks. Though the latter’s had greater single-target damage, the former’s sheer quantity was overwhelming!

While Wang Lei couldn’t fully unleash [Ten Thousand Arrows], summoning a hundred or so arrows at once was effortless.

In such conditions, Mu Tieren managed to deflect most of the arrows with just his arms. Su Bei had to reassess his [Body Enhancement] Ability.

Did this Ability really belong in Class F? Or had Mu Tieren improved this much in such a short time?

Either possibility highlighted Mu Tieren’s extraordinariness.

If the former, being placed in Class F meant he deliberately hid his Ability’s strength. Why would he do that?

If the latter, jumping from Class F to at least Class B strength in a month wasn’t achievable through mere training.

With more participants in the second round, the manga didn’t show every match, only fully depicting Mo Xiaotian’s from the protagonist group. The others got a single frame showing their opponents and Abilities.

Su Bei thought this section wouldn’t involve him, but surprisingly, many barrage comments mentioned him.

“Su Bei’s opponent’s Ability is [Flame Phoenix]??? How does he win?”

“Even knowing Su Bei definitely wins, it’s still hard to believe.”

“I knew North Bro must have an attack/defense Ability. How else could he win?”

“Can [Destiny Gear] beat [Flame Phoenix]? Was that girl just weak?”

“I want to see their match! Stop hiding, author!”

These comments were an unexpected bonus for Su Bei. Though his Ability had evolved significantly, allowing him to glimpse and slightly alter fate, in actual matches, he was still an ordinary person, relying on top-tier physical skills, combat experience, and advanced Mental Energy to survive.

He desperately needed attack or defense skills!

Su Bei didn’t hide these thoughts, so [Manga Consciousness] could sense them. There was no need to conceal them, and he figured if [Manga Consciousness] felt generous, it might grant him a cheat.

However, [Manga Consciousness] thought that if Su Bei’s defeated opponents heard this, they’d be furious.

Though Su Bei’s Ability lacked offensive power, his attack and evasion stats were maxed out! Even if someone started learning martial arts now, they couldn’t match Su Bei’s decade of training. Without Abilities, no freshman could beat him.

And he still looked down on himself—talk about humblebragging!

The plot continued. Though Su Bei and Qi Huang’s match wasn’t shown, the aftermath was.

Seeing Su Bei emerge first, everyone was visibly incredulous until Wu Mingbai revealed the truth, easing the tension.

Su Bei’s reason for not carrying the unconscious Qi Huang out drew widespread mockery, and the manga included a flashback.

[Su Bei first hoisted the unconscious Qi Huang onto his shoulder, then glanced at the referee’s departure direction and decisively set her back down.]

The barrage went wild with laughter.

“Hahaha, Su Bei’s such a dog!”

“Looks like Su Bei’s got no love line. He’s a lone wolf.”

“He put her back down, seriously?”

“Was he carrying a sack at first, Su Bei?”

Next, the manga showed Su Bei revealing his points, alongside others’. His four-digit points starkly contrasted with everyone else’s sub-500 scores.

This reminded Su Bei that he had nearly 3,000 points. With the team battles approaching, he needed to exchange for props.

But he’d finish the manga and forum first.

Soon, the other matches wrapped up. To save space, the author only depicted the protagonist group’s content, but it was enough to thrill battle-loving readers.

Su Bei focused on whether the protagonist group was secretly developing unknown abilities. Fortunately, no such cases appeared. The biggest change was Lan Subing, who had overcome some psychological barriers, successfully using [Word Spirit] without hesitation.

But afterward, she couldn’t use her Ability again. Lan Subing smartly realized she could only use it against a single opponent with no onlookers.

Social anxiety remained an insurmountable mountain for her.

During lunch, Qi Huang’s visit was drawn as a small interlude. Even in her defiance, she was graciously defiant. The manga gave two frames of her attacking Su Bei with her phoenix, showing her strength.

The barrage showed many readers liked her. If things went as expected, Su Bei guessed Qi Huang would have more interactions with the protagonist group.

Only when Qi Huang left did Su Bei realize the immense imagination behind Lan Subing’s teasing remark.

The author even dedicated several mini-frames to her imagination, including but not limited to Su Bei and Qi Huang as bickering lovers, a chase-and-regret arc, graduating together, and a happy marriage…

Su Bei: “?”

Good grief. He knew Lan Subing had a vivid imagination, but not this vivid. Why be an Ability user? She should write novels!

Seeing the barrage offer no defense, just “hahaha,” Su Bei could only lament the decline of morals and flip the page to avoid further irritation.

The next page was Su Bei’s response. When he said Qi Huang resembled Si Zhaohua, both readers and the protagonist group fell silent.

After a brief pause, the barrage erupted like a tidal wave.

“Hahaha, no problem, female Si Zhaohua!”

“Oh no, now I can’t unsee it.”

“Don’t say it, but you’re kinda right?”

“Jiang Tianming’s expression is killing me hahahahaha!”

The afternoon matches only fully depicted Wu Mingbai versus Zhou Renjie. The art showed Zhou Renjie indeed swallowing people into his stomach. As soon as Wu Mingbai stepped up, Zhou Renjie opened his mouth wide, and Wu Mingbai was caught off guard, sucked in.

The next scene was Wu Mingbai’s solo perspective.

[After falling into Zhou Renjie’s stomach, he was dazed for a few seconds before opening his eyes. He found himself in a pitch-black space.

That was normal; stomachs have no light, so it’d be dark. But Wu Mingbai didn’t know this. He cautiously stood still, tentatively touching his surroundings.

Soon, he felt sticky, fleshy walls. The stomach had gastric juice, dripping steadily down the walls. When Wu Mingbai touched it, his hand stung.

It was the corrosion from the gastric juice.

Wu Mingbai frowned, sniffing his hand. There was a foul odor, and the entire space reeked of it.

What was this place? A trash bin?

Taking a few steps, he noticed the ground wasn’t smooth. Squatting to touch it, he was surprised to find it felt like the walls.

But that wasn’t the point. The point was—whether it was his imagination or not—the ground seemed to be pooling water?

This wasn’t entirely felt but deduced. The water on the ground didn’t seem to flow, yet the walls kept seeping. Without an exit, wouldn’t it accumulate?

After careful observation, Wu Mingbai confirmed there was no exit, and the water was indeed pooling. The accumulated liquid was highly corrosive. If he stayed long, his clothes would soon be corroded away.

“What is this place?” Wu Mingbai muttered, puzzled, deciding not to stay put. He was bold. Since no attacks had come after so long, he dared to explore even a lightless, unfamiliar space.

Groping along the walls, he roughly determined it was a vaguely circular space.

He couldn’t stay longer. Feeling the rising liquid underfoot, Wu Mingbai punched the fleshy wall. But it was elastic, and his punch did no damage.

Thinking, he used [Earth Element] to conjure a fairly hard soil knife. It couldn’t compare to stone or metal knives, but he could only manage a rock at best. For true proficiency, soil was his forte.

Wait—rock?

Suddenly, Wu Mingbai’s eyes lit up. With a flick of his wrist, a faintly glowing stone appeared in his hand—fluorite.

Holding the fluorite, he approached the wall, its faint light revealing that the wall was red.

Red, fleshy walls?

His eyes brightened again as a realization hit him. A place surrounded by flesh could only be inside Zhou Renjie’s body.

If he wasn’t mistaken, this was the stomach, and the seeping liquid was gastric juice, explaining its corrosiveness.

Understanding this, Wu Mingbai began pondering how to escape. If Zhou Renjie released him, he’d lose, so he had to get out on his own.

Dealing damage from inside was tough. First, he lacked strong offensive means; [Earth Element] wasn’t attack-focused.

Moreover, Wu Mingbai thought clearly: he wasn’t the first sucked in by Zhou Renjie. Previous opponents must have tried attacking the walls, but they clearly failed, so there had to be strong defenses.

Escaping through attacks wouldn’t work. He needed a different approach.

Wu Mingbai was clever. Soon, a smirk curved his lips as he began using his Ability, summoning vast amounts of sand. As his face grew paler, the sand in the space multiplied.

“Urgh!”

A retching sound came from above. Wu Mingbai felt dizzy, and when he opened his eyes, he was back on the arena, facing Zhou Renjie, who was kneeling and dry-heaving.

“Urgh… take your dirt out of my stomach! Pfft, pfft! That’s disgusting!” Zhou Renjie gagged, clutching his throat in pain.

He felt his stomach would burst. Worse, since he could see inside his stomach space, he knew it was filled with dirt, not digestible material.

“I haven’t even complained about being swallowed, and you’re calling it disgusting?” Wu Mingbai scoffed. “Do you surrender?”

Zhou Renjie shouted: “I surrender, I surrender!”

He had no choice. Wu Mingbai was already out, and his Ability couldn’t be reused quickly. He was like fish on a chopping board, at the mercy of his opponent.

Hearing his surrender, Wu Mingbai cheerfully withdrew his Ability.]

So that’s how he won. Su Bei’s face lit up with realization, his eyes full of admiration. No wonder Wu Mingbai was part of the protagonist group—his intelligence was top-notch.

Given that so many had failed against Zhou Renjie without even figuring out his Ability, accurately identifying that black space as a stomach was incredibly difficult.

Yet Wu Mingbai not only deduced it quickly but, realizing normal attacks were ineffective, immediately thought to exploit the stomach’s own functions to force Zhou Renjie to release him.

Full marks for ingenuity.

The barrage was full of praise.

“Mingbai truly lives up to his name!”

“I’m a Mingbai fan, and I’m proudly saying: I’m into brainy types!”

“Such a satisfying win! I’ve been sick of that fatty.”

“Our [King of Abilities] has everyone’s IQ online!”

After they left the arena, Si Zhaohua’s group was visibly shocked by Zhou Renjie’s loss, contrasting sharply with the cheering protagonist group.

Su Bei couldn’t help but marvel at how effective this foil setup was.

After the protagonist group left, the manga gave Zhou Renjie a scene.

[In the dormitory, his parents had learned of his individual battle loss. Parents who raised such a spiteful child were, unsurprisingly, cut from the same cloth. Over the phone, they berated Zhou Renjie mercilessly.

“Useless,” “waste of raising you,” “good for nothing,” “go die”… A few words were enough to make readers clench their fists.

Zhou Renjie, scolded, had a grim face. Conditioned by years of such treatment, he didn’t blame his heartless parents but glared at his phone, muttering: “I’ll make those Class F kids pay.”]

Seeing this, Su Bei sighed. Zhou Renjie’s personality was clearly shaped by his family environment. Truly, pitiful people often have hateful traits. Purely evil characters were rare in manga; most villains had deep grievances.

But speaking of suffering, who didn’t suffer? Those chosen by the manga were, to some extent, unlucky. Su Bei had no sympathy to spare, lowering his eyes and flipping the page indifferently.

That night in the manga, everyone trained their Abilities. The author was generous, giving each person one or two frames.

Su Bei got a frame too, showing him pale but resolute, with a pile of Gears before him.

This never-before-seen image sparked much discussion.

“What’s Su Bei training?”

“So many patterned Gears—Is he predicting tons of people’s fates at once?”

“Such a weird scene. Why’s Su Bei’s training so different?”

“Feels like North Bro’s about to drop a big move!”

“He can conjure that many Gears at once?”

Looking at the barrage, Su Bei’s expression turned thoughtful. His training being shown had pros and cons.

The downside was losing some mystique. Showing his training might disappoint readers who thought he was overwhelmingly strong, as it proved he didn’t have freshman-crushing power.

But the upside, if used well, could raise his Ability’s usage limit. Initially, his limit was one use per week, predicting for up to three people at once.

After his Mental Energy became advanced, Su Bei felt his prediction ability had improved. He was still limited to one prediction per week, but he could likely predict for at least five people at once.

Upgrading this skill was great, but Su Bei was more excited about enhancing his fate-altering ability. If readers believed he could throw out many such Gears, his Ability would surely improve.

The plot continued, jumping to the next day. Likely to flesh out character arcs, the author didn’t skimp on any finals day battles.

Su Bei guessed this was why the author couldn’t hold back, needing another chapter for the team battles.

Mu Tieren and Zhou Renjie’s match was brief. Mu Tieren’s Ability was indeed countered by Zhou Renjie’s. Though he discovered the space’s secret, he couldn’t break free.

Next was Mo Xiaotian versus Si Zhaohua. Though Mo Xiaotian’s [Air] Ability was strong, it currently couldn’t match Si Zhaohua’s [Angel].

From this, Su Bei learned Mo Xiaotian could make air blocks explode, likely using compression techniques. The attack power was decent, showing good Ability mastery.

The next was Su Bei versus Feng Lan, undoubtedly more engaging than the previous two. It was clear Feng Lan was the true “Prophet,” fighting purely with his Ability.

Su Bei, however, started with physical dominance. Only when Feng Lan paused, surrounded by floating Gears, did readers realize he’d been scheming.

Anyone could see Feng Lan had lost. Fully surrounded, even seeing the scene five seconds in advance, he couldn’t shed all the Gears and escape.

The next scene was their conversation.

[A calculating blond boy faced a white-haired boy trapped by countless Gear tips. Feng Lan’s confusion was unmasked: “You know you didn’t need to do all this to win, right?”

During their dialogue, their stamina and Mental Energy stats were shown. It was clear Su Bei’s consumption was far less than Feng Lan’s.

Su Bei’s words confirmed this: “Win by draining someone’s Mental Energy? Sure, but what’s the point?”

He grinned like a golden fox, proud and sly: “Don’t you think this is more fun?”]

“Aaah, so cool, North Bro!”

“Bro! You’re my forever Bro!”

“These two are perfect together. I’m shipping this CP hard!”

“Sorry, North Bro, I’m fox-ifying you. Baby, you’re a proud little fox.”

“Su Bei: What’s the point of an easy win? Gotta play on hard mode!”

“Am I the only one who thinks Su Bei used a tougher method to avoid humiliating Feng Lan?”

“Fight! Shonen manga needs fights!”

Su Bei hadn’t expected this scene to spark such lively discussion. He hadn’t said anything profound, but the manga’s art gave it strong vibes.

Seeing the next match was Baozhu versus Lan Subing, Su Bei realized the author was ordering the arenas by reader interest.

Baozhu opened with [Gorgeous Domain], aiming to strike first, repeatedly trying to trap Lan Subing with her words. But Lan Subing could now speak to a single person, and despite her severe social anxiety, she hadn’t slacked on her studies, thwarting Baozhu’s schemes.

When it was her turn to speak, a simple [Word Spirit] sent Baozhu off the arena. Among everyone, Lan Subing was indeed Baozhu’s worst matchup.

For readers who saw Lan Subing as a daughter or goddess, this scene was pure joy. Especially for those following since season one, watching her grow from a mute, socially anxious girl to a confident one who could verbally spar and defeat opponents filled them with pride.

This was probably the appeal of a growth arc, Su Bei realized. Perhaps he could add a minor growth line somewhere trivial to let readers enjoy “nurturing” him.

The first round’s final match was Jiang Tianming versus Wu Mingbai. An intra-protagonist group battle was a crowd-pleaser, and Su Bei planned to study it closely to see if either hid any trump cards.