A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga

Chapter 14

“Activated?” Su Bei raised his eyebrows in pleasant surprise. He had almost forgotten he still had a forum account. This was good news for him. A forum account would allow him to take the initiative and steer discussions in the forum.

He was instantly interested: "Can I log in directly through the forum?"

“Manga Awareness” confirmed: “Yes, but since it’s a new account, you’ll need to give yourself a name.”

Although it was an anonymous forum, to prevent people from deliberately stirring up trouble, each account had its own username, which would be displayed when posting or commenting.

Usernames could be changed every three months, which was three months in the real world, but in the manga world, it was unclear how much time that would translate to. So he had to be careful in choosing a name.

Logging into the forum and entering the personal homepage interface, Su Bei thought for a while and finally decided on his name—“Prophet.”

The next morning at eight o’clock, all the students in Class F were seated in the classroom, waiting for the teacher to give them their first lesson.

Despite being very curious about the contents of the manga, Su Bei didn't have the courage to play on his phone during the first class of the new semester. He turned off his phone and listened attentively.

When the class bell rang, a refined-looking female teacher with glasses walked in.

She stepped onto the podium and said, “Happy new semester, everyone. I’m your Theoretical Abilities class teacher, Zhou Minwen. You can call me Teacher Zhou. Since we have a quiz at the end of the month, we won’t waste any time and will start the first lesson directly.”

As she spoke, she wrote several large characters on the blackboard: “What exactly are abilities?”

Seeing that the lesson was officially starting, Su Bei also got serious. Unless one could afford a private tutor who was an ability user, this content was usually only taught in ability academies.

Although it seemed like a theoretical class that wasn’t very practical, like all theoretical courses, listening to it might seem useless, but not listening would definitely cause big problems.

The teacher continued: “Regarding the question I wrote on the blackboard, I’m sure everyone has had many guesses after awakening their abilities. Now, I will call on a few students to answer. This is also a good opportunity for everyone to get to know each other.”

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The nightmare of being called on in school struck. Those who knew the answer were confident, while those who didn’t were nervous, afraid of embarrassing themselves in front of the whole class.

Perhaps due to plot inertia, the first person called on was Jiang Tianming. After experiencing the adventure before the school started, he had a deep understanding of abilities. Coupled with the tutoring from the Lan family, he easily answered the teacher’s question: “It’s a type of energy within the human body.”

The first student called on gave the correct answer, saving some time. Teacher Zhou was pleased: “Correct, Jiang Tianming, is that your name? Have you studied this subject beforehand?”

Jiang Tianming nodded honestly.

The teacher didn’t mind. She knew many students had learned about abilities in various ways before school started. After signaling him to sit down, she continued: “Abilities are indeed a type of energy within our bodies. We develop this energy to enhance our abilities. Here’s a key point: this energy is something every human possesses.”

After saying this, she paused to give everyone time to react. As expected, many students who hadn’t studied in advance were surprised. They thought only those who had awakened abilities had this energy.

“If everyone has it, why have only we awakened abilities?” a more impatient student raised his hand and asked.

“That's because our body’s energy is more active, making us more likely to awaken. Most ability users awaken at 15 because that’s when our energy is most active. However, experiments show that many ordinary people, whether younger or older than 15, can also awaken abilities when subjected to extreme stimuli.”

For example, Wu Mingbai had awakened before turning 15.

The teacher then explained the concepts of ability activity, types of abilities, the strength of abilities, and their relationships in a clear and understandable way.

In short, the type of ability is innate, the more active the ability, the easier it is to awaken, and the strength of the ability depends on development methods and the ability user's comprehension. The more active the ability, the easier it is to develop.

Knowing that they were in Class F, filled mostly with people who had useless abilities, the teacher specially cited examples of people with seemingly useless abilities who had become strong through deep development.

The most famous example was the top-tier female star Lin Zhi. Her initial ability, "Gardenia Smile," simply made people smell gardenia fragrance when she smiled.

A standard useless ability, and she was initially in Class F as well.

However, through her development, this fragrance could now infiltrate the soul. Anyone who saw her smile or heard her laughter would be marked, allowing her to track or attack them. People with weak willpower would even unconsciously develop a liking for her.

Escaping from Class F and becoming a well-known ability user with an initially useless ability made her an idol for many.

However, the existence of someone like Lin Zhi is extremely rare. For most students in Class F, the best option is to forget about their abilities or, like Su Bei originally planned, use their abilities to create whatever benefits they can.

At the end of the lesson, the teacher sternly emphasized, “I know many of you in this class are dissatisfied with your abilities, but they’re not like your face, which you can change with plastic surgery if you’re unhappy with it. All known attempts to change one’s innate ability have resulted in severe consequences, ranging from permanent disability and loss of abilities to death. Most people in this world don’t have abilities. If you’re unhappy with your abilities, you can consider yourself an ordinary person after graduation. Don’t risk your life for the slim chance of becoming powerful. Cherish your life and love yourself. Alright, that’s it for this class. Class dismissed!”

“Goodbye, teacher!”

As soon as the teacher left the classroom, it became noisy. Su Bei didn’t rush to read his manga but turned to Feng Lan behind him: “The incident you mentioned would happen on the first day of school has already occurred.”

Apparently, Feng Lan already knew what had happened from some source. He thought for a moment and reminded, “The school is not safe these days. Be careful.”

“Of course,” Su Bei replied, pretending to know nothing. “After what happened at the school yesterday, it’s obviously not safe. Who knows who did it?”

Feigning curiosity, he asked, “Can you use ‘Prophecy’ to find the culprit?”

If that were possible, then this so-called first incident in the manga was just a ploy by the author to make the main characters and Feng Lan intersect.

That would be quite ironic for him.

Fortunately, Feng Lan shook his head, “I’ve already used my specific prediction for this month. I’ll have to wait until next month to use it again. By then, if the culprit hasn’t been caught, they’ll probably have covered their tracks well.”

Hearing this answer relieved Su Bei quite a bit, “I bet someone will come to you for help. If you don’t want any trouble, don’t forget to refuse them directly. I’m going to the bathroom.”

There were only ten minutes during the break, so he had to hurry to the bathroom to read his manga.

Behind him, Feng Lan’s face rarely showed a bit of a complex expression, “Could it be him...”

In the bathroom stall, Su Bei turned on his phone and opened the app. Sure enough, the manga had updated. Taking a deep breath, he opened it without hesitation.

[The manga started at the school gate, with a red banner reading “Happy Start of School to First-Year Students!”

Students in school uniforms walked into the school in groups of threes and twos, their faces full of longing and expectation. Awakening abilities and joining an ability academy was undoubtedly an exciting journey for these young people.]

From reading the first part, Su Bei knew that this manga artist was very skilled. With just a few characters, the artist managed to fill readers with anticipation for the start of school.

Sure enough, the real-time comments were filled with excitement. If these comments weren’t restricted to the top of the screen, they would probably cover it entirely.

[In the next scene, the three main characters, Jiang Tianming and his friends, appeared in blue school uniforms. The manga versions of them were very similar to their real-life counterparts, creating a strange sense of dissonance.

They briefly recapped their experiences from the end of the last manga to the start of school, using just a few panels for the flashback. After connecting to the previous storyline, the main characters finally entered the school building.

Since Wu Mingbai wasn’t in the same class as the other two, they reluctantly parted ways. Of course, only the drama king Wu Mingbai was reluctant, while Jiang Tianming and Lan Su Bing were used to it and looked indifferent.

Notably, throughout the journey, there were narrative thoughts beside Lan Su Bing’s head. She silently criticized the boys’ outfits, the ‘Happy Start of School’ banner, and their antics during the summer vacation, and now she was criticizing Wu Mingbai’s exaggerated acting.

Looking at her silent and beautiful exterior, who would have thought her inner thoughts were so rich?

Next, the classmates began to arrive. Su Bei focused on observing, particularly on who got special close-ups in the manga. It was obvious that characters with close-ups were likely to be important later.

As expected, Feng Lan got a close-up. This was Su Bei’s first time seeing him in the manga. White hair and golden eyes

, his handsome face, which perfectly matched the preferences of the audience, occupied an entire panel.

Lan Su Bing’s narrative thoughts fittingly appeared beside him: “What a handsome guy!”

It wasn’t until Feng Lan went to the last seat and laid down to sleep that the manga’s camera shifted to the next person.]

There were many comments on this part, with everyone praising Feng Lan’s looks and the high quality of the characters this season.

The first student to introduce himself, Zhao Xiaoyu, the first to run in the lap, Mu Tieren, and the one who ran last, Wu Jin, all got minor panels.

But upon closer inspection, it was clear that they were drawn more meticulously than others, albeit subtly.

Su Bei noticed this because he had already realized these three might be special. If nothing unexpected happened, they were probably important characters!