A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga

14:

“Activated?” Su Bei raised his eyebrows in surprise, almost forgetting he had a forum account. This was good news for him. A forum account could turn his passivity into initiative, allowing him to set the tone directly on the forum.

His interest piqued: “Can I log in directly to the forum?”

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

Although it was an anonymous forum, to prevent intentional provocations and conflicts, each account had its own username, which would be displayed when posting or commenting.

A username could be changed once every three months, which was three months in the real world. In the comic world, who knows how long that would be, so one must choose carefully.

Logging into the forum and entering his personal homepage, after much thought, Su Bei finally settled on his name—”The Prophet.”

The next morning at eight o’clock, all members of Class F were seated in the classroom on time, waiting for their teacher to start the first lesson.

Despite his curiosity about the comic’s content, Su Bei did not have the courage to play with his phone during the first class of the school year, and listened attentively with his phone turned off.

As the class bell rang, a refined female teacher with glasses walked in.

She approached the podium: “Happy start of school, everyone. I am Zhou Minwen, your Superpower Theory teacher. You can call me Teacher Zhou. Since there will be a quiz at the end of this month, we won’t waste any time and will start the first lesson right away.”

With that, she swiftly wrote a few big characters on the blackboard: “What exactly is a superpower?”

As the class officially began, Su Bei also became serious. Unless one could afford a private superpower tutor at home, such content was generally only available at superpower academies.

Although it seemed like a useless theoretical class on the surface, like all theory classes, it might not be useful if you listen, but definitely problematic if you don’t.

The teacher’s voice continued from the podium: “Regarding the question I’ve written on the blackboard, I’m sure everyone has many speculations after awakening their special abilities. Now, I will call on a few students to answer, which is also a good opportunity for us to get to know each other.”

The nightmare of roll call from our student days arrived, those who knew the answer were confident, while those who didn’t were anxious, fearing being called upon and losing face in front of the whole class.

Perhaps due to the inertia of the plot, the first person called was Jiang Tianming. After the adventures before the start of school, he had a deep understanding of special abilities. Coupled with the tutoring from the Lan Corporation, he easily answered the teacher’s question: “It’s a kind of energy within the human body.”

The first student called answered correctly, saving time on roll call. Teacher Zhou was pleased: “That’s right, Jiang Tianming, that’s your name, isn’t it? Did you study the content in advance?”

Jiang Tianming nodded honestly.

The teacher didn’t mind, she knew many students had learned about special abilities in various ways before school started. After gesturing for him to sit down, she continued: “Special abilities are a kind of energy within our bodies, which we develop continuously to enhance our own abilities. Here’s a key point: this energy is something every human possesses.”

After saying this, she paused to give everyone time to react. Sure enough, many students who hadn’t studied in advance were surprised, thinking that only those who had awakened special abilities had this energy within them.

“If everyone has it, then why have only we awakened our special abilities?” a rather impatient student asked with a raised hand.

“That’s because the energy in our bodies is more active, making it easier for us to awaken. Most people with special abilities awaken at the age of 15, as that’s generally when our body’s energy is most active. However, experiments have shown that many ordinary people, whether they haven’t reached or have exceeded 15 years of age, can also awaken their abilities under great stimulation.”

For example, Wu Mingbai awakened before the age of 15.

In the following time, the teacher explained in simple terms the activity level of special abilities, the types of abilities, and the relationship between the strength of abilities and their development.

Simply put, the type of special ability is innate, the more active the ability, the easier it is to awaken, and the strength of the ability is related to the method of development and the individual’s insight. The more active the ability, the easier it is to develop.

Knowing that everyone was from Class F, almost all possessing useless abilities, the teacher specifically cited a few examples of those who became strong by deeply developing their useless abilities.

The most famous example was the current top female star, Lin Zhi. Her initially awakened ability, “Gardenia Smile,” allowed those who saw her smile to smell the fragrance of gardenias.

A standard useless ability, she was even from Class F.

But through her development, this fragrance could now infiltrate the soul. Anyone who saw her smile or heard her laugh would be marked by her, which could be used for tracking or attacking. Moreover, those with weaker wills would subconsciously develop a favorable impression of her.

Breaking free from Class F and becoming a well-known powerful ability user with an initially deemed useless ability, she indeed became an idol for many.

However, Lin Zhi’s existence was rare, and for most students from Class F, the best choice was to forget their abilities or, like Su Bei originally planned, to create benefits within the scope of their abilities.

At the end of the class, the teacher emphasized seriously: “I know many students in our class are dissatisfied with their abilities, but unlike faces that can be changed with plastic surgery if dissatisfied, all known attempts to change one’s innate abilities have resulted in dire consequences. At best, permanent disability and loss of abilities; at worst, immediate death. In this world, the majority are people without special abilities. If you’re dissatisfied with your abilities, you can consider yourself an ordinary person after graduation. Don’t risk your life for a minuscule chance of becoming powerful. Cherish life, love yourself. That’s it for this class, dismissed!”

“Goodbye, teacher!”

As the teacher left the classroom, the previously quiet room suddenly erupted into noise. Su Bei didn’t rush to read his comics; instead, he turned to look at Feng Lan behind him: “The incident you mentioned that would happen on the first day of school has already occurred.”

Feng Lan seemed to have learned of the incident from somewhere and thoughtfully warned, “The school is not safe right now, be careful.”

“Of course,” Su Bei replied, feigning ignorance, “With what happened yesterday, it’s naturally unsafe. And who knows who did it.”

At the end of his statement, he pretended to be curious: “Can you use your ‘Prophecy’ to find the culprit?”

If that were possible, then this so-called first incident in the comic was nothing more than a ploy by the author to create an intersection between the protagonist group and Feng Lan.

How ironic that would be for him.

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

Hearing this, Su Bei felt a sense of relief: “I reckon someone will come to you about this. If you don’t want to trouble yourself, don’t forget to refuse outright. I’m off to the restroom.”

With only ten minutes for the break, he hurried to the restroom to read his comics.

Behind him, Feng Lan’s face showed a rare expression of complexity: “Could it be him…”

In the restroom stall, Su Bei opened his phone and tapped into the app. The comic indeed had an update. Taking a deep breath, he boldly opened the comic.

The comic began with the school gate, a red banner above reading “Happy First Day of School, Freshmen!”

Students in twos and threes, dressed in uniforms and carrying backpacks, walked into the school, their faces filled with longing and anticipation. Awakening their abilities and joining the Ability Academy was undoubtedly an exciting journey for these young buds.

Su Bei knew from the first part that the comic artist was talented; a few simple characters had already filled the readers with anticipation for the new school year.

As expected, the live comments were filled with eager anticipation. If not for the comments being restricted to the top of the screen, they would have filled the entire display.

In the next scene, the blue-uniformed protagonist Jiang Tianming and his two friends appeared. The characters in the comic resembled their real-life counterparts, creating a curious sense of disarray.

Amidst laughter and chatter, they briefly recounted their experiences from the end of the last comic to the start of school, using a few frames for flashbacks. After catching up with the previous plot, the protagonist group finally entered the teaching building.

Since Wu Mingbai and the other two were not in the same class, they had to part reluctantly. Of course, the only one acting reluctant was the drama king Wu Mingbai, while Jiang Tianming and Lan Subing wore their usual indifferent expressions.

It’s worth mentioning that along the way, Lan Subing’s thoughts were narrated in voice-overs, critiquing the boys’ attire, then the school’s “Happy First Day” banner, followed by the foolish things the boys did over the summer break, and now mocking Wu Mingbai’s exaggerated acting.

Just by looking at that silent and beautiful exterior, who could imagine the richness of the drama within?

As classmates began to trickle into the room, Su Bei paid close attention, mainly observing who the manga gave close-up shots to. Even a guess with one’s toes would tell that those with close-ups were likely to have significant roles later on.

As expected, Feng Lan had a close-up. This was the first time Su Bei had seen him in the manga. White hair, golden eyes—a stunning face that captivated the nation, occupying a whole panel on its own.

Lan Suling’s thoughts fittingly appeared beside him: “What a handsome man!”

It wasn’t until Feng Lan walked straight to the last seat and lay down to sleep that the manga’s focus shifted to the next person.

This part of the story had plenty of comments, everyone marveling at Feng Lan’s looks and the high quality of characters this season.

Zhao Xiaoyu, who was the first to introduce himself, Mu Tie Ren, who led the run, and Wu Jin, who trailed at the end, all received modest close-ups.

But a careful observation would reveal that their drawings were a bit more detailed than the others, albeit subtly so.

Su Bei could notice this because he realized that these three were somewhat special. If nothing went wrong, they were likely to be key characters!