A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga

47:

【No.85: Hahaha, the host is good at cursing!】

【No.86: Seeing everyone scolding the 28th floor, I’m relieved.】

【……】

【No.145: I generally agree with the original poster’s ranking, and I’d like to make my own list of combat power, excluding special abilities.

Su Bei ＞ Wooden Iron Man ＞ Jiang Tianming ＞ Wu Mingbai ＞ Si Zhaohua ＞ Lan Subing ＞ Mo Xiaotian ＞ Qi Huang ＞ Feng Lan ＞ Zhou Renjie ＞ Zhao Xiaoyu ＞ Wu Jin ＞ Ai Baozhu】

【No.146 Reply to No.1455:

This is interesting too】

【Practice Makes Perfect No.147: Alright, alright, if you guys are going to do this, then I’ll make a beauty ranking later.】

【No.148: The combat power ranking without special abilities at post 145, I think it’s a bit too subjective. Many characters’ pure combat abilities have never been shown in the manga.】

【No.149: The previous comment is right, Qi Huang, Zhou Renjie, Ai Baozhu, and Si Zhaohua have never engaged in hand-to-hand combat; we can’t just compare based on looks, can we?】

【No.150 Reply to No.145:

I agree with the top four, Si Zhaohua’s close combat strength is uncertain so let’s exclude him for now, placing Little Blue next seems reasonable (there are many who brainwash saying Lan Subing’s combat ability is poor, only good for dragging others down, I think Little Blue should give them a kick in the brain with that side kick from season one).

Mo Xiaotian is reasonable, he was quite smooth in dodging attacks when fighting Si Zhaohua. But I think his special ability plays a part, after all, his ability is [Air], which should make it easy to sense attacks from every direction.

Qi Huang hasn’t shown anything in the manga, so no comment there, Feng Lan indeed seems weak if we don’t count special abilities. But considering what Su Bei said, his combat potential should be high.

Zhou Renjie also hasn’t engaged in hand-to-hand combat, I think Zhao Xiaoyu and Wu Jin should be ranked above him, at least they have fought real battles and won.

Lastly, Ai Baozhu, that’s reasonable.】

【No.151: What about the sister who said she’d make a beauty ranking? I’m waiting for it】

【No.152: Waiting +1】

【No.153: Waiting…】

【No.154: I really want to see everyone’s beauty ranking, starting with my opinion that Su Bei should be the most handsome!】

【……】

【Practice Makes Perfect No.222: I’m here! Come see my beauty ranking! (Ranking is highly subjective, objectively refer to the character evaluations in the manga)

Boys: Wu Jin (I’m not sure about this one, just a feeling that he might be an exceptionally handsome man according to manga clichés) ＞ Si Zhaohua ＞ Feng Lan (White hair is my xp) = Su Bei ＞ Jiang Tianming = Wu Mingbai ＞ Mo Xiaotian ＞ Wooden Iron Man ＞ Zhou Renjie

(To give a bit of context, Si Zhaohua never explicitly mentions it, but it feels like he’s set up to be a character where looks come first. Wu Jin, when he reveals his eyes, is so handsome that I seriously suspect there will be a plot twist about his looks later on. Feng Lan… I must declare my love for white hair first. Su Bei, a mysterious and handsome guy indeed—there’s not much else to say, so let’s rank them in order.)

Girls: Lan Subing ＞ Ai Baozhu ＞ Qi Huang ＞ Zhao Xiaoyu (This isn’t specified in the comic, it’s just my personal opinion.)

[No.223: Fans of white hair strongly suggest putting Feng Lan in the first place!]

[No.224 replying to No.222: Practice More:

Wu Jin???]

[No.225: To be honest, among the female characters, aside from Lan Subing who has my emotional vote, the others are all very beautiful.]

[No.226: There are too few beauties, draw more @Old Thief]

[Practice More No.227 replying to No.224:

Wu Jin’s face is always covered, following the usual comic trope, I suspect this guy will turn out to be an incredibly handsome man once he lifts his hair.]

[No.228: Damn, the person above makes so much sense.]

[No.229: Now I’m really curious about what Wu Jin looks like with his hair lifted. Si Zhaohua and the others are already handsome enough, can Old Thief’s art style improve even more?]

[No.230 replying to No.229:

Sometimes, a handsome character is just a setting, unrelated to the skill of the artist ( )]

A simple post reveals the direction of the readers’ wind after the new chapter is released. Others don’t care much about Su Bei; he only cares about himself. Clearly, the feedback about him is quite good.

Besides, the only thing in the post that needs attention is Wu Jin’s matter. Without mentioning Su Bei, they would have really forgotten about this point. Indeed, many comics like to surprise everyone with a character lifting their hair, and Wu Jin might just be a great beauty.

So, should I build a relationship with him in advance?

After some thought, Su Bei decides against it. The ability that Wu Jin displays in the comic makes him a bit worried; it’s better to keep a distance.

Watching the discussion about looks start to heat up, he exits the thread and moves on to other posts.

There are many hot posts related to him on the forum, but excluding the ones about shipping couples and just screaming, there aren’t many left.

Suddenly, Su Bei’s eyes light up: “This one looks interesting.”

Clicking into the post…

“Is it just my misconception? Why do I feel like Su Bei’s loss to Si Zhaohua in the match was too hasty?”

[The Little Match Girl No.0: rbt, anyone who watched Su Bei’s match would know, Si Zhaohua’s victory was a narrow escape. Despite his ultimate move being nearly invincible, before he could use it, Su Bei had already made his killer move.

At that moment, he could have almost won, but in the end, due to a bit of luck, Si Zhaohua dodged at the neck, leading to his defeat. But here, is this “luck” the author’s design, or Su Bei’s own strategy?]

[No.1: I don’t get it, isn’t it obviously the author’s design? Isn’t every plot point designed by the author?]

[No.2: Regarding the title, where was it hasty! Wasn’t that battle thrilling?]

[No.3: What strategy of Su Bei? Planning his own defeat?]

[No.4: I think I’m starting to understand what the original poster means…]

[The Little Match Girl No.5 (Original Poster): Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough in my main post, let me explain further.

Saying it’s the author’s design is because we all know that Jiang Tianming and Si Zhaohua are the kind of opponents destined to meet in the finals. It’s normal for the author to design Su Bei to lose by a slight margin.

But the reason I think this match could also be Su Bei’s strategy is because of Su Bei’s performance. Pay attention to the meticulous preparation he did before executing his killer move in the arena.

First, he used gear attacks to draw Si Zhaohua’s attention (these were feints without any real intent to harm), thus allowing the “undercover” gear hidden under the feathers to attach to the opponent. Then he launched a real gear attack, forcing Si Zhaohua to close his wings, facilitating the “undercover” gear’s surprise attack. ()

From this, we can see his extremely precise use of gears. Logically speaking, with such a large target as the neck, there’s no reason for him to miss, right?

So I feel the loss was too hasty. The old thief isn’t someone who acts rashly. If it’s not cheating, then there must be some hidden reason.]

[No.6: So many words, aba aba…]

[No.7: I shall read it.]

[No.8: I suddenly think the original poster makes a lot of sense?]

[No.9: Indeed, it was very hasty. It feels like Si Zhaohua won entirely by luck.]

【No.10: Is the host suggesting that Su Bei deliberately threw the game?】

【The Little Match Girl No.11 (Host) replies to No.10:

I have this feeling, otherwise, it’s hard to explain why his shot went astray.】

【No.12: Hearing the host say this, it seems like there really might be something fishy.】

【……】

【No.47: I think the host is right, you all should consider the context of the previous and following plot! Earlier, Su Bei was always able to predict the winner, which shows he has the ability to foresee the outcome of the match.

From noble mtl dot come

Later, the conclusion Jiang Tianming and the others reached: Su Bei doesn’t want to change his fate, not that he can’t.

That is to say, either Su Bei lost on purpose, or he knew in advance that he would lose but didn’t care at all.

Based on what the host said, my personal guess is that he lost on purpose, for reasons unknown.】

【No.48: The person above is so cool!】

【No.49: I’m at my wit’s end with all your analyses!】

【No.50: I’m convinced, Su Bei did lose on purpose. I was wondering how he could lose.】

【No.51: From this perspective, even if Si Zhaohua didn’t use his special move, Su Bei might not have won against him.】

【No.52: So, Su Bei really did it intentionally? But why?】

【No.53: Considering what he said earlier about Jiang Tianming being unlucky, I reasonably suspect he didn’t want to face Jiang Tianming.】

【No.54 replies to No.53:

Hahaha, that makes so much sense!】

【No.55 replies to No.53:

Afraid of catching bad luck, huh?】

【No.56: Is there a possibility he could have participated in the finals? Could something really go wrong, which is why he deliberately chose not to participate?】

【No.57 replies to No.56:

Should I say it or not…】

【No.58 replies to No.56:

Oh my!】

【No.59 replies to No.56:

Although there’s not a shred of evidence, it’s surprisingly logical!】

【……】

【No.106: Seriously, everyone in the building should stop guessing wildly. The riddle of Su Bei has been around for more than a day or two, and you won’t guess it right.】

【No.107: The person above makes sense.】

【No.108: Who cares! I’ll just treat Su Bei as the hidden top newcomer. Who agrees or disagrees?】

“These readers… are quite imaginative, aren’t they?” The “Comic Consciousness” that was learning by observing the forum with him couldn’t help but blurt out.

It can see everything in the comic world, so it knows the truth very well. Su Bei’s control over the gears with his mental power is indeed precise, hitting wherever he aims.

But the premise is that he can see.

During the final game with Si Zhaohua, once the opponent’s wings closed, Su Bei could no longer see anything inside. He didn’t know where Si Zhaohua was after the wings closed, so naturally, there was a high chance of missing the target in a blind shot.

However, there were indeed some factors from the author at play here. Normally, the chance of Su Bei missing would be 30%, but in this comic world destined for Jiang Tianming and Si Zhaohua to have the final showdown, his chance of missing was 100%.

Yet, the forum readers completely misunderstood; they didn’t know this insider information, lost the key details, leading their conjectures to be utterly opposite to the truth.

But obviously, it suited Su Bei just fine, as he curled the corner of his mouth: “Isn’t their imagination wonderful?”

Seeing the forum’s situation was favorable for Su Bei, the “Comic Consciousness” couldn’t help but ask: “So, are you still going to post on the forum?”

“Why not post it?” Su Bei replied with a smile. Indeed, as “Comic Consciousness” said, the forum’s direction is quite good; there’s nothing that needs adjusting.

“Analyzing the Hidden Secrets of Su Bei”

He planned to write about “Su Bei’s hidden strength,” “Why Su Bei’s mental power is so high,” “Su Bei’s significant control over fate.”

The reason for starting this thread was to attract the readers’ attention. Only by directing their attention to these aspects would they pay more attention while reading the comics, instead of letting the foreshadowing he buried remain hidden deep underground.

Looking at the thread’s main title, Su Bei suddenly thought of something, quickly deleted it, and started a new title.

“Analyzing the Foreshadowing the Old Thief Buried for Each Character”

Writing only about oneself is too revealing of one’s fan identity and easily makes others feel biased. Only by adopting the perspective of an average reader can you convince fans of all characters.

Su Bei rarely has favorite characters; he generally follows the plot rather than the characters, so he’s quite clear-headed when browsing the forum.

【Prophet No.0: With the individual battles over, the old thief has also begun to lay down foreshadowing. Let’s summarize today and see if we can find the answers in the plot ahead of time.

Jiang Tianming: The current foreshadowing includes the identities of three shadows (Season 1 Boss, Jiang Tianming’s relative, and the unknown) and their respective abilities (object control, burst, and unknown). There’s also the issue of his origins, which can be linked to the relative shadow.

Wu Mingbai: In the first season, he said he felt blocked when using his abilities; I suspect there’s some kind of seal.

Lan Subing: Currently, it seems there are no foreshadowings? But the happier people in the protagonist group at the beginning, the future emmmm…

Mo Xiaotian: Same as above.

Mu Tie Ren: The speed of ability progression is too fast; it feels like a foreshadowing.

Su Bei: The reason for the unusually high mental power is unknown. The reason for coming to Class F is unknown, possibly related to the protagonist group. What predictions related to the main storyline have been made is unknown. Why he threw the match against () and Shi Zhaohua is unknown.

Feng Lan: The reason for coming to Class F is unknown, possibly related to Su Bei or the protagonist group.

Meng Huai: As the former head teacher of Class S, now teaching Class F.】

He talked about a total of eight people, and although he included quite a bit of personal bias, making the content about him second only to the protagonist Jiang Tianming, it was still reasonably in line with his character setup.

After posting, Su Bei put down his phone and continued to study the compass.

He studied the compass solely based on the one atop his head. Facing the mirror, Su Bei played ten rounds of ‘Fight the Landlord’ on his phone.

Throughout, the large pointer remained still, while the small pointer changed positions before each game, sometimes left, sometimes right.

Soon, Su Bei discovered a pattern: whenever the pointer swayed left, he would win. When it leaned right, he was bound to lose.

Interestingly, the more pronounced the pointer’s deviation, the greater the margin of victory or defeat. When it veered sharply left, he could often play the joker, four twos, and rake in the joy beans until his hands were sore. The opposite was true when it skewed right.

Although this function wasn’t an attack ability Su Bei particularly needed, it was undoubtedly very powerful and well-suited for him.

From now on, he wouldn’t have to risk guessing the outcome; he could know the results of the matches in advance. It’s a pity that the proportion of exam-oriented education at the Superpower Academy wasn’t high, otherwise, he could use this skill to guess multiple-choice questions with absolute certainty.

Cough, of course, the above is only how he would use this skill as an ordinary person. Now that he’s a superpower user, naturally, there are bigger uses. Not to mention, he could predict the results of a team competition the day after tomorrow.

But speaking of which, Su Bei noticed something interesting—the small pointer never reached the lower half of the compass.

Whether it was left or right, it only went as far as the balanced position, never crossing into the lower half, as if that area was an untouchable forbidden zone.

Is the lower half indeed useless, or does the pointer have another meaning when it reaches there?

This question couldn’t be explored for the time being; it was better to first thoroughly understand the upper half. With that thought, Su Bei started another round of ‘Fight the Landlord’.

The pointer on the compass atop his head instantly pointed left—he was going to win. Sure enough, after the cards were dealt, looking at the joker, two twos, and a straight from three to ten in his hand, Su Bei, now the landlord, couldn’t think of how he could lose.

He took a deep breath, summoned a gear, pressed it with mental force onto the compass on his head, and then turned the small pointer right until it leaned that way.

The moment he let go, his mental force surged out like a tide, and Su Bei’s face turned pale in an instant.

Pressing his temples, he felt it. Such a small change cost him nearly two-thirds of his mental force. Changing fate is indeed difficult, even for something as simple as this.

Moreover, this was under the condition that he wanted to deceive himself into producing a higher level of mental force. With his original mental force, he probably couldn’t move the small pointer at all.

After recovering a bit, Su Bei began to play his cards. He wanted to see how, even if he played earnestly, fate would make him lose.

He started with a straight, then played smaller cards, progressing smoothly. Soon, Su Bei was left with a pair of twos and a pair of fives, and

it was his turn to play.

Could it be that I’m about to win? Su Bei didn’t hesitate and was ready to play a pair of fives, but when he clicked to play the cards, his little finger accidentally touched a single five.

Su Bei: “Hiss!”

He took a sharp intake of breath, but quickly calmed down as if nothing happened. Now in his hand, he still had a single five and a pair of twos. Knowing there was one more bomb left in the game, that’s why he chose to play the pair of fives instead of the twos.

Theoretically, victory was still possible.

Although that was his judgment, Su Bei was clear that after that last turn, winning was unlikely. Even a sure-win situation could be botched, let alone when the odds were already slim.

And as expected, Su Bei ended up losing.

He leaned back in his chair, reflecting on the process of his loss. His initial thoughts were indeed too simplistic; even with good cards, there were many ways to lose.

But interestingly enough, despite the many ways he could fail, fate chose such a ludicrous outcome for him, causing him to slip up and fail just as victory was within reach.

Su Bei didn’t feel angry, quite the opposite, he felt an epiphany.

He often heard the phrase “Fate played a big joke on me.” Was this fate’s joke?

Lying on his bed, he recuperated his mental strength while pondering his new abilities.

With his current mental strength, changing the outcome of less significant wins and losses wasn’t difficult. But only once a day, and only for trivial matters. He had no doubt that if he tried to change something significant, like the outcome of yesterday’s arena match, he would probably faint on the spot.

After resting for a while, Su Bei reopened the post he had made earlier. With time, it had fermented, and many people had replied.

【No.1: If the host hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t have noticed. Unconsciously, the old thief has laid so many foreshadows.】

【No.2: So many… dementia.jpg】

【No.3: Jiang Jiang’s origin is indeed a mystery.】

【No.4: Why is everyone starting to summarize? If you didn’t know, you’d think it was ending.】

【No.5 replying to No.4:

Maybe because the individual battle is over, after all, it’s kind of a conclusion?】

【No.6 replying to No.5:

“The group battle ends, or should we say, it’s only after the monthly test concludes that we can really summarize, right?”

【No.7: To be honest, the group battle might not reveal as much as the individual battles do. I reckon the group battle is meant to foster team spirit.】

【No.8: ↑That’s the truth.】

【……】

【No.33: Is no one paying attention to what the original poster said?】

【No.34 replies to No.33:

I feel like the original poster is spot on, there’s nothing to debate.】

【No.35: Actually, I’ve been wanting to say, regarding that comment about Lan Subing and Mo Xiaotian, please don’t! I don’t want to see them unlucky!】

【No.36: +1 to the above.】

【No.37: Aren’t you being overly anxious? The original poster is just making wild guesses.】

【No.38 replies to No.37:

But the original poster is a prophet…】

【No.39 replies to No.38:

You didn’t say, and I didn’t even notice!】

【No.40: What’s a prophet? Did I miss some kind of meme?】

【No.41 replies to No.40:

You could look up the posts made by the prophet to see what they’re about.】

【No.42: Help, old thief, don’t mess with my mindset!】

【……】

【No.71: There’s a riddle master in the main thread, but I won’t say who.】

【Reply No.72 to No.71:

The Riddler really deserves to die, everything is unknown.】

【No.73: Su Bei is truly an enigma from head to toe, he must have his own path.】

【No.74: You all think too much, unlike me, I never use my brain when reading comics.】

【No.75: Has Su Bei rarely used his psychic power? Except for the day Jiang Jiang discovered it, and the time he did an experiment right after leveling up.】

From noble mtl dot come

【Reply No.76 to No.75:

I think he has been using it all along. After all, whether it’s changing fate or peering into destiny, it’s not something that can be done easily. It must have consumed a lot of psychic power.】

【No.77: The person above is right, I also think Su Bei has spent his psychic power on this.】

【No.78: Looking forward to the author answering these questions, I’ll leave my brain here for now.】!