A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga

Chapter 47

No.85: Hahaha, the OP is so good at scolding!

No.86: I feel at ease seeing everyone scolding No.28.

[……]

No.145: I mostly agree with the OP’s rankings, but I’d also like to make a ranking based solely on physical combat strength without any abilities.

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

No.146 replying to No.145: That’s interesting too.

If You Are New, Practice More No.147: Fine, if you all are doing this, then I’ll make a ranking based on looks soon.

No.148: I think the non-ability-based rankings on Floor 145 are a bit too subjective; many characters haven’t shown their raw combat skills in the manga.

No.149: True, characters like Qi Huang, Zhou Renjie, Ai Baozhu, and Si Zhaohua haven’t had hand-to-hand fights with anyone, so we can’t just judge based on looks, right?

No.150 replying to No.145: I agree with the top four. Si Zhaohua’s close-combat strength is unclear, so excluding him makes sense. Placing Lan Subing below is reasonable too (there’s so much slander about her being weak and a liability—I’d love for her to hit those people with the sidekick she used in Volume 1 to beat the boss).

Mo Xiaotian’s position makes sense; he was pretty smooth dodging attacks when fighting Si Zhaohua. Though, I think his ability to sense attacks from all directions might be due to his power [Air Block], which likely helps him detect incoming attacks.

No point discussing Qi Huang, as it wasn’t shown in the manga, and Feng Lan’s power without his ability is indeed weak. But according to Su Bei, his potential should be high.

Zhou Renjie also hasn’t had any close combat. I think Zhao Xiaoyu and Wu Jin should rank above him since they’ve actually fought and won.

Ai Baozhu at the end—fair enough.

No.151: Where’s the person who mentioned a appearance ranking? I’m waiting!

No.152: Waiting +1

No.153: Waiting...

No.154: I really want to see a appearance ranking too! Personally, I think Su Bei is the most handsome!

[……]

If You Are New, Practice More No.222: I’m here! Here’s my appearance ranking! (This ranking is highly subjective, based on personal interpretation and characters’ depictions in the manga).

Male Characters: Wu Jin (not 100% certain, but he seems like he might be a rare beauty given the manga’s hints) > Si Zhaohua > Feng Lan (white hair is my weak spot) = Su Bei > Jiang Tianming = Wu Mingbai > Mo Xiaotian > Mu Tieren > Zhou Renjie.

(A little explanation: Si Zhaohua, although not explicitly stated, gives off a “top-tier looks” vibe. Wu Jin looked amazing the one time his eyes were shown, so I suspect he’ll have more “looks” development later. As for Feng Lan… I just love white-haired characters. Su Bei is the mysterious heartthrob type. The rest I ranked based on my impressions.)

Female Characters: Lan Subing > Ai Baozhu > Qi Huang > Zhao Xiaoyu (this one is purely subjective, as the manga doesn’t specify).

No.223: As a huge fan of white-haired characters, I strongly suggest putting Feng Lan at the top!

No.224 replying to If You Are New, Practice More No.222: Wu Jin???

No.225: To be fair, among the female characters, besides my emotional vote for Lan Su Bing, they’re all pretty!

No.226: Not enough beautiful women. Draw more @Author!

If You Are New, Practice More No.227 replying to No.224: Wu Jin’s face is always hidden, and going by the typical manga trope, I suspect if he pushes back his hair, he’ll be an absolute heartthrob.

No.228: Damn, the comment above makes so much sense.

No.229: Now I’m really curious what Wu Jin would look like with his hair back. Si Zhaohua and the others are already super handsome—can the author’s style get even better?

No.230 replying to No.229: Sometimes, a character’s handsomeness is more about their concept than the actual art (LOL).

This simple thread reveals the fan discussions that emerged after the release of the latest chapter. Su Bei, however, isn’t particularly interested in other characters; his main focus is on feedback about himself. Clearly, the response has been positive.

The only other thing that catches his attention is the speculation about Wu Jin. If fans hadn’t mentioned it, he might’ve forgotten: many manga like the plot of lifting up hair to showcase a character’s hidden charm. Wu Jin could very well be one of those cases.

Should he try to get on Wu Jin’s good side in advance?

After thinking it over, Su Bei decides against it. Wu Jin’s power in the manga makes him a bit concerned, so it’s probably best to keep some distance.

Seeing that the post had devolved into an appearance ranking debate, he exits and moves on to other posts.

There are plenty of trending threads related to him, but apart from the posts shipping him with others or just fangirling, there aren’t many.

Suddenly, one post catches his eye: “Is it just me, or did Su Bei’s match with Si Zhaohua seem a bit too rushed?”

He clicks in.

[Is it just me, or did Su Bei’s match with Si Zhaohua seem a bit too rushed?]

Little Matchstick Girl No.0: rbt, anyone who saw Su Bei’s match knows Si Zhaohua only narrowly won. His ultimate move is practically unbeatable, but Su Bei launched a lethal move before that.

He nearly had the win, but due to a small bit of luck, Si Zhaohua dodged and avoided a fatal blow to his neck. But was that “luck” the author’s intent, or part of Su Bei’s plan?

No.1: What’s the point? Isn’t all of this just author planning? Every plot is author-driven, no?

No.2: How is it rushed?! Wasn’t that fight exciting?

No.3: What was Su Bei scheming? Scheming to lose?

No.4: I think I’m starting to understand the OP’s point…

Little Matchstick Girl No.5 (OP): I might not have explained clearly in my original post, so let me clarify.

When I say “author intent,” I mean that we all know Jiang Tianming and Si Zhaohua are clearly set up as end-game rivals. So it’s natural for the author to make Su Bei slightly weaker.

But the reason I think Su Bei may have planned this is because of his behavior. Notice his meticulous preparations for the kill move in the match.

First, he used gear attacks to distract Si Zhaohua (these were all outline hits, with no intent to actually harm him), which allowed him to secretly plant an “undercover” gear under Si Zhaohua’s feathers. Then he launched an actual attack, forcing Si Zhaohua to close his wings, setting up the “undercover” gear to strike.

It’s clear he was precise with his gear control—how could he “miss” something as big as the neck?

So, yes, the defeat feels too convenient. The author isn’t usually this careless; if it wasn’t an intentional “buff,” there may be more to it.

No.6: So many words… it’s just a bunch of blah blah…

No.7: Let me read this carefully.

No.8: I suddenly think the OP might be onto something here?

No.9: It does feel rushed; it seems like Si Zhaohua only won because of luck.

No.10: Is the OP suggesting Su Bei lost on purpose?

Little Matchstick Girl No.11 (OP) replying to No.10: I do get that impression; otherwise, it’s hard to explain why he missed.

No.12: Now that OP mentions it, there really does seem to be something fishy.

[…]

No.47: I think the OP is right—look at the context! Previously, Su Bei could predict every winner accurately, showing he could foresee the outcomes. Later, Jiang Tianming and the others concluded that Su Bei didn’t want to change his fate, not that he couldn’t.

So, either Su Bei lost on purpose, or he knew he’d lose and just didn’t care.

Based on what the OP said, I personally believe he lost intentionally, though the reason is unclear.

No.48: Impressive analysis from the comment above!

No.49: I’ll compete with you analysis fanatics!

No.50: I’m convinced now; Su Bei lost on purpose. I knew he wouldn’t just lose like that.

No.51: In that case, even without using his ultimate, Si Zhaohua might still not be able to defeat Su Bei.

No.52: So Su Bei really lost on purpose? But why?

No.53: Based on what he said before about Jiang Tianming being unlucky, I reasonably suspect he didn’t want to fight Jiang Tianming.

No.54 replying to No.53: Hahaha, that makes so much sense!

No.55 replying to No.53: Afraid of catching the bad luck, huh?

No.56: Is it possible that participating in the finals would really bring trouble, so he purposely avoided it?

No.57 replying to No.56: Now that you mention it…

No.58 replying to No.56: Oh wow!

No.59 replying to No.56: There’s no evidence for that, but it weirdly makes sense!

[…]

No.106: Honestly, let’s not overthink this—Su Bei’s been a walking mystery for ages, and guessing won’t solve anything.

No.107: True that.

No.108: Who cares! I’ll just assume Su Bei is the hidden top first-year; who agrees, who disagrees?

“These readers… they really know how to overthink things, don’t they?” said “Manga Awareness,” who was also observing the forum discussions with him.

Since it could see everything in the manga world, it knew the truth. Su Bei’s gear control was indeed precise and on point.

However, the premise was that he could see.

When Su Bei was in his final clash with Si Zhaohua, once the opponent closed his wings, Su Bei couldn’t see anything happening inside. He had no idea where exactly Si Zhaohua was positioned when the wings were closed, so taking a blind shot would naturally have a high chance of missing.

However, there were indeed some author-related factors at play here. Normally, Su Bei’s chance of missing would be about 30%, but in this manga world, where it’s fated for Jiang Tianming and Si Zhaohua to meet in the final match, Su Bei’s chance of missing was set to 100%.

Yet, the forum readers completely misunderstood. Without access to this crucial piece of information, they reached conclusions vastly different from the truth.

Of course, this misunderstanding was quite favorable to Su Bei. He smirked and thought, "Their speculations are rather impressive, aren’t they?"

Compared to “Su Bei truly couldn’t defeat Si Zhaohua,” the conclusion of “Su Bei lost on purpose” was far more beneficial to him.

Seeing the forum chatter leaning in his favor, the “Manga Awareness” couldn’t help but ask, “So are you planning to make a post on the forum?”

“Oh, I am. Why wouldn’t I?” Su Bei replied with a smile. Just as “Manga Awareness” had mentioned, the forum discussions were going well, with no need for adjustment.

But no adjustments didn’t mean no additions were needed, so he started a new thread:

[An Analysis of Su Bei’s Hidden Secrets]

He planned to address points like “Su Bei’s hidden strength,” “why his mental power is so high,” and “Su Bei’s strong control over fate.”

The goal of posting this thread was to draw readers’ attention. Only by directing their focus to these aspects would they pay closer attention when reading the manga, rather than letting the hints he’d buried go unnoticed.

Looking at the post title, Su Bei suddenly thought of something, quickly deleted it, and created a new title:

[An Analysis of the Foreshadowing for Various Characters by the Author]

If he only wrote about himself, it would reveal his identity as a fan too easily and might seem biased. By adopting a perspective as a casual reader, he could make fans of every character feel convinced.

Su Bei rarely had favorite characters; he usually followed the storyline rather than individual characters, so he was fairly objective when reading the forum.

Prophet No.0: Now that the individual battles are over, the author has begun to lay down hints. Today, I’ll summarize these, and maybe later we can find answers in the storyline.

Jiang Tianming: Currently, the foreshadowing includes the identities of three silhouettes (the Volume 1 boss, Jiang Tianming’s relative, and an unknown) and their powers (telekinesis, explosion, and unknown). There’s also the mystery surrounding his origins, which might relate to the family silhouette.

Wu Mingbai: In Volume 1, he mentioned feeling blocked when using his powers; I suspect there’s some kind of seal involved.

Lan Subing: Nothing so far, but in stories, the happiest person in the protagonist group tends to… well…

Mo Xiaotian: Same as above.

Mu Tieren: His abilities progress very quickly, which might be a setup.

Su Bei: His high mental power remains unexplained, as does his reason for joining Class F, which could relate to the protagonist group. The exact predictions he’s made relevant to the main storyline remain unclear, as does his reasoning for going easy in his fight with Si Zhaohua.

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

Meng Huai: Former Class S teacher now teaching Class F.

He mentioned eight characters in total, subtly including himself, so that his information nearly rivaled that of the protagonist, Jiang Tianming. Considering his own character traits, it seemed quite reasonable.

After posting, Su Bei set his phone aside and resumed studying the compass.

His study relied entirely on his own “compass” above his head. Facing a mirror, he played ten rounds of a card game on his phone.

During this, the large dial remained fixed, while the small dial shifted positions at the start of each round—sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right.

Soon, Su Bei noticed a pattern: whenever the pointer leaned left, he would win, and whenever it leaned right, he would lose.

Interestingly, the more the pointer leaned in either direction, the larger the margin of victory or defeat. When it veered strongly to the left, he’d often play unbeatable hands and win lots of points. When it leaned strongly to the right, the opposite was true.

Though this feature isn’t necessarily an attack skill Su Bei needs, it’s undoubtedly very powerful and suits his abilities well.

From now on, he no longer has to risk guessing the outcome of matches; he can know the results in advance. Too bad this wasn’t more relevant to the curriculum at the Academy of Abilities; otherwise, he could have used it to predict multiple-choice answers with complete accuracy.

Of course, that’s just how he’d use this skill if he were living as an ordinary person. Now that he’s an ability user, it obviously has more impactful uses. For one, in two days, he can try predicting the results of the team competition.

On another note, Su Bei noticed an interesting detail— the small pointer on his compass has never gone to the bottom half.

Whether it’s leaning left or right, it only reaches a balanced position at most and has never crossed into the lower half, almost as if that area were an untouchable forbidden zone.

Is it that the bottom half serves no purpose, or does it signify something different if the pointer ever reaches it?

For now, he can’t investigate that question, so he decides to focus on understanding the top half first. With this in mind, Su Bei opened another round of the card game.

The pointer on the compass above his head instantly pointed to the left, indicating a win. Sure enough, after the cards were dealt, Su Bei, who now had both jokers, a pair of twos, and a straight from three to ten as the dealer, couldn’t fathom how he’d lose.

Taking a deep breath, he summoned a gear, placed it on the compass on his head with his mental power, then carefully rotated the small pointer to the right until it tilted in that direction.

The moment he let go, his mental energy surged like a tidal wave, instantly draining two-thirds of his mental power. Changing fate, it seemed, wasn’t easy, even for such a simple matter.

And this was with him pretending to possess higher mental power; if he’d used his original mental power, he probably wouldn’t have been able to move the small pointer at all.

Once he’d recovered a bit, Su Bei began playing. He wanted to test how fate would make him lose if he played strategically.

Starting with a straight, he moved on to smaller cards, making progress smoothly. Soon, Su Bei was left with just a pair of twos and a pair of fives, and it was his turn to play.

Was he actually going to win? Without hesitation, Su Bei prepared to play the pair of fives, but just as he tapped to play, his pinky accidentally hit a single five instead.

“Ah!” he hissed through his teeth, but he quickly composed himself. No problem—he still had a five and a pair of twos left. Knowing there was one bomb card left was why he’d chosen the pair of fives instead of the twos.

In theory, he still had a chance to win.

However, Su Bei knew that after that slip-up, winning was unlikely. If he could make a mistake in a guaranteed win, then his odds were even slimmer now.

Sure enough, Su Bei ended up losing.

He leaned back in his chair, recalling the way he lost. He’d underestimated the challenge. Even with a great hand, there were plenty of ways to lose.

The funny part was that, despite all the possible ways for him to fail, fate had chosen such a ridiculous outcome—making him lose to a clumsy tap just before victory.

Oddly, Su Bei didn’t feel upset. Instead, he seemed to understand something.

You often hear people say, “Fate played a big joke on me.” Is this what they mean?

Lying on his bed, he recovered his mental power while reflecting on his new ability.

With his current mental power, altering minor outcomes wasn’t hard. But he could only do it once a day at most, and only for trivial matters. He had no doubt that if he attempted to change something significant, like the outcome of yesterday’s tournament match, he’d likely pass out on the spot.

After resting, Su Bei checked his recent forum post. It had received plenty of replies in the meantime:

No.1: I hadn’t noticed until you mentioned it; the author has left so many hints!

No.2: There’s so much… dazed.emoji

No.3: Jiang Jiang’s backstory really is a mystery.

No.4: Why is everyone summing things up like it’s about to end?

No.5 replying to No.4: Probably because the individual matches are over; it’s a bit like a mini-conclusion?

No.6 replying to No.5: It’ll be a conclusion once the team matches or the midterm exams are fully over, right?

No.7: Honestly, the team competition probably won’t be as revealing as the individual matches. I’d guess it’s more about building team spirit.

No.8: ^True!

[...]

No.33: Is no one paying attention to what the original poster is saying?

No.34 replying to No.33: Feels like the OP is right about everything, so there’s nothing much to discuss.

No.35: Honestly, I've always wanted to say, regarding what was said about Lan Su Bing and Mo Xiao Tian—please, no! I don’t want to see them having bad luck!

No.36: Agree +1.

No.37: This feels like unnecessary worrying; the OP is just making random guesses.

No.38 replying to No.37: But the OP is a prophet...

No.39 replying to No.38: I hadn’t even realized until you mentioned it!

No.40: What’s this ‘Prophet’ about? Did I miss something?

No.41 replying to No.40: You can search for the posts the Prophet has published.

No.42: Please, dear author, stop messing with my mind!

...

No.71: There's a Riddler in the main thread, but I'm not saying who.

No.72 replying to No.71: Riddlers are the worst; everything they say is unknown and cryptic.

No.73: Su Bei is such an enigma; there must be a storyline just for him.

No.74: You all are overthinking it. Unlike you, I read manga without overthinking.

No.75: Has Su Bei really used his mental power much? Other than the time Jiang Jiang discovered it, when he upgraded and experimented?

No.76 replying to No.75: I think he’s been using it all along. Changing or peeking at fate can’t possibly be done without effort; it surely takes a lot of mental power.

No.77: The reply above makes sense; I also think Su Bei’s mental power has been mostly spent on this.

No.78: Looking forward to OP explaining these mysteries. I’m leaving my brain here for safekeeping!

Note: My plan is to upload every 2-3 days if I'm not busy, and if I am, I'll aim for once a week. I hope for your understanding since I’m currently balancing college and work. Now that I’m in my third semester, my college assignments are piling up, and I can’t quit my job since it helps fund my studies—what would I do without it? So, I kindly ask for your understanding. Thank you!

THIS CHAPTER UPLOAD FIRST AT NOVELBIN.COM