Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

When Jiang Tianming blinked his bleary eyes open, the first thing he saw was a vast black void without end.

Where am I? Jiang Tianming thought, his head slowly moved left and right. What is he doing here? What did he do last night that warranted his visit this…blank space? They were supposed to go back to their school because the Tri-School base was not safe for them anymore, wasn’t it? They said the Nightmare Beasts were in havoc, relentlessly attacking the place without a wink of rest. Why was that? Nightmare Beasts did hate humanity, but never were they so reckless and in frenzy like that. Perhaps because they managed to destroy all the Boundary Stones that had been responsible for their birth? The humanity had been on this path to annihilate all the Nightmare Beasts for so long, and now, they had reached the end. They saved the world.

And only with one casualty.

Jiang Tianming gasped, finally fully awake.

Just as his first impression observed, he was in a blank void without anything. No wall, no ceiling, even the floor under him felt like it was nonexistent. If he didn’t know his eyes were open, Jiang Tianming would’ve thought that he was still sleeping. He tried to get up, to assess the situation, but he was stuck. On a comfortable sofa, sure, yet he couldn’t move nonetheless. As if invisible hands had glued his feet to the ground, only allowing his body, head, and hands to flail around. That was alarming. Is this a trap by Nightmare Beast? He saw his friends sleeping on the other side of the sofa; there were five—three long ones and two singles—forming a half circle. Si Zhaohua, Ai Baozhu, Zhou Renjie, and Zhao Xiaoyu were on the left side. Mu Tieren, Qi Huang, Ling You, and Li Shu were on the right. Feng Lan and Wu Jin were on the single one, situated at the end of each side. While Lan Subing, Wu Minbai, and Jiang Tianming himself sat in the center.

Maybe his fidgeting made a sound because slowly they all woke up. Hazy at first before they became alert. Some noticed the situation they were in, and when they couldn’t stand up from the sofa, anxiety instantly settled in.

“Calm down!” Jiang Tianming shouted, garnering everyone’s attention, “We can still use our Ability,” they were. He could feel the energy brewing from within, “So let’s all settle down and think first.”

“Where are we?” Zhao Xiaoyu was the first to talk, asking the important question. She looked around the place, her short hair bobbed with each movement.

“You would think we were inside the body of the Nightmare Beasts, but,” Zhou Renjie observed, possibly familiar with the area because it was pretty similar to his own stomach space. He craned his neck, “I don’t feel any pressure from the atmosphere. In fact, I couldn’t feel any energy at all from all around.”

“It feels like an illusion but also not,” Li Shu surmised, his expression was more serious than usual, “I didn’t feel any malice from it, fortunately.”

“So, even if we’re trapped, we’re not really in danger. For now,” Jiang Tianming sighed, eased, “Anyone remember what we did previously before we were…transported here?”

“I think we were on our way to the classroom,” Si Zhaohua answered, “We were just from the teacher's lounge to inform them about—”

He clamped up, his eyes widening in horror. Every single member of Class S let out a gasp of realization not long after.

The atmosphere turned somber. Jiang Tianming lowered his head, feeling water welling up in his eyes.

Wu Mingbai took a deep, shuddering breath. His lips parted, and a whisper echoed, “It has been three days,” he said, “Did Su Bei really—”

Won’t come back?

Because Su Bei had sacrificed himself.

He died. Depleting all his life force to save the others from the wave of Nightmare Beasts. Turning his hair as white as snow and as cold as the north wind. They had saved the world.

And only with one casualty.

One casualty too many.

No. Jiang Tianming shook his head. They couldn’t do this. They couldn’t wallow in despair. Maybe once they escape and have the safety of their dorm once again to tear and cry. But not here. Not now. Not when they were not sure if the place they were in was truly safe. So Jiang Tianming took a deep breath and raised his head, ready to encourage his friends, or else they’ll drown in their own thoughts—

Until he noticed an Unknown in front of him.

He couldn’t see who they were. Or what they were. Jiang Tianming wasn’t even sure he was looking at something. It felt like there was a shape in front of him. Far and trying to be unseen. Jiang Tianming’s shoulders tensed, his knuckles lifted as if he was ready to fight. But when his mouth opened, and a word of challenge was on the tip of his tongue, a bright light appeared. Every single one of them shouted in surprise, confused and alarmed. After getting stuck here in this black space with nothing, the sudden light felt like a flashbang, and Jiang Tianming had to screwed his eyes shut.

Then the light was gone. And in front of them was a big screen that resembled one on the movie theater. It spanned to the right and left, and towered till they almost couldn’t see the end.

“What the—,” Mu Tieren was flabbergasted.

Not just because a screen had appeared out of nowhere. But also because there was something showing on it. A market area, it seems. Bustling with vendors and civilians walking about. Full of cheery conversation and excited haggling. It looked almost like a festival, so crowded and lively.

And amidst the throng of people were two people walking. An adult and a kid. They didn’t know the man; wearing a patterned shirt and dark blue jeans, his dirty blonde hair was cut short and neat. But they knew the kid. Or at least, they knew the adult version of the kid.

“Su Bei?” Wu Mingbai muttered.

Su Bei was small. Maybe around six. His golden hair wasn’t as long, only reaching his shoulder and kept straight. His purple eyes were big and held innocence, staring at the crowd in wonderment. He didn’t exactly smile, yet the glimmer within his sight was so clear that everyone around could almost feel it materialize in the air.

“What is this?” Si Zhaohua was stammering, his face paler than usual, “What are we seeing? Why are we seeing this?”

“Want some ice cream?” the older man—must be Su Bei’s father—offered to the child. The latter bobbed his head vigorously, excited at the prospect of a sweet treat.

So they walked toward the ice cream vendor that was situated right in front of a clock store. Somehow, the display inside stole Su Bei’s attention away.

Tick

Tock

The clocks ticked.

Tick

Tock

The clocks ticked

Small Su Bei was watching it, hypnotized by the sight. The sharp ends of the clock arrows were reflected in his purple eyes. The camera zoomed in deep, deeper, and deeper still, until the only thing they could see was the details of his irises.

The shape of a gear flashed and spun—

“BeiBei,” then his father’s voice woke him up, making the child tear his attention away from the display. His small hand gripped securely within the father’s warm hand. While the other was holding a chocolate cone ice cream, offering it right in front of the face of the absentminded child, “What’s wrong?” The adult asked.

Small Su Bei blinked before he took the ice cream and started eating. They then continue walking through the morning market, “I think,” Su Bei whispered, “I just awakened.”

His father’s eyebrow rose.

The S class students had their jaws dropped.

“What?!” Zhao Xiaoyu exclaimed, shocked beyond belief, “At six years old?”

The father didn’t know what to say at first. Shocked, unbelieving. But then he smiled. Still confused, yet happy for the kid anyway. Becoming an Ability User had become children dream nowadays. Parents were worried about their safety, and the father wouldn’t lie that he was a bit scared for him too. That doesn’t mean he can’t celebrate his kid’s awakening, “That’s great,” his mouth spoke, eyes crinkled upward, “How did you know? And what kind of power did you get?”

Su Bei hummed, “Maybe prophecy? I saw something.”

“Really?” his father waved at someone who just walked past. Must be the neighbor. A smile was carved on that chiseled jaw, painting the handsome look on the already handsome face, “What is it?”

“My death.”

Until the smile froze. And he didn’t look as composed anymore.

“What?” Wu Mingbai murmured in shock.

“What?” Jiang Tianming’s heart quivered.

“What?” the father turned toward the child, dread was now plastered on the whitened complexion.

Su Bei himself didn’t seem to notice. Or if he did, he chose to finish eating his ice cream first before focusing his attention back to the father, who was seconds away from fainting, “My death,” he clarified. Flat and unconcerned. As if he were talking about the weather, “I’m going to die when I’m fifteen.”

The images blip off, swallowing all the teenagers back into the darkness. Only this time, with tension wrapping them up like a tight-knit blanket.

“What…”Si Zhaohua was speechless, his eyes bulged out and mouth hung open, “He knew he was going to die…when he was still six years old?”

Nobody moved. No one was talking.

“I—Feng Lan,” Jiang Tianming looked toward the white-haired boy, “Is this how prophecy works? Have you ever—”

See yourself die? He wanted to ask yet tactfully stop before it became a full sentence.

Feng Lan seemed to understand the hidden question, however. He said, expression stunned as well, “No,” Feng Lan shook his head, “But maybe because my Ability is about Prophecy. Prophecy is not set in place. When you tell others what you see, the future is already changing.”

“Su Bei’s ability was Fate-based. Fate is harder to tweak.”

Everyone went silent.

“So this is…Su Bei’s memory then?” Lan Subing whispered, trying to comprehend what she just saw, “Are we here to…watch his life?”

As if agreeing with Lan Subing’s observation, the next scene—no. The next memory—started with Su Bei’s dad clad in a soldier uniform, standing rather rigidly in front of an older man wearing the same clothes. They were in a pretty dimly lit room, with two metallic cupboards stuck in the corner, a whiteboard at the back, and a sturdy wooden table between the men. On top of the said table was a crisp, white paper. With a word ‘LETTER OF RESIGNATION’ slapped on it.

The other man, apparently Su Bei’s dad's boss, looked at him. He didn’t sigh, but it was a near thing, “Can you think it over again? You’re one of our best agents.”

Su Bei’s dad shook his head. And the boss clarified, “Is it because of your kid?”

This time, Su Bei’s dad nodded, “His ability…it’s not exactly prophecy.” His hands clasped at his back. The fingers twitched before he forced them to calm, “He said…it’s Fate based ability. His death…it’s destined. He can’t change it.”

“…”

“I…” Su Bei’s dad swallowed his nervousness. Or the tear that threatened to fall, “I want to stay by him. He’s the last thing I have left from my wife.”

Wu Mingbai and Si Zhaohua winced. Their shoulders hunched with guilt.

The leader’s face contorted in sympathy, understanding the plight of a grieving dad. Because Su Bei might not be dead yet, but he knew the fate. And what kind of parent wanted to see their child go away before them? So, the leader stood up and walked toward one of the metallic cupboards. He took out one of the files, looked at it a bit, and put it right beside the letter of resignation. There was a red stamp of ‘project’ in the middle of the yellow cover of the file, “Please open it.”

Su Bei’s dad did. Inside, there was a red familiar book (the one teenager!Su Bei was often seen reading), and another was a bunch of paper stacked neatly into one file. It was full of people’s biodata. Not their address or familial relation, but their names and their apparent skills. All of them seemed to be soldiers as well. The leader showed his back toward Su Bei’s dad.

“With the increasing appearance of Demonic Nightmare Beasts, the government decided to create an elite group,” the older man informed, “Their job will be mostly about collecting information, items, and scouting out places. To be the first to know when a calamity strikes. They don’t want the repeat of the previous leaders’ failure, inadvertently killing a bunch of civilians just for the sake of their own ego.”

“I can’t let you retire yet, especially not in this turbulent time,” the leader informed, “But if you choose to become the leader of this information group, you won’t be forced to come to the office every day. You are expected to have a ‘vacation’ all over the country. Gather information, allies, anything that could very well help humanity in this continuous fight for survival.”

“Maybe…you can even find a way to save your kid.”

“It doesn’t matter if you bring your child together with you, as long as you gather information and make a daily report on that book,” he pointed toward the red one, “Then your job is done.”

“Spend your time with your child,” he finally turned around once again and stared squarely at Su Bei’s father, who had gratitude painted clearly in those glassy eyes, “That’s my last order for you.”

Su Bei’s father’s head lowered, his bang covering half of his face. He didn’t exactly cry, but his shoulders shook and his lips trembled, “Thank you, sir. Thank you.”

The memory dimmed until all they could see is pitch black nothingness. But the conversation continued as the leader asked one final question, “What are you going to name your new division, sergeant?”

“Destiny,” Su Bei’s father said after a moment of hesitation, “If I’m going to fight Fate, might as well steal its power and use it as mine.”

Then the memory finally stopped for good this time.

It was another scene that just blew their mind.

“Su Bei’s dad is…” Mu Tieren stammered, “The leader of Destiny?”

“But, wait!” Qi Huang cut in, “Wasn’t Su Bei an orphan? He’s not lying about that, right? How could the organization still stand if there’s no leader?”

“Maybe the dad gave the authority to other people before he…well…” Baozhu didn’t want to finish the sentence despite the clear meaning.

Not wanting any doubt or misunderstanding from the audience, the projection started anew. This time, they were back in Su Bei’s residence. Su Bei’s dad was seen putting on a jacket, staring at the red book in one hand, while the other was busy trying to find the opening hole. As he was putting on a shoe, he felt a pull. He saw Su Bei—older yet not much. Maybe around eight years old—looking solemn and pale. His beloved action comic was held loosely on the other hand, almost splayed to the floor and nearly crushing the crisp paper. Su Bei’s dad was confused. He never saw his kid treat his books carelessly like this. He loves comic books. The only things he’d been asking since two years ago (since he learned his fate). And his expression—. Su Bei’s dad’s mouth opened, but his kid was the first to speak, “Don’t go.”

There was a tense silence. The older man was initially bewildered. Then realization struck. He took a look at the red book and back towards his kid, “Ah,” he breathed out, “I’m not going to make it?”

Su Bei’s shoulders hunched.

Class S residents let out a rattled breath.

His father’s eyebrow wrinkled. There was grief, guilt, anger (toward the fate of his kid or his own? Maybe a bit of both), and…a bit of a hopeful shine radiated within the eyes. It didn’t take long for him to contemplate his next move. The father turned to look at his kid fully, silently asking him to open up his palm. Su Bei complied and he put the red book he’d been holding on the child’s hand, “One of the agents found a clue of a High-Level Nightmare Beasts. If we managed to kill them, it would leave an Ability Item upon death. There’s a rumor that that item can create an illusion so genuine, you might as well be facing the real thing. The item creates a separate dimension where it can help you train your Ability without fearing of time going forward or accidental explosion that might cause injuries to unfortunate victims.”

“Beibei. Do you still think Fate cannot be changed?” Su Bei reluctantly nodded, “And it seems, even if I stay at home today, something will still kill me because Fate is absolute, right?”

Su Bei’s hand shook.

“Then I think I’d rather sacrifice myself to get you that item,” he put his hand on Su Bei’s shoulders. Firm, grounding, “Ability can evolve. Perhaps if you have willing ‘subjects’ to use your Ability on, it can change from absolute certainty to an opportunity. You can live, Bei Bei.”

“I want you to live.”

“Please, use whatever exists in this book for your survival,” he hugged the small child, tears finally falling, “I’m sorry I couldn’t be with you. But I can’t…I don’t want to see you so empty anymore.”

“Promise me…” The scene slowly faded. As if changing the reel of a film, they were now staring at Su Bei’s father's smiling photo with a mourner ribbon tied on top. Su Bei was standing in front of it, a black bubble-like orb was cradled within the ten fingers of a small child. The voice of the older man still echoed like a second sound, drenching everything in melancholy, “Promise me to keep on living.”

Lan Subing choked a cry that threatened to spill.

Two elderly people took a moment to look at a grieving child. Su Bei’s grandparents. The grandfather looked like he wanted to say something, but the grandmother shook her head. And, with one last look, they let the child alone for now. Su Bei didn’t move at first, eyes (blanker than ever before) stared at the deceased parent's photograph. His hand moved upward, making the black ominous ball now right in front of his eyes. He said, “Hey dad. Do you know why I like reading comic books these past few years?”

“Becoming an Ability User with a cool ability is awesome, you know. And even though I’m going to die soon, I do want to experience how it feels to be a hero. So, if I can’t do it in real life, might as well imagine it in fiction, right?” There was a sardonic smile on his chubby face. It was so jarring to look at, making his baby face older than his actual age, “In comics, they always say if you train enough, you’ll level up. And your Ability will change for the better. The author believes it. The readers believe it. You believe it.”

“But that’s where you’re all wrong,” Su Bei walked toward the door, taking a glance at the mourners congregating in front of the parlor, “It wasn’t non-stop training that evolves your Ability.”

His eyes moved upward. Staring straight at the intricate-looking compass hovering over everyone’s heads.

“It’s grief.”

The memory stopped. The pitch-black nothingness returned.

Then there was silence. More profound than before. Someone hiccupped a sob.

“That means…Su Bei was the leader of Destiny now,” Mu Tieren lamely concluded.

Wu Mingbai snorted. It sounded hollow, “A hell of a tradeoff.”

It rang true when he said that. Everyone knew how Wu Mingbai was when he thought he had lost his father. One that he just found out exists. He was despondent, cold. He didn’t even try to mask his true feelings with his usual cunning smile. When Wu Mingbai decided to absorb the ‘Nightmare Beasts’ to ‘level up’, justice and revenge had brewed in him. He might not know the man too well, might feel awkward and patronized sometimes. He had survived alone all these years, he didn’t need protection. Yet the man had showered Wu Mingbai with nothing but love. Wu Mingbai had started to care. And when he cares, he’ll do anything to keep them safe.

It was a relief when Su Bei moved to save the man the night before. Su Bei had helped him a lot.

And it was tearing Wu Mingbai apart when he realized Su Bei sacrificed his life to help him one more time—

“Are we…sure we should be seeing this?” Ling You said, her voice was wavering. The usually composed girl swayed, her face held pity and distress. She stole quick glances toward the screen as if she was unsure if she wanted to keep on looking, “I know we all hate it when Su Bei hides things from us. But this feels like a breach of privacy.”

It felt like betrayal.

Jiang Tianming thought so too. Yes, he wished he knew Su Bei better. And yes, he wished they could be a much better friend than just an acquaintance he tolerated. But not like this. Not to the point of laying everything that he buried within his heart bare. Not at the cost of trampling upon the deceased's pride and memories.

Yet whoever it was that trapped them here seemed to be uncaring about their discomfort, as the next memory immediately blipped awake.

It started when Su Bei’s grandmother put a meal in front of a closed door. She took a glance at a plate that was still full of food—untouched and cold—and the grandmother could only sigh in sympathy. She picked that one up, glanced at the door once again, and walked away.

Then it slowly changed toward the inside of the closed door. Contrary to the grandmother’s assumption, Su Bei didn’t seem to be wallowing in sadness. He was actually sitting near the edge of his bed; a big mirror stood right in front of him. The phone in his hand was in a horizontal position, apparently because he was in the middle of playing a game. Su Bei took a peek toward the glass, at the intricate compass hovering above his own head. His eyes landed on the arrow; which was positioned on the upper-left side. Then Su Bei started a game.

He was playing a game of mobile Landlord. The first stage seemed to be in Su Bei’s favor; he got all the good cards and a couple of bombs. The round lasted for five turns before a big letter of YOU WIN graced the phone screen. Su Bei didn’t show any outward reaction, only restarting the game. But just like before, he took one look toward the mirror again. And this time, the arrow on the compass was on the upper-right side.

When the second round ended, a big letter of GAME OVER flashed over the screen.

He did this again and again. Sometimes he won big. Sometimes he lost badly. Sometimes he even scored a tie. While he seemed absorbed in his game, he never forgot to check the arrow on his compass. It didn’t take long before Class S realized what he was doing. Jiang Tianming opened his mouth, and at the same time, Su Bei’s lips parted.

“The arrow in the compass indicated how lucky you are.”

Su Bei put the phone down and summoned a small gear. With the mirror to guide him, he placed the small gear on the concave surface at the base of the compass's short pointer. Jiang Tianming recognized the movement and he wasn’t surprised when the gear changed shape. When it was at first a dull color of normal everyday gear, it changed to golden and intricate-looking. Su Bei flipped it over. Once. Twice. Then he threw it up. His face suddenly lost all color, and the gear exploded into a shimmering image. Showing a hand playing the same Landlord game Su Bei had been focusing on for the better part of the morning, the letter ‘JACKPOT’ was plastered on the screen.

“Is that his prophecy power?” Feng Lan asked no one in particular, just talking out loud.

With a trembling hand and forehead full of sweat, Su Bei summoned another gear. But this time, after he was done changing the form of the gear, he didn’t throw it away. Instead, he turned the gear on his palm clockwise. At the same time, the arrow of the compass that was on the left side suddenly changed to the right. And Su Bei himself, who was already pale from the previous prophecy, turned even whiter and full of sweat. It was clear he was on the verge of fainting. Yet he stayed up on sheer stubbornness and began a new round of the game.

The class S was at first confused. What was the point of all that? However, it was swiftly answered when Su Bei somehow missed the button. He moved to play the pair of 5s, but his pinky accidentally tapped a single 5. And, even though he still got a couple of good cards, his play got worse and worse. And before long, he lost the game.

The prophecy wasn’t fulfilled. Jiang Tianming and the other realized Su Bei had just changed his fate.

“So that’s how his ability works…” Zhao Xiaoyu murmured, a clarity dawned on her, “He’s changing people’s fate by tinkering with their luck.”

Baozhu turned sorrowful, “If only his ability had evolved before his father died…”

The other let out a sigh of regret.

Jiang Tianming’s eyebrows furrowed. Sure, Su Bei can change fate, but was it that easy? Changing the small pointer of that compass took a lot out of him already. What about that big one then? Was that to indicate the life and death of someone? Was it easy to move that one? To stop the absolute death of others?

If it were that easy, Su Bei didn’t have to burn his life force—

Su Bei plopped onto the bed, breath ragged and phone ignored. He had his eyes closed and eyebrows scrunched. He was ready to pass out, now that his ‘experiment’ was done. Yet the memory kept on going. And after a couple minute of awkward silence, Su Bei spoke out of nowhere, “Now that you’ve analyzed my power, will you introduce yourself instead of hiding?”

The class S blinked in shock. The way he talked, it was as if he knew he was being observed by the class S members. But that was impossible. This space, strange that it was, seemingly existed only to show Su Bei’s memories, not interact with it. They were still not sure if they weren’t inside any Nightmare Beasts’ stomachs, though, yet the timeline itself didn’t match. They were in the future, while the Su Bei inside the monitor was from the past. Was his prophecy power that great, that he could tell that this exact scenario—where his future friends were trapped in a black void, forced to relive Su Bei’s life—would happen in the near future? After all, he could see his own death years later. They won’t be surprised if he saw other thing.

Their confusion was immediately answered when, all of a sudden, a person in a black cloak stepped forward. As if he just appeared from behind the veil of darkness. There was no face inside, only a mass of black mist that felt hypnotizing.

The class S tensed (black things are symbols of monsters. Is this an enemy?), and Jiang Tianming himself looked ready to fight. But Su Bei didn’t move an inch. Still had his eyes closed and countenance relaxed.

“Su Bei,” the person spoke. Jiang Tianming and the other shuddered by the cadence of their voice. It was like they were speaking right into their brain. They couldn’t identify whether it was a woman or a man. In fact, it was almost like a couple, hundred, thousand of people speaking at once with how it reverberated throughout the black emptiness. The presence was mystifying that the intimidation they exuded could be felt even outside the screen, Lan Subing surreptitiously hid behind her looped scarf. They continued, “I have a favor to ask of you.”

“Asking something before you even introduce yourself? People in this day sure don’t have any manners,” Su Bei spoke as if he was an adult who was exasperated by the behavior of a whippersnapper, “Then again…”

Su Bei’s eyes slowly opened.

And he (along with Class S) was greeted by the accumulation of compass upon compass. Black and golden wires wind around the thing, dizzying to look at and making the thing look like branches of a tree. Su Bei was not looking at the robed figure, yet their compass was so big and so intricate that it spanned onto the ceiling of his room.

“Are you even human?”

The camera panned to the outside of the house. That being’s compass actually stretched to the beyond. Blanketing the sky as if it were the second cloud.

The memory stopped. And everyone had their jaw hang once again.

“What,” Wu Mingbai was the first to speak, “The fuck was that?!”

“Who was that?!” Baozhu continued, as flabbergasted as the other, “And what’s with their Compass?! How could it just…covered the whole sky??”

“Is Su Bei going to be alright?!” Zhao Xiaoyu asked the real question, “I know this is just a memory and Su Bei managed to grow up…um…pretty well,“ the other winced at the stumble. She shook her head, trying to shake Su Bei’s demise from her mind and back toward the topic at hand, “But is he in danger?! What did that person want with him?”

Jiang Tianming clenched his fist, eyes shook in terror for the child in question.

What’s happening? What’s going to happen? Never in his life had he been so wrong-footed like this, and Jiang Tianming didn’t like it.

Fortunately, they didn’t need to flounder for long. As the next memory appeared just as swiftly. Su Bei opened his bedroom door a crack. He took the plate of cold food inside and brought it to his table. Unlike the previous showing, this time around, he finally ate something. Maybe just to fill his energy after he overused his ability, Jiang Tianming mused. After one last bite of a bread that had gone stale and the last drop of orange juice gone from the clear glass, he turned toward the corner of the room. The hooded person was still standing there.

Noticing the kid’s attention was back on them, they said, “Su Bei,” voice still overpowering, “Do you believe in God?”

Su Bei’s eyebrows rose, his head tilted sideways, “Are you saying you’re one?”

The hooded person shook their head, “I am His representative,” they said. They stepped up once, untangling themselves from the shadow of the room, “The favor that I wish to ask of you…”

“Will you help me fix the world?”

“What?” Feng Lan whispered.

Su Bei blinked.

“In every newly created world, the God of Creation and Destruction will be birthed alongside it. They cannot fight for control nor usurped other from their throne. Only by discussing the fate of the world with each other can they maintain the order and keep everything intact.”

“But somehow, a…glitch happened. The God of Creation appeared, yet not awakened. And the God of Destruction became the sole ruler of this world. It won’t be immediate, perhaps around twenty years or so, but the seed of annihilation had been sown. This world is on its way to complete demolition.”

Su Bei’s eyebrows furrowed, “You can’t expect me to wake up an unseen being.”

“He will wake up in due time. What I need from you is to create a solution for this world’s unfinished ‘concept’ before the destruction occurs. If you accept this…”

“You might find a way to live past fifteen.”

Su Bei’s eyes widened.

The class S gasped.

“What do you mean?” his eyes narrowed, “Fate is absolute. It cannot be changed.”

“You’re correct,” the hooded person—Representative—nodded, “But just like a branch of a tree, there exists multiple ends. They might die of old age. They might die of an accident or illness. They might even die as a stillborn. When the world was created, humans had their fate already written for them. Every alternative exists. Only their choices can lead them to their preferred future.”

“But with the God of Creation sleeping, the bright future of humanity becomes unknown. The solution to destroy the seed of annihilation now buried, even to me. The God of Destruction is not evil. They’re only doing their duty. And that is death.”

Su Bei paused for a very fraught moment. The class S involuntarily gulped as the kid then asked, “What do you want me to do?”

“Let me reside within your power,” they answered, “As a representative, I have a fraction of the God of Creation's power. That is of making the belief come true. Because of this power, discovery and miracle exists. But it needed to be accepted by every being as a whole, not just a couple of hundred people. Humanity, Nightmare Beasts, they have to believe it as fact.”

“Your power of Fate is but a pale imitation of this. Yet that imitation is enough to change the perception of reality. That imitation is enough to make people believe you can change the destiny of the living beings,” The hooded being stepped forward once again. And that one step was enough for them to loom over Su Bei. They looked fierce, stern. But Jiang Tianming could sense the reverence exuded from within. They were asking for Su Bei’s help. And they want his cooperation, “Find the problem, create the solution, and convince others. When the world is in balance…”

“You can finally keep your promise with your late father.”

Su Bei’s eyes widened. A smile so sardonic appeared in his baby face. There was grief and hatred in it. It felt so disturbing to see on the face of a child, “Wow, so I don’t even have a choice, huh? Did you guys actually orchestrate my father’s death? So my ability will evolve and you’ll have your ‘pawn’ to use?”

The Representative stayed silent.

Every single one of them gasped, horrified at the implication.

Su Bei bared his teeth, “Fine. Whether I succeed or not, I’m going to die anyway. Might as well fight till the bitter end,” the Representative nodded before their entire body flashed black. The light whizzed past Su Bei’s face and landed on the right side of his head. When the light receded, a familiar gear-feather headpiece latched rather snuggly in between his hair (Jiang Tianming’s pupils blown. The answer was right in front of their eyes this whole time!). Su Bei took the Destiny book from his dresser and opened it. The anger bled into sorrow, and his expression was full of melancholy. He whispered to himself, “Hey, Dad. Looks like I have to gather more members now. ”

Then the screen went black. If before they were dreading the hooded person’s true identity, now they were scared for Su Bei’s well-being.

“Saving the world?” Feng Lan breathed.

“Is…was that true?” Wu Mingbai questioned. There was wonder, disbelief, and most of all, worry, “What if that representative was lying? That they were just stringing Su Bei’s life as their plaything? I mean, they let Su Bei’s dad die!”

“But then why would they ask Su Bei to find the solution to save the world?” Li Shu threw the question back at him, “They could just not appear in front of him, never mentioned anything about the state of the world in the first place and we would all die anyway. Su Bei’s smart. He would notice the lie soon enough.”

“Even if he did, what could he do?” Zhao Renjie despondently muttered, “You saw their Compass. Even with the power of Fate, no matter how advanced you are as an ability user, you can’t beat that thing.”

Yes. Su Bei saw the manipulation miles away. Yet he still accepted the dirty job. Because he knew he was not, and never, in control.

The silence was thick.

“The red book,” Lan Subing whispered, “That was the Destiny book, right?”

“An organization solely to collect information,” Ling You clarified to no one, “It was first used to find Su Bei’s salvation. In a way, it still did.”

Saved the world, and you might save yourself.

‘But we know the truth,’ Jiang Tianming's eyes went downcast.

Su Bei…didn’t survive. He saved the world, yes. But he still died. Still fifteen and never will be older.

This is so not fair.

Not wanting Class S to be drowned in their own sorrow, the black emptiness started a new projection. It began in an empty blue space. Nothing exists in it but the floor. They were surprised when Su Bei suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Or to be exact, was thrown to the ground unceremoniously. Su Bei was significantly older; thirteen years old, it looks like. They turned to look toward the attacker, thinking this time, he really was in danger. But when they saw the opponent, it made them pause.

Is that…Su Bei’s father?!

The fight—or spar, it turned out—continued, uncaring over the slack maw of class S members. Su Bei was fast, he was always good at hand-to-hand combat. But compared to his father, he was like a toddler trying to stand up, yet failed spectacularly. Su Bei fell with a gasp, breath quickened, and heart hammered. His father suddenly stood still and didn’t move anymore. It was as if he was a robot who had spent his battery and was now in need of charging.

The gear-feather on his hair shimmered. And the Representative appeared. They looked down on Su Bei, head tilted. When they spoke, their voice didn’t echo as it did before. Though there was still a cadence in it and Jiang Tianming and the others still couldn’t comprehend their exact gender, with how they spoke with multiple voices at once, “You didn’t even last five minutes against the hologram this time.”

Hologram? Jiang Tianming thought. He saw Su Bei pull out a black orb—the same one his father had died to get—and let his mental energy waft. The blue void shimmered then they were back in Su Bei’s room. Still the same interior, still the same arrangement.

The blue void before was a closed Different Space then. Like what the teachers used for their ‘Campaign Reenactment’ exam. From what he remembered from Su Bei’s dad and the teachers’ explanation, it exists for the user to create lifelike holograms so they could train for whoever long and whatever they like without the fear of public disturbance.

That was one hell of an item to have for private use. No wonder Su Bei’s dad sacrificed his life just to acquire that thing.

The scene changed to the real world. Su Bei blinked himself awake and yawned. The kid looked drained after training inside the illusion, eyes half-lidded and looking extremely drowsy. But he pressed on and woke himself up, rubbing his eyes, “I’m trying to use my luck-based power as well. Did you not see me tinkering with his compass needle?” Su Bei sarcastically answered, “Maybe I really should just focus on becoming the advanced ability user for now…”

“So, what do you want?” Su Bei stood up and stretched, eyes peering at the Representative from beneath the bangs, “The only time you show yourself like this is when the Destiny candidate is worth keeping. Are they going to help me in finding the solution to fix this world?”

Instead of answering, the Representative pulled out something from beneath the robe. It was a heart-shaped pink fruit. Wu Jin blinked, recognizing the item, “Give this to the next client.”

The Representative disappeared once again, going silent as per usual. Su Bei rolled his eyes and drew out the trusty red book. From between the pages, light shone and something like a mask emerged from within. It kinda resembled the Transformation Mask (Fake) sold in school. Jiang Tianming distantly thought. When he put it on, his form changed drastically. From twelve years old boy to an adult clad in a familiar black robe. Su Bei’s look now resembled the Representative’s form.

Surprisingly, the said Representative chimed in. It was clear they were speaking telepathically to Su Bei. And when Su Bei answered, he answered it in his mind as well. Not speaking out loud. But maybe because this was a memory, something that was plucked straight from Su Bei’s mind, Jiang Tianming and co. can hear their conversation just fine. No need for telepathy power whatsoever, “I still don’t understand why you need to use my form as your disguise.”

Su Bei snorted, “People won’t accept a kid as their leader. And I told you before,” he opened the bedroom door, still mocking the being, “Your form is a mainstream design for any ‘mysterious person’ in any shonen story. You’re not special.”

The door slammed closed.

The scenery ended.

But it didn’t even take two seconds before the next part continued. As if ending the previous segment just now was just a way for the ‘filmmaker’ to segue into the next part, skipping a bit so they don’t need to add an unnecessary walking scene that would bore the watchers. Su Bei was now standing in the middle of a suspicious alleyway. And in front of him, twiddling with his thumbs, was a familiar man.

Wu Jin choked on his own saliva, “Dad?!” he sputtered.

“I heard that Destiny can fulfill any request, no matter how ridiculous,” Wu Jin’s dad—their principal!—said, tone resolute.

“I wish to become an Ability User.”

They were stunned still for the second time. Honestly, nth times. They couldn’t count on how many times their brains were blown by all of this revelation. And Jiang Tianming had a feeling that this was only just the beginning.

“I...I did know that my dad was one of the Destiny’s members,” Wu Jin’s eyes quivered, “But I didn’t know this is how he got involved with them.”

“That item,” Zhao Xiaoyu pointed out, “Wasn’t that the same item that got stolen from the auction? The one that can grant you an ability? That rumor was real?!”

“Does that mean the item from that auction belongs to the Representative?” Si Zhaohua clarified, “We just saw them hand one to Su Bei out of nowhere. Did that item already exist in this world, or did the Representative make it from scratch? And they just, I don’t know, decided to distribute it to the world as a way to produce more Ability User?”

But for what? Jiang Tianming wanted to ask.

As if answering Jiang Tianming’s inquiry, disguised!Su Bei asked the Representative the same thing, “Why are you awakening humans left and right? And how did you make that item anyway? You said you can only make people believe your lie as truth.”

“Can you call it a lie if the beings trust in it wholeheartedly?” the Representative shot back. They answered Su Bei’s question, however, instead of being cryptic, “It was just a normal fruit that would boost the vitality of the awakened. But after a while, the rumor had gotten out of hand, and people now started believing the impossible; where that item could actually grant you power. Combine with your ability to change the Fate and mine to ‘distort’ the lie, that fruit is now a miracle in the making.”

“I thought that ability of yours could only be activated if both Humanity and Nightmare Beasts believe it to be true.”

“That’s for changing the fate of a whole world,” Representative clarified, “If it’s just an item, the population of a small town is enough to change the truth.”

Su Bei hummed as he walked away, back to his home, “You still didn’t answer why you want to awaken him.”

The Representative was silent for a couple of seconds, “Do you remember how you died?”

“? What kind of question was that?” Su Bei scoffed, “Of course I do. I’ve been seeing it since I was six years old. I’m going to die in a bathroom of a school, with a bunch of gears scattered around my corpse.”

The class S, who heard that revelation, jolted in confusion.

“Wait, what?” Wu Mingbai blurted out.

The being nodded, “As a Representative of the world, I can not only look at the present time, but future as well,” They said, “That man. He’s going to be the headmaster of a prestigious Ability school.”

“The same place where you’re going to meet your demise.”

The memory ended.

“Wait, no. Can we go back to the part where Su Bei died?!” Wu Mingbai waved his arms around, asking anyone responsible for this ‘show’ to turn the television back on, he needed to rewind the reels a bit, “What was that about him dying in a bathroom?! I thought he was—”

He died saving Wu Mingbai and Si Zhaohua.

The white-haired teen grimaced at the unspoken words, but he continued Wu Mingbai’s halted sentence anyway, “Did his fate change? His first death might be in school, but now that the Representative meddled in, he escaped that fate?”

“Someone did still die in our school, though,” Zhao Xiaoyu reminded, “Do you think…the original victim was supposed to be Su Bei?”

A horrified culmination dawned on them.

But they didn’t have time to mull over it a little bit more. Because the next segment of the ‘film’ had started.

It was another time skip. Now, he looked like the Su Bei they knew; older and more confident in his stride. The setting was at the said prestigious school. A wide shot of students—new or old—walking through the yard. Smiling, laughing, and generally happy to be enrolled in this place. They couldn’t see Su Bei amongst them, even after a minute of searching. But then the camera moved away from the unnamed children. Hovered around until it reached the rooftop of the school. The teen they were searching for, Su Bei, was seen nonchalantly striding across the flat surface. There was a smug smile plastered on his face.

“Having a connection from inside sure is a boon,” Su Bei grinned, flapping the red book in his hand rather carelessly, “I just have to tell the principal that one of the Destiny agents is going to do an inspection, don’t try to spy on them, and boom. Free access to the rooftop.”

“What do you want to do here anyway?” the Representative’s voice echoed. There was a hint of confusion there.

“To check out the Fate of this school,” he answered promptly, “I noticed, you know, in these past few years of our cohabitation. You are hesitant to tell me directly the reason why this world is on the way to annihilation. You want to save it, but you can’t give me an exact answer. And I still remember our first meeting like it was yesterday. You asked me to not only find the solution, but the ‘problem’ itself. So, it made me think. You…”

“You’re hindered by this world order too, right?”

The Representative didn’t say anything.

“Just because you’re the representative of the God of Creation, doesn’t mean you can blatantly oppose the God of Destruction. Both of you are just doing your job. And if one of them breaks the rule, the imbalance will worsen and this world’s ruination might come even faster than it should’ve. Maybe even killing you Gods as well. After all, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

“Even then, you tried giving me hints. My power to change Fate, the Destiny members, and now this school,” Su Bei stopped at the corner of the rooftop, staring right at the compass hovering above him. Jiang Tianming noticed the compass wasn’t as complicated as the one they see on people. Maybe because it’s solely for the school and not the children within. Jiang Tianming wondered if the reason why the Representative’s Fate Compass looked so complicated was that it belonged to every being living in this world. “You know I’ll die here,” They flinched at the reminder, “You know if you lose me, you’ll lose the means to fix the world. Yet you are adamant that I still attend the school, to the point of recruiting the headmaster himself into the Destiny. That means there’s something important. Another hint from you that I have to parse it myself.”

Su Bei put a gear inside the concave of the school’s compass, then took it back. The gear had changed, the prophecy was ready to be unleashed, “And this is just a guess. If I can find out the reason myself, you won’t break the rule anymore. You can tell me about some questions I had in mind without fear of backlash.”

Then he threw it upward. The gear exploded and a moving image appeared.

Jiang Tianming and the other was baffled at first when it showed the front of a book with a crest of a crown slapped on it. The book then slowly opened, page by page. Their confusion turned to astonishment when they saw their faces there. Mo Xiaotian, Mu Tieren, Feng Lan, Zhao Xiaoyu, Wu Jin, Si Zhaohua, Ai Baozhu, Zhou Renjie, Qi Huang, Ling You, Li Shu. Even their teacher, Meng Huai. The last three pages showed Lan Subing, Wu Mingbai, and Jiang Tianming. Strangely enough, even though it was the last page, it took a while for the book to close. Two minutes passed and it finally shut. The Prophecy then ended.

“What…was that?” Si Zhaohua murmured

Su Bei proceeded to do the thinking pose; leaning on a wall while his chin was held between his thumb and index finger, “Interesting,” he said, “The prophecy showed a lot of people there, but they want to emphasize the last boy specifically. As if saying he’s the most important one.”

“…”

“They’re all students. From this school,” Su Bei’s eyes moved to the left, staring at the ground, “Judging from the tie, they’re in their first year just like me.”

Su Bei lit up, “Hey,” the golden boy said to the Representative who still hadn’t said a word, “Did you know I like reading comic books?”

“When an author writes a story, they will choose someone as their main character,” Su Bei continued, “It doesn’t matter whether they were the hero, the villain, or even just a poor civilian who was in the wrong time or the wrong place. The point is, us reader will be able to know the story based on the ‘main character’s’ point of view. They are the ‘narrator’”

“Representative,” Su Bei's eyes turned sharp, “Is that boy the narrator?”

The Representative was silent for a moment.

Then their echoey voice was heard. True to Su Bei’s deduction, now that he guessed it right, they can give Su Bei a much clearer hint, “To make sure the world that was created runs smoothly, no outside interference whatsoever, the Gods will select one…fortunate being to be their eyes. Of course, sometimes they would choose multiple or maybe just borrow others for a bit. But they usually stuck to one eye only and let them share the narrative of the world they reside in.”

Su Bei’s eyes widened, “You mean the God of Destruction is watching us,” He was so shocked, he spoke out loud.

They didn’t speak, but that silence was enough.

Somehow, that news made Su Bei smile victoriously, “You said you had the power to make the belief come true, right?” Su Bei had a feeling the Representative just nodded, “You said I have to convince EVERY being just to save the world. But have you ever considered, rather than doing such an uncertain thing…”

“I just need to convince the maker Himself instead?”

“With this, even if the humans or Nightmare Beasts were skeptical, the God will make it come true anyway because HE believes it to be true!” Su Bei was smiling. Wide. Jiang Tianming realized this was the first genuine smile they saw over the years. From when he was still a kid till he was one of their classmate. Su Bei was second away to jump in joy, or celebrate. He looked like a kid in a sugar rush, “A lead! After all these years! And with so many Destiny members scrounging the whole world! Turned out it was here all along!”

“And that black-haired kid is the key to it all!” Su Bei’s purple eyes shone in delight, “A real-life shonen protagonist! This life might not be so bad at all. Not at all~”

The memory ended.

“Well…” Wu Mingbai, after a brief silence, was the first to speak, trying to lighten the mood, “Of course, Su Bei would take immense pleasure from others’ suffering.”

“On behalf of destiny, I salute you, this year’s unluckiest soul!” Mu Tieren piped in. Everyone noticed he was repeating Su Bei’s first meeting with Jiang Tianming, a playful smile forming, “That was not on point. That was an understatement.”

Some of them chuckled.

“Hey, I know we’re all tired of being mind blown over and over again, but can we focus on the important bit of that scene we just saw?” Zhao Xiaoyu forced them back to the previous topic, “They said the God of Destruction is borrowing Jiang Tianming’s sight to peek into our world. And, well, sometimes ours too. Does that mean He is watching this right now?”

They immediately tensed.

Lan Subing looked around, as if expecting the said God to appear out of nowhere, “He…can’t just silence us outright, right?” she slowly said.

“Su Bei said if They break the rules, it’s not just the world that’ll get destroyed, but the Gods too,” Qi Huang tried to calm her down, “He sees what we see, but so what? Our fate was already written, He can’t just invent a new death out of nowhere.”

They let out a sigh of relief. Only Jiang Tianming had his eyebrows scrunched.

Sure, The Representative had said that their life was already penned and their actions were going to be the ones that determined their future. But they were trapped in this black void by an unknown. An unknown powerful enough to foresee Su Bei’s deal with the Representative of the world. Maybe that unknown was evil. Maybe that unknown took a peek at Class S’s fate somehow and discovered that they also have a possible death written for this scenario. Maybe when they discover the truth and escape this place, they’ll use that death scenario to kill all of them.

Despite his paranoia, Jiang Tianming won’t tell this thought to the others just yet. Let them have a bit of hope and think positively. He couldn’t destroy their morale. Especially not in this uncertainty.

The next memory started just as immediately. They were back in a blue void. And Su Bei was seen inside once again. But instead of standing, sitting, training, anything, he was lying flat on his back, sprawled on the floor.

With blood pooling around his body.

Class S gasped. Their face instantly paled and one of them gagged. They were looking at Su Bei’s corpse. His dead body. Jiang Tianming almost thought it was real. That the prophecy that had haunted Su Bei since 6 years old had finally happened (the Representative’s meddling didn’t do jack shit!). But before any of them could relapse, another Su Bei walked toward the corpse. Reminding them once again that, oh. Right. Blue void. This is the closed Different Space made by the black orb. That corpse was just a hologram.

Hologram so lifelike, it feels like they were staring at the real thing—

Su Bei crouched near the dead form of his body, looking pretty relaxed. It was disturbing how nonchalant he was, but Su Bei had been seeing this nightmare since his childhood. It was no wonder he became numb over everything. He didn’t disturb the scene, staring at everything with a sharp look. True to his previous description, there were several gears scattered around his body. The three patterned gears were positioned: one at each shoulder, one under his naturally hanging left hand. The said left hand, likely raised in defense, was clenched near his face in a blocking stance.

“Did the placement of these gears try to indicate something?” Su Bei muttered to himself, speaking his thoughts out loud, “A triangle? But it wasn’t equilateral, isosceles, or right-angled, lacking significance as a hint. Did they suggest injuries at those spots? Unlikely. The school would autopsy a dead student, making such hints unnecessary.”

“Did they point to something unique about the killer at those spots?” he tilted his head in question. And in doing so, he seemed to realize something, “Wait. I’m right-handed. Why would I block the killer’s attack with my left hand?”

Su Bei’s eyes honed, looking at the fisted knuckles with a newfound revelation, “Could there be another patterned gear in that hand?”

Su Bei then took out his phone from his pants pocket, opening up the Gallery Photo. Their eyes widened when it showed the new victim of the school murder, slumped on the desk of the cafeteria, with cards scattered around his body.

“Wait. Since when did he have the time to take that photo?!” Zhou Renjie exclaimed.

“Su Bei’s a Destiny leader. Maybe another agent besides the headmaster is actually here as well?” Jiang Tianming reasoned.

“He did seem to know about the accident in the cafeteria before everyone else,” Wu Mingbai agreed, remembering their encounter with Su Bei on the way to lunch, “I thought he did a prophecy or something, but maybe he was doing it in a traditional ‘gathering information’ kind of way…”

“Four cards,” Su Bei smirked triumphantly, “I was right. I did create four gears instead of three.”

“Then the placement of the gears is important,” Su Bei said, pulling out a pen from his jacket pocket. He started scratching sketches on the floor. Diamond, lightning, arrow, fork, Z-shape…

Class S’s attention immediately latched onto the last shape. Z shape. The symbol of Mo Xiaotian’s grandfather’s organization.

Su Bei stood up, admiring his guesswork, “One of these, huh? Well, for now,” he took out the black orb and turned the projection off, waking up inside the toilet stall, located right before the cafeteria. He pocketed the item and then walked out. As he did so, he saw Jiang Tianming, Wu Mingbai, and Lan Subing walking toward the place, chatting amicably, “It’s showtime.”

The memory stopped.

“There’s something interesting from what we just saw,” Si Zhaohua pointed out, “We know Su Bei is going to die,” they flinched, “And it seemed, even if he accepted that he’s not going to live long, he did fight till the bitter end. Leaving clues for the inspector of the culprit who had killed him. But…”

“Why would the new victim do the same?”

Everyone’s eyes widened at that.

“You’re right. Su Bei knew about his death. Accepting but cautious, so he would try to identify the culprit,” Zhao Xiaoyu agreed, “But the other victim was…unlucky. He must’ve been caught off guard.”

That was weird. They stayed in silence for a bit, thinking of this discrepancy.

Until Li Shu let out a silent ‘aha’, “Wait, guys. Think of the placement of the…bodies,” he said, a bit hesitant in calling Su Bei a corpse. He plowed through, “Su Bei was killed in the bathroom. It seemed he was attacked by a frontal assault, so he just fell backward. But the new victim was sitting on a cafeteria table. The thing is, it wasn’t the time for lunch yet, right? Why would he be in the cafeteria when it was supposed to be a study time?”

Mu Tieren was the first to notice, “You mean the boy was at first killed in another place, but then moved to the cafeteria?”

“For what, though?” Si Zhaohua was again confused.

“To sow the feeling of wariness toward the school,” Jiang Tianming answered the question this time, “Remembered Cyril? He blamed the school for ‘killing’ his friend. By having someone die in a supposedly prestigious and safe place, it will ruin the reputation of the school and the teachers inside. It will be a perfect revenge for him.”

The other aah-ed.

“So maybe the new victim didn’t die immediately,” Ling You nodded in understanding, “When the culprit moved him to a new place, maybe he noticed the tattoo as well and leave message for us as a last resort.”

With everyone on the same page, it seems the black void decided they had enough time of rest because the next memory began without preamble.

It started with Su Bei being interrogated by the teacher, asking whether he had any connection with the victim or not, or if he knew anyone who harbored ill intention to the kid. Su Bei shook his head, then answered with a sentence so blithe it sounded depressing instead, “If anything, we share a common enemy: this world.”

Class S grimaced.

He walked out of the cafeteria then. Noticing a bunch of students congregating around the closed door. One particular student—one they knew so well, with a smile so sunny and hair as red as blood—approached the golden-haired child, “Hey, buddy! You’re from the cafeteria, right?” The handsome red-haired boy grinned a bit, glancing around warily, whispering, “I heard someone died in there?”

Seeing others perk up at his words, Su Bei thought his “wariness” was futile. He sized up the boy, dodging the question with one eyebrow raised, “Where’d you hear that?”

“Uh…” The boy faltered, blinking, then gave a shaky excuse, “I saw the cafeteria sealed, so I asked around at the entrance. Didn’t get details before a teacher shooed me back.”

What a terrible liar. They heard Su Bei’s inner monologue. Knowing something happened during the lockdown was normal, but pinpointing a death was not. Suspicious but hiding it, Su Bei acted convinced, smiling and zipping his lips, “Teachers told us not to talk.”

“Got it, understandable,” the red-haired boy said, slightly disappointed but leaving without pressing.

As he turned, Su Bei’s gaze sharpened, eyes widening. Being taller, he clearly saw a black lightning mark on the boy’s neck, partially hidden by his collar.

Lightning—one of the shapes he’d deduced from the four gears.

“What?!” Class S shouted in disbelief.

“Su Bei knew his identity from the very beginning?!” Zhou Renjie roared in anger, a betrayed expression marred his face. And Jiang Tianming couldn’t exactly blame him. Not when he nearly died because of this ‘traitor’, “Why didn’t he tell the teachers immediately then?!”

As if answering Zhou Renjie’s offended remark, the red-haired boy spun back, his sunny face now blank, staring intently, “What were you looking at?”

They flinched back, surprised and scared at the sudden change in demeanor. They never saw him this intense, this scary before, and it was so jarring to look at.

Su Bei himself was startled at that. But he kept his shocked expression inside and forced a hint of joy, “Wow!” Su Bei exclaimed, a fake cheer was heard with that one sentence, “You’re from Class A, right?”

‘The year’s Class A had only twenty students. It was reasonable for someone from another class to be shocked, realizing they’d spoken to a Class A Ability user.’

The dangerous aura vanished. In one hundred and eighty turns, the red-haired boy grinned now, a touch of smug, “Yup! I’m gonna be the strongest Ability user, so of course I’m in Class A!”

Su Bei’s mind raced. He had two options here. One, brushed the boy off while he was in a good mood and retreated to rest. Two, befriend him.

The first was safe. And for someone who was tasked to fix the imbalance of the world, this option was preferable. But the second—befriending a dangerous organization’s spy—what could it bring?

Downsides: the organization might target him, he’d face more scrutiny, and if the redhead was exposed, Jiang Tianming might distrust or dislike him for associating with a villain, making it harder for Jiang Tianming to believe his crafted lie, and, in association, making the God of Destruction distrust his word as well.

Upsides: likely access to organization intel, a new covert identity to leverage, and if the redhead was exposed, Jiang Tianming might trust his crafted words easily because ‘the main protagonist’ tends to ‘expect the worst’ from a villain.

A tough choice, but clarifying this boy’s goal was the first thing he needed to do. After all, keep your friend close and your enemy closer. Su Bei took the initiative, “I’m Su Bei from Class F. Can I get your name?”

“I’m Mo Xiaotian, nice to meet you!” he smiled, “Are we friends now?”

From those words alone, Su Bei sensed something weird with him.

Odd as it sounded, this spy genuinely seemed eager to befriend him. He wasn’t trying to lull him into a false sense of camaraderie. Or a white-on-black type like Wu Mingbai, who covered his likes of teasing others with a sunny façade. (“Hey!” Wu Mingbai protested. Li Shu laughed at his expense. “So you’re the same as me!”, “Shut up! Don’t lump me into your level!”). Mo Xiaotian was really, definitely, pure. And that’s strange, isn’t it? So, after they escaped from the crowd and in the privacy of a closed room, Su Bei tried to poke Mo Xiaotian once more by saying, “Since we’re friends, I’ll leak a bit about the cafeteria, but don’t spread it.”

Mo Xiaotian’s reaction defied expectations again. He froze, then shook his head vigorously, “No, no, the teacher said not to talk. Don’t tell me, what if you get caught?”

Su Bei's eyes sharpened. Mo Xiaotian wasn’t playing hard to get there. He genuinely didn’t want to know, or at least not from him. These signs confirmed that, outside organization matters, Mo Xiaotian was a naïve sweetheart. Yet his instant reaction to Su Bei glancing at his neck mark showed keen perception. Even without probing, he’d quickly sense anything off.

While on the outside, Su Bei and Mo Xiaotian were having an amicable—animated, even—chatter like normal students, the golden-haired boy’s mind was still working at an incredible speed. After that quick investigation, there was only one conclusion.

Mo Xiaotian had been brainwashed. And he might’ve didn’t even realized.

That means if he forms a bond with the ‘main protagonist’ and shows the correct way, he could become a powerful ally instead. Su Be internally smirked. Whether it was real life or comic books, villains are all the same, huh? They should’ve sent a completely evil guy instead of this.

Because from now on, I’m going to turn him into a ticking time bomb~

The memory ended.

Qi Huang let out a nervous chuckle, “Was this how Su Bei truly was? Calm on the outside but was actually scheming on the inside?”

“He should’ve still told the teacher about the traitor though…” Zhou Renjie grumbled. Still feeling a bit salty, even if he understood Su Bei’s plan now.

“You know Su Bei likes making everything convoluted just to see us squirm,” Jiang Tianming sighed.

And with how dull his whole life has been these past few years, just waiting for his death, all this subterfuge must be the only thing that made him feel alive.

The next memory started in a classroom. From Meng Huai’s speech, this scene took place when they got an explanation about the usefulness of an Ability, whether it was a weak or strong one. Su Bei appeared to be zoning out of the lesson.

The elusive Representative surprisingly spoke up inside Su Bei’s mind, “You’re usually so focused in class. This is the mental enhancement lesson you were looking forward to. Why’re you spacing out?”

Su Bei snapped back, shaking his head slightly, his expression thoughtful, “Not exactly spacing out. I just noticed something interesting.”

“The teachers seem to be… how do I put it? They’re deliberately comforting us. More precisely, balancing our mindsets.”

Without Representative pressing further, Su Bei knew he’d hit the mark. There was definitely a secret here. Since they didn’t respond, he continued, “They tell those with weak Abilities that even weak ones can be powerful, and those with strong Abilities that they can be countered. Isn’t that balancing our mindsets?”

Now Representative replied, “But isn’t that normal? I might not know much about humans, but usually, teachers don’t want you mentally unbalanced and hard to manage, so they say this. Isn’t that common in regular schools, too?”

“No, no, no.” Su Bei shook his head, refuting seriously. “That’s like academic talent. Regular school teachers don’t tell students, ‘Don’t be discouraged if you’re bad at studying, and don’t be arrogant if you’re good—you all have your uses.’”

This example silenced Representative’s “normal” argument. Indeed, Jiang Tianming mused, regular schools wouldn’t specifically say this to students. At most, they’d pull a struggling student aside for a talk.

What was the point of this conversation, though? The black-haired kid was confused. Why were we shown this?

Su Bei put his chin on one arm, smirking, “So, would our mental imbalance cause serious consequences?” he asked casually.

Silence fell again. The Representative didn’t speak, seemingly hesitating.

Su Bei thought, oh well, and tried to refocus on the lesson, no longer expecting an answer. However, when he just did so, the Representative’s voice rang out, “Don’t forget your task.”

Then it vanished, ignoring Su Bei’s follow-up questions.

“Don’t forget your task”?

It sounded out of nowhere, almost nonsensical. Of course, Su Bei remembered his task; saving the world. Why did Representative suddenly say this? To scold him for slacking?

Impossible. He’d been diligently improving his mental energy. He knew he was close to revelation, but it still wasn’t easy to upgrade into an advanced user. They knew he’d been practicing, so it wouldn’t warrant such a jab.

Since his actions weren’t the issue, the Representative’s words weren’t a reprimand but an answer to his earlier question. So, our mental imbalance could widen the gap between good and evil?

Serious consequences meant failing his task.

His task was to save the world, needed because the balance between good and evil was off, with evil overpowering good.

Suddenly, an outrageous theory flashed inside his mind.

“You know…this reminded me of a mainstream trope in a comic. Where, if the characters ever overuse their power, they would get consumed by it instead. Turning them into the monsters they always vowed to kill,” Su Bei's eyes pierced, “What if…Nightmare Beasts were previously Ability Users?”

Then the memory ended.

“Wow,” Zhao Xioayu’s eyebrows rose, “That was so close to the truth? And he guessed it so early on, too?”

“So this is why he asked that question to that Cloud Nightmare Beast,” Wu Mingbai snapped his finger, “He’d been treating this guess as a definite answer and was just collecting evidence to support his theory.”

To give further clues that Su Bei was indeed close to cracking the code, another brief scene appeared. It showed Class F plus Mo Xiaotian sitting around the lunch table. Judging from their gym uniform, this seemed to be after the first part of the monthly exam.

Jiang Tianming asked the golden-haired boy, “Su Bei, do you know about Class S?”

“I know,” Su Bei answered calmly.

At that, everyone’s eyes lit up, “Brother Bei’s amazing, knowing even this!” Mo Xiaotian cheered. “So how strong are Class S abilities?”

Su Bei hummed. From the information his Destiny group had gathered, the abilities of those of class S varied. Some looked strong, some also sounded pretty ordinary. I could just tell them this straight on. Su Bei took a glance at Jiang Tianming. Or more specifically, the God of Destruction peeking from within. But this seems to be a good chance to strengthen humanity’s image. Make them sound stronger than before so they won’t die easily against the Nightmare Beasts.’

However, if I said ‘yes’ and it turned out that class S isn’t as powerful as I portrayed them to be, the God might be suspicious of me and will dissect every little word that I utter from now on, instead of believing it wholeheartedly. It’ll hinder the progress of fixing the imbalance. Su Bei internally shook his head. If I accidentally weakened humans, it’d be disastrous.’

…Wait.

Su Bei perked up. If I could use the God of Destruction belief to weaken humanity, why not use it to weaken Nightmare Beasts? If I pulled that off, wouldn’t the world’s crisis be resolved?

Su Bei gave a vague answer to the members of Class F plus Mo Xiaotian, and finished his meal. After all of them went back to their dorm to rest, Su Bei immediately hounded the Representative about this epiphany.

Unfortunately, the Representative gave a negative answer, “You can’t change the world’s foundational framework. Nightmare Beasts being stronger than humans is a result of that framework.”

Su Bei raised an eyebrow, “So what’s this foundational framework?”

There wasn’t an answer. Hm. They can’t tell him banally then. He had to discover it himself.

‘There must be something that I missed. But what was it?’

‘Was my previous guess about Nightmare Beasts being human previously actually true?’ Su Bei's eyebrows narrowed to one point. ‘But if so, why is this not common knowledge? You would think the government would at least create an item that could stop the transformation. Or…give a ‘fail safe’ to Ability User so they’ll die instantly the moment they change into Nightmare Beasts.’

The memory ended.

“You know. If I don’t know about Nightmare Beasts' true nature, I would actually agree with Su Bei,” Baozhu chimed in, “I’d rather die than be forced to turn into those ugly monsters.”

“It was a bit brutal, but you’re right. I don’t want to hurt anyone either. Especially my family,” Mu Tieren nodded. The others, after thinking a bit, agreed wholeheartedly.

“So glad it wasn’t like what Su Bei thought.”

It was close, though.

The next memory started with Su Bei fiddling with a watch. He raised his head and said, “I’m planning to act alone next.”

It seemed another time skip had happened. This time, the setting of the memory was in the middle of the Team Battle Exam. Su Bei gave them a prophecy, waved, and walked away. Funny enough, however, Su Bei was walking toward where his Prophecy’s arrow just pointed, even though he gave vague suggestions to Jiang Tianming and co. to check it out at a later time. The memory rolled like a montage: He noticed some Hornet Beasts, killed some, and then hid. Met with Qi Huang and warned her about the danger of a false mission. He then continued on his way, encountered more dangerous Nightmare Beasts, and finally, finally, arrived at the destination.

It was a shack full of uniform people, roaming around the area with some carrying a small crate full of watches. Su Bei noticed the screen was black. Looked like it went offline.

Su Bei’s eyes narrowed as he pulled back for a moment. He hunted one of the Nightmare Rabbit and released the beasts near one of the people that was roaming around. Distraction successful, he didn’t even look surprised when he noticed the black lightning tattoo on the guard’s neck.

‘Black Flash,’ Su Bei thought.

A golden aura then encased his entire body. It retracted and probed the dilapidated house on the outskirts of the field. Su Bei’s lips parted, mumbling to himself, “Feng Lan’s fine. Doesn’t seem to be injured or compromised. They might not want to anger the family unnecessarily.”

But this confirmed his previous conclusion that these people wanted to capture the students for reasons unknown. His Destiny members were still trying to find out why. Even some mole he planted in the organization couldn’t find much, as the leaders were very hush-hush, only telling the higher-ups. However, anybody who didn’t hesitate to kill children couldn’t be any good. In fact, they might do something even more terrible by capturing them. Whether in comic or real life, dying instantly is better than being tortured for who-knows-how-long.

“Don’t do anything reckless,” the Representative suddenly chimed in.

Su Bei groaned, “Ugh, I know. Can’t let your ‘pawn’ die, right?”

He then took a rest on a nearby tree and let the day pass. When the dawn came in, the school finally notified the students about the dangerous group that had infiltrated the Different Space. Su Bei exchanged several items the school had provided—Invisibility Charm, the Jammer, five Fireball Charms, one Micro Bomb, and the Storage Bag—and went to the house once again. The bad people were on high alert now.

How? I saw the watch went offline. They shouldn’t be able to know that the school was onto them now, especially not when the school itself was choosing a hands-off action, wanting the students to experience real-life battle.

He hummed, “Is there another mole in the academy?”

Class S once again was surprised at Su Bei’s quick wit.

Su Bei then noticed the leader—a man with a cap—speaking over a phone, and he immediately activated the Jammer.

“Yes, the Saint hasn’t contacted me,” he said humbly, a stark contrast to his commanding presence earlier, his tone full of respect.

Saint? Su Bei raised an eyebrow. They must be talking about Mo Xiaotian.

The voice on the other end of the phone was low, androgynous, “It’s unrelated to the Saint. Not contacting you to avoid exposure is expected.”

“You’re right. The Saint just needs to focus on studying,” the baseball cap man agreed. He wasn’t clear on why the Saint was at the Endless Ability Academy, but it was surely a big mission, unlike his small-time antics, “The Academy is responding. I’m preparing to capture those students early.”

“Good job. They’ll break the Different Space’s seal by the day after tomorrow at the latest. Before then, capture as many students as you have watches,” the androgynous leader ordered.

“Yes!” the baseball cap man replied firmly, then added, “The organization’s list of Academy-provided items includes a Jammer that can disrupt electronic signals. I won’t be able to contact you further.”

A cautious move, and the leader had no objections, “Fine. We sent that list to prepare you. Be careful. I have nothing else…”

As he spoke, Su Bei decisively used the Jammer to redirect the call to himself.

Mimicking the androgynous voice as best he could, Su Bei said lowly, “By the way, one more thing.”

Some Class S members, who didn’t know about Su Bei’s ability to change his voice, aah-ed in wonderment.

“Wow, he’s good,” Li Shu praised.

“What?” The baseball cap man didn’t suspect anything. He wouldn’t think someone could already use a Jammer to hijack his call.

Su Bei continued in a deep voice, “Besides the Saint, there’s another hidden agent in the Academy. If needed, you can seek their help.”

“Hidden agent?” The baseball cap man was surprised, “One of ours?”

Su Bei blew a raspberry. I had no intention of joining Black Flash, thanks. The name’s tacky too (Baozhu nodded in agreement), “No, a collaborator.”

After thinking, Su Bei added, “Fire a signal flare into the sky, and they’ll come to you. But their help comes at a high cost. Best not to use it.”

Then he turned off the connection, planting his butt firmly on the branch and waited.

The memory ended

“What is he trying to do?” Wu Mingbai asked.

They didn’t have the time to discuss Su Bei’s action for now because it didn’t take long before the next memory started again. Another jump in scenery. Whoever trapped them here knew how to be effective in telling only the important bits, as the scene continued with a sight of a short, deep purple-haired woman lying face down and tied up.

“Ah, this part,” Si Zhaohua sighed in exasperation, pinching the bridge of his nose, “I still cannot believe he was just watching us instead of helping…”

“Yeah, I was shocked too,” Jiang Tianming nodded in understanding.

But they knew now that Su Bei’s inaction was not just out of laziness. He was prohibited by the Representative. So they can’t really begrudge him for now.

Su Bei dropped from the top of the tree and cheekily waved goodbye at Jiang Tianming and Si Zhaohua. Another montage then occurred here: he met Wu Jin, who asked him to help Zhao Xiaoyu and Mu Tieren from a bind. Literally, in the latter case. So he did, though not before getting a promise to see Wu Jin’s true face. There was a brief scuffle from the flying gears, the hostages were saved, and Su Bei was enamored by Wu Jin’s true face.

“You show your face to him first?” Qi Huang exclaimed, somehow sounding a bit betrayed.

Wu Jin shrugged, “It’s a mutual transaction.”

After that, Su Bei vanished from the crowd once again, searching for another tree to hide in. He seemed to be waiting for something, body alert even as he slept, didn’t move even when the others were captured or when the enemy base was blown to smithereens. The time to escape the Different Space was imminent, yet Su Bei just stretched lazily on the branch of the tree.

Until the red beam shot into the night sky from near the main base, exploding into a small firework.

Su Bei smirked.

He checked his watch again, mentally estimated the time, tore open an Invisibility Charm, jumped down, and sprinted in that direction.

It was a small clearing with clear signs of a fight. From the traces, the people here had fought while heading west. There, he found a white sheet of paper in the grass near the clearing. The moment Su Bei picked up the paper, a line of text appeared, “The Saint’s name is: _____ ”

‘Looked like I had to answer it to reveal the content,’ He pocketed the thing for now, then comfortably teleported out by the school.

The teachers waiting outside were ready, quickly starting roll call. Those who went to the other side of the field for registration. The registration teacher was the School Nurse, Ye Lin. Her gentle eyes and soft voice seemed to soothe the students’ anxiety.

But she didn’t affect Su Bei, who listened to her questions absently as his eyes fixed on her. Ye Lin wasn’t annoyed by his stare. She just patiently waited, then asked softly, “Su Bei, may I ask what you were looking at?”

Su Bei tilted his head, “Teacher, do you have siblings?”

“I do. I have a younger sister,” Ye Lin replied, smiling after a pause. “Why do you ask?”

Seeing her nod, Su Bei smiled. After becoming his classmate for a year, they knew it was his mocking smile, “Because you seem so gentle, like someone who’d take good care of siblings.”

Si Zhaohua let out a sigh, “So he knew about Ms. Ye Lin, too. I feel so stupid.”

“Well, you guys were focused on not getting captured,” Wu Mingbai shook his head, “Don’t beat yourself up too much.”

After the registration was over, Su Bei went back to his room. Finally having the privacy to do what he wanted, Su Bei took out the paper. The question had vanished, but it shouldn’t affect the answer. He wrote “Mo Xiaotian” on it. The next second, the words disappeared, and a silver, toy-like orb popped out, which he caught.

Then, a message appeared on the paper.

The one who got this paper is probably the collaborator the boss mentioned, right? I’m not sure, but if I threw this paper out, it means I’m likely doomed. So, if someone picks it up and answers the question, please take this item and the following message to 26 Mushroom Road. The ‘Black Flash’ organization will offer generous rewards:

No. 10 is incompetent and failed the mission. Please recover the mission item.

26 Mushroom Road.

Su Bei’s eyes gleamed with excitement. Even the Class S watching the memory was surprised at the ease of it all. Su Bei’s subterfuge had paid off! Undoubtedly, this was an address to contact “Black Flash.”

What was this silver orb then?

Su Bei held it up, examining it. It was a delicate item, a hollow, carved silver sphere with a solid, smaller ball inside. It didn’t seem like an ability item but rather a rich kid’s toy. The baseball cap man called it a mission item, meaning it was crucial to their mission of capturing students in this team battle.

From what Su Bei could tell, “Black Flash” had tampered in several ways: preventing people inside from leaving and outsiders from entering, capturing Feng Lan early, altering the Mission Stele tasks, and making the main base’s location undetectable under normal conditions.

The first was unlikely, or the base’s destruction wouldn’t have allowed escape. The other three were possible.

But Su Bei didn’t know how to use the orb, and even knowing its function wouldn’t help. With that, he stored it carefully in the innermost layer of his suitcase, deciding to buy a hidden compartment tomorrow. And definitely checking out the address when he had the time.

‘For now, though,’ There was a knock on his door and Su Bei walked there to open it. In front of his room was Jiang Tianming, looking pretty grim, ‘I have to take care of this first.’

The memory ended.

“What were you doing there, Jiang Tianming?” Lan Subing asked

“When I escaped from the base, I saw him sitting on the tree. But when I went back to check on him, he disappeared,” Jiang Tianming explained, “I wasn’t suspecting him at that time, just curious what he had been doing those past two days.”

“Turned out he was tricking the Black Flash members,” Zhao Xiaoyu shook her head, “You know, for someone who prefers to watch the fight from the sideline, he sure was toeing a very dangerous line.”

The next memory started with a very big jump. It was right after they had their first mission of exploring the Different Space as Class S members. They were lounging in the living room, playing games to pass the time. Su Bei suggested, “Let’s play Truth or Dare.”

Everyone unfortunate enough to draw the Joker cards had to do Truth or Dare. They couldn’t pick the same option, and couldn’t pick the same option consecutively. For Truth, Lan Subing would use [Word Spirit] to ensure honesty. Refusing to answer meant drinking bitter melon juice, provided by Mu Tieren.

They remembered it was a pretty awkward Truth or Dare game, with Wu Jin choosing to drink the bitter watermelon instead of telling the truth and Su Bei sidestepping the Dare by talking about himself instead. Jiang Tianming grimaced when he saw it was nearly his turn, not wanting to remember his blunder. But the memory focused more on Mo Xiaotian, who was ‘forced to call the closest person and tell them he’s in trouble.’

Su Bei’s eyebrows rose. For a typical undercover agent, this card might cause panic or prompt them to cover later, he thought. But Mo Xiaotian, clearly not that sharp, did it without hesitation.

The response on the other end was intriguing; a somewhat aged grandfather’s voice. His first reaction was, “How did you get exposed?”

But before getting an answer, the man, clever as he was, realized Mo Xiaotian wasn’t in trouble but playing a game. He quickly covered, “How did they find out you’re a fool? Did they catch you for that?”

The others roared with laughter, finding Mo Xiaotian’s family member both insightful and amusing. No wonder they raised a kid like him.

Only Su Bei smirked knowingly. Yeah, he must’ve really thought Mo Xiaotian had blown his undercover identity and was actually seconds away from sending ‘Black Flash’ to rescue him. He wanted to snort. That’s what you get for brainwashing a pure-hearted kid like him.’

But an aged grandfather’s voice, huh. Su Bei continued to play the game while musing inwardly. I know one of my Destiny said that the leader is an old, wizened man. Does that mean Mo Xiaotian’s grandfather was actually the mastermind? Mo Xiaotian was pretty high up in the leaderboard, then.

The memory stopped for a bit.

“Hindsight 20/20,” Zhao Renjie laughed with a hint of self-deprecation, “I never would’ve thought that phone call hid a sinister meaning like that…”

The other looked despondent as well. They were still not sure about Mo Xiaotian’s betrayal. Especially now that they knew Mo Xiaotian was practically brainwashed by his own grandfather.

Then the memory continued to the part where they were trapped in a Different Space created by the Black Flash. Su Bei looked at the sky and muttered, “This sky…feels fake?”

After being bombarded again and again by the wave of rabid Nightmare Insects, they were forced to move inside the ominous mansion. A couple of spiral staircases stood in the hall. Conveniently, it was enough for all of them to walk through one by one, alone and without a companion. While the other was already on their way, Su Bei seemed hesitant to step forward.

“This place is not real,” he suddenly proclaimed.

And if this is a trap made by Black Flash, there’s a chance we’re being watched. Su Bei took out a mirror to check his own compass. The small pointer was slightly left but very centered. Without hesitation, he burned through his remaining Mental Energy, leaving just enough to function, and shifted the small pointer to the far left. Giving him absolute luck.

Su Bei’s shoulders relaxed after that. Still alert, but wasn’t as suspicious. He strolled up the stairs, turning a corner to the second floor. It was a large platform with a sofa and a coffee table. The table held a fruit platter, but only a few apple slices remained.

Where was everyone?

He looked around, confirmed no one was there, and continued upward. The second floor was also empty, as were the third and fourth. The fifth was the top floor and—he wasn’t surprised anymore, especially after the last three instances—it was empty too.

But it was cozy, like a place to rest. Trusting the far-left pointer he himself had adjusted, he boldly curled up on the sofa and fell asleep.

Then he woke up in real life.

“So that’s how he escaped all the fighting,” Baozhu nodded in understanding.

“That feels so much like cheating!” Qi Huang wailed at the unfairness of it all, “I had so much trouble traversing through that mansion.”

The other hummed in agreement, staring at Su Bei’s Ability in envy.

Near the afternoon, everyone escaped the illusion. They told the teachers about their experience in the mansion. Most, if not all of them, faced challenges on each floor; two floors involved illusion magic, and one targeted their Abilities. When some talked about their experience on the fifth floor, however, Su Bei’s eyebrows furrowed.

Didn’t remember anything? Li Shu was right. Memory loss in illusion meant it was deliberate. The user had tinkered with their memory themselves.

That was close. Su Bei internally sighed. If I hadn’t tweaked my compass and let the Black Flash have easy access to my mind, they would realize I knew the identity of the Saint and would instantly silence me.

Not to mention, the secret of this world itself. Where in twenty years or so, the ruination of every beings were guaranteed to happen. Will it be discovered if he got caught there? Or will the Representative block the info from getting out somehow?

I need to know their purpose as soon as possible and prepare for the worst. Su Bei wanted to groan, Should I ask for a leave of absence?

The memory ended.

“Good call. That illusion really fucked me over,” Zhou Renjie approved of Su Bei’s quick thinking, then growled in irritation when he remembered how easily he got mind-controlled, not once, but twice.

“Is he going to visit the address now?” Ling You wondered.

Seemingly answering Ling You’s question, the memory this time started after they escaped the Apogod conspiracy. They were seen conversing about Zhao Xiaoyu’s condition, worried that she hadn’t woken up even now. Mo Xiaotion, in a moment of thoughtfulness, suggested to buy gift.

“Rare for you to have such insight,” Wu Mingbai looked at him in surprise. He didn’t even try to be mean when he said this.

Mo Xiaotian scratched his head with a goofy smile, “When Grandma was sick, Grandpa always brought her gifts when he came back. Patients are always happy to see gifts.”

Grandma? Hearing this, Su Bei raised an eyebrow.

Jiang Tianming smiled at the lovely tidbit, “Sounds like your grandpa and grandma had a great relationship. Why didn’t we see your grandma at the Campus Festival last time?”

“She’s already left us,” Mo Xiaotian said. Almost too nonchalantly. He didn’t even look sad, Su Bei noticed. He continued the bombshell with, “But Grandpa said we’ll reunite eventually.”

“Sorry…” Realizing this meant his grandma had passed, Jiang Tianming’s eyes filled with apology.

Mo Xiaotian shook his head repeatedly, “It’s fine, it’s fine.”

The other started a conversation anew, trying to shake off the sudden melancholy with a much happier topic. However, Su Bei was stuck pondering the hidden implications.

Another mainstream trope of a comic is that many scientists' villains’ ultimate goals were to revive their loved ones, he thought.

Mo Xiaotian’s situation was loaded with red flags; a deceased grandma, a scientist grandpa who was likely the leader of a villainous organization. Plus, Mo Xiaotian’s earlier words made it easy to deduce that the “Black Flash” organization’s ultimate goal was resurrection technology.

This explained why Mo Xiaotian wasn’t too sad about his grandma’s death and why his grandpa said they’d reunite. They both believed she could be revived.

Woah. Another point to Su Bei’s quick thinking.

“Is it comic that resembles real life or the other way around?” Si Zhaohua shook his head, “Because he sure did guess the truth of our life more often than not, just because of his experience as a comic book reader. “

“I am both jealous and a bit angry at myself. Why couldn’t I do the same even though I read comic books too?” Li Shu joked.

But what was the “Loyalty Crystal” for then?. Su Bei’s train of thought continued. It was supposed to be a byproduct of their ultimate research. Knowing the “Loyalty Crystal” was likely developed from mental crystals and Nightmare Beasts, Su Bei struggled to see how these related to resurrection. I need more information.’

And so Su Bei finally gave the silver ball back to the Black Flash. In a way, he was just doing his job as a Destiny anyway; staying neutral and collaborating with external groups, no matter how shady. Su Bei was donned in his Representative-look-alike getup, striking an intimidating image that made the members of the organization pause a bit.

This is not the main office of the organization. Su Bei looked around the ordinary home. Pretty homey too. No sign of illegal human experimentation whatsoever. That’s unfortunate, but I’m not really surprised.

After all, what kind of stupid organization were they if they just handed their main building address willy-nilly?

“Please wait a moment.” After inviting Su Bei inside to make himself comfortable, Zheng Yun stood and hurried upstairs. It didn’t take long before the man returned, holding a red box.

Since this was an uncertain transaction, where Su Bei might not have returned the item, they hadn’t agreed on a fixed reward. Otherwise, if he didn’t deliver, the reward would’ve been prepared for nothing. Thus, the deal was to choose a reward on the spot when he delivered. If Su Bei was satisfied, everyone was happy. If not, he could leave with the silver ball.

Zheng Yun opened the box, revealing a plain, gray cloth doll with no facial features or hair, just a humanoid shape.

Su Bei’s eyes narrowed, pausing a bit, ‘A substitute Doll…”

Jiang Tianming noticed Si Zhaohua perked up at that. Along with Baozhu and Feng Lan. Suddenly, their eyes filled with hope.

What?

Substitute doll. By dripping a drop of blood on the ‘Substitute Doll,’ it becomes your second life. When the user suffers a fatal injury, the doll takes the death instead, granting the user five seconds of invincibility. Su Bei recalled the function of the item.

Now, Jiang Tianming and the other who didn’t know about the item function at first jerked up as well. Wu Mingbai especially looked misty-eyed, life returning to the dull eyes.

It’s a revival item. Jiang Tianming’s heart pounded. Su Bei had a revival item.

Then does that mean—

Yet their hope was immediately dashed when Su Bei continued the explanation with, “But it can’t be too far from the user, and if the doll is damaged, the user similarly takes some harm,” he looked at Zheng Yun sharply, the man squirmed, “Trying to scam me?”

“N-No! It’s just,” he hedged, then pointed toward the Silver ball, “The ‘Space Lock’ is indeed somewhat important to us, but it only seals space, which likely isn’t useful to you, sir. It might not even find a buyer. Unlike the ‘Substitute Doll,’ which can be sold or used to great effect.”

Su Bei wanted to scoff. You think I’m stupid? It might be useless to him, but it was valuable to “Black Flash”. He smiled mockingly, “Then you probably don’t need this ‘useless’ item as well. Let’s call off the deal.”

The man suddenly became erratic. He apologized profusely and offered another item to Su Bei. One of them is the "Fixed-Point Teleportation” item, where you can return to a preset location from anywhere. But it pings your location. That meant the item’s creator can sense your final landing point, clearly another deception. When Su Bei pointed this out, a third item was then procured. This time, it was a ‘Storage Painting,’ with a hundred-square-meter storage space that can hold both objects and people.

Seemed the man had finally learned his lesson, so Su Bei too acquiesced. He gave the silver ball to him and vanished.

Unknowingly to the guy, though, Su Bei didn’t exactly go away. He circled back to the house, uncovered the secret room, and stole all of the items.

It’s a pity that I couldn’t gather more information about their purpose. Su Bei put all of the stolen goods inside the red book, turning them into personal items Destiny’s members could buy and use. But landing a hit on a bad guy organization, no matter how small, is satisfying anyway. That’s what you get for making my job difficult.

Su Bei played with the “Fixed-Point Teleportation” item between his fingers, his face looked contemplative, “Hey, Representative. Do you think you can fix the flaw of this item with that ‘make-believe’ ability of yours?”

The memory ended.

“…there’s still a chance.”

“Wu Mingbai...”

“No, Jiang Tianming. Listen!” he sounded desperate, his eyes wild with renewed determination, “The Representative said they only need the belief of a small town to change the function of an item. Maybe…maybe the members of Destiny are around that many. Su Bei had a revival item and a teleportation item. Maybe he survived and was actually teleported somewhere!”

“And that’s why my Ability didn’t work,” Lan Subing whispered. She was on board with Wu Mingbai's deduction, “Because Su Bei is still alive. He’s just not around!”

“Guys. Don’t—” Zhao Xioayu grimaced, “Don’t expect too high.”

Or else the downfall will be twice as hurt.

“I-I want to believe it as well,” Si Zhaohua said. He looked at the green-haired girl, teeth gnawing his bottom lip, “Please, Zhao Xiaoyu. Let us believe in this.”

Baozhu nodded. Even Feng Lan, who was supposed to be the cool-headed one and focused on reality, couldn’t stop the hope rising beneath his eyes.

She couldn’t exactly refuse after that. After all, Zhao Xiaoyu wanted to believe in a miracle too.

“We recently found Black Flash’s headquarters,” The next memory started with Meng Huai telling everyone that they can enjoy their winter break just fine, “They’re too busy to bother you, so safety’s not a big concern. After a semester’s training, you should be able to handle some dangers alone.”

Everyone went home. Su Bei was sitting in his bedroom, flipping through the Destiny notebook. He was checking out the history of every agents’ transaction; a perk of being the leader of the organization. One particular ‘purchase’ stole his attention, and it was about a buyer asking for the Black Flash’s leader’s weaknesses. Being a neutral organization and one that mostly aimed for its own betterment, Destiny won’t begrudge any backstabbing. After all, it couldn’t be called ‘backstabbing’ if they were never on their side in the first place. That was why an anonymous seller replied with an info.

The leader of Black Flash had a wife, unseen publicly for years but still alive, deeply cherished by him.

Su Bei instantly thought of Mo Xiaotian’s grandparents. According to Mo Xiaotian, his grandma died long ago. But this intel, likely verified through evidence, insisted she was alive.

This made Su Bei notice a detail he had overlooked. Mo Xiaotian said his grandma “left them,” not that she died. To most people, “left” implied death, but Su Bei forgot Mo Xiaotian wasn’t normal. In a way, he was brutally honest.

So “left” might be literal; she didn’t die, just left his grandpa. Perhaps a breakup or divorce, a failed relationship? If so, the grandpa still clinging to her was likely researching ways to win her back.

Su Bei’s brows furrowed deeply. If this was the real reason why he created the organization, he would lose respect for the old man. Well, I never had one in the first place anyway.

In a comic trope, chasing love was an acceptable motive for minor villains who were quickly beaten, but for a major villain? Others might not care, but he found it inadequate.

Failing to win over your beloved showed you lacked charm. Forcing your beloved to stay with you showed you lack character. A big, bad ‘villain’ being obsessed with romance makes them look pathetic. He read a lot of comics with that kind of plot before, and Su Bei never failed to drop it halfway through, no matter how cool the action scenes were or how pretty the art style was.

It’s winter break. Su Bei mused, looking out the window. Now that I have the time, I should investigate whether this is true or not.

Mo Xiaotian’s grandpa wouldn’t hide his nature at home. Those who were desperate to trap someone who doesn’t love them would show flaws in their daily life. So Su Bei took a cab to get close to Mo Xiaotian’s house, found a blind spot without cameras, used an Invisibility Charm, and entered.

“Wait,” Wu Mingbai cut in. He seemed to remember something, his face went white by the seconds, “Jiang Tianming. Don’t you remember that time when Mo Xiaotian said their house got invaded by an unknown?’

He remembered. After all, while the others were speaking about their Different Space experiences and fun holiday, Mo Xiaotian was the only one who got hurt in the safety of his own house. That was when they didn’t know Mo Xiaotian and his grandfather were the Black Flash. And the teachers just said they found their headquarters as well, ready to retaliate after all the sabotage. Hearing the news was shocking because they never would’ve thought the Black Flash still had the time to target them outside the school.

“What are you talking about?” Zhou Renjie asked, confused.

Right. Mo Xiaotian spoke about this fiasco only to Jiang Tianming, Wu Minbai, Feng Lan, and Su Bei. Never the other classmates.

Feng Lan was the one who answered, “Remember my family’s party? Before we met, Mo Xiaotian told us someone broke into his grandfather’s house and threatened Mo Xiaotian’s life.”

Jiang Tianming jolted, understanding settled in, “You mean,” he turned toward the memory, watching Su Bei (invisible, but for the sake of the ‘watchers’, the memory just turned Su Bei's whole body into grayscale to indicate his invisibility) jumping over the wall of a suburban house. Horrified realization carved on his paling complexion, “Su Bei was the one who hurt Mo Xiaotian?”

Rounding a corner, Su Bei saw Mo Xiaotian picking beans while a white-haired old man, the same man who came for him to the Campus Festival, reclined on a rocking chair.

Mo Xiaotian was animatedly sharing stories from school while the old man smiled softly in indulgence. Watching their banter, it was hard to believe he was a villainous organization’s big boss. Bu Su Bei knew not to underestimate. Often, the quietest ones are the most dangerous. Hiding their true identity like a snake beneath the bush. And his caution turned out to be true when the air shimmered. Two black-clad figures, a man and a woman, appeared before the old man, bowing in unison.

“Master,” they called the old man. And, “Young Master.” They called Mo Xiaotian

The old man retained his kind smile, seemingly undisturbed by the sudden appearance of suspicious people, “How did it go?”

The woman answered first, sounding smug, “Done. Just wait for them to reach ‘headquarters,’ and they’ll receive our special gift.”

Su Bei's heart jolted. Before the break, Meng Huai told him that they had found Black Flash’s headquarters. Was it a trap?

After her report, the man grumbled, “Do we really need to expose our hard-built headquarters to hit them?”

The old man stayed silent, his smile fading, giving him a faint glance. Somehow, it looked menacing.

There it is. Su Bei’s eyes narrowed.

That glimpse alone made the man tremble, “Forgive me, Master. I spoke out of turn.”

Su Bei watched as their discussion continued to their next move, wondering what they would do if they succeeded in trapping the teachers? He scoffed when the old man answered with, “Those willing to serve us receive courtesy. Those unwilling have their own place.” As if humanity exists only for them to experiment. Spare yourself the lofty talk.

When the two robed people vanished, Su Bei headed to the house for clues. But as he neared, the old man stared directly in his direction, “Why not show yourself, sir?”

Almost instantly, Mo Xiaotian reacted, forming eight air cubes around Su Bei's former position to imprison him.

Class S stepped back in surprise. Oh no. This is bad.

Su Bei was discovered!

He sighed, looking away. Fortunately, he reacted faster than Mo Xiaotian, retreating when the old man’s expression shifted, avoiding the attack. He hadn’t spoken despite Su Bei eavesdropping for so long, but sensed him immediately when he got close. Looked like distance was the issue.

And even after I bought the enhanced version of Invisibility Charm from the Destiny’s store page, too. Su Bei turned back toward the two people, expression flat. I underestimated their power. Now, the intel he overheard was compromised. Knowing someone eavesdropped, they would alter their plans. Sorry teach.

Mo Xiaotian was furious, his eyebrows furrowed and lips pulled back in a snarl. Class S still couldn’t believe this is the same goofball that would trip on his own feet , “Who’s here? Grandpa…”

His grandpa interrupted him with a smile, “Xiaotian, what did I teach you? Don’t let anger cloud your mind. What’s the first step?”

He acted like a doting grandfather teaching his grandson the lesson of life while hiding his true intention at the same time. He seemed genuinely kind to Mo Xiaotian, however. And Su Bei noticed that.

That’s a weakness.

Mo Xiaotian’s anger vanished, doing another one hundred and eighty. He answered obediently with a wide smile, “Find a solution. I’ve sealed the courtyard with my Ability!”

The old man nodded approvingly but then shook his head, “Quick reaction, but can this really trap them?” he stole a glance toward Su Bei, a victorious smile graced his old face ever so slightly, “I’ve used Space Lock to seal this area. Even with wings, they can’t escape.”

The same item I just gave back to them. Su Bei wanted to laugh at the irony.

Space Lock sealed the space around it, blocking Teleportation Abilities and items within its range. The only way out was for the item to stop being used. But he knew the grandfather would never do that. And after his blunder—Su Bei was man enough to acknowledge his failing—he didn’t think his usual trick would work on the old man. Su Bei glanced at the top of the grandpa’s head.

See? There was no compass there.

“Wha—but how?” Zhao Xiaoyu asked, getting worried by the minute, “Did he have a specific counter to Su Bei's Ability type, an immunity item, or… an Ability?”

Well, if I can’t target the old man. Su Bei’s eyes landed on the red-haired kid. His purple eyes looked so, so cold, class S members shivered in fright. There’s always another way.

The grandpa threatened him firmly with his aged voice, “I don’t know who you are, but you see the situation you are in. Surrender now and you might survive. Keep resisting…”

Su Bei didn’t let the old man finish because he immediately adjusted Mo Xiaotian’s large pointers to 3 o’clock. Illness, they heard his inner thought. Then shifted his already right-leaning small pointer further right.

Two seconds after adjusting, Mo Xiaotian clutched his stomach and cried out, “Ah! My stomach!”

The pain must’ve been intense, as he crouched, sweat beading on his forehead instantly.

Class S felt their heart thump, gasp of disbelief echoed within the black void.

They knew. They had a feeling a confrontation will, had, happened. But not like this.

Not when Su Bei was looking at Mo Xiaotian like a bug to be crushed. Not when the camaraderie was gone from the usually playful purple eyes.

The grandpa lost his calm, showing panic and worry, his expression chilling, “Do you intend to fight Black Flash to the death?”

But would Su Bei heed his threat? He unhesitatingly cranked Mo Xiaotian’s small pointer to the far right, showing no regard for their bond as classmates. Yes. Normally, they were classmates, but with Mo Xiaotian in the enemy camp, they were foes.

Against enemies, especially those out to kill him, he would never show mercy.

“Su Bei,” the Representative suddenly chimed in, “The God of Destruction is watching.”

Hm? He momentarily stopped. For what? Su Bei was perplexed at the out-of-nowhere intrusion until he remembered that Mo Xiaotian’s image was also included in the prophecy he had made at the start of the school year. He was one of the beings that the God of Destruction would sometime borrows the eyesight for. Is He possessive with His Chosen One or something? Whatever reason He had for peeking at this ‘situation’ though, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that Su Bei couldn’t kill Mo Xiaotian. At least not now. If he did, the God of Destruction would treat him as an anomaly, an outside interference, and He would deal with him swiftly.

But so what? Whether it be by the hand of this organization or the world itself, I’m going to die anyway. Su Bei didn’t care. He stopped caring. It has been that way since he was six and it won’t change even after he’s a teenager. Ruination or not, if this threat failed, “I will take Mo Xiaotian down with me.”

The representative went silent.

Class S held their breath, their face went ashen as seconds ticked by.

Almost the second he cranked the small pointer to the far right, Mo Xiaotian spewed a mouthful of blood, wilting as if he would die any moment. The grandfather’s face darkened like a scorched pot, clutching his grandson with pained eyes, warning again, “You think you can kill Xiaotian? He has a life-saving item we crafted for him. Even if something happens to him, he’ll revive instantly. If you retract your Ability now, we can negotiate. If you persist, I’ll tear you to pieces!”

Su Bei didn’t move, didn’t even twitch. Seeing Mo Xiaotian still vomiting blood, growing feebler, and barely conscious, the old man realized his decision.

Item won’t help you. Su Bei smiled mockingly. Not when the fate itself is against you.

Mo Xiaotian spat another small mouthful of blood and the grandpa couldn’t hold it anymore, “Stop torturing him!” he roared, “I’ll let you go, but you must swear never to use this move on Xiaotian again!”

He produced a Contract from thin air, words appearing as he willed them, outlining his terms, and placed it in a corner, taking Mo Xiaotian to the opposite side, signaling Su Bei to sign. This Contract was high-grade, requiring no pen. Just a mental agreement, with full binding force.

“Representative?” Su Bei mentally poked the beings.

They answered, “No issues.”

Su Bei signed. The Space Lock deactivated under the Contract’s effect. He then teleported home instantly. The second after, a red beam struck where he had stood and blew a three-meter crater.

Slumping on his sofa, at the safety of his own home, he took a deep, long breath. Representative spoke, “That was too close. You can’t take such risks again.”

Su Bei poured himself a glass of water, then nodded, “I’ll be more careful next time.”

He rummaged through Destiny’s inventory, finding several life-saving items. Su Bei then traded his Substitute Doll for one he truly needed; a Life-Saving Puppet. Like the Substitute Doll, it didn’t need to be carried. After you bind it with blood, it will save you once from a fatal injury by swapping its place with you. But it had some flaws.

First, the swap was obvious; enemies saw the puppet replace you, knowing you lived. Faking death, which was possible with a Substitute Doll, wasn’t an option here.

Second, you will be weak for three days after use; not just dizzy and tired like after using the black orb, but truly immobile, needing care. The Substitute Doll had no such drawbacks.

Both had pros and cons, but Life-Saving Puppet suited Su Bei better. Three days of immobility posed no mortal risk, unlike reviving in the same place where he could be trapped.

Near death aside, that infiltration was not for nothing. Su Bei ruffled his hair. He still didn’t know if the grandma was really alive or not. However, the fact that the grandpa cares about his family was real. And that’s a weakness. That can be exploited. After all—

If you want to change the world, you can’t get attached.

The memory ended.

And Class S let out a breath they didn’t know they’d been holding on for who-knows-how-long.

“That was…intense,” Mu Tieren breathed.

“I couldn’t even celebrate about him stocking more of the revival item,” Wu Mingbai laughed. It sounded hollow, “Not after…”

Not after what they just watched.

There was silence. It was thick and awkward.

Jiang Tianming looked at the members present. Their face pale, some had sweat flowing down their forehead. They were shocked at the memory. At Su Bei’s cold demeanor, ready to tear those who hinder his job to pieces. Yet even after that turn of events, even after Su Bei’s true nature, Jiang Tianming couldn’t see any disgust or hatred in their eyes. It was understandable. Mo Xiaotian was an enemy there. In these turbulent days, killing an enemy won’t be frowned upon. Especially not from Jiang Tianming himself, who had killed and will kill if someone ever threatened those he cares for.

Especially not after what Su Bei said at the end of the memory.

“That’s sad, isn’t it?” Ling You whispered. She put his arms around her stomach, eyes went downcast, “Even Mo Xiaotian’s grandpa loves his grandson. Can you really…not make any connection?”

“Su Bei was always smiling,” Si Zhaohua whispered, “But maybe he’d been dead since he was six years old…”

They went silent. The atmosphere was suffocating.

It didn’t help when the next memory started again. The location was in a Different Space with shifting weather, in the cloudy room full of books. It showed the smirking faces of Jiang Tianming, Lan Subing, Wu Mingbai, and Su Bei, as the Nightmare Beasts in the shape of a white cloud quivered in rage. Even if the beast didn’t have a face on it, the humiliation was clear to see. Never could someone beat them in their game, yet today, Su Bei proved without a sweat that they were not as clever as they thought.

“Fine!” they shouted in frustration, “My reward is allowing you to ask me one question.”

At this, Jiang Tianming and the others looked at Su Bei. Jiang Tianming nodded, “You ask.”

The last question was the hardest, after all, nearly stumping them. Su Bei’s answer earned him the reward rightfully. So he didn’t decline, pondering. Though just one question, it could yield great benefits. The key was whether he wanted short-term or long-term gains.

For short-term gains, he could ask about the Beast’s weakness or the easiest way to kill it. Under the Contract, it had to answer truthfully, even if unwilling. Killing a High-Level Nightmare Beast yielded treasures, guaranteed a high-quality Ability item. And its corpse was valuable research material, sellable for money or exchangeable for Academy Points.

However, Su Bei didn’t forget his task. He couldn’t, not when he had been doing this since childhood. So, with purple eyes so blank and lips thinned, he asked, “What’s the relationship between Nightmare Beasts and humans?”

Were they previously humans who were consumed by their own ability? Or was it something else entirely?

The white cloud beast was silent for a moment. But it didn’t take long before Su Bei caught them darkening. No! “Stop it! It’s trying to kill itself!”

The trio realized the gravity—what answer made a High-Level Nightmare Beast choose suicide over responding?—Lan Subing activated her Ability, “[Don’t kill yourself]!” She shouted, “[Answer the question]!”

The cloud Beast’s struggling voice emerged: “Human resentment after death becomes Nightmare Beasts…”

As soon as it spoke, the white clouds on the ceiling rapidly blackened and shriveled, dissolving into specks of black light, leaving only a tuft of white cotton.

It was dead.

Solemnly, Su Bei picked up the cotton, storing the Beast’s corpse in his Storage Bag, his expression grave, “Don’t leave the Different Space yet. Find a way to call the teachers to pick us up.”

High-Level Nightmare Beasts share vision. Other High-Level Beasts likely know their question. After they were forced to spill the hidden truth, the other High Level Nightmare Beasts would likely try to silence them.

After a back and forth between Jiang Tianming and Wu Mingbai, who argue over who should get away from the Different Space to contact the teacher, they huddled in a rainy room near the exit and waited under the umbrella. While the other worried about their friend’s condition, Su Bei pondered the cloud Beast’s revelation.

Nightmare Beasts were formed from human resentment after death.

People inevitably felt resentment or regret upon dying, meaning nearly every death birthed at least one Nightmare Beast. Why “at least one”? The cloud Beast only said resentment became Nightmare Beasts, not how many. Su Bei couldn’t tell if resentment’s intensity affected the number of Nightmare Beasts or if their strength was tied to resentment. But one thing was certain; he’d touched the root of the world’s imbalance between good and evil. Every death created at least one Nightmare Beast, and one Nightmare Beast could easily kill many. Though an Ability user could kill many Nightmare Beasts, how many Ability users were there?

Globally, there were only a few hundred thousand Ability users, many with useless Abilities relegated to Class F. Statistics showed 150,000 to 160,000 daily deaths worldwide.

They couldn’t keep up. Truly couldn’t.

“Representative,” Su Bei cut to the chase, “I found the problem. That means you can answer my question, aren’t you?”

“What do you want to know?”

“Black Flash organization’s research.”

As the Representative of the world, they knew everything inside. They even told Su Bei that they can take a peek at the world’s future. Knowing one measly organization's purpose is like child's play to them.

He had a guess himself, of course. Right after that revelation, he remembered prior intelligence; Black Flash was studying the human-Nightmare Beast relationship. They likely knew how Nightmare Beasts formed. What were they researching? It must be a way to turn Nightmare Beasts back into humans.

That means the grandmother must’ve died. The rumor about her being alive was false, perpetuated by the lonely grandfather.

He must’ve somehow found a Nightmare Beasts that resembled the dead grandmother. Many High-Level Nightmare Beasts are Humanoid, after all. And when he found one that had all of his lover’s traits, even confirmed as her transformation, of course, it would drive a deeply devoted person to do anything to revive her.

Then the ‘Loyalty Crystal’ must’ve been used to keep that Nightmare Beast sedated. Don’t want the ‘grandma’ to wander about and get killed by the other Ability Users. Su Bei nodded, pretty sure of this train of thought. If they manage to find a way, I should join hands with the villains. Compared to a minor faction, saving the world was clearly more critical.

Class S was a touch offended, despite understanding Su Bei’s dilemma. There was a reason why the adage of ‘For The Greater Good’ existed.

Unfortunately, the Representative didn’t comply, “I can’t break the rules.”

Su Bei pondered some more. The Representative lived in his head. They knew about his guesses, listening on it like they had a telepathic ability. Not answering them meant agreeing in itself. Now that he had a confirmation, Su Bei wanted to make sure. So, he asked a new inquiry instead, “Tell me if Nightmare Beasts can become human again then.”

This time, the Representative complied, “No. Nightmare Beasts are just resentment’s products. They can’t become human.”

Ah. As expected. Su Bei smiled pityingly. Poor, poor Mo Xiaotian.

This is why humans should just grieve normally.

The memory ended.

Those last words left a bitter taste in their tongue.

“He’s not just talking about Mo Xiaotian,” Wu Jin said to no one in particular.

And they all understood. They did.

But Jiang Tianming didn’t think Su Bei’s version of grieving was healthy either. Throwing yourself into this task, doing everything he could to stay focused instead of socializing. If his father was alive, Jiang Tianming had a feeling he would scold Su Bei’s way of living.

“He really wasn’t kidding when he said ‘he wanted to save the world,” Wu Mingbai grouched, scratching his nape in frustration, “Fuck, at least lean on us, you idiot!”

Lan Subing whimpered.

Not caring whether the class S mentality was all there or not, the next memory started with another library. Fortunately, this time, it was in a friendly location. From the way the silky curtain draped elegantly and how the pillars were made of expensive marble, this library belongs to a Named Family. Feng Family. Su Bei, after he had maxed his luck via the compass, walked around the library. He accidentally (or by fate) knocked off a book. That made his eyes flicker in amusement and he bent to pick it up.

Flipping through, it was just a calligraphy collection, nothing special. He glanced at its original spot who now had a gap. It didn’t take long before he saw the trick. The gap revealed a seam, not between shelves but like a door’s. His gaze returned to the book. Examining its side, he noticed one page was darker, indicating that that particular page was frequently flipped. Opening it, he found an original poem.

Voice-activated? Su Bei read it, yet nothing happened. He took a look at the poem again and realized another trick. It was an acrostic poem The first characters formed. “As you wish, as you wish, follow my heart’s desire.”

So he said exactly that, and the hidden door opened.

Feng Lan was not amused. He looked around the black void, yet still couldn’t find anything. He decided to complain anyway, “Did you seriously just tell the Feng Family’s hidden library to the outsiders without any remorse?”

Everyone laughed. Wu Jin was particularly giggly.

Well, that at least lightened the mood. Jiang Tianming smiled a bit.

Su Bei went inside, scanning all the restricted books a bit more closely. It took five minutes before his purple eyes landed on one. A book titled ‘Study on the Birth of Nightmare Beasts.’

After he fetched Wu Jin from the other floor so he would stop searching, now that Su Bei had found what he wanted, they then got absorbed in their own book. The content of the book Su Bei chose to read was as follows:

Study on the Birth of Nightmare Beasts, written a century ago by a powerful Ability User when Nightmare Beasts were new, was tough to counter but easier to trace. Feeling strong enough, the author explored their origins, entering a Different Space to reach the Nightmare Beast world. From the description, Su Bei sensed the world had few Nightmare Beasts then. They appeared suddenly, accumulating, not overflowing from long existence. Though unaware that Nightmare Beasts would grow, the author suspected it. The sparse population suggested a recent emergence.

In the latter half of the book, the author found answers. Nightmare Beasts’ emergence was tied to Ability Users’ appearance, likely simultaneously.

This timing was odd. The author investigated major events before. He found that a week prior, the aviation bureau reported a meteor set to hit Earth. Its trajectory was recorded, but no trace was found. After investigations, he confirmed Nightmare Beasts and Ability Users arose due to this meteor.

This felt credible. The author verified the meteor’s existence and its unexplained disappearance. Given its size, it should’ve been noticeable. But it wasn’t to be found, even now. So the author believed it caused a planetary shift, then dissipated.

Meteor. Su Bei put his chin between his fingers, his eyes sharpening. There were a lot of meteors that fell to the earth. Big, small. Just because this one particular meteor coincided with the appearance of Nightmare Beasts doesn’t mean it correlated.

Surprisingly, the Representative chimed in, “It is not unrelated,” they said, “We just can’t use it for now.”

Su Bei froze, eyes widening.

A clue. The Representative just gave him a big clue.

Can’t use it…can’t use it. Su Bei perked up, “Does that mean this is the foundation of the world that was put to the back burner because the God of Creation went into a coma?!”

The Representative didn’t answer. Yet Su Bei had a feeling they just smiled in satisfaction.

“This is great,” he wanted to grin, “This is great! Sealing the Nightmare Beasts is impossible. Peaceful coexistence is like asking water to get along with oil. There’s only one way to save the world, and that is a complete annihilation of the Nightmare Beasts,” Su Bei traced the words on the book with a gleam in his purple eyes, “And I think I know what to do.”

The memory ended.

Then it started anew with a change in scenery. The setting seemed to be after they were done with the Special Class exam for exchange students. Su Bei, who was usually silent in class, suddenly stood up, garnering everyone’s attention. Si Zhaohua was the first to ask, “Where are you going?”

“Library,” Su Bei replied. “Coming?”

“I remembered thinking it was pretty unusual for Su Bei to invite others, so I just accepted,” Sho Zhaohua from the present watched his past self follow Su Bei like a duckling, “Does that mean he was scheming here?”

“By the way, why are you guys following us?” Wu Jin tilted his head.

Most of them couldn’t really answer, “I think I was just bored?’ Qi Huang thought.

“I don’t want to get left behind,” Baozhu shrugged.

The rest went ‘yeah, that’s it.’ Like a parrot parroting the repeated sentence taught by their human.

“Herd behavior?” Ling You guessed. And honestly? It wasn’t wrong.

Su Bei ran his hand along the library shelves, looking as if he was browsing the titles. There was a brief flash of light, before a book covered in black appeared between his hands; it seemed he just pulled it out of his storage ring. That book was then slipped between the already registered ones from the library and proceeded to pull out a random book as a signal to end his charade.

“Let me clarify something,” Su Bei called for the Representative’s attention after he sat down on the library bench, “The meteor incident is a prominent ‘setting’ for the balance of this world, right? It wasn’t used for now because of the God of Creation's apparent coma. But why didn’t the other God take the job upon Himself? After all, the ‘base’ is already there.”

“Because the God of Creation handled the cause while the God of Destruction handled the effect,’ the Representative answered truthfully, “They usually share each other's knowledge when the world was created, but then the ‘glitch’ happened.”

“That means He wasn’t ignoring it. He genuinely didn’t know,” Su Bei nodded, “Then our first task of the day is to remind him of the existence of lost knowledge.”

Su Bei watched in giddiness when Jiang Tianming picked up the planted book. The same book he read on Feng Family’s library, took, and then made a copy of. The Birth of Nightmare Beasts, “Look like the foundation—

“—is set.”

The memory ended.

Jiang Tianming felt bamboozled, “I took that book solely because of the color of the cover, though…”

Li Shu had both of his eyebrows raised, “He’s a Destiny leader. You think he wouldn’t know about your favorite color?”

Jiang Tianming let out a sound like a dying animal.

“There, there,” Lan Subing patted his shoulder in sympathy.

The next memory started with a brief flashback of a Nightmare Beasts in the shape of a book—Knowledge Nightmare Beast—asking Su Bei to stick his hand into its pages to get his reward.

“Hm? Was this when we had an exchange student program?” Zhou Renjie looked interested. If they remembered correctly, at this time, Zhou Renjie was already busy being an undercover agent in Black Flash organization, so they understood his fascination.

“This must be when we got trapped in the book and forced to age faster, right?” Baozhu groaned, “I hate that ‘mission’. I had to see wrinkles appear on my unblemished face! So scary!”

Then the memory skipped to Su Bei sitting in his dorm bedroom; back in their own school and done with the exchange program. He pulled out something from within the Destiny red book. It was a photo of a colorless place, riddled with sandstorms and floating pebbles and dust. It was a Nightmare Beasts world.

“Give me additional compensation because Nightmare Beasts world suck,” the seller who sold that photo to Su Bei complained, their frustration was clear even through the written words on a book, “Do you know how depressing that place was? I need to watch a bunch of funny shows just to lift my mood.”

Su Bei huffed in amusement yet readily complied. He gave additional points for them to spend on the Destiny store page and cut the connection. Now that the distraction was over, he focused his attention on the prize he had just bought.

We’ve learned that the Nightmare Beast world banned happiness. Su Bei pondered. Fitting, as they were formed from human death’s resentment, their world naturally lacked joy. Maybe I should ask Feng Lan sometimes. I heard his team had to go there for their student exchange program duty.

When Su Bei saw the photo and noticed the airborne stones for the second time, his eyes glinted.

Are those meteor fragments?

The Representative had confirmed that the meteors are related to the appearance of Ability Users and Nightmare Beasts. So Su Bei at first thought that he should locate the meteor in the human world to look at it a little bit closer. Not everything has a Fate Compass—you won’t find one in everyday things like a pen or an umbrella—but a meteor that mutated the world was not going to be ordinary. Just like how attending this school can change someone else’s fate.

However, even after asking all the available Destiny members, they still couldn’t find any. Not a trace, not even a fragment. So, just like the author of the book surmised, Su Bei concluded that the meteor had indeed disappeared, the energy absorbed itself into the human life force and was waiting to be awakened. To change the ordinary into an Ability User.

But what’s this? Why are there so many stone fragments in the Nightmare Beasts world?

Was the reason why I couldn’t find any fragments because the meteors here were stolen and brought back to their world? Su Bei considered. No, that’s overcomplicating things. And anyone would notice if a bunch of Nightmare Beasts were stealing a chunk of rock. Perhaps the meteor event happened at the same time. It didn’t just strike the earth, but the other dimension as well. After all, both the Earth and the Nightmare Beasts world are one side of a mirror. What happened here will affect the other world.

Su Bei pulled out a necklace from behind his shirt. It was shaped like a gear at first, before it then slowly morphed into a tiny rock. This was an item he got from the Knowledge Nightmare Beast, a Life Stone Necklace.

Life Stone, a treasure of the Nightmare Beast world, useless to adult beasts but boosting High-Level beast birth rates, making it precious. Only a few existed, each guarded by powerful beasts. Most humans didn’t even know of them, let alone have one. The beast’s piece was a fragment, naturally shed and lacking the full stone’s powers, so it let Su Bei take it as compensation for saving its life.

The fragment had two functions. Primarily, when fused into the heart, it fully restores life force, a one-use item, vanishing after. Second, a self-protection mechanism. It could morph into any shape within its size. This was the reason why it was shaped like a gear at first. By making it look like an item conjured from his Ability, no one would blink twice if he started wearing a necklace. If he kept the original shape, Baozhu would definitely be the first to notice and comment on how ugly it was.

“I definitely would,” Baozhu solemnly nodded.

Another revival item. Jiang Tianming distractedly noted.

But this is important for Su Bei’s next step in saving the world. When he realized this item boosted Nightmare Beast birth rate, not to mention the shape itself, he immediately noticed the similarity it had with a rock fragment. And when talking about rock that has the power to change and influence something, Su Be’s first thought was a meteor that granted humanity an Ability.

The "Life Stone," per the Knowledge Nightmare Beast, existed only in the Nightmare Beast world, brimming with energy, enhancing nearby Nightmare Beasts’ quality. Su Bei twirled the stone around, as if trying to find the answer to the world’s secret from that small piece only. Is this a meteor? Are the ‘Life Stone’ and the floating rocks in the Nightmare Beasts world one and the same?

Su Bei couldn’t think of any conclusion with so few hints. Discovering the meteor as the foundation of the world was great, but with the God of Creation being comatose, that foundation was still technically incomplete. Like a story without an ending. Even if the God of Creation had His own solution, nobody knows, and Su Bei had to create another one from scratch. That means he had to visit the Nightmare Beast world to confirm the meteor’s location if he wanted to proceed.

But it seemed Fate was on his side for now because Su Bei got a great hint not long after.

It took place in the school's outside hallway. Jiang Tianming, Wu Mingbai, and Su Bei were seen walking through the corridor after they had finished eating dinner. Jiang Tianming asked about Wu Mingbai's boost in his ability and the latter then happily demonstrated the said boost.

Wu Mingbai scanned the area, pointing to a stone pillar atop a building hundreds of meters away, and reached out.

The knee-high pillar flew to him.

“That far?” Jiang Tianming gaped. Wu Mingbai’s prior control over earth elements before was far weaker, after all.

“Not just that—it’s just the farthest earth item we can see,” Wu Mingbai said smugly. “Check this!”

He raised his hands, face paling, forehead sweating. Just as he seemed to falter, a small stone fell from the sky into his hand.

A stone from the sky?!

Su Bei’s eyes widened, a rare shared shock. He ignored Wu Mingbai’s delight at his expression and hurriedly asked,“Is that a meteor?”

Wu Mingbai nodded, “Yes, a meteor.” Startling Su Bei even more. He explained, “I used [Earth Element] to increase my mass, like becoming a mini-Earth, drawing my own asteroids. It’s not that simple, but that’s the gist.”

He said it wasn’t refined yet, more of a show than a proper attack. He could only summon a small rock, not the big one. But that was enough to make Su Bei’s mind race.

There were only fragments in that photo because it was taken at the very entrance of the Nightmare Beasts World. Su Bei’s eyes moved about. But just because it shattered into fragments doesn’t mean the large chunks are completely gone.

And one thing is for sure. Su Bei’s purple eyes glinted as a smirk graced his skin, watching Wu Mingbai speak with Jiang Tianming. That ability is going to help me clarify my hypothesis.

The memory ended.

“No wonder he asked me about the rock in the Nightmare World,” Wu Mingbai ahh-ed, finally having context to Su Bei’s action.

“Guys,” Zhao Xiaoyu suddenly piped in, her slow word gained everyone’s attention. She looked pensive, “I don’t want to say this because it felt like I'm questioning Su Bei's work, but this has been on my mind since the beginning of his investigation,” She put his chin between her fingers, her eyes flitted to the side, “He said before that the knowledge of the world foundation was lost because the God of Creation is sleeping, so he had to create his own version of 'finale'. But why is that? We already have a perfect solution and that is destroying the meteorite. He didn’t need to invent a new one at all.”

That’s true, Jiang Tianming hummed. The way the memory was presented here felt like they were trying to tell them Su Bei’s journey in creating a way to fix the imbalance of the world. Not finding it. Even the Representative explicitly told him to build the said solution. That was strange. Because, just like Zhao Xiaoyu pointed out, it already existed. Su Bei didn’t need to wrack his brain to make another one.

As if answering their inquiry, the next memory began.

(They would soon realize the reality was far stranger than they could ever think of)

“The God of Destruction is watching.” It started with the Representative’s warning.

The memory was about a city campaign in Suqi City, where they were tasked to protect the civilians and stop the Nightmare Beasts' rampage. Su Bei was seen being confronted by Jiang Tianming. The former showed a flat expression while the latter looked suspicious. Su Bei blinked slowly. And, even if his outward expression didn’t move, he was scowling.

“Why?”

He didn’t harm His chosen one directly this time. The God shouldn’t pay attention to what he did.

“You haven’t been subtle when you want the other candidates, especially the ‘narrator’, to be here,” the Representative explained, “The God of Destruction had been watching since after what you did to the previous one,” they meant Mo Xiaotian, “He was waiting for you to slip up.”

Su Bei internally winced. Okay, yeah. He did slip up a bit. The end of this task was near and Su Bei had been giddy. After all, one more step, and the solution to fix this damned world will be ready. Besides, acting is tiring. He’d been doing that since the start of the school year; deflecting, smiling when he didn’t feel like it. He just wanted to live his life peacefully while waiting for the day he finally died. But instead, he got saddled with this annoying knowledge and was expected to solve the conundrum.

“So, He’s treating me like an outside interference.”

“Yes.”

Su Bei focused back on the real world, watching those black eyes from the black-haired kid still clouded in wariness. “Why are you so keen on going?” Jiang Tianming had asked him. Su Bei wondered if that really was his thought or if the God of Destruction’s opinion on him was leaking through. The Representative did say that He couldn’t control the beings in this world. That doesn’t mean He couldn’t meddle with their feelings, though.

Si Zhaohua had saved Su Bei from answering by giving him a perfect excuse, yet he knew from the quick glances that the suspicion wasn’t gone a single bit.

If he had a choice, Su Bei wanted to step back. Making a blunder now would be a hassle, especially after he had already spent his whole life fixing Their mistake. He’d come so far!

But the preparation is completed. Su Bei couldn’t back down. Not when the situation was this bad and would keep on worsening if he didn’t move fast enough.

So, they went inside a mall. And after a brief tussle with the Spider Nightmare Beasts and her ‘children’, Su Bei managed to separate himself from the main party. He immediately headed straight to the fifth-floor cinema.

Su Bei waited in darkness, fiddling with the black orbs and was evidently waiting for something. To the point that he periodically let his Mental Energy probe the area around. There was a sound coming from the outside and Su Bei perked up.

He stopped playing with the black orb and proceeded to grip it tightly. And channeling his Mental Energy into it, Su Bei created illusions in reality. It was two High-Level Nightmare Beasts; one a Black Bubble Nightmare Beast, the other a Knowledge Nightmare Beast.

“Huh. That item had that kind of function?” Qi Huang was surprised.

“What is he trying to do?” Feng Lan’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Don’t know where Su Bei went,” Class S heard Lan Subing sigh from outside the cinema, “He’d know how to handle that cockroach Nightmare Beast.”

Wu Mingbai, words were outwardly cheerful yet dripped with sarcasm, “Our Su Bei’s the escape master. I can’t even remember the last time he was upfront in a fight.”

“Let’s hit the cinema to plan. Maybe Su Bei’s hiding there,” Jiang Tianming said and Su Bei knew he had to act now.

He pressed the orb and the Nightmare Beasts hologram started talking.

“Honestly, it’s pointless to open three Different Space Gates for a small Life Stone.” Said the Knowledge Nightmare Beast.

“No kidding. As long as things keep going this way, we’ll wipe out humans eventually,” the Black Bubble Nightmare Beast answered with a scoff.

What? Jiang Tianming’ eyes widen. A premonition came over him. Wasn’t this conversation—

Su Bei heard the talking outside stop. They must be eavesdropping right now. He continued the charade.

“How many ability users do humans have?” the first one grumbled, “We Nightmare Beasts are endless. Build up our strength, and they’ll fall instantly.”

“Too bad this war will cost us a lot,” the second sighed, then perked up, “But no matter. Teaching humans a lesson is fine. As long as they don’t find a way to wipe us out, we’ll win.”

It snorted, “How could they? Even if they did, they couldn’t do it!”

Then Su Bei let them pause. Waiting for the others’ next move.

Wu Mingbai didn’t disappoint. When they realized the ‘Nightmare Beasts’ stopped talking right before they spilled the ‘important info’, they started creating their own play. They talked about their wish to eliminate all the Nightmare Beasts, boasting that humans could do it if they were determined enough. Then, to close the play, they stomped their feet as if mimicking running away. Giving the Nightmare Beasts peace to keep on conversing.

Su Bei wanted to laugh. They’re great. And continued his own ploy.

“Hah, those narrow-minded humans.” Knowledge beast scoffed.

“If they knew the way to wipe us out was to clear all the Meteorite fragments from our world, they wouldn’t think they’re invincible,” Bubble beasts speak confidently, believing it to be impossible.

After a couple of snide remarks, Su Bei made the illusion scarce. And the curtain to this facade finally closed.

Jiang Tianming, Lan Subing, and Wu Mingbai, who hid to continue eavesdropping, had their jaw dropped. Disbelief, but most of all, hopeful about the apparent solution to humanity’s dilemma.

As they ran back to regroup and were ready to share this info with the authority, Su Bei emerged from within the safety of the invisible charm. He pocketed the black orb inside the storage ring and asked, “So what’s the verdict?”

The Representative didn’t answer, apparently waiting. When they spoke next, Su Bei heard the excitement they couldn’t contain, “The God of Destruction believed it. Your ‘lie’ had become reality. You did it, Su Bei.”

“You create the solution to fix this world!”

The memory ended

And Class S exploded. Figuratively.

“WHAT?!” they all shouted.

“That was a lie?!” Wu Mingbai exclaimed, “All the info we’ve learned was fabricated by Su Bei?!”

“Holy SHIT!” in a rare fit of inelegance, Si Zhaohua cursed to sky-high, “We’ve been played!”

“The whole world had been played!” Zhao Xiaoyu sputtered.

“My dad asked the leader of the Destiny about this info and they confirmed it,” Wu Jin looked like he was on the verge of a breakdown, “Of course, they confirmed it. The leader was Su Bei. And Su Bei made up the whole thing—”

Feng Lang lost his composure, staring at the black void in shock.

It took a while for everyone to calm down. Most of them just screamed unintelligibly. And, if they were not stuck in the chair by a force unknown, Jiang Tianming was sure some would start running around like headless chickens. But they did calm down. Mind was still broken by the bombshell, yet sane enough to accept the truth.

“Su Bei worked hard,” Lan Subing whispered after the daze look was gone, “He worked so hard. So why—”

Why did he have to die?

Jiang Tianming gulped, “The God of Destruction saw him as an anomaly,” and he felt guilt gnawing at his heart at that. The God chose him as His eye. And Su Bei used that fact to fix the imbalance. He had to act, had to lie, had to make everything into a gospel. He changed the world. And at the same time, dooming his own worth. All because he was doubtful of Su Bei’s actions.

Wu Jin, who could read other people's emotions, stared squarely at Jiang Tianming, “It’s not your fault.” When Jiang Tianming tried to open his mouth, to protest, Wu Jin shook his head, “The God could choose one of us as His main eye and it won’t change anything. Su Bei would still do his play and the God would still be suspicious of him. It’s not your fault, Jiang Tianming.”

“This happened because the God of Creation is still sleeping,” Qi Huang was fuming, “When will He wake up?! Did the Representative even try to fix the ‘glitch’?!”

“The God of Destruction won’t unravel Su Bei’s hard work, right?” Ling You abruptly stated, “If He was peeking from our eyes right now and saw this memory, would he undo everything? Treat it as a lie and bring all the Nightmare Beasts back?”

Chills ran down their spine.

Will He? Jiang Tianming felt his heart beat faster. After all Su Bei’s sacrifice, will He really destroy everything that he had slaved for—

“No,” Feng Lan sounded resolute, the astonishment was mostly gone from his expression. He clasped his hands then bowed with his eyes closed. There was a wisp of mental energy and he raised his head once more. Did he just use his prophecy ability? Feng Lan's lips quirked a bit, “No. This lie had become a fact. Both by the humanity and the Nightmare Beasts folks. The fate of the world had changed and He couldn’t tamper with it anymore. Not when it wasn’t in His job requirement.”

Jiang Tianming understood, “Because the Representative is the God of Creation’s stand in,” he perked up, “It’s Their job now to create the cause, while the other just had to handle the effect.”

Feng Lan nodded, “The Nightmare Beasts are still scrambling to recoup their losses. Su Bei’s work still holds up.”

Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

Judging that they were all now okay to proceed, the next memory played silently. As usual, it started with Su Bei staring at his Destiny Book, “The Black Flash’s experiment failed,” he muttered, reading the information from the seller, “And in a pit of depression, the grandfather decided to collude with the Nightmare Beasts.’

The reason why the Earth element Nightmare Beasts had increased was that the Black Flash had helped in their reproduction. The Nightmare Beasts realized that humanity must’ve found out their weakness, especially when their school deliberately made a mission to destroy the rock floating about the Nightmare Beast world as their final exam. Black Flash then appeared, acting as their savior, promising the Nightmare Beasts that they would help protect the meteorite fragments. Today information seller, the same one he had contacted before to snap a photo of the Nightmare Beasts' worlds, gave him new information; all the earth element beasts were tasked to collect the biggest meteorite fragments back to the Black Flash’s base.

From the information of the “Destiny” organization, those few large meteorites were the reason for the continuous birth of Nightmare Beasts. The smaller meteorite fragments around served to maintain the environment of the Nightmare Beast world. Su Bei chuckled, “Is this your doing, Representative?” Giving humanity a much easier solution rather than forcing them to spend years and years breaking smaller rocks without any clear ending?

The said beings somehow sounded a bit smug when they said, “The God of Destruction believed it so. I’m just a humble representative.”

Su Be snorted.

The seller continued, “I don’t know what they’re going to do with the meteorite, but if they can change the element of a Nightmare Beast from non-earth to earth, I won’t be surprised if they could change those rocks into indestructible material yet still maintain the core as a meteor,” they grumble, “You said the other Destiny members found five rocks? Except I heard there’s actually six big chunks. Want me to find the last location?”

Su Bei hummed, “You sure are cooperative for a Black Flash member.”

The guy didn’t exactly scorn. You can’t really do that in written words in the book. But Su Bei had the feeling they did just that because he could feel the disgust wafting off their response, “I joined this group because they promised me they could turn Nightmare Beasts back into humans, not colluding with them to destroy the world.”

The connection was then cut off, with the promise that they would inform the sixth rock location immediately when they found it. Su Bei joined his fingers into one, staring right out the window. The sky was colorless, the atmosphere was stifling. He was in the Nightmare Beasts world, staying inside the cramped room of Tri-School Base.

The world is changing. Humanity can finally fight back against the Nightmare Beasts. And Su Bei still couldn’t believe it was all because of his fabricated tale.

Well, with the help of the Representative’s ‘make-believe’ ability, of course.

Su Bei walked out of his room and went into the conference room. Besides his classmates, there were several other adults who were, not surprisingly, the leaders of the Tri-School Base. Mu Tieren, whom he hadn't seen for several days, had dark circles under his eyes. He was sitting on a chair, lost in thought, and it was hard to tell if he was thinking about something or just spacing out.

Everyone argued whether they should destroy the converter machine or not; the same machine that the Black Flash had used to change the Nightmare Beasts’ element from no-earth to earth, the same machine the Black Flash is going to use to convert the meteorite into something indestructible. By having this machine in their possession, Nightmare Beasts had been relentlessly bashing the base from morning till night. After several days of facing the same thing over and over, they finally couldn’t handle it anymore. But the thing was, they also couldn’t let the machine be destroyed or they would’ve played right into the enemy’s hands.

Su Bei didn’t contribute to the discussion, opting to stare at Mu Tieren and waiting for his verdict. The class president didn’t disappoint. Before the argument could escalate into a physical fight, he raised his hand and said, ”My research has yielded some results.”

The converter machine they had in their hand right now was not a one-way machine. In fact, according to his research, its original function should have been the exact opposite of its current one, which is to convert meteorites into other stones, and Earth Element Nightmare Beasts into other elemental Nightmare Beasts.

If Mu Tieren developed the reverse-converter, what they needed to do was use this machine to eliminate the meteorites. It was certainly impossible to convert all the chunks, but they could convert the large ones first. As long as the large meteorites were converted, it would immediately deal a heavy blow to the Nightmare Beast world. The remaining small ones were just a matter of time.

This is the last stretch. Su Bei gripped his hands that were shaking in excitement. After this is over, I can finally live my life peacefully.

I can fulfill my promise to my dad to keep on living.

The memory ended.

And the hope they just gained dimmed to nothingness, like it never existed in the first place.

No.

Is it time already?

They knew what was coming. Si Zhaohua and Wu Mingbai knew what was coming. Jiang Tianming knew what was about to happen.

But they didn’t know if they could handle the heartbreak once again.

They didn’t want to see Su Bei die for the second time—

Mu Tieren abruptly jolted, “Guys,” he whispered, looking around with eyebrows furrowed, “Did you hear that?”

The other were confused. Hear what?

“Someone is saying something,” he listened more closely, nose scrunched in concentration, “I think they said…”

“Don’t…get attached?”

They didn’t have any time to comprehend what that was supposed to mean because the next memory started with a mechanical voice, declaring, “Earth Element concentration is not enough, conversion cannot be completed. Please quickly increase the machine’s Earth Element content, please quickly increase the machine’s Earth Element content”, surprising them all.

Everyone’s expressions were a colorful mix of panic, fear, helplessness, and anger. Only one person laughed, but it was a cold laugh. Su Bei lowered his head and chuckled, his purple eyes went blank, lips pulled into an ugly sneer.

I was wondering why it was so easy. It was so smooth that everything seemed to fall into place naturally, without any difficulty.

So this was where you were waiting for me, huh? God of Destruction?!

The small pointer’s direction represented luck. The large pointer meant something else entirely, each position corresponding to specific events. For example, on the upper half, 10 o’clock meant travel, 11 o’clock meant eating, 2 o’clock meant conversation and so on.

The lower half represented causes of death; the left side for murder, the right for natural death.

And right now, everyone’s small pointer had suddenly shifted to the right.

And Si Zhaohua’s, Wu Mingbai’s, and his own big pointer were stuck on the left lower half.

The God of Destruction wanted him to go ‘offline’ so much, he tried taking the other hostages.

‘Don’t get attached.’

Jiang Tianming and the other jolted at the sudden whisper that graced their ears.

What was that?

Wu Mingbai said he would finish the remaining rock while Si Zhaohua volunteered to be his ‘taxi’. From those words alone, Su Bei knew this was the reason why they were going to meet their end. As people on the road, they would definitely face more danger. Who knew how many interceptions they would encounter, how many Nightmare Beasts would target them. It was normal then for them to eventually die in the end.

As for his own death? Who knows. The God of Destruction must be waiting for his decision before He made His own move.

‘Don’t get attached.’

Everyone gasped. They hear it again! They weren’t imagining it. Mu Tieren wasn’t kidding. Someone really was saying something, and it seemed to be coming from everywhere.

Adjusting the large pointer used far more Mental Energy than the small one, even within the same direction (upper or lower). Moving it from top to bottom or vice versa consumed three-quarters of his Mental Energy.

He could technically reverse three people’s Big pointers at once just fine. It’ll leave him drained and might put him into a coma, yet it won’t drain his life force.

But right now, this is an event that could alter the world’s future. For the betterment of humanity. All the people involved in this mission become ‘expensive’, for lack of better words. Su Bei knew on instinct that moving even one Big Pointer was going to drain all of his Mental Energy. Let alone three.

‘Don’t get attached.’

No.

It didn’t come from everywhere. Jiang Tianming looked back toward the memory, eyes widening in despair.

It came from Su Bei’s heart—

If I didn’t save those two, they heard Su Bei’s inner monologue, there would be no problem. I could use my remaining mental power to change my own fate, and I wouldn’t even need to consume my life force.

‘Don’t get attached.’

I could stay alive. I could live my life like a normal person and maybe travel around the world. Like I always want to.

‘Don’t get attached.’

I’ve worked hard. I spent my entire life trying to fix this world. I should be able to reap the reward now, right, Representative?

There was no answer.

‘Don’t get attached.’

I just want to keep my promise to my dad. Just one little promise. Is that really selfish of me? It’s normal to want to live, right? So, don’t get attached.

‘Don’t get attached.’

‘Don’tgetattachedDon’tgetattachedDon’tgetattachedDon’tgetattached ’

‘Don’t get attached! Su Bei!’

“Ahh…” Su Bei looked toward the sky and smiled. It was so brittle and sad, “I got attached…”

Lan Subing let out a loud sob.

He gave Jiang Tianming a flash of a wild grin before he turned around. Su Bei slowly levitated into the air. His golden hair floated with the energy fluctuations from the center of his hand. A miniature gear then appeared in between the fingers. The gear had a slight halo. At first glance, it seemed ordinary, but no one could ignore the huge energy it contained.

At the same time, a compass array emitting a dark light rose from under his feet. The runes carved on the array were mysterious and magnificent. As the gear rotated between his hands, dots of light floated up from the bottom until they converged in the gear. In an instant, the light shone brightly.

His hair turned white inch by inch from the top of his head, spreading to the ends. That white was more sacred than the whitest snow anyone had ever seen, yet it brought death and decay.

Su Bei was using his life force to use his ability.

He slowly raised his heavy eyelids and looked at the Nightmare Beasts. They had already arrived and were beginning to attack the defensive barrier set up by Jiang Tianming. Feeling the little life force left in his body, Su Bei slightly raised his hand to hold the gear pendant on his chest and forced himself to cheer up, “I’ll help you one last time.”

The pointer turned.

And more than half of the Nightmare Beasts surrounding them instantly died.

Su Bei calmly accepted his fate. He disappeared from the bottom up until he turned into ashes and dissipated in the air. What a shitty life. Used until I'm dry, and when I don’t have anything more to offer, you throw me away like a piece of trash. He kept his oh so bitter smile, looking so serene yet lonely. Well, at least now…

You’ll finally leave me in peace, hm?

The memory ended.

And everyone bawled their eyes out.

The girls were all wailing, big fat tears were rolling down their cheeks, while the boys cried silently with their eyes closed. Jiang Tianming himself was sitting there, staring ahead with water flowing out of his eyes. All these years, Su Bei tried to so hard to be unfeeling. To keep himself focused on the task so he won’t get distracted. He vowed not to get into a meaningful relationship, knowing that his life was hanging in uncertainty. He didn’t want to hurt others. And at the same time, he didn’t want to hurt himself either.

But Su Bei couldn’t help it. Even if he convinced himself, brainwashed himself, into thinking like an unfeeling person, his heart is saying something different. It was reaching out to them. Screaming at them.

Yet they never realized—

He didn’t move for a while, even when the unknown force that trapped him in his chair was gone, still drowning in the intense feeling of Su Bei’s last moment. The cry petered off, leaving a haunting sob to echo across the black space. Jiang Tianming rubbed his eyes, once, twice, then lifted his head.

“Are you satisfied now?” he asked, soft, almost a whisper.

He felt, rather than saw, when his friends’ attention was back on him. But Jiang Tianming didn’t look at them. Didn’t try to explain what was going on with him. At one point, the movie screen was gone, leaving them with just the sofas they were sitting on. And Jiang Tianming glared forward. To the place where he previously saw something watching them.

The black void parted, unveiling something from within. A robed figure stepped out, their face was nothing but squiggly lines. They recognized the figure. They’ve been seeing the figure.

It was Representative.

The body double of the God of Creation was here.

Everyone stood up, body tensed and ability wound up (Jiang Tianming distractedly noted that the sofa then disappeared as well). Even from far away, he could feel their divinity. It was choking, it was intimidating. And Su Bei let this thing reside within him for years. Let this thing stay and toy with his feelings.

Jiang Tianming didn’t assume a battle-ready stance, just standing and glowering at the higher beings, “This is all your doing, isn’t it?” he asked. No, demanded, “Trapping us here, forcing us to watch Su Bei’s entire life.”

“What do you want?” he continued, a growl emerged from behind the throat, “Are you trying to find new victims to play with, now that the previous pawn is gone?!”

The Representative didn’t answer. They never like answering things. Even at the end there, when Su Bei was asking for their answer. Their comfort and their assurance that everything will be fine. That they’ll keep their promise to let him live. Jiang Tianming was furious. He wanted to scream, he wanted to rage. But he waited. He waited for the Representative to explain themselves. Su Bei was patient with them, he could afford to do the same.

It’s the least he could do for a friendship that was long overdue.

The Representative looked away, finally speaking, “The God of Creation has woken up,” they spoke with multiple voices, rattling their bone, “With the ‘settings’ finally completed, the ‘glitch’ that put the God of Creation into a slumber had disappeared. The world is now stable and everything will be fine.”

“So what? Just because we won’t be doomed to die, it’s okay to sacrifice one life?” Jiang Tianming growled, “It’s always like this with you, huh? Those who think they’re God? It’s always ‘for the greater good!’ You never care about other people, only your ambition! It doesn’t matter if one, ten, one hundred had to die, as long as you reach your end, you—”

“Su Bei is alive.”

That stopped Jiang Tianming's tirade.

What.

Su Bei is—

“He’s alive,” the Representative looked back at class S members. Grief, shock, confusion, and…a bit of hope carved on each face. The Representative tilted their head to the side. Somehow, Jiang Tianming had a sense that they just smiled playfully, “The God of Creation wanted to thank him for ‘finishing’ the story. He was sad that He missed Su Bei’s departure, so I said, ‘What do you mean? He’s there, sleeping.’ And the God of Creation believed it.”

Just like how Su Bei made the God of Destruction believe in his lie.

Wu Mingbai and Si Zhaohua let out a synchronized hiccup out of sheer relief. Jiang Tianming felt his breath whoosh out of his lungs.

“Please tell Su Bei to accept the gift. He deserved it,” the Representative looked fond, “And thank you, everyone. For saving this world.”

May you all live in harmony.

Then the black void slowly disappeared. Bit by bit, like a curtain opening. The colors were back. And instead of a door to their classroom, they were greeted by a mahogany one. They were not even in their school anymore, but in an apartment located in a suburban area.

(“This place feels familiar,” Zhou Renjie whispered, looking around the place.)

Jiang Tianming heard a sound of soft tinkling and looked down. A familiar black orb. It had lost all of its color, a crack forming from the center.

That black void. He thought as he bent to pick it up. Were we trapped in a closed Different Space created by this item the whole time?

This belongs to Su Bei. Jan Tianming glanced back at the door, his heart started beating faster. Then the one behind this door is—

He moved toward the knob, gripped and turned it. The door opened without resistance. And as the view widened out, as he distantly noticed the neat bookshelf and desk, he saw him.

Su Bei. Lying on his bed with his eyes closed.

The other, who could only peek from behind the narrow door, gasped. Wu Mingbai forced through the shocked Jiang Tianming, striding closer to Su Bei and watched his breathing from beneath the blanket. He put his hand on Su Bei’s shoulders, shaking the teen. Slow at first, before gaining. Having gained no response, Wu Mingbai turned back toward them all, panic clear in his face, “Si Zhaohua?”

The one called understood immediately, “It’s the Life-Saving Puppet’s side effect,” he clarified. And that one word was enough to remind Jiang Tianming about the item. Once used, you won’t be able to move for three days. Sure, for an Ability User, not eating or drinking for that long was fine, but it’ll still be painful. The hunger and the thirst. Did Su Bei faint from the agony alone? Si Zhaohua rushed toward the corner of the room, picking up Su Bei princess-style as if he weighed nothing. Of course he was, he hadn’t eaten or drunk for three days—. His wings unfurled with a sense of urgency and without the need for any order, Wu Mingbai opened up the window, “I’ll see you in school!” Si Zhaohua shouted.

And he was gone, leaving them standing owlishly inside Su Bei’s bedroom.

It took less than five seconds before they themselves turned around and ran out of the building, eager to regroup. Jiang Tianming led the crowd and a smile bloomed on his face.

Su Bei is alive. Su Bei is alive.

They didn’t lose a friend. They didn’t have to make an empty grave without a body—

They tore through the street, passing through the throng of people and breaking the law of how to walk the zebra cross. They heard some cars honking in anger, but nothing else mattered right now. Even if they’ll get punished for skipping a lesson, even if they have to face Meng Huai’s wrath for disappearing without notice, it didn’t matter.

Because Su Bei is alive!

You are so going to explain everything to us, though, Su Bei.

And to do that, he had to wake up and be healthy first. They’ll make sure of that.