Chapter 56

Chapter 56

After Jiang Tianming and Si Zhaohua came to an agreement, they didn’t leave but stayed under the tree to discuss their next move. Seeing that they weren’t planning to leave, Su Bei immediately felt a headache coming on.

Everyone knows that wherever the protagonist is, the plot is bound to follow. Su Bei had initially planned to quietly sit out this part of the storyline, but now he was stuck in a precarious position.

And sure enough, where there’s a protagonist, there’s no peace. It didn’t take long before the enemy found them. However, this wasn’t the same pursuer chasing Si Zhaohua earlier—it was a new face.

The newcomer had short, deep-purple hair that perfectly fit the image of a villain. She wore a sleek black bodysuit, and her soft-looking features gave her an oddly gentle vibe. However, her sharp, tapered jawline and fiery red lips quickly turned her into a classic femme fatale archetype.

One great thing about this manga world was the clear distinction between good and bad guys—at least in terms of appearances. Aside from the occasional undercover character, good people generally looked kind and bad people... well, they looked the part.

“Oh? What do we have here? Two little mice!” she sneered at Jiang Tianming and Si Zhaohua, her eyes glinting with mockery. “Are you ready to be caught by me?”

As she spoke, the woman activated her ability. A two-meter-long whip materialized in her hand, its snakeskin texture glinting menacingly.

“This whip of mine leaves scars if it strikes your body and will disfigure your pretty faces if it hits you there. You two are so good-looking that I almost feel bad about it~”

Her tone was gentle, but her wicked grin betrayed her malice. “If you surrender now, big sis here might go easy on you.”

Surrender, of course, was out of the question. Si Zhaohua sneered, spreading his wings wide. “Surrender? You’re not worthy!”

With that, he grabbed Jiang Tianming and soared into the air, flapping his wings hard to lift them into a tall tree. He could have flown higher, but going too high risked attracting more enemies.

The sudden flight caught Jiang Tianming off guard. “What the—?!”

He wasn’t afraid of heights, but being lifted into the air so abruptly left him feeling disoriented. He couldn’t help but shout, “What are you doing?!”

“Saving you!” Si Zhaohua snapped, glaring at him in irritation. As expected, they didn’t get along.

Si Zhaohua had a clear plan in mind. The purple-haired woman’s whip had a long range, making it easy for her to attack them on the ground. While he wasn’t sure of her exact strength, taking a hit from that whip was definitely not a good idea. Flying into the air seemed like the best way to avoid her attacks altogether.

“At least warn me next time,” Jiang Tianming muttered. Although he now understood that Si Zhaohua had good intentions, it didn’t stop him from complaining. “Are you sure you’ve got me? Don’t drop me!”

“I can't,” Si Zhaohua retorted coldly. “I’ll just throw you down right now.”

“Quite the dynamic duo, aren’t you?” The purple-haired woman smirked, amused by their bickering. Her eyes gleamed as she identified Si Zhaohua’s ability. “An Angel? I didn’t expect to catch such a big fish.”

As the young master of the Si family, Si Zhaohua was a high-priority target. Everyone participating in this mission had been briefed about his presence.

While a specific group had been tasked with capturing him, anyone who managed to do so would earn significant rewards. Seeing her opportunity, the woman’s grin grew even wider. “Flying up so high—are you trying to stay out of my reach?”

With that, she flicked her whip toward them.

To Si Zhaohua’s surprise, the whip extended far beyond its original length, snaking toward him with frightening speed. His expression darkened, and he flapped his wings furiously, barely dodging the attack. However, his wings weren’t particularly fast, and this continued pursuit was bound to put him in a tough spot.

The sound of the whip cutting through the air was sharp and unnerving. It lashed against a tree trunk, leaving a deep gash. Another strike like that, and the tree might snap in half—a clear testament to its power.

Jiang Tianming, who had fought alongside Si Zhaohua before, quickly grasped the situation. “Attack!” he shouted.

“Do you think I need you to tell me that?” Si Zhaohua snapped back, but he immediately launched his feather-based attack.

Though they hadn’t coordinated before, Jiang Tianming instinctively used his [Object Control] to control the feathers Si Zhaohua had sent out, guiding them for a second wave of attacks.

As a newcomer, Si Zhaohua’s mental control over his feathers wasn’t very strong. He could manage some level of control, but not with precision—at most, he could make them boomerang back. With Jiang Tianming assisting, the burden on him lightened considerably. Together, their combined attacks became more diverse and effective.

The purple-haired woman found herself struggling against the barrage of feather projectiles. Although her whip could deflect most of them, their sheer number made it impossible to block them all, and she soon suffered several injuries.

“Well, aren’t you two working together nicely?” she muttered, brushing off some of the feathers lodged in her body. Her expression turned grim.

These two were just rookies, yet she was having trouble against them. If she couldn’t defeat them, it would be a massive humiliation. Worse, she’d be mocked endlessly back at the base.

With this in mind, she no longer held back. Initially, she thought the Si family’s young master would be carefully handled by the organization and that injuring him might cause problems. However, it was clear she had underestimated them. Now, the issue was no longer whether she could hurt them, but whether she could capture them at all.

Her attacks became significantly more aggressive, forcing Jiang Tianming and Si Zhaohua to abandon their counterattacks and focus on dodging.

The two eventually returned to the ground, realizing that staying airborne didn’t offer any advantage—it only made them easier targets. On the ground, at least, they could move more nimbly.

Previously, when the whip lashed toward him, Si Zhaohua would immediately fold his wings to avoid it. However, after a few attempts, the purple-haired woman began using the whip to try and tie him down directly. After narrowly escaping her grip, Si Zhaohua decisively carried Jiang Tianming and flew to the ground. Staying up in the air waiting to be captured was far worse than to wait for death up there.

The enemy clearly had no regard for environmental preservation, especially in this alternate space. Without hesitation, the purple-haired woman swung her whip broadly, destroying the surrounding vegetation. On multiple occasions, the whip nearly struck Jiang Tianming and Si Zhaohua.

As they dodged, the two focused their attacks on the whip itself. They realized that directly injuring the woman might not be feasible for now, so they aimed to disable her ability. The whip appeared thin, so they alternated their attacks with feathers, targeting the same spot repeatedly.

Even if the whip was a product of an ability, it still had to obey the laws of physics. Since it had a physical form, it could definitely be damaged.

The purple-haired woman grew increasingly frustrated as she felt her whip taking damage. She intensified her attacks while silently vowing to train her close-combat skills when she returned. Previously, she had neglected physical combat, relying heavily on her whip for ranged attacks. Now, she was paying the price.

If she dared to engage in close-quarters combat, these two would never have been so arrogant!

It was also only because there were two of them that they could split her attention and endure her assault. If it were just one of them, she would have captured them by now.

She considered calling for reinforcements, which would guarantee their defeat. However, asking for help against two first-year ability users would be humiliating. Her pride wouldn’t allow it.

So, she held her ground, confident that she would eventually win once they ran out of stamina or mental energy.

From atop a tree, Su Bei watched the battle unfold, finding it oddly entertaining. The fight resembled a jump rope contest with its rhythm and coordination.

Jiang Tianming and Si Zhaohua were surprisingly in sync. it was obvious that two people were controlling the feathers, but not only did it affect each other, their teamwork resulted in exponentially stronger attacks, producing a 1+1 > 2 effect.

Watching actual ability users fight was far more engaging than individual matches. Earlier, during individual matches, the fights had felt more like games. While they were innovative, they lacked visual appeal—only the final day’s matches were somewhat interesting.

But he never imagined the ability was this powerful. The purple-haired woman was clearly an experienced ability user, yet in front of Su Bei, she had been defeated in an instant. He hadn’t even seen how her whip broke.

Indeed, neither Jiang Tianming nor Si Zhaohua had noticed the falling leaf. By the time they turned their attention back to the whip, it had already snapped, and the leaf had quietly fallen to the ground.

To them, it seemed like Su Bei had simply turned his gear, and the whip broke. They had no idea that his intervention had been closely tied to their earlier attacks.

Still, since he had altered her fate, Su Bei curved his lips into a smirk and made a hand gesture with his thumb and forefinger. “Just a little.”

It really had been just a little. He had merely sped up the whip’s breaking point. Even his mental power hadn’t been significantly drained; otherwise, his face would have turned pale by now.

But unfortunately, no one believed his honest answer.

Si Zhaohua rolled her eyes and said, “No way it was just a little! By the way, during the individual matches, were you holding back and not using this ability?”

Judging from the power Su Bei had just displayed, even with her [Divine Judgment] Si Zhaohua couldn’t imagine winning against him. This ability to alter someone’s fate was too strange and impossible to counter.

At least Si Zhaohua was certain of one thing: if Su Bei had changed his fate back then, the gear would have reached his vulnerable neck, defeating him before he even had a chance to use his ultimate move. It would have been a mere twist of fate, a cruel joke.

That said, he could understand. After all, this ability was essentially a cheat code. If Su Bei had wanted to use the midterm exam to showcase his normal strength other than this cheating ability, it made sense for him not to use it.

But wait—?

Si Zhaohua suddenly realized something: if Su Bei could manipulate fate to let the gear touch his neck, then he could just as easily manipulate fate to make the gear avoid his neck.

With this thought, he was instantly shocked, feeling a mix of anger and slight grievance as he questioned Su Bei: “You didn’t purposely make the gear avoid my neck back then, did you?”

His reaction wasn’t unreasonable. Si Zhaohua was someone who deeply valued winning and losing. He had always been on the winning side, thanks to both his personal talents and his family’s upbringing, which emphasized the necessity of victory.

When he narrowly defeated Su Bei during the individual matches, relying on his ultimate move, he thought the two of them were evenly matched in raw skill. After learning Su Bei had a special ability that wasn’t used during their fight, he reassessed. He concluded their strengths were balanced because, ultimately, Su Bei had "missed" in their duel.

Now, however, he realized that Su Bei might have intentionally missed.

Come on! How could you think that?! Su Bei was baffled by Si Zhaohua’s reasoning. It was one thing for the manga readers to assume he’d been holding back—after all, readers loved to overthink things—but why would Si Zhaohua himself come to this conclusion?

For a moment, Su Bei didn’t even know how to respond. Denying it would risk breaking his carefully crafted image; admitting it would likely upset Si Zhaohua. After a brief pause, Su Bei fell back on his all-purpose response: “What do you think?”

Si Zhaohua: “...”

His face darkened immediately. To him, Su Bei’s response was as good as a confession.

“If you didn’t want to win, why fight me in the first place? You could’ve just forfeited, or not participated in the midterm assessment at all!”

Clearly, Si Zhaohua was furious. To him, Su Bei’s deliberate failure disrespected both the competition and himself.

For someone else, this wouldn’t have mattered so much. But Su Bei was someone Si Zhaohua had come to respect and recognize as a friend after their duel. Su Bei’s actions now made him feel like a fool.

Caught off guard by Si Zhaohua’s outburst, Su Bei was stunned. Something felt off—this kind of confrontation seemed more like a plotline meant for the protagonist and a rival character. How did it end up involving him?

Still, Su Bei didn’t get angry. He could understand where Si Zhaohua was coming from. If someone deliberately toyed with him during a competition, he’d feel angry too.

Moreover, Su Bei knew this would end up depicted in the comic, so he needed to handle it carefully.

Should he brush it off with a playful, nonchalant attitude?

That would only make Si Zhaohua angrier and might even ruin their budding friendship—a scenario Su Bei wanted to avoid. Alienating a supporting character would do nothing to improve his reputation and would only bring trouble.

Turn around and leave coldly?

No, that would also lead to tension between them, and Su Bei disliked that approach. In his opinion, having a mouth was for explaining things, not avoiding conversations.

Despite all these considerations, barely two seconds had passed in reality. Knowing he couldn’t stay silent any longer, Su Bei finally spoke: “Didn’t you enjoy our fight?”

The question caught Si Zhaohua off guard.

It was a question he couldn’t deny. He had genuinely enjoyed their battle.

The fight with Jiang Tianming had been long and drawn out, but in that instance, Si Zhaohua had been overwhelmingly dominant. In truth, he hadn’t been defeated by Jiang Tianming’s ability but rather by his persistence.

His fight with Su Bei, however, was different. The two of them had been evenly matched, exchanging attacks the entire time. Back at home, Si Zhaohua’s sparring partners had either crushed him outright or held back to let him win. At school, he hadn’t encountered anyone who could beat him.

The duel with Su Bei had been thrilling—an exhilarating experience. It was the reason Si Zhaohua’s attitude toward Su Bei had shifted so drastically after their battle.

Hearing Su Bei’s question now, Si Zhaohua’s expression softened. After a moment of silence, he nodded.

Su Bei smirked. “Me too. So, isn’t that enough?”

Right before speaking, Su Bei had finally pieced together why Si Zhaohua was upset. On the surface, Si Zhaohua was angry because Su Bei didn’t care about winning or losing, but the real reason was that he felt Su Bei had toyed with him during their fight.

Su Bei’s explanation was aimed at this point. His words conveyed that he valued the process over the outcome. He had taken their battle seriously and enjoyed it just as much as Si Zhaohua did, which meant he wasn’t mocking him.

As expected, Si Zhaohua’s anger subsided. He cared deeply about winning but didn’t expect others to share that obsession. Knowing that Su Bei had fought earnestly and felt the same way about their match, Si Zhaohua felt at ease.

Still, he couldn’t help but ask one last question: “But why didn’t you want to win?”

“Victory isn’t always a good thing,” Su Bei gave a meaningful answer.

A Cup of Coffee