Chapter 10
But “Manga Consciousness” rejected him: “No, since it hasn’t happened, you can’t see it. Just like you can’t see the future—until it occurs, it’s invisible.”
This revealed a hidden detail: he likely couldn’t alter plots by previewing manga later.
As expected, Su Bei feigned a helpless frown, then offered a compromise: “But this manga page was drawn, right? I just want to see the physical content of this page. That’s fine, isn’t it?”
In truth, this was his real goal. Experiencing the manga firsthand was obviously impossible. He only needed to see the clues “he” left, as no one knew him better than himself.
But if he’d asked directly, “Manga Consciousness” might’ve refused, its guilt not enough to sway it.
So Su Bei used the door-in-the-face technique.
Want a window in a room? Ask to tear off the roof first. When refused, propose the window, and it’s harder to say no.
Sure enough, the naive “Manga Consciousness” fell for it. Having rejected once, and feeling guilty, it couldn’t refuse the scaled-back request: “Fine, I can give you a photo equivalent to the manga’s content. Want to see it now?”
“Now.”
Instantly, a photo appeared on his phone. Su Bei opened it, revealing himself in a school uniform, bloodied, sprawled on the bathroom floor.
Seeing his own death was jarring. Su Bei raised a brow, studying the details.
As in the manga, gears of various shapes and sizes were scattered around the corpse, seemingly random, as if instinctively unleashed in danger.
But Su Bei knew he had no such instinct. The gears were there because manga-him intended it.
Suddenly, he noticed something odd: “These gears are interesting…”
Zooming in, he spotted a few gears with faint, dark gold patterns among the many. Without knowing his Ability, one might overlook them.
He knew his [Gear] Ability could, in theory, produce gears of different shapes, sizes, and patterns. But, newly awakened and undertrained, he could only instinctively create random gears. Patterns required extra effort.
Why would dying-him expend so much effort on three patterned gears?
They must hold clues to the killer! In the photo, his feet faced the stall door, collapsed at the last stall’s entrance, nearly flat on his back. His left hand, likely raised in defense, was clenched near his face in a blocking stance.
The three patterned gears were positioned: one at each shoulder, one under his naturally hanging left hand.
What did they indicate?
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?
No, Su Bei had faced the killer head-on and saw nothing special.
He stared at the photo, unwilling to miss a detail.
Suddenly, he noticed a discrepancy—why was he blocking with his left hand?
He was right-handed. In danger, he’d instinctively use his right hand. Unless the attack came from the left.
But that didn’t fit.
This morning, under the plot’s force, his mind foggy, he’d headed straight for the last bathroom stall.
The photo suggested manga-him opened the last stall’s door and was killed instantly by the hidden killer.
A frontal attack meant he’d block with his right hand, not his left.
Realizing this, Su Bei’s gaze fixed on the clenched left fist, forming a bold theory: could there be another patterned gear in that hand?
Testing this was simple. Su Bei did push-ups in his room until exhausted, drained of strength. Then, using his Ability, he pushed to create as many patterned gears as possible.
Soon, utterly spent, four gears appeared around him—his limit in exhaustion.
After a long pause, he grinned at the ceiling, muttering: “There really is one in the hand.”
With the clues confirmed, the puzzle-solving began.
The clues likely lay in the four gears’ placements.
Both hands and shoulders—did they indicate the killer’s shoulders or hands were unusual?
No, impossible. Su Bei had seen the killer, heavily cloaked, with no visible anomalies in hands or shoulders.
Manga-him, ambushed, couldn’t have noticed what he hadn’t.
If not body parts, the gears likely formed a shape or pattern.
Connecting all four formed roughly a diamond.
“Could the killer have a diamond pattern on exposed skin?” Su Bei murmured.
It was plausible, the most likely theory. During their fight, he hadn’t focused on such details. A manga organization with unique markings was standard.
He could investigate groups with symbols, not necessarily diamonds, as the gears might form another shape; diamond was just the easiest.
Jumping up, he went to his desk, sketching a rough corpse outline from the manga, marking the four gears’ positions, and listing possible shapes: diamond, lightning, arrow, fork, Z-shape…
Su Bei reviewed his clues about the killer. The tattoo was key, likely appearing on the next victim, useful only to warn the protagonist and show foresight, not for his direct use.
His unique clues were the killer’s red eyes and smoke-transforming Ability.
How to convey these with his [Gear] Ability?
After brainstorming in the dorm, Su Bei had a plan. Checking the time, he stretched, opened the door, and stepped out.
Time for the next step.
It was 4:30 PM, and his destination was the cafeteria—not to eat, but to prepare for the next plot point.
The original manga plot, with him as awakened cannon fodder, was disrupted. He didn’t die in the bathroom, so the first plot trigger was gone.
But the manga would continue, so a similar event would occur, just with a different victim.
As “Manga Consciousness” said: someone else would die in his place.
This led to deductions. First, the gray mist killer was still at the school, possibly a member of it.
Second, the next death would happen today, in a place the protagonist would likely visit, like the cafeteria or bathhouse…
The protagonist needed to witness it today for the plot to progress smoothly. Tomorrow would drag the pacing.
Heading to the cafeteria now was proactive. If the next death occurred there, he might witness the killing. Even if not, seeing the victim early was useful.
If the crime wasn’t at the cafeteria, he’d stake out the bathhouse later. Worst case, he’d stay up, watching for activity. Su Bei was certain the next murder would happen today.
Thanks to lunch, he’d mapped all visible cameras from the cafeteria to the dorm.
Casually entering a public bathroom, he emerged cautiously, dodging cameras.
Thanks to Abilities, the school had few cameras. Ability users trusted Abilities, like memory-reading, over extensive surveillance.
Su Bei wasn’t worried about hidden cameras, only needing to avoid the obvious ones.
Skirting the teaching building’s unmonitored shadows, he quickly reached the cafeteria.
About ten meters away, he saw a wisp of gray smoke drift from a side window.
That smoke was too familiar. Su Bei’s eyes lit up, realizing he’d come to the right place.
He’d caught the second murder scene!