I Became the Most Popular Character by Acting as a Villain in the Manga

Chapter 27

After Qiao Jing spit out the Special ability energy crystal, his chaotic, stiff gaze gradually regained clarity.

He only had a vague impression of what he did during the time he lost his sanity, but the last image in his memory seemed to be of him pouncing on his father, Qiao Zhanpeng... His eyes widened instantly, and he felt a bloody, seafood-like smell in his mouth.

He ate...!

The air was filled with the fresh, fishy smell of roasted octopus. Following the scent, he looked back and saw that the mutated octopus species they raised was being seared by intense fire; its body had changed color, its eyes burst in the flames, and its six tentacles struggled and writhed, making "crackling" and "sizzling" sounds.

It looked quite springy and seemed like it would taste good. Live roasted octopus, so tempting... ah, no, so cruel.

His rationality told him that his father was dead, the matter of the mutated species had been exposed, and he was finished.

His emotions told him that this octopus would definitely taste good.

"It's you!" Qiao Jing recognized Zhou Chenhao standing beside him.

The Qing dynasty official uniform he wore and his tall figure were identical to the photos Qiao Zhanpeng had received. Moreover, he had the scent of a Lure-pheromone belonging to a special ability user, and not far away stood the other two people from the photos, dressed in black clothes and yellow Taoist robes.

Seeing that no one else from SAIDB had appeared yet, and Bai Xuechao had previously revealed to his father that these three were Level 3 special ability users, a bold idea emerged in his mind. He had to escape!

The hot air balloon reappeared above Qiao Jing's head. However, before he could create terrifying monsters and cause chaos in the park, Zhou Chenhao's free hand suddenly pinched his cheek, making contact with his skin. The hot air balloon vanished abruptly, and the monster that had just appeared, only revealing its face, also disappeared.

"My apologies," Zhou Chenhao grinned, revealing his white teeth. "I can't let you use your special ability anymore."

Qiao Jing felt as if the special ability within him had been sealed, completely unusable. He could only watch as his special ability failed, and then, as if realizing it belatedly, he remembered—oh right, he had spit out the Special ability energy crystal, and the person in front of him was an ineffective special ability user!

He didn't know that Zhou Chenhao was already a Level 4 special ability user, and even if he hadn't spit out the Special ability energy crystal, he would still have been within the range of Zhou Chenhao's nullification ability.

During this time, Bai Xuechao, who had missed an opportunity to appear, was squatting on a distant amusement ride, observing the situation. He asked, with an unclear meaning, "What do you think of his special ability?"

"Hmm?"

Xiao 6 noticed Duan Xingzhi hadn't spoken and thought it was being asked, but it didn't know how Bai Xuechao had vocalized it. "Is the Host asking me?"

As soon as it finished speaking, Duan Xingzhi spoke. It turned out his silence earlier was just him thinking: "Special type, with flaws, but good development potential."

"Alright, I'll take over," Bai Xuechao slowly stood up. "It's also making the best use of it."

He leaped down from the top of the facility. Before Xiao 6 could ponder the meaning of Bai Xuechao's words, it let out a gasp of surprise at his suicidal jump: "Woo-wah!!!"

Within a few seconds, Bai Xuechao had already approached the ground. Flames instantly spread from where he was about to land, rolling with heat waves.

The sky-high fire illuminated the night, continuously spreading to encircle Qiao Jing and the protagonist group, erecting a one-meter-high wall of fire. He, however, landed safely on the ground, watching the panicked tourists scatter and flee, and walked step by step towards the few people surrounded by flames.

"Oh no, it suddenly caught fire!" "Is there someone inside? Call 119 quickly!"

Xiao 6 chattered excitedly in Bai Xuechao's head: "Host! What was that just now! How did you land? You didn't use fire special ability, right? It doesn't seem like it!" Xiao 6 almost turned into a screaming chicken; how many special abilities did its host actually have?!

"You should be used to it by now, what's all the fuss about?"

Bai Xuechao adjusted his expression as he walked, maintaining a half-smile as he approached the fire wall. The fire wall parted for him, creating a passable width. He met the protagonist group's unfamiliar yet wary gazes. "Didn't I say, I have more than one special ability." Xiao 6 displayed a shocked emoji: "But it's too many!"

"Who are you?"

Ling Feng frowned, golden firelight reflected in his deep blue eyes as he watched the newcomer warily. Just now, the moment he was surrounded by flames, he tried to blow them away with wind.

However, the flames merely flickered slightly when blown by the wind, remaining unharmed.

This indicated that the opponent's special ability level was much higher than his, making it difficult for him to affect it. He had recently risen to Level 4, and a special ability user of this caliber would have to be at least 3 levels higher than him, which meant— The opponent was at least a Level 7 special ability user.

The handsome, black-haired boy in front of him was slender, wearing the red round-collared robe that many people in the park wore today. His azure eyes were slightly curved, a faint smile played on his lips, and a profoundly dangerous aura emanated from him.

There was no Lure-pheromone scent on him, but they had just witnessed the flames part for him, meaning he was the wielder of this fire special ability.

Oh no, they were no match for this person. How much longer until the others from the Bureau arrived!

Qiao Jing looked at Bai Xuechao approaching. He probably guessed that this unfamiliar boy was a member of the Dark Organization, thinking he was about to be rescued. A flicker of surprise crossed his eyes: "You are—"

Blazing, dazzling flames erupted on Qiao Jing's body, instantly engulfing his form!

Since they were clearing all evidence related to the Marine amusement park and the Dark Organization, this naturally included human witnesses; Qiao Jing could not be allowed to fall into SAIDB's hands. Especially a special ability user like Qiao Jing, who had lost his humanity and would eat people, his death was no great loss.

Qiao Jing's eyes still held lingering surprise; he didn't even react before he was burned black and fell stiffly.

Zhou Chenhao hadn't expected Qiao Jing to die so swiftly in front of him. His eyes widened as he looked at Bai Xuechao. "You..." He had just opened his mouth, and in the blink of an eye, Bai Xuechao was already in front of him, his fair fingers clutching the blood-red crystal that had just been in Zhou Chenhao's palm.

Zhou Chenhao's pupils constricted, thinking: So fast! He watched the boy in front of him slightly turn and brush past him, his ink-black ponytail lightly swaying.

The cool fingertips touched the side of his neck, and in the next second, he was pressed down onto the ground by his neck.

He didn't seem to exert much force, yet Zhou Chenhao was pinned down without any resistance, the scene before him transforming into the dark night sky and bright firelight at the edge of his vision.

Only as he lay on the ground did a dazed and bewildered look belatedly appear in Zhou Chenhao's eyes. During his SAIDB training, he was the best in combat training... and he was just pinned down like that?

No, was it a special ability? No, that wasn't right either, the opponent's special ability was fire...

At the same time, Bai Xuechao had already appeared in front of Ling Feng. Ling Feng's muscles were tightly coiled. Almost the instant Zhou Chenhao fell, he began to gather his strength, ready to attack Bai Xuechao at any moment.

The wooden spikes created by Xia Xiaoxi also emerged from the ground beside Bai Xuechao, rapidly extending and shooting straight towards his shoulder.

With a speed too fast for anyone to react, almost instantly, the wooden spikes "snapped" and broke. Ling Feng lay on the ground, the hem of the red round-collared robe tracing an arc in his peripheral vision.

Flames separately surrounded the three members of the protagonist group. Bai Xuechao turned and returned to Qiao Jing's corpse, gazing from afar across the fire wall at the rapidly approaching SAIDB members. He held the Special ability energy crystal in his left hand, and extended his right hand towards Qiao Jing—

From Qiao Jing's heart, a blood-red stream of light flowed out like gushing blood, rapidly condensing into a blood-red crystal on his chest. Illuminated by the surrounding firelight, it appeared pure and translucent, looking remarkably similar to a Special ability energy crystal. However, it was much smaller than a Special ability energy crystal, only about an inch in size.

The blood-red crystal flew into Bai Xuechao's palm as if drawn by a force.

Bai Xuechao's face revealed a frivolous smile. Across the fire wall, where flames surged and danced, he waved the Special ability energy crystal in his hand at the approaching SAIDB reinforcements, as if in provocation: "Goodbye!"

After speaking, he took a step back, and more flames, like turbulent ocean waves, surged violently towards the SAIDB personnel, wave after wave, overwhelming the sky and ground.

The SAIDB members could only focus all their strength on defending against the ferocious flames, having no time to bother with Bai Xuechao's departure.

Duan Xingzhi was waiting not far away to rendezvous with Bai Xuechao. Upon seeing Bai Xuechao's figure appear, he strode forward, running quickly. Bai Xuechao's body went limp as if drained of strength.

Just as he was about to fall to the ground, Duan Xingzhi, who had rushed to his side, caught him. Duan Xingzhi directly picked him up and hurried towards the innermost pier of the Marine amusement park.

Bai Xuechao coughed continuously, leaning against Duan Xingzhi's shoulder. His brows were slightly furrowed, and his features gradually returned to their original appearance.

His raven-black hair faded back to snowy white, and its length also retracted to gracefully fall to his shoulders. The leather band tying his ponytail slid down his smooth hair and dropped to the ground.

Xiao 6 asked with concern, "Host, how are you?"

"I'm fine, it's just a Side Effect of Special Ability." Bai Xuechao was still coughing, and his beautiful ruby-like eyes were veiled with a watery sheen.

Special ability users always experience side effects when using their special abilities. Using too much special ability energy in a short period, or overusing special abilities to the point of completely depleting special ability energy, can all trigger side effects.

Additionally, for someone with a weak constitution like Bai Xuechao, even if the special ability energy consumed isn't particularly large for him, it can easily trigger side effects, and the side effects will also be more pronounced.

Duan Xingzhi reached the pier, destroyed the surveillance cameras installed there, and took Bai Xuechao onto an electric speedboat, which he propelled directly with his special ability.

The speedboat quickly headed towards the hotel complex on the opposite shore.

Bai Xuechao curled up in the speedboat and rested for a while. As the side effects gradually disappeared, he felt a bit more comfortable, so he brought the blood-red crystal he had condensed from Qiao Jing's body to his mouth.

"You're not allowed to eat that now." Duan Xingzhi caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye, immediately reached out, snatched the crystal from Bai Xuechao's hand, and tucked it into his trench coat pocket.

Seeing this, Bai Xuechao smiled, knowing that Duan Xingzhi was looking out for him and didn't want him to trigger the Side Effect of Special Ability again so soon. He could only reply, "Alright, I'll eat it when we get back." His voice was a bit weak and soft, as if it could be scattered by the sea wind.

Duan Xingzhi noticed Bai Xuechao's weakness, pressed his lips together, laid him down, and took off his trench coat to cover him: "You rest."

"Okay." Bai Xuechao also put the Special ability energy crystal into Duan Xingzhi's trench coat pocket, curled up, adjusted himself into a more comfortable position, and rested with his eyes closed, his arm as a pillow.

Only then did Xiao 6 speak: "Host, what was that you got from Qiao Jing's body, the one you were about to eat?"

Bai Xuechao lightly replied, "Qiao Jing's special ability crystal."

"Oh, a special ability crystal..." Xiao 6 muttered, repeating it. Suddenly realizing something was wrong, it asked a series of questions with confusion and surprise, "Huh? What's a special ability crystal? There's no such thing in the settings! Why do you want to eat that?" Was this a setting filled in by the System's operation?!

"Simply put," Bai Xuechao's clear and melodious voice rang out, his tone calm, "I possess the special ability to devour others' special ability crystals and thereby seize their special abilities." This was his true special ability. The special ability was called—"Devourment."

Xiao 6: My code was shocked for three years!

The code melon seeds Xiao 6 was holding fell out of its hands in fright. It couldn't help but exclaim, "No wonder you have so many special abilities, so they were all stolen! Isn't your special ability like cheating? Why aren't you the protagonist of this world!"

Bai Guzi hadn't set Bai Xuechao's special ability; it was all randomly generated by the System. It actually randomly generated such a cheater! Even if Bai Guzi went crazy now, reset the world, and started a new save, it might not be able to randomly generate the exact same special ability.

"Actually, according to Bai Guzi's settings, shouldn't I be dead already?" Bai Xuechao teased in a relaxed tone. "Doesn't that just mean I'm too good at cheating, so I got banned?"

Xiao 6: "Ah, this, it does have that vibe."

Bai Xuechao added, "And if we're talking about cheating, isn't the male lead the most powerful cheater? He's completely immune to special abilities. When his level gets high enough and special abilities can affect me, even if I have a hundred special abilities, I can only fight him hand-to-hand, and I definitely can't beat him."

With special abilities, he was a high-attack, super squishy mage. Without special abilities, although he had some combat skills, he lacked sufficient stamina and strength, and this sickly body couldn't beat anyone.

However, this extreme situation would only occur when encountering Zhou Chenhao. Just now, his ability to overpower Zhou Chenhao was entirely due to his special abilities.

One could only say that Zhou Chenhao was indeed the author's beloved son; his nullification ability combined with perfect combat skills meant that as long as his level was high enough, no special ability would work against him, making anyone an easy opponent.

Thinking of this, Bai Xuechao sighed, "I hate close-quarters combat."

Xiao 6, however, clenched its small fists and loudly declared, "The end of hot-blooded shonen manga is always fist-fighting! No matter how awesome the character, the final big battle always involves fist-fighting!"

Bai Xuechao: "..." Could this world ever get better? Could it be that by the end, everyone would turn into big gorillas fighting? Never mind, I won't think about it. By the time he fakes his death and escapes, it might still be early before the grand finale. Why would he think about that? It wasn't like he was going to fight with his fists.

Bai Xuechao had rested enough. He propped himself up and sat. The night ocean was ink-black, like a giant black beast that would swallow people. He turned his head and looked in the direction of the Marine amusement park.

After he had moved a certain distance away, the flames would lose his control. The burning fire there had already been successfully extinguished, leaving only the light of red lantern streetlights, which, viewed from afar, looked like tiny sparks. He murmured, "I wonder if Ling Feng will notice the flaw I left."

He had no hope for Zhou Chenhao and Xia Xiaoxi.

"Huh? A flaw?" Xiao 6 was stunned. It resided in Bai Xuechao's brain, inseparable from him, and hadn't seen him leave any flaws. It couldn't help but ask eagerly, "What flaw? When did you leave it? Why did you leave a flaw?!"

Bai Xuechao said, "Didn't you notice? When I was in the Magic Horror House."

"Let me watch it again!" Xiao 6 opened its System replay, playing back everything it had experienced with Bai Xuechao in the Magic Horror House at N times the speed. After watching, it could only produce a "QAQ" emoji. "No, I didn't see any flaws."

Bai Xuechao reminded, "When we came out at the very end."

Xiao 6 rewound and watched again: "What's wrong? There's no problem." The host pushed everyone out; that was helping.

Bai Xuechao knew his silly System wouldn't be able to figure it out, so he stopped being coy and revealed the answer directly: "I used water created with my special ability to push everyone out, including Zhou Chenhao."

"Then..." Xiao 6 was about to say, "Then what?" when it suddenly realized, "Your special ability came into contact with the male lead, but it didn't disappear!"

"Exactly." Bai Xuechao's lips curved into an arc. "Ling Feng should probably guess that I'm at least a Level 6 special ability user."

Xiao 6 asked, puzzled, "Why do that?"

"Just to tease Ling Feng. Someone who just relaxed suddenly discovers a new point of doubt—if he can even discover it," Bai Xuechao said in a lazy tone. He was enjoying the sea breeze, pulling up Duan Xingzhi's black trench coat that covered him, and added, "There's also another reason: to let the manga readers know that my special ability level is actually not low, and to maintain consistent character design."

Xiao 6 looked bewildered: "Huh? Consistent character design?"

"I'm telling you... who among us is the System, after all?" Bai Xuechao said with some helplessness. "I made such a grand entrance at first, then when I met the protagonist group later, I acted so calmly and even helped them with amusement rides. Don't you think it's disjointed?"

Xiao 6 held its melon seeds: "Aba aba... didn't notice."

Bai Xuechao calmly stated, "That's probably why your plot repairs always fail."

Xiao 6: Stabbed.jpg

Bai Xuechao continued, "Don't you even care if the character's design is consistent throughout, or about their behavioral logic?"

Xiao 6: Stabbed again.jpg

Xiao 6 clutched its non-existent chest and started "ying-yinging."

Thinking carefully, it was indeed like this. Previously, it only issued tasks to assist in plot repair. One day, its bound host would confess to the male lead to make the female lead jealous, and the next day, they would act as cannon fodder, tripping up the male lead, causing him to lose face, and letting readers flood the manga's bullet comments with question marks. It hadn't received a bad review from the author yet, purely by luck, always managing to accidentally satisfy the author in the end.

"Leaving a flaw makes the character design consistent?" Xiao 6 asked, somewhat worried. "What if Ling Feng doesn't notice?"

"If he doesn't notice, then he doesn't notice. It's enough if the manga readers can spot it," Bai Xuechao said, leaning over the side of the speedboat.

"Readers should be able to notice this detail, right? Then they'll analyze that my special ability level doesn't match the Level 4 I mentioned in my self-introduction, implying intentional concealment. Plus, at the Ghost bride's place, I specifically emphasized—"

"At that time, Zhou Chenhao invited me to elope, and I said that special abilities would disappear if they touched him. That shows I knew water should disappear if it touched Zhou Chenhao, but it didn't in the horror house. So I did it on purpose. Continuing this line of thought, my approaching the protagonist group was actually just for fun, and all my actions were an act. That makes it reasonable." Finally, he said, "If Ling Feng can discover it, that would be the icing on the cake."

Xiao 6 was almost dizzy from Bai Xuechao's plan. It hadn't expected its host to think so much. Then it asked, puzzled, "If Ling Feng discovers it, won't the protagonist group become wary of you?"

"But it's just wariness. After all, when I was wearing this face, I didn't harm them; instead, I helped them," Bai Xuechao said. "The protagonist group won't consider me an antagonist, and most readers won't think of me as an antagonist for now. They'll just think I'm a fun-loving person. A small portion might guess I'm an antagonist, but it doesn't matter."

Bai Xuechao's beautiful ruby-like eyes curved slightly, revealing a hint of amusement: "Then I'll just jump back and forth. When they feel I'm a bit suspicious, I'll clear my name. And when they completely trust me, I'll reveal myself—'Actually, I'm the antagonist!'"

Xiao 6: =A= You're going to play them to death!!