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

Chapter 31

The comic used two continuous horizontal panels.

In the first panel, a shark swam from the left, and those fish swam from the right.

In the second panel, those fish appeared on the left, seemingly having swum from the right to the left, while the shark was nowhere to be seen. The accompanying text below read: Eaten completely.

In the time it took them to merely swim past, they had completely devoured a shark, which was enough to show how quickly these fish ate.

Next, the protagonist group discussed the mutated fish violating regulations and sent a message to the SAIDB to report it. The panels showed these people talking and their phone screens, but did not give Bai Xuechao and his brother any shots. However, Bai Xuechao appeared in one background, looking down at his phone, seemingly waiting for the protagonist group.

After the protagonist group finished communicating with the SAIDB, they apologized to Bai Xuechao and his group, saying they had something to attend to. Bai Xuechao also said that they had to leave.

The five of them returned together. Xia Xiaoxi used her special ability to create a vine wall, blocking the passage entrance.

They continued walking out.

“Missing?” A passerby’s voice caught the protagonist group’s attention.

The protagonist group heard a couple of passersby talking, mentioning the missing person notices outside. Xia Xiaoxi and Zhou Chenhao immediately picked up their phones to search. Bai Xuechao said he saw outside that a couple's daughter and her friend had gone missing together. After he finished speaking, Xia Xiaoxi also found related video content.

The last panel on this page showed Zhou Chenhao asking, “Do you think this has something to do with the amusement park?”

[It definitely has something to do with it. The comic wouldn't just randomly give screen time to passersby. (Pushing glasses emoji)]

[Qiao Jing's special ability is related to the amusement park. Could he be making tourists disappear through some ride?]

[But my wife said that the daughter went missing after finishing her play and leaving by boat.]

[We urgently need a prophet to make a guess.]

The group walked back to the entrance of the Underwater Park.

The comic showed a panel of Ling Feng secretly glancing at Bai Xuechao's expression.

Bai Xuechao bid farewell to the protagonist group and left with his brother. The next panel showed their receding figures.

Zhou Chenhao said, “You never mentioned you had a brother.”

This was clearly directed at Xia Xiaoxi.

“I didn't mention it before because I didn't think it was necessary.” Xia Xiaoxi slightly lowered her emerald eyes, seemingly a little downcast, and explained, “It's just as I said, my brother is a special ability user, and he went missing last December. A big reason I joined the SAIDB was to use the bureau's resources to find him, but my current rank isn't high enough yet, so I don't have permission to use the bureau's resources to investigate my brother's whereabouts. I'm still working hard.”

“Oh, oh.” Zhou Chenhao clenched his fist and said, “You'll definitely find your brother!”

Xia Xiaoxi revealed a faint smile: “Mm!”

Only then did Ling Feng ask Xia Xiaoxi, “Does your brother really know their sister?”

“To be honest, I've never seen their sister around my brother.” Xia Xiaoxi tapped her chin with her fingertip, a reminiscent expression on her face, “But my brother did mention a friend to me, and said he'd introduce me later.”

[So, the daughter joined the SAIDB because of this.]

[During the previous SAIDB training camp's nightly chats, everyone shared their reasons for joining the SAIDB, which were varied, but the daughter didn't say.]

[I remember, the scene at the time showed the daughter hugging her knees, seemingly drowsy, but she was actually awake, right? Suddenly, I feel so sorry for her.]

[Speaking of which, I always feel like Ling Feng doesn't really like my wife.]

[Probably not? It's just Maomao's wariness. Things will be fine once they get to know each other.]

[Sad news—look at the comic's progress bar!]

[What, only the last two pages are left? No!!]

Bai Xuechao clicked to the next page, which showed Qiao Jing's scene.

Qiao Jing was holding a special ability energy crystal in his hand, and the comic showed two close-up panels of the special ability energy crystal being absorbed into his skin.

Qiao Zhanpeng prevented Qiao Jing from absorbing it.

However, the special ability energy crystal was not absorbed. Instead, a lump bulged in Qiao Jing's palm, which looked painful. However, this method of consumption for special ability users wouldn't cause pain; it just looked a bit scary. Therefore, Qiao Jing only said in surprise that it couldn't be absorbed.

The last panel on this page showed Qiao Zhanpeng telling him to take it out.

Bai Xuechao clicked to the last page.

Qiao Jing refused to take it out. The comic used several continuous panels to show that the bulge, caused by the special ability energy crystal not being absorbed, moved along Qiao Jing's arm to his chest, and was still moving towards his abdominal cavity.

Over these panels, Qiao Jing's elliptical speech bubble was overlaid, stating that after the special ability energy crystal entered his body, the increased special ability value was at least double what it was when he held it.

Seeing this, Bai Xuechao gained information he hadn't known before.

It turned out that consuming a special ability energy crystal increased the special ability value more significantly. However, judging by Qiao Jing's later performance, doing so clearly had side effects, causing one to lose reason, which made it a bit of a loss rather than a gain.

The last panel of this comic page showed Qiao Jing from a slightly overhead perspective.

Qiao Jing slightly tucked his chin, looked straight ahead, a somewhat neurotic smile on his face. Around his body, from bottom to top, were constantly increasing numbers: 7342, 7945, 8555, 9367, 10080, 11265. The font size of the first four numbers was very small; numbers exceeding 10,000 had a larger and more conspicuous font size.

An special ability value of 10,000 marked a Level 6 special ability user.

To Qiao Jing's left, there was a text box that read—

[Special Ability Value: 12659 (Level 6 Special Ability User)]

In the bottom right corner was a sentence: The real crisis has just begun…! End of this chapter.

The comic ended there.

After finishing the latest chapter of the comic, Bai Xuechao gently let out a breath.

This comic allowed him to know what the protagonist group talked about when he wasn't there, and also a bit of the readers' thoughts about his so-called “sister.” He planned to go to the forum later to see if there were any discussions among readers about the “sister”; he wanted to know more about the comic readers' opinions.

In fact, when he fabricated the identity of the “sister,” he had already thought of two future acting directions, and he wanted to see if readers had guessed them correctly.

Of course, the most useful information from this comic was regarding consuming the special ability energy crystal.

Because special ability energy crystals were rare, their organization only had two in total, so they used them very sparingly during research.

Moreover, merely holding a special ability energy crystal could temporarily increase one's special ability value, so for a long time, no one had tried what would happen if they ate it. They were all used for various experimental research, as it was clearly an energy body, a source of power, equivalent to obtaining oil; no one would try to drink oil.

But now, even knowing that it could be eaten, Bai Xuechao had no desire to consume it, because the side effects were too off-putting. The brain was a good thing; he couldn't just discard it.

He didn't know when the next chapter of the comic would update.

He wanted to see what Qiao Jing's side effects specifically looked like. Duan Xingzhi hadn't explained in detail how Qiao Jing had devoured Qiao Zhanpeng, and he wanted to see it.

After finishing the comic, Bai Xuechao, as usual, entered the Pink Forum.

There were several posts related to “Special Ability × Food Chain” on the forum's homepage.

Some were discussions:

[Let's discuss, did Bai Xuechao intentionally create the 'chance encounter'?]

[Su Zhao and Bai Xuechao's sister went missing together, does anyone want to talk about it? [HOT]]

[Let's make a guess, are the missing people related to the amusement park?]

[The Marine amusement park secretly raised so many mutated species, was it an unintentional violation or an intentional one? Does this count as solid proof of a villain?]

[Oh my god, Qiao Jing is Level 6 at the end. Can the male protagonist really beat him orz?]

There were also some posts that seemed humorous:

[Three minutes, I want to know all the information about Bai Xuechao's brother! (CEO face)]

[Guess how long it will take them to discover that the amusement park's special ability isn't just to save electricity bills?]

[Folks, I ran into the same person three times in one day. Are we truly destined, or was he doing it on purpose? (Doge emoji) (Biting hand emoji)]

[Good news: I fell in love at first sight with a man. Bad news: he's missing.]

[Help, are such ugly fish actually real?! #SpecialAbility×FoodChain#]

And the post from the last update, which speculated about the Marine amusement park, was also brought back to the top.

Bai Xuechao scanned the titles of these posts and clicked on the one that showed [HOT] next to it.

This was the one he was looking for.

[Topic: Su Zhao and Bai Xuechao's sister went missing together, does anyone want to talk about it? [HOT]]

OP: This comic update added two characters, one is Bai Xuechao's brother, and the other is his missing sister.

The brother will not be discussed in this post. I want to talk to everyone about the sister, and also Xia Xiaoxi's brother, Su Zhao.

To avoid censorship, I'll write and post as I go!

1L: Hiss, I'm early again. Let's munch on some code melon seeds.

2L: Back then, when I saw the brother and sister go missing together, I couldn't help but think they eloped... I admit I'm love-brained, I'm guilty. When I see a man and a woman walking together, I immediately think something fishy is going on. I really should die! (Slaps self) (Slapping sound)

3L: Hahahaha, 2L, are you trying to make me die laughing!

4L: You know what, there's a real possibility. (Doge emoji)

...

12L[OP]: In Xia Xiaoxi's previous memories, a blurry image appeared. Bai Xuechao's sister seemed to be a long-haired beauty who was afraid of the cold? [Comic Screenshot.jpg]

She went missing with Su Zhao. According to their conversation, it can be confirmed that it was last December, in winter.

The memory scene was also in winter; one could see it snowing outside, and both Su Zhao and the sister were wearing down jackets. At that time, Xia Xiaoxi seemed to have been kidnapped, with her hands and feet bound. Is it possible that Su Zhao and the sister offended someone while trying to rescue Xia Xiaoxi? And their disappearance happened after that?

13L: If the OP hadn't said it, I would have forgotten; the daughter looked like she was kidnapped at the time.

14L: It's possible, but if they disappeared because they offended someone, Xia Xiaoxi wouldn't need to use the bureau's resources to investigate, would she? As the kidnapped person, she should know who it was, right?

15L[OP]: Maybe she didn't know?

16L: At least it can be confirmed that they disappeared after rescuing Xia Xiaoxi?

17L: Xia Xiaoxi's method of finding her brother was to join the SAIDB. I don't know what method Bai Xuechao used to find his sister.

18L: I don't know what method my wife used. I only know that my wife's health isn't good, and he gets so agitated he falls ill whenever his sister is mentioned. (Crying emoji)

After this, readers casually chatted about whether Bai Xuechao approaching the protagonist group was to find his sister, how much he seemed to miss his sister, how much Xia Xiaoxi missed her brother, the family reunion group scoring high, and whether the brother and Zhou Chenhao were really the same type, truly a doppelgänger trope? Readers discussed these topics for hundreds of floors.

However, these discussions alone were not enough to make it a hot post.

What truly made this post hot was a reader's reply—

98L: So, has no one guessed that my wife might not have much affection for his sister?

When Bai Xuechao scrolled to this floor, he showed an enigmatic smile.

It seemed someone had guessed his other direction.