Chapter 194

Chapter 194

Most times, strong abilities meant strong mental energy. For a non-physical enhancement ability like [Life Essence], having powerful mental energy was logical. Su Bei had no other candidate in mind.

With the opponent possessing advanced mental energy and suddenly appearing in the factory, Su Bei couldn’t freely use his mental energy anymore. If caught, it could deal him a severe blow.

“So I’m left behind?” Su Bei scratched his head, checked his phone, and, unsurprisingly, found no signal. Calling for backup was out.

Should he look for the others? He hesitated. Searching lacked leads and was a hassle. Not searching meant missing screen time and possibly key plot points.

After thinking, Su Bei chose to stay in the last workshop. If Jiang Tianming’s group escaped their alternate space, the most likely exit was where they entered—this workshop.

So he’d wait here. If he caught them emerging, great. If not, tough luck—he had no other ideas for finding his vanished teammates.

While resting in the workshop, Su Bei didn’t idle. He studied the lifeless products. He saw the cleaning robot Ai Baozhu mentioned—a disc-shaped device with a sweeping brush underneath.

He also saw Feng Lan’s kitchen set: teapot, spatula, cup, designed elegantly, reminiscent of the furniture servants in Beauty and the Beast.

Was the last batch without butler assistant orders? Impossible. Su Bei knew many families, including the Feng Family, wanted them. The world never lacked rich people; butler assistants were in high demand. Life Tech Machinery Co., Ltd. wouldn’t skip making them.

Perhaps the escaped pink robot was from this batch? But other products hadn’t been infused with [Life Essence] yet, so it made no sense to give one life early. Su Bei figured the pink robot was an older model, not fully trained.

This batch’s butler assistants might not be made here. That made sense—finest products would be crafted by the boss himself.

So, why was the pink butler assistant in the factory?

In the first, second, and third workshops, Su Bei saw no parts resembling butler assistants. They likely weren’t produced here.

The pink butler assistant’s presence and escape became suspicious. Did the boss deliberately send it to stage this escape drama?

No, wait. Su Bei recalled Zhang He’s chat with the boss. Zhang He asked if they should stop the butler assistant’s frequent “nonsense” speech. The boss said it was just a language system glitch, to ignore it, as someone else would handle it.

At the time, focused on [Life Essence] secrets and missing some context, Su Bei glossed over it.

Now, with the missing pieces, this exchange seemed loaded.

The butler assistant they mentioned was likely the escaped pink robot. Its “nonsense” was probably key info about the factory’s secrets.

And the boss' “someone else” to handle it—who was that?

A name flashed in Su Bei’s mind—Li Jinhui.

This oddly inserted man, who did no work, had to serve some purpose. He couldn’t be the boss' relative or a spy monitoring staff.

Per Zhang He’s chats, Li Jinhui stayed in his room, not spying. Zhang He, as workshop director, would’ve noticed, not just griped about minor issues.

Li Jinhui’s recent activity aligned with the pink robot’s arrival. Zhang He’s complaints and his question about handling the butler assistant were roughly simultaneous.

Piecing together clues, timelines, and guesses, Su Bei crafted a story: The “nonsense-speaking” butler assistant was sent to the factory for Li Jinhui to “train.” It escaped and, in the chaos, killed Li Jinhui, who’d tormented it.

But a flaw emerged: Knowing he’d tormented the butler assistant, how could Li Jinhui sleep soundly in his dorm, aware it was loose? Wasn’t he afraid of revenge?

Ignoring that, Su Bei felt his theory held. The real question was—could [Mental Torture] affect mechanical life?

Zhang He had touted mechanical life’s perks, including no pain, so they wouldn’t “strike” like humans if damaged.

Without pain, [Mental Torture] shouldn’t work on them, right? Did ability-created life even have independent minds or souls?

Something was missing. Su Bei frowned, reviewing the event. Moments later, he realized what he’d overlooked—why was the boss targeting Endless Ability Academy?

His earlier guesses were Life Tech Machinery Co., Ltd.’s internal issues. Whatever the boss' secrets or the butler assistant’s motives, they shouldn’t involve them.

But the boss' chats with Zhang He showed a premeditated plan against them, not a spur-of-the-moment act.

This wasn’t the first collaboration between Endless Ability Academy and Life Tech Machinery Co., Ltd. Previous years had frequent activities here, or the academy wouldn’t trust the place.

No trouble before, but now? Ignoring the protagonist-always-in-trouble trope, what was the practical reason? Was the boss swayed by Black Flash?

It was Su Bei’s most plausible guess, but it didn’t quite fit. Per King of Abilities' author, Black Flash didn’t appear every arc. After one or two mainline events, a normal one followed to avoid reader fatigue or rushing the main plot.

During the study tour, Black Flash had enough presence. Even Su Bei, a month-long resident of this Manga world, was annoyed at the thought of Black Flash stirring trouble again. How much worse for readers seeing weekly updates?

If not Black Flash’s influence, Su Bei couldn’t think of another reason for targeting them. The pink robot likely knew. Maybe Mu Tieren could get answers from it.

But that wasn’t his concern—he couldn’t find anyone now.

Figuring he’d gathered enough info, Su Bei switched to retirement mode. After resting, a black hole suddenly appeared overhead, and Jiang Tianming’s five-person group, plus a pink robot, tumbled out.

Meng Huai and Lei Ze’en weren’t among them.

Seeing them, Su Bei, as expected, smirked, dropped his invisibility, propped his chin, and asked lazily, “Was the adventure fun?”

Hearing him, the dazed five snapped their heads toward him, faces lighting up. Qi Huang asked, surprised, “Su Bei? Why are you here? Where’s everyone else?”

She sharply sensed something was wrong with Su Bei being alone.

Mu Tieren, eager, blurted their findings: “Life Tech Machinery Co., Ltd. has issues! Warn the others to be careful!”

“Too late, I’m afraid.” Seeing Su Bei’s unsurprised look and the fact he was alone, Jiang Tianming said grimly, “They’re already in trouble, aren’t they?”

Su Bei’s smile widened, and he snapped his fingers. “Smart.”

At that, everyone itched to punch him. Ling You pursed her lips, anxious but limited by her slight facial paralysis, asking coldly, “Where?”

“No clue~” Su Bei spread his hands helplessly, shrugging. “I went to the restroom, and poof, they were gone. I’m stumped too.”

Anyone else saying this, they’d believe. Su Bei? Only a fool would. Qi Huang’s smile turned menacing, fists clenched, ready to act if he stalled further.

Si Zhaohua, unusually, rolled his eyes. “So what’s going on? Spill it—lives are at stake!”

Despite his words, Su Bei’s calm demeanor eased his worry. If Su Bei was this relaxed, he’d likely foreseen no major issues, right?

Though Su Bei often slacked off, everyone trusted he’d never endanger their lives.

Wasting no time, Su Bei concisely recounted the events: Li Jinhui’s death, Meng Huai’s departure, the greenish food, and Zhang He’s explanation.

He omitted his later findings. He gathered clues to avoid being clueless, not to altruistically lower the arc’s difficulty.

“What? That food’s definitely bad!” Hearing about the greenish food, Mu Tieren’s face paled. He strongly suspected the boss was using it to drain their mental energy. Those who ate and vanished were likely in the boss' clutches.

Not just him—the pink butler assistant, trying to stay low-key since falling, looked anxious, its eyes blinking rapidly, glancing at Mu Tieren as if asking what to do.

Su Bei ignored Mu Tieren, instead eyeing the pink robot, barely chest-high, with interest. “So, can someone tell me what’s up with this one?”

“You guys go find the others; I’ll fill him in,” Jiang Tianming decided swiftly, satisfying Su Bei without delaying.

Once the others left, he recounted what happened. They’d been in the last workshop, searching for clues while awaiting Meng Huai.

Instead of Meng Huai, they accidentally triggered a mechanism during their search, getting sucked into another space. He pointed out the mechanism to Su Bei—a photo of a black classic butler assistant on the wall.

The activation button was where the butler assistant’s power button was in the photo. Without Si Zhaohua’s family owning one and him accidentally pressing it, they might not have found this hidden space.

A mechanism? Su Bei raised a brow, surprised. He’d missed it, focused on the lifeless prototypes.

Obviously, Jiang Tianming didn’t press it again. “We wandered the space. It felt like an abandoned warehouse, full of scrapped butler assistants. The pink one was hiding there.”

“In a place like that, unless Zhang He was clueless about the space, they wouldn’t miss it, right?” Knowing the pink butler assistant hid there, Su Bei asked.

Even if Zhang He didn’t know, the boss would. If no one searched that space, it could only mean it was deliberate.

But Su Bei’s theory didn’t hold. Jiang Tianming replied, “They did come. We hid together.”

“We?”

Hearing Su Bei’s question, he nodded firmly. “This involves Life Tech Machinery Co., Ltd.’s conspiracy. They didn’t develop any butler assistant chip. They’re putting real people into machines. Little Pink’s one of them.”

On the topic of butler assistant chips, Su Bei had long been skeptical. No chip existed on the market to make robots all-purpose.

If the boss had developed one, it’d dominate not just the ability user world but the ordinary one too.

Yet Life Tech Machinery Co., Ltd. was only known among ability users. Su Bei initially thought the boss, like many ability users, disdained ordinary markets.

Now, it seemed he was simply incapable.

Another clue: Life Tech Machinery Co., Ltd.’s products, ignoring their life aspect, lacked tech except for butler assistants.

As Lan Subing once likened, others were like medieval fairy tale props, while butler assistants were futuristic. The contrast was jarring, masked only by [Life Essence]’s cover.

Now the truth was clear: Life Tech Machinery Co., Ltd. had no high-tech products, relying entirely on ability-crafted goods, with zero tech content.

Jiang Tianming detailed how people were put into robots.

First, a machine container was prepared. Then, a person’s life force was drained by [Life Essence]. The essence, infused with part of their soul, was used to soak the robot, transferring the human soul inside.

After his explanation, Jiang Tianming concluded, “Little Pink’s like that. She was human, tricked and killed by the boss, turned into a butler assistant. I suspect he lured us here for the same purpose.”

No wonder butler assistants weren’t made here—such acts couldn’t be public. But one thing puzzled Su Bei: “How does the boss control these human-souled butler assistants?”

“Souls reshaped by [Life Essence] naturally feel affinity for the ability’s user. The boss crafts a story of accidental death and salvation, and the assistants become fiercely loyal,” Jiang Tianming explained. “Little Pink thought she had a terminal illness, saved by the boss' ability. But an accident revealed the truth. She tried escaping Life Tech Machinery Co., Ltd., was caught, and sent here.”

“Then tortured by the deceased’s ability, hid when she got the chance, and killed him in the chaos, right?” Su Bei continued, smiling slyly.

He’d planned to boost his gear-related ability, but now, gears could wait. Digging deeper into destiny wasn’t a bad choice. Wasn’t this a perfect opportunity?

Hearing Su Bei lay out the events so clearly, as if he’d known all along, Jiang Tianming asked, shocked, “How’d you know?”

Su Bei tapped his eyelid, delivering an impromptu line: “Destiny’s path is clear in my eyes.”

As for what new ability this line could spawn, he’d think it over later, then use his long-dormant “Prophet” account to build hype after the Manga updated.

Jiang Tianming didn’t doubt him, but since Su Bei hadn’t shown this ability before, he asked, “New ability?”

Su Bei replied ambiguously, “Sort of.”

At that, Jiang Tianming’s expression grew complex. He tested, “There are many pitiful butler assistants like Little Pink. Some don’t concern us, but others do. I want to stay and see if I can help them.”

The real focus was the first half; the second was obvious—they wouldn’t flee. Would they be protagonists if they did?

The first half’s “concerning us” could mean Si Zhaohua’s family’s butler assistant—or something else.

“Mu Tieren, right?” Su Bei smirked, piercing his test, his sharp purple eyes seeming to see all truths.

He’d actually guessed it? Though Jiang Tianming half-expected it, hearing Su Bei confirm it still widened his eyes. “When did you know?”

“Not long ago.” Another vague answer. In truth, Su Bei pieced it together when Jiang Tianming revealed Little Pink’s origin. Already suspicious of Mu Tieren, the production details clicked instantly.

“…”

Jiang Tianming exhaled, part sigh, part relief. He didn’t know when Su Bei figured it out—maybe recently, as he claimed, or earlier.

Regardless, not hiding such a big secret from a teammate eased him. “Since you know, I won’t hide it. You’re right. The Class Monitor was once a butler assistant but escaped. By chance, he met Kong, a top robotics master. Kong built him a human-like robot body and installed him in it. Later, the Class Monitor awakened an ability and joined our academy.”

“So, do you think it’s a coincidence he was invited here?” Su Bei asked, intrigued. He vaguely felt the boss' ultimate target might not be them but Mu Tieren, the escaped butler assistant.

Jiang Tianming clearly thought so too, shaking his head. “I’m not sure, but I doubt it. You felt it too, right? Since we entered the factory, a gaze has been watching us. I suspect it’s the boss, hunting for the escaped butler assistant.”

A valid suspicion. Why spy on them for no reason? Staying hidden screamed ulterior motives.

Jiang Tianming had another reason. “Plus, you said they were taken, right? Life Tech Machinery Co., Ltd. wouldn’t act on a whim. They planned this, even taking Teachers Meng and Lei early. The only reason they’d target us so soon is the Class Monitor.”

Su Bei had wondered if Life Tech Machinery Co., Ltd. was bought by Black Flash. Now, Jiang Tianming’s guess seemed right—it was all about Mu Tieren.

“But one thing I don’t get.” With teammates searching, Jiang Tianming wasn’t rushed, sitting beside Su Bei, pondering. “What’s that greenish food Zhang He gave you for?”