It's Actually Not Easy Wanting to be a Supporting Male Lead

Translated by Eve

Edited by Juurensha and Cat

Ever since he began living with Adonis, Sui Yuan’s life at the Mecha Training Camp became like heaven. The bed was cozy, and the food was delicious. For the sake of giving General Adonis face, all the military instructors eased up on Sui Yuan. Nowadays, it was rare for him to be penalised for not paying attention or for chatting as he pleased —- Of course, the most crucial point was that when training finished, he would be summoned by Adonis for all sorts of tasks, so there wasn’t any time for punishments anyways!

Furthermore, Sui Yuan continued to act as he had in the latter half of the previous world. He carried on without any care towards the plot and simply did as he pleased. He also didn’t bother concerning himself with the protagonist, Lin Zhan. It was nothing like the original plot, where they would progress together, being as inseparable as a shadow from one’s body.

However , he wasn’t sure if it was because Zheng Yu’s friendship meter towards Lin Zhan had already been maxed out, or if it was because of Sui Yuan’s own "Protagonist’s best friend" halo, but even though Sui Yuan only interacted with him during trainings, Lin Zhan still considered him to be his best friend. No matter what the situation was, he’d think of him first.

Meanwhile, Sui Yuan’s progress during training had surprised everyone.

At the beginning, he was ranked at the bottom. Gradually his performance reached the middle of the ranks. In the end, he forced his way up into the ranks of the Alphas, becoming the most exceptional trainee amongst the Betas. Not only that, but this meteoric rise had occurred in just a few short weeks.

Lin Zhan was very happy with Sui Yuan’s progress. The instructors were also pleasantly surprised with this change. However, in the eyes of the other trainees, this wasn’t something to be happy about.

Nobody thought that this was achieved by Sui Yuan himself. They all attributed it to Adonis’ guidance. This made Sui Yuan feel particularly discontent—-this was clearly the result of his own hard work! As for Adonis, he shared a bit of his experience and knowledge at the very beginning, but in the end that man just spent the rest of the time bothering him!

Sui Yuan’s greatest complaint was about the Body Restoration Capsule in Adonis’ room. Not matter how serious one’s condition was, no matter where one was hurt, after just spending a little while inside, one would quickly become as good as new again. This was simply fraud!

Now that Sui Yuan had the Body Restoration Capsule, Adonis didn’t have to worry that Sui Yuan would be too tired for training the next day and could toss him about to his heart’s desire.

Naturally, the Body Restoration Capsule was widely regarded as a very expensive thing in the eyes of other people—- whether it was in terms of its base price or the price for each use—-it was usually only in the case of an extremely grave injury that one would appeal to the higher-ups for its use. Unfortunately, Adonis truly deserved to be called a privileged local tyrant. He carelessly squandered his money away without a care in the world. If it wasn’t for Sui Yuan’s desperate struggles, he’d absolutely play with him every night! Even if Sui Yuan had wanted to indulge himself in this last world, to do this kind of deranged thing every night was still unbearable!

And so, every time Sui Yuan saw the Body Restoration Capsule, he had an urge to destroy it.

"Ah Yu? Zheng Yu? What are you thinking about?" Lin Zhan’s voice grounded Sui Yuan’s mind that had run off into the distance back to the present.

"Sorry, sorry. I was just thinking about the Body Restoration Capsule," Sui Yuan responded with a smile, "Although I’ve always heard about it, this is the first time I’ve seen such an expensive thing with my own eyes, so I’m really curious."

"Indeed. The Body Restoration Capsule is a really important invention. Who knows how many people it has brought back from the brink of death. I’m so jealous that you were able to see it yourself and even touch it—-Naturally, it’d be for the best that you never have to use it. To be gravely injured is not fun at all, or so I understand," Lin Zhan joked while winking. He had been immediately enthralled by Sui Yuan’s words.

Sui Yuan, with a face full of regret："........."

—–It was really, really better to not have any reason to use it. However, what a pity, that he had already lost track of how many times he’s used it!

"Say, you saw it in General Adonis’ room, right?" Lin Zhan, having not noticed Sui Yuan’s expression, asked in high spirits, "I heard that aside from the infirmary, only General Adonis—–only he has his very own Body Restoration Capsule. It really makes one really jealous, doesn’t it?"

"Yeah," Sui Yuan nodded, not batting an eyelid. As he clenched his teeth, he smiled. "General Adonis’s place is really something......"

"He’s the General, after all. It’s what he deserves!" Lin Zhan really deserved to be called Adonis’ fanboy. His voice was especially full of respect.

Sui Yuan shrugged. He, who was currently resenting Adonis, didn’t want to hear Lin Zhan praise that idiot at all.

"Wait a second! You distracted me again!" Fortunately, Lin Zhan did not continue on about Adonis.

His expression suddenly turned grave, and he solemnly lowered his voice, "During the next periodic assessment, you need to be careful!"

"Why?" Sui Yuan stared blankly.

"You....perhaps you don’t know, but recently, in the training camp, there’s been a few people who have spoken about you in a not so good way..." Lin Zhan hesitated. He tried to be as tactful as possible, in order to avoid hurting Sui Yuan’s feelings, "There’s a few trainees who aren’t happy that you’re receiving such consideration. They want to teach you a lesson. They probably plan to gang up on you in the upcoming periodic assessment—I’m not clear on the specifics. After all, everyone knows that you and I are friends, so they kept it from me..."

Sui Yuan muttered to himself while nodding his head, patting Lin Zhan on the shoulder. He indicated to the other that he should relax, "I understand. I’ll be careful, so you don’t have to worry."

"En," Lin Zhan, upon seeing Sui Yuan prepared, he lifted his own spirits up. In the end, he sighed in relief and revealed a smile, "Although I wanted to warn you to be cautious, however, I also want to see you give them a lesson! After all, some of what they’ve been saying is simply too much. Even I could barely endure it anymore...."

"I know," Sui Yuan smiled, "Thank you."

"You’re my best friend!" Lin Zhan raised his arms to hug him, as he clapped him on the back in comfort and encouragement.

After sending Lin Zhan off, Sui Yuan returned to Adonis’ residence and turned on the training equipment. It had been a long time since he last cared about the plot. He had actually forgotten what kind of mishap would occur during the next periodic assessment.

To be exact, in the original, it was Lin Zhan who was the target of everyone’s jealousy. Now, it was himself who would be targeted.

Although ganging up on a single person was not very nice, it was not really excessive. It could just barely be considered a fair retaliation.

—-When all was said and done, what the military instructors could not tolerate the most as soldiers was this kind of underhanded tactic. If it were to be discovered that they had secretly planned to backstab their comrade during training, then this would definitely be grounds for expulsion. There was no room for argument there.

During the periodic assessment, they would be evaluated by a military instructor from beginning to end. If the targeted trainee’s reaction was not good enough and ended up eliminated, then that just meant that his strength was lacking. That would be justifiably regarded as being a failure. On the other hand, if the other party was able to promptly strike back, even if he was unable to last until the very end, or even if he was eliminated early, the instructors would still be able to assess the trainee based on his counterattack and award points. It wouldn’t affect his grades too badly.

In the original plot, since Lin Zhan’s performance surpassed even that of the Alpha’s, he made several of the Alphas particularly unhappy. In the eyes of those types of Alphas, Alphas must be the most outstanding–they were the ones chosen by heaven. Their pride did not allow for a Beta to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them, even if he had truly surpassed them.

Alphas were leaders, Betas were followers, and Omegas were nothing but birthing machines. This was the ideology of those kinds of Alpha. As such, Lin Zhan was obviously an irritating existence in their eyes, so they had planned to team up. They had arranged to teach him a lesson—naturally, it ended up in failure. On the contrary, they had become the stepping stone that had made Lin Zhan’s name famous.

As for Sui Yuan who now had to face this problem, it couldn’t be any more different than Lin Zhan’s situation from the original plot.

Lin Zhan had received the Alpha’s hostility. Sui Yuan on the other hand, was being rejected by other Betas. Lin Zhan was treated as a model for other Betas because his existence challenges the Alphas’ authority. Sui Yuan, however, because he had Adonis as his backer, all the Betas’ jealousy was transferred onto him.

When Sui Yuan had just arrived at the training camp, everyone could see that he was the lowest-ranked student. However, once he was chosen by Adonis, he advanced by leaps and bounds. This kind of change gave the Beta trainees the extremely wrong idea which were along the lines of: If the one chosen by Adonis had been myself, then right now I could also be as powerful and glorious as Zheng Yu. All eyes would be pinned onto me.

They had performed much better than Sui Yuan in the beginning, but why was Zheng Yu chosen of all people? This kind of unworthy guy was probably just eye-candy for Adonis, nothing more and nothing less. And yet, he unexpectedly performed very well. It was simply unforgivable!

Lin Zhan was hardworking and also had a god-given talent, so the Beta trainees saw him as their idol and hope. However, with Sui Yuan, who had Adonis’ favour, everyone ignored his own talent and hardwork in favor of viewing him as a vile, cheating person who had to rely on other people.

Sui Yan found this kind of thought process inexplicable but he wasn’t unfamiliar with it either.

What was different was that Lin Zhan’s challengers were several Alphas, whereas Sui Yuan’s were nearly all Betas. Furthermore, there were quite a few of them, more than 10. As for the Alphas, they didn’t have much of a reaction to the situation, since Adonis was an Alpha, and the pride of the Alphas at that.

Unlike the neurotic Betas, the prideful Alphas had not felt particularly disappointed when they weren’t chosen to be Adonis’ assistant —- They very seldom acted as anyone’s assistant anyway.

In the Alphas’ eyes, to be able to make a useless Beta this remarkable in just a few short weeks only helped to bring more glory to Alphas as a whole. Thus, they wouldn’t reject Sui Yuan, who they considered a walking trophy.

In the end, was it more difficult to face a smaller group of Alphas who were naturally stronger fighters, or was it worse to face a bigger group of innately weaker Betas who were more inclined towards team combat? Considering Sui Yuan’s experience, the latter was probably easier to deal with.

Lin Zhan had suffered a lot in the original text, only barely coming out on top. Sui Yuan, however...was going to have lots of fun with this....

When the periodic assessment began, Sui Yuan climbed into the Mecha simulator. Following protocol, he laid low and very carefully familiarized himself with his surroundings. It didn’t matter much to him as to how many large Mechas whizzed by, even when his position made it easy for him to destroy them all. Sui Yuan just ignored them all and kept his position concealed the whole time.

As time ticked by. a batch of weaker trainees had already been eliminated. By that time, Sui Yuan had a clear understanding of the whole terrain and had finalised his plan of action.

Although they had talked about striking the fear of god into Sui Yuan, after being unable to find him anywhere, the trainees gradually gave up their initial plan and began to focus on their own assessment. After all, the assessment was extremely important. They had only planned to teach Sui Yuan a lesson on the side. To neglect the root and pursue the tip, only an idiot would do that. On the other hand, Sui Yuan had been waiting for this moment.

Moving cautiously, Sui Yuan chose to start with a trainee who was on his own. From his hiding spot, just when the other relaxed slightly, Sui Yuan bolted out straight away and killed him as fast as lightning. If the other received reinforcements, and the opponents were numerous, then he would retreat quickly after attacking. He would force them to fall into the snare he had set up early on, and attack once more.

Sui Yuan really enjoyed this kind of hunting game. It didn’t matter if the others called him despicable, lowly, or shameless — he remained unmoved.

It’s either you or me in this test, and Sui Yan intended it to be him. Sui Yuan did not care one bit about morals, he would use any kind of means, as long as it meant victory. This was the profound lesson that Sui Yuan had learnt from Adonis.

After putting his all into training day and night for several weeks, the Mecha had long since become as familiar to Sui Yuan as if it was his own body. It was clearly an unwieldy Mecha that had sub-par combat capabilities, but even though it was a heavy structure, Sui Yuan still forced it to sneak around like an assassin in the dark. His whereabouts at any time were difficult to grasp. Each time he went on the offensive, he displayed a great strength, nearly causing 5237 to want to break its vow of never speaking to Sui Yuan again just to praise him.

—–It couldn’t speak when it wanted to. Truly painful QAQ

At this time, the instructors who were watching the screen: "......"

"This kind of tactics, it’s really..." One of the instructors was rendered speechless. He completely didn’t know what to say.

"Really not bad, eh?" Another instructor shrugged his shoulders, "He probably already knew that there’d be a bunch of other trainees planning to gang up on him, so he decided on this kind of plan of action."

"That’s not for certain," A third instructor retorted, "Look at how familiar he is with his Mecha. This definitely could not be accomplished in the last few days. To reach this level of familiarity, it’s obvious that he had been training for a long time."

"That’s impossible. I’ve never taught such a thing in class!" The military instructor that was in charge of Sui Yuan’s class cried out at once. He 【absolutely】had never taught them this sort of【wretched】sneak attack-esque tactic!

"Maybe it wasn’t you?" An instructor said, uncertainly, "He is General Admiral’s assistant right? Perhaps it was the General......"

The group of instructors: "......"

After silently fanboying for a moment, one of General Adonis’ fans opened his mouth, embarrassed, "I think that maybe we’re all thinking a bit too much. How could General Adonis...teach a student something like that?"

"But I have to admit, this trainees movements are quite similar to that of General Adonis," Another instructor adjusted his glasses, hitting the nail on the head, "This is evidently the result of having been taught."

The group of instructors: "......"

—–The truth was right before their eyes but they completely did not want to admit it!

"Although it doesn’t look good during an assessment, nonetheless, we have to admit, in a situation when it’s one against many, when you’re in the heart of the enemy camp, this kind of tactic is extremely useful," at last, one instructor came to this conclusion, "We ought to encourage the trainees to be adaptable and to use whatever tactic is the most appropriate for the situation. They should not only do as they’re taught, but also try to make every effort to maximize the damage towards the enemy whilst minimizing the risk to oneself. This is what it truly means to be a soldier —- We are soldiers, not actors!"

All the military instructors nodded in agreement and quickly put the matter aside. At the same time, they told the trainees that this kind of sneak attack was not considered "despicable".

Sui Yan was probably too used to being abused by Adonis, but in his eyes, the other trainees seemed like weak lambs to him. He could only sigh and raise his eyebrows in disbelief.

Seeking target —kill— seeking next target...who knows how many times he’s repeated this cycle. Sui Yuan, who had completely turned things around, hadn’t yet played to his heart’s content when finally he was ordered to stop by the instructors.

The only survivor, Sui Yuan, whose party had been rained on: "......"

Upon seeing the words "WIN" appear before him, Sui Yuan stopped moving and aborted the Mecha simulator. As he exited the capsule, Sui Yuan was faced with the bewildered stares of the other trainees and the instructors.

Sui Yuan remained extremely calm and nodded in greeting. Immediately after, he looked up towards the rankings that were displayed on the giant screen.

【Zheng Yu】stood at the top of the list and his score exceeded second place by a wide margin. It was basically full points. Below him were the names of Alphas, one after another. Lin Zhan had also placed 5th. For a Beta, 5th place was already an inconceivable achievement.

Sui Yuan’s and Lin Zhan’s names were glaring amongst the Alphas’ names, like a spot of green amongst a myriad of flowers. It was just unfortunate that Sui Yuan was there. He had stolen Lin Zhan’s limelight. Aside from the instructors who had secretly noted Lin Zhan down as a trainee with great potential, nobody else paid any attention to him.

"Zheng Yu, your performance was excellent. Despite being targeted by a group of other trainees, you continued to patiently deal with them one by one. You gradually split them apart. Regardless of whether it is your reconnaissance, your tactics, or your combat ability, all of them can be said to be perfect."

The military instructor approached Sui Yuan and patted him on the shoulder, deeply moved.

Upon hearing the instructor’s words, the trainees who had "ganged up" on Sui Yuan all lowered their heads, feeling their faces heat up. Even they weren’t sure if it was out of shame or humiliation.

"Lastly, along with the one-on-one battles, there were also times where he had to go against Alpha trainees in a 1 vs 2 situation. He was still able to obtain a complete victory. He was extremely proficient in employing everything that could be used, whether it be the place, the weapon, or psychology. Would you be willing to tell us how you trained in the past?" The instructor said gently, hoping to learn Sui Yuan’s secret to success.

".....That’s because General Adonis..." Sui Yuan opened his mouth awkwardly. When he noticed the expressions of the people around him, he knew that they would inevitably attribute this to Adonis.

—–Naturally, Adonis played a role. However, his role was nothing like what everyone thought it to be.

Since Sui Yuan refused to let Adonis drag him to bed to do this and that every night, the two people thus came to an agreement. If Sui Yuan met Adonis’ requirements during the simulated battle, then he could be spared at night. This could barely be considered a weird sort of...encouragement?

"General Adonis used about half his strength against me. At the very beginning, I was to stay undetected for three hours. Afterwards, I was to escape his pursuit and avoid capture. At the very end, I was to overpower him..." Sui Yuan spoke, with a bit of difficulty, "If I succeeded, then I could avoid...the General’s punishment."

The last two words were spoken in an especially irritated voice through gritted teeth.

For a moment, everyone could feel Sui Yuan’s grief and indignation. They could also feel his pain and abhorrence towards this "punishment".

"Hide, escape, fight. General Adonis’ training is indeed very methodical. It allows one to gradually make steady progress while neglecting nothing."

The instructor nodded, deeply moved, "To be able to defeat the General who was at half strength, perhaps even we instructors cannot compete with you, huh?"

".....I’ve yet to defeat the General." After speaking about this matter, Sui Yuan simply felt cheated! What half-strength, he could have sworn that Adonis was absolutely just messing with him! Every time he improved a bit, the other would immediately increase his strength. Adonis would definitely never allow Sui Yuan to get what he wants, which was to bully him back.

Indeed, this fellow had no trustworthiness whatsoever!

—-What a pity that no one knew of the tears of blood Sui Yuan had secretly cried inside. Everyone put Adonis up on a high pedestal, but they also desperately wanted to know what punishment would cause Sui Yuan to be this fearful and avoidant to this extent. Most didn’t dare ask.

"Ah Yu, what is the General’s punishment?" The only one who got along well with Sui Yuan, was Lin Zhan, and he asked curiously, asking the exact question that was on everyone’s minds.

Sui Yuan turned his head away silently, ".....I don’t want to talk about it."

"Ah...sorry. If you don’t want to speak about it, then I won’t ask."

When he saw that Sui Yuan’s expression was extremely angry, Lin Zhan shut up, extremely tactful.

Afterwards, he and the rest of the people were one and the same. Their reverence of General Adonis rose to a whole new level —- Just how demented was the punishment to make him like this! Indeed, rather than be jealous of Zheng Yu’s good luck, we should burn some incense for him...

Eve: Did someone call for a badass Sui Yuan? No? Just me?

Cat: Another long ass chapter, i swear to god these chapters just keep getting longer by the minute.

Juurensha: they do seem to be really long this arc.