I Control the World with Illusion

Chapter 6: The Extraordinary Yang Dongqing

A few wisps of smoke drifted faintly from the restroom door, accompanied by muffled groans and cries of pain.

Using his cane, Su Mu pushed aside the curtain, stained with yellow grime, and stepped inside. Just then, a young man emerged.

The boy had a nondescript face, one that would be impossible to pick out of a crowd. Yet, there was an air of arrogance and aggression in his brows. His fists bore faint traces of dried blood.

He glanced at Su Mu without speaking, only frowning slightly, his gaze carrying a faint warning. Then he walked out with his head held high.

Su Mu paid no attention to him, even though this was the target he intended to hunt—Yang Dongqing.

Walking straight to a restroom stall, he nudged the door open with his cane. Inside, three yellow-haired boys lay sprawled near the urinals, groaning incessantly.

"What the f**...?" one of them began, only to be cut off—*thud!*

The cane tapped the ground, producing a deep, resonant sound.

A strange wave of psychic energy rippled outward. The hostile gleam in the three yellow-haired boys' eyes immediately turned vacant, then serious.

"Leader!" they exclaimed in unison.

"Mm. What happened?" Su Mu asked, his gaze fixed on them.

The leader of the trio, Cui Hao, spoke up. "As usual, we were extorting money from Yang Dongqing. But this time, he refused and beat us up."

Su Mu nodded. "What's your next move?"

"I told him not to leave after school. He agreed. I have a big brother outside school who commands dozens of men. I plan to call him and ambush Yang Dongqing after school."

Hearing this, Su Mu chuckled quietly but said nothing. He turned and left the restroom.

Shortly after he departed, the groans inside resumed.

---

In the classroom, Su Mu sat by the window in the last row, gazing out at the scenery.

The middle-aged, balding teacher, wearing glasses, droned through the textbook. Some students were asleep, while others whispered to each other. Only a handful in the front row listened attentively.

The teacher ignored the disorderly atmosphere unless the noise became too disruptive, at which point he would send the troublemakers to stand outside. Otherwise, his teaching was purely mechanical, like completing a task.

An ordinary classroom, an ordinary teacher—everything seemed so mundane. Yet who would have thought that within this unassuming classroom resided a legendary extraordinary being and someone intent on hunting him down?

Yang Dongqing was Su Mu's classmate. Unlike the admired and untouchable Su Mu, Yang Dongqing was the most inconspicuous student in the class. He was often bullied, even extorted.

But things were different now. The once-cowed Yang Dongqing now carried an air of arrogance, as though everyone else were insignificant in his eyes.

At this moment, Yang Dongqing sat daydreaming with a pen in hand. Occasionally, he would lower his head to jot something in his notebook, his thoughts a mystery to those around him.

Time ticked by. Halfway through the class, Yang Dongqing's expression suddenly changed. Clutching his chest instinctively, his face revealed a trace of fear.

"Teacher Wang, I need to go to the restroom," he said abruptly, raising his hand.

Teacher Wang glanced at him indifferently and waved him off. "Go ahead."

Yang Dongqing quickly scribbled over the writing in his notebook before standing up and leaving the classroom.

The lax discipline of Elite High School was well known. Even so, the school remained the top institution in District 13—though, admittedly, there weren't many schools in the district to begin with.

*Click-clack, click-clack...*

As Yang Dongqing's footsteps faded into the distance, a peculiar scene unfolded.

Teacher Wang's lecture abruptly ceased. The students, who had been whispering amongst themselves, fell silent as if by prior agreement.

The entire classroom seemed frozen in time, enveloped in an eerie stillness.

Every student sat rigidly upright, their bodies stiff like marionettes. Then, in unison, they turned their heads to face Su Mu at the back.

"Leader!" they intoned, their voices uniform and low.

Su Mu withdrew his gaze from the window and turned to the crowd.

"What did he write?"

Yang Dongqing's deskmate and the student seated behind him answered simultaneously, "Dreamscape! Nightmare!"

A flicker of interest crossed Su Mu's eyes, and his expression grew thoughtful.

Dreamscape? Nightmare?

Why had Yang Dongqing written those words?

It wasn't unusual for teenagers to jot down strange or whimsical things—they often had bizarre fantasies. But for someone like Yang Dongqing, an extraordinary being, it couldn't be so simple.

Once a habitual victim, Yang Dongqing's transformation had occurred within the last half month. Clearly, he had become an extraordinary being during this time.

The mindset of someone with newfound power would inevitably differ from an ordinary person's. Like the difference between earning $3,000 and $300,000 a month—their concerns would be worlds apart.

So Yang Dongqing's notes were unlikely to be trivial musings. They must be related to his earlier change in demeanor and his status as an extraordinary being.

Could it be...

Su Mu pondered, a suspicion forming in his mind. Could Yang Dongqing, like himself, have gained his abilities through the dreamscape?

While Su Mu's abilities revolved around limitless mental power, could Yang Dongqing's focus on physical enhancement?

Did that mean they were both extraordinary beings?

No, something didn't add up!

Yang Dongqing hadn't fallen asleep during class.

Su Mu clearly remembered that when he first gained control over the dreamscape, all he wanted to do was sleep. Compared to the omnipotence of the dream world, reality felt unbearably dull.

If Yang Dongqing shared this trait, Su Mu doubted he could resist the urge to sleep.

"Interesting," Su Mu murmured, a faint smile curling his lips. He relished the unknown—it promised surprises. He had long grown weary of being all-knowing and all-powerful in his dreams.

*Thud!*

His cane tapped the ground, and the classroom instantly came back to life.

"Turn to page 138, everyone..."

The monotonous lecture resumed, lulling the students back into boredom.

Su Mu's thoughts wandered again.

In truth, he had long since hypnotized everyone in the school, including the janitor's guard dog.

To dissipate his ever-growing mental energy, how could he pass up the opportunity to manipulate those around him?

This was how he had discovered Yang Dongqing's extraordinary nature.

Half a month ago, Yang Dongqing had somehow broken free of the hypnosis. While the rest of the school remained his puppets, Yang Dongqing's strings... snapped.

That was when Su Mu realized Yang Dongqing had become extraordinary.

About a week later, Yang Dongqing returned to school after an unexplained absence. Su Mu had "accidentally" flashed the ouroboros emblem on his cane before Yang Dongqing's eyes to reinforce the hypnosis—but the boy remained unaffected.

Subsequent tests led Su Mu to two conclusions:

1. Yang Dongqing had undergone a transformation that rendered normal hypnosis ineffective.

2. This transformation was primarily physical rather than mental; otherwise, the hypnosis would have been detected.

These realizations set the stage for what was to come.