Faced with Wang Chaoyang’s concern, the expressions of the three were somewhat subtle. Chen Mo’s attitude was direct, his gaze toward him bordering on scrutiny. Li Hang and Lin Jun stood to the side, their faces solemn.
Wang Chaoyang froze for a moment and asked, “What’s wrong with you guys?”
Chen Mo stared into his eyes and said, “Wang Chaoyang, we think the current situation is a bit strange, and we wanted to ask what you think about it.”
Wang Chaoyang’s heart tightened. “What’s a bit strange?”
“A lot of things. It’s strange that we encounter extortion every day, and it’s strange that you appear so timely every single time. Also, we originally took the north gate yesterday and successfully avoided those people, but today the north gate was locked. That’s even stranger. Have you had similar feelings?”
Wang Chaoyang’s face stiffened for a split second, and his smile became somewhat forced. “I didn’t particularly notice, but I really did just happen to run into you guys every time. As for the north gate, that must be the school’s decision; I don’t know why it was locked either.”
Chen Mo then asked him, “Encountering the same situation every day, don’t you feel like something isn’t quite right?”
Wang Chaoyang became displeased and said coldly, “I just happened to see you being bullied and stepped in to help. If you don’t appreciate it, fine, but what’s the point of asking all this out of the blue?”
With that, he turned and left in a huff.
Leaving the three behind, they looked at each other in silence.
After leaving the alley, a trace of panic surfaced on Wang Chaoyang’s face. He walked to a deserted corner, stopped, and after confirming no one was around, called out in a deep voice, “Red Eye.”
The surrounding temperature plummeted, and a cold mist spread.
In the midst of a frigid silence, a red eyeball quietly emerged in mid-air.
If Chen Mo were present, he would surely recognize it.
This was precisely the eyeball aberration—transformed from an ice cube in the glass—that he had received from the bartender that day.
Only now, it had grown much larger.
Its pupil was long and vertical, pitch-black like an abyss, as if it could swallow all light. The crisscrossing blood vessels on the white of the eye writhed slowly, carrying a bone-chilling sense of eeriness.
Even though he had summoned it himself, Wang Chaoyang subconsciously avoided the eyeball’s gaze. He felt that if he maintained eye contact for too long, he might be sucked into some unknown, endless abyss.
“Why have you summoned me?”
Red Eye did not speak; instead, it communicated with Wang Chaoyang in his consciousness through a mysterious power.
Wang Chaoyang’s voice was a mix of unease and slight dissatisfaction. “You should have seen it, right? They’ve already started to get suspicious. This is all your fault, Red Eye! The illusion you designed is too simple. It repeats the same plot every day. Forget about them finding it strange—even I’m starting to find it boring playing the same hero and following the same script every day.”
Red Eye’s reaction was calm and indifferent. “Then what do you want?”
“Stop having those people block them at the school gate. Change it up a bit!”
Red Eye turned out to be surprisingly agreeable. “As you wish.”
Hearing this promise, Wang Chaoyang finally breathed a sigh of relief, a smile of anticipation tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Red Eye was an incredibly powerful existence; its power far exceeded his imagination.
Although Wang Chaoyang didn’t know why it had found him or why it agreed to realize certain unfulfilled obsessions for him, the experiences of these past few days forced him to believe that the other party was indeed omnipotent.
Looking at that hypocritical Chen Mo, the cowardly Li Hang, and the naive Lin Jun—the people he disliked the most—all of them were now trapped in the script he had meticulously designed.
At the thought of them struggling daily under his control, Wang Chaoyang’s smile gradually widened, a hint of distorted pleasure surfacing in his eyes.
Afterward, as Red Eye had promised, things indeed began to change.
Chen Mo and Li Hang no longer encountered the same extortion scenes in the alley outside the school gate.
However, this did not mean the bullying had ended.
The bullying still existed; only the time, place, and method had changed.
In fact, their lives became even harder.
The next day, there wasn’t a single moment of peace.
At noon, in the cafeteria: Chen Mo and Li Hang had just gotten their food and were about to sit down when a figure suddenly slammed into Chen Mo from behind. The force was so great that he fell directly to the ground, his tray crashing onto the floor and food splashing everywhere.
“Don’t you have any eyes? You’re blocking my way.”
The person who hit him didn’t apologize but instead took the initiative to accuse him. His companions stood by, adding fuel to the fire. Li Hang tried to help Chen Mo up, but his own tray was also flipped over.
The two endured the stinging pain of electric shocks in their minds and exchanged a glance, offering no pointless resistance.
In the afternoon, before class: Chen Mo went to the restroom. Just as he entered, he saw a familiar figure. “What, did you still not bring any pocket money today?”
The tall, thin guy who used to wait for them at the alley was now leaning against the wall outside the men’s room, expressionlessly pulling out a cigarette and looking at Chen Mo coldly.
During P.E. class, the whole class was doing an 800-meter test: While Chen Mo was focused on running, several boys intentionally crowded over and bumped into him, causing him to lose his balance. He fell directly to the ground, scraping the skin off his knees. A sharp pain shot up from the bend of his leg.
Nearby, Lin Jun saw this and stepped forward to say something, but suddenly his mind went blank, and the words he was about to speak were completely forgotten.
The P.E. teacher not far away remained indifferent, as if he hadn’t seen any of it happen at all.
And throughout this entire day, Wang Chaoyang did not appear again.
In fact, he had been watching them all along, laughing gloomily at Chen Mo’s miserable state.
Didn’t they think he appeared too “timely” every time? Then he would be absent a few times and let them taste what real bullying felt like.
This relentless malice continued for several days.
It was indeed difficult for Chen Mo to completely suppress his emotions, being tormented daily by anger, pain, and confusion.
He didn’t know when such days would end.
—Until Wang Chaoyang reappeared in their lives.
On this day, Chen Mo and Li Hang’s trays were once again flipped by those bad students. They were enduring the intense pain of electric shocks while scuffling with the other party.
Suddenly, the brawl stopped.
Someone shouted, “Wang Chaoyang is coming!”
The troublemakers exchanged looks and quickly stood up to leave the cafeteria.
Wang Chaoyang walked over and helped the two classmates off the ground. His expression was grave and his voice low. “I heard about your situation. It seems you’ve been targeted.”
Chen Mo looked up and stared at him silently.
Li Hang looked terrified, with half a tear trembling in his eye.
Wang Chaoyang said, “I’ve heard that these people don’t seem to plan on letting you go.”
He pondered for a moment and made a serious suggestion: “How about this, why don’t you stay by my side every day? That way, I can protect you at any time and won’t let those guys bully you anymore.”
Li Hang wavered slightly and looked back at Chen Mo.
Chen Mo lowered his eyes, his thoughts unknown. After a long while, he nodded and said, “Okay, we’ll follow you.”
From that day on, Chen Mo and Li Hang became Wang Chaoyang’s followers, and their lives underwent a complete transformation.
In the days following Wang Chaoyang, they experienced an unprecedentedly luxurious lifestyle.
For example, they almost never went to the school cafeteria to eat.
Although the lunch break wasn’t long, Wang Chaoyang didn’t care at all. He took them to high-end restaurants outside the school every day.
The first time they stepped into that luxuriously decorated Western restaurant, Chen Mo and Li Hang couldn’t help but be stunned.
“What good food can that broken school cafeteria have?” Wang Chaoyang’s tone was full of disdain. “Today is my treat. I’ll let you see what life is really about.”
After speaking, he led the two into a private booth in the restaurant.
Inside the booth, a large round table for ten was set with sparkling cutlery and a gold-rimmed marble top, looking incredibly magnificent.
The table was spread with dozens of delicacies—delicacies from land and sea. It indeed looked infinitely more high-end than the food in the school cafeteria.
Chen Mo and Li Hang exchanged a look of disbelief.
Just then, a waiter pushed a dining cart into the booth, his expression extremely respectful. He bowed and said softly to Wang Chaoyang, “Young Master, this is the top-grade truffle steak specially prepared for you.”
“Set it out,” Wang Chaoyang said without looking up, waving his hand dismissively.
The waiter carefully placed the steak on the table and then respectfully withdrew. From beginning to end, he only spoke to Wang Chaoyang, not glancing at Chen Mo or Li Hang once, as if they were merely air.
Looking at the table full of delicacies, Chen Mo couldn’t help but say, “We won’t be able to finish all this, will we…”
Li Hang was also a bit uneasy and added in a small voice, “It looks very expensive, too.”
“Look at you, like you’ve never seen the world.” Hearing this, Wang Chaoyang gave a disdainful smile, his eyes filled with obvious mockery. “If you can’t finish it, throw it away. I’m paying; I won’t make you spend money.”
“This is just an ordinary lunch. I’m usually like this. You guys don’t come out to eat often, right? How does it feel?” He intentionally drawled his words, his tone thick with blatant superiority. Chen Mo and Li Hang’s faces changed.
Wang Chaoyang looked at their stiff expressions, a flash of triumph in his eyes. He reached out, picked up a fork, casually cut a piece of steak, and ate it slowly. He thought to himself that this life was truly good; even if he lived like this forever, he would never tire of it.
Aside from the fancy meals, Wang Chaoyang was also picked up and dropped off by luxury cars every day.
Although they wore the same school uniform, his sets were specially tailored with more comfortable and soft fabrics, and the cut was more form-fitting.
As they spent more time with Wang Chaoyang, Chen Mo began to notice more things that weren’t right—for instance, Wang Chaoyang actually had a private lounge in the school.
Regarding this, Wang Chaoyang’s attitude was a matter of course. “After all, my dad donated two buildings to the school. What’s wrong with leaving one floor as a lounge for me?”
Stated that way, it actually sounded quite reasonable. Chen Mo was left speechless.
The luxury of material life was just a surface level. Wang Chaoyang’s status in the hearts of the teachers was also transcendent.
The teachers’ favoritism toward Wang Chaoyang was evident, regardless of the subject; it was the same in every classroom.
“Student Wang Chaoyang, what do you think?” Whenever there was a discussion in class, the teacher’s gaze always turned to Wang Chaoyang first.
Even if other students had already raised their hands or even blurted out the answer first, the teacher would just nod dismissively, as if perfunctory, and then toss the question back to Wang Chaoyang.
And no matter what Wang Chaoyang answered, the teacher was always full of praise. Even if his answer was empty or even wrong, the teacher would still smile and praise him: “As expected of our class genius.”
Sitting in the back row, Chen Mo and Li Hang watched all this wordlessly.
The class monitor, Lin Jun, quietly clenched his fists under the desk. His brow was furrowed, his face written with incomprehension and confusion.
“Things shouldn’t be like this…” This thought repeatedly surfaced in Lin Jun’s mind, but every time he tried to speak up and express his doubts, it was as if something was strangling his throat, making it difficult for him to make a sound.
After school, the three gathered together as usual.
“I think the root of the problem should be Wang Chaoyang.” After this period of observation, Chen Mo was quite certain.
Li Hang nodded, his voice carrying a trace of trance. “I agree. I feel like I’m living in a universe named ‘Wang Chaoyang’.”
Lin Jun had a similar feeling. “He’s like the protagonist of this world, and we… are all NPCs without emotions.”
When the three spoke their doubts together, suddenly, an anomaly occurred.
The ground seemed to vibrate for a moment, the air distorted slightly, and then, the entire world began to shake. The surrounding scenery seemed to be collapsing…
However, this situation only lasted for an instant. After a few short seconds, everything returned to normal.
It was as if that had just been a hallucination.
The three looked at each other.
“What happened?”
“Did you guys feel that just now?”
Li Hang and Lin Jun were both somewhat panicked and couldn’t help but exchange words.
Chen Mo’s gaze, however, had completely changed. He looked at his two old classmates who had not yet fully woken up and said:
“This is an illusion… we have to find a way out.”