Li Chen turned toward the source of the voice. A boy in a black robe, carrying a large black bag and with a strange black box hanging on his back, was looking at the two of them with a nervous expression.
Su Zhe looked at him with a cheeky grin. He hadn't expected to be called "senior brother" when he had only just arrived at the academy.
The boy seemed to have a bit of a stutter. He asked quietly, "Senior brothers, c-can you take me to the new student registration area?"
Li Chen was lost himself, so he pointed to the suitcase beside him to show that he was a new student too.
The boy turned to Su Zhe. After all, Su Zhe hadn't brought any luggage, so he was likely to be a returning student. The truth, however, was the opposite.
Su Zhe smiled. "Since you called me senior brother, I have to get you to your destination!!"
"Although I don't know where it is either."
Thump.
Li Chen rapped him on the head and said slowly, "Just pretend he didn't say anything. We're both new students who just arrived, and we haven't found the registration area either. Why don't we go together?"
The boy hesitated for a few seconds, then nodded in agreement.
"Hey... Brother Chen, why does this feel like a dream?" Su Zhe couldn't keep still on the way. There were novelties everywhere: senior brothers and sisters from the upper grades were showing off their abilities, and quite a few pretty young women were recruiting for clubs along the road. The sight set Su Zhe's blood pumping.
Li Chen nodded to himself. The academy had created a great atmosphere, and quite a few new students had been drawn in by the scene.
Su Zhe ate the takoyaki he had just bought, then turned and asked, "Jianping, do you want some? It's pretty good."
Jianping was the boy in black they had just met.
"Brother Su, how long until we get to the new student area? It'll close soon if we don't hurry."
Su Zhe took a bite of a takoyaki ball and teased, "Oh, we should be close. Look, Brother Chen isn't worried, so why should we panic?"
Meanwhile, Li Chen puzzled over the photo he had taken of the academy map. It was strange: their route was clearly correct, but no matter how they walked, they couldn't reach their destination. It was as if they were walking in circles under a ghost's spell.
Quite a few students around them were in the same situation. Li Chen also noticed that many returning students were watching the frustrated newcomers with smiles and teasing them, as though enjoying a show.
Li Chen pulled the other two aside, pointed at the map, and whispered, "Something's wrong here. We should have arrived by now if we followed the normal route. I suspect we're trapped in some powerful person's ability."
"It was probably those Sequence Masters from Canglan."
"Those returning students probably know what's going on, but they probably won't tell us easily."
Su Zhe stared blankly for a few seconds. "What do we do now, then? If the academy wants to mess with us, how are we supposed to fight back?"
"We're just students who have only recently awakened!"
Jianping half-closed his eyes and sensed his surroundings for a few seconds. Sounding somewhat uncertain, he said, "This should be the illusion my master mentioned before I left home."
"An illusion?" Su Zhe was a little confused. He looked at the street before him, which hadn't changed at all. He even tried feeling the air in front of him, but nothing changed.
Li Chen closed his eyes and sensed the energy fluctuations around him. If Jianping was right, they might really have fallen into an illusion without noticing it. Even their physical bodies might be fake.
No matter who it was, using an ability would inevitably release energy. Since he could control any energy, he could naturally find where the ability's energy was concentrated.
Li Chen suddenly opened his eyes. His pupils seemed to turn completely white at that moment. He gently pulled at the empty space before him, and a crack radiating white light appeared with a rustle.
"Let's go."
Li Chen looked at the crack he had torn open. He had only made a slight change to that energy, creating a small flaw that gave them an opening to escape.
Su Zhe swallowed a takoyaki ball whole and hurried after Li Chen.
After a dizzying whirl, Li Chen was the first to open his eyes. He slowly sat up. He had been lying in a room, with Su Zhe and Jianping, who had already gotten up, beside him.
How had they gone from the street to a room? Had everything just now been an illusion?
Then how had he ended up here?
At that moment, the television in their room came on, and a mechanical voice sounded.
[Congratulations on successfully passing the entrance ceremony]
[Please remain in the room and wait]
"The entrance ceremony? An illusion?" Li Chen was a little bewildered too. When had they been pulled into the illusion, and when had they been carried here?
If someone had wanted to kill them, that simple illusion would have been enough to let them die countless times.
Su Zhe came to as well. He groggily looked around and said, "Damn, how did we end up here? We weren't kidnapped, were we?!"
"I don't want to die full of regret before my life has even begun!"
Before Li Chen could sort out his thoughts, Jianping, sitting beside him, frowned and said, "We were probably pulled into the illusion as soon as we entered the academy. But the illusion covered the entire academy, so we didn't notice it. Those returning students probably had something that let them resist it. As for how we came to be in this room, maybe the returning students carried us here after we broke the illusion and passed out."
His analysis was so spot-on that even Su Zhe applauded. What a rare sight!
After all, the boy had spoken very little along the way.
Su Zhe had thought it was because he was afraid, but the truth was simply that Jianping hadn't been very willing to talk to him.
As Jianping spoke, Li Chen frowned deeply. There were many flaws in that explanation—too many holes.
If Jianping was right, were they the only ones who had guessed that they had entered an illusion? And wouldn't their physical bodies have been able to feel it?
Suddenly, he thought of something: a type of Sequence Teacher Yu had once talked about in class.
Li Chen looked out the window at the darkness and cried, "No, there's a dream too!"
"An illusion wasn't the only thing involved. A dream was probably part of this feast for the new students too. They lured us into the academy, pulled us into an illusion without anyone noticing, and then put us into a dream. We moved through the dream, while the illusion was the environment they created. Our physical bodies may have been sleepwalking the whole time, but the illusion put further pressure on our minds."
"So our bodies have actually been moving around in the same place this whole time, while our consciousnesses were implanted in the illusion. Maybe everything we saw before was fake—even the entire academy."
"This illusion and dream have already made us lose our sense of direction within our own consciousnesses. I'm even wondering whether we really got out."
A faint light flashed in Li Chen's eyes as he looked around the room. Sure enough, just as he had expected, the room was like a moving body of energy, constantly carrying them along, even though their bodies weren't moving.
Clang.
A sound came from a sword sheath. The black box that had been on Jianping's back was now open, and a sharp red sword lay inside, emanating waves of baleful energy.
Jianping seized the hilt, his expression turning cold. "I don't like dreams, and I hate being played with like this even more."
A streak of sword light shot into the sky, cleaving the room in two in an instant. White light flickered through the opening in the split room.
Seeing this, Li Chen also gathered energy in his hand like he had in the dream. It swirled around him as he walked toward the opening.