I Control the World

Lily's heart froze as an inexplicable chill crept over her. She tried to maintain her composure. "You're spouting nonsense! How could it not—"

"For the Chief!"

Suddenly, the man she thought was Sam let out a fervent whisper, his voice filled with fanatical devotion.

Then, without hesitation, he seized Lily's hand and forced the dagger to slash across his own throat.

Schlik!

The sound of steel slicing through flesh echoed sharply.

Warm blood sprayed out in a crimson arc, splattering across Lily's face. She froze, staring in shock as the man collapsed to the floor. His face still bore that unshakable, deranged fervor, even in death.

"I… I killed someone!? He… Why…?"

Lily's voice trembled, her words disjointed. She looked down at her blood-soaked hands, her grip on the dagger loosening. The blade slipped from her fingers and clattered against the floor, the sound painfully crisp in the suffocating silence.

And then—

Clap, clap, clap…

The sound of applause broke through the stillness, echoing through the empty hall.

"Bravo! Absolutely brilliant! Thank you both for delivering such an extraordinary performance."

The voice rang out from among the black-suited Vipers. A frail-looking man, almost delicate in his appearance, stepped forward, clapping slowly. His thin frame and unassuming demeanor only added to the surreal tension.

He stopped a few steps away from Lily and Ethan, then calmly removed his gas mask, revealing a pale, strikingly handsome face.

"Sam!? This… this can't be!" Lily's voice was almost unrecognizable, twisted by shock. She stared at the man in disbelief.

"If you're Sam," she stammered, her body trembling, "then… who is he?"

Her gaze dropped to the bloodied corpse on the ground. Summoning her last shred of courage, she flipped the body over to reveal the face beneath.

What she saw froze her in place. A chilling fear shot through her entire body, making her blood run cold.

The face staring back at her was not Sam's. It belonged to a stranger, one who bore a faint resemblance to Sam—enough to pass as a decoy with some clever makeup, the pale complexion painted to perfection.

"No… no! This can't be real!" Lily whispered, her voice trembling with denial.

From where he lay, Ethan roared in disbelief, his voice raw. "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

Though his body was drained of strength, his eyes were clear. He had seen it—he had seen Sam being held hostage. Even if the decoy resembled Sam, it wasn't enough to fool someone who had been face-to-face with him multiple times.

Wait.

Ethan's mind raced as a detail clicked into place. Something had felt off earlier, but he hadn't fully grasped it until now.

Sam was supposed to be frail, almost sickly. The kind of person who needed a cane, sat in a wheelchair, and looked as if a stiff breeze might knock him over.

Yet the person Ethan had lunged at earlier… moved with startling agility. The fluid, precise backward leap was something no chronically ill individual could pull off.

"You're a transcendent too!!" Ethan Reed lifted his head with great effort, his eyes locked onto the newly revealed Sam in disbelief.

Sam merely smiled, his silence more unsettling than any response. He turned and gave a calm order: "Take these two, the gentleman and the lady who've had such a fright, somewhere to rest."

"Yes, Chief!"

Two underlings quickly stepped forward, dragging the lifelessly slumped Ethan and the doll-like Lily away.

Sam had no intention of making the typical villainous mistake of indulging in a lengthy monologue that would give his opponents a chance to turn the tables. The decoy earlier had been a calculated risk, a probe to test if Ethan still had any hidden cards. Sam wasn't about to let his guard down during the interrogation and risk a sudden, desperate counterattack.

Unexpectedly, instead of exposing Ethan's tricks, the ruse had drawn out an unexpected participant—Lily.

"Chief, you nearly scared me to death back there," Ryan Cole muttered, still shaken as he glanced at the decoy's corpse. He hurried to Sam's side, his nerves frayed. "For a moment, I thought it really was you…"

"A wise man never stands under a crumbling wall," Sam's voice suddenly sounded from behind Ryan.

Ryan froze, his blood turning ice-cold. The Chief was standing right in front of him—so how could his voice be coming from behind?

Whipping around, Ryan saw one of the burly black-suited men among the group calmly remove his gas mask. Beneath it was the same pale, strikingly handsome face of Sam.

Ryan's scalp prickled as a chilling realization gripped him. "This… this can't be…"

He spun back to look at the "Sam" standing in front of him, only to see the face slowly morph into that of a stranger—completely unrecognizable. It wasn't Sam at all.

Behind Ryan, the real Sam leisurely unbuttoned his black suit, revealing a heavily padded bulletproof vest beneath. Piece by piece, he removed the layers of protective armor, explaining why his figure had appeared so robust earlier.

Ryan stood frozen in place, his expression one of utter disbelief, as if he had seen a ghost.

Sam spoke calmly, his tone laced with indifference. "What's there to be so surprised about? I told you already—a gentleman never stands under a crumbling wall."

Still in a daze, Ryan blurted out without thinking, "But… Chief, with all the deception, sneak attacks, poisoning, and manipulating people's emotions… that doesn't seem very 'gentlemanly'—"

"Hmm?" Sam's faint, pointed glance silenced Ryan instantly. His mouth snapped shut, and he hastily fumbled to change the subject.

"Chief, those decoys you picked were brilliant! They looked remarkably similar to you—three parts resemblance, I'd say. Truly rare to find such a match!" He paused mid-praise, suddenly eyeing Sam warily. "By the way, Chief… the one standing before me now—this isn't another decoy, is it?"

Sam ignored the question, instead pulling out his tea-tinted glasses and placing them back on his face. His deep, penetrating gaze disappeared behind the reflective lenses.

"Whether it looks like me or not doesn't matter," Sam said coolly. "What matters is the hypnosis."

Ryan blinked, startled. "Hypnosis?"

"Each level of the Vipers' headquarters is equipped with calming candles. He's been breathing it in throughout his battles, absorbing it bit by bit," Sam explained, his voice unhurried.

"Couple that with the constant exposure to the ouroboros symbol, subtle but pervasive, and the preconceived notions Lily planted when she revealed information about me. Together, these created a foundation—a fertile ground for this final hypnosis.

"The decoy was simply insurance," Sam added, a faint smile tugging at his lips. "After all, I'd never hypnotized a transcendent before. Better safe than sorry."

"Brilliant! Chief, you're truly brilliant!" Ryan Cole's expression grew increasingly fervent, but then a flicker of doubt crept across his face. "But, Chief, about the poison… something doesn't add up.

"Your decoy mentioned Lily's lips were poisoned. But what if she had licked her lips along the way? Or if she hadn't kissed Ethan at all? Wouldn't that mean the whole plan could've fallen apart?"

"My plan doesn't fail," Sam replied with a cryptic smile. "Because… there never was any poison."

"What?!" Ryan staggered slightly, his mental gears grinding to process this revelation.

"Ever heard of the water drop experiment?" Sam began, his tone taking on an almost instructional quality. "There's a story of a psychological experiment conducted on a death row prisoner. They blindfolded him and told him they were going to drain all his blood. Then, they pricked his wrist lightly to simulate a cut and let a faucet drip at regular intervals nearby, mimicking the sound of his blood dripping away.

"Over time, the prisoner genuinely believed his life was ebbing away, and eventually, he died.

"In reality, no blood was ever drawn. The sound of dripping water was all it took."

Sam's lips curled into a serene, almost euphoric smile, a reflection of his fascination with the power of suggestion. He seemed to revel in the subtle art of manipulating the human mind.