Incubus Living In A World Of Superpower Users - Chapter 120

Chapter 120: Evelyn Breaks The Illusion
Back in the simulation, the sand beneath Evelyn’s boots shifted slightly as she stepped forward, eyes focused on the trees ahead.

From where they stood, the patch of green looked like a small oasis—quiet, peaceful, and strangely inviting after everything they’d just passed.

The others followed close behind, forming a loose triangle as they approached. No one said much.

The heat was still heavy, and the weight of almost being eaten alive by mimic piranhas hadn’t fully worn off yet.

As they got closer to the grove, something unexpected came into view.

People.

Not just any people.

A whole group.

Standing at the edge of the trees, half in shadow and half in sun, were at least ten students.

Evelyn’s steps slowed.

The three girls behind her paused, too.

The tall one squinted. “Wait… is that…?”

The short one nodded slowly. “That’s Ethan, isn’t it? And… Lucas?”

Evelyn’s brows pulled together as she stepped closer. Her heart gave a strange twist as she noticed Everly standing near the front, right beside Lucas.

She frowned.

That didn’t make sense.

Everly wasn’t assigned to Lucas’s group.

And Ethan? He was supposed to be with two other girls, not anywhere near here.

“Hold on,” Evelyn muttered, stepping faster now.

Before she could say anything, Lucas’s voice rang out across the clearing.

“You stay with me, Everly,” he said loud and clear. “I won’t let a creep like Ethan near you.”

Evelyn froze.

“What…?”

Lucas raised his voice again. “I would never treat you like some pawn, trying to use you as bait for monsters.”

Evelyn looked at Everly, waiting for her to correct him. To push him away. To laugh it off.

But she didn’t.

Instead, Everly just looked at Lucas… and blushed.

Her expression turned soft. Dreamy. Almost like she believed him.

“What the hell…” Evelyn whispered.

She stepped into the crowd of students, eyes darting between the faces. None of them looked at her.

They were all staring at Ethan, who stood to the side, silent, with an unreadable face.

Evelyn turned to a random girl near the front. “What’s going on? Why is everyone looking at him like that?”

The girl didn’t even glance at her. “Didn’t you hear? He tried to use Everly as bait. Said it was for the mission.”

Another student spoke up. “Disgusting. I knew he was sketchy.”

“Yeah,” a boy added. “People like him always hide behind the team. Manipulate from the back.”

Evelyn stared at them.

“No,” she said slowly. “That’s not… that doesn’t sound like him.”

The voices kept going.

“He even admitted it,” someone muttered. “Said it was the ‘best tactical choice.'”

Evelyn took a shaky breath.

This was wrong.

All of it.

But the more she heard, the harder it became to think clearly.

Her mind started to waver. She looked at Ethan again—and for a moment, even she began to question what she knew.

Would he do something like that?

Would he sacrifice someone for strategy?

No. No, he wouldn’t.

Would he?

Her vision flickered.

Only for a second.

A brief pulse of light.

She blinked rapidly.

Then it happened again.

Like something in her head trying to reject what she was seeing.

The world tilted slightly.

The voices felt further away.

Evelyn’s hands trembled.

“Wait…”

She looked around again.

The faces were too perfect. Too still. Too… hollow.

And something else.

They were all gathered too early. It didn’t make sense. Teams weren’t supposed to cross paths this soon. Not unless they had taken a shortcut or bypassed a zone entirely.

But their terrain didn’t allow that.

She looked down at her wristband. No new pings. No cross-team movement. No proximity alerts.

If this were real, there should’ve been a warning. A signal.

Nothing.

And then she saw it.

Barely visible through the shifting sand just behind the crowd.

A tail.

Segmented.

Buried deep.

Except for the tip, where four thin threads pulsed with faint blue light.

Her breath caught in her throat.

No.

Her body moved before she could fully think it through. She stepped sideways, ducked slightly, and looked closer.

The threads weren’t part of the simulation gear.

They were projection links.

Tied directly to her and the other three girls from her team.

She felt it in her bones.

They hadn’t moved.

Not since the start.

Everything she’d seen—the beach, the piranhas, the walk, the water, even this grove—it was all fake.

A projected illusion fed into their minds by a simulation beast.

A trap.

One of the more advanced ones, designed not to hurt, but to test.

Her body shook.

“I was… inside it this whole time…”

She looked back at Ethan again, but he was no longer clear.

His face blurred, then shifted, and then faded altogether.

The crowd around her flickered. Parts of them turned gray. Others vanished like fog breaking apart.

Evelyn clenched her fists, feeling her heartbeat rise.

“Snap out of it,” she muttered.

Her teammates—were they still stuck?

She turned quickly.

The other three girls stood in a loose arc behind her, unmoving. Blank stares on their faces. Still caught in the dream.

Still caught in the lie.

The fake oasis began to dissolve.

Not all at once—but in patches.

The trees faded to sand.

The water dried up like it had never been there.

The wind died down.

And in its place… the heat returned.

The real desert.

The dry, quiet, open space where it had all started.

And that scorpion.

The one lying just meters away.

Still there.

Still feeding the illusion through the wires from its tail.

But now?

She could see it clearly.

Evelyn stepped back and grabbed her bow.

The air around her shifted, dimming slightly as if the sun itself had pulled away.

Silvery energy shimmered around her hands—cool, soft, and sharp like moonlight cutting through mist.

Lunar threads pulsed at her fingertips, responding to her will.

But she didn’t shoot.

Not yet.

She turned to the others and called their names—once, twice, three times.

No reaction.

Then, one of them twitched.

Another’s fingers moved slightly.

The illusion was cracking, but with a slight twitch from the scorphion’s tail, the three of them went back to how they were before.

Evelyn didn’t know what the scorpion would do once it realized she’d broken free.

But she wasn’t about to wait and find out.

The fake world was gone.

Now?

Now it was time to fight for real.