Chapter 3

He rose, cocked his gun, and struck back.

Zhuo Yang had practiced those movements countless times, and they flowed like water.

Indeed, Zhuo Yang had only just ended his special forces career this year because of an injury and returned to civilian life.

He had joined Star Radiance as a trainee to do his former captain a favor.

The former captain's daughter had been one of Starlight Entertainment's logistics coordinators, but she had collapsed at her post and died suddenly.

Star Radiance had publicly claimed that the employee had underlying health problems, while Zhuo Yang's mission was to find evidence that they had violated labor laws.

He had been sleeping particularly soundly, holding the water gun he had seized from a hunter that day.

A gun was a second life to people like him. In his dream, Zhuo Yang and his second life were traveling together through those years that had set his blood racing, running and leaping through rainforests, lying in ambush in the snow, and carrying out mission after mission in the dense forests along their homeland's borders...

Poor Jiang Renbao was a pampered young master who had never suffered the pain of being treated like a criminal.

He promptly made a dramatic move: he fell to the floor and stayed there.

The pain had knocked him out.

The barrage viewers who had secretly come to watch the contestants' sleeping faces late at night had never expected a surprise like this.

"Hahahahaha, talk about trying to steal a chicken only to lose the rice used to lure it! That was satisfying, folks."

"I didn't expect Teacher Zhuo to pull off a counterattack. Looks like he really has some skills."

"There are so few entertainers like Zhuo Yang, but he's just so! damn! cool!"

"My dad glanced over and said this young man was really sharp! I successfully got him hooked!"

It took Zhuo Yang a moment to realize what he had instinctively done. He immediately got up, intending to help Jiang Renbao to his feet.

But as soon as he pulled back the covers, he noticed something.

Qiao Huan was looking at him.

At his gun.

Zhuo Yang had become a one-in-ten-thousand special forces operative, and he was far less careless than he appeared. Even though the fellow named Qiao Huan had looked away extremely quickly, Zhuo Yang had still caught where his gaze had been fixed.

It was the back of his water gun.

If it had been a real gun, that was where the safety would have been.

"Did I wake you?" Zhuo Yang raised an eyebrow.

Years of training had given him an innate fixation on completing his mission. He would never allow anything to go wrong.

If there was even the slightest chance that the fellow named Qiao Huan could expose his identity, Zhuo Yang would eliminate him without hesitation.

"Mmm." Qiao Huan yawned. "I'm a light sleeper."

Zhuo Yang stared at him, but no matter how he looked, Qiao Huan seemed... bleary-eyed with sleep.

He looked genuinely sleepy.

But an utterly ordinary rookie trainee not only hadn't been frightened by his move, but had also instinctively checked whether his gun's safety was off?

He didn't believe it.

"What were you looking at just now?" Zhuo Yang had always been a straightforward person, so he simply asked.

"Uh, well." Qiao Huan blinked. "Teacher Zhuo, am I allowed to say?"

Zhuo "internet-illiterate" Yang: ?

What did that mean?

Such a calculating answer!

But before he could ask another question, Qiao Huan added, "Your... gun has unfolded from the inside out."

So he really had been looking at his gun!

But what was with the laziness and... caution in his voice?

Countless thoughts flashed through Zhuo Yang's mind. Finally, he followed Qiao Huan's gaze downward and discovered that the back of the water gun was also below his own waist.

Captain Zhuo, aka the ** little prince.

Fuck.

The barrage instantly grew exponentially—

"Aaaaah, male bodhisattva!"

"Camera, move over a little! Why is everything blocked?!"

"What gun is Qiao Huan looking at? Let me have a look too!"

The tense atmosphere dissolved in an instant.

"Don't show off." With a hint of amusement, Qiao Huan tossed him the casual pants lying at the head of the bed.

Zhuo Yang hurriedly put on the pants, his face red.

"Owwww—"

A feeble groan came from the floor.

The two looked down, only then remembering that Young Master Jiang was still lying there.

Qiao Huan hurriedly helped him onto his **. "How are you?"

Jiang Renbao shook his arm, tears in his eyes. "Are these the wings I got after I died and became an angel?"

Qiao Huan took a look and found that although his arm appeared somewhat shattered, it was actually only dislocated.

"Of course not, Mr. Jiang," Qiao Huan comforted him earnestly. "An angel's wings aren't this ugly."

Jiang Renbao promptly shed tears of gratitude.

Thanks, I really do feel comforted.

"I was a... uh... fighter for a while?" Wary of Qiao Huan guessing too much, Zhuo Yang hurriedly explained.

"Oh."

Qiao Huan responded absentmindedly, then, before Young Master Jiang could come to his senses, popped his joint back into place with two quick cracks.

"My younger male cousin used to dislocate his joints all the time when he was little. I helped put them back many times." Qiao Huan's explanation came much more smoothly.

"Oh."

The two fell silent, each preoccupied with his own thoughts.

In his heart, Zhuo Yang and his second and third lives were silently thanking Qiao Huan.

Qiao Huan's a really good guy. He saw me embarrass myself and even helped me out.

What was all that the old captain said about everyone in the entertainment industry scheming against one another and tripping me up to make me look bad?

Qiao Huan, meanwhile, only felt that the entertainment industry was terrifying. It had driven trainees to become perverts.

He hadn't expected Zhuo Yang to turn the tables and take Jiang Renbao down just now. In his shock, he had instinctively checked Zhuo Yang's gun safety out of an old training habit. Fortunately, this bodhisattva's ** had given him an excuse.

But Zhuo Yang had even provocatively asked him what he was looking at...

Ye Yiwei was already not quite normal. This Zhuo Yang looked like an upright fellow, but who would have thought he was so twisted inside?

A tiny dorm room, with a Crouching Dragon and a Fledgling Phoenix. How terrifying.

"Thank you both for sparing my life." Jiang Renbao felt much better after his joint was put back, and he grinned again.

Qiao Huan sighed, focused on his mission, and asked, "Why did you come to our room..."

The two words he left unsaid were "courting death."

Jiang Renbao took a deep breath, sat up, and pondered for a long while with a serious expression.

Just as Qiao Huan was wondering if the pain had knocked him out again, Jiang Renbao finally finished brainstorming and spoke.

"I'm an undercover agent."

Those four short words exploded like a thunderclap in the cramped dorm room.

Zhuo Yang's eyes widened, Ye Yiwei stopped breathing, and countless thoughts flashed through Qiao Huan's mind.

Could it be...

"Actually, my real identity is a hunter. I went undercover in the prey's cabin to find out when you were leaving tomorrow and what route you'd take, so I could catch you the moment you stepped outside, hehe." Jiang Renbao confessed as fast as if he were rapping. "Bet you didn't expect that, huh?"

Qiao Huan: ...

He really hadn't expected it.

Someone had told an undercover agent that he was undercover, but was actually an idiot.

"But I've decided to switch sides and be a double agent! I can tell you all the hunters' plans!" Jiang Renbao snapped his fingers to give himself a beat. "Well? Isn't that smart?"

Qiao Huan: "..."

Qiao Huan: "There's no need."

Not only did he not need updates on the hunters, he needed Jiang Renbao following them around even less.

How much camera time would that get us?!

Jiang Renbao looked reproachfully at Zhuo Yang. "Does the fighting bodhisattva not need me either?"

Zhuo Yang asked, "How many hunters and prey are left now?"

Jiang Renbao counted on his fingers. "You four are the only prey left, and there are fifteen or sixteen hunters, I think."

"Oh..."

Qiao Huan froze.

He hadn't expected the other prey to be such weaklings.

His original plan had been to play dead comfortably in the room and let the audience focus on the hunters and prey outside...

"And the winning prey can also get an endorsement deal for Blue Sesame lipstick!" Jiang Renbao added. "A major domestic brand like that is an opportunity every entertainer would fight tooth and nail to get, and it'll go to one of you four!"

As if camera time weren't enough, there's an opportunity too...

Qiao Huan spoke immediately. "I've changed my mind. I want to know the hunters' plans."

Zhuo Yang raised his hand. "Me too!"

Ye Yiwei had sat up at some point. "And me!"

An eerie silence fell over the room once more.

The thought processes of the three undercover agents connected at the same moment in an exceedingly bizarre fashion.

As long as I let a hunter catch me and get eliminated quickly, won't I be able to leave the show immediately and return to Star Radiance Company to complete my mission?!

But in fact, the barrage understood it as:

"Let me explain: one of the rules of City Escape is that if a hunter's weapon is taken, the hunter loses!"

"I get it! All three of them want to go challenge the hunters themselves, right?!"

"No contestant has ever dared to do that before, right?!"

"Wow, this must be the Star Radiance spirit! Win by any means necessary!"

"This is what you call an openly crazy bastard, folks! For a little more camera time and an endorsement, they've written their ambition to get famous all over their faces!"

"I thought they were following Star Radiance's old tradition, but they're not taking the black-and-red route. Amazing!"

"Being an entertainer is all about winning! Go!"

In an instant, the fans who had followed Jiang Renbao into the livestream were won over by the three of them.

"Okay!" Jiang Renbao was also moved by the trio's enterprising spirit. "The Meow Woof Chirp Trio are lying in wait at the convenience store next door; Brother Zhang, the action star, is disguised as a breakfast vendor on the street corner; and Sister Hong, the former best actress, will probably dress up as a cleaning lady..."

Half an hour later, Jiang Renbao finally finished.

"Thank you, Teacher Jiang." Qiao Huan took out a slip of paper with his contact information on it. "Once the show's over, I'll treat you to a proper meal."

Two birds with one stone. Just like that, a breakthrough in the case had arrived.

"Sure." In high spirits, Jiang Renbao whistled as he left the room.

"Let's go to sleep, let's go to sleep." Qiao Huan yawned. "We'll sleep until the safe house time limit is up, then avoid those places for ten minutes and we'll win."

"That's right!" Zhuo Yang stretched. "Today really wore me out. I don't have any strength left."

"Mm, I'm not in very good health either." Ye Yiwei coughed twice.

Snores soon sounded in the room.

However...

In the dark, Qiao Huan had already quietly gotten dressed and put on a mask.

Once the other two's breathing had gradually become steady, Qiao Huan rolled out of bed and tiptoed out of the room.

Run!

Sleep until tomorrow morning? That's when the most people get up early to watch the livestream!

He was going to get eliminated under cover of darkness, hurry over to Star Radiance to complete his mission, graduate, and retire!

If the production team wants me dead at the fifth watch, I won't let myself live until the third!

But he had barely taken two steps.

Wait...

Why were there footsteps behind him?

They were very jumbled footsteps, belonging to more than one person!

Qiao Huan looked back, and his eyes instantly widened...

What. The. Hell.

Just how twisted had Star Radiance made the souls of the trainees in his intake?

The next morning, Bai Jike was shaken awake.

Every night when he fell asleep, he browsed the "memory palace" in his mind and was almost completely unresponsive to the outside world, so he knew nothing of what had happened the night before.

"Mr. Bai, the safe house time limit is up. You have to go out now," a staff member said.

"Oh, okay." Bai Jike rubbed his eyes and walked out.

He was usually in a shut-down state for the first ten minutes after waking, so he instinctively avoided the crowd and wandered aimlessly.

Just as his soul finally returned to its place, applause suddenly erupted around him.

At the same time, countless cameras and microphones were thrust into his face.

"Congratulations, Mr. Bai! You're the first surviving prey in the history of the show!"

"You may not have had your teammates' courage to face the challenge of the hunters head-on, but you're undoubtedly the luckiest one!"

"Congratulations on getting the Blue Sesame endorsement! That's an extremely precious opportunity for a newcomer!"

"Star Radiance's official website finally released news about the members of its third-generation group, OSOK, this morning. It said they would select four out of eighteen trainees. You, Qiao Huan, Ye Yiwei, and Zhuo Yang are all on the list because of your outstanding performances on this variety show. What do you think?"

"Right now, you four are the most talked-about newcomers. Some people are calling for the four of you to debut directly as a group. What do you think?"

"Congratulations, little brother Jike, and congratulations to all four of you! This really was two blessings arriving at once!"

Author's note:

Years later, the host asked the four top stars what their first impressions of one another had been.

Ye Yiwei: Qiao Huan really was such a good person. (sincerely)

Zhuo Yang: Qiao Huan really was such a good person. (sincerely)

Bai Jike: Those three big brothers really were such good people. (through gritted teeth)

Qiao Huan: A bunch of little bastards getting in the way of my graduation.

Ye & Zhuo & Bai: ?

The main cast shouldn't be hard to remember, right? Not hard, right? Right?

Qiao Huan: A young undercover veteran, quick-witted with an even higher EQ, codename "Bro Buffing."

Ye Yiwei: Former Mobile Unit member, cold on the outside and warm at heart, good at saving people, codename "Shima."

Zhuo Yang: Former special operations team member, a rough, straightforward wolf-dog type with maxed-out physical combat skills, codename "Explosive Sheep."

Bai Jike: A teenage red-hacker genius, a socially anxious little brother with a maxed-out IQ, codename "Nightwing."

All the departments above are made up and don't allude to anything in real life. The four initially investigated their cases separately, but as they kept investigating, they discovered they were investigating the same case.

Also, the nicknames were inspired by "Lives of Omission," "404 Mobile Investigation," "Line Walker," and "Batman," respectively, but the characters weren't borrowed from them; I was just playing with references. (On how a joke instantly stops being funny once you explain it.)