Damn, so badass! I want to become the leading lady's disciple!

Almost simultaneously, every radio crackled to life.

"The school has been taken over! Thirty-seven students and teachers are being held hostage, and the criminals are demanding a ransom!"

"The mayor has disappeared from his office! No suspicious individuals have been spotted so far!"

"We just received an anonymous call demanding a helicopter, or they'll kill every hostage, including the mayor!"

"..."

The Hunters stood frozen, unable to understand how so many "crimes" had happened in the space of half an hour.

Had they split up?!

But anyone who had watched the show knew that in an escape-and-kill game like this, getting separated made you an easy target.

Your chances of survival were practically zero.

Yet these new criminals had actually dared to operate alone, and they had all succeeded?!

What the hell?!

Was season twenty-three set to nightmare difficulty?!

Captain Chen Yifan puzzled over it for ages without making any sense of it. He was still debating whether to check the school first when someone beside him spoke up.

"The mayor's been kidnapped? That's a slap in the government's face. We should go to the government offices immediately to look for clues!" Lu Yuanhang suggested, convinced he was being clever.

Xu Qi disagreed. "The school's been taken over. The parents must be frantic. We should calm the public down first."

"You're deliberately arguing with me, aren't you?" Lu Yuanhang glared at him.

Xu Qi curled his lip. "Don't think you're so important. Nobody gives a damn about you!"

"Bro, look at him!" Lu Yuanhang turned to Lu Siqi for help, but his brother seemed distracted.

The other Hunters looked on with undisguised disgust.

A moment later, Saiweiya suggested, "Why don't we split up?"

"I agree!" Xu Qi raised a hand eagerly.

One more fucking second with this guy and I'm going to puke.

Xu Qi turned to his companion. "Li He, let's go to the school!"

Chen Yifan looked solemn. "I'm coming with you!"

"Don't leave me behind." Saiweiya smiled. "It wouldn't be the Special Operations Group without every member."

The four exchanged smiles.

Before the brothers could react, they strode off toward the school.

Lu Yuanhang glared viciously at their retreating backs, then turned to his brother with a petulant whine. "Bro, aren't they deliberately shutting us out? The entertainment industry is such a cesspool. It's full of all kinds of freaks!"

Lu Siqi frowned, still somewhat distracted. "Have you ever thought about it?"

"Huh?" Lu Yuanhang didn't follow.

Lu Siqi continued, "People shut you out everywhere you go. Are you really not at fault at all?"

"Bro..." Lu Yuanhang's eyes suddenly reddened. "You're taking their side?"

"This isn't about taking sides..." Lu Siqi sighed. He was about to say more when the news playing on a television in a shop window caught his attention.

He hurried over, and the female anchor's voice carried through the glass.

"Today, the People's Bank on Happiness Street was attacked by robbers. One person was killed at the scene, and a large quantity of gold and deposited funds was stolen."

"Police are currently searching for the suspects. Members of the public are urged to come forward with any information..."

The news footage switched to a surveillance camera view.

Wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, Jian Li deftly caught a replica gun, darted into the revolving door, and shot dead a security guard who had tried to call the police.

Without a moment's hesitation, he swiftly took control of the scene, worked with his companions to move their loot, then hailed a taxi and made a smooth getaway...

Although this was a variety show, and every scene could have been exaggerated or edited,

Lu Siqi was still deeply stunned by everything unfolding before his eyes.

It felt as though he was seeing Jian Li for the first time, right at that moment.

With every trace of timidity and weakness stripped away, he had become so... magnetic!

"Bro, let's go to city hall. It'll be even harder to find clues if we wait any longer." Lu Yuanhang tugged at Lu Siqi's sleeve, trying to pull him out of whatever he was feeling.

Behind the monitors, the director was losing it. "We have this many cameras, and we still can't keep track of a handful of people?!"

"How are the Hunters supposed to win if we can't get them on camera?!"

"And where the hell did those extras come from? They actually went off to sell the stuff?!"

"They haven't given us a single clue! Are they seriously trying to make a show where evil triumphs over good?!"

The entire production crew was being chewed out, unsure how to explain themselves, when the emergency phone suddenly rang.

The assistant hurried over and switched on speakerphone. An obviously altered female voice came through.

"Is the helicopter ready? You have ten more minutes. If it doesn't arrive at the balcony in time, the bombs at the school will go off!"

"Wait, hold on-"

The assistant tried to fish for clues, but the caller gave no opportunity and hung up immediately.

An eerie silence settled over the show's command center again.

Only after a long while did the exhausted director speak. "What do you think?"

"I-I think the bank robbers, the people who kidnapped the mayor, the hostage-takers, and the person demanding a helicopter are all working together!"

The director laughed in exasperation. "No shit! I fucking know that too!"

He waved a hand in surrender. "Forget it. Asking you is pointless. What's happening with the camera operators? Can they get into the school?!"

The assistant shook their head. "It's locked down too tightly. They get shot in the head as soon as they enter. They can only film and report from outside now."

The director was speechless. "...How far are they planning to take this?! Do they seriously want an actual helicopter before they'll release anyone?!"

Fuck, how much would that cost?!

The temporary school in the scenic area. The ground-floor cafeteria.

Dozens of teachers and students crouched in a corner with their hands over their heads.

Luo Xiaohong sat with her legs crossed, leisurely munching sunflower seeds while toying with the Soft Whip.

A shifty-eyed hostage spotted an opening, ducked low, and sprinted for the door. A sudden rush of air swept past their ear, followed by the crack of a whip.

The glass bowl by the door shattered instantly. Luo Xiaohong narrowed her eyes, cast a sidelong glance at the hostage, and picked up her radio.

"A hostage tried to escape. Execute one."

Then she moved the radio away and warned casually, "If anyone runs again, it won't be a bowl that gets hit."

"Contact the production team for workplace injury reimbursement."

No sooner had she finished speaking than someone came in through the window.

Luo Xiaohong glanced over without moving.

A man in a suit, held by his collar, clambered slowly inside. Before he had even steadied himself, he began speaking in a trembling voice.

"Everyone, don't panic. I'm the mayor."

"I promise I'll get everyone out!"

Before he could finish, he took a kick to the backside. "You've been kidnapped yourself. What makes you think you have any say?"

"Don't you know hostages get killed for talking too much?!"

Shi Huayi and Zhou Nan played off each other as they hauled the "mayor" into the corner like a little chick, then asked Luo Xiaohong, "Where are the others?"

"The corridors, the classrooms, the balcony." Luo Xiaohong spat out a sunflower seed shell. "Planting bombs."

"There's also a sniper up on the roof."

"Anyone comes in, they die."

A college student extra secretly livestreaming the scene rapidly typed a comment.

[Damn, so badass! I want to become Sister Hong's disciple!]