Zhou Lin

In most cases, "waiting" and "keeping secrets" are annoying and difficult things.

But sometimes, these two things can actually make people happy.

Hull experienced this joy after talking to the judge on the phone.

Although in the eyes of outsiders, he is still the office worker with no sense of existence, but that is not what he thinks in his heart.

In Hull's own view, he is already "a person who has some interaction with the judge in urban legends", and may even become a member of "Funduluo Mountain"; he feels that he and those who work nine to five, There is a huge difference between the mediocre people who eat nothing but their corpses...and this difference is no longer a "subjective" contempt, but an "objective" fact.

In short, the anxiety of "waiting" for a reply and the excitement of "keeping a secret that is already on the edge of the law" blended into a strange sense of superiority.

And a sense of superiority can easily be transformed into self-confidence subconsciously.

So, on the third day of waiting for the judge's reply, the confident Hull finally couldn't hold it in anymore, rushed into the boss's office, and made a request that he had wanted to make but had not made in the past ten years-a promotion. Job salary increase.

The boss was a reasonable man, and after a calm conversation with Hull, he fired him.

This is the case with many things. If you don't tell the truth, then drag it on. If you tell the truth, the only result will be a dead end.

If it were Hull in the past, he would probably have delayed the matter until he was thirty-five, forty, forty-five... until he almost had no choice anymore before he broke out and changed his mind. Let's have the same ending as now.

But now Hull has taken the initiative.

Even though this temporarily cost him his job, in the long run, it was undoubtedly the right choice.

Hull's boss is of course a nepotistic person, a mediocre and incompetent person... because this is a mediocre company to begin with. The middle-level and above are full of sycophants and intrigues all day long, and they all rely on squeezing the bottom employees to make ends meet. Businesses that keep the lights on.

In fact, in this world, there are many people with certain talents who will spend their lives in such "big companies that look respectable".

Hull is just one of them.

People who are truly ambitious and talented are not suitable for and will not be willing to commit themselves to the "system"...especially those old and decadent systems, which are the favorite soil of mediocre people who are content with the status quo.

The mediocre borers occupy high positions in those rotten soils and use all their little talents in the struggle for power.

They suppress those who are talented and threaten them, and only promote their cronies; they take away the credit and interests of their subordinates and use them as capital to flatter their superiors; they are afraid of those who propose innovation and reform Because they do not care about the interests of the group, they only care about their own interests, so they are afraid of any behavior that may subvert the existing system.

Except for a few enterprises/institutions with deep-rooted bureaucracy that can survive relying on "monopoly" as a barrier, most of them will gradually decline and die steadily under the management of a group of moths.

And those who work under the moths, most of them are like Hull, holding the belief that "this job is at least stable, the income is not much, but you can live on, as long as you persist, there will be a chance for promotion, and big companies will never Thoughts like "It will go bankrupt", I endure it silently and waste my time in vain...

They are like a group of dogs who deceive themselves into staying on a sinking ship as long as there is still food in the bowl in front of them; they can jump ashore to find meat when they still have the strength, but they chew the leftovers... …grow old slowly.

Is it sad?

sad.

Is it pitiful?

Not pitiful.

Because this is human nature, it does not deserve sympathy, but there is no need to despise it.

The older a person gets, the more things he has to bear on his shoulders. For a person to give up his current comfort and pursue empty dreams is to take risks and pay a price.

Things that are easy to say are often difficult to do.

Had it not been for some major changes, Hull would not have taken that step.

But those who really take that step will see a new world before them.

In a sense, Hull is lucky. He is not sociable and does not have any unnecessary worries, so he can gamble with his own life, and even if he fails, he will not implicate others.

This... was also the main reason why he dared to take the initiative to contact the judge.

A person who has certain abilities and ambitions and no worries is very scary. As long as such a person is given the right opportunity, he may do earth-shattering things.

The judge naturally knew this.

Therefore, his "review" of Hull was also serious - he believed that Hull did have value that could be exploited.

Although there is a gap between Carmen and the master who "can solve his puzzle in one minute", at least among the general audience, Hull is the only one who solved the judge's puzzle and dialed the mobile phone (the mobile phone There is a call waiting function, so the judge can be sure that no one else called during the call with Carmen).

Whether there is anyone in the rest of the audience who can solve the puzzle faster than Hull... There is no way to know, but even if there is, those people/people do not have the courage or intention to dial.

He was the only person who could solve the puzzle in a short time, dared to make this call, and was interested in joining the judge's staff... Moreover, when Hel made the call, the judge was about to break the phone. In the first few seconds, this shows that he is also very lucky.

To sum up, the judge’s initial impression of Hull is that he has a decent IQ, a low emotional intelligence (observed from the only conversation), good mobility, dissatisfaction with society or life, a moral standard that deviates from the general public, and a certain amount of luck. , have the courage and willingness to commit crimes but I am afraid they have not yet taken action.

After deducing these, it was clear what the judge wanted to do to Hull, which consisted of two steps - first, investigation; second, test.

Both steps are very important. The first step is to gain a deeper understanding of Hull, rule out the suspicion that he is an undercover agent, and make some specific assessments of him; the second step is to combine the actual situation to see whether Hull is qualified for the role of "Funduluo". "Mountain" member.

In the past three days, the judge has almost done the "investigation", and the day when Hull was expelled happened to be the day when the "test" came...

…………

In the afternoon, Hull, who "got off work early", drove his old car onto a suburban road.

The groceries he had taken from the office were stuffed haphazardly into a cardboard box and thrown into the back seat of the car.

He thought that losing his job would make him feel more stressed, but when he was actually fired and walked out of the company, he felt an unprecedented sense of relief.

The feeling of breaking free from the shackles made him energetic. Even though the weather was hot and stuffy on this summer afternoon, it did not affect his good mood at all.

Hull just drove the car all the way east, towards Lake Miguel.

He didn't have any special reason to go there, he just wanted to see the lake view; if the luxury hotel by the lake happened to have rooms, he would stay there for one night, have a sumptuous dinner, get a massage, and take a bath. Take a hot bath, taste a bottle of 1982 Lafite (2182) in the bathtub, and get a plate of truffles with foie gras that is more expensive than marijuana to accompany the food and drinks.

cost? He doesn't think about that kind of problem now. Anyway, he still has some savings. He can still afford this luxury for just one night. We will talk about the future later.

Like most office workers, Hull has wronged himself for too long... He lives in a cheap apartment, endures a landlord who can't solve any problems except collecting rent, and drives a car with all kinds of minor problems but can't bear to overhaul it. He has a crappy car, eats all kinds of junk food, and uses all kinds of daily necessities purchased at big sales. The only entertainment activity is low-cost - surfing the Internet.

When he looked back on the past ten years, he found that there was not even one such "quick trip". The years from the age of twenty-three to thirty-two were like a stack of boring documents to Hull. In the 9-to-5 and boring daily life, they are constantly stacked up, leaving people with no desire to look through them.

But today, these days are over.

Hull listened to music, stepped on the accelerator, and drove on the open road, as if he was heading towards his new life.

Just as he was walking to a relatively remote section of the forest road, suddenly a hitchhiker appeared on the side of the road.

It was a beautiful girl with long blond hair, who looked to be in her early twenties, wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt and hot pants, and carrying a travel bag on her back.

Normally, such a beauty would not have to wait too long to be taken away if she hitched a ride on the roadside; but now, perhaps because of the working day, there are indeed very few cars passing through this suburban road during this time. So Heer met her.

And Hull, of course, also stopped.

If there is a strong man standing on the side of the road hitching a ride, the drivers must be careful... because the other person may be a robber or a perverted murderer, but when it comes to female passengers, everyone is less wary.

When the car stopped, Hull lowered the car window next to him, and the beautiful woman who hitched the car quickly came up to him.

She leaned on the window sill and briefly communicated with Hel with her beautiful smile, friendly tone, and bottomless cleavage.

Then she got in the car.

Hull felt that today was a really lucky day. It was right to go to the boss to show off. If he hadn't been fired, he would still be doing boring and tedious work in the office. How could he have the opportunity to drive a young and handsome man? Beautiful girl driving on the road?

While he was thinking this, he glanced at the girl next to him again; every time he glanced over, he saw either the shining white legs or the white breasts stained with sweat. Every time he looked at it, he couldn't help but Have to swallow your saliva.

The girl hitchhiking undoubtedly noticed Hel's gaze, but she didn't seem to mind, and even lowered her collar intentionally or unintentionally, which gave Hel more reasons to think wildly.

Soon, the two started chatting and laughing. The girl also took out two bottles of drinks from her backpack and handed one to Hull.

Since it was something the other party wanted to express "thank you" for, Hull would not refuse it; besides, on this hot day, the air conditioner in Hull's car was broken, and he was already a little thirsty.

So he drank, and he drank half the bottle in one gulp.

If Hull's emotional intelligence could be higher, maybe he would still be a little wary and drink less food from strangers. Unfortunately... this is just a hypothesis.

…………

When Hull woke up from his coma, it was already night above his head.

The daylight hours in summer are relatively long, and when you look up like this and you can see the stars and the moon, it's at least after eight o'clock in the evening.

Hull found himself lying on a rooftop with his mouth taped shut and his hands and feet bound with plastic locks.

His head hurt and he had some memory loss. He could roughly remember that he gave someone a lift and drank the drink they gave him, but he had no memory of when he lost consciousness.

At this time, there was a monitor placed on the ground in front of Hull; the monitor was very old, the kind of "shabby" that could go into the recycling bin, but behind it was a new-looking extension cord. And it was placed neatly in front of Hull. It can be seen... that someone did this intentionally.

Three minutes passed, and the feeling of headache had not subsided much, but Hull felt that his body's consciousness had basically recovered. He immediately struggled on the ground a few times, twisted his waist and sat up.

Because his arms were not long enough and his body was not flexible enough, Hel could not move his hands that were tied behind his back to his body; of course... even if he could move his hands in front of his body, he would not be able to open them with his mouth. For confinement, the most you can do is to tear off the tape on your mouth with your hands.

Di——

Just when Hull was about to yell through the tape to call for help, the monitor in front of him suddenly lit up.

"Hello, Mr. Schneider." A man wearing a mask appeared on the monitor.

This man was wearing an exaggerated hooded beast mask and a black leather jacket. His voice sounded a bit muffled, but it was obviously processed by instruments and he could be heard to be a young male.

"Emmm... Hmm..." Seeing this, Hel immediately faced the screen and asked "Who are you" in a muffled voice through the tape.

I don't know how the other party heard this sentence, and seemed to understand it. Two seconds later, the masked man replied: "Who am I? Haha... Don't worry, you will know it won't take long. Now , please allow me to congratulate you first, Mr. Schneider, you have been invited to join our 'show'!"

At that moment, Hull thought that this person was the judge's subordinate, and the "show" he mentioned was the "Judgement Show" in Fengdu Luoshan.

However……

"In tonight's 'Killing Spree', you and the other three selected guests will face the challenges of our twelve 'Supremes'." The masked man continued, "As long as any of you can survive our If you successfully escape from the 'hunt', you can get a large bounty... Please note that when I say 'a large amount', I mean a sum of money that you working-class people can't spend in a lifetime!" He paused, "However, you have to pay attention, only one person can get the bonus in the end. If more than two prey escape together, you won't get a penny."

When hearing this, Hull felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

On the one hand, it was because his expectations were disappointed...the other party was not the judge's subordinate; on the other hand, it was because of fear...

Hull, who has been involved in the dark web for many years, has also heard about the "show" of "killing spree"; in fact, compared to Fengdu Luoshan, Hull has heard more rumors about this "killing spree".

Although in terms of time, the program "Killing Spree" only appeared after "Fengdu Luoshan", the popularity of this program on the dark web is much higher than that of the latter; compared with the program that is only held twice a month Different from the "Trial Show", the "Killing Spree" will be held twice a week, which means... it will be broadcast live eight or nine times in a month.

The main content of its program is - "to allow ordinary people to survive under the threat of death and the temptation of huge bounties", in other words... "to show the 'evil' in human nature and all kinds of 'ugliness' in human nature."

Although the death toll caused by this "show" is far greater than that of the "Trial Show" in Fengdu Luo Mountain, the federal side does not pay much attention to this show.

To put it bluntly... people disappear mysteriously every day in this world. Dozens of inconsequential missing civilians every month do not matter to the Federation at all; as long as you don't act like a judge who comes every time to do something that is of interest to the Federation. People, the federation is too lazy to take care of it. If something happens, just call the police.

"Haha... Judging from your expression, it seems that you have understood the current situation." After a moment, the masked man smiled again, "Then without further ado, let's get started."

Snapped--

Before he finished speaking, there was a firecracker-like explosion behind Hel. At the same time, Hel's wrist seemed to be pricked by something, burning and painful.

But the next second, Hel found that... his hands were freed from their bindings.

He raised his hand in front of his eyes and looked at it. Although his wrist was a little red and had a faint burning smell, it was not injured and the pain stopped after a while. It was obvious that someone had touched the plastic on his hand. The lock is covered with a mini local directional detonation device, which is powerful enough to break the lock.

Immediately afterwards, Hull quickly tore off the tape on his mouth and unlocked the plastic locks on his feet.

He touched his pockets and found that all his belongings were gone.

At this time, the screen on the monitor has also been interrupted. It is estimated that those guys who call themselves the "Supreme One" are not ready to give him any more information.

Hull looked up and looked around, and saw a camera temporarily held up by a metal nail frame on the rooftop entrance door. He thought about it...jumped up decisively, pulled the camera down, crushed it on the spot, and left. This rooftop...