In the vast majority of cases, "waiting" and "keeping secrets" are frustrating and difficult.

But sometimes, these two things can make people happy.

After talking to the judge, Hull experienced this happiness.

Although to outsiders, he is still the office worker who has no sense of existence, but he doesn't think so in his heart.

In Hull's own opinion, he is already "a person who has a certain intersection with the judges in the urban biography", and may even become a part of the "Xuduluo Mountain"; He felt that he was very different from those mediocre people who worked 9 to 5 and had a vegetarian meal...... And this difference is no longer my "subjective" contempt, but an "objective" fact.

In short, the apprehension of "waiting" for an answer, and the thrill of "keeping a secret that has wandered on the edge of the law", are mixed with a peculiar sense of superiority.

And the sense of superiority is easily transformed into self-confidence in the subconscious.

So, on the third day of waiting for the judge's reply, the confident Hull finally couldn't hold back and rushed into the boss's office, making a request that he had wanted to make for the past ten years but hadn't mentioned - a promotion and a raise.

The boss was a reasonable person and fired him after a calm conversation with Hull.

A lot of things are like this, if you don't say it, then drag it out, and if you say it, there will only be one result.

If it were Hull in the past, he would probably drag things out until he was thirty-five, forty, forty-five...... It wasn't until he almost no longer had a choice that he broke out, and in exchange for a similar ending.

But now Hull, taking the initiative.

Even though it made him lose his job temporarily, it was the right choice in the long run.

Hull's boss is, of course, a nepotistic man, a mediocre and incompetent man...... Because this is a mediocre company, an enterprise that is full of flattery and intrigue all day long, and desperately squeezes the bottom employees to barely maintain its operation.

In fact, in this world, there are many people with a certain amount of talent who will spend their lives in this kind of "decent-looking big business".

Hull is just one of them.

People who are truly ambitious and talented are not suitable and will not be willing to commit themselves to the "system...... Especially the old and rotten system, which is the favorite soil of mediocre people who are content with the status quo.

The mediocre moths, who occupy a high position in the rotten soil, devote what little ingenuity they have to power struggle.

They suppress those who are talented and threaten them, and only promote their own cronies; They take away the credit and benefits of their subordinates and use them as their own capital to meet their superiors; They are afraid of those who propose innovation and reform, because they don't care about the interests of the group, they only care about their own interests, so they are afraid of anything that might subvert the existing system.

Except for a few that rely on "monopolies" as a barrier to survive, the vast majority of such bureaucratic enterprises/institutions will gradually decline and steadily die under the management of a swarm of moths.

And those who work under the moths, most of them, like Hull, have the same idea that "this job is at least stable, the income is not much, but it is good to live, as long as you persevere, there will be a chance to be promoted, and big companies will never go out of business", they endure in silence and waste their time......

They are like a group of dogs who deceive themselves into staying on a sinking ship as long as there is a stuttering in the bowl in front of them; Obviously, when he still has the strength, he can jump ashore to find meat to eat, but he chews on leftovers...... Grow old slowly.

Is it pathetic?

Lamentable.

Pathetic?

Not pathetic.

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 carry on his shoulders, and it is a risk and a price to make a person abandon his existing comfort to chase a nihilistic vision.

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

If it hadn't been for some major change, Hull wouldn't have taken that step.

But those who have really taken that step will have a new world in front of them.

In a sense, Hull is lucky, he is not sociable, and he does not have any superfluous concerns, so he can gamble his life, and even if he fails, he will not implicate others.

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

A person with a certain amount of ability and ambition and no worries is very terrible, as long as such a person is given the right opportunity, he may do earth-shattering things.

This point is naturally well known in the judge's heart.

Therefore, he is also serious about Hull's "scrutiny" - he believes that Hull is a person who can be used.

While a no-brainer of Carmen's ability to solve her puzzle in under a minute, Hull was the only one in the general audience who solved the Judge's puzzle and dialed the phone (which has a call waiting function, so the Judge can be sure that no one else has called during the call to Carmen).

Is there anyone in the rest of the audience who solves the puzzle faster than Hull...... There is no way to know this, but even if there were, that person(s) did not have the courage or intent to dial.

Someone who can solve the puzzle in a short time, but also dares to make this call, and is interested in joining the judge's command...... Hull alone; Moreover, the timing of Hull's call was just a few seconds before the judge was about to break the phone, which shows that he was lucky.

In summary, the judge's initial impression of Hull is that he has a good IQ, may have a low EQ (as detected from the only conversation), is not bad at action, is dissatisfied with society or life, deviates from moral standards, has some luck, has the courage and willingness to commit crimes, but is probably not yet in action.

After the presumption of this, what the judge wants to do to Hull is very clear, and there are only two steps—first, investigation; Second, testing.

Both of these steps are important, the first is to get to know Hull better, rule out the suspicion that he is an undercover agent, and make some specific assessments of him; The second step is to see if Hull can be a member of the "Xuduluo Mountain" in light of the actual situation.

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

…………

In the afternoon, Hull, who had "left work early", drove his broken car onto a suburban road.

The clutter he had taken from his office was haphazardly stuffed into a cardboard box and thrown in the back seat of the car.

He thought that losing his job would make him feel stressed, but when he was really fired and walked out of the company, he felt a sense of relief like never before.

The feeling of breaking free from the shackles made him energetic, even if the weather was hot and stuffy on this summer afternoon, it did not affect his good mood in the slightest.

Hull drove the car east in the direction of Lake Miguel.

He didn't have any particular reason to go there, just to see the lake; If there are rooms in the luxury hotel by the lake, stay there for a night, a hearty dinner, a massage, a hot bath, and a bottle of '82 Lafite (2182) in the tub, followed by a plate of truffles more expensive than marijuana with foie gras for snack.

Expenses? He doesn't think about that kind of problem now, anyway, he still has some savings, and he can still afford this luxury of just one night, and he will talk about it later.

Like most office workers, Hull has been wronged for too long...... He lives in a cheap apartment, endures a landlord who doesn't solve any problems except collecting rent, drives a rotten car that has all kinds of minor problems but is reluctant to overhaul it, eats all kinds of junk food, uses all kinds of daily necessities purchased during the big sale, and the only entertainment activity is low-cost - surfing the Internet.

Looking back on the past ten years, he didn't even have a "walk-and-go" like this, and the period from the age of twenty-three to thirty-two was like a stack of tedious documents for Hull, constantly stacked in the 9-to-5 and dull toiling routine, and people had no desire to look through it.

But today, those days have come to an end.

Hull listened to the music, stepped on the gas, and drove on the open road, as if he was driving into his new life.

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

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

Usually, such a beauty hitchhikes on the side of the road, and it won't take long for someone to take it away; But right now, probably because of the weekdays, there are really few cars passing through this suburban road during this time of year, so Hull met her.

And Hull, naturally, also parked.

If there is a strong man standing on the side of the road to take a ride, the drivers must be on guard...... Because the other party may be a robber or a perverted murderer, but for female passengers, everyone's vigilance is relatively low.

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

She leaned over the window edge and briefly exchanged words with Hull with a beautiful smile, a friendly tone, and a bottomless cleavage.

Then she got in the car.

Hull felt that today was really a lucky day, it was too right to go to the boss for a showdown, if he hadn't been fired, he was still doing dull and tedious work in the office at the moment, how could he have the opportunity to take a young and beautiful girl for a ride on the road?

As he thought so, he glanced at the girl beside him again; Every time his afterglow swept over, he saw either bright white legs or white breasts stained with beads of sweat, and he couldn't help but swallow spit every time he saw it.

The girl who hitchhiked no doubt noticed Hull's gaze, but she didn't seem to mind, and even pulled her neckline down a little bit intentionally or not, which gave Hull another reason to be cranky.

Soon, the two of them were chatting and laughing, and the girl took two bottles of drink from her backpack and handed one to Hull.

Since it is something that the other party expresses "gratitude", Hull will not refuse; Besides, on this hot day, the air conditioning in Hull's car broke down again, and he was already a little thirsty.

So, he drank it, and it was a small half bottle in one sip.

If Hull's emotional intelligence could have been higher, maybe he would have been a little more wary and drank a few sips of what strangers had brought out, but unfortunately...... This is just a hypothesis.

…………

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

In summer, the daylight hours are relatively long, and when you look up like this, you can see the stars and the moon at least after 8 o'clock in the evening.

Hull found himself lying on a rooftop with his mouth gagged with duct tape and his hands and feet bound with plastic locks.

His head hurt and his memory was missing, and he could roughly remember having someone get a ride and drink from the other person, but he couldn't remember when he was unconscious.

At this time, a monitor was placed on the ground in front of Hull; The display was shabby, the kind of "shabby" that would go into a recycling bin, but behind it was a new-looking extended wire, which was placed squarely in front of Hull, visible ...... This is intentional.

Three minutes passed, and the headache didn't subside much, but Hull felt that his body was basically regained, and he immediately struggled on the ground a few times, twisted his waist and sat up.

Her arms weren't long enough and her body wasn't soft enough for Hull to toss her hands tied behind her back; Of course...... Even if he could move his hands in front of him, it would be impossible for him to use his mouth to open the confinement on his hands, at most he would tear the tape on his mouth with his hands.

Tick –

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

"Hello, Mr. Schneider." In the monitor, a masked figure appeared.

The man, wearing an exaggerated pullover beast mask and a black leather jacket, had a muffled voice, but it was clearly machined and instrumented to make him a young male.

“Emmm…… Uh-huh...... Hull saw this, and immediately looked at the screen and asked "Who are you" through the tape.

I don't know how the other party heard this, and it seems to understand, two seconds later, the masked man replied, "Who am I?" Hehe...... Don't worry, it won't take long for you to know. Now, please allow me to congratulate you, Mr. Schneider, that you have been invited to join our 'show'! ”

At that moment, Hull thought that this person was the judge's subordinate, and the "show" in his mouth was the "judgment show" of Mount Xuduluo.

However......

"In tonight's 'Killing Spree,' you and three other chosen guests will be challenged by our twelve 'Supremes.'" The masked man continued, "If any of you can escape from our 'hunt', you will receive a large bounty...... Mind you, when I say 'a lot of money,' I mean a sum of money that you wage earners can't spend in a lifetime! He paused, "However, you have to be careful that only one person will get the prize in the end, and if more than two prey escapes together, you won't get a penny." ”

When he heard this, Hel fell into an ice cave.

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

Hull, who has been on the dark web all year round, has also heard of the "show" of "Killing Carnival"; In fact, Hull heard more about this "killing spree" than in Mt. Xuduro.

Although in terms of time, the show "Killing Carnival" appeared after "Yuduluo Mountain", the popularity of this show on the dark web is much higher than the latter; Unlike the "Judgment Show", which only takes place twice a month, the "Killing Carnival" takes place twice a week, that is...... Eight or nine live broadcasts in a month.

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

Although the death toll caused by this "show" far exceeded that of the "judgment show" in the Mt. Xudulo, the federal side did not pay much attention to this show.

Plainly...... There are people mysteriously disappearing every day in this world, and dozens of more inconsequential missing civilians every month don't matter to the Federation at all; As long as you don't act like a judge, you come to get some people who have an interest in the Federation every time, and the Federation will not bother to take care of it, and if something happens, you will call the police.

"Huh...... Judging by 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." ”

Smack-

Before he could finish speaking, a firecracker-like explosion came from behind Hull, and at the same time, Hull's wrist was as hot as if it had been pricked by something, and it hurt.

But in the next second, Hull found out...... His hands have been freed from bondage.

He raised his hand in front of his eyes and looked at it, although his wrist was a little red and had a faint smell of burning, he was not hurt at all, and it didn't hurt if he slowed down; Apparently someone had put a miniature local directional detonator on the plastic lock on his hand, just powerful enough to break the lock.

Immediately afterward, Hull quickly tore off the tape from his mouth and unfastened the plastic lock on his foot.

He felt in his pocket, and sure enough, all his belongings were gone.

At this time, the monitor has also been cut off, and it is estimated that the guys who call themselves "the Most High" are not ready to give him any more information.

Hull looked up and saw a camera improvised by a metal nail holder above the door at the entrance to the rooftop, and he thought for a moment...... Deciminably jumped up, dragged the camera down, stomped on the spot, and left the rooftop......