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

But sometimes, these two things can make people happy.

After talking to the judge, Hull felt this happiness.

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

In Hull's own opinion, he was already "a person with a certain intersection with the judges in the city", and might even become a part of "Fengdu Luoshan"; he felt that he was already a world of difference from those mediocre people who were 9 to 5 and had a simple meal... and this difference is no longer his "subjective" contempt, but an "objective" fact.

In short, the trepidation of "waiting for" the reply and the stimulation of "keeping the secrets that have already wandered on the edge of the law" have been mixed into a strange sense of superiority.

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

So, on the third day of waiting for the judge's reply, Hull finally couldn't help but rush into the boss's office and asked for a promotion and salary increase that he had wanted to mention for the past ten years but had not mentioned.

The boss is a reasonable person. After talking to Hull calmly, he was fired.

Many things are like this. If you don’t say it out loud, then just drag it out. If you say it out loud, you will only have the result of defeating the death.

If it were Hull in the past, he would probably drag things on until he was thirty-five, forty, forty-five... He would not break out until he almost had no choice and ended up like the current one.

But now Hull has taken the initiative.

Even though this made him lose his job temporarily, it was undoubtedly the right choice from a long-term perspective.

Hull's boss is of course a nepotism, a mediocre and incompetent person... because this is originally a mediocre company, a middle-level or above are all flattering people, and they are all intrigues all day long, relying on desperately exploiting the lower-level employees to barely maintain operation.

In fact, in this world, there are many people with certain talents who will waste their lives in such "large companies that look decent".

Hull, just one of them.

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

Mediocre borers are at a high position in the rotten soil and use all their only talents in power struggles.

They suppress those who are talented and threaten themselves, and only promote their confidants; they take away the credit and interests of their subordinates and use them as capital to welcome their superiors; they are afraid of those who propose innovation and reforms, 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 companies/institutions with deep-rooted bureaucracy that can survive by relying on "monopoly" as barriers, most of them will gradually decline and steadily die under the management of a group of borers.

Most of the people who work under the borers are like Hull, holding the idea of ​​"This job is at least stable, with not much income but at least they can live. As long as they persist, there will be a chance of promotion, and a large company will never go bankrupt." They endured silently and spent time in vain...

They were like a group of dogs who stayed on a sinking ship as long as they had stuttering in the bowl in front of them; they could jump ashore to find meat when they still had the strength, but they chewed the leftovers... slowly getting older.

Is it sad?

sad.

Is it pitiful?

Not pitiful.

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

The older a person is, the more things he has to bear on his shoulders. Letting a person abandon his existing comfort and pursue the vision of nothingness is risky and costly.

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

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

But those who really took that step will see a new world in front of them.

In a sense, Hull is lucky. He is not good at socializing and has no unnecessary concerns, so he can bet on his life, and even if he fails, he will not involve others.

This... is also the main reason why he dared to contact the judge on his own initiative.

It is terrible for a person who has certain abilities and ambitions but no concerns. As long as he is given the right opportunity, he may do something earth-shaking.

The judge naturally knew this.

Therefore, his "censorship" of Hull is also serious. He believes that Hull does have value that can be used.

Although there is a gap with Carmen's master who "can solve his puzzles in one minute", at least among ordinary audiences, Hull is the only person who solved the judge's puzzle and called that phone (the phone has a call waiting function, so the judge can be sure that no one else has ever called in during the call with Carmen).

Is there anyone in the rest of the audience who can solve puzzles faster than Hull... There is no way to know this, but even if there is, that/some don't have the courage or intention to dial.

He was able to solve puzzles in a short time, dared to make this call, and was interested in joining the judge's command... Hell was the only one; and the time when Hull made the call, just a few seconds before the judge was about to break the phone, which shows that he was lucky.

To sum up, the judge's initial impression of Hull was that his IQ was that he might have a low EQ (sensible from the only conversation), he had no bad ability to act, was dissatisfied with society or life, his moral standards deviated from the public, he had certain luck, and had the courage and willingness to commit crimes, but he probably had not taken action yet.

After presuming these, the judge was very clear about what Hull did, and only two steps were to investigate; the second was to test.

Both steps are very important. The first step is to gain an in-depth understanding of Hull, eliminate the suspicion of being an undercover agent, and make some specific assessments of him; the second step is to look at whether Hull can be competent as a member of "Fengdu Luoshan".

In the past three days, the judge has done almost the same thing in the "investigation", and the day when Hull was fired was just the day when the "test" came...

…………

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

The debris he took from the office were randomly stuffed into a cardboard box and threw it into the back seat of the car.

He thought that losing his job would make him feel more stressed, but when he was really fired and walked out of the company's door, he felt an unprecedented pleasure.

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

Hull drove the car, heading eastward, towards Lake Miguel.

There was no special reason for him to go there, just to see the lake view; if the luxury hotel by the lake happened to have a guest room, stay there for one night, have a hearty dinner, have a massage, take a hot bath, and taste a bottle of 82-year-old Lafite (2182) in the bathtub, and get a plate of chunks of foie gras with current wine and dishes.

Fees? He doesn't consider that kind of problem now. He still has some savings anyway. He can afford this luxury for only one night. I'll talk about what happened in the future.

Like most office workers, Hull has been wronged for too long... He lives in a cheap apartment, endured the landlord who did not solve any problem except collecting rent, drove a rotten car with various minor problems but was reluctant to go to overhaul, ate all kinds of junk food, and used various daily necessities purchased at major discounts. The only entertainment activity is to surf the Internet at low cost.

Looking back on the past ten years, he did not even have a "travel that goes" like this. From the age of twenty-three to thirty-two, for Hull, it was like a stack of boring documents, stacked up in the daily life of nine to five and dull toil, making people have no desire to read.

But today, this day is over.

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

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

It was a beautiful girl with long blonde hair. She looked in her early twenties, wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt and hot pants, and carrying a travel bag behind her back.

Generally speaking, such a beauty will not be taken away by someone when she takes a ride on the roadside, but now, it may be because of weekdays, there are indeed few cars passing through this suburban highway during this period, so Hull met her.

And Hull, of course, stopped the car.

If a strong man was standing on the side of the road to take a ride, the drivers would have to be careful... because the other party might be a robber or a perverted murderer, but everyone was less wary of the female passengers.

When the car stopped, Hull put the window beside him to the bottom, and the beauty who was taking the car quickly came up.

She tilted on the window ridge and briefly communicated with Hull with a beautiful smile, kind tone, and bottomless cleavage.

Then she got into the car.

Hull felt that today was a lucky day. It was too right to go to the boss to show off. If he hadn't been fired and was still doing dull and tedious work in the office at this moment, how could he have the opportunity to carry a young and beautiful girl on the road?

While thinking this, he glanced at the girl beside him again; every time he swept his eyes over, he saw either his bright white legs or his white breasts stained with sweat. Every time he saw it, he couldn't help swallowing.

The girl who was taking the car undoubtedly noticed Hull's gaze, but she didn't seem to mind, and even pulled the collar down a little intentionally or unintentionally, which made Hull have a little more reasons to think randomly.

Soon, the two started chatting with laughter, and the girl took out two bottles of drinks from her backpack and handed them to Hull.

Since it was something that the other party expressed "thank you", Hull would not refuse; Besides, on this hot day, the air conditioner in Hull's car was broken again, and he was already a little thirsty.

So he drank it, and he sipped it into half a bottle.

If Hull's emotional intelligence could be higher, maybe he would have kept a little bit of wary and took fewer sips of things taken out by strangers. Unfortunately... this is just an assumption.

…………

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

The day time in summer is relatively long. If you look up, you can see the stars and moons, at least after 8 o'clock in the evening.

Hull found himself lying on a rooftop, his mouth was sealed with tape and his hands and feet were tied with plastic locks.

His head hurts and his memory is missing. He can roughly remember that he had someone take a ride and drink the drink given by the other party, but he has no idea when he lost consciousness.

At this time, a monitor was placed on the ground in front of Hull; the monitor was very worn, the kind of "dirty" that could enter the waste recycling station, but there was a new-looking extended wire inserted behind it, and it was placed in front of Hull. It can be seen... this was done by someone on purpose.

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

Because his arms were not long enough and his body was not soft enough, Hull could not toss his back-tied hands to his body; of course... Even if he could move his hands in front of him, he would not be able to use his mouth to open the confinement on his hands. At most, he would tear the tape on his mouth with his hands.

Beep

Just as 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 in the monitor.

This man, wearing an exaggerated pullover beast mask and a black leather jacket, sounded a little boring, but it was obvious that he had been treated with instruments, and it could be heard that he was a young man.

"emmm... ummm... ummm..." Seeing this, Hull immediately asked "Who are you?" through the tape.

I don’t know how the other party heard this, and it seemed that he understood it. Two seconds later, the masked man replied: “Who am I? Haha… don’t worry, you will know it soon. 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 "judgment show" in Luoshan, Fengdu.

However……

"In tonight's 'kill carnival', you and three other selected guests will face the challenge of our twelve 'highest people'." The masked man continued, "As long as one of you can escape successfully in our 'hunting', you will get a big bounty... Please note that when I say 'a big', I mean a sum of money that you working class can never spend in your lifetime!" He paused, "But you have to note that only one person can get the bonus in the end. If more than two prey escape together, you can't get a penny."

When he heard this, Hull fell into an ice cave.
To be continued...