Richard was telling the truth.
All the surveillance footage from tonight—everything from the end of the livestream up until the police arrived—had completely vanished without a trace.
But how was that even possible?!
The hospital building had extrely strict security asures. As crucial evidence in the event of dical disputes, the internal surveillance system was governed by tight managent protocols. Even Jonathan, as the “golden boy” of the hospital administration, only had permission to view and copy past footage—he did not have the authority to delete or alter any original data.
In fact, within the entire inpatient building, only the head of security held the master key capable of performing such operations.
“Could it be that the crazy woman tead up with the security chief and deleted the footage while we were unconscious?”
“Do you really think that’s likely? What reason would she even have to do that?”
Just two questions from the man with the lip piercing were enough to shut Jonathan’s speculation down completely.
“…So after all that work all night, we didn’t even get a single usable clip?”
“Looks that way.”
“What the hell? So we just got beaten up for nothing?”
“Honestly speaking, I don’t know if it’s psychological, but my body still hurts.”
“Sa here…”
Voices of complaint gradually rose among the group.
Just when they thought it couldn’t get any worse than spending half the night for zero footage, sothing even more unfortunate happened—Jonathan received a phone call from the underworld.
The caller was a mid-level thug from a gang in Sunken City, commonly known on the streets as “Fat Otto,” because of his unmistakably oversized belly.
Because Jonathan had so money and a willingness to do unsavory things, he occasionally conducted transactions with local gangs in Sunken City. When his livestream team “died,” he had hesitated between calling his politician uncle for help or reaching out to the underworld. In the end, he dialed Fat Otto, hoping the gang could help dispose of the “bodies” at the scene.
Fat Otto, sensing a lucrative deal, had eagerly agreed.
However, because the place he was in was so distance away from the hospital building, by the ti Fat Otto arrived in a hurry with his n, the hospital chaos had already co to an end.
On the phone, Jonathan had only ntioned that there were several bodies that needed to be dealt with. He hadn’t explained where they were, or what had caused them.
As a result, when Fat Otto arrived, he had no idea what he was supposed to do. Trying to call Jonathan only led to frustration—Jonathan, having been knocked into a baby-like sleep by Everly’s knife-hand strike, was completely unreachable. Every call went straight to voicemail.
Just as the group of n was starting to grow impatient, sirens suddenly sounded in the distance, and a police car approached.
!!!
Where did the police co from? Had soone reported them—or had Jonathan set them up?!
A flood of conspiracy theories instantly flashed through Fat Otto’s mind.
“Cops are here. Move!”
He shouted at his n. They jumped into their vehicles, not even daring to turn on the headlights, and fled via an alternate route.
Because of this incident, Fat Otto beca extrely dissatisfied with Jonathan. Afterwards, he contacted him more than once, demanding “compensation for emotional distress.”
“Hey, bro, let’s be reasonable. More than twenty of our guys almost got arrested because of your prank call. You don’t think this can just be brushed off, do you?”
Did Jonathan want to pay? Of course not.
But could he refuse? Naturally, he couldn’t.
After all, Fat Otto had helped him quietly clean up many matters over the years and held a number of his incriminating secrets. If those were exposed, the gang would suffer arrests and losses—but Jonathan himself would not end well either.
So he could only swallow his humiliation and pay a large sum of money.
Unfortunately, misfortune still refused to let him go.
Not long after the livestream incident, his uncle—the state legislator—was investigated and impeached by the state assembly on charges of corruption, abuse of power, obstruction of justice, and more.
It is said that soone compiled all the relevant evidence and anonymously sent it to his uncle’s political opponents, the state legislature’s ethics committee, and multiple news outlets.
It was the Christmas and New Year holiday season. People had worked hard all year and were enjoying their rare downti. Aside from eating and drinking, everyone was basically bored out of their minds. With so little major entertainnt, sothing this scandalous beca irresistible. The story quickly spread through every channel, escalating until it beca widely known.
Among the evidence used to report the legislator were several “accidents” he had covered up for his nephew Jonathan.
As a result, just when Jonathan was gearing up and planning to take revenge on Everly, he was instead quietly taken away first—becoming a subject of investigation.
His livestream account, “Dr. J,” was also quickly dug up for past posts containing white supremacist rhetoric, misogynistic and hostile remarks toward won, and other inappropriate content, all of which were posted online.
In the past, none of this would have mattered much. The “Dr. J” account was obscure, with very few followers. As long as things didn’t blow up, it likely would have been ignored.
But unfortunately for him, the timing couldn’t have been worse.
Clips from the prank livestream—specifically the segnts where the prank backfired on Jonathan—went viral. Completely viral. A massive, undeniable explosion in popularity.
The clip opens with a close-up of Everly during the prank.
She was wearing a long coat and high-top boots, her figure appearing tall and slender. Although her face was partially hidden by a knit cap and scarf, making her features unclear, her playful outfit paired with a pair of pitiful-looking blue eyes made it obvious at a glance: she was a beautiful, youthful girl.
For such a delicate-looking girl to be unknowingly subjected to a carefully orchestrated scare prank—was that really appropriate?
As viewers felt sympathy for Everly and began worrying about her future, the story took an unexpected turn.
That girl was not so fragile, helpless young woman at all.
Inside, she was a fierce, unhinged lioness.
At first, the viewers in front of the screen would still nitpick—why did she have a high-powered flashlight in her coat pocket, why was she walking next to a morgue without the slightest trace of fear, why did such a delicate-looking girl seem to have endless strength…
But the mont the “heroine” suddenly darkened mid-way through, pulled out a folding knife, and cleanly struck the ugly ghost woman in reverse with a single blow—so decisive, so efficient—the talkative viewers all went silent.
WTF?!
You’re telling this is a “fragile young girl”? Sorry, but the mont she raised a knife and started chasing people, there was absolutely nothing “fragile” about her anymore.
The audience sat there with their mouths wide open, dumbfounded. And after the shock ca a strange, undeniable sense of excitent.
Maybe humans really are naturally inclined to side with the “weaker party.” Even though Everly had already revealed her true nature halfway through the livestream, viewers still subconsciously put themselves in her position—exploring through her eyes, destroying, resisting…
No one could hurt her. No one could survive her blade.
When she beca a madwoman, willingly cutting off the restraints of society and standing alone, she beca her own god.
To hell with logic.
People were tired of boring prank livestreams. Compared to that, this kind of subversive clip—where a seemingly innocent girl turns the tables and violently counterattacks the prankers—was infinitely more entertaining.
Kill, kill, kill. Pure satisfaction.
And especially at the end, when the director used still fras paired with the echoed screams, leaving endless room for imagination—the audience’s fantasies alone were enough to send their minds into overdrive.
Naturally, it went viral.
The source account of these livestream clips, Dr. J, exploded in popularity.
Within just a few days, the account gained nearly 100,000 new followers. Every livestream drew tens of thousands of viewers. Brand deals started coming in nonstop, and even a casually ntioned ad during a stream could command a price of up to 3,000 dollars.
An account that rises to prominence so quickly is bound to attract envy. So, once past scandals were dug up, there was no need for Orff to intervene—others took the initiative to ensure the account was banned from the community.
With the livestream account taken down, the next target beca Hopkins Hospital.
Once again, it was the tireless Orff who stepped in. He hacked into the hospital’s internal system and anonymously leaked certain confidential docunts online.
According to those files, Hopkins Hospital had a long list of serious issues: overprescription of dication, abuse of opioid drugs, insurance fraud, kickback sches, and refusal to admit high-risk patients, among others.
After receiving the report, the state health departnt launched an investigation procedure. Regardless of the final outco, it was foreseeable that this incident would severely damage the hospital and cost it a significant portion of its resources and reputation.
By this ti, Misha had already completed her observation period at the hospital and returned to her ho in the Lemot Desert.
The follow-up developnts of these retaliatory actions were all tracked by Orff, who regularly compiled updates and shared them in the group chat so everyone could enjoy the results together.
What was touching was that Orff did all of this voluntarily and never asked Everly for money.
After Everly successfully completed the reverse prank, Misha even called Orff specifically and praised him lavishly.
Orff had never received that kind of attention before. Being praised like that by soone he secretly admired instantly put him into overdrive—his motivation skyrocketed, and he was so energized that he felt like he could flip the entire world upside down just to impress her.
In a sense, the “pure-hearted romantic warrior” type can be terrifying in its own way.
Because of her leg injury, and because Misha didn’t want to waste the precious universal healing dicine, the two of them didn’t get many chances to go out during the winter break.
Everly had been worrying that, given Misha’s condition, she might need to apply for a deferred enrollnt once school started.
Unexpectedly, Misha—despite her injury—arrived right on schedule. Ard with crutches and a surprisingly energetic attitude, she happily bounced her way through boarding and even took a flight with Everly to university.
Well, checking in ant they could borrow a wheelchair from the airport anyway, and after leaving the airport they would mostly be traveling by car, so there weren’t many situations where Misha actually needed crutches. If she didn’t mind the inconvenience, it was perfectly manageable.
All the transit cities along the way were currently in a safe period, so the journey itself passed without any incidents.
The only small episode happened when they got off the plane.
A young boy sitting next to Everly had been secretly observing her the entire flight. Finally, as she was about to leave, he mustered up the courage to call out to her.
“Excuse … are you the actress from Dr. J’s videos?”
He stamred, his fingers tangled together nervously in front of his chest.
Everly turned around, glanced at him with confusion, and asked, “What’s that?”
“I—I got it wrong…? S-s-sorry! Ahhh!”
The boy imdiately turned bright red, completely fooled by her calm and matter-of-fact attitude. He looked so embarrassed he seed ready to turn into a mushroom on the spot.
As expected—when you act confident enough, the one who starts doubting reality is the other person.
The influence of the livestream was stronger than expected. After arriving at the university, more people like the airport boy ca up to Everly asking for photos.
To all of them, Everly maintained a cold, queen-like deanor and firmly denied knowing what they were talking about.
“Livestream? Actor? I have no idea what you an. Do I look like soone who has ti for sothing that boring?”
And… well, that made sense.
To people who knew her even a little, she really didn’t seem like the type to be involved in sothing so superficial.
So, after a while, the “rumors” dissolved on their own.
Eventually, things around Everly finally quieted down again.
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