Live Streaming Academy Chapter 74: A Lucrative Detour

Jax pressed the communication device against his ear as the stern voice of a senior instructor filtered through the encrypted channel.

The official wasted no ti on pleasantries, imdiately stating that the new orders ca directly from the Grandmaster’s desk.

"I am patching a residential address to your team’s interface right now," the instructor said over the line. "Your current patrol is officially suspended. You are to proceed to this location imdiately."

Jax frowned and pulled the device back slightly to check the incoming data file. An ordinary street address located in the suburban district of Blue York popped up on the screen.

"Is this a monster sighting, sir?" Jax asked, keeping his voice low behind the parked police cruiser.

"No, this is an intelligence-gathering objective," the instructor clarified. "That address belongs to the family of a first-year student nad Solomon. The Grandmaster wants your team to visit the house and speak directly with the residents. Gather as much background information about the boy and his family as you possibly can."

Jax blinked in surprise. Sending a combat team on a background check was highly irregular. "Understood. What are our rules of engagent?"

"You are representing the Grandmaster on this visit," the instructor warned, his tone turning deadly serious. "You are to act with the utmost respect. Be polite, be courteous, and absolutely do not be rude to anyone inside that house. This is a diplomatic inquiry, not an interrogation."

"Understood," Jax nodded, even though the instructor could not see him.

"To compensate for the sudden detour, the administration is offering a flat reward of ten thousand academy points for each mber of your team," the instructor added. "Furthermore, the Grandmaster will authorize additional point bonuses based entirely on the quality of the information you manage to obtain. Do not fail us."

The line went dead.

Jax stood frozen behind the cruiser, his jaw hanging slightly open. Ten thousand points just for knocking on a door and asking a few polite questions was an absolutely absurd bounty. Most C-rank dungeon clears barely paid out half of that amount.

He slipped the device back onto his utility belt and hurried over to his teammates. Marco and Kira were busy wiping down their weapons near the police barricade.

"Pack it up, guys," Jax said, his voice laced with disbelief. "We just got handed a direct, top-priority mission from the Grandmaster himself."

Kira paused and looked up, her blue eyes widening. "The Grandmaster? What is the objective? Did a high-ranking gate open nearby?"

"No," Jax shook his head, pulling up the holographic map from his wrist device. "We need to visit the suburban district and talk to the family of a first-year student nad Solomon. We just have to ask them so questions politely and gather background intel."

Marco scoffed and crossed his arms. "The Grandmaster is interrupting our patrol just to do a welfare check? What is the payout for sothing that boring?"

"Ten thousand points each," Jax stated flatly. "With a scaling bonus depending on the intel we get."

"Ten thousand points?" Marco dropped his shortswords back into their sheaths with a loud clatter. All traces of his previous exhaustion vanished instantly. "I am running short on points this month so I will do anything. I didn’t get many donations this month. I will be the most polite and respectful guest they have ever seen. Send the coordinates right now."

Jax tapped a few commands into his wrist device, imdiately sharing the location data with his teammates. Wasting no further ti at the barricade, the trio quickly piled into their academy-issued tactical rover and left the chaotic financial district behind.

As the armored vehicle cruised smoothly down the highway, the atmosphere inside the cabin felt unusually quiet. Three chanical broadcast owls perched side-by-side on the overhead grab handles. Their cara lenses remained dead and dark, indicating that their direct connection to the public network had been severed.

Kira leaned against the leather seat and glanced up at the dormant drones. "If this is a classified intelligence-gathering mission, does that an our broadcast owls will remain disabled the entire ti?"

"Yes," Jax replied from the driver’s seat, keeping his eyes fixed on the road ahead. "The academy sent the override signal the mont I accepted the dispatch. Our live feeds are locked out until we finish questioning the family."

Marco kicked his boots up onto the dashboard and smirked, running a hand through his peachy pink hair. "No live stream? Shouldn’t we take advantage of this rare privacy? We can finally do all the things we normally cannot get away with when a million subscribers are watching our every move."

"Hah! A million subscribers? Marco, we barely have fifty thousand followers combined."

Jax shot a sharp glare through the rearview mirror. "You can act like a fool on your own ti, Marco, but do not even think about ssing up this mission. These orders ca directly from the Grandmaster himself. If we fail this assignnt or act out of line, we are entirely dood. The administration will blacklist our team, and our academic performance scores will take a permanent, unrecoverable hit."

Marco rolled his eyes and let out a dramatic laugh. "Relax, Jax! I was just kidding around. You are way too terrified of a few academy rules."

"Just rember to be highly respectful when that door opens," Jax muttered, turning the steering wheel sharply.

The rover exited the busy highway and transitioned into a quiet, peaceful housing district. Manicured lawns and neatly paved driveways quickly replaced the towering skyscrapers and bustling traffic of Blue York.

Jax slowed the vehicle down, verifying the holographic map on his wrist, and pulled over to the curb right in front of a modest, two-story house that perfectly matched the provided coordinates.

The three students stepped out of the rover, leaving their chanical owls resting inside the cabin.

They walked up the paved garden path in silence, hastily dusting off their academy uniforms to ensure they looked professional after the monster fight. Stepping onto the front porch, Jax took a deep breath, reached forward, and firmly pressed the doorbell.

DING~DONG~!