“Residents of City A.”

“Good morning, everyone.”

Midnight.

A young man with a student-like demeanor and a hint of innocence in his smile sat obediently behind a mahogany desk.

His image appeared simultaneously on 17,832 city screens across City A.

The young man wore an impeccably ironed white shirt, his hands clasped in front of him, his back straight, and his voice warm and approachable:

“I’m the streamer, Luo Yu.”

His voice, with a unique clarity over the electronic screens, instantly resonated throughout the entire city.

Pedestrians on both sides of the street, passengers in buses, cars, and various other vehicles all looked up, eyes drawn to the giant screens hanging from skyscrapers on either side of the road.

Even those packed like sardines in the subway turned in unison toward the screens near the train doors.

People riding elevators stopped, their eyes fixed on the vertical advertisement screens.

And even those who had returned home and were lying in massage chairs scrolling on their phones heard the distant voice, prompting them to walk to their windows, looking out at the nearest city screen!

“Isn’t that streamer Luo Yu?”

“Who is Luo Yu?”

“Don’t you know? He’s that student who used to stream himself sleeping! Wait, didn’t I send you his live link?”

“Oh, so it’s him! What’s he doing here?”

“Is this some new type of live broadcast?”

“A citywide stream? My wife really knows how to make an entrance!”

“Let’s not go home yet; I want to finish watching this.”

“Wait, wasn’t Luo Yu just taken away by the Association?”

“Yeah! I was just cursing the Association; what’s going on?”

“Are they forcing him to come out and clear their name?”

The entire city’s attention was, in that instant, captured by the sudden appearance of the streamer.

And Luo Yu, on thousands of screens, seemed to guess what everyone was thinking. He paused, then showed an especially sweet smile:

“Two days ago in the afternoon, as a sleep streamer, I was invited to the International Association for Human Advancement to hold a sincere discussion on sleep research with President Song Lingyuan.”

“Yes, that’s the video you all saw online. I’d like to thank the Association for their protection.”

As he said this, the residents of City A watching the screen exchanged glances, fully understanding Luo Yu’s hidden meaning!

The anti sleeping meds poisoning incident had impacted every resident, and nearly everyone was keeping up with the latest developments—

And the latest news was, “The Association has captured streamer Luo Yu.”

Luo Yu’s lighthearted comment just now practically served as a complete exoneration for the Association!

It was almost a direct implication that those smearing the Union in the live stream were lying!

On the big screen, Luo Yu continued, his eyebrows curving as he smiled again:

“Oh, and if my stream suddenly gets cut, please don’t worry. It just means the President of the Management Committee is afraid of what I’m going to say and has cut the feed.”

“The dean of the School of Computer Science at University A told me that, aside from the Management Committee’s tech team, no one has managed to break his code yet.”

Outside the door, the dean of the School of Computer Science touched his bald head: …

Did he really just give me away like that?

Besides, that was quite a provocative statement!

Wiping his brow, he pulled out his laptop and sat in the hallway to continue reinforcing the code.

Meanwhile, hearing this, the people watching the screen understood—it was clear as day.

In a political struggle, it’s black or white.

This time, Luo Yu’s live broadcast was showing his stance with the Association!

Although Luo Yu had plenty of fans across City A, this wasn’t just a simple streaming competition; this was a matter of life and death.

They were no longer blindly following as they might in a typical livestream.

They looked calmly at the screen, hoping Luo Yu would provide more evidence.

Seeing that his stream hadn’t been cut off, Luo Yu continued:

“Two days ago, I wasn’t forced to go to the Association.”

“Quite the opposite—before that meeting, I thought every day about how I could legitimately meet President Song Lingyuan.”

“Because there was something extremely important that I needed to confirm with him.”

His expression grew serious:

“Because I am one of the victims of the anti sleep drug poisoning case.”

“Perhaps even the only one who has survived so far.”

The moment these words left Luo Yu’s mouth, a wave of murmurs swept through the entire city!

Thousands of voices spoke out simultaneously—

“Victim of the anti sleep drug?”

“He took a lethal anti sleep drug and survived? Then how is it lethal?”

“No way.”

“Exactly, why is he the only one who survived?”

“This streamer must be lying!”

Luo Yu couldn’t see the comments or hear the public’s discussions.

But it was as if he could see and hear them.

He calmly pulled up a prepared video recording.

“Don’t worry, everyone. Let’s watch this video first.”

Of course, he couldn’t access footage from the sleep hospital, and he knew the security footage from the hallway outside the morgue had likely been destroyed.

Instead, he brought up footage from his school.

It was from the night he accidentally took the poisoned anti sleep meds.

The video began.

This was only the second time Luo Yu had watched this video.

He saw himself obediently queuing up, receiving the anti sleep meds, and taking it on the spot.

Then he walked up the stairs, joking with his roommates.

But just as he entered his dorm room, he suddenly convulsed and collapsed to the ground!

His roommates hurried to help him, quickly calling for the dorm supervisor, the counselor, and soon, a crowd gathered around.

Soon after, in the chaos, an ambulance from the sleep hospital arrived, and together, his roommates carried his unconscious body to the ambulance.

The video ended.

The symptoms displayed in Luo Yu’s video matched precisely with the symptoms described by victims’ families the previous day.

The screen quickly cut back to Luo Yu’s face.

There was a distinct sadness in his eyes:

“You might be wondering why I was the only one who survived the anti sleep meds poisoning.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t give you an answer…”

“Because I don’t belong to the Association, nor to the Management Committee. Like everyone else, I’m just an ordinary person left in the dark.”

“As an ordinary person, I don’t know why I survived, just as I don’t know why I might die.”

“I don’t understand why the sleep-aid drug I trusted contained fatal elements.”

“I don’t know when or where this deadly drug might appear again…”

“I believe most of you watching feel the same way—I truly don’t know much.”

“More importantly, we don’t know when death might come for us, too.”

The city’s murmur quieted.

As they listened to Luo Yu, the crowd gradually fell silent.

Indeed, this disaster affected every single one of them, yet they knew so little.

They were ordinary people who just wanted to live their lives peacefully, without knowing the true intentions of those in power.

“I understand why everyone is so desperate to find the culprit behind this; you all want to feel safe again.”

Luo Yu seemed to hear their thoughts, speaking softly:

“And now, I’ve decided to share part of the truth I know, hoping it will help you make better choices.”

On the screen, he paused, his eyes sincere, and took a deep breath:

“The first thing I want to say is—”

“When I woke up in the sleep hospital, I heard Dr. Duan Dong talking on the phone with Management Committee President Duan Yixun!”

“At the time, I didn’t know what it meant.”

“It wasn’t until I met President Song Lingyuan to confirm the truth, and with his investigation, that we finally uncovered this indiscriminate killing incident!”

He lied.

Luo Yu trembled at the thought.

But he lied to save people.

His purpose was to let more people accept the truth smoothly.

As long as the result was good, did that make the lie any less harmful?

Luo Yu exhaled heavily, moved his hands off the table and out of view, steadying his trembling legs.

“You’ve probably heard many versions of the truth over the past two days.”

“Don’t rush to decide whether you should side with the Management Committee or the Association.”

“You can even completely forget the first thing I just mentioned.”

“Just listen closely to the second thing I’m going to say.”

“There’s only one side that is certainly right—the side of the hundreds of innocent victims who lost their lives, and the families who mourn them.”

“Because each one of us could end up like them, or become one of their grieving family members.”

Luo Yu’s voice grew unsteady. He thought of the detained members of the Hypnos League and of Song Lingyuan, wondering what they were going through at this very moment.

Every second was incredibly precious.

He became a little anxious:

“So, the second thing I want to say is this—”

“These people have all been detained by Management Committee President Duan Yixun, and their lives are at grave risk!”

“I currently have no way of providing immediate evidence for this claim because they’ve vanished without a trace.”

“But I don’t want all of them to simply disappear from this world without a sound!”

“Time is running out, and I hope everyone can trust me on this matter. We’re not making a political choice—we’re trying to save ordinary people like ourselves.”

“I hope all of you will join me in calling upon the Management Committee President to release all innocent citizens!”

“This is something every one of us can do, and it’s the most urgent thing right now!”

With a “click,” the fifteen-minute mark was reached.

The live broadcast in front of Luo Yu disappeared.

Across the city, Luo yu’’s face also vanished from 17,832 screens all at once.

The commercials interrupted by his sudden broadcast resumed on the city screens, as if nothing had happened.

But everything had already changed.

People snapped out of their daze, and debates arose in every corner of the city.

A few minutes later, a large crowd of people, acting as one, started heading in the same direction—

To the Management Committee!

“Luo Yu is right; we need to stand with the victims’ families.”

“But how do you know they’re really at the Management Committee?”

“I don’t know, but I can’t just do nothing! If someone said they were with the Association, I’d check that too!”

“Fine, work doesn’t start till five; let’s go together!”

Outside the Management Committee building, a dense crowd gathered, loudly demanding the release of those detained.

…

At University A.

Luo Yu returned to the history department’s office with Professor Tao and Wen Li, his heart still racing like a rabbit.

He had just live-streamed in front of the entire city.

There were millions in City A!

By the end, he was so nervous he’d been rambling a bit. He didn’t even know if he’d succeeded in getting everyone rescued…

Leaning back in his office chair, Luo Yu thought back over the broadcast, feeling a belated cold sweat.

Suddenly, his phone vibrated.

It was his mysterious patron, S!

S: [Well done, Luo Yu.]

So S was also in City A?

Luo Yu was about to respond when another message popped up—it was from Song Lingyuan!

Song Lingyuan: [Well done, Luo Yu.]

Song Lingyuan could use his phone?!

Ignoring S’s message, Luo Yu quickly dialed Song Lingyuan’s number.