Chapter 375: The Pursuit Team Has Learned Their Lesson This Time!

Time flew by, and soon it was mid-August.

After more than half a month of buzz, the box office for Fireline Rescue easily broke the historical box office record in Huaxia, becoming the only domestic film to firmly establish itself in the top ten of the world's historical box office rankings!

Because of Chu Chen's participation, its overseas box office was also quite impressive.

It instantly crushed a host of Hollywood blockbusters released during the same period, becoming a red-hot, phenomenal masterpiece!

And besides this movie, fans were also full of anticipation for the premiere of the third season of Simulated Crime!

On all major social media platforms, the most discussed topic was what the crime theme of the third season would actually be!

The heat of this topic continued right up until the day before the program officially aired!

Soon, the time finally arrived on the day the program aired.

Nine forty-seven in the morning on August 20th!

The moment the official livestream room for the third season of Simulated Crime lit up, the popularity numbers began to skyrocket!

Sitting in front of the broadcast console, Zhang Yiwen rested his right hand on the edge of his monitoring headphones, his gaze sweeping one by one across the twelve surveillance screens.

Each screen displayed different data curves—online viewer count, bullet comment density, bandwidth usage, and streaming latency for each platform.

All curves drew a steep upward line within three seconds!

It broke one hundred million in ten seconds.

It broke one billion in thirty-six seconds.

"Switch all lines to the highest bitrate, warm up the backup servers, and be ready to divert traffic at any time!"

At this moment, the screen could no longer be seen through the bullet comments.

There were only layers upon layers of text fragments on the screen!

【Front row for Liu Ming!】

【It's here, it's here!】

【Finally airing!】

【Checking in!】

【First, first!】

At the same time.

In the long corridor of the participant preparation rooms, the lights were dimmed to a warm white.

There was a door every three meters on both sides of the corridor; there were no numbers on the doors, only a blue indicator light glowing faintly.

Staff members wearing uniform, unmarked attire walked with light steps, pushing carts through the corridor; on the carts were bottled water, energy bars, and backup communication equipment.

At this time, Chu Chen was already in Participant 99.

To his left was a one-way mirror; there were people behind the glass recording his status, but he could not see them.

To his right was a white table.

On the table sat a bottle of water, a blank notebook, and a pen.

At the same moment, the Command Center where the Expert Group and the Pursuit Team were located also made the corresponding preparations.

Nine fifty-nine.

The countdown entered the final sixty seconds.

In the broadcast backstage, Zhang Yiwen read the final instructions into the intercom: "All camera positions in place. Broadcast director, prepare to switch to the main feed. Audio control, check all channels. Host, get ready."

Ten o'clock sharp.

The countdown in the top right corner of the livestream room hit zero.

The screen switched from the deep blue opening sequence to a panoramic shot of the Studio Hall.

The golden dome glowed with a warm luster under the illumination of the lights, and the anchor desk in the center of the stage was made from a single piece of dark solid wood.

The edges of the tabletop were inlaid with slender light strips.

The color of the light transitioned from warm yellow to pale gold, like a river flowing slowly.

The figure of the host, Xiao Sa, appeared in the center of the screen.

He wore a dark gray custom-made suit paired with a dark blue narrow tie, the curve of the collar perfectly balanced, neither too tight nor too loose.

"Welcome back, everyone; this is the live broadcast of the third season of Simulated Crime!"

Xiao Sa's voice came through the sound system:

"More than a month has passed since the end of the second season of Simulated Crime, and I am truly happy to meet everyone here again!"

"Looking back at the previous two seasons, as of now, only three contestants have not been eliminated, and in this season of the program, they will finally determine the winner; the final victor will take home the one-billion grand prize alone!"

As he spoke, Xiao Sa turned to the side, his palm facing the giant LED screen behind the audience.

And at this very moment, the screen also began to play the photos and basic information of the three contestants!

The first to appear was a girl; she was Participant 32.

Immediately following, the second was a middle-aged man; he was Participant 59.

In the second season's competition, both of these contestants had relied on merely surviving to evade the Pursuit Team's capture and successfully advanced to the third season.

Of course, the most critical reason was that Chu Chen had attracted most of the Pursuit Team's attention, which was why they had become the ones who slipped through the net.

If not for that, they might have been caught long ago.

After introducing the two of them, the next to appear was Chu Chen.

The moment Chu Chen appeared, the bullet comments in the livestream room instantly exploded, quickly filling the entire screen with dense text!

The speed of the bullet comments was still so fast that it was impossible to see any complete message clearly, but the focus of the content had already precisely locked onto the same name.

【God Chu is awesome!】

【God Chu, God Chu!】

【Go, God Chu!】

【I think the first place is already a foregone conclusion!】

【This contestant looks so harmless, he doesn't look like a "criminal" at all!】

【Chu Chen: Haven't you heard my story?】

After the contestants made their appearance, the rhythm of the barrage in the live stream not only failed to slow down, but instead seemed to have been injected with new fuel, its density visibly climbing by another order of magnitude.

Xiao Sa stood in the center of the stage, and after the first wave of the barrage passed, he spoke again:

"Alright, everyone, next let us welcome our Expert Group members with applause!"

After speaking, he turned to the side and raised his hand, pointing to the main LED screen behind him.

At the same time, the photos of the Expert Group members flashed by one after another.

The Expert Group members this time, just like in the second episode, were still the same people.

Li Changyu, Shui Ge, Liu Xuemin, Zhu Guowei, Lin Xu, Chen Zijin, Wang Ruomei.

After them, the photos of the ten team leaders also began to scroll.

Zhou Yun, Chen Xiong, Zhuang Yan, Zheng Yang, Matthew, and so on.

Soon, after all the personnel information had been displayed, the screen cut back to a medium shot of Xiao Sa.

The above is the entire lineup for the Expert Group and the Pursuit Team for this round of the competition. Currently, they have already taken their positions in the Command Center, and the communication links between each team have been established. Their opponents—the three participating contestants—are also waiting in their respective preparation rooms for the revelation of the prompt!

After a few linking sentences, Xiao Sa began to read out the competition rules for this round, following the fixed procedure of each episode.

First, the contestants are granted a high degree of freedom in their movement. On the premise of ensuring no harm to others and no damage to public infrastructure, any criminal means may be used. Second, this round of the competition has set a prize cap; the total amount of illegal gains a contestant can acquire during the competition may not exceed the cap of 100 million USD announced before the competition. Third, the pursuit team may not use any law enforcement means that have not been authorized in advance. All equipment, resources, and action plans must be submitted to the Program Team for review and filing before the competition.

The barrage showed a concentrated reaction during the part about the prize cap.

【Prize cap? Isn't this a clause specifically targeting Chu Chen?】

【The Program Team has learned their lesson this time, knowing to change the rules!】

【To restrict Chu Chen, they even changed the rules!】

"Alright, the rules have been read." Xiao Sa put down the procedure card in his hand, lifted his gaze from the card, and landed it in front of the camera: "Now, according to tradition, let us have the Program Team's general director, Mr. Zhang Yiwen, reveal the criminal prompt for this round. Everyone, let us welcome Mr. Zhang Yiwen with applause!"