Chapter 4

At the school entrance, Ms. Collins stood squarely in the center of the camera frame, dressed in a bright red T-shirt. She was smiling so hard that deep wrinkles spread across her face.

"Don't worry, kids. As long as I'm here, I'll make sure every one of you gets safely into the testing center."

Then, her tone shifted. She sighed toward the camera, a look of sorrow and disappointment appearing on her face.

"Unfortunately, there are a few students in our class who don't trust me and insist on keeping their documents themselves. I just hope anxiety doesn't get the better of him today and he doesn't ruin the most important exam of his life."

The comments on the online platform exploded instantly. A flood of vicious messages covered the entire screen.

[Isn't this the crazy kid who called the police on his teacher? What a nightmare.]

[Starting drama right before final exams. What a twisted person.]

[How is someone with antisocial tendencies allowed to take the final exams? His eligibility should be revoked!]

Within minutes, everyone was talking about 'the weird student from St. Alden High'.

My breathing was still steady as I continued scrolling past the comments mechanically. Among hundreds and thousands of insults, I carefully captured a single isolated comment.

[Student IDs aren't supposed to leave the examinee's possession. The boy isn't wrong for questioning it.]

I immediately copied the user's ID into my notes. If this person ended up getting attacked online by the same pack of lunatics, the evidence file I was building might help them fight back.

Switching back to my inbox, I found it stuffed with hundreds of disgusting messages.

[Hope a truck sends you flying today.]

[Forget college. You'll never get in anywhere.]

[After graduation, you'll spend your life flipping burgers at a fast-food restaurant.]

Without any expression, I hit the button to delete everything.

After the live stream ended, I opened the recording and slowed the playback speed to 0.5x. My fingers continuously zoomed and dragged across the screen. Then, I froze the frame.

On the left side of the school gate, hidden in the shadows, three men wearing identical dark T-shirts stood among the crowd.

One was stationed beside the barricade at the student entrance, another leaned against a divider near the temporary parking area, and the last stood in a surveillance blind spot near the document verification desk.

Everyone else around them was focused on the banners, the students, or the excitement of exam day. However, the three men never moved. Their heads remained tilted at the same strange angle the entire time.

They were not watching the students, the parents, or even the testing center. Every one of them was staring at the lockbox clutched tightly in Tracy's arms.

The three men had effectively locked down the entire entrance route.

I shot upright from my bed. Suddenly, everything clicked into place. That was not simply about stealing identification documents. They were planning to use the documents and confirmation forms inside that lockbox to create chaos at the verification checkpoint.

Under the excuse of 'safekeeping', they could temporarily divert legitimate students into a so-called quiet waiting area. Then, the stand-ins they had prepared in advance could walk straight through an alternate entrance carrying swapped exam credentials.

Those monsters were planning to exchange the futures of more than 50 students.

I grabbed my phone, my fingers squeezing so hard that my knuckles turned white. I punched in 911.

The moment the call connected, I shouted into the receiver, "I need to report a crime! At the St. Alden High testing center, 52 examinees from Senior Class Two, excluding myself, are about to be stripped of their identities before entering the testing center! This is an organized, large-scale operation!"