Chapter 492: These Five Aren’t Teammates, They’re Dead Weight!

Wang Yun cut them off. He didn’t want to waste another second. He turned and strode toward the door without another word.

It wasn’t until he disappeared through the exit that the others snapped out of it and hurried to follow.

The moment Wang Yun stepped out of the terminal, the once-grayed-out livestream room suddenly flared to life.

The screen lit up.

“Big Bro’s out! Big Bro’s out!”

“Holy hell, his livestream is active again!”

“Goddamn, is it just me, or does Big Brother look even more handsome than before?!”

“Girl, you can’t even see his face right now. Don’t let your fantasies run wild!”

“Wait, who are those people following him? What’s going on? Are those program inspectors?”

“It’s Old Hu and Xiao Gang! The Iron Triangle is still intact! But hold on… there’s more of them?”

The barrage of messages in the livestream chat exploded.

Everyone had been anxiously waiting for Wang Yun to appear. But as the seconds ticked by, they noticed something unusual. He wasn’t alone.  The viewers could clearly see that several unfamiliar people were following him, thanks to the bodycam footage.

Strangers. And a bit offbeat.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Just as the chat began to bubble with speculation, several lines of text suddenly flashed across Wang Yun’s livestream.

“Program rule update: This season, Wang Yun has been assigned seven assistants.”

“Team members: Xiao Gang, Old Hu, Old Zhou, Big Mouth, Xu Shisan, Xiao Gao, Xiang Xiang.”

“Profiles of the remaining five: …”

A large block of text filled the screen.

The character bios were detailed, exactly as Director Zhou had described them earlier.

The sudden announcement left viewers stunned. The shock was so abrupt, they didn’t even have time to react emotionally. Eyes locked onto the screen, afraid to miss a single line.

Most viewers had assumed the show had paired Wang Yun with some kind of hidden elite squad. Many were just about to send celebratory messages or express their excitement, until they actually read the bios.

Their smiles froze.

One by one, the names and “skills” scrolled by.

When the final profile disappeared, the screen went completely silent for twenty full seconds.

Some even thought the stream had frozen.

Then—

Boom.

The barrage of comments returned like a torrential flood.

“What the hell?! Who are these people?! One’s got ‘long legs’ as a specialty, another’s a middle school sprint champion?!”

“Is this a joke? Did I tune into the wrong show? This is supposed to be a survival game, not a clown festival!”

“A chef? And a chatty grandpa?! This is supposed to be intense survival! What the hell is the production team doing?!”

“I get it now! They’re nerfing Big Brother on purpose. He’s too strong, so they’re sabotaging him!”

“Look at their wristbands. They’re all marked S-! S-MINUS! This is pure psychological warfare!”

“If Big Brother’s entire team gets caught, they’ll slap a tracker on him?! How’s that even fair?!”

“Boycott this show! I’ve only read about this kind of injustice in history textbooks!”

“They’ve lost their minds! This isn’t a survival program anymore!”

The audience erupted.

And it didn’t stop there. Within minutes, screenshots of the five new members were circulating across the internet.

Thanks to the internet sleuths, every bit of personal info about them was dug up within five minutes of the episode airing.

When those details surfaced, all remaining hope evaporated.

They were, without a doubt, complete amateurs.

Put bluntly, they weren’t even up to the average person’s standard.

At least Old Hu and Xiao Gang were capable. Fit, dependable, and with solid endurance. They didn’t need much looking after, and could even support Wang Yun in a pinch.

But these five?

Dead weight.

One was too young. One was too old. One was too fat. One was too short. One was too thin. They’d somehow assembled the entire cast of “Tall, Short, Fat, and Skinny.”

“The program team’s just being petty! This is sabotage, plain and simple!”

“This isn’t survival, it’s suicide!”

“Production crew, are you even awake? I can’t sleep just thinking about Wang Yun’s odds!”

“This isn’t an escape, this is a deadweight showcase!”

The outrage was everywhere. Hashtag after hashtag shot up the trending charts. Hundreds of thousands—millions—of furious comments were under each one.

Their hero, their Big Brother, had been completely screwed over by the showrunners.

Of course, not everyone was mad. Some supported the decision, saying it made the show more interesting. After all, everyone already knew how ridiculously strong Wang Yun was. Without this kind of handicap, no one would ever catch him.

The outcry was deafening, yes—but so was the surge in viewership.

The survival show’s popularity skyrocketed.

It rose so sharply that in this exact time slot, every other program—singing contests, dating shows, even popular dramas—took a massive hit.

Ratings dropped below the lowest numbers in years.

Some laughed, some cried.

***

On the other side, in the inspector command center—

Beep beep beep!

Every single program inspection room was suddenly filled with an urgent alarm.

A voice came over the speakers.

“S-Rank Fugitive, Codename 001, has exited the airport. Commence pursuit!”