The front of H City's city hall square was congested with traffic and throngs of people huddled together.
It seemed that many people were well-informed about the details of the expedition. When they learned of the team's departure venue, all of them rushed over to witness the glory of the expedition team.
The official organization in charge of this exploration project decided to only put up a few fences to stop the crowd instead of dispersing them.
The reason for doing so was simple. The government was eager to portray their determination and sincerity of discovering the truth of the cemetery to the citizens.
The Haunted Cemetery incident had become a widespread topic of discussion, not only in H City, but in the entire country, causing a lot of unrest among the people.
If this case were not handled properly, it would easily further intensify the already present panic growing among the people.
Therefore, the officials chose to make the entire expedition known to the public to prevent netizens from spreading inaccurate rumors and causing disarray.
Of course, the reason why the officials were able to boldly present the team publicly was because they had complete confidence in solving this mystery.
80% of this confidence was credited to the leader of the expedition, John Jones!
At the age of 32, he had both brains and brawn; he was a major general of H Nation, an excellent military officer, and graduated as a valedictorian at Yale University. To top it all off, he was also a world-class wilderness explorer.
He had been to nine of the world's ten most dangerous places. The only place remaining was Mount Everest. He planned to visit when he turned 40.
Moreover, he was also an expert in solving crimes. Not only did he know all the variations of supernatural cases at the tip of his fingers, but he had also personally solved dozens of conspiracy cases.
He was dubbed a supernatural detective by people on the Internet.
He further solidified the people's opinions by confidently claiming that there was no case in the world that he could not solve!
This time, he had caught wind of a haunted cemetery case in H City. Without any hesitation, he flew to H City as soon as he possibly could, craving for more information on the situation.
At last, when he was elected for the position of captain for the expedition team, he did not waver, and proudly accepted the offer. He then promised that he would definitely find out the truth and return safely!
After the mayor of H City heard John's involvement in the expedition team, he frantically issued a letter of appointment!
Gradually, people came to know about this, and thus the formation of the expedition team was completed in the flash of an eye. On the internet, netizens were raving about the high possibility of guaranteed success for the expedition.
The name 'John Jones' went trending on Tik Tok's Hot Search, and the number of views blew up, swiftly exceeding one million views within days!
Due to his fame, there was no doubt that the cemetery exploration would grab the attention of the entire population!
...
However, John Jones, the main topic of heated discussions ensuing online, was currently frowning at a young man in front of him, and he seemed very perplexed at the sight of this stranger.
"You're Blake Wayne? The high school student who intends to join the expedition team?"
"Yes."
Blake nodded.
"Are you sure you want to join the team? This isn't a game. It's the kind that can make you die earlier! I'm not confident that I can guarantee your safety."
John Jones spoke with a cold, stoic face.
He had heard from his superiors before the assembly that this high school student would only be temporary, and had managed to enter the team through his own means of connections.
As John observed Blake thoroughly, he judged that Blake seemed to be very interested in the paranormal activity happening in the cemetery, and wanted to follow them to take a look for himself.
However, his final judgment was that Blake was likely just another wealthy, sheltered kid and his real intentions were probably be to gain popularity or to impress his love interest.
John Jones had seen his fair share of foolish young men to be able to stand for his own judgment with full confidence.
The most common characteristic of these ignorant youths was that they would be brimming with self-confidence before they set off, fearless of what was to come next.
However, once they took a step into the scene, even the slightest movement would frighten them, to the point where they would be crying for their parents and screeching in fear.
The cowardly ones would even faint on the spot and they would have to be carried away.
There was no question that John Jones had already labeled the frail adolescent in front of him as one of those simple-minded young men.
"I hope you're not that kind of trash. My team doesn't welcome anyone of that sort," John Jones said ruthlessly.
He had encountered countless others like this, so he never even considered wasting his energy persuading him to leave.
'He would leave anyway, the same as how the others did. He's just a high school student,' John thought to himself nonchalantly.
John threw a set of equipment toward Blake and left.
It was almost the scheduled time for the team to depart, and he had a lot of things to do.
For example, live-recording equipment.
Similar to Jack London, John Jones was also a famous outdoor adventure blogger on the social media platform called Tik Tok.
He even took on a number of official advertisement jobs because of the large following he received in his livestreams.
He had made millions from these advertisement deals, and in this cemetery livestream, he had also partnered with another company for revenue.
The conditions offered to John by the advertisers were the consumption of their sports drink by himself during the livestream, and an audience that exceeded 50,000.
If these two requirements were fulfilled, he would be guaranteed no less than 100,000 dollars! The more viewers, the higher the pay!
This was the real reason for his participation in this cemetery expedition.
However, what John did not expect was that the popularity of this cemetery exploration had blown up further than he had expected!
The authorities actually sent a professional live-broadcast team to film the whole expedition.
This meant that there would be more viewers, and John would have the chance to earn more profit!
Thinking of this, John could not wait any longer for their journey to start.
What did the existence of ghosts in the cemetery matter?
He did not care about any of that. Rather, all he had his mind on was the money he would be earning from this whole thing.
"Captain! Our broadcasting equipment has been assembled, and the livestream has started. Should we greet the viewers?"
The staff member responsible for the livestream ran over to John to report the status respectfully.
"Sure."
John looked at the professional broadcast equipment propped in front of him and nodded in satisfaction.
However, he did not care about solely being in the limelight. Instead, he urged the expedition members behind him and said, "What's the point of me appearing on the show alone? We're a team. We have to present ourselves together. Everyone, come on over!"
John had a noticeably high EQ; with just one simple sentence, he had managed to deliver a favorable impression to everyone on the team.
The members of the expedition team gathered around quickly and adjusted their clothes promptly. They gawked at the camera awkwardly as they introduced themselves one by one.
At the sight of all the members energetically displaying themselves in the livestream, the viewers burst into a hysterical barrage of comments.
"Wow! The men participating in this expedition team are literally eye candy... Everyone looks really capable and strong too!"
"Girl, you have a good eye for men! All the members of this expedition have experience in wilderness exploration. There are quite a few of them who are trained special police officers. Their combat skills are definitely not to be underestimated."
"Oh my god! Isn't it a pity to use this lineup of men to hunt for ghosts?! They're way too accomplished to be idly taking part in this kind of expedition!"
"What about it? Look carefully. There are guns and ammunition specially approved and provided by the government in the supply bags over there, in case of any unexpected emergencies or confrontations."
"Wow, it really looks like the city government has spent quite a lot of money on this expedition. I'm really looking forward to tonight!"
Many netizens buzzed excitedly, and the number of comments in the livestream started to grow rapidly.
Suddenly, a comment was uploaded by a sharp netizen who noticed something unusual.
"Huh? Why is there a team member wearing a high school uniform? Could it be that there are high school students among the members of this expedition team?"
Huh?
Following this comment, many of the viewers fixed their gaze toward the upper right corner of the livestream video and shockingly discovered...
Certainly, there was a boy wearing a high school uniform who was checking his equipment!