At the same time,
Lin Zhiyuan, Zhang Hong, and Feng Chiyu were rushing to Liu Ruyan's location.
In their armored vehicle, they watched the live footage Cifera shared from her phone.
Witnessing firsthand how Cifera, posing as Liu Ruyan's husband, tricked the two kidnappers and bought them precious time for the rescue, Zhang Hong repeatedly exclaimed, "Brilliant!"
As an elite special forces operative, he saw the kidnappers as mere amateurs. Given enough time, he was confident he could safely rescue Liu Ruyan.
His only fear was not arriving in time. When he saw Liu Ruyan being brutally beaten, he wished he could teleport and deliver a swift kick to the Tall Kidnapper.
Now that Cifera had bought them precious time, he felt immense gratitude toward her and his impression of the adorable "catgirl" had only deepened.
However, noticing that Feng Chiyu and Lin Zhiyuan didn't seem as excited, he asked, puzzled:
"What's wrong with you two? Cifera just bought us an hour! That's gold, more than enough time to save a life!"
"Brother Zhang, I'm glad too, but after seeing Cifera's performance just now, I suddenly realized something very serious: we might have been completely fooled by her. The thought makes it hard to feel any joy."
Feng Chiyu shook his head, his face a mixture of amusement and frustration.
"Ha?! What do you mean? What do you mean we were tricked by Cifera? Wait... you're not saying... Holy shit!"
Zhang Hong suddenly swore, finally grasping what Feng Chiyu was implying.
Though Zhang Hong appeared burly and rough, his mind was actually quite sharp. He had been so focused on rescuing people that he hadn't considered other possibilities. But now, with Feng Chiyu's prompting, he immediately saw the problem and was genuinely shocked.
"So you've realized it too," Feng Chiyu said. "Cifera is likely not a member of the Expert Team at all. She's probably the one who leaked our intelligence to the enemy."
Lin Zhiyuan, who had been silent until now, finally looked up, adjusting his black-framed glasses. "Like the rest of you, I believed Cifera was part of our Expert Team until I heard her phone call with the kidnappers."
"By that point, we had eliminated all other possibilities, leaving only the Grandchild of the Phantom Thief, for whom we still had no concrete evidence but who remained the only logical answer.
"Throughout this pursuit, I kept wondering: even though a group was constantly tracking and monitoring us, how could our Expert Team, along with so many seasoned pursuers from the Police Force, fail to detect their presence?
"Even Cifera, the surveillance expert and investigative prodigy, came up empty-handed!
"Just how formidable was the counter-surveillance capability of the Grandchild of the Phantom Thief and their team?
"But now I understand. It wasn't that the Grandchild of the Phantom Thief was so extraordinary, it was that Cifera was too extraordinary!
"Everything was under her control. The reason she proactively asked Nie Bing to return and supervise her was because she was confident she could mimic Nie Bing's voice to deceive us, thereby completely eliminating herself as a suspect.
"Presumably, Nie Bing has already been subdued by Cifera using methods within the show's rules.
"And since the Production Team allowed her to execute this series of maneuvers, it confirms that she is, in fact, a contestant in the game."
Hearing this, Feng Chiyu interjected:
"If Cifera is this formidable, could she actually be the Grandchild of the Phantom Thief herself?"
"Highly unlikely," Lin Zhiyuan said, shaking his head. He explained:
"Remember how there are still two contestants who haven't been reported? If Cifera were truly the Grandchild of the Phantom Thief, it would make more sense for her to be the only one left unreported.
"Just like the eight contestants who have already been reported, the ninth contestant who received Cifera's intel assistance would have no reason not to act.
"I can't pinpoint exactly why he hasn't acted yet, but one thing is certain: he's supremely confident and hasn't accepted Cifera's intel assistance.
"Since the reports only started after Cifera took her seat at the technical console, we can infer that she had prearranged with these contestants to wait for her signal before acting.
"The fact that this ninth contestant didn't act independently proves he has no intention of disrupting Cifera's plan to help the others.