Chapter 129: Today (5)
Contrary to what Everly had expected, Ronald was not one of the dark web’s operators, but an ordinary paying member.
“If you’re just a visitor, a lot of the special content isn’t accessible. Only paying members can view it… But becoming a paying member comes with a requirement: you have to upload your own criminal video, showing that you’re willingly handing leverage over to the administrators, aligning yourself with them. If you don’t do that, the site will never accept you.”
Of course, these “criminal videos” weren’t small-time thefts—they had to involve human life.
Ronald, for example, had uploaded a video in which he, catching a young girl off guard, pushed her into a river and drowned her with his own hands. Though he initially tried to justify it as “an accident,” Everly was no fool—she immediately saw through his lies.
Having already endured one session of waterboarding, he still dared to lie. Without a word, Everly tied Ronald head-down again and subjected him to an even longer round of waterboarding.
After two sessions, Ronald finally became completely honest.
“I thought… the U.S. is so big, and so many people upload videos. Even if I showed my face, the administrators couldn’t possibly know my name. But I didn’t expect that the operators behind the site were actually in Dalami City, and one of them even went to the same school as me. He recognized me, used that video to threaten me into joining their ‘execution performances,’ saying I’d get a share of the profits and a higher membership level if I succeeded. I… I agreed…”
“Who is that A you were in contact with?”
Ronald’s face twisted slightly, as if he hadn’t expected Everly to even know about the existence of A.