Chapter 1412: 1311, Far Ahead (3)_12 Chapter 1412: 1311, Far Ahead (3)_12 “But the situation is different now.” Lu Man frowned, “There is no doubt that many people are following the bounty. If we interfere and secure first place, how terrible would the impact be?

If Su Yu was only leading by a few points, or even by a dozen, we could still manipulate the score a bit. But now it’s almost a thousand points. The moment we intervene, we’ll be found out.”

Bella fell silent, acknowledging the problem–they couldn’t handle this blindly.

Now they seemed to have fallen into a dilemma where neither advancing nor retreating seemed right; they appeared to be stuck.

Eventually, Lu Man decided, “We should report to the legion commander in time and see what the old man has to say.”

Three hours later, the first settlement point of the bounty activity arrived.

“Settlement point” refers to the scoring checkpoint for the bounty.

In the bounty event, points are not updated in real-time.

This is because after cases are reported, they need to be repeatedly verified, and the scoring may be undercounted, overcounted, or missed.

For example, a case originally rated at 500 points might be upgraded during verification upon discovery of new victims, or downgraded due to exaggerated reports from the claiming team.

Thus, points from cases will not be displayed immediately after reporting. They need to be carefully verified, and only after confirming there are no errors will the respective scores be assigned.

The settlement period for scores is three hours.

Every three hours, personnel responsible for point settlement will publicly display the verified points for everyone to see.

The time when scores are made public is also referred to as the “settlement point.”

Three hours after the bounty started, the first settlement point finally arrived!

In the bounty event interface on the public network, the scores of all teams were refreshed and re-ranked, showing the scores after settlement.

Everyone had been waiting for this moment.

At the appointed time, whether it was internal members like Lu Man and Bella, teams participating in the bounty, or ordinary residents watching the excitement, everyone immediately clicked to check, curious about which teams were leading this time.

However, not long after, a tsunami of astonished cries erupted from various star zones:
“By the hymn, ‘Fugue Nova’ is still first!”

“1863 points! A 952-point increase from the beginning.”

“The teams from the major powers didn’t overtake them? Wait, ‘Lemo Mercenaries’ are second, but they only have 1150 points, a 418-point increase from the first? Why is the increase so small?”

At this settlement checkpoint, “Mole Mercenaries” reached second place with 1150 points, edging out their rivals by a narrow margin of 3 points (Silver Guard with 1147 points).

But what truly stunned everyone was that these teams from the major powers not only failed to close the point gap with Su Yu’s Team, they actually fell further behind!

And not just by a little!

Su Yu’s Team added 952 points in three hours, while the other top-ten teams generally only gained about 300-400 points each. With this trend continuing, how could they even think of overtaking?

“Oh my, who exactly is this ‘Su Yu’? It’s terrifying!”

“According to this pace, the other teams simply won’t be able to surpass them.”

“A 900-point surge in three hours… A team I know also joined the bounty, they worked extremely hard, the team members are all Eighth Order, but in three hours, they only got a little over a hundred points.”

“People thought this team would be a flash in the pan, but it doesn’t seem like it at all now!”

…

The public network was filled with exclamations everywhere.

Three hours ago, everyone thought that Su Yu was just lucky or had strong individual skills and would fall behind before long.

But unexpectedly, there was no sign of them falling behind; they continued to lead, and by a landslide!

In the command office of Pan-South Base 05 in Star Sector No. 2, Lu Man and his assistant Bella were also stunned!

The unexpected dominance of Su Yu’s Team was exceedingly defying the odds!

“As expected, my intuition was not wrong.” Bella thought to herself.

She looked at Lu Man seriously, “Lord Grid, should we take measures?”

“…Let’s wait a bit longer,” Lu Man hesitated.

Su Yu’s score had completely surpassed his expectations, it was a severe slap in his face.

Is it possible that Su Yu had really good luck and found another case like the “Morris case”?

However, going after Su Yu’s Team now would be too premature, better to understand the details first.

“Bella, check the specific content of the cases submitted by Su Yu.”

“Understood.”

“Also, let’s wait a little longer, we’ll see after the next scoring point.”

…

Busy with the search, time swiftly passed by.

Soon, another 3 hours had passed and the time reached the second scoring point.

But at this scoring point, Lu Man was clearly much more anxious.

In the time just passed, he and his assistant Bella had reviewed all the cases reported by Su Yu.

Not intending to check was one thing, but actually reviewing them was startling!

Within these additional 952 points, Su Yu didn’t crack a big case as Lu Man suspected, similar to the “Morris case”. These 952 points included 9 cases, each roughly worth about a hundred points.

Moreover, what shocked him was that each case had extremely solid evidence!

He couldn’t find any ambiguity or unclear points in those pieces of evidence.

Moreover, each case had no signs of tampering and all occurred after the start of the bounty, leaving no room for criticism.

These facts fully demonstrated Su Yu’s strength. Su Yu wasn’t just getting lucky, they really were far ahead!

These facts made Lu Man feel a stinging sensation in his face–he had truly misjudged the situation!

Additionally, Lu Man speculated that at this scoring point, Su Yu’s Team was likely still in the lead.

…

Just as expected.

Another 3 hours passed, and the second scoring point arrived, with all teams’ scores being updated once again.

At this scoring point, Su Yu’s Team gained an additional 666 points, maintaining their first place with a total of 2529 points.

The second place was reclaimed by “Silver Guard” with them earning 390 points this round, bringing their total to 1537 points.

The “Lemo Mercenaries” followed closely behind in third place with just a 7-point gap.

Now, the gap between the first and second place had again widened, reaching nearly 1000 points!

At this pace, it would take “Silver Guard” six to seven hours just to catch up with Su Yu’s Team, not to mention surpassing them.

“Alas, just as I thought,” Lu Man sighed upon seeing the results.

Bella chimed in: “The two score evaluations have proved that our team indeed does not have the capability to defeat Su Yu’s Team. Without interference, Su Yu’s Team winning the championship is a certainty.”

She looked at Lu Man: “Lord Gried, so what do you say? Shall we interfere?”

“This…” Lu Man’s brow furrowed, beginning to hesitate again.

“You shouldn’t have to hesitate about this, should you?” Bella asked: “The Commander himself has instructed us to take first place. If we do not intervene, it’s clear we can’t win first. Moreover, I think the earlier we interfere the better, as it may be impossible to catch up later.”

“But the situation has changed now,” Lu Man said with a furrowed brow: “Without a doubt, many people are watching this bounty. How bad would the backlash be if we intervened and clinched first place?

If Su Yu was only ahead by a few or a dozen points, maybe we could fiddle with it. But now we’re almost a thousand points behind, any form of intervention will be immediately noticeable.”

“…” Bella fell silent, this indeed posed a problem that couldn’t be blindly dealt with.

It seemed they were now caught in a dilemma, where advancing or retreating seemed incorrect.