Richard was wholly paralyzed by shock. What was happening?

He clearly told these people that they should cooperate with him to look like a hero in front of Hazel. However, the leader did not follow the act that they had agreed on beforehand, he was supposed to pretend to be defeated by him.

"You... let go!" Richard was surprised, he tried to pull back his fist, but the other party did not let go.

"Don't you want to be a hero?" The leader laughed. "Since you want to save the beauty, you can ...