Chapter 112: Regretting It Now? Too Late!
By the ti the matter had fernted to noon, its intensity had already spread across the entire city.
Everyone began paying close attention to it.
After all, the relationship between the people and the authorities was inherently delicate.
Anything involving bullying others through power and oppressing them with authority was sothing ordinary people utterly despised.
With the dia deliberately misleading the public, the truth was often buried.
At that mont, Zhao Yi and his cousin Ling Da were soaking in a hot spring.
Beside them were fruit platters and fine wine.
Zhao Yi scrolled through the livestreams and various news reports on his phone.
He was grinning so hard his mouth was practically splitting.
“Hahaha, that damned Li Mu really thought that just because he had a little strength, he could look down on everyone!”
“Cousin, this ti it’s all thanks to your brilliant plan!”
“Without lifting a finger, you got a bunch of brain-dead fans to do the job for us, and you even kept your hands clean!”
“That was truly masterful!”
Ling Da, anwhile, looked smug and self-satisfied, reclining comfortably against the edge of the hot spring with an expression of enjoynt.
“Just learn from ...”Zhao Yi kept scrolling through his phone.
He wanted to monitor the situation at all tis and see when the force behind Li Mu would finally be unable to suppress public opinion any longer.
Either they would abandon Li Mu and throw him out to be crushed, or the entire force behind him would be uprooted.
But very soon, he saw a video that had been forcibly pushed to the top of the citywide trending searches.
He tapped it open and only watched a few monts.
Then Zhao Yi’s smile froze on his face.
“What’s wrong?”
Noticing the change in Zhao Yi’s expression, Ling Da asked in confusion.
Zhao Yi imdiately turned pale with shock and hurriedly showed him the phone.
Ling Da swam over and looked at the video on the screen.
The trending video had actually been released by Voice of the Abyss-Suppression Army.
Voice of the Abyss-Suppression Army was an official dia outlet with mandatory authority over public discourse. The mont it spoke, every dia platform had to surrender the top trending spot to it.
That ensured everyone would see it at the very first mont.
The video it released was footage from a press conference.
Seated at the interview table were four people.
From Ironhand City’s Pearl Military District were Commander-in-Chief Liang Huajun and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Wang Longcheng.
From the Red Moon Military District were Commander-in-Chief Wu Yuefeng and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Hong Weiqiang.
And seated below them, without a single exception, were all the leading figures of Ironhand City.
That included leaders at every level from the Departnt of Resources, the Law Enforcent Bureau, the Ministry of Education, the Comrce and Industry Administration Departnt, and more.
All of them sat below like elentary school students, quietly listening.
As soon as it began, Commander-in-Chief Liang Huajun was the first to speak.
“Today is a grievous day for Ironhand City!”
“I am here to announce a deeply painful piece of news!”
“The air-raid alarm two days ago was sounded because a monster siege battle broke out in the military district.”
“In that battle, our Abyss-Suppressing Army soldiers suffered... more than sixteen hundred casualties!”
“Under the protection of the heroic souls of those soldiers!!”
“We won that battle and safeguarded the peace of Ironhand City!”
“And proper arrangents have already been made for the military families of all the fallen soldiers.”
“Here, on behalf of the countless people of Ironhand City, I bow in tribute to the warriors who now rest in heaven!!”
As he spoke, Liang Huajun stood up.
The entire hall rose with him.
Then Liang Huajun bent forward in a deep ninety-degree bow, and everyone in the room followed suit, observing silence for a full three minutes.
After the tribute ended, Liang Huajun slowly sat back down.
“That concludes the casualty report for this battle!”
After saying that, he pushed the microphone aside.
Then Commander-in-Chief Wu Yuefeng of the Red Moon Military District began to speak.
“Although the casualties in this battle were severe, what is heartening is that our soldiers displayed extraordinary strength!”
“Here, I want to comnd all our soldiers for fighting desperately to the very end.”
“And I also want to comnd the powerful support provided by the reserve mbers from the city’s high schools.”
“The combat bearing shown by these high school reserve soldiers is sothing never before seen in any previous class of high school reserves!”
“On the battlefield, they moved like wolves, fought like tigers, and carried the montum of dragons!!”
“They provided trendous support for this battle!”
After Wu Yuefeng finished, it was Hong Weiqiang’s turn to speak.
Hong Weiqiang had a broad, square face and spoke very little.
“The Abyss-Suppressing Army rewards and punishes with absolute clarity. Starting today, rits will be assessed!”
After saying that, he directly looked toward Wang Longcheng.
Wang Longcheng took the microphone and slowly began to speak:
“Today, we also received a special piece of news!”
“There was a protest march making a huge commotion near Blackwater High School today.”
“We specifically looked into it. Guess what the purpose of that march was?”
Wang Longcheng coldly swept his gaze across the entire audience below.
“Hmph!”
“They turned out to be a group of idol-chasing fans!”
“And their goal was to demand an explanation from a reserve officer.”
“What explanation? They claid that this reserve officer had maliciously injured their idol goddess!”
“But according to my investigation, it was an open challenge, and Golden Scale High School was the one that took the initiative to provoke him online!”
“This is utterly absurd!!!”
Bang!!
At that point, Wang Longcheng suddenly slamd his palm onto the table in front of him.
All the microphones on the table jolted violently into the air.
His thick brows shot upward, and killing intent flashed explosively in his eyes!
“This reserve officer is precisely the ritorious figure who led the reserve soldiers to charge into battle during this campaign, risking death again and again!”
“He gave up the so-called elite tournant and risked his life for the people!”
“And what did he get in return!?”
“He got a school deliberately provoking him for the sake of so profit-based rankings!”
“As a soldier, he accepted the challenge and defeated his opponent with the bearing of the strong.”
“And what did he get then?”
“What he got was condemnation from a pack of senseless fans!”
“I, Wang Longcheng, want to ask: on whose behalf are they condemning him, and what exactly are they trying to demand??”
Wang Longcheng straightened his body and said coldly with his head held high:
“In the face of a racial crisis caused by an Abyss monster invasion!”
“As Martial Artists, as students!”
“They do not admire the strong, nor do they temper themselves.”
“And yet they want to engage in so sort of appearance worship? Chase idols? Beco fans?”
“We must straighten out this twisted social climate!”
“This matter must be thoroughly investigated to the very end!”
“How many people were involved in this troublemaking? Who started it? Which dia outlets were fanning the flas?”
“Not a single one of them will be let off!!”
By the end of it, Wang Longcheng gave a broad sweep of his hand, displaying extraordinary and unshakable resolve.
The leaders of every departnt seated below, especially those from the Law Enforcent Bureau, were all silent as cicadas in winter.
Even Liang Huajun and the others wore grave expressions.
This was also the first ti they had ever seen Wang Longcheng this furious.
Back at the hot spring, Zhao Yi stared at Wang Longcheng’s outburst on his phone.
His whole mind felt as though it had been struck by lightning, rumbling over and over.
His face turned deathly pale, and cold sweat stread down his body.
He swallowed hard and said to Ling Da, “C-Cousin... w-what do we do about this? Will they trace it back to us?”
He was the one who had contacted the dia.
And the person in the forum who had taken the lead in giving suggestions was also one of his people.
At this mont, Ling Da’s face was also ashen. When he heard Zhao Yi’s question, he imdiately frowned deeply.
“What do you an, us? What the hell does this have to do with ?”
“I’m warning you, Zhao Yi. You caused all of this yourself. I’ve never even seen you before in my life!”
“If you dare drag into this, I’ll kill you!”
As he spoke, Ling Da abruptly stood up and quickly headed for the changing room.
Only Zhao Yi was left there, his face pale as paper.
It took quite a while before Zhao Yi finally ca back to his senses and pulled out his phone to call his aunt.
At the sa ti, inside the headquarters of the Tabloid News dia company, the general manager had already gone nearly insane. He rushed into the multidia room and shouted:
“Quick! Quick!! Take down every video and article we posted today! All of them!!”
Everyone sprang into action at once.
But not a single face looked good.
They all understood the consequences of this very clearly.
Trying to remove those articles and videos now—what damn use would that do?
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