LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 446: Two Battlefields
Chapter 446: Two Battlefields
"Nice!"
"Ha! Let's see how you're gonna keep running your mouth now!"
"No one's ever challenged our authority and succeeded!"
"That victory was far too easy to come by, but it's still worthy of celebration. I'm gonna go pop some champagne and find some chicks for a bit of fun. Does anyone want to join me?"
……
Everyone else was already celebrating, yet a grim look had appeared on the young man's face.
He continued to stare intently at the screen, as if he were trying to see something in it.
The technician raised his hands up high as he said in a slightly panicked manner, "I was only following your instructions, Sir! I did nothing wrong!"
The young man shook his head in response.
"I can't shake the feeling that things aren't so simple. His expression was too composed."
The technician immediately pulled up the final image of the live broadcast, then zoomed into Adam's face, and sure enough, his expression was still the same as when the press conference first began.
"Maybe he's just a good actor. He's a mayoral candidate, so he has to have some acting skills."
"Exactly. I see no problems, let's get out of here."
The others were itching to leave, but the young man stopped them without a second thought.
"No one is allowed to leave until I get to the bottom of this. I don't want to have to repeat myself."
Everyone could tell that he was serious, and they reluctantly stopped in their tracks, but they certainly weren't happy about this.
The young man paid no heed to them as he carefully pondered exactly what the problem was.
……
Meanwhile, the press conference had descended into complete chaos. Not only had the live broadcasts on the internet been taken offline, the microphones at the scene had been forcibly shut down as well, so only those who were closest to him could hear him, but their recording devices were only registering static.
"They've gone too far!"
"They're not even allowing him to speak the truth! He's being deprived of his freedom of speech! Is this how arrogant and conceited they've become?"
"Did you only just figure that out? When have you ever seen a truly important figure being punished for their crimes? At the very most, all they ever get is a slap on the wrist!"
"Mr. Adam, Mr. Adam, can you repeat what you just said?"
Adam took a glance at the projection, which had also been shut off, and at this point, the fact that the enemy had taken such blatant measures to silence him meant that it didn't matter whether he repeated himself or not.
He had already completed his objective, and saying anything further would've only had a detrimental effect. Hence, he didn't utter a single word as he raised his right hand and clenched it into a tight fist, then turned to depart.
After returning to his office, the first thing that he did was return Kevin Reed's call. Kevin quickly answered the call in person, and he praised, "You cut off the live broadcast at just the right moment. That was very well done of you."
He had already captivated the curiosity of the general public, and there was no need to reveal the rest. All that was left to do was to let the people find out the rest on their own, and that would leave a far more poignant and credible impression than simply revealing everything.
Adam didn't attribute this to himself, candidly admitting that it was an unplanned accident.
"Ah yes, yes, that's what they all say. My dear Adam, you've done 10 times better than I anticipated. Keep forging ahead, and don't worry about anything."
"What if the secrets that I reveal may hinder certain arrangements that you've made?"
Someone like Kevin Reed would've definitely purchased a blank slate for himself, and Adam didn't directly articulate this, but the implications behind his words were very apparent.
Kevin Reed burst into laughter upon hearing this.
"You don't have to worry about that at all. What we're most focused on are business profits and maximizing our return on investment into you. In contrast, the costs that you inflict upon us are downright negligible."
Ultimately, arms dealers were still capitalists, and they also abided by the mantra that money reigned supreme above all else.
Compared with immortality, they were more interested in attaining more control over the world. As long as they had sufficient control, there would always be more opportunities and pathways to satisfy their needs.
Adam expressed his gratitude before ending the call, and a grim look appeared on his face. From that conversation, it was clear to Adam that he was still far from making his opposition truly bleed.
I have to take things up a notch.
Adam clenched his fists tightly, and his fingernails dug into the palms of his hands to produce a sharp pain.
The fallout from the press conference was still ongoing, and the widespread internet outages infuriated the general public even further, with many people swarming to all types of platforms to vent their emotions.
However, there were barely any reports of the event from all of the mainstream media outlets. In particular, the final image that was displayed was said to have been lost due to technical reasons.
This was the impact of just a single tap of a button from the crisis group. The people behind the crisis group were so powerful that they could easily silence a top mayoral candidate, and in their eyes, this was a regulation victory, but to the general public, this had come as a huge shock that had allowed them to see the world more clearly than before.
Many people chose to cower, following which a conspiracy theory emerged before spreading like wildfire.
The crisis group had invested an enormous amount of resources in promoting the conspiracy theory that Adam had fabricated all of the content released during the press conference. In doing so, he was intentionally causing controversy and panic in order to increase support for himself.
Many people who blindly followed all of the headlines that they read were beginning to doubt whether Adam had indeed been telling the truth, and there were even rumors going around that all of the organizations on the relational graph were going to launch a joint lawsuit against Adam.
This enormous wave of new information drowned out all rational thought, and it wouldn't be long before all of Adam's efforts were canceled out.
Right at this crucial juncture, a certain tech wiz was able to restore the audio of the last part of the press conference.
With that came another wave of controversy, and the internet erupted into discourse once again.
Adam was completely stunned when he saw the restored footage for himself. Some of the restored audio contained information that he hadn't articulated at all. Due to the fact that the final part of the live broadcasts had been cut off, no one knew exactly how long he had spoken for after the internet outage, and the memories of everyone at the scene were quite muddled and chaotic due to the rampant emotions at the time.
Many of the reporters who were at the scene immediately corroborated the restored footage.
"Yes, that's exactly what Mr. Adam said at the time."
"No wonder the live broadcasts were cut off, the list of names and organizations that he brought up is way too terrifying!"
"Not only have they silenced him, they're now launching smear campaigns against him as well! The power of the upper class is matched only by its shamelessness!"
……
The tide of public opinion was swung once again in Adam's favor, and he had to capitalize on this temporary advantage to make even further progress.
Adam wasn't wasting his time thinking about who had given him such a massive helping hand at this crucial juncture. Instead, he had to take advantage of this brilliant opportunity to continue to strike at the enemy.
A few days later, Adam and his team set off once again.
This time, there were countless more pairs of eyes watching his every move. Support was no longer an issue for Adam. Instead, the most important thing was for him to secure the required evidence to back up his bold claims.
"Hurry up! Get all of this equipment out of here. Leave the other stuff behind, we have to be out of here in 10 minutes!"
Hidden inside a dilapidated old car factory in Area 9 was a well-equipped medical center, and at this moment, there were hundreds of people busy at work, loading the expensive equipment in the medical center into container trucks.
Meanwhile, Adam's convoy was closing in from no more than five kilometers away.