Chapter 499: The Vortex of Self-Vindication |
After the two left the Children of Argan camp, Guan Tong asked Adam, “What are your plans after this?”
Ye Dang had come full of hope to find the Moon Key, hoping to get news of his family. In the end, getting this result was truly hard to accept.
Guan Tong also felt helpless, but neither he nor Adam had any intention of forcing the Moon Key to break her agreement with Bruce.
In their view, a Moon Key who strictly adhered to her agreement was a trustworthy partner, even if that agreement was made with their enemy.
“I think we can join forces,” Adam said after a moment of silence. “Except for that ‘Han Qiu’ I don’t know about, the others you’re going after—Bruce and Your Holiness—are also my enemies.”
Adam had no news of his wife and daughter at all. Even if he wanted to rescue them, he had no target location. Charging straight to the New Covenant to find Bruce was the most direct route, but that was no different from suicide.
Regardless, Bruce was the king of the Suroma Empire. The security forces around him would surely far exceed the protection level on Eden Island. Adam had almost died going to Eden Island, let alone going after the king.
“Right now, I almost wish I were that guy Lucifer,” Adam suddenly said.
“Lucifer?”
“If I were Lucifer, I wouldn’t have any moral bottom line. I could launch asymmetric attacks,” Adam said. “Use personal strength to constantly attack various Suroma cities, even the cargo ships and planes on transport lines. As long as Bruce doesn’t hand over the people, the attacks never stop.”
“...”
Guan Tong hadn’t expected Adam to mean that.
He had to admit, he was absolutely right.
With Adam’s strength, directly attacking Bruce was suicide, but if he attacked various Suroma cities, it was like a dimensionality reduction strike.
At this stage, if an Ascendant with world-class strength was dead set on being an assassin and launching indiscriminate attacks, even a large, powerful nation would fall into a very passive situation.
“...But I know I can’t do that kind of thing,” Adam sighed. “To achieve my own goals and hurt innocent people, even if I save my wife and daughter in the future, how could I face them?”
Guan Tong was silent.
This kind of predicament only appeared in people with a conscience, but he also believed that only people with a conscience could get true love. Adam’s choice was right.
“Speaking of which, aren’t you going to announce to the world that you’re still alive and expose the truth?” Adam asked Guan Tong.
“Do you think it would be useful?” Guan Tong said.
“Of course it would be useful!” Adam said decisively.
“Even without evidence, you have to expose it. In this regard, you should learn from the Suroma authorities. Learn how they set the agenda, make the other side prove their innocence, and search for evidence in the process. That way, if you gain public support, gathering evidence will become easier.”
“...”
Guan Tong hesitated.
The reason he hadn’t spoken out publicly these past few days wasn’t that he was obsessed with getting evidence, but that he was worried it would kill someone.
That someone was the North Star who had privately sent him the exposure letter.
In the private message, Beixing made it clear: once he sent that private letter, it meant he had already been secretly arrested or even executed.
Presumably, Beixing was only under arrest at the moment. Once Guan Tong made that private letter public, the Suroma authorities, to ensure there was no evidence left, would first declare the exposure letter a forgery and then quickly execute Beixing.
If the public then demanded Beixing come forward to testify, the Suroma authorities could announce Beixing was missing, or simply pin the blame for his death on Guan Tong or even on Gill.
Guan Tong was very grateful to Gill. He had respect for this person who had dared to give up generous welfare benefits and choose to expose the truth. Without that private letter, he wouldn’t have been able to know this part of the truth so quickly.
Now, Gill’s life or death was unknown; perhaps there was still hope he was alive. But once that private letter was made public, he would be dead for sure.
After hesitating for a moment, Guan Tong thought of a compromise.
He could speak out publicly, but only say that he had stopped the “Bright Moon” from rising and had been attacked by a high-energy laser, without mentioning Gill or the existence of that exposure letter.
Adam was right. As long as an issue was raised, people would argue about it. With arguments, both sides would constantly search for arguments to overwhelm the other and gain third-party support.
The truth would become clearer through debate, and the same went for the truth itself.
“I will make a public statement,” Guan Tong said after a moment of thought. “Regardless, doing this will allow some Suromans with a conscience to recognize the reality of the deception.”
Guan Tong wouldn’t blame all Suromans for this incident. People like Adam and Gill were all people with a conscience.
He believed there were many such conscientious Suromans. If they could all recognize Bruce and his people’s true faces and the truth, they might provide support for overthrowing them in the future.
“That’s right,” Adam said with a nod and a smile, but then his expression dimmed again.
Guan Tong knew Adam was now lost in confusion, with no clue what to do next. Maybe he could help him.
“Adam, you were right earlier. I will definitely take revenge. But I won’t do it blindly. I’ll do it step by step.
Right now, the first step: I don’t plan to go to Suroma. Instead, I need to go to Liruo’an first to eliminate Your Holiness of the Fire Thief Worship Cult. There are two purposes for doing this, and you might be interested in the second one.”
“Oh?” Adam perked up a bit, listening as Guan Tong continued.
“The first purpose goes without saying. Since its establishment, the Fire Thief Worship Cult has been hostile to outsiders, colluding with monsters like the parasitized form to harm humanity. As a normal human, it’s only right for me to eliminate Your Holiness.
The second purpose is related to Bruce. Do you remember the last assassination mission? You said Bruce’s order to you was to capture Your Holiness alive. This means Your Holiness might be useful to Bruce in some way, or there might be some secret relationship between the two... Since I’m going after Bruce, I need to cut off his various connections from all sides, and Your Holiness is one of them.”
After Adam heard Guan Tong finish the second purpose, his eyes suddenly lit up.
“That’s right! Bruce had me lead the team to capture Your Holiness alive back then. He must want to get something very important from the latter... Alright! I’ll go with you to Liruo’an. Let’s catch this guy and find out what’s going on!”
“Then we’ll go together,” Guan Tong paused. “But before going to Liruo’an, I need to make a trip to Xisiya first.”
...
July 12th. The Interval Period was almost half over.
The impact of the last Doomsday Rule was still ongoing.
The Suroma authorities claimed that the Array Action had stopped the Bright Moon, while the Beixing authorities claimed that their own team had stopped the Bright Moon.
Neither side was willing to give an inch, leading to a continuous online war of public opinion. Supporters on both sides sparred with words back and forth for ten straight days without any sign of stopping, instead growing more intense.
However, this war of public opinion was almost exclusively between Beixing and Suroma. People from other countries didn’t participate much.
Even Xisiya, which had sent the second-largest number of Ascendants to participate in the Array, had not had its authorities comment or participate.
As a result, many Suromans accused the Xisiya people of being cowardly. Their own country had sacrificed so many Ascendants to stop the Bright Moon, yet at such a time, they didn’t dare to step forward and accuse Beixing of stealing the credit.
Some Xisiya people were also dissatisfied with the authorities led by Yelanka, believing that on this matter, the authorities had to speak up to defend the dignity of the Ascendant heroes who had died for their country.
Yet, faced with the raging public opinion, the Xisiya authorities still refused to comment, causing Yelanka’s approval rating to drop somewhat.
Within the country, a certain voice began to resurface, believing that Yelanka was an Administrator propped up by Beixing, and once again questioning that her dismantling of the Security Bureau was to consolidate power for herself.
Besides the online level, in reality, the “Bright Moon’s” destruction of the Lanyang sea area could not be recovered in the short term, causing huge trouble.
Beixing and Suroma could not ship goods through the Lanyang sea area and had to take a detour. The additional costs this incurred were too much for both countries to bear.
The inevitable reduction in transportation would further cause material and energy problems, in turn hindering and delaying large-scale construction plans like the “Super City” and the “Conversion of Abandoned Cities into Nuclear Power Stations.”
Compared to the online war of words, changes in the real world were more closely related to everyone. It wouldn’t be long before price hikes for materials appeared in every country.
Even in a society like Beixing, which implemented a universal supply system for survival materials, there were still free trading venues set up to promote the circulation of Ascension Coins.
For those who frequently traded, they would surely feel the price changes caused by logistics issues more than the general public.
And when time came to today, the twelfth day of the Interval Period, in the evening, the release of a statement on the Ascendant Home forum instantly triggered a digital tsunami.
The content of the statement was explosive:
“*We* stopped the ‘Bright Moon’ from rising. The high-energy laser of the Array’s Dao Zhen was fired *after* the ‘Bright Moon’ was prevented from rising. The target was not the ‘Bright Moon,’ but *me*—and I survived.
This global hoax will eventually have its truth exposed. The relevant Suroma officials who wove it will inevitably pay the price. — Shadow.”
The most explosive part of the entire statement was the signature of “Shadow.”
This couldn’t be an impersonation, because the poster’s nickname was “Shadow Himself,” and the forum had no name-change function. Everyone had long recognized that the owner of this account was Shadow.
Now that he had released this statement, the already hot public opinion expanded and escalated even further.
“Shadow God has surfaced?!”
“Finally showing up! A bunch of people were saying Shadow God was dead, and I was really worried...”
“Is the statement true? Was the Array Action really launched only after the Bright Moon was stopped? That’s too terrifying!”
“If it’s true, then so many Ascendants died so unjustly...”
“You guys actually believe this? I don’t believe anyone would dare to do this. This involves thousands of Ascendants’ lives. Who would have that kind of nerve?”
“Shadow God, I really want to believe you, but why are you releasing a statement without evidence, just like the Beixing authorities...”
“Whoever it is, I’m suspicious of anyone without solid proof!”
“Things are getting interesting. How delightful!”
“Fight! I want to see blood flow like a river!”
“Thousands of lives, and all high-end Ascendants at that, this is no joke... I suggest all parties bring the personnel involved that day together for a live-streamed confrontation, and let the whole world witness it!”
The statement Shadow had released at this critical juncture undoubtedly dragged all parties into a vortex of self-vindication.
As the “instigator,” Guan Tong had already secretly appeared at the Konia Manor, meeting with the Xisiya Administrator, Yelanka.
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