abcnovels
Chapter 445: Silenced
Chapter 445: Silenced
Chapter 445: Silenced
"I know," the young man in the suit replied, and there was a hint of elation in his voice, as if he were seeing something that was worthy of celebration.
This was very confusing to everyone else present, and one of them asked, "Aren't some of those organizations owned by your family? Why are you so happy about this?"
"Are you celebrating this because your brother is overseeing those organizations, and you want to see him fail? Then again, if I were in your place, I would be thinking the exact same thing!"
The core members of this so-called crisis group had been selected through various avenues, and they were all either direct descendants of the important figures in Sandrise City, or elite personnel in their respective fields.
Of course, these direct descendants were quite far down the line in the inheritance hierarchy. All of the most exceptional young members of those families would've already been running family businesses, rather than being assigned to a project with a very high risk of failure.
Even so, they were still of a far higher status than the average person, able to access far more resources and power than just about anyone else.
The young man ignored their jibes as he stroked his own chin with a thoughtful expression and remarked, "He's still too young and too eager for results. If he had ended the press conference just now, it would've been a great move on his part. This story would remain in the public eye for at least a week, and that would be enough to maintain his popularity and boost his rate of support."
"What do you mean? Isn't it better for him to release as much shocking content as possible?"
The young man's companions were rather perplexed by this assessment. Opportunities like this were very difficult to come by, and if they had been in Adam's shoes, they would've taken full advantage as well.
"That's why all of you were sent here, and I'm the one assigned with the task of calling the shots," the young man replied with a derisive sneer on his face, as if he were looking at a bunch of feral animals.
Everyone was enraged by this insult, but they didn't dare to physically retaliate.
"All of you are only looking at what's on the surface. You think that satisfying the curiosity of the general public without constraint is the way to win more support, but have you considered that this is an alternative form of intimidation?"
By nature, humans were more inclined to avoid danger and challenges rather than face them head-on.
"Everyone has been able to live up to this point as they know how to lie to themselves when necessary. They would rather live in the nest of lies that they had woven for themselves rather than have to face the harshness of reality. All of you think that showing them the truth is an act of kindness, but in reality, it only inflicts more pain upon them, and they'll only resent you for it, rather than feel grateful."
Everyone fell silent after hearing the young man's assessment of the situation, and he raised a finger as he continued, "The biggest mistake that he made in all of this is getting so many organizations involved at once. In the wake of this press conference, I presume many of his backers are going to be cutting ties with him."
……
Just as the young man anticipated, right as the entire internet was abuzz from the latest headlines created by Adam, a phone call came in from Kevin Reed's secretary, demanding an explanation.
Even Cowboy was about to intervene at some point during the press conference, but he was stopped by Wax Figure, who had a look of approval in his eyes as he said, "There's no need to step in. Give him a bit more trust and patience. He knows what he's doing."
"But we didn't give him that information, and the information provided by the pawn shop wasn't that comprehensive, either. On top of that, we know the outcomes of his past few operations, so there's an extremely good chance that this is all just a massive bluff, and that's a very dangerous way to do things."
Cowboy was very familiar with the game of politics, and he knew that you could lie all you want, so long as you weren't caught.
The graph that Adam had released had extremely far-reaching consequences, and it could've easily been debunked.
Wax Figure offered no further response, and Cowboy could only forcibly suppress his unease as he continued to observe the unfolding situation.
Meanwhile, at the pawn shop, May was also grumbling under her breath about how Adam was going to be to the death of her, but she was also choosing to observe the situation.
At the press conference, Adam remained calm and collected, paying no heed to Kevin Reed's demands for an explanation. Instead, he merely waited in silence for the commotion to die down. It was true that he didn't have the information to back up this graph. The information that he had collected thus far wasn't anywhere near sufficient to implicate all of the organizations on the graph.
During his previous collaboration with Raven, he had obtained some information from CEO Chen Yiran and someone else from the Compassion Company, but that had only been part of the picture.
After using this information to create a primary database, he generated the relational graph using AI, and to his surprise, many of the gaps were automatically filled in to form a complete information chain.
The provider of the information had only left a single remark: "Well done. Keep it up, and be more aggressive."
This unknown helper was unfathomably powerful, seemingly both omniscient and omnipotent at the same time. Instead of verifying this information, Adam chose to use it right away. He was taking a gamble, and at this point, it was difficult to say whether it had paid off or not.
The peak of the internet congestion quickly passed, and the live broadcasts resumed.
Over 10 minutes had passed since the live broadcasts went offline, and the atmosphere of panic and horror had subsided a little.
Everyone looked on as Adam switched to another image in his projection.
This was an image captured by a Mechguard unit from an operation that Adam had undertaken a few days ago.
The image depicted the true body of Succubus Beth, who was a tall and rugged middle-aged man.
In the face of everyone's puzzled expressions, Adam pressed down on his remote control again, and the other half of the image appeared, presenting an extremely seductive woman.
"These two are the same person."
Everyone was even more perplexed upon hearing this.
The two people in the image couldn't have been more different. There wasn't even a single point of similarity between them, and everyone couldn't help but wonder if Adam was blatantly lying.
In the face of all of this doubt and confusion, Adam pointed at himself as he asked, "Does anyone know how I came into this world?"
Everyone looked at each other with befuddled expressions. What kind of question was this? Surely he had to have been born into this world like everyone else... Right?
In the crisis group, the young man in the suit was leaning in closer to the screen with tightly furrowed brows, watching intently to see what Adam was going to say next.
"I am a blank slate, a reserve body with its memories wiped so that it can be occupied by someone else."
He zoomed in on the real-life body of Succubus Beth as he continued, "This man was also a blank slate who had his body taken over by someone else."
As soon as this declaration was made, the young man in the suit immediately ordered, "Stop him!"
The technician tapped the "enter" key forcefully, and the audio of all of the live broadcasts of the press conference suddenly turned into a mechanical beeping sound, making it impossible to hear what Adam was saying.
Immediately thereafter, all of the live broadcasts suddenly turned dark, and all of the internet signals had been disrupted.
"What's going on?"
"Who cut off the transmission for the live broadcasts?"
"Can anyone figure out what Mr. Adam said at the end there?"
"Damn it, I knew things wouldn't be so simple! Someone's trying to stop him from revealing the truth!"
Meanwhile, the young man in the suit heaved a faint sigh of relief, but it then instantly occurred to him that something wasn't quite right.