Chapter 277 - -

Chapter 277: Chapter 274 - "Bang," like the sound of thunder, Aishikel’s fist violently struck the conference table.

"Alger—this is the United Group!"

His tone was extremely solemn.

Even in the face of frontrunner Player Alger, in the face of this pinnacle of armed force within the United Group, he did not yield in his tone:

"—This is the United Group! Our purpose is to consider the fate of all humanity, to concentrate all Strength, to mobilize all manpower and material resources, not to casually abandon any human!"

"I must tell you, Alger, this is a war! Even though we are not some salvation welfare organization sent by God, and cannot save everyone, we must use our entire strength. As long as the United Group stands, we will never abandon any seeker of help. As long as we do not give up, miracles will always exist—even to the very end of human history!

If we give up here, what about those who were sacrificed? The remaining, those still surviving, can they continue to fight with assurance? Remember, the casualty count is not just a number; it is living, breathing lives, each an individual person! As long as we are alive, we will not give up a single life, miracles will definitely appear, and our persistence and faith will be passed down through history forever!"

His words resounded firmly.

Upon hearing his speech, people turned respectful, and Kailuosa straightened her posture, her eyes brimming with emotional tears.

"...But we are leaders, aren’t we?" Alger narrowed his eyes at that moment.

In response to Aishikel’s passionate words, his speech was almost mocking: "...As leaders, what we should do most is to believe in data, and what we should fear most is empty talk.

It’s laughable that such a secret meeting, the last place where slogans and formalities are needed.

But... Sir, your words are still too optimistic, replete with sloganized statements one would hear on world forums, sounding like ’everything will pass in the long run,’ but they don’t address the current problems at all..."

He yawned, "...It’s a pity, I thought the United Group would be an interesting place."

As he said this, he stood up from his seat, the chair making a piercing noise.

Aishikel frowned, watching him leave the meeting room, as if looking at a teenager entering a rebellious phase.

"...Alger is really becoming more and more outrageous, even if he is a frontrunner Player, he shouldn’t..."

"Frontrunner Players not following commands, uncontrollable, each one with a big temper, it’s hard to imagine how we can entrust the future of humanity to such an unreliable bunch..."

"If you ask me, this kind of high-level meeting shouldn’t involve these types of people at all. Their insights are too superficial, their suggestions useless, not as good as our previous parliamentary group..."

"It’s just formal power, after all. Without giving these players the right to participate, how could these proud and haughty fellows obey... But it’s merely formal, after all. They also couldn’t possibly have access to the highest-level matters..."

Aishikel coughed once, and the meeting room instantly fell silent, the previous whispering sounds vanished in an instant.

"Just as well." He lowered his head, sorting through the files in his hands.

In the rustling of the papers, the conference room was silent, everyone waiting for what he would say next.

In the quiet meeting room, there was only the faint sound of the recorder’s keyboard typing, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

When he looked up again, Aishikel’s expression had turned almost cold:

"—We can discuss some issues regarding the handling of the top-ranking frontrunner Players."

People nodded in agreement almost unanimously, as if they very much concurred with the idea.

Even Kailuosa was no exception, as even the usually tolerant and inclusive her thought that the player in front of the ranking had been too presumptuous just now.

"Regarding this, I have a suggestion." A man with a slicked-back haircut pushed up his glasses.

"Please, speak."

"I believe, in response to the just mentioned disaster event, besides establishing a special disaster response team. Under the current circumstances, excessively suppressing the news of despair should not be made public," the man with the pale face said. "The information that United Group normally discloses to the public could be partially concealed, to reduce the number of mental breakdown cases revealed, soothe the public, hide the harsh truth of the situation, and lessen their panic."

"You’re absolutely right, Jin Minhao," Aishikel gestured for him to continue.

"Public opinion has tremendous strength, and it’s a force we should earnestly control" Jin Minhao spoke assertively. "The voice that is spread will become the tide of public opinion. As long as we control this tide... we can easily use topics with higher public interest to suppress people’s attention to the events of mental breakdown."

Aishikel showed a look of appreciation.

Inspired, Jin Minhao spoke with greater excitement: "For this, I believe we could target topics that currently interest the players the most, the hot topics of public opinion, and amplify them deliberately to shift their gaze from this damned mental breakdown event."

"After all, from the perspective of a population in the billions, a few hundred thousand is still the minority. As long as we can control the tide of public opinion and not go against the majority, sparking a topic big enough to overshadow the crisis event is very easy."

"This is an era of entertainment. With the advent of rankings and live streaming systems, people, who have always admired strength since ancient times, are good at discovering new entertainment topics in such an era."

Aishikel: "What you mean is..."

"Yes, Chief," Jin Minhao’s face flushed with enthusiasm. "We can start with the topics that currently interest the players the most, be an invisible hand, reverse the unfavorable direction of public opinion, and stabilize the masses with entertainment!"

"Panic can bring uncontrollable consequences, and will only slow down our rescue progress."

"To ’save the majority’ and let the majority survive, we need to cut off this meaningless panic that is prevalent on forums!"

"For this, appropriate methods are necessary, it is merely a means of controlling public opinion, a finely crafted means of redemption!"

"This task is yours to take full responsibility for, and I want it implemented immediately," Aishikel decided on the spot: "Make sure to put in all your effort to do your best! Completely block off this spreading panic!"

"Yes, Chief!" Jin Minhao, having received the assignment, was extremely excited.

He continued: "I have been observing, and currently the topic that players are most interested in is not speculation about the next world, nor guesses about the analyses of the Main God World, nor any kind of data strategy posts — it’s the admiration for top players! Just by magnifying this sentiment and creating topic interest, it’s quite easy to distract their attention..."

"Well said," Aishikel nodded, "It’s a necessary measure."

While they were exchanging ideas, Kailuosa was also contemplating.

Upon seeing the overly excited Jin Minhao, Kailuosa couldn’t help but harbor some worries.

She raised her hand indistinctly.

"May I... ask a question?"

"Ah, please, ask away, Miss Kailuosa."

"Mr. Jin," Kailuosa stood up, "I understand your suggestion of creating more talk about top players to reverse the unfavorable public opinion, but... if we over-market the heroic acts of the players at the top of the rankings, and place emphasis on individualism... then what if one day, those whom we have promoted, those with significant clout, suddenly engage in rebellious behaviors and don’t comply with control, how shall we deal with it?"

As she spoke, she couldn’t help but bring up Alger, who had just infuriated her, "You see, the recent Mr. Alger is an entity that refuses to be controlled. We cannot rule out the possibility that other top-ranking Players may also have such rebellious dispositions. Our kindness may have been bestowed upon an ungrateful wolf."

"Calm down, Kailuosa," Jin Minhao said with a smile, "This is exactly the other suggestion I wanted to make."

"Please go on."

"The United Group has already calculated the weighting of each top Player’s influence—quite shocking, a much larger percentage than we expected," Jin Minhao said. "We can no longer ignore their importance. On the contrary, if we wish to prolong human civilization, they will be the most crucial dozen pillars—if we want to continue existing, it shouldn’t be us leading them but them redeeming us. Their status has undergone a drastic change."

"Therefore, I believe that instead of suppressing, we should promote."

"Rather than being limited to struggles between factions, limited to personal grudges, the United Group’s perspective should be broader."

"...Expanding the scope, after all, we are fighting for all of humanity."

"Moreover, honoring heroes, inspiring the masses, and perpetuating the pioneer spirit... This has always been something humanity should do since ancient times. If we want to transform the adverse emotional atmosphere, and unite everyone, we must establish the necessary ’heroes’."

"We must make people believe that there are always those who persist in resistance, always those who try to save them, always those who fight for them. As long as civilization survives one more day, there will always be those who will never fall."

"—We need a figurehead in the spotlight."

"—We need the strongest leaders of the current humanity."

"In this way, even if the environment is extremely harsh, people’s spirits will be united."

After Jin Minhao finished his speech, Kailuosa immediately stopped asking further questions.

She completely understood that the other party’s preparations were fully in place; there was no need for an outsider like her to confirm it.

The look in their eyes... she saw it clearly; when she acted as a volunteer ambassador and went to many nations to help, she had seen many such eyes. The other party... without exception, was the kind of person who possessed a great love.

She didn’t need to question anything further.

However... the implications of Jin Minhao’s words felt somewhat familiar to Kailuosa.

It was like she had heard them repeatedly somewhere, like a theory almost engraved into the DNA...

The other party’s excessive zeal, and the look of a zealot when talking about their own beliefs, was also something she found familiar...

"Therefore, my plan is roughly as follows," Jin Minhao said, pushing his glasses up as he continued.

Facing everyone in the conference room, his eyes shone brightly, as if speaking to the entire world about his ideals:

"This plan, I call the ’Hero Plan,’ aims to introduce heroes with talking points, to divert people’s attention from the harsh conditions and reverse the pessimistic direction of public opinion."

"This plan will mainly be managed by the Information Department. The key point is ’public focus.’ In the first step, we can introduce truly selfless heroes as role models, including great scientists and technical talents with outstanding contributions, such as Doctor Zhuang, Minister Liu, Doctor Qiu Mia, and Dean Sikol..."

"In the second step, we present ’individual heroes’ loved by the public, amplify their talking points and influence. The number should optimally be one or two to maximize the focus of public attention. For these candidates, I also have a personal suggestion. They must be powerful individuals with a simple background and the ability to easily command public respect..."

"Goodbye, Big Brother!"

"Goodbye, Lighthouse Brother!"

"Goodbye, Teacher Auntie’s husband! Remember to bring wedding candies next time, don’t come empty-handed again!"

The warm breeze wafted before his eyes.

The sounds of laughter, like tinkling bells, slowly came with the wind.

The children stood behind the railing, waving their hands filled with candy and balloons.

Their faces were full of smiles, blooming like spring flowers.

They seemed very happy living in this kind of world.

After waving goodbye to the children, Su Ming’an turned around.

"Did you have fun?" Noel asked.

"It was alright," Su Ming’an said. "The kids are all very adorable."

Noel looked at him and sighed.

"What’s wrong?"

"They look adorable, optimistic, happy, right," Noel sighed. "Like blank sheets of paper, untainted by any mark, completely unpolluted by such a world."

"They indeed don’t realize what this kind of world means," Su Ming’an said.

"To be honest, I don’t envy them," Noel said.

"How come?"

"...In fact, most of these kids are those whose parents were not selected for the game," Noel said. "Or, they’ve completely lost contact with their parents, unable to find any relatives, kids picked up from the streets."

"Lost contact?" Su Ming’an was a bit surprised.

"Yes, no one knows what happened to their parents. Normally, as long as someone is selected for the game, they can be contacted. The United Group has a special children’s aid society and groups that help with contacting relatives. There’s also a specific section for finding relatives on the World Forum," Noel said. "Even in such a world... people still care about family. Children miss their parents, and parents look for their children... Where neither side can contact each other, it’s possible that one of them has chosen to commit suicide, become a special identity, or has mentally collapsed, falling into insanity..."

Su Ming’an fell silent.

"I don’t really know what the game is trying to do by selecting these kids to come in," Noel sighed. "Many of them couldn’t even fully understand the words of the opening ceremony, some kids can’t even talk, can’t walk upright... and they have all experienced death at least once by coming here."

"Every time I see them, it’s difficult to imagine the helplessness and pain their experience of death has brought them."

"They are a group ’neglected by the masses,’ and their suffering can only be seen by the few."

After a moment of silence, Su Ming’an spoke:

"...People often only see what they want to see."