Volume 10: Ancient Battleship Chapter 517: Slander
This is really a case of enemies meeting on a narrow road... Ke Lan thought to herself, last time it was a murder in the alley, this time it was a sex scandal, does the Morgan Consortium really like to do such despicable tricks?
Ke Lan suddenly felt that the brainless villain characters in those cool novels were quite suitable for this group of people - they were simply pure low-IQ clowns, and the things they did were a bit too low-class.
Logically speaking, after the last assassination, the Undead Crew should have warned the Morgan Consortium once. How dare they still come to cause trouble for them? Perhaps they are impatient with the comfortable life for too long and want to find some excitement?
But soon, Ke Lan figured it out - the only people who knew about the existence of the Undead Crew Club and received the warning were probably the head of the Morgan family. As for the senior executives in the consortium, they might have never even heard of the name "Undead Crew Club".
Ignorance is bliss... Even if the head of the Morgan family has issued the highest level of ban, in their eyes, this ban is at most at the level of "family law"... Among the younger generations of such a big family, there will always be some "smarty-cat" guys.
From these guys' perspective, the reason why their parents forbade them to cause trouble for the relic hunter was simply because the first operation failed, causing the Morgan family to lose face in the upper class circle - although this matter has not been exposed, anyone with a little bit of common sense can guess that the identity of the mastermind behind the scenes is their Morgan family.
But the situation is completely different now. This is no longer a question of face. In the face of a series of huge interests related to this ancient battleship, the warnings from their parents can no longer restrain them. The last action failed and they were severely reprimanded, which has long made these people full of resentment and hatred... and this time, it is a good opportunity to take revenge.
It was not only to vent the anger that had not been vented last time, but also for the core interests of the Morgan family and the Morgan Consortium - whether these people intended to use this video to threaten him or simply use the scandal to get him out of office, it was better than watching his competitor Ye take the lead in this project.
If they don't take advantage of this opportunity, they will definitely be suppressed by the Ye family in the next ten to twenty years and will not be able to raise their heads.
These people had already forgotten the old man's warning. They firmly believed that as long as they could handle this task well, the patriarch would not only not punish them, but would also look at them with admiration. It was like playing chess. As long as they could get the final victory, no matter how many steps they lost in the early stages, no one would care after the game was over.
"It seems that the warnings from the Undead Crew are of little use. Unless these guys really suffer, they won't learn to restrain themselves..." Just as Ke Lan was thinking this, his cell phone suddenly vibrated.
The call was from Hound , along with a text message containing a link to a video.
"Ke Lan, trouble has come to us." The Hound said, "Someone wants to mess with you. The video in the link has been posted on major forums. Although the administrators of each forum are constantly deleting and banning it, in addition to those first-level small accounts that have been registered in batches, there are also many normal users whose accounts have been stolen by hackers and then uploaded this video. The total download volume has exceeded 10 million, and the number of views is even higher..."
The Hound took a breath and continued, "Although I don't know whether the content in the video was fabricated by them using computer technology, we believe that you are not that kind of person. After all, you didn't even eat a beauty like Miss Soma, not to mention these two women who are not even as good as Miss Soma... Alas, it's hard to explain it in a few words. Just watch the video yourself!"
Ke Lan clicked on the link.
This is an edited video. The clips of Ke Lan "pulling teeth" for the stewardess and interrogating the two people did not appear in the video. The scene at the beginning was him asking the two stewardesses to sit on the seats and then handcuffed them.
"What a quoting out of context..." Ke Lan sighed helplessly. This kind of scene was seen by netizens who were unaware of the situation, coupled with some misleading headlines, anyone would naturally think about that kind of thing, especially after he took out two black hoods and put them on their heads.
What made him even more speechless was that the second half of the video simply went black, leaving only the sound - but this sound without the picture was not the two women's pleas for mercy and Ke Lan's explanation, but an ambiguous sound that made people blush, subconsciously turn down the volume or reach for headphones.
These ambiguous voices were exactly the same as the real voices of the two stewardesses. Ke Lan was basically certain that this audio clip was specially recorded by the two women in advance.
The person who edited this audio is also an expert. The connection between the two audio tracks is extremely smooth and natural, with no trace of transition at all - it sounded as if after the camera was hacked, Ke Lan could not wait to violate the two stewardesses.
Although there are no pictures but only sounds, it is difficult to be "ironclad evidence" in the legal sense, but it is more likely to make people imagine... It is completely sufficient to guide public opinion.
People who don't know the truth, after watching these things, will definitely regard Ke Lan as a pervert... No, the word pervert is not enough to describe the degree of perversion of the protagonist in the video. An idiom popped up in Ke Lan's mind: a beast in human clothing.
If this happened to any Ark executive, the next day's headlines would be about the executive apologizing to the public and resigning. If this happened to a senior executive of a consortium, there would be two scenarios: 1. The consortium does not want to protect this person: directly fire him and bring him to court, and demand huge compensation; 2. The consortium decides to protect this person: fake fire him, let him go from open to cover, or issue an apology statement and announce that he will no longer hold any important position - but no matter which method is used, during this period of time, the share prices of several stocks under the consortium will inevitably plummet...
But the fact is: similar things happen almost every day, but only a few are actually exposed.
To be honest, few of the executives of large conglomerates or the young masters of wealthy aristocratic families have clean private lives. This is almost an unspoken fact in the upper class - everyone is the same anyway, so naturally no one will make a fuss about such things... If this kind of action is not handled well, it will be a lose-lose situation for both sides.
However, Ke Lan is different. He comes from a lower class background and has no background. Those people don't even know the existence of the Undead Crew. So in their eyes, Ke Lan's only background is that he is Zofia Soma's fiancé, and this fiancé doesn't seem to be well-liked by the Soma family... It is precisely for this reason that they are so unscrupulous in dealing with Ke Lan.
Ke Lan couldn't help but feel irritated.
Although flies and mosquitoes cannot kill people, they can be very annoying when they keep buzzing in your ears.
Of course, he could dig up all the romantic affairs of the top executives of the Morgan Consortium and post them on the Internet, but doing so would be of little help to the matter itself, except for making netizens happier.
Moreover, if Ke Lan did this, it would be tantamount to admitting that the content of the video was true, so he would expose the other party's scandal to attack each other. This was not the outcome Ke Lan wanted.
Killing one thousand enemies and losing eight hundred of our own is nothing to brag about.
If he wants to fight back, the first thing he has to do is to regain the right to speak.
Ke Lan turned off the video, then opened the dial-up interface, entered a string of numbers that did not conform to the Ark communication number coding rules at all, and dialed out.
The boring "beep" sound lasted for a full minute before someone picked up the phone. A lazy, elegant, mature female voice sounded at the other end of the receiver.
"Hello?"
"Is it Ms. Demeter?" Ke Lan asked.
"No one else will answer the number I told you except me," Demeter said calmly.
"I need the support of the Undead Crew." Ke Lan said straight to the point, "You once promised me that I could borrow the power of the Undead Crew within a limited scope."
Ke Lan might not be able to let the undead crew directly uproot the Morgan Consortium, but it is completely possible to ask them to provide some convenience in their operations.
“Is it because of that video file?”
"Well, I need control over all the major media outlets in the Ark. I think this should be a piece of cake for the Undead Crew."
"Of course, we can agree to your request, but I'm a little curious about what you plan to do after you gain control?" Demeter asked with interest, "Are you planning to completely block this news?"
"No, this kind of thing cannot be left unattended. Blocking the news at this time will only help those guys. In the eyes of the public, doing so will only make things worse."
"Aren't you afraid that the topic will continue to ferment?"
"Even if we ban discussion of this matter now, it's useless. Most people on the Internet have already seen this video. Those who haven't seen it will also look for those banned 'resources' out of curiosity... Now the total number of downloads has exceeded 10 million times, plus the copies, the amount of resources available in the public is enough for everyone in the Ark to see this video, not to mention those people with ulterior motives who fanned the flames."
Ke Lan paused and said four words: "It is better to drain than to block."
"so what?"
"I decided to release the full version of the video and make public some of the evidence I have found. Although doing so is equivalent to declaring war on the Morgan Consortium, I don't think they will try to erase me with 'physical means' like they did last time, right?"
"You can rest assured that if the Morgan Consortium violates the rules of the game, they will be severely punished," said Demeter.
"The rules of the game... So, the Undead Crew has never gotten out of control of this matter. You could have arrested that person, or directly intercepted the video he uploaded to the Internet, but you did nothing. Seeing that the situation has developed to this point... Well, can I think that this is also one of the Undead Crew's assessments of me?"
"Sure." Demeter did not hide it, but admitted it openly. "If you want to become one of us, you will not only need to face threats from the outside world, but also handle conflicts within the Ark. You guessed it right, this is indeed one of the assessment items for you, but it was not planned, but added by us temporarily."
"It seems that the 'vacation' you reserved for me has to be canceled in advance." Ke Lan teased.
"Compared to the heretical sects, the Morgan Consortium's problem can only be regarded as a minor episode in the adjustment process. If you are too lazy to deal with it, you can also give up this assessment. This is a bonus question, but you will not lose points if you do not answer it. Even if you do nothing, the Morgan Consortium will not be able to shake your position as the person in charge of the S-019 ruins."
"But they will ruin my reputation... I don't think you guys would want to be seen as perverts and sadists by the public, right? Anyway, I have nothing to do during this period, so I might as well have some fun with them."
"It all depends on your own will." Demeter repeated what she had said to Ke Lan several times, "But there is one thing I want to ask you-"
"What's up?"
"Since you have decided to deal with this matter head-on, can you guarantee that the direction of public opinion will follow the trajectory you envisioned?"
"You want to remind me that it's easier to dodge an open attack than to defend against an arrow from the dark, right?" Ke Lan smiled. "I didn't say that we should have a war of words with the other party openly. For something like this, shouldn't we do it with both hands and on two fronts?"
"Then why did you only apply to us for control of major media? If you need other help, the Undead Crew can also provide it... Every corner of the Ark is under our control. You should be very clear about this."
"Since we're just playing games, there's no point in cheating." Ke Lan said, "If the resources in my hands weren't so unbalanced with theirs, I wouldn't even have planned to ask you for this little permission."
“Are you confident?”
"At least I am confident that I can handle them... If things don't work out, don't you guys still have me to clean up the mess?"
