Volume 14: Devastation Chapter 649: Settlement (Part 1)
Ke Lan didn't know why the undead crew would be so indulgent towards these parasites, but since he was in this position, he would never allow such a thing to happen.
Maybe someone will tell him what "too clear water to have fish" means, what checks and balances of power means, what the way of dealing with people is, and so on... But in Ke Lan's eyes, these so-called human relationships are actually extremely corrupt bureaucracy, the evil result of human desires.
In the old era, the relatively relaxed living environment gave these rotten things space to breed and grow... But now, humanity is at a critical juncture of life and death - even people are about to die, so who would care about this bullshit "people, emotions, the world, and history"!
There is nothing wrong with desire, but when desire expands to a certain extent, it is no longer desire but becomes a "sin."
Looking at the congressman who was holding the phone and frantically dialing a number, Ke Lan couldn't help but feel disgusted from the bottom of her heart - some people are either stupid or bad, while some people are both stupid and bad.
These guys obviously belong to the latter.
With a gun in one hand and confronting a dozen bodyguards, Ke Lan moved the laptop to his legs with his other hand and began to operate it one-handedly - with the support of the seat authority of the Undead Crew, the encryption programs that originally took at least dozens of hours to break were now all given the green light by him, and more things hidden in unknown corners were exposed to Ke Lan's eyes one by one.
Ke Lan discovered that in the past 24 hours, Hyuga Yuji's office had received a total of more than 1,780 emails from the public, and 99.9% of these emails were still in the "unread" state...
Ke Lan randomly clicked on a dozen emails. Some of them were asking for help, some were complaining, but the contents were basically the same: the rescue work on the front line was progressing slowly, the lives of the affected people were not guaranteed, and some private organizations took the opportunity to sell daily necessities at high prices...
A can of soy protein synthetic meat was even sold for 200 credit points, which is five times the original price... Not only that, some people also mentioned in the complaint letters that the food they bought at a high price was actually expired, and some powders were even mixed with a large proportion of sand...
Newly produced emergency food was destroyed as expired products, while truly expired and inferior materials were sold to the affected people at several times the price... What kind of magical realism plot is this?
Ke Lan finally understood why Hyuga Yuji would intercept and even destroy the disaster relief supplies shipped from other districts...
He immediately followed this clue and uncovered the details of those private organizations. It turned out that the supply channels behind these private organizations almost all came from a company called "Williams Logistics".
"Williams Logistics - Williams Group - Williams Family - Congressman Williams." Ke Lan figured out all the connections in an instant.
He looked up from the screen and stared unfriendly at Congressman Williams who was on the phone.
Judging from the changes in his facial expression, he should have known the news of his "regularization".
Ten seconds later, Congressman Williams finally finished his call. He turned his neck stiffly and looked at Ke Lan as if he had seen a ghost. Although this guy's eyes were full of astonishment and fear, he forced a flattering smile on his face and said, "You...you..."
"Senator Williams, your family must have paid a lot to help you climb to this position, right?" Ke Lan asked with a sneer.
"Ah... this..." Williams was speechless for a moment. Normally, this kind of topic would not be brought up openly - even if everyone knew it.
These default rules are tacitly followed by everyone in this circle...but this guy in front of him, who is a little too young, is obviously not a rule-abiding person.
But Sean Williams just couldn't do anything about him - the reason why he could break the rules was because on this ship, the Undead Crew were the ones who made the rules, and Ke Lan was one of them.
"You should be well aware of what Williams Logistics has done, right?" Ke Lan continued, "This company is named after your family after all... I thought you would care more about your reputation."
"Eating in an ugly way" is not enough to describe what Congressman Williams and his family did. In the Alexander incident, at least 20 million of the 50 million Ark residents died, and of the remaining half, 80% were affected by the disaster... As a member of the United Parliamentary Group, Williams not only did not take the disaster relief work seriously, but also obstructed it, deliberately obstructing the transportation of materials, and unscrupulously making huge profits from it...
This group of people are greedy to the point of being insane.
"Congressman Williams, did you know that in ancient China, there was a word specifically used to describe people like you?"
"W-what?"
"It is too numerous to describe in words." Ke Lan said word by word.
"I...I just..." Congressman Williams wanted to defend himself, but when he opened his mouth he found that he couldn't say anything.
This was not the first time he had done this. In the past, the Undead Crew would turn a blind eye to them... But this time, the big shots above were serious...
Williams regretted it deeply in his heart - but he didn't regret doing these things himself, but regretted not keeping it confidential, not destroying the problematic accounts and documents in time, and not shutting up those people...
"The evidence is irrefutable. I don't think you can come up with any defense, right?" Ke Lan pushed the safety of the pistol with his thumb.
"Wait! Wait! Please wait a moment!" Seeing Ke Lan open the safety of the pistol, Congressman Williams shouted, "I am willing to compensate! I am willing to use my family's assets to fill the gap in supplies! Five times... No, ten times is fine!"
"At this point, you don't think that your Williams family... still has control over its own assets, right?" Ke Lan whispered softly, "Don't worry, after this is over, the Williams family should no longer exist."
When Ke Lan was bored in the past, he would read those exciting online articles and often saw some overbearing CEO plots such as "The weather is cold, it's time to make X bankrupt." or "I'm tired of playing around, it's time to make X disappear." But now, when such plots really happened in reality, he neither felt the so-called excitement nor could he laugh at all.
There was only anger in his heart.
As if he saw the determination in Ke Lan's eyes, Congressman Williams took a deep breath and suddenly shouted to his bodyguards: "Stop him!" Then he turned and ran towards the door!
These bodyguards had never heard of the existence of the "Undead Crew Club" and had no idea about Ke Lan's identity. After hearing their master's order, they did not hesitate and immediately pounced on Ke Lan.
But at least they heard clearly that Williams' order was "stop him" instead of "kill him", and the bodyguards did not draw their guns - in their opinion, the young man in front of them, whose physique was not at all sturdy, was not their opponent even in a one-on-one fight, let alone so many of them coming together.
As for the gun in the other party's hand, it was just a 9mm pocket pistol, and the weakest among the bodyguards was also a level 2 enhanced person. As long as they were not shot in vital parts such as the eyes, even if the bullet hit their head, it would be difficult to penetrate their skull.
But Ke Lan did not shoot. Facing the group of big men rushing over, he supported himself on the desk with one hand, flew up and kicked with a swift and powerful sweep, directly knocking down the three bodyguards who were rushing in the front... With a crisp sound of broken bones, the chests of the three bodyguards caved in instantly, and it was unknown how many ribs were broken by the kick.
The bodyguards did not use their guns, and Ke Lan did not kill them either - except for one unlucky guy who died on the spot due to a broken rib piercing his heart, the other two would not be in any danger of life as long as they were sent to the hospital in time.
However, death did not scare these bodyguards - as bodyguards for members of the United Parliamentary Group, these people's professional qualities are still quite strong. When the protected objects are attacked, they will not hesitate to use their bodies to block bullets. Compared with their own safety, they care more about the orders of their employers.
The moment the three bodyguards fell, five more bodyguards approached. Four of them grabbed Ke Lan's hands and feet, and the other one pounced on the laptop on the table, trying to snatch the evidence.
At this time, Congressman Williams had already rushed out of the office and ran towards the elevator for his life.
He knew in his heart that he was finished, and the Williams family was finished too, but as a shrewd man, he had already made plans for the worst - in a private airport on the upper level of the Ark that belonged exclusively to the Williams Consortium, there was a large transport plane parked with a large amount of supplies piled in the cabin, and the identity of the transport plane was also specially disguised... As long as he could successfully board the plane, he was fully confident that he could escape from the Ark with his family before the military reacted.
In the wilderness, there are several secret bases prepared by the Williams Foundation in the early years... Although the living conditions are certainly not comparable to the status of a senator "under twenty-four people and above fifty million people", at least they don't have to face the judgment of the Ark... At least, they won't die.
But just when Congressman Williams was five meters away from the elevator door, a handsome and thin boy blocked his way.
The other party closed his eyes slightly, holding a sword with a badly worn scabbard in his hands, and stood there steadily.
"Get out of my way!" Congressman Williams roared, stretched out a hand and pushed towards the boy.
He did not see the other party draw his sword, nor did he even feel any pain. He just felt a lightness on his side, and then he lost his balance and fell to the ground.
As he fell to the ground, Congressman Williams saw a familiar-looking arm falling about three or four meters away from him. The cut at the end of the arm was as smooth as a mirror, and bright red blood was constantly gushing out from the blood vessels.
On the wrist of this arm is a valuable mechanical watch... This watch is the favorite of Congressman Williams.
"Ah - Ahhhh -" Only then did he realize that it was his left arm that was chopped off. A piercing pain suddenly came from his shoulder. Congressman Williams felt as if all his nerves were hanging, and he could not help but screaming loudly.
He reached out and tried to grab the boy's ankle, but a gray light flashed before his eyes, and Congressman Williams' other hand fell to the ground.
He opened his mouth wide, wanting to wail but found that no sound came out of his throat, only "ho ho" sounds like a broken bellows.
"Don't kill him yet. He is still useful." On the other side, Ke Lan had already let go of the dozen or so bodyguards and walked to the side of Congressman Williams while stretching his muscles.
"Yeah." Asano Akira nodded.
If it was Lao Gou or someone else here, they would definitely ask Ke Lan why he didn't kill this guy. Only Asano Akira would obey any order of Ke Lan unconditionally.
He is like a knife, a silent but sharp knife.
"You, come here." Ke Lan waved to the pale-faced female secretary, who trembled all over, hesitated for a moment, and then walked over tremblingly.
"Find someone to clean up this floor. Also, you have six hours to deal with all the abnormal accounts. All the materials that need to be sent out should be sent out, and all the plans that need to be executed should be executed." Ke Lan said, picking up Congressman Williams who had fainted from the pain. "I still have some things to deal with. When I come back, I hope everything can get back on track."
"Then...what about them?" The female secretary pointed at the other "secretaries".
"Those who are capable of working, stay and work; those who are not capable, just dismiss them." Ke Lan waved her hand, "Also, there is no need to leave this floor completely empty. In addition to that office, all other rooms that can be used should be used. Also, I want you to select a group of people to be in charge of the office's account for receiving public emails, organize all the collected questions into files, and send them to my desk. There is one thing I want to remind you, I am not Hinata Yuuji, I will check these people's work regularly, so no matter whose good it is for, try to find some honest and hardworking people to do this."
"I, I know." The female secretary nodded hurriedly.
Ke Lan had just established his authority, and he believed that in the short term no one would be so stubborn as to dare to replicate what Williams and Hinata Yuji did. But if time went on for a long time, it would be hard to say what would happen.
Suddenly, he began to understand the motivations of the Undead Crew for choosing eternal life.
Changes in management will inevitably lead to corruption, and the best solution is this almost eternal "dictatorship".
However, even for them, the ideas of many people have changed subtly over time... Ke Lan couldn't help but think of those people in ancient times who were called "saints". If their lifespan could be hundreds or even thousands of years, could they still deserve the title of "saints"?
The dragon slayer will eventually become an evil dragon. Evil dragons will always exist, and the dragon slayer will always be on his way to slay the dragon.
He sighed and pressed the elevator button.
