At 8 pm, the forum was forcibly shut down.
The noise on the internet came to an abrupt halt.
APP, a completely open-source and free online novel website.
“Was it true that the forum was shut down not because someone reported it, but because those black-clothed people took action?”
In the darkness, Zhushi Jiu muttered to himself, staring at his phone.
Although this was an obvious question, Zhushi Jiu had been unsure about the reason for the forum’s shutdown in the previous weeks. Was it because they scattered panic-inducing rumors online, or was it because the black-clothed people discovered and took action against the forum?
But this week, Zhushi Jiu had been paying more attention to the internet, so after noticing that the forum had suffered the same fate, he passively understood the answer to this question.
This week, Zhushi Jiu noticed many things that he had never paid attention to before.
The first thing was that after the forum was shut down, numerous explosive news reports suddenly emerged on the internet.
For example, a famous male singer was caught by the police for engaging in illegal transactions with a mistress, shocking the entire entertainment circle and earning the scorn of countless fans and onlookers.
Another example was a well-known rich second-generation internet celebrity who resigned as the chairman of their family’s company, being ridiculed by netizens and sparking a wave of explosive emotions.
Again, an old meme that had laid dormant for four years suddenly resurfaced, with many netizens imitating a certain idol who had been blackened for four years, sparking a frenzy of fanatical behavior, with countless ghostly videos flooding various video platforms, simply because those ghostly videos were made too well, even sparking a trend of national-scale fanatical behavior.
…
A large number of explosive news stories emerged on this night, like mushrooms after a spring rain, instantly pushing the forum shutdown event out of the hot search rankings.
It was as if a grand online carnival was being manipulated by an invisible hand, being pulled down from the sky to the muddy ground.
If Zhushi Jiu didn’t know anything, he might have thought that this kind of news manipulation was a natural event. Unfortunately, Zhushi Jiu knew everything, and he knew that all of this was the black-clothed people’s online manipulation tactic.
The manipulation was too smooth, leaving no traces whatsoever.
What shocked Zhushi Jiu even more was the resources and ability to control the hot news that those people had in their grasp.
According to the first piece of news on the hot search rankings, the male singer had confessed to the police that he had multiple illegal transactions with the mistress, but only this time was he caught. Even the public relations team’s overnight statement couldn’t salvage the situation.
He seemed to see an invisible hand holding a time bomb, waiting to be detonated.
The rich second-generation internet celebrity, who possessed wealth that ordinary people could only dream of, had lowered their proud head in front of this organization, willing to become their tool for online manipulation.
As for the third-ranked hot topic, the national-scale fanatical behavior… maybe most netizens were indeed fans, but it was those black-clothed people who guided their actions.
They effortlessly pushed the forum event, which Zhushi Jiu had painstakingly planned, out of the hot search rankings, making the entire process seem like a novice driver being effortlessly overtaken by the Autumn Leaf Car God on a mountain road.
Had such events occurred in previous weeks?
This kind of powerful manipulation ability made Zhushi Jiu feel suffocated, and what appeared before his eyes was a towering giant with an overwhelming presence, whose name was “public relations,” and whose weapon was “public opinion.”
Only the authorities could break through such a powerful weapon.
However, what was even more bizarre was…
“Why hasn’t the authorities reacted?”
The first question that popped into his mind made him think repeatedly, to the point of nearly tearing his hair out, but he couldn’t come up with any excuses for the authorities.
“This organization has already reached such a brazen level, and still, there is no response from the authorities? Has the organization grown to such an extent without any countermeasures?”
His heart was both chilled and enraged, thinking that this was a situation he had provoked, but he was still disappointed with the result.
In his ideal scenario, the organization that the black-clothed people feared was an official organization.
This was also the most plausible answer.
Clearly, only a country-level entity could deal with these crazy black-clothed people, and he had thought of many scenarios where the authorities would step in and become his protective umbrella. But what he didn’t expect was that the authorities would seemingly be unaware of everything, allowing the black-clothed people to manipulate public opinion.
The black-clothed people were almost exposing their true faces, but the authorities remained unmoved.
Zhushi Jiu didn’t wallow in disappointment for too long because this wasn’t the worst outcome. The worst outcome had yet to appear.
He was thinking, “If the organization that the black-clothed people fear isn’t an official organization, then what kind of organization could it be? What kind of organization could counter these black-clothed people?”
The answer to this question was currently unknown, and in the online battle, Zhushi Jiu hadn’t seen the shadow of another organization.
Was that organization watching, or had they simply not noticed, or… did such an organization not exist at all?
…
“Headache.”
Zhushi Jiu sighed and looked at his phone.
APP, a free novel website.
The current time was 8:30 pm.
Sitting on a park bench, Zhushi Jiu waited for Bro CD’s call. On the other side of the bench was a longbow case, containing the Shadow Bow and its accompanying sharp arrows.
It was still early, and the park was quite lively, with distant music from the square dance and the sound of people strolling by the river, carrying a slight misty atmosphere. The trees also rustled softly in the wind.
Zhushi Jiu let out a sigh, not looking at the time on his phone, but he knew that Bro CD was already five minutes late, and the phone that should have been ringing was silent.
With Bro CD’s love for money, it was more unlikely for him to choose to give up.
So Bro CD was probably in trouble, just like in previous weeks.
Drip, drip, drip…
Zhushi Jiu stood up, holding the longbow case.
If Bro CD had already been found, then the black-clothed people wouldn’t be far behind in finding him.
In this era of ubiquitous surveillance cameras, even if the black-clothed people didn’t use mobile phone signal tracking technology, they could still find his location.
That’s why he chose to fight in the park, where there were fewer cameras, and the forest area had zero surveillance.
To be honest, he didn’t want to change the battlefield randomly, but the experience of last week told Zhushi Jiu that fighting in school would probably make the black-clothed people avoid battle, and the location wasn’t suitable for ambushes, with too few hiding spots.
So, after careful consideration, he chose the southeast corner of the park.
This was a dense forest area, forming a sharp contrast with the most crowded part of the park, and was an ideal battlefield for both the black-clothed people and Zhushi Jiu.
Zhushi Jiu entered the forest, first taking out the Shadow Bow from the case, putting on the string, and pulling the bowstring, releasing a soft whirring sound that was very pleasant to his ears.
He had trained for an entire afternoon, and the pressure had driven him to perfect his control over the Shadow Bow, making Du Fei, who had once won a provincial archery championship, feel shocked.
Everything was ready.
Come on! No matter who came next, human or ghost, let me see them clearly!
Thinking this, Zhushi Jiu held the bow in his left hand, the phone in his right, and pressed the dial button with a cold, determined expression.
— Ringing…
Thank you for the gold tickets from “Yu Shu” and “Xia Xiang You Ran”! Thank you for the silver tickets from all the gentlemen! At the same time, thank you for the wonderful story comments from Xiao Cai Tuan! Thank you for the comments from everyone in the comments section!
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