"Brother Shadow, this is Roy.
Those of us left in the resistance are hiding in a cave deep in the Mangja Mountains. We're safe for now, but staying trapped here forever is no hope at all!
I have an idea - the few hundred of us should leave Suroma and head to Xisiya, then regroup and fight our way back into Suroma!
The Administrator of Xisiya has quietly supported our resistance more than once, so I believe she'd be willing to offer us refuge.
But without vehicles or teleportation-type items, there's no way we can leave Suroma. And once we step out of these mountains, Suroma's spy satellites will definitely spot us, and that's a death sentence.
Brother Shadow, you can do anything. I hope you can help us one more time and get us to Xisiya. I can't vouch for anyone else, but Verin and I - from now on, if you tell us to die, we won't hesitate for even a second!!!"
Guan Tong finished reading Roy's lengthy reply and found himself somewhat surprised.
He hadn't expected Roy to come to him for help again, especially since some people among the remnants of the resistance had been unhappy with him.
Those people thought that if he had handed over Ai Ya back then, or negotiated properly with Bruce, the latter wouldn't have detonated the nuclear bomb, causing thousands of tragic deaths.
But in reality, Guan Tong believed that once these people cooled their heads, they would realize they were just venting their anger on the wrong person.
As for Roy's current request, Guan Tong could actually manage it.
He didn't need any teleportation portals or items - just the two floors of his Wordless Book shelter could hold over a hundred people. Two or three round trips would be enough to transport those few hundred resistance fighters to Xisiya.
Back then, some people in the resistance had begged him to take them away, but he had refused because he was worried about Ai Ya's condition and needed to rush her to Shi Jingyi for an examination.
"Shipping a few hundred Suroman Ascendants to Xisiya - I wonder if Yelanka would agree. Even if I want to help, I need to get her opinion first."
Guan Tong thought to himself. He was definitely going to Suroma anyway - the tactical nuclear weapon in his ring wasn't just for show.
And while he was at it, paying Roy a visit wouldn't hurt. After all, these Suromans who dared to resist Bruce's tyranny when hope was slim and they stood utterly alone deserved respect.
The more such people survived, the better it would be for human civilization as a whole.
Otherwise, a world composed only of a cruel ruler like Bruce and obedient followers without a shred of resistance would be far too despairing.
Guan Tong made his decision, but he didn't reply to Roy in private messages.
The world was unpredictable; before something actually happened, he didn't like making big promises or painting rosy pictures for others.
Just then, he noticed the number of posts in the Casual Chat section of the forum surging dramatically, as if something major had suddenly broken out.
He clicked in and found that it was actually about him.
《I'm Roommates with 'Super Big Bear King' - Officials Came and Took Bear Bro Away!》
《Breaking! Super Big Bear King Publicly Apologizes to Shadow and Removes a Large Number of Videos!》
《Did Super Big Bear King's Account Get Banned? His Homepage Is Unviewable Now》
"No way... That fast?"
It had been less than an hour since he'd sent the private message to Li Meng, and the officials had already completed the whole process of "find the person + talk to them + apologize and ban the account." It was absurdly quick.
But after thinking about it more carefully, he vaguely understood what was going on.
The officials obviously didn't want another incident like "Shadow forcing his way into the official shelter" to happen, let alone become a trending discussion topic.
So on that matter, compared to Guan Tong, the officials were actually the more reactive party - which was why they had dealt with Super Little Blogger so swiftly:
A public apology, video takedowns, permanent account ban, and no creating new accounts to revive his self-media career later.
This whole process was essentially a death sentence for an influencer with millions of followers in the online world. Years of accumulation destroyed in one go - it was truly a killing blow that also cut deep.
Guan Tong was fairly satisfied with this punishment from the officials.
However, he was a bit concerned about one thing: the roommate's exposé mentioned that the officials had taken Bear King away to the Countermeasures Research Office base. That seemed a bit abnormal.
"Could there be something that needs investigating in the middle of all this?"
Guan Tong didn't dwell on it. As long as his goal of killing the chicken to scare the monkeys was achieved, he couldn't be bothered with the rest.
.....
[Super Big Bear King has been removed from this group.]
In the influencer group, the moment that notification appeared, all the bloggers were stunned.
They had guessed that Super Big Bear King would probably crash and burn by going head-to-head with Shadow this time, but they never imagined he would fall this fast.
The chat logs of Bear King's four consecutive challenges to that little blogger were still fresh, and now he'd been kicked from the group, with his multi-million-follower account starting the deregistration process.
This speed and intensity of handling genuinely terrified the other influencers. From now on, none of them would dare repost unclear rumors about Guan Tong just to farm black traffic.
On the broader public opinion front, ordinary people weren't big accounts or influencers - they had no such worries. Upon learning of this matter, they flooded the platforms with comments.
A steady stream of "unfair," "support freedom of speech," and "Beixing's officials are bowing to Shadow" posts appeared endlessly, refreshing by the hundreds every second.
Someone even immediately fabricated a new rumor claiming that Guan Tong had killed Super Big Bear King. Quite a lot of people believed it.
The platform's official account soon had no choice but to issue a statement denying it, explaining that Super Big Bear King had violated the rules and that the account ban was standard procedure. As for his personal safety, he was not under any threat.
But even so, criticism and mockery toward Beixing's officials continued to pour out endlessly, nearly matching the level of criticism directed at Guan Tong.
At the cliff villa in Heilanja, Han Qiu watched the flood of online comments and let out a long, languid sigh: "A pity. Without the spice of blood, it still lacks a bit of excitement."
Tianci stood nearby and asked upon hearing this, "Does Chairman mean Guan Tong didn't kill that Bear King?"
Previously, Han Qiu had been certain Guan Tong would kill someone, and Tianci had believed it too. But now looking at the situation, that didn't seem to be the case.
"Beixing's officials played this one well," Han Qiu said. "They directly smashed that fat pig's rice bowl, making it impossible for him to continue as an influencer. By using this heavy punishment to save his life, it's quite a clever move."
Tianci was taken aback: "So this is actually protecting him?"
"Of course. Otherwise, if Beixing's officials hadn't stepped in, or if the punishment hadn't been severe enough, causing Shadow to handle it himself... even if that fat pig didn't die, he'd probably be tortured half to death by Shadow."
"But Chairman, now that this Big Bear King isn't dead, our plan..."
"The plan proceeds as scheduled." Han Qiu smiled.
"It'd be best if that fat pig died, but even alive, he's still usable. Look at the raging public opinion online - there's definitely Suroma pulling strings behind the scenes, but the public sentiment is still where it needs to be."
Tianci leaned over to look at the computer screen. Indeed, many people were questioning the officials over this matter, believing that Guan Tong was about to rule with an iron fist, not even allowing others to speak ill of him.
One could say public opinion had now reached its peak - just like when the countless retail investors in the stock market had their emotions at their peak, the hidden harvesters could hardly wait to swing their scythes.
Han Qiu rarely put away his smile at this moment, his expression turning extremely solemn.
"The time has come. I'm going to release a video. Tianci, you go notify all the guild's global branches - have everyone mobilize to build momentum for me."
At this moment, he wasn't so much talking to Tianci as he was talking to himself, the light of excitement flashing continuously in his eyes.
"It's time to let the whole world know that I, Han Qiu, am the true Awakened One in this doomsday game."