BXBX NOVEL Chapter 250: News
Chapter 250: News
Shivani was extremely happy with how her story was performing. In just a single day, she had received countless messages, and even the media companies that had previously turned her down were all scrambling to call her and offer her jobs.
However, she had no intention of working for any major media companies for now.
She had already witnessed the darkness present in these organizations. Large media organizations were always being used by politicians and major companies, and as a result, the journalists working for those media organizations were limited in what they could and couldn\'t say.
Right now, she had a reliable information source, she had clout, and she didn\'t have to go against her own moral compass. This was a dream come true for her, and she couldn\'t but feel extremely grateful to Adam for allowing her dream to become a reality.
However, these feelings had only just begun to develop before they were immediately stamped out by Shivani.
As a journalist, she had to remain as objectively and emotionally neutral as possible at all times. She couldn\'t allow any subjective emotions to impact her stories, and she definitely couldn\'t allow her emotions to be conveyed to those reading her stories. She had to respect the truth at all times and ensure that it was the stories that told her readers what to think, not herself.
All of a sudden, she noticed a notification pop up on her phone, informing her that another news story about Adam had been released, but this one was a negative story.
A certain media outlet had leaked some of the footage from the battle royale that Adam had taken part in.
The sheer brutality and superheroesque elements of the battle royale made it an extremely exciting spectacle that inevitably drew one\'s attention. In addition to that, certain internet personalities were actively promoting the story, and it quickly gained just as much traction as Shivani\'s story.
Thus, both of the two hottest pieces of news on the polls were about Adam, except one was positive, while the other was negative.
Certain clips had been cherry-picked from the battle royale to paint Adam in a particularly bad light, particularly highlighting Adam\'s backstabbing of his allies, and the viewers were naturally left with a bitter taste in their mouths.
After witnessing the brutality of the battles and all of the sinister measures that Clown had been willing to resort to, even Shivani couldn\'t help but wonder if Adam was actually a good person or not.
In the end, she was unable to suppress her curiosity and gave Adam a call.
The call was quickly picked up on Adam\'s end.
"Have you seen the news?"
"I have," Adam replied. "I knew they would try to smear me by releasing footage of the battle royale, I just didn\'t think this day would come so quickly. I\'m guessing the story that you released has really sent them into a panic. If they allow me to establish a positive image, a smear campaign against me wouldn\'t be anywhere near as effective."
"Is the footage real?"
"Of course."
Adam had no intention of lying to Shivani. He was well aware of her personality and her devotion to finding out the truth. Samit had been stalked from his home to his workplace, and in the end, he had been driven to near insanity and fled to Shadow City. Granted, a part of this was due to his own weak-willed personality, but an even more important factor was Shivani\'s tenacious and intrusive style of investigative journalism.
Furthermore, Adam was of the opinion that preserving Shivani\'s innate sense of justice would be extremely beneficial to his reputation. The truth couldn\'t be buried forever, and falsehoods would eventually be debunked. At times, the general public could be quite slow to react, but they weren\'t stupid.
Over time, whether a person was truly a figure of justice or just pretending would inevitably be made clear.
"The footage is real, but I would like to give you some relevant context, and you can do your own research to verify my claims. Let\'s begin by talking about how I was framed first. On the day of the terrorist attack, I was sent to Mirror Lake Primary School as an employee of the pawn shop to stop those psychic mutants..."
Thus, Adam launched into a story about how he had been framed, how the footage that proved his innocence was taken by the Oni Organization, and how that footage mysteriously ended up in Shadow City. He revealed all of his recent experiences to her with the exception of a few closely guarded secrets.
"The battle royale was an extremely brutal event, and there were some choices that I was simply forced to make. If I couldn\'t win the battle royale, then I would never be able to clear my own name.
“As for my actions at the tail end of the battle royale, that can be partially attributed to my desperate desire to win, and partially attributed to the psychological impact that I was suffering from in the wake of the death of my friends. That\'s all I have to say for myself, you\'re free to decide what you want to think."
Shivani was silent for a long time after hearing Adam\'s story.
She had heard many rumors about Shadow City, and as a journalist, she knew more about the city than the average person did, but this was the first time she had ever heard such a thrilling and hair-raising story.
Considering just how desperate a situation that Adam had been forced into, she was of the opinion that most people would\'ve fared just as badly in his position.
Hence, it was impossible to say whether he was a good person or not.
In that situation, he simply had no choice in whether he wanted to be good or evil.
"I can understand why you did what you did, but that doesn\'t change the fact that your actions will have an extremely negative impact. Not only will this affect your reputation, it could even result in the revocation of your role as a special psychic police officer."
"That\'s why I need to do something to alter the narrative being presented against me by the media. Do you have any good suggestions?"
At the moment, Adam was feeling extremely concerned. He was relying heavily on his status as a special psychic police officer both for his own protection and for the enactment of his plan, so it was vital that he didn\'t lose this job.
"It\'ll be rather difficult to completely flip the narrative at once. You can tell the story of your experiences to the people through certain channels in order to garner some sympathy, but that\'s only going to have a very limited impact. The most important thing for you right now is to do some good deeds that will win you win over the general public."
"Can you give me some examples?"
"What people like to see the most is cases of evil being brought to justice. As a journalist, I know of a few categories of people who are always heavily resented and seen as irredeemable by the general public, such as pedophiles, child killers, and rapists. There is zero tolerance toward these people, and it\'s not just because what they\'re doing is highly illegal. More importantly, these people are hated by everyone from the bottom of their hearts."
"That\'s true."
Thoughts of the human farm immediately surfaced in Adam\'s mind. Back then, he had almost thrown up the first time he had witnessed that hellish sight.
"What I suggest is that you set aside all of the cases that you\'re working on for now and focus on this direction. If you can crack a few cases of this nature, your image will improve significantly in the eyes of the general public, and you\'ll actually be doing good deeds as well, so it really is a win-win situation."
"Thank you. If you hadn\'t given me this advice, I wouldn\'t have known what to do." Adam eagerly agreed to this strategy proposed to him by Shivani. "Let\'s begin right away. I\'ll go to the pawn shop to try and find some leads. In the meantime, come to the Four Brothers Veterinarian Hospital in Area 47, and we\'ll meet up there."
"Alright."
"Also..."
"Is there something else you have to say?"
"Make sure to be safe."