Chapter 450: Concrete Evidence

"That Hyena really is an idiot! He was so well-prepared and had ample time to react, but he still failed in the end. He's beyond saving!"

One of the young man's companions hurriedly chimed in in agreement. At a time like this, he couldn't go against the young man and risk irking him even further.

"I was talking about all of you! You're all idiots!"

The young man was unable to maintain his calm facade any longer, and his face was twisted with fury. However, his companions were finally unable to bear his oppressive leadership any longer.

All of them were on the same level and in the same situation, so even if he were a bit more capable than everyone else, he couldn't always treat others like trash and stomp all over their pride as he pleased.

"Who are you calling idiots, Blake?"

Another member of the crisis group who was yet to reach 20 years of age was referring to the young man directly by name. In the past, he didn't have the courage to do so, but on this occasion, his courage was fuelled by his anger and indignation.

"I was talking about you and everyone else who participated in the construction and the establishment of security measures in that facility! Is there a problem?"

Blake wasn't holding back at all, and he was insulting everyone all at once. Another member of the crisis group stepped forward as he protested, "You saw all of the details of the relevant plans in advance, so why didn't you raise any issues in advance? Of course you can say whatever you want now in hindsight!"

"Yeah! All of us can pretend to be know-it-alls with the benefit of hindsight!"

Everyone had banded together to oppose Blake on this occasion, and they were determined to strip away some of the authority that he held over everyone else.

"Alright, if you really want to discuss the details, then who was it that decided to withdraw the unmanned battle units responsible for clearing up the battlefield?"

Everyone immediately fell silent and turned to a young man with curly hair. The young man's face had turned as pale as a sheet, and he gulped nervously as he said in a feeble voice, "That was the latest product produced by my family's business, and it hasn't been released on the market yet, so it has to be kept confidential..."

"Your priorities are completely lopsided! Even if those units had been detonated at the scene, and their parts and chips were discovered, who would dare to leak the technology or reproduce it at the risk of committing copyright infringements?"

Arms manufacturing organizations were one of the most prominents powers in the world, and all of those organizations were both competitors and collaborative partners with one another. In teh face of major problems, they had always come together to collectively oppose external threats, so no one would dare to leak confidential technology from this industry.

A mocking sneer appeared on Blake's face at the sight of the young man's sheepish display.

"Not only did your decision directly expose the location of that facility, it'll draw an investigation from Mechguard and the Dataist Union. Essentially, you're telling them that your family, which holds all the relevant patents, is the one pulling the strings behind the scenes!"

The young man immediately began to sweat profusely. He was no idiot, and he immediately realized the severity of the problem.

The higher-ups of his family could accept some losses, but that wasn't necessarily the case for the lower level workers. They were solely responsible for completing their duties according to regulations, and in the event that any problems arose, they weren't going to be held responsible.

The fact that he was unable to perform even such a simple task was a glaring display of his incompetence.

Aside from the members of the crisis group, there were also many technicians and analysts present, and all of them were pretending not to have heard anything.

"What should I do then?"

"Cut your losses and salvage as much as possible."

Blake couldn't be bothered to waste any more time arguing with the other members of the crisis group, and he immediately issued an order to detonate the warehouse that held the drones as well.

Even though all of the members of the crisis group came from extremely wealthy families, losing those two facilities in rapid succession was still quite a heavy blow, and in the end, they could only direct their fury at Adam, collectively cursing him to an early grave.

……

After the largely successful operation, Adam departed and immediately revealed the outcome of the operation to the general public.

There were Mechguard units providing supporting evidence, and information on all of the rescued victims had also been tracked down. In fact, contact had even been established with some of the victims' families and friends, and countless independent journalists instantly flocked to the scene, trying to secure this massive scoop before everyone else.

As for all of the major media outlets, only those affiliated with the northern congress sent out their seasoned reporters to cover the story, while the rest only sent out some interns as a formality before doing their best to downplay the story, making it appear as if Adam hadn't done anything significant.

Under normal circumstances, these media outlets would've tried to blow even the slightest thing that he did massively out of proportion, so it was clear that Adam was being targeted.

All of the top headlines concerned the latest news from the other mayoral candidates, and even minor stories like candidates shaking hands with people on the streets were made out to be a big deal. In addition to that, there were also news stories about celebrity scandals, and essentially, these media outlets were publishing anything that they could to take attention away from Adam's latest operation.

Among the mayoral candidates, Clyde was the only one who refused to play along for publicity.He publicly stated that before the mystery behind the internet outage incident was completely solved, he wouldn't be engaging in any activities to further his campaign.

"One thing that I firmly believe in is the importance of fairness, openness, and justice. If the election is lacking in any of those three qualities, then even if I win, it'll only be a reflection of just how severe the problems in the world are. In this regard, I'm even willing to express my support for Mr. Adam. So far, he has done far better than I anticipated."

His campaign team was furious with this public statement, but thankfully, his main source of support, the Dataist Union, hadn't raised any objections. Even so, there was still a slight downturn in support for him.

As a result, Adam found himself in the lead for the election race, and at this rate, his victory was all but ensured.

With the concrete evidence secured from the medical center, the large number of rescued victims, and the footage and data taken from the facility, an irrefutable case had been built against the human organ trafficking chain.

This vindicated Adam's earlier statement, which was that these enormous criminal organizations truly existed, and that the people behind these organizations were powerful and wealthy enough to exert their influence across the entire world.

The psychic data taken from Hyena was massive in volume and extremely distorted, making it very difficult for the average person to interpret. Hence, special technological methods had to be employed to restore the data, and the process couldn't be rushed.

However, Adam had picked out several important memory snippets, some of which contained Herman Glenn, thereby proving that he had ties to the medical facility.

Madam Tree had previously cleared out Hyena's sensitive memories, but he was a battle-hardened mercenary who trusted no one, and he had hid some incriminating evidence in secret to be used as leverage if required.

This evidence wasn't enough to build a watertight case against Herman Glenn, but at the very least, it gave Adam an excuse to summon Herman to cooperate with his investigation.

Last time, Herman had been let off the hook with nothing more than a figurative slap on the wrist due to insufficient evidence, but he wasn't going to be so lucky this time.

I don't have to directly prosecute him. As long as we uncover enough leads, there will always be someone who can resolve our troubles for us.

Adam had learned to use the power of the enemy against them. The heartless members of the Guild of Immortality were more than willing to cut off pawns that they viewed to be expendable as long as it meant that they could save their own skin.

Unfortunately for Herman, he was considered to be one such expendable pawn, and by the time Mechguard units were sent to arrest him with the evidence procured from Hyena, it was discovered that he had already committed suicide.

Good. I won't have to kill him myself now.

Adam didn't find this to be strange or unexpected in the slightest, and he was looking at the letter of invitation in his hand with a faint smile on his face.

Looks like some people are beginning to lose their cool. It seems that my operations have hit many people where it hurts and forced them to take action.

The letter was from none other than Masao Yamamoto, and it contained an invitation for Adam to visit his home the next day at 9 AM.