Chapter 199: Bandits Are Victims of Society
Chapter 199: Bandits Are Victims of Society
In the face of everything that happened there were practically no more monsters in Brazil. Those who survived fled to forests and went into hiding. There were also those who were aquatic and hid in the sea. Those were the hardest to determine, but for now, it was better than letting them loose on land.
It wasn’t the first time humans had faced monsters, and some of the animal types were edible. So, the monster carcasses were of human benefit, especially as just a piece of a monster’s flesh was enough to not have to eat for the rest of the day.
However, it was not so simple to eat the monsters’ flesh. It was necessary to remove the poison, which for the present time, they did not have enough time to remove the poison so easily. But, the benefits of eating monster meat had made monster meat to be overrated. Because of that too, the government had its eyes blazing, jealous of the amount of monsters Luan Dimas had captured.
“We need to make him give in. He needs to give them to us!” someone from the Parliament said with greed in his eyes.
At the headquarters of the government meeting, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was also there. Despite his being the president, it was clear that he was nothing more than a PT puppet of the Workers’ Party.
His intelligence was lacking, and because it was easy to control, even with the nonsense he said, it was easily covered up by them. After all, they had Rede Globo, Brazil’s largest press office, in their hands and they could practically do whatever they wanted.
“No, he is very popular around the world, saving thousands of people. It won’t be easy to do that.”
“Before that he saved a lot of people with his nicknames White Emperor and White Dragon. Now that everyone knows those are him, it became even more difficult and almost impossible to control him.”
“What if he wants to be the new president?”
This caused fear in all of them. Having someone like Luan as president was something they wouldn’t allow to happen, as it would be basically impossible to control him.
“We are deviating from the subject. The main point is… To make him give in, and even if we can’t, at least we need to sully his image.”
“But how?”
“That’s easy,” a man with an evil smile said, “On national television we’ll ask him to hand over the monster corpses to help rebuild the damage caused by the monsters and feed the poor people. If he refuses to do so… Well, with so many casualties, even if he did a good deed, bad deeds always speak louder. If he does deny it… Hehe, he won’t be a people’s hero anymore.”
They all expected Luan Dimas to refuse. After all, it was a lot of corpses that they were talking about, but when they heard this plan, their eyes lit up. Staying in power was even better than getting a hand on monster corpses. Besides, even if Luan turned those dead bodies into cash, a good percentage would go to taxes for the government. The President spoke a few times, but although the rest of the men pretended to listen, inside they were mocking with their eyes full of contempt, but on the surface they were smiling.
After the meeting ended, they already had in mind that they would have to conspire against Luan, or else their position would be at risk.
*
After he traveled all the way back, Luan was about to pick up Ingrid, Maira, Catharina, and Cristina and head back to Dimas Mansion. But they were surrounded by journalists.
“Luan Dimas, sir, are you the White Emperor?”
“Yes,” Luan said indifferently.
“CEO Luan Dimas, how does it feel to save more than half of Brazil’s population?”
“I did what I thought was right,” Luan replied.
“Mr Luan Dimas, don’t you think your measures were too drastic?” one of the reporters asked.
“And you’re from?” Luan looked at him.
“Ricardo from the Rede Globo,” the man replied.
“Very well, Ricardo from Rede Globo.” Luan looked at him indifferently. “How exactly did you mean I took drastic measures?”
“I’m talking about the animals that came out of the mysterious crevices and that have now merged with our planet. Don’t you think that killing them all was very aggressive and needlessly killing so many animals?”
“Oh?” Luan’s eyes continued with the same indifference when he said, “It was you who cursed the cops for killing bad guys and didn’t think it was right. Even in a shootout, you still said the police had better measures to deal with it. In this situation alone, 5 thugs died, but on the police side 2 died, am I right?”
“But Mr Luan Dimas, bandits are victims of society, and like us, they have families. And because of the police, 5 families became grief stricken.”
“Oh, so the dead officers don’t have any family either?” Luan’s face was cold.
“But…”
“If it wasn’t enough to defend bandits, now, do you want to defend monsters that are attacking and killing innocent citizens?” Luan’s aura turned even colder when he asked, “Tell me, are you really human?”
“…” Ricardo was silent, he wanted to argue, but when he saw that everyone was looking at him, even his fellow reporters, he was scared and confused.
In general, even when he argued about defending the bad guys, even though some people hated him, he became more famous thanks to it and also made more money after that. It didn’t matter if he said what he really felt or not, he ‘knew’ that if he was a bit of an offender, it would somehow be good for him. After all, before he was just an unknown journalist, but receiving the looks of rebuke and disgust from those around him, he cringed.
However, he also did not do this exactly because he wanted to: this was something ordered by his superiors. It was said that somehow it was to make Luan look bad, or at least make people doubt his character. If he did a good job, he would get a bonus at the end of the month.
Luan repeated, “Tell me, are you really human?”