Chapter 73 The War of Information Has Begun

"Ah Jie! Stop!"

Shan Ran and Nan Guishang spoke up at the same time, stopping A-Jie from turning into a blood leech.

Shan Ran was alright, but Nan Guishang reacted extremely, almost struggling to climb out of bed with his only remaining hands.

Ah Jie didn't mind; he was used to Young Master Shang's reaction to the blood leeches, so he chuckled and withdrew his hand.

Before leaving, Ah Jie gave some instructions and then departed.

Only the two of them remained in the room. Every so often, Shan Ran would check on Nan Guishang's body and cleanse him with her water-based supernatural abilities.

She followed this procedure the first time she took care of Nan Guishang, but he hadn't woken up yet at that time.

Shan Ran remained completely unfazed, while Nan Guishang grabbed the bed sheet, her face flushed, and asked nervously, "W-what are you going to do?"

"What Ah Jie said before he left? Didn't you hear it?"

"I...I..."

"Your organ displacement is quite severe this time. It's important to monitor the organ's position closely during the growth process, as this will help with your recovery."

Nan Guishang pulled the sheet up to his chin, almost burying the lower half of his face in it. "But you can't just pull off my sheets like that..."

Shan Ran said irritably, "How can I see how well you're recovering if I don't peel it open? What are you being shy about? I saw your whole body last time, and now you're being shy? It's too late."

Returning merchants from the south:........

The man's face instantly turned bright red, almost matching the color of his hair.

This is the situation, but why did you just say it outright like that?

Just because he doesn't have any organs now doesn't mean we shouldn't treat him like a man.

The merchant returning south wanted to cry but had no tears.

This time, instead of letting go, he held on even tighter.

Shan Ran sneered and pulled the blanket over her.

The red-haired youth was not about to let his opponent succeed so easily. He desperately pulled on the blanket, but with only his upper body left, he was still in the recovery phase. How could he be a match for Shan Ran?

Shan Ran tossed the blanket aside, bent down, and carefully examined the man's waist.

Since he fell into a state of death, a thin membrane has appeared in the gap in his waist, preventing the internal organs from flowing out.

Shan Ran, unable to contain her curiosity, once cautiously touched that thin film.

Although it appears transparent and thin, it is actually very tough, with subtle energy fluctuations visible on it.

A merchant who returned from the south once died in a similar way. Ah-Jie said that the membrane at the opening in the body would last until all the organs had grown back. Once the organs had grown to the limbs, the membrane would disappear.

Then, starting from the hips, both legs will gradually recover.

This thin film is essentially for protecting the internal organs.

Shan Ran couldn't help but marvel at the wonder of the immortality ability.

But she constantly reminds herself not to become accustomed to death like Nan Guishang, but to maintain a sense of awe for life.

Seeing the girl constantly bending over and staring at his crotch, Nan Guishang's ears were practically burning with rage.

He covered his eyes with his hands, wishing it was all just a dream.

This was the first time he realized how terrible the state of death was; he was now like a fish on a chopping board, at the mercy of others.

So he silently made up his mind that he must kill fewer people in the future!

After observing that there were no problems, Shan Ran used her water-based abilities to clean Nan Gui Shang.

After cleaning the front, turn the man over and wash his back.

At this point, the red-haired youth's face was almost ashen, a state of near-death.

Shan Ran opened his hands, which were covering his eyes, saying that he needed to clean thoroughly and not miss any corner.

He felt like a fish on a chopping board, being turned over and over, unable to resist.

However, the difference between him and a fish is that a fish can die in the next second, but he can't die even if he wants to.

However, the merchant's heart had already died.

The one who replaced Shan Ran was the younger brother who didn't have any special abilities, named Xiao Yu.

Seeing that his older brother looked unwell, Xiao Yu immediately became anxious. "Big brother! What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell? Should we call someone to come and take a look?"

Nan Guishang stared blankly at the ceiling, and after a long while, he finally uttered a few words.

"Big brother...it's nothing, big brother just...want to die..."

Shan Ran suppressed a laugh, trying to maintain a serious expression. In front of his younger brother, he picked up his older brother, then put him down, and then pretended to be serious as he fussed over him for a while.

Before leaving, they thoughtfully covered me with a blanket.

After Shan Ran left, Xiao Yu let out a wail, "Ouch! Big brother, don't scare me, what's wrong with you?"

Nan Guishang wiped away non-existent tears and said with conviction, "Your elder brother has decided that he will try his best not to die again in the future."

Xiao Yu scratched his head, not quite understanding his older brother's change, but respecting his brother's choice.

"Whether you live or die, you'll always be my good brother!"

In the following days, every time Shanran came over, she would turn Nan Guishang over several times, fiddle with him, and then clean his entire body several times.

By the time the merchants returned south, they had become numb.

Until his buttocks grew out.

Before Shan Ran came in to relieve him, Nan Guishang had already wrapped the blanket around himself several times with A Jie's help, making sure that Shan Ran wouldn't tear it off anytime soon.

This time, he will fight to the death to protect the dignity of his lower body!

Shan Ran walked into the room and glanced at the red-haired youth's fierce preparations. His expression was unusually serious, his ears were bright red, and he looked like he was ready to fight to the death if anyone dared to pull down his pants.

She couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Don't worry, now that the organs have all grown, the rest will be soon. I won't need to look anymore, and besides..."

At this point, Shan Ran paused, emphasizing what she was about to say, "I'm not interested in this place either, so don't worry."

Returning merchants from the south:........

Hearing this, he felt a pang of unease.

He didn't know what was bothering him. He clearly didn't want her to see it, but hearing her say "not interested" made him feel so uncomfortable.

Shanran said she wouldn't touch men, and she meant it.

He simply used his water-based powers to cleanse his upper body and then sat down to the side.

Nan Guishang lay there solemnly for a while, and seeing that Shan Ran was no longer treating him like she had a few days ago, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

But doing nothing would be a bit awkward.

He took out his phone and logged into a forum he hadn't visited for several days.

In the forum, he highlighted Shanran's name, so any post related to Shanran would be marked in orange, making it very eye-catching.

One of the posts garnered numerous comments in just one day. Nan Guishang clicked on it, and after reading for a short while, he became so angry that his ears were practically burning.

The post reads: "I'm a member of the Green Light Base. Shan Ran killed our base leader, but we didn't even know her. She's a lackey of the safe zone; the authorities sent her to kill people, and she came."

When the apocalypse first came, the authorities gave us no advance notice, which caused so many of our deaths. Now we are struggling to survive on our own, and the authorities are sending people to kill us!

I have reason to suspect that the news of Shan Ran's ability to clear the fog is just a publicity stunt by the authorities, an attempt to cultivate a celebrity superpowered individual to bolster their numbers. Weren't those pre-apocalyptic celebrities cultivated by capital the same thing? A ton of fans idolized them, but they were all show and no substance, a far cry from their advertised image!

Do not trust the official safe zone! Do not trust Shan Ran! She is a ruthless killer!

The post also included a picture taken by Shan Ran and others at the dock. At that time, the Silver Wolf Base was dealing with the Green Light Base, which was occupied by Lara and others.

But at that moment, Tu Yuqing was talking to Shan Ran, and from the angle of the photo, it looked as if Shan Ran was leading a group of people in a massacre.

Out of consideration for humanity, Tu Yuqing did not exterminate the Green Light Base, but those people turned around and blamed her after they escaped.

The people from the Silver Wolf base immediately stepped forward to explain the situation.

Hello everyone, I am Tu Yuqing, the base commander of the Silver Wolf Base. Our base has been attacked by the Green Light Base. They have joined forces with several bases to attack us, determined to wipe us out.

Shanran and the people from the safe zone came to assist, but they were only helping. It was our Silver Wolf base that executed the Green Light base chief; they did not kill anyone from the Green Light base.

Tu Yuqing is right, Mr. Wang was never a member of the Green Light Base.

She meant well in explaining, but she didn't expect it to attract a barrage of insults.

[What, are only the people at Silver Wolf Base human, and the people at Green Light Base aren't?]

[Aren't you saying the opposite? What gave Green Light Base the ability to attack you? Just because you have good relations with the safe zone doesn't mean you can wipe out other bases!]

[I heard that Tu Yuqing and Laura, the leader of the Green Light Base, were enemies before the apocalypse. Now, she's clearly using the chaos of the times as an excuse to vent her personal grievances by killing so many people!]

[Holy crap... this is the truth! The Safe Zone and Shan Ran killed so many people for a personal grudge between friends! Where is fairness and justice? Does strength justify killing at will? Does that mean no one can disobey you anymore? You're like the emperors of ancient legends!]

The people at the Silver Wolf Base, including Tu Yuqing and Tu Zhi, tried to explain in various ways, but unfortunately, there were too many people on the other side of the internet who were too good at talking. They distorted their words and even turned the tables on them, leaving them speechless.

Nan Guishang slammed his phone down and cursed angrily.

Shan Ran glanced at the screen, opened her own phone, logged onto the forum, and carefully read through the posts.

Shortly after the post was published, a series of replies appeared below, clearly trying to stir up trouble.

[I told you so! Even the C-level ability users on the First Continent couldn't clear the mist. How could Shan Ran, whose level is lower than theirs, possibly do it?]

[Isn't Shanran the base leader of Good Luck Base? Why is she working for the safe zone?]

[To put it simply, the authorities want to promote a celebrity superhuman. Pushing their own people would be too obvious, so they partnered with the Lucky Base. The Safe Zone wants to lead the entire continent to complete independence, understand?]

[You guys don't know yet, do you? The previous District Chief of District 1 killed the Third Continent Executive Officer, which is why the Safe Zone was established. It's said that the Executive Officer didn't have any special abilities, and the District Chief didn't want to be subordinate to someone else, so he killed him to seize power. He's so ruthless.]

[But it's a fact that Shanran and Kunwu Yecheng cleared away the mist together, right? Even if it wasn't Shanran who did it, it was Kunwu Yecheng who did it.]

[Haha, you believe them when they say the fog is gone? Was the whole thing recorded? The scene was so chaotic, and many people filming were chased away. Maybe the fog was just special effects.]

[I don't care about the fog of war anymore. What I know now is that the safe zone, as the official entity, is wantonly slaughtering civilians. I want to ask District Chief Lu Wenrou, do you deserve to be the district chief?]

These comments are numerous and very consistent, clearly indicating that they were deliberately hired by someone to create a bot army.

Organizing such a well-organized and large-scale online public opinion campaign in a short period of time is something that the few scattered and disorganized soldiers who fled from the Green Light Base could not have accomplished.

What appears to be targeting Shan Ran is actually a direct attack on the safe zone, as well as high-ranking officials like Lu Wenrou.

Shan Ran found this tactic of using public opinion to subtly infiltrate the country somewhat familiar; it was very similar to the methods commonly used by a certain Western power in her previous life.

It feels very much like something done by mainland China.

Just because Shan Ran can see it doesn't mean others can; most people on the Third Continent wouldn't be able to see it.

Because the people of the Third Continent had never witnessed such methods before, this place was not a separatist regime, but was completely controlled by the top aristocratic families.

The entire Third Continent is controlled by the higher powers. Would people use tactics and methods to deal with the pigs raised in pigsties?

No, when dealing with pigs, you only need to give them commands and let them live according to their own plans.

The arrival of the apocalypse has caused a major deviation in the world. The piglets of the past are no longer willing to stay in the pigsty. Can the people above still sit still?

Chen Jinkai of the Chen family of the First Continent once tried to win over Shan Ran. Now that Mr. Wang has been killed, the Wang family must have received the news as well.

They all knew that Shan Ran was an extremely restless person, so they chose to start with Shan Ran and destroy the safe zone.

Since there was no precedent for this, people could easily be misled.

In this thread, there are already people who are being led astray, some who are skeptical, and some who believe it all.

[Didn't the safe zone send out a message welcoming those who haven't joined the base to their side? I heard they even rescued quite a few trapped survivors.]

[Saving people is definitely something you should do, but you might also give them a harsher punishment. You only know that those you saved killed countless people behind the scenes. Do you know how many people those who died will come forward to tell you?]

I initially thought the official safe zone was some kind of righteous place, but it turns out it's like this. Who knows if they were doing something terrible behind the scenes after saving so many people.

[Wow, what the person upstairs said is terrifying. The gladiatorial arena incident that was exposed before—everything's been quiet since Shanran regained consciousness. Is it possible... that this whole thing was staged, and the people who died were actually scapegoats for discovering their plot?]

[That's terrifying. Our small bases are just dabbling in small-scale operations, but the authorities are a different story; they unleash a devastating attack.]

[As expected of the official channels, no wonder they can promote someone like Shan Ran. I almost believed it.]

There has been no official response yet; only Shanran's fans are offering explanations.

【You're talking nonsense! Some nobody just popped up out of nowhere, posted a few random photos and started stirring up trouble. You're jumping up and down because you see our Shanran has talent and popularity, aren't you?】

[Just asking, is killing really that unusual in this world? Aren't there plenty of people outside killing each other for a little food these days? If you're so bored, go home and drink your mother's milk. Don't go out, or a monster might scare your idiot to death.]

Why are there suddenly so many haters? Some of the top celebrities before the apocalypse... it seems our Ranran is still too popular. Anyone with a brain can tell you're professional haters. Are you the Shan family members who criticized Shanran before? I'm on the Second Continent. If you really are from the Shan family, watch out, I might come knocking on your door one day.

[Black Mountain's jealousy is the root of all her problems. Even if her abilities aren't the strongest, she's still one of only two people capable of clearing the mist. What good would a large-scale attack on her do? What good would it do for humanity?]

Everyone says Shan Ran can clear away the fog, but we haven't witnessed the whole thing. The previous videos were too blurry. If she could come to the First Continent and clear away the fog here, I'd believe her. She could clear even the smallest fog.

[Exactly, isn't the problem precisely the lack of concrete evidence? You're all just defending her, but if she's just a fraud who doesn't help humanity at all, defending her will only harm you in the end!]

[Agreed. I'm from the First Continent. Let her come to the First Continent and clear away the fog in front of everyone, then I'll trust her.]

【........】

After arguing online for a long time, this group of people finally revealed their purpose.

They wanted to force Shanran to go to the First Continent.

At the same time, they wanted to use this incident to smear the safe zone and Lu Wenrou.

Because the Third Continent is gradually breaking away from their control. It's only in the early stages now. If we wait until the safe zone is completely secured, the Third Continent will become completely independent and will no longer be controlled by those above.

The Colosseum appears to be backed by the Smith family of the Second Continent, but it is actually controlled by people from the First Continent who now want to use it to smear Shanran and the Safe Zone.

The merchant from the south was so angry that he cursed loudly.

"If you have a problem, come at me! I killed all those people at Green Light Base, what business is it of Guan Shanran's?"

[Ha, calling yourself "Young Master" all the time, who do you think you are?]

Nan Guishang was about to say that the red-haired man in the photo was him, but Shan Ran stopped him and deleted the whole string of replies.

"What are you doing!" Nan Guishang panicked and tried to snatch back his phone, but his legs had only just started to grow flesh, making him unsteady. He fell down as soon as he stood up.

Shan Ran placed Nan Guishang's phone out of his reach before replying, "Have you forgotten what District Chief Lu told you? You can't reveal your identity, especially with a post like this that gets so much traffic. The people behind it are in the shadows. If you accidentally expose your special ability, it will be very dangerous."

"But that's what they said about you!" The man exclaimed, blurting out what was on his mind. But then he realized it was too obvious, so he added, "They also slandered my mother, talking about our safe zone!"

"So what if I'm exposed? I'm not going to die. Do you think you can take away my powers?"

Shan Ran remained silent for a long while, then looked at the man on the bed with his body half-buried, and said, "I hope you don't jinx it."

"......."

Why did Lu Wenrou and Chandler insist on concealing the immortality of the Southern Merchant?

Did they anticipate something? Or were there some clues?

Seeing that Shan Ran remained silent, Nan Guishang grew anxious. "What's wrong with you? Those guys have ill intentions! But don't worry, you're safe in the safe zone!"

"But I can't stay here forever, and besides, they've always wanted me to go to the First Continent."

"To the First Continent? Now?"

Shanran nodded, opened another post, and held up her phone for the other person to see.

[The pilot sea-land navigation project, Zone 1 of the Second Continent, was officially launched at 9:00 AM today.]

The second continent has found a way to navigate at sea. It is currently in trial operation, and the shipping route will be officially opened in a while.

This news was quite popular, and it would definitely be the top trending topic under normal circumstances. However, today, the news about Shan Ran was exposed and firmly occupied the headlines, causing some people to not even notice it.

After reading the news aloud, Nan Guishang suddenly realized, "No wonder they chose to release it at this time; they really couldn't wait even a day!"

"It's not just for me, but also for this safe zone. If they want to regain control of the Third Continent, they need to control the safe zone."

The businessman from the south, who had always been uninterested in politics, clenched his fists and looked resentful.

"Take back control of us? Do you still want to use the old class system to deal with us? Do you still want to point your finger at us and call us 'lower class'? Do you think that will control you? Let you be manipulated by them?"

He was so angry that he trembled all over, the veins on his hands bulged, and his fists cracked.

This was the first time Shanran had seen Nan Guishang so angry.

He was so angry that he lost control and suddenly conjured a fireball, which set the blanket on fire.

Yamaran: .......

She quickly extinguished the fire with water, pulled the blanket out, and threw it on the ground.

At the same time, she rushed over to check on the man's condition. Fortunately, she discovered it in time, before the fire spread and burned the man's clothes.

On the contrary, the water volume was slightly too large, and the Nan Gui Shang was soaked.

Shanran picked up a towel from the side and started wiping with her hands.

"Don't....."

Nan Guishang looked embarrassed and grabbed a pillow to cover himself.

The girl's rapid and fluid movements left him completely unable to react.

They've seen everything again!

Nan Guishang covered his pillow with one hand and his face with the other, unwilling to face any of this.

Fortunately, while Ah Jie was taking care of him, he insisted on wearing underwear.

Ah-Jie was very confused at the time, saying that he had always been naked when he was recovering his lower body before, and had never worn anything.

In the end, he couldn't refuse his older brother, but since his legs were too short, he was only given a pair of briefs.

Briefs....

It's still red.....

That damn guy, Ajay, said the red underwear really suited his brother's red hair.

The returning merchant lamented inwardly.

This is absolutely shameful!

He snatched the towel from Shanran and roughly wiped himself down. "Don't do it, I'll do it!"

Shanran knew what he was being awkward about, so she didn't continue. She just brought him some new clothes to change into.

Shan Ran turned around and, while waiting for Nan Guishang to change his clothes, took out her phone and registered an account.