Chapter 392 The Undercurrent of Four-Leaf Crystal

"Now I am reporting to you an urgent news interruption from the Jade Skirt Northern TV Station. On the night of July 20, a vicious conflict occurred in the Purple Sophora Tree Sea area of ​​the Northern Fourth District. After receiving the alarm, the Northern Fourth District Command Center dispatched an emergency team to the scene to deal with it, but encountered an ambush and interception by unknown organization personnel on the way. Three members of the team disappeared in the battle... In view of the severe consequences of this incident, the commander of the Northern Fourth District Military Police, Bellos, who was in charge of the command, issued a public apology and said that he would do his best to track down the organization behind this incident..."

The news personnel's broadcast and interview voices came from the old radio player. In the living room, a black-haired girl was kneeling on a mat to help the little girl with her homework. In the kitchen next to her, a white-haired old man was turning on the faucet to wash the fruit, and then cut it and put it on a plate.

"Heshia, Lisa, come and have some melon and washed strawberries." The old man walked to the living room at a very slow pace and put the fruit plate on the coffee table.

"Grandma, slow down." Seeing the old woman coming, the little girl stood up and helped her take the plate and put it away.

"Mom told you not to do these things, otherwise it's easy to fall." She spoke with her hands on her hips like a little adult. Seeing her like this, the old woman just smiled, touched her head, and sat down.

Heshia also put down her pen, raised her head, stretched her legs a little, and then took the melon slices handed by Lisa and ate them in small bites.

"The situation has not been peaceful recently, Heshia." The old woman also sat slowly on the sofa, watching the small radio station playing news on one side of the living room. A small screen was projected above it, playing the noon news.

"Well, Grandma He, you'd better not go out recently." She naturally knew the current situation in the Four Leaf Crystal Star Region, so she advised.

"I will be careful, but He Cheng, I don't know how he is outside." The old man still couldn't let go of this grandson. After all, He Cheng and his sister were raised by the old man.

"I have already told the people in the company about this. They will also reduce the business on dangerous roads recently and try to work together." The girl finished eating the melon slices in her hand, and Lisa handed her another strawberry.

Touching Lisa's head, Heshia took the strawberry but did not rush to eat it, but continued to talk about things.

"The situation this year is different from the past. It will probably be more difficult."

"Even Heshia said so, so things must not be so simple." The old man did not ask Heshia why she said that, but she knew that the girl in front of her was now a big shot, and the news on the other party must be much wider than that of the elderly who stayed at home.

"Actually, Arpeggio City is not bad, and the impact should not be too big." Heshia peeled the leaves on the strawberry and put it in her mouth. The crisp sweetness overflowed in her mouth, and it was also slightly sour and crisp, with a kind of green and fresh feeling.

Originally, most of the companies in Arpeggio City produced industrial basic materials and accessories, without too advanced and top-notch things. These things were in great demand, but the profit was not high, and basically no one came to grab this business.

The most affected industries now are those in the Four-Leaf Crystal Star Region, especially those with highly coupled products. These products often involve thousands of spare parts manufacturers and complex supply chains. If one of them is broken or stuck, it will cause a chain reaction.

It was fine in the past, but now in the Four-Leaf Crystal Star Region, the two major groups are fighting, and the affiliated companies of each group must cut off cooperation with the other group even if they are losing money, otherwise the alliance will punish the internal executives and responsible persons.

The proportion of enterprises and companies affected by the two academies of Saint Ingo and Edes did not reach 100%, but now under the fierce action guidelines of the two parties, other groups and companies cannot be spared. It is like two storm eyes stirring up the internal market of the entire Four-Leaf Crystal Star Region. Other groups and companies are also facing the situation of having to stand on the side.

It is extremely rare to be able to continue to remain neutral and not be criticized by both sides. Probably only the branches of some giant companies in the Four-Leaf Crystal Star Region can be spared. After all, those behemoths are extremely powerful in themselves.

After eating the strawberries, Heshia picked up a piece of green melon slice. At this time, the big spider fell from the ceiling and came to the plate of fruits. It carefully picked up a strawberry with its two front paws, put it in its mouth, and chewed it quickly.

"Eat less, it's not much anyway." Seeing the big spider eating one by one, Heshia couldn't help but knock it down. She didn't eat much, but this guy didn't know how to stop.

The big spider stopped by Heshia felt a little aggrieved. It hissed twice, then rubbed its two front paws, and climbed to the cabinet on one side of the living room and lay down. It still prefers high places, so that it can easily observe the situation in the whole room.

After taking back the fruit plate, Heshia took out the remaining strawberries and put them in Lisa's palm, and then Lisa handed some to Grandma He, but the old woman said that she would not eat them because her teeth were not good.

After ending this afternoon episode, Heshia continued to tutor Lisa for a while, and said goodbye and left at around 3 pm.

Walking in the underground passage of Arpeggio City, the dark red coated metal floor remained almost unchanged. A row of street lights at the top of the passage stretched into the distance like a river. At least compared to the past, the lights were much brighter now.

Closing her eyes, Heshia's perception spread. She could sense that there were many surveillance points hidden in this residential area and passage. This density was actually rare. It was probably because she came here often. Other places in Arpeggio City would not be arranged so strictly.

Although she did not ask for anything, the local government still protected this rare young singer very well. Basically, as long as she made suggestions that were not too outrageous, she would get feedback quickly.

Because she lived here, Arpeggio City also isolated a lot of external interference in this storm. Even Saint Ingo would not deliberately come to offend and disturb her. In fact, they hoped that this girl would stay at home honestly and not support Edes.

The fan at the top of the passage was whirring, and fresh air was circulating. Heshia walked through the streets between residential areas with a handbag, occasionally taking light steps to jump over some obstacles and puddles, and then came to the house where she lived.

After opening the door and entering, a big hairy spider emerged from the shadow at her feet and headed straight for its nest, which was decorated by Heshia. It was decorated with black crystal fragments that the big spider liked.

Heshia took off her leather shoes and put on light slippers. Then she put the homemade cakes given by Grandma He in her handbag into the refrigerator. Then she sat on the sofa, folded her feet and stepped lightly on the sofa.

After stretching, Heshia opened her personal terminal, which contained several unread messages, including greetings from the academy, new songs that the composer that Odney helped her contact, and travel photos sent by Yilin in Yuange Star Region, etc.

After reading and replying one by one, Heshia put down her personal terminal, thought for a while, and opened some forums and websites in the star region to see how the residents now viewed this accident.

Although she had not asked Edes Academy about the cause and effect of this incident, her intuition told her that this matter was not simple.

Sure enough, someone on the forum gave a discussion and speculation.

'Although the number of people involved and the scope are not large, this attack exposed a very serious problem. You should know that the three intact active mechas that disappeared this time are in the hands of skilled Sequence 5 pilots. Each of these mechas can burst out with combat power close to that of the middle-level Sequence 6. Moreover, if there is no resistance from the same level of combat power, three fully armed mechas are enough to destroy a small city. '

'Not all extraordinary people are suitable for fighting. Many people do not realize the terrifying power held by some violent organizations. I think most people probably watch the live broadcast of the annual Winter Festival Competition the most. ' '

You think that the combat power burst out by geniuses like Levito and Seraphiel is very powerful and far away, but in fact, the current Sequence 6 military mechas in service in the Federation can easily achieve the same destructive power. The reason why Sevilla and Tilan are not used as examples is because they are very special. Their terrifying speed is not something that many Sequence 6 mechas can catch up with. '

"How many Sequence 6 mechas are there? It has been announced that there are about 7,000 Sequence 6 'Black Letter'-class mechas in service on the Emerald Skirt planet. Each of these war machines with sharp black outlines is very expensive, and the pilots are all soldiers above Sequence 6 of the Federation Military."

"The missing one this time is a Sequence 5 'Petrel'-class mecha that was retired and used by the military and police. There are probably 40,000 to 60,000 of these mechas, and they are a weapon for local governments to maintain stability and deal with terrorists and bandits. Although their combat effectiveness is much worse than that of the 'Black Letter', they are not bound by many military rules and are flexible to use. They are the backbone of many local government agencies, and sometimes they are paired with fighter jets and tanks to fight together."

"In the hands of a Sequence 5 pilot, such a war machine has almost no rivals in peacetime. The mecha's sturdy armor and agile weapons allow the pilot to challenge Sequence 6 transcendents and persist for a long time, and can even kill most Sequence 6 transcendents who are not good at fighting."

"Logically speaking, ordinary gangs and underground organizations would never confront or fight against such war machines, but this time it happened that not only did the opponent dare to confront them, but they also knocked down and took away the three mechas in just half an hour. During this period, they blocked the signal, making it impossible for subsequent support troops to catch up, and avoiding satellite scanning and searches."

"The incident is not big, but the problems exposed are terrifying. Someone can actually carry out such a dangerous act inside the star field capital star, and the government can't find that person in a short time. This either shows that the officials of the Jade Skirt have lost control of the remote areas of the planet, or that someone in the officialdom leaked information as an insider and helped to accomplish this."

Many people agreed with the post, and there were also various conspiracy theories. Some said that a mysterious resistance organization had appeared and it was the revenge of the descendants of those who were abandoned many years ago. Some said that it was an underground gang that got lucky. There were also some saying that the officials of the North Fourth District were corrupt to the extreme and sold out the team on the mission for personal gain, and so on.

Although most of these opinions are groundless, the deterioration of the public opinion environment does show that many people are not satisfied with the official government of the Four-Leaf Crystal Star Region, and this distrust has been accumulated for a long time, starting from 200 years ago when the government failed to save the planet's environmental deterioration and allowed the poisonous rain to spread over a large area.

The experiences of many people's fathers and elders have passed down this dissatisfaction and hatred in their inheritance and teaching to their descendants. If any government really solves the problem, it may still be possible to eliminate it, but the rigid government and the interest groups entrenched in the upper class make it even more difficult to promote the already difficult to solve environmental problems. Disappointments again and again make people gradually stop believing. Poverty and unemployment lead to the deterioration of public security, which in turn derives various underground forces. This is also the reason why many remote areas of the Jade Skirt are difficult to govern.

If it is the same as in the past, local officials do not want to cause all kinds of troubles during their term of office, and underground organizations and forces do not want to attract official suppression due to high profile, they can still maintain a certain balance together, but this time the fight between the two major groups has spread the storm to all aspects of the star region, and the balance in many places has been broken.

Because the project cooperation was cut off, the factory had a large backlog of inventory. If it could not be consumed quickly, it would not survive. It was impossible to expand the market in a short period of time, but it seemed easier to make competitors go bankrupt in the current environment, so some people in the gray area were hired.

The already tense struggle caused a lot of official police force to waste on resolving conflicts. Some small thefts and robberies were no longer resolved. Crimes that were not punished deteriorated the environment and more offenders appeared, which further increased the pressure on the police and made it less likely that criminals would be arrested. The cost of breaking the law became smaller, like a vicious cycle, prompting more desperate people to take this path.

In April and May, the situation was still mild, but in June, the impact began to be transmitted to the lower levels, and the situation began to become intense. By the end of July, many problems began to erupt. In order to deal with protests and social security issues in their jurisdictions, local officials were overwhelmed. Many people were worried that this would affect the next election. Some cities even began to impose martial law and restrict travel.

Although the Star Region Government can still control the situation and stabilize it, the situation has reached a dangerous edge. If it cannot be handled within the specified time, the Federal Central Council is very likely to issue an inquiry, which often means the end of the political life of the Star Region Governor, which is unbearable for the Star Region official high-level officials.

Soon after, the disappearance of the mecha team continued to ferment, and various accusations began to prevail in government agencies. For this reason, a senior police superintendent in the North Fourth District resigned, and many relevant persons in charge were dismissed. Influenced by this, some members of parliament claimed that many people in the government now accept bribes from companies and corruption is rampant, and suggested taking strict review measures.

Although this is just a suggestion, it was soon agreed by residents across the Internet. Under pressure, the Star Region Government began to initiate some limited self-examinations.

Under the influence of Saint Ingo Academy before, many customs and inspection agency personnel were exposed for detaining the goods of companies under the group related to Edes Academy. In order to evade the review, the official personnel who originally relied on connections and bribery began to give up accepting the requests and assistance put forward by the relevant forces of Saint Ingo and relaxed the differential treatment of the goods of companies under Edes Academy.

The situation is tense and changing quietly.

(End of this chapter)