IBACT Chapter 24

Devaluation (12)

“……What idiot leaked this information?”

Even if corporations treated citizens and the media like vermin, they had to follow public opinion at least minimally.

What drove them wasn’t conscience or law, but rather the machinations of other corporations.

“What’s the meaning of all this?”

“Well… They just seem like thoughtless criminals…”

The corporate PR team was contemplating how to respond to this ‘gossip’ posted on the web.

“There’s no real substance here…… We probably won’t face any formal charges anyway. Shouldn’t we be fine?”

Ironically, they took this accusation lightly because all corporations were being attacked equally.

The matter wasn’t trivial, and it wasn’t easy to create escape routes either.

“This is ridiculous.”

If it had been a less severe offensive or a targeted expose, it might have been more threatening.

But when it came to a multi-faceted attack against corporations in general, their attitude was predictable.

“It’ll get buried. We just need to wait it out.”

The depth at which citizens absorbed exposés and rumors wasn’t necessarily proportional to the gravity of the matter.

Countless incidents disappear into time. While people were angry at corporate rampages, they also felt fatigue about criticizing corporations.

There was a mix of low expectations like ‘Those bastards won’t do anything right anyway’ and despair like ‘Speaking up won’t change anything anyway.’

If someone really wanted to change the world, exposing just a quarter of this matter would have been enough.

After putting up a plausible slogan, using provocative phrases like ‘The corporation hired mercenaries to silence the whistleblower!’ could have garnered more public attention with far less evidence than this expose.

Even if they knew all this information, there was no need to release everything at once.

It would have been better to release half of it to instigate fighting among corporations, then release the next piece of information to lead them to mutual destruction.

“You’re truly an expert.”

“Who could be better experts than us at taking down corporations?”

‘Without help from other corporations, it’s impossible to corner a corporation through public opinion warfare.’

This sentence meant that the people who could trouble corporations the most in Stella City were none other than corporate PR teams.

“This doesn’t seem like something that should even reach me. Why bring it up to me specifically?”

“Well…… It didn’t seem simple enough to decide at my level. I had no choice.”

“Come on, you’ve got enough experience under your belt. Why so nervous? Sure, it’s a bit big in scale…… but it’s an expose that won’t amount to anything, right?”

The PR team’s superior gently reasoned with his subordinate.

“Have you checked how other corporations are responding? They probably aren’t too concerned either, right?”

“Well…… Some corporations seem to be responding quite aggressively……”

“……Are they amateurs?”

There were quite a few corporations based in Stella City, and countless corporations with internal factories were involved in this scandal.

A novice PR team from a small corporation might not grasp the gravity of the situation.

“This isn’t even something the media would write about in the first place.”

Whether it was Hansan, General Machina, or any other corporation.

All media outlets had their ‘masters’ they served. Media that didn’t were relegated to the corners of the internet, let alone TV.

Even then, if they spread even a little bit of information that ‘harmed corporations,’ legal teams would immediately descend upon them.

Corporations dealt with ‘defamation’ very aggressively, and ordinary people couldn’t even reach for such information.

“……They say they’re going to write about it.”

“Which crazy person would write this as an article?”

“I only heard rumors, so I can’t be certain, but anyway, the PR teams that are moving now are operating under that assumption.”

“This is strange……”

Assuming this wasn’t a lie, there must be another force behind it. But no matter how much they thought about it, they couldn’t identify who that force might be.

“Why would they do something that hurts their own corporation……”

“Maybe there are groups not involved in this?”

“Well, since it’s all factory-related incidents… Oshōtomo? Even that seems a bit odd, though.”

Stella City was vast, and most corporations had local factories.

Even in a world where corporations monopolized all power, wealth, and force, they couldn’t completely ignore national laws.

If you set up a factory in America, you had to follow American labor laws, safety regulations, and environmental regulations.

But Stella City was a free city. Though enormous in scale, they weren’t under any nation’s rule and only followed the city’s regulations, which they themselves elected.

Considering that the mayor and city council members were on the corporations’ side, there was no reason not to build factories here.

The police were completely in the corporations’ hands, and even the rules were in their hands. It was like heaven for corporations, where they could do anything without criticism.

But there were variables.

“Oshōtomo… They were a pottery company, right?”

“Their craftsmanship is well-known. A company that absolutely won’t build factories anywhere except Japan.”

“Maybe…… but did Oshōtomo have that much influence in Stella City?”

“Well. Besides them, there are some IT companies that don’t have factories here either. If all those companies banded together, it wouldn’t be strange……”

The superior shook his head after saying that much.

“It can’t be.”

“Why not?”

“Hansan is involved.”

Looking at the world at large was one thing, but Hansan’s influence in Stella City was overwhelming.

A few mediocre companies wouldn’t dare to scheme against Hansan.

“……Don’t worry about it and do your job. I’ll take responsibility.”

“But I’m really worried. Other corporations aren’t stupid, and them moving like this…”

“Enough. I said I’ll take responsibility, didn’t I? Why so scared? Are we not busy enough, people? I’ve been doing this job for more than just a day or two.”

The PR team’s subordinate reluctantly nodded and accepted the superior’s instructions.

He was a good person. Many superiors wouldn’t care whether their subordinates worked or not, but this one even cited his own experience to tell them to take it easy.

But the subordinate couldn’t ignore that unsettling instinct.

It felt like something was going to happen. Something unreasonable and unnatural that couldn’t be explained by common sense.

***

“Yes. Just upload it exactly as is, without omission.”

Lisa was making calls to media outlets with a severely distorted face.

“Is it really okay to go ahead with this? It wouldn’t be strange to face retaliation at any time……”

“That.”

Her head turned slightly, and her eyes met with the man watching this scene with a frivolous expression.

“You’ll have to accept that risk.”

“No, even if you’re the police chief, that’s not right. You should give us clear guidelines about what we can and can’t do, shouldn’t you?”

It was a statement devoid of any journalistic spirit, but in Stella City, it was practically everyday life.

From a journalist’s perspective, it was more convenient to have clear and precise lines drawn than to deal with corporations and police who drew ambiguous lines and then imposed all sorts of disadvantages.

There was no need to put effort into investigating or verifying truthfulness and no risk of getting hurt by precariously walking an unclear line.

But Lisa had nothing more to say.

“All I can tell you is that not reporting this would be more dangerous than reporting it.”

“This is crazy…… Chief. Are you really doing this? After how cooperative we’ve been with the police……”

“We wouldn’t push this strongly with media outlets that weren’t cooperative.”

“I’m in a difficult position too. But I can tell you seriously. Not reporting this will be more dangerous than reporting it.”

After pausing briefly to read the atmosphere, the journalist carefully opened their mouth.

“Are you perhaps being held hostage and threatened somewhere?”

Without assuming such a situation, the police chief’s instructions were completely incomprehensible.

No corporation would benefit, and the moment this hits the airwaves, corporate legal teams will launch retaliatory lawsuits.

The responsibility to investigate the truth of reported facts would fall entirely on the media outlet, and the moment they fail, they’ll have to pay massive compensation.

Even if it’s all true, the media outlet will be torn apart during the endless litigation where they’ll nitpick every word.

For corporations, it was entirely possible to create fake evidence or use judges to get not guilty verdicts despite clear evidence.

Even without considering all this, just corporations pulling their advertising would be enough to end a media outlet’s life.

A media outlet without money would have to write lower-quality articles and hire inexperienced rookies instead of proper journalists.

No matter how you looked at it, only doom remained in the future.

“Threats… you say.”

“You know our situation! I know what I said was harsh, but no matter how I think about it, I had to consider such a possibility……”

“Well, it’s something like that.”

Lisa didn’t even try to deny it.

Though he wasn’t holding a gun, it was no different from a thug occupying the police station and pressuring them with, ‘If you don’t say this, I’ll kill everyone!’

“……I understand. You should know that this entire conversation is being recorded. If we get hurt, we won’t die alone!”

“By all means, do so.”

The phone was hung up roughly. Lisa struggled to raise her head to look at the man who had been watching this scene.

“Are you satisfied now?”

“Well, this much.”

Han Sanwoo nodded with an arrogant face.

“As I said, this is by no means a small matter. Our person died. In that short time!”

“When you say Hansan’s person……”

“John. There was a brief misunderstanding that made him leave our company, but he was a very precious talent of Hansan. Such a person lost his life at the hands of other corporations!”

Lisa couldn’t help but shudder at his shamelessness.

He was the one who fired him. He was the one who pushed him out himself with ridiculous excuses.

If he had really valued him, he wouldn’t have pushed him out of the company in the first place.

“……I feel very sorry about it.”

It wasn’t like there weren’t people killed by Hansan among the victims in the documents.

Ignoring that as if it wasn’t even visible, he was pressuring her to damage other corporations.

It was disgusting, but Lisa had no choice but to bow her head. He was Han Sanwoo of the Hansan family, and he was a person with the authority to force his unreasonable demands on others.

“As you just heard, the media outlet has promised to report it.”

“The investigation?”

“Given that this isn’t a small matter, we’re first verifying the facts and determining the order…”

“Let’s do this quickly. Okay? We didn’t give you those rifles and bulletproof vests so you could hole up here eating donuts.”

As his hand familiarly landed on her shoulder, Lisa could only bite her lip tightly.

“If you don’t want to harm that pretty face, work hard. Okay?”

What was most disgusting was his attitude of trying to exploit even death.

Someone had died. According to testimony, someone who had made eye contact with him at least once had died.

She didn’t expect him to be sad. But at least, couldn’t he have shown even one gloomy expression for his death?

Looking at Han Sanwoo’s disgusting expression, Lisa could only desperately pray for this time to pass.