Chapter 296: Baiting The Elite Part 2

The following day, the usual squeak of media gears could be heard internationally about President Ross's phone call toward Arias. The contents of it were not revealed; instead, the media was only told that the president had contacted Arias Markovich in an attempt to have him speak to his daughter, the Queen, as the world largely saw the decision to go to war being hers. 

Along with this, a bunch of political bigotry was added that many media channels integrated in their own ways, with analysts going as far as to dissect possible scenarios of what could come up.

The president also stated clearly that the US, along with the other warring nations, were proposing a summit at neutral grounds, and currently, governments were in communication with one another to decide on neutral territory and that Markovia had also been sent an invitation but was yet to reply. 

This was just yet another tactic by the Allied nations. Because they were simply saying to the world they didn't want war, they did want conflict, and they didn't want innocent people to die. So, was Markovia really the only one seeking war? 

Then, they would go from looking like the underdog to being the villain. It was simply that easy to control the narrative provided you have access to the right channels.

And like it or not, as things stood, Arias had little power over media organizations globally. Instead, it was the mega-corporations and banks that controlled them and the narrative. These were the true targets for Arias, for they were the ones he needed to deal with if he wanted the smoothness of his operations to continue. 

The hidden billionaires and the mega-corporations to which the governments owed billions and often did favors for, to not only reduce said debt but to borrow even more money, and the banks through which all the money in the world flowed through and/or was kept. These were the true elites that could control the narrative and the rate at which the world progressed as they wished.

His interest in the growing population of meta-humans, aliens, and other beings brought about unexpected circumstances. But where there were unexpected circumstances, there were opportunities. 

And the biggest of these opportunities was the one Arias currently had hold of. And like with most people that suddenly emerged into immense wealth with global influence, Arias became the target of many, a good number of whom sought what he currently had, seeing great potential in it. 

Though they never outrightly asked to take it all from him, as they knew o too smart and he possessed more than enough power to protect himself from any accidents that could remove him from the picture.

Which meant their only option was to get a piece of the pie, like most of the hidden elite did by buying major stocks in huge companies overnight, hiding their own true wealth, and leaving people like Arias to be the poster boy of titles such as the richest man in the world when, in actuality, the true richest were far much richer. 

With the control they had over the world and the connections with other people in a similar stance with them, it wasn't hard to see these people as untouchable, capable of doing and hiding anything they so wished. The world, in simplicity, was their playground, and if they wanted something, anyone would be hard-pressed to prevent them from taking it.

Arias's hold over the meta-human and alien population was growing exponentially, so much so that if it continued, the structure that took generations to create by the elite would fall apart. The power they held onto in their families for so long would be meaningless for someone who didn't bow to their will existed, which in itself wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that he posed a significant risk to shatter the control they had worked so hard to attain.

This was something the media didn't tell its people. This was the deeper meaning behind the so-called summit of nations. The moment Arias displayed destructive power no the nation or elite could counter with force, the same way nuclear weapons had once dominated as the most devastating force in the nation's arsenal. 

The unknown attacks carried out by Markovia were seen in the same way, and so Markovia could be considered untouchable, which again would be considered as not problem, as the elite would never encroach on territory that was either too dangerous or offered no value, which was why they never bothered with nations that had nuclear capabilities and instead left them to their own devices, simply controlling the media narrative and ensuring not many people knew of the atrocities that were going on over there.

On the surface, they would claim to try and secure freedom. In reality, off-the-record deals existed, and said good countries would often perform more horrific acts than those they displayed as villainous in their media. This was what it meant to be against the world, and this was the power

 President Ross had hinted at in the phone call with Arias. If one couldn't control the people beneath them, or if they all sought to destroy you, collapse was imminent, and the only way to establish order would be through force, which in itself was inefficient.

This was a powerful move by them and a desperate one. Having gone this route, Arias was sure that if Markovia accepted the meeting at the summit, then they would offer a set of negotiations that could be seen as largely fair by not only the nations present at the summit but also the world at large. 

He was sure that so-called concerned civilians would be randomly interviewed and asked about their views on what was discussed at the summit, with many of them agreeing with the proposal and condemning Markovia should they delay or refuse said negotiations. 

This would be the start of the crumble of Markovia's reputation, from a meta-human paradise to a war-seeking nation, which Arias was sure normal people would buy into.

So the question now was, how to best handle this?