Chapter 26: Good Times

"The criminal thought he was a warrior, a warrior facing ten opponents, but in reality, we only needed a pot and a chair to make them bleed profusely!"

The big screen showed the dreadlocked Black guy being hit until he bled, looking furious and shocked, like a startled dog.

In the lower left corner of the screen, there was a watermark: Technical support provided by Bloom Security Consultancy Company.

Indeed, this Bloom Company was the consulting company Lille had just registered, mainly providing a complete set of security monitoring system installation services.

In fact, Lille had wanted to register the company as "Cyber Technology," but unfortunately, the world already had a Cyber Technology, and Lille didn't want to be associated with them at this stage.

The name Bloom Company came from the game "Watch Dogs," a company engaged in high-tech intelligent development, whose renowned masterpiece, the ctOS system, could bring an entire city under system supervision, representing the pinnacle of smart city control technologies.

Lille also hoped to achieve that level someday.

Now, Anthony was in the street bellowing out publicity about the conflict that occurred in the apartment building.

It must be said, this Latino man had a really strong voice; he had been speaking for days and hadn't gone hoarse yet.

The screen juxtaposed the images of the dreadlocked Black guy strutting on the street and being beaten to a bloody pulp in the apartment.

The applause suddenly roared.

This would later be recognized as market-tested editing technology—people loved to see arrogant individuals getting punished, such as owners of cars that recklessly stopped behind others on highways, being detained by traffic police.

Winning the audience's approval, Anthony spoke even more excitedly, "Over at the NYPD, he thought he was a tough guy!"

The TV showed the dreadlocked guy at the NYPD, not walking properly, swaggering around.

He kept uttering words like "boss" and "save me," which only increased the stress.

Then the screen switched, Chief George Stacy pulled out an arrest warrant, the guy's expression changed drastically, he tried to flee, and then George emptied his magazine.

"That's refreshing!"

"Well done!"

"This, this is America!"

"Let him feel a little bit of an American shock!"

The crowd was even more thrilled; they were all for emptying the magazine!

In Hell's Kitchen, who hasn't been robbed or stolen from?

For various reasons, resistance was a luxurious word for ordinary people, but now, someone had done it!

Anthony continued, "But he's just a dog! He thought he was a person, but he's just a stray dog that imagines having an owner!

We, on the other hand, unite, rely on each other, and the courage and strength we burst forth far surpass these humanoid dogs!

Join us, join the Clinton District Homeowners Association, let's make our lives better! Fight our enemies!"

The TVs by the roadside continued to play the scene of John beating up a hoodlum, and people exclaimed how exhilarating it was.

Any normal person enjoyed watching criminals getting thrashed.

After finishing his speech, Anthony stepped down from the podium to drink water.

In just those few minutes, a few more homeowners who intended to join the association signed up at the registration table.

Attorney Matt was handling the registrations and explaining the duties and rights of homeowners.

On the roadside were two vans, one was a truck used to carry the publicity tools.

The other was a communications van, where Skye was crouching inside doing online promotion, while Lille was adjusting a newly replaced camera nearby.

A few days passed, and this small group had become professional-looking.

This was because the company had completed its registration, and the bids with the NYPD had successfully landed.

To win the bid, Lille dropped the price very low—after all, for him, apart from some labor costs and camera costs, there were no R&D costs.

Moreover, electrical issues that gave old electricians headaches and kept them away were just a matter of spending a bit more time for Lille.

If it continued like this, the New York Power Authority would consider hiring Lille at a high salary.

After winning the bid, although the project money was paid in stages, winning the bid meant they could take out loans, which was a very important part of credit evaluation.

With the loan, he bought publicity equipment, and Lille's homeowners' association gained some fame.

Homeowners paid fees to the association to carry out related services, and as a measure to attract homeowners to join the association, Bloom Company would reduce the service fees.

This way, both emotionally and financially, there was a basis to join the association.

As more people joined, it was natural for Lille to collect some membership fees—this way, cash flow started picking up.

Although it wasn't very healthy yet—start-ups always have a process—the small cash flow could lead to more loans from banks.

Things had entered a virtuous cycle, and as long as the status was maintained, the future would be better.

"Boss, how was my performance just now?" Anthony came over.

Lille gave a thumbs up: "As good as the past few days—no, actually it's getting better. I still remember how nervous you were on the first day.

You might have some talent there; your voice is steady and powerful, and your posture while speaking is very impactful."

"Haha—stop it," Anthony laughed happily. "I've always loved singing since I was little, my mom even said I could be a singing star when I grow up.

"I never expected my talent could be used in this place."

Speaking, Anthony said solemnly, "And I'm truly happy to apply my talent here, boss. Honestly, the last time I felt truly alive was when I had my daughter.

Holding Emmaline, I felt she was a treasure given to me by heaven, and I would do anything to let her experience the beauty of the world."

Now, I feel like I'm making the world a better place—this is much more fulfilling than just moving stuff around.

I believe John would feel the same."

On the side, John, holding a TV, chuckled as he loaded it into the van, "You make it sound like I'm holding a gold brick!"

"Haha, give me a break, I saw you signing autographs just now, anyone would've thought you were an NBA star if they didn't know better."

Lille was also quite moved watching this scene.

Memories like this surfaced—back in his younger days in his previous life, he too would often hit the streets—

Friends with a shared purpose walked the streets planning to do something for the world, feeling everything was so wonderful.

"Screw this..."

Just then, a vulgar oath reached his ears, and Lille followed the sound to see Skye muttering under his breath.

Noticing Lille's gaze, Skye scratched his head: "Everyone online supports what we're doing, it's just that the website keeps deleting posts. I'm using bots on a massive scale to send videos.

Do you think I should hack their backend?"

"Botnets" refer to computers that have been infected by hackers with a Trojan horse and can be remotely controlled. Hackers use botnets as a form of disguise or even as computational weapons when needed to conduct hacking activities, and they are also known as zombie machines.

Lille didn't respond, but moved closer to the computer—

He immediately saw a string of expletives Skye typed out, ready to be sent.

"Ugh... There's no helping it; this person is playing the reasonable man online. He says Hell's Kitchen is void of good, especially John, even calling him a word... a racial slur for black people."

Lille turned back around, "Then give him hell—just don't hack someone else's backend, let's see if the automatic posting system can handle this."

"Roger that."

Soon, everything was packed into the van, and the equipment was adjusted. Lille planned to set up surveillance at the next site.

In just these few days, the Trojan at the substation had spread, covering over 70% of Manhattan's power grid within Lille's monitoring range.

This made setting up surveillance a lot easier, allowing public and private surveillance to seamlessly interface within a 5-kilometer radius.

These days there had been petty thieves who tried to steal without paying, the most unfortunate ran into a tough spot—homeowners relying on surveillance and one even broke a thief's leg with a shot.

The evidence was solid, nothing came of it.

Hell's Kitchen's environment was subtly changing—people might still fear those gangs that kill indiscriminately in the shadows,

but these small-time shoplifters, they're not afraid of them anymore.

In fact, given some time, as these shoplifters' financial sources are cut off, the upstream criminal forces would also be affected—

Let's not forget, good people aren't going to dabble in dirty stuff.

Lies were one of the root causes behind Hell's Kitchen's current state, now Lille was trying to spread part of the truth into the sunlight.

Bang bang, Lille patted the car, signaling to Matt, "Next site—last one for today, then we wrap it up."

Matt got in the car, saying to Lille, "These days have been rather... fulfilling."

It was a heartfelt sentiment.

Matt's past was dark and rough, ever since he lost his sight, his days were gloomy and seemingly endless,

After being encouraged by his father, his father then died in an underground boxing ring.

It could be said that for most of his life, he wandered through confusion.

Sometimes as the Night Demon, he wanted to take vengeful actions, sometimes as a lawyer he wanted to bring hope to people, and sometimes... he was just daydreaming,

Dreaming about his life without all the unfortunate events, never thinking about now or the future.

"As long as life involves doing meaningful things, every day can be fulfilling."

Matt deeply agreed—now he was starting to envision the future, imagining the changes he could bring to the world, imagining a better life ahead.

Reflecting on this, he asked, "After this is handled, what do you plan to do next?"

Lille shrugged, "I'm thinking of going to Empire College to study, I heard there's a very famous professor of cellular biology there.

You know, my health issues."

Matt was about to say something else when he suddenly sensed something—

100 meters ahead, someone raised their hand.

What they held in their hand was... a steel pick?

Matt's face paled, and he suddenly pushed Lille away!

Snap!

The glass shattered, scattering like splashes of water!