Dominating Evolution of the Cosmos

221 Malicious Rumors

Steve appeared to be an absolute villain in the entire video, wanting to buy the Blood-Sucking Grass forcibly and bullying the clerk of the Black Tiger Store. Even when the clerk of the Black Tiger Store begged for mercy, Steve still had a bad attitude.

After watching the video, Steve immediately found that they'd edited the time in an disorderly fashion, thus manipulating the video into what he had just seen. However, the soldiers on the internet did not know what had actually happened.

So, the video immediately caused a great sensation on the internet. Many people who did not know Steve now regarded him as a villain. The comments left below the video included numerous abusive remarks...

Trash-like thing! Has this kind of scum become the new king among the new recruits?

This recruit named Steve is so disgusting! The Black Tiger Store already said that the Blood-Sucking Grass had been reserved, and he still wanted to sue the Black Tiger Store! He was just bullying the clerks...

Where is Steve? I'm going to give him a good beating!

The new recruits are too despicable! We can't let him continue being this arrogant.

I've dealt with Steve before, and he was really nice. He didn't seem like this kind of person at all... Antonio wrote in the comments section, following the myriad negative comments by other people who were logged on.

He then added one more comment...I've heard a lot about the Black Tiger Store bullying new recruits. However, it's the first time that I've heard that recruits bullied the Black Tiger Store.

Many people in the comments section were scolding Steve, and some even threatened to retaliate against him and teach him the rules of the military base. Of course, there were one or two people who spoke well of Steve, but they were few and far between. So, their comments were quickly overwhelmed by the negative comments, thus having no effect at all.

In addition to the video of the Black Tiger Store, there were also pictures of Steve beating Eric and the others. As the military base was monitored, Steve guessed that Lawrence and the others had gotten the videos from the surveillance cameras. But, instead of releasing the complete video, they'd only released only some pictures, which were much easier to manipulate and edit.

In the picture, Wally and the others seemed to be negotiating with Steve, while some recordings were being played. The pictures captured when Wally asked Steve to withdraw the lawsuit and offered him compensation, but Steve had disagreed.

Then, the pictures appeared to show that it was Steve who had started to attack them first, while Wally only fought back. The pictures then showed that all three were defeated by Steve, and one even got a close-up of Oliver's chest, which was torn by Steve.

The collection also included pictures of Wally and the others being pushed into a police car. Although they were an incomplete showing of the whole story, the pictures, which are described below, managed to tell the general story:

Wally and the others wanted to negotiate with Steve to withdraw the lawsuit and compensate him. But, Steve disagreed, then attacked them ferociously.

Relying on his strength, he'd beaten Wally and the others severely. Then, the police caught them.

Here, the publishers of the pictures had deliberately used some key phrases within the captions to arouse the hatred of the veterans against the recruits. These included saying things like how the new recruits were so arrogant, and that they could not sit idly by, and so on. Those veterans who didn't know what had happened were provoked and wanted to right these wrongs.

Steve has gone too far. Wally just wanted to negotiate with him. They even wanted to compensate him for withdrawing the lawsuit, but he attacked them.

Steve's attack was too malicious. Was he trying to kill people?

Abhorrent recruits! It is clear that he bullied the Black Tiger Store. The Black Tiger Combat Unit wanted to negotiate with him, and yet he dared to be so arrogant.

As a veteran, I can't tolerate this kind of thing!

If we don't make Steve pay for this, we veterans will lose face!

Most of the comments were slanderous, which caused the veterans to be disgusted with Steve. Many veterans who didn't know the truth now regarded Steve as an absolute villain and wanted to find him and beat him up immediately.

There were many similar topics in other online forums, most of which defamed Steve and portrayed him as a villain. After Steve had finished viewing all of them, his face grew gloomy. He hadn't realized that the Black Tiger Store was so despicable that it would stoop so low.

Moreover, Steve found that the Black Tiger Store was smart enough to hide Vivien's existence. Vivien could not be seen in either the videos or pictures!

"They're terrible. They were obviously the ones who bullied Vivien in the first place. Steve was only asking for justice for Vivien. But, they've depicted Steve as an unforgivable villain." Lucy was furious.

"We have to tell the truth. Steve's not like that!" Allen's expression was one of anger, too.

The Black Tigers had come to their doors in the morning to provoke them. They had looked like the fierce and wicked bad guys that they were, but now Steve had turned into the wicked guy, and the Black Tigers had become the victims.

Such a reversal, which included the slandering of Steve, made the people who knew the truth furious. More than a dozen people, including Lucy and Sofia, commented on the internet in an attempt to recover Steve's reputation and prove that he was the messenger of justice. Unfortunately, their comments had no effect at all.

"Forget it, the Black Tiger Combat Unit deliberately discredited me. They've deliberately stirred up the hatred of the veterans. Those veterans who don't know the truth have been easily deceived." Steve spoke up, trying to stop them.

Even if they tried to explain, it would still be useless. These kinds of internet rumors were the most terrible. As long as the Black Tigers could control the hatred of the people and ignite their anger and hatred, they could turn the tides of public opinion forever.

After all, on one ever seemed to take the time to find out what was really going on. As such, the difference between truth and lies on the Internet was often difficult to differentiate, and no one was willing to spend a lot of time and energy investigating the truth.

This especially applied to all of the people on the internet who only saw things from one side or were blinded by the so-called truths. They saw these things and would start attacking the person involved in the rumors.

They didn't need the truth, and they certainly wouldn't spend time finding out the truth. Instead, they just saw what they wanted to see. They would then support these statements, even if they were only false rumors.

Even if it turned out that everything was indeed a rumor, they would then appear as victims or deceived bystanders. They would only admit that they had been deceived, not that they were part of the problem itself, the perpetrators behind-the-scenes!

Even when the truth came out, they wouldn't even bother to look at it again, or they would ignore it directly, as if it didn't exist. After all, they would never admit that they had been wrong!

If rumors were terrible, then the ignorant people who allowed themselves to get carried away with them were even more terrible! They were accomplices and perpetrators, but they ended up pretending to have been deceived.

As for those who were hurt by the rumors, most of them would choose to try and forget the whole ordeal and move on. Just like now, even if Steve were to step up to explain and tell the truth on the internet using his own identity, no one would believe him.

He might even attract even more abusive comments and scoldings. That was why Steve had chosen to give up his defense temporarily.