Chapter 260 196: Public Opinion Explosion
Edge Mansion.
Su Mo received the video file sent back by Ivan and watched all the contents inside.
As expected, what Lucio and Matsuzo Medical were discussing were all despicable matters.
In the original plot, Lucio was portrayed as a scoundrel hiding behind a facade of charity, caring only for his own interests.
The so-called foundation was merely a tool for him to accumulate wealth.
The main trick of the Libetong Foundation was to launch a charity project to attract donations, then invest the money in areas with highly manipulable accounts with downstream partners.
For example, for something costing 500 monthly coins, Lucio had people use 5,000 monthly coins of charitable funds to purchase it, and then make the accounts look immaculate.
In this way, 4,500 monthly coins turned into pure profit for the investment target, and then both parties secretly split the money, with public donations circulating back into their own pockets.
Tareg, as one of the female protagonists of the game "Dawn," was disliked by many players, not just because of her idiotic saintly philosophy, but also because of her attitude towards Lucio.
As Lucio's daughter, Tareg was well aware of her father's money-grabbing schemes under the guise of charity, even using her animal protection project for profit.
But she didn't care at all.
She only cared whether the funding from her father was enough and whether her saintly moral standards were satisfied; everything else was irrelevant.
Su Mo already harbored immense malice towards these two, and happened to want to deliver a punishing blow indirectly.
Now with the key evidence in hand, not dealing them a severe blow would be unjustifiable.
Su Mo picked up the phone and called Sikinkov: "Hey, old buddy, am I disturbing your sleep?"
Sikinkov's voice showed no signs of fatigue: "No, I'm working overtime to finish the report for tomorrow's meeting, what's up?"
Su Mo: "I recall your relationship with Lucio is not very good."
Sikinkov: "Yeah, the consortium behind Lucio and the people backing me are rivals, and he's been eyeing my place on the executive committee for a long time."
Su Mo sent Ivan's secretly recorded video to Sikinkov and chuckled: "Check your email, I sent you something fun."
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a long time.
Suddenly, Sikinkov's astonished voice came through: "Oh my! Little brother, where did you get this video?!"
Su Mo slyly replied: "Don't ask for more, just say if it's a surprise or not."
"You really... always manage to pull off some shocking things for me." Sikinkov hesitated for a moment, then tentatively asked, "You want me to use this video to take down Lucio?"
Su Mo: "For me, and for you, it's a win-win for both of us."
Sikinkov: "But you should know, evidence obtained in such illegal ways won't be recognized in court."
Su Mo laughed lightly: "Who said anything about going to court? You just need to find an opportunity to release this video publicly, there's no need for judicial procedures, Lucio won't get away unscathed."
Sikinkov refused without hesitation: "It definitely won't work if I release it, there are rules in politics, even if you have dirt on someone, you deal with it privately."
"If I don't follow the rules, others will deal with me recklessly in the future, and things will get chaotic."
He paused, then changed the subject: "However... if this was done by a hacker, it wouldn't be pinned on me, wouldn't you say?"
Su Mo and Sikinkov chuckled slyly together, like a pair of cunning old foxes.
...
The next day, the City Council's monthly work meeting was held as scheduled.
Before the meeting began, Lucio sat in his seat talking to his son-in-law on the phone: "Chenyu, don't worry, I'll deal with that Su character for you at the meeting. Yeah, just take care of your Mercenary Corps, leave the rest to your father-in-law."
People filed in one after another, and the meeting began.
These kinds of work meetings were held every month, where the department heads reported to the City Council President Amir about their work status, and various executive committee members and council members sent representatives to evaluate these reports and propose relevant suggestions.
The reports from other department heads were similar to last month's.
Sikinkov had more to report, having just launched a campaign to purge the Crow's Nest and quickly ended it, requiring many details to be explained.
After Sikinkov's report, it was the turn of representatives of the executive committee and council members to speak.
Lucio was one of the representatives, and after some token official talk, he began to attack Su Mo.
"We all know that Su Mo handled the hostage incident at Xinghai Cinema quite well and deserves commendation for it, but he seems to have gotten somewhat carried away with himself."
"The current situation at Edge Mansion seems very unreasonable to me, Edge Technology, this company, currently only has over two hundred employees, yet they occupy a super skyscraper with a hundred floors in total, which is an extreme waste of public resources!"
Sikinkov pressed the speak button and calmly said: "Edge Technology is in the startup phase, having over two hundred people now doesn't mean there will always only be over two hundred. It's reasonable for them to have a larger office space in advance, isn't it?"
Lucio coughed lightly and intentionally used a tone laden with meaning: "Mr. Sikinkov, I know you're in a hurry because you have a good private relationship with Su Mo, but don't rush just yet."
Sikinkov laughed lightly in response: "Why should I be in a hurry? He's just a friend of mine. What? Can't a director have friends?"
"But you, Mr. Lucio, chose Chenyu, the leader of the Mercenary Corps, as your son-in-law, your connections with the Mercenary Realm are much closer than mine."
Lucio immediately diverted the topic: "We are currently not discussing the mercenary group but discussing Su Mo and his Edge Technology, let's not confuse the two."
