Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 15: Public Opinion Backlash

Gary realized that he was in trouble, big trouble!

Initially, when Lincoln stirred up public opinion on the Internet, the department had discussed strategies to deal with it.

The options were limited to evading the important points, shifting the topic, and outright denial.

However, when reporting to his boss, the newly promoted boss was young and energetic, and clearly unhappy.

Gary could understand; after all, it was the boss who had given the speech at the press conference.

And then a college student no one had ever heard of pointed fingers right at his nose and cursed him, while hundreds of thousands or even millions of netizens watched, resulting in a severe loss of face.

It was normal to be upset.

Gary thought he'd flatter his new boss and came up with a rather damaging countermeasure.

"We can go on the offensive, attacking and smearing the college student. As long as we lead the narrative and make the public believe that Lincoln is a 'bad guy,' whatever he says will be considered fake, even if it isn't, we can say he has ulterior motives!"

As expected, the boss was pleased with the plan, promptly approving it and even increasing the public relations budget.

With this money, Gary instructed his subordinates to spend whatever it took on a water army while using his connections to bribe media outlets, guiding the wind direction.

Finally, in a very short time, he managed to reverse the public opinion: NetDragon was the victim, and Lincoln was ill-intentioned, maliciously smearing a national tech company for his own selfish purposes.

Yes, during the crisis management, Gary didn't forget to buy articles, giving NetDragon, a gaming and VR gaming company, the title of a "national technology enterprise."

He proudly taught his subordinates: "Crisis PR is both a crisis and an opportunity!"

After this operation, he immediately gained the favor of his new boss, shifting his role from being relatively marginalized to being more and more valued.

But now, with the release of Lincoln's video, netizens would immediately think: This guy is a genius! Everything he said before must be true! His rivals must be absolutely evil!

Netizens are like bipolar switches.

And then NetDragon would face a tenfold to a hundredfold public opinion backlash!

As much fun as they had manipulating public opinion before, they would have to eat their bitter fruit now, as a storm was about to hit NetDragon!

The ambitious listing plan of the new boss could already be declared completely bankrupt!

So who would take the blame?

It had to be Gary! If not him, who else?

When it rains it pours; just as he wanted to rush back to the company, the traffic police knocked on his car window.

"Hello, you have parked illegally. Please show your driver's license and vehicle registration."

He could only shout in the department group via voice message, "All employees return to the company and work overtime!" while obediently taking out his credentials and saying softly, "Traffic officer, here are the documents."

At this moment, someone else was in the same state as him - dispirited.

Edmund.

"It's fake! It must be fake! This is impossible!"

In the past few days, he hadn't hesitated to share news attacks on Lincoln in his group chats.

His comments were always like this:

"The public opinion is really unfavorable for Lincoln!"

"The public's impression of him has been set! Even if he does make improvements to the new device, not many people will see it! It won't change the public's perception of him!"

"It's a pity that Lincoln, with his amazing talent, says he can make a revolutionary improvement on virtual reality devices in a week! But the public opinion has been set, and it's irreversible. Such a pity!"

The classmates were so annoyed by his smug face but couldn't find a way to refute him, so they tried to ignore him as much as possible.

Now, the outcome was completely unexpected by everyone. Although the classmates were shocked by Lincoln's abilities, it didn't stop them from mentioning Edmund in the group chat.

"@Edmund, Edmund, go see your idol!"

"@Edmund, Edmund, your most admired Lincoln has completed the device's improvements! Hurry up and support him!"

"@Edmund, not daring to come out now? Don't be a turtle hiding in its shell!"

"When Edmund came to the group chat, everyone laughed at him. Some called out, 'Edmund, you've been slapped in the face again!' He didn't reply. Then they shouted, 'You must've been slapped in the face again!' Edmund's face turned red, veins popping on his forehead, and argued, 'How can scientific research be considered a slap in the face?' Then he spouted some incomprehensible words, like not counting if he didn't see it with his own eyes, or losing only half by surrendering, which caused everyone to burst into laughter: the entire group chat was filled with joy."

Feeling humiliated by this biblical level of trolling, Edmund could only pretend not to see it, grinding his teeth in anger.

After venting their frustrations, the classmates in the group chat began to @Lincoln again.

"@Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincoln! Come out and meet your fans!"

"@Lincoln, we're all your idols, no, fans!"

"@Lincoln, are you sure you're not an alien in disguise? Virtual reality, consciousness immersion, what kind of high-level invention is this!"

Lincoln had already poured the alcohol into the sink and was lurking, peeping at the activity in the class group chat.

——Originally, he wanted to pour the alcohol on the ground to pay tribute to his poor predecessor.

But considering that he would have to clean it up after pouring it on the ground, he changed his mind and went into the bathroom, pouring it into the sink instead.

Well... it's all about the intention, as long as the meaning is conveyed, it's okay.

Seeing that some classmates were beginning to suspect that he was an alien, he felt he had no choice but to show up, otherwise who knows what they would guess next.

"Hello everyone, is this my fan group?"

The classmates were very supportive.

"That's right, you've come to the right place!"

"We're all your fans!"

"I declare, from now on, the Lincoln Global Fan Support Club is established! Lincoln, fly with confidence, iU will always accompany you!"

Lincoln was immediately taken aback with a tactical backflip. What was this?

The key was that all of these people were male classmates! Not a single female student was present!

"Where is my fan leader? First, kick out my anti-fans."

Edmund, who was silently lurking, was startled: Is this anti-fan talking about me? Are they joking? I hope no one really kicks me out.

The monitor hesitated for a moment, then indeed felt the urge to take action, as Edmund had been annoying for more than a day or two.

Fortunately, at this time, the class adviser spoke up and Edmund escaped the fate of being kicked out of the class group chat.

"Lincoln, is this what you call 'a little improvement'? Or is our understanding of the term off by just a little bit... "

Feeling unsatisfied, the class adviser even screenshotted and sent out the previous message where Lincoln claimed there was just a little improvement.

Before Lincoln could reply, the classmates were already laughing.

"That's right, it's just a billion improvements."

"Fingertip Universe.jpg"

"Ah, about that..." Lincoln quickly made up an excuse, "You know, doing scientific research, sometimes inspiration comes, and you can't block it."

...

Seeing such a shameless excuse, the group chat fell into a brief silence again.

"What kind of mundane words are these!"

"Are you the master of Versailles Literature?"

"When Master Lin left the academic circle, I was strongly opposed."

The classmates, seeing their fellow student make such a startling world-class invention, were obviously very excited, and the group chat was lively, never stopping for a moment.

It wasn't until Edmund surfaced again, forwarding a Spiritual Rhinoceros post:

"Genius or Fraud: Can a college student who has yet to graduate and never set foot in a laboratory really make a world-shocking invention?"

"Lincoln, are you sure you didn't fake it? If you do, confess sooner rather than later or the impact will be really bad."

"???"

"???"

"???"

A row of question marks appeared in the group chat.

They typed question marks not because they had doubts, but because they thought Edmund had issues!