Chapter 277: Chapter 52 Fighting Poison with Poison

Anvis analyzed the gains from the banquet and set those thoughts aside, lifting his hand to trace out an Array with Frost Lines to unlock the Crystal Bird Secret Pattern on the surface of the letter.

Pulling out the light yellow stationery, Anvis slowly unfolded it. The letter contained the latest intelligence from the family, still penned by the butler Leonard.

Duke Carrot has created a new High-Level Secret Technique that can significantly increase his mental vitality in a short period of time and has instructed to be the first to be informed of this.

Signs of a new uprising by a Resistance Organization have emerged in the territory of elder brother Remont, who has already arranged for a search for their base and the whereabouts of their leaders, but to little effect.

The adoption rate of the Mechanical Train in the province has reached 27%, with major cities achieving a connectivity rate of 48%.

Olivendi Academy was attacked by enemies, resulting in accidental injuries to two students. The perpetrator was a Guard of Viscount Carl, who has since committed suicide out of fear of the crime.

…

Massive rumors have surfaced in Karlars City, as word on the street has it: The reason for the attack on the city is actually a secret weapon test by the Olivendi Family.

Negative rumors of varying degrees have also emerged in other areas of the province, with the family having sent people to suppress them, but with mediocre results.

Upon seeing this item, Anvis’s fingers paused slightly before continuing downwards.

The following few items didn’t require special attention. After reading all of the recent news, Anvis’s gaze refocused on the item about the rumors.

Massive rumors in Karlars?

Fingertips gliding over the smooth stationery, Anvis’s thoughts suddenly returned to the historical processes of his previous life.

In a previous life, before Civil Resistance Organizations appeared on a large scale in the Empire, there indeed had been a period awash with rampant rumors.

These rumors spread not just in Karlars Province but erupted throughout the entire Empire.

The content of these rumors was mostly detrimental to the Four Great Families and the Royal Family, attributing all the ‘true’ causes of the attacks to conspiracies by the upper echelons of the Empire.

At first, the Empire’s high ranks didn’t take them seriously, merely suppressing the rumors forcefully as usual, putting an end to them.

In the past, such suppression tactics had been effective, but unexpectedly, this time the scale of the rumors only intensified.

Additionally, the Empire’s higher-ups’ attention was largely diverted by other matters at the time, resulting in a governance vacuum, and thus, the chaos began.

The pen is mightier than the sword!

This is a saying that Anvis has experienced deeply. Having been influenced by the information age, he is acutely aware of the weight and danger of these rumors.

People often prefer to believe the ‘gossip’ they overhear unintentionally, rather than the ‘truth’ actively told to them by others.

Managing rumors has always been a difficult task, as with this incident, which clearly had instigators behind it, resulting in an abnormally rapid and widespread spread of the rumors.

Fortunately, after years of contemplation, Anvis had already devised a strategy to deal with this.

Forceful suppression is a very inefficient approach, but for him, the best method is to fight fire with fire, to counteract rumors with rumors.

When various versions of rumors are spread far and wide, people will find it hard to distinguish which one to believe. Moreover, they always prefer to believe in conclusions they draw from their ‘judgment’.

The best candidates to carry out the task of spreading rumors would be the player organization he had recently formed.

After all, what players are best at is doing this kind of muddying the waters with benefits to reap.

With this in mind, Anvis wrote another letter, outlining his thoughts within. After sealing it with Magic, he sent it back.

…..

One day later.

The Players who had joined the Secret Ceremony Society were surprised to find that the task board was updated with two tasks that had significantly higher Task Rewards than the others and were pinned at the top with an almost non-existent Challenge Level.

[Spreading Rumors]

Task Introduction: The task issuer requires some people skilled in propaganda to help disseminate some special news.

The truth behind the city attack incident! The real culprit is not the Olivendi Family, but someone else!

They plan to frame and scapegoat the Olivendi Family to exhaust them in conflict with others, while they themselves hide in the shadows, preparing to reap the fruits of victory once the Olivendi Family is tied down.

Be careful not to be used unknowingly by others! As for the identity of the real culprit? Whoever gains the most from the rumor incident is the mastermind behind the attack!

Hostile forces? Ambitious small and medium-sized nobility? I didn’t say anything; that’s what you said!

Task goal: Make as many locals as possible aware of these rumors.

Task Reward: For every person propagated to, reward 3 points of contribution to the Secret Ceremony Society’s camp, with no upper limit.

[Eliminating the Enemy]

Task Introduction: The identity of the hostiles spreading rumors remains unknown. Eliminate them!

Task Goal: Eliminate anyone spreading rumors detrimental to the Olivendi Family.

Task Reward: For each person captured/killed, reward 150 points of contribution to the Secret Ceremony Society’s camp, with no upper limit.

“Ying Ji, what do you think it means for our camp to have updated these two tasks?”

Looking at the two newly refreshed tasks with great cost-effectiveness, [Light and Shadow – Ying Ji Changkong]turned to his companion.

“I told you not to call me Ying Ji, Ying Ji!”

[Light and Shadow – Flying Goldfish]gave his companion a glare before beginning his own analysis.

“Clearly, our camp is backed by the Olivendi Family, or forces related to them, otherwise, there wouldn’t be such cost-effective top-priority tasks to help the Olivendi Family overturn the rumors.”

“Our task issuers and reward exchange NPCs are all located inside the Olivendi Chamber of Commerce, do you still need to analyze that?”

Hearing this, Ying Ji Changkong couldn’t help but look disdainful.

“Then tell me, what have you figured out!”

The Flying Goldfish became irate with embarrassment.

“Why would I ask you if I already knew?”

Ying Ji Changkong looked strangely at him, his eyes full of ‘how could you ask such a question?’, which made Goldfish even more infuriated.

They are members of a gaming guild under the White Light Club – [Light and Shadow], essentially a talent filtration base for the White Light Club.

The club recruits players to join the guild through a wide net and then absorbs the most elite into the competitive team.

However, since Mysterious Era has not yet launched the guild feature, they can only temporarily identify their members by changing character names for the time being.

Ever since Tiramisu reported the intelligence on Anvis to the club last time, the upper echelons of the club have taken it very seriously.

Afterward, Anvis disclosed to the Last Dragon Descendant that he founded the Secret Ceremony Society, and then through his mouth, conveyed the information to the White Light Esports Club.

The club analyzed the camp rules of the Secret Ceremony Society and suddenly realized they were quite similar to the player guild rules.

After some consideration, the club’s decision-makers agreed that before the official game update of the guild function, they would have their members temporarily affiliate with the Secret Ceremony Society to rack up contributions.

After all, as a pseudo high rank camp, contributions to the Secret Ceremony Society are very precious. In the current camp shop available to players, the highest level even includes a seventh rank magic weapon!

Of course, its price is also daunting, at 420,000 points of camp contribution.