After Minos' orders on how to deal with the terrorist group, a few days passed, and soon, news of the corruption of the supposed defenders of the weak began to spread all over the world!
Minos' people had joined forces with their counterparts on the Central Continent, as well as the Divine Continent and Continent of Beasts. They made the world's major media newspapers publish the truth behind the terrorists.
They were not individuals who just wanted the weakest to surrender, or instead, the right to surrender. They were profit-seeking cultivators who struck at strategic points to offer solutions to the problems they created.
They had grown in recent years by taking advantage of the ignorance or innocence of the people, disrupting the high-level powers of the world, and killing innocent people to create the business opportunities that they had used for profit.
In short, the stories in the world's mainstream journals treated this group in the same way, as a terrorist group that didn't give a damn about the surrender of the weakest and only wanted to make a profit.
It was fine for someone to make a profit, but when they were the ones creating the problems they set out to solve, things got a little weird.
Most people in the world hated that kind of thing. As soon as the news broke about it and how the powers were going to hunt down those responsible for it, the world's population quickly reacted in favor of Minos' side.
Many people were still unsure of the best course of action for the Spiritual World. The world's populace understood why those who wanted to surrender thought this was a viable option. But they also understood the fear of the world's strongest organizations and thought it made sense for these powers to try to strengthen themselves while they could.
But while about 30% to 40% of the population was committed to one side or the other, the rest of the world was unsure which side to support when the enemy arrived.
This segment of the population was the most reactive to the latest news, viewing the terrorist cause more negatively than ever before.
Regardless of the arrival of the aliens, the ice age was about to hit the entire Spiritual World. But still, there was a group that was wreaking havoc on forces worldwide with a justification that had lost all credibility after the current revelations.
Before, one could debate and try to understand the cause of the terrorists, for they were like ordinary people, oppressed by the great powers of the world, who were merely trying to make their own way.
Their actions were questionable, but not their motives.
But after the revelations that began in the Black Plain Empire, it was difficult for anyone to defend such a group without being connected to it somehow!
...
In the Black Plain Empire, in a city outside the state's core...
In this place, a terrorist attack had just taken place on a large resource storage facility, and several groups of people dressed in black and masked were fleeing the scene of the attack.
As flames engulfed the site, illuminating the area on this cold night, people watching from the street stopped to look at it angrily and disgustedly.
"This is the central silo of our city! The food in this silo will be essential if our people are not to starve at the onset of the ice age!" A middle-aged man, a level 74 resident, standing a few hundred meters away from that spot, clenched his fists in anger at the sight of those people fleeing.
Another person then shouted. "Stop them! Those wretches are deliberately trying to raise food prices!"
"What?" A man with deep circles under his eyes heard this, and his face darkened. "Sons of bitches! I'm already spending everything I have on food because of the recent price hike! Are these bastards going to make our situation even worse?"
Others became angry at the same thought until one of them took a weapon from his ring and moved, attacking one of the enemies who was fleeing in his direction.
"You piece of shit! Die!" The first civilian to act shouted as he stabbed the level 77 Saint, who was running toward him, fleeing from the place he had just attacked with his group, which was dispersing.
"You..." This person hadn't expected a civilian weaker than him to act and shout. "We are acting for your good!"
"The fucking good! Let me take care of myself and my family, you maggot!" This man shouted while the others in the area grew bolder.
"Kill the terrorists!"
"Don't let the bastards escape!"
In the blink of an eye, as the police and army men began to take action in the surrounding area, more than three hundred people in the streets drew their weapons. They looked at the terrorists as if they were seeing rapists trying to flee the scene of a crime.
The stronger ones simply acted against their enemies, while the weaker ones began to stalk and observe them, feeling determined to counterattack these people who were trying to make their lives difficult in order to profit from their misfortune.
Until that day, the terrorists of the pro-surrender group only had to worry about the official forces and, in many cases, were even helped by parts of the population.
But that night, everything changed. Citizens raised the weapons of their own accord, angry at the criminal audacity of the terrorists, longing for the heads of these troublemakers.
An ordinary citizen might not be bothered if the official forces were the only ones to lose in problems like the current one. But after the recent news, a part of society realized that, in fact, every time there is a terrorist attack, those who lose the most are the weakest!
After witnessing a terrorist attack and quickly realizing what the consequences would be, some witnesses became angry and began to take action.
As more and more people took action, others gained more courage and joined in, increasing the number of people involved from dozens to thousands as an all-out battle began to spread throughout the city!
"Damn it! What are we going to do? These people are hard to handle!" Said one of the strongest terrorists in the group, a level 85 Sage, as he saw the men in his group finding it increasingly difficult to escape.
"Kill everyone on the way. If they're against us, it means they're fanatics who want to fight in the war against the aliens!" Said the leader of the group that had started the attack in that city.
"Won't that give our enemies an excuse? These are just ordinary citizens." The level 85 person commented with some concern.
"What could be worse? Our situation already sucks! Let's just kill these fools!"
