Chapter 4381: Far Star Project (Part 6)

They all realized that the owner of this factory land calling was actually to remind them: someone was trying to sue them in the name of illegal land use and wanted to make this factory owner testify in court, but he had refused.

But this did not mean the other party would give up the lawsuit, nor did it mean they could win, because they were indeed using the land illegally. But they were using the land illegally because there was simply no reasonable way to turn it into legal land use; there was simply no such entry.

"Is it too late to bribe the community now?" J'onn asked.

"I'm already trying," Victor said. "I used money to help them solve some life troubles, but they said they could only help us say a few good words when selected as jury members. Stopping the other party from filing a lawsuit is impossible."

"Someone also reminded me that it's best not to try to go against the forces behind it, otherwise, it might not just be us super-powered individuals who suffer, but also the people we are helping."

"They are using homeless people as hostages???"

"That's right. If the homeless people here were all the kind who could only survive on relief food, it would be a bit better; but there are also some who want to return to society, so it's best not to get involved in lawsuits; this is fatal for ordinary people."

"Let them leave first," J'onn decided decisively. "Before, we didn't give them money because we were afraid they would just mix and wait for death. At this stage, we can't care about that much anymore; give each person a sum for rent, let them go rent a house first..."

"I'm afraid there aren't enough housing sources in this season," Victor reminded. "It's better to arrange for them to find black-market jobs that provide food and housing first. I contacted a few bosses; they still have some labor shortages."

So Barry, Hal, and Arthur went to organize people to apply for jobs. This time it wasn't just the young and strong; anyone who still had some labor ability had to go. The final result was very pessimistic because the time node now was a bit awkward: the weather was too cold, everyone didn't want to go out to eat, and it wasn't yet time for Christmas gatherings, so the manpower needed wasn't much, but at least some were arranged out.

The homeless people inside the shelter also sensed the atmosphere of a storm coming. To Diana's surprise, an old man took the initiative to find her and said, "You can send us back, just send us to the places we stayed before. We are more familiar with those places, and it will be easier to survive."

"No," Diana said. "It's too cold outside. In this sub-zero temperature, living in a tent will definitely freeze to death."

"We can take some things with us," the old man pointed to the warehouse next to them and said, "There is a stove, some charcoal, and some compressed food; perhaps we can survive this snow."

"Perhaps?" Diana's eyes were filled with tears, and she said, "Do you want me to send you into the muzzle of a roulette gun? Then what is the difference between me and a murderer?"

The old man sighed and said, "The moment someone decides to pull the trigger, it is destined that someone will die. It makes no difference whether the person who died before was me or someone else, because we were already finished long ago. But this time is different; we need you to live, do you understand?"

Diana looked around; she did not see disappointment in the eyes of the homeless people. There was also a woman who smiled at her, not that kind of miserable smile, but more like warm encouragement.

"Seriously, we knew it wouldn't work long ago," the old man said again. "For us, being able to eat a full meal for one more day means being able to enjoy the pleasure of living for one more day. However, no one here wants people like you to make such a huge sacrifice for the little pleasure we, people who are about to die, have while lingering on. This is not worth it at all, ma'am."

Diana finally broke down and roared, "Human life is not something that can be calculated by whether it's worth it or not!"

"Then I'm afraid you are in the minority, ma'am," the old man said.

Diana covered her face in pain. J'onn supported her, patted her shoulder, and said, "Now is not the time to be emotional; we still have to think of a solution first. I'll go make a call to Batman."

J'onn called Bruce and explained the current situation. Bruce pondered for a moment and then said, "How about this: send those who really can't find a place to go to Cat Getan. My shelter here still has some space."

This statement stunned J'onn, and he said, "You mean, in a situation where the shelters in Metropolis are full, the shelters in Cat Getan still have space?"

"I know this might sound incredible, but there are only 68 shelters in the urban area of Metropolis, while Cat Getan has 523. In addition, I have prepared 60 more emergency shelter areas; even if all the homeless people in Metropolis were transported over, they would still fit."

"Then why do they... well, anyone with a shred of reason probably wouldn't want to go to Cat Getan." J'onn rubbed his temples, but soon he reacted and said, "That's not right. Cat Getan has so many shelters and so few homeless people; then why is its reputation so bad?"

Bruce hung up the phone without saying much, but this aroused J'onn's deep thought. And he soon found the answer on the front page headline of a news website.

"New Human Meat Factory? What is the Biltzig Abandoned Industrial Park Shelter trying to do by collecting a large number of people who are about to die?"

With a slap, J'onn threw his phone to the ground. His skin began to faintly turn green, and he was so angry he was about to deform. "Fine, fine, fine, if you can't destroy it, then smear it, right?!"

J'onn finally understood: clearly, the situation at the bottom of Cat Getan was much better than in Metropolis, Bruce was also a good rich man who cared about the people, and Cat Getan had many industrial jobs; why would it have such a notorious reputation? Isn't it just because they are afraid that everyone will run to Cat Getan?

In fact, before falling to the bottom, there are many situations where there is a chance to catch one's breath. For example, even if you can't pay insurance or can't afford a traffic accident, many places won't tow the car immediately; they will wait for a period of time in between. At this time, if you can harden your heart and change states, running to a place where the situation is relatively better, it is possible to escape being slaughtered.

For example, some states have looser city management and do not have a very strict address system, and some job positions won't ask for your address, so you can work while living in a car, and slowly you can recover. There are also some places where birds don't lay eggs, and many jobs simply no one wants to do, such as border patrol or tower guards; basically, as long as your physical fitness is okay, you can go do them.

If that doesn't work, just run south. The north of the United States will freeze people to death, but the south definitely won't. Running to a city like Los Angeles to be homeless, the probability of death is definitely much lower than in the Northeast.

And in a situation like Cat Getan, there is a super-rich man willing to invest without limits for social welfare, which will be like a big whirlpool; all people who can't survive will think about running in to take a gamble, even if they are homeless, grabbing food and grabbing shelters are easier than for others. Everyone is heading toward Cat Getan, which will lead to a decrease in homeless people in surrounding cities.

However, after this event, J'onn already understood: homeless people are also a resource. When alive, they sell drugs; after death, they sell corpses. You Cat Getan attracted all such people over; then what are we who do these businesses supposed to do? Wouldn't we all be drinking the northwest wind?

Therefore, these vested interests will definitely try their best to smear Cat Getan. Although Cat Getan also has many accidents, it definitely cannot reach the level of exploding every day as rendered by these news media people. Cat Getan also indeed has lunatics, but it's impossible for it to be full of them on the streets as they say.

Cat Getan people are not stupid, and those lunatics can't build a wall for Cat Getan to completely not let people run. When Detroit was finished at the end of the year, they slipped away very quickly. If Cat Getan were really that bad, it would be impossible to always maintain the prosperity of a mega-city. There are so many people who, despite having various shortcomings, still want to gather here; clearly, it's not because they have no choice, but because the parts they are satisfied with in life outweigh the parts they are dissatisfied with. Cat Getan's population is even growing slowly.

J'onn grabbed his head hard. He flipped through major news websites and some self-media, but without exception, they all had the same tune: anyway, whoever dares to go to the shelter in the factory area will be made into human meat sausage and hung on the rafters.

Victor deleted the vast majority of the news, but soon, he discovered that it was better if he didn't delete it; the more he deleted, the more fiercely it spread. Even if he split into countless threads and chased and killed others on the internet, the rumor-mongers quickly went from official media to personal accounts, and the more he killed, the more fiercely it spread; Victor didn't dare to do it much anymore; if it went on like this, it would become a world headline.

Homeless people might not have mobile phones and couldn't see this news, but the key was that once this news came out, no one was willing to come here anymore. Even those who had seen the scene here with their own eyes were afraid of getting into trouble; not only did they not dare to speak out, but they also didn't dare to come.

Everyone has lived in this country for so long; who doesn't know who? Being able to make the media have a unified tune definitely means they have offended a big shot. Ordinary people don't have the capital to risk their lives to accompany a gentleman; of course, they should stay far away.

In this way, the supply of food also became a problem. You can buy it, but it's very difficult to transport it over. Hal and Barry originally wanted to transport it manually, but once seen, people wouldn't sell it to them. Heaters also need to burn energy; even if they can use Green Lantern energy to hold on now, it's not a long-term solution. More importantly, people's hearts in the shelter were already wavering, and many people were already planning to leave.

J'onn gave them two choices: those who really want to return to the original place can also go back, and Hal will use a private car to send them; those who have nowhere to go can go to the shelter in Cat Getan.

Many people waved their hands repeatedly upon hearing Cat Getan. However, there were also some who were dead pigs not afraid of boiling water; they couldn't survive in the original settlements anyway, so isn't it the same wherever they go?

In the end, a small half of the people got on the cars heading to Cat Getan, while the other half returned to their settlements one after another.

Diana struggled one last time and sent the three pregnant women she had taken in to the hospital, funded by her personally, to have them undergo physical examinations and let them stay in the hospital until they gave birth.

They spent about three days clearing out the entire shelter. And on the day the gate was locked, the court summons also arrived. After Diana took the document and looked at it, she tore it into pieces with force. The paper scraps were blown up by the wind and drifted to the ground, melting into the snow without a trace.

She took a deep breath, gripped the doorknob, her hand gradually tightening and then loosening, and lowered her head and said in a low voice, "Bruce was right; we have no other way."

Before the plan started, when they gathered together to discuss how to save this country, Bruce said meaningfully, "Sacrifice is necessary... I mean ourselves."

"What do you mean?" Diana asked somewhat puzzled.

"We need to create a new Cold War."

"What?!" Diana looked at Bruce in shock.

"Only after the Soviet Union fell did the United States dare to be unscrupulous, and what we need to do is to create a new 'pole', or rather, become a new 'pole', to let the United States return to the era of state capitalism."

Everyone looked at him in shock. Barry gestured for a long time and then said, "You mean, we are going to... we are going to engage in... engage in... that Soviet set??"

"No, just bring enough deterrence, and they will take the initiative to elect a new Roosevelt."

"We are that deterrence?"

"Yes. We are a super-powered organization, and everyone in the organization has the power to destroy the Earth; why wouldn't it work?"

"... No," Diana frowned and said, "This is hegemonism. This... this won't do. Bruce, you need to calm down. Even if this country is already rotten to the core, we can't..."

"I think we shouldn't be so radical from the beginning," J'onn said. "Perhaps we can try; after all, you also said we have such powerful strength, using this strength to save people, maybe it could succeed?"

Everyone agreed more with Diana and J'onn's views; after all, the bomb Bruce threw out was too heavy, completely overturning the previous logic and not conforming to the values they formed under the cultivation of an orderly society.

"Fine," Bruce nodded and said, "I respect your opinions. We can certainly try first, but soon you will understand that besides this, we have no other way." ===== CHAPTER 4382 =====