Miss Witch doesn't want to be a diva!.

Chapter 714: The Rise of the 'Black Smut Faction'
Chu tu tu tu——

A four-rotor aircraft flew over the city, its door opened with a whirring sound, and then the shaking camera lens was aimed at the city streets diagonally below.

On the main road in the city, members in black robes moved forward silently. They formed a coordinated team, crossed their wrists and held each other, taking slow steps forward. Opposite them were the shield-wielding special police who were ready for battle.

Black shields were spliced ​​together to form layers of rock-solid defense on the street, and then blue light curtains emerged, forming a wall of light that blocked the entire street.

"Hello everyone, this is Lusheng Star Region's No. 1 News Channel. We are reporting on the protests taking place in Shuilu City, the largest city in the star region..."

"About 120,000 people took part in the massive march, blocking six main thoroughfares in the city and marching towards the central square."

"In order to deal with the sudden chaos and violence that may occur in an emergency, the federal star region government has mobilized police forces from Shuilu City and surrounding areas. About 10,000 police officers have been deployed on the main roads. They will maintain order and stop these teams from moving forward."

"…Shuilu City was built in the year 287 of the Sixth Era. It is the hometown of the singer Bai Sheng, 'Summer of Reeds'. Because of Bai Sheng's great influence in the early years of the Federation, this star region has also developed rapidly. And because of the many ballads she wrote throughout her life that depicted her hometown and childhood, the beautiful scenery in the star region has left a deep impression on many people in the Federation."

"Currently, the statue of the singer 'Summer of Reeds' Bai Sheng still stands in the central square of Shuilu City. It is an important venue for many large-scale events. Every generation of star domain governors has the tradition of delivering their inaugural speeches in this square."

"According to insiders, the marching group is trying to occupy the square, expand their influence to the entire star field and even the Federation, and express their political demands."

"The security and defense officials of the star region said that they had not received any application notification for the parade before. This is a completely illegal and sudden action, which contains immeasurable dangers. They will take necessary measures to ensure the safety of urban residents and maintain the order of the star region..."

The host's voice was a little unclear due to the whirring sound of propellers, and many viewers were more focused on the images being shown. The protesting people were completely different from the people in the past who kept shouting slogans and holding tall signs. They were silent, with a depressing aura that made it difficult for the audience to laugh.

The procession was like a long dragon, spreading out from the street. Unlike those loose protests, they seemed to be marching with great determination. Everyone lined up in rows with their wrists crossed so that no one could fall behind easily or suddenly break away from the team and escape.

The protesting team advanced at a slow and steady pace, getting closer and closer to the blue light curtain wall, and finally squeezed in front of the light curtain. Unlike expected, these people did not stop, but the people behind kept moving forward and squeezing forward, even though the front row was already sticking to the thick light curtain.

At first, the SWAT police who were maintaining the line were somewhat relaxed, thinking that stopping these people would not be a problem. However, as the team advanced layer by layer, the members in the front row began to be squeezed and deformed. Not only were their facial features deformed, their limbs twisted, and they began to bleed. Such a scene made the SWAT police who were accustomed to violent scenes begin to feel heavy in their hearts, and even a little cold.

Many live broadcast observation aircraft in the sky recorded this scene. In the data counted by the AI, one life after another began to die. Such a scene had to cause many live broadcasts to be interrupted.

The death toll continued to rise, from the initial 100 to 1000, and then began to break through 2000, 3000... blood began to spread on the streets.

The security and defense officials who were directing the crackdown began to break out in a cold sweat as they watched this scene. No matter how successful the order was maintained this time, with so many people dead and causing a huge public opinion storm, someone would definitely have to take the blame in the end, and he would be the one most unlikely to escape.

"Disperse, disperse...let them go." He gave the order almost tremblingly.

The special police, who had long been unable to hold on, removed their shields and light curtains, retreated quickly, and left to both sides of the road.

Then the team started to move forward again. They wrapped their dead companions in black cloth and then lifted them up, and continued to move towards the central square. The atmosphere was so depressing that it was suffocating. Such momentum silenced many onlookers in the city. They instinctively made way and watched these members who were collecting the bodies of their companions and moving forward.

A few hours later, the teams gradually arrived at the central square of the city, and placed the corpses neatly under the snow-white statue. Then someone placed orange lanterns next to the corpses, and someone else comforted and arranged the twisted bodies so that they no longer looked hideous, but rather peaceful.

Then they held hands, stood in rows, circles, and layers of dense crowds in the square for a grand chorus. The resounding sound spread to the entire city through some special ceremony.

The chorus sang many classic songs, including Bai Sheng's old ballad "Summer of Reeds". However, those once joyful songs now carried a particularly sad and tragic feeling.

For local residents, Bai Sheng, the 'Summer of Reeds', can be said to be the spiritual symbol of the Lusheng Star Region. Her songs have long been familiar to tens of millions of families, and now singing under the night sky has also aroused the emotions of countless people.

Over the years, the star region's economy has been declining rapidly, the unemployment rate has continued to rise towards 70%, many families have been torn apart, and only a very small number of people are living happily.

The sad song spread throughout the city. At first, only people in the city center sang along with the chorus, but then it expanded with the special ritual effect, and the voices following the chorus spread throughout the city like sparks.

From south to north, from this metropolis with a population of 3000 million to all the residents sitting in front of the screen watching, they were all unconsciously infected by this emotion, because the sadness brought by the times is something that everyone can feel and resonate with.

After the night ended, a marginal member of the Star Region government suddenly announced online that he fully supported the new reforms, which would protect the lives of all poor residents, increase taxes on high-income groups, etc.

What he promised was not detailed, probably just a slogan or something like that, and he had not made any outstanding contributions before. His face was not attractive and a bit crooked, so he could be said to be at the bottom of the list of congressmen.

Anyone who knows a little about politics can easily guess that he probably wants to take a gamble. Anyway, people like him probably won't be elected in the next election, so why not take a risk this time and see if he can seize the opportunity.

Soon, his remarks spread on the Internet, and later many lawmakers followed suit and began to say similar words in an attempt to win votes, and promised to work hard to improve the living conditions of the lower-class and unemployed residents.

Faced with such a situation, many people responded online, saying that they would vote for these congressmen and so on, which in turn set off a storm of public opinion and triggered disputes among various groups.

Under such circumstances, representatives of the groups that had previously gathered and marched finally issued a notice that they would not specifically support a certain councillor, but if they really wanted to, they could come to the central square of Shuilu City to participate in the mourning and prayer on the spot. Such a notice made many councillors stop in their tracks. They wanted to use this to win votes, but they did not want to really be tied to such a group, because then they would have no way out in their future actions and would be very passive.

Finally, three congressmen took the risk and came to the central square of Shuilu City. The 3 people gathered here had been on a hunger strike for nearly three days and only drank a small amount of sugar water to survive.

The three people at the scene changed into black clothes provided by the protest group and read eulogies in front of each dead body. It was undoubtedly a long process to count more than 3,000 bodies. In the end, only one congressman persisted. He was thin and had dark skin. He looked like a farmer in the countryside, although there is no such profession as farmer now.

Afterwards, he discussed with the leaders of the protest group for a long time and finally reached a consensus.

After that, a new party appeared in the Lusheng Star Domain. They would fight for the interests of all the poor and were committed to supervising the society to put an end to all kinds of injustice and deception against the lower-class residents, including various unreasonable contracts, high-interest illegal loans, nested fraudulent insurance policies, etc. They also advocated setting up food collection points throughout the star domain so that hungry and homeless people could use them for free.

Judging from the projects being promoted, they do not seem excessive, as they have been proposed by legislators before. However, many people have a vague feeling that the situation this time will be different.

Soon, in the storm of various quarrels and public opinions, the party's supporters grew rapidly. Because the protesting groups were all wearing black robes and their main issue was related to hunger relief, they were called the "Black Smut Faction".

In the following six months, the group spread rapidly in the Lusheng Star Region, and they had more and more supporters. Then many people began to imitate and learn from them, and put on the same black robes.

With such momentum, in the new election, this faction defeated other factions by a large margin and became the main ruling faction of the star domain government. As soon as the leader of this faction came to power, he began to stride forward all the things he had promised before.

Although such a policy has been recognized by officials at both the bottom and the top, as the intermediate link of implementation, various inherent forces are intertwined. Whether it is the allocation of funds by local governments or the specific implementation, it will not be carried out effectively. Some people even use it to embezzle and make money, completely disregarding the wishes of many people.

Ordinary people living in a normal and peaceful environment sometimes cannot imagine how evil certain groups can be and how shameless they can be.

In the past, such policies would only be popular for three days, with agencies at all levels just pretending to do their job, and then when the hype was over, they would continue to do what they had to do, just like in the past.

However, this time it was completely different. The first to be exposed were still the officials in Shuilu City. When purchasing food and relief supplies, they falsely reported numbers and prices and reduced the number of feeding points to complete the task. Such behavior was directly exposed by the "Black Smut Faction".

That night, before he could be suspended or arrested, the official was dragged out of his home by an angry crowd and hanged in the central square. The process was extremely emotional.

Originally, even if such people were caught, there would be a lengthy judicial process, and in the end they would probably not be sentenced to death. They could live in prisons with good conditions, and wait until the storm was over before coming out with various excuses. This is also a tacit understanding among many officials, and they would not be too harsh.

But now the trial process was skipped directly, leaving the official and his family members to die in the square, and the video of the process was leaked by many niche media.

Such a situation shocked some members of the organization and caused them to restrain their previous greedy behavior a little.

Soon after, local branches of the "Black Smut Faction" began to be established, and were guided and directed by the original faction members. Under the reporting and supervision of many members who were not afraid of life and death, many of the dark collusions of the past were exposed, and various accounts that had never been made public before had to be fully disclosed at the request of the ruling party.

Under such a high-pressure environment, many accumulated dirty deeds were exposed, which in turn triggered the anger of many people. It turned out that these institutions had done such evil things in the past.

As a result, a large number of people were purged, and the vacant positions were quickly filled by the core members of the "Black Smut Faction". Unlike the peripheral members, these core members were devout in their beliefs, and most of them had reached a fanatical level, advocating that all members of the group help each other and strictly suppress those selfish people.

Similar actions were carried out vigorously, and a large number of grassroots personnel in government agencies were replaced and occupied by the "Black Smut Faction". Under such circumstances, some old officials and personnel in the middle faced extremely high risks of exposure and pressure even if they wanted to seek personal gain, and had to cooperate with various policy bills issued by the ruling party.

In this way, the staff of the Star Domain government was greatly streamlined, and administrative efficiency began to increase rapidly. It is hard to imagine that even though the export share did not increase much, the economy began to show signs of recovery. This was probably due to the gradually clean and fair business environment, which made many high-risk investments and operations begin to become controllable and cheap.

As a result, the reputation of the "Black Smut Faction" continued to rise. Not only the Lusheng Star Region, but several surrounding star regions also began to be affected by it. Similar groups gradually emerged, began to imitate and learn, and brought about many reforms.

The sources of the Black Smut Faction's spiritual beliefs and the composition of their personnel have gradually been investigated and understood by various organizations, and have become increasingly clear.

Unlike the political parties that are now centered around "singers" or "political ideas," they are actually closer to religious organizations, with a unified and clear belief that unites their members. Some of their customs and rules can even be described as retro, and they completely lack the intellectual rationality that an interstellar society should have.

However, with regard to the objective reality of economic decline, various theories and empty slogans are obviously unable to convince the large number of voters who are already at the end of their rope. In addition, the huge grievances accumulated in the past and the overly rational and mild judicial regulations make it difficult for the people to vent their anger and be convinced.

It is not easy to stay calm and rational, and it is easier to compromise for various reasons.

In such an environment, religious organizations that directly adhere to simple morals, repay blood with blood, are not afraid of life and death, engage in extreme behavior, and transcend blood ties and friends begin to be recognized by more and more people and absorb a large number of members.

At this time, even elites with ideals and practical ability will consider whether to join such an organization and complete their original idea from another curve due to pessimism about the actual environment.

Idealism is a double-edged sword. It will cause people to run into all kinds of obstacles in reality, but the spirit of passion and diligence often enables this group of people to go further and deeper in their professional fields, surpassing their peers who act simply for money.

With the addition of this group of people, the religious organization, which was originally only able to occupy the grassroots level, began to gain the support of the upper-level elite forces, and began to truly attract the attention of various forces, and was valued by major groups in the federation.

(End of this chapter)