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Chapter 208. The Allure of Journalism

The War Alliance Elder, Sword Master Jiang Jianxin, graced our meeting with his presence. He highly praised the new potion showcased at the meeting, stating that the Genius Potion would be a boon to countless low-level war talents. He expressed his anticipation for the future of the Genius Potion and called on all low-level talents to actively try it.

At the press conference, she also discussed her outlook on life and values, stating that changing one's life requires seizing opportunities, and that going from weak to strong may only require a suitable stepping stone.

The two long and serious paragraphs, paired with a smiling close-up of the White-Clad Sword Master, suggest that there really was such a thing at the press conference.

Jiang Jianxin stared at the column comment specifically written for him in the news and finally understood what it meant to start with a picture and then make up the rest.

Spreading rumors has no cost, especially online.

She continued scrolling down and saw Xie Yan's headshot in the next column.

This candid shot was absolutely brilliant, capturing Xie Yan turning to the side, smiling, and speaking to her.

Black Eyes Pharmaceuticals laid her off, leaving only a photo of Xie Yan speaking with her head tilted to the side, accompanied by a serious caption:

One of the Fools' Triumphs, the schoolgirl, also attended the press conference. During an exclusive interview with our staff, Ms. Xie turned her head and said with a friendly smile that she was very optimistic about the Genius Potion and believed that the lower-level members of the Chaos faction could also gain further development opportunities from it.

Once released, the Fool's Society is willing to introduce the drug to the lower classes who are considered foolish. At the same time, she hopes the Genius Drug will be accepted by the public. After all, it's a purely natural, non-toxic, harmless, and side-effect-free drug.

Xie Yan's caption was also completely fabricated and unfounded, but when paired with such a picture, it inexplicably gained a high level of credibility.

Jiang Jianxin scrolled down again, expecting to see more close-up photos of powerful figures with fabricated statements, but to his surprise, the photos below were all of the audience at the press conference.

The strongmen in the audience in the photo were shocked by the enthusiasm of the Black Pupil Pharmaceuticals' all-in betting event, and couldn't help but show surprise and excitement.

This scene was also cleverly captured and ultimately turned into—"Many powerful figures rushed to the scene to celebrate the birth of the genius potion."

Jiang Jianxin read through the entire nonsensical news report in one go, then flipped back to the beginning with the enlarged headshot. When she noticed that there was a TV station listed after the name of Black Pupil Pharmaceuticals, she belatedly realized that she had truly been tricked by capital.

—The offline new product launch event held by Black Eye Pharmaceuticals was not to actually announce the new product launch date, but to create a bigger wave of hype.

In this wave of momentum, it used the genius potion as bait to attract many powerful figures, and then used the celebrity effect of these powerful figures to create hot news about the genius potion—after all, online reposts can't gather so many powerful figures, and offline, as long as there are photos, it's easy to fabricate.

The most ingenious part is that it uses photos of Jiang Jianxin and Xie Yan for close-up publicity without worrying about them refuting it on forums—because the partner is a TV station, and the TV station knows that they are using fake accounts.

Fake accounts cannot speak.

Jiang Jianxin was amused and annoyed. She knew why Black Pupil Pharmaceuticals was suddenly able to cooperate with the TV station. It was because the former clearly wanted to provoke a war, and the TV station, to put it bluntly, was also a monopoly capital that wanted to provoke a war, reshuffle the power structure, and expand its influence.

When faced with absolute interests, even adversaries who are originally at odds can cooperate briefly, so it's not surprising that the two companies wrote this news article together.

Black Pupil Pharmaceuticals and the television station probably thought Jiang Jianxin was merely a giant in the war faction, powerful in real-world combat but powerless against the virtual torrent. If he were an ordinary war giant, he might have tolerated being manipulated like this by two major forces.

But Jiang Jianxin couldn't calculate it; she opened her phone and glanced at her friend list.

Faced with this virtual problem, her first thought was Wen Yu, since he could directly control the virtual world and also had the help of the super artificial intelligence A Yu.

But she quickly realized that Wen Yu had his own affiliated organization, the Dream Pavilion.

—Black Pupil Pharmaceuticals and the TV station are monopolies, but isn't Dream Pavilion also a monopoly?

The Dream Pavilion monopolizes the manufacturing industry and stands on the same side of monopoly capital. As an elder of the Dream Pavilion, Wen Yu may not help her out of self-interest.

Since the most direct method didn't work, Jiang Jianxin had another option.

She glanced at today's trending news and found that they were all about the genius drug, and that the publishers were all Black Pupil Pharmaceuticals and the TV station—she calmly clicked on the journalist's WeChat message:
[Jiang Jianxin]: Hello, journalist.

[Journalist]: Hello, Sword Master, what can I do for you?

[Jiang Jianxin]: I have a news story, I don't know if journalists are interested.

She recounted to the journalist the fabricated facts about the press conference by Black Eyes Pharmaceuticals and her own story.

The latter replied to the message almost instantly:
[Journalist]: This is great news. Thank you, Sword Master, for providing the information. Rest assured, I will definitely help you get your rights back!
Jiang Jianxin slowly raised the corners of his mouth as he read those words.

The current hot news revolves around the genius drug, and the top ten trending topics are all about Black Pupil Pharmaceuticals. This is damaging to the interests of journalists—after all, they make a living from news, and being suppressed by the traffic from Black Pupil Pharmaceuticals prevents them from creating any breaking news.

Now that she has provided information about the false advertising at the Black Eyes Pharmaceuticals press conference, the journalists are naturally happy to take it on and will certainly publicize it extensively.

Since this person has no powerful background, he is not afraid of offending the monopoly group, and writing this kind of news can also help him gain popularity from Black Pupil Pharmaceuticals—why not?

After carefully analyzing the conflict of interests, Jiang Jianxin, who had successfully leveraged the situation, gracefully withdrew and returned to the forum.

After waiting on the trending list for more than ten minutes, I indeed saw trending news articles labeled with the author's name, "Journalist," soaring up the list.
[Shocking! A pharmaceutical group has resorted to such blatant fabrication to promote its new drug. Is this a sign of distorted humanity or moral decay?]

The news, with its explosive headlines characteristic of journalism, rises layer by layer—professional tasks should indeed be left to professionals.

The clash between top journalism scholars created a tense atmosphere on the forum, but Jiang Jianxin, who had instigated everything, left the forum and calmly awaited the next day when Black Pupil Pharmaceuticals would revise the news and issue an apology.

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　　Currently, everyone believes that journalists are male, hence the use of the term "he". The main reason journalists disguise themselves as men is that the essence of "public opinion" includes deception in addition to the popularity brought by traffic. The more people are deceived, the stronger they become. When their true colors are revealed and everyone realizes they have been deceived, the journalist will be completely deified.

　　(End of this chapter)