...

Back at the Black Tiger Combat Unit's training ground, Lawrence was asking his teammates to leave comments on the Internet's blogs and online forums. He was hoping to arouse the anger of even more veterans towards Steve. After all, Lawrence was the mastermind behind all of this chaos.

"Captain, is it really effective for us to do this?" Eric could not help but ask.

"Of course." Lawrence grinned insidiously. "We are in control now. Besides, public opinion is more powerful than you think. This alone can bring tremendous pressure upon Steve. There must be a lot of people who resent him now, and they will want to take action against him!"

The pressure of public opinion alone could drive people mad. It could even cause them to become suicidal!

For example, if rumors continued to spread that your neighbour next door was a murderer, all of the residents in the neighbourhood would soon start to believe that he really is a murderer! Then, every time the people would see him, they would avoid him and gossip about him behind his back!

Even when he was going out to the convenience store to buy things, he would then be discriminated, insulted, or humiliated! What's more, the people might even seek revenge against this supposed murderer.

This is actually a frightening thought, as these people might be just following the trend blindly in order to show that they are righteous citizens. Think about it... Every day, when you go out, if you were to be insulted, even when you are innocent, and you even called the police for help, the police might even be biased towards your so-called "righteous" persecutors, leaving you in a horrible fix!

Such pressure, false allegations, and cruel and unjust treatment would truly be enough to drive one crazy! That was exactly what Lawrence wanted to achieve, as he was truly hoping to turn Steve into someone that everyone hated!

Moreover, he even wanted to make Steve lose his foothold in the military base camp. He would even be happy to see Steve be abused verbally and beaten physically!

"This is only the first step in my plan!" Lawrence laughed.

"Captain, you still have other plans?" Oliver asked curiously.

"Of course! There are several follow-up plans." Lawrence laughed. "After all, even though Steve accepted the challenge, if he loses and is unwilling to withdraw the lawsuit, we would be in trouble still. Hence, there has to be some insurance..."

Hearing that, the rest of the team members were stunned, as they had clearly overlooked this very valid point. They would indeed be helpless if Steve was reluctant to withdraw the lawsuit in the end.

"But, if we win… He cannot refuse to withdraw the lawsuit, at least not in front of everyone!" Laurence laughed.

"No one will let him off!" shouted Eric.

"Correct! If Steve is unwilling to withdraw his lawsuit, it will be proof that he is the very villain that the rumors have described him to be! At that time, without us even having to lift a finger, the angry soldiers from the Internet will not be able to resist their anger, and they will be lining up to fight Steve," Lawrence said proudly.

This was one of the benefits of engaging public opinion, ma.s.s hysteria! Once Lawrence defeated Steve, he would be able to make Steve the object of everyone's fury and hatred. This would surely force him to withdraw the lawsuit!

"What if Steve manages to find a video that proves that he is innocent?" Oliver asked.

"It's impossible for him to find any such evidence!" Laurence laughed.

"We have deleted the evidence! It's easy to delete the videos from the store, including the videos showing that you were beaten up at the military base camp last night. All of the backups can also be deleted easily!" A teammate from the technical department excitedly chimed in.

At this moment, everyone looked at Lawrence with admiration. They felt that was a brilliant move on his part!

If Steve could not find any evidence, he would be looked upon as a villain and hated by all of the soldiers in the military base camp. In fact, Lawrence's move was so brilliant, Steve did not even have a chance to fight back!