“There’s nothing else, Brother Zhang Bo, I’ll toast you.” Zhou Mo smiled brightly, extending his hand to clink his date milk tea with Zhang Bo.
But in his eyes, there was a triumphant smile.
And in Zhang Bo’s eyes, there was also a brilliant smile, but beneath that brilliant smile, there was an even more mocking one.
These guys are so short-sighted; they can’t even imagine his grand plan.
And he didn’t care what would happen to these guys when his grand plan succeeded.
After all, the Green Leaf Group would come to take over them then.
And he would already be high above them, no longer a senior manager they could just meet whenever they wanted.
Interacting with them now was merely to solidify the details of the plan.
“A bunch of stupid, short-sighted fellows.” Every time he thought of inheriting the Prophecy-type Mage’s legacy, Zhang Bo felt quite excited. Prophecy-type Mages have always evaluated others this way, and now he finally understood why Prophecy-type Mages liked to evaluate others like that.
In the eyes of a Prophecy-type Mage who can see the future, those who only live in the present are truly a bunch of stupid, short-sighted fellows, with whom he has nothing in common to communicate.
He didn’t want to continue communicating with these guys either.
Of course, given that this was the most crucial moment for the grand plan, Zhang Bo still swallowed his pride and continued to smile and chat happily with these people, making everyone seem harmonious.
It was just that in the end, everyone harbored ulterior motives, each with their own plans, each believing they had deceived the other.
And each believed they were the final mantis stalking the cicada.
“Alright, let’s stop here.” Zhang Bo finished his date milk tea and stood up directly, not continuing to chat with Zhou Mo and the Blue Star Humans’ senior managers in this town residence. He turned to leave.
Zhou Mo understood and personally escorted Zhang Bo out of his town residence, his attitude quite humble and showing him great respect.
It was enough to demonstrate Zhou Mo’s attitude towards Zhang Bo.
But once Zhang Bo left the town residence and the door closed, the smile on Zhou Mo’s face vanished.
“How are the preparations coming along?” Zhou Mo sat back in his seat, looking at the cup of date milk tea Zhang Bo had finished. He snorted coldly, picked up the cup, and threw it into the corner of the wall. Clearly, his flattery towards Zhang Bo just now had disgusted him.
“Everything is ready; we can mobilize anytime.” At this moment, a senior manager who was very close to him nodded and walked over. He picked up the wooden cup from the corner and placed it back on the table, saying with a somewhat helpless tone, “Brother Zhou Mo, there’s no helping it. We still have to listen to them. Now isn’t the time to throw the cup away.”
“As long as everything is ready, that’s fine. Once Zhang Bo leaves the middle-level managers’ town residence, that’s when we should act.” Zhou Mo nodded, completely ignoring the issue of the cup. Instead, he tapped the table with his hand and said very seriously, “This time, absolutely no omissions are allowed. Before we depart, check your weapons, and make sure the buildings on the map are the ones we investigated beforehand. And once you’re inside, don’t say a word; just kill. The more you kill, the safer we’ll be. Do you understand?”
And from who knows when, in the room next to Zhou Mo, over 40 densely packed figures emerged and came into the living room of this town residence, making it extremely crowded.
“Understood.” These people responded one after another, and in their hands, they held either long-handled scythes, butcher knives, or molybdenum rods or spiked clubs imbued with the power of rules.
Clearly, they were the direct subordinate troops of the senior managers, organized by Zhou Mo for this massacre against the middle-level managers.
Their purpose was to directly storm the strongholds and various town residences of the middle-level managers, launch a surprise attack, and completely eliminate these threats who dared to challenge their authority and status.
It was an act of nipping the problem in the bud.
And it was for this operation that Zhou Mo had swallowed his pride and dealt with Zhang Bo, and why the representatives of the senior managers he sent had negotiated so humbly with the leaders of the middle-level managers.
Otherwise, with their authority as senior managers, they wouldn’t need to bother with those middle-level managers at all. They could just dismiss them all and remove them from the management system. Why go through so much trouble?
It was precisely because of Zhang Bo, who had just chatted with them, and his tacit approval of the middle-level managers seizing their power, that these senior managers couldn’t directly kick all these middle-level managers out of the management system. Otherwise, it would be tantamount to tearing relations with Zhang Bo, and by extension, with Zhang Caidong, who was behind Zhang Bo.
These senior managers still held some reverence for Zhang Caidong in their hearts. After all, although they were unwilling for Zhang Caidong to directly ascend to the highest position and become the Blue Star Humans’ supreme manager, they also understood that Zhang Caidong had the closest relationship with Shen Mu, and he was ruthless and quite cunning.
He had indeed put in the most effort when dealing with the Diesel Company.
It was also during the resolution of the Diesel Company that they saw Zhang Caidong’s ruthless and decisive side, which allowed him to become the manager, and they were quite convinced.
Of course, due to the allure of power, it was impossible for them to completely acknowledge Zhang Caidong’s supreme command. What they wanted was for him to discuss matters with them, as these senior managers had also contributed some effort at that time.
If they were to remain at the lowest level, that was clearly unacceptable.
However, Zhang Caidong tacitly allowed Zhang Bo to erode their power and supported a group of middle-level managers, which led to their extreme dissatisfaction with Zhang Bo. After all, their power was already small. At that time, they had also participated in the espionage against the Diesel Company, but in the end, the highest power was taken by Zhang Caidong, and then Zhang Caidong wanted even more power. This was of course impossible, so they united to form their own small group, independent of Zhang Caidong.
This meant that they were already quite dissatisfied with Zhang Caidong.
That’s why they united.
Using the remnants of the Diesel Company as an excuse, they wanted to try and eliminate those middle-level managers. If possible, they could even use the elimination of those middle-level managers to directly dismiss Zhang Caidong, or at least marginalize him.
This was their strategic layout. First, the most immediate goal was to eliminate those middle-level managers who directly threatened them.
Second, if they could perfectly eliminate those middle-level managers, they would try to use this incident to dismiss Zhang Caidong.
If they couldn’t dismiss him, they would directly marginalize Zhang Caidong. After all, if Zhang Caidong lost their support and the middle-level managers he could directly command, he would only be marginalized by them.
As for not being able to threaten Zhang Caidong, that didn’t matter. Just like the first strategic layout, once those middle-level managers were dealt with, Zhang Caidong would become a lone wolf, and he would inevitably be marginalized.
As long as they formed a small circle and no longer obeyed Zhang Caidong’s command, wouldn’t the Blue Star Humans in Deherim be theirs to control?
As long as they allowed those ordinary Blue Star Humans who had not yet become Spiritual Realm Commanders to be promoted to middle-level managers, then when submitting the list, only they would become Spiritual Realm Commanders.
And wouldn't the names on the submitted list be up to them?
Even if Zhang Bo could independently select some Blue Star Humans to become Spiritual Realm Commanders, if they didn't absorb them into the command system, or even secretly ostracized them, or used small tricks to force them to become their own people or simply make them disappear in the wild, it wouldn't be impossible.
At that time, wouldn’t the Blue Star Humans’ command system in Deherim be entirely up to them?
However, they had already prepared countermeasures for any potential disgust, investigation, and judgment from Shen Mu: they would push all the blame and reasons onto the remnants of the Diesel Company.
They would claim that they discovered this group of people had all been deceived by the remnants of the Diesel Company and had become a sympathetic faction towards the Diesel Company.
Although subsequent investigations might reveal some errors, proving them wrong, they could completely use the excuse that it was entirely due to their concern about the Diesel Company remnants that they made a mistake in their investigation.
Or that those cunning Diesel Company remnants were still secretly misleading their investigation, causing them to fight among themselves.
Leading to the deaths of innocent people.
Furthermore, to ensure that the subsequent investigation would not go wrong, they also hoped that Shen Mu would grant them greater authority to find the true Diesel Company remnants among the 30,000 to 40,000 Blue Star Humans.
Giving them an opportunity to prove themselves, and also an opportunity for those innocent people to have their grievances cleared after death.
After all, they were the superiors; they were the senior managers. Whatever they said would be final. As long as they controlled the discourse, all rules would be set by them.
This was the advantage of being in a superior position.
Zhou Mo and these senior managers had already discussed everything, and they had previously been senior managers of large companies or groups, so they were extremely skilled in internal power struggles.
“Alright, let’s get ready to start. Wait for the signal.” Zhou Mo didn’t overthink. He just waved his hand, signaling his subordinates to prepare for battle.
And these subordinates, one by one, were expressionless, gripping their weapons tightly. They would start as soon as the scout returned.
They were no strangers to combat. After all, they had fought Undead Monsters before and had clashed with competitors.
Many of them even had the lives of other humans on their hands.
After all, this was no longer a society ruled by law. Although the Diesel Company had previously managed strictly, prohibiting private fights among Blue Star Humans, if one eliminated an opponent in a hidden place, even the current police couldn’t investigate it, let alone in this cruel world of the current mode.
Therefore, these senior managers and their subordinates didn’t care about the killing spree they were about to embark on.
Killing was to live a better life and eliminate dangers to themselves.
With a reason, they were naturally fearless and didn’t care about any moral debt or condemnation.
…
At this moment, Zhang Bo had also arrived at the middle-level managers’ town residence and saw the chief of the middle-level managers, a man named Wu Jian, standing at the door to greet him.
“Brother Zhang Bo, you’re finally here! Please come in, please come in.” The chief, Wu Jian, smiled and hurried over, supporting Zhang Bo’s arm and inviting him into his town residence.
His attitude was even more sincere than that of the previous senior managers and their supreme commander, Zhou Mo.
After all, these policy managers were all promoted by Zhang Bo’s list; they could be said to be Zhang Bo’s own people, so they would naturally be very sincere and earnest towards Zhang Bo.
“Mm. Let’s go.” Zhang Bo nodded twice, not saying much, and followed him into the room. He saw milk and honey water already prepared on the table.
Although it couldn’t compare to the delicious date milk tea on the senior managers’ side, it showed that these middle-level managers had indeed taken his words to heart.
“Knowing you love milk and honey water, we prepared them in advance.” The chief, Wu Jian, spoke with a very humble tone, “And this mediation also relies on you, Brother Zhang Bo. Otherwise, if we clashed with those senior managers alone, we would suffer losses.”
Although their numbers were larger, the potential authority and subordinates of those senior managers could be mobilized at any time to suppress them. After all, in terms of the quality of Spiritual Realm Followers alone, those senior managers were stronger than them.
Moreover, if they were investigated afterwards, these middle-level managers had no real evidence, and Zhang Bo had already said that there were no Diesel Company remnants among the senior managers, only among the middle-level managers.
Although their excuse was that Diesel Company remnants had appeared among the subordinates of those senior managers, and these senior managers had tacitly allowed those subordinates to contact the Diesel Company remnants, or even had Diesel Company remnants among their subordinates.
But this reason was untenable.
For these middle-level managers who wanted to challenge authority, it was a major mistake, so they were in the wrong.
Therefore, they desperately needed Zhang Bo to mediate. (End of Chapter)