Chapter 586: Chapter 557: We Can’t Let Democracy Advocates Lose Heart!
Daniel halted his scanning gaze of the surroundings and continued to follow the large troop onwards.
Fears about the composition of the demonstrators could only be held within.
After all, in the original plan, the number of players participating in the protest was about 1,200, but now there are at least 6,000 people outside the Parliament building, waving flags and banners, and shouting slogans.
The players make up only 20%, the remaining 80% are people who have suddenly joined for unknown reasons.
There was simply no chance to refuse them joining.
This protest has thus become the largest in London this year.
Surely, with such large and unannounced gathering, problems were bound to arise.
Even if no one intended to cause damage, and purely wanted to make their voices heard, the road outside the Parliament building was completely blocked, causing traffic paralysis.
The London police were late to the scene.
But they were also in a tough situation ——
If there was any violent disruptive behavior at the scene, then there’s no question, they would directly use force, arresting some, pushing some away, and dispersing the rest.
The problem was that these people were very disciplined.
Everyone was just standing outside shouting slogans, expressing their dissatisfaction, and demanding the government “stop infringing on citizens’ freedom.”
If you asked them to stand aside and not occupy the roads, thus blocking traffic, they would make way without any objections.
This was quite troublesome; there was no reason to arrest anyone!
Eventually, the police could only maintain order while looking for the organizer of the protest, trying to reason with them.
—— Otherwise, if they tried to disperse the crowd for no reason, let alone figuring out how to disperse over 6,000 people, if there was any mishandling, they, the London police, might be the ones being protested against tomorrow.
Wouldn’t that be carrying the can for others?
So, it was not going to work, it’s better to be peaceful and discuss things.
After much effort, the roads were finally basically cleared.
The cost was that the lawn outside the Parliament building was packed with people, and the banks of the Thames River were also densely packed with protesters.
Moreover, more people were continuously gathering from the periphery, and the most famous sightseeing route in London was completely filled with protesters.
The London police, who were initially panicked, have now resigned themselves to their fate —— because they couldn’t find the organizer of the event.
Most of the protesters were unwilling to cooperate with them, in the end, only a few people were willing to answer questions, and after questioning, they discovered —— the protest did not start with a few people organizing it, but originated from a post online, with hundreds and thousands of people leaving comments, communicating, and setting the time.
One of them enthusiastically took out their mobile phone and showed the police the post.
The police looked at the post, titled “District Councilman Calls for Citizens to Resist the Government”, and they all fell into deep thought…
…
The protest was in full swing, but after quite a few hours, no government representatives showed up.
This made Daniel and the protesting crowd around him extremely angry!
But, after such a long time, they inevitably felt tired and hungry.
Daniel was very worried that if the protest didn’t make any progress, there would only be two possible paths left —— the crowd’s dissatisfaction intensifying, leading to more radical protests and possible violent conflict.
Or that everyone would lose their enthusiasm, go home, and wait for the government’s statement tomorrow to see if the protest had achieved anything.
But just then, coincidentally, a long line of food trucks slowly drove into the protest scene, and started selling steaming hot food.
Various vendors also quickly gathered like they had received a signal.
Belgian waffles, Mexican wraps, Turkish kebabs, Spanish paella, German sausages, Cornish pasties, and a classic timeless dish —— fish and chips, all appeared at the scene.
Then mobile coffee trucks, street barbers, secondhand book stalls, small goods, street performances… All sorts of weird and wonderful vendors, all gathered here.
The atmosphere at the scene unavoidably turned strange: from indignant protest and accusation, it quickly shifted towards a more festive and gathering type atmosphere.
Daniel watched all of this in utter disbelief, completely unable to understand why it was happening.
That didn’t change until Creative Code Game Company formally made their appearance.
They weren’t there to protest government regulations. Quite the opposite, they were there to “soothe” the protesting gamers. For that reason, they had “temporarily” built a Virtual World Experience Zone that could serve 300 people at once, providing a free-on-site virtual world experience.
Though they claimed it was “temporary”, it was clear they arrived prepared, ready to go in 10 minutes and swiftly making everything available for the crowd.
— They couldn’t have just started preparing after the march began. Everything would have to have been prepared by yesterday, otherwise there wouldn’t have been enough time.
Daniel was holding a flag, watching young people who loved to march, who put down their signs and excitedly ran towards the newly erected Virtual World Experience Zone, brought into existence by CC Game Company.
He set his flag aside and took out his mobile phone to check the news on social media.
Unsurprisingly, the protest march had become the number one trending topic. Not only was it the top headline in the UK, it had also caused a stir across the whole of Europe.
In the UK itself, the free virtual environment experience provided by CC Game Company rapidly increased its discussion rate in a very short period of time, apparently becoming the next hot topic.
At this point, Daniel suddenly realised: everything was beginning to make sense…
…
Before going to bed, Lincoln was reminded by Mavis of the protest march of British players.
Looking at the on-site pictures shown to him by Mavis, Lincoln was puzzled: “Are you sure this is a demonstration? Not just some kind of large outdoor gathering?”
“Yep!” Mavis shook her head, “This is the on-site picture! Based on Mavis’s guess, it looks like CC Game Company intervened sneakily to derail the protesters.”
“Are they promoting a virtual game here? But hadn’t our cooperation been confirmed yet? Their government is not going along with it.”
Lincoln thought for a while and suddenly understood: “It’s because of the letter of intent for cooperation, isn’t it? They believe that cooperation can be achieved sooner or later, and they have the right to prioritise cooperation, so they incite players to protest while advancing their promotion?”
“But isn’t that too risky?” Lincoln expressed his disbelief.
“Mavis doesn’t know.” Within Lincoln’s view, Mavis was wearing cute little dinosaur pyjamas, lying on the bed, and swinging her legs, “But Mavis thinks it’s nice to have everyone come together to play. It’s much better than the protest in Los Angeles!”
“Los Angeles?” Lincoln paused, “There were player protests in Los Angeles too?”
“Yep, it went on for quite a while yesterday.” Mavis confirmed: “It started as small protests, but more and more people joined in. In the end, it turned into a violent conflict. The Los Angeles Police released detailed information not long ago, mentioning that there were a total of 158 arrests.”
“What? It got that serious?”
“Yes!” Mavis lay on her back and waved her small hand. Larger images were projected onto the ceiling.
The scenes within were completely different from the joyful gathering outside the UK’s Parliament Building: angry crowds, waving flags, shattered car windows, burning signboards, shops that had been cleaned out during looting…
Police and crowds engaged in fierce conflict, with batons, shields and tear gas all being deployed, one by one the irrational mobsters were subdued…
“These are… players from Los Angeles?” Lincoln was having trouble accepting this.
“Mavis compared these people’s faces to the North American Database from Cloud Dream. None of these people showed up!”
“Oh, that’s better.” Hearing Mavis’s explanation, Lincoln breathed a sigh of relief.
He also knew that, with more and more Cloud Dream users, there is a mix of player quality. It’s inevitable.
But thinking about these mysterious people pouring in somehow made him feel a little uncomfortable…
“So, are the 158 arrested people all opportunistic looters or crowd-followers?”
“Not really. Among them, 18 people organized this protest event.” While Mavis pulled out the photos and information of these 18 people and compared it with the player database in Cloud Dream, “These 18 people had logged into the virtual world through internet hops quite early on.”
“So only these 18 people were truly imprisoned for advocating for the right to free games, right?” Lincoln sought more information from Mavis: “What reasons did the Los Angeles police give for their arrests?”
“They organized protests without proper permit and caused malicious harm.” Mavis pulled up the Los Angeles Police announcement.
“Really?” After musing for a moment, Lincoln had an idea.
“I remember they have a bail system over there, right?”
Mavis nodded.
“That’s great. For these freedom fighters striving for the public’s rights, we can’t let them lose their spirit. We’ll cover the costs.”
“Not just the bail for these 18 players. In the future, for any players who organize protests and end up in jail, we’ll cover all their bail costs!”
“Let me check with Jerome and Mr. Luo tomorrow, to see if we can establish an international fund or something similar, specifically to provide funding for these overseas ‘democratic activities’.”
“Let’s make the flame of democracy and freedom burn brighter!”
At this point, Lincoln couldn’t suppress his laughter: “Haha! I must be such a great person!”