Resistance and Revenge
With that suspicion and accusation, public opinion was starting to spiral out of control. Sacrificing for the district was one thing, but that didn't mean players' lives could be treated as worthless. Alton Company had caused so much trouble and colluded with Player's Home. Could the government really have known nothing about it?
After all, every player in the district would eventually reach the point of decline. When their abilities failed them, what kind of situation would the players and their families find themselves in?
This led some players to question District 025's retirement system.
The District Government reacted swiftly, immediately releasing data on players who had retired under the government's care over the past twenty years. The number of years they had survived and their quality of life served as direct evidence. The government also made public the cities connected to Alton Company, along with an estimate—based on its data analysis—of how many players might have been involved.
Compared to the figures on both sides, those on Challenge Island seemed insignificant, especially since a large proportion of them were Outer District Players.
Many people in District 025 disliked Outer District Players who came there to retire. Providing for them was a burden. They hadn't done a single good thing for District 025 in their youth, so what was the point of coming there in their old age? No matter how wealthy District 025 was, it couldn't support so many people.
Before long, the claim that Outer District Players were "maggots" was rampant.
By this point, District 025 had little room to maneuver. No matter how they handled things, they could only make Alton Company take full responsibility and have local governments conduct their own investigations.
But Xu Huo didn't want the matter to end there. He