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It was 1:33 AM Dazhao time, but due to the time difference, in Lenburg, West Novland Province, Grand Duchy of Vinan, which is close to the Arctic Circle, the time was still 7:33 PM on April 11.
The Grand Duchy of Venan, located in the northeastern part of the Western Continent, is one of the so-called Three Kingdoms of the North. Historically, it waged a long war with the Norman Empire in the east, vying for hegemony in the north of the Western Continent, and was once very powerful. However, it suffered a defeat in the wars of the early 18th century, losing vast territories and being forced to make peace with its eastern enemy. Even so, the Grand Duchy of Venan remains the largest of the Three Kingdoms of the North, possessing a vast territory. If its land area, excluding colonies, even exceeds that of the Rune United Kingdom, and is only slightly smaller than the Republic of Grand.
However, since its territory is mainly located in the far north, which is difficult to develop and has a sparse population, its current national strength is far inferior to that of countries such as Rune and Grand.
Lenburg, in the West Novland Province, is one of the northern cities of the Grand Duchy of Vinan. Located near the Arctic Circle, it is often visited by polar bears in winter. The area boasts vast, undeveloped tundra coniferous forests and has a superior natural landscape, making it a famous hunting and summer resort.
Although it's called a city, the total population of Lunburg is less than 10, which is less than the population of a county in Dazhao. In addition, the area is sparsely populated, so apart from the core urban area, most of the people in Lunburg live in the vast suburbs.
At this very moment, in a villa on the outskirts of Remburg, the team from the Truth Reporting website is working. It must be said that the previous reports catapulted the already somewhat famous Truth Reporting website to instant fame, making it incredibly popular... Now, it's safe to say that almost every media outlet worldwide, whether well-known or not, especially financial and political media, has been unable to avoid mentioning their website in their reports over the past few days, publishing extensive coverage of them.
In recent days, in order to maintain the buzz, the "truth reports" have continuously released various kinds of evidence. Under such reporting, a large amount of capital has fled, forming a risk-averse frenzy. Global stock markets, futures markets, and bond markets have experienced continuous plunges, and stock exchanges in many countries have repeatedly triggered circuit breakers or even suspended trading...
All sorts of rumors are flying around the market, and as the instigator of it all, the truth-telling website is now really popular! The flood of traffic has made them a top-tier media website!
However, this move has undoubtedly offended a large number of people. To date, several governments have indicated, either openly or covertly, that they will launch investigations against them, questioning their actions of releasing unverified information and disrupting market order.
In fact, this was still the best-case scenario. Previously, their headquarters in Grand had been splashed with red paint and they had received numerous anonymous letters, many of which contained blatant death threats...
It was under these circumstances that even Henry Lancaster, the founder of the website, had some concerns, so he decided to move the website to Lenburg, in the province of Westnovland, Grand Duchy of Vinan.
In fact, this was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, but rather something Henry Lancaster had prepared for long ago. After all, his "Truth Reporting" website often published news that offended people, and this news was even more likely to cause a major uproar, so even someone as audacious as him had made multiple preparations.
As the saying goes, a cunning rabbit has three burrows; he rented multiple secret locations around the world for easy relocation. The headquarters in Grand still existed, but it was merely a public display; it only housed a few customer service staff. The company's important departments, especially the most crucial core servers, moved with the company wherever it went.
Volume Two: The Truth Hidden Behind History Books: Chapter 882 The Truth Report
However, something unexpected happened during this time: anonymous individuals provided them with more information. In fact, there was more than one such anonymous individual. They sent Henry Lancaster top-secret information, clearly from high-level sources, via email, without asking for any payment. Their only request was that "Truth Report" release this secret information at any time.
Of course, when asked why they did this, these anonymous individuals almost all said it was because they couldn't stand the government concealing the truth and deceiving the public, and that they made this difficult choice out of conscience and justice...
However, with several so-called "righteous people" suddenly appearing with access to top-secret information from high-level officials, there was no doubt that Henry Lancaster could not believe them.
In Henry Lancaster's view, these people were undoubtedly preparing to give the current economic earthquake another push...
He had realized that he seemed to have become a "gun" in the hands of some people, and their "mouthpiece".
As for what these people are actually trying to do... it's almost obvious. In the capital market, for every loser, there's a winner...
Otherwise, it couldn't possibly be for the sake of justice...
However, this is a mutually beneficial arrangement, and no one can blame anyone else. From the perspective of reporting the truth, there is no doubt that a constant stream of information is needed. Only by continuously releasing new information can the website attract new attention and traffic.
In fact, these people also played a part in his relocation of headquarters. Some sources hinted that he should leave Grand, otherwise something bad might happen, and this source had just provided him with some new information...
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Lancaster sat at a wooden table in the villa's living room, his unkempt beard suggesting he hadn't groomed in a long time. He was hunched over two computers, one online, the other offline, filled with confidential documents. As the founder of a sensitive website, he was acutely aware of computer vulnerabilities and frequently took precautions to prevent intrusion and surveillance.
The villa's living room has now been completely converted into an open-plan office, with sofas and other decorations removed and several desks added.
Across from Lancaster sat a short, stocky man with a large beard, his trusted subordinate, Rom Findreep, head of external communications for the Truth Reporting website.
"Henry, many brands are contacting our website. At the current rate, our brand advertising revenue this year will be at least ten times that of last year..." Findlip reported the current situation to Lancaster with excitement.
"In addition, since yesterday, we have received large donations from multiple unidentified accounts. So far, the total donations have exceeded 2000 million rupees and are still rising rapidly..."
"A large donation from an unknown account?" Lancaster asked, taking a deep breath.
“Yes, unidentified accounts.” Findlip nodded. “Nobody contacted us. I asked the bank, and they were all anonymous accounts that were closed immediately after the donations were made.”
"So...they're just after the money?"
"Yes, it's just a simple matter of giving money, with no other additional requirements."
"It seems... we have quite a few potential allies..." Lancaster couldn't help but sigh. To be honest, even he himself was somewhat surprised that things had turned out this way. It's hard to say whether he would have leaked the news if he had known beforehand how things would turn out.
After all, this incident seemed to have gone too far, to the point that even he dared not stay in Grand, even though the Republic of Grand had always claimed to be a country that "respects freedom of the press."
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While Lancaster was talking to Findrip, several other young people were working diligently in the living room around them.
Not far from them, a disheveled young man sat upright in front of a computer, typing furiously. He was the website's security officer, and he needed to clean up files to ensure they didn't contain any digital traces that could be used to trace their origin. He was removing these traces as quickly as possible.
At a table further away, two young men sat facing each other. One was intently revising a manuscript, while the other was tracking the website's backend data.
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"Don't worry, everyone. The website won't let you work for nothing. This month's earnings will be distributed according to your stock options!" Lancaster slammed his hand on the table and shouted loudly to his subordinates who were working in the living room.
A burst of applause and cheers erupted in the living room. Lancaster wasn't a stingy person; on the contrary, he was very generous. He had already arranged stock options for everyone, even the administrative clerks. These stock options meant immediate cash payments based on the website's revenue, which was why so few people left his team even after moving from Grande to the Grand Duchy of Vinane.
Of course, this group, primarily composed of young people, wasn't just motivated by money. In fact, many of Henry Lancaster's followers were young people who genuinely aspired to freedom of the press, and many even held a variety of political views...
"BOSS! We did a great job this time! We should kick those corrupt nobles and those in power in the asses like that!" a young man with rebellious red hair shouted.
“Irwin, you’re absolutely right, we’re going to give them a good kick in the ass!” Lancaster said with a crude laugh. He knew that this young man was an anarchist. Although he did not actually agree with such political views, it did not stop him from pandering to his subordinates. He knew what these young men wanted to hear.
Sure enough, a series of applause and laughter rang out from the surroundings.
"Boss, our website has been hacked again..." Just then, a website security staff member with messy hair frowned and spoke up.
"Royce, how is it?" Lancaster walked over upon hearing this, but he didn't seem too nervous, because this wasn't the first time something like this had happened in the past few days.
Volume Two: The Truth Hidden Behind History Books: Chapter 883 A Bright Future
“This isn’t just one group; I feel like several groups are continuously attacking us.” The young man named Royce kept typing on the keyboard as he said, “These people are using a large number of computers to launch massive requests to our website, trying to overload the server resources and make the website unable to function properly.”
"Can our network defense service provider solve this problem?" Lancaster pulled up a chair and sat down next to him.
“I feel like Quinn Protection is having some issues. Their firewall service isn’t ideal; it’s slow and uncharacteristically unacceptable…” Royce frowned. As a relatively small team, Truth Report uses numerous internet service providers to handle website issues. Quinn Protection, which he mentioned, is a well-known internet security service provider in the industry.
“Replace them…” Lancaster said thoughtfully, tapping his hand on the table. “We’ll switch to another service provider immediately.”
“That’s what I was thinking too, but it takes time… Fortunately, our architecture caches static content on distributed nodes, allowing requests to be distributed across multiple servers for processing,” the young man explained. “This distributed architecture and elastic scaling capabilities can reduce server load and provide better performance. It’s better against saturation attacks and can withstand them for a longer period of time.”
“Very good. Also, prepare our mirror site. If all else fails, immediately activate the backup site…” Lancaster turned to another subordinate beside him: “Andrei, post an announcement on the website about this. Our readers will understand our difficulties…”
"Okay, boss, I'll go post the announcement right now."
Just then, a tall young woman hurriedly walked in from outside. She walked in with a serious expression, first glancing around the living room, then coming to Lancaster's side and whispering something in his ear.
Upon hearing this, Lancaster immediately stood up, nodded to his subordinates around him, and then followed her outside: "Angela, what is it?" The woman in front of him was his assistant, Angela Finn.
"Henry, I just received news that our headquarters at Grand has been bombed." Angela told him this with a serious expression and a slightly trembling voice.
"What?!" Lancaster was also shocked upon hearing this. He subconsciously pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and took a deep drag: "Are there any casualties?"
"Fortunately, only some of our staff remain there now. One is seriously injured, and two are slightly injured. In addition, a cleaning worker was killed in the building's explosion. They have all been sent to the hospital," Angela said.
"What about the police? What did they say?"
"The police were slow to respond. They reportedly arrived an hour and a half later, conducted a quick inspection, and then left. There has been no response so far; they only say that the matter is still under investigation."
"What exactly happened? Do you have any detailed information?" Lancaster asked, smoking a cigarette, his face grave.
“According to our staff who remained on duty, a cardboard box was placed at the company entrance early in the morning. The property management cleaner, apparently thinking it was blocking the way, tried to move it aside. At that moment, the box exploded, killing the cleaner instantly and destroying our office space. Fortunately, it was early morning, before working hours, so only two staff members on duty were injured,” Angela said, lowering her voice. “Although we don’t know who did it yet, they were clearly aiming to kill us…”
Lancaster cursed, threw his cigarette butt on the ground, and stomped it out. He was somewhat glad that he had moved the headquarters here; if it were still in Grand… the consequences would have been unimaginable.
He then realized that the "well-informed person" who had notified him of the evacuation in advance, whoever they were, clearly had extraordinary access to information.
“However… since that’s the case, we need to be careful here.” He thought for a moment and said, “Take some people and get our things ready. Also, tell everyone to keep their belongings in a state where they can be used at any time. If we find anything unusual, we will evacuate from here immediately and go to the next location.”
Angela nodded upon hearing this, but instead of leaving immediately, she asked with some concern, "Henry... could we... could we do some other reporting? Something less sensitive..."
As a woman, Angela was genuinely terrified by the explosion at Grand, as it was the first time she realized she was doing something truly dangerous...
Henry Lancaster didn't immediately answer her question, but simply sighed softly. He hadn't anticipated this situation either. If given a choice, he felt he might not have chosen this path; it was far too dangerous. Only by truly embarking on this journey would one discover that the "civilization," "rules," and "the fourth estate" of society seemed... merely a glamorous facade, beneath which lay something far deeper...
However, he clearly understood that at this moment, only by continuing could he possibly land safely. At least, it was obvious that many people did not want him to get into trouble; they hoped to escalate the situation. Conversely, if he backed down now, those so-called supporters might very well turn into his enemies.
The reason is simple: retreating won't work on them, and if they put themselves in their shoes, they might escalate the situation further. A dead version of themselves seems better than a living one…
So, since these people were able to notify me in advance, what if...?
He wasn't sure if what he was thinking would become a reality, but at this point, he had no other choice but to move forward, not backward...
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