I can upgrade the shelter-Chapter 526 - 424: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes

"Quick! This way!" At an underground intersection in Lucia Capital, an officer was directing his soldiers to pass through swiftly.

Watching the fully armed troops charging into the passage on the other side of the crossroads, the officer loudly emphasized: "Arrest all suspects! Shoot all resisters! Don’t let any suspects escape!"

Though merely a member of the elite special forces from an intelligence department, the officer exuded the aura reminiscent of the Suyia era’s purges.

But after the attack on the Flame Country camp occurred, the atmosphere in Lucia Capital now was no less tense than during the peak purges of the past.

Even though this attack, including the final rocket, mainly resulted in casualties among the attackers, with nearly all rioters dead, and only two of the surrendered prisoners survived, both injured from explosions.

As for the Flame Country, they suffered little loss, with four minor injuries and one severely injured, who was quickly cured after being delivered to the medical pod.

However, the nature of this incident was extremely vile, with a similarly severe impact.

The Flame Country immediately withdrew all its personnel from the surface, and after evacuating everyone and supplies with two ark vessels, they quickly ascended to a thousand meters altitude and filed a stern protest with Lucia’s side.

If not for the Flame Country somewhat respecting Lucia’s sovereignty, Titan would have been hitting the leaders of Lucia’s office by now.

Facing the inquiries from the Flame Country, Lucia’s leader was about to flip the table at this time.

Originally, the Flame Country agreed to the previously settled aid and sent medical experts to assist in researching and resolving virus problems to solve the epidemic crisis; all seemed to be moving in a positive direction, and Lucia gradually saw hope in overcoming this crisis.

But everything was ruined by this attack.

Lucia’s leader dared not think about what this nation would become under the dual hits of plague and cold if the Flame Country men now simply let go and withdrew their rescue teams.

Though Suyia back then was a colossus that oppressed the entire world to the brink of suffocation, today’s Lucia is but the leftover residing on the corpse of that enormous entity. As the nutrients of the corpse gradually diminish over decades, Lucia is barely holding on to the semblance of a major power.

This disaster has squeezed out the last bit of Lucia’s vitality; even handling an epidemic is beyond its capacity, leading to riots in the Capital, and now this happens.

Facing such a precarious situation, Lucia’s leader no longer wanted to ponder any appropriate resolution, just as he once said: to deal with those behind-the-scenes perpetrators, there’s only one attitude – no matter where they hide, pull them out! If caught in a toilet, drown them in the toilet!

The troops originally deployed to suppress the riots had halted temporarily due to talks between the authorities and the rebel army, but now all military forces have moved, launching large-scale hunts for individuals related to the behind-the-scenes hands in Lucia’s Capital.

Actually, it wasn’t that hard to guess who the masterminds were; Lucia’s leader himself knew quite well.

These were those who, during Suyia’s disintegration, reaped the most benefits from the mammoth corpse of the nation. Most of them once held the entire economic lifeline of Lucia in their hands; in some sense, their will was that of Lucia as a nation back then.

After the dissolution of Suyia, they became the oligarchs controlling the nation from behind the scenes.

Although the seven major oligarchs who once controlled the country were crushed after the current Lucia leader took power, they still exist in the nation.

Old oligarchs fall, new ones rise. As a world-class power, even if Lucia’s economic situation isn’t good, it’s never short of tycoons.

Just that, when disaster struck, these tycoons and both new and old oligarchs suffered heavy blows, especially those involved in the financial sector; with all financial activities ceasing completely, their once vast wealth evaporated overnight.

Although most had already prepared solid, reliable private shelters for themselves before the disaster, these could only let them survive.

Perhaps they lived considerably better than common folks, with some still listening to them, but compared to the power and wealth they once possessed, they now are negligible.

Some tycoons might think being alive is already good enough, but some refused to accept losing their power and status.

Before the riots, Lucia’s intelligence department had glimpsed their shadows, but the impact of the riots on the Capital was overwhelming. Coupled with the epidemic influence, the situation spiraled out of control; these men took the chance to hide, even spurring the revolution army organization that vexed the officials more, leading Lucia’s authorities to temporarily overlook them.

But when they jumped out to stir trouble, especially causing such a large disturbance afterward, as a former intelligence officer from Lucia, the leader decisively chose a brutal method to rectify the issue.

Arrest them all, err on the side of punishing wrongly, let none escape.

Like what Comrade Steel once did; though a bit over the top, from some angles, one must admit the results were highly effective.

This led to ordering the entire army mobilized initially for suppressing the riots, directing to capture all suspects and shoot all resisters.

Facing the large-scale action from the government, the revolution army was indeed nervous, but the revolution committee, after understanding the incident’s course from the authorities, gave tacit consent, even provided cooperation.

This naturally made the government’s actions smoother, yet simultaneously incited further panic among the masterminds, driving them to desperate measures.

Gunfire once again echoed in Lucia Capital, but compared to the last riot, the battle this time was undeniably fiercer.

The masterminds were all former tycoons and oligarchs; despite losing most of their wealth and power, they could still command considerable forces.

Perhaps unable to oppose the official crackdown, yet rekindling chaos to cling to resistance wasn’t an issue.

Thus, for a time, the entire underground of Lucia Capital turned into a battlefield.

The innocent hid in their respective shelters, covering their ears, wrapped in whatever covering they could find, trembling in fear all day long, longing for the turmoil to end soon or for a quicker death, so to escape from this icy Hell on earth.