hotmtlnovel Chapter 4387 Project Farstar (5)
Chapter 4387 Project Farstar (5)
Chapter 4387 Project Far Star (Part 5)
“Originally, there were only two social workers left in the entire community. The three people you see today besides me were all recently transferred here. This proves one thing: you must have offended someone. Someone wants to get rid of you here,” the female social worker said.
“You did a great job today. Once they’re in, they’ll nitpick every little detail and then use that as an excuse to kick you out, saying your welfare practices don’t meet community requirements.”
"What if we don't leave?" Diana thought, a surge of anger welling up inside her. She knew it was an irrational question, but she couldn't help herself. "Can he use force to drive us away? Who can he possibly defeat?"
“I heard you are superpowered. He certainly can’t beat you, and neither can the police and the security forces. But they can sue the people you help,” the female social worker said. “If I’m not mistaken, some of them are temporary residents who will eventually have to reintegrate into society. If they get embroiled in lawsuits, they will never be able to find work again.”
"Sue the person you rescued?!" Diana felt it was absurd, and she raised her voice. Everyone else in the café looked at her, so she had to lower her voice and say, "On what grounds? Is it a crime to be rescued?"
“There are many. Disturbing the community, resisting arrest, assaulting police officers, forming illegal associations, and so on.” The female social worker sighed and said, “These people may already have legal cases against them. Even if we reopen old cases, they will be in deep trouble.”
Diana pressed her lips tightly together. The social worker continued, "What you need to do now is find them a way out as soon as possible. If all else fails, you can't just leave them on the street in this heavy snow; they'll all die."
"But...but..."
“I know you mean well, and they certainly know that too. You have such powerful abilities, yet you haven’t used them to commit crimes, but instead have tried your best to save people, proving that you are all good people.” The female social worker paused for a moment, then said in a somewhat sorrowful tone, “This country has many good people, but unfortunately, good people cannot save this country.”
Back at the shelter, Diana seemed somewhat distraught. Her emotions urged her to fight to the end, but her reason told her that the social worker was right; she had to find a way out for these people, otherwise she might really harm them.
Those who are strong and healthy are fine. They have stayed here for so many days and replenished so much energy. They will have no problem getting through this winter. But what about the elderly, the weak, the sick and the disabled?
Before she could come up with a solution, another group of people arrived. This time, they were from the health office, insisting that the large gathering of people posed a risk of infectious diseases and that the area needed thorough disinfection. During the disinfection process, everything and everyone had to be temporarily moved out.
Hal could only demonstrate to them what the "green light disinfection method" was. He used his superpowers to eliminate all viruses and bacteria in areas the sanitation workers could reach. He himself hadn't known he had this ability before; indeed, when people are pushed to the limit, they'll do anything.
The sanitation office staff left, but the environmental management office staff came, insisting that the gathering of homeless people was damaging the city's appearance and needed to be relocated as soon as possible. Diana looked at the dilapidated factory buildings and empty streets, wondering what was wrong with the city's appearance.
The group continued arguing at the entrance. Thanks to the heavy snow, the temperature had plummeted, meaning ordinary people without superpowers couldn't stay here for long. After some time of wrangling, the environmental management office staff left.
Then came the FBI, who insisted that a fugitive was among the group and demanded to enter for inspection. They asked for evidence and a search warrant, which the group couldn't produce. Finally, Victor forged a phone call from his superior and forcibly removed them.
By the end of the day, everyone was exhausted. They just couldn't understand it. It was just helping some homeless people, right? Who could it possibly harm? There were only a few hundred people; even if they sold drugs, they wouldn't make much, would they? Was it really worth using so many connections for such a small amount of money?
The group was completely baffled, as this was clearly abnormal. The personnel and police force mobilized far exceeded the scope of either gangs or local government. Could it be the federal government causing trouble again?
Just because they didn't move the Capitol back?
But upon closer inspection, that doesn't make sense. If the federal government is targeting these superpowered individuals, there are actually better ways to break them up. For example, they could target their families or hometowns, fabricate charges against them, or send some superpowered individuals to fight them. Even if they can't win, they could still smash the place to pieces.
However, these methods are clearly not aimed at people with superpowers, but at ordinary homeless people. They harass the shelter administrators repeatedly, try to find loopholes in various legal provisions and draft clauses, or have law enforcement officers take turns intimidating them, all with the aim of preventing the operation from succeeding.
“What do you think is going on?” Rong En asked.
“They probably just don’t want anyone to start this,” Arthur said after thinking for a moment. “Have you noticed that this is actually not difficult at all? Rescuing these people doesn’t take much effort at all.”
Everyone nodded; they had also realized that things weren't as difficult as they had initially thought. After the previous incident, they were prepared for a fierce battle with the federal and local governments—a situation that, if not a spy thriller, would certainly be a surprise attack.
They were even prepared to be distrusted, rejected, or even insulted. After all, these homeless people had fallen to the very bottom of society, where any kind of disaster could happen. They would definitely be very wary, and persuading them would not be easy. It was normal to be hurt by their stress response.
However, things went much more smoothly than they had imagined.
There is a lot of information about homeless people online, which made it easy for them to investigate the distribution of homeless people. When they went to look for people, because the weather was already too cold and so many people were too hungry, if you said you could give them some food, they had no room for distrust. After all, staying where they were meant to wait to die, while going out to try their luck meant there was at least a glimmer of hope. So it was easy to take them away.
There were no obstacles in the transportation process, and it was even possible to hire professional trucks. The truck drivers I contacted were all nice people; even in such heavy snow, some were willing to make the trip, which showed they weren't solely motivated by money.
After arriving at the shelter, although there were some minor arguments, the vast majority of people were very kind. They would do what they could, help each other, and even comfort each other.
In terms of the total investment, aside from the time and effort, the actual material investment did not exceed $20. Although the superpower aspect cannot be included, not all aspects required superpowers to complete; hiring more ordinary people would have been sufficient.
Although there are only a few hundred people here, there are only tens of thousands of homeless people in the entire city. Even if all tens of thousands of people were rescued according to this standard, the cost would not exceed 100 million yuan.
Last year, the Metropolitan Government's total budget was approximately $1500 billion, with $60 billion allocated to municipal administration alone. Even a tiny fraction of that budget could help tens of thousands of homeless people get through the winter. Implementation would be straightforward and time-efficient; a week would suffice, and even with slower efficiency and delays, it could be resolved within a month or two.
However, nobody does it. This means that the difficulty in helping the homeless has never existed at the level of implementation. The reason why governments, institutions, departments, and even individuals don't do it is not because they can't; what's stopping them must be something more abstract.
When they encountered something like this, they were all a bit at a loss, because the enemy was invisible and intangible.
If community workers come to check, can you kill them all? If sanitation workers come to inspect the premises, can you detain them? Even if the FBI comes and causes trouble, you can't use force against them. Because these people aren't acting out of malice towards the Justice League or these homeless people; they're simply following regulations. Their superiors told them to come, so they have to. Otherwise, who would willingly brave the wind and snow to come to such a remote place and argue with people?
Even among them were well-intentioned people trying to warn them. People from various departments were subtly and overtly implying that they had offended someone and that the matter was doomed, urging them to prepare an escape route and not waste their efforts.
It can be said that none of the people involved in this series of events were truly bad; in fact, many could be considered good people with admirable humanity. Logically, with so many people working together, they should have been able to accomplish something, but in reality, they couldn't.
The day after the heavy snowfall, Diana received a mysterious phone call. The caller said, "Hello, Ms. Prince, I'm calling you personally. I just want to remind you that someone is investigating your application for public art land in the Biltger neighborhood. They seem to want to file charges against you for illegal use of leased land. I can only hold off on this complaint for three days; you must resolve this issue within three days. Please hurry, goodbye."
Diana's hair stood on end. She rushed to Ron and said, "What was the intended use we wrote when we applied to lease the factory?"
“There was no welfare application at the time,” Ron said, “so you chose an application based on your industry, public space art…”
“They found out,” Diana said. Then she took out her phone and said to Victor, “Is it too late to change things now?”
“It can’t be changed,” Victor said, “because there really isn’t a specific category for relief; it’s not listed in any of the categories, and there are no related laws or drafts.”
"Then why are those relief centers allowed to... Don't tell me everyone there is illegal?"
"They must have applied the community free land entry."
"Then can't we apply it?"
“But this requires a community-wide vote and prior approval, and it’s definitely too late now.” Victor also seemed a bit worried. He said, “If the purpose of the lease is violated, not only may they be evicted, but they may also have to pay compensation.”
Just then, the phone rang again. Diana answered, and the voice on the other end was somewhat gruff: "What the hell are you doing? I agreed to rent you the factory land because you said you wanted to build some kind of art sculpture there, and now someone's calling me saying you're there helping homeless people?!"
“I’m sorry, sir,” Diana quickly apologized, “I didn’t mean to lie to you, it’s just…”
“We’re doing performance art,” Ron said, taking the phone. “It’s a social experiment-style performance art activity.”
The person on the other end didn't seem to believe his nonsense at all, but just hummed twice and then said, "Alright, great philanthropist, I have to tell you that someone has already come to me, asking me to sue you for illegal land use. I don't have the spare money to do these things, but you'd better be careful. The community and the municipality can file lawsuits, and once you're in court, I won't testify for you."
“We’ll figure something out right away,” Diana said. “Thank you for reminding me.”