Elliot went downstairs and noticed a crowd gathered near the community entrance, with some noise.
As he got closer, he saw a dozen or so residents, both men and women, holding a banner that read, "Golden Dragon Real Estate, return our children's playground! Resident interests shall not be violated!"
Elliot recalled hearing some rumors before that this community was originally planned to have a children's playground, but for some reason, it wasn't built.
The residents were very upset about this and had protested several times.
"Dear residents and friends, please calm down. Our company understands your demands. On behalf of Golden Dragon Real Estate, I assure everyone that we will provide a satisfactory response within three days and will definitely help resolve this! The sun is so strong now, everyone should go back first!"
A man in a suit who looked like a manager stood in front of the crowd, loudly trying to appease the agitated residents.
It was unclear whether the manager's promise worked or if the residents simply couldn't stand the sun, but the crowd gradually dispersed, leaving only a few resident representatives still negotiating with the manager.
"It seems the matter should be resolved," Elliot thought. "The main reason the residents were able to make the developer compromise is because they were united. There's strength in numbers!"
This made Elliot think of Jared's situation.
One person alone has limited power.
If he could unite with other victims to defend their rights, it might achieve better results.
Maggie's TrendTok course was purchased by over 600 people.
Among them, there were definitely many who were scammed by her, just like Jared.
Elliot pondered, what if dozens of victims appeared together downstairs at Maggie's company, holding banners and demanding an explanation from her...
In that scene, even if Teacher Maggie wanted to refuse to pay up, she would probably have to think twice.
Thinking this, Elliot walked out of the community and headed towards a vegetarian noodle restaurant not far away.
Walking into the noodle restaurant, Elliot found a window seat, sat down, ordered his meal, took out his phone from his pocket, connected to a compromised computer, and after hopping through several compromised computers, logged into his email.
The reason for such caution was to prevent his real IP address from being tracked.
"Jared, I have a suggestion. You alone have limited power. You can find more victims like you and defend your rights together. Do you know the contact information of other victims?"
Elliot sent an email to Jared.
"Boss, I know there are others who were also scammed, but I don't know their contact information," Jared quickly replied to the email.
"I'll find the contact information for the others. You don't need to stake out Maggie anymore. Find a place to rest for now and wait for my news."
After sending the email, Elliot put down his phone and began to enjoy his vegetarian lunch with peace of mind.
After lunch, Elliot returned to his dorm, sat in front of his computer, and searched through a pile of documents.
Soon, he found a file named "Teacher Maggie One-on-One Course Client List".
The file recorded information such as the names, phone numbers, and Discord usernames of over 600 clients, and Jared's name was also among them.
This was the list.
Elliot forwarded the file to Jared and wrote in the email:
"The more than 600 people on this list are all clients who purchased Maggie's one-on-one emotional counseling service. You can contact them one by one and mobilize them to defend their rights with you! There's strength in numbers. Even if you can't gather all the victims, even just a few dozen people are enough to put pressure on Maggie. Maggie is a public figure after all, and she relies on her online reputation to make money. She would definitely not want to see her scandal exposed. As long as we make a big fuss, she won't dare not compromise."
...
In a noodle restaurant in Salt City, a few hundred meters away from Dream Media Company, Jared was eating noodles while anxiously waiting for news from Elliot.
"Buzz!"
His phone vibrated.
Jared quickly picked it up and opened his email.
When he saw the content of the email, his face immediately showed excitement.
As expected, Boss is amazing.
He got the list so quickly.
With the list, Jared immediately took action.
Following the contact information on the list, he sent messages to those victims one by one, explaining his intention and hoping that everyone could unite to defend their rights together.
By that evening, more than 200 people had replied to Jared's message, stating that they had also purchased Maggie's emotional course and had the same experience as Jared, having been scammed.
However, out of the more than 200 people, only 120 were ultimately willing to defend their rights with Jared.
The others included some who said they were too busy with work and couldn't take time off, some who said they were too far from Salt City and it was inconvenient to go, and others who simply said they accepted their bad luck and didn't want to waste any more time and energy...
Jared reported the situation back to Elliot.
Elliot also felt helpless about this.
He knew that these people didn't truly not care about the money they were scammed out of; they were just timid and afraid of trouble.
This is also why scammers often get away with it.
It is precisely by exploiting the average person's mentality of "better to avoid trouble than seek it" that they dare to scam so unscrupulously.
Of course, there were also some people who weren't afraid of trouble but were unwilling to admit they were scammed due to saving face.
After all, buying emotional courses online isn't exactly something glorious to talk about.
To protect their pathetic self-esteem, they preferred to suffer in silence.
"Human nature is truly complex..." Elliot couldn't help but sigh.
"Boss, currently only 120 people have agreed to go with me the day after tomorrow. Is that enough? Should I continue contacting others?" Jared sent a message asking.
"120 people are enough, you don't need to contact others," Elliot replied.
"I estimate that the actual number of people who go the day after tomorrow will be even fewer than now. But it doesn't matter, even if there are only a dozen or so people, it's enough. First, add the people who are willing to go to a group chat and coordinate the action."
As expected by Elliot, over the next two days, people continued to withdraw from the rights defense group for various reasons.
On the agreed day, a total of 70 people came to Salt City to participate in defending their rights together.
Although the number was slightly less than expected, it still far exceeded Elliot's minimum expectations.
This could work.
...
The morning sunlight filtered through the gaps in the curtains, scattering into the room.
Elliot slowly opened his eyes, picked up the phone from his bedside, and habitually opened TrendTok.
<[TrendTok Profile: Little Boy]>
[Followers: 1.4 million]
In just two days, his fan count had surged by 300,000, and he was now a genuine internet celebrity with over a million followers.
<[Elliot]>
{
He was still quite a way from his first small goal of 5 million points.
It didn't matter.
Hosting a few more live streams should be enough in a few days.
Thinking this, Elliot felt pleased.
(End of this chapter)
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Translator and Editor - Husband
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