novelraw Chapter 630: The Slaughter Resumes
Chapter 630: The Slaughter Resumes
[Chapter 630: The Slaughter Resumes]
What they didn't know was that although Linton had left the Kabbalah Council, he had left behind a wisp of Spiritual Sense to keep an eye on things; everything that happened in the conference room afterward was actually right under Linton's nose.
Not only that, in order to monitor these people's every move at any time in the future, Linton had also placed a Spiritual brand on each of them.
If they followed the Oscar rules of the game to push their own people and suppress him from winning awards, he wouldn't actually care.
In his heart, Oscar awards were just okay; having them was better, of course, but not having them wouldn't affect him much.
Given his stature and status, the boost from an Oscar Best Actor award was already quite limited; he didn't need an Oscar Best Actor to prove himself.
However, it was undeniable that major Oscar awards would provide a significant commercial boost to the film Titanic itself, and were even more important for James Cameron and Kate Winslet.
But he believed even more that with Titanic's current market influence, if they didn't use means outside the rules, they certainly wouldn't be able to stop the film from sweeping multiple major Oscar awards.
Because Titanic's market performance was simply too hot, and its influence was too great.
As of January 16th, in the North American market, the film had already secured the box office championship for four consecutive weeks.
And yesterday, the Friday of the fifth week, it continued to rake in 9.17 million USD, remaining the champion of the day.
In other words, this movie would continue to dominate the box office charts.
The film's total North American box office had already reached 410 million USD, breaking the historical record set by Mission: Impossible.
Based on this box office trend, it was a foregone conclusion that the total North American box office would break through 600 million USD, and 600 million might not even be the end.
The film's box office performance in overseas markets was even more ridiculously strong; in just over three weeks of release, the overseas box office had already broken through 600 million USD.
This meant that Titanic's global box office had already broken the global box office record of Mission: Impossible.
More importantly, the film's overseas influence was still expanding. More and more countries had scheduled release plans for the movie, and even many film markets that Hollywood hadn't opened before had plans to import Titanic, thereby opening up more new markets for Hollywood.
For a film that expanded Hollywood's territory with such massive influence, and wasn't just a pure popcorn flick but one that achieved a balance between commerce and art, Linton believed that as long as the judges had a basic sense of fairness and justice, the Oscar awards would definitely be theirs.
That's why, when facing the threat from the Kabbalah Council of Elders, he said they could use any competitive means within the rules, because he truly had enough confidence in the film.
Of course, his final threatening words were no joke either. If they really dared to blatantly violate the rules to sabotage him and the film's chances of winning, he would certainly strike back mercilessly.
In fact, he had thought about simply releasing his Flying Sword after leaving the Kabbalah Council to kill them all and be done with it. Since they dared to plot against him, these people already had a reason to die.
But after thinking it over carefully, he gave up on this simple and direct method, mainly considering the following three aspects.
First, if he did that, it would undoubtedly confirm that he was the killer. It would be like telling the people of America and even the whole world in plain sight that he was the one who killed the Bronfman Family, the five major gangs of Los Angeles, the three pharmaceutical giants, and numerous politicians in Washington.
Although this was no longer a secret in the eyes of many high-ranking figures in America, and some newspapers had previously suspected him of being the mastermind...
But they had no evidence after all, only speculation. Furthermore, for the sake of the big picture and their own lives, no one dared to thoroughly investigate or dig deeper.
In the eyes of ordinary people, Linton was completely unrelated to these cases, and previous reports were just groundless speculation and framing of Linton.
Because of this, he could continue to be his movie superstar and music idol, winning the adoration of fans across America and the world. This contributed to his ever-increasing popularity, allowing him to continue to Cultivate rapidly.
If the people of America and the world knew for certain that he had exterminated so many people with such brutal methods, he was sure that the vast majority of his current fans would leave, which would be too great a loss for him.
The second factor was that Hollywood's current structure and its influence on the world were actually most beneficial to him.
It was undeniable that Hollywood during this period was indeed the entertainment center of the world. It had the capital, the creativity, the technology, and not to mention the talent.
Moreover, it was extremely ambitious, constantly conquering and expanding its territory worldwide, allowing Hollywood films to easily enter the movie markets of various countries and regions.
Strictly speaking, Linton was also a beneficiary of this system. It was precisely because of the influence of the super platform that is Hollywood that his songs and movies could easily enter countries all over the world, winning fans and gaining super high popularity.
Not just him, but the members of his Harem as well. Without the grand platform of Hollywood, their popularity would also be greatly diminished.
Because of this, he didn't want to easily break Hollywood's existing structure. Killing all the thirteen people would inevitably cause a major upheaval in Hollywood, and it was hard to estimate whether it would be good or bad for Hollywood's future development.
However, in his view, the possibility of Hollywood's decline was greater, which he was unwilling to accept because it would affect his Cultivation.
The final and most crucial point was that he was currently only at Celestial Presence. Although he possessed power that was incredible to ordinary people, there were still powers in this world that could threaten him.
For example, nuclear and hydrogen bombs. If someone truly dared to risk universal condemnation and used nuclear or hydrogen bombs to deal with him unexpectedly, even if he could escape with his life, he would surely be heavily wounded.
And he wouldn't be able to look after the people around him; under a nuclear strike, they would inevitably be reduced to ashes.
Even if he could recover afterward and kill everyone involved, the damage would have been done. Deceased loved ones cannot be brought back to life, and more importantly, the Cultivation environment might be completely destroyed.
After all, once nuclear bombs are detonated, who knows what the whole world will become? This was a situation he absolutely could not accept.
Don't say such a situation is impossible. With the influence of the jewish people in America, it's inevitable they control some nuclear and hydrogen bombs. If they really felt he was slaughtering jewish people en masse, to the point of desperation, it's unavoidable that some insane individuals would emerge.
So after a comprehensive assessment, although he could now act without being bound by rules and do as he pleased, his strength had not yet reached the point where he was fearless of all worldly threats, so he could not yet do whatever he wanted.
Only after he reached Astral Dominion would neither nuclear nor hydrogen bombs pose any threat to him. At that time, this world would be completely under his control.
At that point, exterminating any people would be a simple matter. Not only that, completely transforming America into a monarchy and making it his private domain would also be a matter of course.
...
The situation that followed was exactly as Linton expected; these people could not be of one mind.
Under his threat, Redstone, Murdoch, Michael, and WMA President Hristo Jiz — these four backed down.
He wanted to see what means the other nine would use to sabotage his run for the Oscars.
Of course, if someone was truly stubborn and used means outside the rules to sabotage him and Titanic's chances of winning, then they couldn't blame him for going on a killing spree.
Under the watch of his Spiritual Sense, these people did not stay long at the Kabbalah Council. After reaching a basic consensus, they each went home.
After Redstone, Murdoch, Michael, and Hristo Jiz went home, it was as if nothing had happened that afternoon; they took no related actions.
But the others all began their respective actions.
For example, the General Manager of the Los Angeles Times, Steve Smith, and the President of Variety, Edward Green, held separate meetings the next day, making it clear that from now on, they would no longer publish any articles speaking well of Linton and Titanic, and would certainly not accept PR from Universal Pictures or Linton Film Company.
On the contrary, for film critics' articles criticizing Linton and Titanic, they had to be prioritized in better positions for publication.
At the same time, they arranged for people to contact the crews of films with Oscar potential, such as The Full Monty, L.A. Confidential, and The Sweet Hereafter.
As well as competitive candidates for Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress.
The Los Angeles Times and Variety would take on their PR advertisements and advertorials at the most favorable prices, cheering them on for their Oscar runs.
Meanwhile, Warner, Sony Columbia, and MGM also held meetings, deciding to increase their budgets and intensify PR efforts for their own films while increasing the intensity of attacks and smear campaigns against Linton and Titanic.
ICM Agency President Galir Ives also held a meeting, deciding to increase PR efforts for his client Robert Duvall for Best Actor and Julie Christie for Best Actress, providing more resource support. Of course, he didn't forget to arrange for increased attacks and smears against Linton and Kate Winslet.
Of course, these were all conventional Oscar campaign methods and did not break the rules, so Linton ignored them.
However, the actions of Frank Baker, the rotating chairman of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, crossed the line.
The next afternoon, he held a meeting of more than 30 people at the Academy. The attendees were all very influential Oscar voters, each capable of influencing many votes in their own circles. They also had one thing in common: they were all jewish people and all held positions at the Academy.
During the meeting, Frank directly issued an order, commanding them to unconditionally oppose casting Oscar votes for Linton and for awards related to the film Titanic, and required them to conduct strong lobbying within their respective social circles.
This unconventional order naturally left the attendees strangely shocked, and they all asked for the reason.
Frank said directly that this was carrying out a resolution of the Kabbalah Council of Elders, because Linton had already threatened the jewish people's control over Hollywood and had refused the Kabbalah's attempts to recruit him, so the Kabbalah had to suppress him with all their might.
The jewish people are indeed a united nation; upon hearing that this was a resolution from the Elders of the Kabbalah secret sect, everyone at the meeting expressed their determination to carry it out.
...
At this time, under Harvey's arrangement, Linton was attending an Oscar PR party at the Hilton Hotel. Among the participants in this party was the big-mouthed beauty Julia Roberts. The two had even agreed to go straight to the hotel's top floor after the party; Linton's assistant Jennifer Roberts had already booked the presidential suite.
Of course, with Linton's current Celestial Presence Stage cultivation, it was no problem to monitor the activities of those thirteen people with a dozen or so strands of Spiritual Sense while attending the party. As long as they were in Los Angeles, they couldn't escape his monitoring.
Seeing Frank's blatant behavior of undermining fair competition for the Oscars, Linton naturally couldn't tolerate it. He immediately found an opportunity to go to the restroom, avoided others, and released his Flying Sword.
Under the control of his Spiritual Sense, the Flying Sword, in a grain-of-rice-small state, quickly flew to the conference room at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences where Frank was holding his meeting, completely undetected.
Just as Frank and his group of supporters were confidently discussing how to specifically sabotage Linton, they were completely unaware that a fatal disaster had arrived.
A flash of light appeared in the conference room, revealing a Flying Sword. Immediately after, the Flying Sword flashed repeatedly; with every flash, a head fell to the ground.
Before anyone could react, all 36 participants had their heads separated from their bodies, cut into two pieces. The scene instantly became a slaughterhouse.
Also that afternoon, at the CAA Agency, Martin was holding a management meeting where he issued an order.
Based on the list of all CAA artists who were Oscar voters, he required the corresponding agents to unconditionally persuade them to unconditionally oppose casting Oscar votes for Linton and for awards related to the film Titanic.
For artists who violated the order, the company would downgrade them in future resource allocations, and the corresponding agent teams would be subject to severe financial penalties and demotions.
In the Hollywood Screen Actors Guild, similar things were happening. They mainly targeted old Oscar voters who had retired due to age.
The movies these veteran actors had once starred in were still being broadcast through various channels, continuing to generate revenue.
According to the agreement between the Screen Actors Guild and the film companies, the income generated by these films must be shared with all participating actors.
Many veteran actors relied on the income shares from their past hit movies to live comfortable lives.
Now, the Screen Actors Guild was preparing to use this income settlement to threaten them: they must unconditionally oppose casting Oscar votes for Linton and for awards related to the film Titanic.
The Screen Actors Guild President, Jason Morima, took the list of retired Oscar voters and assigned the names one by one to his staff, telling them to do 'ideological work' on each of them.
Linton did not go soft on CAA and the Hollywood Screen Actors Guild for their behavior of seriously undermining fair competition for the Oscars.
After commanding the Flying Sword to slay Frank's group at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, it flew directly to the CAA building and slaughtered all the management members at the meeting. A total of 53 people had their heads cut off at the scene.
Subsequently, the Flying Sword flew to the Hollywood Screen Actors Guild and slaughtered all 44 participants at the meeting.
*****
https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.