Throwing the food into the trash, Lon sat down on his bed and looked at the newspaper that Sali had brought him.
It was printed in the standard gray color with black letters and a few images depicting various events. The text looked fresh and pleasant, easy on the eyes, and the paper felt nice to the touch.
The font was styled in a serious manner, emphasizing the status and importance of the news. And while the images were black and white, their quality was quite decent, making it easy to read and understand the news.
This was how Lon would describe Seon newspapers, which were published by the government itself. They were high-quality and well-made, clearly not something produced from scraps.
The newspapers were printed daily and in large quantities since the government had no real competition.
Of course, there were other publishers who printed their own newspapers with news. However, they mostly covered the outside world — other nations and their affairs. These newspapers were expensive, costing around 25 gol, whereas a regular "Seon News" issue cost only 10 gol.
Only families from the Green District and above could afford such expenses on newspapers, while families from the Black District were too poor to spend their hard-earned money on them.
That was precisely why "Seon News" was so popular. The reason lay in the poor common folk, who simply couldn't afford large expenses. They had no other choice!
Truly unfortunate.
Shaking his head, Lon settled comfortably on his bed and opened the first page of the newspaper.
The "Seon News" newspaper was divided into two sections: the first covered the main events within Seon itself, while the second reported on world news and global changes. Additionally, some pages featured various games, such as Cluster, and even different rankings.
Lon even remembered seeing a ranking in one of the newspapers titled "The Most Dangerous Pirates of the Eastern Region," where various pirates were compared based on their strength.
Overall, the newspapers in this world were quite good. Though Lon hadn't seen newspapers from other countries yet, he could already assume that they were of high quality as well.
The news on the first and following pages was rather dull. It mostly talked about business meetings and various high-ranking guests whom Lon would probably never meet. But then, on one of the pages, something caught his attention.
Squinting, he began to read silently:
«Today, in the southern part of the Black District, four dead bodies were discovered! Witnesses report that a fierce shootout took place at night, damaging five houses! The Seon Guard is currently investigating the case and is trying to find the perpetrators or anyone who might be involved!»
After reading this, Lon couldn't help but sigh.
«Another shootout... This is the third one in the past three days...»
Lately, headlines about shootouts and attacks had been appearing more and more frequently in the newspapers. The crime rate in the Black District was rising rapidly. Although it had never been a safe place, the past few days had been absolute madness for its residents.
Lon continued flipping through the newspaper, and what he saw next shocked him.
There were an overwhelming number of reports about explosions and attempts to destroy the city's infrastructure!
Just yesterday alone, there had been five attempted bombings! And all of them in the Black District.
The Seon Guard had launched investigations into all these incidents, but whether they would be successful remained to be seen.
Lon frowned and pondered:
«Lately, incidents of bombings, shootouts, and destruction have been happening far too often... I've already thought about this before, but I can't shake the feeling that all of this is just a distraction...»
He ran a hand over his chin.
«There's no way so many explosions could happen in a single day by pure coincidence. This is clearly planned by someone. But who? And why? Why cause so much pain to ordinary people? Are they trying to get the attention of the Five Structures? But for what reason?..»
Lon's mind worked nonstop, coming up with more and more theories.
But unfortunately, he still couldn't find a solid answer. He simply didn't have enough information.
«In any case, I'll only get answers to these questions when I leave the hospital... And that should happen soon. I hope...»
With a deep sigh, Lon opened the second part of the newspaper, which covered global news.
And on the very first page, he saw a shocking headline:
"Breaking News! The Southern Pirate King Nedo has been killed by an unknown assassin, known by the alias Mad Death!"