Empire of Shadows

Phillip was a little nervous; his palms were sweaty.

From the first day he arrived in Goldport City, he had been hearing rumors related to Lance.

People liked to talk about things related to Lance; not only were the Empire immigrants discussing Lance, but even other ethnic minorities and the Federation people themselves would often talk about Lance.

Because Lance was also someone who had climbed up from the bottom, it only took him a year to go from an exploited worker in an ordinary bakery to a family leader.

It seemed a bit unbelievable, but the Federation people didn't think so, because they had already witnessed too many miracles!

Like someone who brought a sack of potatoes from their hometown to the big city and became worth hundreds of millions in three years, becoming the largest shareholder of a listed company through self-made entrepreneurship.

Like a high school graduate who couldn't even speak fluently, but after self-redemption and awakening, suddenly became a star salesperson, a senior partner in the company, with countless wealth pouring in every day.

Even more exaggerated were the legends related to finance, like someone who entered the stock market at the age of fourteen with one hundred dollars and owned their first million in less than two years, and their first ten million in five years…

There were too many stories like this!

So many that people almost subconsciously thought, "I might be the next alliance achiever," so a poor boy becoming a family leader in a year and owning his own entire territory in Goldport City seemed very simple in comparison.

Okay, it was indeed very simple. Compared to those heavily promoted Federation dreams, Lance's was at most a beautiful dream, and one that people could relate to.

Everything about him seemed replicable, such as having a few fearless and daring good brothers, and then starting to grab territory, eventually becoming a mafia tycoon?

When Phillip first arrived, listening to the rumors about Lance while sleeping in the culvert, he had put himself into Lance's story more than once, which made it easy for him to fall asleep quickly in that terrible place.

Now that he had met the real Lance, and Lance wanted to fulfill one of his wishes, he suddenly knew what to say.

And he was very nervous, the kind of nervousness you feel when facing your idol.

He stammered for a long time without saying anything. Lance didn't urge him, but instead took the initiative to offer some suggestions, "You can join the Lance family and become a part of our big family."

"If you don't like the exciting family life, you can also take a sum of money from me and open a shop in the city, if you have a craft of your own."

"I can also help you get an apprenticeship in other shops, and support you in opening a shop after you learn."

"Even if you just want a sum of money to solve your current predicament, that's fine, Phillip."

"These things helped me a lot, you don't need to feel uneasy about it, because these are all you deserve!"

Phillip thought back and forth about the several options Lance offered. He quickly glanced at Elvin, "I want to join the family, Mr. Lance."

"Why?" Lance asked, "It's not that I won't let you join, I'm just curious, because I offered other options that seem better."

"Safety, decency, and a bright future, why did you choose the most dangerous one?"

A smile appeared on Phillip's face, "Because you gave me a job, Mr. Lance."

"My mother told me that if someone is kind to me, I must repay them."

Lance smiled after hearing this, "Your mother must be a great mother!" He paused, "No problem, from now on, you are a member of the family."

"I will have someone arrange a training plan for you first, and when you finish training, you can start working for the family."

"This may take some time, do you need to say goodbye to your friends temporarily?"

Phillip nodded, "That would be best, Mr. Lance."

"Now we are family, call me Lance, not Mr. Lance!" He sorted the notebooks on the table, "In addition, don't reveal these things."

"At least, don't reveal them before I allow it!"

Phillip seemed a little excited, "I promise, Lance…" He originally wanted to add "Mr.", but he gave up.

He would listen to Lance!

Lance signaled Elvin to take the person out first, and then his eyes fell on these notebooks.

The Bay Area's weaknesses.

This was the reason for Bissam and Booker's suicide. They had grasped the weaknesses of the Bay Area and seized the key points of these people.

But unfortunately, Booker, that idiot, and the people above him, including Heller, the leader of the Camilla gang.

Had not thought about how valuable these things were. They only provided various perverted services to the gentlemen in the Bay Area in order to obtain some support from them.

They were like dogs with broken spines, unable to stand up straight again. Even if a knife was placed in their hands, what they did with this sharp knife was not to hurt the enemy, but to peel apples for the enemy.

However, there was also something that made Lance curious. Sam was clearly the mayor's man, so why did he keep these important things in his own hands instead of handing them over to the mayor?

If the mayor had these things now, there would be no resistance or counterattack at all!

With his ability, he could easily control the entire Bay Area. In this case, it was really hard to say who the "local" was!

He couldn't figure it out, and in the end, he could only attribute it all to Sam's greed or caution. He clearly wanted to gain more, so he hid these things, which ultimately benefited him.

He disassembled these notebooks and placed them in more than a dozen different kraft paper bags. These kraft paper bags would be stored separately to ensure that even if someone found something, they wouldn't get all the evidence at once.

Things that were very valuable to the mayor were now a bit of a hot potato for him, because as soon as these things leaked out, he would be attacked by the entire Bay Area forces.

Even Paul wouldn't be able to speak for him this time!

But this also gave him a new trump card. After everything was over, who was the master of this city seemed to become a bit elusive again!

Saturday morning was still a gathering, and now there were more people coming to St. Naya Cathedral because of the Empire Chamber of Commerce.

As long as Lance could keep making money for everyone, then these people would always be his most devout followers!

When the priest saw Lance, he smiled as if he had seen his Lord. He also participated in the Empire Chamber of Commerce, and the funds that God had entrusted to him were also invested in the plan to acquire medicines.

The medicines had already filled the warehouse, and they had already begun to profit.

The profit margin was not high, only about two or three thousandths, but every day its price rose slightly compared to the previous day!

This was a good thing. Although it didn't earn much, it was stable. And Lance had discussed this matter with them during the meeting.

Now the war had not completely broken out, so many materials were still in circulation. Tanfite, as the largest continent in the world, was also very rich in resources!

Once the war broke out, there would be problems with the exploitation and transportation of these resources. When materials were in short supply, war would not be considered, and the prices of these drugs would skyrocket!

Not to mention the war, people's fear of death would begin to magnify, and the price of medicines would also increase accordingly.

Some members of the Empire Chamber of Commerce privately discussed that they thought the final price of these drugs might be over five million!

Every time the priest heard this number, he couldn't help but laugh. He sometimes felt that even God was not as lovable as Lance!

Although God also allowed him to escape poverty, it was still Lance who could really make him a lot of money!

"There seem to be a lot of people here today." Lance looked around, it was all people!

The priest slightly bent his waist. He didn't actually realize this himself. It was just an instinctive, subconscious expression, not something he did on purpose.

"More and more people are coming here now. I'm worried that we may not be able to accommodate so many people in our yard in the future!"

Lance looked around. The area around St. Naya Cathedral was open space and roads. The God worshiped by the Empire people and the God worshiped by the Federation people should be the same thing in a broad sense.

But many old Empire people firmly believed that the Empire's God was not the Federation's God, and was even a little more advanced than the Federation's God.

So they would only go to the three churches in the Empire district, and not to churches in other areas.

Looking at the area of these churches from the current perspective, they were indeed a bit small.

"How much does it cost to rebuild a church?"

The priest didn't react, "If it's a renovation, about two thousand dollars would be enough."

"We can repaint the exterior walls and buy some new stained glass from the Empire!" He looked around and looked at Lance with a "don't tell anyone" expression, "I shouldn't say this, but God actually likes new things too!"

Lance couldn't help but laugh, "How did he tell you that?"

"He told me when I was dreaming!" The priest said it as if it were true!

Lance put his hand on his shoulder, "I mean, I plan to fund the rebuilding of St. Naya Cathedral. It looks old and small now!"

"Buy the surrounding land, we'll build a bigger one, a bigger lawn, a bigger church, and get you an even bigger God!"

"My God!" The priest finally understood what Lance was saying. He nervously took off his hat, revealing a mostly bald head with only a few strands of hair remaining!

He was bald!

Usually, he stood on a high platform, and people wouldn't notice this. He was actually bald!

If it were just baldness, it wouldn't be too terrible.

What was terrible was that Lance also saw some spots exposed on his bald head, possibly age spots, but these were considered "unclean" symbols in the Bible!

If it happened to an ordinary person… they would say that this ordinary person was not a true believer, but nothing else would happen.

But happening to a priest, a servant of God, being unclean, some fanatical believers would drive him out of here!

However, in the face of a huge investment, he no longer cared about exposing these small problems of his!

"How much money are you planning to invest?"

"It depends on how much it costs to rebuild a larger church and buy the surrounding land. Go ask around and have someone make a budget. If it's not too outrageous, I'll fund it."

He let go of the priest's shoulder. "I'm going to talk to others. Your time is up!"

As soon as the priest left, Roger (an elder of the Chamber of Commerce) walked over with some core members of the Imperial Chamber of Commerce.

Although Lance hadn't made a more detailed stratification of the Imperial Chamber of Commerce, because they weren't a stable and cohesive entity yet, hastily dividing classes would make people feel dissatisfied.

It was better to first lead them to make money, making them unable to leave the Chamber of Commerce, and then do these things when the Chamber of Commerce couldn't do without them. The resistance would be much smaller.

However, they themselves had already made a distinction based on the funds they invested.

The top ten percent with the most investment were the core. Roger didn't know who had suggested it first. He had also invested a lot of money, although not the most, but he was more familiar with Lance, so he was more of a representative of the others.

After a brief greeting, Roger talked about Mr. Hampton, "He keeps clamoring to thank you in person for your help. They couldn't afford this money. If it weren't for you, he said his next meeting with his family would be at the cemetery through tombstones, not in the hospital bed."

The matter had completely spread within the Imperial District. After it spread, Lance didn't want to actively bring it up. Others said it was recognition of him, but he always said it had the suspicion of showing off.

"It's most important for him to recover from his injuries. Don't worry about anything else," he paused, looking at Roger, "Is there anything else you want to say?"

Roger looked at the people around him, "We plan to take out a sum of money to establish something like… a civilian security team."

"Nominally under the banner of the Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Commerce's security team, but the main job of those young people is the same as some of the young people in the Lance family, patrolling the streets."

"There are many middle-aged people and elderly people here. If they encounter those young criminals, they don't have much resistance, especially when those criminals have weapons."

"So we want to arrange for some people to constantly patrol the streets, which can also reduce some emergencies, and the recent security is really too bad!"

Small thefts, robberies, and other crimes, even heinous crimes, can now often be seen on the edge of the Imperial District. The security of the entire city is rapidly collapsing.

The police don't care, the mayor doesn't care, Councilor Williams and the Bay Area even less care about leaving. Everyone's demands are inexplicably and strangely appearing at the same point!

Lance nodded after listening, "I think it's okay. This is a good thing. People can spontaneously protect ourselves. This is much more effective than us always relying on others to protect us. I will support it!"

Roger breathed a sigh of relief. He was afraid that Lance would mistakenly think that they were doing this to confront the Lance family, so he made his words very clear.

"Just disband it when the security gets better. It's just for emergencies now!"

Lance had a different opinion, "No, it can be left even after the security improves. On the one hand, we can solve the employment problem for some people. On the other hand, as I just said, our own people protecting our own people is obviously more dedicated than the Federation people protecting us."

"You can even ask if anyone is willing to join the police station. I can arrange some!"

Roger and the people around him were overjoyed after hearing this, "That would be even better!"

After they left, other Imperial immigrants began to actively come over, shake hands with Lance, and say a few simple words.

People were very civilized, abiding by some kind of conventional rules, all queuing in an orderly manner, no one cutting in line, no one scrambling, civilization seemed to envelop the entire world at this moment.

But if you think this is real, then you are wrong.

People's compliance with the rules is not because their quality has improved, it is only because they are about to face Lance, that's all!

The gathering didn't end until after one o'clock in the afternoon. Elvin came over and told Lance that Johnny had been discharged from the hospital.

However, he was now sitting in a wheelchair, and his arm was still in a cast, pushed to the dock by his family and some friends who had a good relationship with him.

They planned to seek compensation and medical expenses from the management company.

"Have our people been arranged?" Lance asked as he got into the car.

Elvin nodded, "They have all been arranged, and several security guards have also been bought off."

Lance was always very relieved and satisfied with his work.

Sometimes both sides of the conflict don't know how the conflict escalated. The reason is here—not only are they staring at each other, but a third party is also staring at them!

The moment Johnny's family and some relatives and fellow workers appeared at the dock management company building, many people suddenly began to join their ranks.

At first, it was three or five, then seven or eight, then a dozen people or even more.

And there were also people in the crowd holding up pre-made signs, like "Return the stolen wages to us" or "No more silence from today," in short, something that could generate a strong emotion.

His family was at a loss, but Johnny could vaguely feel that these things were related to Lance, but he didn't say it.

After lying in the hospital for two days, he suddenly had some acting experience. He was worried that his family wouldn't act well, so he hadn't told anyone so far that this was a "performance."

Seeing a large number of workers crowded outside the dock management company building, the dock management company also hurriedly mobilized a large number of security guards and began to actively contact Vaughn.

They could not contact Scott, so they could only contact Vaughn.

At this time, it is generally when the dock workers' union appears. Capitalists need the union to appease these rioting workers and let them return to their jobs!

It's just that Vaughn is not here now, and it will take some time for him to come back.

The dock management company can only choose to handle it coldly for the time being, not appearing and not responding.

But the emotions of the workers confronting the security guards inexplicably began to gradually become excited…