Empire of Shadows

When a person is in a state of extreme fear, they can hear their own heartbeat.
A strong heartbeat.
It is cheering for its master, telling him that he can do it!
The powerful blood-pumping ability brings more oxygen, making one stronger, with better endurance and more explosive power, and all of this is to overcome fear, to conquer fear!
Many, many years ago, when the world was still in a primitive and savage state, this was indeed useful.
In the “overclocked” state of rapid adrenaline secretion, people could run faster and had greater strength. They could chase down prey and kill it, or escape from the capture of predators.
But now, it’s the f—king modern society. The appearance of thermal weapons has completely broken the meaning of the food chain. Humans holding thermal weapons stand at the top of the food chain.
Whether it’s lions, wolf packs, or even larger animals, in front of humans with weapons, all living beings are equal.
Although humans no longer need such a state to deal with crises in nature, when a person encounters danger and great fear, this phenomenon will still occur.
Just like at this moment, the high-ranking cadre of the Gregg family, hiding behind a table with a gun, was listening to his own heartbeat, feeling a lion hidden in his chest, while praying not to be discovered.
But he would obviously be disappointed. Today, these attackers had more time, and they searched more carefully.
He could hear the footsteps outside, and also the sound of the door of the house being pushed open. The sudden bright light made him have to make a choice.
Fight back, and then be riddled with bullets.
Surrender, and possibly survive.
The instinct of a living being is to live longer. He raised his hands and slowly stood up.
Perhaps his body felt disappointed by his act of surrender. The heartbeat that could shake his chest suddenly weakened, and he could no longer hear his own heartbeat.
He was taken downstairs. He tried his best to make himself not look so pathetic, but the fear of death still showed in his eyes.
He was pushed and fell in front of several men who were presumably high-ranking cadres of the Lance Family. But before he could speak, and before they spoke, he suddenly felt something hit him hard on the back of his knees.
His legs bent forward uncontrollably. The poorly adjusted center of gravity made him lose his balance at once, and he knelt on the ground with a thud.
The collision of his knees with the hard ground made him feel a piercing pain. He gritted his teeth, lowered his head, and did not say a word.
The bar was very oppressive. The customers had not been released yet; they were all required to huddle in a corner.
A brief burst of gunfire rang out from upstairs again. The body of one of his companions was thrown down from above, landing on the ground with a heavy thud.
He was looking at himself. There was a bullet hole in his forehead. A very small amount of translucent blood was oozing from his wound, but only a little.
On the contrary, his hair was already wet.
He just stared at himself with wide-open eyes, which made him feel fear again, but because of his cowardly behavior, his heartbeat did not become strong again.
At the same time, he also felt a wave of luck, because if he had also resisted just now, he would probably be like this now, being thrown down from above.
Before long, another one, and then an injured companion.
That person looked at him. He probably also felt the other’s gaze. The two looked at each other for a moment, then looked away.
Morris walked up to them and asked, “We only need one person alive, but there are two here!”
Before the other person could react, he suddenly raised his head, “I am willing to cooperate with you!”
His companion looked at him with an incredulous expression, and then in his sight, his companion was kicked to the ground. A foot stepped on his head, followed by a gunshot!
The light in the eyes of the person on the ground gradually dissipated, and blood quickly spread out under his head.
Until death, those eyes were staring at himself… He shivered and turned his head, not daring to look again. The sound of his heartbeat rang in his ears again. His body was clearly full of strength now, but he did nothing, and could do nothing.
Morris looked at him, “You must know that the Gregg family has several other strongholds.”
He looked up at Morris, his tone filled with an indescribable despair, “Why?”
Hiram walked over and kicked him on the shoulder, “Because you messed with the wrong people!”
Soon a truck stopped outside the bar. The bodies were quickly loaded onto the truck. The cash in the bar and a portion of the high-end liquor were all taken away by them.
When the customers in the bar had confirmed that the thugs had left, some people ran out, but some also went upstairs and into the warehouse.
In an instant, all those people suddenly came to their senses and began to join the looting crowd.
The entire scene was completely destroyed. At the same time, these people did not think of calling the police. They had also obtained some benefits, more or less. Calling the police would not only bring trouble to themselves but would also lead to the confiscation of the liquor they had taken, and even other things.
In one night, three bars and one dormitory were uprooted. The Gregg family officially became a thing of the past…
When the sun rose, everything seemed no different from yesterday, but it also seemed to have some differences!
After Lance arrived at the firm, Jonathan (the vice president of Parkway Bank) gave him a call. Jonathan’s voice was full of happiness, “Are you free recently?”
“We can go play golf together, and we can also have dinner together in the evening. I know a club that is particularly enjoyable!”
He let out a laugh that only men would understand, “And the president, just the three of us. I guarantee you will have an unforgettable night!”
Lance knew what had happened as soon as he heard it, “You got the money?”
The Liji Group had been suing him, accusing him of colluding with the appraiser to sign a contract that betrayed the company’s interests. This kind of case was actually very difficult to win, for the Liji Group.
The judicial logic of the Federation is also that whoever makes a claim must provide evidence. The Liji Group, by reaching a private agreement with the appraiser, had him insist that there was collusion with Lance.
But the evidence they provided was not complete. With the help of a lawyer, Lance produced a lot of supplementary evidence that contradicted the evidence they provided, and the court never adopted their statement.
They had been constantly demanding to supplement the evidence, wanting to drag out the lawsuit.
The main cost of a lawsuit in the Federation comes from hiring a lawyer. If it were an ordinary person, they might have given in after being dragged on for a while.
Most ordinary farmers and small businesses can’t afford to be tormented like this. This is also their most common tactic, to hurt people with their capital.
After Lance compromised, they would propose something like compensating him with $10,000 or $20,000, and the case would be over.
They had defaulted on the contract and made a profit of several million. As for the others, they didn’t care.
But what they didn’t expect was that Lance was not afraid of the lawsuit being dragged on. He had fully entrusted it to the lawyer recommended by Roben, and then no longer asked about the case.
It dragged on for two months, until it was almost due. When the bank demanded they fulfill the contract, they suddenly discovered that the rights holder of this contract had changed from Lance to Parkway Bank.
Although the Liji Group had a strong background and abundant financial resources, they were still far behind Parkway Bank.
Seeing that there was no advantage to be gained, the Liji Group also quickly honored the contract.
Parkway Bank didn’t want so many grapes. They directly cashed them out through the market. The profit of over a million made Jonathan and the bank president shine in the limelight!
This time they had made a big profit. Jonathan showed his face at the quarterly meeting of Parkway Bank’s head office, and the president was also mentioned a few times.
Not only could the two of them exceed their performance targets, but they also received a lot of rewards.
In fact, the rewards were not very important to them. What was important was that at the board meeting, people began to become familiar with their names, no longer just “the president and vice president of a certain region.”
Out of both reason and sentiment, both the president and Jonathan felt that they should deepen their connection with Lance. After all, this was indeed a favor, and a big one at that.
If a few more similar situations occurred, the president would definitely be promoted, and Jonathan might become the president of Parkway Bank in Golden Port!
He was now full of enthusiasm for Lance!
“They originally didn’t want to give it, but a director called their president, and then the money was transferred.”
“Because of this case, the president and I were praised by name at the board meeting. This is all thanks to you, Lance.”
“I want to do something to express my gratitude. Without you, I couldn’t have come this far, and the president also really wants to be friends with you!”
They were not afraid of gang members like Lance, but would instead be more interested because gangs had a large amount of funds that needed to be handled, and they happened to have a certain innate advantage in this area.
Besides this reason, the president also hoped to get to know the rising Lance Family and Lance. Maybe someday he could ask Lance to help him solve some troubles.
For high-society figures like them, there would always be some things that were inconvenient for them to handle themselves, but had to be done by someone.
Then it would be very necessary to know a few capable figures who could solve all their troubles for them!
After considering Jonathan’s invitation for a while, Lance decided to accept, but not now. The current situation had not yet stabilized, and it was not convenient for him to appear in exposed places for a long time.
“If you read the news, you’ll know that the recent situation is a little different. After the situation stabilizes, we’ll get together again. What do you think?”
As a member of the upper class, Jonathan certainly knew what had happened. After pondering for a moment, he agreed with Lance’s idea, “No problem, but I want to give you a gift. I hope you won’t refuse, and I hope you’ll like it.”
Lance was a little curious, “What is it?”
“You’ll know soon…”
Jonathan’s style of doing things was swift and decisive. He had Lance wait for half an hour. Half an hour later, a brand-new luxury car stopped at the entrance of the firm.
The eyes of the young men were shining when they saw this car!
For them, cars and weapons were their love. Women had to move back a little.
The one who delivered the car was Jonathan’s secretary, a young man in his thirties, with a fawning smile all over his face. He handed the relevant documents and keys to Lance.
“This car was obtained through an auction. The vice president remembered that you were still short of a good car, so he gave this car to you!”
“The formalities have all been completed. These are the keys. I wish you a pleasant drive…”
The secretary quickly left with two bottles of good wine. This was Lance’s return gift. He casually flipped through the documents.
This luxury car was ordered by a wealthy man on the verge of bankruptcy. Before the car reached his hands, he had gone bankrupt.
So this car went up for auction. The bank held an auction, and in the end, it was bought by Jonathan for $1,000.
There were many other super cheap things like this at auctions, such as houses for a few hundred dollars, and yachts for a few thousand.
They had many ways to keep these things within the bank at extremely low prices, becoming a kind of welfare.
If it was an auction that did not specify how many people needed to participate, then all the bidders were their internal people, and the items had already been distributed before the auction began.
Each item would only have one person bidding. Who would bid on what was already decided.
If it was a public auction that specified how many people needed to participate, then they could set a starting price and the price of each increment.
For example, the starting price was five percent of the price, but each increment had to exceed the price of the auction item.
A $10,000 item would start at $500. The first person to bid would bid $500, and the second person would bid $10,500.
As for who bids first?
Anyway, there would definitely be many people bidding at the same time. Who went first and who went later was up to the auctioneer.
Without a doubt, the auctioneer was also a person from the bank.
Besides these, there were other methods, for example, deliberately bidding but not paying, causing a few failed auctions to create the illusion that it couldn’t be sold. The bank would then remove this item from the auction list.
After re-evaluation, it would be directly digested internally at a ridiculously low price.
Sometimes when banks eat people, they have even worse table manners than those capitalists!
But most of the time, they would still cover it up a little.
As soon as Jonathan’s secretary left, a bunch of people rushed in. Looking at their covetous expressions, Lance knew their purpose.
He casually threw the car keys over. A group of young people immediately scrambled for them. In the end, the keys fell into Ethan’s hands. His whole person was smiling from ear to ear, like a twenty-year-old fool…
After most of the people had left, Elvin and Morris stayed behind.
Lance looked at them and could feel that they should have something to say. After simply signaling them to sit down, Elvin began to speak.
“The Wolf Gang’s claws are probing towards our side. On Ninth Street and the expressway, they’ve already set up a bar, and it’s going to open in these two days.”
“If we don’t respond, people might look down on us.”
Lance shook his head slightly, “No one will look down on us.” He thought for a moment, “What’s the name of the Wolf Gang’s leader again?”
“Wolf, and there’s another one whose real name is unknown. They call him ‘the Professor’.”
Lance threw them two cigarettes, “Can you find out where they are?”
Morris didn’t give Lance a definite answer, “Not sure, but we can try.”
“They are very careful. I’ve already sent people, but there have been no results.”
The fighting between the gangs in Fides was also very fierce. To be able to survive in the fierce gang iteration meant that they were not simple.
Wolf and the Professor almost never appeared in public. Every time they went out, there was a large group of people, just like Lance’s current situation.
It was almost impossible to catch them alone!
Unless someone sold them out, but now the Wolf Gang was basically all people from Fides. It was impossible to plant people in, almost impossible to do!
Lance didn’t insist either, “Find them if you can, forget it if you can’t.”
“When does their new bar open?”
Elvin glanced at the calendar on the table, “In two days.”
“Then get ready. When they open, go and send them a big gift!”
After ending this topic, Lance asked about another matter he was very concerned about, “How is the investigation into that Basil Investment Bank?”
This Basil Investment Bank was the financial company where Barbara worked. They provided financial products with a return rate of up to fifteen percent per month, which also attracted many people.
To say that there were no outrageous financial transactions in this world was obviously wrong. All crops that could be used for brewing would continue to rise in price in the coming period.
Grapes were already close to $400 a ton, but just half a year ago, when it was sold from the farmers’ hands, it was only $70-something a ton.
By this calculation, the average monthly growth rate was several tens of percent, which was even more exaggerated than the return rate promised by this investment bank!
Perhaps it was because it existed, and there were also many such situations, that people would think this was not a scam.
Lance had Elvin keep an eye on this matter. He scratched his head, “I can only have people watch their movements, but I don’t know how to cut in. We don’t know much about these things!”
Only then did Lance remember that the people in front of him were not top students from a university. They were just Empire people who had been brought here from their hometowns by their parents who longed for life in the Federation or to escape the chaos of war.
They had not received a complete education, so naturally, they didn’t know how to do this. Lance thought for a moment, “I’ll keep an eye on this. The people you’ve arranged should not move.”
He thought for a while more, “This afternoon, we’ll go and talk to them, see how big their scale is now.”
This sentence made both of them a little excited, “How much money can we get from these people?”
Lance was also full of expectations, “I’m not sure, maybe a few million, or even tens of millions.”
Both of them sucked in a cold breath, their eyes full of shock as they looked at each other!
“Is finance really that profitable?” Elvin even for a moment felt that he should also learn from Sean and re-learn cultural knowledge to go to university!
Even if it was f—king crime, the money didn’t come this fast!
Lance explained with a smile, “Although finance comes quickly, it’s rarely this fast.”
“The reason they can have this kind of speed is because they are committing fraud!”