Empire of Shadows

The Empire Nightclub was always one of the best nightclubs in the Empire District.

It is said that after the Camilla Gang first arrived in Goldport City, their first base was the Empire Nightclub.

Heller's grandfather brought his family and founded this nightclub, using "Empire Style" as a gimmick to sell cheap Empire girls to the Federation people.

At that time, in other places, it cost eighty or ninety points for one go, but here, it only cost fifteen points, attracting many customers.

As time passed, they not only made money, but also offended some gangs that were not well-organized, and some conflicts occurred between the two sides.

From then on, Heller's father and others began to have the idea of forming a gang to protect themselves, and quickly put it into action.

The Camilla Gang, the name Camilla being similar to homesickness in the Empire language, quickly became famous in the Empire community with the slogan "Helping people from their hometowns from being bullied" because they had money.

At that time, this place was not yet called the Empire District, and the number of Empire people living here was less than 15% of the Federation people here, and they did need protection.

Under such a social environment and background, the Camilla Gang developed rapidly and continued to win and become stronger in many gang fights.

The local gangs were unwilling to see an outsider gang grow stronger here, so the fighting continued to escalate and change.

In this process, many leaders of the Camilla Gang and members of the founding family were killed, which also led to each new leader having his own ideas and criminal businesses to run.

It is said that Heller's uncle was the first to start using kidnapping for extortion. When someone came to the Empire Nightclub to cause trouble, he kidnapped the person and extorted six hundred yuan from him.

At that time, six hundred yuan was not a small amount, so he began to treat it as a business to do.

After kidnapping two Federation people and being hit hard by the authorities, he realized that kidnapping Federation people was not a good choice, and then turned his attention to the new immigrants.

These people were not valued by the Federation people, and at that time, those who could immigrate were all from wealthy families. Without money, it was impossible to immigrate to the Federation.

These people had not established interpersonal relationships locally, and no one would know if they were kidnapped, and even if someone knew, they would not seek help for him.

His uncle made a lot of money using this method. Even after his death, when Heller inherited the gang, the kidnapping business did not stop, but continued to this day.

The Empire Nightclub still has an unshakable and sacred position in the hearts of the Camilla Gang and its members!

Even though the situation is special now, it has not closed down.

At 7:30 in the evening, the neon lights of the luxuriously decorated Empire Nightclub, like an opera house, began to flicker. The ambiguous warm light of the neon tubes made people vaguely aware of what kind of business was being done here from a distance.

Of course, its business scope is very large now. It is no longer just the flesh trade, but also performances and singing performances by singers.

Those ordinary people's favorite performances, a group of girls wearing exquisite tops but no bottoms, holding hands, and kicking their legs high with their bare buttocks, can be seen here.

There are even several gambling tables here.

Although the Empire District is not very wealthy, the population base is here, and someone will always be willing to play a few rounds.

Heller and the Corda family have some transaction content that revolves around these gambling tables.

Considering that the Camilla Gang is the largest gang in the Empire District, without exception, the Corda family only collects 40% of their "gambling table tax."

This tax is not a real tax, it is the tax that the Corda family does not come to bother you. You can choose not to pay it, but then they will come to bother you.

The Corda family is becoming less and less like a mafia family. Their income is increasing, and the decision-makers in the family seem to be planning to transform and clean up their image.

But this is not so easy to do, even if they are all natives.

At 8:00 in the evening, the Empire Nightclub gradually began to fill up with people. There were not many nighttime entertainment options in this era.

Although televisions have been invented, the relatively expensive price and the small number of television programs cannot attract ordinary consumers.

On the contrary, opera houses, cinemas, acrobatics troupes, and circuses are more popular.

Of course, nightclubs and strip clubs also have many loyal fans.

Come here to play a few rounds, if you lose, you can watch a free show, if you win, you can experience the Empire style. This is the nightlife and consumption style of some people in the Empire District.

Seeing that it was gradually becoming lively here, and it seemed that no one was coming to make trouble, the manager of the Empire Nightclub finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He returned to the manager's office on the second floor and poured himself a glass of wine.

He is a professional manager, responsible for the operation of the Empire Nightclub. The actual "person in charge" is the deputy manager, but the deputy manager has not been here recently. It is said that he is with the boss at the manor and not coming out.

He is in charge of the entire nightclub, which makes him feel the sweetness of power, but also makes him a little scared.

Could it be that someone... is taking revenge on him?

At the same time, he was also a little worried, because he had also heard these two days that if the Lance family completely solved the Camilla Gang and occupied this place.

The boss of the Lance family said in private that he would only charge a symbolic fee of five yuan.

This made the manager feel a terrible pressure, as if the entire Empire District had become "three-dimensional", and people's will had become a surging wave, and they all had the same goal—to eliminate the Camilla Gang!

As time passed, more and more people were playing in the nightclub. Just as it approached ten o'clock, the time with the most people, suddenly several cars appeared at the entrance of the Empire Nightclub, and a large group of people wearing black trench coats, hats, and carrying weapons got out of the cars.

The four gang members standing on the steps did not have time to react before the gunshots rang out.

The doorman shouted "The Lance family is attacking!" and fled into the nightclub, but from the surprised smile on his face, he did not seem so afraid and nervous!

In an instant, the entire nightclub was in chaos!

It seemed that there were gunshots everywhere, and the manager was hiding under the table, afraid to show his head. All of this had nothing to do with him.

A middle-aged man who was awakened by the gunshots rubbed his eyes and walked unhappily to the window. Just as he picked up the phone on the table, his old father pressed it down.

The father and son looked at each other for a moment, and the old man shook his head slightly, "That's the Camilla Gang, a mafia that harms the Empire people. They are doing justice."

The man was silent for a while, then silently walked to the window with his father, watching the crackling gunshots outside.

The moment the gunshots rang out, the resistance had already been almost disintegrated.

The people still guarding the Empire Nightclub knew very well that the situation was already very bad, but the gang still wanted them to work in a dangerous environment. They didn't treat them like humans!

In addition, the double "propaganda" of public opinion and force during this period had already made the Camilla Gang's internal members panic.

They were already prepared to surrender. Even the manager hiding under the table had already tidied up his clothes, preparing to passionately declare, "As long as you don't hurt me, you can do anything to me."

They were worried that the Lance people would suddenly break in, but at the same time, they were also worried that they would not break in.

The firefight at the door was very intense.

Sometimes it was the popping sound of pistols, and sometimes it was the da-da-da sound of submachine guns, but they just didn't come in.

The security captain walked out of the security captain's office, listening to the intense firefight outside, a little scared, and whispered to his confidant, "Who is holding out there?"

"Quickly withdraw the people, the other side's firepower is so fierce, don't they want their lives?"

For the security captain, it was not worth risking his life for a few dozen yuan anyway, since he was getting a fixed salary every month.

He was just a security captain, not even a captain in the Camilla Gang, and only got fifty yuan a month.

Risk his life for fifty yuan?

He didn't think his life was so cheap!

Soon his subordinate came back, looking confused, "There's no one at the door... just... their bodies, and a few people are firing blanks in the cars under the steps..."

Although the security captain's mind was not particularly bright, at this time, he had already realized something.

His subordinate seemed to have realized the same thing as him, but after the two looked at each other, they both chose to pretend not to know.

In the office on the second floor, someone had already made a call for help. The gunshots outside were so intense that they couldn't stop it!

Now, he could only hope that Heller could come and save them!

Heller, who had already fallen asleep, was awakened from his sleep by the ringing of the phone. He had just taken his medicine and fallen asleep, but he hadn't slept soundly yet.

Being awakened at this time was actually the most uncomfortable thing. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, feeling a sense of decadence all over.

And there was a guy who disappointed him to the extreme who actually surrendered and went to jail, just to avoid a Lance, was it necessary to go to this extent?

Now everyone was watching his jokes, saying that he was the shame of the mafia, and he had already developed the idea of retiring while he still could.

He looked at the phone on the bedside table, looked at it for a while, then turned on the bedside lamp and picked it up, "This is Heller Manor."

"Boss, the Lance people are attacking the Empire Nightclub, we can't hold on any longer..."

The sound of gunfire in the receiver was too intense, and a painful expression appeared on Heller's face. He covered his chest with his hand, and it started to hurt again.

"How many people did they bring?"

"I heard from someone just now that there were five or six cars, looked like twenty or thirty people."

The person on the phone suddenly felt that the nightclub had quite a few security guards, and wondered if such a small number would make Heller, the boss, think he was useless?

So he added, "But when I looked myself, there were thirty or forty people, all with submachine guns, the firepower was too intense!"

Heller paused, his tone becoming stern, "Thirty or forty people?"

"Are you sure you didn't see wrong?"

At this point, how could the guy on the phone dare to say he saw wrong?

Even if he had said there were a thousand people just now, he could only stick to this number now, especially since he wasn't exaggerating, "Really, boss, it's thirty or forty people, I'm not lying!"

Heller frowned slightly, "Protect yourselves, we'll be there soon!"

As he spoke, he wanted to get out of bed, but the dull pain in his chest prevented him from moving quickly.

He sat for more than ten seconds before supporting himself on the headboard and standing up, walking out of the bedroom.

He quickly came to the main living room, where many people were sitting or lying down, all of them members of the gang protecting Heller, including his two confidants.

Seeing Heller come out in his pajamas, the two immediately stood up, "Boss?"

Heller stood on the second-floor landing, not coming down, "Empire Night called me, Lance's people are storming the nightclub, they've all gone there!"

"The people left there saw at least thirty or forty of them, the nightclub is still resisting, the gunshots I heard were very intense."

"This is an opportunity!"

Heller's eyes flashed with a fierce light. After all, even if some of his criminal activities weren't out in the open, he was still a villain, a ruthless person.

To be made so embarrassed by a bunch of young punks, he was also furious to the extreme!

The two confidants, seeing his appearance, knew that the boss had made a decision.

"We've been looking for them, they've been hiding like rats in the sewers, now they've finally shown their rat tails, and we've got them!"

"Immediately, immediately arrange for people to go over and kill them all, leave none of them alive!"

He had already grabbed the front of his chest, the veins on his arms and neck bulging, a fierce aura, every word squeezed out from between his teeth!

"Don't let any of them go!"

"Not a single one!"

One of them was a little worried, "What if they…"

Heller was silent for a while, "I'll go to the safe room, I'll come out after you guys get back."

"They can't get in there."

The so-called "safe room" was actually his safe, but this safe was very large, as big as a room.

The entire room was made of steel, and there was also a bolt and locking system inside, even if you used explosives, you couldn't blow it open!

The two confidants exchanged glances, they were two people completely tied to Heller, and Heller had instructed them to do many bad things.

If Heller didn't die, and was there to take the blame, they would be fine.

Because hurting them was like slapping Heller in the face, and Heller was a very vengeful person.

If Heller died, and there was no one to take the blame for them, they would have to bear those responsibilities themselves.

Over the years, they had torn up no small number of hostages. It wasn't that the families of these hostages didn't know who they were, but they were suffering from having a gang like Camilla protecting them, and they couldn't do anything.

Without Heller, without Camilla, Lance wouldn't even have to deal with them, the families of those murdered hostages could devour them alive!

"Hide yourself well, don't come out before we get back."

Heller had people help him to the safe, he dismissed his men and walked in himself.

Perhaps the heavy safe door gave him some sense of security, he felt unparalleled peace of mind here.

On the other side, the two confidants summoned their men and immediately drove away from the manor, they had a total of twelve cars, at least seventy or eighty people left.

Everyone carried pistols, and there were also many submachine guns.

Before, when they planned to ambush Lance and the others, they were blocked by submachine guns at the entrance of the alley and couldn't get in, this time they would use them too!

The long convoy and bright headlights formed a long dragon on the road, but they didn't notice that behind the bushes on the roadside, there were pairs of eyes watching them.

After the convoy left for a distance, four sedans and a truck drove out of the bushes, stomped on the gas pedal and crashed into the gate of Heller Manor!

Two gang members who had just locked the iron gate hadn't had time to walk back to the house when they heard a violent bang, the iron gate was directly pushed out by a truck!

Then four sedans quickly rushed out from behind it, the guy sticking out of the car window flicked his hair (there were streetlights), and the submachine gun in his hand instantly sprayed bright sparks.

The two fell into a pool of blood on the roadside, in the darkness, at the last moment of their lives, they looked at each other, as if asking each other, "Who the hell is this idiot?"

A large number of elites had just left, and Lance's people had come to the door, the manor was immediately in chaos, and the gunshots also startled Heller, who had just gained a moment of peace.

He quickly walked to a small safe, opened the rotary combination lock with a slightly trembling hand, opened it, and took out a pistol from it, clenching it in his hand.

The gunshots from the outside gradually became more intense, and they were getting closer and closer to him.

The screams of the maids, the tragic howls of the men, and the intermittent gunshots.

Gradually, the gunshots stopped, and there was no more sound.

About half a minute later, suddenly, a not-so-harsh gunshot startled Heller!

His heart was beating violently and uneasily…

"…Where is Heller?"

Lance stood in the hall, the maids and those who were obviously ordinary servants stood in the corner.

The remaining wounded or surrendering gang members gathered together.

There was a corpse at Lance's feet, he refused to answer Lance's question, Lance granted his wish.

He looked at another person, "You say, where is he?"

The man didn't answer immediately, seemingly hesitant, but Lance didn't have that much patience.

With a 'pa' sound, he fell to the ground, then he looked at the person next to him, "Where is Heller?"

Seeing that Lance didn't even intend to wait for him to think about whether or not to answer, and was about to shoot, this guy couldn't hold on anymore and said, "In the study on the second floor, there's a door between the two bookshelves, inside is a large safe, he locked himself in the safe."

Lance glanced at him, looked at Hiram, and gave him a look.

As he turned to walk upstairs, Hiram and several people around him directly pulled the triggers of their submachine guns.

After a series of extremely violent 'da da da' sounds, the entire manor finally ushered in its final tranquility!

A maid trembled and led Lance to the study, Lance also saw the opened door, and another door inside the door.

At the same time, a muffled voice came from inside the safe, "Who's there?"