Empire of Shadows

Whether it was because of nervousness or some other reason, Johnny's trembling hand pulled a small glass bottle from his yellowed pocket.

He quickly pushed open the glass bottle's lid with his thumb, took out a small pill from inside, and stuffed it into his mouth.

Without water, he swallowed it directly.

In reality, the pill didn't have enough time to take effect as it traveled from his mouth to his stomach, but inexplicably, his trembling hand trembled less, and he seemed to become calmer.

He wore a wry smile on his face, "Mr. Lance..."

Lance walked to the cabinet, looked around, and finally chose a double ham sandwich.

Johnny took the sandwich out and placed it on the counter.

Lance picked it up and took a bite, "You are the best baker on this street, Johnny, their food doesn't taste like this."

He paused as he said this, "Today is 'Bill Day,' I hope you haven't forgotten."

Johnny's fist clenched, Hiram's hand reached into his chest, already gripping his gun.

If Johnny made any inappropriate moves, he would let Johnny, the fool, know what the Lance family's style was!

Although some prosecutors in Likalei State have analyzed from some cases in Goldport City that the characteristic of the Lance family is to fill the deceased's body with a pound or even more bullets, these things cannot be used as effective evidence to prove that some of the deceased were related to them.

Because... it's not just them who can do this, others can also imitate their methods to treat the victims, so even though they know everything, they can't do anything.

Johnny had obviously heard of these things, so his clenched fist loosened again.

"I still have more than six hundred dollars on hand, Mr. Lance, can you... give me some more time?"

Lance chewed on the delicious ham, shaking his head, "That's impossible, Johnny, you know, business is business."

"Either you give me the money, or I'll sue you, of course, there's a third way to go."

He put the last bit into his mouth, "Mortgage this shop to me, and your debt to me will be written off."

If it were before, Johnny might have shouted something like "That's impossible," but now, he couldn't shout it out.

What tormented him was not just this debt, but also his severe dependence on painkillers, which was also threatening him.

He now only needed three to four painkillers a day, which was the result of him actively reducing the dosage.

Two months ago, he would inject special painkillers, but those medicines were too expensive, he couldn't afford them.

He could only switch to using cheap painkillers, although the effect was not so good, it could at least soothe his emotions.

These things had already begun to affect his bread-making skills and taste, and he was full of despair for the future!

"Mr. Lance..."

Lance shook his head slightly, not giving him the right to continue speaking, "You better hire a lawyer, you'll get a court summons soon!"

As he spoke, he walked outside, Johnny knew that if he didn't try to keep him, then everything would be too late!

These past few times, he had been tormented enough by those lawyers, not only had he spent money, but in the end, he had gained nothing.

Johnny hurriedly lifted the door panel on the counter, stepped over the counter and chased after him two steps, "Mr. Lance, are you not going to give me a way out?"

His tone was filled with begging, indignation, despair, and a trace of longing for almost non-existent hope, as he looked at Lance.

Lance stopped at the door, he turned to look at Johnny, although it looked like he was smiling, but he smiled very indifferently.

"Mr. Johnny, you didn't give me a way out back then either."

"What makes you have the illusion that I will give you a way out?"

A mocking smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, "Before the company gets off work tonight, if you haven't made a decision, then you don't have to make a decision."

After speaking, Lance didn't give him any chance to say anything else, and left the bakery directly, leaving only Johnny standing there blankly.

His house, worth two thousand dollars, was sold by the bank for one thousand three hundred and fifty-five dollars and twenty-five cents, of which one thousand three hundred dollars was given to Lance.

The bank charged a consignment auction fee of fifty-five dollars, and the extra twenty-five cents was now in his box.

He would keep that twenty-five cent coin forever, he regarded the twenty-five cents as a disgrace to his life.

Sometimes he would suddenly rise up in a dream and become a super-rich man, he would tell others that the motivation that supported his success was that twenty-five cents.

But... dreams will eventually wake up.

This shop is worth about four thousand five hundred dollars, but he doesn't know how much the bank will sell it for, and how much he will eventually have left.

Or... not only will he not be able to pay off the debt, but he will continue to owe Lance money, he doesn't know.

He was very confused...

In early May, long-lost good weather finally descended on Goldport City again, and there were already many young people on the beach.

The waves were like a generator producing happiness, and people were having fun on the beach.

The only thing that made people feel regretful was that the girls at this time did not have the habit of going topless, most of them were wearing relatively conservative one-piece swimsuits, and showing an inch of skin to others seemed to be a crime.

But even so, the tight swimsuits were enough to make many young lads' blood boil.

Ponta had been resting for the past two days.

The Dangerous Goods Administration had been working non-stop during this period, although Lucar had lost his informant in the Imperial District, the arrest work in other areas was still ongoing.

There will always be someone trying to stand up.

Rob's death made many people analyze from his personal information that it was the Lance family who did it, and the reason they did it was that Rob sold the locations of two Lance family bars to the Dangerous Goods Administration.

Then, the Lance family may have bribed someone, obtained the information of the traitor, and finally let Rob die in a special honor killing method, on the lamppost in front of the Dangerous Goods Administration.

Some people who hoped to obtain benefits, people from other regions, tried to report the bars, and they succeeded.

So although things had calmed down in the Imperial District, the arrest work in other areas was still ongoing.

Director Dale knew that it was impossible to keep working non-stop, if everyone was kept on edge all the time, one day people's nerves would break.

So, taking advantage of the fact that it was just the beginning of May, he gave some agents a vacation, allowing them to rest for a period of time, and a large bonus.

Ponta was such an ordinary agent, he was from out of town, but also from Likalei State, he had no family here, so the vacation made him feel bored instead.

He heard that the beach was very lively, so he came to play today.

It was indeed very lively here, those young, hot, and fiery bodies made his hormones soar.

It was a pity that drinking was not allowed here, and no one dared to sell alcoholic beverages in public areas like the beach, otherwise, having a glass of ice-cold beer at this time would definitely be the most pleasant thing.

He wore a sun hat and found a cold drink kiosk in the middle of the beach to sit down.

"Give me a tropical juice.", Sour and sweet, plus the unique tropical flavor, most people love it!

Actually, they don't know if it's really a tropical flavor, anyway, it's just some flavors they haven't tasted before.

He was about to leave here to go to the beach to see the girls there when someone bumped into him.

Most of the juice in his hand was poured on the girl in front of him, accompanied by the girl's scream, he quickly apologized.

"No, it's okay, I'm also responsible.", The girl looked very beautiful, and had a good figure, good personality, and was very young.

This made Ponta feel a little hot in the face, "In any case, it's all my fault, I should have seen you just now, you're so dazzling, maybe I'm really blind!"

The girl couldn't help but laugh, "You seem to lack some experience."

Ponta touched his slightly hot cheeks and took off his coat, because the girl's swimsuit was wet.

He didn't quite understand the meaning of this sentence, "What?"

"These words you said are a bit old-fashioned, why not say what you really think?"

The girl put Ponta's clothes on, crossed the two sleeves and folded them over, blocking her chest, she stretched out her snow-white, slender hand, "Let's get to know each other, Lisa."

Ponta quickly stretched out his hand and shook her hand, "Hello, Lisa."

"I can see that you are very nervous, but you shouldn't forget your name!"

The girl's every frown and smile made Ponta feel a little dizzy, and also made him feel a trace of embarrassment and shame, "My name is Ponta, Ponta Green, nice to meet you..."

The young boy and the young girl got to know each other like this, they went to the shower room by the sea, and then walked and chatted on the beach.

From the chat, Ponta learned that Lisa was a girl who came to Goldport City to work from out of town, and she lived here alone.

She had not been in Goldport City for long, was still adapting, and had no friends, she also said that Ponta was the first male friend she had made, which made Ponta feel as if happiness had fallen from the sky and directly hit the top of his head.

He chatted with the girl about many things, work, life, ideals, and the future, they found that they had many common topics, which made a throbbing grow in Ponta's heart.

As time got later and later, Lisa also planned to go back.

Ponta sent Lisa to the station, watching the bus that was about to come, Ponta realized that if he didn't do something, Lisa might just be a moment in his long and short life!

He mustered up his courage, "Can I ask you to come out with me next time?"

Lisa's smile was so sweet, so sweet that Panda wanted to inject himself with insulin. "You can call me."

"But... I don't have your number," Panda said, somewhat annoyed. He had kept forgetting to ask.

Just then, the bus arrived, and Lisa hopped on, leaving him to only watch.

Just as he was about to completely lose hope, Lisa, already on the bus, pointed to her chest. Panda immediately realized what she meant. He looked down at his clothes, felt around in his chest pocket, and found a small card with a number on it.

In an instant, dejection turned into elation!

He pumped his fist forcefully, chasing the departing bus for dozens of meters before stopping. He waved frantically at the bus until it was out of sight!

For the next few days, Panda and Lisa were inseparable. They watched the sunrise over the sea together, witnessed the incomplete beauty of the sunset's dying embers, admired the moon together, and even kissed each other's lips...

They were just like a couple in love!

Even on the last day of his vacation, Lisa gave herself to him!

She told Panda that her hobby was dancing, and during one practice session, she had accidentally torn that thin membrane because her movements were too large.

If he minded, she could leave, even though she would hate to leave Panda.

How could Panda, in the throes of love, possibly care about that? Besides, he really liked this beautiful girl. They lay together, and with Panda's roar, he ended his virginity.

All of this made him feel particularly invigorated. He took the initiative to suggest that Lisa move in with him, and they even talked about getting married in the future.

But for some reason, he always felt like a layer of worry veiled Lisa's eyes. He wanted to smooth her furrowed brow, but she seemed unwilling to share her anxieties with him.

Amidst this happiness and minor worries, he returned to the Dangerous Goods Administration and began a new round of work.

As soon as he got to work, Lucar called them all over. "I think the biggest problem with our last failed attempt was that they recognized our people."

"You all may have been relaxing this week, but I've been thinking, thinking about what to do to prevent them from discovering our identities."

"We're dealing with an extremely cunning and treacherous criminal group. Before the vacation, we discovered one of their bars, but the next day, the bar was emptied."

"Their vigilance is second to none in the cases we've solved."

"The Lance family is different from those established criminal groups. Their average age is no more than twenty years old, which means they are more unscrupulous, more perceptive, and their thinking is more active."

"We can't use the same methods to deal with them as we do with those decaying criminal groups. We must find a way to infiltrate them in order to find a fatal flaw."

"I don't mean for you to join the Lance family, but I hope you can recommend some people you think are reliable, preferably new faces, Imperials."

"This will allow them to integrate into their group more quickly."

"I discussed this with Director Dale before. If anyone can do this, after the Lance family is destroyed, this undercover agent will not only be directly promoted to a full agent, but may also become a captain."

After they discovered Lance's bar last week, they didn't immediately alarm them, but instead observed it further.

On the one hand, they were unsure of the size and specific situation of the bar. Secondly, they wanted to find the delivery person through surveillance and then track them to their warehouse and other bars.

As a result, the bar was emptied the next day.

Lucar hadn't ruled out the possibility that there was a traitor within the Dangerous Goods Administration, but he knew that it wasn't the time to say anything that would undermine unity, as everyone was working together to combat criminal activity.

Suspecting colleagues without evidence at this time would definitely ruin the good situation, and they believed it was very likely that the gatekeepers had noticed something different about the agents.

They didn't let the agents in, and they didn't know where the flaw was.

So this time, he planned to change his approach: undercover!

In fact, he had already found an undercover agent. The fact that he was saying this now meant he had his own ideas.

If there really was an undercover agent here, then Lance would definitely know about it. When that happened, the identity information of the undercover agent he sent would definitely be exposed.

Once this overt undercover agent was caught, then the undercover agent he secretly arranged would be able to smoothly join the Lance family and provide him with information.

As for what would happen to the overtly caught undercover agent?

Lucar didn't care much about that anymore. The only thing he wanted to do now was to combat crime, to combat evil!

He even wanted Lance to know what he was doing. Only by sacrificing some people could he truly achieve his goals.

But unfortunately, Lance's attention wasn't on that at the moment. Morris had heard a piece of news that the Viper Gang was planning to move from Fides.

There were at least seventy or eighty people, and a large amount of weapons and equipment.

The news came from the Viper Gang. Perhaps to boost morale, Blinton told everyone this news to cheer them up.

In Fides, Snake could also be said to be a "legendary figure." In just over twenty years, he had built a powerful gang from scratch.

Now that he was personally coming to take charge, many people felt a sense of relief.

It was as if as long as he came, everything would be fine.

Morris picked a few people to pose as consumers in the Imperial Nightclub. They heard someone say this, so they found an opportunity to kidnap two people.

The Viper Gang members were tough-mouthed, but they were afraid of pain, so they confessed before long.

After Lance got this news, he immediately gathered the core members.

"...The matter is roughly like this. I don't think we can let them into the city."

"Once they enter the city, their numbers will expand again to over a hundred people. If others join them, they may be able to gather two hundred people."

"We don't know how many gunmen they have. If they take a steady approach and gradually fight us for territory, it will leave too much of our energy focused on defense and offense."

"If it becomes like that, it will be a war of attrition between us!"

"I don't want to fight a war of attrition. Both our friends and our opponents are developing rapidly. If we fight a war of attrition, whether we win or lose in the end, we will lose."

"So, my idea is to intercept them on the road."

"They don't know our situation and won't guess that we're intercepting them on the road."

"By taking out this reinforcement, Blinton and his gang will be like a lion with its teeth pulled out, no longer a threat!"

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival