Empire of Shadows

Burton returned home, his mind heavy. Lance had just called him in for a meeting.

This was the first time he'd attended a senior staff meeting, and looking at that group, clearly full of extraordinary energy, mostly only seventeen, eighteen, or nineteen years old, with anyone twenty considered relatively old, he felt a strange, indescribable sensation.

He felt like he was getting old.

He'd never felt that way before. Back then, all he thought about was the "Federal Dream." He wanted to make his life a model of the Federal Dream, to become an enviable "Mr. Burton."

But after so many years, besides owning a house and a loan, he also had a broken family and two disobedient children.

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Fortunately, everything had changed.

At the staff meeting, Lance mentioned the fact that a bar had been raided by the Hazardous Materials Management Bureau. He said someone had sold out the bar's location to the bureau.

He didn't know who that person was, but the person in charge of tonight's operation said that they should recognize this person.

This made many young people stand up in anger. Lance was not only solving the problem of whether they could eat their fill.

He was also earning them respect and allowing them to have independent personalities, which couldn't be bought with money.

He had only recently started to feel this way.

Mr. Chobaff was very rich, but he lived without dignity, not as good as the people here.

Lance even actively mentioned Burton—

"Your job remains the same, but the focus needs to shift somewhat. Station some people around the bar and see if anyone is frequently appearing near our bar but not entering."

"If this person is very familiar with our bar's location, then they must be from the Imperial District, and it's possible they've actually met us all."

"Pay attention to those familiar faces. These familiar faces are more deceptive. Once you find them, figure out their situation, and then we'll find a way to confirm it."

Faced with the Hazardous Materials Management Bureau's pressure, Lance made arrangements without any panic, one could even say with composure.

This made Burton feel even more admiration. When he thought about Lance's behavior when he first visited their home, he couldn't help but want to slap himself a few times.

Fortunately, Lance wasn't the kind of person who dwelled on his past ugly behavior and even gave him good treatment.

The weather at the end of March was already in the teens. Young people had already changed into thin clothes and were shivering in the cold wind, while the elderly were still wearing thick clothes.

He took off his coat and hung it on a hanger. As soon as he entered the living room, he smelled the aroma of meat.

He quickened his pace and saw a sumptuous dinner on the table: steak, lamb chops, and some vegetable salad and dinner rolls.

He had indeed been tired after a busy day, so he sat down naturally. "What's the special occasion today? Who's treating?"

Rob's money was almost entirely spent on dating. Sometimes, towards the end of the month, he didn't even have enough and had to ask him for money.

As for Nancy, she certainly didn't need to ask Burton for extra pocket money, but she would never be generous enough to buy so much delicious food to share with everyone.

Burton was well aware that his two children had personality problems. This was caused by his divorce from his wife, and he had some responsibility.

Perhaps because of his guilt towards the children, and not knowing how to make up for it, he adopted a permissive attitude towards both of them.

Perhaps in his opinion, this was the only way he could compensate them.

But in fact, doing so only made their personalities worse.

Rob coughed twice. "I found a new job. The boss is good to me and paid me half a month's salary in advance, so I decided to treat you to a good meal."

Burton took a small lamb chop, very tender, melting in his mouth. "Where's Selena?"

Nancy, sitting across from him, put down her knife and fork. "Dad!"

Burton shrugged. "Sorry, I forgot."

Selena and Rob broke up after a two-month cold war.

Selena really couldn't stand Rob's… she didn't know how to describe it, stinginess?

In short, as long as she said a few words to other men, Rob's narrow-mindedness would explode. He would demand that Selena keep her distance from those men and not have too much contact.

Sometimes, he would even use Lance to satirize her—

When they first met, he thought Selena was arguing with him for Lance's sake and rudely told him to "shut up," and when he left in anger, she stayed behind and chatted enthusiastically with Lance.

Rob thought she liked Lance, so he was jealous and kept this matter in his heart.

Whenever they had a disagreement, he would bring this matter up and embellish it to attack Selena.

Selena couldn't stand such a boyfriend and sometimes suspected that he had mental problems. He would use words like "Do you want to sleep with Lance?" and "How do you want him to fuck you?" to humiliate her.

And after saying these words, she could clearly feel Rob becoming more agitated and excited!

When they first met, Rob seemed quite normal, but as they spent more time together and became more familiar with each other, a more real version of each other was revealed.

Sometimes the truth isn't always the best; it can be worse.

Now, the two had completely broken up, and Rob seemed to have emerged from this failed relationship. Everything was developing in a positive direction.

Burton chatted with Rob about his new job. Rob didn't seem willing to talk about it, only saying that it was an easy job, so Burton didn't ask any more questions.

He was now in a period of bursting with ambition. He hoped to gain more attention from Lance and have a place of his own among the senior staff.

After dinner, he quickly went out again. He had to contact more people.

At the dining table, the siblings swallowed the last bit of food. Nancy patted her stomach contentedly. "How great would it be if you were rich? I could eat meat every day until I couldn't walk!"

Rob looked at her with a smile. "That day will come."

The next morning, Lance called Alberto.

"Last night, one of my bars was raided by them. How's the situation on your end?"

After listening, Alberto asked, "How much was lost?"

"A few thousand, not too bad."

Then he answered Lance's first question, "It's about the same. Last night, one of our bars was also raided, but fortunately, it wasn't our liquor storage warehouse, but it still cost the family more than ten thousand."

"I heard the Koda family was raided the most, which forced their casino to stop serving alcohol and only offer juice now."

Speaking of this, Alberto couldn't help but laugh. "Who the hell wants to drink juice when gambling?"

"Can you imagine that?"

"At the most exciting and brutal card games, they're raising glasses not filled with whiskey or brandy, but a glass of juice."

"It makes me laugh just thinking about it. I hope the juice pairs well with cigarettes!"

Lance asked a concerned question, "Doesn't Paul have any thoughts about talking to Dale?"

Paul was Pasreito's first name. They would call him that in private, but only Lance would use "Mr. Pasreito" when outsiders were present or in formal settings.

Alberto's information was very well-informed. "I heard Dale can't be reasoned with. He's on the same side as the mayor, which means he can't stand with us."

"Also, Lance, I heard a lot of people have come from Fides. You need to be careful; they're probably not here for tourism."

Fides was in the northwest of the neighboring state. The mayor had previously served as a city councilor in Fides. Later, through some internal party political deals, he obtained the party's nomination for mayor of Goldport City and successfully took office.

No one knew how many immoral deals were behind this, but there must have been many, but it's also hard to say.

The mayor wasn't the first "outsider." The Socialist Party must also be very dissatisfied with the local cliques. Choosing him to serve as mayor may have been to use his skills to break the deadlock, but it doesn't seem to be working very well.

But now, the situation has changed a bit. He has started to transfer a large number of people from Fides City. The five major families think this is a very bad sign.

This means that their conflicts will continue to escalate, but now that the competition has started, it is impossible to stop unless one side bows its head.

The five major families can't bow their heads, and neither can the mayor. It seems like there is a choice, but in reality, there was no choice from the beginning.

"Lance, you might not believe it, but I'm actually… looking forward to what's going to happen next."

"Goldport City has been too quiet. Perhaps this will be an opportunity for transformation."

Lance heard the meaning in his words. "Yeah, I think so too."

Alberto instructed, "Be careful. I hope you become a big shot in the future so that I can have the capital to be arrogant based on our past friendship. I just need to tell people that Lance and I are good brothers, and they'll give me way!"

Lance couldn't help but laugh after hearing this. "Are you talking about Eric?"

"Then you have to call me Dad first, and then be prepared to have your legs broken!"

"Fuck, that's not what I meant!"

"Yes, yes, I know, that's exactly what you meant!"

After a bit of boasting, Alberto told Lance that Gerald and his crew had already started filming and that Lance could go and watch if he was interested; it was in Creek Valley City.

A few days later, the Imperial Nightclub reopened.

As a landmark building in the Imperial District, the reopening of the Imperial Nightclub sparked a lot of discussion, most of which revolved around who would replace Lance as general manager after his departure.

Around ten in the morning, a group of people arrived at the steps outside the Imperial Nightclub, one of whom was wearing a fur coat, the fluffy collar making his shiny head even more conspicuous.

This person was wearing sunglasses; he was the new general manager of the Imperial Nightclub, named Brinton. Few people in Goldport City probably knew who he was.

But in another city, Fides City, more people knew him.

This guy was the number two figure in the Viper Gang, and he also had a nickname, "Chainsaw," which was related to his special hobby.

When executing his enemies, his favorite method was to use a chainsaw to complete his final kill, and he often made people feel uncomfortable because he made the scene too bloody.

However, to him, these were all compliments. In his mind, the more people who feared him, the more it proved his success on this path.

The Viper Gang responded to the mayor's call, and Brinton brought a group of core elites from Fides.

Fides is an inland industrial city. It's not exactly poor.

But to say it's rich, it's obviously far from the prosperity of Goldport City.

The number one figure in the Viper Gang told Brinton that if they could gain a foothold in Goldport City and develop rapidly here, they could completely abandon their base in Fides City and move directly over.

You should know that in the Federation, people often mention the Five Great Families of Goldport City and the Five Great Families of the Federation, but not the Five Great Families of any other city.

This shows the city's "gold content!"

At the same time, Brinton also had an extra new job when he came here, which was to take over the Imperial Nightclub and several bars.

He needed to manage these businesses well to provide the mayor with a steady stream of funds for conflicts.

How much money he could get, how much attention and reuse he could get, depended entirely on how much money he could provide the mayor from here.

"Big city is a big city. I heard that the Imperial District is a poor and backward place here?" He took off his sunglasses and looked at the people around him.

The Imperial Nightclub was designed after a famous imperial building. The twelve pillars on the front made it look less like a nightclub and more like an auditorium or something.

The group laughed and talked as they climbed the steps, and looking at the luxurious decoration inside, Brinton was very satisfied with his upcoming "new home."

After taking a turn around, he came to the manager's office and sat in the chair. "I heard that the person who was the manager here before was called what?"

The person sitting in the first seat on the sofa, who looked a little thin and wore glasses, said, "He's called Lance. He's the boss of the Lance family and has a good reputation in the Imperial District."

After hearing this, Brinton grinned and said, "What's the use of having a reputation? Did he offend Councilor Sidney?"

Compared to the people of Goldport City calling the mayor "Mr. Mayor," these people from Fides were more accustomed to calling him "Councilor Sidney," which was a very affectionate way of addressing him.

The man nodded, "He didn't take good care of Young Master Eric. Now Young Master Eric has broken his legs and arms, as well as his ribs, and is staying in the hospital."

"God, these people are really fucking scary, and this Lance, he can't even do this little thing well, no wonder Mr. Councilor wants him to get lost."

"But since we're here, everything will get back on track. We're going to let those damn 'locals' experience the simple folk customs from Fides!"

Brinton's face didn't actually show much of the emotion he wanted to express in his words. In fact, not many people liked Eric, that bastard. If he didn't have a good…uncle, who the hell would care about this little character?

The people in the room all showed knowing smiles; they also lacked respect for Eric.

"So where should we start our work?" Brinton rubbed his stomach, "I'm a little hungry."

"Perhaps we should start by running these places?"

That night, the Imperial Nightclub reopened, attracting a lot of patrons, as well as those bars, and everything became lively again.

The most important thing was that alcohol could be sold unscrupulously in these business venues.

Lawyer Olsen told them not to worry about the Dangerous Goods Administration coming to check on them, because Director Dale was also one of the "our people."

Not only would they not check on them, but if they needed to deal with competitors, they only needed to tell Director Dale the news, and Director Dale would arrange for people to help them crack down on their rivals.

This gave Brinton and the Viper Gang behind him a strong sense of confidence from the inside out, as well as a "arrogance" that was three points similar to Eric's.

For them, even the "official" was on their side, so what reason could they have to lose?

Another weekend came, and a large number of Imperial citizens gathered outside the Church of Saint Naya again, but this time, Mr. Chobaf, as its organizer, was no longer the core here.

With Lance's arrival, people soon began to line up to greet Lance, and although Mr. Chobaf was a little sour, he eventually accepted this outcome.

But he has also had some troubles recently, because the mayor has made new demands.

"Where's your assistant?" Lance didn't see the old guy who was almost inseparable from Mr. Chobaf, and asked a little curiously.

"I've arranged some new work for him; he didn't come," Mr. Chobaf glossed over the topic in one sentence, and he didn't want to talk about it in depth.

In fact, after the last incident, he transferred his assistant away from him, and the reason was that his nephew's child was in the process of growing up, and he needed a father-like figure to help him find the right direction in life.

His nephew's wife was not able to take on this role, so Mr. Chobaf felt that he had to do it himself.

And his assistant agreed without the slightest hesitation.

To be the lighthouse and navigator on the child's life path, he certainly couldn't take care of Mr. Chobaf's busy work here, and now he is the deputy general manager of Jinda Bank, and has more time to take care of the child.

Of course, these are just some superficial factors and results. In fact, Mr. Chobaf has developed a trace of vigilance towards this old partner who has followed him for decades.

You should know that if anything ultimately contributed to the death of his nephew, then he was one of them!

He didn't even dare to see what Jimmy ended up like, just recalling his assistant's madness during the revenge, he felt a chill down his spine.

What if one day, he suddenly felt that he should die too, would he silently give himself a stick?

He didn't dare to gamble, and he had a suitable reason, so he transferred him away.