Empire of Shadows

The entire city exuded a sense of tension, as if a storm was brewing. On the seaside boardwalk, a fisherman strained against his rod, the taut line threatening to snap at any moment.

Beneath the dark sea surface lurked a monstrous terror. Gusts of fierce sea wind whipped the waves against the reefs, erupting like claps of thunder!

Boom!

The overcast sky quickly unleashed a downpour, and the few pedestrians on the street scurried to nearby shelters, gazing up at the oppressive sky.

Those new to Goldport City seemed unaccustomed to the sudden weather changes. One moment, the sun was shining brightly; the next, dark clouds appeared from nowhere, completely obscuring the sky.

The heavy rain carried the sea's distinctive salty, fishy smell, along with the scent of vigorous life at the turn of spring and summer—a pungent aroma of soil and vegetation.

"Looks like this rain won't be stopping anytime soon."

Under the eaves of a roadside building, one of the rain-sheltering people said idly.

At this time, people weren't yet 'demonized,' not to the point where they would brave heavy rain to continue walking. Everyone would seek shelter from the rain like normal people.

Ma Zi lit a cigarette. The sudden downpour seemed to have affected his cigarette, making it feel slightly damp, and the smoke was particularly thick.

"I wonder how long it will last," he said, but it sounded like a question.

An old man beside him looked at him with a smile, as if trying to find a trace of his own past in the young and immature face.

He didn't mind sharing his experiences and insights with the young man. "At least fifteen minutes. Actually, I quite like these sudden downpours. They allow us all to stand here and rest for a while, to wait a bit."

"Life is interesting. We are all chasing, but we don't know what we are chasing after."

"Sometimes, stopping, standing for a while, thinking for a while, will allow us to move faster when we set off again."

Others turned to look at him. The old man was satisfied; this was what he enjoyed.

Young boys and girls were fond of love, young adults were fascinated by money, and middle-aged and elderly people realized the value of health.

When they were completely old, one night, they would suddenly realize, 'I'm fucking old!'

This was cruel.

But cruelty didn't mean that life was only left with dimness. Passing on his experience and knowledge was what he thought was meaningful.

Ma Zi nodded with a smile. "How can you tell it will dissipate in fifteen minutes?"

Others were also curious. The old man said with a smile, "When you've lived here for sixty years and seen perhaps thousands of rains like this, you'll be able to know everything like I do."

Perhaps the old man's chat eased the sense of unfamiliarity among the rain-sheltering people, and they began to chat, discussing the recent crackdown on smuggled alcohol by the Dangerous Goods Administration.

A week had passed since Good Luck House was shut down. Although it had reopened, the long-term residents knew that things had only just begun.

The locals became somewhat uneasy, while the outsiders didn't feel it.

They talked about many things, including the upcoming Dockworkers' Union Games, which was said to be very lively and open to the public.

Ma Zi smoked his cigarette on the side, listening to them talk about these things, and suddenly felt a sense of relief for no reason.

His undercover life had not been easy during this period. He was very, very careful every day, fearing that he would reveal something that would lead to his death.

However… he thought these people were stupid. Those from the Lance family still hadn't discovered that he was an undercover agent.

What annoyed him was that he couldn't get any major intelligence, and he couldn't pass on the information in time. For two weeks in a row, the bar would move every time he passed on the information.

He was initially doubtful, but now he thought it was bad luck or the wrong timing.

He wanted to talk to the contact again to see if he could change the frequency of passing on information to once every two or three days so that he could "make a contribution" and move closer to becoming a "Federal Man."

The rain did indeed stop after twelve minutes, and the remaining sparse drizzle could no longer stop people from hitting the road.

The old man took off his hat and smiled as he said goodbye to everyone. Many people also said goodbye to him, thinking he was a very interesting person.

Ma Zi went to the place he had agreed upon with his contact. He didn't actually see the contact, but he had discussed it with the contact beforehand: he would write the intelligence on a piece of paper and then clip it to page two hundred of the public telephone directory in front of him.

After he left, the contact would come over and take the intelligence clipped in the telephone directory.

Each time, their meeting place was not in the same location. This was to prevent being discovered. Who knew if there were any clever ones among those seemingly silly peers who would secretly follow him?

He arrived at the phone booth not long after, opened the phone book, and clipped the piece of paper with some intelligence recorded on it into the phone book.

It recorded the work of those people he could currently contact. For example, Elvin mainly followed Lance and made decisions when Lance was not around, making him the number two person.

Morris was responsible for searching, tracking, infiltrating, and monitoring, making him the number three person.

Hiram was responsible for combat work. Some of the things he had boasted about were also recorded by Ma Zi on the paper, such as Hiram saying that he had shot and killed dozens of enemies while facing the sweeping fire of a dozen guns.

Although it was clear that such a thing was unbelievable, he still wrote it down because he didn't like Hiram very much.

He collected similar personnel information that he could find, and now that they couldn't pass on useful information, the contact, or rather the Dangerous Goods Administration, had changed their thinking.

They hoped that they could provide more intelligence and evidence about the Lance family's crimes. As the power of the Dangerous Goods Administration grew, perhaps they could make arrests based solely on "I think," without any substantive evidence.

As for Lance, he couldn't get in touch with him, only seeing him from a distance a few times, and thought that Lance was a "powerful character."

After he had done all this, he pretended to make two phone calls, but actually didn't make any, and left the phone booth without looking back.

What he didn't know was that not long after he left, someone got up to pay the bill in a coffee shop diagonally across the street.

And during the process of paying the bill, another person entered the phone booth.

When the contact finished paying the bill, crossed the road, and arrived at the phone booth, he unexpectedly discovered that the intelligence that should have been on page two hundred was gone.

He kicked the trash can on the side of the road hard, looked around, but didn't find Ma Zi, nor did he find anyone who might have taken the intelligence!

He kicked the trash can on the side of the road and returned to the Dangerous Goods Administration to report the matter to his superiors.

However, right now, the senior agents, including Director Dale, were all dealing with those bars.

In fact, after sealing up Good Luck House, Director Dale had gradually calmed down after talking to the mayor.

However, having no way out, he had decided to fight these evil forces in Goldport City to the end!

Now, his mind was full of how to give these criminal forces a heavy blow. He even suggested wanting to conduct a large-scale search of the entire dock warehouse area.

This idea was suppressed by the mayor. Right now, they were only offending the gangsters, and the local politicians hadn't entered the scene yet.

God knows if they had anything hidden in the dock warehouses. If they were also alarmed to enter the scene, they would be even more passive.

At this stage, their main task was to crack down on and sweep away underground bars. They had already taken down several bars in the Starlight District and the Bay Area, causing heavy losses to the operators behind these bars!

At this time, he had no mind to discuss the life and death of an undercover agent.

Ma Zi walked around outside, bought some cooked food, and returned to the office.

He greeted the people he saw, shared some of the food, and then started working.

He was just about to start moving things when Allen called out to him, "The boss wants to see you."

Ma Zi clapped his hands and stomped his feet. There was a thin layer of mud on the wet ground. After walking around outside, the soles of his shoes were covered in mud.

He had been getting along well with Allen during this time, especially when he learned that Allen had also joined halfway, his attitude was even better.

"Did he say what he wanted to see me about?" he asked tentatively.

Allen smiled and shook his head. "Who knows?"

"But I heard that a new bar is about to open, maybe he'll let you be the manager…"

This was a joke, but it did make Ma Zi a little tempted. Sometimes he was quite conflicted. If it weren't for the strong desire to become a Federal Man, perhaps he would have submitted to his current life.

He took out a handkerchief and wiped his hands. "I'll go now."

Allen greeted him from behind, "Don't forget me when you become successful!"

He waved his hand and walked towards the room inside, "No way, I'll let you be the bartender then…"

He took a deep breath. This was the first time he had been summoned alone by Lance during this period. He was a little nervous, honestly, afraid that he would reveal something.

After doing some psychological preparation, he knocked on the door of Lance's office. "Boss, Allen said you were looking for me?"

"Come in."

The door opened, and Ethan stood behind the door looking at him. Actually, the two people were about the same age, but Ethan's eyes made him feel scared.

He didn't know that this was a look that only someone who had dealt with their own kind would have, a look that disregarded life.

He squeezed past Ethan into the room. Hiram was sitting on the sofa, trimming his nails with a dagger. Everything looked calm, as usual.

He composed himself and appeared before Lance, who gestured for him to sit down.

"I've heard you've been doing well lately, working hard and being quick-witted," Lance said, opening a cigarette case and offering it to him.

Mazz took a cigarette, lit it, and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. The pressure lessened a bit. "Thank you, Boss," he said.

"It's all part of what I should be doing."

Lance placed a piece of paper on the table and pushed it forward. "Is this also part of what you should be doing?"

In that instant, Mazz's mind went blank. His instinct told him to run!

But his reason told him he couldn't escape. The best thing to do now was to sit still.

His hand trembled slightly as he put the cigarette in his mouth and took a violent drag, watching the tobacco ignite rapidly from the suction.

"Boss..."

"Call me Mr. Lance."

"Mr. Lance... I don't know what to say."

Lance looked at Mazz. "You've been here for over half a month. You should understand that we are different from those gangs."

"We don't collect protection money, we don't extort ordinary people, we don't cheat or rob them. We just sell alcohol and provide protection for some girls' businesses, but we never force them."

Lance spread his hands. "Perhaps from the perspective of federal law or those big shots, some of the businesses we run are illegal."

"But from our own perspective, every business we have is legal and reasonable."

"You can't stop people from drinking, just as you can't stop them from breathing air. If the old men in Congress say breathing air is wrong, then should we all die?"

"Maybe I'm not a good person, but I'm definitely not a bad person. I won't harm ordinary people for no reason."

"But you always think about getting what you want by hurting me, and that's just wrong!"

Mazz felt a shiver run down his spine. He swallowed hard, even that simple action felt difficult.

"Mr. Lance," he started to say, but Lance stopped him with a shake of his head.

"You had three chances, Mazz," Lance said, his tone filled with regret, which made Mazz extremely nervous!

Mazz seemed to realize something and shouted loudly, "I'm innocent, Mr. Lance..."

He even tried to stand up, but Ethan pushed him back into the chair as soon as he exerted any force.

Lance scratched his eyebrow. "When people are judged after death, everyone says they are innocent."

"But whether you are truly innocent, I believe you know better than I do!"

The next morning, Mazz's contact emerged from his apartment. He currently lived in an apartment not far from the Hazardous Materials Administration.

He bought the apartment, but his other family members did not live there.

What happened yesterday made him feel uneasy. He planned to find a way to withdraw Mazz, whether he was exposed or not, the contact felt he was in danger.

Mazz was arranged by him, and perhaps others didn't care about Mazz's safety, but he still had a sense of responsibility.

He planned to actively contact Mazz and bring him back safely.

Just as he was about to leave the apartment door, he suddenly heard someone exclaim outside. He was just about to go out and see what had happened when suddenly, a... figure fell from the sky outside the apartment door!

It fell down, then bounced back up, and began to swing back and forth outside the gate.

The contact looked at the head, which was stretched so long that it was obviously broken into several sections, with only muscles and skin connecting it to the body, hanging crookedly on the rope.

His mouth was sealed, his eyes were gouged out, two fingers were inserted into his ears, and his hands were nailed with eyes and a tongue.

Many people vomited when they saw this. The contact seemed to think of something, and rushed out of the apartment towards the roof, and sure enough, he saw a head sticking out.

The person showed a mocking smile and quickly disappeared.

"F*ck!" He told the apartment manager to call the police while taking off his coat and rushing up the stairs to the top floor, but when he opened the iron door to the top floor, there was no one there.

The sound of a car starting came from the alley, which made him rush to the back street, lie on the edge of the roof and look down. Two cars had already started and were driving away.

He cursed a few more times and gave up chasing because he knew he couldn't catch up.

Once the car entered the road, it could shake him off by making a few turns. He had no chance at all.

When he came downstairs, the police had already arrived. They took Mazz down from the noose and put him in a body bag.

He would be sent to the coroner and then messed up.

Seeing the police disrespect the body, the contact showed his credentials, "An agent of the Hazardous Materials Administration, this is my informant..."

Several policemen glanced at him sideways, said nothing, and continued to treat Mazz's body very roughly.

This made the contact even more annoyed. He had just pushed one of the policemen when all the other policemen's hands were on their holsters, staring at him at the same time!

This action also calmed him down in an instant. He raised his hands and took two steps back. "I will complain about you."

The leader sneered dismissively, "Do whatever the hell you want!"

The contact was annoyed, but helpless.

He knew that Lance and the Lance family were demonstrating to him, but he was powerless!

At the same time, another undercover agent was also killed in the same way.

The police quickly took away the body and started an investigation.

Lance left two undercover agents behind.

The first undercover agent had not contacted anyone until now, and even made Lance and others suspect that they had guessed wrong?

The other was left behind by the Hazardous Materials Administration. Lance needed to disguise him as a lucky one so that he could continue to pass on some information.

Sometimes, using the Hazardous Materials Administration is much more convenient than doing it yourself.

The deaths of the two undercover agents made Lucar feel that the time had come, and the Lance family had begun to recruit people again. Under his arrangement, Beno quickly joined this group and became a peripheral member of the Lance family.

Lucar and Beno had discussed that they could not contact each other too frequently, and even when they did contact, they could not meet or get close.

This was a very dangerous task. In order to get Beno into the core of the Lance family, Lucar also promised him that no matter whether he had committed any crimes or even murder during his time in the Lance family, it would not be recorded in his files!

Only in this way could Beno do his best to climb up!