Empire of Shadows

Watching the young man pack the leftover food into the kraft paper bag as much as possible, a hint of anticipation seemed to appear on Lance's smiling face.

"You think highly of this young man?" Ervin asked.

Given their current ages, it wouldn't be strange to refer to this teenager as a "young man."

Lance nodded, then shook his head. "Once the Federal Government reaches a military alliance with Slader, more refugees will flood in here."

He turned to look at Ervin, then at the others behind him. "Why did we initially 'stand up'?"

Ervin replied, "Because they wanted to deal with Ethan."

Lance nodded. "That's one reason, our reason. What about Hiram?"

Hiram shrugged without saying anything.

Lance didn't press him for an answer, because he had already spoken the answer himself. "Because of poverty, because we can't survive without change."

"Look at all the refugees in Newport. How many of them can fill their stomachs, and how many are struggling on the borderline of life and death?"

"Before long, a large number of refugee gangs will emerge in this city."

"At first, they may just want to band together for warmth, obtain more resources, and allow themselves and those around them to survive."

"But you've seen, once you embark on this path, the only options are to go all the way or become history halfway."

"Instead of waiting for these challengers to grow rapidly, to the point where they can challenge us, why don't we support a few first, give them hope of survival, and keep this power in our hands!"

Ervin could understand a little, but only a little.

He nodded and kept Lance's words in his heart. He believed that one day, he would understand!

Lance nodded his chin towards the young man. "He's lucky to have met us at this time."

"Arrange for someone to follow him, see how he distributes the food, and how he deals with trouble."

Taking so much food back is not a smart choice. If Lance were in his position, Lance wouldn't take that much food.

He would stack the bread together, then press them together with plates, using gravity to compress the soft bread into "biscuits."

This is convenient to carry and resistant to hunger. Then consider bringing some meat, but not too much, and it's best to look like it's only enough for yourself.

This way, the refugees will be a little envious, but they won't rob a child of his food before they completely lose their minds.

But if he brings too much, someone will always think that he can't eat that much, so it doesn't matter if they take some from him.

Then there will be conflict between them, and in the end, he may not have anything left.

"Don't interfere, just watch and record everything."

Lance looked at the teenager holding two large paper bags, with an expectant expression on his face. He was looking forward to a good story.

The young man didn't know that he had become the "protagonist" in Lance's story. After saying goodbye to Lance, he took two paper bags of various meats and ran towards the Newport area with his younger siblings.

He ran very fast, he eagerly wanted to return to where they lived and tell his mother that he had a job and that they would be able to fill their stomachs.

When running in the Imperial District, people just looked at him occasionally, but when he entered Newport running, people's eyes were fixed on the two kraft paper bags he was holding.

The fat permeated the kraft paper bags and exuded a fragrance that made many people stand up.

Many of them haven't been able to put down their faces, but under the continuous influence of hunger, some people are beginning to lose their minds and morals.

"Hey, what are you holding?"

A thin man in his thirties walked towards the young man, and after a brief moment of shock, the eyes of the others became dangerous.

Some people who were sitting on the ground enduring hunger glanced at the two greasy paper bags and couldn't help but stand up.

Under the trend of survival desire, they walked towards the teenager.

The teenager was stunned for a moment. He looked at the people surrounding him and immediately realized what had happened. "It's nothing!" he shouted and sped up towards where they lived.

But now, how could people who were extremely hungry let him leave?

Without anyone shouting, someone stretched out his leg and tripped him to the ground. He fell heavily, the paper bag cracked, and the greasy meat fell out, rolling on the ground, and then quietly stopped moving.

Everyone around was stunned for a moment, but then they ran up and rushed towards the meat on the ground.

Regardless of whether there was sand on the meat or whether it was dirty, they would stuff it into their mouths as long as they could grab it!

The guy running in the front shouted, "It's all mine," while trying to press all the food under him.

But soon he felt someone kicking his head hard. He held his head and didn't want to leave, but he was dragged away and thrown aside.

People frantically grabbed the meat on the ground. In less than two minutes, the meat that the young man brought back was gone.

Even the two kraft paper bags were snatched away, torn to pieces, and eaten!

People are crazy!

The young man watched all this dumbfounded, unable to recover for a long time.

He returned to his "home" in frustration. In fact, it was just a small tent temporarily built with some branches and rags. His mother was inside.

Because there were two very young younger siblings, she stayed here all day.

"What's wrong?" she looked at the young man, "Didn't you get any food today?"

The two children behind him took out the seven cents they had grabbed, and the woman breathed a sigh of relief.

Seven cents is enough for them to buy some food.

"You look very depressed."

"Yes, Mom, I lost the food that a gentleman gave me, two big bags of meat."

His mother was stunned for a moment, then beckoned to him, asking him to sit beside her and lean on her lap.

She gently stroked the young man's hair, "If you lose it, you lose it. At least we still have seven cents and we can still eat."

The young man's head rested on his mother's lap. "That gentleman said he was willing to let me work for him."

The woman asked, "Are you willing?"

The young man nodded, "Yes."

He wanted to change his life. People cannot, at least should not, lose their minds and live like vicious dogs.

He wants to earn money, to take his family away from here, he wants to be like a man, to protect this family and mom!

This is his promise to his father!

Later, they used seven cents to buy a pound of whole wheat bread, and followed his mother's advice, tearing it into small pieces outside the bakery and bringing it back in their pockets.

Although it was a little rough to eat, the aroma it emitted was also intoxicating.

This bread will be divided into two days to eat.

He ate very carefully, even finding the bread crumbs in the crevices of his fingernails and eating them into his stomach.

Although he didn't eat meat today, he hoped that he could change everything through his efforts.

At night, there would occasionally be screams of misery, and someone had starved to death again.

This is completely different from the world they imagined. They have more or less heard rumors related to the Federation. This place seems to be another heaven.

But after really getting here, they realized that no one would give you food just because you were hungry.

If you want to eat, you have to pay.

He clenched his fists, letting saliva flow fully in his mouth, and after feeling the aroma of whole wheat bread again, he vowed that he must be able to fill his stomach every day in the future!

Early the next morning, he came to the outside of Lance's company according to the address on the business card.

The huge facade and luxurious decoration made him a little at a loss, but fortunately the lady at the front desk was very gentle and asked him why he came here.

He handed the business card to the other party, and soon, the lady told him how to get to where he wanted to go.

Lance was frowning in the office when the director called.

"...Someone is stealing our wealth, Mr. Lance."

"'The Mystery of Angel Lake' has been well-received in all aspects, and most theaters have good box office revenue, but at 'Korgan Cinema', our film has generated almost no valuable box office."

"Either they are not showing our film, or they are deceiving us."

The movie they distributed this time adopted a box office split system. He didn't know much about this, but there was indeed a split system now.

From the beginning, the cinema almost got everything, with a 90% split.

Then, as the playback time increases and the number of times increases, the proportion of the box office that the cinema receives will be reduced to the final 5%.

This split method is obviously not very scientific, but from the current market, it is the most acceptable and most in line with the wishes of the theater chain.

Many theaters have accepted this split plan, first because the movie 'The Mystery of Angel Lake' does not offer a buyout service, only a split contract.

That is to say, if they do not accept the split, their cinema cannot play this film.

Secondly, because it is a split, they can say that they have depreciation and electricity costs without any additional expenses.

If it is a buyout system, it may cost thousands or tens of thousands of dollars or more to buy the film, and whether you can recover the cost depends entirely on fate.

At this time, a very strange phenomenon often occurs. A cinema in a certain area buys a movie, and the screening is crowded.

However, after another district's movie theater bought it, no one watched it.

Even the most popular movies can't be guaranteed to make money, so the revenue-sharing model reduces their potential losses, making it more acceptable.

After all, as long as the movie is good, the most profitable period is the early stage, not the middle and late stages.

So, they all agreed to the revenue sharing.

The overall box office effect is good, and some film review magazines have created a new genre for this movie—thriller horror.

Regardless of the future, it will have a place in film history.

Under various promotions, people also want to see what this so-called groundbreaking movie is like.

The continuous increase in box office revenue satisfies everyone, but some obviously absurd box office numbers are clearly not right.

Ticket scalping exists, whether now or in the past.

"Is this movie theater a single entity or a company?" Lance asked.

"A company, they have a total of fourteen movie theaters, but the box office revenue they give us is less than a hundred dollars."

Lance found the number amusing, "A hundred dollars?"

Nowadays, movie theaters generally have around one hundred to two hundred people. Taking the midpoint and calculating based on a 60% occupancy rate, ninety people watch a movie.

Movie tickets have already moved away from the early loss-making price of five cents per ticket. Now, twenty-five cents is more common, and there are also thirty-five cents and fifty cents, depending on the time.

Taking the cheapest price of twenty-five cents per ticket as an example, ninety people would be twenty-two dollars and fifty cents.

They can get 10% of that, which is two dollars and twenty-five cents per showing.

Fourteen movie theaters, playing one showing on average, can get thirty dollars from the box office.

As long as they play three showings on average, they can get almost a hundred dollars.

Now that it has been playing for so many days, it's actually less than a hundred dollars…

"Where are they located?"

The director vaguely knew that Lance was going to make trouble for them, and then said, "Lidom."

Lidom is a city in Jinzhou, not too far from Xinjin City. It can be said to be a satellite city on the outskirts of Xinjin City.

"I will solve this problem. Are there any other problems?" Lance asked.

The director hesitated for a while and then asked, "Is our own movie theater's box office… a bit too high?"

"Is this some kind of publicity strategy?"

The movie theaters under the company's name almost all maintain a 100% occupancy rate, which is simply outrageous!

He thought this was Lance's publicity method, because many movie theater operators would not buy film reels immediately. They would observe the ticket sales situation in other places and then decide whether to show these movies.

He believed that Lance's purpose in doing this was to make people think that this movie was very good. Some producers did this in the past to deceive those theater owners.

Lance laughed twice when he heard this, "These are some accidents, you don't have to worry about it."

"Are there any other problems?"

The director couldn't figure it out, so he simply didn't think about it, "There are no other problems."

"Very good, then how much money have we made from the box office now?"

Good news after bad news can keep him in a good mood.

The director's tone was slightly excited, "According to the data they are reporting now, our income will probably exceed eight hundred thousand to one million, and the profit will be six hundred to seven hundred thousand."

"And the screenings are not over yet. Most of the money from the current screenings is ours, and our final income may be around one million."

This income is not much compared to Lance's criminal business, but this money is clean, and it is not bad in the film industry.

Perhaps from other people's perspective, it may not be as good as directly selling film reels, but people's habits are always slowly formed.

As long as the movie is good enough, they will definitely obey.

"Don't stop the filming plan, continue to choose good scripts. We don't consider cost issues. We'll talk about it when we have time later."

"If there are any other problems, contact me. If not…," he glanced at the person standing outside the door, "I have other things to do here."

Although the director did not attend Lance's engagement ceremony, mainly because he was not qualified enough, he heard about the grand occasion of that day!

He now firmly believes that following Lance, the future will definitely be bright!

"Boss, there are no other issues, you can hang up the phone."

Lance put down the phone and looked at the door, said "Come in," and the young man entered the room somewhat restrained.

He had been a little uncomfortable since entering this building, because the decoration here was too luxurious!

The mirrored inlaid marble floor looked like walking in a palace. He couldn't imagine that the architecture of the Federation people could be so beautiful and that they were so rich!

In fact, he had already seen the wealth of the Federation people yesterday.

During the day, piles of food on the table were not eaten. He asked, and the food would be dumped into the trash can and then disposed of.

And in the New Port District, people die every day from starvation or from injuries and diseases.

There is no difference between people, from a species perspective, but there are huge differences between people, so huge that they may not be able to bridge the gap in their entire lives!

"Are your family satisfied with the food you brought back?" Lance asked.

In fact, he already knew that the young man and his family had not eaten any of the food.

An indescribable expression appeared on the young man's face. He shook his head, "The food was snatched away."

"Do you hate them?" Lance asked.

The young man still shook his head, "I hated them at first. They overturned my food and snatched my food."

"But I don't hate them anymore, because they just want to live too."

Lance sighed in agreement, "Yes, people just want to live, but living is the greatest challenge for mankind to come into this world!"

He paused for a moment, "I have two jobs for you. You can choose one yourself."

"Be a dog or be a wolf?"

The young man thought for a while. In fact, he didn't know anything, what being a dog or being a wolf meant, but he instinctively replied, "I want to be a wolf."

Lance nodded, "What's your name?"

"Boni, sir."

"Very good, Boni, I will send someone to help you establish a gang in the New Port District."

"You can choose a group of people you know, or people you think are suitable, mainly those who have fled from your area."

"I will give you some jobs, jobs that can make money, and you have to run the gang."

"I hope you can grow as much as possible in the New Port District and control the entire order of the New Port District. Can you understand what I'm saying?"

Boni was actually a little confused, but he was trying his best to understand in his own way, "Order, sir."

"You are a smart person. I believe you can do it well. This is an opportunity, seize it!"