Empire of Shadows

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Advanced chapter at /caleredhair. its already in chapter 350+

“Hey, Johnny!”

A sullen Johnny sat on the sofa. He had been out of the hospital for some time but hadn’t returned to work at the dock.

On one hand, his broken arm prevented him from doing his previous job, so he had to continue resting.

Furthermore, he had registered his work card with Lance’s firm, and now someone was working for him, earning him sixteen dollars a month.

This was one of the conditions Elvin had offered him to keep him quiet: someone would work for him until he recovered. Secondly, Lance had publicly broken his arm in front of many people.

Now, returning to the dock, he wondered how many people would mock him. Thanks to some “greetings” Elvin had sent, he had been able to stay at home during this time, but it wouldn’t last much longer.

Just like now, a few fellow workers pounded on his door.These dockworkers basically lived in the port area—there were large coastal neighborhoods and houses after leaving the dock and port.

Further west was the industrial area, so the port area and Empire District were the places with the most poor people, filled with the lowest strata of society.

Johnny’s house wasn’t too far from the dock, which made his commute convenient.

He walked to the door and opened it. “Hey, my door!”

His coworker, bundled in thick clothes, was excited. “Can you still sit there?”

“Quickly get dressed, we’re going to the club.”

Johnny stood by the door, not intending to let his friend in, partly because the house was messy and dirty. Secondly, he actually wanted to go out for a walk. “What about the club?”

His friend loudly announced, “Lance has taken over the club, and today is its opening day. They say there’s affordable alcohol!” He said the last sentence in a lowered voice.

This made Johnny’s heart flutter. The price of alcohol was too damn high now. Beer bombs were already thirty cents, an increase of five cents.

Those bastard vampires wanted to suck every last penny out of them. He hadn’t been to a bar for two days, which was incredible for him, but thinking about his sharply reduced income, he had no choice.

But now, hearing about alcohol, his mouth uncontrollably began to water.

He licked his lips, glanced into the room, grabbed the clothes from the hanger by the door, and loudly shouted, “I’m going out for a walk.”

Without waiting for his family’s reply, he put on his clothes and left.

Walking on the road, they found many people heading towards the dock, almost all of them fellow workers from other gates.

When they met, everyone greeted each other warmly. Of course, there were also those who ribbed Johnny, asking how his arm was recovering.

They seemed to be concerned about Johnny, but if their laughter wasn’t so vile, perhaps their concern would have been genuine!

Amidst the “fucks,” Johnny gradually regained some spirit. Over a dozen people, hunched against the cold, walked towards the port.

Heavy snow fell, and the weather was freezing, but it couldn’t stop men’s craving for alcohol.

In fact, from a certain perspective, this “social experiment” by the upper echelons of society was successful.

They successfully curbed people’s desires through legislation. And it did indeed lead to an effective increase in industrialized production, which was their core objective— To suppress the desires of the lower classes and increase productivity.

If they could obtain more data, perhaps they would start to consider treating the lower classes as subhuman.

Suppressing more of their desires, stripping them of more rights, all to make them stay on the assembly line longer and provide more economic value to the factories.

But it couldn’t be considered entirely successful yet. This was still the initial stage of the experiment.

Desires, once suppressed, would erupt even more fiercely, like a spring! The harder it was pressed, the higher it would rebound! These effects weren’t yet obvious because it was still building momentum.

When it finished building momentum and began to rebound, only then would the gentlemen who made these rules realize they had failed. But now, they were celebrating!

Two kilometers couldn’t stop people’s desire for alcohol and stress relief. Many people arrived at the dock.

When Johnny arrived at the noticeably much larger club, he saw Lance and his people at the entrance. Lance was giving instructions to a few family members. Too many workers had come today, making them a little short-handed.

These workers were not all honest people; a violent incident could suddenly erupt, which would be a terrible thing for a newly opened club.

Johnny saw Lance, and Lance also saw Johnny. After a moment of mutual gaze, Lance proactively walked over. “If you’re here to have fun, we welcome you.”

“But if you’re here to cause trouble, then you’ll definitely regret having come here tonight.”

Johnny was a little nervous. “I understand. I… came with friends, planning to have a few drinks.” Lance wasn’t actually stronger than him, nor taller, but in front of Lance, he seemed to be the smaller one!

To this day, the image of Lance raising the baseball bat was still deeply etched in his mind, and his broken arm inexplicably started aching again.

The two looked at each other, and the immense pressure made Johnny a little breathless.

After about a few seconds, he tore at his collar, looked away, and was about to go back when Lance showed a slight smile.

The tense atmosphere, which made Johnny’s friends not even dare to breathe, suddenly eased.

Lance lightly punched Johnny on the chest. “Tonight, I’m buying you and your friend a drink. Tell the bartender, the biggest cup!” Johnny’s face first showed an incredible expression, but then it turned to surprise, and even a little… emotion!

“Mr. Lance, I…” He was a bit at a loss for how to express his emotions at that moment.

Lance patted his arm. “Go have fun, enjoy the night!”

Johnny and his friend bade farewell to Lance and followed the crowd into the huge club. The club had been expanded, connected to a large warehouse, and completely renovated.

The atmosphere inside was excellent, especially…

“Look, look up!” His friend elbowed him in the waist. Both looked up. There were many steel pillars here, originally used to support the warehouse structure.

Now, on the upper part of these steel pillars, a circular platform about one and a half meters in diameter had been welded, and some dancers were performing energetically on it. Pole dancing.

The colored lights constantly shifting across their bodies made a desire flow through the hearts of everyone looking at them! There were over a dozen such performers here. They could already feel the atmosphere building.

Following the crowd, they quickly arrived at the first bar counter. Several super large tanks were connected to a tap, and they saw many people getting beer there.

“We want… uh, Mr. Lance said, he’s buying us two of the largest cups.” Johnny was a little embarrassed, but he still said it.

The young man pouring the beer switched to two large cups, then pulled a lever, and soon beer flowed out of the nozzle.

Two large cups, each containing at least 1.25 liters of beer, were placed in front of them. Both of them had faces full of joy as they raised their glasses.

His friend still asked, “How much is one of these beers?”

The young man pouring the beer shrugged. “Fifteen cents.”

“Fifteen cents?!”

Both of them exclaimed in surprise. “That’s too cheap, isn’t it?”

The two exchanged glances, and before they could say anything else, someone behind them shoved them. “Stop blocking the way, you bastards! Is your mother’s ass there?”

“Take your drinks and get out of the way! It’s our turn now!”

The two quickly left. In the face of alcohol, what were fellow workers? If they blocked the way any longer, someone might drag them into a corner. T

he two carried their beer to the side and took a sip. Just one sip, and they immediately felt an indescribable sensation, as if… their entire bodies were comfortable.

“This is it!” Just being able to drink such cheap beer made them feel it was worth it!

The two continued to walk deeper with the crowd. Various entertainment facilities began to appear around them, and they even saw some arenas.

Slap contests, arm wrestling, sledgehammer smashing, wrestling, bolt tightening contests, knot tying contests… Except for a few contests they hadn’t encountered, like the slap contest, most were related to their professional skills.

Both of them were specialized in tightening bolts on the dock, so they naturally gravitated towards the game arena they were most skilled at.

There were four rings here, with the common nuts and bolts found on the docks. The host introduced the rules of the competition.

Each ring only supported two participants. Player A and Player B would first tighten their respective three nuts and bolts, and then loosen the opponent’s nuts and bolts. Whoever loosened all of the opponent’s nuts and bolts first would win.

The loser had no penalty, and the winner had two choices: continue to challenge, or go have a drink! If they continued to challenge, as long as they won three opponents in total, they would advance to the next round of the competition.

Lance had already reached an agreement with the dockworkers’ union. Every month, he would host a “Workers’ Skill Competition” here, excluding things like the slap contest.

The participants would be those workers who won three consecutive times, and they would proceed to the next round of elimination, until a champion emerged.

The champion would receive a cash prize of three hundred dollars, the runner-up two hundred, and as for third place? Sorry, there was no such thing as third place in this era.

And!

The dockworkers’ union would award the champion and runner-up a certificate, certifying them as “skill winners”! This might seem like a small honor, but in this era, skilled workers never lacked employment!

Johnny and his friend were already feeling a surge of excitement. Whether it was to show off in front of tens of thousands of fellow workers, or for the two or three hundred dollar prize money, or for that certificate representing special honor that ordinary people rarely had a chance to touch in their lifetime, they were all tempted.

Soon, there were participants in the arena. Johnny recognized them. Those below the stage were all workers specialized in tightening bolts.

Some cheered, some cursed, amidst the commotion and laughter. Perhaps the beer here had a high alcohol content, as Johnny’s face quickly flushed red.

He waved his hairy arms, cursing the foulest words to hype up the atmosphere.

So much so that a worker who was losing the match suddenly threw his wrench on the ground and started yelling at Johnny. “Why the hell aren’t you up here if you’re so good?”

“If I hadn’t seen you, I would have thought some bitch had run out, her mouth full of dick juice. Next time, wash your damn mouth before you go out, I’m afraid I won’t be able to resist killing you…”

The two, one on the stage and one below, cursed at each other.

One said, “I’ll smash you if you come up.”

The other said, “I’ll smash you if you come down.”

But neither made a move. Fortunately, the host persuaded them for a while, and with Johnny’s friend’s urging, they stopped arguing.

This was just one corner of what was happening in the entire club. The constant cheers and laughter emanating from somewhere made the workers’ club an ocean of joy and stress relief.

The entire club floor was like a huge “dock carnival.” Lance stood on the second-floor platform, instructing the photographer to capture everything.

President Scott and Vice President Vaughn, along with others, had also arrived. Now, witnessing such a lively scene, they felt Lance was a genius.

Of course, they had no intention of replacing Lance, because they lacked the most basic condition—alcohol.

These people saw very clearly that while those “small games” were indeed very attractive to them, what truly created the atmosphere was the continuous flow of alcohol from the taps!

The union members discussed it and thought it was actually quite good. The workers released their stress, and Lance’s proposed “Skill Contest” allowed President Scott to discover something profound.

He vaguely felt that if he could grasp the essence of it, he would have a great chance to enter the Federal Dockworkers’ General Union! He needed quiet, so he quickly stood up to take his leave, followed by the others.

Although they were union presidents and cadres, they were ultimately not workers. They were a bit uncomfortable with the smell here and unaccustomed to such close contact with so many workers outside of working hours.

However, every one of them highly recognized the current changes in the club; this was positive emotional feedback!

After seeing them off, Lance stood on the second floor, a cigarette in hand, looking at the dense crowd of heads below. He slowly exhaled the smoke.

This was power! Some people realized this, but they lacked the means to control that power. Some people didn’t realize this, giving him the opportunity to gain this power now.

Actually, it was easy to make money from these people: open some stalls, recruit some sponsors. But he didn’t plan to do that. Because power, the purer it was, the better!

By just past one o’clock, many areas here had become empty, with fewer than a hundred people remaining.

They were all sitting at the bar, drinking. The ten-cent, oddly flavored beer (seven hundred fifty milliliters) was very popular, as was their potato wine.

Some employees began to clean the venue, while others sat in Lance’s office, tallying the night’s income.

When the last five-cent coin was dropped into the cash box, everyone looked expectantly at Sean.

Sean wrote and drew in his notebook for a while, then said, “We lost over two hundred dollars…” Although not much, it wasn’t insignificant.

They all looked at Lance, who, however, merely swirled the wine in his glass, his expression not at all serious. “Much better than I expected. Continue tomorrow…”

Some people who didn’t know the workers’ club had opened heard about it from colleagues the next day and rushed over to see the excitement before their shift ended.

Vaughn came by in the morning, and then the club temporarily closed, operating from seven in the evening to midnight.

Some workers would run over for a drink in the morning, which greatly affected the normal work order at the dock.

Lance also actively cooperated after learning about it. After all, if the dock was stable, these workers were power.

If the dock was unstable, these workers were not power. Although some were dissatisfied, they indeed saw ten-cent-a-cup strong beer and many interesting facilities, which made them look forward to their lives after work even more!

Meanwhile, Senior Agent Lukar was disembarking from the train. They had completed their centralized training.

He had thought this training would primarily be about administrative aspects, such as how to handle case reports or procedures.

Who knew their training content would actually be mainly combat-oriented, supplemented by cultural classes?

The instructors used numerous case studies to tell them what to do in what situations, and what enforcement powers they actually had.

The rest of the time was spent on military training: combat, shooting, climbing… The gentlemen in Congress detested those who secretly sold and drank alcohol under Prohibition. It was clear that they wanted to kill these people!

After the training ended, he and the other trainees gathered in the state capital for two days before returning to Golden Port.

The moment he stepped off the train, the swirling snowflakes gave him an unprecedented sense of refreshment. The Bureau of Tobacco, Alcohol, and Firearms had great power, enough to support him in many endeavors.

The first thing he did upon returning was to report to his new workplace. It was not far from City Hall, and also not too far from the city police department. Lukar was a native of Golden Port and had been recommended by the law enforcement system.

Regardless of what others thought, he was at least outwardly very welcomed. After arranging to have dinner together in the evening, Lukar went to the police station and met Director Charlie.

“Good, you look much more spirited. It seems those people really taught you something.” Lukar remained very polite when facing Director Charlie, who had taken great care of him.

“Yes, they taught me a lot. I have you to thank, Charlie.”

“If it weren’t for you, I might not have had such an opportunity!”

Director Charlie smiled and said nothing. Helping Lukar was helping himself; he understood this very clearly.

“So, returning this time, you must have your own plan. Can you tell me where you plan to start your first step?”

Lukar did not hide his thoughts. “I heard Lance eliminated the Camille gang and took over their territory.”

“So, is there smuggled alcohol in their territory?”

(End of this chapter)

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Additional chapters: /caleredhair