Empire of Shadows

A massive ringing in his ears, like a tsunami, drowned out the entire world. He felt himself being pushed to the ground by a huge force. Eve

A massive ringing in his ears, like a tsunami, drowned out the entire world.

He felt himself being pushed to the ground by a huge force. Everything around him was a double image. He held his daughter, subconsciously calling her name.

He was afraid of losing her, just as he had lost his son. He hugged his daughter tightly, randomly shouting her name, but all he felt was…

Ptui!

His daughter coughed up a mouthful of blood onto his face. The world of double images gradually began to return to normal. He started to feel the pain in his hands, and… another grenade exploded beside him.

At this moment, the Professor’s mind was a complete blank.

A blankness devoid of sorrow or joy, a blankness of not thinking about anything. He looked at his dying daughter, then turned his head to glance at his wife, who had fallen to the ground, her back stained red with blood.

The surrounding gunshots, the cries of pain, did not enter his world at all.

Wolf suddenly appeared in front of him, shouting something at him.But in his world, there was only a buzzing sound, the kind of tinnitus that completely blocks out external sounds.

Wolf shook the Professor vigorously, trying to wake him up. He even slapped the Professor twice. “What’s wrong with you?”

He patted the Professor’s body. Apart from some injuries to his arms and legs from the explosion, his vital parts were completely intact.

But for some reason, he was just lying on the ground as if he were dead.

Seeing that the Professor didn’t react for a short time, and thinking that he was actually quite safe lying on the ground, Wolf wiped the splattered blood from his face.

He took his gun and began to return fire in the direction the bullets were coming from.

In reality, the places he was firing at were all covered by vegetation. He had no idea if there was anyone behind the vegetation. He just fired in fear and hatred, like everyone else.

Two explosions, many people dead. It had also dealt a heavy blow to their morale.

Just then, he suddenly looked behind him. Many cars were kicking up dust and charging towards them. At this moment, Wolf’s eyes were shining, but the shining eyes were filled with despair.

Hiram leaned out of a car window, holding a submachine gun with a large drum magazine modified for him by the gunsmith. “Motherfucker, all of you, go to hell!” Then his index finger seemed to be welded to the trigger.

The rat-a-tat of bullets whistled through the air, leaving a “swish, swish, swish” sound.

People leaned out of almost all the cars, shooting at them.

This time, the storm of bullets attacked their unguarded rear. In an instant, those who were standing, crouching, or lying down fell like wheat cut by a scythe, one after another.

Bullets have no compassion.

It will not spare anyone for any subjective or objective reason.

As long as the primer is struck, whoever is in its direct path is its enemy.

Wolf threw himself into the van, curling his body up to make his “area” as small as possible.

The bullets whizzed by, continuously strafing everything at the scene. At this time, the Wolf Gang members on the mountain looked at me, I looked at you, none of them knowing what to say.

The senior cadre in charge of high-ground fire support slowly lowered his weapon, and the people around him also breathed a sigh of relief.

A deathly silence in the woods.

Yet countless gunshots were carried up from the foot of the mountain by the wind.

The wind blew in gusts, sometimes there, sometimes not, but the gunfire never stopped.

When the dust kicked up by the speeding vehicles had settled again, the vehicles had long since stopped.

Hiram threw the submachine gun, which he had already reloaded once, back into the car and picked up another one.

The submachine gun with a large drum magazine was good in every way, except that the muzzle was prone to overheating. The gunsmith had told him that when the edge of the wooden handguard on the barrel turned charcoal black, it was time to change guns.

He checked the weapon and pulled the bolt.

Today, he didn’t have his hair down; instead, it was tied up in a topknot.

Lawn followed by his side. Ennio got out of another car.

Everyone looked a bit dusty. Some were spitting out sand that had a distinct gritty feel in their mouths.

Lance pushed open the car door and got out. He waved his hand in front of him. Although most of the dust had already settled, there was still some in the air.

Sudden, dense gunfire erupted from the distant mountain. Lance’s gaze withdrew from that direction, and he then walked forward.

Hiram walked in front of Lance. He needed to check the bodies and deliver a finishing shot in time.

At this moment, Wolf was struggling in pain. He had been shot several times, but not fatally.

He wanted to struggle up. He was Wolf, the Wolf King of the Wolf Gang.

Even in death, he would not die like this, silently, pathetically, in a van.

The van door, riddled with bullet holes and half-open, was suddenly pulled open. The dazzling sunlight outside made him a bit dizzy. A shadow raised a gun and aimed it at him.

He looked at the person, and the person also looked at him. He tried to raise his arm; he had a gun in his hand. But the other party pulled the trigger without hesitation. The bullets swept across his arm, and he screamed in pain.

That wasn’t one bullet. This person was a fucking lunatic, shooting his arm with a submachine gun.

The flesh and bone quickly separated. He had never been in so much pain.

Then another person stood in the sunlight. For some reason…

At this moment, Wolf looked at them. They were clearly standing in the sunlight, but the side facing him was dark.

So dark that he couldn’t see their features, their expressions. He could only see a pair of eyes.

“This person is Wolf,” someone said.

Soon, he was dragged out of the van by his legs. He fell heavily to the ground, looking dizzily at a young, handsome man walking over from a distance.

“Lan…ce!” Lance’s name was squeezed out from between his teeth. The flames of hatred shot out from his eyes, but at this moment, besides glaring at Lance, he could do nothing else.

“So this is the Wolf King, Wolf!” a somewhat familiar voice sounded. Wolf looked towards the source of the voice. A familiar face.

He showed an expression of disbelief, but also one that felt very reasonable. “Gallio.”

He said the person’s name.

Gallio smiled and nodded. “Your Majesty the Wolf King, we meet again.”

The two had different expressions. The last time they met, Gallio was smiling obsequiously, bent at the waist, standing some distance from Wolf.

At that time, Gallio was just a small character in Fides, an unranked minor character, the kind of small character that anyone could walk up to, toss their keys to, and have him park their car.

And now, one was standing, one was lying down. Their identities, their statuses, seemed to have been reversed.

A few young men and Hiram continued to identify the bodies. In their eyes, Hiram was an executioner, a killing demon.

Regardless of whether they were dead or not, he would put two shots in their heads. A rhythmic “da-da” sound kept ringing out at the scene, until someone shouted, “This is the Professor, I know him!”

Surprisingly, the Professor was not fatally injured. His leg was broken, his arms might have some fractures, and his flesh was torn in multiple places.

But he was lucky. So close to the bomb, his daughter had protected him with her own body, shielding him from the bomb’s lethal force.

Looking at the Professor’s dazed appearance, Wolf suddenly stopped talking. He closed his eyes, but his violently heaving chest told people that he was not calm.

“Mr. Lance, although the Wolf Gang is not the top-tier gang, in the past, they also had large territories and ran many businesses!”

“Many people have tried to take them on, and all have failed in the end.”

“Mr. Wolf’s favorite thing to do is to feed his enemies to the wolf pack he raises.”

“I didn’t expect that against you, even the Wolf King has failed!”

Gallio’s words were clearly flattering Lance. Lance shook his head slightly. “Every enemy who can fight to the end is worthy of respect.”

Perhaps the Professor had some obsession with Lance. He suddenly turned his head to look at Lance, his unfocused eyes gradually regaining some light.

But soon, he turned his head to look at his daughter.

At that moment, Hiram happened to walk over there. He kicked the body.

She was less than two meters from the explosion’s diameter. She had taken “full damage” and was already as dead as could be.

But Hiram still walked over and, amidst the Professor’s pained cries, crack, crack, fired twice.

Looking at his daughter’s deformed face, he suddenly stood up and charged towards Lance.

Even if he had no weapon, he was going to tear a piece of flesh off Lance.

But the next second, he fell heavily to the ground again. His leg was broken; he couldn’t run.

Hatred drove him to not feel the pain, but it couldn’t change the fact that his leg was broken.

“You’re very angry.”

Lance walked up to him, lifted his foot, and kicked him hard in the shoulder, flipping him over onto his back so he could see him.

“Everyone says you are very smart, Professor. Perhaps in your past experiences, you did a good job indeed.”

“But now, you’ve screwed everything up.”

“Some cleverness is not smart, and in your cleverness, there is some not-so-smart.”

Lance suddenly turned his head to look at Gallio, which gave Gallio a big shock, even making him forget to breathe.

“Am I being a bit convoluted?”

Gallio quickly squeezed out a smile. “I can understand. He’s not smart enough!”

Lance nodded slightly, then looked back at the Professor. “You see, everyone knows.”

“You had the courage to cross that invisible bottom line, but you didn’t have the ability to bear the consequences of your transgression, Professor.”

“Everyone, today, has died because of you!”

“You got them killed!”

Lance walked to the Wolf King’s side and glanced at him. “Your family, your men, your gang, including your good brother.”

He took out his pistol and aimed it at Wolf, who was lying on the ground.

Wolf struggled, the flesh on his face trembling, it was hard to tell if it was from excitement or fear. His face was flushed, and saliva flew from his mouth. “Shoot, bastard, shoot, kill…”

With a bang of a gunshot, his body suddenly tensed, then slowly relaxed.

Blood flowed quickly from the back of his head. The smile on Gallio’s face also gradually faded, leaving only gravity.

An era that once belonged to the Wolf King and the Wolf Gang had ended.

Golden Port was like a giant meat grinder. Whether it was the Viper Gang, the Wolf Gang, or the gangs that had been defeated in other districts…

These gangs that had once left their historical mark on Fides, including some of Golden Port’s local gangs, were constantly disappearing, becoming history.

A game for big shots, a life for the little man.

(End of chapter)