Empire of Shadows

Suddenly, at this very moment, Pedro had a lot of things he wanted to say to Lance, and even wanted to punch him in the chin!

He felt his hair stand on end. Extreme fear dominated his body. He was trembling, shivering!

The thought of such a terrible scene made him instinctively want to escape!

It wasn’t that he was too weak, but that such a scene was too terrible!

In fact... many people don’t have an accurate understanding of hunger. Many people think that hunger is just about letting people go hungry.

But in fact, hunger can change a person’s soul!

Under hunger, people can do many incredible things. People’s morals, ethics, all the restraints that are imposed on people by nurture will be undone by hunger.

It’s like a key that will eventually open one after another of the hidden Pandora’s boxes.

No one knows if what is released from inside is an angel or a devil.

Maybe there are a few more devils. When people succumb to their desires and their nature, they are devils!It’s unknown who had bumped him from behind. He had come back to his senses in a shiver, had looked around at everything, and then had clutched his own food bag, had pushed through the crowd, and had run towards the nearest grocery store.

Last week, before he had left here, he had seen the owner of the grocery store. The latter had told him that someone had come to buy grain.

At that time, he had not associated it with anything too complicated, but at this moment, he had suddenly realized that everything might have been arranged long ago.

The script was not written now, but was written a long time ago, and every one of them was just a part of this script.

It was just that some played the background, and some played the protagonist.

His mind was in a mess now, thinking about all kinds of messy things.

The main gate of the grocery store was open. The owner was standing behind the counter.

”Give me some grain!” He walked to the side of the counter and put his own grain pocket on the counter.

There were some other people in the grocery store. They were all, as if intentionally or unintentionally, looking towards this side.

The owner of the grocery store shook his head and said, supporting himself on the counter with both hands, ”I’m sorry, it’s all sold out. But I have already contacted the granary’s side, and have asked them to send more grain over next week.”

Pedro stared at the grocery store owner’s eyes. After the two had looked at each other for a moment, the grocery store owner had taken the initiative to look away.

They knew each other, and they had been together for many years. As a high school teacher on this street, whose social status was clearly a cut above others, Pedro still had some status in the minds of the neighbors.

Being stared at by Pedro, the grocery store owner was a little unbearable. He shook his head slightly and said in a low voice, ”I don’t have any left.”

He actually had, but he didn’t want to sell it, because there was indeed not much left. There were still twenty or thirty pounds of wheat kernels, and also more than twenty pounds of flour.

The grocery store was only taken care of by him and his wife. His children lived in other places, and this food was enough for them to eat for a month.

It was just that he was very worried about whether his children’s side had any food, so he had no intention of selling the rest.

Pedro had looked at him for a couple of times, and then at the grain bag on the counter. He also couldn’t help but curse ”fuck,” and then he had picked up his food bag and had run out.

In the process of running out, he had seen four or five somewhat nervous young men enter the grocery store.

When he had passed by them, one of the young men was so nervous that he was even sweating!

This was winter, a temperature of a dozen or so degrees, and he was sweating!

However, now was not the time for him to be meddlesome. He had to go and get some food back.

After coming out of the grocery store, the street was full of running people. The matter of shooting and robbing had set a bad precedent for everyone here.

He saw a few people at the street corner in the distance snatching another person’s food bag. One guy was still constantly kicking the person’s head.

There were only a little over two hundred police officers in the city, but they had to manage a city of 200,000 people. They simply couldn’t take care of it!

Pedro had looked for a couple of times and had then averted his gaze, and had turned and run towards the distance. He had just run for not long when he had heard the sound of the owner of the grocery store behind him, calling for help!

He had screeched to a halt, and for some reason, his ears were ringing, and he had even felt a little dizzy.

His blood pressure had risen, but he himself didn’t know. He had stood there, looking back at the entrance of the grocery store. In his mind, he seemed to have already outlined the appearance inside.

”Help!”

”Can someone help me... ah, help!”

Someone had walked towards this side, but they had all stood at the entrance of the grocery store, and had not gone in.

Just a few seconds later, the owner of the grocery store had suddenly rushed out!

His whole body was covered in blood. What could be seen was that in his black hair, there were constantly open, and even turned-over wounds, which were still bleeding.

There were also wounds on his arms, on his body, which were also bleeding.

He had looked at the people outside in terror. He didn’t understand, why, when he had shouted for help, no one had saved him!

Because he had been running in too much of a panic, he had fallen, and had fallen to the ground with a thud.

Then his body had begun to slowly move back into the grocery store. He, with a look of terror on his face, had been grabbing the ground with both hands, wanting to escape!

A series of bloody handprints had been left on the ground. It was unknown if they were from the blood on his body, or from his fingers being abraded on the ground.

Seeming to realize that in this way, he could not get rid of the situation inside, he had turned over and had struggled on his back, his body trembling violently. Was he kicking his legs?

But soon he had given up resisting in his painful cries. From the expressions of the onlookers outside, it could be seen that he was being tortured, and then had been dragged inside.

That guy, who had always given people a sense of toughness, had soon not even been able to shout for help.

In just twenty or so seconds, there had been no more sound.

After two minutes, a few young men, with three bulging grain bags on their backs, had rushed out from inside. They had waved the knives in their hands, and the onlookers at the door had immediately dispersed a certain distance.

Then they had disappeared on the street.

This was clearly a scene that should have been infuriating, but what had Pedro heard?

”He deserved it. I knew he was hiding food. He actually wanted to eat it all by himself. Now that’s good!”

”A greedy person will not have a good end!”

They seemed to be accusing a person who had done nothing wrong, but what was absurd was that even Pedro felt... that it was a tiny bit correct!

The remaining people had suddenly rushed into the grocery store. He could imagine what these people were going to do.

Although it was not grain, at least it could bring them some comfort.

Everything was collapsing, and the speed of the collapse would be very fast.

The poorer a place, the more incomplete the food reserves. He could hardly imagine what would happen.

Pedro, who had witnessed the whole thing, had shivered again at this time. He had cursed, and had turned and run towards the school. He was worried that it would affect the school, and harm those students.

The situation at the school was not bad. Because the children of the middle-class families in the city were gathered here, considering the safety of the school, the parents of the students had paid to hire four security guards to ensure the safety of the school. At a time like this, these security guards had played a certain role.

Pedro had greeted the security guard and had entered the school. Seeing the normal order in the school, he had breathed a sigh of relief.

There was a cafeteria in the school. He was worried that someone would attack the school, but it seemed that they did not want to provoke the middle class of this city.

But the problem was, where should he and his family get their food?

The entire city’s food reserves had been consumed in an instant, and more had been hidden away by some people.

The angry and irrational people, the terrified and running people, and also the speculators, the conspirators, the ambitious men who had a smile on their faces in the face of the chaotic situation...

This quiet city was falling!

It was about to fall into hell!

In Zhuolan, the problem of food shortage had not yet affected this place. In order to avoid causing some unnecessary trouble in advance, the food supply in Zhuolan was still very sufficient.

”What’s wrong?”

Diego looked at the official on the side. The phone had just rung. He was in the middle of talking about some cooperation matters with Lance and his group, so it was the official who had gone to borrow it.

Diego was not an easy person to get along with. He was relatively normal in front of Lance and his group, not because he was a normal person, but because he couldn’t handle these foreigners.

If he could handle these foreigners, now Lance would not be sitting not far from him, but should be locked in his basement, being tortured, and then saying his bank account and credentials.

Thinking of Diego’s attitude towards his own people once he got angry, a smile immediately appeared on the official’s face. ”It’s nothing. The food in some cities may be a little short. They are very worried if there will be a problem.”

Diego had frowned when he heard this. ”With so much to eat in the wild, won’t they go and find food themselves?”

After saying that, he had stopped paying attention to this official who had brought him the bad news, and had looked at Lance. ”A very reasonable plan.”

”It seems that the federal government does indeed have its own unique features in the matter of managing a country!”

As he spoke, he stood up, supporting himself with the armrests. His movements looked very comical, but no one was laughing at him.

”Let’s eat first!”

”It’s getting late. I’m a little hungry. We’ll talk about the rest after we’ve eaten.”

Lance had brought two matters. The first was to increase the investment, to build more factories, and to hire more workers.

Ores, rubber, precious metals, timber, furs, anything that could make money, he wanted!

He would give Diego 15% of the shares. He didn’t have to do anything, and he could get a large sum of money every year!

To this, Diego was very satisfied, because this money was for himself, not for the federal government, or for the other members of the ruling group.

Secondly, he had brought Diego a tax collection plan.

For a monthly income of more than a thousand Paras, according to the current exchange rate, that is, thirteen Federal Sols, you would have to pay tax.

The tax rate started directly at 20%. The higher the salary, the higher the tax rate.

As for how to count?

In fact, it was very simple. The high-income group was all in Lance’s factory. Lance could directly transfer this part of the tax revenue to the designated account of the Rapa National Bank.

This way, even if Diego and the others did nothing, they could get an extra few tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of Federal Sols in tax revenue every month.

How could he not be happy?

So he was going to use a grand banquet to express his ”gratitude” to Lance, to the federal people!

Diego, holding a golden wine glass, stood with Lance, his face flushed as he raised his glass high. ”Lance, you are the best friend of the Rapa people!”

The reporters on the side were frantically taking pictures of this historic moment!