Chapter 636

Standing at the company’s gate and looking back at the not particularly tall but solemn and dignified building, the sun emerged from behind the clouds, shining down on him.

In that very instant, Carl had a feeling “as if he had been reborn.”

The entire world seemed to become vibrant in that moment; the gray and dull world became colorful. He looked at the people on the street.

There wasn’t much difference from when he had arrived, but for some reason, the people who had made him feel uncomfortable before, who seemed to have stared at him with stern, judgmental expressions, had all transformed into smiling faces, just like the midsummer wind, stirring his emotions!

He didn’t know that his life had already entered another stage. His perspective on the world was no longer that of a “victim of life” looking up, but that of a “success in life” looking down.

So everyone was a good person, the world was beautiful, and even the air was sweet.

He hummed a little tune, looked at the street, found the way home, and cheerfully set off again.

An hour, thirty or forty minutes later, he returned to the New Port District, back to the “office.”

Boni was talking to others. He had been “fired,” and he was sad, but he obeyed Lance’s decision. At the same time, he also planned to go and see Hope.

When he saw Carl come in from outside, both of them paused for a moment. Boni didn’t know how to talk to this good friend. They had had a little unpleasantness when they left Lance’s place.

He knew it wasn’t Carl’s fault. He wished him well; he was just a little impatient.

Boni felt that he shouldn’t have left Carl alone at that time. He took the initiative to walk over, wanting to explain something, but saw Carl’s unfamiliar gaze.

His movements stopped. He stood there, a little panicked in his heart, as if… something he had been familiar with since childhood was becoming strange.

People feel uneasy because of these changes. He didn’t know what to say, what to do.

Carl took a step and brushed past him, walked into the room, stood in front of the office that had originally belonged to Boni, and then turned around.

He took out the cigar from his pocket, took it out of the metal cigar tube, and then lit it.

Everyone was looking at him, including Boni.

Some people’s expressions became strange and subtle, while others’ expressions became slightly dissatisfied.

He took a puff of his cigar, letting the smoke and his oral mucosa combine fully, and then slowly exhaled.

The smoke from the cigar was thicker. He raised his chin, and the smoke he exhaled was like a sharp arrow, shooting out for a distance before it began to disperse.

“From today on.”

He lowered his chin, his gaze sweeping over the faces of these friends, these partners, in the room. “I’m in charge here!”

A look of pleasant surprise appeared on some people’s faces, while the displeasure on others’ faces turned to anger.

Boni was a good person. He had ideals, persistence, a bottom line, and also some of the noble qualities that Lance had mentioned.

But this was not a chaotic area. He shouldn’t be here. He should be in the ruins of the front lines of Slad.

As an ordinary person standing up to resist the atrocities of the Dantra Republic’s army, he would become a hero, a role model, a source of strength for the people to resist the invaders!

Everything he possessed would inspire people to follow him, but this was the Federation.

A stable society, a mature commercial operation, everything was about money.

In such a society where black and white could no longer be distinguished, his excellence made him conspicuous and independent.

This also meant that he did not fit in, at least not with the mainstream group.

He would, in his work, stop some people from doing some things he thought were bad, and would also encourage people to do some things he thought were good.

His not fitting in gave him his own charisma. Those angry people were all his followers.

But it also made him have people who didn’t like him, those who showed a smile.

“You betrayed Boni!” a kid next to Boni shouted, as if he had been wronged, or as if he had been stabbed in the balls by something sharp, and his whole body was about to jump up!

Carl shook his head. “I didn’t betray anyone. Boni is not willing to work for Mr. Lance, but I am. This is not a betrayal.”

“And…” he took another puff of his cigar and blew the smoke at that person, “this is between me and Boni. If you want to express an opinion, sorry, you have no right to speak here!”

That kid wanted to say something more, but Boni stopped him. “I thought you would leave with me.”

Carl shook his head. “After you left, I had a chat with Mr. Lance. He is a very wise and virtuous person.”

“He made me understand a truth.”

“You have your ideal, and I have my ideal.”

“In the past, you were like a sun, which made me, and even some of us, mistakenly think that your ideal was our ideal.”

“I suddenly understand now that it’s not the same.”

“Boni, we’ve been poor our whole lives, suffered our whole lives. No one has ever bent down to extend a hand to us and say, ‘Let me help you.'”

“Now that there is an opportunity, I will not give it up!”

His expression became somewhat resolute?

This word was not so easy to use, but it could be seen that he was indeed very serious, very firm, and even a little excited.

He held a cigar in one hand and stood in front of them. “I swear, I will make a name for myself, I will become a great person. This is my ideal!”

A look of disappointment appeared in Boni’s eyes. “Even if… you have to hurt others?”

Carl took a deep breath. He pointed at Boni with the hand holding the cigar. “Even if I have to hurt others!”

“Come on, Boni. We’ve suffered so much, been hurt by so many people. Who has ever pitied us?”

“We don’t owe this world anything. It owes us!”

His eyes were a little sinister. He had always thought Boni was very stupid. They could clearly make more money, they could clearly have a higher status, they could clearly do many things.

But just because of his ideas, his bottom line, they had always been so passive!

That was Boni’s ideal, not his, not others’.

He also understood. In the past, he had been shrouded in Boni’s charisma, which was why he couldn’t see the future, because that was not his future, nor was it his ideal.

After getting rid of Boni, a brighter sun dispersed the influence Boni had on him, allowing him to break free from Boni’s charisma.

He finally realized that in the past, he was actually quite stupid too.

But now, he was different.

“Alright, I don’t want to argue with you. We are brothers.”

“You go and pursue your ideal, and I will become the person of a higher class that I want to be. I wish you can get what you want, brother!”

Boni looked at him. The two’s unyielding gazes intertwined. After a long while, Boni finally nodded. “Okay, I also wish you can become a person of a higher class.”

After saying this, he turned and left. A few of his little companions glared at Carl with dissatisfaction or anger, and then followed Boni and left.

But more people stayed here.

Carl took another puff of his cigar. He looked at the people around him who had stayed, and suddenly couldn’t help but laugh out loud, laughing so hard that tears were about to stream down his face.

So, we’ve been wrong all along…

After Boni and the others had gone far, Carl returned to the office and sat in the seat that used to be Boni’s.

Suddenly, he found that this position was the best place in this room, because sitting here, you could see everything in the room.

With a new “boss” taking the stage, the others who were not willing to leave would naturally follow in.

The good news was that everyone knew Carl, so there was no need to start over.

The bad news was that the current Carl was more difficult to deal with than the previous Boni.

Carl sat in that chair. He himself had not noticed that he was subconsciously learning Lance’s sitting posture, with his legs crossed, one hand on his thigh, and one hand holding a cigar, placed on the side of the table.

“Boni and I are brothers. We’ve known each other since we were kids. Although he has his ideal, and he has gone to pursue his ideal, leaving us.”

“But I don’t want anyone to speak ill of him behind his back.”

The others all smiled and nodded, saying that they were not that kind of person.

Only then did Carl show a satisfied smile. He liked this feeling.

“I am different from Boni. I want to become a person of a higher class. I want to have more wealth, higher power.”

“I want to move into a villa in the Bay Area. I want to sleep with a beautiful, fair-skinned girl every day. I want my room to be piled high with banknotes.”

“I believe this is also your dream.”

“So!”

He added some emphasis to his tone, his gaze once again lingering on each person’s face, and then moving away. “Whoever hinders us from realizing this dream is our enemy!”

“I am different from Boni. I will not be as easy to talk to as him. Right is right, wrong is wrong.”

“When we are at work, I am your Boss. Only when we are not at work am I your friend.”

“I don’t want anyone to get on my bad side because they don’t know their place!”

When he said this, he paused for a moment, and then looked at one of them. “Continue to keep an eye on Hope. You don’t need to get too close, just know his daily schedule and where he lives every day.”

As he spoke, he took out a wad of money from his pocket, took out a few five-dollar bills, and placed them on the table. “This is your expense.”

The man had a look of pleasant surprise on his face. There were at least thirty dollars here. This was not a small sum!

His hand touched the banknotes, and at the same time he said, “Thank you for your…”

Before he could say the words “generosity,” his hand was pressed down by Carl. “The money has been given to you, and the trust has also been given to you. Don’t fuck things up for me!”

He gripped this guy’s hand hard. The latter was in a little pain, but nodded with a start. “I see… Boss!”

Carl let go of his hand and then looked at the others. “This time, Mr. Lance has given us a new job, because the naval base next door will soon be filled with those soldiers.”

“They have a need for release, so we need to recruit a group of people to help them solve these problems.”

“There are some requirements I’ll tell you first. First, they must be willing.”

“If I find out that any of you have forced others to do this, I guarantee that you will regret coming into this world!”

“Secondly, we don’t withhold their money. We guarantee that each person can get at least one dollar!”

“Finally, Mr. Lance has promised that no one will be harmed. If someone is injured, he will step in.”

Carl twisted his neck as he said this. “This is my first official job after I started working for Mr. Lance. I hope you don’t mess it up.”

The people in the room had no objection to these things. If it had been Boni, he would definitely not have done this for Lance.

This was the difference between Carl and Boni. It couldn’t be said that Carl was necessarily wrong, and Boni was necessarily right.

Not taking the initiative to gather the women in need of help may seem like respecting them, but this is no different from letting them starve to death for a meaningless dignity. This is also a kind of atrocity, it’s just not visible.

On the contrary, Carl helping them find a stable way to live, for those women who are willing to do these jobs, this undoubtedly gives them a chance to live.

Not only were they willing to do it, but many of the girls in the Federation were also willing to do it. As long as it was voluntary, there was no problem at all!

Carl’s action was very strong. He had a strong desire and a clear goal, as well as a flexible bottom line that was willing to overcome difficulties at any time, so his work went very smoothly.

In two days, he had recruited more than six hundred people, and there were still many people asking around, wanting to join.

After all, that was a business of a hundred thousand people. Although they were not sure if Lance could get the “exclusive operation” right, but… in short, it was not wrong to believe in Mr. Lance.

A hundred thousand people, even if each person only had three times a month, and each time they could get one dollar, that was still a business of 300,000. Everyone could get a few hundred dollars. Was there a more comfortable job than this?

Stable, high income, and not much danger.

When Carl told Lance about this, Lance was also more or less surprised. He had thought it would take a few days, but he hadn’t expected it to be done so quickly.

He selected a few from the girls with the red high heels from before and had them teach these new employees how to handle their new jobs.

Lance also introduced some more convenient systems. For example, besides their own names, they also had a number.

This was to make it easier for the customers to remember them.

Those young lads might not be able to remember the name of every person who had received him, and they might get them mixed up, but the number would definitely not be wrong.

In short, Lance was looking forward to their performance.

Besides this, the new sales rules were progressing very smoothly.

Because all the bars had to get their liquor from Lance, even if they themselves were not willing to reveal the specific operating conditions of the bars, Lance’s side also had a clear statistic.

So much so that he could, based on the specific data of each bar’s purchase from him, analyze which bar had secretly obtained liquor from other channels.

The data itself would not cheat. Only people would cheat.

From the overall sales, the effect was much better than Lance had estimated.

A large number of small, private bars were cleared out, and the customer source began to become unified.

The people who ran these bars suddenly found that since the new sales rules had been implemented, not only were their profits higher than they had imagined, but the price of the liquor they got was also the same as in the past, and some were even a little cheaper.

Because the price of Lance’s liquor remained unchanged, once the price of other liquors rose, they lost their competitiveness.

In the Bay Area and the Starlight District, the situation might be a little better. The customers there were all rich. Even if the price of liquor rose, they would still consume what they should consume, and they could afford it.

But in the bars outside these two districts, the sales of all the liquors with a price increase were very bad.

The poorer the place, the more so.

With the price of liquor being so high, even if there was only a three-cent difference in a glass, the drunks would choose other liquors.

Because getting the goods was simple, and the Bureau of Hazardous Materials had become deaf and blind overnight, the bars did not have much of a backlog of goods now.

This also made it convenient for them to adjust their business strategy, so the sales of liquor were very intuitive. What sold well and what didn’t sell well was clear at a glance.

Lance allowed the suppliers to adjust the selling price at any time to respond to the changes in the market, but each price adjustment had to have a 48-hour cooling-off period.

After only three or four cool-downs, all the liquors had returned to their previous prices. Some were even a little lower, to gain greater market competitiveness.

This was also what Lance wanted to see. He had monopolized the entire liquor sales market in Golden Port City, but he did not want a monopoly to appear in any brand. This kind of competition would ultimately only benefit those drunks.

In the past, a drunk could drink a glass for twenty-five cents. Now they could drink two glasses for forty cents.

It may seem that they have profited, but in fact, the real profit-makers are the bars, Lance, and also those suppliers.

And at such a time, Peter (the reserve cadre of the Death Angels), with his men, arrived in Golden Port City.

He and the deceased Jordan had the same problem. He felt that the air here was too humid and also too terrible.

From the time he entered the city, he was constantly shaking his clothes to cool his body. It was already starting to cool down in the north at this time, but the south was still at its hottest.

He did not directly find trouble with Lance, but began to carefully inquire about the affairs of the Lance Family in this city.

Although his actions also fell into the eyes of those with a mind for it, he soon discovered a Lance Family that was not quite the same as in the rumors.

“The police chief is Lance’s man…”

“The mayor and Lance are good friends…”

“The Lance Family is the strongest gangster in Golden Port City, bar none…”

“Now they control the entire city’s liquor sales, and also run all the casinos…”

One piece of news after another came together. The next day, when the company’s people were about to go and keep an eye on them, they had actually run away overnight!

A person who can make it to the level of a reserve cadre in a large gang is not a fool. Peter knew that he couldn’t take on the Lance Family, so he wouldn’t linger here.

Caution and prudence had saved his life, but he planned to report this news to the gang.

(End of a Chapter)