Empire of Shadows

Feeling the violent shaking of the door, Gory quickly pushed some things around to block it. He didn't use his body to block it because he wasn't sure if the people outside would shoot.

The sound of him moving things alerted the people outside the room, and the rhythm and force of their battering on the door increased.

He couldn't help but turn to look at the sniper. "How much longer?"

The sniper didn't answer his question. He was waiting, waiting for the company's main door to be reopened.

His index finger, which had been trembling slightly, suddenly became steady and slowly pressed on the trigger.

The banging on the door alarmed the other two young men, and the four of them joined in the effort to break it down.

Despite the things blocking the door and the safety locks, the door frame eventually cracked under the combined force of the four men.

Although the door didn't open, each impact created a small crack.

Realizing this, the four immediately changed from ramming to pushing and squeezing, pushing inwards. The door looked like it was about to open bit by bit, and Gory blocked it with all his might.

Perhaps he was lucky. After stacking many pieces of furniture together, the door could only open a small crack, barely enough for an arm to reach through.

At this moment, the new company's door was opened again, and several of Lance's bodyguards came out, dispersing on both sides of the convoy, watching the pedestrians on the road warily.

Those pedestrians were also very cooperative and didn't have the thought of "Today, I'm going to pass through here right now." Many of them knew Lance, recognized Lance, and had no ill feelings towards Lance.

You may dislike someone who treats you badly, but it is difficult to hate someone who treats you well.

Since Lance came here, everything in the Imperial District has been undergoing tremendous changes. Even some old-fashioned people don't like Lance that much, but they don't hate him either.

They stood on the sidewalk waiting, or simply detoured from the side of the road. It was nothing.

For the people of the Federation, those with power and influence are members of the privileged class, and their exercise of some insignificant privileges is not a problem at all!

The sniper could already see the bodyguards beginning to gather. He realized that Lance was probably only a few steps away from the door.

He slowly took a deep breath, held it, and his whole person entered a state of "emptiness."

In his world, only the scope remained.

The moment a foot appeared from inside the door, time seemed to slow down in his perception.

He pressed his shoulder tightly against the butt of the rifle, already locking in the firing position, only needing to wait for Lance to actively "bump" into his crosshairs, and then pull the trigger at that instant!

At this time, he completely ignored the people outside the room.

The young men still couldn't push the door open, but they heard the sound coming from inside. This was directly across from the company. If something happened, they would have to bear a huge responsibility.

One of the young men directly pulled out a pistol and pulled the trigger at the apartment door.

The moment the firing pin slammed hard on the primer, the gunpowder inside the bullet began to burn.

The pressure generated by the energy released by the burning flame instantly pushed the bullet out, accompanied by a loud sound!

Bang, bang, bang, bang.

He pulled the trigger randomly and rhythmically. The bullets pierced the door panel and shot into the room, and the sound it made spread out from the window.

Almost at the same time, perhaps a little later, a very short period of time that is difficult to perceive, the unique sound of a rifle rang out from the room…

Bang!

It seemed that even the door being pried open was slightly shaken by the gunshot. The four people outside the room had a brief "pause", but quickly began to force the wooden door open along the bullet holes.

The moment Lance walked out of the company, he vaguely heard a gunshot, followed by another.

By the time he reacted, Mador had already knocked him to the ground!

Mador, panting, protected Lance and his own head. People around him were only now reacting.

"Someone is shooting," Mador said.

Lance nodded. "I heard it."

While speaking, the other bodyguards also reacted. They helped Mador and Lance up and escorted them into the company.

The people on the street suddenly began to scream. The successive gunshots seemed to foreshadow something. The people of the Federation seemed to have a natural sensitivity to gunfights. In an instant, there were no pedestrians to be seen on the street.

The successive gunshots gave them a rough idea of the direction of the shooting. A large number of Lance's men, armed with pistols, submachine guns, and even rifles, rushed towards the apartment building. They wanted to see who had the courage to assassinate Lance in the Imperial District!

Lance returned to the lobby. He walked calmly and composed towards the room, while also lighting a cigarette for himself.

Apart from his unsightly complexion, there was no expression of gloom or fear on his face.

In the past two years, he had been assassinated more than once. Sometimes, the muzzles of those people's guns were only ten meters away from him, but he still survived.

He believed that this time, next time, the time after that, and even any time in the future, he would survive, as a victor.

He returned to his office, sat behind the desk, then raised his wrist to look at his watch, and slowly waited.

The smoke from the cigarette curled upwards, its traces unpredictable. No one could guess what he was thinking now.

At this time, behind the window a hundred meters away, the sniper glanced at the large number of people with pistols, submachine guns, and even rifles gathering towards this side on the opposite street. He turned around and pulled out a pistol from his arms.

He now had a premonition that today might be the last day of his life.

He had never thought of really selling his life to Gory, although Gory had indeed given him enough money to buy his life.

After he and Gory looked at each other, they both fired at the door at the same time.

Gory also moved some of the furniture away, giving them room to retreat.

The fierce exchange of fire made the people downstairs move even faster. They didn't know if their own people were exchanging fire with the gunman. They could only speed up.

If someone was not afraid of death at this time and looked out the window from upstairs, they would see those people on the road taking their weapons in their hands and approaching the apartment building from all directions!

The two finally rushed out of the room. When they saw the elevator constantly going up and the noisy footsteps coming from the stairwell, the two could only bite the bullet and continue upwards.

Hiding in the room was meaningless, they would only die more ugly. Perhaps after going to the roof, there was still a chance to survive.

But when they rushed to the roof, they found that there was still no way to survive.

This was a ten-story apartment building. There were no other buildings on either side of the apartment that were level or lower. Either they were much lower, or they were much higher.

There was indeed a fire escape behind the apartment, but someone was already trying to climb it in the alley below the fire escape.

They were trapped, trapped on the roof of this apartment.

Even though this was on the ground, it gave them a feeling of living on an isolated island.

The sniper, who had been very calm, couldn't help but curse a few times at this moment.

He looked at Gory with some resentment. Gory suddenly laughed twice. He took out a cigarette case from his pocket, took one for himself, and then threw it to the sniper.

The sniper hesitated for a moment, then lit one as well.

Before Gory took a puff, he exhaled the smoke from his nose and mouth in a sighing manner, "Sorry."

The sniper shook his head. "You gave me so much money. This is the risk I need to take."

"We can only say that this time was unlucky."

At this time, a group of people also rushed out of the stairwell. When they saw Gory and the sniper, they stood not far from them.

The two sides confronted each other. Gory held a cigarette in one hand and a pistol in the other.

The wind on the roof was a bit strong, blowing his clothes loudly, and his hair was also blown a bit messy.

He knew that if he put down the gun and told them who he was, he would most likely be able to survive.

But what would he face after surviving?

Facing Lance's interrogation.

In fact, there was one thing he didn't tell Bandi, and that was that he believed in Stone.

Stone was a "good kid." Although he hadn't experienced any truly meaningful big scenes, nor had he experienced the thrill of near-death experiences and firefights, he was ultimately the best of the younger generation.

There must be a special reason for his betrayal of Lance. He must have bowed his head after suffering all kinds of torture.

He remembered an event that had happened, which Fleming and Bandi might not remember clearly.

At that time, they were only twelve or thirteen years old. The two guys were playing together. When they were playing in the yard, Fleming wanted to climb the gardener's ladder.

It was the height of summer, and the gardener had to prune those gardens every once in a while to ensure that they could grow decently and become the family's face, rather than become people's laughing stock.

He was temporarily sent away to do other things. The two teenagers were full of interest in those beautiful gardens. They wanted to go up and see how it became like this.

But they didn't know that sometimes those seemingly beautiful and harmless garden landscapes were not safe.

In order to make them look more shaped and not become scattered due to the shape, sometimes the gardeners would use some extra means.

Things like wire and iron picks were relatively normal tools. After all, who the hell would be bored enough to want to know what's inside a beautiful garden?

On that guy's ladder, there were these tools, as well as a knife for pruning branches.

Fleming knocked over the ladder, and the things on it fell down. Stone protected Fleming at the first moment, getting himself covered in injuries.

Bundy and he ran over from a distance because of Fleming's screams. They saw Stone bleeding profusely.

His arm had a wound about seven or eight centimeters long.

The child's skin was taut, and the wound turned outward, revealing the flesh inside.

They were terrified and immediately found the family doctor. At that time, there was no effective anesthetic, and Stone believed he could handle it.

So, without any anesthesia, the doctor cleaned his wound with hydrogen peroxide, and even... gently stuck out some stains that couldn't be washed away with sterilized gauze.

Stone was a very tough person. He wouldn't give in to simple pain or injury.

He must have been subjected to unimaginable fear to betray the family.

Honestly, from a father's perspective, Gory might not have been able to do these things.

He didn't think he could withstand the torture that Stone couldn't withstand.

He would most likely compromise and surrender, but he didn't want to compromise or surrender.

He didn't know what kind of shocking secrets he would confess if he compromised with himself and surrendered to Lance, but it would definitely be devastating.

He didn't want the Koda family to be completely destroyed because of him, so he couldn't fall into Lance's hands.

He took another puff of the cigarette. The feeling of the smoke filling his lungs made him feel unprecedentedly comfortable. He turned his head to look at the sniper and said softly, "I'm sorry."

The sniper was stunned. He didn't react. "You've already apologized."

Gory showed his last smile, and then he suddenly raised his gun and pointed it at the people surrounding them, in the sniper's unbelievable and shocked eyes!

Intense gunfire rang out in an instant. He didn't even have time to pull the trigger, and he and the sniper next to him with a complex expression were shot into sieves...

Seven or eight minutes later, Alvin, slightly panting, ran back, "It's Gory."

Lance nodded slightly, "Where are the people?"

Alvin pursed his lips and told what happened on the rooftop, "We've already packed up the bodies. The other person should be a gunman. He has military tattoos on his body. I don't quite understand which unit he came from."

Lance thought for a while, "Take a picture of him and see if we can find out some information about him."

"Store Gory's body first, maybe it will be useful."

"Do we have any injuries?"

Alvin nodded, "Four young men went to check the rooms as usual and found them. One person was shot twice and is in bad condition. He has been sent to the hospital."

"Another one was shot once, but it's not serious."

Lance shook his head slightly, "That's really bad news."

He paused for a while, picked up the phone, and after thinking for a moment, dialed the number of Stone's villa.

The phone was quickly picked up, "Let Stone answer the phone."

Soon, footsteps came closer from the receiver, and it was picked up, "I'm Stone."

"Gory is dead," Lance said.

He could feel that the person on the other side was... frozen for a moment!

This state lasted for more than twenty seconds. His emotions seemed to be collapsing. Lance could hear his voice trembling, "He... how did he die?"

Lance told what happened here, "I didn't intend to kill him. He took his own life."

"I've already collected the body. If you need it, I can help you arrange it."

Stone was silent for a while, "Help me bury him."

"If it wasn't for me... saying these things now doesn't make sense, does it?"

"Thank you for the news. Contact me if there's anything else. I need to be alone for a while now."

Lance told people to keep an eye on him and then hung up the phone.

Gory's death could further separate Stone and the Koda family.

Another person who felt a little withdrawn after knowing that Gory died was Bundy. In fact, he really didn't want to use this matter to do anything. He just felt that... letting Gory be responsible for the most critical things would put his mind at ease.

But he never thought of letting Gory die, nor did he think that Gory would take his own life in this way.

After losing Stone and Gory, although there are still many people in the family, these people may not be able to be useful at this critical moment.

He didn't know what to say. He didn't even have the desire to express his thoughts now. He just rubbed his cheeks for a while and sat quietly alone.

He was also recalling the bits and pieces of his childhood with Gory, recalling how they followed their fathers and emerged from one fight after another.

He thought that his and Gory's lives would become a legendary story in Jincheng City. He never thought that this day would come so suddenly.

For some inexplicable reason, he thought of many people.

Paul, Rick, and those earlier famous gangster figures, each of them was once a living legend, but in the end, few of them were able to complete a legendary life.

Maybe... living people are not worthy of being called legends?

But people are dead, so why can they become legends?

He didn't understand.

Fleming also rushed back from outside after knowing about this. He had brewed a lot of words along the way to say to Bundy.

But when he saw Bundy's haggard face, he suddenly... didn't know what to say.

The father and son sat face to face like this, sitting there blankly, no one spoke, no one comforted the other, just sitting like this.

After an unknown amount of time, Bundy recovered some strength from his deep grief, "How is the asset transfer going? What about the children?"

Fleming nodded quickly and said, "The money and unregistered bonds and stocks have all been sent away, and the children have also been transferred almost completely."

Bundy nodded, "You should go too."

These words made Fleming's eyes widen. He even stood up, "Why?"

Bundy shook his head without explaining.

Comprehensive crushing.

In fact, he had also been thinking about these days, but as he thought about it, he thought about himself in these years.

Were they also like this, able to easily crush everyone after possessing all the "power"?

Then he thought of the destruction of the three major families. Did their destruction also mean that they were not actually destroyed by the newly emerging five major families, but destroyed by the fact that they were abandoned by a higher level of power?

Perhaps the last moment of the three major families was as desperate as he is now.

He slowly turned his head to look at Fleming, "Because we have been put on the table."