Chapter 420 - 392: The Kingpin Disappointed by His Actions

"Over the past eight months, the International Gene Cooperation Corporation has completed the acquisition and control of 13 large medical centers and has reached long-term supply agreements with another 35 hospitals.

These hospitals are spread out across various regions, including Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island, covering New York City.

According to the company’s spokesperson, Hammond, the company is actively seeking expansion into cities such as Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago."

"The ctOS system launched by the Bloom Company is ready to go online in multiple cities. The comprehensive application from this information company has topped the download charts for several consecutive months.

According to reliable sources, the company is also actively seeking to achieve a full industry chain in hardware manufacturing, from chips to finished electronic products, but some internet companies believe that the company’s services pose a serious threat to citizens’ privacy.

However, according to reports from an anonymous hacker organization, these protesting companies are involved in extensive privacy violations of their customers and have been hinted to have connections with the National Security Bureau. The federal government has not yet responded to this."

"The biggest news in the financial sector recently is the rapid advances of Bloom Company and the International Gene Cooperation Corporation, but it is well known that the key figures behind these companies -

Yes, I am referring to the main controllers of these companies, Lille Lee and Martin Lee, have no plans to increase their shares or convert them into cash.

The elites on Wall Street can only watch the soaring indices and drool, but if I were them, I would be more concerned about how long their companies would survive.

Last week, two more banks went bankrupt, and three financial companies stopped paying interest. The central bank has already intervened for investigation."

"Outside the financial sector, new international giants have emerged in Africa.

Atlas Group has landed in Africa. Since this company is not publicly traded, you may not be familiar with it.

But if I mention the owner of this company, you will know who it is. Yes, it is still Lille Lee, whom we mentioned earlier.

The company’s registered main business includes infrastructure, automotive, construction machinery, specialized engineering machinery, and medical prosthetics.

The new mayor of New York City’s limousine was designed and developed by this company. It produces no harmful gases, is fast, and highly safe.

But this is not just a simple technology company. It has been confirmed that Atlas Group possesses private military contracting qualifications -

This slightly contradicts Mr. Lee’s repeated public emphasis on peace, which has led to speculation that his philosophy has undergone subtle changes.

Nonetheless, we all need to accept a fact:

Mr. Lee was in a coma for three years before he turned 18. Within less than a year of regaining consciousness, his net worth had already surpassed 5 billion US Dollars.

However, I must emphasize that Mr. Lee is not like the other people on the rich list. The degree of capitalization and asset realization of his property is very low, which means this number is significantly lower than his ’real’ net worth.

If he were willing to increase the proportion of circulating shares in his companies, he could immediately rank among the world’s top ten richest people. This has already become a consensus in the financial community.

However, it seems he has other plans. After all, we are all wondering why this young man has chosen not to continue investing in New York but has instead gone to Africa to become Africa’s new legend."

Kingpin watched the television, listening to the content, expressionless.

He was filled with conflicting emotions -

In fact, it could even be said he was on the verge of collapse.

If you looked closely, you could see that he had already deformed the scepter in his hand.

Even ordinary people would have a strong emotional reaction if they saw someone around them win the lottery unexpectedly, so for Kingpin, the reaction was even more extreme:

The current mayor of New York City, Anthony, and Lille were once small characters whom he almost killed!

Their presence was so insignificant that they didn’t even warrant his attention. His crime empire extracted a layer of skin from thousands of such ordinary people daily!

If they were a bit weaker, they would be skinned to death on the spot.

Seeing such insignificant bugs turning into giant entities capable of crushing him at any moment could easily break someone’s mentality.

Yes, the power disparity between both sides had now reached such an extent.

While he had been diligently managing his black market assets, honestly engaging in real estate speculation and feeling proud of a few points of asset appreciation...

Lille had already taken off like a rocket!

A once-unemployed mover had become the mayor, and a young man who seemed to be on the verge of death at any moment had become one of the wealthiest people in the world...

And what about him?

United Construction Company had already organized Kingpin’s black market assets ahead of schedule into this gray enterprise, but completing it ahead of schedule was not due to his financial upgrade...

It was because his crime empire had been smashed!

United Construction Company now looked like a fully matured adult, past the growth phase, facing aging, and even counting its days.

No matter how powerful a crime gang was, if the number of core members truly daring to kill and do outrageous things exceeded 1,000, it was already remarkably powerful. Most of them relied on money and violence to coerce ordinary people.

As for ordinary people, it was hard to describe them with simple labels: during tough economic times, when survival was difficult, they became more irritable, bolder, and easier to be pushed into crime.

Now that the economic situation had improved, daily life was secured, and technology had entered the public safety realm, the cost of crime increased, and such crimes significantly decreased - ordinary people were just ordinary, not brainless.

Given a choice between living honestly and being imprisoned, they knew what to choose.

The cost of crime for professional criminals, on the other hand, had significantly increased. Previously, if one killed a person and was caught by the NYPD, they could find ways to bribe, threaten, or hire lawyers, ending up serving a few months at most, or even being sent to a psychiatric hospital and released after a while to cause trouble again.

But now, it was impossible. The ctOS surveillance was too extensive, and any judicial officer showing the slightest misconduct would be thrust into the spotlight.

Kingpin didn’t believe that Lille didn’t mess with the ctOS system, but what could he do?

Some officials might not be satisfied with their modest benefits, but once the option of ’corruption’ was replaced with ’either comply or get out,’ they sobered up immediately.

In the past, it was possible to bribe and use special methods for these transactions.

For example, his human trafficking operations at the port docks, yet another once grand, now severely shrunken industry of Kingpin’s crime empire.

Buying an illegal immigrant could cost between 500 to 10,000 US Dollars, but as long as some senior officials were interested in those brought in, the price was worth it.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t find appropriate roles for these people now; even the traditional organ trading black market was in steep decline:

The price of blood had plummeted, organ cultivation was gradually maturing, and health insurance had undergone major reforms. It’s said that once the new generation of organ cultivation technology from the International Gene Cooperation Corporation matured, the cost of replacing the same organ would be only one percent of the previous cost...

The gaps in the black market had significantly reduced, and heavy ’logistics costs’ had to be paid under high surveillance.

All of this was because these officials were being monitored, and they couldn’t mess around anymore!

Cameras even gave judicial personnel paranoid delusions -

Yes, at this moment, Kingpin was even somewhat considerate towards the judicial personnel: how can you bear this? Please resist!

If you don’t mess around in privacy, how am I supposed to catch your mistakes, bribe you, and corrupt you?!

With your every move being watched by cameras, whom would I send the boys and girls I’ve imported from human trafficking to?!

With this back and forth, he could only send these people to work at his construction company, filling labor shortages -

Because Lille’s side had a large demand for labor and was about to start major infrastructure projects, legitimate workers didn’t even glance at his side!

The adage ’if you don’t do it, someone else will’ didn’t quite apply anymore.

He could only offer minimum wages!

Realizing this through his own experience, in employing illegal workers, although he didn’t have to pay wages, he still needed to provide housing, food, and avoid investigations by related agencies...

He, once determined to become the most powerful crime emperor in all of New York and even the entire United States, was now genuinely and diligently running an illegal immigrant-led black labor business!

And it was driving him crazy!

Bang!

Kingpin smashed the table furiously, leaving it cracked and trembling.

He was livid.

He had to move to another place.

Moving required preparing money and transferring assets, which was why he had been making arrangements recently.

The sooner he left this heart-wrenching place, the sooner he could make a comeback.

So he made a phone call.

"Wesley, is the money ready?"

"Still missing a bit..." his advisor replied awkwardly over the phone, "Today a property owner came over asking where the money went, demanding a disclosure. They also brought people to threaten us, saying they would report us and hire other management if we couldn’t explain..."

Revolt?!

Kingpin was even more frustrated. In the past, he had been the fearsome underworld emperor dealing in arms, drugs, and human trafficking.

Now? He was reduced to running an illegal labor business, living off property management fees...

Snap!

Frustration channeled into the scepter in his hand, causing it to snap.

"Get rid of him."