Chapter 177: The Workers' Club and the First Day of Reporting

"Hey, Jonny!"

A sullen Jonny sat on the sofa. He had been out of the hospital for some time, but he had not gone to work at the docks.

For one thing, his fractured arm made it impossible for him to perform his previous job, so he still needed to rest.

Furthermore, he had hung his work card at Lanse's office, and now someone was working for him, giving him sixteen dollars every month.

This was one of the conditions Aierwen had offered when he told him to keep his mouth shut; until he recovered, someone would work in his place.

Secondly, because Lanse had smashed his arm in front of so many people, he didn't know how many people would mock him if he returned to the docks now.

During this time, because of the "greetings" Aierwen brought, he was able to stay at home, but it wouldn't last much longer.

Just like now, a few of his fellow workers were pounding on the door of his house. These workers who worked at the docks basically lived in the Port District—after coming out of the docks and the port, there were also large stretches of coastal blocks and houses.

Continuing west was the industrial zone, so the Port District and the Imperial District were the places with the most poor people, filled with the underclass.

Jonny's house was not too far from the docks, which made his commute convenient.

He walked to the door and pulled it open. "Hey, my door!"

His fellow worker was wearing thick clothes, his face full of excitement. "You can still sit still?"

"Hurry up and put on your clothes, let's go to the club together."

Jonny stood by the door, not intending to let his friend in; for one thing, the house was messy and dirty.

For another, he actually wanted to go out for a walk. "What's wrong with the club?"

His friend said loudly, "Lanse has contracted the club, and today is the first day of its opening with affordable drinks!" He lowered his voice for the last sentence.

This made Jonny feel a surge of excitement. The price of drinks now was too damn expensive; a beer bomb was already thirty cents, up another five cents. Those vampire bastards couldn't wait to suck every cent out of them.

He hadn't been to a bar for a drink in two days, which was simply unthinkable for him, but thinking of his plummeting income, he had no choice.

But now, hearing about alcohol, his mouth couldn't help but start secreting saliva. He licked his lips, glanced into the room, picked up the clothes on the hanger by the door, and shouted loudly, "I'm going out for a spin." Without waiting for his family to answer, he put on his clothes and went out.

Walking on the road, they realized that many people were heading toward the docks, and almost all of them were fellow workers from other gates. When they met, they greeted each other enthusiastically.

Of course, there was no shortage of people teasing Jonny, asking how his arm was recovering.

It looked like they were concerned about Jonny, but if their laughter wasn't so base, perhaps the concern would be real!

Amidst the "fucks," Jonny gradually regained some spirit, and a dozen people huddled their necks and headed toward the port.

Heavy snow was falling, and it was freezing, but it couldn't stop the men's craving for alcohol.

In fact, from a certain perspective, this "social experiment" by the upper class was successful; they had successfully curbed people's desires through legislation.

And it had indeed effectively improved the output of industrialized production, which was their core purpose—

To stifle the desires of the underclass and increase productivity.

If they could obtain more data, perhaps they would start considering not treating the underclass as human beings.

Stifling more of their desires and depriving them of more rights was still to keep them on the assembly line longer and provide more economic value to the factories.

But it couldn't be considered a success either; it was still in the early stages of the experiment, and after being suppressed, desires were released even more violently, just like a spring!

The harder it was pressed, the higher it would bounce!

It couldn't be felt obviously now because it was still gathering strength. When it finished gathering strength and started to rebound, those masters who formulated these rules would realize they had failed.

But for now, they were celebrating!

The two-kilometer road couldn't stop people's craving for alcohol and releasing pressure. Many people had come to the docks. When Jonny arrived at the club, which was obviously a size larger, he saw Lanse and his people at the entrance.

Lanse was giving instructions to several family members; too many workers had come today, making their manpower a bit tight.

These workers were not all honest people; they might suddenly trigger a violent incident, which would be a very bad thing for a newly opened club.

Jonny saw Lanse, and Lanse saw Jonny. After the two stared at each other for a moment, Lanse walked over on his own initiative. "If you're here to have fun, we welcome you."

"But if you're here to cause trouble, then you will definitely regret coming here tonight."

Jonny was a bit nervous. "I understand, I... am here with a friend, planning to have a few drinks."

Lanse was actually not as strong as him, nor as tall, but in front of Lanse, he felt like he was the thin and small one!

Even now, the image of Lanse raising the baseball bat that day was deeply engraved in his mind, and his broken arm inexplicably started to ache again.

The two stared at each other, the immense pressure making Jonny unable to catch his breath. After about a few seconds, he tugged at his collar and looked away. Just as he was about to turn back, Lanse revealed a smile.

The solemn atmosphere that made Jonny's friend afraid to breathe suddenly eased.

Lanse punched Jonny in the chest, not hard. "I'm treating you and your friend to a drink today, go tell the bartender, the largest glass!"

Jonny's face first revealed an expression of disbelief, but immediately after, it was surprise, and even a bit of... being moved!

"Mr. Lanse, I...", he didn't quite know how to express his emotions at this moment.

Lanse patted his arm. "Go have fun, enjoy the night!"

After Jonny and his friend bid farewell to Lanse, they followed the crowd into the huge club.

The club had been expanded, connected to a large warehouse, and thoroughly renovated. The atmosphere inside was great, especially...

"Look, look above!", his friend poked his waist with his arm. The two looked up and saw many steel columns here, which were originally used to support the warehouse structure.

Now, on the upper part of these steel columns, a circular platform with a diameter of only about 1.5 meters had been welded, and some dancers were performing energetically on it.

Pole dancing, the colorful lights constantly flowing from them made a desire flow in the hearts of everyone looking at them!

There were more than a dozen such performers here, and they already felt that the atmosphere was up.

Following the crowd, they soon arrived at the first bar counter, where several super-large vats were connected to an interface. They saw many people receiving beer here.

"We want... uh, Mr. Lanse said, treat us to two largest glasses.", Jonny was a bit embarrassed, but he still said it.

The young man pouring the beer changed to two large glasses, then pushed a lever, and soon beer flowed out from the nozzle.

Two large glasses, each with at least 1.25 liters of beer, were placed in front of them. When the two picked up the glasses, their faces were full of joy.

His friend still asked, "How much for a glass of beer like this?"

The young man pouring the beer shrugged. "Fifteen cents."

"Fifteen cents?!"

Both of them burst into exclamations. "Isn't this too cheap?"

The two looked at each other and wanted to say something else, but were pushed by someone behind them. "Don't fucking block the front, is your mother's ass there?"

"Take your beer and get the hell out of there, it's our turn now!"

The two soon left; in front of alcohol, what fellow workers?

If they blocked for a while longer, someone might drag them into a corner.

The two carried their beer to the side and took a sip. With just that one sip, they immediately had an indescribable feeling, as if... the whole person was comfortable.

"Still this!", just being able to drink such cheap beer, they felt it was worth it!

The two continued to walk inside with the crowd. Around them, there began to be some various entertainment facilities, and they even saw some rings.

Slapping competitions, arm wrestling competitions, sledgehammer competitions, wrestling competitions, screw-tightening competitions, rope-tying competitions...

Except for a few competitions they hadn't been exposed to, such as the slapping competition, most of the others were related to their professional skills.

Both of them were specifically tightening screws at the docks, so they naturally came to the game venue they were most proficient in.

There were four rings here, with the kind of screws and nuts common at the docks, and the host was introducing the rules of the competition.

Each ring only supported two people to compete. A and B first tightened their respective three screws and nuts, and then went to loosen the other's screws and nuts.

Whoever dismantled the other's screws and nuts first won.

The loser had no punishment, and the winner had two choices: continue to challenge, or go have a drink!

If they continued to challenge, as long as they won against three opponents in total, they could advance to the next round of the competition.

Lanse had already reached an agreement with the Dock Workers' Union; every month he would hold a "Worker Skills Competition" here, except for things like slapping.

The participants were these workers who won three times in a row. They would conduct the next round of elimination matches until the final champion was produced.

The champion would receive a cash prize of three hundred dollars, the runner-up two hundred, and as for the third place?

Sorry, there was no such thing as third place in this era.

And!

The Dock Workers' Union would issue a certificate to the champion and runner-up, proving that they were "Technical Winners"!

It looked like just a small honor, but in this era, skilled workers never had to worry about finding a job!

Jonny and his friend felt their blood boiling when they heard this, whether it was showing off in front of tens of thousands of fellow workers.

Or for the two hundred or three hundred dollar prize money, or for that certificate representing special honor that ordinary people almost never had the chance to touch in their lives, they were both moved.

Soon there were participants on the ring. Jonny knew them. Those under the stage were all workers specifically for tightening screws. Some cheered, some cursed, amidst the noise and laughter.

Perhaps the alcohol content of the beer here was a bit high, Jonny's face soon turned red. He waved his hairy arms and cursed with the dirtiest words to set off the atmosphere.

So much so that the worker who was falling behind in the competition suddenly threw the adjustable wrench on the ground and sprayed at Jonny, "Why the fuck don't you stand here if you're so capable?"

"If I hadn't seen you, I would have thought whose bitch ran out, full of Dick's essence. Next time you wash your mouth before going to the street, I'm afraid I can't help but beat you to death..."

One was on the ring, and the other was cursing under the ring.

One said, as long as you come up, I'll hammer you to death.

One said, as long as you come down, I'll hammer you to death.

But neither of them had the initiative to do so. Fortunately, the host persuaded them for a while, plus the persuasion of Jonny's friend, and they didn't continue to argue.

This was just a corner of what happened in the entire club. The cheers and laughter constantly coming from everywhere made the Workers' Club an ocean of joy and pressure release.

The scene of the entire club was like a large "Dock Carnival". Lanse stood on the platform on the second floor and let people who knew how to use cameras take pictures of all this.

President Kaosite and Vice President Woen, as well as others, had actually come too. Now, looking at such a lively scene, they only felt that Lanse was a genius.

Of course, they didn't have the idea of replacing Lanse, because they didn't have the most basic condition—alcohol.

These people saw very clearly that those "small games" might indeed be very attractive to them, but what really set off the atmosphere was the alcohol flowing from the nozzle!

The people from the union discussed it and felt that this was actually quite good. The workers released pressure, and the "Skills Competition" proposed by Lanse allowed President Kaosite to grope for some mysterious things.

He could vaguely feel that if he could figure out the context here, he would have a great chance to enter the Federal Dock Workers' General Union!

He needed quiet, so he soon got up and said goodbye, followed by others. Although they were presidents and cadres of the workers' union, they were ultimately not workers. They couldn't stand the smell here, nor were they used to being in such close contact with so many workers outside of work hours.

However, each of them highly recognized the changes in the club now; this was positive emotional feedback!

After Lanse sent them away, he stood on the second floor, holding a cigarette and looking at the dense heads under his feet. He slowly exhaled the smoke.

This is power!

Some people realized this, but they didn't have the means to control power.

Some people didn't realize this, giving him the opportunity to obtain this power now.

Actually, it was easy to make money from these people, open some stalls, recruit some sponsors, but he didn't intend to do that.

Because power, the purer, the better!

By one o'clock, many places here had become empty, with only less than a hundred people.

They were all sitting at the bar drinking, the ten-cent strange-tasting beer (750 ml) was very popular, as was their potato wine.

Some employees started to clean up the venue, while others sat in Lanse's office, calculating the income for the night.

When the last five-cent coin was thrown into the money box, everyone looked at Xiao En with expectation.

After Xiao En took out a notebook and wrote for a while, he said, "Lost more than two hundred dollars..."

Although it wasn't much, it wasn't little either. They all looked at Lanse, but Lanse shook the wine glass in his hand, his expression not serious at all. "Much better than I imagined, continue tomorrow..."

Some people who didn't know the Workers' Club had opened heard about it from colleagues the next day and ran over to watch the excitement before getting off work.

Woen came over in the morning, and then the club rested temporarily, with business hours from 7:00 PM to 12:00 midnight.

Some workers ran over to have a drink in the morning, which greatly affected the normal work order of the docks. Lanse also actively cooperated after knowing this.

After all, the docks are stable, and these workers are power.

The docks are unstable, and these workers are not power.

Although some people were very dissatisfied, they did see the ten-cent-a-glass high-alcohol beer and also saw many interesting equipment, which made them look forward to life after work even more!

At the same time, Senior Agent Officer Lukaer was getting off the train.

They had finished their intensive training. He had thought that this kind of training should be more about clerical parts, such as how to handle case reports, or process parts.

Who knew that their training content was actually mainly combat, with cultural courses as a supplement.

The instructor used a large number of cases to tell them what they should do under what circumstances, and what kind of law enforcement power they actually had.

Other times, it was militarized training, fighting, shooting, climbing over...

The masters in Congress hated those who still secretly sold and drank alcohol under Prohibition; it could be seen that they couldn't wait to kill these people!

After the training ended, he and other trainees gathered in the state capital for two days before returning to New Jincheng.

The moment he got off the train, the fluttering snowflakes made him feel an unprecedented refreshment. The power of the Tobacco, Alcohol, and Hazardous Materials Bureau was great enough to support him in doing many things.

The first thing after returning was to report to the new workplace, which was not far from the City Hall and not too far from the City Police Department.

Officer Lukaer was a local of New Jincheng and was recommended by the law enforcement system. Regardless of what others thought, at least on the surface, they were very welcoming to him.

After agreeing to eat together in the evening, Officer Lukaer went to the police station and met Director Chali.

"Not bad, you look much more spirited. It seems those people did teach you some things."

Officer Lukaer was still very polite when facing Director Chali, who had taken great care of him. "Yes, they taught me many things. I have to thank you, Chali."

"If it weren't for you, I might not have had such an opportunity!"

Director Chali smiled and didn't say anything. Helping Officer Lukaer was helping himself; he was very clear about this.

"Then this time you're back, you must have your own plan. Can you talk to me about where you intend to start your first step?"

Officer Lukaer didn't hide his thoughts. "I heard that Lanse took out the Kamila Gang and got their territory."

"Then in their territory, is there any existence of smuggled alcohol?" ===== CHAPTER 178 =====